Stellaris 4.0 'Phoenix' game-changing update due May 5 with the BioGenesis Expansion

Paradox have today launched the new Season 09 Expansion Pass, which initially launches with the Stargazer Species Portrait. There's stuff that's actually interesting to come though, but you have to wait until May 5th.

That's because not only is the BioGenesis Expansion launching then, which sounds exciting, but Stellaris 4.0 will officially arrive too overhauling various major parts of the game and hopefully improve performance too.

The Season 09 Expansion Pass includes:

• BioGenesis Expansion (May 5, 2025): Take command of the forces of life itself in BioGenesis. Engineer living ships, terraform entire ecosystems, and wield advanced genetic tools to shape the destiny of your empire. Will you create a utopia of adaptation and growth or weaponize biology to dominate the stars?
• Shadows of the Shroud Expansion (Q3 2025): The psionic plane holds untold power—but at what cost? Shadows of the Shroud is a complete overhaul of the Psionic Ascension path, introducing new moral dilemmas, patron allegiances, and the ever-present temptation of ultimate destruction.
• Infernals Species Pack (Q4 2025): Forge your destiny in the Infernals Species Pack. Adapted to relentless heat and volatile landscapes, you wield the power of extreme environments to reshape the galaxy. Will your empire thrive in the heat, or be consumed by the very forces it seeks to command?
• Stargazer Species Portrait (available now): Dream of the stars with this exclusive portrait, available immediately upon purchasing the Season 09 Expansion Pass. Featuring three phenotypes and unique animations, the Stargazer Species Portrait is perfect for players who seek to embody the spirit of cosmic curiosity.

Check out the trailer below:

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The 4.0 update really is a huge one too, and makes you think - why don't they just do Stellaris 2 at this point? Multiple major features of the game have been completely changed (multiple times in some cases too). Anyway, just some of what to expect from the free update includes:

• Pops and Pop Groups
  • One of the biggest changes in the Stellaris 4.0 ‘Phoenix’ update, and one of the primary focuses of this Open Beta, is the new Pop system. Rather than being individuals, Pops are now grouped based on Species, Strata, Ethics, and Faction, mostly for calculation purposes. As part of this change, Pop numbers have been increased by a factor of 100, allowing more granular manipulation of Pops by various systems.
  • All Pop Groups on a planet have simultaneous growth every month following the existing Logistic Growth formulas.
    • Underrepresented pops are no longer given population growth bonuses.
    • Fractional growth is not retained from month to month - if a Pop Group would have fractional growth, it has a chance to gain 1 pop that month based on that fraction.
    • All migration is now handled through the auto-migration system rather than push and pull that previously affected pop growth.
    • As more granular and simultaneous pop growth is now possible, the minimum growth for small colonies has been removed. Early colonization will be extremely reliant on migration from the empire capital.
    • Open Beta Note: Xenocompatibility no longer produces hybrid pops, but has not yet been updated to pool all planetary species into a single group for logistic growth purposes. When this is complete, we are likely to remove the Xenocompatibility galaxy setup toggle.
  • A Civilian stratum has been added to represent the masses that do not generally contribute to the empire’s military economy.
    • Open Beta Note: Civilians are intended to replace Clerks, which will be removed in a future Open Beta update.
  • Empires now begin with 2000 more pops, most of whom will be Civilians.
  • More details can be found in Stellaris Dev Diary #370.
• Planet UI, Zones, Workforce, and Jobs
  • The other major economic change in the Stellaris 4.0 ‘Phoenix’ update is a revamp to how jobs work.
  • Rather than Districts and Buildings being especially similar, we are shifting to a model where:
    • Planets produce and consume resources through Jobs.
    • Districts provide Jobs based on their development. (Mining District: Add 200 Housing and 200 Miner jobs per development level.)
    • Zones manipulate what Jobs are provided by Districts. (Foundry Zone: Replace 200 Civilian jobs and 200 Housing with 100 Metallurgists per development level.)
      • Open Beta Note: Currently the Zones are simpler, and will just provide the jobs. It is our intention for most Zones to convert rather than add.
    • Buildings are planet-unique and change what the Jobs produce. (Mote Harvesters: Technicians now also produce Volatile Motes.)
    • Pops produce Workforce that fills up Jobs.
  • Open Beta Note: The Planet UI is still very much a work in progress.
  • More details can be found in Stellaris Dev Diary #371.
• Empire Focuses and Timeline
  • The Situation Log now contains a tab for the Empire Timeline, which keeps track of important milestones of your playthrough.
  • The Timeline tab also contains a set of Empire Focus Tasks, which are intended to assist players with forming short and medium terms that align with their empire’s nature, while reducing the randomness of the tech tree.
    • Empires can choose between Conquest, Exploration, and Development as their primary Empire Focuses. You will still gain Tasks from other categories, but they will generally be weighted towards your choice. Some Tasks are basic “Core” Tasks, and will provide progress along all three tracks.
    • Completing Tasks provides progress towards Guaranteed Technology unlocks that are considered critical for that playstyle. You still need to research the technologies, they only provide the research option when you reach progress milestones. If you already have the technology unlocked or as a permanent research option, there is no alternate reward.
    • Because Task completion is retroactive and there are no alternate rewards, there should be no benefit in waiting to complete any that you have.
    • Should you end up with a Task that you find uncompletable or that you do not wish to complete, you can discard it and gain a new Task for a small cost in Unity.
    • It is our intention that empires that behave consistent with their Empire Focus should naturally complete the Tasks of that category.
  • More details can be found in Stellaris Dev Diary #368.
• Trade has been revamped into a standard resource.
  • Trade is now used as the Market currency.
  • The Trade Routes system has been removed.
  • Ships now have logistical upkeep paid by Trade based on whether they are docked (free), friendly space (reduced), neutral space (normal), or hostile space (expensive).
    • Larger ships tend to have higher upkeep.
    • The multipliers based on location are set in defines.
    • Juggernauts do not have logistical upkeep, and reduce the logistical upkeep costs for ships in their system by 75%.
    • Resources blocks can now include a "logistics" block, which is currently only used by ships.
  • Planets now have logistical upkeep paid by Trade based on their local resource deficits. This represents the additional costs of diverting freighters to transport materials between planets.
    • Local deficit costs vary based largely on the base market value of the resources in question.
  • Trade Policies can set how much of your Net trade after logistics upkeep is converted into other resources.
  • Added galaxy setup sliders for Fleet Upkeep Logistics Costs and Planetary Deficit Logistics Costs.
  • More details can be found in Stellaris Dev Diary #369.
• The main help button now displays the Databank window where you can explore brief articles on many in-game concepts, reducing the need to navigate to external information sources.

See more in the Open Beta release notes.