Stellaris 4.3 "Cetus" Open Beta Updated (2026-03-04)

Hello Stellaris Community!

We're here a day early with our weekly Open Beta update!

This update breaks save game compatibility. There is a "cetus_open_beta_rollback" branch available on Steam so that you can continue your pre-existing save games before moving on to this new version. The rollback version will remain on this version for the rest of the open beta, as we do not expect save breaking updates at this stage.

Where previously each Pop Group would be further subdivided by Ethic and Faction, which could result in extremely large numbers of Pop Groups in the late game (especially if playing xeno-friendly builds). In this new version of the open beta, Faction and Ethics are represented by a percentage of the Pop Group that belongs to each Ethic and Faction. Ethics and Factions are now shown on the Pop Group entries in the Planetary Management UI with tooltips that show attraction to Ethics and Factions.

Pressing alt will provide more verbose tooltips, allowing you to see all the modifiers applying to these attractions.

Apart from the Pop Group changes, this version of the Open Beta also continues the work started from the last open beta with fixing issues with Planetary Automation, assorted other bug fixes, balance changes, and some fixes for desyncs in multiplayer.

As is tradition, we have a new 4.3 "Cetus" Open Beta Feedback form. If you experience a bug or other issue, please report it on the Bug Report Forums.

4.3 ‘Cetus’ Open Beta Patch Notes 2026-03-06​

Known Issues:​

• Psionic job efficiency bonuses from Psi-Corps/Telepaths do not apply correctly.
• The council position for Oppressive Autocracy does not apply job efficiency bonuses for enforcers

Feature​

• Pop groups are no longer divided by Ethics or Factions, instead each pop group will have a given percentage that belongs to each faction or ethic as appropriate. This means that:
• THIS IS A BREAKING CHANGE AND WILL NOT PRESERVE SAVE GAME COMPATIBILITY.[list]
• Pops shift ethics and factions more frequently
• Ethics and factions are now shown on the pop group entries in the planetary management UI, with tooltips showing the attraction to ethics and factions. Verbose tooltips are enabled by holding Alt, to show a breakdown of all modifiers for these attractions.

Updated Cyberization policies to account for the changes to pop groups and ethics. The Limited Cybernetic species trait has been removed, instead if the Limited Cyberization policy is in effect, Cybernetic Spiritualist pops do not benefit from Cybernetic Job Efficiency. The Limited Cyborg leader trait still functions as previously. This will also decrease the Approval penalty from regular spiritualist factions from the demand The Flesh is Strong.

Job automation is now moved from district to planet.

Balance​

• Reworked Oppressive Autocracy to swap Enforcers (and Telepaths) into the Elite strata instead of granting them a special exception as Specialists.
• The Cybernetic species trait now provides an additional +5% Job Efficiency.
• The Branching Out modifier from the Cyberization situation now gives +10% Trader Job Efficiency.
• Hive minds which encounter genetic defects during cyberization can now choose a cyberisation policy.
• The Specialist Training tradition now grants +2% Specialist Job Efficiency per Planetary Governor level.
• Rebalanced several of the Luminary leader traits.
• Pious Ascetic now scales from +0.1 to +0.3 Society research from bureaucrats (was +0.5 to +2)[list]
• High King now scales from +10% to +30% Job Efficiency for Elites (was Resources from Jobs)
• Enlightened Ruler now scales from -2.5% to -10% Job Upkeep (was -5% to -20%)

Adjusted many Planetary Automation scripts.

Known Issue: We are aware that Planetary Automation is not building enough Districts.

Adjusted Stability bonuses from Specimens. They now grant +1 Stability per rarity level.

Increased the rarity level of the Spirit of the Unshackled specimen to Exceptional.

The Manifesti Social Commentary Piece specimen now increases Faction Output. (Reduces Deviancy by a small amount for Gestalts.)

Adjusted the amount of utility slots on the Deep Space Citadel, from 8 per tier to 6 per tier.

The unifier leader trait now provides +15% unity output instead of 25%. Also fixed its tooltip.

Synthetic Fertility no longer starts with Administrative AI, Self-Aware Logic and Sapient AI technologies researched. Instead, they receive Administrative AI with some progress at game start, and each of these tech now increases the output of the Identity repository. To make up for this the base output of the repository has been reduced, but the total output with all technologies researched will be slightly higher than before. The origin now also comes with +15% Computing research speed and increased draw chance for the aforementioned technologies. Finally, the rate at which pops die out has been halved (from 30/month to 15/month).

Bugfix​

• Decadent Hedonists now _actually_ have the upkeep of Elites. The original change (now reverted) was accidentally applied to Dystopian civilians.
• Fixed a number of specialist, worker and other jobs that still provided amenities for Oppressive Autocracy when they shouldn't've.
• Fixed Gospel of the Masses not increasing the trade value produced by Spiritualist pops on colonies where there are branch offices.
• Fixed Cetana not granting the Modern Cincinnatus achievement
• Fixed erroneous tooltip for the Social Welfare living standard.
• Limited "Contact Report" events to one per playthrough.
• Fixed inverted trigger logic for Crisis Spawning with All Crisis active
• Ruler Resource Output modifiers from Oligarchic Overclocking were inappropriately clamped. Reworked the calculations so the bonus is correctly capped at +20% and updated the Authority tooltip.
• Nonfunctional Resources from Jobs modifier from Adaptive Shareholder Schemes replaced with Job Efficiency and now works.
• Fixed a couple of incorrect string calls in the Biomorphosis situation.
• Expansion planner now updates from correct planet without any need for manually resorting
• Automated workforce is now planetwide instead of per district

Improvement​

• Reverted the materialist empire being forced to use Cybernetic portraits if you own The Machine Age

Stability​

• Fixed a rare faction and focus cards OOS on hotjoin
• Fixed an issue where randomized heights of coordinates could trigger an OOS.
• Reduced likelihood of a massive OOS at the start of the game.

Modding​

• Added new triggers pop_ethic_amount and pop_ethic_percentage
• Added new effects pop_force_add_ethic, pop_force_remove_ethic, and pop_force_transfer_ethic

Read all of the 4.3 'Cetus' Open Beta patch notes on the Paradox forums.

That's all for us for this week, we look forward to hearing what you think about this latest version of the Stellaris 4.3 "Cetus" Open Beta.

Thank you all for playing Stellaris!