Mods that improve performance, expand the game and work together. Mods are listed in the correct (I hope) loading order.

Removed Expanded Traditions and Ascension Perks, as they have not been updated properly yet.


600-1000 Galaxy size (lower for less lag at the late game)
Any shape
10-16 Empires (higher amount for increased difficulty and lag)
3-6 advanced starts (higher amount for increased difficulty)
3-5 fallen empires
2-3 marauder empires (personal preference)
0.25x habitable worlds
0.25-1x primitive civilizations
1-5x Crisis Strength
Grand Admiral difficulty
Scaling difficulty (can be adjusted or switched on and off later in-game)
0.5x hyperlane density (personal preference, higher amount makes game harder)
0-1x Abandoned gateways (lower amount for less lag)
0-1x Wormhole pairs (same idea as gateways)
2350 for midgame crisis and 2450 endgame crisis


Repeatable Ascension Technology - 52 (lower the number if you are using more mods that add more traditions)

Gigastructures - I wouldn't recommend messing with the settings until you learn what every building does. Personally I just switch off the worst lag inducers (virtual reality, birch world, alderson disk, 4 ringworld options), switch off all terraforming structures (really unnecessary), and limit everything else possible to 1 (more for habitats or ring worlds if you are playing an empire that uses them, obviously). I do not limit moon, planet and system crafts. There's really no point in having more than one building of anything, except maybe for asteroid artillery or maginot worlds.

Guilli's - just press start the game, changing age of the galaxy is up to you.

Infinite Stellaris (3 days after game start) - select option on the right "infinite stellaris framework mode", press glory to kasako, press esc. First page - disable new war category, keep phased enhancement enabled, disable synchronized competition, unless you want harder game. Disable Kasako's Easter egg relics and "Spontaneous infection of headhunter skunks" if you want to avoid some weird events and overpowered bonuses. Everything else - keep as selected. Click next settings category - disable "desire for stars" (keep it for harder game). Enable or disable AI stargate construction and hyper relay construction depending on your pc, disable for less lag. Same for trade optimization (it will completely disable trade routes and lane piracy and just give you and AI a bonus in cash every month). Other settings have tool-tips and self explanatory, they mostly affect late game slowdown. Click "start setting completed" twice to finish initial setup.

That's it. You'll notice mod menu button appearing below leader tab - you can control most mods there, including dynamic difficulty and gigastructures. Buttons on the left (sword and infinity symbol) allow you to control AI difficulty bonuses (purge the weak, synchronized competition) and performance optimization. Other buttons got description provided if you hover over them, but are not really necessary.

I have removed all of the ACOT and related mods. Zenith of the Fallen Empires and Gigastructural Engineering provide enough end game stuff, ACOT and acquisition of technology seemed to completely derail the game with balance breaking buildings and had various compatibility and research issues. New traditions and ascension perks pretty much replace ACOT and do not break the game as much.