Stellaris COMPLETE Leader Trait Tier List

[@phosphorneuntausend8868]

I think it’s suddenly prime time for paradox to completely update all the leader traits right now

[@MontuPlays]

Don't even say it!

[@CIKShock]

I swear they use your videos to scout broken builds to nerf down to C tier

[@adalbertojunior9836]

LMAO

[@LangyMD]

@@CIKShock if *I* were a dev, I'd certainly use community feedback to figure out what needs balancing and Montu seems to have both a lot of practice with the game and does a lot of good organizing and explaining in these videos.

[@varo2122]

Yeah, they are getting a little stale recently. I think its due time for a complete rework of the ENTIRE leader trait system.

[@SkylineChiliEnthusiast]

Releasing this the day before a new major update is just masochism at this point

[@MontuPlays]

It will be fine. Source: *trust me bro*

[@blahmaster6k]

Stellaris devs about to release a new update now that this video is finally out after months of blood, toil, tears, and sweat: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.

[@Maxpell.classic]

As Admiral Hackett said from the mass effect 3 :"Holy shit. He did it."

[@GaireDuine]

What a great way to spend the time before the machine age livestream Edit: I did not realize how many leader traits there were, holy

[@MontuPlays]

I know, right?

[@sgmjanus7174]

It's the year 2200, and at long last, the Leader Trait Tier List has arrived.

[@robguy8501]

A scout from the machine empire has informed me that the investor trait(10-25% trade value) has a gestalt equivalent that provides 2.5-10% resources from all jobs.

[@tobiasholm2717]

One of the renowned leaders have the +300 xp to all scientist when completing anomalies. I got the guy early and let him be the only guy doing anomalies, and lemme tell you, I had a LOT of high level scientists

[@selwrynn6702]

So what I got from this: Council: 5 Admirals with Genius Armorer, 1 with Home Guard 3/Gale-Speed 2, 1 with Armada Logistician 3/Gale-Speed 2, then 3 with Gale-Speed 3/Navy Instructor 2. If you want a Scientist council then Hyper Focus 3, Inquisitor 2 with Great Researcher. Fleet admirals For a cloaking SCOUT fleet go Aggressiveness 2, Trickster 2, Material Liberator 3 then a weapon type trait based on the fleet type (With 5 Genius Armorers this is probably a frigate or a corvette fleet) & Guerilla Tactician Destiny Trait. For an Artillery Armada go Prudence 2, Artillerist 3, Artillery Focus 2 and Master Gunner or Fortress Cracker Destiny. For a Juggernaut do the same as Artillery but consider swapping Artillery Focus for Carrier Focus. For a Leviathan go Engineer 2, Unyielding 2, Jury-Rigger 3, Wrecker 2 and the Resilient Commander Destiny. For a Fortress World go Enlister 2, Architectural Interest 2, Reinforcer 3, Warden 2 and the Grand Taskmaster Destiny (I like to have my army recruitment on my Fortress worlds). For an Agri World you actually want a Commander with Agrarian Upbringing 2, Homesteader 2, Architectural Interest 1 (if you have space), Agriculture Focused 3, Efficient Staffing 2 & if you can get it the Ruthless Developer Destiny Trait. For a General go for Carefulness 2, Heavy Hitter 2, Hardiness 3 & the Supreme Warrior Destiny. For Scientists consider getting 1 with Archeologist 2 but really just look for Perfectionist 2 then for your Science Worlds get Collaborator 3 and one of the Focus traits (Engineering/Physics) to 2 with the Truth Seeker Destiny trait, or maybe the Planetary Analyst if it's still around. For Officials its by world type, Forge World: Architectural Interest 2, Scrapper 2, Forge Focus 3, Distribution Manager 2. Consumer Goods World: Architectural Interest 2, Entrepenure 2, Factory Focus 3, Distribution Manager 2. Mining World: Private Mines 2, Architectural Interest 2, Geology Expert 3, Mine Focused 2. Energy World: Energy Mogul 2, Architectural Interest 2, Efficient Staffing 2, Generator Focused 3. And give all your officials the Shroud Preacher Destiny Trait. This is not for machine empires or those who seek to become machines obviously as there are a bunch of traits for them that I am not listing out, this is I suppose for Psionically ascending biological empires, which is most of what I play. I am unsure of the total number of traits you can get, but I think this does a good job of covering the basics, except for scientists I kinda didn't bother with too much. For Officials if there is an extra point before Veteran Traits then go for Celebrity, if after Veteran traits grab Manufacturer. I do wish there was some sort of tree with these traits so you could have your leader take certain actions to increase the chances of certain traits appearing, maybe that's already a thing but I just want more control over which traits I select for, with a galaxy spanning empire you'd think I could hand pick & hand craft the perfect leaders, but I don't know, maybe there's a mod for that (if there is please let me know).

[@cringelord7776]

Scouting through this video in 2x speed, I noticed a leader trait you thought was only still in the game files (I think one where workers produce science points), I’m pretty sure I have rolled that trait about 4 times in my last few play throughs.

[@WoolTexas]

I never thought I’d live to see the montu leader trait tier list released…

[@MontuPlays]

Neither did I... neither did I

[@cringelord7776]

How long has the wait been? A year? Forty? 84 years….

[@JB-xl2jc]

All of the leader traits would've fit on that door, Rose! Absolutely heartless to let them all drown like that.

[@davidwoodmansee6233]

OK - I'm pretty sure this is one of the Signs of the End Times in Revelations. Right between the darkening of the Sun and Reddening of the Moon

[@MontuPlays]

I'm sure will be fine. Source: *trust me bro*

[@ObiwanNekody]

The sun went dark earlier this year... ....

[@robguy8501]

A note about salvager: The ships you spawn from researching debris with this trait will be of the same ship class as the ship that generated the debris and will be outfitted with your own ship designs(randomly chosen if you have more than one design for that class of ships). It will not spawn a ship if the debris is from a non standard ship class such as marauder, fallen empire or space fauna ships. On the one hand you can't do any crazy shenanigans but on the other hand these ships will be immediately comparable with your own fleets, or better if you've improved your ship designs since the war started. Also the leader you can hire from the Salvagers enclave starts with this trait at level 3 as well as a unique trait bringing the total chance to spawn a ship to 45% so it's generally not something you need to take on your own leaders unless that enclave didn't spawn in your galaxy.

[@N20Joe]

Didn't know that about the salvagers leader, good info. I like the scavengers civic but it sounds like that guy could free up a whole civic point for -me- our people.

[@mushyroom9569]

You may as well pick that trait, since the scholar class is utterly worthless.

[@MasterElements]

The Scout trait is also an explorer veteran trait making it a lot more valuable. You also missed the confidential research trait, which is an explorer only trait after you research cloaking that gives you up to +3 cloaking strength. If there is any ship class that is valuable cloaked, it is the science ship. Getting into closed border space to research anomalies, or to do active recon.

[@schroecat1]

With Confidential Research I was able to get a science ship that could just camp in orbit above a fallen empire capital. XD

[@Pimpigo1]

Are we just gonna ignore the fact he left out the Under one Rule Traits?

[@grandparagnar6709]

I seem to recall him going over them in a different video, can't remember which off the top of my head though

[@Preston241]

The God-Emperor is displeased.

[@BionicScorp]

Can confirm you can still roll Observer, had one scientist who for three levels in a row tried to take it

[@andrepinetable]

I was scouting for this video, glad you made it

[@JobberV]

While scouting this video, I was glad to hear the famous Greek scientist Particles got a name-drop in this video!

[@Clem35530]

"There's going to be a lot of icon on screen" Hmmm **goes to see the video preview near the last minutes** yup, there's a clusterfuck load of icons. Seeya after the listening/visualisation

[@ErzengelDesLichtes]

You know what they could do? Make it so you could do REPEATABLE scanning of planets at a reduced chance of finding anomalies. Then those higher level survey/anomaly discovery chance traits would be useful after you “scout” everything.

[@tracertrash8296]

Beautiful sir. I’ve been waiting for this since Paragons. Your repeated hard work is appreciated.

[@sigmachad96]

Scout, I noticed in the game that the Statistician bonus to research speed is only applied once even if you have multiple Statisticians on the council. Other traits that give research speed will be applied multiple times if you have multiple leaders with the traits on the council. Can you confirm that there's only a benefit from having one Statistician on the council?

[@jasonpcrawfordauthor]

I have seen multiple Statistician benefits stack in my play throughs.

[@machixius]

13:47 I’d like to make a case in defense of grand taskmaster. In its current form it provides the base output of 1/2 miner, 1/3 a technician, and 1/3 a farmer. Now, in the late game it does worse than these jobs due to technicians, miners, and farmers getting buffs specifically to them for their specific resource (and base output increases), but by the late game you also need to hire lots of soldiers anyways to field a massive navy. Grand taskmaster lets those soldiers double dip in also contributing to your economy with some basics from a fortress freeing just a few pops from needing to work basic jobs while also expanding your navy. It’s not overpowered, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it’s F-tier.

[@LPUMasterX]

Your inflection and tone never drop off. Very impressive. Scout.

[@danielk5780]

15:00 I want to say something about Academic Recruiters here: In the context of Virtual Ascension it's actually quite nice - ultimately, you want to do Research Ringworlds in the late game here, while also playing with only few planets. And with 150 Researchers on such a Ring Segment, you can get a lot of Naval Capacity before bonuses, without having to invest into soldiers. This is especially interesting, as you can get Level 8 Commanders out of the Leader Pool, if you combined Warbots, Distinguished Admiralty, War Games (Supremacy Traditions) and Capacity Boosters. So you don't spend an eterenity leveling those guys up. It's the best way I found so far to scale a Virtual empire into the super late game in order to fight a high crisis multiplier.

[@sirgaz8699]

I watched the first 5 minutes then the last 5 minutes then thought "I've just wasted 5 minutes (x2 speed) as I don't have the Paragons DLC and I get whatever and don't even look at my leader traits"

[@iluvpandas2755]

Get it. It is worth it. All the DLC are worth it in my opinion. If you don’t want to buy the DLC multiplayer uses all the hosts DLC so you can join a game and use the DLC for free.

[@sirgaz8699]

@@iluvpandas2755 Yeh but here's the thing, I just don't care about leaders. I DO want it for 1 very small thing. Adaptability tradition gives an agenda that gives terraforming techs, this would be AMAZING for my favorite empire because it has Idyllic Bloom and would let me use Gaia seeders much faster.

[@tuskular]

Montu is actually a champ, making a video like this takes a lot of effort

[@cesarfortson8245]

So as a note about Ruthless Developer: To my bafflement, the Slave and Worker outputs STACK. I was checking the % increases on one of my worlds and realized that they do actually overlap, which means its MUCH better than just the edicts. It is a DOUBLING of the output, which is ABSURD.

[@TrentLayell]

This is also how the Workplace Motivators branch of the Domination tradition tree works.

[@minifeebas8911]

secret callout scouted out, if only my memory was good enough to actually use these tier lists

[@Elite_Tauren_Chieftain]

Wow, this is a tremendous work, to rank all of this leader traits. Well done 👏

[@markthompson6139]

Great work, and well scouted. Had to watch it 3 times as I inevitably fell asleep in the B tier veteran traits and C tier normal traits respectively. Great work to you and your editor!

[@PewsTV]

Paradox: "He Tiered it? Patch it."

[@viengua8561]

The Psionics Expertise can be useful if you're a Materialist trying to roll Psionic Theory for the Empire Size from Pops reduction rather than because you want to Psionically ascend. The issue is, by far the better way to do that is to just have a Shroudwalker teacher on the council, which doesn't require you to randomly roll one of many possible expertise traits and can be done as soon as you scout out the location of the enclave. Devs could spruce it up by adjusting the weighting of the shroud events so that the bonus to psionic tech draw also applied to the Shroud rolls; i.e. having a councillor with that trait made it that much more likely to get the shroud event that gives you the research option, letting you unlock the psionic ship components faster and more reliably. I think the rad looking purple trait icon just makes me want it to be cool.

[@Taggerun]

Decided it was time to scout out what others thought of different traits. Thanks for your breakdown of everything, I usually avoid these kind of lists but this was really informative.

[@Konzon]

Great joke with the entrepreneur and the sparkling businessman. I wonder how many people got that.

[@Cerms]

Thanks montu! Now I can scout out the most optimal traits for my empires!

[@alphawagon3571]

Yes! I have been waiting for this video with great anticipation!

[@anubisbling]

Xeno-mediator pop stability goes up computer stability goes down

[@sirensoulegaming4158]

Driven Educator can be obtained early as an egalitarian from the renowned scientist paragon, Zosira. She's an amazing paragon for being a statistician, with leader buffs early game and also doubling as a slightly-weaker analyst. Her downside trait of Gullible is also a total non-issue.

[@Qwizzyx]

I love being able to scout out the good traits by just watching this video

[@comedyshortsgamer5688]

I love the format of categorizing the traits and ranking them separately!

[@grandparagnar6709]

To buff espionage, they absolutely need to add a leader assassination mechanic, especially given how broken leaders are

[@0Cico0]

I listened to this in work so i don't remember much, but it is done and i salute you 🙂👍

[@Zefn4r]

What a huge work, nice one Montu ! Could Under One Rule origin traits would have been there as well?

[@IOADESTOYER]

I just realized I never subed to your channel after all this time. Just did and liked the video, definitely one of the best stellaris channels online.

[@Elristan]

Can confirm Observer is still around, have it on several scientists this game. Thanks for the videos btw man, there's been so much new stuff since I last played Stellaris (if you can remember, I played last when you had to choose your FTL type at the beginning of the game!) and these have been a great help to catch up on mechanics and sanity checks on my (poor) strategies. Just used the basics of your "Tallest build ever", made some poor choices, still annihilated everything. Don't know what to do with the resources. Guess it's time for a new game ;)

[@Ulfgar6]

I totally agree with the low ranked researcher destiny traits, there are only very few situations when the +15 anomaly chance or the 300 xp from anomalies is worth it. For example if you get the "Time Crystal" relic from one of your first rifts.

[@starsidescav9487]

Hey Montu, awesome vid as always! In alot of videos whenever you talk about leaders and what not, bein able to extend their life spans you say perks for that arent very good as there are "other ways" to extend leader life span and even make them live longer and even immortal, but having watched you for a good while now and having played the game for ~200 hours now myself, I simply have no clue what those other methods are. Maybe at some point you could make a tutorial or guide on the best ways to get leaders to stick around for as long as possible? Have a great day!

[@TrentLayell]

There are traits you can take and society techs that extend leader lives.

[@Ulfgar6]

There is one option to get a really high leader at start if you are lucky. The "Spacecraft Remains" anomaly which is a lvl 4 global unique anomaly gives you a lvl 6 scientist ;)

[@schroecat1]

The scientist's traits tend to be all over the shop though, since their veteran traits and their veteran class often don't match.

[@fastjimmy6167]

Amazing job here, Montu. This has taken the patience of a Boy Scout

[@Kremmer_]

Admirations for this, it is as comprehensive as it gets and a lot of work to compile. Let's see how long it will take for the devs to introduce new changes to the leader traits :P :P But srsly, great work here.

[@magikot]

I feel called out. I'm half way through and most of my favorites are down in trash tier.

[@Fish_Priest]

Scouting on this video for so looong Thanks Montu, it's great work (and pleasure for us, common players to watch)

[@fajniedobrze923]

Praise be to you, Great Montu.

[@aza7866]

He did it, the madman actually did it

[@Vaprous]

1:44 - I disagree on putting Shadow Broker in F tier, Espionage is a powerful supplement to an Industrial Rush build as an empire that gets lots of diplomatic maluses like Genocidals or Isolationists because it can help you keep up in tech. Its also powerful for a Diplomatically focused empire since Extort Favor operations are now one of the main ways for you to gain favors. Its also core strategy for Criminal Syndicates who *need* was much infiltration speed bonuses as possible to get intel on planets to spread their branches far and wide quickly. Especially given the fact the leader trait gives you a 2+ Envoys. You have to observe traits in the assumption you can stack them, and you can; its very easy to get a full council of mostly officials and get 4+ shadow brokers on the board. This means you can get to minimum operation cost via Shadow Broker; with Subterfuge tradition's finisher, a 50% refund on infiltration, there's nothing stopping you from chaining for free, Steal Technology and Extort Favor back to back; letting you freely manipulate the GC as you please and keeping you on the bleeding edge of technology while having perfect intel on the entire galaxy at all times. Also let's not forget the real power of Steal Technology: it lets you get additional research options that stack, even if you pick up garbage tier, that means that garbage doesn't appear in your tech rolls anymore, its just an extra research option now.

[@waldonuclearain2394]

Imagine how powerful it would be if there was more than one or two useful operations.

[@stalkar1968]

Few notes besides mixing hyper-focus/inquisitor and forgetting to note gestalt alternative for trade council perk: We agree on federation traits being all bad,but Joint Exercise is a bit undersold considering its the only way to increase federation fleet cap outside of the law and making fed fleet at least somewhat useful (which is like putting a bandaid over a broken rib,but still the best out of 4) Prospector is a perk that is an active detriment,because by the time you get your leader to l4-7 you already surveyed everything in your area and would instead buff deposits that are more likely to be captured by your enemy,while at the very least something like Tuner might allow you to capture it faster (the only real way to make full use of it is intentionally not surveying back pockets inside your cluster or save it for L/Ithome clusters) Feedback Loop is not that useful (in comparison to Principled) because gestalts dont really struggle with amenities and stability bonus from high amenities is capped at 20

[@Aerowixx]

Here's a cheese strategy related to leader traits. If your leader or councillor levelled and you are facing with 2 F choices, you have few solutions. Non-machine, change leader. For machine nodes tho.. you are gonna have to sacrifice a tradition. Keep playing until enough unity for next tradition pick. Now save game and afterwards adopt Aptitude. Every time you adopt, it randomizes a third option for level ups. Got a C-tier as 3rd trait? Load the game and adopt again.

[@vasheroo]

The army build speed and cost reduction came with that Alturion guy and it actually ended up pretty useful against the MSI during a payback war I waged. I was fanatic xenophobe and only had like one other friendly empire with muscle with me and had to take on pretty much the whole galaxy in the midgame due to MSI going nuts on vassals and defense pacts. I burned through so many armies and there were a lot of worlds with 1k+ defense armies. Midway through the war I got gene warrior tech and respecced my lithoid livestock into very strong. That helped quite a bit. Quake in fear of my mineral cow armies!

[@g4merguy27]

Nice you really scouted these out. (Nice video)

[@fuchsmichael93]

The Madlad actually did it. Cant wait to see it updated every Patch

[@MazeMouse]

Scout (!) in my eyes is more for defending, not for attacking. To get your defensive fleet in position quicker. On attack I would only use it on the fleet I want to engage first (like a corvette or destroyer fleet) to lock an enemy fleet into position before my long range heavy hitters arrive to pick them off.

[@knightlygeorge6459]

I'm gonna have to scout for these traits in the future. I didn't realize just how powerful some of them are.

[@TheMasterPandaBear]

You are such a good boy scout Montu, this must have taken forever.

[@elgrun2913]

And here we are: Montu explaining all those traits and how to get them like they are scout badges.

[@J0krswy1d]

Glad I scouted this out. Learned things! Thank you.

[@evgzarproductions2752]

I don't want to be that guy, but scouting through this video, I noticed that you forgot few destiny traits, such as Fanatic warlord or Plundering warlord, but considering the size of this tier list, I don't blame you. Great video overall

[@robertwadsworth3411]

Well we've been scouting out for this video for a while now

[@TheKrislaf]

The "driven educator" destiny trait is easily obtainable early if you play as an egalitarian empire, as you can then recruit a renowned paragon statistician with said trait. If you beeline the xeno-linguistics tech and build the recruitment office on a starbase, you could potentially get her within the first 20-30 years, probably even earlier if you're lucky.

[@unitedpara9479]

PSA FOR THISE CONFUSED BY COUNCILOR DESTINY V. NORMAL DESTINY: Normal Destiny Traits will only give effects to that one job, while Councilor Destiny Traits give empire wide effects IF that leader is a councilor

[@grandparagnar6709]

At long last! Can't wait for this to hit console in ten years. Thanks for the report, our reliable scout

[@ObiwanNekody]

When Pargons came out, sublight speed bonuses applied twice to juggernauts. I have a screenshot of my Juggernaut having over 700 sublight speed. That is faster than strikecraft.

[@ObiwanNekody]

Gorilla Tactician + Scout3 seems like it would be fun for a fleet focused on stalling or raiding a different attack vector.

[@SaturnsMysteriousEye]

A good chunk of the destiny traits are much better if you get them early by recruiting a paragon. Obviously not really applicable to a trait pick tier list, but still worth noting.

[@vetrovladwindmaster1724]

Manage to scout this video before new DLC drops this evening. Makes waiting more bearable :)

[@cstains5543]

Urbanist is great if you have a district with just a huge number of worlds. Best to just look for The Oracle rather than anything else. An immortal computer running a massive world laden sector with a couple of city worlds in it that significantly cuts the costs of all those districts.

[@elgato1721]

I'd put Master Gunner in low B or high C, rather than A. It seems like a nice trait with no downsides until you're moving several fleets stacked on each other and the Master Gunner one rushes into combat ahead of the others, suffering disproportionate losses.

[@FuelDropforthewin]

Peacekeeper is great if you are an Oppressive Autocracy, since you are getting massive crime from pops with that civic so dropping crime by 20 means you need less enforcers.

[@Sethmacd0]

Ahhh yes, perfect time for this to come out right before the new expansion which may change some of these and also change how some are used by certain empires.

[@VinnieLC_Me]

Scouting out the potential balance changes in the f-teir and s-teir traits.

[@schroecat1]

Interesting video. Just as a matter of information flow, it would be better to have covered *all* of the Councillor traits first, and then *all* of the other traits. Going Councillor - Other - Councillor - Other interrupts the information flow of your scouts.

[@Nemo2342]

Congratulations on finally releasing your magnum opus!

[@letsplaysvonaja1714]

chainbreaker's second effect sounds really useful or at the very least really cool and thematic

[@xXtylermhigginsXx]

as a Machine intelligence player i dont really get to see these, so this was fun to learn

[@gallendugall8913]

All I ever worry about is councilor traits, at endgame I start grabbing admirals to run fleets, since the micromanagement is a bit much for me. Still, I have reconned the entire video like a good scout.

[@HellsingRuler]

I do love scouting out what traits i should get for my leaders

[@Jo-Heike]

Now we just need a leader type third list to go with this multicolored soup of icons. (I do wonder how the list would look with small colored leader icons next to them denoting type).

[@erixperience4050]

27:15 I am absolutely crippled by outpost influence, it's the main reason I like Expansion as a tradition - even then I usually still have giant holes in my territory because influence is too useful. Unless I'm combining Stargazers + Slingshot, influence cost reduction for expanding is huge. Cheaper outposts means more systems, which means more key chokepoints!

[@TrentLayell]

If you take any of the Genesis civics, you'll be swimming in influence.

[@g4merguy27]

At 3:36 slight mis saying, he says 33% research speed for voidcraft technology. But on screen shows 15%

[@westwolf48]

With Machine Age I'm getting monthly minor artifacts from stations now, I guess now I have to start looking at the archeo-stuff

[@heat.death_999]

Classic use for a low-level scientist: give him sub-light speed and disengagement chance traits and use him to scout potentially hostile systems

[@christianlauterbach3383]

Academic recruiter is situational s-tier i think, in my last virtual tall playthrough i got 1k naval cap from this 1 trait alone ^^

[@Delewiewien]

Here I am, scouting for good leader traits, thanks for the video.

[@paulcatindig2260]

I’m trying to purchase porter robinson concert tickets but there’s so many scalpers! Anyway, hopefully montu can get to a renowned and legendary paragons tier list in the future. I wonder if he’s avoiding it because it maybe a stupid request

[@lamename2010]

I spy that you missed the scientist cloaking strength trait. It only becomes available once cloaking tech has been researched. Confidential Research is the name going by a short scouting detour on the wiki. It negates -50% of shield nullification at the highest level and provides +2 to cloaking strength.

[@TheSophor]

It would be super useful if you'd drop the lists also in text form in the description or at least put a link in there to a GDoc or similar where it's listed. Especially for huge lists like this it's super hard to find things and to know what's what by just looking at it :)

[@TrentLayell]

Unfortunately, if he did that, no one would watch the video and KZbin wouldn't pay him anything.

[@idontknowwasdead3726]

42:12 🤓👆 the highlighter does not change from home guard here, meaning the wrong traits are highlighted while describing inquisitor and hyper focus

[@MontuPlays]

yeah, theres a minor error there. I hope it wasn't too confusing!

[@cristianpernas1588]

I´ll be scouting through this video like there´s no tomorrow.

[@apocalypticpioneers2116]

I'm very excited for this video