Stellaris

Stellaris

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Getting the "Stay on Target" achievement
By Doge
A comprehensive guide on how to obtain the "Stay on Target" achievement.
   
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Introduction
Getting the "Stay on Target" achievement is tricky, because you need to have an AI empire use a colossus against you. However, with the right galaxy settings you can ensure that this happens and not waste time waiting for the AI to construct one.
Galaxy settings
  • Galaxy size: Huge (1000 stars)
  • AI empires: 0
  • Fallen empires: 5 (or 4 if you don't have Synthetic Dawn)
  • Marauder empires: 0
  • Tech/Tradition cost: 0.25
  • Crisis strenghth: off
  • End-game start year: 3000

The other options don't really matter that much, so adjust as you want. For civics I recommend Fanatical Purifiers with Militarist ethos. The idea is to have maximum fire rate, so you can quickly shred the FE fleets.

Important: After you generate a new game, exit to main menu and open the save game file in a text editor. If the save game file contains the text

design="SHIP_COLOSSUS_SECTION"

this means that one of the FEs has spawned with a colossus. If that text is not there, then you will most likely not fight against a colossus this game, so you need to abandon it. Keep making new games until you create one where a colossus is spawned at the beginning.
Buildup
Since all of your enemies are sleeping Fallen Empires, you are free to build and expand your empire with no danger. You need to find the FE which has the colossus. Either build a sentry array to locate it or find that FE with your science ship (which should have good sensors). It's important to have intel on the colossus before you proceed. It's also important to have good intel around the FE where the colossus is.

Once you have identified the FE with the colossus, then this is obviously the FE which you will fight. The next step is determine which is the most likely planet that the AI will attack after you declare war on the FE (or you bait the FE to declare on you). This can be difficult to determine, but as a general rule, colonize a planet which is very close to the FE. This is most likely the planet which the FE will attack. However be mindful of wormholes / gateways, you need to take those into account!

Once you have colonized a planet close to the FE, you have to fortify it like crazy. Do not upgrade the starbase in the system, because it will be used against you. Only fortify the planet! Build a military academy, a planetary shield generator and fortresses on all other tiles. The idea is that this planet will be so well-defeneded that the FE will not be able to conquer it and would therefore use the colossus to wipe it.

You should also construct a gateway in that system as close to the planet as possible. The idea is that you will be able to use the gateway with all your fleets to ambush the enemy FE. Of course, your own fleets should be sitting on top of another gateway somewhere else in your empire.
The engagement
Important: Savescum!!!

It's very important to savescum here. You should have a backup of your savegame before you declare war on the FE or you bait the FE in declaring on you. This can easily go wrong and the colossus has a big chance of doing an emergency FTL. In that case you might not get the achievement.

After you have fortified the planet and you have build several massive fleets (It's a good idea to have at least twice the fleet power of the FE) you can now prepare for the engagement.

You should have at least one Titan which has the FTL offensive aura on. This would double the time it takes for the enemy to do an emergency FTL jump. Even with this, I only got the achievement on my second try (which is why it is important to savescum).

Ideally you should declare a rivalry or insult the enemy FE so that it declares war on you. This would provide you with a +33% increase fire rate because of the defensive war bonus perk. But even if you can't bait the FE, you can still do it, by just declaring war on them. Make sure that you have a massive fleet and before you engage:

  • Use the unity ambition that buffs the fire rate
  • Use the No Retreat war doctrine that buffs the fire rate
  • Have a good admiral with buffs to fire rate
  • Basically do everything you can to buff fire rate / damage of your fleet.

After war is declared by either party, the FE should attack the bait planet which you have fortified like crazy. In my case, the FE had 2 fleets. The first (bigger one) was sent to the planet along with armies to capture it and the second fleet was holding back protecting the colossus in a nearby system. As soon as the bigger fleet started bombarding the planet, I jumped on them from the gateway and shred the fleet along with the transports. Then I moved out of the gateway back into the other end of the gateway (which the FE cannot access).

Then the FE sent the remaining (smaller) fleet along with the colossus in order to wipe the planet.

Important: You should jump on the colossus as soon as it starts charging, not before.

Conclusion
With good preparation, inspecting the save game file, proper build up and (sadly) savescumming, this achievement is actually not that difficult to get and it is rather straightforward.
32 Comments
Darkn3ssF4lls 22 May, 2024 @ 12:32pm 
design="SHIP_COLOSSUS_SECTION" would it be SHIP_TITAN_SECTION for a titan?
dylan.lichmaster 30 Sep, 2021 @ 2:57pm 
Just pulled this off in 3.1; not sure I'd recommend it there. Colossi can be baited as described above, but they will go evasive and FTL out extremely quickly, even if they are in the middle of firing. If you don't kill them fast enough even if you prevent warp out, they will no longer trigger the achievement when killed. I had a 'vette swarm of 130k fleet power and they were not fast enough. Went overkill with a titan-battleship doomstack of 230K+ Fleet power and got it. I wound up going with Determined Exterminators instead of Fanatic Purifiers, because I did not want to bother with food, consumer goods, or pop growth (vs Assembly). OH. A important tip: if you open your save file in 7-zip and leave it open it will be effectively in read-only and thus much easier to savescum- while its open, you can quit to menu but the game will not save. Do remember to close 7-zip when you are done- I've probably lost 40+ hours across all my Stellaris games due to forgetting.
Veetrill 23 Jun, 2021 @ 3:25pm 
Big thanks for this guide, and big thanks for the advice in the comments about reverting to 2.0.5!
Did it in first try.
A couple of things to mention though.
First, I'd advice disabling gateways at all. IIRC, FEs and AEs have total access of the map and, therefore, can use all gateways, even if they lead to your territory. Better get rid of possibility of them moving elsewhere than neighboring systems, since AEs (not sure about FEs) tend to build these gateways like crazy.
Second, I thought playing game with hyperlanes set to minimum was a good idea, so I could get max choke points. Boy, I was so wrong. Not only it didn't lower the amount of neighboring systems for FE I fought, but it also made them much harder to claim, as it required crossing half of the galaxy just to take systems from all sides.
Third, I recommend setting habitable worls to max. With that you'll have available planets practically anywhere, without any need to build habitats in empty systems near the FE.
_SpIck 9 Oct, 2020 @ 12:13pm 
@Sherpa Frank ,On version 2.0.5 have you played with all the available DLCs or have you disabled some? If you turned off the DLC, then tell me which ones you turned off.
big hot dog 13 Apr, 2020 @ 11:22pm 
Can confirm Sherpa Frank's suggestion: reverting to 2.0.5 changed everything. I haven't seen a colossus fire on a planet in months and the moment I declared war on the fallen empire that spawned the colossus, it moved in to fire on the bait systems I had set up.
Sherpa Frank 3 Oct, 2019 @ 7:27pm 
Ayyy thanks machcio just got it with the strategy outlined in this guide. To any future cheevo hunters, you MUST revert to Stellaris 2.0.5, a quick google should tell you how to do that. If you play in the most current version the Fallen Empire will never use their colossus against you. You can shit on their lawn, hurl insults at them, genocide half of their species, and they'll barely move the colossus, let alone fire it. If you decide you need this achievement, back up the game to 2.0.5 or you'll end up wasting 10+ hours like me.
machcio 3 Oct, 2019 @ 11:56am 
@Sherpa Frank I'm afraid your problem now is that this is achiev from 1-2 DLCs ago, and most probably later changes made AI even lass capable of keeping its sh!t together.
When I was doing it I made sure that I had a colonized planet in every system that is bordering with fallen empire AND it has hyperlink to them, and of course a fleet in every neighboring system ready to jump in
Sherpa Frank 2 Oct, 2019 @ 4:41pm 
Also to jank the save game file go to Documents > Paradox Interactive > Stellaris > save games, find the folder containing the saved game you want to back up, and copy paste it to your desktop.
To discover whether or not a colossus has spawned go to the same location, select the file marked ironman and extract to desktop (I use 7-zip)
Sherpa Frank 2 Oct, 2019 @ 4:38pm 
Imma dig this up real quick and see if anyone responds. I've janked this achievement as much as possible, I save scum and everything, but I simply cannot get the fallen empire to fire upon my planet. They always decide they'd rather wait the 200 years it takes for them to bombard my planet before they can invade it. Most of the time I can't get the fallen empire to move the damn thing without jiggly janking my way through their system. Anyone have a solution for this? Those pricks are being too nice and refuse to blow up my planets.
volkaris 3 Aug, 2019 @ 2:17pm 
How can i save game in iron man?