Leader

Version

This article has been verified for the current PC version (3.8) of the game.

Leaders

Leaders

Renowned paragons

Common leader traits

Admiral traits

Governor traits

General traits

Scientist traits

Employed leaders

A leader is a named character that leads a significant part of the Empire, as a Governor, Scientist, Admiral or General. The name of a leader can be changed at any time by clicking on it.

Leaders can also be appointed to the council in addition to and concurrent with their regular assignments. Each leader on the council provides empire-wide effects as well as +10% ethics attraction, towards each councilor's ethics.  Gestalt Consciousness empires use nodes rather than council leaders.

Leader classes

Leaders are divided into 4 classes that determine their background, possible assignments, council positions, bonuses, experience sources and available traits.

If the  Galactic Paragons DLC is enabled, each class can be further specialized into one of three veteran classes.  Gestalt Consciousness empires cannot use the third veteran class, which is focused on the council.

An empire's ruler has one of these classes, generally depending on civics, and is always a member of the council. Heirs in  Imperial authority empires also have one of these classes, but are not automatically members of the council.

A  Governor assigned to a sector capital, including the empire's capital, applies their level bonuses – but not their traits – to all planets in that sector which do not have an assigned governor.

Admiral – Assigned to fleets
Bonus per level	Experience gain	Veteran class	Veteran class effect	Description
+3% Ship Fire Rate +10 Fleet Command Limit +0.2 Disengagement Opportunity	0.05 per day when suppressing piracy 5 per space battle +0.5 per destroyed ship on either side +0.25 per disengaged ship on either side	Aggressor	+5% Ship Weapons Damage +5% Ship Fire Rate	The stoic presence of a decisive Admiral steels the nerves of the crew as they engage the enemy.
		Tactician	−10% Time spent Missing In Action +5% Ship Hull Points +10% Combat Disengagement Chance
		Strategist	−5% Military Ships Build Cost if Councilor +10% Military Ships Build Speed if Councilor
General – Assigned to armies
Bonus per level	Experience gain	Veteran class	Veteran class effect	Description
+5% Army Damage	100 per ground battle +0.25 per destroyed army on either side	Invader	+5% Army Damage +10% Assault Army Morale	The frenzy and chaos of ground combat requires the calculating command of a competent General.
		Protector	+15% Army Health +20% Defense Army Damage −2 Combat Width
		Marshal	−10% Army Cost if Councilor
Governor – Assigned to planets
Bonus per level	Experience gain	Veteran class	Veteran class effect	Description
+2% Resources from Jobs −2% Empire Size from Pops −3 Crime +1 Stability if governing the Home Planet +1 if  Feudal Society	5 per month when governing	Industrialist	+5% Resources from Jobs −10% Pop Amenities Usage	The charismatic speeches of a persuasive Governor promote colonial pride and prosperity.
		Pioneer	+5% Pop Growth Speed if  Gestalt Consciousness +5% Pop Assembly Speed if  Machine +0.2 Monthly Organic Pop Assembly if  Hive Mind +50% Leader Experience Gain (self)
		Visionary	−5% Pop Upkeep if Councilor +5% Trade Value if Councilor
Scientist – Assigned to science ships
Bonus per level	Experience gain	Veteran class	Veteran class effect	Description
+10% Survey Speed +1 Archaeology Skill +2% Assist Research Output +0.5 Assist Cloaking Detection Strength Determines Anomaly Research speed	0.1 per day when assisting research 0.1 per day when assisting cloaking detection 10 per celestial object surveyed 50 per researched anomaly 100 per completed special project 75 per archaeology site chapter	Analyst	+50% Assist Research Efficiency	The mysteries and paradoxes of the universe beckons the inquiring mind of a brilliant Scientist.
		Explorer	+50% Leader Experience Gain +10% Survey Speed +10% Anomaly Research Speed +5 Unity per Survey
		Researcher	+7% Research Speed

Skill level

The skill level of a leader goes from 1 to 10 determines how powerful the bonuses it provides are. A leader's level increases after accumulating enough experience points, shown in the table below. Upon gaining a level, a leader's experience value resets to 0.

Level	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII	VIII	IX	X
XP	0	400	1100	2100	3400	5000	6900	8100	10600	13400
Total XP	0	400	1500	3600	7000	12000	18900	27000	37600	51000

Certain anomalies and events can also grant leaders, particularly scientists, lump experience or even free levels.

Experience gain is modified by the following:

Source	Leader experience gain (empire)
Transcendent Learning ascension perk	+50%
Chosen of the Composer ruler trait	+30%
Education Campaign edict	+25%
Learning Campaign edict	+25%
Machine Learning Campaign edict	+25%
Synthetic tradition tree	+25%
Polytechnic Education tradition	+25%
Neural Tissue Engineering technology	+25%
Eye For Talent ruler trait	+20%
Capacity Boosters leader enhancement policy	+20%
Selected Lineages leader enhancement policy	+10%
Pooled Knowledge civic	+10%
Factory Overclocking civic	+10%
Ruthless Competition civic	+10%
Leadership Conditioning agenda	+10%
Specialist Training tradition	+10%
Minor Artifacts Peaceful Application	+10%

Source	Leader experience gain (species)
Quick Learners trait	+25%
Uplifted trait	+25%
Enhanced Memory trait	+25%
Learning Algorithms trait	+25%
Gene Mentorship trait	+25%
Elevated Synapses trait	+20%
Slow Learners trait	−25%
Repurposed Hardware trait	−25%
Neural Limiters trait	−25%
Conservative trait	−33%

Leader pool

New leaders are generally gained by recruiting them from the leader pool, which is replenished every 5 years. The leader pool starts with 3 leaders from each class, and the amount is affected by the following modifiers:

Source	Leader pool size
Delegated Functions civic	+1
Ruthless Competition civic	+1
Master's Teachings: Philosophical Mindset edict	+1
Polytechnic Education tradition	+1
The Empire Needs You tradition	+1
Settled Differences empire modifier	+1
Fanatic Egalitarian ethic	+1
Fanatic Authoritarian ethic	−1
Fear of the Dark origin	−1

A leader can be recruited from the pool for a cost of  100 unity +  50 unity per recruited leader beyond 6 and has a monthly upkeep of 2  Unity per level. Leader upkeep is modified by the following:

Source	Leader upkeep
Feudal Society civic (leader assigned)	None
Eager leader trait	−50%
Newboot leader trait	−50%
Delegated Functions civic	−25%
Kinship tradition	−20%
Synchronized Agents tradition	−20%
The Collective Self technology	−10%
Embodied Dynamism technology	−10%
Minor Artifacts Peaceful Application	−10%
Galactic Commerce resolution 5	+50%

Leaders can only be of species with Full Citizenship rights. The chance of getting a leader of a particular species is equal to the proportion of that species in the empire's eligible population.

Once recruited, leaders can be freely and instantly assigned to different posts with no cooldown (for example, moving a governor from one planet to another sector).

Leaders may be dismissed at any time, unless they are the empire ruler. Dismissal is irreversible.

Lifespan

Each leader has an age in years and has a base guaranteed  lifespan of 80 years, which can be improved by certain species traits, leader traits, and technologies. Leaders appear in the leader pool with ages between 28 - 50 years (27 - 38 years for  Lithoids; 5 - 20 years if  Clone Army origin for biological pop leaders). Hovering over a leader's age will show the leader's guaranteed lifespan and current chance to die each month.

•  Gestalt Consciousness Rulers and Council Nodes are true immortals and never die under any circumstances.

After passing their guaranteed lifespan, leaders have a chance of dying every month. The probability is 0.2% per year that has passed since their guaranteed lifespan. After 20 years past their guaranteed lifespan, this increases to 2% per month. The mean lifespan with no modifiers is 87 years.

Leaders can also be killed the following ways:

•  Governors can be killed by events if a planet in their sector has the  Mob Rule planet modifier
•  Scientists can be killed by bad outcomes of  Archaeology Sites (~2.9% % chance, depends on the site)
•  Admirals have a 10% chance to die when a ship of the largest size in the fleet is destroyed
•  Generals have a 2% divided by number of units chance to die each time they lose an army

The following modifiers affect Leader Lifespan:

Source	Leader lifespan (empire)
Chosen of the Composer ruler trait	+50
Zro Addatives edict	+30
Mind and Body tradition	+20
Cloned Organs tradition	+20
Javorian Pox Sample relic	+20
Capacity Boosters Leader Enhancement policy	+20
Composer of Strands covenant (50 favor)	+20
Ageless empire modifier	+10
Selected Lineages Leader Enhancement policy	+10
Vitality Boosters technology	+10
Inoculated Population empire modifier	+10
Composer of Strands covenant	+10

Source	Leader lifespan (species)
Necrophage trait	+80
Lithoid trait	+50
Exotic Metabolism trait	+50
Robust trait	+50
Cybernetic trait	+40
Irradiated trait	+30
Survivor trait	+10
Limited Regeneration trait	+10
Not of this World trait	−10
Augmented Intelligence trait	−10
Crafted Smiles trait	−10
Dedicated Miner trait	−10
Expressed Tradition trait	−10
Farm Appendages trait	−10
Gene Mentorship trait	−10
Juiced Power trait	−10
Low Maintenance trait	−10
Spliced Adaptability trait	−10
Technical Talent trait	−10
Elevated Synapses trait	−30
Pre-Planned Growth trait	−30
Excessive Endurance trait	−30
Clone Soldier trait	−40

Death by accident

While  Mechanical and  Machine leaders are immortal, they can still die by accident, regardless of their age. Every 10 years, there is the following chance of a single leader suffering a fatal accident:

• 94%: nothing happens
• 2%: Scientist commanding a survey ship dies
• 2%: Admiral commanding a fleet dies
• 2%: Governor governing a planet dies

 Machine Intelligence empires can adopt the  Self-Preservation Protocols tradition to reduce the weight of accidents by half, reducing the chance for an accident to occur for each roll to 1.06% (3.18% total), for a mean active lifespan of 900 years.

Funeral

When the empire ruler or a leader that has been present for at least 2 years and reached at least level 4 dies, there is a chance to have a funeral which gives the empire a modifier for 5 years. The chance increases with the leader's accomplishments and is guaranteed for the empire ruler. Regular empires have the following funeral options:

Funeral	Modifier	Cost	Requirements
A private procession will suffice.	+5% Monthly Unity −2.5% Happiness	0
Let the masses mourn.	+10% Monthly Unity +5% Happiness	400-8000
They deserve nothing of the sort.	+15% Faction Unity Gain +5% Happiness	0	3 negative traits
Their story does not have to end here...	+15% Terraforming Speed +10% Pop Growth Speed	0	Fungoid or Plantoid species
A small commemoration will suffice.	+15% Monthly Unity +5 Stability	0	Egalitarian
Chant for their soul.	+15% Monthly Unity −15% Consumer Goods Upkeep	0	Spiritualist
Donate the body to science.	+5% Researcher Output +15% Monthly Physics Research	0	Materialist
Erect an appropriate memorial.	+5% Monthly Unity +5% Worker Pop Resource Output	200-4000	Authoritarian
Keep it traditional.	+15% Monthly Unity +5 Stability	100-2000	Xenophobe
Launch the deceased into space.	+10% Monthly Society Research +20% Survey Speed	100-2000	Xenophile
Plan a grand parade. Now.	+5% Monthly Unity +15% Military Ship Build Speed	200-4000	Militarist
Set up a foundation in their name.	+10% Monthly Society Research +10% Pacifist Ethics Attraction	200-4000	Pacifist
Name a landmark in their honor.	+5% Energy Credits from Jobs +15% Trade Value	200-4000	Corporate

 Gestalt consciousness empires have the following options instead.

Funeral	Modifier	Cost	Requirements
We will endure.	+1 Leader Pool Size +25% Leader Experience Gain	0	Hive Mind
Death is no longer an obstacle.	+1 Encryption +10% Ship Fire Rate	0	Machine Intelligence  Cybernetic

References

Game concepts