So, you want to know about the Stellaris Alien Box? This is a reference to the Orbital Speed Demon anomaly event chain. It typically appears in asteroids, and once completed it can add a permanent free trait to the main species of your empire. There are five possible stages of the event, some of which offer branching possibilities like opening the box straight away, or studying it first, or even selling it and ending the chain early.
If you keep it, you’re granted a special project to open it, which then presents you with another choice involving several options. Depending on which option you pick, your main species will receive a new trait. This event has changed since its original incarnation, where the box would either upgrade a negative trait to a positive trait, or give you the ‘best’ version of an existing positive trait.
This was changed as part of the 2.2 update to the current version. A look at the event chain as it appears in-game is available on the official Paradox Wiki, but we’ve outlined a summary of each stage for you.
Here is the full breakdown of the orbital speed demon event chain.
As long as you’re not a Machine Intelligence, the first phase of the event chain can trigger and you’re presented with three options. The first two involve attempts to interact with the object, with the last one essentially back away and ending the chain straight away. If you choose the last option your science vessel will get 200 xp, otherwise the event chain will progress to the next stage after a period of time.
The second stage offers you a choice to either open the box, study it, or get rid of it. Option 1 will skip straight to stage four, where-as option 2 will progress to stage three. Getting rid of the box ends the event chain, and your science ship will get 300 xp.
If you choose to study the alien box in stage two, you will be issued with a special project you will need to complete before stage three triggers. One completed, you are once again presented with a choice – open the box, or sell it. Opening the box will net you 150 – 10,000 physics research points, and issues another special project to advance to stage four.
Whether you went straight to opening the alien box from stage two, or decided to study the box first, before stage four triggers you’ll need to complete the ‘Cracking Open the Alien Box’ special project.
The fifth and final stage will trigger a few days after the player chooses one of the coloured vial options from stage four. The event chain ends at this stage no matter which one you chose, but each vial will modify the player empire’s primary species with a new positive trait as follows:
Congratulations, you’ve now completed the Stellaris alien box event chain.
