How To Build Planetary Capitals In Stellaris

In Stellaris, Planetary Capitals play an essential role in your empire's management and are not just cosmetic upgrades. Regardless of your origin and empire type, upgrading your capital building is essential for unlocking powerful benefits like additional jobs, stronger planetary defenses, and improved productivity.

However, doing this isn't as simple, and you might be confused about how to construct or upgrade to a planetary capital. So, to help you accomplish just that, this guide breaks down the process clearly so you can build a Planetary Capital in Stellaris.

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By Ewan Selmes

How To Build Planetary Capitals in Stellaris?

As mentioned previously, building Planetary Capitals on your holdings isn't as simple. To build or upgrade a planetary capital in Stellaris, you need to follow a series of progression steps based on technology and population prerequisites. So, here are all the steps you need to follow:

Start with the Reassembled Ship Shelter on your first colony. This is the base-level capital.
Upgrade to Planetary Administration once the planet reaches 10 population and you’ve researched Planetary Government.
Upgrade to Planetary Capital once the population hits 25 and you’ve researched Colonial Centralization.
Upgrade to System Capital-Complex at 50 population with the Galactic Administration technology.

Each upgrade also increases building slots and housing while also unlocking better jobs like Politicians and Enforcers. You can hover over the upgrade option in the building interface to see if you meet the requirements.

Capitals cannot be manually downgraded or destroyed through orbital bombardment. They're also automatically adapted if the planet changes hands or authority type.

What Are Planetary Capitals in Stellaris?

Planetary capitals are unique buildings that serve as the central hub of a colony’s administrative infrastructure. They always occupy the first building slot on any colonized planet and cannot be moved, disabled, or removed. Each tier provides a suite of benefits, including the ones listed below:

Housing: Provides housing to your holding's population.
Defense Armies: Automatically provides planetary defense.
Jobs: Provides administrative jobs depending on your empire type (For example, Politicians, Enforcers, and Roboticists).
Building Slots: Higher tiers unlock more building space for advanced structures.
Productivity Bonuses: Up to +30% to overall output at higher tiers.

Different empire types, such as Hive Minds, Machine Intelligence, and Megacorps, will have variants of capital buildings with customized jobs. In all cases, investing in your capital tier is a critical step in advancing your empire.