The universe expands with Stellaris 3.1 'Lem' out now, Stellaris free to try until Sept 20

Now is the absolute best time to love space and strategy games! Paradox Interactive has today released the 3.1 Lem update for Stellaris and you can play free until September 20.

The update is named after famous sci-fi writer Stanisław Lem, with this update being the first from the new Custodians Team within Paradox Development Studio, who have a singular focus on the free updates. For the Lem update Paradox said in an email they partnered up with the "Polish Science Fiction Foundation to celebrate the 100th birthday of Stanisław Lem, including in-game content directly inspired by the author’s catalog".

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Some of the new content and features includes:

• Custom Tradition Trees, allowing you to choose which trees you wish to pursue
• For the Plantoids Species Pack, 2 new civics and 3 new species traits:
  • The Idyllic Bloom civic (limited to either plantoid or fungoid species) will let you construct Gaia Seeder buildings.
  • The Catalytics Processing Civic, available to hiveminds and non-hiveminds, exchanges Metallurgists for Catalytic Technicians. These technicians turn Energy Credits into Alloys. Also works with machines and Lithoids.
• Players who own the Humanoids Species Pack gain the option to raise a mighty clone army, create an empire of artisan Master Crafters or guide an empire driven by the pure decadence of Pleasure Seekers.
• The Reanimated Armies civic has been Renamed to Reanimators. Exclusive to Necroids players, now one can embrace the afterlife with more dynamic choices for reanimating targets, including the ability to reanimate leviathans and enemy troops during battle.
• New tradition trees have been added to both the Nemesis and Apocalypse DLCs, as well as a new mercantile tradition in the base game. Additionally, players may now choose 7 trees from up to 11 tradition trees (with all DLC).
• Owners of Nemesis will get access to the Subterfuge Tradition Tree, which grants bonuses if you succeed at or your enemies fail at an espionage operation.
• Owners of Apocalypse will get access to the Unyielding Tradition Tree, which will vastly increase the capabilities of their defensive starbases.
• Major updates to the game balance, including restructures to Ascension Perks, Civics, Ethics, and Origins.
• Tons of bugfixes and several AI improvements to improve the overall quality of Stellaris.

Speaking about the release Daniel Moregård, Game Director for Stellaris, said:

“From the works of science fiction authors around the world to revisiting our own past ideas, our inspiration comes from many places, and we continually find new stories we want to tell with Stellaris. This patch gave us a unique opportunity, as well: this year marks the 100th birthday of Stanisław Lem, a Polish science fiction writer whose stories have been a fantastic inspiration for the Stellaris team. In addition to some direct references to Lem’s work within the game for observant fans, the Lem update refreshes and renews the content that our fans have enjoyed throughout the history of Stellaris.”

You can buy Stellaris from GOG, Humble Store and Steam. It's free to try until September 20 only on Steam. It's also 75% off on Steam for 48 hours.