The galaxy is a large place, and during a game of Stellaris you may notice some aliens within your empire. But what if you don’t want any filthy xenos in your borders?
That is where purging comes in. Purging is the act of removing a pop from your empire. Purging comes in two flavors: displacement or extermination.
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This guide will teach you everything you need to know about how to purge pops. From what it is, how to set your empire’s purge policy, and how to purge pops.
To purge pops in Stellaris, you first need to allow purging in your empire’s policies. After this, find the pops you wish to purge in the species tab, and set their citizen rights to undesirables.
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How to Purge Pops in Stellaris
As long as it is legal in your empire, setting pops to get purged is quite easy. You may be wondering to yourself, why would you ever want to purge pops?
A good strategy when playing Stellaris is to get your hands on as many pops as you can. Pops are the lifeblood of any empire’s economy.
Without pops to work, you have no industry. Without industry, there’s no military, and no military means doom for your empire.
While it is a great technique, it doesn’t work for every empire or play style.
A lot of player’s favorite part of Stellaris is role-playing as their empire, and some empires are the bad guys.
While not for everyone, playing as the bad guys can lead to some interesting gameplay.
If you are playing an evil run of Stellaris, especially if you are genocidal, purging will be very high on your empire’s to-do list.
If the thought of wiping out pops leaves you feeling squeamish, don’t worry. You can choose to purge pops through displacement. Removing them from your empire without all the murder.
Some empires can do more than simply kill unwanted pops.
They may neuter them, work them to death, use them as food, and even turn them into energy. All valid options if your empire has the stomach for it.
Policies Around Purging Pops
Before you can purge anything, you will want to check if your empire is able to purge pops.
If you are a xenophobic and militarist empire, it is probably legal. The same is not true for pacifist xenophile empires.
You can check if it is legal by opening up the government menu and opening the policies and edicts tab. You can find it on the bottom left.
Near the bottom of the policies menu, you will see the purge option. You can view your empire’s purge policy here and change it if you meet the criteria.
The first setting is prohibited, where purging is not allowed within the empire. Genocidal empires and gestalt consciousness empires cannot enact this policy.
The second setting is displacement only, which prohibits the extermination of pops but allows the removal of them. Genocidal and xenophile empires cannot enact this policy.
The last setting is allowed, where you are free to do whatever you want to unwanted pops.
To enable this policy, one of the following things must be true about your empire: they are xenophobic, have taken the become the crisis ascension perk, are a gestalt consciousness, or are some form of genocidal.
If you can’t change your policy to allow purging, you may have to change your ethics first. When you have allowed it, you are ready to purge at will.
Setting Undesirable to Purge a Species
Beginning the purging process will require you to visit the species menu. This menu will display all the species in your empire.
From here, you can set living standards, slavery standards, citizen rights, and how they will get purged.
First, locate the species you want gone in the menu. Highlight them and select the set rights option on the bottom left-hand corner of the menu.
The rights menu will then appear. At the bottom, you will notice the purge type option. If the option is gray, you need to set the species you want to purge as undesirable.
You can do this by clicking the citizenship option and then choosing undesirables. Your empire will begin purging those pests straight away.
The process takes some time, but if something is worth doing, it is worth taking your time to get it right.
With the species set to undesirable, you are free to choose the purge type.
A few things you should bear in mind, wanton destruction of sentient life may be frowned upon by other empires and could well be illegal in the galactic community.
Purged pops also have a chance of escaping and becoming refugees. Empire’s that allow refugee resettlement will take them in, and they will become citizens of that empire.
This is everything you need to know about how to purge pops in Stellaris.
If you have any questions or suggestions for this guide, please let us know in the comments section below. Try not to go crazy purging pops in Stellaris.
