Stellaris Megacorp Civic Tier List

[@pieterfaes6263]

It is kinda silly how when a criminial branch office establishes itself, the host immediately knows which empire is behind it. You'd imagine the former kinda don't want that information out in the open. Probably should be reworked with that in mind, so that you can only get expel-CB if you _know_ who is behind the crime spree. It would incentivise Syndicates to go the Subterfuge route too.

[@ZanderPSN]

Agreed criminal mega corps need some work. It's such an awesome idea but the implementation just doesn't work that well.

[@richala2940]

I feel like criminal mega corps should be able to declare war on them, they weaken with crime then take systems and/or planets

[@7Rendar]

I love the idea of CS megacorp too, it's just not fun to play atm. I've really tried. I'm skeptical if they are ever going to fix it though because I think it needs too much work, like new mechanic, for just one civic.

[@daimpthing]

Agreed, picking criminal mega corps feels more like a handicap than anything else. I think one thing that could make a difference when it comes to this civic is this: It's not revealed that you're a criminal megacorp when you first meet another empire, you look like a regular megacorp. Once you start a branch offices on another empire, theres a chance that they learn you are of criminal origin, and thats when your relations decreased. Theres no reason why alien empires would know that you're all criminals, it's not like you broadcast that you were built on the back of mafias and gangs to other empires. Besides, criminal corporations would hide their criminal dealings behind legitimate or legitimate looking things, like those scam phone call places.

[@MrMarinus18]

That sounds good but I think it should require more. Like maybe it's a cases Belli for war and that you need to win for them to do it. It's similar to something I have already wanted for a while and that is that you can demand a megacorp to retract all branch offices on another empire. If they don't you can go to war and force them. Another thing that would be really cool though a little more challenging is if megacorps can get sneaky and that you can work through another. That you can make a deal with another megacorp that they will put branch offices on one that has banned you and you two will split the profits. It would give a lot more purpose to the underused and underpowered spy mechanic.

[@CalamitasCalliope]

Corporate Death Cult combined with Permanent Employment is so fun from a thematic perspective, and it feels really fun to play

[@indrickboreale7381]

- Why did you kill my family? - Profit

[@nealwoods3482]

Have you learned nothing?! Still no dollar sign for S tier. 🤣🤣

[@MontuPlays]

I have brought grave dishonour to my family. Excuse me while I commit sudoku

[@TehF0cus]

@@MontuPlays The normal 9x9 sudoku or the $Tier 18x18 for chads?

[@MontuPlays]

@@TehF0cus 27x27

[@yahelgamer32]

@@MontuPlays with a katana?

[@adamhrin9866]

@@MontuPlays overlord holdings tier list next video?

[@caphalor7252]

Just started a megacorp run where I just spam mercenary enclaves and de militarise the galaxy with the resolutions. It is actually pretty strong and you get insane dividends really fast

[@flazzorb]

Best part is when a crisis strikes.

[@xanosdarkpaw1]

@@flazzorb But think of the shareholders!

[@samuelcrow4701]

kinda makes any not affiliated with the galactic community super scary tho

[@danielgloyd4529]

Makes me wonder just how many mercenary fleets would be required to take down a 25x crisis. It's surely possible, just going to be very hard and requires taking good strategic fights.

[@flazzorb]

@@samuelcrow4701 Thats just an alternative crisis.

[@xdod7870]

I wish there were more megacorps civics like criminal heritage. Like one that is research, religion, military, or gambling theme.

[@jayhayhay5124]

Maybe they should make megacorp origins with such sort of civics.

[@xdod7870]

@@jayhayhay5124 that also sounds like a great idea, it would be great to have some megacorp specific origins

[@blahmaster6k]

Honestly criminal heritage itself would make way more sense as an origin than it does as a civic. I'd argue that a lot of the civics that can't be added or removed after game start could thematically fit better as origins.

[@spookd8700]

Megacasino. I love it.

[@JoViljarHaugstulen]

There is Gospel of the Masses Civic which is kind of religion focused in that it makes it so that you want as many of your pops and the pops on the branch office planets to be Spiritualists as each spiritualist pop gives you +0.33 trade value (as long as they aren't enslaved) Of course gameplay wise there isn't much to do there other than maybe building some temples or branch office buildings that increase spiritualist ethics attraction

[@archmagemc3561]

Its a shame how most megacorp civics are way worse than standard empires.

[@alfieshepherd6522]

It's because Paradox are Monarcho Communists

[@KayveePlays]

Well they do have more mechanics than other empires. Especially since you can crime syndicate the so to basically devolve the empire into chaos.

[@alexandererhard2516]

Well they do get energy (Plus Benefits from the Buildings themselves) from Branch Offices in exchange for really only a minor extra empire sprawl of 2 per office, which is equal to 2 pops or 1 system, while potentially giving 100+ energy alongside some science/unity/the main 5 resources/naval cap/something else I don't remembet right now. The +25% empire size Effect is nowadays the harder pill to swallow though. But don't forget that Branch Offices are very productive for only a minor amount of empire sprawl. During the Admin Cap Phase of the game (where you'd normally get admin cap over empire sprawl in the first ~30 years, plus you'd get an extra 20 Admin Cap for free, so that extra over Admin Cap penalty was basically a non-existant penalty) they were even more powerful Imo.

[@ssjjshawn]

@@alfieshepherd6522 rip VtM

[@smoore6461]

Thanks for doing this Montu! This is a great video! I have always wanted to like megacorp but aside from the religious megacorp, I have had no luck playing one and having fun. Criminal heritage should be great but it sucked when I played it, AI just built a crapload of precincts and drove me out..and when the AI has it it sucks and it's annoying..

[@gabrieljoseozanan6989]

Hey Montu, you forgot to mention how C. Death Cults can sac their vassal's pops! The AI frequently has unemployement in their capitals, so doing this usually does not heavily impact their performance and nets yous some pretty wild buffs in the mid game, making it a pretty amazing 3rd Civic!

[@ratronald]

Congratulations, you've just become the Aztec Empire.

[@Cybermarth]

About the starbase-capacity: Yes, it is weaker for non-gestalts....buuuut it makes it (at least in theory) easier to create a starbase-kongaline to you secondary planets. This makes it normally a lot easier to avoid piracy at mid-level. This way, there isn't a small gap where pirates can appear and you can go FULLSPEED into TradeValue... if needed and wanted.

[@alexandererhard2516]

Plus I think Solar Panels are only really good in the earlygame or better said, when you have a small fleet: With a big fleet, achorages are more cost efficient than solar panels if you are over your naval cap. And I'm sure using anchorages plus tech drones is more efficient than soldier drones plus solar panels, so Solar Panels are more of a early game building in my opinion. I think at maybe 2300 the latest a Gestalt empire shouldn't have any Solar Panels anymore. Compared to that, Trade starts out less productive, but gets more productive over the span of the game.

[@EyeOfMagnus4E201]

I’ve noticed that the Gospel of the Masses’ temple of prosperity has the fun ability to flip nearby materialist empires spiritualist, resulting in a much closer ally after the flip. I’ve also noticed that mastercraft inc does indeed work well with Gospel of the Masses as Montu pointed out, and if you’re really committed to keeping your spiritualist faction happy by not building robots, and your species doesn’t have budding, permanent employment is a good early game replacement for pop assembly for a spiritualist empire.

[@EyeOfMagnus4E201]

BTW, all this works even better if you combining it with the teachers of the shroud origin.

[@EyeOfMagnus4E201]

@@St4rTr3v1Ut10n 100% true! 🙂

[@indrickboreale7381]

Wololo, fellow customers

[@ka1ock]

Overlord buffed megacorps a lot. Vassals give 30% basic resources by default. Ministry of truth let you spam branchs in the early game for free unity or research. Also, void dwellers can generate a lot of influence releasing single systems as vassals.

[@EyeOfMagnus4E201]

Thanks for updating this, Montu! Overlord had really rendered the old megacorp civics list pretty obsolete, and since I really like playing megacorp, this new list is really appreciated!

[@alexiwright3656]

I think the changes to Naval Contractors and Private Military companies is my favorite change in the game, two civics that have solidly lived in the "Why on earth would you ever pick this tier" suddenly become incredibly flavorful/fun/powerful. QOL in this game is really something.

[@safrincanal]

Brought to you by Carl's Jr.

[@twicecookedporkins3235]

You've convinced me to finally delve into Megacorps.

[@frederickbeuttler2811]

You should do a Living Standard tierlist

[@BugsydorPrime]

My favorite megacorp so far was a Permanent Employment Corporate Hedonist with the Syncretic Evolution origin. Enslaving just the zombies and setting them to Domestic Servitude meant I never had any amenities problems. Zombie butlers for the win!

[@legsusmaximus6854]

that is so evil. I love it!

[@kred4849]

FYI: the Zombie pop trait doesn't aply to trade value or amenities, so if you want to fill up the clerk jobs with Zombies to make your normal pops work something more useful, pick the Thrifty and/or Charismatic trait -- it will apply as it normally would.

[@jamesstewart5706]

Criminal heritage has an advantage in single player. Enemies that are focused on removing your branch offices have to use up building slots on enforcers. It's an opportunity cost that removes however many months or years of production that literally any other building could be doing. It slows down their progress and makes them less efficient. I just wish criminal heritage had specialized spy operations to interfere with law enforcement activities.

[@Zorro9129]

I had a powerful criminal syndicate near me and it was absolutely painful until I got psi corps. Even then the branch offices never disappeared when I forced crime down to 0%. Fortunately the syndicate fractured and I finished them off.

[@patchpatch4008]

The intro segment is basically what happens when you put your population under chemical bliss

[@alexandererhard2516]

"Starbases don't give a lot of economic bonuses for non-gestalt empires" Yeah but as a non-gestalt empire, I find that I need to devote more Starbases to Trade Value (and maybe some additional Starbases for defensive modules for more Trade protection where you wouldn't build one as a machine empire otherwise) instead of for example anchorages (which after a certain time reduce ship upkeep from going over naval cap more than solar panels would give back anyway)

[@YagabodooN]

I would put private prospectors in A tier simply because being able to expand faster is so important and you can always just swap it out for a different civic later.

[@brylythhighlights4335]

Trading posts has been massive for me because of the extra naval cap. 4 starholds make for 96 naval cap and 40 food a month fairly early on, which can give you a big helpful swing. It's about the same as the Grasp The Void ascension perk, and is a good candidate for trading out when you get your 3rd slot

[@awindai9067]

Montu I love your content. You're killin' it king!

[@MontuPlays]

Tha ks for your support!

[@AnemoneMeer]

Gospel of the masses/permanent employment is actually an S tier combo imo. Clerks aren't hurt by being zombies, and spiritualist doesn't care about the zombie horde running around. You also get psychic zombies meaning that the penalty is much less if they're on energy jobs as well as clerks. And because everyone in your empire is spiritualist, the extra pop growth translates directly to extra trade value.

[@JoViljarHaugstulen]

How much less efficient are zombies? If you have no modifiers then yes they are 25% less efficient (at jobs affected by the modifier) which means 4 zombies are as productive as 3 non-zombies which is easy to check 4 zombies 4 x 75% = 300% vs 3 non-zombies 3 x 100% = 300% Though difference gets smaller as you get modifiers like for example with +60% from technology 160/25 = 6.4 so 6.4 zombies produce as much as 5.4 non-zombies (OR if you want it as percentage 135/160 = 0.8437 Zombies are 84.37% as efficient or 1 - 0.8437 = 0.1563 Zombies are 15.63% less efficient) or +25% more with the right planet designation 185/25 = 7.4 so 7.4 zombies produce as much as 6.4 non-zombies There are also other modifiers from technology like the +5% resources from jobs and Governor and Stability modifiers so it is less and less bad if you don't ensure that your zombies only work clerk jobs

[@Zorro9129]

I find it funny how you could have a literal zombie as a cashier and it wouldn't be any worse.

[@EyeOfMagnus4E201]

Thanks!

[@MontuPlays]

Hey, thanks so much for your support!

[@Trapset_Agent]

5:18 Yo what they REALLY should do with Criminal Heritage is make it more fun and make a mechanic where they can bribe enforcers to not police crime.

[@CrypticCode97]

Mastercraft Inc is B tier for me since when you're playing megacorp you'd be shooting yourself in the leg if you dont rush a trade federation immediatly effectivly giving you infinite consumer goods anyway

[@abellinns4013]

Yeah. Playing a MC this days and after the early game I even converted my consumer goods world in a alloy one.

[@the_fenix_3247]

It can synergize quite well with a ring world start, as you get artisan jobs with the merchant district

[@Areionco]

I will say that death cult's population loss is mostly offset by the 5% pop growth on every planet, I normally only sacrifice one since it is still worth it thanks to the base boost and the minimum you will get even from one population even as a massive empire, and once you get enough planets, the 5% is a easy net gain of population rather than a net negative considering you need at most 10 or so planets, depending on current pop numbers, to actually grow a new pop faster in total than you would be losing it, and once you get past that 10 it is just straight up a buff to your population growth.

[@9600bauds]

permanent employment works very well with the overturned origin, right at the start of the game you can create a new template with completely different traits for your zombies, and since zombies don't have consumer goods usage that's the main drawback of "damn the consequences" mostly gone

[@B3RyL]

As a day-1 Megacorp fan and a long time megacorp player, I approve of this list. There's a couple of quirky builds that would put some civics one category higher or lower, but for general megacorp play, this is as good of a tier-list as it gets. With the release of Overlord playing a megacorp was never easier or more satisfying than now, so this list is extremely relevant. Hats off to you, Montu! You did us megacorp players proud :)

[@wally-squid7069]

Angler and catalytic recyclers will always be my go too. Practically a economic powerhouse and one of my favorite types of play. I love the idea of using my food products too both feed you and kill you lol. Compared too how I used to play too this style I dunno I think these civics are a lot better than people think they are but it’s understandable being down in the bottom because to really get the most out of these civics you got too combine them together. Mainly looking for a good 3rd civic.

[@blahmaster6k]

It's mostly because catalytic processing and anglers are more of a side grade in power, shifting your economy from one resource to another without really giving a whole lot of upside. Most other civics just straight up make you stronger.

[@wally-squid7069]

@@blahmaster6k with the additional trade value as well as CG I never need technician jobs like literally, not even early game. Minerals are easy to obtain on the market and by trade, insane what AI trade for food honestly so never need those really. Quite honestly I’m focusing on Alloys pretty much start to finish.

[@Sanvone]

Anglers + Catalytic eliminates lot of rng. People don't like them because it requires different approach in managing your economy and well figuring it out.

[@blahmaster6k]

@@Sanvone rng should never be a problem even without it. Unless you play with no guaranteed planets, but then all bets are off and the game is completely different. I've never had a problem of lacking base resource districts where I went "wow, sure could have used anglers and catalytic here!" The reason people don't like them much is as I said - other civics are much stronger so you miss out on a lot of potential if you take it. It's not like it doesn't work, but it's not very good either.

[@Sanvone]

@@blahmaster6k Other civics are not stronger. Catalytic+Angler is strongest 3 planet economy in the game, and one of the most pop efficient combinations as of late (Masterful Crafters beats it but not in the ways most people think). My point about rng is not about not having enough resources but having certainty your build meets it's optimal potential. Especially in multiplayer it gives assurance of reaching some treshold values before peace time is over. Even in single player it is of benefit if I can reach 20-30 more corvettes by year 20-30 than Meritocracy neighbour. Using less minerals means I can afford building faster and stockpile for Ecumenopolis faster which means I can snowball quicker and more. People's perception is kinda flawed as they compare those civics vs miners energy output or artisans CG output. Where it should be "worker less alloy production for 20 some years" or "better technicians alternative / half a pop more CG per pop output".

[@ludde3526]

Criminal Heritage + Subterranean origin = Literal criminal underworld

[@UnnamedEmperor]

Naval Contractors is probably the best handsdown. Get the two Merc Enclaves, Get The Lord Of War Ascension Perk For A Third Enclave, And Then You Get The Fourth Enclave From The Galactic Community. It just becomes a constant stream of free resources. Ideally, you can push out one of your neighbors and seize their enclaves to get the snowball rolling even harder.

[@sorkvild1473]

Mastercraft INC is a good trait but fortunately as Megacorp you can have more consumer goods than any other faction

[@GuyTheSheep]

The intro was just perfect LOL

[@kjj26k]

Do you know what film that was?

[@GuyTheSheep]

@@kjj26k Idiocracy

[@Michael-yf1wo]

Invaluable as ever - thank you! Without your advice, I wouldn't have considered many of your S and A tier civics as particularly appealing just from the in-game stats. What jumped out to me is a future video with a tier list of "civic combos" - featuring pairings of civics have effective synergy; for example, Naval Contractors + Mastercraft, inc., seems an obvious standout along with particular species traits like spiritualist or materialist. More importantly, can 'civic combos' improve the lower tier civics? I'm thinking that Criminal Heritage + Ruthless Competition (basically a mafia) would get +2 codebreaking - and if the Subterfuge tradition is added one gets +1 initial bonus plus +1 from operational security. So a mafia with +4 codebreaking early in the game... Does that combo elevate these F and C-level traits to at least the B level?

[@007whiterussian2]

i personally think so because i ran a play through with the anglers F tier civic and catalytic recyclers in the C tier as an ocean paradise aquatics mega corp and I had infinite food and consumer goods and had little to no need for minerals and energy credits were always present just because of branch offices

[@TheRewasder97]

One of my most fun playing mega orp was anglers with cathalitic processing when aquatics came out, the Galaxy was my b*tch. I basically needed no minerals, as CG came from trade and factories used food.

[@Jablecznik]

I agree, it is super fun and actually quite efficient if you stack trade value bonuses (which you should be doing anyway as megacorp)

[@motymurm]

Rofled at the hedonism in C tier. It's literally the best civic to pump the most of trade value, on top of the happiness and entertainers bonuses, and that's exactly what corp wants to do

[@akaikiseki9346]

I wish Codebreaking and Encryption (and in turn Espionnage/Counter-Espionnage) were the main protection mean of getting crime buildings out. This way crime as a ressource producer for megacorps can be "battled", whereas now it's more like "ah, I got more cops, guess your secret branch office ends here !, and your game with it"

[@JoaoVictor-hg4tr]

what is the name of the movie/series of the intro?

[@MontuPlays]

Idiocracy

[@nogitsune4452]

I think the civics my favorite race had was Gospel Of The Masses and Free Traders. Basically a Trade League. Made it up long before I poked at Stellaris, and I was shocked to see I could make exactly that, even down to the government being a Trade League. Now even more shocked to find that the race I made up is actually high on this tier list.

[@morallyconflictedtortoise6494]

Criminal heritage has one unwritten upside; it gives a bonus to how much I can piss off my friends in multiplayer games!

[@mateuszslawinski1990]

Corporate hedonism (and it's regular equivalent) is quite good for non-egalitarian empire as it allows to evade most of Greater Good penalties while keeping xenos in line AND granting a lot of bonuses from pops. It's actually very good for xenophobes and authoritarians who don't know how to deal with former slaves.

[@007whiterussian2]

i really enjoyed the ocean paradise anglars food megacorp build where i just had infinite food and consumer goods basically

[@gryphonbotha1880]

To anyone still asking: the intro clip is from _Idiocracy._

[@theyux1]

It's funny seeing anglers rated so lowly. The power in the pearl drivers is the low mineral upkeep. Its true artisans make more but you need miners to keep artisans going. Which on oceans worlds is harder due to lack of mines. Anglers gives a massive energy credit boost early game, that scales very well with thrifty. The main downside is lack of alloys which can be fixed with catalytic conversion.

[@Jablecznik]

^this is 100% correct. Came here just to write the same comment

[@monchyd6519]

personally i dont feel like Mastercraft Inc. is S-tier, more like A. in most of my trade empire runs i will form a trade league as fast as i can, so i can get the nice trade policy. after that i dont have any need for artisans, even when using utopian abundance. i feel like its only useful a bit in the earlygame. so, the only thing the perk really gives you is 1 building slot for 3 industrial district, which is good, but not S-rank worthy in my opinion. most of the time you will need to build some housing district anyways + free housing slots from research etc. are often enough in the lategame

[@localman9063]

That opening scene! Please, what movie is that??

[@MontuPlays]

Idiocracy

[@ElzariusUnity]

Where's the opening of this from?

[@MontuPlays]

Idiocracy

[@Zorro9129]

If you have the Ruling Class mod installed as well, having the free trader and the covenant communities civics is great for roleplaying as an anarchist utopia.

[@richardchaparro2830]

I've never studied harder for a game. Sht I've studied more in this than I did in High School

[@sharifabdelal4149]

Thank you for making this!! I actually think trading posts is pretty good, though I can see why it’s better for Gestalts. You want trading stations with Trade Hubs and Offworld Trading companies to connect your network and generate trade value, and you can build Bastions with Hangar Bays to help suppress piracy. Gospel of the Masses is so fun to use though. I actually don’t like taking Free Traders because it overrides the Megachurch flavor, even if it’s a good bonus. Also love Franchising. I usually don’t start with it, but I pick it up by the time I research Galactic Administration.

[@Daltem]

Where does that intro segment come from?

[@MontuPlays]

Idiocracy

[@sirgaz8699]

I believe that criminal heritage is better than you give it credit for, yes your branch offices can be closed by the AI spamming enforcers but it's capped at ONE branch office per TEN! YEARS! across the entire galaxy. And having pops tied up as enforcers reduces the enemy output regardless. I'm not sure how criminal heritage meshes with subjugation but it'd be funny if as a criminal overlord you could outlaw enforcers and 100% crime all your subject's worlds. Edit: in a MP game try a Subterranean, resilient, very strong, lithoid, Private Military Companies, criminal heritage MEGA-Corp. See you if you can convince Truck to do it.

[@mbos14]

The main use of pops with zombie traits is soldiers or clerks and just stack trade traits on them.

[@RobBCactive]

Bit puzzled by the assessment of Mastercrafters, because when you play Megacorps right all your CGs are mineral free and hopefully most unity comes from trade too via Trade League. An insane TV hooks other empires into taking a cut, so you gain branch offices and boost trade more, soon the aggro empires simply cannot afford to compete against the wealth from cooperation. If MC Inc opened the slot in habitats that would make it more useful, but as is I found it redundant in Megacorp play. The trading post civic used to be really nice with Void Dweller because it helped eliminate farmers and helped compensate for the high cost of the first colony in influence and alloys by harvesting more space trade and hardening the claimed space. But now with the edict & unity changes, taking the edict perk and using Fortify the Border is more flexible. You simply don't need +4 bases until you have other ways to gain capacity. Buffing trade value is more flexible and helps you rush Discovery & Mercantile to gain anomalies & Research plus choose unity or CGs if you cannot establish a trade league.

[@imspudus]

Permanent employment is really good for void dwellers as it deals with the lower pop growth

[@MinecraftConnected]

Montu my friend, make a holdings tier list now or suffer

[@MontuPlays]

I'm already on it, just waiting on patch 3.4.4 to drop as they are changing the holdings a bit

[@luggy9256]

I do like zombie clerks, it gives you a use for all the clerk jobs, they have no upkeep and trade isn’t effected by their reduced output. Also means every planet has more amenities, which is always nice.

[@Quantum-yz9fc]

Naval Contractors is much worse if you don't have Overlord. The naval capacity is worse than what you'd get from +4 starbases and so without the mercenary enclaves it's just suboptimal.

[@berkaltuglu8140]

Down with Montu. Long live Agri Co!

[@korimiller379]

Another use Megacorps have for Trading posts is, shockingly, handling trade. I used to grab it to set up trade routes in early game before I got tier 3 starbases unlocked. The extra starbases also let you set up trade protection starbases to minimize piracy growth along trade routes as well without having to use patrol fleets. Granted, mid-game and beyond, the use of +4 starbases is all but irrelevant due to bases being citadels as well as other tech/pops giving more then enough reach and protection for trade.

[@johnmcnutt8089]

I've gone entire full games and only ever shut down a cs office once. Also I don't know if a bug or not but if the cs is a subject of another empire and you try to expropriate, the expropriation is applied to the overlord. Thereby making elimination as the only way to get them out.

[@stevengull6703]

The reason I like the plus 4 to Starbase capacity is because I never build wide as a megacorp I usually have like 20-30 systems max and with all the possible bonuses plus that 4 means I can have a fully kitted out citadel in every system and whenever my border systems are compromised I kit out every citadel next to them with all defensive modules. It becomes excruciatingly costly and painful to invade me after that and thus if you want to damage me it's actually the empires I've set up branch offices in that you want to invade and even then I can offset the loses easy.

[@CraverYT]

I disagree with Free Traders' spot in the S tier. I would rate it a low A or a B. The strength of most Megacorps doesn't lie in their ability to generate trade value. It lies in their ability to *exploit* the trade value of other empires with branch offices. The only really unique trade benefit Megacorps get is trade from the Executive & Manager jobs, which is really pretty incidental. Branch offices don't run on your OWN trade; they run on other empires. It's also not a civic that provides much power near the beginning of the game, when snowballing is most key. I would rate every other member of the S and A tiers above it. I also think that the existence of the Shared Destiny ascension perk makes Franchising much less attractive. No Loyalty loss from multiple subjects being equal, I'd rather spend an ascension perk for two envoys than spend a civic for the holding, −25% Empire size from Branch Office size, +0.5 Monthly Loyalty from Subjects, and being locked out of limited diplomacy/expansion prohibited.

[@abellinns4013]

Hey Montu, have you tried a Criminal Heritage on a recent patch? I have yet to try myself, but in my current game a IA one spanned in the galaxy and the other Ia empires don't see to prioritize anti-crime stuff as much as they used. I was able to find some 50, 60 even 70+ crime planets with a crime branch office while the other planets of that empire were fine.

[@GusMortis]

As a megcorp player, I love the more depth that the new update has brought to the playstyle, in civics alone.

[@ulruc]

I'm running my first Megacorp right now and I went for a Crime Syndicate (because it seem to be fun). And since I though I could play tall with a few planets and getting myself as many subsiduaries as possible, I now swin in alloys. I have 4 planets, a bunch of habitats (mostly for rare materials and a bit of trade) and I just started building up a ring world. All of this in like 20-25 systems. Also, I got lucky and spawned near a black hole into which there was a ruined science nexus. As soon as I got mega-engineering, I repaired it and started flooded the universe with science. The funny thing is, the top 3 empires in my map are megacorps with their vassals (including mine). Soon, the money war will happen and I will bankrupt them :)

[@thesmooze3185]

So, an important note about the Starbase one, you seemed to have forgotten about trade hubs. Generally, my Starbases have, like, 6 of the trade collectors, and then a Off World Trading thing, giving me an additional +12 Trade Value. And the best part? This doesn't interfere with Hydroponics Bays.

[@HAL-iv2kd]

An angler megacorp paired with catalytic processors can just make a small planet for food, produce minerals only with stations and ocuppy the rest of the empire for allos and trade. I played with that and it was one of the most powerful empires I used. I was so powerful it became boring at 2440 because I was already the Imperium, I killed the 3 Fallen Empires and I defeated the unbidden. Plus, I'm kinda noob, so those achivements are remarkable. TL:RD: Angler megacorp good.

[@HAL-iv2kd]

Plus, the effects of Masterful Crafters are not es different from the effects of Anglers as to have one of S tier and the other on F tier.

[@Uberspective]

Could do a resource tier list! As stupid as it sounds it could be a video outlining what resources are better to have in excess than others

[@ilillillliiilillili]

About Free traders and +4 starbase civic. In my megacorp run i have stupid amount of credit income(its over 9000, not joking actually). What limits my empire right now is unity, influence, research and naval cap. Free traders give nothing i need. +4 starbase civic can boost my naval cap, +5 happiness can boost some research and unity jobs. So...

[@Level30Commoner]

So becoming an evil corporate overlord is as OP in Stellaris as it is in real life. Never change, Paradox.

[@legsusmaximus6854]

Disney wann Know your loc

[@evenmoor]

I would've thought that Mastercraft Inc. would be less desirable than Masterful Crafters, since most megacorps will normally be aiming to be part of a trade league federation, giving them access to the ability to produce consumer goods (and unity) with trade value. I've seen megacorp builds that produce most of their consumer goods in this fashion and purchasing the remainder by the galactic market, almost making artisan/artificer jobs obsolete for their empire. Early on, before you get the trade league, I can see Mastercraft Inc. being powerful, but it definitely loses most of its value once you go down the trade league route. And even early on, most megacorps pick up the Mercantile traditions first or second, opening up Consumer Benefits trade policy, which, again, devalues Mastercraft Inc.

[@Jablecznik]

Even if you don't hire that many artificers, the extra building slots alone make this an A tier civic

[@jinsu9004]

I've been enjoying permanent employment since it came out. Even more so with overlord and the vassal system. Need food and minerals? I'll rely on vassal taxes. Only worker jobs here are for my thrify/charismatic budding zombies. If I find a presapient with earthbound? I slap on very strong and resilient so I have battle the best zombie battle thralls with around 140% bonus damage when defending with no upkeep!

[@lattekahvi1298]

how would anglers work if you are a manufactorum subject of an overlord? would you be able to fill the whole planet with mining districts using strip mining planetary decision?

[@dev2410]

I absolutely love your videos Montu. I have seen most of your videos, and they are both extremely helpful and entertaining. I am always around for the (are you still watching) parts of your long videos Please explain to me why the anglers civic is so bad. No one ever explains WHY it is so inefficient. Also, why is catalytic recycling so bad? Food is borderline useless. Catalytic recycling makes so food is actually useful. It also saves valuable minerals for planetary construction and maintenance. To top it all off Catalytic Recycling can help with origins that cant get minerals easily like shattered ring and void dweller. It would also complement tree of life origin for hive minds. What am I missing here? Thank you and keep making videos!

[@levb258]

The Zombie Contract Manipulation modifier only appears if you act like a complete bastard, and is easily avoidable for the price of 1 zombie pop.

[@User-gk1yi]

Megacorp empires have the potential for such an insane economic output I was honestly surprised that I was playing a vanilla game when my energy production was in the 50k range.

[@MrMirageCaster]

I think Catalytic Processing would be much better if it instead added a "Food into Alloys" alongside your Agricultural Districts (i.e., your farmers/anglers also produce 0.X Alloys). This would let you have your regular Metallurgists, as well as get some extra Alloys for every Agricultural District you had. This would also pair very nicely with the Aquatic civic as it would provide you limitless Agricultural Districts, which also produce Consumer Goods, bypassing the need for Industrial Districts to an extent. This would require greater food production though as Anglers haven't always produced enough for me, though this would encourage the creation of Agri Worlds and they would then benefit from also producing Alloys.

[@Sanvone]

Catalytic Processing is fine. It allows worker free alloy production which support war rush builds (which are strongest strategiest you can do in this game). Doesn't matter that in the long run it kinda pitters out, because by the long run you will win. Montu is kinda sleeping on this and Anglers and their early game power.

[@Preaplanes]

If you're a Void Dweller, the Catalytic Recyclers is a LOT better. Mining stations are rare but every station can have farming on it.

[@yurckiy4097]

Indentured Assets don't work well with Permanent Employment because slaves can't be sacrificed as the sacrificing is voluntarily, but normal workers prioritise other jobs before being sacrificed, which means that if you try to make a big unity-producing planet, or even an ecumenopolis, your non-slave pops will take all the jobs, leaving your slave pops unemployed and sacrifice slots empty. It can be solved with resettlement, but it's a pain. And in my case I played as an ascended clone with all my vats on a single planet, so I couldn't even do that.

[@TheSilvernuke]

I like combining Criminal Heritage and Gospel of the Masses to create a Subversive Cult. If you combine the Subversive Shrine building along with the Disinformation Center to decrease government ethics attraction you can relatively easily mess with empires from the inside. I haven't seen a ton of ethics swaps from it, but it's hilarious when it happens.

[@ganymedemlem6119]

I don't disagree with the placement for extra starbases. However, I think it could get bumped to A-tier for void dwellers just for hydroponics bays. But that *is* a bit niche.

[@vpliskin3590]

Great video as usual, not sure about Mastercraft Inc though. In most of my builds, I run a Trade League Federation and, combined with the Mercantile Tradition Tree, I'm absolutely drowning in consumer goods, even with utopian abundance and without a single pop producing consumer goods.

[@JoViljarHaugstulen]

Mastercraft Inc is at it's best at the start of the game as you have fewer building slots so the extra building slots from Industry districts (you still need industry districts for alloys) is quite good and going from 6 ---> 7 consumer goods is better than going from 8 ---> 9 consumer goods per pop so the benefits gets less useful as the game progress at least I feel that it does but it still very good early on Though yes it is a lot worse for Void Dwellers because it doesn't give them any extra building slots on their habitats

[@vpliskin3590]

@@JoViljarHaugstulen You're right. I struggled with the consumer goods in the beginning, and for the alloys, I had an Ecumonopolis, so no building slots issues. But without Ecumonopolis, and especially with a void dweller build, yeah, Mastercraft is essential

[@JoViljarHaugstulen]

@@vpliskin3590 I wish it was good with Void Dwellers but it really isn't as it specifically says that it doesn't increase the amount of building slots on habitats I really don't see why they wouldn't let it work on habitats while yes they are limited in building slots you will still at most get +2 building slots of course using 6 out of max 8 districts on industry districts would also likely lead to some housing issues

[@whatwhatwhatwh]

I was wondering, what made you change MasterCrafters from C Tier to S tier ? Since Consumer goods are generally still made via Trade Value instead of artisans. Is Consumer Benefits no longer as strong or are Artisans just better now ?

[@bronsone4535]

You still want to go for a trade federation and get the unique trade policy that generates unity & CG. I never build CG in any megacorp, so I always thought that MasterCraft Inc was a weird choice.

[@blahmaster6k]

Probably because it gives you lots and lots of free building slots on alloy worlds.

[@Perinvisus]

I wonder how Anglers stacks up now that it got buffed to be basically a slightly better Artisan.

[@nathanmoncaoestef1598]

I know it has nothing to deal with the video. But I was curious about opnions on automatic planet management. I think that maybe it's a good a idea to merge the concept of pre-build patterns to stellaris, like, a lot of our worlds that are tied with a specific strategy are build almost equal. My planets for example, I play on console so the buildings in my planets are showed like 4-4-4 sequence, so I tend to stablish a pattern to make my planets look organized and also functional. So, in that case, I don't know, aside from the districts available, all of my gemerator worlds as the same buildings. So, I'm thinking about the idea of having planet designs, like we have with our ships, we assign I certain pre-made design and the AI that is managing our worlds only has to copy what we have proposed at the right time. What do you think about this idea?

[@raym5463]

I feel like Permanent Employment deserves to be in S tier if your species has Budding trait - Zombies with Budding provide that extra 0.02 bio assembly too. One thing you maybe forgot to mention Montu is that despite -25% job output Zombies have no food/CG upkeep at all and are unaffected by happiness which is great. Does "Zombie Contract Manipulation" modifier do anything else besides 50% authoritarian attraction? It's not that bad - but if you pick the option to let the zombie rest you lose one pop and don't get the modifier but is there something else to it? (haven't tried so I'm asking). Other civic that would be a tier or two higher I believe is Private Prospectors if playing Void Dweller origin - spamming private colony ships crazy early game gives you huge alloy/CG savings allowing you some extra habitats or fleets for earlier snowball effect. Private Prospectors can be safely switched to a better civic during midgame (same with Permanent Emplyment) but I believe both are high A or even S tier early game in said scenarios. And civics' effect is most impactful in the early game after all determining how well your empire will develop.

[@destrinbriar1019]

I have to hard disagree on entertainers. I make 2 entertainment Ecumenoplis deep in my territory as pop growth areas. You can get 80 to 120 pop growth per month. My highest has been 142 per month but that was a 28 size planet or whatever an expanded ocean world was and i had been super lucky on that run with modifiers gained. With proper planning you can stand up massive numbers of people real fast by focusing fully on the pop growth of the planet, while still getting trade value and using the buildings for research or some other thing like exotic gases. Then convert to alloys or consumer goods or whatever when your empire is out of room to grow. I view it as an important midgame civic i pick up around 25 to 40 years in depending on how i build up my space and then hold until my empire pops are comfortable. Triple points as necrophage buying slaves and purging for powerful specialists for later that will boost the living race growth on the planet but can also be moved to other areas for more research

[@storytellingchampion6438]

Is anglers paired with cataclytic processing a good match-up? Wouldn't that allow you to have a few agriculture worlds and then convert the others into forge worlds for massive alloy gains?

[@storytellingchampion6438]

Well he mentioned that it might not be a good combo later in the vid. I'll try it anyway.

[@rory8182]

Permenant employment also works well with spiritualists

[@samuelcrow4701]

if you get forgotten queens mod and combo catalytic processing with biological architecture it's super good. minerals are barely needed and food is easier to produce

[@MobiusN7]

So what's the zombie contract manipulation modifier?

[@stockdj714]

Eyy montu do you have a build guide or a play through for hive mind on the current patch, either here or coming? I'm getting rocked on score with HM, even on single player. Any thoughts appreciated

[@safrincanal]

I actually don't think that Masterful Crafters should be S tier for megacorps. Any empire that you're going for the trade value meta, won't you get all of your consumer goods from setting the trade policy to give them to you? This completely eliminates the need for consumer goods jobs. Yes, the building slots are nice, but you would only get them on specialized alloy worlds. For non-trade value meta, I agree it's good, but I don't think it's that fitting with what the majority of people will do when playing megacorps.

[@StephenSaid]

Hey Montu. Once again, great vid. I learned loads. Thankyou. Question, would you be open to doing a video on vassalisation as an Overlord? I'm still getting my head around it. I was playing last night, vassalised my neighbour as a Bulwark and my economy absolutely tanked. By the time I figured out the granular settings in the negotiation screen, the agreement was locked in for several years and I couldn't change it until it was too late. Almost wrecked the game. Notwithstanding I got my vassals' vassals also creating problems on top of problems. So yeah, you up for doing a "How not to wreck your game as Overlord" video? (Unless you have another that speaks to this phenomenon already?)

[@MontuPlays]

I think I have a video on vassal contracts already, the thumbnail has trump on it

[@woopydoop2511]

The major stonks from being megacorp pilled has spoiled all other empire types for me.

[@lostbutfreesoul]

Corporate Hedonism is always going to hurt my brain. I don't know if I like the concept or hate it, which means it is Utopia trap material. Imagine having no real free time, you go where the company needs you and be there when it needs you, but the work isn't tedious, difficult or dangerous. Not only that, but your 'payment' is whatever you might desire for short term pleasure for the duration of the job.... As long as your composing the next P.R. message between lines of Zro, the company is happy to pick up whatever is the bill.

[@MrDremboy]

Where'd the intro from? Nice video btw, I never play megacorp because I don't know what to pick 🙂

[@MontuPlays]

Idiocracy