Stellaris Ascension Perks Tier List

foreign [Music] time [Music] with the release of the 3.6 open beta and a massive rework to the Ascension paths I think it is finally time to take another look at the Ascension perks tier list in this video we're going to look at all of the different Ascension perks you can get in Stellaris and I'm going to break them down and tell you which ones I think are great which ones I think are all right and which ones I think you should never ever take so without any further Ado let's dive in let's start at the bottom with the F tier now these Ascension perks are in my opinion the worst of the worst not only are they not so great I actually think you're going to get some opportunity cost and there are going to be negatives for actually taking them first off in the after we have consecrated worlds now yes there are some dodgy things you can do to actually consecrate the worlds and then land on them but I'm assuming you're not going to be doing that I assume that will get packed eventually if it hasn't already been so by the time you're watching this video so what does consecrate World decision do well you can take up to three planets you can choose to consecrate them and then you'll get some additional Unity amenities and also a governing ethics attraction across the planet in your Empire the additional bonuses are very very small they do get bigger the better the world you consecrate so if you consecrate a Gaia world then great you'll be getting a slightly larger bonus however you won't get access to the Gaia World which is really really bad the opportunity cost of losing these Prime worlds is not worth the additional bonuses however there is one exception to this and that is if you are next to the holy Guardians Fallen Empire you can consecrate their holy world they will not only love you for it but you'll get fantastic bonuses from Worlds you could not otherwise colonize and in that case this perk probably goes up to the C tier possibly low B tier transcendent learning gives you plus two liter level cap and plus 50 leader experience gain outside of using this for a very Niche build with a progenitor hive mind to get max level leaders as progenitor Hive Minds do gain experience passively all game it's pretty much worthless it is definitely not worth using up a precious precious Ascension perk on this and that's because as your leaders level up the bonus they gain is linear but the additional experience needed to level up is not linear therefore you need more and more experience with each level and thus adding a 50 leader experience gain is in essence equivalent to reducing a small amount of time from going from say level eight to level nine and the other previous levels overall the bonus you will get from being slightly ahead by possibly around one level is not worth an entire Ascension perk you're talking about electric few percent of resources an extra percentile to a fire rate it is definitely not worth it on the surface Xeno compatibility seems like like a fantastic Ascension perk extra immigration pull a massive 20 additional pop growth speed if the world has at least two different species and you get access to some hybrid species what could possibly be the problem well you see the thing is this is actually a meta issue the more species you have in the game and the more different pop types you have in the game the slower Stellaris will run and this becomes a massive issue in the late game where lag is the true crisis don't take Xeno compatibility don't even enable the other AI empires in your Galaxy to take it don't deal with the lag instead take one of the other Ascension perks in this list that can help you reduce that late game lag issue and if you're enjoying this video please eliminate late game lag with a Colossus and crack that like button finally we have one of the newer Ascension perks Hydro Centric finishing off the F tier why is this down here well hydrocentric is all about the new aquatic species trait that as a patch 3.6 costs two points if you take hydrocentric you will get a minus 25 ocean terraforming cost you can construct ice mining station Star based buildings you can terraform worlds with frozen terraforming candidate modifier which is quite nice and you'll get 50 increased effects from The Aquatic trait as well as unlocking new Deluge machine Colossus weapon if you finish the Colossus project however you must have the aquatic's main species trait and this will currently lock in the aquatics trait in such a way as you cannot add it positively to species and you cannot remove it from species and that is a massive issue for pops in your Empire if you don't want them to live on all ocean worlds it massively reduces the ability you have to Mainline a single species and use that all over the place now the bonuses here are nice but in my opinion the overall penalty of being locked into the Aquatic trait forever is simply not good enough now we're in the sea tier the perks in this tier are are better than the F tier they have some Niche applications but generally speaking they're not that great there are better picks out there and we probably don't want to use them much Interstellar Dominion reduces claim influence cost by 20 and Starbase influence cost by 20 as well this perk is all right there are quite a few ways of reducing claim and Starbase influence cost by as much if not more than this without having to use an entire Ascension perk the larger the Galaxy you play in the better this perk becomes however overall in my playthroughs at least it's generally not that useful Mastery of nature reduces your clear blocker cost by 33 and lets you use the Mastery of nature decision which will increase the size of your planet by two districts now most of the time you're going to find it much easier to find an entirely new planet and settle that one there are some cases where you'd really like a couple of extra districts for example on an acumenopolis world as the cost of transforming can be quite high but overall an extra two districts and 33 off clear blockers cost given that each of those extra two districts will cost you 100 influence and 2 000 energy credits is really not that worth it Universal transactions is a mega Corp specific Ascension perk that reduces your branch office cost by 15 and makes commercial packs free in terms of influence now is that fantastic not really in a massive game if you have many many commercial packs this could be nice to reduce your overall influence cost but a 15 reduction to branch office cost is basically a free branch office in every seven grasp the void gives you plus five star base capacity and plus 50 chance to discover FTL Technologies those Technologies include some things like jump drives gateways and Hyper relays overall the additional chance to discover Technologies is nice but not fantastic plus 5 Star base capacity is useful but I would generally not rate that as being worth an entire Ascension perk Galactic Force projection gets worse and worse the longer you're playing the game for you have to take two other Ascension perks before you can grab this one and it will give you plus 20 Fleet command limit and plus 80 Naval capacity at the start of the game that seems like a massive amount but much later in the game that is really very little at all a single Fortress habitat can probably push out 80 Naval capacity and Technologies or Mega structures like these strategic coordination Center can increase your Fleet command limit without having to use up a precious precious Ascension perk slot detox is a new Ascension perk that we can get our hands on with the Stellaris toxoids DLC it allows you to terraform worlds with the toxic terraforming candidate modifier this works fantastically in combination with the completion of the Knights of the toxic God quest line and if you have your hands on a toxic God as then you can and toxify worlds and detoxify them at will using this Ascension perk outside of that if you have a couple of terraforming candidates in your Empire you're lucky but I generally would not recommend an entire Ascension put to get your hands on just a small number of Worlds Lord of War is a new Ascension perk you can get your hands on if you have the Stellaris Overlord DLC it grants you plus one mercenary Enclave capacity a whopping plus 25 diplomatic weight from Fleet power and minus two and a half months dividend wait time if you're the patron of a mercenary Enclave but this all sounds pretty good why have I put it down here in the sea tier well there are lots of ways of getting mercenary Enclave capacity and whilst it is good to have one mercenary Enclave in order to get some of these special bonuses they can off your Empire actual mercenaries generally tend to be much more expensive than regular ships and you probably don't want to have them as the Mainstay of your Fleet and you don't want to have lots of mercenaries outside of some sort of Mimi megacope mercenary build Imperial prerogative grants you minus 50 Empire size from colonies it is one of the few ways you have in the game to reduce Empire size from colonies however Empire size from Pops does tend to be the most and largest contributor to your overall Empire size which increases the cost of traditions Technologies and edicts yes as the game goes on this gets better and better as you get more and more colonies and it is much better if you're a void dweller type Empire with lots and lots of colonies the overall effects from Empire size are rather minute at a reasonable level of the game and thus this Ascension perk isn't generally worth it most of the time we're now in the B tier Ascension perks in this tier definitely have some very specific uses although you can't quite pull off their use you probably don't want them there are better choices than these available but these still don't represent bad choices anymore now holistic acquisition allows you to unlock the raiding bombardment stance which in turn allows you to abduct Pops from besieged planets and then resettle them to your own worlds this is a fantastic way of getting your hands on extra pops if you can't produce them yourselves or you simply want to get ahead of the curve however it does take quite a while you do have to Siege these planets for quite a while and generally speaking I would normally recommend you just conquer the worlds and get access to the pops and additional pop growth that way voidborn gives you plus 20 habitat habitability habitats owned by your Empire gain two additional building slots and your upgraded habitats can support Advanced housing buildings you also gain the habitat expansion research option as well as the advanced space habitation option once you've finished that they will always be there and always be unlocked now this is a fantastic Ascension perk if you're a void dweller species if you start the game on habitat this is probably the first pick for your Empire and in that case is SS tier however for regular Empires you probably don't need the additional habitat habitability and you can probably use technology to unlock a whole host of extra building slots however if you find yourself with very few planets and therefore very many habitats you might consider taking this to improve the efficiency of each of your habitats enigmatic engineering requires that you already have another Ascension perk it will give you plus to encryption and steel technology operations will automatically fail when used against your Empire in addition to that debris from your destroyed ships cannot be studied by other Empires with the recent changes to the debris in game I feel that whilst this is probably the weakest in the beat here it still deserves a place here in the B tier that's because there are very few ways of actually getting an encryption advantage over your enemies and completely preventing them stealing technology from you should guarantee that you can maintain a technological Edge over your opponents World cheaper requires that you have another Ascension perk and it will give you a minus 25 to terraforming cost as well as giving you the option of terraforming worlds into Gaia Worlds the reason this is down here in the CTA and not higher up is that there are other Ascension perks that allow you to terraform worlds into Special World types ecumenopolis world's Hive worlds and machine worlds and those worlds are all generally better for the specific Empire type that can unlock them Eternal vigilance grants plus 25 star base Hull points plus 25 star-based damage plus 25 defense platform damage and plus 5 defense platform cap now exactly where defense platforms will fit in with the new combat rework I don't know for certain but my general feeling so far is that they're better than they were before that additional defense platform caps scales with bonuses from things like unyielding so in actuality it can be much more than just evasive plus five defense platforms and given that bang for your buckwise defense platforms are a much more efficient expenditure of Alloys and other resources in terms of the damage output they do I feel confident placing this here in the beat here Galactic Contender requires that you've already taken three other Ascension perks and you have communications with a fallen Empire or an awakened Empire it grants you plus 20 diplomatic weight and then plus 33 damage against these ancient threats the additional diplomatic weight is nice but not that fantastic but the additional damage to Fallen Empires is really really good especially in this latest patch which is in essence buffed Fallen Empire damage output and their ability to defend against your ships quite a lot it is still a niche Ascension perk and you should only really take it if you want to kill a fallen Empire a little bit earlier and thus get your hands on some really good Dark Matter technology and some of their fantastic buildings and planets but overall I think the additional step up in your power level that you will find when you actually take over a fallen Empire is probably worth this Ascension perk about four times out of five if you're enjoying this video and you'd like to support this channel you can do so by following the affiliate link down in the description below and purchasing something from The Humble Bundle store until the 27th of November you can get your hands on the RPG Legends Baldur's Gate and Beyond bundle for under 20 euros and lose yourself in some of the most immersive beloved legendary PC role-playing experiences of all time everything in the a tier is very good in its own right there are some Ascension perks that have better options or possibly are a little bit underpowered relative to other options but everything here is definitely a good pick for your Empire One Vision is pretty much one of the best traditions in the game for getting your hands on extra unity and for Hive Minds it is almost essential it gives minus 10 pop amenities usage plus 10 monthly uni T and plus 50 monthly governing ethics attraction it also doesn't require that you have any other Ascension perks taken so you can take it as your first slot generally though Unity is still not as powerful and not as useful as something like research and that's why it's down here in the a tier Master Builders requires you have two other Ascension perks and have completed the mega engineering technology you get plus fifty percent Mega structure build speed and a whopping plus one megastructure build capacity apart from the special late game edict this is the only way of getting additional megastructure build capacity allowing you to build multiple megastructures at the same time and therefore have more of them in your Empire the Colossus project requires you to have completed Titan's technology and already selected three other Ascension perks you'll get access to the Colossus project special project and Colossus ship type the benefits from this are twofold Colossus ships are equipped with massive weapons that can destroy entire planet in the late game this is particularly effective for killing pops and thus reducing late game lag wink wink but there's also the hidden benefit of also getting access to the total war war goal type meaning you no longer have to claim other Empires if you want to take them over on the flip side of this other Empires if you have a Colossus can also declare war on you with a total war war goal never forget a door opens both ways defender of the Galaxy requires you have three other Ascension perks and gives you plus 50 damage to end game crisis factions and plus 50 damage to crisis Empires on top of that you will get plus 20 opinion from all Empires which is all right but not fantastic if you're going for a 25 times crisis run or you are having issue dealing with another player crisis Empire or just a regular crisis Empire defender of the Galaxy is absolutely essential for that kind of run generally speaking yes it does only work against these crisis factions sure sure but given how much extra damage you'll be doing with this I think it is an absolutely necessary pick in almost all of my games but there is something which is pretty much equivalent to defender of the Galaxy whilst being all around better and we'll get to that when we get to the S tier executive Vigor gives you plus 100 edict fund on the surface that doesn't seem very great as the game goes on and your Empire size increases this gets worse and worse and worse indeed by the mid to late game it is pretty much a useless Ascension perk however if you take this as your first Ascension perk you should be able to run capacity subsidies and Mining subsidies for an additional 50 output of energy and minerals from your workers on those jobs the economic effect of this is absolutely enormous and will give your Empire a massive Step Up compared to those around you if they haven't taken executive Vigor and been able to do exactly the same for that reason it definitely deserves its place here in the eight here though I'm sure some of you might argue it still should be in the S tier but given the fact that it really dies off quite quickly in terms of its Effectiveness by the mid to late game I cannot conscience putting it higher as of patch 3.6 The Flash is weak allows you to unlock the cybernetic Ascension tradition which will then allow you to cybernetically ascend by taking this Ascension perk you'll gain access to the cybernetic tradition tree and the research option Quantum neuro links you have to have completed the integrated cybernetics technology and it requires one other Ascension perk to be selected first Ascension Traditions are fantastic and I will be doing videos on the individual changes to each of the new Ascension traditions in the future however as it currently stands the cybernetic tradition is in my opinion the weakest of the four tradition trees it comes with a pop growth only slightly better than that available to a regular Empire who goes down the psionic tradition and is definitely quite a bit behind the synthetic or biological traditions in terms of the pop assembly output yes you get access to new cybernetic traits but overall at the moment those cybernetic traits are far too expensive costing 0.5 energy credits in upkeep additionally per trait if you are going for a trade-based run through throw what I've just said out of the window because you can get the maximum additional bonus to trade value by going down the cybernetic path however outside of that it is really the weakest of the four Ascension paths so far although all of this may change as the 3.6 open Beta becomes a reality we're now in the final tier the best tier the S tier everything in this tier is pretty much an auto pick in your run throughs unless you either a don't want all of that unlimited power or B have a very specific reason not to take it though they can exist synthetic evolution is the other half of the synthetic Ascension path that is now its own unique Ascension path by taking this as Ascension perk you will gain access to the synthetic tradition tree and the research option for synthetics synthetics are fantastic giving a plus 10 resource output from that pop type the synthetic tradition tree is also really really good as long as you keep biological pops around in your Empire to continue growing it will provide you with the most pop assembly in the game outside of some really zany strats with biological Ascension And Hive mines or budding in terms of raw resource output it is no longer necessarily the absolute best it is pretty much now tied with biological Ascension depending on the specific job you've got however as an all-rounder it is much more easy to play and has much less micromanagement required I don't quite think synthetic Ascension is the best Ascension around any more altogether I think that position is now tied with biological Ascension and speaking of biological Ascension the engineered Evolution Ascension perks allows you to get access to the gene genetic tradition tree and thereby genetically Ascend you'll also get the gene seed purification research option and in order to take this you must have completed another Ascension perk and have the gene tailoring technology given the changes they have done now to the genetic tradition tree you can get pop assembly speed almost to the level or indeed higher if you're playing a hive mind as a previous synthetically ascended Empire you could also get the best pop growth in the game if you mod your species correctly they've also added New Traditions that mean you can specify your species to be better than an equivalent synthetic species in certain roles in certain places however there is still quite a lot of micromanagement required with the genetic Evolution and therefore if you don't like micromanagement you probably want to steer clear mind over matter allows you to gain access to the psionic tradition tree and you'll gain the research option for telepathy you'll have to either have taken and finished psionic Theory technology or be teachers of the Shroud origin if you're a teacher to the Shroud origin you won't even need to take this Ascension perk you can complete psionic Theory and dive straight into the psionic tradition tree psionic Ascension is still the fastest Ascension path to complete in the game and therefore if you do complete it you'll be completing it earlier than other Empires and should have a power advantage over them however in the long run it does still suffer from all of the previous problems which include not getting access to lots of Pop assembly which the other tradition trees will grant Galactic wonders requires that you are fully repaired or fully upgraded any megastructure in the game then you'll get access to The Ringworld Mata decompressor or Dyson Sphere research options as the Dyson Sphere and Mata decompressor are absolutely amazing in providing you with raw materials for your Empire thus allowing you to shift a load of basic worker jobs into specialist jobs like researchers or alloy producers they are absolutely phenomenal Mega structures ring worlds are good and and they have been upgraded as of the 3.6 beta however they're still not as good as a Dyson Sphere as they require you to fill them with Pops in order to be able to produce anything the next three Ascension perks arcology project Hive worlds and machine worlds all require you to have two other Ascension perks selected and then they Grant you access to the best world type in the game for each specific Empire that is able to take these Hive World provides Hive world the best world type for Hive Minds Machine World provides Machine World the best world type ball machine intelligences and the arcology project provides a humanopolis world the best worlds for everyone else do note that if you can find a couple of Relic worlds in your Empire and thus turn those into an EQ monopolis that is generally better than using an entire Ascension perk on this but if you don't have Relic worlds you will almost certainly need to take the arcology project become the crisis is basically the best Ascension perk in the entire game it unlocks an entirely new panel with a whole host of additional bonuses one of which is plus 50 damage to all of your ships which is in essence the better bigger version of defender of the Galaxy Defender Of The Galaxy can also be added to become the crisis in order to deal maximum damage against other crisis Pretenders the only reason you wouldn't take this is because you don't want to destroy the Galaxy you want to conquer it normally well even in that case you can still go up to tier 4 without unlocking and completing it and therefore conquer the Galaxy yes if you take this you cannot become the custodian and you cannot become the galactic or corporate Sovereign and that can be awful from an RP perspective perform a simple power perspective it's the best Ascension perk in the game shared Destiny has had a massive power boost after the release of Overlord now this Ascension perk is one of the only ways of of maintaining multiple vassals without a loyalty loss from having many of them you'll also gain two additional envoys which is very nice that is equivalent to 20 extra diplomatic weight or more spy missions because of the massive power of vassals now in the game share Destiny is in my opinion one of the best Ascension perks in Stellaris and last but by no means least is technological ascendancy this gives you plus 10 research speed and a whopping plus 50 rare technology chance this means it's much easier and much more likely you'll get your hands on some of the rare purple Technologies in the game extra research speed is good at all points in the game and should not be underestimated as this Ascension perk does not require you to take any other Ascension perks in order to select it it is a very good first choice if there are no other reasonable choices around that will still be giving you usefulness later on into the game Ascension perks provide a boost for your Empire but the real basis of power in your Empire comes from Pops if you'd like to know my thoughts on all of the traits into Stellaris including the new overtune traits and where I would rank them in a tier list click the video on screen now

Channel: Montu Plays

Views: 263,688

Keywords: Stellaris, stellaris gameplay, montu plays, montu plays stellaris

Id: rYu01zaS1BU

Length: 26min 13sec (1573 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 15 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Zardnaar]

I need to test more but I'm leaning towards yes.

Montu gets a few things wrong but he is usually about 80% right. I like him for explaining new mechanics builds not so much.

[u/No_Soul_King]

In the video Montu says in his first line, "With the release of the 3.6 open beta," and later on in the video he is putting ONLY 1 ascension perk from each of the pop ascension route. if he was doing a 3.5.X or earlier video, then he would have put in both the starter and finisher population ascension perks, like he did in the 3.3 ascension perk tier list.

Also, Montu talks about a lot of META, so he is doing the tier list based on the META of the 3.6 beta.