'If you're using jump drives on your ships, there's risk that you will tear a hole in reality-that's also one of these dangerous technologies-and something will come through from another dimension.' Anything else players should look out for? So, robots aren't the safest technology to max out during your game. It's kind of dangerous to leave them alone for too long.' These robots are smarter than any organic empire. 'Of course, it's kind of an interesting trade-off for you, should you let them run amok destroying your rivals before you intervene. On the other hand, perhaps a universe teeming with murderous, life-destroying robots might not be an entirely bad thing. 'The backstory you are given is basically that they have been planning this for a while, and they've built up a base in a hidden system and you have to trace them back there and destroy their kind of core world to end the revolt forever.' And while some conflicts in Stellaris will be able to be resolved peacefully through diplomacy, the solution to the robot problem lies only in military action. 'They will get a hidden home system that you cannot see on the map,' said Fåhraeus. It becomes clear that the head robot didn't just crank the revolt setting up to high and hope for the best. The robot uprising sounds more complicated than there simply being a massive army of synthetics trying to wipe out all life. But mainly the ones that are replicants, highest level robots.' I asked if even the toaster-level robots Fåhraeus mentioned will join the uprising, and was told: maybe. It's kind of dangerous to leave them alone for too long. So the mechanical civilization will wipe out all organic life.' And if you can't suppress that, it can easily snowball and go out of control.

'So, there is a risk that somewhere in the galaxy where someone has done this, there will be a robot revolt and that would be a massive uprising by all robots in the galaxy. So it's fine to have, like, toaster-level robotic workers that are not very efficient, but the final tier to AI research makes them better than your normal and smarter and so on, and we all know what happens when you do that, right? 'Certain technologies can be especially dangerous, and they are marked as such in the technology screen when you find them.

Stellaris gives it a new wrinkle, however, with the late-game events that threaten not just the faction that has upgraded its technology, but everyone else in the galaxy as well. As you struggle to explore and survive in the procedurally generated galaxy, the race to acquire, research, and improve technology comes into play, as it does in many strategy games.

Stellaris limbo