Stellaris - 2.2 Hiveminds for Beginners

[@ven173]

Somehow my last devouring swarm game acquired 9 consumer goods. Just 9, no income. I imagine, as the vast hordes assemble, a lucky 9 drones wear hats, or carry toasters.

[@lazycouch1]

Is that because of a world you took over, their pops still produce shortly before being eaten, right?

[@4PeaceAndLov3]

Jon White this killed me haha

[@KeehseLP]

if you conquer planets with buildings like xeno zoos they require consumer goods

[@tremor3258]

I had a small set show up. Like a hundred, so I assume some very confused drones had carried off some pirate stores

[@josephcola9662]

Lol

[@jamescollins2068]

I do not rule an empire. I am an empire.

[@flaviomonteiro1414]

It's treason then...

[@Codabear89]

I love devouring swarms hive minds for the simple fact they regenerate hull and armour points on their own. It makes keeping your fleets at full strength quite easy even after large battles where most empires have to fall back to repair.

[@hughdahand5711]

I have been having a lot of trouble with my Devouring swarm since the 2.2 patch. Without any trade value and the new balancing to adjust for it, I just can't keep up with energy creds anymore.

[@lamename2010]

@@hughdahand5711 use and abuse hiveworlds to compensate for that. You can build all the generator districts there that you want

[@DraconiusDragora]

@@lamename2010 Well since the Armor and Hull regen, now is an Increase, instead of a flat +. You need Regenerative Hull to get anything from it sadly. So a huge nerf on their part.

[@hughdahand5711]

@@lamename2010 Doing an energy intensive transforming in order to combat a energy shortage... A bold strategy.... I have yet to get a DS this far into the game.... I guess I might need to take the difficulty back down a peg...

[@hughdahand5711]

​@@lamename2010 Plus I haven't figured out how to do terraforming with the new planet interface...

[@Amelanduil]

Rule #1 of playing a hivemind: *SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS*

[@thepurplepanda4]

And avoid tanks, and colossi.... and any other aoe unit :C

[@A_Spec]

Stutter step dem Marines.

[@GoingRampant92]

HARVEST MORE VESPENE GAS!

[@honorguard7616]

Spawn genestealers

[@teaser6089]

Could we have a biological hivemind ship set, which would look like biological ships, so living ships, not made out of metal, but living tissue? I think this would look cool, with the idea of hiveminds being able to grow really fast they should have ships that they grow. That would make them just a bit more unique.

[@partynhouse]

Maybe special resource based on food and alloys?

[@plaguedoctor5094]

Micah van Everdingen this is not Starcraft LOL

[@Rawnblade13]

@@plaguedoctor5094 No, but traditionally in sci-fi settings beyond just Starcraft, organic hivemind species alot of the time have organic ships. Like the Tyranids of 40k, the bugs from Starship Troopers, so on and so on. Hell, the Devouring Swarm civic is even a very obvious reference to Tyranids. xD

[@TOONYBOY]

@@Rawnblade13 ASpec mentioned food being required to make buildings and ships, is that just a PC thing or was it a mistake he made?

[@aishvetorah5704]

That's like Fnatic hivemind, This is not SC yow

[@SurbonsBigBalls]

I'm 150 years into my current game and went full pop growth, hive Mind, rapid breeders, drone campaign, spawning pods, cloning, everything. At 1k pops I'm growing so fast I can't keep up and actually collapsed in terms of minerals to build everything, food due to the synapse jobs from completing prosperity increasing synapse jobs and energy from buildings. Yet spawning a hundred pops just fixes it all, it bounces around so much, screw careful expansion, just grow!!!!!

[@appaloosas144]

Step 1: join twitter

[@fuze858]

This needs more likes

[@Briggie]

Or reddit.

[@LONEWOLF109]

Step 2:create an account

[@davecrupel2817]

@@Briggie Reddit's not quite as bad. Getting there. But not there yet.

[@ghirahimlefabuleux8984]

Step 3: Cover yourself in oil

[@jesseberg3271]

@ 8:18 "What does this mean in the long run?" Well, as John Maynard Keynes said, "In the long run, we are all dead; except for Hive Minds."

[@LordSquirrelShow]

I was really hoping they'd add individualist machine empires in the patch. I like being the Borg, but I also like being Wall-E

[@goldengolem4725]

Wish granted.

[@LordSquirrelShow]

@@goldengolem4725 did they recently do this in the last patch?

[@favillionbellarion9655]

@@LordSquirrelShow sorta, now if you select a robot species you auto get the robotic perks, but dont need to pick machine intelligence.

[@trexlord1]

I have one question. How does a hive mind have an internal market?

[@GaratghDeloi]

Deviant drones? xD

[@cyphron5564]

According to the devs it's actually 'resource reallocation'

[@prometheus9096]

they shuld really remove the market for hive mindes. Its makes no sense and your OP even without it

[@GaratghDeloi]

Would be nice if they made the market a bit different for hive minds, like instead of trading one resource for another they could "sell" a drone pop for food (the other pops eating the pop you sell).

[@josephstalin6492]

I have one question. How does an empire starve when there is an unlimited supply of food in the internal market?

[@xxkaiserxx6240]

Pro tip: Set other species' rights to livestock, so you don't need to waste resources and traits by colonizing huge, delicious planets just to build farms on them. I bet you'll produce some nice amount of food from those 'animals', mmmm... Yeah, of course, diplomacy. TBH Who cares, we're hiveminds! Just build more ships with the resources that might have been used for farmlands and you'll be fine. Probably.

[@GaratghDeloi]

Don't but all your livestock on the same world, try spreading them out around your empire in amounts that does not cause revolts. Later you can nerve staple them.

[@GaratghDeloi]

@@martydi2519 Good luck.

[@romanian8034]

@@martydi2519 or you can just use titans

[@josephcola9662]

@@romanian8034 that's robots, not hiveminds

[@romanian8034]

@@josephcola9662 well you can unlock titans as soldiers if you colonise a planet with titanic lifeforms (but idk if hiveminds can use titans)

[@patrickheslip7420]

No mention of the fact that Hive Mind homeworlds start off with a hospital effectively? The Spawning Pool adds another good chunk of population growth speed right off the bat and makes them grow even faster.

[@asbestosfish_]

_take a shot every time he says “particularly”._

[@A_Spec]

Should I call an ambulance?

[@kevincampbell6660]

And now I’m trashed at 10am

[@davecrupel2817]

@@kevincampbell6660 Good man!

[@allowishusfuddpucker6431]

Thanks ASpec. When I have a question about stellaris, I know you will be able to help. You are Mr. Stellaris.

[@Delta2196]

Hey Aspec, could you do one on machines next? Playing machine empires was always one of the biggest thing I loved about stellaris but ever since 2.2, I have basically had to put myself into a self-imposed recession before I can really start rolling.

[@doomblackdragon]

I am with you on that. I hope he does a Machine Empire for a future video.

[@BiggsDarklighter22]

Reminding you that resistance is futile.

[@Fairman25]

whenever i play this game i turn habitable planets setting up and i still have to go 4-5 jumps to find my first habitable planet even as machines

[@Fairman25]

It was also 2350 before i got mineral purification tech when i have 1k+ tech production... i was beginning to think machines were impossible now... but i was just unlucky

[@sorkvild1473]

Well Hive mind was my second play in 2.2 and... OMG!!! I am so god damn powerfull thank to this new planet system that is madness! I have so many minerals, energy and even science points that after about 100 years i made half galaxy my own protectorate! (i could rule entire galaxy but Awaken Xenophile's Federation ruin this...). I just colonize about 7-10 worlds and by using 2 buildings and edict my Growth progress is up 10 (more is better!). I still have lack of Alloys but anyway Hive mind now is the most op thing i have ever saw in Stellaris. I am just starting machine empire and i wonder if they are also so awesome!

[@FonVegen]

For machine empires it can be problematic to keep on top of the energy game, because they also have no trade, but they need energy upkeep instead of food.

[@lamename2010]

Having made a synth run, i doubt that robots are as good in this new patch. They have a slow growth rate and growth rate is king in this newest patch. I guess the 5% for everything that you can do as a robot compensates for some of that, but that slow growth speed :( .

[@FonVegen]

You can actually make the growth rate somewhat work. Resettle four (after the one Expansion tradition three) POPs from your home system and build an assembly plant. That will make your colonies grow faster than other early settlements, even if later organic colonies grow quite a bit slower. Playing a machine empire is essentially POP Tetris. Look out for how many drones are needed where and transfer them around.

[@wolfschadow6399]

The synths have a massive problem with energy and minerals as there is no equal building to the hydroponics farm for energy and minerals so I made the mistake of using every building slot and being at the brink of tanking my economy nearly all the time as also the energy drones have the least priority

[@josephcola9662]

They aren't. Since pop growth speed is the meta now, ME's are just as bad as hiveminds are good. Kaiser--- Comrade Johan exploited them in the dev clash and they got their growth speed nerfed. Base organic pops just outgrow them, and with the notable exception of driven assimilators (those cyborgs cancel robot problems), they are *extremely* difficult atm. Rouge servitors are also basically broken too rn.

[@imonlyamanandiwilldiesomed4406]

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM -How to play a devouring swarm.

[@peterdude5708]

Woo hive minds #1 Killer in the universe

[@shleed]

Hive minds are one of the big reasons I got utopia, and so far they seem awesome. Especially for me, I was never very good at the game and hive minds might help out.

[@themacker894]

Excellent video! Love it when you do these tutorial types. Helps make the game more enticing, and keeps me motivated while I wait for Paradox to fix all the bugs, or at least make the game playable.

[@warboss1117]

I'm playing a hive mind right now and for some reason I got to have half of my plants buildings as maintenance buildings to cover all the maintenance jobs that are needed for the planet! if I don't, it sends my power in this weird Loop where I have + 180 or negative - 80 depending on how happy the pops are! Lol

[@-Kidzin]

Hive Minds are obviously broken in 2.2 mostly due to pop growth (while MEs are the worst). Devouring swarm pushes them even further. Fortunately majority of multiplayer games don't allow players to use them.

[@xxkaiserxx6240]

Yup it is never a bad idea to ban total war type civics in mp...so powerful :(

[@alexanderlaird6206]

Driven assimilators especially, you can still partake in diplomacy

[@KairuinKorea]

Can you do a updated 2.2 version of machine empires? c: Perhaps driven assimilator specifically

[@CoderMonkeyNathan]

Since 2.2 food, energy and amenities have to juggled a bit in the early game for hiveminds. Also you need to more careful building planet buildings than other types of species due to growth speed and need to manage food energy production but at the same time remembering to keep decent amenity production to avoid deviancy and drops in worker production.

[@prometheus9096]

Well at the beginning yes but you grow so big so fast. At some point i didnt care much, just look at the top bar oh looks like i need more energy ok *find next planet whit more drones than jobs* build energy district. I didn't even care for specialization, just build XY when needed, your rapid growth will do the rest for you.

[@krakraen343]

Also once you actually get the abillity to terraform to hive worlds. Your planets district limitation is only size based> the restrictions on planet agri/mining/generator caps gets removed. So in the long run all planets are good planets (minus maybe a few modifiers that stick through terraforming).

[@zebaklongfang9344]

Something from my first le guin run: my overbug, the avatar of the self himself... died of old age!! That is new if, like me, you love hive minds - the leader is no longer immortal.

[@necrophoros2274]

it has to be a bug as it still shows the "Immortal" trait for Hivemind rulers

[@Marcus51090]

Stellaris: “Hive mind” Borg : “erm get your own thing”

[@RainbowMuse2]

Illuminating. Thank you ASpec.

[@ultron6494]

Hive mind empires better be watching out for an enemy fleet commander named Ender.....

[@seamuspink9098]

Hive minds remove the trade mechanics, one of my favorites in the new patch.

[@erichimmelblau877]

You forgot to talk about the Drone Campaign edict. In 2.2.2 that's another +10% growth for only 500 food. However, one big issue with Hive Minds I wish you had touched on is that, while they don't need consumer goods, they are actually much less efficient at turning minerals into things like research. Normal empires produce 12 research with 8 consumer goods (8 minerals), hive minds produce 12 research at the cost of 18 minerals. That's a big difference, even if they don't need civilian industries.

[@tremor3258]

Edict does go up with larger population, but yeah, I always have that on. Global boost is a lot easier than checking per planet

[@cyruslupercal9493]

I think the fasterst growing population can be achieved with driven assimilator, machine empire. You get organic cyborg populations and full build rate of a machine empire. Technicly it is +100% build rate from the start, on your home planet. Colonies grow much slower at the start, but I find that resettling is the way to go as the home planet gets overcrowded very fast.

[@rockdrakesawtooth777]

What happens if you are a devouring swarm and meet another devouring swarm are you able to be friends?

[@kentlab3850]

A few days ago I bought stelaris I chose to play hivemind first and therefore had no tutorial, I think I found we could expand and there were other systems after 50 years. I'm just going to drop that here.

[@karma9898]

How the game go ?

[@jonathanmensch9698]

I got the subterranean civilization event on a 25 size desert world as a driven assimilator. It has 35 max districts. 8 max gens, 12 max mining, and 11 max agri.

[@jamescollins2068]

Subscribe is a great name for a planet. Right up there with Bob and Tom.

[@maxkraft2709]

Hi Aspec good video :) Do you think that megacorp is the last expansion or not? Best greetings from Bavaria :D

[@A_Spec]

No, I expect at least 3 more years of expansions. Maybe up to 9 in total.

[@GG-qp1hf]

If youre going wide in 2.2 forget the admin cap

[@joshmaggard6]

I was hoping you'd go for devouring swarm with the humans. Never seen humanity portrayed that way before.

[@light6666]

devouring swarm is prob one of the hardest thing to combat when you pair it with no retreat effectivly you *need* to get a complete victory in every fight to damage there eco otherwise they will regen and counter strike if they just captured a starbase

[@brettmcclain9289]

It seems like if you go with the gene assencision you can get 25% pop growth from upgraded gene clinics and 33% pop growth from gene pools.

[@JoshuaKevinPerry]

More than that. The nutritional plentitude policy, the 1k food option. 5.79 base pop growth is.doable.

[@ricardoponcefernandez6339]

I have achieved 8.79 as inward perfection.

[@A_Spec]

Add cloning vats to that and you're set.

[@saunba6007]

Hi ASpec, with Mechanics and/or Driven Assimilators that pop growth also breaks through the roof as they produce 2 pops the same time (one robot and one cyborg/normal pop) with the right traits and/or civics this may be faster but I'm not complety sure about.

[@ShimmerUK1]

I would have gone for a Pop Growth Trait

[@ShadowKueken]

Tipp #1: Be friendly and shut yourself in into as much territory as possible. Become so fucking tall you rival fallen empires by 2350. THEN other empires are nothing more then animals and should be put into their role as livestock

[@AiluridaeAureus]

Now look, I know it's just THE DEFAULT of the portraits, but the idea of Hivemind humans is just fucking... _uuugh. That sends chills up my spine._

[@gethgod2350]

Its funny because nowadays one could swear you do get humans just following the will of the hive😂

[@AiluridaeAureus]

@@gethgod2350 Those people don't think. That's not a dig at Twittards. It's completely true, it's called ideological possession. The NPC meme isn't just a joke, they absolutely do have a lack of critical thinking. How does (X) serve [THE CAUSE], if not, how can [UNIT] make (X) serve [THE CAUSE], if (X) does not or will not serve [THE CAUSE], (X) is [ENEMY ELEMENT]. That's pretty much the code to their brain. The further you go towards ANY end of the four axis political chart the more people you'll find that think like that, stuck in their own mental autopilot, because letting their brain work and form their own opinions might force them to actually confront their real problems and acknowledge their many flaws. Because they reject the idea they might be as broken inside as the people they mock.

[@gethgod2350]

@@AiluridaeAureus damn man what an absolute unit of a message👍🏻

[@tonytwosweaters]

Bro this was a great vid for us console players just not getting Utopia

[@sebasvila8182]

i just bought the game, this tutorial is perfect. I will wait for the mid-game hiveminds tutorial.

[@JoshuaKevinPerry]

Mid game is going to war...dl the glavius AI mod if you want a midgame

[@karma9898]

Mid-end is to kill

[@LCInfantry]

Question... is it common to do a quick restart of you don’t like your starting system layout and world tiles?

[@arnvonsalzburg5033]

Yeah, just got the dlc by Humble Bundle and gave it a try as devouring swarm; was baffled how my drones could get unhappy but had tons of planets right next to me, all red... when I had the economy to terraform the Khan had arrived... :-/

[@jforozco12]

My current empire I went with efficent burocracy and it also gives you 50 admin cap at the start, it seems that the only real buff hive minds have from the get go is that juicy 25 % that you cant get at the beggining w/o a hive, still I have a pretty healthy pop growth

[@8eewee]

Well, I WAS going to play a federation for once, guess I'll see what this hivemind business is instead then...

[@JoshuaKevinPerry]

You can do a non swarm and join a fed.

[@Ryuichiro13]

16:34 I really disagree with this choice for Hive Minds! Planetary Unification unlocks campaigns incl. the Drone Campaign which boosts pop growth by 20% on all planets for just 500 food.

[@A_Spec]

In retrospect, I agree. Pop growth is key.

[@ranosian1135]

I dream of creating The Triffid Race and consuming all the galaxy

[@ranosian1135]

When this comes to console ^_^

[@absoluteunit6957]

@@ranosian1135 your dream has come true my friend

[@blueshark4926]

Oh boy! I can't wait to build my local hivemind.

[@Markwjansen]

Are you also planning a 2.2 Machine Empires for Beginners video? I would greatly appreciate that.

[@josephcola9662]

So since pop growth is the 2.2 meta, hive minds are the meta's meta. Also, reminding you to turn that off

[@Gvendal]

I had a lot of fun playing this build. I wan`t to try devouring swarm and think of changing out divided attention.

[@robertleelandjob]

If you sell the 200 food at the beginning you can get your second leader right off the bat.

[@A_Spec]

Still takes time to build the ship

[@romeuneto843]

I feel like hive minds suffer alot in the late game, since you don't have trade value you will run out of energy very quickly once you reach the mid-late game. Was around 100 years into the game with 10 planets with max generator districts in each, the energy nexus upgrade, and capacity overload and I was still on minus 50 energy per month once I started to conquer other races (was playing devouring swarm)

[@GaratghDeloi]

You kinda need to make hive world with a hive mind mid-late game, allows you to make generator world with every slot being a generator district.

[@wolfschadow6399]

The only thing I hate about the buildings is that there is no equivalent to the hydroponic farms. No building for generating energy or minerals so after turning all of my worlds into machine worlds I either have to tank my economy or let many of the building slots open

[@erichimmelblau877]

So where do you build the large amounts of strategic resource production buildings you will need to upgrade all your consumer goods/ alloy, research buildings? Those left over building slots on mining/generator worlds are essential in the midgame.

[@SuperPope69]

This whole game is OP

[@smurph1994]

How would I deal with unrest on planets I take from enemies? I take planets then before they're eaten they make uprisings I have to deal with, and I can't send one of my pops to the planet to start making armies because the planets habitability is too low. Then I just end up having to "invade" them again, is there an efficient way to stop uprisings?

[@test7432]

also you can switch on decision for +25% grouth and get the same trait for your race

[@JoshuaKevinPerry]

Planetary growth decisi9m Not available for hives. That comes included.

[@malasky0128]

Watched this then made a hive mind empire and also got the first league for the first time

[@akiamini4006]

How does robts work for hive minds ? Is it better to have bots as gestalt consiousness meaning having max habitability and no pops meaning lesser but more resistant people or this?

[@123Dunebuggy]

Please do robotic gestalt next.

[@Timelost_Techpriest]

They're pretty awful in 2.2

[@donutrock2132]

@@Timelost_Techpriest why do you say they are so awful?

[@Timelost_Techpriest]

Same reason hiveminds are strong: growth. MEs have crushingly slow growth that requires pop jobs, pulling those pops away from other job slots.

[@havocgr1976]

I think you should wait until they fix em first, they said they would soon.

[@cyruslupercal9493]

If you play with driven assimilators it doesn't just fix your pop growth, it makes it the best in the game. (it's paracticly +100% growth)

[@toxicalyss]

When you are playing as a hive mind in Stellaris the game becomes a RPG

[@camsdaman3009]

Step 1: buy DLC Step 2: Enjoy!

[@superdoran6396]

So i saw production policy but all i saw was balanced, extraction, manufacturint i saw nothing that said food. Im on ps4 pro. Would that be extraction focus then?

[@XReflexian]

Well then .... Started a game, only to find out that i was facing 6 hive minds out of 8 empires ... Continued playing and i just cant keep up with them .. 3 of the hive minds outshine me in every way and they got it in for me .... I think i better just start a new game 😥

[@anthonyandrew8462]

Thx, this helped a lot

[@TOONYBOY]

Any idea why I can't find any tips on Hive Minds for 1.7? I'm on console and that's the current build

[@NaumRusomarov]

The driven assimilators are even easier to play.

[@ethanwmonster9075]

get a choke point do not expand past it, do not build any fleet instead i build max fortress and put my fleet on top of it if any ai empires declare i just camp em out till they surrender.

[@StephanthePelted]

How did you get the clear blocker get 1 pop? I dont see anything like yours that mentions it in my game

[@artios162]

I use robot as first game in 2.2 and it was terrible. Always run low on energy and i was going for the pacifist bot so I didn't know the OP slave. The first "organic" i take over was a fallen empire and I was wondering where did this energy spike came from. Turn out robot empire has slave call "integrated into grid" or something similar that turn all organic pop into energy. After that, all sentient species in the galaxy has voluntarily become my empire walking battery cell. Still have no idea how to purge sentient bot from my empire. Those little bugger keep causing unhappiness and I can't kill them or delete their "sentient" brain.

[@MASTERMIND-mr6er]

Hive mind with mods = OP mind

[@haroldgillies3083]

How can you in the beginning of the game suddendly have so many traits? You dont explain that

[@pr0duct1v1ty7]

Can you do a video on the hive mind deviency mechanic and the events it causes?

[@babaythedog2045]

I just had a thought if Hive minds use organic material to build structures why not use that for mega structures meaning the mega stretches themselves will be made out of flesh that means opening ring words will be living ring words that would also mean all other megastructures were now being made out of organic material too like the Dyson sphere it could be caught the flesh's fear for Hive mine that means all mega structures and I mean all of them will be made out of flesh that would be interesting if somebody did that science Nexus will be called the science flash Nexus the giant antenna Ray mega structure thing would be made out of flesh maybe it would be called the the antenna which would look like a giant fleshy ear antenna That means machine empires will have their version of mega structures too like the Dyson sphere will be more rounder to fit around the sun like an orb the but that would mean that the science Nexus Dyson's fear will look for different firm the other empires and different from their mega structures I mean if it's possible for somebody to make a mod or for the creators of Stellaris to make that possible that would be awesome

[@iremembersleep3083]

Thought that said Cervasia. Swing and a miss.

[@moneymrcrabs6814]

How i get that snail

[@gallendugall8913]

Grofh speed is important.

[@greggorypicoli6941]

YAY MORE ASPEC

[@twistedpixel756]

1:27 what's the one bonus after army damage supposed to be?

[@tomisabum]

Did you do a video on how the new Hive Worlds work?

[@tsmaathearchivist5997]

My first playthrough I'm the terran empire, xenophobe, authoritarian, militarists. Currently the largest and most powerful empire in my galaxy at roughly 150 years in game. But in at around 400 empire size and my administration is only 120ish. Yet I'm still able to thrive and even dominate other factions. And keep ahead of the game in tech. Why is this?

[@danceofthevoid6772]

Can you do an update for this for the latest version of stellaris?

[@FanofScandal]

so its like playing the zerg in starcraft.. going to try the hivemind

[@TheRewasder97]

Can you do something similar with the robots of synthetic dawn? pls :D

[@anonguy772]

Ok so I got here from a stopped point (you know, leave video - come back at where you stopped) and this dude was saying happiness, but the point in the video cut it to ''-ppiness'' and it sounded like penis. You can imagine how hard my immature humor made me laugh at that lol

[@MagnusSephiroth]

Please do one about machine empires!

[@MachineMan-mj4gj]

So if I want to roleplay as Annihlus and lay waste to the galaxy at the head of my Annihilation Wave, would this civic be the one for me?

[@A_Spec]

No, you'll want fanatic purifiers.

[@MachineMan-mj4gj]

@@A_Spec Ah, very good.

[@WeirdViking]

Oh god, everything's wrong :D I get that you were explaining things, but if you explain so much that everything goes wrong, I dont know that's helpful. 0) edit: Oh and definitely dont waste your first science ship exploring your own cluster's backend systems. Bee line for chokepoint survey and 3rd or 4th science ship can do the homecluster. 1) Build the home base mining, then synaptic node, then 2-3 districts. (Yes 3 districts, that comes up on points 2) 2) Take out your maintenance drones off the amenities they do absolutely nothing. You dont need 20+ amenities in the beginning and could get massive boost to economy. This can effectively double or triple your food if there's 4 pops basically wrongly assigned cause the game AI is dumb. 3) And dont sit on 1k minerals while your home system hasn't bothered doing the energy or research, alloys are what matters now, you can and should use all minerals constantly for something. 4) And DEFINETLY dont waste precious alloys on a 2nd construction ship when you're struggling to find enough work for the first one. 5) Go up to 4-5 science ships and indeed using exploring to find your neighbours and chokepoints fast, you'll need the space for going super wide. 6) Only make a second construction ship once you're surveying in different arms/clusters/directions and need to keep building. Love the content, but just everything went wrong here so had to say something :D Good tips were the expansion-domi trees, they're superior now. And the idea of using 1-2 science ships purely to explore, I'd just go even further and using them to fully scout out neighbours.

[@Blitzbogen]

WeirdViking what about ascension and traditions? What would be your starting point perks?

[@WeirdViking]

@@Blitzbogen He got that on point. Expansion always, it has reduction in starbase influence and 10% population which are incredible. Then into domi that has +1 influence and drone output. Ascension perks are also super simple you'll always go same 4 and then whatever u need. 1) the -20% claim and starbase 2) biological ascension 3) Hive worlds 4) biological ascension II. That's usually when you finish filling up any systems you havent claimed yet, and can start turning your worlds into hives while shifting focus to war and now u can assimilate anyone you conquer.

[@VenomGamingCenter]

This a general tutorial for beginners, not a tutorial on how to min/max. Not everything is about min/maxing and not everyone likes to play that way. So no, he wasn't wrong, and your way isn't the only way, you arrogant wanker.

[@Fruitdragon7307]

Are there any speciel Hivemind appearances?

[@johnalkhas9643]

Look at that disgusting starting cluster

[@unknowngod8229]

If you are a hive mind can you team up with a another hive mind?

[@Chris_MarMar]

I can't remember but are hive minds available Stellaris without the Utopia expansion?

[@A_Spec]

They are not.

[@Chris_MarMar]

@@A_Spec Thanks for answering. A friend of mine just bought Stellaris and he wants to play a devouring swarm. I couldn't remember if he needed Utopia or not.

[@Reev1n]

What are some good ascension perks to take as a generic hivemind?