updated with 4.4.2 Notes (15th June 2026)

Paradox pushed 4.4.2 to the Stellaris test branch on the 15th, with the studio planning a main release likely tomorrow. This is a focused hotfix addressing some friction that's crept in since Pegasus dropped.

The Forever Cruise situation was running too fast on all difficulties, so Paradox dialed back both the base speed and the difficulty scaling, a straightforward balance tweak that should ease the pacing without gutting the feature. On the bugfix side, Void Reavers no longer incorrectly require First Contact to spawn, and there's a batch of stability work: waystation UI crashes, animated menu background crashes, AI contract evaluation crashes, and a resolution-specific crash on 800p displays and lower.

This is a maintenance patch, not a feature drop. The studio's flagging that more comprehensive changes are coming in this weekend's open beta for a bigger patch planned for next week, so expect 4.4.2 to be a quick stabiliser before the next round of adjustments.

Hi everyone!

We've updated the stellaris_test beta branch with some fixes that we're planning to release (likely tomorrow).

Please note: This is an opt-in open beta. To opt-in: Right Click Stellaris, Properties, Betas tab and Choose "Stellaris_test" from the dropdown.

Balance:

Reduced the rate of the Forever Cruise situation speed on all difficulties.
Also reduced the amount that the situation increases based on game difficulty.
More comprehensive changes will be coming in this weekend's Open Beta for the patch planned for next week.

Bugfix:

Void Reavers no longer additionally requires First Contact

Stability:

Preventing a waystation UI from crashing in some cases.
Fixed a crash that could occur when changing the animated main menu background from the in-game settings screen.
Fixes a crash during AI contract evaluation.
Fix crashing on 800p and lower resolutions when clicking on Waystations.

Thank you for playing Stellaris!