Prethoryn Scourge BS

[Person012345]

I lost to my first crisis too. Unbidden spawned early quite near me, back when the AI had no clue how to fight the crises. I died. But I went down fighting and it was still a good story. So I moved on to my next game, learning from the last game. If you aren't willing to do this then stop playing strategy games. Sorrynotsorry.

 

[Rabid Ice Weasel]

Did they infest your capital though? People aren't complaining that they're not powerful enough in concept (there's a slider for that, both up and down FYI), it's that they're broken.The crises aren't/weren't (idk if it's fixed in beta) purging planets, they just land on them now and do nothing. It's a bug. Since IIRC their power depends on infesting planets, since they don't do it as long as they don't land right on top of you it's easy to just mop them up.

Yeah, this. I bought Stellaris just after 2.2 came out, and the Scourge was my first end-game crisis. Fortunately they entered through my neighbor's territory and decimated him. I was unprepared but was able to defeat them once they spread out too thin.

But yes, this crisis is borked. Once they infest a planet, it seems impossible to evict them. I bombarded them from orbit with my entire fleet for two solid years, but the planet never went barren, and when I stopped the devastation level began to tick down from 100% as normal. I waited till well after 2600 to see if anything changed but finally decided to start a new game.

Anyway, bad luck they landed right on you from the outset.

 

[Arutar]

That's it, I understand what you are saying. But the game landed them right on my economy... it was gone before I could blink. My complaint is the game making it that RANDOM. It landed right on me, so there was no way to survive that initial big stack 'o death.

That is a fair point. Having a crisis directly spawn on you makes it randomly more difficult, so your frustration is somewhat understandable.

That being said, you will see that once you get to know the game, that the crisis fleets can all be countered with the right weapons / ships without you having to have a bigger fleet power.
The Prethoryn Scourge in particular has no shields and most their weapons have limited range, so for example battleship carriers with tachyon lances work magic against them (or at least they used when I got this crisis the last time in 1.7 or so)

Also, the Ascension perk which gives a damage boost agains the crisis is really helpful as well.

 

[Aegrim]

May I also suggest to get in the mood for a desperate multi generational desperate fight for survival, listen to the defcon soundtrack.

And switch to "klendathu drop" when things start moving forward or you begin a big push

 

[Person012345]

Yeah, this. I bought Stellaris just after 2.2 came out, and the Scourge was my first end-game crisis. Fortunately they entered through my neighbor's territory and decimated him. I was unprepared but was able to defeat them once they spread out too thin.

But yes, this crisis is borked. Once they infest a planet, it seems impossible to evict them. I bombarded them from orbit with my entire fleet for two solid years, but the planet never went barren, and when I stopped the devastation level began to tick down from 100% as normal. I waited till well after 2600 to see if anything changed but finally decided to start a new game.

Anyway, bad luck they landed right on you from the outset.

Well the thing is they AREN'T infesting planets. To evict them you just have to land troops, the game just thinks it's an ordinary occupation. If they infest a planet, it turns into a special planet type IIRC, which you then nuke from orbit. Right now they aren't doing the whole infesting thing (there's a similar problem with the contingency from what I hear), they're just landing on the planet and doing nothing, to get rid of them you have to land a troop on the planet and it'll unoccupy it.

 

[Scorpio_Shirica]

i'm kinda jealous, i've played thousands of hours and almost always get extradimensional invaders or ai contingency. the one time i got the scourge, the enigmatic observers woke up and killed them before i could get involved in the fight lol

 

[Surimi]

In my experience, the crises can lead to some of the best strategy game experiences it's possible to have. Like, enormous multi-decade back and forth wars with everything you've worked to build up until that point hanging on the line. But the experience you're going to have depends a lot on your preparedness and a bit of luck, which is why you should probably tailor the strength of the crisis to the kind of game you're going to play.

 

[Sigma 582]

Crisis strength and timing can be adjusted at the start of the game, yes. But without playing a few games on different settings it's hard to figure how hard will it be to fight 1x or 2x or 3x crisis, or how strong can you be by 2350 or 2450.

All in all, crises are designed to be challenging, they are up to destroying the whole galaxy after all. So don't get too upset if you lose a game or two to those buggers, you'll do better next time.

 

[Scorpio_Shirica]

fwiw, i like a more laidback and slow paced sandbox experience, OP. I do 1.5x crises on huge galaxies at 2500 year and am mostly prepared for whatever comes. You may want something more hectic but not as overwhelming, so experimenting is kinda needed to tailor it just for you.