Economic modifiers and empire balance in Stellaris Stellaris guide, tips

All created buildings or units have their upkeep which is paid monthly in resources. Very rarely, a created unit or a building won't cost you extra resources later on.

Each decision comes with a price. In most cases your resources will be used to activate a building or construct a unit, and thus you won't have to pay for them later on. The majority of buildings and units will require some additional resources each month. Certain economic modifiers will grant you tax relief. They can be based on a specific building, technology, or traits of your leader.

Balance

Energy credits

Income of resources is based on power plants and mining networks scattered across your empire. Your profits include income from the main sector and additional sectors. You can increase these profits if you don't collect 75% of their monthly production. Planet edicts will also affect your income. It is important to specialize your planets in one specific field. This will let you control your income more easily and you will spend less on local edicts.

Expenses involve the majority of devices in your empire. Fleet upkeep will cost the most, so make sure that you don't exceed the capacity limit of units. The actual tonnage, and not number of units determines the limit. Each ship that goes beyond this limit will increase energy demand by some percent. Develop your spaceports to decrease upkeep costs when your fleet is inactive. Place your forces in such a way that will always grant them access to your spaceports.

Unfortunately, you won't avoid other expenses. If you want a significant mineral income per month, you will need to provide enough energy to your facilities. The same goes for these structures. You can close some of the mining facilities when they become less profitable later on in the game.

Minerals

Income of minerals depends on how effective you will collect resources. Minor mining stations that you build in the beginning of the game will become useless at some points, but you can keep them as long as you have a positive energy balance. The same goes for energy credits, and it's best to focus on gathering resources on several planets that can be easily supported by refineries and edicts.

Costs of minerals include only ship upkeep and building certain units, buildings or upgrades. Although activating a building is a one-time cost, the same cannot be said about ship upkeep and their construction. Units that use modern technologies are expensive to build and upkeep. If you exceed the limit of units, you will be charged with additional energy cost. Make sure to keep your units in a spaceport.

Strategic resources

Strategic resources have a different balance. Its indicator allows you to check its maximal capacity in the area of your empire. The minimal amount refers to the amount of a resource that you can use. The resource is gathered every month in an amount defined by specific facilities.

Economic modifiers

Their sources are new technologies, ethics modifiers, and leaders' skills. Boosts provided by ethics are based on political systems and can't combine. Leader modifiers change according to the current ruler. Only technological modifiers can be combined to decrease the overall costs.

Only the main modifiers will be visible

The overall amount of boosts can be checked in the budget section. Remember that you will only see the main modifiers and mechanisms such as reduced army building cost will not be visible.