Stellaris Willpower does exactly what the name suggests. The newest DLC for the 4X space game lets you win not through traditional means like conflict or politics, but using your very ideologies. By putting your weight behind specific beliefs, you’ll be able to establish a doctrine capable of sweeping the stars. Built in conjunction with Abrakam Entertainment, this upcoming expansion aims to introduce methods to infiltrate other planets and convert factions to your culture, giving you ways to come out victorious without even firing a shot.
“When we started working on Willpower, we knew we wanted to have a new ambition along the lines of Defenders of the Galaxy,” Stellaris DLC Director Gary Morris explains. “We wanted it to be possible to win the game without conflict being a focus.” The resulting ambition is called Force of Will, and it allows you to convert the hearts and minds of the galaxy to your ideals through a mix of diplomacy and natural ideological spread, although you can resort to “a little bit of war if really necessary.”
To achieve this, you’ll earn and spend Willpower to unlock a range of abilities and perks. These include Cultural Envoys, new ships that can travel straight through even closed borders and start directly converting the pops on a planet. “You don’t have to wait for your reach to spread, or do any diplomacy,” Morris remarks. “You are actively broadcasting your good ideas to the people down below.”
Game Designer Gabriel Brunet says one of his favorite parts of the Willpower DLC “is that we give a lot more weight to soft power.” By converting enough of a population to your beliefs, you’ll be able to “create some chaos” through ideological revolts. Should these succeed, the resulting population will then look to become a fully fledged member of your ideology, and potentially a vassal state. “You’re going to be able to expand your empire without firing a single shot.”
“What happens when you advance an ethic beyond the level of fanaticism?” Morris introduces another new concept for Willpower, absolute ethics. These have stronger effects than fanatic ethics, and can even introduce additional modifiers on top. Because this requires three points compared to the two of fanatics and one for standard ethics, “you will of course have to abandon one of your side ethics.” However, doing so is a requirement to reach the later stages of the Force of Will ambition.
Alongside these systems, Willpower is introducing eight new paragon leaders associated with specific ethics. Once you’ve taken your ideology to the absolute level, powerful symbols such as Galactic Halls and Galactic Cathedrals gain the chance to draw a paragon leader to your empire. “In creating these leaders, we were trying to think about what would be the embodiment of an ethic,” Narrative Content Designer Robert Brown explains.
“Their identity is centered on the values of a particular ideology. For example, we have a passionate functionary who is very devoted to your ideology and wants to serve it by bureaucracy, and our militarist leader is a warmonger whose physiology compels them into battle.”
Stellaris: Willpower releases on Monday November 23, priced at $24.99 / £20.99. You can preorder it now, or get it as part of the Stellaris Season 10 bundle, which costs $49.49 / £41.59. The new expansion arrives alongside the free Stellaris 4.6 update, Corona Borealis.