Our empire is at a crossroads, we found an elixir that can boost our people happiness by +15%.
How will this affect our empire?
How does the happiness affect the population in Stellaris
stellaris
Related Topic
- How much does Assist Research actually help
- What does the ethics divergence value actually mean
- How to overcome ‘Differing war philosophy’ to create an alliance in Stellaris
- The meaning of “Missing in action” in Stellaris
- What’s the function of insult in Stellaris
- Reason to create more than one Sector in Stellaris
- What’s the benefit of upgrading to “Hyperdrive II” in Stellaris
- How does government ethos change work in Stellaris
Best Answer
This answer was made during version 1.0 and is outdated, especially after the planetary rework in 2.2 (Le Guin).
There are three benefits to a happy population.
First, a happy population is more productive. At 80% happiness and above, populations are more productive whereas below 50% there are penalties.
Second, happiness affects the ethics divergence of the population. When the population are unhappy with your rule, they are more likely to adopt ethics different from yours (which can often make them unhappier, as they will then disagree with more policies).
A table of the modifiers can be found here: http://www.stellariswiki.com/Population#Happiness_modifiers
Finally, an unhappy population is more likely to join factions and cause trouble.
The +15% bonus will be extremely effective if you want to take over planets as it helps offset the negative modifiers for conquering them. It's less useful for your content citizens unless you combine it with another happiness increase, such as the Spiritualist ethic. There is no difference between 60% (the default) and 75%- you need to somehow get to 80% for any effect.
If you do have another +5%, the +10% to all production from being happy would be a significant bonus, and probably more useful than increasing leaders' lifespans.