Stellaris: 12 Best Leader Traits To Prioritize, Ranked (2024)

After the huge leaders rework, Stellaris players are more incentivized to prioritize their leaders' generation instead of focusing on other resource generation such as energy credits, minerals, or even alloys. This is a viable strategy since leaders can now generate many more positive traits compared to their pre-update traits pool.

Stellaris players can now hire leaders with highly beneficial traits, such as Capitalist, which generates energy credits monthly by simply being employed, and Venerated, which is also useful to generate monthly unity, therefore enabling gamers to hire more leaders and keep them employed.

Updated on May 3, 2024, by Evan Arnoldi: With the recent changes in Stellaris, some leader traits are more powerful in the later stages of the game than earlier, while some are getting downright reworked in order to have a more coherent bonus instead of only giving a simple trait bonus. Some of the changes can be seen as quite powerful due to scaling bonuses, while others might be more damaging due to the fact that they no longer give a flat bonus. All in all, it is still up to the players to identify these powerful bonuses and use them accordingly in order to efficiently utilize these powerful leader traits.

12 Eye For Talent

Raise Leader Levels Quickly To Gain More Traits

• +5% Leader Experience Gain for all leaders when occupying a Councilor seat

Specializing a leader with a set of focused trait bonuses can be tough, especially if the player is only limited to a handful of options after leveling up the leader. With the help of the Eye For Talent trait, a player can easily specialize in their leaders for a particular set of situations quicker than before. For example, a Commander can be specialized better with this trait to be able to lead armies to complete an invasion with minimum casualties thanks to a set of good military traits focused on the army.

Another good example of this would be specializing in a Scientist leader with all research increasing traits and focusing on trait bonuses, making them able to increase an empire's research output by 50-60% depending on the field of specialization the leader chose to gain technologies faster. The Eye For Talent trait is extremely versatile and one to look for thanks to the potential that can be utilized by just having a leader with this trait. It can raise the bar for all other leaders as well.

11 Manufacturer

Divert Amenities Producing Jobs To Other Profitable Ones

• +5 Amenities as Governor

Amenities cap can be tough to satisfy on a planet, especially if the pop count on the planet has grown out of control, which necessitates amenities producing jobs in order to have a happy and productive pops. Unfortunately, having amenities generating jobs can translate to fewer resources being produced, and this is where a leader with the Manufacturer trait comes in.

With this particular trait, a leader can potentially free up a building slot that is normally dedicated to amenities producing building. By allocating it to a more prioritized resource production, such as an Alloy Foundry or a Research lab, a planet can be more productive and reliable for the empire all thanks to just a single trait. As long as the player can balance the trait with other resourceful traits as well, the leader can potentially be a powerful governor for a planet.

10 Emotional Support Pet

More Lifespan And Less Negative Traits Equals More Benefits

• +10 Years Leader Lifespan
• −1 Leader Maximum Negative Traits

Just like in real life, it's always beneficial to have a pet supporting one's emotional health. In Stellaris, leaders who have one will have this trait and benefit greatly from it as well, having more lifespan in the process and removing one maximum negative trait from its pool.

With this trait, the enlisted leader will have more impact when compared to other leaders who might have more positive traits but also come with some negative traits and have a shorter lifespan. Unfortunately, this trait is only available for species that are not machines.

9 Gifted

Additional Traits Can Be Beneficial In The Long Run

• +1 Additional Leader Trait Options

With the additional traits playing a role in the consideration of picking a leader, the trait Gifted will be one to look for as it denotes a significant potential within the leader, although it might need a careful investment of time and opportunity. Such a leader is ideal to be positioned in the active role of an Admiral.

Moreover, the additional trait options will also allow the leader to have additional traits that might be beneficial for the player. It is always worth both the time and effort to invest in such a leader, although there are some chances that the leader will instead pick up negative traits in the process.

8 Adaptationist

Faster Experience Gain Means More Levels And Benefits

• +10% Leader Experience Gain

It is always worth prioritizing a leader with the Adaptationist trait. Since the trait enables a faster experience gain, a player can expect the leader with this trait to quickly move up the rank as they gain levels after levels. Becoming either an Admiral or a Scientist suits such a leader with this trait.

Moreover, with the addition of the downloadable content, Galactic Paragon, a leader can also quickly specialize into a veteran class of their choosing, granting another boost in its stats.

7 Eagerness

Leader Capacity Discount And Cost Is Always Worth The Hire

• Does not use Leader Capacity until level 4
• −50% Leader Cost
• −10% Leader Upkeep

With the huge amount of random events that can happen during the game, it is advisable to keep some replacement leaders at bay in case an event affects a leader negatively or even removes them from the game via death. This is where the Eagerness trait comes in by saving a spot for new leaders to sit as substitutes.

Moreover, players can also use this capacity-free trait by stockpiling on young leaders, as they can sit in the background without being worried that the leader will eventually pass away too soon. With this trait in mind, it is always worth stockpiling leaders for every case that could happen during the game.

6 Entrepreneur

Monthly Consumer Goods Boost That Can Be Used For Economy

• +2.5% Consumer Goods from Artisans as Governor
• +1 Artisan Jobs on Origin Planet

Consumer Goods are one of the precious resources that can be used for various purposes, such as funding a colony ship to settle on new planets or even funding the upkeep of specialists' jobs such as researcher. Therefore, it is not a rarity for an empire to run out of consumer goods when they hit the mid-game.

If a player manages to get this trait, they will not have to worry too much about their economy, as the monthly consumer goods can cover the resource losses with its passive ability. Moreover, excess consumer goods can also be easily traded in the market.

5 Homesteader

Shifting Focus From Food Generation To Other Resources Is Always Good

• +2.5% Food from Farmers as Governor
• +2 Farmer Jobs on Origin Planet

For certain space civilizations, food can be crucial as it could be part of the cost to build a colony ship, especially for Hive Minds with biological species. Therefore, passive-generating food will be crucial for these civilizations, as they will also be able to focus on the other part of the economy as well.

Getting leaders with this trait can prove to be massive for a certain playstyle that requires massive colonization of other planets near the capital, such as a biological Hive Mind or a militaristic empire with a tendency to expand its border with its massive fleet of ships.

4 Unifier

Additional Unity Is A Huge Boost For Every Empire

• +1% Unity from Jobs in planets per leader level

With Galactic Paragon, Unity becomes a more important resource when compared to earlier iterations of the game. With a leader-centric focus in the current meta, Unity will be a hot commodity for civilizations that wish to rush leaders with beneficial traits.

Moreover, a huge unity generation will also lead to faster means of acquisition for powerful Ascension Perks that will allow a space civilization to thrive further. It is not an exaggeration to call Unity one of the most important resources in the current state of the game.

3 Private Mines

Minerals Are Always A Necessity For Every Space Civilization

• +2.5% Minerals from Miners as Governor
• +2 Miner Jobs on Origin Planet

To explore and consolidate a civilization in a vast space, the abundance of critical resources is important, which also includes Minerals. A leader with the trait of generating minerals passively is one of the best leaders that a gamer can get in-game, as the player will be able to focus more on alloy generation, building space stations, and generating influence that is also important to the civilization.

Moreover, minerals are always in demand for every other civilization in the game. Therefore, a player can expect to be quite powerful in the economy if they manage to have a leader with this trait.

2 Scrapper

Crucial Alloys Can Be Secured With This Particular Advantage

• +2.5% Alloys from Metallurgists as Governor
• +1 Metallurgist Jobs on Origin Planet

Both peaceful and hostile civilizations will have one desire in common, which is alloys. As many things are built from this resource, including Megastructures that can give a huge boost, it is always a huge boon to have someone who can increase alloys generation monthly for free without any complex prerequisite. Moreover, alloys can also be sold at a huge price on the market after the Galactic Market is opened.

This leader has a higher chance of appearing to civilizations with a Materialist ethic. Therefore, a player who wishes to see this trait in action will need to play as a civilization with that particular ethic to gain a chance of seeing it in their leader pool.

1 Capitalist

More Energy Credits That Are Flexible To Be Used In Every Situation

• +2.5% Energy Credits from Technicians as Governor
• +2 Technician Jobs on Origin Planet

Energy credits are always king in this type of game, as they keep a civilization afloat in space with their benefits, ranging from solving various upkeep issues to being able to buy rare resources such as Exotic gases and Volatile motes.

Having multiple leaders with this trait can almost guarantee a player's safety with its abundance of credits to be spent. Economy-wise, Capitalist is one of the best traits to prioritize getting in the early game. Moreover, players who wish to see this trait in person might want to play with the Materialist ethic as it increases the chance.

Stellaris

Platform(s)

PC , PS4 , Xbox One

Released

May 9, 2016

Developer(s)

Paradox Development Studio

Genre(s)

4X , Grand Strategy