written by Eladrin and Mr Cosmogone Hello everyone! Its been a busy few weeks here on the Stellaris team, and I wanted to thank the community for helping us out so much with the 3.6 Orion Open Beta. There was significantly more activity than anticipated - during the month of October, over 100,000 players took part in the Orion Open Beta branch - and the volume of feedback we received was incredible. The 3.6 update should be much better thanks to your involvement. We have a few more fixes that wed like to get into the update (such as vassals colonizing Holy Worlds), after which itll go through the final testing, localization, and release process. As mentioned last week, well be keeping the Open Beta branch available until the live release of 3.6 Orion so you can continue your games. Ill now pass you over to Mr.Cosmogone, who will provide a bit of enlightenment about one of the features that has been in the Open Beta, but hasnt gotten a proper dev diary thus far. (Now, with non-placeholder art!)

Raising Spirits

Peace be upon you, children, Mr.Cosmogone here, to tell you about the upcoming Spiritualist Federation. I had the chance to collaborate on this with the famous Caligula who had long yearned for a way to share his spiritual convictions with his allies. Some of you may have already had a chance to play this as part of the ongoing Open Beta, they might not find anything new here, but for the rest of the faithfuls, let me introduce to the Holy Covenant:
Spiritualist empires will find this new federation type to be quite aligned with their gamestyle, as it will provide them with a range of bonuses about unity, priests and the spiritualist faction.
Their level two perks will help lay strong foundations for your church:


While the third level will help you on your way towards ascension:


At the fourth level, priests will start appearing left and right to carry the good word.


The fifth and last level of the federation will be a consecration for its members:


Like all federation types, the Holy Covenant comes with a unique succession challenge, the conclave, where the most pious are assured to be rewarded. Or perhaps the most generous. Money is the root of all sins after all, so you might as well give it away. Thats it from me this week, and remember if you want to play all the cool things weve talked about over the last few weeks, go play the beta!

To opt-in to the Open Beta branch, right-click Stellaris, click Properties, Beta tabs, and choose Stellaris_test from the drop down.