Stellaris Machine Traits Tier List

[@KaliFortuna]

I’d love to see some empire builds, especially based around Origins and the more empire-defining civics like Slaver Guilds and Assimilators.

[@TempestLM]

Would be nice to see something with Spiritualist too

[@nihilvox]

I once played an empire that was... Spiritualist/Xenophobe, Determined Exterminators, Remnants origin (that's the one with the relic world start, right?) They used to be a space-faring race, got blown back to the dark ages by other empires, and rebuilt their entire culture around how, "Our ancestors dwelled in the heavens as gods, until they were cast down by the demons among the stars". ...Then they got space-faring technology again, and set off on a holy mission to rid their galaxy of the monsters that wronged their ancestors.

[@mgeldarion58]

@@nihilvox Determined Exterminators can't be organics, that'd be Fanatic Purifiers.

[@dzzykzzy8683]

Pop assembly cost is definitely a legacy trait from back when you had to spend 100 minerals to make a robot.

[@peterknutsen3070]

One thing to note is that Housing abundance is an effect of the devs making City Districts open up Building slots (in 3.0 IIRC?), causing players to construct lots of them for reasons other than wanting more Housing. I.e. the devs will eventually take a look at Housing, in order to turn it into a meaningful game mechanic again.

[@alexandererhard2516]

Yeah you need up to 5 City Districts to unlock every building slot (at least as an organic empire, I'm not sure how Gestalts and their capitals work) 1 is the capital, 4 from a max level capital, 2 from tech is what you are guaranteed to get without civics or Traditions. That's 7, so you need up to 5 City Districts.

[@LtShadowKitsune]

Curious to see how they'll go about this. I'm hoping they go the route of giving us more civics that unlock a build slot for building X districts. They could even go with unlock a building slot for building Y number of buildings. I see this as a good way of making some civics relevant without being grossly overpowered. Sure it means builds without such civics likely have more housing than they need, but the civics would be turning that into a choice. You ether go with something that lets you minimize how many housing districts you need to unlock buildings slots or you don't. Only other option would be to rethink how we get housing and I'm not entirely sure how they would do that.

[@peterknutsen3070]

@@alexandererhard2516 You can't wait for those Techs to unlock 2 Building slots, nor can you wait for the Tech to upgrade your Capital Building to the highest possible level, so in practice you're going to construct 8 City Districts, to make sure all slots are unlocked. That's a *lot* of Housing.

[@slipknottin]

I can’t figure out why you can’t integrate robots to make them all your main species. Instead you end up with like 30 different robot species with the same traits. Doesn’t make any sense.

[@lewiswood1437]

I think it's a engine limitation

[@kuronanestimare]

Robots are created as a New Species in the game engine instead of using a template. We do have Necroids, but this effect has not yet been translated into Robots for Gods know why.

[@0ptera]

That and the lack of modding points for non machine empire robots makes me nuke planets rather than occupy.

[@lewiswood1437]

@@0ptera I used to hate the idea of planet killers for role play reasons. Then I did a become the crisis playthrough and I can't go back. I WILL reduce lag through any means necessary!

[@LordDarthHarry]

@@lewiswood1437 Tell that to Necroids.

[@smokinggnu6584]

You should totally play a campaign with only the F tier traits from the various tier lists you've made and put it on here for us to enjoy your suffering.

[@ryannguyen7466]

After reading some scifi manga, I think it's time we need an upgrade version of "emotion emulators". I propose "machine waifu" as official perks cuz why not.

[@stripelordsteve]

Shut!

[@롤케익]

Indeed

[@AsrielDreemurYT653]

Are you ok?

[@guardianofthetoasters2323]

This is... *disturbing*

[@sincereflowers3218]

Lmao "Machine Waifu's" trait _creepy flavor text_ Grants +25% cybernetic pop assembly speed so long as you keep the amenities pumping 😂

[@LeDucce]

Amazing video! I just recently bought my friends stellaris and Now that they know how to play, I wanna play a machine intelligence and go against them!

[@arodreth]

get driven assimilators. You can re-sell them the cyborgized pops you've assimilated, just to spite them xD bonus points if they're spiritualists.

[@MontuPlays]

I hope you both have a great time

[@jameshildebrand907]

@@arodreth bruh... 🤣

[@Sephiroth36977]

@@arodreth do that anyway. You can add Cybernetics to pops that already have Psionic with no penalty

[@arodreth]

@@Sephiroth36977 yeah, they make great leaders to be frank.

[@midnightstudio3742]

Thank you Montu, you deserve more subscribers for your hard work!

[@guardianofthetoasters2323]

That's a nice pic may I know the sauce?

[@tunakx]

Thank you Montu! Would love to see a few trait combinations/builds after the tierlist to really understand what goes together. Like Emotion, Superconductor... for positives and high bandwidth ... etc. for negatives.

[@MontuPlays]

That could be a great video! If you want it, I will try to make it

[@TempestLM]

Well, usually everything that is good goes together well. If you get those high tier negatives, you can get 3 high tier positives and it certainly will be good

[@tunakx]

@@TempestLM Ofcourse, I meant for when to pick Resorceful over others when to drop certain traits etc. But in general just pick the best ones.

[@ShaneTrain573]

Hey Montu, just wanted to say that, as a new player who just starting playing Stellaris about a week ago or so, your guides and tier lists have been an absolute boon. You do a really good job of explaining things in a concise yet easy to digest manner for a newcomer, and I feel like I've really come a long way from when I started thanks to your videos! And of course, your DLC ranking helped me make the right choices during the steam winter sale for DLC. I really hope you keep going with these tier lists, and I'd like to echo the sentiment for some more build order type guides. I watched your clone army video and I thought it was quite informative and interesting, but I almost wouldn't mind seeing a kind of, "beginner build guide" that is relatively easy to execute and strong for people just picking up the game. Not meta defining by any means, but sort of an introduction to combining traits/civics/traditions/etc together, a good foundation to build off of. Love your vids Montu, keep em coming!

[@klankungen7794]

I've found domestic protocol useful in some games since the robots create jobs out of thin air making my specialized planets slightly more efficient since they can focus a bit more on the recourse they specialize on making instead of having a building that makes amenities. but if I don't get the tech fast enough you are completely right that I will have to focus on making my regular pops better at making amenities before domestic protocol becomes an option making it obsolete and only useful way later.

[@MallowTS]

Really enjoy your content, would love to see another series of videos that involve certain gameplay situations. Mostly involving war and handling how to survive multiple wars at the same time, as well as (and if I’ve missed it forgive me) a break down of all the empire options, edicts, policies etc. something along the lines of DO ALL OF THIS BEFORE YOU UNPAUSE THE GAME.

[@MontuPlays]

If you watch my Stelalris Guide 3.0 (1) video, I think I go through all the things you should do at the start before unpausing (as a regular bio empire, but most of it works for otehr empires). It also tells you how to build a colony ship on the second month!

[@MallowTS]

@@MontuPlays it is a video I have watched, and I remember it decently enough, I just love the format of having these focused episodes you put out. Gives me something to reference easily rather than a giant video. Thanks for the reply, looking forward to more of your content in the future.

[@extraintelligence]

You know, one of these days, they're going to release a "bottom feeders" DLC who can only grow by taking a special "refuse" resource from other pops, and you're going to have to make a tier or build video where you have to say "if you're enjoying this video, please crap on that like button."

[@MontuPlays]

I look forward to that day with glee

[@taltamir]

I have found a use for custom made in a bio ascended empire. cloning is mutually exclusive with robot assembly (for some odd reason). So your robot pop growth drops down to 0 as a bio ascended. At which point you might as well redesign your robots to focus on current ability over growth rate. Taking custom made (slower to build) and luxurious (more expensive to build) is effectively free points by then.

[@joehelland1635]

Ive conquered an entire huge galaxy on Admiral (this current patch) Without even researching up to cruisers. Alloy production spam and not spending time claiming empty systems with construction ships (only grabbing choke points around your core world cluster) then going full war on each ai that you run across as fast as you run into them is op. Just make sure you have 4-6 fleets of corvettes before attacking (you should have the alloys if you dont claim to many systems and dont build researcher labs) Always keep energy and mineral income around +40 if possible but dont stress if you go negative on both when going over fleet cap prior to war declaration. Good list of traits tho overall.

[@TheIT221]

Ya rushing for choke points and closing the borders is really underrated, I’ve had games where I just make a couple of defensive pacts and after fully securing those cut off systems, I would be like 3x a normal player’s size

[@KudzuHaiku]

Domestic protocols is a fine trait if your empire are a bunch of pleasure seekers that doesn't like slavery. There's a niche! There is always a niche.

[@Awesomewithaz]

Domo arigato, Mr. Robo-montu

[@AntonKrinichniy]

One more point. Those +15% to food/min/energy production traits are better than you put then IMHO and should be treated as equally valuable if you're not afraid of just a little micromanagement. Creating 3 types of robots farmers/miners/technicians and assembling them on corresponding worlds is way too powerful to neglect

[@MontuPlays]

That is a level of micro that even I will never try to do. It is just painful (imo)

[@AntonKrinichniy]

@@MontuPlays Ofc it's impossible in multiplayer, but completely doable in singleplayer. I see nothing difficult in setting the appropriate type to assemble in a specific world. Once in a while, it messes up a bit, so usually, I go for reengineering my robots. What do I mean by that is when I get the +1 robot trait I go for 3 projects of upgrading my robots but not just one. And, since all of the colonies have names like farm/mine/power it's pretty easy to upgrade them in a specific way on selected worlds I dunno, to me it seems like messing with bureaucrats and admin cap to get traditions faster is much more of a hassle than robot specialization. You specialize your colonies anyway, so why not bring it to a new level? :)

[@TheIT221]

@@AntonKrinichniy I’m pretty sure in the right side where the planets are there’s a button that shows the planet as the designated type, could be a lifesaver with microing like you

[@AntonKrinichniy]

@@TheIT221 Yes, but I just name them in a very boring and practical way - Mine/Farm/Power.

[@dustrockblues7567]

My specialized robots always automatically resettle to a planet with jobs they are terrible at, so I don't bother trying anymore.

[@KnownNiche1999]

Small correction: Harvesters are no longer Mechanical-restricted, it was a leftover bug from the era when Machine Intelligence didn't have food at all, whih they fixed recently

[@MrMarinus18]

I usually put on efficient processors later. Initially just energy and/or minirals. But when I upgrade the robots and have more trait points I replace one with efficient processors. Part of the price of efficient processors comes from special resources of specialist jobs and that doesn't matter if robots can't yet work those jobs.

[@OGSaltBreaker]

I've somewhat found a use for the servitude trait in a spiritualist empire with pleasure seekers / corporate hedonism. it's probably not great, but it has a function.

[@rofltehcat]

Montu plays Mechanist -> I try out Mechanist. I don't know how to modify my robots -> Montu makes a video. -> I have to watch and upvote. I feel manipulated but please keep it coming!

[@MontuPlays]

Montu *cackling*: "Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design!"

[@rofltehcat]

@@MontuPlays Are you actually a rogue servitor? I feel pampered but in a weird way like I'm not in control!

[@marcosmauricio7805]

Great video as always. I can't help feeling like I'm watching Spiffing Brit whenever I watch one of your videos haha

[@elischrock5356]

Thanks for this. You reached all the same conclusions I already had, but it feels good to know I'm not the only one. Might be doing something right.

[@maxterhex]

I always try to enact all laws with bonuses (except spiritualist branch, of course, and ecolological very often) in galactic community, so my sinth pop's need some additional happyness. Thru traits also.

[@oldmandan7118]

I was just looking for a video like this from this channel. Awesome timing!

[@MontuPlays]

That is very lucky haha

[@DimensionalWanderer]

One thing to note about logic engines, is that if you are a driven assimilator, you should have your organic pops work research so you can the 15% boost from natural engineers(or whatever else, but it's the best) on top of intelligent for more research.

[@philip8498]

"i loathe having population that makes food" i didnt know montu was every dictator in history ever...

[@paradox7358]

How fortuitous. I'm about to start a multiplayer game this weekend as a machine empire.

[@MontuPlays]

Good luck!

[@neithermonk6024]

7:59 If you loathe Harvesters, then you're really going to despise the two habitats I have dedicated to food production in my Void-Dweller empire.

[@alexandererhard2516]

Oh yeah, food with Void Dwellers :-( At same point you really want to get another species to settle a planet and make food there.

[@neithermonk6024]

@@alexandererhard2516 Sure, if this wasn't being RPd as Zeon environmentalists wanting everyone to move to space. So none of the ten planets I've turned into Gaia worlds are to be colonized, even when the Caretaker FE tells me it would be a good idea to.

[@mb-electricalservices]

Perfect timing Montu! 😎👌

[@MontuPlays]

I hope it helps!

[@joshuajoshepson8204]

Good video, the moment I saw pop grow perk I understand that was the best perk, unrelated to the video, I would like to see a necroid video, with the correct perks it feels like space vampires with superpowers, and the joy you feel when you see a primitive species knowing that you will obliterate them to grow your pop and expand your empire

[@chasehammond9308]

I have more than 1000 hours in this game and I absolutely love it when I see a youtube guide saying I've accidentally been playing on hard mode

[@TheIT221]

This is unrelated to the machine stuff, but two video ideas that would be great is Rare resource management like what worlds to put production of it on, if you prioritize pops on those jobs or instead on other resources, other ways to get rare resources than planets and systems, etc, as it is hard to know what is needed to maintain the income Plus maybe visiting what buildings are worth those rare resources The other idea is to rework the pirate video, as from what I know it just said use gateways, but if your a big empire spanning at least a 1/4 of the medium galaxy, it would be hard to build starbases/gateways everywhere, so it could be cool to visit how to deal with piracy with fleets, like the amount of corvettes to patrol (max piracy value for the route or something under), how long patrols in systems should be (number of recommended systems) the best distance between star bases to deal with piracy the best, etc

[@zetarhythm3503]

For RP reasons, I like to run custom-built, luxurious, and emotion emulators on my synthetics - the idea is that synths in my empires are "biologically" distinct from one another, much like their creators.

[@Athari8178]

As someone who primarily plays machine intelligence empires, enhanced memory at the start of the game can be helpful if you aren't prioritizing unity at the start of the game. I'm not sure it's the best start in the game, but it might be more survivable for a determined exterminator or driven assimilator.

[@MaxHaydenChiz]

I'm looking forward to your having to redo all of this over again in a few months once the admin cap rework drop.

[@iRedEarth]

Something I've been doing is having a template the used pro "building" traits, and bad upkeep traits, and other templates for "working" traits, which I will retrofit existing pops into. Since your first available robots have limited traits available you'll likely want to upgrade them anyway. Is this a good idea though? I'm wondering if I should just leave old bots as lesser pops rather than pay for the upgrade, and/or design them to be their final form right out of the box.

[@ImperiousKaiser]

Keep up the good work, Ive learnt so much from watching your videos. Something that would be cool would be if you could do something explaining the benefits of some of the niche world types like penal colony (if there are any)

[@AlipheeseFateburnXVI]

I actually make use of recycled by the time I hit mid-game or shortly after, especially if I have more than 10 planets, both as machine intelligence and as synths. I split my pops into two variants, where I have one variant with Recycled and Mass Produced, and whatever negative traits I need to fit that, if any. Then my second species has things like Conductive, the science boost, and emotion emulators (and the 10%happiness one if synths). Then I just go over my planets, force them to only assemble the variant with the assembly modifiers, and then later on convert them with species modification. While it may not be the best in terms of science, by the time I hit midgame I'm already getting close to repeatables, and I find a larger need for alloys to flesh out my navy to keep me safe by that point, so I don't mind the tradeoff.

[@TheLordofFury]

i like these vids, you break down exactly why you think how each trait can effect the empire

[@MontuPlays]

I hope you find it helpful as well as entertaining!

[@TheLordofFury]

@@MontuPlays indeed, thank you for doing the mental athematic so i don't have to.

[@pmuttenthaler]

Do you have a more recent video? I was curious about Adaptive Frames when I was looking for a robot trait video. Also, Luxurious changed to a +20% roboticists upkeep, so would that change its position on your list?

[@amirali4428]

Hello montu. That was a nice tier list. Tbh i wanted to pick your brain for something. what do you think is better for driven assimulator: 1-Prosperous unification+ organic pops 2- resource consolication + lithoid pops(100% habitability 3- resource consolidation+ organic pops+ super adaptive(70% habitability for machine world)

[@MontuPlays]

you can actually do alright with the organic pops on a resource consolidate world without the supr adaptive, just move them all off-world once you have colonies, but keep 1 around for the pop growht of course!

[@MontuPlays]

Don't go driven Assimilator & lithoid

[@evanstrong6239]

Another amazing video as always your one of if not my favorite KZbinr can't wait till you make it big

[@MontuPlays]

Wow, that's really high praise. Lovely to hear you're enjoying my videos. Thanks for your support!

[@evanstrong6239]

@@MontuPlays anytime

[@l.a.3680]

I use different robots for energy/mining/farming. I don't have to micro that much because i only use specialized robots on specialized planets, and later when i switch to Efficient Processors, i simply don't upgrade my old robots. It's the "microing without microing"-approach.

[@Sephiroth36977]

Emotion Emulators at S rank surprised me but I understand your reasoning and would have saved myself a colony uprising or two if I used it more. I feel vindicated for High Bandwidth and Luxurious, I use both together frequently for that sweet 4 points refund. My first Robot empire was a Synthetic Ascension Mechanist empire and I had the neat idea to have different planets specialize in different robot production. I had 3 different templates for Energy, Minerals, and Research, however, since all three templates had Efficient Processors the game seemed to only use that for job placement. Quickly the micromanagement became hellish as I had Research bots as Miners and Mineral bots as different Specialists and I STILL had my biological pops making it more complicated. Pick one template, or pick one template per planet and specialize production that way. Early game in particular, most of my mineral income seems to be from Space not from planet side. Less impressed by Power Drills, but thats why its B Teir. My go to template has become Efficient Processors, either Logic Engines or Superconductive, High Bandwidth, Luxurious, and then whatever else I can fit depending if I'm Mechanical or Machine Intelligence.

[@erfarkrasnobay]

Also you could have few robot templates. One with fast assembly and cheap build upkeep and another with all your utility picks and once per few decades just update builded robots to another level

[@thierrygrise254]

I would really like to have a video explaining how and why mining jobs are not extremely important. How do you fill the need of your alloy and consumer goods industries without a lot of them?

[@TempestLM]

Buy from market?

[@nickzumwalde1702]

The first 52 minerals you buy a month cost 1.3 energy credits each to buy, and won't raise the price. Technicians produce 6 energy base to miners 4 minerals. This means that it is more efficient to buy minerals than to produce them for the first 52 a month. Focusing energy also allows you to focus energy techs and use your engineering research on more important things by skipping mineral techs. Eventually you will need miners. Gestalts need them way earlier than bio empires, but energy is still better where possible early game.

[@rbarkley6500]

mining stations, as mineral deposits are extremely plentiful

[@Sarum9nich]

Durable also decreases consumer goods upkeep. Very nice if your entire population are synths under utopian abundance. With all the discounts to robot upkeep - you can get utopian abundance to something like 0.45 consumer goods per pop.

[@mitchellkrever421]

Please make a tier list for leaders. I haven't seen tier list for leaders ANYWHERE. I know its kind of obvious which leaders are good like Intellectual Governors or Cautious Admirals but it would be nice to see...

[@DoesRocksFloat]

Baseline admirals: Trickster->Cautious->Aggressive->Gale Speed->Engineer->Scout->Unyielding->Eager Fleet composition also should play into an admiral’s strength. Like destroyer fleet for tricksters for that hit and run tactics.

[@andycoolguy1]

I'd love to see where High Bandwith ends up after 3.3

[@MontuPlays]

Honestly, the same place. Its still a net positive to take high bandwidth and the +10% research output trait

[@Commander_Boreale]

​@@MontuPlays why tho? If you have 500 pops, you get -50 Empire Size from Streamlined Protocols, thats basically 5 free colonies/+10% unity gain and +5% research speed for your entire Empire. Its useless in early game, but by mid game its basically an autopick. The alternative is Durable, which with 500 pops would only give you +50 energy and +50 consumer goods, which is nothing, as with Masterful Crafters you will overflow your Empire with consumer goods. With a synth Empire, you are supposed to have two types of templates: one for assembly and one for your already existing pops. When you get enough trait points, you pick +5 for all jobs, +10 research/+15 food/minerals/energy/unity depending on the colony specialization and -10 Empire SIze + Luxurious and modify your entire species. Then you create a template thats meant for assembly and slap in +15 assembly instead of -10 empire size, and put Bulky instead of High Bandwith, as housing not going to be much of an issue since Prosperity is an autopick tradition tree.

[@xeanderman6688]

Jesus that movie... that is some strong childhood nostalgia up there

[@l4rgo911]

The "Recycled Parts" Ethic does sound bad, but it assumes that you'd keep it on the machine. What 8 like to do is have my factory produce them with this trait, then convert them later to the actual traits I want (INCLUDING luxurious). It does cut into Engineering tech which could be a problem, but it's easier to do later on when you have little else to research.

[@johnthecrazedsskull81]

I'm currently playing as a civilisation who have become robots, I want to say the best tactic is to specialise one robot into resources and another into research. The only problem is if you don't have slave guilds or Corvee civics then you will spend influence on moving a researcher bot out of a worker job when unemployment hits.

[@therealbahamut]

One thing I think would help balance traits out is if the scale of trait points were stretched out a bit. Everything has to be 1-4 points. That doesn't leave much wiggle room in valuing traits against each other. There are 1-point traits which are noticeably better than other 1-points but not as good as a 2 point for example, but there's no room to express that on a 4 point scale. I'm all in favor of keeping numbers down to manageable scales but perhaps traits need a little more room to breathe so they can be properly valued.

[@AntonKrinichniy]

Great video, thanks! But! I strongly disagree with the recycled-luxurious point you're making. Once I research robots I start assembling robots on each and every planet/habitat I have. Since it happens pretty early in the game it cripples my alloy gain AF. You either have to increase your alloy production (which is NOT a priority cuz you're tech rushing and need amenities and CG way more) or reduce the number of robot assembling worlds to just a few. Thus, since you absolutely need to produce robots as cheaply as possible and as fast as possible in the early game, it seems to me you underrated recycled trait. On the other hand, later on, recycled is crap, yes.

[@filipwolffs]

I split my machine species into two groups. One group has all three the A-tier positive traits and Luxurious for the required points. The second group has Logic Engines swapped out for Mass-Produced and Bulky instead of Luxurious. My planets only produce the second group and periodically I dedicate engineering research to converting them to the first group. Maybe sacrificing engineering research isn't the best option but I figure it's not too bad an idea to get rid of the Mass-Produced trait once the pop has already left the assembly line.

[@l_ArAxus_l]

Engineering research are the most valuable in the game, so this sounds fun, interactive and somewhat interesting but not that optimal I guess. But I will try myself same strategy when I'll play machine next time)

[@mcgunboat8339]

Can you review the traits and maybe civics from the Machine & Robot Expansion mod?

[@Anabiosised]

I love playing as machine races, but sometimes i also like to try an organic pop or two but i usually end up losing fairly early on. If you could make a tutorial on a mechanist evolution to synths id like that!

[@Ector-iu5yb]

I really appreciate all your efforts into making tutorials. If you could also make some gameplays, i'll be the first to watch them!

[@mochiboot6502]

good video but for the tier list UI, i suggest shrinking your legend/key by about 50%

[@duelingdragons82]

Have you done any videos on weapons and equipment you can only get from events? Things like the Null Void Beam. I just started playing the game and am loving it. Thanks for all the help in learning the game.

[@MofuggerX]

Help Montu by leaving a comment so he can quash the KZbin Algorithm’s machine uprising!

[@MontuPlays]

Unless... we are the machine uprising?!

[@TheReal_birbwizard]

Some traits are only good as stop gap solutions or for modifying existing pops. But those involve overpopulation which with robots you can just turn off the job to produce more pops.

[@jimbo5603]

But surely luxurious only impacts the one -off assembly cost, not the upkeep, so it is better than it first seems?

[@kingofnewmombasa5736]

Just what the doctor ordered😏😏

[@williamschubert4819]

I always have +5% resources, 10% science, and 15% energy with the +10% housing usage whenever I synth ascend fully so I have all the a tier traits.

[@williamschubert4819]

Although I always have the build speed if it's earlier in the game.

[@Kevin-zi5dw]

I know this is an old video, but it’s still your most current tier list for robot traits. I’m having a great degree of difficulty following your logic about why Domestic Servitude is so low. As I understand your argument: - this comes late with Droids, so you’ve already got a solution for amenity production - your biological pops are better at it since you took Charismastic - robots should be doing something else You consistently prioritize biological traits that reduce amenity producing jobs, but discount and dislike a solution that might help you remove those jobs entirely. Plus the robots would have been unemployed, remember. They can’t “do something else”, they have no job, and moving them to a different planet costs resources. The point about having Charismatic is confusing since many good empire designs don’t include it. A good part of your argument relied on the assumption that your pops have Charismatic, which is often not the case. Droids isn’t even a late game technology-domestic servitude could reduce or eliminate amenity producing jobs relatively early.

[@itchykami]

I'm guessing the new changes will make empire sprawl reduction MUCH better.

[@makaramuss]

Unpopular opinion: Starting with custom made is great because its improving quality of your starting species, later on you can mod your species(very early game thing you can do as machine empire) and replace custom/luxarious perks with specialized perks depending on planet or required jobs. Yes, this reduces our early game empire growth a little bit until you get tech but now ALL OF YOUR STARTING POPS ARE BETTER this means you are trading a momentary advantage for permanant early game boost

[@nelsonorta9081]

Harvesters might be useful for rogue servators that need food for their trophy pops. You might be able to use catalytic converters, too.

[@TheRealWormbo]

Except Rogue Servitors don't have access to it, because it's a mechanical trait, not a machine intelligence trait.

[@Unknown.NotRegistered]

I sure do miss my level 12 or 13 caps I used to have back in the day.

[@ingold1470]

3:00 - Uncanny isn't as bad as Driven Assimilators, just have the cyborgs do the maintenance. I had an empire based off the Classic Who cybermen with that trait and the Doomsday origin.

[@Captaintrippz]

Hmm, why not the other way around, charismatic is 2 points but emotion emulators is 1 point.

[@Citadel97501]

I would love to see this updated :) to 4.44

[@akuladoctor7355]

I would put streamlined to C tier for machine empires. They suffer +100% penalty from going over admin cap. so you seriously don't want to be over admin cap.

[@ElysiumCreator]

I always wondered, how long did your quickest run take to win, not including Nemesis victories?

[@MontuPlays]

Well usually, that depends on when you set the crisis. Generally speaking once you've dealt with them there is no other power, on earth or in heaven, that can surpass you.

[@wildebeest333]

Out of curiosity, how do you manage to support your whole population on just hydroponics farms? They're only like 4 production per farm and you need a starbase building slot

[@wrocha514]

It's 10 food per Starbase

[@ryanstewart2289]

I wish there was a late game tech that let you consolidate pops.

[@scavenger6268]

There is a rift in my brain, a void built only of chaos and confusion at the utilization of said traits. Granted i don't play much MP these days. Durable in combination with Logic Engine, Superconductive, and the civic Zero-Waste Protocols are high upon my list for a designated research build...let me explain. Science requires energy and by increasing production while also lowering consumption allows you to seriously pump more calculators into the mix. For example you said at 100 pops durable only saves 10 energy, but in combo of what i put forth it saves 20 energy. A calculator drone costs 6 energy in total to do his job so ive just given 3 extra scientists. Now we put in Super conductive lets say its 5 energy extra (i know its way more by that point but im trying to lowball it) that means i can afford 4 extra scientists than my opponent for the rest of the game that produce an extra 10% of science each. This becomes even scarier if you have a tech world, machine world, or finished the discovery tradition. Discovery reduces calculator drones job upkeep by 20% which means 5 becomes 4 energy (4.8 in total) and a tech world reduces it by another 20% so 5 becomes 3 energy (3.8 in total upkeep). If i was to take that original savings of 25 extra energy at 100 pops with 3.8 cost Calculators that would mean 6 extra Calculator drones that produce you science at +10% each. As for another insane combo: The two vital traits you want are Power Drills and Superconductive. If you happen to desire a third trait my suggestion would be Double Jointed to aid in the housing situation that both gestalts naturally suffer from, but you definitely want the earlier two. Those two traits provide the only materials that a machine desires being minerals and energy at a rate of +15%, but what if its higher? If you go down the Dominion tree and acquire workplace motivators to enact the overdrive policy you get +30% in both mineral/energy output. Should you desire...you can specialize your economy every ten years to either have +50% worker, -20% specialist drone output or to have +10% worker, +20% specialist drone output. This is massively cheap if you consider the fact that it is only 3 unity picks, the empire cost is amenities rather than happiness, and Repair Protocol for a single civic solves both costs at the start of the game. Any resource techs you get after is just icing on the cake really.

[@iRedEarth]

Not that it needs another reason to pick it, but mass-produced also decreases the cost of producing pops, since you're not paying by unit produced, but per month spent working the job building them. Also why custom made is that much worse.

[@swisssora5034]

Where would you put Trading Algorithms on this list?

[@ZephyrDogma]

What's the name of the movie clip in beginning that was my childhood and want to relive it for nostalgia

[@JRYYD]

Could a video based around best/meta builds be made for both a good playthrough and make AI empires interesting, with all the different elements included in creation?

[@l_ArAxus_l]

I always thought that reduced/increased pop assembly cost was about amount of "points" which you should get to construct a new robot, and not about just upkeep of the Jon. I'm so mad because this wording is the worst. No other thing in Stellaris confused me so much

[@doloresmeatrestauranteater1451]

I disagree with Luxurious only being in A. +20% replicator upkeep really doesn't do that much - at the very start of the game, that's only 0.6 alloys per month, and it's even less of a deal as time goes on because you get more fabricators and more resources from jobs but the cost stays the same. It's also kind of a no brainer for driven assimilators and rogue servitors, since assimilators don't have as many replicators and servitors buff specialist output by quite a bit once you have a decent number of pets so you need even fewer fabricators to cover the cost. Hell, taking efficient processors basically negates it anyway. It makes your fabricators produce 0.2 more alloys, which is the same amount you're losing per replicator, and you'll always have more fabricators than replicators. Usually considerably more. I suppose it isn't quite as attractive if you're not taking efficient processors if only because there's not a whole lot to spend the extra point on over bulky, but even then it doesn't have that much of a downside. One fabricator covering the cost of twenty replicators is pretty easy to do, and the ratio only gets bigger as time goes on and you get higher leveled governors and tech that boosts efficiency (especially for servitors, who can manage stuff like +300% fabricator output on ringworlds and ecumenopoli with a lot of trophies). Apologies if I missed something or misunderstood the tier list and what I'm saying is actually just an argument for it being in A, but I play machines a lot, I take luxurious almost every time, and I've never once felt like that was a mistake. Cheers!

[@fabiandonvil]

yeah i always take luxurious when i'm a bio empire building bots or when i'm doing machine empire. in the grand scheme of things, the amount of alloys you are losing extra doesn't really matter all that much. also i dislike having high bandwith these days. never really liked administrators. it's only really at the start of the game this upkeep increase means anything to begin with and if you are a biological empire, robo-modding comes a bit down the line when you can really begin upscaling the economy.

[@Phoenixel]

Montu! there are to many of them! what are we to do??

[@smile-tl9in]

you should write/say the final rank of the stuff that gets worse or better over time

[@jameshildebrand907]

I need to practice with gestalt consciousness more. Every time I've played a gestalt I end up tripping all over the place to get it right.

[@MontuPlays]

I know exactly how you feel!

[@toddoverholt4556]

If I'm doing robots as a biological Empire I will usually start with power drills and then once I get droids I will transition into efficient processors.

[@vdKingpin]

These apply to synthetic ascension?

[@TheSpectralFX]

Good stuff, keep the info coming.

[@sirjmo]

if you could only pick one trait from each tier what would you create? still adhering to starting point limit. I think this is a very interesting dilemma.

[@Zoxan96]

Do you have any funny meme builds you recommend? Also, what's your favourite Mitchell and Webb sketch?

[@MontuPlays]

Favourite Mitchell and Webb... hmm I have to say I love the Angel Man & BMX Bandit, the numberwang skits are great. But my favourite is probably; 'have you tried kill all the poor'.

[@MontuPlays]

Funny builds? If you're looking for wacky builds, perhaps my Mechanist Mechanist, or the Undead Dragon Defence? Regunes has some wacky build videos on his channel as well!

[@zepikse]

would love to see an update for 3.12 :)

[@kaypage2450]

What is the advantage of synthetic assension vs just starting as a machine empire ?

[@BigBrain05]

Logic engines is inn my opinion S tier dos pop assembly cost effect the growth needed for a pop?

[@noble6738]

uploaded this 25 minutes after i start my first machine empire run😭

[@ethanclark6132]

Hey montu a bit late for a response but recently I was playing a necroid slave empire and I realized it’s a lot of work to manually sell unemployed slaves. Is there a sell all button?

[@MontuPlays]

Unfortunately there isn't. That would be a great QOL improvement though

[@ethanclark6132]

@@MontuPlays thank you for taking the time to reply! Yeah some huge quality of life features are needed. Especially for some more tedious micro elements

[@Ryan-cz9wv]

How about a video about machine and hive worlds?

[@thesilentninja9255]

Leaders may be immortal but my good ones always get the -1000% trait around level 4, ridgid programming I think. Anyone else have this happen?