Stellaris' Leviathans story pack explored in feature spotlight

Announced last week, Stellaris' Leviathans story pack—the first story pack heading to the 4X-meets-grand strategy game—is due on Thursday. To mark the occasion, it's dropped a feature spotlight trailer which explores the intricacies of its Enclaves, economics, and, gulp, massive space creatures.

Enclaves are remnants of old races, game director Martin Anward explains in the short below, who live on ancient space stations. In the Leviathans DLC, these come in three guises: artists, curators, and traders—groups who create art, in turn bringing happiness to your population; who trade information and sell knowledge; and who take energy and convert it into other resources.

The War in Heaven is an event that sees two Fallen Empires "awake from centuries of stagnation" before going to war with each other. "Where will your fledgling empire lie if two ancient Fallen Empires decide to renew old grievances in a War in Heaven?" asks the blurb on the story pack's update post which, if my previous ill-fated space venturing is anything to go by, makes me afraid to answer.

Which is a fact furthered by the Leviathan story packs' main feature: Guardians. Before we continue, here's a look at them on location:

Guardians, of which there are eight different variants, are ancient space creatures of "immense power" that can either be investigated or battled with. Should you be brave enough to engage them in the latter, know that they're "easily prickled" and that "your empire may be in trouble" should you attack without the means to win. Judging by the size of the blighters up there, I think that goes without saying.

Stellaris' Leviathans story pack is due Thursday, October 20—which is also when the base game's Heinlein 1.3 patch rolls out. More on the latter can be read here.