Building and managing colonies is the heart of Stellaris. Only when you understand how to plan each colony world can you truly say you know how to play Stellaris.
In this chapter, I will teach you how to choose colonies, colonize planets, analyze colony types, and plan them appropriately.
Suppose you have already explored enough systems and claimed plenty of them. If Earth is still your only colony, that will not do. You need to colonize new planets.
As your empire's territory continues to expand, along with its production and consumption, Earth's output alone will no longer be enough. Your empire needs to develop new colonies.
So, how do you tell which planets are suitable for colonization?
First, a suitable colony needs to have high habitability for your species, at least 70%. It appears on the galaxy map as a green planet icon, which you can easily spot above a system.
Red and yellow planet icons indicate very low or relatively low habitability. Generally, our first choice is a planet with high habitability, shown in green on the galaxy map.
The reason for choosing highly habitable planets is obvious, and the game represents it with specific numbers. Low habitability imposes planetary penalties: population amenities usage and upkeep increase significantly, while resources produced by jobs and population growth speed decrease significantly.
In a game started as the United Nations of Earth, the Alpha Centauri System always spawns a highly habitable planet, Alpha Centauri I.
Click the green planet icon directly on the galaxy map to view its details, including its name, planet type, habitability, district count, overview image, and planetary features.
You can only colonize planets within your own borders. In other words, before colonizing a planet, you need to survey its system with a Science Ship and build a Stellar