Well the steam sale is here and Stellaris got it's discount. I'm looking at the bundles as I'm playing stellaris on an Xbox game pass I got with my new CPU and that will run out and I want the full game. There are a few different bundles:
Summer Sale Starter Pack: Stellaris, Leviathans Story Pack, Utopia, Synthetic Dawn Story Pack and Apocalypse for £27.45.
Stellaris Ascension Pack: Apocalypse, Utopia, MegaCorp, Leviathans Story Pack, Plantoids Species Pack and Humanoids Species Pack for £36.31
Summer Sale Collection Pack: Complete Soundtrack, Stellaris: Infinite Frontiers (eBook), Plantoids Species Pack, Leviathans Story Pack, Utopia, Galaxy Edition Upgrade Pack, Synthetic Dawn Story Pack, Apocalypse, Humanoids Species Pack, Distant Stars Story Pack, MegaCorp, Ancient Relics Story Pack, Lithoids Species Pack for £47.94
how about compose your own pack.
utopia and apocalypse are must have may be megacorp too. those are major dlcs and unlock a lot of game mechanics.
i dont have federations and cant say what is its worth. lately i play fanatic purifier i have -1000 relation with everyone so no federation with me. may be it is worthy for additional origin options but i wouldnt pay more than 10 euro for it. even w/o it you have 8 or 9 origins to play with and it isnt small number.
ancient relics and synthetic dawn for me are worthy at about 5 max 6 euro. ancient relics unlock relic hunting and relics give you bonuses or you can sell em for resources. while synthetic lets you "upgrade" your race to robots and open new development paths.
leviathans and distant stars are ok for max 5 euro. new anomalies and mid-end game hidden constellation. they add diversity in the game but i'd get distant stars before leviathans if i'd had to chose.
species packs are lowest priority for me (unless they are less then 2.5 euro) as i dont care much about ship skins/portraits. sure you get more diverse racial traits but you have to be very deep into the game in order this to matter.
i have 0 interest in ebooks and additional soundtracks. tracks that game have are fine and i either listen to them or turn them off when i am listening to talk show or my own playlist.
starter pack is okesh but you have to buy megacorp separate.
ascension give you all 3 big dlcs but you also get 2 of lowest valued dlcs as filler. you have to pay more for other dlcs.
in collection you pay for all unsalable dlcs that other wise you'd never buy.
i'd say set max $$ you'd want to spend and check what value you can fit in that amount by adding separate dlcs or making combo of pack and dlcs.
the rest will wait for next sale.
atm i cant open steam and cant give better advice w/o seeing actual prices.
ps dont get fooled by % discount values. check 3rd party price history tracking sites.