Stellaris 3.11 Species Traits Tier List

[@MontuPlays]

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[@citizenzero5437]

I really hope you answer this, it is driving me mad. What is the difference between the INTELLEGENT trait giving 10% research from jobs and the MERITOCRACY civic giving 10% specialist output? If researchers are specialists then surely that is the same buff? (10%research+alloy/consumer goods+unity). I know they are different but does it stack to 20% or is it multipiciative?

[@MontuPlays]

@@citizenzero5437 they stack additively to +20%

[@alexanderhood8993]

​@@MontuPlaysi can't wait for mechanical traits and redo for hive mind, machine intelligence, and mega Corp civic tier list and tier list for overtuned traits and it would be cool if you create a guide combining best civics authority, and traits and origins s ranks of these to create powerful build especially a tier list for under one rule origins and tier list for other origins that give you a bunch of traits to choose from ranking their respective traits tier list.

[@alexanderhood8993]

​@@MontuPlayscan you stack auto modding traits like having pharma state augmentation bazaar mastercrafter Inc overtuned origins traits combining all auto modding traits and best traits that isn't covered by auto modding.

[@hektikheck]

Regarding Expressed Tradition trait - you get 20% unity if you use the edict

[@silentsonata1506]

I feel it's worth mentioning the niche use case of slow breeders - it's basically free points for a necrophage species. Since they already have a -75% to pop growth speed, you'll be almost exclusively using your slave species to grow naturally and then ascending them to your necrophage species. Since the necrophage species won't be breeding, there's no downside to taking slow breeders and your 2 trait points.

[@DarkCrimson25]

Wasn't that the argument of the devs to make it unselectable for Necroids in the next patch.

[@isaacgorski6054]

Yeah I love finding traits like these for a playthrough wear those traits mean nothing except more points. Decadent, for instance, is perfect for slave trade playthroughs

[@therealspeedwagon1451]

Unless you want the AI to play necrophage by playing something else and force spawning them in as an AI empire. The AI basically just purges all pops and only keeps the prepatent species around as slaves, cringe indentured servants at that like it always does.

[@therealspeedwagon1451]

@@isaacgorski6054I have one empire that I made that’s basically both. Not only is it an oppressive autocracy but it’s also a necrophage empire so it’s quite possibly the worst kind of empire to live in Stellaris.

[@isaacgorski6054]

@therealspeedwagon1451 at least the end result is you eventually are given full citizenship.... forcibly

[@noahs97]

Surprised montu doesn't have a fleeting attention span for remaking these tier lists every other month

[@OnlineKenji]

I like to hear the reasons why something is lower in the tier list, so skipping ahead is only a fleeting thought 😊

[@ThatGuyNicho]

He has to content-farm somehow, even though these tierlists are usually mostly nonsense and outsourcing your thinking and strategising about a game to a 'Content Creator' is daft anyway.

[@RinnzuRosendale]

​@ThatGuyNicho true. Plus im pretty sure montu hasnt used most of this stuff and just goes off descriptions. Hes wrong alot but who has time for testing everything depth, scrpting, filming and editing. And thats assuming he doesnt have another job. Thats a lot to expect.

[@svijj_]

Let me tell you, I legit thought this was the famous, the fabled, the legendary: leader trait list. But of course this is also good, well done!

[@horrorchara7397]

Me to but i wish i had some of theese traits, as i am a console player stuck in the overlord update

[@svijj_]

@@horrorchara7397 Don't worry, you'll get there eventually!

[@leo36874451]

This tier list is valid until two months from now, when the developers change the game mechanics again.

[@jeffreyculbert2093]

It might have been valid 6 months ago… as things stand today this tier list is just plain bad. Montu always seems to be 6 months to a year behind current optimization theory with these trait tier lists, so it’s only good advice if one is playing several patches behind for some reason.

[@liampouncy7808]

I'm really hoping that this DLC is making way for both genetics and psionics DLCs. The auto-modding they're talking about next week will likely also be able to be utilised for genetics, at least.

[@rattled6732]

@@jeffreyculbert2093console players rejoice

[@artemisfowl7191]

A very fleeting tier list

[@justinh2765]

@@jeffreyculbert2093 What are some specific traits you disagree with Montu's rating on?

[@kjb2n5ctr]

You didn't spend long enough on the lower tiers; your time spent was fleeting! :(

[@VXNerthak]

Worth mentioning that the equation for Overtuned traits changes if you're playing a hive mind, as a hive mind's council are all immortal nodes rather than Leaders.

[@matthewedwards6025]

Additionally, Damn the Consequences is about half cost with hive minds because their pops have no consumer goods upkeep. They're about the only kind of pop that can run that edict long term.

[@dangerface300]

Your leader drones still die faster.

[@zwinnytygrys9865]

Still worth it. You can put enduring

[@pallen2645]

​@@dangerface300Even then the math is more favorable because hivenind leaders start work at age 12-16 or so, which is like 20 years of extra lifespan compared to regular leaders. You can pretty easily start the game with a reasonable array of overturned traits and still make it ~50 years or so before you need to consider modding the pops to keep the leaders alive.

[@2MeterLP]

I always add Exotic Metabolism when doing genetic ascension, just for the roleplay of my people becoming genetic gods that have to drink ambrosia to maintain their perfected bodies. The 50 years is just a nice bonus.

[@bigbenhgy]

I feel like that 50 lifespan really does not worth it. Maybe if it would give some other bonuses (too) like research etc.

[@SolazLive]

@@bigbenhgy Exotic Metabolism also gives 25% pop growth and 25% habitablity as well as the 50 leader lifespan the other modifiers are just hidden but if you have a pop growing you can see that it does get the effect.

[@bigbenhgy]

@@SolazLive oh, I thought that was a mistake in the wiki, then it's just a hidden bonus.

[@MediumRareOpinions]

The spice must flow?

[@liampouncy7808]

My favourite recent build has been an overtuned lithoid hive. -Start Excessive Endurance (can't take Spliced Adaptability) , Gene Mentorship, Elevated Synapses -Immediately Damn the Consequences -> 100% Habitability everywhere -> -50% leader upkeep, -2 negative traits, +50% leader experience, mitigated leader lifespan (so you aren't quite so *fleeting*) -> Your nodes become high levelled so fast, speeding through agendas early on -Focus on traditions/techs that increase leader lifespan -> Work to outrun leader death, modify out EE as you get habitability techs -As a hive mind you get easy access to unity on each planet to mitigate the edict cost -> You can actually outpace many other empires on tradition, leader upkeep reduction also helps -Get clone vats asap on more planets than anyone else has access to Huge fun that probably spikes too late to be considered 'meta', but if you can gobble up enough early planets it's actually relatively easy to offset the Lithoid growth rate penalty, especially once you genetically ascend with clone vats.

[@SolazLive]

I like to have the first species as a overtuned hive be leader focused then immediately at game start make a new one for colonizing and breeder worlds since you can assemble pops as a hive mind. It slightly delays your colony ships since it takes about 40 months for the pop to be assembled but after you have a single pop you can make as many colony ships with your new breeder pop as you want without having to genemod and use up science early on

[@liampouncy7808]

@@SolazLive Sounds like something I should try out! I bet there's a ton of optimisations with overtuned so long as you're willing to do a bit of micro.

[@Vercuric]

Unfortunately I think the edict cost of Damn the Consequences is currently bugged. It subtracts from your edicts fund AND still consumes from your actual unity production, even if your edict fund completely covers it. I had stacked a few Charsima traits on my hive mind nodes before I noticed my unity production was still quite low, and saw DtC consuming its entire cost in unity from my production even though the edict fund more than covered it.

[@zwinnytygrys9865]

I like to put Pre-planned Growth + Excessive Endurance 60% pop growth speed is just too good

[@matthewedwards6025]

Your pops will have fleeting lifespan if you do this, but all Overtuned traits get DOUBLE BONUSES if you enable Damn the Consequences. My favorite thing to do is mod up non-leader pops with Overtuned traits...you can get insane bonuses!

[@michaelalexander2753]

I look forward to the monthly updates to this fleeting series

[@SolazLive]

Exotic Metabolism also gives 25% pop growth and 25% habitablity as well as the 50 leader lifespan the other modifiers are just hidden but if you have a pop growing you can see that it does get the effect. This makes it much better than fertile in my opinion as it only takes a single trait point and definitely deserves S tier

[@Zebiekistis]

I feel like Noxious is undervalued for the habitability bonus it gives. Combined with Subterranean origin it locks your habitability everywhere to 80%. It is high enough in the start of the game so you can colonize any planet, and at late game the missing 20% are not felt as much. Besides, it lets you completely ignore any and all habitability debuffs, letting you go full industry on galactic council and not having to worry about any planetary features.

[@dangerface300]

"How could you! You destroyed the climate with all the smog you pumped into the atmophere!" "What climate?" - a stinky moleman, probably.

[@dangerface300]

Okay I'm convinced. I'm playing with friends tonight and this is exactly what I'm going to do - relentless industrialists will turn EVERYTHING into tomb worlds, and I won't even feel it.

[@preevyet5645]

The overtuned traits can have their positive effects doubled via edict at the expense of double pop upkeep. But seeing as the negatives don't scale up and that the double pop upkeep is a one time and not per trait, they can be absurdly OP when stacked with their base version traits.

[@Byssbod]

The very high unity upkeep combined with the increased resource cost makes it a bad edict. It's generally never worth using.

[@alexrichardson1568]

Even though the tool tip of exotic metabolism is fleeting; in-game modifier of 25% pop growth still applies. Granted i havent tried it in 3.11 yet. But even though it doesn't show if you look at the pop growth shows up there and is noticable if you gene it out or back in. So i assime it still works.

[@valdonchev7296]

Have you ever considered making tierlists based on narative/roleplay potential rather than gameplay?

[@jeffreyculbert2093]

I think all his tier lists made so far qualify as roleplay/narrative exclusive lists considering just how far they all are away from actual competitive optimization.

[@valdonchev7296]

@@jeffreyculbert2093 Could you provide and example of how these tier lists differ from competitive? Considering that his arguments are always focused on gameplay, I do not see them as being about roleplay.

[@MEUAR]

@@jeffreyculbert2093 Care to elaborate?

[@ChimpOnComputer]

"Roleplay potential" on something like these sounds so subjective, or so unending in possibilities from combinations, I don't see how it would be best represented in something like a tier list. It would look like a giant web of what could fit with what for story telling or narrative building. Would be nice to see tho.

[@valdonchev7296]

@@ChimpOnComputer I am partly joking, I agree that a tier list would not be an appropriate format for this. I just get a bit tired seeing all these tier lists with civics, etc. that I find very fun in the bottom rows, and I wanted to remind myself as much as others that gameplay power should not be the only determining factor in what you play.

[@H_Mora]

Exotic metabolism also has a hidden +25% pop growth speed and habitability. For 1 trait point and pick, that is amazing for bio ascended empires. 3% of total pops will have to work exotic gas jobs (assuming base refiner output without output modifiers).

[@sirgaz8699]

Funny, on your civics tier list my 6 favorite civics were 3 in F and 3 in C and now on your trait picks my 6 favourite traits are 3 in F and 3 in C.

[@TruthHunterTeen]

Montu is a power gamer, not a fun time gamer. He's better than some however, and has decent opinions usually. He ALSO hasn't cheated in multiple games that we've seen, so I'll actually listen to his opinion. He will also admit when he's wrong, and listen to others view. He's come around on food being a good resource, now we just have to figure out why he said something crazy about not having pops work resource jobs if you have a megastructure.... At the point I usually have megas, kilo or giga structures( modded or not) my research even with the stupid changes is going with repeatable every month, alloys in a non specced empire are way over 3k a month which is more then enough for anything but a modded multiplayer game ( assuming you arent playing on early 25x crisis anyway) so my people are wprking respurces fpr thw whole game.... Why on earth you would need to pull them tells me he oopsies economy alot still.

[@gaplauche]

@@TruthHunterTeen I think Montu's preferred strategy is to depend on subject taxes (and megastructures) for all of his basic resources.

[@TruthHunterTeen]

@@gaplauche see that... Just doesn't make sense to me lol

[@MrProperX]

Montu, the accuracy of your traditions tier list is fleeting as a result of all those updates made by Paradox. Perhaps it's time for an uplift, ehm, update?

[@briannaherrington949]

1.12 new and redone machine pop traits tier list will be a helluva long video too lol

[@milesrobison1826]

Though some of the descriptions were a bit fleeting, this was a great list! Keep it up!

[@TheCarloCarlone]

Wait, I just noticed that I can descend a clone army species and genetically ascend to give them vat grown

[@Sianistic]

Nonadaptive have a place as a Genetically ascended empire, that have access to either World Shaper or Hive Worlds (authority depending) and consistently have perfect habitability worlds for their species, at which point it's a free -2 cost trait

[@markthompson6139]

I like to combo invasive species with necrophage lithoids, so the prepatent species has fairly good pop growth and habitability but your “good” pops, the necrophages, simply elevate the pesky varmints. Its like if the tribbles could be turned into Necrons.

[@RyugaruSenbi]

10:56 Nonadaptive is imo also great with the ocean paradise origin with hydrocentric because you get a bonus to habitability on ocean worlds that cancels it out and realistically don't want to colonise other planets anyway. Also you can terraform planets for cheap. Any special planets you do wanna colonise like relic worlds have the habitability penalty slowly offset by your progression through the tech tree. Now just use those 2 points for rapid breeders and your size 30 homeworld will fill up in no time

[@HolyFish16]

I am happy that Montu finally approves of the choices I am making when creating an empire. That joy is fleeting though cause he will probably call another option I would choose trash in the next tier list.

[@verdtre4573]

From my experience i would like to add that pre-planned growth and budding can be combined for extra synergy and pop growth. Pre-planned growth will give you more pops early, then budding kicks in at a later time, when growth starts slowing down. If you get gene clinics you can further boost both plus the clone vats, which is nice, but i generally dont because i switch PPG for Robust at some point anyway.

[@domehammer]

I haven't played in a bit but a really good combo used to be Cave Dweller and Noxious. You get some migration treaties going and your species spreads through galaxy like a plague. Because you got decent habitability everywhere your species spreads all over the place.

[@DrewPicklesTheDark]

One reason I love genetic ascension is since you can find ways to make use of these traits. I wish there was a better system to manage it all though. Genetics would actually be competitive with the other ascensions then.

[@jeffersonholeraw9895]

Discovered your channel recently and very happy I did so. You helped me understand the mechanics of Stellaris, which baffled me before, your playthrough are fun, and you have a nice elocution. Keep up the good work!

[@naljiaskal5004]

Overtuned is OP with a racial strata. Get one species with only residence rights, let them work and modify them heavily and one species that produces the leaders.

[@wedgeantilles8575]

Well, regarding all the changes all the time, I guess the actuality this video is quite FLEETING... :D

[@ChannelMiner]

With every update that reworks everything, these tier lists become more and more fleeting.

[@Tiago11081993]

Reminding that Exotic Metabolism also gives a hidden bonus of +25% Pop growth speed and +25% Habitability

[@pauloaraujo5156]

slow breeders is perfect for Necrophage builds. it's basically free trait points

[@scpadministrator5944]

The time it takes to find the secret callout is *fleeting* _Ba Dum Tss_

[@furiouskaiser9914]

He did it! He finally friggin did it! 'Bout flipping time 🤣

[@letsplaysvonaja1714]

the habitability from robust can be pretty worthwhile actually my necrophage lithoids had three slave species, one for each planet category (wet, dry, cold) and robust made it so that they could freely migrate even outside of their groups

[@7he_last_5urvivor]

I’m getting a fleeting feeling that we’re never getting a leader trait tier list

[@FuelDropforthewin]

Communal has a place in a very specific built: if you genetically ascend as an Overtuned empire and are designing a species as Livestock, you need Communal to get the full 90% reduced housing usage to cram 10 pops per housing unit, which is massively efficient if you can deal with the happiness issues.

[@cadis4257]

You didn't mention the hidden benefits to exotic metabolism like 25% pop growth speed and habitability. All for 1 trait point. That brings that trait up to SSS tier alone. Seriously Exotic Metabolism is OP.

[@Byssbod]

Stellaris really should put those bonuses on the tin instead of them being hidden.

[@SpookyScarySkeletor]

WHAT

[@jacoblee8989]

Im a little late in this but I recently got a Stellaris urge recently so I’ve been watching all your recent tier list videos. Thanks for making them and have a fleeting day.

[@sapstups]

Radiotrophic can be used by Lithoids too. The difference is fleeting but still... ^^

[@boosterprime5757]

My interest in watching these all the way through and not just skipping to S-tier, is fleeting. I kid. Great video!

[@LordSandwich17]

Ah, an up-to-date trait tier list! That wonderful, fleeting moment, made all the sweeter for it's impending inaccuracy.

[@Thetechgeek2100]

Despite being an hour long, I still felt this video was fleeting and can't wait for the next one!

[@mik6205]

Thank you Montu! This is truly a time saver. It was very kind of you to add lithoid, my ugly rocky babies! Also, was it me or not, but the music at 44:50 sounds kinda loud...

[@Fish_Priest]

I'm here for that quickly fleeting secret callout you have talking about

[@DrHungrysaur]

It's worth mentioning that Radiotropic also works for lithoids and pairs nicely with the Survior origin

[@BiggsBababooey]

I used to think docile was an amazing trait, but upon trying a Sovereign Guardianship Beacon of Liberty run, I realized just how fleeting the benefits really were when you get empire pop size reductions

[@tanthokg]

Me every time I start a new save: create an empire, going to the trait pick screen, starring at it for 5 minutes thinking about what I should pick this time, scrolling up and down a few times, pick Intelligent, Natural Engineers, Rapid Breeders as every fcking other times

[@nathanhunt9526]

One of my favorites is playing as a Post Apocalyptic origin for Survivor and use Relentless Industrialists to make Tomb Worlds. After a frankly fleeting amount of time, I can terraform worlds for free.

[@lucasredmer4204]

Fleeting - I really enjoy hearing your reviews. I am looking forward to the new expansion. Thanks for all your help.

[@mik1984]

Aquatics now construct flooded habitats which give them all the hydrocentric perks also on orbital habitats.

[@jameshealan2881]

My favorite combo is Spliced Adaptability, Excessive Endurance and Enduring for +50% habitability right at the start for -20 lifespan. I can colonize any planet from Year 0 and make good use of it. Any time I play a different origin and don't have access to Overtuned traits, it feels like my empire is slower and more sluggish because I can't really use non-ideal planets for anything.

[@LordZaxom]

My personal favorite set up is going frantic materialist, intelligent, and all of the overclocked traits for research bonus and to hell with the fleeting lifespans my entire empire is riding by the proverbial seat of its pants.

[@betonowybeton2826]

Industrious is a very good trait, if you want to play as terravores with Calamitous Birth and have fun. Literally everything depends on your monthly minerals output, which you constantly need in huge quantities. At the start of a new game it may significantly slow down your progress. Pop upkeep, building structures, making new colonies, producing alloys require minerals

[@taari1]

it seems with the exception of Docile (C), Adaptive (B) and Jinxed (B), I tend to already follow your list and pretty much agree with most of it. With the occasional mentioned exceptions I am using almost exclusively the same 8 of the (3) A or (5) S tier picks.

[@darcraven01]

its worth noting that lithoids are a great pick for overtuned as they get +50 years to leader lifespan which basically negates the minus to leader lifespan for the overtuned traits (as long as you dont take too many). i had a tech rush build using overtuned lithoids with "Intelligent", "Augmented Intelligence", and "Elevated Synapses" (and a few negative traits that didnt effect anything important). they still had a +10 to their leader lifespan. lol

[@antitron100]

These long videos are still very enjoyable despite my fleeting attention span.

[@molybdane7240]

Well, the time that these species trait list videos were 30 minutes or less is quickly becoming a fleeting memory to me. The videos remain a great way of catching up to the game though.

[@mik1984]

I think extremely adaptive is to be considered when you are playing fanatical purifier necrophages. You have very little internal pop growth, and although this can be a powerful origin setup, you are fully dependent on conquering other planets long before you can terraform them. Waging a first war early and winning it is the make or break of your entire game, you must conquer and consume other pops, otherwise you will be miserably outpaced by pop growth of other empires. Things get better once you are capable of producing robots, which is important to get rather early, however not before your first war, because you need to alloy-max for that one and nothing else.

[@Motgenror]

As a new player to Stellaris, I found this video quite a fleeting experience.

[@N20Joe]

We should make a fleeting mention about overturned traits and the edict that improves them. "Damn the consequences" edit doubles the positive bonus of all overtuned traits so that drastically increases the power of all the overtuned traits.

[@chreefa2051]

Montu always ensures my desire to play Stellaris is never fleeting. Thanks man!

[@ponydarko9802]

Thank you for the tier list, i would say you can take nonadaptive also with aquatic species if you only settle on ocean worlds because you get +20% habitabilty on those and so it doesn't affect you.

[@SerLoinSteak]

If more of the overturned traits were cheaper I could see them being more worth it. Getting a bunch of those lower tier traits for free or close in exchange for leader lifespan so you could then get some of the more expensive normal traits would be pretty cool. Otherwise, a lot of them just aren't worth the lifespan cost

[@davidd.w.8681]

The usefull time of the tierlist may be fleeting, but they are very appreciated.

[@Teyloune]

This video was very interesting, yet watching it didn't feel like an hour, more like a fleeting moment.

[@vega7132]

Nice fleeting list you've got here.

[@TherealWashtali]

It's astounding. Time is fleeting. Madness takes It's toll

[@SoldierGeneral64]

Was not expecting some of these choices. Been away for a while so my experience with the game has been fleeting lol

[@floraphore]

I thought my time with the game was fleeting, but seeing your videos again made me want to pick it back up!

[@therealspeedwagon1451]

It should also be worth mentioning that certain traits, whether good or bad, also affect ethics attraction. Decadent for instance increases authoritarian ethics attraction, strong and very strong increase militarist ethics attraction, whereas weak increases pacifist ethics attraction. Having xeno pops with the charismatic trait increases xenophile ethics attraction for all other pops, whereas having xenos with the repugnant trait increases xenophobe ethics attraction. All of the science traits including intelligent itself increase materialist ethics attraction, whereas pops being psionic increases spiritualist ethics attraction and in my experience often also creates a rather nasty spiritualist faction.

[@darknight1220]

You know I just remembered my most recent game, I have the Eternal throne, all leaders are immortal. Getting that on overturned would be absolutely nutty. Gigantic bonuses from overturned with none of the downsides.

[@SteelWalrus]

At least my attention is fleeting. This has given me ideas for some cool species.

[@Zerrith-pr7rx]

If it wasn’t for Montu’s videos, my interest in this game would be fleeting

[@bigbuddha5468]

My knowledge about stealarus may be fleating, but this helped me learn thanks

[@cmdrpanorpa8631]

There was a fleeting time where inorganic breath was useful, why it needs the 50% upkeep is beyond me with also 3 points. Maybe 1 point and the flat bonus which is pretty small, is what it needs to be.

[@paulcatindig2260]

Surprised Monty hasn’t done a renowned and legendary paragons tier list tbh

[@FuelDropforthewin]

Nerve Stapled is fantastic for the most efficient way of getting food and minerals: Livestock. That -40% happiness is normally a big issue, but with Nerve Stapled... pure profit baby! Sadly it is incompatible with Communal so going this route gives a max -80% housing on overtuned livestock, but even 5 livestock per housing is significantly better than farmers or miners on a housing to resources scale.

[@Gwynbleidd93]

A few fleeting notes of mine. You could say they are the "nieche" applications you spoke about, but I think those are a bit too common a way of optimizing your empire to call them that. - Venerable: If you set up your empire so that your original species only works as ruler stratum and leaders, then this becomes quite good - simply because there are not so many good other options. This at least gives a big impact to what you design your original species for. - Industrious: Absolutely amazing on Lithoids - at least in the beginning. The main downside to Lithoids is that they consume Minerals, which effectively means for your economy the same as +50% pop food upkeep. This can make your economy very weak in the beginning, before you get all the output techs and Industrious helps with that. And Stellaris is a game about snowballing. Lithoids also start with a few extra planetary features that can be cleared for 1000 Minerals to spawn an extra Lithoid pop, so this helps doing that earlier and more pops earlier = better snowball. But even on a regular empire, more Minerals = More advanced resources = More ships and researchers. This should not be F tier. - Overtuned traits: The counterpart of Venerable. If only one species in your empire can be the rulers, the lifespan debuff is meaningless for 95% of your empire, allowing you to better manage your traits and stack for higher values. - Agrarian: It is one of the very few modifiers in the game that increases Food from Jobs, not Food from Farmers. The distinction is meaningful, because this means Agrarian is one of the few things that affect the Livestock slaves. - Docile: To elaborate on what you already said, despite what the game says, there are actually 2 different "Size from Pops" modifiers - one is empire-wide and one is per specific pop and they work multiplicatively. Why does this matter? Because it means if you are trying to go for a no ES from Pops build, you need to be mindful of which modifiers you stack. Tradition and Civic modifiers are, for example, empire-wide. Governor, Docile and planetary ascension are per pop. Tier 10 planetary ascension with Ascensionist civic and Harmony tradition gives 75% per pop reduction on that planet. A governor gives up to 20% based on LVL. The remaining 5%? Either the Holy Covenant federation or Docile are the only options. You can go for a similar effect by stacking the empire-wide reductions with the Sovereign Guardianship civic and a few other empire effects, but SG has some big negative impacts on ES in other areas, while this does not. - Ingenious: This also doesn't affect Energy from Trade, so I think this should be F tier. - Lithoid: As already said in Industrious, this has quite a big negative impact on early game economy, so it is not for everyone. But I think the impact of the pop growth speed is overstated while the impact of habitability is understated. That 25% reduction is the same amount a normal pop would get for having 50% habitability, so on your capital it's -25%, on your exact match planets it's -15%, on same climate it's -5%, and on everything else it's the same as non-Lithoids. But being able to grow on say, 6+ instead of 3 planets is a massive boost to overall empire-wide pop growth. Also, this is a big benefit in terms of amenities upkeep and resources from jobs and partially counteracts the Minerals upkeep. And you get those free pops from clearing Lithoid blockers on your homeworld. Definately worth a higher tier. You can use it with Incubators to spread across your corner of galaxy VERY quickly. And, again, snowball. Volatile Excretions is also a good pick (mostly if you start with 2 species, like Necroid or Syncretic Evolution so it doesn't conflict with other useful traits you could be having on workers/specialists), as it allows you to run a couple of strong early game edicts. Also, Zombie Lithoid are quite a good combination for working around the Minerals upkeep. - Traditional / Quarrelsome: Unity is the only resource besides research that doesn't really have many techs that boost output from jobs, so those 2 traits have much more pronounced impact than might seem. - Volatile Excretions: As already stated, probably the best of the 3 strategic resource traits on Lithoids, because you can use it on 3 combat edicts (although early game you will probably only use the Armor and Explosive ones) and an edict to reduce the clear blocker cost, allowing you to get those free pops from Lithoid blockers much faster and easier. - Decadent: Quite a good pick on ruler-stratum-only species, alongside Venerable. It also intreases Authoritarian ethics attraction. - Phototrophic: The impact on your economy from this is negligible. You produce 6 Food from Farmers and 6 Energy from Technicians. If you had to have 10 Farmers for pop upkeep before, now you have to have 5 Farmers and 5 Technicians. There is something to be said about other sources of Energy, like Trade, but you generally want to have a surplus of Energy anyways, not net 0 income, because it can be spent in many ways, so any Energy you take away from that is Energy you want to recuperate with jobs anyways. - Zombie: Essentially a free Nerve Stapled. I think you don't even have to have the civic equipped - after you get one pop of that species with the Zombie triat, you can genemod into it, but it's been a while since I tested it and it could be wrong. I also have a build you might want to try out. It is enslaving Megacorp with Indentured Assets and Catalytic Recyclers civics, Genetic Ascension and Trade League federation. You enslave all pops to reduce CGs upkeep from pops (mostly relevant for specialists) and use Assets Appropriation Officer councilor from Indentured Assets to generate obscene amounts of Trade Value (Note: Thrifty doesn't work because it's not TV from a job). Trade League converts it into CGs (more CGs than the pop uses) and Unity. You then keep half your slaves as Catalytic Technicians and Researchers, and the other half as Livestock with Delicious and Agrarian trait to feed your Catalytic Technicians. That way you can reduce your entire economy to Livestock, Researchers, Catalytic Technicians and Rulers. Throw in Permanent Employment civic for extra pop assembly and free Nerve Stapled on Livestock. I guess you could also go for Ascensionist civic + Harmony + Docile trait for the 0 Empire Size from Pops. If you go for Tier 10 planetary ascension with the base Ecumenopolis designation, that's a lot more Trade Value and no strategic resource upkeep on Ecumenopolis districts and Research Labs. Oh, and the Chief Catalyst Officer councilor reduces Job Food Upkeep, so even more Alloys from even less Livestock.

[@SolazLive]

I believe things that effect food from farmers now also effect livestock now

[@Gwynbleidd93]

@@SolazLive oh, I wasn't aware of that! You learn something every day...

[@commandoepsilon4664]

The thing you are missing about phototrophic is hydroponic bays on starbases. It lets each starbase pay the food upkeep of 20 pops for one energy credit/month, which means you can completely eliminate farmers entirely. The starbases will also get better over time as all the techs that increase food from farming also increase food from starbase buildings without increasing their upkeep.

[@Gwynbleidd93]

@@commandoepsilon4664 This doesn't address what I wrote at all. I understand that this lets you reduce (and potentially eliminate) Farmers. But for every single Farmer you eliminate, you create a need for an extra Technician to keep your Energy income at the same level. If you have a Food upkeep of Pops of 80 and get 20 Food from starbases, then that means you need 60 Food from Farmers = 10 Farmers (let's ignore the output bonuses for the sake of simplicity). With Phototrophic you have 40 Food and 40 Energy upkeep from Pops. With the same 20 Food from starbases, that's 20 Food from Farmers (3.33 Farmers) and 40 Energy from Technicians (6.67 Technicians) for a grand total of... The exact same 10 Pops working for Pop upkeep in both scenarios. The ONLY scenario in which this has any positive impact on your economy is when you already have more Energy than you need and thus don't need to work extra Technicians to recuperate the Energy lost on Pop upkeep... which is really only late game.

[@Gwynbleidd93]

Well, I should probably also mention that Phototrophic is quite valueable on Driven Assimilators and Rogue Servitors since their Technicians have increased outputs and Farmers have decreased outputs, but that kinda falls outside the limits of this video with the whole rework of Machine Intelligences coming with the next DLC.

[@sagittariusa7662]

To recreate the Zhor'i, make them a species in the Stellaris game, you would need the following traits: (Without Mods) *Origin* Cave Dweller (Subterranean) *Habitability:* Tundra (Closest, Raez is extremely barren and extremely cold on the surface, but there is life still found there, but most life forms are found underground). *Pre-Sapient:* Earthbound Natural Intellectuals *Positive:* Charismatic Venerable (Not really adequate given Zhor'i are basically immortal) Intelligent Natural Engineers Natural Physicists Natural Sociologists Nomadic Quick Learners Rapid Breeders Resilient Very Strong Talented Traditional *Negative:* Nonadaptive Solitary Unruly Deviants *Special:* Limited Regeneration Stargazer *Ascension:* Natural Machinist Erudite Fertile Robust

[@SpoopyChicken]

It's honestly incredible how fleeting the tier list placements in this game is. One update you could be at the top of your game only for a patch to suddenly bump you down 7 tiers down to hell. Personally, I kinda like it, makes me feel like I'm using different strategies.

[@mateuszslawinski1990]

I find Non-adaptive and Slow Breeders okay when I plan synth or cybernetic ascension. After all, pops are going to be constructed sooner or later.

[@tylertheultimatebadass87]

This game is updated so frequently that it makes optimal strategies fleeting.

[@DariusT32]

Building a species takes so much work and I often end up with a species that lasts for a few fleeting years

[@velwein]

Thank you for providing this fleeting moment of joy.

[@yograin3430]

Throne Relic makes all your leaders immortal. You can easily take fleeting!

[@sylverrob]

Rest in Peace, Montu. Your time on the USS Callout was fleeting, so I hope it was well worth it.

[@hamblance5938]

Fleeting in C tier is a controversial call, but every other is spot on like normal. Keep up the good work Montu :)

[@VinnieLC_Me]

Use fleeting and slow breaders to pay for the resource production traits. Got it!

[@zaktan7197]

I’ve been enjoying all these tier videos 😊. I hope the validity of this tier list isn’t fleeting. Have a blessed day.

[@bigbenhgy]

I think the inorganic breath can be worth it on non-free pops/livestock pops in biologically ascended empires, where you have additional trait slots and points. It'll cause a +0.5 food on them, but I think that's worth it for 0.02 gas. Normally you would need a miners and a gas refiners too to make those resources, in which you make 10 mineral into 2 gas (without bonuses, although you can get a lot for it, it can even be 4 or something), so instead of 10->2 (or catalytic 15->2.5) you make 10->0,4 (or compared to catalytic 15->0,6), obviously it's just 1/5 of what you get normally, but you can use pops that are just doing normal jobs, you don't need extra+no need for the gas refiner building either. Of course I don't think you can supply enough gas just from them to your empire, but I think it complements it well and is worth it, even if you give some small amount of consumer goods to your prisoners with jobs and of course on normal pops it's not worth it, especially on utopian abundance or something where the calculation needs an extra 0.5 cgs per pops instead of the 0.05 cgs maximum with the non-free pops.

[@Rhynair]

As a lithoid and gestalt conscious main. Because I like being a little weirdo. Seeing the two perks I was using on my most recent species gave me a Fleeting feeling of sadness… but I love my little guys anyway

[@HellsingRuler]

My interest in stellaris has been fleeting these days, with this list it might come back

[@wincentwass5818]

Would love a simple video but it’s organized in parts of how many points so 1 point traits have there own ranking and so on and so forth

[@viimmdlii7516]

Surprised you put clone army descendant so low as it’s a free trait that gives your main species some free bonuses on top of the very fast start the origin offers as well as costing no trait points.

[@OfficialPhdPepper]

Fame is fleeting, but KZbin endures! Catching up on Stellaris 😊

[@bigchungus120]

This video was so good it was a very FLEETING experience