How to win

A campaign of Stellar Nexus is designed around multiple paths to victory. In the current development build, four clear finishes are enabled: conquest, science, a Galactic Council election, and economic dominance. They are not yet an invitation to a public release.

The four victory paths

Conquest victory

Capture every rival colony. Move a fleet onto an enemy colony’s tile and defeat its stationed ships and garrison. If yours is the only attacking civilisation left on that tile, the colony is annexed and its production queues are cleared. A civilisation is eliminated when it loses its final colony; the last civilisation with colonies wins Galactic Domination.

Best for: Orion Hegemony openings, late-game Terran with mass dreadnoughts.

Scientific victory

Complete your faction’s supremacy megaproject. First finish the faction capstone and build a Quantum Research Array. That unlocks a unique Wonder in a colony’s Production view:

• Terran Directorate: Aegis Continuum
• Nyx Collective: Concordance Nexus
• Orion Hegemony: Dominion Singularity
• Vanguard Nomads: Horizon Engine

Each project costs 600 energy and 400 minerals and takes 12 production turns. When it finishes during turn resolution, the campaign ends in Scientific Supremacy and the final screen records the project, winner, and finishing turn.

Best for: A mature empire that can protect a specialised research and production colony through a visible late-game race.

Diplomatic victory

Win a Galactic Council election with at least 67% of all eligible delegates. The Council unlocks on turn 80, holds its first ballot on turn 82, and returns every eight turns until somebody wins. Population, influence, positive reputation, active treaties, alliances, and completed Council objectives all build your delegation. You need at least four delegates and non-hostile average relations to declare your candidacy.

Before each ballot, civilisations publish vote commitments and the Council shows projected totals, including a warning when a rival is on course to win. Those promises are not binding: an ally can change its vote or abstain, and the result records the betrayal. Ties and results below the supermajority elect no one, while eliminated civilisations take no further part.

Best for: Vanguard Nomads openings, or established empires that can turn secure borders into a broad coalition.

Economic victory

Reach 900 Credits and remain at or above it for five consecutive turns. Falling below the target resets your hold, making every Trade Hub purchase and late expense a choice between growth now and a faster finish.

Trade Hubs turn an initial Credits investment into recurring income. Active Trade Agreements increase both partners’ Credits income beginning with the following economy step, so each deal can accelerate your rival as well as you.

Best for: Empires that can balance long-term commercial investment against the need to keep Credits in reserve.

If several civilisations complete their hold together, the winner is ranked by Credits, then Credits income that turn, then active trade routes. A perfect tie extends the campaign. Computer rivals follow the same rules and can end your campaign with an economic victory of their own.

Current development-build status

In the current development build, conquest, scientific victory, diplomatic victory, and economic victory are enabled. Capture every rival colony for Galactic Domination, complete your faction’s supremacy megaproject first, win the Galactic Council election, or hold the campaign’s Credits target long enough to secure economic dominance. Campaign pacing and release readiness remain in development.

All four routes use the same campaign. A research, diplomatic, or economic leader still has to protect its final colony. A supremacy contender must also protect the colony constructing its project, while a conqueror can lose the race to a megaproject, Council ballot, or Credits hold.

Each faction also has a complete endgame research path and one capstone. A capstone grants a large production bonus and unlocks that faction’s project, but does not end the campaign by itself.

Playing for the current victories

• Conquest: build a fleet, use Move to enter a rival colony’s tile, defeat its defenders, and repeat until no rival colonies remain.
• Science: develop renewable research, complete your faction’s cross-branch capstone, and research Quantum Research Arrays. Build a Quantum Research Array in the colony that will host the project, save 600 energy and 400 minerals, then queue the unlocked Wonder and protect it for 12 production turns.
• Diplomacy: grow your population and influence, maintain strong relations, and build a network of treaties and alliances before nominations open. Stand for election, secure public commitments, watch the projected threshold, and cast your final ballot when the Council convenes.
• Economy: protect your starting Credits, build Trade Hubs when their future income is worth the immediate cost, and seek Trade Agreements that help more than they endanger you. Reach 900 Credits and protect that stockpile for five turns. Open the Credits breakdown to track income, target, hold progress, and rival warnings.

The Production view shows the project’s prerequisites, cost, progress, and projected completion turn. It also warns you when a visible rival has started their own project. A project behind another structure or ship waits with the rest of the queue; moving it to the front resumes it from the same remaining time.

Computer rivals follow the same science path. They build research facilities, pursue and protect their faction’s project, and can redirect research, production, and fleets when they see a rival project underway. A hidden project does not trigger that response.

The full cost is paid when the order is accepted. Cancelling later gives no refund, and losing the colony destroys an unfinished project along with that colony’s production queue. Mid-build saves preserve its remaining turns.