｢Stellaris｣ Ascension Perk Tier List 3.0 - All Perks Explained!

[@EliteSpectre32]

Habitats actually have 70% base habitability so Voidborne is still valid especially is some of the Industrial development Resolutions are passed (and those are pretty good) since each one reduces habitability. This doesn't matter for Void Dwellers as they get Habitat Habitability type which gives 100% which stacks with habitat's base 70% meaning that it's impossible to get it bellow 100%. Also for Synth Empires you can just get Migration treaties to have random pops growing on all your planets with default rights set to assimilation.

[@Stefan_Anon]

AH.

[@MonsieurJo]

Void dweller, void born and functional architecture goes Brrrrr

[@An_Average_Arsonist]

Finaly, a fellow xenophilic assimilator.

[@amrell2240]

also important to note: the tech options you get from void born are already available research options for void dwellers without the perk

[@MonsieurJo]

@@amrell2240 i don't bother upgrade habitat early, i just make new one and upgrade them mid game.

[@thomasboudier1152]

i love the fact that yt auto subtitles recognized "dertermined exterminators" as "german exterminators"

[@hughconsidine5041]

O no

[@razier5299]

Hmmm

[@tohomand]

Epic

[@rafstrayhorn5772]

I did Nazi that coming

[@mllhild]

I was hoping to find some mod to make space nazis, but didnt see any on steam

[@henkhenk4396]

Stefan Anon: You can apply the template to make some pops biological again Silent King and Ahriman: Cries in corner

[@indrickboreale7381]

Doesn't matter for Necrontyrs, they had got bad species traits anyway xd

[@sirgaz8699]

@@indrickboreale7381 Need to get a buddy in the Imperium to mod some of your pops for you since they went gene engineering.

[@astro6009]

@@sirgaz8699 I think they actually have the cyborgs and latent psionics perks too, so they must be running mods.

[@sirgaz8699]

@@astro6009 It's a federation with a lot of bordergore, all assentation perks and migration treaties.

[@cheesyman10]

I mean magnus basically got End of Cycle and the reckoning almost killed all his pops

[@6agenthawk]

you can only BUILD once mega structure each, but you can capture as many as you want HEH

[@TheMyHalo]

Could you possibly release a megastructure with a vasall, build a new one and then reintegrate?

[@zzaronn]

@@TheMyHalo you can build only one, don’t matter if you own it or no

[@zlac]

@@zzaronn I lost one matter decompressor in war so I built another one... then I repaired one and got my original back so I had 3 of them, that was very nice!

[@zzaronn]

@@zlac didn't knew it was possible, some cheese are possible this way

[@johnnyvaughan5841]

Laughs in Gigastructural Engineering

[@GuardianTactician]

Honestly, End of the Cycle should have been rolled into Become the Crisis as an alternative progression to destroying the galaxy.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Alt condition? Maybe a popup asking? Idk

[@delivererofdarknessshoguno1133]

Maybe if you have picked the become the crisis perk, it would instead ask you to build the engine and give you bonuses to help you do so?

[@emdeo]

Become the Crisis should have options beyond "the shroud lol"

[@Fynzmirs]

Not really, the point of End of the Cycle is that you lose in the end, whilr Become the Crisis simply presents you with a challenge.

[@durema9720]

@@emdeo Pretty sure we penetrate shroud so hard it merges with galaxy and kills everyone.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

"+33% to an encounter you'll only face once." say that to the 2 fallen empires that want to take me down for various reasons, and the idiot who opened the L-Gate with no fleets to hold it

[@evoblade2000]

That perk doesn't help with either of those things, does it?

[@kanoslayer2735]

@@evoblade2000 The bonus to killing Gatebuilders is for the Nanite Swarms

[@onefastsled]

@@evoblade2000 Gate Builders just means “everything related to L-Cluster”

[@Erika_Redmark]

Perfect KZbin add placement right there. Stefan: “Next we have xeno compatability, AKA *cuts to ad* “is your anger getting the better of you?” Lmfao

[@MonsieurJo]

Same i had '' want to get free time with family '' xD

[@seantaggart7382]

KZbin is a heretic

[@theomorphical]

I had “AKA the Chipotle quesadilla” why didn’t I get any better ones

[@gregconen]

If you just apply your original template as a way to get biological pops in a synthetically ascended empire, you won't get cyborgs. An alternative trick is to have an ongoing colonization with cyborg pops when you finish the special project. When the colonization finishes, the planet's starting pops will be cyborgs. That way you can have biological pops with the habitability advantage of the cyborg trait in a synthetically ascended empire.

[@peterhacke6317]

Yep colonization and colony ships are able to keep you're cyborg species for all the bonusses.

[@gregconen]

@@peterhacke6317 Actually, just using colony ships doesn't work. If I remember correctly, it used to, but I definitely saw colony ships being updated to the new species now. You have to have the colonization currently in progress for it to work.

[@bartoszboboryko4684]

@@gregconen yep you have to be in process of colonization, im abusing this method for a long time

[@jameslarkin4567]

Or just make tomb worlders be adaptive and bam every planet

[@gregconen]

@@jameslarkin4567 You can still use Cybernetic on a Tomb World Preference species and get the same benefit, and spend the trait points on other traits.

[@travettemiller694]

What would happen if you got "End of the Cycle" and "Become the Crisis." If you are able to time it right you could win the game before the Reckoning happens.

[@Arthutstut641]

INFINITE NAVAL CAPACITY OH YEAH

[@dontmindme.justaguy]

Silly shroud you can't destroy us if we destroy ourselves first!

[@TheArQu]

Technically finishing aetherophasic engine merges shorud and normal world together

[@jjkthebest]

"THE RECKONING HAS COME, TREMBLE BEFORE ME... Wait. Where is everyone?c

[@KaizerKlash111]

@@Arthutstut641 naval capacity doesnt matter, only minerals, ship yards, fleet cmd limit, and tech

[@Emberheart_]

But I'm positive to have noticed that the AI really DOES steal technology, be it from debris or espionage. I think the whole "AI doesn't steal tech" is a dated observation from many versions ago, people just keep saying this because it used to be that way. This makes Enigmatic Engineering a lot more useful.

[@AshenVictor]

The AI does steal tech and always has, it's just that it can't do anything productive with it because its ship and fleet designs are all terrible no matter what tech level it reaches.

[@NikolayMIA]

Yeah it does, and it can be very brutal for tall empires. Figured that out and now that’s my ascension perk n2 after tech one.

[@CraftyDWB]

@@AshenVictor In 3.3 the AI is starting to use meta ship builds meaning it'll have a huge effect in that version.

[@marcustulliuscicero5443]

@@CraftyDWB Ahahaha no.

[@CommissarMitch]

Something missed with Psyonic Ascention. There is a chance for a leader to get the trait Chosen One. This makes them immortal and adds some Good bonuses depending on the leader.

[@leobastian_]

This is included in "shroud gambling" im pretty sure

[@nano9285]

It also allows nice roleplay for becoming the crisis immediately afterwards. he is the chosen one after all.

[@MrVentches]

it can also completely revamp you empire. you can do stuff like "inward perfection", and later on get rid of it by making the chosen one your country leader,turning it into a monarchy with new civics.

[@onefastsled]

@@leobastian_ Yet, he still mentioned the Covenants, despite them being one of the rarest “gambling” outcomes. Chosen One leaders are a big fucken deal due to the massive bonuses they give

[@Orthanderis]

Yeah, except theres also a high weight for the individual dying during the event. On top of that the chance to get a chosen one event is also pretty small. I've played about 7 or so psychic empires, got the event 3 times, and twice the green option died during the event. Feels bad man. I just want a god emperor.

[@DamnDaimen]

1:40 I am so sad about what they did to my boy enigmatic engineering. It was a must have in multiplayer, with the tech deny and the tactical information it gave. You could see their ship designs, and see where they were, and they couldn't see your designs. Also it felt good thematically.

[@jaxusr235]

“Look how they massacred my boy.”

[@nanodesu2795]

Would like to state that Synthetic Ascension Ruler also gives +5% robot output so all robots actually have 25% output advantage instead of 20%. Meaning that synths are about on par with optimized bio-ascension researchers in terms of output.

[@Kasaaz]

Xeno-Compatibility can get crazy with the RNG too, I've ended up with some with like -5 trait points remaining even with Bio Ascension because their traits are so over budget.

[@GossamerGhoul]

19:10 Mikab: Thank you again for honouring me with this promotion to General, sir! What are my orders? Stefan: I just wanted you to show everyone how useless Generals are. You're fired. Mikab: I beg your- Stefan: Take them away, Admiral Thalotha.

[@whisperer195]

Nice use of the civ beyond earth ost. I actually liked that that game, sad it died off and no one ever wanted to play it. :(

[@Gutbomber]

Yo I'll play

[@Skeltekz]

A downside I've noticed with hiveworlds: They don't really synergize with the "Tree of Life" origin. Once terraformed, the sapling/tree will be removed. This does not trigger any penalties for not having a sapling on your world but obviously all the buffs of the origin are sadly gone. Thanks for the great list, keep it up!

[@BenjaBagod17]

Are you sure about this? Just reloaded my most recent game on 3.0.2 that I'm currently still playing and my hive worlds all still have their saplings. I did remove the other blockers as expected, but I didn't have to replace any missing Trees. Special resource features (motes,gas,crystals) also stayed after the teraforming.

[@fabiandonvil]

no. i'm VERY sure that the tree of life is not affected by this. just like any other rare resource, it IS NOT removed by hiveworld terraforming. i played as a hive in the current expansion so i'm pretty sure.

[@leobastian_]

Hiveworlds definitly remove the Portal Research area Blocker(the one you find on a Planet where you can find a parallel dimension), so i wouldnt be surprised If they remove tree as well

[@Skeltekz]

​@@BenjaBagod17 Hm weird, I've played on reelase of the DLC and it affected the Tree of Life. Maybe they've patched it out?

[@Skeltekz]

@@fabiandonvil Maybe they have patched it out by now, I simply remeber it being the case at the launch of the DLC since I was so upset about it

[@Kasaaz]

I always thought Consecrating Worlds was with the intention of settling them. Your priests go in and make everything pure. Can't do it to a world you've already settled, cause it's already tainted, etc. I'm curious what inspired the perk...

[@leobastian_]

I think when they added the perk spiritualist fallen empires already existed, so people assumed it worked similar

[@randymotter51]

32:03 "You can only have one of each." Don't forget to release some of your planets as subjects, pump them with a ton of alloys, then wait for them to start building a megastructure so you can reintegrate and get multiples. Science Nexus Farming for the win! Also Strategic Coordination centers for all those sweet sublight speed bonuses. Battleship fleets roaming the galaxy at double corvette speed or more and vaporizing stations is horrifying.

[@SpicyFiur]

Uhm aren't the Science Nexus and Strategic Coordination center limited to 1 in the empire? Or do you use mod's? Because the only way to get more is to capture them from enemy factions.

[@randymotter51]

@@SpicyFiur in your empire yes, but subjects don't count toward that limit. Farming megas this way is possible if you have good alloy production, but If you have no confidence in the method there is also the choice of giving alloys to high tech neighbors and letting them build some before you betray them.

[@connorpfeifer9143]

@@randymotter51 You could probably manually trade your own megastructures to someone else to free up your own slots as well, if you're tired of waiting for the ai.

[@MrNorker77]

I actually really like consecrated worlds under 2 conditions: Spiritual and close to a spiritual fallen empire. Not only are the holy worlds automaticly holy, but each one you consecrate gives you +30 opinion. That +90 opinion (plus the bonus for being spiritual) really makes them like you and they are likely to give gifts (of course if you get the Tomb of Raqulon (sp?) that's moot, but that only happens 2320 earliest).

[@Taliesyn42]

The +25% unity, +15% amenities, and +25% spiritualist ethics attraction once you have three consecrated don't hurt either.

[@RobBCactive]

The problem for me with Consecrated worlds is I have it too late. Very often I have huge unity/amenity options, consecrating Prophet's Retreat or a Gaia world, doesn't do much more than Resort World or Megacorp Executive Retreat.

[@ГригорийГ-ч4н]

> Tomb of Raqulon Zarklan, actually. Or Zarqlan, same thing really.

[@drakegrimm1287]

> Sythetic Age Stefan, you forgot that you have 2 mod points from techs > Galactic Force Projection Its main feature is fleet comandmant limit bonus. There are very limited sources of this and it really helps to manage your fleets as more of your naval capacity is concentrated in a single unit

[@Cynndora]

Ah gone are the days of old Mastery of Nature giving you every clear-blocker tech instantly, i miss those days.

[@vagasint.4345]

I love the Civilization Beyond Earth Soundtrack playing in the background

[@feekygucker2678]

Thanks for your analysis dude. Always appreciated here. Loved that you got to use the aerherophasic ring world for the DE stream again :).

[@ingold1470]

Transcendent learning was good when I started on a ring world, and really needed to finish that Baol precursor ASAP so I could actually settle planets. Researcher skill is more than just a 2% modifier when they're digging up ruins.

[@patrickdargel4684]

I would like to point out, that the driven assimilator colossus is an alternative way to assimilate all pops on a planet in an instant while the spiritualist colossus will turn all pops to spiritual (so, I like to have a penal colony where I send all non-believers and once in a while, you "turn" them by using the weapon on your own planet >D )

[@charleysimmons427]

that's actually too good.

[@TheReal_birbwizard]

Whoa.... I need to try this.

[@mikicerise6250]

When you abduct pops and they are happy because they have the same values as your empire: - OMG, we kidnap people too. Besties 4ever. :D :D

[@MatteV2]

I love the Nanite Dissembler Colossus, which should be mentioned, as it makes it crazy easy to get more cyborg pops.

[@vagasint.4345]

“The colossus is quite vulnerable” Me who always flies the colossus with ar least my most powerful fleet: Go ahead and try me...

[@radordekeche947]

I know the list is for single player, vanilla, but enigmatic engineering is also better if your game is heavily modded. Letting the A.I. tech up a little isn't much of a risk in regular, but if you have unlocked dark mater weapons... might not want to let the A.I. get access if you can't wipe them out in one war.

[@QuestionDeca]

You really seem to discount the removal of negative traits from an empire's species and how it affects the empire. It's been something that really let me direct my empire towards more important things then just fulfilling the increased costs they bring. (Especially mid-game)

[@morthwyl2587]

I had the best ad placement: "And here we have Xeno-compatability, aka, the- MARVEL STRIKE FORCE- heresy perk!"

[@orinocointf2]

you can feed the clone vats with livestock for 0 job use, and biological cloned slaves with extended shifts are a lot more efficient than slow working robots.

[@Nat-ri3ip]

And you can finally make some use of budding.

[@Alister222222]

Going to disagree about interstellar dominion. Depending on where you are in the galaxy, this perk can do insane things for your empire size. I have played games where I am 100% certain I would not have reached a key chokepoint in time without this perk, and reaching it allowed me to peacefully block the AI off from like a quarter of the galaxy. It is also important to note that cost reductions are additive, which is bonkers. If you are only paying say 50% anyway from other bonuses, the 20% adds onto that, meaning your real cost is going down by 40% of what it was. Fanatic xenophobe, the expansion tradition, the right leader trait, and this perk would allow you to have virtually zero influence cost to expanding, for some ferocious early expansion. In all honesty, though, I wouldn't generally take it as a fanatic xenophobe as in that situation it is not likely to be influence that is the bottleneck and more likely to be how much you could defend. If you look at two alternate realities, one in which you took this perk and one in which you didn't, I would say that in general your empire is going to be more than 20% bigger than it would otherwise have been, even if you look at it as only being useful early. The extra 20%+ of systems will be giving you benefit for the whole game. It will let you do some things you couldn't quite otherwise afford, like rushing to a chokepoint before an AI and gaining sole access to an arm of the galaxy, or dropping a starbase ten jumps away on the other side of an AI to start another branch of your empire, maybe also sectioning off a part of the galaxy nobody else can then reach. Definitely not C. If I can avoid taking it, (i.e. my expansion is going fast enough without it) then I will, but I would say I take it, with no regrets, in more than half my playthroughs.

[@matthewsontum9617]

Yeah, I really wish I had not read this guide and taken Interstellar Dominion over Technological Ascendency as my first ascension perk. You can build more Alloy capacity, but not more influence production, which means if you play to expand rapidly (which I feel you should always do) influence will consistently be your bottleneck. Every 10 months is a really long time to wait to be able to build another Starport. I usually play as some level of Xenophobe so that I don't get stuck like this. I could expand 2 sectors away from every sector in my empire, but can't because I don't have the influence for it. I guess what is most concerning is that the author of the guide has a playstyle in which influence isn't their bottleneck ... what exactly are they doing if not Dominating the Galaxy :)

[@elisk2]

Agreed. Interstellar dominion is usually my first pick. It sort of depends on your map settings I guess but influence is almost always my bottleneck early on, and doing well in the early game translates to long term success. Only time I don't take this is if I'm explicitly building tall or get blocked from expanding early by having a lot of neighbors or things blocking me.

[@evoblade2000]

Yeah, I'm always shocked when people down play ID. Influence is the hardest resource to mass produce and always slows down my expansion more than anything else.

[@onefastsled]

@@matthewsontum9617 probably a Tall Empire, they ignore influence until they unlock megastructures, the MASSIVE red flag is him completely ignoring Ring Worlds

[@jamescar8085]

@@matthewsontum9617 well that's why it's a guide sometimes it just gives you a general idea and you gotta experiment by your own.

[@lucasbrant9856]

Imo with the various stability boni + being able to use the Colossus Divine enforcer to force your pops into compliance with Government ethics, it's very easy for a psionic empire reach 100 stability on all planets. Imo it's definitely better than bio, maybe even better than synth ascension.

[@jacobmagure9452]

Your vids are like the most relaxing asmr combined with the info of the stellaris gods! Praise the Birb!

[@TheLoneTerran]

I like Eternal Vigilance paired with Unyielding. Even x10 crisis, awakened empires, all the big bads have broken themselves on my starbases. Lots of point-defense platforms with the ion cannons. PD can't shoot down neutron warhead stuff but lots of PD platforms give a lot more targets for them to hit, so at least against AI, my Fortresses clean up against those weapons. And you get the added benefit of knocking down most strikecraft and missile weapons. All that being said, I try to make sure no fortress fights alone, so before gateways, there are usually fleets with some specific purpose docked with the station. Before alloy production is at a point that can afford lots of PD platforms, I often have carriers with destroyer support docked to assist in shooting down missiles and torpedoes. The carriers act like mobile PD platforms than can be repurposed later.

[@MrMarinus18]

18:30 The best one by far is nerve staple. It allows you to have slaves without any of the normal downsides. That really helps make the game a lot more forgiving since you have pops locked as workers. I kinda wish there existed a similar trait for robots. I usually have 3 species. Nerve stapled slaves, scientists and the generic.

[@Zeetohtv]

Thank yooouuu I've been looking for this info for days 😬

[@orctrihar]

1:25 Except when you choosed the organic ascension perk you get poeple who live more than 200 years, you obtain more bonus too. And in the same time, first level come faster and a more experienced leader give more bonus. Not the first to choose, but second or third

[@bendre1997]

You make such excellent Stellaris content

[@Craysus]

U can have 3 holy worlds on normal habitable planets u just have to reassign 2-3 times so 200-300 influence per planet. And 3 holy world modifiers are pretty nice.

[@Richi6942]

If the point about Ship and Defensive Plattform Build Cost modifiers applying to Defensive Platforms is true, it is theoretically possible to lower the costs of Platforms by 106% as Fanatic Purifiers. Although admititely you have to get quite lucky. -Fanatic Purifier Civic 15% -Supremacy Tradition 10% + 33% Ruler trait "Fortifier" 33% Ruler Agenda "Secure the Borders" 15% Resulting in 106% Platform building cost reduction.

[@RobBCactive]

Transcendent Learning can be good with bio pops situationally, for instance when they have picked up longevity eg) finding the coloured potions and you also gene mod them, selected lineages & capacity or simply taking young leaders who pick up longevity traits. I have screenshots with my leaders all at 8, 9 or 10 in late 2300's (not even end game) and with psionic trait through a combination of bonuses that run. The Education Campaign seems like good value to me and a 50% bonus on experience, quick learner and becoming robust later, plus all the techs does make high levels possible. Master Builders has become a D for me, simply because I use Arch Renaissance and Living Metal in many games recently and do Arcology and begin megastructures much earlier than I used to.. Judging the TL perk on first 50 years is perverse, it's the mid-game wave of young leaders who live to 150+. Having some v. skilled up scientists helps with high level anomalies and digs that take ridiculously long otherwise, but unlock pre-cursors earlier than normal.

[@shadezman]

With research you can literally make bio pops immortal if you focus on reserach enough in midgame. Once I had all leaders lvl 10, 500+ years old in lategame, and almost all of them I hired in 1st 50 years of the game

[@RobBCactive]

@@shadezman I have come to realise multi-player experts care overwhelmingly about results in first 50 years, Stefan Anon calls a win in ealy game based on having twice as many victory points as any AI default empire. So a solid foundation to burst into dominance in the second half of early game just means they rate things differently. Altering the tech cost and shortening the game, puts the emphasis on a rush, building fleets around 2030. Too many players state firm conclusions without the conditions they experience.

[@lordjustinian2913]

Also to add if you choose to take Venerable with your base species, Transcendent Learning can be incredibly useful, with Venerable I can get all leaders to level 10 before they even get close to death, when you combine it with research leader lifespan options and other increase leader lifespan events like the Tree event and the coloured potions you can practically seemingly have your leaders be almost immortal.

[@RobBCactive]

@@lordjustinian2913 the drawback with venerable as base is all your leaders are older when hired. Adding longevity later lets you benefit from traits that boost more in early game

[@lordjustinian2913]

@@RobBCactive Here's the thing about Venerable though, whenever I've used Venerable, sure leaders tend to be older like 70 to 85 when you hire them but the base age of life for a Biological normal species is 80. So when you don't have Venerable you will usually have leaders for 40-50 years because typically leaders are in between 30-45 when you hire them. With Venerable you have them for 80-90 years, pretty much double the amount of a normal Biological pop leader even if they are hired at an older age.

[@leobastian_]

Post-stream gang

[@osma77]

One main disagreement is that I have ALWAYS taken interstellar dominion. Agreed, it takes a bit of a strange playstyle to do well, but on at least commodore/admiral with a moderate amount of empires, I have always had a blast with it. Step 1: don't expand; put all your alloys into science ships (5-8) and explore the immediate area. If there is a nearby empire, beeline towards a choke-point and build a starbase. Step 2: at least temporarily get some increase to unity (such as adjusting your trade to give unity rather then full energy value). Step 3: when you get to interstellar dominion, have 2 constructors ready and explode your borders by taking over 20+ stars in under 10 min of playtime. So long as you dont have too many close neighbors, you can often expand into 50+ stars while your neighbors are still dealing with only 30 stars and 3-5 planets, depending on % habitability. And with the cost always being -20%, you can quickly and easily have the largest empire in the game before you even start conquering.

[@Heshla_Biea]

I like to get the species modification perks with lots of migration treaties. In my last game, I got a few species to be both psionic and cybernetic with the super traits.

[@maxmustermann5538]

in SP it is pretty easy to get that. In galaxy setup you put a driven assimilator with same species as your empire. So you can modify your species to thiers. And also setup a spiritualist empire and wait.

[@ratzfatz6880]

RP-wise when I take "become the crisis" I stop at level 4 and use the bonus to conquer the galaxy.

[@josecorchete3732]

About Gene-Mod: Arid-desert-savanna planets have more energy districts, continental-ocean-tropical more food and frozen-alpine-etc more mining, so make specific races guiding yourself with their preference.

[@morgansmith1529]

Clone vats have *some* use, I find when im playing a slaver empire, i usually dont get robot pops because they eat into my alloy production. Plus playing necrophage lets you grow your main species without sacrificing a building slot, granted it's, MUCH slower

[@bandkgrover]

My favorite empire build is easily technocracy oligarchy with meritocracy. Then I go down synth acension. I’m usually one of if not the most powerful empire.

[@indrickboreale7381]

Laughing in Fanatic Xenophobe synth empire

[@duross101]

Thank christ you show what they do in game. SOME people don't show that and boy does it make a huge difference reading it for yourself

[@Toxic_bnnuy]

One time I lost few ships with fallen empire tech (that I got by reverse engineering their ships... with artillery barrage) in battle against coalition and few years after they got flat +10-20K to their coalition fleet only from my wrecks, so enigmatic engineering kinda useful? Idk

[@lucasbischoff2268]

Yeah the AI definitely makes use of scanning debris, and having just 5 space battles with an enemy can mean giving them half of every military tech you have that's more advanced, practically for free. I like grabbing it so other empires can't mooch off of me for having better tech than them. Especially like you mentioned when you have special tech you can only get from reverse-engineering like dark matter power and dragonscale armor.

[@aronszabo5246]

Question: What if you time the end of cycle reckoning and the aetherophasic engine completion to the same day

[@onefastsled]

You win, End of Cycle doesn’t kill you, just destroys your worlds and places you elsewhere,

[@ProjectShamrock]

I think you're underselling bio-evolution and overselling synths. (not doing energy cause it's kind of messy and basically even) Clone vats are 3 assembly for 30 food. As you said the cost is ~3 farmer jobs or roughly 1:1 assembly per pop support. Robot plants are 2 assembly for 2 alloys, and a roboticist-pop. The cost is also about 3 jobs, roboticist + metallurgist + miner but provides 2 assembly. So robot plants are worse than clone vats from a growth efficiency perspective. Why not talk about fertile when looking at advanced perks? 30% pop growth -10% housing seems like something that shouldn't be skipped over. Especially since growth is way faster than assembly until a planet reaches its carrying capacity. Erudite + nat-engineers/physicists/sociologists are better researchers than any robot pop. Robust + Very strong + miners/agrarian/ingenous are only a little worse than min-maxed robot workers. The advanced perks are really strong and are not much micro. Especially when compared to having to manually move robots all over your empire cause they won't resettle. In a roundabout way bio-evolution also has perfect habitability so that's pretty even between bio and synth. Either change habitability through species mod or just stick a species on a non-habitable world and watch them mod themselves with Gene Tailoring (admittedly has some drawbacks). You also mention how clone vats suddenly require a bunch of farmers. Which is true. But going synth suddenly requires 0 farmers and way more energy which IMHO is a bigger econ disruption than needing extra farmers. Especially since clone vats can be phased one planet at a time while synths are one big swap.

[@assimilater-quicktips]

Minor correction: influence is useful for swapping edicts, reforming your government civics, or pushing through an expensive and somewhat unpopular measure in the galactic community as well as building / upgrading megastrures. It is still true however that late game you typically have adequate influence regardless

[@assimilater-quicktips]

Oh and of course resettlement but hopefully by then you have a stable economy and plenty of bonuses to automatic resettlement

[@boomersooner728]

Wait, how are you all getting so much influence? I am always up against the cap while claiming all of the systems around!

[@demoulius1529]

When it came to xeno compability perk I got an add for BBQ items from a local super market. I...dont know how to feel about that but the timing was perfect xD

[@SebHaarfagre]

25:33 You already get this just from picking the perk. The "Synthetic" function is what you unlock with the special project. This is why Synthetic Evolution is awesome with Ascended Clone Soldiers, not just because of all the other synergies, but also because you can get more robots etc. without losing the Clone Soldier trait. Edit: I also don't like Empire Sprawl because it _directly_ affects both research _AND_ unity negatively. I go for housing debuff when relevant, or -leader experience gain as they'll never be leaders, or +assembly cost for 2 points if I'm Clones since alloys are irrelevant then. If alloys do matter and you need -2 pts then yeah I guess it's some more sprawl.

[@emmanuel_40]

It's nice to go transcendence, and cause an AI uprising of assimilators to end up with psychic cyborgs.

[@DrTarte]

All I got is vanilla at the moment, but I've gotten to play with all the fun stuff with friends most of the time. These solo runs have definetly gotten to to appreciate Executive Vigor and Shared Destiny when there's no other better options.

[@solinvictus6562]

May i reccomend a lil piracy?

[@SebHaarfagre]

If you want to experience _true power of the force unleashed..._ do a Clone run. I'll do a quick formula down below. _Yeeeeesssssssssss....._ PROS: - unbeatable - fun - unique playthrough - lots'o fightin' - quick expansion CONS: - low planet development due to low pop/growth - little building and colonization interaction of meaningful value - extremely anticlimactic end - never getting to see some events or mechanics like Fallen Empires or other Crises Build: Clone Soldiers Fanatic Purifiers Improved Admirals Artificiers Venerated Something else to your liking, I chose intelligent Compensate with the negative growth from immigration and/or empire size penalty; you'll maximum get around maybe 125 ever at any point of that pop either way. Ascend your clones. Get robotics ASAP as well as all 5 vats, pref. spread out. Kill the nearest faction, congrats now you have endless food and minerals for the rest of the game Once they're ascended, with the Venerated, NEITHER of ANY of your leaders will die naturally before the game is over. You'll get lvl10 admirals by the game end. Further expanding on the other bonuses. Become cyborgs and then take Synthetic perk without activating the situation mission. Only when you finish that mission, you'll lose "Clone Soldier" but you get to keep the +production rates of robots. Now, you can go another route if you like because *HONESTLY* you only ever really need your clones, however it do be nice to have _some_ robot specialists and easier access to at least ONE pop to put as roboticist and do at least SOME planetary play. Also this leader lifespan bonus stacks and will ensure you even more OP leaders due to skill bonuses from XP and long lives. Oh, and modification reduction is nice. Many conquered world will have robots. You can specialize them and micro if you so like. Become The Crisis as soon as possible, it will bring NOTHING negative that you don't already have being Fanatic Purifier, and will stack _everything._ You can mount more and more _massive_ fleets while having _extreme_ reduction to their upkeep, all the while only ever needing to produce the special Crisis "Menacing" class of corvette/destroyer/cruisers, which field additional utility slots and unique setups which is great. Not even that, but... Menacing ships cost... *drum roll* MINERALS Minerals you get from forced labour! In the *thousands.* Alloys will be used ONLY for robot production and starbases. At this point I guess I don't have to say anymore, it's just a huge snowball. You don't even have to worry about reaching T5 Crisis early, to be honest. I did it while carefully timing it with opening the L-Gates. The Galaxy never stood even remotely a chance. Your Menacing ship builds are honestly perfect vs the Grey Tempest too. Did I mention that these ships are _ridicolously fast?_ Yeah that's all the different admiral and other traits too... I think one of my admirals had his fleet reach +200% fire rate. That's not twice but *THRICE* the damage output of a base fleet. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination and have fun. In my playthrough I also somehow spawned along with not one, but *TWO* other fanatic purifiers LOL. I "saved" one of them for last and they actually reached Crisis level 5 too somehow, and eliminated the last rebel free worlds that spawned off my then-to-finish Crisis war and I derped around afterwards. I like to believe, while we did war, that we both had the same goal, and now are warring eternally in this new mystical Shroud world lol. I do miss an opportunity for other Shroud events to see if there's anything special for Crisis and Psionics combo, however I can say that the Psionic Avatar spawnings are annoying but utterly insignificant. All they do is grant popup messages, they'll do _nothing_ to harm your empire at this point except repeatedly disable outposts. I played in a Huge galaxy, and gobbled up all the Fallen Empires before they were even close to activating. I considered it payback from all the humiliations they did. Not that influence ever was of any use either way, until some OCPD hole plugging/map painting with outposts near the end.

[@BadlyEquivalent]

I belive eternal vigilance needs to be higher tier, I’ve ran late game citadels that are strong enough to handle a decent majority of fleets on their own and handle anyone if they have a fleet backing them up

[@alexanderormwiklund]

Xeno comp being good is the thing i hate the most

[@kotzpenner]

It's a performance killer 😅

[@attila2246]

It could be the best perk in the game and I still wouldn't take it.

[@bobdole6691]

Its pretty hot ngl

[@indrickboreale7381]

@@kotzpenner It's the Xenophile crisis

[@TheRealWormbo]

@@kotzpenner Is it, though? Ultimately pops were the problem, right? Xeno Compatibility only spams the species list.

[@marcustulliuscicero5443]

The problem I have with Galactic Contender is that FEs and even AEs are really quite free because the AI sucks. Sure they don't have the kindergardener economic AI of normal empires, but they also are just as militarily illiterate as standard empires. Put all your fleets into a 500k death-ball and have the awakened empires feed you. Would be great of AEs would actually scale with crisis strength, because currently even healthy AEs get stomped by modest strength crises. (Perfect example from my last game: Doctrinal Enforcers who had taken about a fifth or so of a 1000 star galaxy either directly or through subjects got smashed to near-extinction by 4.5x Unbidden) Haven't actually picked Mastery of Nature ever since it no longer gave you all blocker techs for free, but I've been cooking up a memey super-tall megacorp build that would want to take it. Regarding Grasp the Void, always worthy to keep in mind that that's 180 Naval Cap *before modifiers*. Throw in Supremacist stance, A Grand Fleet Unity ambition, and Supremacy and that 180 NC gets a 60% bonus, bringing it to 288 Naval Cap. As for World Shaper, it is F-tier if you roll Baol. Even though Xenophile is my most-played ethos, I play with Xeno-Compatability disabled out of principle. That perk is so bugged it isn't even funny. For Master Builders, the President of a Research Cooperative gets another +1 Megastructure build cap, bringing the total to 4. Which means that they can construct all segments of a ringworld at the same time. I prefer Clone Vats to Assembly Plants for the simple reason that robots are a hot mess in the species tab. Still, the only case were I build them is filling up ecumenopolei. You also forget that the minerals the Metallurgist needs in order to produce the alloys have to come from somewhere. And while I agree that Synth-Ascension is still the strongest of the three paths, it doesn't let you do the fun stuff that Psionic and especially Bio-Ascension enables with Keepers of Knowledge/Holy Guardians Pops. Psionic Cyborgs or Psionics/Cyborgs with Super-Traits are really rather good pops. "You can not turn all your planets into Ecumenopolei." Challenge accepted, after all that's what my memey megacorp build will try to do. :D

[@TheKillerind]

It was just yesterday that I was looking for which ascension perks to get. On my current run I have two slots left. Will make the best of them.

[@Alister222222]

I would argue that more often than not, the Ecumenopolis perk is largely obsolete in 3.0.3. If you have a single relic world, it makes the perk useless since you aren't really going to be filling up multiple ecumeopoli. If the materialist fallen empire is in your galaxy, you also won't need it since you can take the fallen empire's. The way pop growth works now, you are really not going to be able to fill up more than a couple of ecumenopoli, and by the time you can build your own, your own growth has probably dried up and you would need to get the pops from somewhere else which is just a pain and not necessarily worth the tradeoff (e.g. you might as well leave the pops working where they are). I would rate this perk a B at best, for the niche situation where you can't get an ecumenopolis elsewhere, and maybe even a C. Another reason ecumenopoli are worse than they were, is that you used to be able to build foundry districts to get a bunch of alloy jobs instead of building alloy buildings, which would free up the planetary building slots for say, research labs. Now, though, all planets get their alloy jobs through districts, planets have fewer total building slots, and research labs have fewer jobs, so ecumenopoli are hardly any better than any planet for spamming research buildings (or anything other than manufacturing), and arguably worse. Sure, they grow faster, but they are just one planet and they are a lot of work :( I would take five normal planets over an ecumenopolis most of the time, and a ringworld (which will give you 100 researcher jobs, or up to 400 researcher jobs if you count all the segments) any day of the week. EDIT: Will also add that AFAIK, megastructure build speed is increased on ringworlds, but not for ecumenopoli decisions, so you can build ringworlds pretty fast. For the lols I generally start building them next to my protectorates, then give them to my protectorates so they can grow their populations for a few decades, ready to be integrated back later on in the game. (Which, considering they grow about 10x faster than I do at that point, only seems to make sense).

[@johnpanaguiton7738]

I always play a supremacist, Human empire in my games which is a mix of Classical Romans and Starcraft Terrans, so Mind Over Matter and Transcendence are my go to picks for Ascensions. Yes, not as effective as the other Robotic based Ascendances, but still very good. Plus it gives me easier access to Psi Shields and Psionic Hyperdrives. With those, you are nearly unstoppable. Gambling with the Shroud is nice too.

[@Rougepelt]

Eternal vigilance works well for mid-late game on Grand Admiral when combined with Tech rush, the trick is to have a gateway in or next to the choke point systems and move a small-medium fleet of battleships to supplement the stations firepower. Generally by 2300 the stations are pretty much invulnerable to every threat save the FE, and by 2350 even FE and the crisis have a hard time overwhelming them. It’s just that period of a 1-2 decades in the later mid-game that they can’t stand alone, once you get a few levels of repeatables you can pretty much turtle up if that’s your thing. I personally like to provoke the FE into attacking and use my current max fleet, plus the home defence unity edict (forget the name), as this wipes out their fleets well before you would otherwise be able to with fleets alone. Then reverse engineer the tier VI techs and go take out their core worlds. I’ll generally go to war in the early game to ensure defensible borders later on.

[@Crow4o]

I love this game. Stellaris is the pinnacle of strategy games. And I love the developers, those guys are absolutely amazing. We clearly see how good a game can be when developers listen to the playing community.

[@hurleveur9606]

I actually managed to have free defence platforms (ruler with fortifier perk 33%, supremacy traditions 33+10%, be FP, DE or DS 15%, have a governor with -10% ship cost (retired naval officer which you can swap in just to recruit the ships btw), and the ruler with military pioneer would give another 10%) note : you don't need all of this they account for 111% but the more of this you get the more value you have I know some of those leader traits are not likely and not everyone takes FP or such but it's still possible to have those for free (and you know what that means... I tried it tough it doesn't generate much alloys except if you build for cheap and then swap leader)

[@mbos14]

The assembly plant vs cloning vat is something i think that needs more looking at. Also the robots can live on all planets tends to lose value the more the game goes on cause a lot of growth bonusses just dont apply to them and organic will have problem growing on those worlds anyway if you dont terraform. Before i break it down. I know there are ways to get minerals that dont require jobs. Food has too and both can get bonus to harvesting depending on planet luck. Robots: 1 miner, 2/3 metallurgist and 1 Roboticist Assembly speed 2 Assembly speed per pop 1,33 Improved by flesh is weak +10% pop assembly(but why compare if you wanne go robots anyway) Cloning vats: 5 farmers Assembly speed 3 Assembly speed per pop 1,67 Impoved by (this is per job)Medicalworkers +5% organic assembly speed, +5% pop growth, +5 Amenities, + 2,5% Habitability This is all only using base values nothing special added.(stacking the right bonusses robots will win out, i think. Ergo alloy foundry, ministary of production and edicts, but that just gets to wild for me to wanne calculate) Also in my personal playstyle i tend to drop a medical building first before other amentie buildings, while it gives less amenties the other bonusses make it worth it in my opinion. I'm sure someone has a spreed sheet or maybe someone will put more time into this then me. but im leaving it at this. Ohh and you forgot rapib breeder trait as a trait you get from the organinc ascension path.

[@archael7807]

As for consecrated worlds - this is quite strong perk when spawned next to spiritualist fallen empire. Their holy worlds are great candidats to consecrate by your own, consecrating 3 gaias will gives you 25% unity and spiritualist ethic attraction, and 15% amenities which can help a lot, also consecrating at least 1 gaia will pleased your spiritualist faction, which will increase your influence gain, and pop happiness.

[@bartekmaliszewski4775]

That was nice stream

[@grantwithers]

I still like to make ringworlds in empty systems around my homeworld so as to make fortress worlds in the event of invasion, FTL blocking + fortress world = stopped enemy, and you can make the ringworld anywhere with huge fortress amounts. Tho you can also use habitats.

[@garosr2928]

The best part about synths is how organized the species tab becomes.

[@StanHowse]

I'm sure a God somewhere has said the same thing.

[@assimilater-quicktips]

I think you're extremely over valuing executive vigor, but not because the edicts are bad. More so that admin capacity is extremely cheap these days. One building per planet for beaurocrats or a planet or two dedicated to beaurocracy with some governor and colony designation bonuses will give you more admin cap than you know what to do with

[@EleaticStranger]

Solid list my dude, and you're not wrong about Transcendent Learning, but it's good you point out that it's solid if you have immortal leaders, or even if you just jack up leader lifespan to a few hundred years. Having an immortal or quasi-immortal leader and multiple governors at 10+ skill level has a powerful effect on an empire overall, and this effect grows stronger as the game goes on. For that reason, I quite like Transcendent Learning. (But yes, it still sucks overall for the reasons you mention.)

[@Arthaen]

The immortality from the synth ascension isn't that worthwhile. In the late game there's a repeatable tech that increases leader lifespan. In one game I was able to research that faster than 5 years, and icnreased my tech output to outpace the increased cost. It meant my biological pops were immortal because I was increasing their life span faster than they were using it up.

[@shadezman]

Once I made elven-like humanoid race with +80 years lifespan and none of my leaders died from age. Even the ones that I hired at the beginning. They became immortal just by reaserching longer lifespan every 5 years

[@hendrik1769]

Whenever I go for psyonic ascension, I try to get a migration pact with an empire that has synth ascension. I let them turn my species into cyborgs, and then I have them migrate back into my empire and assimilate them to get psyonic cyborgs.

[@MonsieurJo]

You can t psionicly assimilate cyborg but you can cyborgyze psionic pop. Best to use driven assimilator.

[@FalconRS]

I will always defend Imperial Prerogative as a second ascension perk. At the time when every piece of technology and every mineral-rich system counts, 20% is a lot. I would buff it to 30%, but it's still decent choice. Others from first set, aside from Technological Ascendancy, are worse or terrible.

[@DarkCrimsonBlade]

Hey Stefan I noticed you “missed” a bonus the cyborg trait gives. It gives 10% army damage and we all know how important something like that is.

[@MsGreenlamp]

Disliked just for that.

[@sirgaz8699]

Cloning Vats Vs Robot Assembly plants Cloning vats has 2EC and 30 food, which is 1/3 a technician and 5 farmers with no techs and that's basically 2 'n' a lil bit farmers with techs and building boosts for +3 organic assembly Robot Plants is 5EC and 2 alloys. 2/3rds a metallurgist, 1 miner, 1 technician and 1 pop to run the assemble plant and with techs and buildings that's 1/2 a metallurgist, 1/2 a miner, 1/2 a tech and 1 pop to run the plant for +2 robot assembly. 5.33 to 2.5 pops for +3 Organic assembly Vs 3.66 to 2.5 for +2 Robotic assembly 1.8 to .85 pops per 1 Organic assembly Vs 1.83 to 1.25 pops per Robotic assembly The cloning vats's better IMO but you do get Robots a lot earlier.

[@dozergaming5143]

I usually start with technological advances (or whatever its called I haven't played for over a month), and its really dope. I also learned that mid game genetically modified warriors have better damage and morale stats then the titan units, which I find weird but I figure that a bunch of space marines would probably do better then just one giant boi.

[@Fallenangel_85]

If you take interstellar dominion first you can get plenty of mileage out of it, especially if you can stack it on top of other bonis. With the amazing 50% more output edicts Influence early on is very important. You can even not expand until you have the perk, unless there is amazing systems next door.

[@Prentyss]

Hi Stefan, thankx for your work! It helped me a lot to improve my skills on Stellaris. why don't you put science trait on your robot ascended pops?

[@Stefan_Anon]

Whenever I synth ascend, Im not far off of war, so I prefer the energy trait. If you stay peaceful, science is better

[@sessmurda]

One other empire that leader bonuses works well for (if you stack them) is lithoid necrophages. If you research the techs as they come up, and take either cyborg or genetic mastery, your leaders will easily reach 200+ years expected lifespan, which is on par with the immortal but possible breakdown leaders of machine empires. Edit: Nihilistic Acquisition also lets you take pre-FTL species without the malus. If you colonize a world where you take every pop (you can take every pop, the tooltip lies), any devastation is cleared. Can be really powerful for necroids or any start with a lot of primitives.

[@sahibmujabee1177]

Eternal vigilance is solid IMO, 150K power starbase can really hold itself on choke points evenate game. The only problem is jump drive but then again the enemy will risk -50% damage And 20% extra sprawl is good if you are playing genocidal expansionist warmonger. You would want all sprawl you can get if you want to have 100% of the galaxy without massive penalty

[@huankunxu8308]

I would reconsider Technological Ascendancy and Interstellar Dominion’s ranking. Over the course of 100 years, Technological Ascendancy's +10% research speed will add up to about one extra T4 technology in every category, while Interstellar Dominion will have saved you about 1000 influence. Even though influence isn’t bottleneck anymore, you should still take in account early game rush play style that always short on influence.

[@Perrirodan1]

Grasp the void also allows you to build more Deep space black sites if you can't have a station above every planet. The deep space blacksite adds +5 stab and the increase in gov ethic increase the happiness of your pop .

[@xaleypoo4779]

Not from Xeno Compatibility, but from an event, I got a half breed subspecies. The original other species had a bunch of negative traits, but the half breed didn't have any and gained Enduring from my species, which was funny to me because the other species had Fleeting.

[@HoiPolloiNtertains]

The Colossus is now SS with the new Aquatics DLC. Using the Colossus to not only get the CB but convert enemy planets to ocean worlds and killing all pops that aren’t considered aquatic is insanely powerful. The planet survives, with total war you automatically get that system, and you don’t have to spend energy or wait a long time to convert the planet to an ocean planet. I really hope the devs continue making unique play styles like this.

[@englishjake]

I think you underate bio ascension slightly there's the perk for pop growth and putting aside tediousness if you specialize specific races to specific planets and have specific planet specialities. You become unstoppable pretty quick the main draw back is patience.

[@owlthemolfar4690]

Thank you for the video! GG Tier kilked me!

[@phantomcreator4243]

You overlooked a rather powerful effect you can get from universal transactions. commercial pacts produce resources equal to 10% of your trade value, and in larger galaxies this means you can get a significantly larger number of commercial pacts without sacrificing the ability to, say, construct more trade habitats. As a result, your trade spam ability can actually improve relative to a merchant guilds empire if you take it after the point where you have met everyone.

[@jaredandersen8312]

I have actually found Ringworlds to be very useful when I create ringworlds I buy as many pops as I can off the slave market and dump them on the ringworlds turning them into either commercial or Agriculture districts which they then start to produce massive amounts of either energy and consumer goods or lots of food which then I can sell and buy more slaves producing more recourses leaving me with a powerful empire

[@archmagemc3561]

For Synthetic Age its basically worth a global 5% production to everything. Essentially the new robot meta is Logic Engines, Superconductive, Mass Produced, Luxurious, and High Bandwith. You normally only get 3 mod points from technologies so the extra 2 from synth age lets you remove Luxurious and let you run Efficient Processors for a global 5% production boost. Its essentially as good as the first tier in Synthetic Ascension, but thats where it ends.

[@complex314i]

I always wanted special benefits with mix and match with the level 1 ascension at the cost being locked out of level 2.

[@ordinant2504]

When it comes down to the clone vats I feel as though you were a smidge unfair. The food upkeep can be pretty easily supplemented with Hydroponic Farms, which only have an upkeep of 1 energy for 10 food, and now its just a matter of having a station room and less so about the pops.

[@Alexander-bc8dh]

Eteneral Vigilance does have uses in late game too. Of course fleets are always superior, but a maxed out starbase with the right platforms and a fortress planet, can be a real pain for everybody and give valuable time to react. At least Tier B i would expect. Excutive Vigor as S is not understandable but, well everybody perceives things differently.