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This is the eighth in a series of reviews looking at the evolution of Stellaris. See the previous reviews here:
Stellaris: Paradox Among the Stars
Leviathans: There Be Dragons Here!
Utopia: No Place Among the Stars
Synthetic Dawn: Synthetic Intelligence
Apocalypse: Colossal Expansion
Distant Stars: Distant Expansion
MegaCorp: Omni Consumer Expansion

The next Stellaris expansion after the economic rework of MegaCorp was a story pack focused around archaeology and mysteries of the past. Ancient Relics was announced on May 14, 2019, and was released, with patch 2.3, on June 4th.

The Dig

Stellaris has always had the idea of past civilizations, and precursor empires. Some of the events from these talk about conducting archaeological digs, but were handled abstractly in text. Now, many of them moved to an actual new mechanic for conducting a dig.

When surveying a planet or other body, it is possible to discover an archaeological site (and some can appear later with certain events). There’s actually a fair number included in the base game, but Ancient Relics expands on the number, and changes the rewards (see below).

To explore a site, a science ship must be sent which will continuously work on it, kind of like for anomalies, but it takes a flat 90 days, and then a roll is made for progress. When that roll succeeds that “chapter” of the site is done and you get a notification, and after making any needed choices, it moves on to the next chapter.

Depending on the site, there may be one to seven chapters to get through. Also, each chapter has a difficulty, which subtracts from the die roll. The level of the scientist on the ship is added to it, and a good roll will add clues, which also add to further rolls, and will push the final roll towards the higher total needed to complete the chapter.

Also, Ancient Relics adds two new precursor empires, which are both only found through archaeological sites, and will reward the player with a relic when finished.

I am really happy with the dig sites. I mentioned in the initial review about wanting to see reasons to go back and pay attention to already surveyed areas, and this fits that bill. I generally start exploring these when physical exploration is winding down, and they keep science ships in operation into the middle game. For that purpose, they do generally run out too soon, but it’s still a good addition. Also, the mechanics are actually taken straight from sieges in Europa Universalis IV, just simplified a bit, and rolling a d10 instead of d14, and work very well in this new context.

Relics

To go with a whole new mechanic for discovering things, there is a whole new type of item to discover. Relics are singular items that get their own UI page (tabbed from the traditions display).

They can be considered trophies that can be gotten for certain events or “achievements”, including several of the precursor chains. They all have a passive ability, but also have an ability that can be triggered for an instant bonus, that usually takes influence to activate. Most of these are available with the expansion, but some are in the base game, and a few need other expansions.

There are also minor relics which can power a number of decisions. They act like another strategic resource, and are only available with the expansion. Most archaeological sites will reward minor relics for completing chapters, but these are replaced by energy and the like without the expansion.

The minor relics can be sold, or used to promote an ethic, to help find a precursor if the chain had gotten stuck. There have been other uses since, but they’re handy at this point, if often ignorable.

Relic Worlds

Finally, there was a new category of world introduced. It uses the flexibility of the new district system (introduced in the previous patch) to good effect.

The idea is that it is a former ecumenopolis (city-world) that has fallen into ruins (think Trantor as seen in the Mule’s time). This makes it handy, as it will have a decent habitability for anyone. It will generally have some good features, which may be blocked by expensive projects to remove. They will also usually have an archaeological site associated with them. Finally, they boost research, and can have some strategic resource production.

One of the major ways of finding one is an event chain that requires the expansion to see, but the other is a base-game precursor reward, so you can get one without the expansion. Also, ecumenopolises are a MegaCorp-only feature, but you can enact a decision to restore the relic world to one, and that does not require MegaCorp. However, relic worlds are very handy in their own right, so I’ve never bothered.

Archeostudies

Much later (patch 3.7) Archaeostudies would be added to the game, needing Ancient Relics to get access to. This is a new technology specialization that enable a number of unique buildings and ship components.

The general idea is to study minor relics for clues to the different advanced technologies of past civilizations.

The results are easiest to explain for ship construction, where there are versions of the main-line weapons with a different mix of trade-offs that are generally a bit better than the highest-tech version of that weapon. These components add a minor artifact cost to the ship. This allows a more powerful late-game navy than usual, but you become dependent on having a continuing source for a new strategic resource. I’ve only fiddled around with the option, but it’s a great idea, and helps give a purpose for some of the large stockpiles of minor artifacts you can end up with.

Extras

As a small expansion that introduces a lot of focused content, there’s only a couple of new options added to base mechanics, and they came later:

There is a new ascension perk, archaeo-engineers (thanks to the patch 3.7 addition), that strengthens the bonuses from archeostudy ship and starbase components, as well as lowering costs for them.

And there is a new origin (which was a feature added in patch 2.6). Remnant civilizations start on a relic world with ruined arcology blockers that generate random techs when cleared, and they already have the root archeostudies technology. This origin is also available through Federations, though most of the bonuses aren’t available that way, so it’s not worth using without Ancient Relics.

Conclusion

The idea of working with the buried past of the galaxy was exciting enough that I bought this expansion upon release, and was not disappointed.

Now, the basics of the archaeology system are in the base game, so you don’t really need this expansion. But, it does expand the number of digs available, and a pair of new precursors adds some needed variety to that event chain. I do recommend this as an early purchase when you’re still figuring out the base game, but want a bit more content.