Version
This article is for the PC version of Stellaris only.
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Available only with the Distant Stars DLC enabled. |
L-Cluster outside of a Huge-sized elliptical galaxy
The L-Cluster is a cluster of stars located north-east of the galaxy and entirely inaccessible through the regular hyperlane network, experimental subspace navigation, or jump drives. Some celestial bodies in the L-Cluster contain a unique Strategic Resource: 
Nanites. If a ringworld is built inside the L-Cluster, the uninhabitable sections may gain Nanites deposits.
What else will be found in the L-Cluster is randomized at the start of the game; as such, reloading a previous save before accessing will not alter the result. The L-Cluster can be enabled or disabled in the galaxy settings.
L-Gates[]
Some Black Hole systems are home to L-Gates; these heavily modified gateways cannot be activated with the 
Gateway Activation technology. Upon first encountering one, the L-Cluster entry will be added to the Situation Log, requiring the collection of 7 L-Gate Insights. Insights can be obtained by investigating certain anomalies, defeating certain enemies, researching the 
L-Gate Insight repeatable technology, asking the Curator Order for an insight every decade (at the cost of 
−5000 Energy) or, if 
Ancient Relics is enabled, spending 
1000 Minor Artifacts to discover an L-Gate Insight with a cooldown of 10 years. Once an empire acquires 5 L-Gate Insights, all other empires will be notified.
Once 7 L-Gate Insights have been collected, the L-Gate Activation technology will become available for research. Additionally, the empire will have to own a system with an L-Gate so that a special project will be added to activate the L-Gate, taking 180 days for a science ship to open the gate. If an empire owns more than one system with an L-Gate, one will be randomly selected as the target of the project.
Once the first L-Gate is activated, one of four things will be found, with the following weights:
| Outcome | Chance (civilian difficulty) | Chance (other difficulties) | Opens all L-gates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dessanu Consonance | 33% | 21.4 % | 
|
| Gray | 33% | 21.4 % | 
|
| L-Drakes | 33% | 21.4 % |
|
| Gray Tempest | 0% | 35.8 % |
|
Up to 10 L-Gates can exist in a galaxy – scaled by galaxy size, and new ones cannot be constructed. Only one L-Gate is located in the L-Cluster, in the Terminal Egress system; all L-Gates in the galaxy connect to the same L-gate in Terminal Egress, and the Terminal Egress L-gate can be used to travel to any other L-Gate in the galaxy. Unlike regular gateways, L-Gates in enemy systems can be used during war.
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Available only with the Utopia DLC enabled. |
Completed Sentry Arrays will not grant visibility of the L-Cluster before an L-Gate is activated. After L-Gate activation, it will grant visibility of the L-Cluster.
A Quantum Catapult will be able to catapult fleets to the L-Cluster after L-Gate activation, provided systems of the L-Cluster are in it's range.
Dessanu Consonance[]
Another possible outcome of the L-Gate activation is finding an empire called the Dessanu Consonance inhabiting the entire L-Cluster. Upon discovery, the Dessanu will provide the empire that opened the gate +1 
Living Metal, 
Exotic Gases, 
Rare Crystals, and 
Volatile Motes, as well as the 
Living Metal technology if it hasn't been already researched. Their only request is that no ship will enter the factory trinary system at the heart of the L-Cluster and that they are not asked about the Nanites. The Dessanu will never leave the L-Cluster even if they become hostile, nor will they build new fleets.
Each time a ship or fleet enters the factory system, the Dessanu will demand that it leaves within 60 days. Refusing to do so or inquiring too much about nanites will make them hostile, as will attacking them.
Each Dessanu system contains at least one 
Gaia World. However, if a planet is successfully invaded and occupied, it will turn into a Nanite World with the Terraforming Candidate planet modifier. All armies will safely retreat back in orbit. If the factory is destroyed, the same will happen to all Dessanu worlds.
Gray[]
If the L-Cluster is abandoned, a random Nanite World will have a Level 3 Surface Signature anomaly. Investigating it will reveal a nanite entity taking the form of a member of the species discovering it. Asking it to join you will add Gray to the Contacts menu. Gray can take one of three forms at any time (except if it is in battle or merging state):
- Legendary paragon Gray
- Nanite Titan ship (around 40k fleet power)
- Nanite Warform army (around 1k army strength)
Should Gray be destroyed, it will merge back and reappear in 10 years.
This outcome leaves only one L-Gate activated, all the others coming online afterwards one at a time every one or two years. This gives the empire that activated the first L-Gate a significant head start, especially if opened in the early game.
Player will be unable to terraform nanite worlds.
L-Drakes[]
Each L-Gate in the galaxy will activate and bring an L-Drake, which will travel to a random system three hyperlanes away and nest there. It will not be hostile even if its nesting system is claimed. If an L-Drake is attacked, all L-Drakes will become hostile towards the attacking empire, but each L-Drake killed adds a moderate reward of 
Influence and 
Minerals. If the empire that opened the L-Gate takes this stance, it will also gain moderate 
Engineering and 
Society research for each killed L-Drake and discover that the L-Drakes are nanite constructs. L-Drakes fight identically to the Young Drake from the 
Leviathans DLC.
If an empire enters a L-drake nesting system with a science ship, it will have the option to start a special project to tame the L-Drake residing there, gaining control of it. This option is not available if the empire is 
Fanatic Xenophobe or 
genocidal.
This outcomes leaves all L-Gates activated and leading to an abandoned L-Cluster, allowing everyone access.
Gray Tempest[]
Gray Tempest emerging from a reactivated L-Gate
The most common outcome of the L-Gate activation if the game is not played on Civilian difficulty is an invasion from the L-Cluster. All L-Gates in the galaxy except the first one activated will open at the same time and bring an invasion force. In a tiny galaxy with only one L-Gate, the empire that activated it will endure the invasion instead. Each Gray Tempest fleet will be about 10k-100k fleet power, dependent on the difficulty.
If a Gray Tempest fleet bombards a colony until it reaches 
100 devastation, the colony will turn into a 
Nanite World. If the colony is a 
habitat or a 
ring world segment, it will be destroyed instead.
Nanite fleets are composed of one titan and 5 cruisers, all equipped with a few energy weapons and numerous strike craft. Their energy weapons deal -25% damage to shields and double damage to armor, their strike craft ignore shields and 66% of armor, and their titan weapons ignore all shields and armor. Therefore point-defenses are necessary, preferably Flak Artillery, and 
Crystal-Infused Plating or 
Crystal-Forged Plating components and to a lesser extent shields will help. Nanite ships have equal amounts of tier V armor and shields, and their special strike craft can’t do point defense, so the best offensive weapon would be Torpedoes. Due to the huge number of strike craft that nanite titans carry, own strike craft are more useful at fleet defense than offense.
The Gray Tempest home system contains a factory station twice as strong as the usual fleet, which will create reinforcements every 10 years. If any other empire has a ship in the L-Cluster, three new fleets will spawn at the factory. Otherwise, a single fleet will spawn at the L-Gate in Terminal Egress. If the factory is destroyed, all Gray Tempest ships will dissolve and all Nanite Worlds will get the 
Terraforming Candidate planet modifier.
The Gray Tempest home system contains 4 regular nanite fleets in addition to the factory. Every other system in the L-Cluster contains one defensive fleet for each nanite world it has, and there are a further seven roaming fleets which patrol randomly between the nanite worlds in the L-Cluster.
| Ship | Total stats | Weapons | Utilities | Core components |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nanite Factory |
 53,480 Armor
 9,500 Shields
|
 1x  Energy Arc
 12x Energy Sphere
 15x  Nanite Fighters
|
||
| Nanite Mothership |
10,440 Armor
8,700 Shields
|
1x Energy Arc (Static)
4x Energy Sphere
10x Nanite Fighters
|
||
| Nanite Interdictor |
2,900 Armor
2,200 Shields
|
4x Energy Sphere
3x Nanite Fighters
|
/
2410 avg dmg / day
Shields
Armor
20% Tracking
Outcome (spoiler) technically[]
Hidden content
The outcome of activating L-Gates is determined with a global flag at galaxy generation, so reloading a save file won't change the result. We can know the outcome without even encountering the L-Gates the way we use a script to check global flags (Console required):
effect switch = { trigger = has_global_flag
gray_goo_crisis_set = { custom_tooltip = "Gray Tempest"}
dragon_season = { custom_tooltip = "L-Drake" }
gray_goo_empire_set = { custom_tooltip = "Dessanu Consonance" }
default = { custom_tooltip = "Gray" }
}
Trivia[]
From a strictly storytelling/roleplaying viewpoint, the outcomes tell their own story over time: the text shown to the player in the Gray outcome describes the events of the Dessanu Consonance which in turn describes the events of the Gray Tempest. It can be presumed that the L-Drakes represent an intermediate stage between the Consonance and Gray. However, this is entirely narrative in nature; you will not encounter the actual "earlier events" outcome if you open the L-Cluster earlier in the game, as the outcome is already determined (as described above).
| Exploration | Exploration • FTL • Anomaly • Archaeological site • Relics • Pre-FTL species • Fallen empire • Events • Spaceborne aliens • Enclaves • Guardians • Marauders • Caravaneers |
| Celestial bodies | Celestial body • Colonization • Terraforming • Planetary features • Planet modifiers |
| Species | Species • Traits • Population • Pop modification • Species rights • Ethics • Leader |
| Governance | Empire • Origin • Government • Civics • Policies • Edicts • Factions • Technology • Traditions • Situations |
| Economy | Resources • Planetary management • Districts • Buildings • Holdings • Jobs • Designation • Trade • Megastructures |
| Diplomacy | Diplomacy • Relations • Galactic community • Federations • Subject empires • Intelligence • AI personalities |
| Warfare | Warfare • Space warfare • Land warfare • Starbase • Ship • Ship designer • Crisis |
| Others | The Shroud • L-Cluster • Unique systems • Preset empires • AI players • Easter eggs |