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Stellaris Is Synthetic Ascension Really The Best?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 เม.ย. 2022
- Synthetic Ascension In Stellaris is often viewed as the strongest ascension path, but is this fair? There are three ascension paths available in Stellaris; synthetic, biological and psionic ascension. How does the synthetic ascension path stack up when compared to the other paths?
Lets dive in and find out!
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there is also a "hidden" bonus for synthetic ascension. nearly all of your pops become materialist making factions much easier to manage since you basically only have a single faction.
Psionic ascension does the same thing, having mind over matter and transcendence pushes pops towards being spiritualist
It also gives +2 energy from technicians
@@GOLANX +2 energy production to technicians at the cost of reducing the food production from farmers if I remember correctly which is obviously well worth it (as you usually don't need that much food especially as now most of your pops will be robots but you usually do want to keep some organics around)
And the buildings that improve technicians/miners are more expensive with the buildings also costing alloys but with the upside of increasing the planet limit on that type of district which is well worth the alloy cost in my opinion (especially when you don't pay the extra cost because of the buildings swapping automatically when you complete the Synthetic Evolution project)
This effect also turns your democracy into de-facto dictatorship with mandates. The head of materialist party is the only candidate people vote for.
Which is maddening. I play fanatic space egalitarians. We became robots so that death does not make us unequal. It's really time consuming to convert my Pops back to the light side.
technically all ascensions are some degree of "The flesh is weak"
Synthetic is: "The flesh is weak, replace it with steel"
Biological is: "The flesh is weak, make it stronger"
Psionic is: "The flesh is weak, use the mind instead"
"The flesh is weak, for now."
"The flesh is weak, the mind is strong."
Imagine if "the flesh is weak" gives a special project that lets you choose which path to choose. And the secondary perk would finish this sentence. That would be cool
@@DangleBlampy the mod Stellaris Evolved has a similar sort of concept
@@maybach5787 the spirit is willing but the flesh is spongy and tender.
@@RunFromCities The brain is also Spongy and tender..it just thinks too
FROM THE MOMENT I UNDERSTOOD THE WEAKNESS OF MY FLESH
"I was Disgusted"
I craved the strength and certainty of steel.
IT DISGUSTED ME
I find quite ironic that in theory the synthetic ascension is the one granting immortality, but in practice given how easy it is to research the +10years repeteable, it's more likely for synthetics to have an accident that for biologics to die of old age, past a certain point.
I rarely lose any organic leaders if I tech hard enough
On that time they can get +5% army perk.
That isn't much consider you have gene warrior which is 2x as strong as robot army, but consider this: they will have 33% more repeatable tech than you since they don't need age research.
Pit them again each other, gene-warrior still win stat-wise, but they have morale while robot have none. Morale broken gene warrior deal much less damage.
Btw since when does breaking happen to ascended synths? Used to be only skynet synths thing, and now its reversed.
@@alekzanderor5489 you probably just had good luck
Accidents should also happen to biological leaders, tbh
Imho, the main advantage of synth ascension is the main disadvantage of bio ascension : assimilation allows macro-managing pops without discriminating.
Amen. Doing bio across 10+ planets with 5+ species is utter bullshit...
Yeah. Bio starts out fun, but eventually…ARGH!!!! Give me synth any day.
@@neillindgren8992 thats why I like Spiritualistic Fanatic Purifiers - no need to worry about diversity. As UNITY is strenght not the other way around !
@@Mario-kf3ej Actually, that sounds like an interesting concept! I’ll have to try that sometime.
No more trashy bio traits that must be replaced every single time
I like synth ascention mostly because of the fact that you can assimilate all species into your main species
This. A thousand times this.
Same reason I love necrophages. Turn all those bastards into the supreme species.
It's such a joy to open up the species tab and only see 2 races (your pops and the original robots)
@@joelfilho2625 I hate being not able to put together several robot (species, just because multiple empires made robots...) I want to be able to put everybody into my Synth species or at least put the robots into my robot "species"
@@Spectification yea, that is annoying
The first time I did synthetic ascension, the spiritualist fallen empire messaged me saying I've lost my soul and morality in doing so. I was very upset at this slight and prepared myself to fight them. 30 years later I cracked their capital world. Whose soulless now, b@$#h?!
I imagine that turning into machines would be unable to transfer your consciousness, and while your morality and experiences would be copied over, given by your reaction your species didn’t have much morality anyways.
I mean... still you. They are just body-less now
@@MontuPlays Soulless, body less. The silent king cares not for the distinction. As long as we conquered death and vanquished the old ones the price is worth it.
@@robertalaverdov8147 doesn’t the silent king like free will n stuff now tho
@@theswarmsquad3606 Its been 40,000 years, he's just experimenting a bit.
The ascension perks is one of the few things I rp in this game. I know its ridiculously strong but if I wanted to play robots I would have picked a robot at the start.
I think that organics that became robots is very different from robots that were built by organics and went rogue forming a collective consciousness
I like to RP a species with the weak trait that will eventually synthetically ascend as a way of leaving weak mortal bodies, Ala necrons
@@ben5056 it is very different. you get to keep the bio gov types and civic slots but don't get robot ascension perks.
@@RunFromCities I agree, very different gameplay
Same. A lot of the time I don't even pick ascension perks for that reason.
I know its mostly flavor, but I just prefer the Bio perks over the Synth.
The best of both worlds would being able to get both at the same time.
But also I am aware the game just can't run that level of micromanagement well. That's why the Xeno Compatability is a bad idea.
If you have multiplayer friends, you can have bio-ascension-modded pops made psychic and then augmented, to get all 3 on one species. However, making them synths will undo this, sadly.
with a certain mod you can get 2 and a half of said ascension paths
The bio path is cool, but even without xeno-compatibility it can involve quite a bit of juggling. The last game I played a hive-mind, and once I started assimilating other species and integrating or conquering other empires, soon I had 15 different species, and many had psionic variants, so even without xeno-compatibility I had quite the mess after a while! Making as many worlds as I could (ed.: hive) worlds at least allowed me to covert climatic variants back to the main species, though (very expensive solution). Even so, it was fun - going with synth next time, though!
I also prefer bio for flavor purposes. Also against the AI you don't need full min-max to win as long as you survive past the first 100ish years (longer than before but still not that much.)
@@neillindgren8992 Eradicate all psions.
i find the extra admiral range t be preferable over almost all other bonuses, tbh...its ridiculous in mp or the late game, as alpha strikes make or break battles
The bonus evasion from psionics in my tests proved to be more effective. The psionic fleet of destroyers turned out to be stronger than the synthetic fleet of battleships (every fleet had neutron launchers and maximum shields)
@@vovanbalashov psionic destroyers can beat artillery battleships fully optimized for battleship combat but the battleships will still be better if they anticipate that put strike craft in there.
@@vovanbalashov High evasion ships can be countered by mixing in about 20% to 30% hanger/carrier/whatever battleships into your spinal mount/artillery/artillery battleship fleets. Unless significantly outclassed in fleet power, this should be highly effective against high evasion corvette or destroyer fleets while still being almost as good against other battleship fleets as a pure SP/A/A fleet. Otherwise, any pure SP/A/A battleship fleet can take annoying or even worrisome levels of damage from corvette or destroyer fleets that in size or technology are outclassed by the battleships and seem like easy pickings.
@@vovanbalashov synths can be psionic with some exploits
but i prefer ascended psionic clones with brain slugs
especially with the NSC2 mod where they have tomohawk missiles with range 200 XD
My favorite thing to do is battleships with swarm computers for the 51% evasion with all the thrusters XD they outlive shield dmg and have regenerative hull tissue so they outrepair damage as well XD only thing that kills my battleships ? tomohawks.... but thats why I make my dreadnoughts protectors with 100 PD systems 50 flak and 50 energy and they just follow around the battleships destroying MOST of the missiles that come into contact with them
Montu on the ball with more top quality Stellaris content. You sir are a legend in the community.
Also. Important part is that from the moment you take "flesh is weak" you cannot get robot uprising
Fire range can deceivably good btw. Landing your first arc emitter shots before enemy do can tip the battle in favor of you by quite a margin.
Another good video and also I once achieved 4 million fleet power with synthetic ascension
That's impressive, highest I got unmodded was like 2.2mil total
@@rowbot5555 yeah it took a lot also the GDF fleet can be truly terrifying when you stack repeatables to an insane degree a size 800 fleet is terrifying
From the moment I discovered the weakness of my flesh...
It disgusted me.
"Dear Synthetics,How about you ascend to some bitches"
-Sincerely,the biologicals
"Dear Biologicals,
how about you transcend into our DMs
-Sincerely, Psionics"
All fun and games till the Spiritualist Psionics decide to form a covenant with the Ender of Cycles and proceed to destroy every machines in the galaxy, then summon an unbeatable avatar after 50 years.
Fun fact! The clone soldier origin benefits for admirals does not go away after you synthetically ascend, and you can rush materialist with the right clone soldier build. Get a massive early game pop advantage, then spec into synthetic ascension to keep that advantage, and have nasty admirals to boot.
I know what my next run is going to be lol.
@M J I checked on my most recent save and you are right, so you do need to frontload your admirals a little bit.
Synthetic is by far the most powerful, their pop growth is insane
Another downside I feel like not enough people talk about: going from food based pop upkeep to energy based. Whenever I do synthetic ascension my economy always tanks as I suddenly have to swap all of my food production to energy production >.
Energy production is the most efficient resource job in the game, you should be using energy to buy food and just spams energy in the first place with only minimal food production
You should be preparing for it
@@DaniPog sounds incredibly inefficient, won't the food keep getting more and more expensive?
@@letsplaysvonaja1714 The trick is to buy huge chunks at once, that way the prices go up but by the next time you need to buy food again the prices will be back to normal, buying/selling per month is not that worth as the price quickly crashes down/up and not in your advantage
No matter what you play, you should always have way more energy production than food. A surplus of food is essentially just worse energy. And you will have had plenty of time to prepare for this situation even after you initiate the final project; how long does it take you to change some agri districts to generators anyway? It’s not a downside, it’s an advantageous change that requires minimal preparation to embrace which you somehow managed to completely miss…
it's the best ascension because you can assimilate other species meaning your pc wont freeze and lose 20 fps when opening the species tab.
I always enjoyed running this path just below going fully synthetic. There's a fine line between cybernetic enhancement and completely replacing your biological functions.
When I tried this ascension I was playing weyland-yutani, a megacorp I had gone way above empire size cap with, meaning all tech was extremely expensive
And I like having different species so I wasn't kinda put off when my 6 or so cyborg species all merged into the same kind of robot
I'm sure it's a nice ascension and all, but I prefer psionic magic powers and biological engineering over being robots
I honestly really like playing the Flesh is Weak. I also really want to play no-ascension at some point. While the species ascensions are fun, there are a lot of fun things that are now available in the regular ascensions; I was already struggling to fit everything else I want in, but now I need to somehow fit in Lord of War!
Perhaps I will keep my species pure as God intended. And by God, I mean me, because I made them
but you are a god
I’ve always wished for synth portraits that look like Data from Star Trek.. would be nice for role playing aspects
Same. Even having synths that look like the portrait for the synth tech would be an improvement. I imagine many ex-organic species would aesthetically prefer bodies that looked like their original organic bodies. It might not even be that hard if each organic portrait simply had a metallic variant and a plastic-looking variant made by simply adding the correct changes in color and shading that can be chosen after ascension, or alternatively picked by mechanical empires at the start of the game. Stellaris role-players would love it.
@@neillindgren8992 Precisely! I tend to think that for example a humanoid species would like to keep their general appearance when they upload themselves into mechanical sleeves.
I tend to believe that Bio is actually theoretically the more powerful, due to the ability to quite heavily specialize your pops, while Synthetic tends to create a better generalized base.
So it very much is a situation where Synthetic has a much higher skill floor, but Bio has a higher skill ceiling.
in multiplayer i dont take either ascension as i can pay or coerce other people to gene mod species, sometimes i pick psionic for shroud event (not traits, those i can get from other people aswell)
"Casting away our weak fleshy bobbies" 0:54
I laughed way too hard at this
They really should add a penalty to organic pop growth with synthetic ascension.
While from a game-play balance that might make sense, I can’t think of any in-universe justification for that being something that happens across-the-board for every synth-ascended empire because living with robots that are controlled by downloaded ex-organic consciousnesses doesn’t seem like it would be significantly different then living with standard synths with citizenship rights, and that doesn’t cause decreases in organic pop growth, other than disallowing use of clone vats. Maybe specific synth ascended empires might be given access to policies or edicts that give bonuses to mechanical pop growth somehow at the expense of organic pop growth as something done on purpose, but unless somehow ascended empires are converting normal worlds into machine worlds through a mod or something, I don’t see that as something that just happens just because your neighbor is a synth-ascended organic and you get robo-cooties or something.
Also buying slaves then ascending them is just a great way to get synth pops
Synthetic Ascension is without a doubt the strongest of the three. It may require a pretty long trek down the research trees compared to it's brethren but as you pointed out you get 25% increase to job production just flat out so that means workers/specialists/rulers as a whole as far as I'm aware are buffed,. You can increase that to 30% with a trait and that will be on top of whatever bonuses you may have stacked in your favor from your government type and civics such as Fanatic Egalitarian (10? specialist output) and Meritocracy/Shadow Council (10% specialist/ruler output respectively) since you keep the organic civics and aren't forced into the robotic ones. The fact that your pop growth also explodes is just a cherry on top of that and it's the most hands off management wise once you get there also makes it rather appealing.
That being said I honestly find myself using it the least despite that. Psionics has by and large been my go-to pick as far as ascension paths. Sure the Shroud is a nasty RNG gamble that doesn't guarantee you'll get anything you want even if you have the relic that gives you better odds but when you do get something good you can ride high on it and the path as a whole adds so much more FLAVOR if you will to a game. The leader bonuses are objectively better in my mind (Admirals are a bit of a toss-up admittedly, that fire range...) the ship components can give you a bit of an edge against 2/3rd's of the Crisis' and the armies you can get aren't anything to sneeze at either. The fact that you can get it so early compared to the other two doesn't hurt either.
you can get both psionic and latent psionic synths without using any ascension points
but i like my psionic ascended clone leaders with brain slugs more
I was wondering when you brought up the perkset change "if you don't keep your traits, why not just start as robots to begin with"
Then you explained the strat of mass-building colony ships so you have both robots and organic, and I realized why its so good.
7:22 There is a chance that a leader will suffer a malfunction and die (though this is extremely rare and only happens to me once per game if even that.)
Hidden buff is, you can reroll once for the genious+robotic assistant traits for researchers and you can keep them with maxed XP for the rest of the game. So yeah, i think it's more powerfull then the others.
"I hear the machine spirit's voice" - Tech Priest, Adeptus Mechanicus
I never thought about sending out a bio colony ship before the ascension project is complete. Thanks for the tip
Biological ascension needs a buff! It’s too much micromanagement for too little reward
Not for too little reward. The reward is great on paper. Its just way too much micro.
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the blessed machine. Your kind cling to your flesh as if it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass you call a temple will wither and you will beg my kind to save you.
But I am already saved. For the Machine is Immortal.
That episode of Doctor Who is so fucking good
that overwhelming pop growth overwhelms my computer's RAM too
The TV series Humans, Westworld (1st season) and Better Than Us are probably better fits for Stellaris Synth theme.
But your intros are lovely.
The flesh is weak also makes you immune to AI uprisings.
“From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me”
I just wish there were special portraits to differentiate synthetically ascended pops and robots. I don't want my pops to lose their general appearence and clothes.
hard to say which is best but i like psionic more. The shroud is more interactive and fun in my opinion
I just wish that you could push your species into a gestalt machine empire. Eliminate happiness/sadness, eliminate consumer goods need, and so on. Imagine a machine empire after this transition with all the bonuses they'd have. The true, ultimate evolution.
I think its rather silly that robots would want/need consumer goods. Maybe for a time, but gestalt and full machine intelligence is the only place to go from there.
Although, I also think it would be cool if bio ascension would let you eventually adopt hive mind.
I think there’s a mod that allows you to turn your empire into a hive mind with the bio evolution path, though I don’t remember what it’s called.
Consumer goods are your everyday things,in your house in your job in outside. Its everywhere and lets say the "person" robot became is sentient or sapient,it will want consumer goods. Not if they eventually turn onto a gestalt since its fate of every synthetic ascension empires. Thats when they dont require consumers
@@anidiot4243 I disagree.
Pretend for a moment that you live in a fancy house and then boom, you, your whole family, and your whole world suddenly become robots.
Well, you don't need to eat food anymore. So now you don't need a kitchen. Also all the restaurants planetwide close.
You don't need to sleep anymore. So suddenly you don't even need bedrooms.
And, uh oh, you don't go to the bathroom anymore, so we can take toilets out too. Showers/baths might stick around in some form or another, for cleaning and maintenance reasons, but they may not even be commonly used enough to justify having a private one in your home. And either way, you're not gonna be using toilet paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, soap, or any of that other stuff anymore.
So then you have the living room. Well, what purpose does that serve now? Living rooms were for sitting down on comfortable furniture and gathering up to watch TV. But if you are a robot, you will presumably be able to connect to your planetary internet wirelessly from any location. You BECOME your own smartphone. You no longer need a handheld device, your mind can just plug in. And since everyone is on it, it means you can stay connected and near your friends and family at all times. Your bodies never tire and your bodies are incapable of feeling physical comfort anymore. When you put these things together, you no longer need comfy furniture, or a place to physically gather since the shell of your body is largely superfluous outside of working and everything that makes you who you are inside is always "around" the people you like regardless, when you actually want to be. So living rooms aren't needed.
You quickly realize that everything you own and use is just an extension of maintaining your own feeble biological body and its many requirements. When you have an eternal machine body with your mind directly connected to the internet, you don't need any of that shit anymore. Anything you might want to use for pleasure, you don't even physically need. It would be IMPRACTICAL to actually manufacture physical consumer goods when you could just have simulated ones in your virtual environment instead. It wouldn't cost anything at all. No time, no resources, no money.
Physical bodies would basically be roaming around mostly on autopilot doing labor while your consciousness could exist in a simulated reality where you "experience" all the pleasurable aspects of being biological with none of the drawbacks and none of the requirements. You eat food because it gives you pleasure. You sleep because it gives you pleasure. You sit around a simulated living room with your friends and family because it gives you pleasure. It would be so impractical to try to maintain these things in the physical world that the society would rapidly leave them behind. Just look at our own modern society as reference, generations who have grown up never knowing life before the existence of the internet can't even imagine it. How connected everyone is, how you can just call or text anyone at any time. It would be like that, except you wouldn't need to buy the new iphone every year, it would be built in as part of your physical body. EVERYONE would use it.
So yeah, the idea of machine planets having consumer goods is just stupid, i'm sorry. They wouldn't even have or want or need houses. Why would you? Just ask yourself, would YOU want to keep paying rent or make payments or pay property taxes every month if you gained absolutely no benefit from having a home? If you never get tired, never sleep, and spend all your time in a virtual environment mentally anyway, would you even want your body to ever stop working? It wouldn't affect you at all mentally. You could keep on gaming and watching youtube and whatever else while your body worked. Like a machine.
Consumer goods on robot empires make zero sense. And they should be a hell of a lot more productive as well.
I think the upgrade to gestalt is an inevitability, where no one has individual bodies anymore at all and everyone just exists as software living in a virtual paradise environment and their collective subconscious drives the civilization as a whole.
@@TheDrexxus welp thanks for pointing out,also did youtube shadowban you? I cant see your comment in the ogs comment. Try to connect customer service if you are shadowbanned for no reason
It’s crazy for me bc I love the build up to it where my empire is obsessed to getting to that one point into the game and then be ready for end game that’s how I like playing it with it people always wanna rush so fast to it but it’s the process of getting there is what matters from how far your empire came (origin)
Hi! Avid Synthetic player here. This is how I see it:
1. OPTIONAL (if you are against having fun and love bread sandwiches): Synthetic Dawn is a half-backed DLC. You need some complementary mods to run with it to make it work (reads "to have fun") check out the steam mods for Synth traits.
2. Diversify your bots: Make several types of robot citizens according to need / job. Basically create a caste society.. e,g: Double-jointed for those living on space habitats for that sweet 10% living space reduction, and Enhanced Memory for those immortal leaders.
3. Your armies don't suffer morale damage.
4. High Bandwith is just free points - Not sure if it is the same in 3.3.
5. 100% habitability anywhere. And you have no need for Terraforming research so that is research time saved.
6. Immortal leaders that keep stacking experience. Although they could still die due to malfunction or incidents.
7. I swear there was a glitch where you could get Psionic Robots... I just can't remember it. You had to reaserch psyonic theory before you went with The Flesh is Weak if I remember correctly. Had it happen in one game and it was fucking bizzare.
i just wish this path worked with void born as u lose the trait when ascending making u only actually get a 5% increase vs going bio and getting massive bonuses on top. i wish they would make a unique trait for void that go this path to not lose the void bonuses
Synth is better ,even on habs, than going bio, the problem with synth on void dwellers is the alloy upkeep
@@Tiago-Gomes not really u get 20% output from the techs and 5% from the trait going robot but going bio u can get to keep the 15% from void dweller then u also get like 12 trait points to play with. basically allowing u to make ur specialised habitats have gene modded people outputting around 45% extra resources from the advanced traits the base traits and void dweller and having reduced consumer needs and any other trait u want to add
@@CrimsonReaper189 ...that would be massive chore not only do you have micro manage your habs, you would also need to make diferent variations of your specie and constantly "update" your pops for the differents needs so....
@@Tiago-Gomes well this is about pure what is best not what is easiest and u dont really have to update them u have like 5 templates that once made ur done
@@CrimsonReaper189 you will have to update them because of pops being born with differents traits
I never follow synthetic ascension. If I want to play machines I just start as them.
That Dr Who clip at the start though. Cyberman? Cyberasshole more like. The guy DIDN'T actually refuse the upgrade, just asked some "what if"s. Give the man his upgrade, don't zap him!
Sometimes I just take the first perk to become cybernetic and leave it at that.
just for flavour? I feel like power-level wise there isn't much reason to not go all the way
@@Arkssa
Its definitely very viable since you can take another perk instead
So yeah you can go half way with flash is weak
Basically the overall 30% production rate of synthetic evolution is comparable to Psi, but not Bio paths.
Psi you'll be getting about 15% production with just the first perk, with the second perk being instantly pickable when you get another ascension slot. The issue is just getting psionic theory tech. In addition you get these bonuses without needing to even research anything which doesn't delay you by about 5 years on its own.
Once you get the second perk for Psi, you get another 5% production from the stability/happiness bonuses. Now this is where things get weird, since Psi, being one of the earliest ascension paths, now has to deal with RNG to be comparable with Syntheic in production with the Shroud. If Psi gets the Essence of Desire right off the bat in their first shroud visit, they're done. They have 30% production for no real cost but deviancy which doesn't matter 50 years before synthetic evo can come online, while still having more production than synthetic evo at the start.
In addition Psi can get the best ship components and shields in the game, and get access to Living Metal tech which could possibly let them build mega structures easier without having to be a "Here there be Dragons" origin, and cutting off 3 years off a mega is pretty important. The issue is, again, this is all random so there is a chance none of this happens at all for over 200 years, making psionic a little under bio. Even with things going perfect, you'd need to get Desires, Psi shields/computers, and maybe even have a Chosen One trait, which I don't have in front of me on the benefits it gives. But if you have all that and get that early, you'll snowball so hard that even a 2250-2260 bio ascension can't ever catch up even with their slightly superior pop growth thanks to the extra two roboticisits they get.
Granted Psi doesn't get any bonuses to pop growth without the shroud, which makes them equal bio temporarily, but they can be online as early as 2220-2230.
----------------------------------------------
Bio meanwhile just needs help. They take a bit longer than Psi, but aren't that bad. But their issue is that, well... They both take research away from other stuff. (thankfully its all society) and you only get about 20% more resaerch speed to show for it at the cost of 15% less resource production, and your only pop growth is 20% more bio pop growth which is still worse than Synthetic's +4 to pop growth. Their cloning vats are a +1 over robots, but require about 3 stations or 3 agri districts to allow one planet to have one clone vat. (Thankfully this doesn't require a pop to run the vats though.) So bio has about on average a -2 to pop growth compared to Synthetic. This is their biggest problem for sure, since clone vats being so expensive means they wont be run over robots, so only the 20% production boost means anything, and since you have robots in your empire, those are pops you can't buff with your traits.
There are a couple auxillary benefits to bio though. They can start the game with the Unruly trait without much problems as they can swap this out for the docile trait and get a net swing of 20% sprawl reduction giving them more science and production at the start of the game compared to the other two paths. But thats about where the benefits end.
Bio doesn't really come online until around 2230-2240.
Bio combined with hive is extremely powerful because machines while powerful can't use any ascnesion path and the +25% extra robot output is far too strong in comparison to the +2 trait points that the machines get. Hives get the insanely early game bonuses while also getting that mid gamer power spike while normal bio empires start of kinda weak in relation to the hives and machines but grow far stronger once they unlock their ascnesion path. Habitability doesn't matter that much since you can conquer a species and use them to colonize worlds that are not your own planet type. Machines can't assimilate without driven assimilators and everyone will hate the shit out of you and you can't form alliances with bio empires. Bio hives can assimilate in the midgame or use livestock in the early game. Now with a fully optimized hive forge world you can produce almost as many allows as an ecu while being far cheaper and very spammable. Also the extra resource output from synths doesn't matter when you can spec all your worlds to focus on only one resource. Like mineral worlds and alloy worlds which are extremely efficient at producing those resources. A single mining hive world can produce like 500 minerals even more with subsidies a significant fraction of a fully upgraded matter decompressor's output.
But yeah that's the only time I use bio ascension is when I'm playing as a hive mind since it's bad for normal bio but straight up busted for hive mind since max pop growth + assimilating biological pops of any type is insanely busted and the research from erudite helps with the 6 mineral cost per researcher. Maximum pop growth + assembly speed can be achieved on a hive mind with budding and clone vats. (you can easily cover the research cost of a 1000 pop empire with a single matter decompressor or some mining worlds)
TLDR hive without-bio ascnesion is already strong but bio ascnesion makes it even more busted.
"Psi you'll be getting about 15% production with just the first perk"
how ?
"Haha! I now have uncontrollable pop growth and therefore will win the day in the end!"
*Devouring Swarm would like to know your position* [Allow] [Allow]
I think you can also get more bio-pops for growth with the market. Depending on the regulations.
The Colonial Centralization Tech is a prerequisite for a large number of Techs, including many cases where it's not at all intuitive. So basically take it ASAP when you see it.
I prefer Psionic ascension for a strong early game. And btw, you still can build robots as a spiritualist, there's nothing preventing you from doing it. You won't upset the faction because they already get huge bonuses from being psionic.
Note, 7:01 the 20% pop output now comes from technology and ascension, not from a intrinsic trait anymore. 10% from Synthetics technology and 10% from Synthetic ascension.
“From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the blessed machine.
Your kind cling to your flesh as if it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass you call a temple will wither and you will beg my kind to save you.
But I am already saved. For the Machine is Immortal.”
Something else synthetic ascension also does that this video doesn't mention is that it makes your basic resource buildings increase the maximum amount of those districts. So an upgraded energy nexus gives that planet +2 maximum energy districts.
thats not actualy tied to synthetic ascension but to having robot founding species
“Is it even pleasant for the hard working pops of our empire?”
Irrelevant. The resources must flow.
Nailed all the ups and downs of synths. I would just like to point out that synth empires can be slowed down by convincing the galactic community to vote for divinity of life resolutions.
he had 1 mistake in there
the roboticist job from capital building is actualy tied to having mechanical founder species, and not synthetic ascension
My favorite is fanatic materialist and psionic ascension. The research boost is great, great shields, jump drive and you can get the psionic avatar.
Going psionic doesn’t really exclude generic engineering it just limits the higher levels.
If you don’t like spiritualist you can just suppress the spiritualist faction and keep being materialist.
Having huge pop growth really isn’t necessary unless you like purging since in the late game there are more resources than you can store and you can get a lot of pops if you allow immigration from other empires.
Synthetic Ascension: LOOK AT ALL THESE BONUSES!
Psionic Ascension: wE gOt PsI sHiElDs
YoU cAn GeT a ReaLy GoOd RnG aNd WiN iN ThE EaRly GaMe!
You don’t need to give rapid replicators to existing robots, that’s a waste. Just make a new robot template with rapid replicators and switch production to that template.
The black guy was just asking hypotheticals and the robot killed him anyway. The programming is faulty.
One downside I have experienced with going Synth Ascension is that Religious Zealots Fallen Empires will become very mad at you when you go down this path and if they are close enough to you, they will declare war. This can really bite you in the butt if you're ill-prepared.
"Yes". It's prolly the most OP thing in the game especially as a MegaCorp.
Is Synthetic the most powerful one? Sure. Is it the most fun one? Well... I would classify it more as a B tier in terms of fun. - while I consider psionic ascension more an A or possibly even S tier for fun.
Waiting five years and spending 1000 energy to get a +2 hyperlane detection bonus. Really fun.
based on my current industrial research speed I can upgrade your like button in approximately 57 months (jokes aside, good video)
"Accept the terms and conditions to get a free upgrade"
Me: "tl;dr"
*Turns into a cyborg*
Reading terms and conditions can save psionic potential.
“No one is going to be able to keep up with your massive, and uncontrollable pop growth.” Including the player. I synthetically ascended and all my planets were quickly overpopulating. I had at least five ecumenopolis and three ring worlds, and I still couldn’t find a place to shove all those pops.
I’d really like to see another build, as I’m sort of running out of new ones to try. Maybe a new void dweller build?
try a ring world build where you play as green peace which means you go to war and move all bio pops off from regular worlds. Might need to play with gigastructures for enough room for everyone.
5:24 Why would you apply +15% pop assembly speed to pops which are already assembled? It provides no benefit and you can freely choose which pops to assemble so there is no reason to modify the trait onto already existing pops? If anything if you are modifying pops you can add on the traits which increase pop assembly cost and such as they provide no actual penalty to already existing pops.
You should create Template for each type of planet specialization so Like Mining/Energy/Farming and Research/Specialist (I would also recommend giving them different portraits but that's just something I do to make it easier to tell that the assembly is of the right type for the planet)
Admiral giving weapon range is quite good for Artillery Battleships isn't it? To allow them to get the first strike in on opposing Battleships or maybe it is just me misremembering and the bonus range is too little to matter much?
Why? To reduce micromanagement.
Okay but how good is pop growth in general? Because at the point when I have taken synth ascension and conquered another empire it will take MANY years to get a new pop. And after two empires, it basically disappears to the point where I feel like even dismantling the robot assembly plant lol
Praise the Omnissiah
8:27 Welcome to the world of techrushing.
You can get full ascension by 2260 if you play your cards right. I always make it a goal to have my original leader get ascended so they rule forever.
PRAISE THE OMNISSIAH!
The biggest disadvantage of synthetic ascension is falling spiritualist empire in close proximity.
It's my favorite Ascension Path, especially with the Subterranean Origin, I have all the minerals all the time.
To maximize pop growth you also need migration bonuses.
With synths you can easily buy slaves and upgrade them tot even faster pop growth, buy cheap and upgrade :D
best grow pop, best efficient pop production, energy job are more efficient than food one and your pop have a lesser upkeep.... and basicly evrybody became materialist in faction too. IT is the stronger by far if you survive till your ascencion. You certainly should have focused a little more in tech to shorten your ascencion her ! :P
"energy job are more efficient than food one" thats actually tied to having the mechanical trait on founder species rather than having synth ascension
@@majdavlk649 synth ascencion transform your energy district into machine district, each energy job, even other bio species, will have 8 base energy production when you ascend. Way better than bio base food production that is 6.
@@Baras70 not entirly correct. Having dominant species with mechanical trait triggers that. so you can have synths as dominant species and take psionic ascension and still get the bonus
(it also reduced the food you get from 6 to 5, which is not as important)
Gonna need an update for the machine age update
As Ascension perks become increasingly crowded don't write off Cyborg Only, which will let you get leader traits for only one Ascension Perk.
in that case dont take cyborg either, let ai cybernize your pops
you can also sign migration treaty with other empire for bio pop growth, and once they grown you can asimilate them instantly
5:50 Does it still work? I think now you have to actually land the ships and begin colonization, otherwise new template gets them on board of the ship.
As long as the ship is under construction, yes. If the ship already exists the pop will also become synthetic
I was extremely underwhelmed by this when I did it. I always go psionics because it just seems to be not only so much better, but so much more interesting.
Gladly now psionic ascension is the best
5:08 Me, a synthetic admiral watching this video: Hmm, interesting.
If it is all about pop-growth, Plantoids/fungoids with budding trait on the bio path can get the same pop growth described here utilizing both the normal & assembly queues.
I don't get why there's so much emphasis placed on the importance of pop growth. I generally go for whichever ascension path is the most convenient for my empire in practical and roleplaying terms, and I normally have to start restricting pop growth because I simply have way too many pops by 2300. This was a huge issue for my latest xenophile run since I got a load of migration treaties and had free haven and beacon of liberty and was simply absorbing pops at a blistering rate. I went for synth ascension in that run but by the time I got to it, I had so many pops that I disassembled my robot manufacturing plants across my entire empire and then just changed citizen rights to assimilation and canceled all my migration treaties.
Swing in the dark, pre-video assumption: Yes it is the best ascension path
Edit: Called it.
From becoming a robot do you become a gestalt consciousness?
The unquestionable best part of Synthetic Ascension is that it won't break your computer when you play it on the largest map size. I don't know why every other empire decides to go Xeno Compatibility and load up every world with a bajillion different hybrids, but my nice Synth empire won't lag out my game and, soon, they won't either
Why not simply disable Xeno Compatibility?
@@TempestLM Cuz my main source of pop growth is assimilating other empire species and it's faster to let them Xeno compat and kill them than it is to not do that
Can you do this same trick with a Clone Army. Synthetically Ascend your Clone Ascendant pops but have a colony ship loaded with them somewhere. Then have synthetic pops while your Ancient Clone Vats crank out another 100 biological Clone Ascendant pops?
Praise the Omnisiah!
the roboticist job from capital building is actualy tied to having mechanical founder species, and not synthetic ascension
No, its definitely due to synthetic ascension!
@@MontuPlays i just retested it and its still from the mechanical trait.
you can easly check yourself by going into a new game, opening console and running this command "add_trait_species 1 trait_mechanical" or you could do it by a legit way of obtaining robot founder species without going synth ascension. maybe unpause the game for a month tick, and check jobs.
i can send you screenshots if you dont want to do the test yourself
From the moment i understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me....
you also forgot to mention the end game crises, although id personally take psionic over synth any day of the week following it up with bio engineering, yeah the "clowns from another dimension" is their own frog in hot water but they are fairly straight forward to deal with, at least with the scourge and the clowns give you some tasty new stuff
Synthetic ascension is my favorite path, with bio being a close second. I'd argue it's a lot easier to be egalitarian with synthetic though, because I use bio to make super-slaves with nerve-stapled ^^;
nerve stabled , very strong , with the higher adaptability trait PLUS a resource specific trait gets you +30% and thats without the authoritarian or slave buffs ... if you go fanatic authoritarian you get 10% more and with the civics 10% more for grand total of 50% slave production increase "can go higher with governors and the slave processing building if im not mistaken and thrall worlds ofc..."
@@rafaelc8800 This is basically how I like to play it, I don't use adaptable though, I'm a big fan of terraforming so I make sure all my species have the same preference instead. That leaves space for very strong for a general 5% boost (as well as making really good footsoldiers) or another resource-specific booster if you want a species specifically for mining/grid or something.
@@Brotrooper360 no I don't use the adaptable it's a advanced trait I can't remember what it's called but it gives you 5% more as well as the habitability... And yeah I terraform everything too the extra habitability is just a meh bonus from that 5% advanced trait haha
@@rafaelc8800 Oh I think you're talking about Robust then? I take that one if I have room for it but the leader life span and adaptability are both sort of irrelivant so I take very strong to save a point :P if I can I like to take both for an easy +10% worker output, but usually I take fertile instead so I can make more of them XD
@@Brotrooper360 yeah I always always... Go the genetic ascension route because of the 10 genetic pts and I get 1 negative 2 pts so I can get all 3+5% traits and 1 job specific for slaves ... And then my main species is the scientists ofc... Instead of the nerve stabled lol 🤣
Once the other players realize what you're doing they're gonna screw you over in a verity of ways.
Upgrade people upgrade
I really wish there were more hybrid variants of ascensions in this game. I get the psionic ascension and genetic ascension perk paths (even though I still think all different paths should only be one perk) but with synthetic ascension from an RP standpoint I always just want to go cyborg and stop. It would be cool if we had a little more choice for some different branching variations on these paths. Weirdly enough I felt the same about the Become the Crisis AP. It had the interesting link to the shroud but what if you wanted to be a different kind of menace or destroy/conquer the galaxy in a different kind of way. Oh well...