A game like Stellaris has a lot of moving parts. As a result, players often encounter problems that seem like bugs.
One of the most infamous of these problems is players not knowing how to board the cultist ship. If you have fallen victim to this problem, don’t worry. You are not alone.
Recommended Read: What to Build on Planets in Stellaris
The cultist ship is part of the radical cult event chain. It ends with some nice rewards and a decent ship for the game era. This guide hopes to help you get those rewards early.
To board the cultist ship in Stellaris, you first need to move a military fleet to the system where you defeated the cultists. Select the fleet and zoom out to the galaxy map. Right-click the orange exclamation mark and select “research project in system”.
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How to Board the Cultist Ship in Stellaris
Stellaris is chock-full of event chains. Some lead to nothing, while others can result in some pretty interesting adventures for your empire.
One of the more well-known event chains is the radical cult. This can trigger early on in a play through and is a simple challenge for beginner empires.
Now the radical cult will not trigger in every game, but if it has triggered for you, you may have found yourself stuck at one particular stage.
Boarding the cultist ship has stumbled a lot of players in Stellaris, from first-timers to hardened veterans of the game.
The event chain begins with some background information. To keep it brief, your home system has been plagued by a rogue cult for centuries. That cult has now manifested itself as a space-borne threat as well.
Your home system now has three cultist ships, and you should deal with these before they can do any real damage. They shouldn’t be too much hassle. A fleet of around six corvettes is almost guaranteed victory here.
Once you have destroyed these cultists, a new pop-up will appear, explaining your next objectives. Faint life signs are detected on board one of the disabled ships, and you must send a party to investigate them.
This is the stage where you can get lost because the method of conducting this boarding party is not very clear.
Sending a Boarding Party to the Cultist Ship
The reason I found this section so confusing is that the boarding party mission is classed as a research project, and research projects are usually resolved with science ships.
A careful read of the situation log will tell you everything you need to do to get the mission complete. It says to have one military ship in orbit.
Now the military fleet does not need to be in orbit of the destroyed ships (for this solution). They only need to be in the same system as them.
The first boarding party should take place at your home system, making it very easy to find. So your ships will not have to travel far to get this completed.
After moving the fleet to the correct system, the next steps are simple but very specific. First and foremost, you must select the fleet you wish to execute the boarding maneuver.
From the galaxy map, an orange exclamation mark should be visible next to your home system. Right-clicking the home system, or the orange marker, will bring up a menu with the option to “Research Project in System.”
After selecting this option, the fleet will move to complete your orders straight away. The next phase of the event chain will appear on-screen, and you are free to proceed as you wish.
Troubleshooting Boarding the Cultist Ship
Now that you know the solution, what do you do if the mission does bug for real? Which many users online report happening.
If no exclamation point appears, one solution is to move your military fleet near the destroyed ships. There will be no option to enter orbit, so you will need to eyeball it
Now we are going to make use of a very handy tool, called the situation log. The situation log lists all of your in-game missions.
On the radical cult entry, an option to research the project will be available if your military ships are close enough to the disabled ship.
Remember, when completing events, the situation log is there to walk you through their completion.
This mission is not unique in its atypical solution. Other game missions also have strange solutions, so be sure to read the log whenever you get stuck.
This is everything you need to know about how to board the cultist ship in Stellaris.
If you have any questions or suggestions for this guide, please let us know in the comments section below. As always, have fun hunting cultists in Stellaris.
