Like a reverse black hole, Stellaris continues to pump out additional matter into its swirling galaxy of expansions. Just four months on from the Biogenesis addon, which built out the 4X's bioengineering pathways, the Shadows of the Shroud DLC will expand the minds of psionic players on September 22.
According to Paradox, Shadows of the Shroud offers a "complete overhaul" of Stellaris' Psionic Ascension path. Through this, your civilization taps its telepathic potential to commune with an extra-universal realm known as the Shroud, potentially forming a covenant with one of the cosmic divine beings—known as "patrons"—residing within.
Shadows of the Shroud delineates this process into three key stages: preparing to pierce the veil, communing with the Patrons, then choosing one to ally with and reaping the rewards/suffering the consequences. As part of this, the DLC adds a new "Shroud Panel", helping visualise how attuned you are to the Shroud and specific patrons within it. This should make it easier to see precisely what path you're on, and the rewards (and risks) your chosen direction leads to.
As your power increases, your psionic aura will spread across the galaxy, influencing your systems and those of your allies and enemies. The DLC also revamps the appearance of a particularly powerful patron called the End of the Cycle, giving players the opportunity to "delay the inevitable and acquire even more benefits from this powerful pact."
Shadows of the Shroud represents the third and final rework of Stellaris' ascension paths, with The Machine Age and BioGenesis having overhauled the Cybernetic and Biological ascensions before it. Hopefully it fares better than BioGenesis, which received a muted response from players, though this may in-part have been due to a 4.0 update that mainly seemed to add bugs and problems to Paradox's galactic grand strategy.
"During the lead-up to the release, I was confident that we would be able to finish the revamp and clean up the most critical bugs," Game Director Eladrin wrote in the wake of the update. " We fell short of that goal, and we’re committed to continuing to fix things until the 4.0 release is in the state it needs to be in." The fallout from the 4.0 update also led Paradox to rethink its patching process, promising a "more measured and deliberate approach" to updates in future.
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