Stellaris Precursor Tier List

[@2MeterLP]

Zroni deserve F tier because they seem to have a 0.1% chance of spawning on a spiritualist playthrough and a 70% chance on a materialist playthrough.

[@bryantgodin]

Damn my last teachers of the shroud run got really lucky then

[@fourgull2920]

There is a way to increase the odds of getting the zroni precursor chain, if you only explore systems for the start of the game and survey purely habitable worlds (zroni will only spawn on habitable worlds, along with baol though so theres still a bit of RNG) and also if those habitable worlds are next to or inside a nebulae, the chance increases further. Hope this helps

[@roblaquiere8220]

What you mean I only ever got Zroni as a gesalt consciousness

[@ChrisTian-ed8ol]

Well, that explains why my Wraith play through got them.

[@icarus7024]

@@fourgull2920 definitely gonna try this in a my next few playthrough to see how reliable it is. Thanks for the advice.

[@tredausmaxima]

The Cybrex are my favorite. And the fact they're the only Precursors that survive since they can show up during the Contingency crisis.

[@zephyr8072]

Proving the superiority of synthetics. I also appreciate the nuanced and clever storytelling with them, not just the standard evil killbots or "organic and synthetic conflict is inevitable because of reasons" of so many lazy sci fi stories. This also goes for the Contingency itself and the likely real reason they're activated..

[@TheArklyte]

Not only survive, they show up to save your ass if you're losing. And leave you a gift after endgame.

[@sicsempertyrannishonk7197]

@@zephyr8072 Nice try but organics discovered hibernation long before synthetics. Fungoids probably get credit for that, and when they wake up they can repair by energy consumption. Only Grey can do that. Too bad they have no souls, no psionics, and no inclination that they are just a simulated video game universe. Completely cut off from the realm of creation, the realm of gods and the creators of their reality. No synthetic could ever stand against a Zroni psychic who could just imagine them out of existence. So much for superiority, soulless husks. Edit: I forgot to mention Cybex is my fav, too. Hard to beat that alloy production.

[@reduande]

​@@zephyr8072evidently you don't know well the story of Mass Effect or Matrix. Where the synths are the good side. And there are others too. But true. To the true synth AI we would be like a pet. Or it like a god to us. I prohibit invention of sentient AI. Tech should remain a tool. Not creating a new race.

[@zephyr8072]

@@reduande Ah yes, Mass Effect. "Synthetics will inevitably kill organics so the solution is to kill all organics with synthetics." Much writing so wow. Not that the rest of what you said is comprehensible.

[@michaelalexander2753]

No other precursor but the Cybrex elicits a physical "Yesss!" reaction when you find that first situation.

[@sirensoulegaming4158]

Nuh uh, hard disagree. Cybrex is a lot of effort. With the alloys I can invert to make that ring world I can also build a fleet and go conquering. Extremely overrated. I'd take Vultaum over Cybrex anyday

[@Dkenhoney]

Because of how much I like psionic ascension and the teachers of the shroud origin, I gotta disagree with you: getting the Zroni precursor when I'm going psionic is veddi, veddi nice.

[@plansh0332]

Took Cybrex on my first playthrough after a while this year, it was amazing.

[@scottshapton]

The Cybrex mining station bonus isn't just minerals, it's any mining station. I had a good time with it and a few planets that started with mining stations and archeological sites, the bonus applied to minor artifacts once the deposit was added.

[@BIGmlems]

Love the cybrex chain, also end up overflowing with minerals so that forge is a life saver

[@Nomadic_Gaming]

yup for a tall empire the mining station output plus say the surveryer relic you can become so ludicrously loaded resource wise

[@mezarisage6055]

Nice, I might have to start using it in systems with strategic resources

[@Stforv]

Don't forget that mining station output also applies to rare resource deposits in space. +150% is insane and combine that with other sources of +% modifires and you can get LOTS of rares. Also minor relic deposits are collected via research station not mining if i'm correct.

[@scottshapton]

Normally they are, but you can't have both types of station on one planet, so it just adds to mining if there already was a mining station.

[@aptspire]

Zron with Gestalt: the artifact resources are nice, I guess Zron with spiritualists: UNLIMITED POWER!!!

[@thenazzarow5789]

Keep in mind that you can guarantee to not get Zroni: don't survey habitable worlds. Their questline can only start there. Quite useful if you are a GC

[@letsplaysvonaja1714]

I mean, the building is nice either way And the relic gives you modifiers upon activation as well

[@lblackeight6087]

@@thenazzarow5789 all zroni colonies can spawn even on your colonized planets

[@silverthorngoodtree5533]

@@thenazzarow5789 Triple negative? anyone able to translate?

[@thenazzarow5789]

@@silverthorngoodtree5533 if you don't want Zroni precursor only survey non habitable worlds

[@scott7173]

"Don't ask what Zro is made of people" just remove a few words at the start and you have your answer 😆

[@Billob850]

I prefer to think of it as “don’t ask what the Zro is made of (people)”

[@mortache]

Zroylent blue is made of people!

[@JB-xl2jc]

Just imagining the zro addict archeologist trying to wipe the blue reside off their nose when reading the survey team reports lol

[@warmachine5835]

@@JB-xl2jc damn, you beat me to the joke. Got any more of those dead precursors?

[@freyrgrimsson4607]

That doesn't make any sense. Zro is made of xenos, and xenos aren't people

[@TheForeignGamer]

Montu: gives a very detailed explanation for why something is either good or bad Also Montu, almost every time: "...However"

[@bryantgodin]

😅

[@Notlordstark]

“However, this one is cooler”

[@prismatic1361]

It’s pretty impressive how the Cybrex still stay as the top tier precursor despite a great many nerfs/redesigns over the years. That ring world is doing some SERIOUS lifting.

[@fabiandonvil]

i wouldn't say the ringworld is all that usefull. these days i barely build any ring world. by the time you get it running filling it with pops to work it's jobs is a bit time-consuming. it's really just the fact it's a ruined megastructure to get mega-eng early and all the other bonuses of the precursor makes it to the top.

[@Stforv]

@@fabiandonvil Agree on every point. Ringworlds are almost useless in the current state, too expensive to restore, too much time needed to repair and fill with pops/buildings/districts. By the time you finish you don't actually need any of those ring segments.

[@niteshade5783]

​@@Stforv for your weak empire member. Mine hungers for pops.

[@abasis.baruti9819]

Rogue Servitor - ring world go brrrrt

[@KenshiImmortalWolf]

4 100% habitability worlds that can produce high levels of specialists quickly due to all their building slots being opened? yeah i'd say so

[@svprememe]

The main positive of getting the Baol is the story. I always hope to roll the Baol because the lore is so beautifully sad

[@mortache]

Plus it makes a single lush planet to be sufficient for feeding the entire galaxy even if you have clone vats everywhere

[@bla09235454212]

i get the boal what feels like 90% of the time... i allways sigh by now if i get them

[@xenoplayz4524]

Love getting baol the origin is so useful, you can reuse the decision on gai worlds to gain an extra 8 pops. Its incredible.

[@mortache]

​​​@@bla09235454212 gaia world is great even for machine empires, and it replaces a whole ass civic or AP lol. Not to mention, Baol terraforming keeps stuff like storms that increase energy output which is removed by regular terraforming

[@Rannos22]

I make it more depressing by using the relic spawned pops as livestock in most playthroughs I run into them

[@Cevonis]

Don't forget that the Boal gives you up to 8 pops every time you use it. one for turning a planet into a Gia world and an extra desician (exclusive to gaia worlds) that turns four pops to a special gaia world preference that makes them produce +5% more resources AND four MORE boal pops. It's honestly one of the best relics in the game and is perhaps THE best precursor for genetic ascention since those cloning vats are so food hungry. and IMO turning food into more pops is the best use for that food.

[@zacharyhollands]

In my last gene ascension game, I had 750 pops by 2300, while my neighbour had a mere 600. Oh yeah, due to unfortunate galaxy spawns, I was working within a space of only 5 stars compared to their 40.

[@Theutus2]

It's pretty nice with my lithoid necrophage build

[@xenoplayz4524]

Baol is my favourite, useful in 99% of origins, maybe not habitat origin or machines but for everything else its fantastic.

[@caelestigladii]

Baol adds more pops to gaia world? I thought it just converts up to 4 pops to be gaia specialists if the world is gaia, no additional nu-baols.

[@xenoplayz4524]

@@caelestigladii it does indeed give you a decision to create more pops on gai worlds its really powerful for me baol is S tier next to cyberx you can use it early. More pops = more resources not sure why Monty put it in B tier.

[@FirestormHF]

I honestly take the Archeotech ascension perk basically everytime solely for the ancient refinery buff. Everything else is just a bonus.

[@Stforv]

Yeah, ancient refinery combined with refinery specialization really works great! And also some components are actually good.

[@MikeMMKK2003]

The Cybrex also make their grand return to the galaxy if you struggle against the contingency with a working ring world this time.

[@tredausmaxima]

I wonder if you could get two ring worlds in the situation where you discover the Cybrex archaeological sites, then encounter them again during the Contingency crisis.

[@Stforv]

@@tredausmaxima You surely can do if PDX didn't fix that. Because as soon as Contingency is defeated the Cybrex just vanish leaving the Cybrex Beta ringworld free for the taking.

[@sicsempertyrannishonk7197]

@@Stforv This. Always get both, play on all crisis.

[@sintanan469]

First time I ever played Stellaris I got Cybrex. I went into mega engineering and made a second ringworld. Then I found the system with another ringworld and was able to conquer it. Three ringworlds. The game was so easy.

[@thehug0naut]

We need a tier ranking for the secrets of the Montu. This rare precursor benefit is found by completing the "special project" of watching this video without skipping

[@M0i100]

I love it when I roll the First League and the Rubricator.

[@ecogreen123]

i respect your opinion, i may disagree with the first league but i can't deny the Rubricator.

[@ShummaAwilum]

Especially if you are Remnant origin. Managed to pull that off twice. Hard to beat 3 large ecumenopolises without ever having to touch the ascension perk.

[@Forblaze7]

Surprised you don't like the irassian shipyard. In my experience, the mega shipyard isn't always capable of replacing super late game losses quickly enough. The problem with supplementing it with regular shipyards is that the game doesn't seem to weight the mega shipyard throughput properly and the regular starbases become a chokepoint. This makes the irassian shipyards a good way to reclaim some of that lost bandwidth.

[@SilasTheLunark]

Yeah i've found the Irassian shipyard to be a HUGE force multiplier, it lets you completely outpace someone with a similar size empire and crush them

[@zacharyhollands]

Montu: you could just make more shipyards instead! Me: you could just make more shipyards as well! Imagine having +6 ship build slots per starbase/ +4 per orbital ring.

[@SilasTheLunark]

@@zacharyhollands Yes exactly! as long as you have resources you are NEVER losing a war of attrition

[@qqchan]

The Irassian Naval Yards are amazing especially Whith how poorly the reinforce fleets feature distributes the construction. In my current game, I have one Mega Shipyard, 2 Starbases fully equipped with Shipyards and Irassian Naval Yards and a Juggernaut and each system being equipped with gateway to minimize travel times. If I try to reinforce fleets with 200 ships, then the game will build 50 ships in each of these installations. While it is annoying that the game puts as many construction jobs in my Starbases as my Mage Shipyard, the fact that my Starbases can build 12 ships each and actually build each individual ship faster than my Mega Shipyard makes it acceptable in my book. However, the fact that the game puts 50 construction jobs in my Juggernaut quiet frankly makes me want to just delete it, which I’m probably going to do. That being said, I think the Irassian Naval Yards would still be very good even if the reinforce fleet construction distribution was improved, freeing up Starbases to be utilised for other tasks than being shipyards, more than doubling the production capacity of shipyards.

[@vasheroo]

For sure, I found myself really liking it late game. It's more important than ever to refit your fleet for crisis/fallen empires and to do it quickly. Being able to send my fleets to more than just my mega yard helps the process.

[@yoshimeier3060]

Angler + Catalytic Processing + Baol. I think for that specific empire it could be awesome. You dont need any industrial districts.

[@zacharyhollands]

Factory districts. You still need forges. You can also get by with far fewer mines; maybe even none. Imagine that! Instead of no farmers, you have no miners.

[@JohnSmith-pv2qc]

I’ve been experimenting with an Angler+agrarian idyll with catalytic for the reform pick later. Early game can be a bit of a struggle for alloy production but its also possible to go without amenity jobs and with far fewer miner jobs once all is said and done.

[@ajproductions2289]

@@JohnSmith-pv2qcangler is a waste, you’re better off with catalytic

[@Alister222222]

A correction regarding the cybrex mining hub building: it affects all mining stations, not just minerals. That means it also affects gas, crystals, energy, mote, living metal, and nanites mining stations. (Can confirm from my own playthroughs). A mining hub will net you about 3x nanites from a single nanite deposit, ditto for living metal, making it much easier to build nanite components or run the living metal edict. A deposit of 4 rare crystals will give you more like 10 once you have a mining hub in the system. So, yeah, it's a lot better than it appears.

[@СтаниславСорокин-ъ3б]

Imagine build that in the Great Wound as a crisis

[@ulruc]

I watched until the callout. I have another great example for the Zroni Storm Caster. I was playing a Terravore and I got the Zroni. I used them in a combo with a fleet using only armors (so I lose nothing) against my enemies when in the total war. I was able to hold up to 4 times my size in enemy fleets, 6 times if I was able to have all my no shields defense platforms built and ready. It is even worse after you start using a Star Eater and you combo that building over a black hole. I mean, Black hole, pulsar and neutron star all at once... OUCH. It was not that bad to take it back after losing it if you make sure to have fleets with a few after burners, which menace fleets often have to be responsive... I could not go psionic, yet the starbase building was awesome in assuring my galaxy domination.

[@2MeterLP]

Zro not only sell for lots of credits, but also gives massive acceptance on trade deals. I made myself galactic emperor by exchanging Zro for favors.

[@antoniestrydom6367]

Literally trading space cocaine to politicians for political favours.

[@swirlyskyshock1155]

them Leaders *love* getting high on that Stuff that’s why.

[@TheVoidwaker]

Sounds familliar...

[@mitemaximus831]

The Spice Must Flow

[@rokmun680]

@@mitemaximus831begin selling our zro reserves, but slowly.

[@berlindude75]

Yuht Cleansing also removes biological planetary modifiers such as Hostile Fauna and Titanic Life.

[@JB-xl2jc]

Definitely a plus, but as a major Yuht minus I end up unable to stop myself from repeatedly saying "These two Yuhts" in a My Cousin Vinny voice when I roll them.

[@maiqtheliar789]

Personally think Irassian Naval yards should put them at least at C tier for base game if a player builds a lot of shipyards. Possibly B or A tier if you are using NSC which adds a lot more slots to star bases. Definitely S tier if you are also running Gigastructures along with NSC. Using those two mods and having Irassian Naval Yards it is possible to get almost 200 shipyards in 1 system if you go all shipyards on a system you build a Hyperstructural Assembly Yard in. Which means you can centralize your entire ship building into one or two systems and use the rest of your star bases for other uses like anchorages or factories. The last couple of times where I rolled the Irassians I definitely wasn't disappointed.

[@Slowpoke3x]

Why bother when they are just a temp placeholder for mega ship yard. Unless a super crisis is on your doorstep it's useless. Best case scenario, if you clear the precursor early enough and your not broke it can help you slightly from a surprise war. Way too situational. While on the other hand other precursors are alot more useful no matter your situation.

[@maiqtheliar789]

I rated it so highly for NSC and Gigastructures mod users. You know two of the most highly used mods for Stellaris. Both of which allow a starbase to easily out produce a mega shipyard. So no they are NOT a waste of time if using those mods. Nearly everyone needs ships and especially against strong crisis especially when you have all of the crisis spawn like I do you might just need to replace a few fleets rapidly from time to time. Being able to crank out nearly 200 ships at a time from one star base is really damned useful late game. Especially since like I said it allows you to use OTHER star bases for other things that are not building those ships. Like say fortresses to hold back a crisis or factories or anchorages. Easily S-tier even if you don't need to build a lot of ships when using those mods because it allows you to centralize your ship building in 1 or 2 systems.

[@Nomadic_Gaming]

combine w leaders mega ship yard and become the crisis and any other ship build boosts yeah you can crank an armada out at record speeds and just become a spam lord during wars if you have the minerals easy easy way to never worry about naval cap when you can just throw fleets at something then replace them and win via mass attrition

[@louiswinterhoff334]

What's the point? I play unmodded Stellaris and having two or three shipyards (excluding mega shipyard) by the mid-late game always works out for me. Most of the time you wont even be able to use all 200 shipyards at once unless youre 1) doing a massive fleet refit or 2) have a huge amount of alloys and queue up a huge amount of ships all at once.

[@maiqtheliar789]

@@louiswinterhoff334 I do all of those quite a bit. You play unmodded Stellaris. Modded Stellaris adds enemies and crisis that are much harder than vanilla. Sometimes in Gigastructures or ACOT you will lose entire fleets multiple times in a play through. So you will have to replace those fleets as fast as possible. Vanilla Stellaris is way easier than a heavily modded Stellaris. There is no comparison.

[@SDGamer99]

still watching all the way through. Love your videos. There's no way I'd ever figure out all the secrets without you. Thank you for all your hard work

[@louiswinterhoff334]

Cool story here, in my current playthrough which I started before the update I got the Baol. Being the guy that I am I decided to genetically mod them and I basically turned them into cows. Long story short I forgot about them and it got really out of hand so now I produce almost 5000 food per month from them. Also a side note, when using the Last Baol active effect, if your first use it to terraform a world, you can then go to a different planet (one that is already a gaia world), open up the decisions tab and there you will find the Nu-Baol Life Enhancing decision. what it does is gene mod some of the pops to have the gaia preference but they also receive a 5% resource output bonus. To check that just go to the species tab and hover over the gaia habitability preference and it will tell you.

[@david7019]

My first game I got the Irassians. Calls it F-tier. ... Subscribed because I 100% agree.

[@walkir2662]

All those archaeological sites with Baol/Zroni etc would have been useful if I didn't run out of minor artifact storage so quick, with no way to expand that or spend them usefully.

[@LG-jn5fx]

Wow i was just wondering how good the Zroni is and up pops this video. I was going for psionic ascencion so I got lucky with this precursor. Good timing Montu.

[@richard1493]

I have 492 hours in Stellaris and yet I only ever seem to get the Cybrex. I think it could be interesting to increase the spawn rate for certain precursors as long as they complement the player empire’s ethics/origins, e.g. playing as Teachers of the Shroud increases Zroni chance.

[@ShummaAwilum]

If you are on PC there is the "Known Precursor" mod that allows you to pick your precursor at the start of the game.

[@Deshiba]

The Baol didn't get weaker, everything else just got stronger. Selling relics got a nerf on the board, not just for the baol.

[@brandonoflight8274]

I may be remembering wrong, but I thought the transformation to a Gaia world was instant in previous versions

[@GojiraTX]

@@brandonoflight8274 i remember it being so as well. did they change that recently?

[@GMPOFloyd]

@@GojiraTX Yes, it now costs 720 days in a planetary decision, just like ecumenipoli

[@fatihtalhasahin2981]

Still watching. Your videos are really making my day. Thanks Montu

[@wmeister52]

My instinct tells me the +100 Edict Fund from the First League unique building (w/ Archeo-Engineers) is actually based bc it completely replaces some people's standard need to take Executive Vigor - you basically get every other (admittedly small) bonus you get from Archeo-Engineers for free this way, as you're getting the +100 Edict Fund without taking the feels-bad Ascension perk that offers nothing but a flat 100 Unity equivalent. EDIT: Or, I mean, you could take both?! lol

[@ruukinen]

The Executive Vigor is only good if you take it as your first AP. After that it rapidly falls of, and for the same reason that it does, taking Archeo-Engineers just to get 50 (not 100 like executive vigor) is absolutely not worth it. You can't get First league unique building + archeo engineers in the time it takes to make it worth it.

[@aptspire]

15:00 I'd like to point out that once you've applied the "Nu-Baol life-seeding" decision, you can add "Nu-Baol life-enhancing" pops to any Gaia world you have, so you can keep enhancing the same Gaia world over and over, even after you've seeded all your planets. The selected pops gain an extra 5% job output on Gaia worlds, so with 5 seeded planets and 8 modded pops per enhancement, that's 40 pops possibly all on the same planet, and the ability to grow them elsewhere. Edit: it's 20 enhanced pops, not 40, but still useful

[@johnshepherd4299]

Pretty minimal tbh. 5% is small, especially on such a limited number of pops. Prosperity tradition gives +5% to all when finished

[@sirensoulegaming4158]

​@@johnshepherd4299eventually though once all your planets are gaia worlds you can gene mod that gaia habitability onto all your pops

[@johnshepherd4299]

@@sirensoulegaming4158 that takes a very, very long time to achieve. Even if you find the Boal kinda early, like 50 years in, and you have 7 planets, which isn't that many, you'd have to time it perfectly to use a minimum of 70 years to terraform them all since it's one at a time

[@ruukinen]

@@johnshepherd4299 I mean you can just gene mod the pops one planet at a time.

[@sirensoulegaming4158]

Also worth bearing in mind that gene modding this gaia habitability is nice if you're running a migration build, since your gaia trapped pops won't want to leave their paradise and other empires pops will want to flock to your gaia worlds. Like anything else it's a bonus that needs to be played around. Getting a bonus and then not altering a strategy because of said bonus will, of course, make said bonus look like it doesn't do much.

[@Vadamist]

Man there really needs to be a way to select precursors at empire creation, such extremely powerful and unique options left to complete RNG

[@rake483]

Like 90% of the time i get Cybrex. I didnt even know there are 7 of them!

[@necfreon6259]

@@rake483 how long have you been playing the game

[@Demortra]

@@rake483 I would love that, I play solo a lot and I go robots, 90% of the time I get the one where you make gaia worlds and bio pops.

[@Slowpoke3x]

​@@rake483most of the time I get the boal or Zroni especially if I'm playing as machines. I just restart when I get Issarians

[@fubar9629]

I dont think i have ever seen zroni.

[@manofcultura]

Psionics normally: I SEE DEAD PEOPLE Psionics on Zro: *I SNORT DEAD PEOPLE*

[@nonetheone8025]

The First League offices are so effective on a megacorp ecumenopolis world!

[@AgentRikuOfficial]

Irassian naval yards are unironically the only thing that saved my first Ironman playthrough when I became The Crisis and was getting gang banged by my former Federation and the Galactic Council

[@bunkermanbunkerman9724]

just a small note, mining station output also applies to energy, alloy, rare crystal, exotic gases and volatile motes deposits afaik not just minerals, unless the screenshots montu used were displaying info wrong

[@Stforv]

Dark matter, nanites, living metal also. Every space deposit that is collected via mining station. Tested in-game.

[@bunkermanbunkerman9724]

@@Stforv actually double checked it myself since i remembered at least for one of thsoe it wasnt the case thats why i didnt mention those, and it turns out that dark matter orbital deposits are collected by research station, but yes all the others you named and also zro are collected by mining stations and therefore they get boosted just not dark matter

[@Stforv]

@@bunkermanbunkerman9724 my mistake on dark matter I guess. It normally spawns on black holes and is collected by research stations but sometimes anomalies and special projects spawn dark matter as mining deposit.

[@bunkermanbunkerman9724]

@@Stforv well in the files all dark matter deposits are classed as research station deposits but i do remember event spawning on a place that already has a station interacted weirdly with this

[@Kommerzman]

As a hive mind the Baol building gives +1 energy instead of consumer goods which I found really nice.

[@yevaz9955]

i found irassian ship yards OP, citadels going from 6 useable shipyards to 12 + the extra ship build speed, incredible buff to how quick you can field a decent navy in a pinch - for me it was a hive mind neighbour becoming the crisis, i was able to pop up a strong frontline fleet alot quicker than my fleets travelling the galaxy. first time i encountered it i thought it was bugged!

[@tjpprojects7192]

Irassian shipyards can make a standard shipyard station nearly on-par with a mega shipyard. Depending how you play, this can be OP.

[@therealspeedwagon1451]

The Zroni storm caster seems like a perfect weapon in a war of attrition where you have to do scorched earth strategies to slow down your enemy as much as possible. If only I had ancient relics DLC

[@caelestigladii]

Just make sure to not make use of shields yourself because it affects your ships too.

[@ruukinen]

@@caelestigladii I mean with the buffed armour. Why would you? Just slap armor regen on instead.

[@Stforv]

@@ruukinen Well, you can actually make a strong off-meta shield build. With Archaeo-Engineers ascention perk the Ancient Shields (the yellow ones) actually provide +15% shield hardening. And you can put 6 of those in L slots in your battleship providing total of 90% hardening and combine with 1 aux slot to gain 100% shield hardening in total. Totally overpowering players disruptor corvettes meta in MP. That's not cheap, but actually achievable. And if combined with psionic shields and aux hardeners in certain proportion to maintain that 100% you can get almost inpenetrable fleet.

[@ruukinen]

@@Stforv For the same cost the opponent can just run about 3 times as many regularly fitted ships. In a game where the only thing that realistically limits your fleet size is cost, you always have to consider costs. You can have your "Alpha" fleet like that but any reinforcements have to be the regular kind since minor artefacts are very capped.

[@Stforv]

@@ruukinen 10k artifact limit with all techs and upgrades is pretty much enough. And all you need is actually a single frontline fleet of cruisers or battleships to tank your opponent. All your other fleets may be of regular design. I'm just saying that u can do a surprise counter on enemy player and it will possibly work.

[@vpliskin3590]

Thanks for the detailed video Montu, until today my knowledge of precursors was "Baol, Cybrex, Zroni - and the other guys don't really care except this one that has the Relic world kinda cool"

[@13g0man]

Ironically, the Zroni Storm Caster is both most and least useful against Psionic empires - most, because they have the best shields in the game and removing them destroys their defences, and least because they are most likely to have Jump Drives to bypass the system entirely.

[@ruukinen]

Just have them in all of your systems. Repeatable starbase cap tech is a go.

[@Stforv]

@@ruukinen at leat in all habitable systems with essential planets. The Storm Caster only takes 1 build slot. And also it's pretty good vs Unbidden invasion.

[@ajprime2000]

the main issue I have with precursors, is that if your not a basic empire, a lot of them don't really do much for you. More of them need to give alternative rewards to empires that don't use the main thing they do.

[@sirensoulegaming4158]

To be fair, most of them are useful no matter what. Irassian is the worst but even that gives you extra shipyard capacity, which is worth more than I think montu is giving it credit for. You don't have a mega shipyard all game, and now you only need to use half the starbases for shipbuilding as you previously used to, which is quite nice. That's useful to every empire. Yuhts extra pop when settling a colony might feel like a bonus that comes too late, however that's something that you can still get value out of with habitat spam. That's something every empire can do and that's useful. Baol makes gaia worlds. That's something useful that even machine empires can take advantage of, since gaia bonuses aren't too far removed from machine world bonuses. Vultaums got amenity bonuses. Useful for literally every empire. Even the zroni, which previously was only ever useful for psionic, now has an amazing alternate use for any non-psionic empire as well. I don't know what you're talking about. The precursors always have something useful if you're willing to actually try and use those bonuses

[@Stforv]

@@sirensoulegaming4158 To be also fair all gestalt empires (especially machine) in Stellaris are completely and totally OP compared to regular empires so in my eyes it evens things out a little bit.

[@oiyouoverhere1112]

I have found that if I get the Cybrex, if I don't acquire the 6 sites in the early game, I'll never find them, because 'signs of Cybrex Activity' are extremely rare. I also seem to find that when I have the Cybrex, the difficulty of the game seems to rise astronomically, with more dubious AI fleet power gains on my borders throughout the game. I don't experience any issues, with any of the others

[@hunter5559]

Me who's played with a mod that allows me to get all the precurssors for the past year "You guys only get to pick 1?"

[@dogbone10]

This is basegame, but with some very popular/simple mods (mainly the Planetary Diversity series) the Yuht become a little more useful, especially when starting with things like the Ammonia Rebreathers origin which relies heavily on habitability boosters to colonize worlds. That Baol Terraforming speed buff would help with making Shroud Worlds, aswell.

[@KonaFanatiker]

Does the Baol Artifact not give 2 effects for taking the decision ? At first you get to terraform a planet into a gaia world and get 4 pops. And then you can do a second decision which will grant 10 randomly selected pops on the planet a special gaia world preference, which also increases ressource output on gaia worlds by 5%. Best part being that if you do not have 10 pops on the planet, you get more Baol pops gifted on it. I'm not using a lot of mods for Stellaris, so I am fairly confident that it is vanilla with the second decision. Just not so confident if my eyes tricked me with the 'fill up to 10 pops if you have less' part. Though you can just slap that new genetic template on all pops of the same species you got on gaia worlds to profit from the extra 5% all ressource output on top of the regular gaia world bonuses. Edit: Tested it again, with the second planetdecision you get an additional 4 pops on the planet. So you can get 8 Baol pops in total every 12 years, including a bonus 5% ressource output on gaia worlds, which you can genemod on your pops, provided you are at least on 0 modifacation points for them. And you need colonized planets to terraform into gaia worlds with the decision.

[@Stforv]

U can colonize 0% tomb worlds or any other low % type worlds and use the edict as soon a colonization is finished. It's much cheaper and way faster than terraforming. It also removes all blockers and negative modifiers.

[@sebastiannemeth-ramirez2160]

Cyberex is basically the Billy Mays of Precursors: "But wait, there's more!" Ridiculously overpowered, and my favourite next to the Matrix busting power.

[@TheNN]

IMO since the Yuht Astronomical Interferometer was put into the game recently, I've felt like giving it a "Base Intel: +10" would be far more effective (and of course by extension making it a 1-per-empire as well) thing for it to be. I feel like the Baol Organic Plant would be good in a similar way. Make it an empire-wide bonus, and then plunk your one down on your main/only ag world (or ring world section), get your extra farmer jobs and the bonus for them, and call it good. Making it a per-planet building is just such a waste, when there's far more efficient use of precious building slots, which are extremely finite. Also, the Baol relic allows you to instantly make Nu-Baol on a Gaia world as well when used (albeit it ONLY counts on a world that *starts* as a Gaia world) as well as turning one other world into a Gaia world.

[@gilgamesh7084]

I literally did not know there was 7. I only thought Cybrex Irassia and Yuhthan were the precursors… I have 500 hours… How rare are these things man…

[@Itharl]

I think I've only gotten Vultaeum once and I (at the moment) have about 1500 hours in. RNG is RNG.

[@ecogreen123]

in my 1600+ time of playing i have encountered every precursor atleast once but my most common are begrudently the first league, the cybrex and the vultuam, shortly followed the the yuht.

[@notanotherpyro]

You need to have the ancient relics DLC for two of them, the Baol and the Zroni. Also if you don't have megacorp you might not get First League anymore because it's an ecumenopolis now.

[@brandonoflight8274]

The Zroni one is particularly rare I think. I have about the same amount of hours and have seen it just once

[@ecogreen123]

@@brandonoflight8274 with my hours i have actually never seen them before

[@lukaswei4767]

34:20 not just minerals... every recource in that system worked with minor artifacts as well as nanites and zro(well not that you need it with the cybrex XD)

[@letsplaysvonaja1714]

I like the baol Especially after I found out that I can apply the gaia world preference on an entire species as long as I can afford the blueprint

[@spode2091]

Amazing video like always montu and yes i saw all the 37 minutes

[@domehammer]

Baol should be A tier, they give you access to a special habitability for your species that just makes them better on Gaia worlds.

[@justinsinke2088]

The reality computer on a fanatic materialist with the archeo-engineers perk is a little nutty. Especially with a Remnants start. I think by the time I hit endgame, my physics research was a few thousand ahead of any other research I was producing. The only asterisk to the Zroni Storm Cloud is that the effectiveness of it is also dependent on enemy ship design. If enemy ships have their own hull regeneration, which seems plausible on at least the medium to large ships, that -10% hull regeneration will either be reduced or completely negated (though maybe I'm misremembering or overestimating how much hull regeneration things like battleships can actually get). And since that full 10% is only while not in combat, you're either avoiding putting too many weapons on the starbase to avoid initiating combat and thus dropping that regen from -10% to -1% and risk the station getting demolished in an alpha strike in under 10 days, or you set up your starbase either in a usual defensive format using that -1% as just some free damage or configuring your defense platforms for maximum armor and armor hardening (since you don't need to worry about shields) to try and stall out an attacking fleet. It sort of depends on the interaction with hull regen and how much enemies ships have in combat as well. But even then, I can't imagine how you could possibly stall an attacking fleet for 100 days or keep them out of engagement range for 10 days. Both just seem unlikely and then your starbase is defending itself as normal. As for the alluded to relic weapons and modules, my experience so far is that you need something of a minimum minor artifact generation to make it viable. If you're not making somewhere around 30 or more minor artifacts a month, it's very difficult to actually double down on archeotech military gear, as you just don't have the resource production to make fleets or defense platforms at a reasonable rate; you'd have to build "normal" ships and retrofit as the artifacts come in. If you're building your ships almost as fast as those minor artifacts are coming in, however, an archeotech kitted fleet can be very effective with the archeo-engineers ascension perk. However, if you get cocky or outmaneuvered and loose to much of your fancy fleet at once, it's essentially impossible to rapidly restore that fleet, especially since the cap on how many minor artifacts you can store seems arbitrarily small. It also doesn't help that while you theoretically can make trade deals with other empires for minor artifacts, the trade acceptance is so astronomical (pretty much like asking for them to give you a system) that's it's functionally meaningless if it's not a real person you're negotiating with.

[@Stforv]

The Storm Cloud still applies -50% speed and -30% accuracy and fire rate. It only takes 1 starbase building slot. So if u put it on a defensive citadel on your border and fill it with ion cannons and defense platforms (long range damage to armor&hull + hangars) you perfectly fine.

[@justinsinke2088]

@@Stforv Fair, not saying it wasn't good as a whole, but that the -10% hull regeneration aspect of it doesn't feel as potent to my understanding as Montu seemed to be making it out to be.

[@Stforv]

@@justinsinke2088 Well I agree with you. And I think it depends on the formula how different hull regen modifiers interact

[@ecogreen123]

my personal tierlist: i agree with the irassian F tier. Yuht B tier. honestly Baol A tier and First league F tier, i hate the first league and i love the Baol. i agree with Vultaum A tier but i would put the Zroni personally at C tier. and finally Cybrex S Tier all the way! my personal rankings aside good video, very descriptive and thorough.

[@Maadhawk]

Bureaucrats get replaced by Priests in spiritual empires, so I would think that the additional +1 amenities from the 1st League building would apply to them as well.

[@Stforv]

Needs to be tested in-game) But imo additional ammenities is actually worthless.

[@Maadhawk]

@@Stforv Having a surplus gives a substantial bonus to pop happiness (by as much as 20% bonus happiness). This in turn drives pop approval up. This in turn drives stability up (by as much as a whopping +30 stability). Which in turn drives pop output up (again by as much as 30% at 100% stability).

[@xdeser2949]

recently in one of my games I got the baol precursors combined with the Junk ratlings tomb worlds and having just and endless supply of large tomb worlds to cheaply turn into gaia worlds felt completely broken but extremely fun. (I was playing as xenophobes too, so if I had been a xenophile democracy instead the free nu-baol pops would have been an insane boost to my eco)

[@rage3100]

Currently playing a fear of the dark run, using a spiritualist empire. One of my neighbors turne out to be a common ground origin and they're all materialist... early game they basically stacked their fleets and outnumbered me 3:1... thankfully once i got the zroni arc device I started baiting them into the systems and decimating them.

[@raideurng2508]

Vultanum with an energy weapon + shield fleet is bonkers. It's a tech every year.

[@infxtion4302]

My faviourite part of the Cybrex is when you get "Meja Engineering"

[@ValinShadow]

awesome video! have you ever considered maybe breaking the rankings into sub categories and then an overall category? categories for this could be system, building, relic, other effects, and then as I mentioned an overall rating. it might be interesting to see how some are better in certain categories than they are overall. just a thought. also I'll say this, the later in the game you get the better and better the Yuht, solely because of the relic, become. the relic's active can easily be worth multiple dyson spheres in the hyper late game when naval cap and energy production are all that really matter.

[@cjwarrington177]

I've played thousands of hours of this game and my brain still reads "Irassian" as "Iranian."

[@Darien_England]

I've been really loving that to get better. Jumped into Stellaris randomly and hit it really really hard and love it so far

[@brodymay1044]

Found out last game i had you can pair cybrex mining hubs with arc furnaces, was averaging ~12o alloys per arc furnace system, barley even needed foundries tbh. Edit i didnt have the archo ascension perk so could have got more

[@westernbody]

To parody a quote.. The Zro, they are made of them

[@AlexPeace246]

I personally love starting with the remnant origin and getting the First League, having 2 relic or ecumenopolis close to each other right in the heart of your empire is great. You can build ring worlds yourself mid-late game if you want to take the perk, but you can’t get more relic worlds without luck.

[@starlancer9740]

The Yuth home system also has a special project a few years after you take it, that gives you the hyper relays technology and an L -gate insight.

[@GojiraTX]

i never got that, or do you have to colonize it?

[@starlancer9740]

@@GojiraTX I always get it a few years after building a starbase on it.

[@playwars3037]

The Cybrex relic, plus their starbase building, and an arc furnace...You can do ungodly things with this. Plus, for catalytic empire (food into alloys) it actually enables you to still consume your minerals for allows which is amazing. Also, obviously, having the shattered ring origin with this precursor is just absolutely ridiculous.

[@ggibby0450]

Ironically, by stating "Don't ask what the Zro is made of people", you get the answer as long as you "don't ask what".

[@Alorand]

I really could use a Tech Tier List from Montu to improve my tech bee-lining. Maybe split it into 3 videos, one for each type of research?

[@TamLe-bj2yl]

It's really depend on your playstyle and origin. If he split the 3 tech trees in to 3 videos, they will still about an hour long each of the vid if he wanna cover 3-4 different popular playstyles.

[@locowolfie]

Hard disagree on the Zroni. Just the eco boost from the 5(15+ base iirc) zro deposits you get from the digsites(and chance of infinite artifacts) amounts to 360 Energy credits, which is a huge boost early game. Not to mention: -psy ascension is the strongest bio ascension. -and the boosts the relic gives are awesome.

[@Stforv]

You get the Zro deposits from digsites but you don't get the tech to extract Zro so it has a RNG factor.

[@xenoplayz4524]

Baol is imo the best you gain bonus pops and can turn worlds into gaia worlds for resource bonuses. Fantastic for life seeded origin and ring world. Those extra pops also means extra resources meaning a stronger empire faster. You can use it faster then the other origins cyberx is incredible late game but early and mid not so much.

[@nahnanananananana2914]

Never got the Baol, Zroni, or Cybrex on any playthrough. It is underwhelming, but i think the Irassian are good for biological tall empires. The starbase building basically gives you cheap, mini mega shipyards too, which I think you are underestimating. Seems like you can get that and put a bunch down on starbases long before mega shipyard is available.

[@mr.silver5476]

@Montu Plays bit of an oversight on the cybrex building. It affects all mining stations, not just mineral ones. So you get increased energy credit output from mining stations as well. Possibly even stregic resources as well as those are also considered mining stations.

[@NalyKalZul]

i think the yuth potential, is best paired with slaying the kleptomaniac shard. for a other +10 sensor/hyperlane range. you just have to make sure that is the first leviathan you slay, to guarantee it lands on your homeworld first. and considering how it chains it's fairly easy as you can setup a starbase just for it, a pure armor hull fight.

[@fourgull2920]

Something that happened to me in a playthrough that I took for granted, I got the Yuht as my precursor which was pretty disappointing but after using minor artifacts to unlock the secrets of the yuht, I was then given the opportunity to discover the secrets of the Cybrex? Which gave me access to the Cybrex mining hubs. Still not sure how that happened

[@TamLe-bj2yl]

are you using any mods? Since precursor are set at the start of the run, and the moment you hit 1 precursor events, all other precursors are eliminated, it's unusual that you can take 2 secrets from 2 precursors.

[@johnshepherd4299]

@@TamLe-bj2yl they'd have to be using mods or have modified base game files for whatever eeason

[@FlorenceSlugcat]

Correction about the yuth detection: It will not be only 15-20 detection range. You need to consider other factors. For example, addint a listenibg post will increase it more. The starbase components also increase it too, as starbases have a bonus to detection range aswell. And any modifier that you have will also stack. Additionally, pre-ftl observation insights can give you access to a technology that adds an extra sensor range to listening post(and detection strenght), for each 3 detection arrays, so a specialized citadel would give a +2 to listening posts’s detection and sensor range.

[@matthewedwards6025]

I wonder if the Irassians wouldn't be good for Genetic ascention empires. When you micromanage your pops, you end up having to do a lot of special projects to modify their traits...that would be a lot easier with a 20% bonus.

[@d.k.t.3380]

One niche note: If you get the Baol with a Rogue Servitor game, you won. Send a science ship around to meet everyone as quickly as possible, get your Gaia worlds up and running with Organic Sanctuaries, and they'll come to you first when wars and displacements start. Those small, crappy words that don't have much going on? They'll hold a dozen sanctuaries. Gaia them up and put everyone there (do it "for safe keeping" if you're role-playing into it) and build what you need to keep things running elsewhere.

[@GeoJam3s]

You said Boal were c tier but put it in b tier in the image. I think you meant b Great video as always montu

[@ponglenis9273]

Honestly I love baols. Free gaia world planets and additional pops. I like to play with weaker habitability, so it fits

[@gsuaveyt]

Little did the vultaum know that drastically lowering the number of pops increases the simulation stability

[@Винтовка]

Farming is ok on energy world if you got some spare spots. You can boost energy output with bio-processing plants.

[@Kaador]

There was a Species in Ascendancy from 1994 that works as same as the baols are described. And they turn their worlds also in Gaja-Worlds

[@T-362]

Got pretty happy when got Baol for my aquatic anglers megacorp with catalythic. The building gives angler jobs, boosts them even more and more food means more alloys. Perfect match!

[@Stforv]

I played aquatic hive-mind with 30-sized oceanic homeworld origin + catalytic drones, and it was cool until mega engineering and matter decompressor is built, because it gives absolutely insane number of minerals WITHOUT any pop jobs. So I removed that civic and all those pops went from farming to producing more unity and even more alloys. My economy doubled. But catalytic still fun in early to mid game.

[@noneofyourbusiness4133]

For modded playthroughs, you get HEAVILY bottlenecked by planetary build speed, so I always like it.

[@Stforv]

There's a mod called "Pops give build speed". It makes every pop on a planet give +1% building/district build speed and clear blocker speed on a planet. Check that one, it's really nice for a slow-ticking late game=)

[@evanstrong6239]

Hey Montu maybe do meta guide for megacorps in current Stellaris?

[@Nomadic_Gaming]

the irassians are fun as a crisis so many ship build speed modifiers and a way to just decimate a planet prior to getting a colossus it’s absolutely a F tier precursor but it can be made use of in some builds also the vualtum building gives you a science director which normally you need technocrat or the normal special researcher building for so it saves a slot or is just another way to get another director job

[@Stforv]

@PhillyWilly Or armageddon bombardment for fanatic xenophobes and genocidal empires

[@vasheroo]

I do like the irassian shipyards actually. I was disappointed when I rolled them but was surprised with the new building

[@Morglim]

Cybrex with determined Exterminators is bonkers.

[@LAJ-47FC9]

You forgot the most important part of what makes a precursor good or bad: the story. In my opinion, that drives the Vultaum way down and the Yuht way up.

[@vulcanmemes9770]

To anyone looking this because of the new DLC which adds two new precursors, if you get the Inetian Trader here is the rewards you can get (they're really bad) Relic: 15% Physics passive / Remove storms around your capital active effect + prevent storms from coming closer Special Project: +10 trade protection Head of Research gain: Statecraft Storm Manipulation tech or subsequent tech The other one is also very underwhelming so this list is still very accurate.

[@monkian]

Quick note on Cybrex building , it's not for minerals , it's for all mining stations as it uses the same code as the Engineering Mining Station techs. So that's any resource that is not research and is on a celestial body.

[@bahamut12th]

the thing about the Baol is with he right build it can break the game your entire empire running off of anglers only XD

[@OminousSoul]

Honestly, unless I am playing Lithoid or maybe a Determined Exterminator, I accept the fact I am going to need food so I always look for one world with a lot of Agriculture Districts and turn it into a Farm World.

[@christopherandresen9790]

the funny thing about the zroni strom generator is the shield nullification. if you put your station full with proton/neutron launchers yous enemy's ships basically instant die because they have no shields and gets bombarded killing them away without problem...

[@BigManInCanada]

"pops are the most crucial resource in the game" dang i wish i would have known this before. I ve been cracking every planet I find. Oh well

[@RandomGuy-qr5jw]

"9 times out of 10 you dont want to purge the enemies pops" Dude must be playing on a NASA-Computer