One of Stellaris’ biggest draws is the opportunity to captain your own spacefaring armada to rain lasers on whoever opposes your galactic hegemony.
If the early game is about exploration and discovery, the mid-game is a time for a strong navy to protect your interests and carry out special military operations around the galaxy.
Stellaris features a fair amount of different ship aesthetics, and it lets you customize every ship class with different weapons and shields – but if you’ve found your way here, you’ve already seen it all.
The modding community has been hard at work ever since the game came out, and new ships are some of the most popular add-ons.
Join me as we sail into a sea of awe-inspiring custom spaceships. Full speed ahead!
I’m sure most of you came to this article expecting new ships – and you’re going to get them – but there’s one crucial thing you need to try to make the vanilla ships cooler.
Downscaled Ships is a nifty mod that reduces the size of almost every ship and places them farther apart when they’re in formation. That way, you don’t get confusing spaceship clusters, and it’s easier to appreciate the beauty of each vessel.
In addition, the author made a point of creating a better sense of scale by reducing smaller ships like Corvettes much more than the larger ones.
Necroid ships are some of the most elegant in the game.
Every line is delicate and perfectly harmonious with the rest of the ship. They look like something built by a dark god so their subjects would look glorious as they descended upon a planet to consume their population.
On the other hand, these ships are only a re-color away from becoming luxury cruise liners or the ships of a holy empire.
The White-Gold Necroids mod changes the Necroid shipset color to a pearly white with ostentatious golden accents that shine so bright, you’d mistake them for shooting stars as they approach your planet.
Setting up a functional economic system and managing entire planets to keep your species going can be a lot of work – which is why the Marauders decided to board their ships and begin a nomadic existence.
Considering their less-than-ideal status as galactic outlaws for the crimes of raiding and pillaging peaceful planets and stealing their resources, it’s only fair that their ships look a little beat up.
Still, it’s unrealistic to think they’d be able to fight as fiercely with run-down ships. That’s where the Marauders Remodeled mod comes in.
This add-on replaces the old Marauder junk for all-new models with a practical and militaristic design.
The materials look common and easy to procure, but the design is worthy of resourceful people who’ve been traveling the stars aboard their ships for centuries.
Dead Space was one of the first video games to teach me that outer space isn’t just exciting and undiscovered – but profoundly terrifying and probably full of space zombies.
Still, the Dead Space universe did have some silver linings – such as the bad-ass mining technology featured front and center throughout the first game.
I’m not even talking about Isaac’s Plasma Cutter, but the USG Ishimura planet-cracker where the game takes place.
This mod brings that same ship to Stellaris – minus the undead infestation.
It’s a fully-functional planet miner that’ll let you destroy uninhabitable planets for minerals.
Given that space is infinitely large and that there’s no gravity to worry about, there’s no upper limit to the size of your megastructures – and that includes military vessels.
The Mobile Fortress Ships pack introduces giant warships that become available after obtaining the Galactic Wonders ascension perk and researching a specific technology.
These starships are genuinely colossal and can take on some of the functions of a starbase, such as assembling smaller ships at built-in shipyards.
Just watch out, as the AI can build Mobile Fortresses too once their naval capacity exceeds 1200.
Humans have the strange idea that the humanoid form is simply the most efficient for any task.
For this reason, the dream of giant humanoid robots as weapons of war has fascinated human beings for decades now.
It’s only a matter of time before the military industry comes up with something similar.
The Transformed Battleship mod lets you explore the fantasy of shows like Gundam and Gurren Lagann with a “super-dreadnought all-purpose battleship” that’s able to morph into a humanoid form.
The transformation is fully animated, and the robot is almost incomprehensibly badass.
Fans of the all-time classic galactic exploration series Star Trek will go wild with the ST: New Civilizations mod – especially the custom shipsets.
This sizable collection of new appearances for Stellaris’ different ship classes lets you explore the stars in the style of the Klingons, Tholians, Caitians, Romulans, Cardassians, and – of course – the Terrans.
Each stand-alone mod checks all the boxes, from Corvette to Juggernaut, often offering several designs for the same ship class. For example, the Starfleet set includes both the NX and Poseidon models as Battleship class options.
Younger sci-fi enthusiasts might not be as familiar with Star Trek or Andromeda, but a mention of Mass Effect ships will get you hyped for sure.
The Mass Effect: Beyond the Relays mod is a massive ME overhaul for Stellaris, letting you explore the Milky Way galaxy from the perspective of the people calling the shots in the ME universe.
Besides a lore-accurate representation of ME’s Milky Way, the mod introduces fully voiced advisors, custom species, and even functioning Mass Relays.
Of course, it also includes the ships that’ll use them.
This mod features shipsets matching the Systems Alliance, the Turian Hierarchy, the Quarian Migrant Fleet, and even the Reapers!
I’m a big anime fan. So I’ll jump at any opportunity of making any game just a little more anime-ish with mods.
Space Battleship Yamato is a classic sci-fi anime series from 1978 that became one of the most influential shows of the decade and impacted future projects like Gundam and Macross.
The show revolves around the colossal battleship of the same name, built by humanity as their last hope of finding a way to save Earth after an alien race irradiates the planet with radioactive meteors.
This mod brings that same ship and several others from the Earth Defense Force, as seen on the Yamato 2199 and Yamato 2202 remake film series, to Stellaris.
Star Wars is easily the most well-known and celebrated sci-fi franchise ever created, and its unique technological and military aesthetic is a driving factor behind this success.
SW: Legacy of the Old Republic is a far-reaching overhaul meant to help fans immerse themselves in the SW universe from a new civilization-building perspective.
This mod includes numerous shipsets belonging to the Old Republic, the Sith Empire, the Mandalorians, and even the Chiss Ascendancy, among many other features.
Whether you choose to play as these empires or just steal the look of their ships, you’ll find a lot to love in this mod.
If you’re looking for something made specifically for Stellaris rather than adapted from another sci-fi franchise, you’ll love the Machine Shipset.
This mod features a wealth of beefy-looking spaceships with a slight Halo vibe that’ll carry your empire’s ambitions forward with force and intimidation.
It doesn’t stop at Corvettes and Battleships, either.
The Machine Shipset mod goes above and beyond, including new models for stations and megastructures to match the ships.
The result is a cohesive-looking empire with some of the most gorgeous and detailed ships and space infrastructure available for Stellaris.
NSC2 is one of those must-have add-ons you can’t skip over if you’re looking to overhaul Stellaris.
This awesome mod introduces a lengthy list of terrific aesthetic and gameplay changes focused on spaceships and space combat.
Some of the most eye-catching new features include all-new ship classes and specializations, more complex ship behaviors, and technology that lets you create and destroy hyperlanes at will.
There are even some new ship-related events and storylines for you to discover!
Since this mod is so massively popular, most of the other mods we’ve covered are compatible or have patches available to make them work together.
Generally, I try to keep my rankings objective – but I’ll have to make an exception here.
Treasure Planet was one of the most influential and memorable films I saw during my childhood. And I still haven’t met someone who remembers watching it that doesn’t think it’s a cut above.
One of my favorite aspects of the film is the anachronistic ship design. Since the film is basically R. L. Stevenson’s Treasure Island in space, the ships look like classic 19th-century vessels – wooden hulls and all.
This mod brings those same wooden vessels to Stellaris so you can relive the Golden Age of Sail. Realism be damned!
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
