Stellaris keeps its cheats behind a text console rather than button combos. You open the console, type a command like instant_build or research_all_technologies, and the change lands right away.
Settle one thing before you start. Every command you run switches achievements off for the rest of that game session, and the console is locked out in Ironman saves, so everything here assumes a normal, non-Ironman game on PC.
The commands split into four groups: resources, research and construction, war and diplomacy, and utility or debug tools. The one we reach for first is research_all_technologies, since it clears the whole tech tree in a single line. StarCraft 2 cheats do the same for resources with a single chat code.
How to open the console and enter commands
Stellaris cheats are PC only, and they work in a normal single-player game, not in Ironman.
Open the console with the key that sits below Escape on your layout. On a standard QWERTY keyboard that is the backtick key (`).
Different layouts map it elsewhere. Documented alternates include Shift+2, ALT+2+1, Shift+3, and the §, ~, ^, °, or ² keys, so pick the one that matches your keyboard.
If none of those respond, the official Stellaris wiki suggests Shift+Alt+C as a fallback.
With the console open, type the command and press Enter. The Bannerlord cheats need cheat mode switched on in a config file first. Some commands act on whatever planet, ship, or object you have selected, so click your target first when the effect below mentions a selection.
Resource and economy commands
These top up your treasury. Leave the amount blank and most of them default to a set number, so you rarely need to type a figure.
| Command | What it does | What you type |
|---|---|---|
| Add any resource | Adds a named resource, defaulting to 5000 when you omit the amount | resource [amount] [resource] |
| Add minerals | Adds minerals, 5000 by default | minerals [amount] |
| Add energy credits | Adds energy credits; energy uses this keyword, not an "energy" one | cash [amount] |
| Add influence | Adds influence, 5000 by default | influence [amount] |
| Add unity | Adds unity, 500 by default | unity [amount] |
| Add alloys | Adds alloys, 5000 by default | alloys [amount] |
| Add food | Adds food, 5000 by default | food [amount] |
The generic form takes an amount and a resource name together, so resource 1000 minerals grants 1000 minerals. The shortcut commands each target one resource on their own. Older RTS games keep it simpler, and the Warcraft 3 cheat codes hand you resources in one line.
Research and construction commands
This group is where a slow start disappears. research_all_technologies and instant_build together turn a crawling opening into an instant one.
| Command | What it does | What you type |
|---|---|---|
| Research every technology | Researches all techs instantly; add 1 to include space-creature and crisis techs, then a number to set repeatable-tech count | research_all_technologies [boolean] [amount] |
| Instant construction | Toggles instant completion of builds and upgrades, and it applies to AI empires too | instant_build |
| Spawn a ship | Spawns a ship of the named design for you | add_ship [design name] |
| Fill a planet with pops | Fills all housing on the selected planet | populate |
| Change a planet class | Swaps the selected object's planet class, which works as instant terraforming | planet_class [planet class id] |
| Colonize a planet | Starts colonizing the selected planet with the pop you name | colonize [colonizer pop id] |
A few of these carry warnings worth reading before you type them.
add_ship Avatar spawns that design, but the wiki notes spawned juggernauts cannot build, upgrade, or repair ships. populate can hang the game as of version 3.2, so treat it with caution.
planet_class pc_arid changes the selected object to an arid world, and the wiki warns that with nothing selected it terraforms every object in the galaxy at once. Click your target first.
War and diplomacy commands
These settle a conflict on your terms or keep your fleet alive while you do it.
| Command | What it does | What you type |
|---|---|---|
| Force war exhaustion | Adds war exhaustion to every active war | warexhaustion [amount] |
| Force a surrender | Makes the country you name surrender in the war you name | surrender [country id] [war id] |
| Take ownership | Hands you the selected or named celestial object | own [planet id] |
| Ship invincibility | Toggles invulnerability for your ships | invincible |
Amounts are literal, so warexhaustion 75 pushes every active war 75 points toward a settlement.
Utility and debug commands
This is the largest group, and it is the one modders and troubleshooters lean on. Two of them, event and effect, are catch-alls that reach far past the named commands.
| Command | What it does | What you type |
|---|---|---|
| Observer mode | Drops you into observer mode with no empire to control | observe |
| Return to an empire | Puts you back in control of the empire you name, undoing observer mode | play [empire id] |
| Fire an event | Triggers the event ID on a target; ships need a target ID, worlds can be selected | event [event id] [target id] |
| Show debug tooltips | Reveals hidden info in tooltips, such as pop and planet IDs | debugtooltip |
| Add a leader trait | Gives the leader you name a trait | add_trait_leader [leader id] [trait id] |
| Remove a leader trait | Removes a trait from the named leader, by ID or index | remove_trait_leader [leader id] [trait id or index] |
| Add a species trait | Gives the species you name a trait | add_trait_species [species id] [trait id] |
| Remove a species trait | Removes a trait from the species you name | remove_trait_species [species id] [trait id] |
| Run an effect script | Runs an arbitrary effect script for changes the named commands do not cover | effect [script] |
| Developer UI toggles | Spawns developer UI for engine-level debug features | tweakergui [feature] |
| List or describe commands | Prints every command, or the details of the one you name | help [command name] |
A couple of these behave in ways that catch players out. If you unpause while in observe, the wiki warns the AI takes over your empire, so pause before you switch back with play.
The event and effect commands are as broad as their scripts. event anomaly.1 0 fires one specific event, while effect [script] runs whatever effect syntax you feed it, which makes it the most flexible and the most fiddly command here.
tweakergui [feature] is a family of developer toggles rather than one fixed switch, and its sub-options shift between versions. When you cannot recall a command's exact parameters, help [command name] prints them for you.
What using the console turns off
Here is the part that surprises people. The official Stellaris wiki states plainly that using any console command disables achievements for that game.
The catch runs deeper than a single save. A Paradox forum bug report and Steam Community discussions both describe the block as session-wide: once you have run a command in a session, every save you make afterward in that session loses achievement eligibility, even a save you never touched a command on.
Normal play does not undo it. The only reversal those community reports document is manually editing a save's gamestate file to copy in an unbroken achievement array, which is fiddly and easy to get wrong.
There is a simpler reason the console and achievements rarely meet. Stellaris achievements require Ironman mode, and Ironman blocks the console completely, so opening it at all takes that playthrough off the achievement track. HOI4 console commands sit behind the identical Ironman gate.
Commands people search for that are not on the official list
Two names come up often in searches, kill_leader and add_leader, and neither appears on the official console-commands page. We have left them out rather than print syntax we cannot source.
The full official command list is also much longer than this page. We have kept to the roughly 28 commands players actually look for, so treat help as your route to the rest. For a classic RTS, the Age of Empires 2 cheats are a shorter, chat-box set.
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