Stellaris's Apocalypse DLC will blow you away on Feb 22
Overkill
Though the galaxy of Stellaris is filled with traces of strange and terrible events, we don't really leave our own mark in extravagant ways. That will change a little with the launch of the sci-fi 4X strategy game's planet-destroying Apocalypse expansion, which Paradox today announced they will release on February 22nd. T-minus 28 days later until I demolish your planets to build a hyperspace bypass, or to mine it for resources, or simply because it was spoiling my view. Or maybe I'll trap you in a bubble to study you. Or robotise you. Options. Anyway. 28 days. Make your peace. Later taters.
Apocalyptic weapons are obviously a big feature of the expansion. It will introduce vast Titan-class flagships, able to field the new Titanic-size weapons and a whole many more guns while giving nearby ships an aura buff or debuff, along with the world-endingly huge Colossus ship class. Colossi get the new World Devastator weapons but hey, don't let the name put your off: only some of 'em are able to wipe out all life.
As Paradox explained in a recent dev blog, there are five World Devestator weapons: a World Cracker that'll smash a planet so the debris can be mined; a Global Pacifier putting a planet in a bubble so you can study it with a research station; a Neutron Sweep wiping out life but leaving infrastructure; a God Ray making everyone spiritualist and destroying all machinemen; or, with the Synthetic Dawn expansion, assimilating the entire population to be your robopals.
New enemies arrive in the expansion too, with the nomadic raider society the Marauders pootling about where they please. One of those Marauder Empires might unify under a Khan in a mid-game event, causing them to violently expand and counquer systems - but they'll collapse if the Khan dies.
Apocalypse will cost £15.49/$19.99.
As Paradox do with strategy games, they're releasing a big free patch adding new features for all players alongside the expansion. Codenamed 'Cherryh', version 2.0 will make Edicts better, start spawning pirates in empty systems to disourage 'snaking' empire expansion, improve borders and rework starbases, overhaul the Wargoal system, and... look, lots. While final patch notes aren't out yet, you can read a lot about coming changes in Paradox's dev diaries.