How to Conquer Enemy Systems in Stellaris

Gaining Influence

In order to take control of another system, you are first going to need to claim it. And to claim it, you’ll need influence. Influence is a type of currency in Stellaris. It is represented by a purple-colored icon with a figure in the center surrounded by what looks like radio waves emanating off of him. You can find how much influence you have by looking for the icon I described at the top of your screen, next to your other resources.

In case you don’t have very much influence, you can gain more by declaring rivalries with other nations. I recommend you do this with the nation you are planning on going to war with. Go to the diplomacy screen of that nation, and assign an envoy to harm relations. Now you should be able to declare them your rival if they haven’t already. You can also gain influence by breaking or not agreeing to things like commercial pacts and research agreements, as they cost influence.

Claiming Systems

Once you have a substantial amount of influence, you can start claiming other systems. Look at the menu on the left of your screen and select the option that is the third from the bottom. This will cause some icons to appear next to each of the systems from the galaxy map. You can then click on systems not owned by you to spend influence points to claim them.

Claiming a system can cost as little as 150* influence, but it can sometimes get much higher depending on how close the system is to your territory. Do keep in mind that you CANNOT claim a system from a nation if you are at war with them. You can only do it while you’re at peace with them. Once you’ve claimed all the systems you want to control, you can move on to the next step.

Declaring War & Taking Over Systems

Now it’s time for the fun part: going to war! Once you have a sizable fleet built up, move all your units close to the territories you want to conquer. After they are in position, go to the diplomacy screen of the empire you want to attack and declare war. As long as you don’t have a peace treaty or non-aggression pact with them, you should be able to immediately declare war. From the war declaration screen, look at the options under “Set War Goals” to the left of the screen.

Here, you can choose the option “Conquer (Claim).” Once that is chosen, hit “Declare War” from the bottom right of the screen and the battle will begin! Now just move your fleets into the enemy territory and attack the systems that you claimed.

Once you’ve taken control of the outposts they have deployed there and destroyed all the fleets in their system, an icon will appear on the galaxy map of the system you have just taken over. This icon will display your nation’s insignia if you’ve successfully taken control of it. Now just do this for all the systems you want to annex.

Suing For Peace & Annexing Claimed Systems

Once you have control over every system you claim, you can go to the diplomacy menu and try to sue them for peace. Make sure that you DO NOT select “Settle Status Quo”.” Doing the ” or “Surrender.” Selecting the former will return everything back to normal and you’ll gain nothing. And selecting the latter might even cause you to LOSE some of your systems.

Instead, you’ll want to pick “Achieve War Goals,” which is in the bottom left side of the screen. You might not be able to select that option at the start, however. This is because the enemy’s war exhaustion is not high enough. To get it higher, you will have to win more battles against them.

You can do this by attacking and taking over more of their systems, and by destroying their fleets. Keep doing that until the option to “Achieve War Goals” is no longer grayed out. Once you select it, the systems you claimed and took over during the war should now be succeeded to your nation!