Virtual Is The Meta - Stellaris Every Click Guide

[@MontuPlays]

GRAB 70% off Stellaris & up to 50% off Stellaris DLC in the Humble Bundle Stellaris SALE: www.humblebundle.com/store/stellaris?partner=montuplays This link will take you to the Stellaris humble bundle store home page where you can then find other DLC recommended below in 'Related Content' or search for 'Stellaris' (or whatever else you want).

[@m4rt1n2008]

Is there an steam code `?

[@DerelictNacho]

@@m4rt1n2008 Humble Bundle sells legally obtained keys for most popular platforms (Including Steam). So, yes, they sell steam codes.

[@vaendryl]

a star empire of robots who are all... priests that's amazing.

[@Highspade]

Reverend Lionel Preacherbot

[@Alexandragon1]

xD

[@evertenplaza3673]

Vodyani theme intensifies

[@trazyntheinfinite9895]

​@@evertenplaza3673not robots bro. Thicc tigh suit space soul vampires. That live in giant churches. Theres many angles to that actually

[@Resetium]

You know Virtual is broken when it makes *clerks* useful.

[@cristi1145]

wait what’s wrong with clerks..

[@Resetium]

@@cristi1145 least useful job, right down there with medical workers just based on how long it takes to make pops normally, clerks provide basically no resources compared to literally any other worker job

[@deadlypandaghost]

Next up, Horticulutralist ascendancy. So we can make farmers good.

[@Resetium]

@@deadlypandaghost its like machine ascension for plantoids

[@joegallagher23]

@@deadlypandaghost I hear catalytic processing and agrarian idyll is actually fairly strong now

[@Yacovo]

This build lets you become a mid-game crisis. Before ascending into a late game crisis. Thanks for the video.

[@grandgibbon2071]

This build with the fallen empire tech would go so hard.

[@Wintermist-SWE]

"What is my purpose?" -"To pass the bible."

[@benoithudson7235]

Robogideons? That might as well happen.

[@EdricLysharae]

"...Oh my God"

[@mortache]

@@EdricLysharae Literally

[@Mephil]

Absolute chad move to scour the universe for intelligent life, almost to the point of fanaticism, only so that you can flip them the bird.

[@nt78stonewobble]

Man, I almost spat out my coffee for this comment. Here, have an upside down bird for that like :D "Using more than 1 finger is a structural weakness." -The Geth concensus... probably...

[@seanmcnulty2337]

We see the true nature of humans in simulator games 😂

[@אביבעזר]

Us vs Them mentality go brrrrr

[@icedancer2370]

Can I steal this for my book?

[@RovingTroll]

I immediately took to this ascension path, and my RP is that my money worshipping megacorp decided to become sentient money and become the galactic currency

[@brysonupchurch5722]

Why buy bitcoin when you can BECOME bitcoin

[@RovingTroll]

@@brysonupchurch5722 destruction of certain high-denomination currencies carry genocide charges

[@MorlockTrxsh]

@@RovingTrollthats both disgusting and really cool and im prolly gonna take to my D&D group…

[@trazyntheinfinite9895]

Dust in the stellar wind....

[@gambitsheild9814]

Monty: says world is nigh impregnable. My 100k fallen empire army: I'd cap that.

[@XiloTheOdd]

i chuckled at the instant NO to the manifesti

[@MontuPlays]

I hate the Manifesti

[@XiloTheOdd]

@@MontuPlays for the faction they make, i've yet to find a decent reason to keep em around. the kaliedescope event is more beneficial than them.

[@hardcorelace7565]

I always click yes, just because it usually triggers so early that the unity to say no is more important than a faction that'll hate me for a while and then disappear.

[@XiloTheOdd]

one neat thing i learned, the genesis arc civic for a synthetic ascending empire from organics, while it stops you from terraforming worlds with pre-sapients, gives your colony ships 3 more pops to use when you uplift them, and then assimilate them. your pre sapient policy does not stop you from assimilating them once they are uplifted for 3 extra pops.

[@purpledevilr7463]

And it has a loop. Get society research and unity from assimilating. Spend society research but get more unity from uplifting.

[@XiloTheOdd]

@@purpledevilr7463 also, found something interesting while i've been playing with this civic, that size 40 gaia world at the center of the galaxy i put a genesis ark down there... the bonus from it is the normal -2 districts but 100% increased unity and research from jobs... thats pretty massive. i havn't uplifted the species yet simply because i worry the uplift bonus wont scale like the initial one did.

[@ObiwanNekody]

I did an ascension rush with the arc civic, was fully modular at year 36 on the same settings as the video. Sovereign Guardian, Gen Arc, Remnants, xenophile/militaristic/egalitarian, went for trade. I didn't go for the animosity tree because I was sandwiched between a FE, two different leviathans, and two xenophobic isolationists, so I was only in contact with two empires until the galactic community formed. When you do the uplift you get 2 culture worker jobs, which means you can have 8 per planet, which is a nice extra bit too. On year 80 and my economy is massive, I have over 1/3 the galactic diplo weight and about 3x the score of the next closes empire (excluding the FE)

[@spacegremlin9972]

Yo Boys i just loaded up machine age for the first time and can we talk abvout how hard the soundtrack slaps, its fucking fire

[@BlackJustice2637]

Yeah, I love listening to it, it's so hype. I wish there was a jukebox in the game

[@youtubedude123]

@@BlackJustice2637 There actually is one. You can change the played track in the top right corner when you're ingame

[@BlackJustice2637]

@youtubedude123 Oh, thanks! I'll check it out when I have time

[@lazarus1272]

I play it with Virtual Megacorp, Ring World origin. I just get rich through trade ring and use the marketplace of ideas policy to boost unity and rush virtual. At that point I get lots of vassals and keep pretending to be friendly and a good business partner until I get cosmogenesis and start absorbing my vassals one empire at a time and reaping their pops for research. It's absurdly funny, I'm pretty sure virtual and maybe cosmogenesis as well will get nerfed hard and soon.

[@TheRandomMuffinMan]

Honestly? I kind of hope they don’t gut virtual since it’s pretty fun playing it tall. Maybe they should cap the amount of planets you can have with virtual pops? As for the crisis? Idk I didn’t touch that much yet.

[@gogeta667]

​@@TheRandomMuffinManThe pops just appearing is really dumb and unbalanced. In a game where pops are king, the ability to just will them into existence is bonkers.

[@TheRandomMuffinMan]

@@gogeta667 eh for me idc too much about balance in this game since I play in single player. At most just doing a game with friends. But I don’t really see them removing that part of virtual since that is the major selling point of virtual. I can see them nerfing how efficient they are though since they get some massive bonuses.

[@gogeta667]

@@TheRandomMuffinMan Make jobs = Instant pops. So then all you have to do is focus on planetary build speed and you have your growth scale. One that far outpaces literally every other type of pop growth.

[@TheRandomMuffinMan]

@@gogeta667 yeah I never argued that it wasn’t strong. Nor that it shouldn’t get nerfed (even if people in multiple player can just agree it’s banned if they want) I’m saying that I don’t think they’ll remove that feature from virtual since it’s the whole point of virtual. They’d have do a rework of virtual which is possible in the future. But expecting them to remove that part of virtual and keep it as is probably isn’t happening. I’d be surprised.

[@Petter1900]

Did two runs of this and it's incredible. Very refreshing to have a strong tall build that doesn't totally drown you in worlds to manage.

[@ClockworkOuroborous]

This looks like a fun build to play! I was playing the new 'dying race' build and in about year 2370 I didn't realize the tiny pocket empire that causing me a headache trying to get around was actually a small part of the massive empire on the other side of the galaxy what was using the 2 wormholes to settle that pocket. When the 6 30K+ fleets popped in that was when I decided it was time for a new playthrough.

[@Antonin1738]

ah yes, sovereign guardianship again

[@Haenrith-priv]

Such it is when one civic is so strong that it warps every other aspect of the game around it.

[@Antonin1738]

@@Haenrith-priv I've played with it a few times, how do you deal with the system penalties?

[@mikailfournea9545]

Abuse vassals after you explore/excavate everything in those systems

[@Antonin1738]

@@mikailfournea9545 i'd be very weak military wise no? since I'm hard focusing on Unity into tech?

[@ВиталийКотиков-т5э]

​@@Haenrith-privbetter than anglers and catalytic proccessing (God, I hate playing aquatics without full RP🤢)

[@angela_jx]

I don’t like playing as machine empires but I decided to try this and WOW. The game was basic over by year 34 for me. I wouldn’t even consider myself good at this game but ig this guide literally tells you everything you need to do so thank you montu lmao

[@codypturner]

I'm loving this new expansion/patch, my favorite part of it by far are the Arc Welders. Not only are they super helpful early game but they super charge void dweller empires. I've always found it rare to find enough perfect Mineral systems but the arc welders guarantee it as well as giving you a boost to alloys to build more habitats.

[@Teyloune]

Focus on Unity, become the Virtual Endless. Got it!

[@zix2421]

I’ve heard the word “unity” so many times... lol, good vid

[@Beerpowered]

This build was fun. I just stayed in my borders the whole time and researched and made my Diplomatic Weight and Fleet Power Ridiculous. Then kept declaring empires as the Crisis and just watched the Galaxy kill each other while waiting on the War in Heaven to Start.

[@redvorno]

And then Montu achieved this run

[@artemisfowl7191]

I understood that reference

[@maxpont8989]

A man of culture I see

[@98cents]

I've done pretty much this same thing with a research/unity machine race and shattered ring start. If you're lucky, you get cybrex and can pick up mega engineering as a research option. Usually takes about 10-15 years to research, but you'll hit critical mass in about 50 years from start. Build up your 3 shattered rings while you repair all of cybrex, then colonize them all at the same time, dump into power, research and artificial gas. 9k research by the time mid game even gets rolling.

[@infinitechoices1641]

Lol I did the same thing in my first run, went shattered and got super lucky running into cybrex. I never felt so strong.

[@Shadow-bk1im]

My problem is that there doesn’t seem to be any research arcologies anymore so you end up stagnating on research quite early on if you go virtual. Shattered ring doesn’t seem that great since there is no research districts last time I checked.

[@98cents]

@@Shadow-bk1im No research districts, but nothing stopping you from building a load of research buildings to hold you over until mega engineering is completed.

[@Shadow-bk1im]

@@98cents do you just abandon the old ringworld when you finish it to get more bonuses?

[@98cents]

@@Shadow-bk1im no, you dont really need to worry about the negatives from virtuality as long as you make up for it with resources. Two ring worlds pretty much cover all the penalties from size and pops. Also only 1 of the wings for shattered ring start is a "normal" planet, though its like 25 quality. The two you repair are standard ring sections with research districts, so even without cybrex, you can squeeze a lot out of it. Cybrex is mostly just to guarantee you can get mega engineering early, because thats what the build hinges on. If you get unlucky and never see mega engineering, then it doesn't work nearly as well.

[@paulcatindig2260]

Day 20ish of asking for a renowned and legendary paragons tier list, even tho Montu has already done a traits tier list which only covers the paragons a little bit and not in depth. Also a crisis tier list with f being the most unfun and boring to a being relatively easy and or being the most fun

[@josephcola9662]

3:30 Take note that Vocational Genomics and Adaptive Frames *DO* stack on Cyborg pops (as of the time of writing this comment), so if you slap both of those onto a cyborg species, you can get them to automod both the biological AND machine trait that's appropriate to their job.

[@caiooliveira4964]

Tbh, I love all the new things. I think the game is so much more fun, it's crazy. Now I just need to wait for the Hive Mind update

[@RamzaBehoulve]

I really like looking at the game settings. Never forget to show them. Eventually we can make a tier list of best settings for PvE and PvP.

[@GaeBoIg]

Kinda weird to use .75 settings for unity&techs mentioning they are pvp settings in a game with ai's.

[@hardcorelace7565]

​@@GaeBoIgits probably just to show it's viable in pvp as well as pve, also I'd guess most poeple use 0.75x since the game goes so much faster.

[@sampfrost]

yeah… virtual is really good with rings or arcs

[@LG-jn5fx]

I am running a shattered ring trade build and finished Virtuality on 2244 with 1 not 0.75 science and tradition costs. Virtuality is way stronger on the lower levels because it comes on line for the player when everyone has fewer pops and it allows you to have infinite pop growth whilst everyone else is stuck at a low pop count. The only downside to these builds are that you are as weak as a kitten until you finish virtuality and then it goes insane. Enjoy it while you can because it will be nerfed in the coming months. As always I have learned some good tips so ty Montu , did not know that communications trick before this.

[@shinkicker404]

Yeah, I want to enjoy it but don’t want to get too tied to it… because these are a few things in the DLC that I can’t see not getting nerfed into uselessness.

[@rileykanemccloud5892]

I’ve tried this build (both as posted and in a few variations) in several GA runs now and can confirm it is absolutely broken. Combined with the new crisis you can absolutely stream roll.

[@amirali4428]

Hey montu. Have you noticed that altho zero-g optimized trait says it gives -15% resources on non artificial worlds but it still gives the negatives in machine worlds and ringworlds

[@trexlord1]

Thank you for the guide. Trying to prep to make the most insane mega corp possible soon for a game with friends. It might not be the most optimal but virtual with life seeded seems like a very fun way to go!

[@ben5056]

I did a similar build without sovereign gardianship (dont have the dlc). Used pacifist, egalitarian to get pop size reduction and used domination, expansion, and harmony traditions to get more pop reduction.

[@PA_Sword]

Adaptive Frames have to be the best trait for literally any species. 3 points for not having to make 18 specialist species to assign manually? yes please.

[@Zereye]

I just love the "I cant believe Im doing this" vibe this whole video gives off.

[@purpledevilr7463]

The overwhelming power a resort world now has. 1 clerk job per 2 pops.

[@Beerpowered]

What did you pick for your 3 Civics one you were done ascending? For obvious reasons Guardianship is the 1st one. But for the other two: Switch Back to Democratic and get Beacon of Liberty and Distinguished Admiralty? Go Distinguished Admiralty and Crusader Spirit? Go hard, keep Exalted Priesthood and add Efficient Bureaucracy and further buff that sweet Priest Output and Edict Fund?

[@aespekson6556]

I think creating ring worlds might be worth it later in the game. Either that or other massive terrestrial worlds, like the enormous size 40 gaia world in azilash and especially if u can turn that into a machine world. On an older game, named that world grand azilash, turned it into an ecumenopolis and geared it towards alloy production as best I could. As of now, it's producing over 5k alloys. It does consume over 1500 minerals/month tho. In another, I also made it into an ecumenopolis and geared it towards trade, and it ended up producing close to 10k trade value. That's for later game tho.

[@nNicok]

Good video. Kinda Annoying that you mentioned that you had the Sol start AFTER the game starts... But the rest is good.

[@nebbygetinthebag7263]

There is one issue I see with this build and that is Rivalry. To have a rival, you need to have empires with a relative power greater than pathetic but less than overwhelming. Given how gimped we are starting off, we aren't going to be able to declare rivals unless you get lucky super early on as the other factions will be able to overtake you. I actually would rush Marketplace of Ideas over this as that works way more reliably.

[@aafdsdf3891]

You should find out the numbers of just going max speed on situation progress. Sure you lose more unity per month, but you also progress the situation faster which also ends the penalty and also gets you to the reward steps faster and therefore generate more special resources. Even if you cant buy everything at once in the tradition tree when the situation ends the previous bonuses in the tree should quickly boost you back up to parity if not surpass what you would be given an equivalent amount of time passing. I imagine just a few extra months of being at around 150% production on everything will quickly make up for the lost unity you were not spending anyways.

[@Efrostling]

there should be a reverse phototrophic trait for machines. like "personal Bioreactors" which replaces some energy upkeep with food upkeep. i know its probably not the best trait gameplay wise but it would be interesting in regards to adding flavor

[@JohnnyCash-tw8ps]

Shattered ring, with merchant guilds, also very good at virtually rush. All unity comes from trade plus u can fix your economy.

[@No_12c.]

Did a rush virtual ascension after the patch, took me 45 years but still OP.

[@ethanwmonster9075]

yeah pro tip trade is your best friend, i got so much unity i could do without temples and still complete traditions on schedule.

[@benoithudson7235]

OK, played with this a bit. There's a bunch of builds that get you to be virtual in about 30 years, it's not that hard. Common ground / holy covenant gets you there, for example. What makes doing it with void dwellers utterly broken is the research districts. You get 4.5 jobs each (rounded down), so your guaranteed research world gives you 40 researchers after just 4050 minerals, 450 alloys, and under 10 years of build time starting from when the habitat is built. Once ascended, that's 480 base research plus bonuses. Another broken thing: Find a system with a molten moon and lots of planets (lots of moons and asteroids is a bonus). Forge on the molten moon, major orbital on every planet. You can easily get 60 miners busy, plus bonus alloys.

[@aza7866]

I tried out the SG civic with virtuality when machine age launched. It's crazy OP... I played with the ocean paradise civic. I already ruled the galaxy by 2300. Cosmogenesis as well has amazing synergy with virtuality, as you can just conquer worlds, transfer pops then shutdown the server (saving you 200 influence), as well as the fact you can just funnel your production into the synaptic. Don't even get me started on the FE ships... 2-3 million fleet power fleets (230 fleet limit) is insane. Literally fighting the 25x crisis fleet by fleet

[@ulitharid8907]

I'm gonna be so sad when they nerf Virtuality into the ground :( I know it's coming, but I'm still gonna cry about it when it happens.

[@MontuPlays]

I'll cry with you, if that happens

[@tyyrrr]

So the patch has dropped I see a minor nerf What do you think? @MontuPlays

[@MontuPlays]

@@tyyrrr virtual right now: "oh no, anyway..." *Proceeds to research technology ever so slightly slower with no real loss to unity output*

[@LorenceLiu]

I think starting as the Remnants origin is also pretty good. Those minor artifacts income early game almost guarantees a constant 10% unity boost on your capital. You can also sell those minor artifacts for a good sum of energy and unity while maintaining a relatively strong early game economy. If you are lucky enough to find another relic world later, you can even replace Arcology Project with another Ascension Perk since 2 Ecumenopolis are more than enough for late game alloy. I am not sure which strategy is a faster rush, but starting Remnants gives you a much stabler economy.

[@NixPanicus]

Genesis Ark machine gestalts can also hit full Virtual by year 30 with a little luck on habitable planets. Colonize everything, start on Epigenetic Triggers as soon as it unlocks, then chain uplift. Imperial Prerogative is a good AP pick to keep your Empire Size (and tradition costs) down, although I wouldn't bother with Expansion

[@lostdark2907]

I have all the DLC‘s, but I can’t find several of these options. You’ve chosen to start the game with. Such as the origin and trait 0G optimized

[@YupielServant]

im confused on the lore of how a virtual empire interacts with the universe Where do the minerals and alloys come from? Who actually builds the structures? I thought a machine gestalt from the get-go was a virtual lifeform. They just extend their reach to shell-bodies to get things done, and the upkeep is in place to make sure things dont break down in the material world.

[@samusofsparta]

This is really interesting for sure! But it also leaves you VERY vulnerable to anything going even slightly wrong.... If you accidentally contact a criminal syndicate in your rival rush your screwed.... I really love the economy you walk out of all that with though!

[@kai-louloudavis3724]

I was playing around with a build very similar to this, but a lot more focused on trade earlier this week. It makes clerks super buffed while not degrading the relations like the antagonistic build does here. If anything it could actually accelerate making empires subsidiaries of yours. Species: Machine w/ Trading Algorithms and adaptive frames like in the video in order to maximize the clerk value that you earn because we are going to be doing the Federation origin. - Government: Xenophile, egalitarian, and religious Megacorp with Corporate Protectorate and Gospel of the Masses. That way your clerks are just even more buffed and you get more trade value to print out unity like its nothing. - Origin: Federation and choose the trade federation to get that juicy trade policy which gets you consumer goods, energy, and unity. That way you will be able to support utopian abundance for increased happiness and stability at the beginning of the game. - Opening Moves: Clear out your slums first to get that extra pop in your home system. Do not accept the migration treaties and only open commercial pacts in order to generate additional energy at the beginning of the game. You want to immediately rush down the diplomacy tree to get the embassies unity buff to your empire. Also make sure to pick veneration of saints. During this time, make sure to expand out to multiple systems and have at least one system that will support an Arc Furnace and one system for a Dyson Swarm. If you are boxed in by your allies in the federation, this build will still be effective, but you can just restart at this point in the game. Replace all basic resource buildings in your capital with temples and monuments. Just keep buffind unity production bby. Keep sending out your science vessels and military fleets to find additional contacts and keep bargaining for communications from every empire you meet. Keep establishing those embassies and get some nice unity on the side. For your second tradition tree, your going to choose mercantile to just keep buffing those clerks to generate those consumer goods which the excess will now be sold as liquidity to purchase alloys and anything else that you will need. Use those alloys to spam out trade stations which will allow you to maximize even more trade value and adds to the unity production. Your third tradition tree is going to be harmony or prosperity. Prosperity lets you squeeze out resources and sets you up better once you virtualize whereas harmony speeds up the process slightly by reducing population size effects on empire sprawl. Third ascension is rushing down synthetic age and choosing virtualization. Make sure to have medium priority on modularity and nanites that way you have access to those late game resources which can sell well and allow for rushed megastructure construction. As you're doing all of this, open up branch offices and construct unity production buildings there since you're not using your influence at that point as you've maxed out your starbase capacity from protectorate civic. As for your research, physics can go into anything. For society research, rush down anything colonial admin and or planetary unification to keep pumping out that unity. For engineering, rush down starholds so that you can upgrade your starbases to maximize even more trade value from the stars. - I got virtualization in around the same time frame as in this video. Have fun with this build.

[@1Megatrain]

I thought Corporate Protectorate needed Militarist to take?

[@BB-dv5ms]

@@1Megatrain it does.

[@DreadDoom]

Just a note, it's worth it to keep a single research lab (or district) instead of replacing all of them. The time difference to ascension is minimal but you *double* your research output until you ascend which can allow you just that extra bit of research to fight off any rivals that want a piece of you.

[@Sepaedius]

Neat. Now try the rush with Worker Cooperative on the relic world start for the ecu

[@votecthulhu9378]

I wish they made psionic machines possible. Maybe you could invite shrouds spirits into the machine bodies and give them a "soul" this way

[@Millor001]

I love when a combination of the most schizophrenic and bad decisions somehow makes a brokenly strong build

[@helcarloki1887]

Can't wait to try this out in about 1.5 to 2 years from now

[@gallendugall8913]

My virtual pops eat massive amounts of resources in upkeep. The more I produce the more they eat. All resources. When I gave up it was 100 energy, 80 minerals, 10 alloy, and 5 of each of the special resources - per pop!

[@grandgibbon2071]

The modularity tree is also pretty nuts. You can for the cost of .01 dark matter per pop, get a 60% job output, among other wild traits. For one civic point every researcher can more than produce enough dark matter. The new crisis perk is also pretty nuts once you get the fallen empire buildings online. The assembly one has no planet max, so you can really crank out pops.

[@iRcoyote1]

I did a similar build with a relic world start. Spiritualist, Militarist, and xenophobe. Civics were memorialist and High priest. I don't have the Paragons or Astral Planes DLC, so no sovereign guardianship for me. I definitely played subpar and forgot to turn on my fear campaign edit for xenophobe, forgot to supply my priests with minor artifacts, forgot to buy my religious revelation when I could, built my Sanctuary of Repose too soon, and accidentally clicked mastery of nature instead of One Vision for my first ascension perk. My traditions were Discovery so I could turn on Map the Stars, Expansion to grab land and have my first 2 colonies started sooner, and Mercantile to finish. Finished my 3rd tradition around 2029 and the situation for transformation around year 2034. I put off filling out the virtual tree for a couple of years while I filled up some planets outside my core system with pops (because you can empty your capital and have all those pops reappear once you fill it out, then have a decent vassal). Does the situation go faster if you have more tech? Because I don't remember it taking 8 years on either my ring world rush or my relic world rush. I also got into 2 wars before taking my ascension path and I think that set me back quite a bit.

[@jeradvanderbales9658]

Love all your work Montu think there could be a trick to play wide adjacent with virtual. What you would do is create a second sectors with your core built up planets then you release them in to there own vassal at that point you have a planet for your new home system with uninhabited planets to build up and populate immediately by product is a built up vassal with max loyalties that is virtual. If you think it’s viable I would love to see how you would build it I would have ocean paradise for max size planet option

[@arian9468]

Good video,Now we need a good guide for the new crisis.

[@MontuPlays]

Haha, guess which video I linked at the end! A full guide on the new crisis! 😅

[@Netami1337]

Been trying to do it multiple times now, maybe cause I'm trying to do it on Large map, but if you're unlucky with neighbour/meeting aliens it's pretty damn hard to do as fast as you've shown. Best run I had so far I got declared war on way too early :x

[@alphaundpinsel2431]

if you combine this with arc furnaces and vassals you won't even need any miners and you can go straight to meg structures like 80 years in

[@samuellightwing5467]

I'm actually finding virtual a bit too strong. I held off taking machine worlds just to give the AI empires a fighting chance. The resource output and efficiency is just so high when you have four or five big worlds and can near-instantly shut down any others.

[@dividendjohnson4327]

A video about virtual civs and the intro clip isn't from TRON? The ball hath been dropped.

[@sirgaz8699]

I'm doing an Overtuned Cyborg Xenophile empire since I figured you could put all 3 automodding traits (standard, overturned and cyborg) onto every species if you have the extra point and pick from xenocompatability.

[@Supreme-no2ye]

Virtuality is all the rage in the mid game, until the nanotech empire maxes out its nanite deposits and makes thousands of disruptor or missile swarmers

[@MontuPlays]

Virtual can complete cosmogenesis and win the game long, long before a nanotech empire has even hit reasonable nanite production. Or just make the nanite swarm a vassal

[@Supreme-no2ye]

True there's no beating virtual cosmogenesis, I was assuming it would be banned You could get vassalized but I would think that just gives you more time to build up (might be wrong but I don't think the overlord can tax away your nanites)

[@jameshaws9986]

You mentioned a megacorp version of this. How would you build that without parliamentary system?

[@y_matter3368]

At the start of Year 10 - Why is it important to make sure a different ruler is elected?

[@unlutM]

Change of leader allows you to reform your government (for democracy)

[@ScorpioneOrzion]

Prob think that Nanites might be able to compete with this (effective same build, just different endpath) (well maybe not, due to you go extra wide)

[@pda8987]

Definitely not - you want -100% planet size and you do not care about pop size minus manning some research planets + 1 alloy world for megastructures.

[@SevScout]

I tried to play tall with a virtual rush build... I'm not any good, yet I was 60% diplo weight of the entire galaxy. I was so buff, when the unbidden came, I bid them farewell with a fleet that was twice the size of their whole invasion force. Like... How is this not op? I got virtual at year 50 and I still facerolled the galaxy like it was nobody's business. While it was stupidly overpowered, it was kind of funny too. I was playing on captain difficulty and that wasn't nearly hard enough.

[@Renegad3420]

I am definitely going with cosmogenesis as my 4th ascension perk

[@brettdurham1694]

Can confirm this works and is nuts, I am mid at this game and finished ascending by year 35 at 1x cost

[@44hy57]

tried this and it went insane. only hiccup was being attacked right as I virtualized, but somehow I took over the hegemony I was forced into so I just destroyed it. was unquestionably the strongest empire by 45 and if I was more efficient I probably would have been able to kill fallen empires a lot sooner than I did.

[@Quasimodo-mq8tw]

Ok...this is insane. Also from a inuniverse perspective THEY are INSANE!

[@the_effect_de]

Is Void Dwellers really ideal for Virtual? What do you think about Ringworld origin or Ocean Paradise? You know, to get more out of the few colonies we can have.

[@midnightmadness6344]

Probably not ideal compared to a ring world or Ocean Paradise, but Void Dweller coming with the guaranteed resource rich systems synergizes well with the Arc Furnace and Sovereign Guardianship for the early game. Though Ring probably isn’t as great since you won’t be clearing any of the blockers that require tech for like the first 30 years, and since each big blocker is like 1,000 minerals to clear a strapped for minerals build isn’t gonna do too great until you become virtual.

[@the_effect_de]

@@midnightmadness6344 Good points

[@silentstormptt]

Created a machine empire based on the matrix movies, since they do go into virtual only soon later on as they further develop the tech. As why they arent on Earth? Well, sky kinda screwed up...

[@jackfrost7590]

I think that merchant guilds with shattered ring origin is as powerful as this build, just filling all 3 rings with 5-6 trade districts and rushing marketplace of ideas and then focusing on research is busted, and any resources like alloys or strategic ones can be bought from market due to how big energy credit flow from trade value is

[@Grumpy2Dumpy]

I love you times a Million Montu, but maybe include the starting solar system type in the build section of the video please and thank you. Just makes for easier following along of these click by click videos

[@sar02may86]

Followed as best I could… then a crime spree popped up on capital year 14 and it’s been a nightmare trying to keep it under control.

[@shadowtheimpure]

I'm playing my first Virtual run this weekend, I look forward to it. Virtual goes very, very hard and I want to get in before they start nerfing lol. Follow-up: Holy crap, I have 10000 pops.

[@sakuraexe2137]

This is perfectly balanced, I see no issues here.

[@johnhobbes2268]

You can have it easier and even more powerfull. Just take the new Genesis Guides civic. It is completely broken(getting up to15k unitiy per planet) and you will get some huge vassalls if you don't want to keep the planets and go virtuell. I got full ascencion on my first try only 31 years in on 1x costs. Without really optimising that much.

[@numka82]

Sadly not viable in multiplayer, 25-30 year grace period lobbies are extremely-extremely rare, only with friends in co-op or in SP its possible. Edit: After watching Montu stream with MP lobby I partially stand by what I said. Almost whole lobby was playing this and still a few people were eliminated by rare non-virtuals. Its a scam or cheese build, you either get to it unnopposed and become unstoppable or you die because you have to spend 25 years doing nothing.

[@delta-asmodeus]

Adaptive frames seems to stop working after the virtuality ascension / tradition tree, must be something to do with how the pop growth calculations get changed

[@regiliok]

full play though coming? id love to see that

[@ragnarok6723]

You can get rid of sov gaurd by switching to mega corp in the reform tree and then switching your govt back without reform and you can remove the trait. seems like a bug

[@DotaMobaUnionRu]

Robots praying hard to ascend... virtually.

[@matthewedwards6025]

I think Montu's hatred for Exalted Priesthood is misplaced. Although it takes pops to work (as opposed to getting your unity for "free" with Parliamentary Procedures), it still represents a 25% unity boost per priest, which is further magnified if you get into a Holy Covenant federation. As this build shows, I'm not the only one who thinks it's a good civic.

[@MortiePL]

What would you recommend instead of Sovereign Guardianship? I'm not keen on getting Astral Planes just for that, I'm also fine with this empire working slightly slower even if it means +10 or more years added to the "rush".

[@AHHEUS]

why you skip so much :( i had 100 unity income when you had 200

[@MANoob100]

While OP, I think part of what enables this build is lack of early aggression, you're pretty defenseless pre ascension, so if you land next to a purifier things may go a bit south. Same for MP, it plays perfectly into "no pre 2030 wars" allowed rules, but if early aggression is allowed it should be easy to strangle it in its infancy.

[@Sorain1]

and basically everyone will be doing that the instant they figure out your plan. (unless it's a multi team game, then each team is going to defend their Virtual rusher while trying to disrupt the others.)

[@notgiven7642]

kept scratching my head about why I'm so slow in comparison, then realised you play on x0.75 cost lol

[@RimWorldRimmer]

I feel like your Avatar’s head should grow ten fold due to the influx of tech rushing.

[@gooseloose682]

Now we need an endgame crisis where the farmers rise up and become the best job in Stellaris, or the only job there is >:(

[@orgashi4932]

Ik its not as visibly strong at first but nanites can go completely insane. You make planets that are worthless to anyone that isn't machines & each 5 years its either grow more nanites or get nanite ships. The amount of nanites in a solar system determines the amount of nanite ships generated and with no upkeep you can remove all standard ships and have fleets in the 4000+ plus since they use a ever growing resource the earlier you get it the better plus all the free research & materials that use nanites which results in alot of spare minerals and alloys which you can use for developing your empire instead of using it up for fleets. I find driven assimilator good with this build so everything you collect including the planets themselves become YOU.

[@Sorain1]

"You cant Assimilate the Planet." they told us. They were wrong.

[@ВиталийКотиков-т5э]

By the way, Montu, what do you think about the cybernetics rebalancing? They removed organic pop assembly, but on the other hand they boosted natural growth and opened the assembly slot for robots.

[@archmagemc3561]

I got a feeling they didn't think about virtual at all. 150% resources and fill ALL job slots or 125% and fill ALL jobs in ringworlds is insane. esp with a 100% research buff

[@andrew3203]

Just wondering what happens if you ascend as Virtual with a Birch World origin. You get unlimited pop size on that world, while Virtual gives you unlimited pops.