Stellaris 4.5.2 separates military preferences and fixes stranded combat.

Choose the policy for the asset

Paradox released Stellaris 4.5.2 Cygnus on October 6, 2026 for Steam, GOG and Microsoft Store, with checksum 9776. Defense platforms get separate weapon and defense preferences. Nomadic empires receive Arkship weapon preferences and Waystation defense preferences.

Policy names now identify the asset in parentheses and are sorted alphabetically. The patch fixes starbase preference policies failing when the ship auto-designer is off; turning it back on refreshes existing starbase loadouts.

Two combat failures, two fixes

Fleets should no longer remain locked in combat because one ship drifted beyond weapon range. Separately, starbases and stations that stopped defending themselves in a long battle recover when the save is loaded. That reload qualification is part of the documented fix.

Nomadic Knights of the Toxic God who tame or slay it can use Arkships to detoxify Toxic Terraforming Candidates into habitable worlds. The notes also address quest progression when their Order’s Keep Arkship is lost.

Our analysis: distinguish selection from equipment

A correctly selected policy and a correctly refreshed loadout are different things. When investigating an old starbase, compare the named preference with the installed components instead of treating the menu alone as proof that the intended weapons are fitted.

The combat notes make a similar distinction between preventing a fleet lock and repairing a station’s state on loading. If a station was already stuck before updating, record whether reloading changes its behavior before grouping it with a newly occurring fleet issue.

For multiplayer troubleshooting, keep the patch number, checksum and active mods together. They give another player a more precise comparison than “latest version,” though they do not independently prove that a save is free of bugs. We have not reproduced these fixes; the changelog documents intended behavior and contains the full balance changes.