Stellaris 3.3 Ascension Perks Tier List

you weren't there in the final days of the war you never saw what was born the horde of travesties the nightmare child the war turned into hell my kind of world just listen even the time lords can't survive that we will initiate the final sanction the end of time will come the rupture will continue until it rips the time vortex apart from that suicide we will ascend to become creatures of consciousness alone our creation itself ceases to be you know that's what they were planning in the final days of the war i had to stop them ascension perks are some of the most powerful and most dangerous game-changing tools we have at our disposal in stellaris but which ones are worth taking and which ones should we completely ignore let's make a tier list and let's talk about it as ever let's start right at the very bottom of the t list this is the f tier now these ascension perks are either downright bad and they are going to hamper your empire or alternatively i just really really don't like them so what have we got in here let's take a look first up we have consecrated worlds this one does not require you to have taken any other ascension perks but it does require you to be spiritualist once you get this you will get access to the consecrate world decision the consecrate world's decision can be used up to three times on uncolonized planets and will cost you 500 unity for each use you can also cancel it at any time that will cost you another 500 unity now depending on the type of celestial body you consecrate you have a different chance of the world being different things first off if you consecrate a gaia world there is a 100 chance it will become a holy world that means you'll get plus eight percent unity four percent amenities and an eight percent attraction to spiritualist modifier this will be empire wide and if you consecrate lesser worlds you have a chance of getting different bonuses there is a venerated world respected world and profane world each level from profane world all the way up to holy world will increase the unity amenities and attraction by two percent one percent and two percent apiece that means if you consecrated three holy worlds you would get 24 unity bonus and 12 amenity bonus across your empire now that sounds pretty good on the surface however it is much much much better to actually colonize one of these worlds than it will be to consecrate them you should really be using that world putting some pops on it and producing resources so overall consecrate worlds will cost you unity it will give you some benefits but the benefits are vastly outweighed by the opportunity cost of actually consecrating a planet that's why this is down in the f-tier next up we have transcendent learning this is going to give you plus two leader level cap and plus fifty percent leader experience gain on the surface that sounds pretty good however you can hit max leader level cap without using this ascension perk so if you take this one first you may get a little bit of a bonus to your leader output and that means you could get higher leader levels more leader experience but by the time you get to the mid and late game this will be completely and utterly useless um so from that point of view you're basically using an ascension perk to end up with no ascension perk 50 100 150 years later into the game and that's why this is down in f tier the final perk in the f tier is xeno compatibility now on the surface this seems like quite a good perk what do you get well plus a 33 immigration pull plus 20 pop growth speed if a world has at least two different species and access to hybrid species in order to take this perk you must be any form of xenophile have an alien biological alien living in your empire and the gene tailoring technology but why is this perk so bad on the surface it sounds quite good you're getting extra bonuses to pop growth and i am always talking about how important pop growth is well the issue here is actually a real world technical problem basically if you allow xenocompatibility you're going to end up with a vast number of these hybrid pops that is going to increase the unique number of pops in the galaxy which are of a unique species type and that is going to cause your computer to have to take a lot longer to get through the timing of the game that is going to slow down the game and the lag you're going to get from allowing xeno compatibility is going to make you want to throw this computer and this game out of the window that's why they've included a slider to allow and disable xeno compatibility across an entire galaxy and that's why i always recommend you turn it off and if you're enjoying this video please help that like button reach ascension now we get to the c tier these aren't always necessarily harmful but they're also not always necessarily useful eternal vigilance is the first perk in the seat here what does this do this gives us plus 25 star base hull points plus 25 star based damage plus 25 defense platform damage and plus five defense platform cap you must have the star fortress technology in order to take this perk but why is it down here in the seat here well basically star base is almost certainly by the late mid game and late game are not able to stand up to enemy fleets especially combined fleets yes the defense platform cap does stack with similar bonuses in unyielding and and some other things you can get so you can end up with a bonkers number of defense platforms on a single star base i think it's up to 50 or 60 but even then it really is just a waste of resources it is better to put those resources into a fleet because you can always stack more fleets in a system than you can have in power from a single star base and its associated defense platforms interstellar dominion reduces the influence claim cost by 20 and the star base influence cost by 20 this is going to make expansion cheaper from an influence perspective but why is it all the way down here in this etio well at this point in 3.3 influence you'll probably have it coming out of your ears it is probably going to be there in buckets you're going to have so much you won't know what to do with it that's why you probably don't want to take this perk yes things might change in 3.4 with the release of overlord we might have quite a few new ways to spend influence with all of those vassal contracts and everything but for now it really isn't that useful mastery of nature reduces your clear blocker cost by 33 and gives you access to the mastery of nature decision the mastery of nature decision costs 2 000 energy 100 influence and takes a whole year to implement it will then increase the maximum number of districts on the planet you enact this decision by two that is a permanent change and overall that's all right but really it's it's not that useful yes you can stack some extra districts somewhere and for a similar price you could simply build a habitat that's going to cost 1500 alloys and 150 influence so overall this is a c tier decision shared destiny reduces the subject integration influence cost by 50 it also gives you plus 100 subject trust cap and plus two available envoys you can't be corporate you cannot have inward perfectionist and you cannot be a genocidal empire why is this not so fantastic well at the moment you're really not going to need this yes the envoys are all right and that's a nice little bonus but at present vassals and tributaries aren't the most integral and important part of the game however with stellaris overlords dlc i can imagine this might be moved up to b or possibly a tier with the changes we're going to see there so let's put a pin in this one but for now it is definitely c tier universal transactions is only available to corporate empires that are not criminal heritages it will reduce your branch office cost by 15 and make all commercial packs free that means they will have no cost to their influence but basically this really isn't very useful at present you probably aren't running out of influence from the number of commercial packs you have it's very easy to generate influence at the moment in the game and there are very few things you can spend that influence on in addition branch cost reduction by 15 is nice but it's not really worth an ascension perk slot however again with stellaris overlord this may change so let's review that in a few months time grasp the void is the first ascension perk that is a tiered ascension perk this one is tier one and that means you must have already selected at least one other ascension perk before you can take this ascension perk what does it do well it gives us plus five star based capacity overall extra star based capacity is good if you are a machine or hivemind empire it is really good from an economic perspective you can immediately turn those starbases into economic powerhouses full of solar panels and hydroponics bays but overall it's really something of a mediocre ascension perk i know some of you are going to disagree with me here but i think this is definitely the top of the seat here but sit here nonetheless the world shaper ascension perk also requires you to have taken one other ascension perk it reduces your terraforming cost by 25 and allows you to terraform planets into gaia worlds you must have research climate restoration technology and you can either not be a gushed out consciousness or have the rogue servator or driven assimilator civics now whilst gaia worlds are definitely very good you probably don't want to be wasting all of your energy transforming all of your worlds into guile worlds by the mid game you've probably already managed to get 100 habitability on all of your worlds for the species you have either by getting the habitability technologies or by taking one of the ascension paths that's going to increase your habitability on those worlds so the only real bonuses here are the 10 resource output and 10 happiness that's good but for the cost of an ascension perk and all of those extra terraforming costs i really don't think it's worth it there are better options available galactic force projection requires that you have selected two other ascension perks already that means the earliest you can take this is your third ascension perk it's going to give you plus 20 fleet command limit and plus 80 naval capacity on the surface that does sound pretty good increase fleet command limit and increased naval capacity can be very helpful but by the time it comes that you are ready to take this perk you've probably already researched quite a few naval capacity and fleet command limit technologies and you probably have quite a reasonable naval capacity this should only increase your naval cap by around 20 to 30 percent there are better perks available at this tier 2 level that's why it's here and additionally as the game goes on this additional naval cap and fleet command limit are going to become less and less important they're going to be drowned out in all of the extra naval cap you'll be getting from your soldier jobs and in the end you're not even really going to notice that you have this perk selected but let me know what you think of this tier list down in the comments below do you agree with my opinions here or do you think i've gone completely mad i will be checking out all of the comments and trying to respond to as many as i can for the first few hours after this video is released so if you've got something to let me know let me know in the comments below welcome to the b tier here we are going to have some perks that are definitely very useful but not always in the right direction and sometimes there are just much better options available hydrocentric is a very very new ascension perk you can get access to this with the aquatics dlc it gives minus 25 ocean terraforming cost you can construct ice mining station starbase buildings a 50 increase to the effects of the aquatic trait and it will unlock the deluge machine colossus weapon you must have an aquatic main species trait in your empire ocean main species climate preference and the terrestrial sculpting technology but why is it down here in be well you probably want to be either modding aquatic out of your species by synthetically ascending or getting access to the biological ascension route and therefore you probably don't need this minor increase to the bonus of aquatic across your empire now of course if you keep aquatic it is more useful but even then it's really only an extra five percent output to the base resources from jobs and you get some reduced ocean terraforming cost it's very nice for the flavor but overall i think it definitely deserves its place here in the beetier with the 3.3 update imperial prerogative has become much better it gives you a minus 50 empire size from colonies and you must not be corporate in order to take it overall this reduction to your empire size is probably only going to have a minor impact on your overall penalties from empire size somewhere in the region of nothing up to 10 20 reduction to your tech cost and that's why it's down here in the b tier for hive mind empires it is a little better because you can stack this along with the hive mind civic in order to get no empire sprawl from colonies but that is still not the biggest bonus in the entire world nihilistic acquisition unlocks the raiding bombardment stance you must either be a gushed out consciousness authoritarian or xenophobe to take this and you cannot already have the barbaric the spoiler civic because that also gives access to this raiding bombardment stance the raiding bombardment stance allows you to abduct pops from a planet instead of killing them basically if you park your fleet in orbit and start bombarding the planet every time you would kill a species you instead abduct it away to your home world it does not cause the terror bombing opinion amongst other empires so that's nice and it can be quite useful to grab these extra pops but overall it's not necessarily one of the best ascension perks in my opinion it's not something i regularly use and that's why i placed it down here in the b tier voidborn increases your habitability on habitats by 20 it unlocks two habitat building slots allows you to upgrade housing buildings on those habitats and can always research the next year of habitat technology in your research options you have to have researched orbital habitats and be able to build them in order to take this perk but basically it's very useful for habitats if you have them and if you don't completely and utterly useless if you are a void dweller it is definitely asked here but for everyone else it's somewhere between b and c and that's why i've placed it where i have enigmatic engineering requires you to have taken another ascension perk first it will give you plus to encryption your destroyed ships will no longer leave any debris for enemy ships to learn and steal your technologies and the steel technology operation will always fail and that will fail very immediately this is definitely useful in a multiplayer situation and will stop enemy empires from gaining access to your technologies if you're in long protracted walls but overall it's just not that great yes it does prevent steel technology actions from happening and it can be quite nice to basically give your neighbor the finger but it's just not such an overwhelming benefit synthetic age is the machine equivalent or knock-off version of the synthetic ascension path that regular biologicals can take it will give you plus two machine modification points and reduce the modified species special project by 33 in terms of cost you must have already researched machine template system technology and be a machine intelligence as well as already having two other ascension perks overall though it's something of a minor bonus to a machine empire and there are definitely other perks that are better options and if you're enjoying this video and other videos on this channel you can help to support this channel by either becoming a channel member supporting this channel through patreon or purchasing something on the humble bundle store links to all of these are down in the description below a tier ascension perks are all definitely very good in their own right you almost certainly want to take these but there are still a couple of better options available that you may take first and then end up taking these a little bit later on or possibly you'll take these because there's simply nothing else that is better available at that particular moment with the unity update that is the 3.3 libra update one vision has become more important for hivemind it's an automatic s-tier auto pick for your first ascension perk possibly your second and that is due to the minus 10 pop amenities usage that it gives you that is very important for hivemind empires for regular empires and also hive minds the bonuses are minus 10 pop amenities usage plus 10 monthly unity and plus 50 governing ethics attraction for any unity focused empires this is definitely a very good choice and reducing your pop amenities usage across the empire especially if you're spiritualist and therefore don't have access to things like robots which have a reduced amenities usage as base you may really really want to take this there are other better options available but it is definitely a solid pick there are three different ascension routes available to regular biological empires engineered evolution represents the first and that is the biological ascension path this will give you plus three genetic modification points access to the clone vat building minus 25 to the modify species special project cost and you will also be able to research gene purification technology you must have already taken the gene tailoring technology and you cannot have already gone down one of the other two ascension perks or machine intelligence this is also the only ascension path available to biological hive minds this cannot be looked at in isolation because if you take this you should certainly take the next step which is evolutionary mastery that will give a further three genetic modification points -25 modify species special project cost for a total of minus 50 the genetic resequencing research option as well as hive minds can now add or remove the hive-minded trait by the assimilation method you must have the glandular acclimation technology as well as of course taking the engineered evolution ascension perk now overall the biological ascension path is simply not as good as the synthetic path that's why it's down here in the a tier the total amount of population growth and production you can get will in total be lower with the biological route than if you go down the synthetic route and the output of your pops your synthetic pops are going to be better than these pops here these regular biological pops overall and the micromanagement required by biological ascended empires is much much higher you're going to be doing a lot and i really do mean a lot of little management in order to change around the traits of all of the different biological pops and biological species you have in your empire whereas a synthetic empire can simply take every pop type and turn it into the same machine you definitely shouldn't underestimate the biological ascension path gene seed purification is a good technology that's going to give you access to gene seed warriors aka space marines and the special traits you'll get available with the genetic resequencing research option are really good you can have some of the best researchers in the game with this as aerodyne is really quite great but because of the other ascension paths available this does have to sit here in the a tier mind over mata represents another of the ascension pass this time the psionic or psychic ascension path i'll go through exactly what this does in a moment along with the final upgrade transcendence but for now let me simply say that with the 3.3 rework we've actually had some bonuses and improvements to the psychic path and i now believe it is definitely on a similar level to the biological ascension route in terms of the power you're going to get from it and i'll go through that in a moment first let's find out what these actually do mind over mata requires that you have the psionic theory technology you can't have gone down any of the other routes and you cannot be a mechanical or gestalt consciousness species it will give you the telepathy research option as well as the side core building psionic armies will be unlocked your primary species gains the latent psionic trait that's a good one a nice five percent bonus to energy from jobs and five percent bonus to research from jobs this also means your leaders have the chance to gain the psychic trait which has varying bonuses depending on what role they're in but the important one here is that if you have an admiral leader with psychic you'll get plus 15 evasion as well as plus 10 damage that means you can stack the evasion modifiers to get some very very high evasion destroyers which in the mid game can be very very powerful and in the late game also have their uses when you go up to the next level that is transcendence you'll get plus two code breaking plus to encryption plus to base intel level also your primary species will gain the psionic trait that basically doubles up the latent psionic but also gives you a plus 10 bonus to happiness you will also get the assimilation citizenship option that means any new biological can be assimilated and become psionic as well and all of your primary species leaders they just straight up gain the psychic trait which before was slightly random you can also on top of that breach into the shroud now i won't completely cover the shroud now but basically the shroud can for 1000 energy give you some rng based bonuses sometimes they are very good you can use that in combination with your admiral to get max evasion destroyers for a time you can also get some negatives you can form some fantastic compacts overall it is very hit and miss though why is psionic all the way up here in this tier well first off the cycle building now gives you plus 10 resource output from jobs as well as plus five stability overall that means you're going to be getting a nice 13 bonus output from jobs in addition to the psionic trade bonuses you're getting on top of that and the bonuses from happiness you can unity rush down the ascension perks with a spiritualist empire spiritualists are going to have a higher chance of getting the mind over mata ascension perk because they're going to have a higher chance of researching psionic theory so it is possible to have this ascension path completed by 22 30 or 20 to 40 if you are lucky now to get psionic theory you need to have a psionic specialty scientist or put in a scientist with the maniacal trait into your society research this is the only crutch with this ascension path because it is very rng based you must have psionic theory technology but as soon as you do you can complete it instantly and be a power level ahead of neighboring empires that are required to do some quite expensive research that is the synthetic path and the biological path in order to get all of their bonuses you won't need to do that you'll simply need to build a single building and click a few buttons that makes this very very good for rushing other neighboring empires but later on in the game your power level will taper off master builders increases your mega structure build speed by 50 and you get plus one mega structure build capacity you must have researched mega engineering technology in order to take this the main bonus here is actually that increased megastructures build capacity that's going to allow you to build two and possibly three mega structures at the same time if you play your cars right but really this is not a necessity however in the mid game it can be very very useful to give your empire a step up or a leg up over neighboring empires around you so this is definitely a useful ascension perk but probably near the bottom of the a tier the colossus project requires you to have already completed three other ascension perks so this one definitely isn't available very early in the game it gives you access to the colossus ship type and the colossus project special project which will enable you to simply build a death star this station is now the ultimate power in the universe now if you don't want to simply destroy planets there are a whole range of options available with the colossus project from pacifist options all the way to kind of semi-neutral options with the neutron sweep which is a very pragmatic version of this technology but basically this is never necessary however it can be very very helpful especially if you're fighting the crisis to be able to crack planets rather than having to slowly bombard them over time and it allows you to do some fantastic uh fleet maneuvers and tactical maneuvers flying into enemy space destroying a key world of an enemy empire and crippling their economy meaning that they are no longer a threat to you economically and therefore militarily yes it is always better to take and conquer an enemy world but sometimes you simply are fighting for the very survival of your species and in that case maximum force is advised there's also an external effect that is not in the game but basically by cracking planets in the late game you'll be reducing the total number of pops in the galaxy and therefore reducing the amount of lag that everyone is suffering so if you don't have the fastest pc colossus project may be entirely necessary simply to get to the end of the game there was no other way galactic contender is a personal favorite of mine it will give you plus 20 diplomatic weight in the galactic community plus 33 damage to awakened empires damage to fallen empires and damage to gate builders this means by taking this perk you are able to fight and probably defeat one of the fallen empires a little bit earlier than you would otherwise have been able to do so in addition the extra diplomatic weight is going to be very helpful for securing control of the galactic community something i think is very important but you don't need this ascension perk if you do take it it could allow you access to all of those fantastic buildings in the fallen empire space that will give your empire a step up economically and possibly push you over into snowballing in the late game here we come to the s tier these are simply the best ascension perks available in stellaris if you have the option to take one of these you'll probably be picking between one st a perk and another when it comes to your ascension slots until you've taken everything available to you and then you might drop down to something in the a tier but what have we got here what is so fantastic i simply won't shut up about it first up in the s tier is executive figure this is going to increase your edict fund by plus 100 now this is a solid choice for your first ascension perk now they're in the 3.3 update this will probably mean you're able to run two or even three edicts without spending any unity and edicts are very very powerful this however over time will become worse and worse as your empire size increases and thus the cost of your edicts go up this 100 edict fund will become less and less valuable and that's why it becomes worse over time however in my opinion this is very much an auto pick for quite a few builds for your first ascension perk galactic wonders allows you to build dyson spheres mata decompressors and ring worlds you must have researched the mega engineering technology and either built or fully repaired a multi-stage megastructure dyson spheres are fantastic at their maximum level you'll get 4 000 extra energy mata decompresses are very good as well with those you're going to get a phenomenal number of minerals and ring worlds are simply all right this is in the s tier because in the late game a dyson sphere and mata d compressor allow you to shift loads of your population away from basic resource producing jobs like technicians and miners and instead work specialist jobs like a metallurgist producing alloys or researchers producing more research and thus the overall economic might of your empire can be vastly vastly increased i can't understate how brilliant getting a dyson sphere online is in the mid to late game for a long time technological ascendancy was the auto pick for your first ascension perk it gives plus 10 research speed and plus 50 rare technology research chance now technology in this game is massively important having better technology will increase your pop growth it will increase your empire's military capacity and increase the economic potential of all the pops in your empire so a bonus to research speed is phenomenally important however with the current state of the game there are other s-tier choices you might take first over this however i tend to think it does find its way into every empire's ascension perk list i've talked about it before the synthetic ascension path this is only available to regular biological empires and to take this first one the flesh is weak you must have the droids technology it will give minus 10 robot upkeep plus 10 pop assembly speed and allow you to have access to the special project to turn all of your pops into cyborg cyborg gives you plus 20 habitability as well as a plus 40 to your leader lifespan so that means your lead is going to live long enough to synthetically ascend them when we get to the next stage and that next stage is synthetic evolution synthetic evolution gives you plus one robot modification points minus 50 to the modify species special project plus 10 robot output as well as the special project to turn all of your empire into synthetics in order to take this perk you'll need the flesh is weak and you'll have to have completed the special project there you'll need synthetic personality matrix technology and the synthetics technology but why is this such a good ascension path well basically in your empire when you synthetically ascend you'll get a massive number of the roboticist jobs across your empire they're going to provide lots and lots of robot assembly speed probably on par with a machine empire and additionally as long as you keep some biological pops around in your empire you'll also get access to biological pop growth as well now that means that you can have the highest level of pop growth in the game your synthetic pops will get plus 25 to their resource output that's 10 from the synthetic technology 10 from this ascension perk and then as long as your ruler is synthetic all of your robots produce another 5 resources that 25 bonus means you're going to have very very efficient pops all across your empire the only downsides of the synthetic ascension path are the long long time it takes and the phenomenal amount of engineering research you'll need to spend in order to complete the two special projects that are necessary to discard your weak and fleshy forms and replace them with beautiful machines arcology project gives you access to the arcology project decision you must have researched anti-gravity engineering that's the level 2 technology for increasing your housing from the housing districts and you cannot have agrarian idol or be a guest out consciousness unless you're a rogue servator now the arcology project decision will enable you to turn worlds into acumenopolis worlds it will cost a phenomenal number of resources that is 20 000 minerals as well as a bunch of influence but you will get access after 10 years to an ecumenopolis that gives you access to the best celestial body in the game for a regular biological empire because you're going to get plus 20 to your resource output from jobs on that planet as well as plus 50 to your pop growth speed which is a phenomenal bonus it is a no-brainer to try to get your hands on at least one accumonopolis now if you can't find a reliqual you will definitely want to take the arcology project ascension perk however if you have one or two relic worlds in your empire this might be unnecessary hive world allows you to terraform worlds into hive worlds you must be a hive-minded empire and have researched climate restoration technology but hive worlds are basically the best planets available to hiveline empires and for that reason it's a no-brainer to take this ascension perk additionally machine world well that's the machine intelligence version of a hive world and again it's the best world type available to a machine empire you almost certainly want to take this if you have the option available you must be a machine intelligence and you must have researched climate restoration technology in order to take this ascension perk and begin terraforming worlds into machine worlds becoming the crisis is a phenomenal power boost to your empire in order to take this ascension perk you will need to have researched two other ascension perks and there is a strict list of requirements you cannot be a xenophile or pacifist you cannot be a rogue servator you must not be a subject you cannot be the emperor of the galaxy therefore you can't be the galactic sovereign or a corporate sovereign and you cannot be the galactic custodian once you take this it will unlock the menace and crisis tabs for your empire this gives a fantastic number of overall bonuses not to mention 50 extra damage output from ships all sorts of bonuses to your ships in general and access to the unique classes of ships that is the menacing ships menacing corvettes destroyers and cruisers becoming the crisis is such a high power level that in most multiplayer games it is simply banned as eventually if you gather enough menace and complete all of the special projects you will get access to the star eaters which make colossi or colossus's this is without a doubt the most powerful ascension perk for a single ascension perk available in stellaris i'm not going to go into the full details of the become the crisis ascension perk if you'd like me to make a video going through the become the crisis ascension please let me know down in the comments below if there is enough interest i'll make a video on it finally we have defender of the galaxy now this gives you plus 50 damage to end game crisis factions as well as plus 50 damage to crisis empires this is a very very necessary ascension perk if you want to go and fight five 10 or 25 times crisis options or if another empire another player empire becomes the crisis getting an extra 50 damage is so so important for your fleet and for your damage output that's why i've got this up here in the s tier i don't think i've gone through any games without taking it because if you want to survive the crisis it is an auto pick quite a few of the st options in this video represented terraforming changes or other changes made to celestial bodies if you'd like to know more about celestial bodies and which celestial bodies are the best for your population to live on and why click the video on screen now

Channel: Montu Plays

Views: 302,692

Keywords: Stellaris, stellaris gameplay, montu plays, montu plays stellaris, stellaris ascension perks, stellaris acsension perks tier list, stellaris tier list, stellaris tier list 3.3, stellaris ascension perk tier list, stellaris ascension perks tier list 2022, stellaris ascension perks tier list 3.3, montu plays tier list, stellaris 3.3, stellaris guide, stellaris ascension tier list, ascension tier list stellaris

Id: LzhgFRXJ3D4

Length: 37min 22sec (2242 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 26 2022