Stellaris 4.3 will "bring things down a notch" with a stat squish, but it could make parts of the 4X game "much harder"

Following the launch of its Infernals DLC, Stellaris Season 9 has come to an end. Developer Paradox is now turning its attention to the next major update, Stellaris 4.3, which it's currently planning to roll out "sometime during the first quarter of 2026" following extensive testing in open beta. This rolling build will be updated "roughly once every two weeks," according to game director Stephen 'Eladrin' Muray, who says the team's primary goal is "to bring things down a notch" with updates to the economy and naval changes near the top of the list, along with the some more "dangerous" optimizations that could cause temporary additional issues.

Starting out rather poetically, Muray introduces Stellaris 4.3 by talking about its naming, 'Cetus.' "Cetus is 'the whale,'" he writes, "specifically, the sea monster sent to ravage King Cepheus' realm after Cassiopeia boasted that she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than the Nereids. Like that monster, this patch is intended to bring things down a notch." The 4X game has continued to deal with issues since its major 4.0 overhaul and its following updates, ranging from lagging tick times for longer games and a frustrating number of desync instances in multiplayer.

The first implementation of the Stellaris 4.3 open beta is mostly focused on the economic updates and ship design changes. "These two alone have yielded about a 7% further improvement in overall performance," Muray remarks, "but as a warning, they've also made some aspects of the game much, much harder." The adjustments are rather sweeping, especially for the economy, tackling everything from empire size modifiers to unemployment, base tech costs, ethics modifiers, upkeep modifiers, living standards, happiness, planetary ascension, automation buildings, and even more besides.

"The economic level in the 4.3 open beta is much lower than from 4.0 to 4.2," Muray cautions, calling the move "an economic 'stat squish.'" Most instances of non-linear growth have been brought more under control, but Paradox has deliberately left some threats (such as aggressive Space Amoebas or Leviathans) at their previous power level. "They haven't been a challenge for quite some time, so it may come as a bit of a shock.

"Your fleets and economy will be weaker, as will that of other standard empires, but some challenges out there have intentionally not been weakened." Muray notes, "This rebalancing recenters what is 'normal,' so old fleet or production values should not be used as a guideline for what's 'good' in this new world."

Moving forward from there, Muray has a long list of other issues that the team is eager to have dealt with by the time Stellaris 4.3 reaches full public release. Some of these are helpful tools such as "improved reporting on general game performance to help find issues," along with specific tracking for out-of-sync issues, given their particular persistence. Muray warns that some planned modifier optimizations for the likes of "pop groups, ships, fleets, planets, armies, espionage, and scripted triggers" are likely to cause a temporary increase in multiplayer instability on the beta branch.

Elsewhere on the list are fixes for "a long list of issues" around ethics shifts and factions, new job swap options, and a reimplementation of the slavery mechanic "using a simpler system that will work better" in the game's 4.0 era. Finally, expect general improvements to memory use and multiplayer stability. Muray notes that each individual piece of the puzzle can be added or removed from the beta branch individually, so they're able to be pulled out at will if a particular aspect isn't meeting standards.

"Currently, 4.3 'Cetus' is expected to go live sometime during the first quarter of 2026," Muray concludes, "but what is actually in it and whether or not it shifts to later on will depend on how the open beta progresses."