@@ViridianVictoria actually it is possible to get psionic as a materialist it’s just very hard and rare I remember an anomaly that either gave psyonic theory as an option on the tech screen or one of my scientists got the psychic expertise I’m not sure which and I don’t remember what the anomaly was called and I remember only getting it once
The free AP and the Unity gain make this perfect for Crisis rushing. Not to mention, the focus towards Unity and away from maximizing Tech means you're less incentivized to go for Galactic Emperor due to Tech holding more DW than any other resource.
Making psionic theory available to research at any time is such a huge benefit. Just making a unity rush empire would be so fun just rush for The Shroud Roulette and see if you can bring the end times before midgame. Crisis? I was just curious!
Fun note: The Shroud Teacher decision also causes Psi Theory to become enabled for materialists, and stacks with Maniacal for roll chance. Meaning so long as you find the Walkers and have one Maniacal scientist, Psi Theory has the same roll chance as most t2 techs. Or as likely as a t1 tech if you have at least Spiritualist. So with some good luck or diplomacy, you can get it year 30 with most any start now.
Holy Rome shall bring Enlightenment the galaxy, Papal Authority across every star! In all seriousness tho thanks for this! Been wanting to make my psionic build competitive for a while.
@@zacharygustafson8714 then the shroud should be auto-usable to them which would make them OP. so I think it would be just okay if they’d be able to take it normally like others.
I think with the changes of a Shroud Enclave Psionic Ascension is good in the mid game and end game as well. Also, the Psionic Shields are great for snowballing later with the research loop: The amount of shields getting by researching the tech is based on the base of the shield and for that reason Psionic Shields are fantastic. Against any players theres a good chance to get great tactical opportunities with the Psi-Jumpdrives because these have a higher range. It's just sad that Biological Ascension is that bad.
The game's economical and technological race is basically is defined by which empire manages to get tools for assembling (in addition to growing) fully capable specialist pops faster than the competitors, because that doubles their economic growth. I am pretty sure that bio ascension is still a leader in that regard, cloning vats gives the necessary edge almost right away. By the time the synths start ramping up bio ascended empires would already reach critical mass of specialist pops. My point being that yeah, synths are best at handling the endgame crisis, but imo bio ascended empires have easier time surviving or even thriving until then. But even more important point is that synth portraits suck. I would rather my hummies be better hummies than turn them into immortal vacuum cleaners. Oh, and psions... they don't give pop assembly tools. At all. They make your pops and leaders more efficient, that is true, but I still doubt it is enough in mid to late game.
@@anomanomom239 I don't think more pops are neccesarily better after the admin cap changes in Libra but I get your point. The only problem about having many pops is that at a point in the game you wil experience that e.g. three specialist pops will not produce as much unity and research as possible to balance the percentage modifiers of Empire Size. At this point, the only thing important is how efficient the Empire's pops are.
They finally managed to make spiritualists and psionic ascension fun with all the unity changes and this origin. I really really love it, I was always drawn to spiritualist ethic but it was so underpowered for such a long time compared to materialist tech rush. I like the balance of it :) the changes to edict upkeep etc were also all very well implemented. They make going tall and trying to min max even more fun now. Love it. Love your vids aswell, you are giving us pretty good ideas on builds :)
I started with clone army origin and managed to have an archeology site to gain psionic on my clones. So I have ascendant psionic clone admirals and they have some fat buffs.
An alternative variant to this would replace 'craftsman with Exalted Priesthood (and stack temples). Exalted will give you tech. If you disable initiates, that's extra pops to do labor. The Unity Rush from this is very fast. I use it to Become Crisis. If you really wanna crush this build, use the mod that let's you choose, at 100%, what Shroud boon you receive. Don't build a conventional navy at all in Early to MID Game, but gather Psionic Avatars while spamming defensive. Bum rush low tech neighbors, enslave, and then purge the pops to fuel Menace. THEN, at Crisis Level 3 or 4 push HARD to get the last Menace level(s) for Star Eaters. This Build is not as tech sensitive when using this mod and it frees you from excessive alloy demands.
Hopefully they'll buff dedicated origins for other ascension paths as well. I mean Machinists and Syncretic Evolution here. Starting with cyborgs is cool, thx PDX for making it a viable demand for balancing purpose with free ascension slot here;)
If you have a friend with the dragon start he can send it to you and let you kill it and thus gaining yourself the dragon scale T-VI armor that goes VERY nicely with the T2 psi shields
Wouldn't a budding plantoid/fungoid species pair better than rapid breeders (since you probably won't be constructing robots, and you won't be cloning either)?
This build seems more of a multiplayer rush build. So getting more stuff upfront to help snowball is the goal. I'm willing to bet budding is better long term for pure pop growth. Also getting robots is still viable, or has been in the past, for spiritual empires.
@@vdKingpin Robots require both research and construction investment with a long term pay off. As you say it's an MP rush style build aimed at 2230 fleet build up and MP players tend to ignore things like factions and favour simplifying management. One disadvantage in long run of psionic is the factions are harder to satisfy compared to say xphile, not outlawing bots is one debuf. No experience with the influence/unity changes, but I would in past switch materialist to psi if the galaxy environs pushed me that way. Then I'd have basic bots into the mid-game but only later start selling them and converting/assimilating pops into psi/spiritualist to form a diverse but cohesive society without all the fancy bio ascension gene editing traits.
@@vdKingpin main issue with robots as a spiritualist is the heavy weight towards the spiritualist ethic; main unity building, researching psyionic theory, and psycic trait all increase pull to spiritualist. This is great, it means more pop unity and stability, except in order to keep the spiritualists happy you need to not have robots, and not have AI. Utilizing both can easily pull half your empire down to 50 happiness, meaning less stability, meaning less production. You can mitigate the stability hit with traits and living conditions, but you still lose the massive unity benefits of the faction system. But, again, I guess this can also be mitigated with the base unity production of spiritualists in general. Tldr; Spiritualist robots are viable, but more towards the mid game when you can mitigate the effects of it. Before synths they're more trouble than they're worth
And here I am still over the moon, loving Gestalt Consciousness empires and thinking they're the best thing since breathing. XD Fine. I'll be sure to give this loadout a try once I get the newer DLC.
Just gave it a go and managed to get ascension in 2042, but only because my unity production didn't go up after I got attacked and had to shift minerals from temple construction to alloys. If I didn't spawn next to a fanatical purifier, I probably would have got there by 2030.
Montu, I have a theory that you are in fact the documentary maker Louis Theroux. Voice and inflection are pretty much the same. Can you confirm or deny?
Would be great to see how you would build up different planets after the first 1-2 districts and buildings, especially in the lul where you don't get outstanding energy/mineral planets and still don't have the tech for economy boosting buildings.
not to mention, in 3.6 there is no transcendence perk anymore, it is a tradition tree instead, so in essence, before this origin, you had 6 perks available to you (2 where locked) with this origin you had a a "fake" ninth perk, and with the tree now you have 10 "perks" and due to the new shroud mechanics you can decide on your own (no more rng bs hoping to land a pact with a specific entity) which one you want, (except end of the cycle)
Tried this Origin last night. Not gonna lie it’s super fun! Tweeted a few things from your build. Picked inward perfection and just went crazy with unity structures. I can run ALL unity costing edicts easily. With just 1 planet I’m getting over 200 tradition a month. My planet has 💯 happiness and stability. Never had a more satisfying empire… does have its downside my fleet is pretty weak but I’m quickly upgrading. Unity freaking rocks!
"Why would you take this over prosperous unification?" Because prosperous unification is the most boring origin in the game and only good for hiveminds which were banned from most fun origins back in the day? XD
@@TempestLM because hiveminds used to have a very limited list of origins that they could use, especially ravenous swarm which couldn't even use the tree of life
I am just starting to play this game and I have so much to learn. Going to play an overpowered origin and try this method so I can learn the basics of conquest and vassals. Have to watch the next vid as well to learn how to min max my planets better. Ty for the tips Montu.
With Spiritualists finally having a psionic head start origin, do you think Mechanist could do with a buff in some way? What if they got 2 extra robot pops and an extra rural district at the start of the game? Would put it closer to Prosperous Unification like that.
@@IWonByDefaultTV Maybe? But that feels a little too far for the current flavor of the origin. The cost for Mind over Matter is simply getting Psionic Theory, while the cost for The Flesh is Weak is getting Droids and then an engineering project to convert all non-robot pops, so there's a disparity in investment there. I'd prefer to be modest with improvements here.
I don’t know, it’s nice you get mind over matter for free. That alone makes it a great origin. But teachers of shroud....I’m not happy with them, got no idea what developers were smoking when they were writing their quests. -So you build that tunnel. Every time a leader goes through the tunnel he is changed into some horrid monster, usable still, but ...bleeeergh -you have to pay them with gold and influence for some weird quests that don’t really benefit you in anyway. They are just weird. Although some might hurt you a bit. I played around with those teachers a bit . The results are: -changed several scientists and admirals into some weird looking species -Lost a planet it turned into a blackhole (yeah that was weird) -When the scourge came to the galaxy, teachers were like: “we taught you all we could, time to ascend to another plane, good luck!” Honestly I felt like I was duped like when you order a festival from artisan troop, but instead they make a mess, take your Money and run away I don’t know, maybe I missed something, I hope to read some guide before playing again ( I do love psi path-best shields, and drive early on) But I don’t want to go blind about those quests.
I think this origin would be great with merchant guilds instead of focusing on masterful crafters. The extra building slot is great, but merchants are still overpowered and the tradeoff is worth it. I have never struggled to have 3 ascension slots fully unlocked by 2222. Then I typically switch it back to consumer goods to balance out my issues and my economy typically skyrockets from all the extra energy. To balance out the lack of consumer goods, in the beginning, I build an extra two industrial districts on the home system instead of the extra energy districts (because of merchants) and go civilian economy to keep consumer goods from increasing in price
I found something which i think is a bit of an exploit. You give an about equal empire a titanic amount of subsides and all freedoms you can to make them your vessel, but don't prohibit absorbing them. 20 years later: you double your space without that many costs. (I did it with a comparable empire that had terrible tech by giving them +45% tech)
anyone else think a series set in the stellaris universe would be dope? animated or not i think theres definitely a market for it, and where most of the terms are generic it would hit the broader audience who doesnt play stellaris as a space series
FINALLY omg i love psionic i've downloaded a mod so i can get zroni precursor but i've never liked mod, this way its just in the game and i don't have to worry. i like to be a bit more pacifist then it seems like this build is meant for but the origin is unchanged so i'm gonna have so much fun with it.
I think part of what needs to be mentioned here is that you can, from very early in the game, establish a Shroud Tunnel, which adds an additional expansion and exploration path to your empire. This is hugely useful. For one, it means that you're never stuck in Thunderdome.
Even with this build I am even in 2250 and don’t have that many destroyers. My fleet is 8k in total. Don’t know what went wrong so far. But again a great video
It's nice and all. For Multiplayer-pvp that is. Unless you can garantie in some way that you won't get attacked before 2230 this is a risky play. If you are like me and like to play max advanced agressive Grand Admiral AI in singleplayer this path will get you killed more often than not.
As of 2023, aquatics now cost 2 points instead of 1. If you want to do this build, you may have to take the non-adaptive trait, that is one of the only other traits to get you two points back to get the intelligent trait. One of the natural science traits may be a good substitute as well if you wish to keep deviants.
@Montu Plays You should try subterranean lithoids, currently they don't get the additional popgrowth reduction from cavedweller! (only the lithoid one)
I got transcendence in late 2214 on my run through. I didn't entirely maximize my unity production on a lot of stuff since I was playing a bit slow and taking things later than I should have. So I'm fairly confident you can get transcendence earlier then that if you play a bit more optimized. I don't think prior to 2210 is possible but I'd have to do some testing to see how early it can be rushed down if you beeline it. You're basically given everything you need for it right away all you really need is the traditions completed but you'll finish 2 pretty much instantly in the first few years.
@@alley4978 I took some unity traits and yeah built some extra temples. I was pretty much unlocking a new tradition every couple months on average. Rapid fire in the first one unlocking a tradition every month and half way through the second and then much slower towards the end unlocking the last one ever fre months, the biggest hurdle and rng is maximizing efficiency on society tech it's always available but as indicated in the video you don't nessesairly want to start work on it right away. Optimally you'll complete the tech at exactly the same time as the tradition and use the time leading up to grab techs that will maximize your unity and society research getting both faster.
@@alley4978 it could also be the game I was playing in the host set the stuff down lower than in your game. Which would make stuff a lot easier. I didn't check cause I don't usually care so much so the host can set it to whatever they want. All I did was make an aquatic species, with the aquatic, intelligent, and natural sociologists, traits. My empire was fanatic spiritualist authoritarian imperials, with angler (still op baby) and feudal society (was a bit of an rp choice cause I wanted to make a bunch of subjects). You'll start with two temples and a research lab, and you'll want to focus on the research that boosts research output at first, or go for the unity booster, and from there just build unity and science buildings and play the rest of the game normally. If you still can't get it then the host probably set the time to get stuff lower than yours.
It is every month. I had a point in a singleplayer game where I got 3 psionic leaders in a row, 1 from each month. Because of this fact, I would have all of my research slots filled with spark of genius psychics, and it was just insane. Edit: at around 9:09 or 9:10, he says "Buthy" instead of busy xD
For traditions I had often gone for expansion first because of the free first new pop, influence cost reduction, and the pop growth addition. Is it not really that good anymore?
It's a bit worse, since influence isn't needed for many things anymore and other paths got buffed. Also Prosperity ist really really good right now imo.
I was actually pretty sick and had a blocked nose when I recorded this. I've also changed uo some mic settings and moved it in my room. I don't know which have actually worked and made me sound more chill, but either way I'm glad you liked it!
I wanted to try a certain build to see if it would work instead I broke the game. They should really either allow fanatic purifiers to be able to talk to the shroud watchers or cut them off from the origin because currently they can’t use the origin at all basically because they’re fanatic purifiers your not allowed to talk to them or get any of the benefits of the origin.
Well... I need to do some tests. Since Remnants is also a free AP slot to have Ecu... If you want to rush Ecu AND Psi ascension... I'm not sure which one is the better. Yes, with Teachers of the Shroud you can ascend more rapidly but it postpone the arrival of the Ecu by some years since restoring is not the same as building from scratch...
I stop playing a bit later after Federations came out. I kind of want to go back into it by now. Quick question; I remember that if you were to go for Expansion or Discovery traditions, unless it was your first choice, a lot would be wasted by the time you get all of it as a 2nd or 3rd trad. Is it still something to think of?
Hmm, I got interested in the SHroud when a Lithoid playthrough was random contacted and got a Shroud teacher. No latent psionics, no psychic theory just hey, want this? Having a problem with the shroud start, no Decision to contact them appears. Is there a prereq I am missing? Even installed the Beacon, and no Decision offers appears. Steam install if that matters
The problem with meta builds is eventually all your videos have the same ethics/government/traits… do you have a favorite non meta build that is just fun to play on a thematic level? Great videos as always
You can also buy Stellaris Overlord here and support this channel: www.humblebundle.com/store/stellaris-overlord?partner=montuplays&charity=25618
>aquatic cats
What have you DONE ?
@@mirceazaharia20949❤9
This Origin is such a fun little snowball start.
"How much Unity would you like sir?"
"Yes"
All hail Aspec ⚔️🫡
Reminds me of those broken culture mods in Civ5
The Shroud side of the Ascension paths is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.
*-20% empire happiness for 5 years*
@@bigdiccmarty9335 I’ve seen worse
Is it possible to learn this power?
"Not from a materialist."
@@ViridianVictoria actually it is possible to get psionic as a materialist it’s just very hard and rare I remember an anomaly that either gave psyonic theory as an option on the tech screen or one of my scientists got the psychic expertise I’m not sure which and I don’t remember what the anomaly was called and I remember only getting it once
@@necfreon6259 I know it is, your scientist needs the Psyonic Expertise for it to show up normally. I was just making a meme.
Spiritualist Empires being meta, what a time to be alive.
Indeed!
1 year later this comment and response looks like a time capsule, considering that rn the meta possibly just becomes leader empire wide buff spam xd
Same time as our world is going thru a spiritual revolution 😉😁
PRAISE THE GODS
The free AP and the Unity gain make this perfect for Crisis rushing. Not to mention, the focus towards Unity and away from maximizing Tech means you're less incentivized to go for Galactic Emperor due to Tech holding more DW than any other resource.
subterran seem to be made for crisis rushing, manacing ships cost minerals, subuncaps mining districts.
At the very start of the game make sure to turn on and then off crystalline sensors edict to make your search for habitables easier.
Why turn off?
@@lucjanl1262 you don't want to waste any of those crystals so that you can build the Shroud tunnel
Bah, just seeing this comment, I never thought of that, thanks!
@@Multichar do strategic resource edicts have per month cost now?
@@lucjanl1262 yep!
Making psionic theory available to research at any time is such a huge benefit. Just making a unity rush empire would be so fun just rush for The Shroud Roulette and see if you can bring the end times before midgame.
Crisis? I was just curious!
I've always been a fan of trying to cause mayhem during a game, if you know it's coming it's not so bad
Fun note: The Shroud Teacher decision also causes Psi Theory to become enabled for materialists, and stacks with Maniacal for roll chance. Meaning so long as you find the Walkers and have one Maniacal scientist, Psi Theory has the same roll chance as most t2 techs. Or as likely as a t1 tech if you have at least Spiritualist. So with some good luck or diplomacy, you can get it year 30 with most any start now.
Gotta love Psionics, one of my upcoming playthroughs is definiltely going to be some mixture of authoritarian and spiritualists. Hail the god-emperor!
The Emperor protects!
I did a Militarist, Authoritarian, Spiritualist game while recreating Darth Revan's Sith Empire. So much fun, first time I've played organics in ages!
Holy Rome shall bring Enlightenment the galaxy, Papal Authority across every star!
In all seriousness tho thanks for this! Been wanting to make my psionic build competitive for a while.
I usually just pick the Psy path whenever I get tired of the Synth path. It's better than bio in that it has little to no micromanagement involved.
Bio is really only good for Necroids and Hive Minds.
thank you Montu this is what I needed
Enjoy Overlord
From a narrative perspective I’m quite disappointed that hive minds can’t be psionic
right? i want destiny oryx hive nation
Maybe psionic demands individuality, and hive minds lack it.
I think the in-game lore reason is that hive minds are already psionic for the neural network.
@@zacharygustafson8714 then the shroud should be auto-usable to them which would make them OP. so I think it would be just okay if they’d be able to take it normally like others.
or maybe a hive origin that gives them some pretty big debuffs and access to psionic ascension
Was expecting the 'teachers of the shroud' to have some more story elements to it
I think with the changes of a Shroud Enclave Psionic Ascension is good in the mid game and end game as well. Also, the Psionic Shields are great for snowballing later with the research loop: The amount of shields getting by researching the tech is based on the base of the shield and for that reason Psionic Shields are fantastic. Against any players theres a good chance to get great tactical opportunities with the Psi-Jumpdrives because these have a higher range.
It's just sad that Biological Ascension is that bad.
The game's economical and technological race is basically is defined by which empire manages to get tools for assembling (in addition to growing) fully capable specialist pops faster than the competitors, because that doubles their economic growth. I am pretty sure that bio ascension is still a leader in that regard, cloning vats gives the necessary edge almost right away. By the time the synths start ramping up bio ascended empires would already reach critical mass of specialist pops.
My point being that yeah, synths are best at handling the endgame crisis, but imo bio ascended empires have easier time surviving or even thriving until then.
But even more important point is that synth portraits suck. I would rather my hummies be better hummies than turn them into immortal vacuum cleaners.
Oh, and psions... they don't give pop assembly tools. At all. They make your pops and leaders more efficient, that is true, but I still doubt it is enough in mid to late game.
@@anomanomom239 I don't think more pops are neccesarily better after the admin cap changes in Libra but I get your point.
The only problem about having many pops is that at a point in the game you wil experience that e.g. three specialist pops will not produce as much unity and research as possible to balance the percentage modifiers of Empire Size. At this point, the only thing important is how efficient the Empire's pops are.
@@cetofox yeah every build i made for pop rushing usualy ends hiting sprawl cap early might change with overlord tho.
@@anomanomom239 That’s why my Shroud origin empire is a plant with budding.
@@fastjimmy6167 so, like
you need around 150 pops to get the same assembly speed as clone vats
I see the opening scene and I already pressed the like button xD
Your training is almost complete...
They finally managed to make spiritualists and psionic ascension fun with all the unity changes and this origin. I really really love it, I was always drawn to spiritualist ethic but it was so underpowered for such a long time compared to materialist tech rush. I like the balance of it :) the changes to edict upkeep etc were also all very well implemented. They make going tall and trying to min max even more fun now. Love it. Love your vids aswell, you are giving us pretty good ideas on builds :)
I started with clone army origin and managed to have an archeology site to gain psionic on my clones. So I have ascendant psionic clone admirals and they have some fat buffs.
Only Montu would use the aquatic perk on the lion portrait, hydrokitty psychics ftw.
An alternative variant to this would replace 'craftsman with Exalted Priesthood (and stack temples). Exalted will give you tech. If you disable initiates, that's extra pops to do labor. The Unity Rush from this is very fast. I use it to Become Crisis.
If you really wanna crush this build, use the mod that let's you choose, at 100%, what Shroud boon you receive. Don't build a conventional navy at all in Early to MID Game, but gather Psionic Avatars while spamming defensive. Bum rush low tech neighbors, enslave, and then purge the pops to fuel Menace. THEN, at Crisis Level 3 or 4 push HARD to get the last Menace level(s) for Star Eaters. This Build is not as tech sensitive when using this mod and it frees you from excessive alloy demands.
another trick you can do is activate crystalline sensors for 1 day to reveal more of the map since you start with 25 cristals
Though you'll get them back to build the shroud gateway
Hopefully they'll buff dedicated origins for other ascension paths as well. I mean Machinists and Syncretic Evolution here. Starting with cyborgs is cool, thx PDX for making it a viable demand for balancing purpose with free ascension slot here;)
If you have a friend with the dragon start he can send it to you and let you kill it and thus gaining yourself the dragon scale T-VI armor that goes VERY nicely with the T2 psi shields
Wouldn't a budding plantoid/fungoid species pair better than rapid breeders (since you probably won't be constructing robots, and you won't be cloning either)?
This build seems more of a multiplayer rush build. So getting more stuff upfront to help snowball is the goal. I'm willing to bet budding is better long term for pure pop growth. Also getting robots is still viable, or has been in the past, for spiritual empires.
@@vdKingpin Robots require both research and construction investment with a long term pay off.
As you say it's an MP rush style build aimed at 2230 fleet build up and MP players tend to ignore things like factions and favour simplifying management.
One disadvantage in long run of psionic is the factions are harder to satisfy compared to say xphile, not outlawing bots is one debuf.
No experience with the influence/unity changes, but I would in past switch materialist to psi if the galaxy environs pushed me that way.
Then I'd have basic bots into the mid-game but only later start selling them and converting/assimilating pops into psi/spiritualist to form a diverse but cohesive society without all the fancy bio ascension gene editing traits.
@@vdKingpin main issue with robots as a spiritualist is the heavy weight towards the spiritualist ethic; main unity building, researching psyionic theory, and psycic trait all increase pull to spiritualist. This is great, it means more pop unity and stability, except in order to keep the spiritualists happy you need to not have robots, and not have AI. Utilizing both can easily pull half your empire down to 50 happiness, meaning less stability, meaning less production. You can mitigate the stability hit with traits and living conditions, but you still lose the massive unity benefits of the faction system. But, again, I guess this can also be mitigated with the base unity production of spiritualists in general.
Tldr; Spiritualist robots are viable, but more towards the mid game when you can mitigate the effects of it. Before synths they're more trouble than they're worth
This game is so confusing to me but I love the genre. You help me understand better thank you! Nice video! Looking forward to being Psionic!
It might take a little more time but the clone origin with psionic ascension is also pretty neat.
Basically the best admirals in the game.
And here I am still over the moon, loving Gestalt Consciousness empires and thinking they're the best thing since breathing. XD
Fine. I'll be sure to give this loadout a try once I get the newer DLC.
Just gave it a go and managed to get ascension in 2042, but only because my unity production didn't go up after I got attacked and had to shift minerals from temple construction to alloys. If I didn't spawn next to a fanatical purifier, I probably would have got there by 2030.
Montu, I have a theory that you are in fact the documentary maker Louis Theroux. Voice and inflection are pretty much the same. Can you confirm or deny?
Full disclosure... I am unable to disclose anything on that at the moment
That’s a compliment loui is a legend haha
@@MontuPlays Yup. Confirmed.
I can see this would be amazing for tech rushes
+15% if you pick up intelligent
I think this is also a good blueptrint to follow if, say, you wanted to Become The Crisis.
Montuwu! SO AMAZING!
Would be great to see how you would build up different planets after the first 1-2 districts and buildings, especially in the lul where you don't get outstanding energy/mineral planets and still don't have the tech for economy boosting buildings.
Wait this origin just helps you get one ascension perk more than any other? Holy shit that itself is extremely powerful!
Man I love your intros. Unique (at least to me lol) and fun!
Aquatic cats. Your min maxing sometimes hurts the eye lol
Making Psionic Theory great again.
Always nice to see the top bars with your videos.....trying to see if I'm keeping up with you in the video etc. :)
Wait, if we take the Teachers of the Shroud origin we don't need to get the Mind over Matter Ascension Perk!?
nope :D
Montu works so hard for us!
not to mention, in 3.6 there is no transcendence perk anymore, it is a tradition tree instead, so in essence, before this origin, you had 6 perks available to you (2 where locked) with this origin you had a a "fake" ninth perk, and with the tree now you have 10 "perks" and due to the new shroud mechanics you can decide on your own (no more rng bs hoping to land a pact with a specific entity) which one you want, (except end of the cycle)
Tried this Origin last night. Not gonna lie it’s super fun! Tweeted a few things from your build. Picked inward perfection and just went crazy with unity structures. I can run ALL unity costing edicts easily. With just 1 planet I’m getting over 200 tradition a month. My planet has 💯 happiness and stability. Never had a more satisfying empire… does have its downside my fleet is pretty weak but I’m quickly upgrading. Unity freaking rocks!
I'm glad you embraced Montuwu
"Why would you take this over prosperous unification?"
Because prosperous unification is the most boring origin in the game and only good for hiveminds which were banned from most fun origins back in the day? XD
Only good for hive minds? Why would you say that it's not good for others?
@@TempestLM because hiveminds used to have a very limited list of origins that they could use, especially ravenous swarm which couldn't even use the tree of life
@@letsplaysvonaja1714 you said "only good for hiveminds", implying it's not good for robots or regular bio
@@TempestLM well, regular bio has way better options, because unlike hiveminds they aren't restricted, and I never play robots
@@letsplaysvonaja1714 well what options??
That also wouldn't be banned
Prosperous is one of the best (id not the best) option for all 3
I am just starting to play this game and I have so much to learn. Going to play an overpowered origin and try this method so I can learn the basics of conquest and vassals. Have to watch the next vid as well to learn how to min max my planets better.
Ty for the tips Montu.
Your movie editing is genius.
Thank you for the video. Looking forward to trying psionic ascension on my next run.
Finally, violet is color of the season!
With Spiritualists finally having a psionic head start origin, do you think Mechanist could do with a buff in some way? What if they got 2 extra robot pops and an extra rural district at the start of the game? Would put it closer to Prosperous Unification like that.
Should just be the same as teachers if the shroud. Get a free AC with Cybernetic trait for pops
@@IWonByDefaultTV Maybe? But that feels a little too far for the current flavor of the origin. The cost for Mind over Matter is simply getting Psionic Theory, while the cost for The Flesh is Weak is getting Droids and then an engineering project to convert all non-robot pops, so there's a disparity in investment there. I'd prefer to be modest with improvements here.
I don’t know, it’s nice you get mind over matter for free. That alone makes it a great origin. But teachers of shroud....I’m not happy with them, got no idea what developers were smoking when they were writing their quests.
-So you build that tunnel. Every time a leader goes through the tunnel he is changed into some horrid monster, usable still, but ...bleeeergh
-you have to pay them with gold and influence for some weird quests that don’t really benefit you in anyway. They are just weird. Although some might hurt you a bit.
I played around with those teachers a bit . The results are:
-changed several scientists and admirals into some weird looking species
-Lost a planet it turned into a blackhole (yeah that was weird)
-When the scourge came to the galaxy, teachers were like: “we taught you all we could, time to ascend to another plane, good luck!”
Honestly I felt like I was duped like when you order a festival from artisan troop, but instead they make a mess, take your Money and run away
I don’t know, maybe I missed something, I hope to read some guide before playing again ( I do love psi path-best shields, and drive early on)
But I don’t want to go blind about those quests.
I am going to give this build a run for my first Overlord playthrough
This looks cool!
Thanks Montu very useful. One remark I have, trick with ships doesn't work in 3.5 anymore, but build works fine at least against bots.
Bene Gesserit officially Stellaris canon.
I think this origin would be great with merchant guilds instead of focusing on masterful crafters. The extra building slot is great, but merchants are still overpowered and the tradeoff is worth it. I have never struggled to have 3 ascension slots fully unlocked by 2222. Then I typically switch it back to consumer goods to balance out my issues and my economy typically skyrockets from all the extra energy. To balance out the lack of consumer goods, in the beginning, I build an extra two industrial districts on the home system instead of the extra energy districts (because of merchants) and go civilian economy to keep consumer goods from increasing in price
Montuwu isnt real he cant hurt you
Montuwu:
This build is mental.
Combine that with Subterfuge and you can have something like the Second Foundation
I found something which i think is a bit of an exploit. You give an about equal empire a titanic amount of subsides and all freedoms you can to make them your vessel, but don't prohibit absorbing them. 20 years later: you double your space without that many costs. (I did it with a comparable empire that had terrible tech by giving them +45% tech)
Let’s just say I didn’t do too well in MP lately. Took this build and yeeted the galaxy.
anyone else think a series set in the stellaris universe would be dope? animated or not i think theres definitely a market for it, and where most of the terms are generic it would hit the broader audience who doesnt play stellaris as a space series
I like how you called them Bene Gesserit.
FINALLY omg i love psionic i've downloaded a mod so i can get zroni precursor but i've never liked mod, this way its just in the game and i don't have to worry. i like to be a bit more pacifist then it seems like this build is meant for but the origin is unchanged so i'm gonna have so much fun with it.
I think part of what needs to be mentioned here is that you can, from very early in the game, establish a Shroud Tunnel, which adds an additional expansion and exploration path to your empire. This is hugely useful. For one, it means that you're never stuck in Thunderdome.
Even with this build I am even in 2250 and don’t have that many destroyers. My fleet is 8k in total. Don’t know what went wrong so far. But again a great video
Great content! Just curious as to what 3rd civic would complement this build?
All I learned from this video is the horrifying truth that the shroud is Jeff.
The most important lesson!
Psychic water kitties.
Ah yes! The time has come for a devouring psy gelly fish swarm to eat the galaxy!
It's nice and all. For Multiplayer-pvp that is.
Unless you can garantie in some way that you won't get attacked before 2230 this is a risky play.
If you are like me and like to play max advanced agressive Grand Admiral AI in singleplayer this path will get you killed more often than not.
You can submit as a vassal to a neighboring empire, boom out from under them, then take over with your thicc fleets
This will be great for rushing max evasion psi destroyers lol
As of 2023, aquatics now cost 2 points instead of 1. If you want to do this build, you may have to take the non-adaptive trait, that is one of the only other traits to get you two points back to get the intelligent trait. One of the natural science traits may be a good substitute as well if you wish to keep deviants.
oh yeah, cannot wait to try exalted priesthood with this origin!
Couple years ago i managed to get transcendance by year 25 with prosp unification origin
@Montu Plays You should try subterranean lithoids, currently they don't get the additional popgrowth reduction from cavedweller! (only the lithoid one)
"currently"
paradox stated it that this is intended.
I got transcendence in late 2214 on my run through. I didn't entirely maximize my unity production on a lot of stuff since I was playing a bit slow and taking things later than I should have. So I'm fairly confident you can get transcendence earlier then that if you play a bit more optimized. I don't think prior to 2210 is possible but I'd have to do some testing to see how early it can be rushed down if you beeline it. You're basically given everything you need for it right away all you really need is the traditions completed but you'll finish 2 pretty much instantly in the first few years.
@@alley4978 I took some unity traits and yeah built some extra temples. I was pretty much unlocking a new tradition every couple months on average. Rapid fire in the first one unlocking a tradition every month and half way through the second and then much slower towards the end unlocking the last one ever fre months, the biggest hurdle and rng is maximizing efficiency on society tech it's always available but as indicated in the video you don't nessesairly want to start work on it right away. Optimally you'll complete the tech at exactly the same time as the tradition and use the time leading up to grab techs that will maximize your unity and society research getting both faster.
@@alley4978 it could also be the game I was playing in the host set the stuff down lower than in your game. Which would make stuff a lot easier. I didn't check cause I don't usually care so much so the host can set it to whatever they want.
All I did was make an aquatic species, with the aquatic, intelligent, and natural sociologists, traits. My empire was fanatic spiritualist authoritarian imperials, with angler (still op baby) and feudal society (was a bit of an rp choice cause I wanted to make a bunch of subjects).
You'll start with two temples and a research lab, and you'll want to focus on the research that boosts research output at first, or go for the unity booster, and from there just build unity and science buildings and play the rest of the game normally.
If you still can't get it then the host probably set the time to get stuff lower than yours.
It is every month. I had a point in a singleplayer game where I got 3 psionic leaders in a row, 1 from each month. Because of this fact, I would have all of my research slots filled with spark of genius psychics, and it was just insane.
Edit: at around 9:09 or 9:10, he says "Buthy" instead of busy xD
That would be my blocked nose at the time of recording...
@@MontuPlays oh we've all been there. Hope you can actually breathe in through your nose at least, unlike me xD
@@leohal456 my left nostril, I now can... the onther one... no way
@@MontuPlays same, just entirely the same xD our bodies hate us
I always played shroud, even if it was the worst one. I just loved the flavor!
dang, that origin is crazy good
For traditions I had often gone for expansion first because of the free first new pop, influence cost reduction, and the pop growth addition. Is it not really that good anymore?
It's a bit worse, since influence isn't needed for many things anymore and other paths got buffed.
Also Prosperity ist really really good right now imo.
Just got OL Gonna try this ought......gg
Just got this game. This game is deep!
cant figure it out, why does your start have an extra trait point? I start with 2 not 3 so I can't pick the same traits you have.
You just built your first 3 corvettes with ftl... and the galactic market stop by and you immediately sell them.
Here comes a StarCraft playthrough. Made Zerg and Terran as well should be fun
They've killed the alloy shuffle at the very beginning of the games and aquatic is now 2 trait points. Or...am I missing something? (playing 3.6 beta)
I haven't been able to play yet. Steam didn't let me buy it until noon USCST. Unfortunately, I work nights and had to go to bed at that time.
Can't wait to create an insectoid Roman empire with the force powers. Truly the best
Did you intentionally try to sound more chill in this video? You are still talking the same way, but you sound super chill! it works well for you
I was actually pretty sick and had a blocked nose when I recorded this. I've also changed uo some mic settings and moved it in my room. I don't know which have actually worked and made me sound more chill, but either way I'm glad you liked it!
MONTUWU CONFIRMED 2022
I wanted to try a certain build to see if it would work instead I broke the game. They should really either allow fanatic purifiers to be able to talk to the shroud watchers or cut them off from the origin because currently they can’t use the origin at all basically because they’re fanatic purifiers your not allowed to talk to them or get any of the benefits of the origin.
True, it would make sense, that fanatic purifiers would tolerate the shroud watchers, if they were psionic themselves.
"There is other psionics?" Progenitor doesnt compute
Well... I need to do some tests. Since Remnants is also a free AP slot to have Ecu... If you want to rush Ecu AND Psi ascension... I'm not sure which one is the better. Yes, with Teachers of the Shroud you can ascend more rapidly but it postpone the arrival of the Ecu by some years since restoring is not the same as building from scratch...
This is true unless you get a god tier start with both First league and the rubricator
I stop playing a bit later after Federations came out. I kind of want to go back into it by now.
Quick question; I remember that if you were to go for Expansion or Discovery traditions, unless it was your first choice, a lot would be wasted by the time you get all of it as a 2nd or 3rd trad. Is it still something to think of?
yeah, if you don’t go for discovery as your first mor maybe second then skip it all together.
All hail overlord sempai MontuWu
did developers update requirements to transcendence? Followed the guide and wasn't able to unlock ~ newer Stellaris player here~
Hmm, I got interested in the SHroud when a Lithoid playthrough was random contacted and got a Shroud teacher. No latent psionics, no psychic theory just hey, want this?
Having a problem with the shroud start, no Decision to contact them appears. Is there a prereq I am missing? Even installed the Beacon, and no Decision offers appears. Steam install if that matters
Spiritualist liberation wars be like: "you will be enlightened, whether or not you like it"
can you do an optimised build that doesn't take any of the asention paths (synthetic, psionic, biological) and focus on other perks ?
This is pretty interesting actually 🤔
Well just take any optimized build and don't pick those
Most optimized games are optimized for early-mid game where ascensions aren't available yet
The problem with meta builds is eventually all your videos have the same ethics/government/traits… do you have a favorite non meta build that is just fun to play on a thematic level? Great videos as always
Just copy the general approach of the build and change the parts you don't like?
@@letsplaysvonaja1714 yep 👍🏻 also giving Montu ideals for future content 😉