Babby's Intro to Eco

So you want to play Stellaris but have no idea how to eco. Then this guide is for you! The intention of this guide is to explain to NEW players in detail the basics of the eco system as of the 2.2 update. I will begin describing the resources in the game, before going into jobs and how planets work. If I made a mistake or did not talk about something, let me know on /4xg/. Just make a post asking for FAQgot and I'll try to get around to it. If you are an experienced player, you might want to read Eco Mistakes to Avoid (https://pastebin.com/aH0kiMFU) instead.


Resources:

Energy: this represents both electricity and money since evidently bitcoins are the future. This is used to pay upkeep for basically everything as well as to buy other resources off the market. There are also a few edicts that cost energy, the most important of which increases pop growth speed. This is one of your most important resources.

Minerals: represents common minerals. It is used to construct districts, buildings, and mining stations. It can also refined into other resources such as alloys and consumer goods.

Food: french fries and chicken nuggies. While organic pops require an upkeep of this, its most useful ability is that it can be spent as part of a planetary decision to increase pop growth on that planet.

Alloy: A new resource, this represents refined metals. This is an incredibly important resource that is required to build ships and outposts. While it can be rarely found in systems, most production will be done by metallurgists. This is also required for fleet upkeep.

Consumer Goods: Vidya and new capeshit for your pops to enjoy. It is refined from minerals by artisans. It can also be created from trade using an empire policy, but it is better to just take the energy. Pops require an upkeep of consumer goods that depends on the living standard of your empire. Consumer goods can also be "refined" into other resources like research and amenities by other jobs.

'Rare' Resources: Motes, gas (teehee), and crystals are consolidated versions of the majority of previous strategic resources. They can be found rarely in systems or on planets. Planetary deposits can be harvested through a special building that needs to be researched. There are also researchable buildings that can convert minerals into a specific rare resource. Rare resources are used for upgraded versions of buildings such as the alloy foundry, which also require and upkeep of the rare resource.

Housing and Amenities will be talked about within the Planet section.


How to be gainfully employed!

Jobs: Population work jobs, which in turn create resources. Jobs are divided into three strata, which the pop working the job will then join. The highest strata is the ruler class, which has few job openings but produces unity and amenities. Some civics create special ruler jobs which produce other resources as well. The next highest strata are the specialists. Specialist jobs are created by buildings and usually refine one resource type into another. The lowest strata are called workers, who are disgusting poor people. Workers primarily produce the basic resources (energy/mineral/food), though clerks produce amenities and trade and rare resource miners are also workers. Worker jobs are primarily created through districts, though some buildings will also create worker jobs.

Changing Strata: Pops will always look for empty jobs in higher strata to fill. If all jobs in higher strata are filled, they will fill a job of their current strata (pops spawn in the worker strata). Job choice is influenced by traits (e.g. an industrious species will prefer to take mining jobs first). Once a pop has grabbed a job, they will not leave it for another of the same strata (traited species are supposed to be able to swap to favored jobs, but it doesn't seem to work in my experience). Once a pop joins a strata, it will not want to go to a job in a lower strata. A pop will have to sit unemployed for 10 years (modifiers can lessen this) before it will drop a strata. A pop that just promoted up a tier (e.g. specialist to ruler) now have a modifier allowing them to be demoted to their original tier.

Important: I would like to emphasize again, pops want to move to higher strata jobs. This means if you construct a building that opens specialist job/s, you will have that many workers jump up to fill those positions. This can hurt your eco if you were relying on the basic resources those workers were producing. Think before you build or upgrade structures. IT IS OK TO LEAVE BUILDING SLOTS EMPTY.

Microing jobs: If you expand a job strata and look at the right-hand side of a job you will see +/- signs. These determine what the max number of pops that can work that job is. If you lower the max jobs below the current number of pops working it, it will unemploy excess pops. These pops will then try to move into another job. You can use this to shuffle pop into more in demand jobs.


Out of the Silent Planet

Planets: These are your big money makers. They can have districts and buildings constructed on them as well as host the pops to work the jobs that are created.

Districts: There are 4 types of districts that can be created on standard planets: city, generator, mining, and agriculture. Each rural districts (generator/mining/agriculture) creates 2 jobs harvesting the respective resource and 2 housing (housing will be elaborated on later). City districts create a clerk job and 5 housing.

Planet Deposits and Size: Planets has a unique maximum on the number of each rural district type that can exist on it. Planet size determines the maximum combination of any district types that can exist on that planet. City districts do not have a unique maximum but must still be within the planet's size limit when combined with other districts. For example, let's say there is a size 12 planet with 7 energy deposits, 3 mineral deposits, and 5 agriculture deposits. You would not be able to construct more than 7 energy deposits on this planet. If you did build 7 generator districts, you could use the other 5 slots to build 5 agriculture districts or 3 mining deposits and 2 city districts.

Buildings: A building can be constructed for every 5 pops on the planet. Buildings often create specialist jobs for pops to work, though some give other benefits like the energy nexus that increases output from energy generating jobs.

Amenities: Amenities are planet specific resources (i.e. each planet has a separate stockpile) that is used by pop upkeep. If you have negative amenities your pops will be unhappy and you will take a hit to stability. Excess amenities makes your pops happier which increase stability. Amenities are created by ruler jobs, entertainers (a specialist job), and clerks. Some buildings also provide amenities.

Housing: Pops require housing to live in. Having negative housing will create a penalty to growth speed and make pops unhappy, which will decrease stability. Excess housing will increase immigration draw.

Crime: Crime is a rating determined by how many pops are on a planet and how happy they are. A high crime score will reduce planetary stability. Crime can be reduced by the enforcer and soldier jobs. Planetary capitals naturally create enforcer jobs to help reduce crime, but unhappy pops (i.e. recently conquered) might require additional.

Stability: This is a measure of how much unrest is on the planet. Unhappy pops, low amenities, overcrowding (too little housing), and crime all reduce stability. A high stability increases the amount of resource the pops on the planet produce as well as increase immigration draw.

Specialization: If you have a planet that specializes in a specific resource, it can gain a bonus. The bonus is +5% for monofocused worlds (e.g. a world focused solely on mining will gain +5% resources). There are also urban and rural worlds which grant a +2% bonus to specialist output and worker output respectively. It is often advisable to specialize your worlds once your eco has stabilized. As of 2.3 players can now choose the specialization of their planets.


Money, Money, Money
Trade: Trade is a new resource. It can be found in space but is primarily produced on planets. At your homeworld it is naturally converted into energy or a combination of energy/unity or energy/consumer goods as determined by your policies. Jobs such as clerk produce trade, though colonized worlds will naturally generate it as they get larger. Trade is harvested by stations and transported to your homeworld to be converted. Trade is harvested by having a station built in the same system or if a station with a trade hub is near enough. Each trade hub will expand a stations collection radius by one jump (e.g. a station with three trade hubs will collect all trade within three jumps away from itself). Trade is then sent to your homeworld along a trade route, which can be viewed through a map mode option in the bottom right corner.

Piracy: Systems that a trade route pass through have a protection value (prot) and a piracy value. Piracy increase gradually over time to a max value of 25% of the trade value passing through that system. As long as the piracy is below the prot, all of your trade will pass through. If the piracy is higher then the prot, then some trade will be lost (with a minimum trade equal to the prot guaranteed to go through) and there is a chance of a pirate fleet spawning in that system. The base prot for systems you control is two, but can be increased by nearby stations with military modules. Stations with military modules will increase the prot in nearby systems with each module protecting one jump further (e.g. a station with two weapon modules will increase prot for all systems you control within two jumps). The hangar bay provides the highest prot of all modules, so just get that. Piracy can also be supressed by having a fleet patrol through the system. If a fleet's suppression score is higher then the piracy value of the system, the piracy will gradually reduce for as long as the fleet is in the system. You can generally have one corvette patrol a handful of systems early game and keep piracy down, but as trade increases it makes sense to use multiple corvettes or build more stations with hanger bays. Trade routes also go through gateways so you can build a gateway in your home system and your major trade systems to avoid high piracy scores.

Galactic Market: 2.2 adds a feature where you can purchase or sell other resources for energy credits. While initially this is done through the domestic market, after an empire becomes aware of a certain number of other empires, the galactic market will be founded. All players will receive an alert about the founding and be given the opportunity for the market center to be in their territory. To bid for the market center, players can choose a planetary decision to nominate a planet they own. This nomination can be done multiple times to a max of three times. Owning the market capital will reduce the fee paid to access the market. Buy a resource will temporarily increase the price while selling a resource will conversely decrease it. The price will gradually return to the baseline as long as no more transactions occur. The galactic market is shared between all empires, so if another empire is buying lots of a specific resource the buy/sell price will be high. Paying close attention to demand can allow you can get resources for cheap or make a lot of money.