Conquering the galaxy in Stellaris can take many forms, but few are as satisfying as turning rival empires into obedient vassals. The Gotta Subjugate Them All achievement challenges players to subjugate at least 30 other empires in a single game. This requires not just military might, but a deep understanding of galactic politics, diplomacy, war mechanics, and empire management. Achieving this goal demands both long-term planning and adaptable strategies across different stages of your campaign. Knowing how to subjugate efficiently and maintain control over a vast number of subjects is essential to success in this demanding challenge.
Understanding the Achievement
What It Requires
The Gotta Subjugate Them All achievement in Stellaris is earned by having 30 subject empires simultaneously under your control. These subjects can be vassals, protectorates, subsidiaries, or any other empire bound to you through subjugation agreements. The count must be at the same time destroying and replacing them doesn’t count unless the total reaches 30 concurrently.
Why It’s Challenging
In most Stellaris games, you’re lucky to encounter 30 empires total, especially in smaller galaxies. You must use the largest galaxy size and increase the number of AI empires during game setup. Managing that many vassals requires technological superiority, fleet dominance, and smart use of subject integration and loyalty systems to avoid revolts or independence wars.
Setting Up for Success
Galaxy Settings
To even have the opportunity to subjugate 30 empires, you need to tailor your galaxy settings accordingly:
- Galaxy Size: Choose Huge to maximize the number of stars and habitable systems.
- AI Empires: Set this to the maximum (usually 30+ depending on mods or game version).
- Fallen Empires: Consider reducing the number to make more room for subjugatable regular empires.
- Advanced AI Starts: Optional, but can make the midgame more competitive.
Empire Build Choices
Not all empires are suited for mass subjugation. A few key picks can make your journey easier:
- Origin: Imperial Fiefdom Start as a vassal yourself but gain early diplomatic insights and vassal mechanics bonuses later.
- Civic: Feudal Society Allows easier management of subjects and prevents penalties from decentralized control.
- Government Type: Oligarchic or Imperial for better stability and edicts that support military conquest.
- Ethics: Authoritarian + Militarist Authoritarian improves subject integration speed and control. Militarist helps with war declarations and fleet bonuses.
Subjugation Mechanics Explained
How Subjugation Works
Subjugating an empire can happen in a few ways:
- Diplomatic Subjugation: Through deals, influence, or pressure works best with smaller, isolated empires.
- War of Subjugation: Declare war with a subjugation war goal. If successful, the defeated empire becomes your subject.
- Status Quo in War: Depending on occupied systems, some enemy worlds may turn into breakaway vassals under your control.
Subject Types and Agreements
Stellaris offers several types of subjects, and not all count equally toward your goals. However, for the achievement, any subjugated entity is valid:
- Vassal: Basic subject, relatively obedient, moderate autonomy.
- Protectorate: Less useful but still counts. Cannot integrate until they become technologically equivalent.
- Subsidiary: Corporate vassal variant, generally more profitable for megacorps.
- Bulwark, Scholarium, Prospectorium: Subject specializations that give them specific bonuses and benefit your empire depending on the arrangement.
Strategies for Mass Subjugation
Early Game: Expansion and Positioning
The early phase is all about scouting and securing territory. You won’t be subjugating yet, but your empire’s positioning matters greatly:
- Build outposts quickly to box in weaker empires.
- Focus on alloy production to support future fleet demands.
- Research diplomatic techs to prepare for vassal management.
- Keep an eye on the galaxy map to identify potential vassals for later wars.
Mid Game: Begin the Subjugation
This is when your empire should begin flexing its strength. You should be initiating subjugation wars and leveraging your technological advantage to defeat neighbors:
- Target isolated or weakened empires first to avoid multi-front wars.
- Balance between integrating some subjects and keeping others as vassals to hit the 30 count.
- Use specialized vassal agreements to maximize loyalty and utility.
- Build and maintain multiple strong fleets to deter coalitions against you.
Late Game: Expansion Through Proxy
Once your subject count increases, managing them becomes a meta-game of its own. You want them to remain loyal and not drag you into internal disputes:
- Don’t integrate too many at once or you’ll fall below the 30 count.
- Improve relations with disloyal vassals or adjust their subject agreements to increase loyalty.
- Use espionage and favors to sow chaos in enemy federations and isolate potential targets.
- When necessary, release a subject and reconquer it under a new subjugation treaty to reset loyalty or optimize agreements.
Managing Loyalty and Rebellion Risk
Tools to Increase Loyalty
As your number of vassals grows, so does the risk of rebellion. Use these tactics to maintain order:
- Assign Envoys to improve relations with key subjects.
- Offer favorable agreements (lower taxes, more autonomy) temporarily if loyalty drops too low.
- Use the Loyalty Subsidies option if your economy allows for it.
- Build diplomatic structures to improve monthly loyalty across your empire.
Crushing Disloyal Subjects
If a subject becomes too rebellious, sometimes war is inevitable:
- Always be prepared to crush a rebellion quickly with overwhelming force.
- Use divide-and-conquer tactics to isolate rebellious factions from allies.
- After reconquest, modify the subjugation terms to prevent future insubordination.
Combining Subjugation With Federation or Hegemony
If you’re playing with the Federations DLC, forming a Hegemony is a viable path. As the Hegemon, your subjects can still count toward the subjugation total depending on how the AI joins your federation. Use diplomatic pressure and war to bring members into your hegemony while maintaining control as the leader. This gives access to unique edicts and powerful diplomatic bonuses that further cement your dominance.
The Gotta Subjugate Them All achievement in Stellaris is a true test of strategic mastery, requiring both war prowess and political finesse. It’s not simply about building the biggest fleet or expanding the fastest it’s about smart use of systems like subjugation, loyalty management, and diplomacy. With the right empire setup, galaxy configuration, and careful planning, you can bring the entire galaxy to its knees without needing to destroy a single world. Achieve dominance through subjugation, and rule not just with power, but with structure and control. In Stellaris, true mastery is not in conquest, but in command.