Early Spectral Wraith; Game Over? (2024)

I recently have begun playing Stellaris again with the new expansion. I was fairly excited to get into the game and start learning it again with all the new features. I've played around 10-15 games now to get a feel for the game and the systems, but haven't actually made it past 2260 or so due to wanting to restart, try a new species, and improve my early game. Finally I settled on the idea that I would cleanse the galaxy with Determined Exterminators. My start was fantastic. I managed to expand rather rapidly and by 2242 I had won two wars, had 9 colonized planets, a mineral income of 241, and two fleets that were around 4500 power each. All neighbors were inferior to me in fleet power, so it felt like I had a handle on the game and a massive lead. Suddenly I get the hostile fleet warning and see something that did not exist when I was playing the game this time last year. It was the Spectral Wraith.

It quickly wiped one of my systems before I could even think about getting my fleets back from the war front, but then it seemed to move on. Big deal, new event, it was actually kind of cool. It appeared again, wiped out another system. Now it was becoming an annoyance, but I was at war and had bigger problems to deal with. Then it takes a third system. My resources are now starting to suffer, so I maneuver around the area I last saw it in and tried to rebuild my lost systems behind its wake. Huge mistake as it pops back in and destroys that system a second time. Soon after it popped up again, only this time caught one of my two fleets on the edge of a system. Lost the fleet, lost another system, it moved on. Its okay because I have a huge lead and can rebuild. It would take a lot for me to fall behind at this point, right? By 2260-2270, I had lost 9 systems and was down to almost half my initial mineral income. I was trying to build a bigger fleet to push off this monster who was ravaging my systems and it was draining my resources. My rivals knew. I had three wars pop up all at once. I was struggling to keep up with just the destruction dealt out by this Wraith and now my enemies intended to abuse that. After my glorious start, this was game over.

Does anyone have some advice or experience with this so I can deal with it in the future? Is a wild Spectral Wraith always game over in the early games? Or did the random dice rolls decide that this simply was not my game?

It seems actually pretty damn cool. Can't really see a way how you could have stopped it, so it's mostly RNG doom.

Are leviathans affected by FTL inhibitors, I wonder? As they have no ability to take down planetary FTL inhibitors, you probably could protect some systems with planets, though I'm not sure what happens if colonized system loses its starbase.

heliostellar said:

It should stay localized to only a few systems. I would not engage it until you are stronger. Ask the Curators if your fleet can handle it.

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Can't communicate with the Curators if you're Determined Exterminator I thought? The whole refusing to speak to any organics thing. Also it set up camp in the dead center of my empire, so waiting to engage wasn't an option. I guess it decided it liked the taste of sentient kill bots.

Matoro_TBS said:

It seems actually pretty damn cool. Can't really see a way how you could have stopped it, so it's mostly RNG doom.

Are leviathans affected by FTL inhibitors, I wonder? As they have no ability to take down planetary FTL inhibitors, you probably could protect some systems with planets, though I'm not sure what happens if colonized system loses its starbase.

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It was actually cool. It was terrifying and became this doom counter in the back of my head as I was trying to scramble around and recover what I could. It eventually just got to the point that I couldn't sustain the losses and had to call the game done.

I was fortunate in my game, when I got the warning sign of it from a pulsar I surveyed, I spent the next 40 years fortifying that system. The Wraith has no shields in a pulsar system, just like everyone else, so I filled it with plasma weapons to melt any armor/hull it may have. When it appeared it melted instantly, I didn't even get to really see it to know it's color.

If it is affected by FTL inhibitors, as Matoro suggests, then you could (theoretically) use an upgraded fort on a planet to hold it in the system indefinitely (I don't think they bombard). Then you can simply deal with it once you are strong enough.

NothingToLose said:

I was fortunate in my game, when I got the warning sign of it from a pulsar I surveyed, I spent the next 40 years fortifying that system. The Wraith has no shields in a pulsar system, just like everyone else, so I filled it with plasma weapons to melt any armor/hull it may have. When it appeared it melted instantly, I didn't even get to really see it to know it's color.

If it is affected by FTL inhibitors, as Matoro suggests, then you could (theoretically) use an upgraded fort on a planet to hold it in the system indefinitely (I don't think they bombard). Then you can simply deal with it once you are strong enough.

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Unfortunately for me, I wasn't the one who initially discovered it. Having never seen one before, I had no idea what I was dealing with. The panic was real! That said, it's great to know it is affected by FTL inhibitors. They don't bombard, so I could have potentially pinned it down in the second system it hit and saved myself the heartache of losing that game. Given 5-10 years to prepare and I could have wiped it out before it basically crippled my economy. Live and learn though!

Matoro_TBS said:

though I'm not sure what happens if colonized system loses its starbase.

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You control the system until the planets are taken. It happens a lot when you're facing endgame crisis.

NothingToLose said:

Leviathans are not crises. A Crisis threatens the entire galaxy if it isn't stopped, and a single wraith roaming around does not do that. If I'm not mistaken, the wraith is one of the weaker leviathans.

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It's definitely a weaker leviathan (only need ~20k to kill it easily), but the biggest problem I've always had with the wraith is that it kills any Enclaves it comes across. Finding out that the Curators, Artists, or one of the three merchant corps is now gone because the wraith wandered into the wrong system? A bit upsetting.