The Caretaker is an origin that can be selected for a civilisation created in the game Stellaris.

When creating a civilisation with the Caretaker origin, you will have several special extra civics to choose from to further define your civilisation.

The Caretaker is a highly advanced artificial intelligence that has moods - it will be either pleased, content, upset or angry.



The Caretaker's mood will determine how it will treat your civilisation, and the choices you make throughout the game can affect the Caretaker's mood.

Planetary decisions on the homeworld allow you to request needed resources from the Caretaker, assuming it's in the mood to help and not restoring itself from meeting the last request.



Once the Caretaker evaluates your economy as being strong, most resource requests will no longer be possible.



Additionally, you can request cloned pops from the Caretaker, for your homeworld or a colony.

You don't need to keep checking on whether the decision is available. Depending on the mood of the Caretaker, the current population of a colony and Monitor presence on that colony, you will sometimes be gifted pops. And that won't cost you resources.

The Order of Monitors are the cult-like servants of the Caretaker. The Caretaker Core deposit on the homeworld, or a Caretaker Hub deposit established on a colony, provides a single High Monitor ruler job.




Building Monitor Stations provides specialist Monitor jobs, and is a reliable way to steadily improve the Caretaker's mood.

Maintaining a good relationship with the Caretaker and increasing the presence of Monitors on colonies benefits your current population. Some of them will be able to become Wards.



However, the Caretaker is primarily concerned with the welfare of the civilisation's primary species, not that of aliens.

You can use a decision on colonies designated Ward Worlds to allow aliens to be Wards, but this will upset the Caretaker.

However, the Caretaker will be more tolerant of aliens as Wards if the civilisation has the Love the Alien civic, and you won't need the decision.

With population growth severely reduced due to sterility, the Caretaker fully expects the civilisation to utilise robots.



A new trait, Caretaker Link, allows robots to take a special worker job when it isn't employed elsewhere.



However, the Caretaker does not like droids or synthetics, although if the civilisation has the Drone Culture civic, it will be far more tolerant of such advanced robots, as long as they remain in servitude.

The Caretaker doesn't like any of the existing ascension paths, so if you maintain a good relationship with the Caretaker, it offers your civilisation an alternative ascension path.

The choices your civilisation makes won't just affect the mood of the Caretaker. It is entirely likely one or both of the new factions shown here will be formed by sections of your population. How you deal with them is up to you.

You do still have considerable freedom in deciding whether you strengthen your civilisation's relationship with the Caretaker, or ultimately pursue separation from it. Of course, you may just make a lot of choices that upset the Caretaker, and are left with no choice but to claim your independence in order to just survive.

Your ethics, civics, and the decisions you make will all influence the outcome of the relationship between the Caretaker and its wards. There's also some major story events that may arise in each play-through with the origin, but this guide won't be spoiling those.