Stellaris: Toxoids - Tips & Tricks for Playing the Knights of the Toxic God Origin (2024)

One of the best aspects of Stellaris that adds replay value is all the different Origins players can choose. These represent the backstory of a species before it unified itself into a star-spanning civilization. Stellaris' Toxoids DLC adds two new Origins, one of which is called Knights of the Toxic God.

While they've managed to reach the stars, empires with this Origin kept the honor-bound, knightly ways of their medieval era. This is due to a powerful entity, which they call the Toxic God, that visited and destroyed half of their home world. The twist is that rather than seek vengeance for their world's devastation, the Order worships this God and seeks to find it. This is a unique Origin, and choosing it has both its strengths and drawbacks when playing. In fact, many players might have to use different strategies compared to other empire types when using this Origin.

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With the Knights of the Toxic God Origin, the Stage Is Set From the Start

When starting a new game with this Origin, players will notice that they have a Habitat Megastructure in orbit of their home world, which is considered the HQ of the Order. The starting planet, however, can't be developed very much because of some unique blockers created by the Toxic God that prevent any more districts from being built. Because of this, players should seek out suitable planets to colonize as quickly as possible.

The Habitat that's been built will already be upgraded to allow players to build more districts than a normal one. When Habitats have the Order's Keep building, players can build the unique Order's Demesne districts with 400 minerals to allow for more Knight and Squire jobs. They'll also increase the housing, stability and habitability of the Habitat. It should be noted that the Order's infrastructure can only be built on Habitats, so players should research this technology as soon as possible.

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The Order of Knights Is a Huge Advantage

One of the biggest advantages to this Origin is that it has Order buildings, which in turn provide Knight Jobs that come in three tiers: Lord Commander, Knights and Squires. Having these knights is a big deal. For starters, they're able to provide Unity and Research points, giving empires a boost toward ascension early on and freeing up colony worlds to focus on producing raw resources. They also function as part of an Empire's military, generating defense armies for the Habitat and increasing naval capacity.

Pops don't usually start off as Knights but must work up to that position after first working as Squires. If a player empire is an overlord to another empire, an Order's Commandery holding can be built on the subject empire's home world to provide an additional Knight Job and increase naval capacity. The Origin also enables the Knightly Duties policy, which can determine what role Knights play in galactic affairs. Policies include Questing Knights, which focus on surveying star systems quickly, Knight Commanders, which increase the overall effectiveness of fleets and armies, Courtly Knights, which improve diplomatic weight and available envoys, and Herald Knights, which reduce Edict costs.

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Finding and Defeating the Toxic God

This Origin is very story driven and will start with a Situation that tasks the player's empire with finding their God. Funding the Situation with alloy and energy credit resources can make it progress through eight stages, but the rate of progress depends on how much funding is provided. In between these stages, minor events can occur where questing Knights will provide additional resources and research points or help progress the Situation. Each stage can have profound effects on the Order and empire as a whole depending on player choices. Many of these choices can result in either improving Knights Unity or Research output or removing one of the home world blockers and applying an empire-wide boon. Regardless, players should read carefully through each event as they provide details that might affect their choice and how the quest ends.

Finding the Toxic God is no easy feat, however, and this Situation can take in-game centuries to complete. If a hundred years have passed before completing the quest, players will receive an event where they must choose to either increase their funding to motivate the knights, demotivate the knights (which decreases their output) or abandon the quest and disband the Order, removing the Order's Keep building and all Order's Demesne districts for a large amount of energy and alloys. Once the final event has been completed, the Situation will end and a new star system will appear in the galaxy with the Toxic God.

The Toxic God is extremely powerful and one of the toughest Guardian creatures to be added to the game. While it has no armor, its shield and hull more than make up for it, so kinetic weapons should be used to bring down the shield as quickly as possible. In combat, the Toxic God uses multiple extra-large energy weapons, a complement of strike craft and point-defense cannons. Empires will likely need a fleet with at least 100K to 150K power to have any chance of success. What might be most dangerous about fighting this God, however, is that the system it resides in has a unique environmental effect that completely nullifies armor. Any ships that prioritize using armor as a defense will be easily destroyed. To offset this disadvantage, players should consider redesigning and upgrading their ships to only be equipped with greater shields and hulls.

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The Aftermath of Defeating the Toxic God

With the Toxic God defeated, players will have a final choice to make. The entity can be restored and repurposed as a biological Colossus class ship to add to the fleet. Besides being a powerhouse in warfare, it can also turn planets into toxic worlds. However, choosing to keep the Toxic God will reduce the number of Knights jobs from the Order's Keep by half, along with their resource output.

Alternatively, players can choose to kill the Toxic God and gain the Maw of the Toxic Entity Relic. This Relic has a passive effect that increases strike craft damage by 15% and an active effect that grants a decision to consecrate a Habitat each time it's activated. When used, this decision allows Empires to build Order's Castle buildings on any constructed Habitats, which then unlocks Order's Demesne districts to be built. This can effectively increase the number of possible Knight Jobs beyond the starting Habitat, along with all the resources, unity, research and naval capacity they produce. Either decision will make this knightly empire one of the most powerful by the mid-game point.