Stellaris

What I learned from playing psionic ascension for the first time

stellaris 8 - What I learned from playing psionic ascension for the first time

In my last game, I decided to try playing an empire that would go for psionic ascension for the first time. Historically, I really enjoy materialist empires and going for synthetic ascension. I've tried bio ascension once and liked it but would need to try it again, probably with a non genocidal race (I did a militarist purifier who believed they were genetically superior).

I did a bit of RP in my empire set up, so not entirely min maxed. Started with intelligent, rapid breeders, deviants, and fleeting for species traits. Fanatic spiritualist + egalitarian oligarchy with exalted priesthood + meritocracy. Basically they believe everyone starts equal regardless of species, and position in society is based on merit. Default size spiral galaxy, 3 FEs, commodore + scaling difficulty, 1 guaranteed world, 2x primitives, 2.5x crisis.

Due to being egalitarian, any species in my empire automatically had citizenship. From the beginning I banned AI and welcomed all refugees to please my factions (this had some consequences down the road). I also got a few migration treaties early.

Over time as the various empires fought and expanded and as I took over a few neighbors, my species list grew and grew. I got psionic ascension pretty early, as spiritualist empires get unity very quickly. But only my founding species got it, so I started to struggle finding leaders with my new trait due to my empire's diversity. A war in heaven triggered (my first one) between the spiritualist and xenophile FEs, and I got a bunch more species and pops from refugees and the war itself (I led the league of unaligned systems). It was only then that I figured out I could assimilate other species and grant them the psionic trait. With this and gene modding, I applied the trait… To all 34 unique species in my empire. All migration treaties were turned off when I got mind over matter so my pops couldn't be copied freely.

I ended up winning the game as I normally do, but nowhere near as strong as I've been with materialist or machine empires, and weaker than the bio ascension game I've done.

Read:  "The Exiles" Origin Idea

Pros: The strongest possible tech in the game (shields, jump drives) Best leader trait (psionic) Extremely powerful temporary and permanent buffs from the Shroud

Cons: Slowest pop growth of all paths (could have been better with a different pact?) Very RNG based – you'll eventually get everything, but there's two dice rolls – what you get and if you get it Requires a special rare strategic resource Progress is not based on economy, only time (can only access Shroud so often)

Other things I learned: Although you can integrate other species, psionic ascension highly favors very limited diversity. It seems very much designed for spiritualists. I would probably use it with xenophobe or authoritarian next time. I didn't take the Gaia worlds perk, and in hindsight I totally should have given my species diversity. I'll certainly take this the next time I do a diverse empire that won't be going synth ascension. Having really strong bonuses only goes so far when you don't have that many pops.

Now that I've done all three ascension paths, I think psionic pairs best with a spiritualist empire that's uniform. Synthetic goes well with just about any materialist empire, and has the bonus that it will remove any issues caused by diversity in those empire types. I think bio covers the rest pretty well, especially if they want specific species to do specific things.

What's your favorite path? Any opinions on what ethics go well with each path?

Source: Original link


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