how to play stellaris without apocalypse

One of Stellaris' original selling points was that it presented a world liberally sprinkled with just about every sci-fi trope and technology imaginable.

The DLC isn't essential, but the free update completely revitalises Stellaris, and it takes big risks to do it. I should be a bit frustrated, but instead I'm hooked again. The xenophobic Imperium of Earth fell behind the rest of the galaxy and quickly found itself boxed in, the possessive but friendly Automata Matrix got squished in a war between Federations, and the slavers of the Saarlan Ravagers just weren't fun to play because they’re dicks. Though I've racked up hundreds of hours of galactic conquest over the last couple of years, I've had to start fresh and figure out how to run a stellar empire all over again. The Stellaris 2.0 update and the accompanying Apocalypse DLC have blown this 4X game to bits, along with my fleets as I've tried to wrap my head around the almost-new game built out of its chunks. I've made a lot of galaxies and star empires this last week, and I've thrown most of them in the bin.

How to play stellaris without apocalypse