Stellaris Best Ascension Perks

• Stellaris Best Ascension Perks Reddit
• Stellaris Synthetic Evolution
• Stellaris Best Ascension Perks Console
• Stellaris Ascension Perks Id

Many of the first pick traditions are about saving, or generating influence.

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Interstellar Dominion

• –20% Claim influence cost
• –20% Starbase influence cost

Interstellar Dominion is very strong. With the 20% reduction to influence cost, you can essentially build a free Starbase for every 5 you construct. Just keep in mind, expanding that aggressively means you need to sacrifice something like research or consumer goods in order to get your alloy production up quickly.

Previous Ascension Perks required: 3; You may also be interested in: Stellaris Best Authority - Which To Pick? Top 15 Stellaris Best Civics Top 10 Stellaris Best Ascension Perks Top 10 Stellaris Best Ship Designs; Stellaris Best Megastructures: What to Build First; Top 10 Games Like Stellaris (Games Better Than Stellaris In Their Own Way). Stellaris tree of life origin. These easy-to-use commands function much like cheats and can make your time with the game easier if that's what you're. Capture, save and share screenshots as you browse the Web using Firefox. 2 is an optional beta patch. Best ascension perks stellaris console edition. 0) Has Mastery of Nature Ascension Perk (x0. Before you make any decisions, let's take a look at Stellaris' best ascension perks. Interstellar Dominion. Interstellar Dominion should be on your list of must-have Ascension Perks. It has zero prerequisites to unlock, beyond having the ability to equip an Ascension Perk at all. I think the best way to cover Ascension Perks is by separating ascension paths and then their tiers since this is what you'll have to choose from at each stage. Each tier number indicates how many previously taken Ascension Perks are required. Ascension Paths You can choose one of the following and select the tier 1 and 3 perks. With the right ascension perk from the DLC, your sister might even marry one. More like Stellaris: The best space games on PC.

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Executive Vigor

• +50% Edict duration

Executive Vigor is also a decent pick. It doesn't save you as much influence as ID, but it's the perk that keeps on giving. Your Empire edicts will depend on your governing ethics, but every player (if they are thinking about going this route), should be sure to research Planetary Unification as early as possible, as the campaigns you unlock are where the real cost savings come in. In the mid game, this perk gets even better since the duration bonus applies to both the strategic resource edicts as well as the Unity Ambitions.

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One Vision

• +10% Unity
• +50% Governing ethics attraction

One Vision is also another influence tradition, having all you pops attracted to the same ethic and thus the same faction does two things. First it makes that faction easy to satisfy, generating the maximum influence. Secondly it make all your pops happy. Happiness leads to planet stability. Planet stability leads to a hefty resource production modifier. If that wasn't enough, One Vision also gives you a flat +10% unity bonus, where unlike research labs, it's hard to ramp up unity generation early game since there's only one monument per planet. This perk is great for Egalitarians who generate more influence from happy factions.

​

Shared Destiny

• –75% Subject integration influence cost
• Subject Trust Cap +100

Finally, there's Shared Destiny. The biggest problem with this perk is having to wait 10 years before integrating. This makes much more sense as a second perk (with maybe Nihilistic Acquisition as first). To make this worth the pick you need to actually be getting vassals/ protectorates. Early game war is really risky, if you succeed great! If you fail, you've essentially gimped yourself for many years as you struggle to catch up. If you really want to corvette rush someone, go for it. This perk will help make up for you neglecting your economy by taking over someone else's, but it's risky. Unlike all the other first picks, this one becomes useless if you are behind. This perk is also useful on maps with the number of primitive species turned up, but waiting 10 years for 1 system still doesn't seem very strong, better to just take the planet by force. Trust cap is nice, but I don't have much of an opinion on it.

​

Next up are the governing ethic unique perks

Stellaris Best Ascension Perks Reddit

​

Consecrated Worlds (Spiritualist)

Stellaris Synthetic Evolution

• Consecrate Worlds decision

This is a stronger unity generating perk than One Vision as long as you are playing tall, since you can only make three of them. Consecrated worlds even provide their population with a strong spiritualist attraction. This perk is one of the primary reasons to play spiritualist empires, as it is exclusive to them.

​

Victor vran 2 07. Universal Transactions (Megacorp)

• -15% Branch Office Cost
• Commercial Pacts costs no influence

Universal Transactions seems good on paper, and it can be. To make it better than the other first picks though, you really need to commit to opening branch offices. Unfortunately unlike the other traditions, it relies on what the other players around you are doing. In SP some may be hostile AI, in Multiplayer they may simply refuse a commercial pact if they are fine missing out on the trade benefit.

​

Nihilistic Acquisition (Authoritarian/Xenophobe)

• Unlocks the Raiding bombardment stance

​

Xeno-Compatibility (Xenophile)

• +33% Immigration Pull
• +20% Pop Growth Speed if planet has at least 2 different species
• May trigger crossbreeding if planet has at least 2 different species
• Half-species have mixed traits, +1 Maximum traits and +1 Maximum trait point

Holy shit, this is THE reason to play as a Xenophile empire. Pop growth is so important this update, and this helps you in so many ways. First off, Xenophiles get reduced cost migration treaties. In SP the AI already loves Xenophile so you shouldn't have much trouble. In MP you need to hope your neighbors want your species, and they can live together in the same climate. This may make more sense as a later pick if it takes a while to find the right partner for a migration treaty, or to gain climate acclimation. The +33% immigration pull means your new colonies are going to reach 10 pop very quickly. The +20% pop growth means you might consider forgoing the gene clinics on your worlds (though who am I kidding, those buildings are great). The greater max trait cap is just a nice icing on the cake, as not even biologic ascension lets you go over 5 traits normally.

Finally, there are a few other niche first pick perks that we should talk about.

​

Mastery of Nature

• –33% Clear blocker cost
• Land clearance decision

Stellaris Best Ascension Perks Console

Mastery of Nature got a lot better this patch. Tile blockers have become more expensive to clear, so the 33% cost savings can start to add up. The big buff though is the change to Land Clearance. No longer does it add a tile or two based on planet size. Instead it add 2 district cap on any planet you enact it on. This is fantastic if you are building tall, or have a world with a lot of bonus basic districts you want to exploit. The tile blocker discount is a situational first pick, but the Land clearance perk means you don't regret grabbing this as you transition into the mid-game.

​

Technological Ascendancy

• +10% Research speed

This is a very weak first pick, and something I see as sort of a new player trap. When your first policy pops up you are usually making around 10-15 of each science. Adding a 10% bonus here means that it's essentially giving you 1 to 1.5 extra science a month. Do you know what else give a crap ton more science? Building a second research lab. Even keeping up on your research station construction will only be giving you +2 to +3 science as you creep towards 20 and 30 science generation. This can be a decent perk if you pick it up in the mid-game. But it just does so little in the first few years, at the cost of other great first pick choices, that I think it may be the weakest first ascension perk.

​

Transcendent Learning

• +2 Leader level cap
• +1 Leader Pool Size

I've loved this perk for a long time, so I'm sad to see it fall from grace. The removal of the max leader capacity means that this perk no longer provides those precious extra leaders. Instead it increases the number of choices you have to select from when you go to buy your leaders by 1. That can be situationally good, especially when looking for the right scientist discipline. The +2 leader capacity sounds great, but there are a bunch of other traditions (mainly the new discovery ones) that give you level cap without the need for a perk slot. Add on to that, you need your leaders to live long enough to actually make use of their level caps. You either need to be a long lived race, or grab this perk in the mid-game when you've got a few lifespan enhancing technologies. All told, I'm not going to say this perk is bad, but it's definitely not the powerhouse it once was. Only grab this as a first pick if you are playing a Venerable species.

​

Voidborne

• Can build Habitat stations

This will not be your first pick unless you play a very niche, very RNG based strategy. The worst part about this perk is actually being able to choose it. You see, you need to have Starholds (tier 3 outposts) researched in order to select this perk. The thing is, the Starhold tech card has a -10x modifier if the game year is < 50. You can improve the odds of this tech showing up by bordering a Fallen Empire since having a neighbor with this tech researched gives it a x10 modifier to being drawn. Now that being said, you also need enough tier 2 techs researched to even make this card legal to be rolled for, AND you actually need enough engineering research to be able to get this in a reasonable time. After all that, you need to actually have the economy to support building a habitat. I guess you could delay your unity production by going labs instead of monuments, snuggle up next to a fallen empire, crank out those alloy forges, and pray to RNG for the glorious habitat spam. It's a fun strat, but I'm not convinced it's competitive.

​

That's all the Ascension perks that you can chose from as a first pick. As you can probably tell, I love early game growth and I am hesitant to engage in early game wars, but that's just my playstyle. Let me know what you all think of my analysis, this patch has definitely shaken things up quite a bit with the planet overhaul and tradition changes.

• Let's discuss D2 Hirelings

  Everyone and their mother goes for the act 2 spearmen and their auras. But personally I really want to mix things up. Right now I'm a paladin with zeal, a 2 hander and lots of absorption. I use Might + my Act2 merc's defense buff which raises our combined offense/defense by 2x at the very…

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• Let's discuss a new stamina system in the beta build

  (inb4: this text mostly relates to tank classes, as they lacks of mobility and rely heavily on blocking) How it was before: you block attacks, loosing your stamina shields. Then you kill something (technically, gaining temp HP), and you are good to go - your stamina was recovered from kill. How it's now: stamina recovery…

© Post 'Let's Discuss Options For Choosing Your First Ascension Perk' for game Stellaris.

Top 10 Most Anticipated Video Games of 2020

2020 will have something to satisfy classic and modern gamers alike. To be eligible for the list, the game must be confirmed for 2020, or there should be good reason to expect its release in that year. Therefore, upcoming games with a mere announcement and no discernible release date will not be included.

Top 15 NEW Games of 2020 [FIRST HALF]

2020 has a ton to look forward to..in the video gaming world. Here are fifteen games we're looking forward to in the first half of 2020.

Stellaris recently underwent some huge mechanical changes, and even if you haven't bought the new MegaCorp DLC, they are going to completely alter the way you play vanilla.

Whether you're just coming back to Stellaris after a long hiatus, you're a new player, or you've just purchased MegaCorp and want to be prepared for what's to come, there's a ton of stuff to go over.

From new civics and new planetary development types to new forms of diplomacy and non-military conquest, getting to the real meat of this DLC takes getting to the late-game. Just loading it up and starting a new game won't do it justice.

If you're going to invest that kind of time, you'd better be prepared to make the most of that new stuff when it becomes relevant in the game, right? Luckily, we've got you covered. Here's your guide to everything that's new in the latest release of Paradox's space oddity.

Free Patch Features

First and foremost, Unity Ambitions are no longer locked behind the Utopia DLC. They're free for all.

If you own Utopia, that's not going to be a big deal; it's the same mechanic you know and love. But for those of you who are new to the system, the gist is this: you can generate Unity through certain jobs for your pops, and those points can either be spent on diplomatic matters or a series of perks that improve certain elements of your faction.

Next, Democratic civilizations get all kinds of new Mandates and other perks that further offset the disadvantages of resource expenditure, as well as its leader-ousting effects. Again, that stuff's all beautifully explained by the game's extremely thorough tooltips.

But the real meat of the free patch? It's the new Planetary System.

Stellaris Ascension Perks Id

Gone are the days of tile-based jobs. Now, tiles have Districts, which are further divided into:

• City Districts (housing and clerk jobs)
• Generator Districts (energy credits)
• Mining Districts (minerals)
• Agricultural Districts (food)

This also makes it much more important to choose wisely when considering planets and colonies. The size of the planets, which previously determined how many tiles the planets would contain, now determines the maximum number of available districts.

You have a guns-or-butter choice here. You could convert every available district to city tiles, usable for housing or amenities to keep your pops happy, for example. The only limit on how many city districts you can have is the size of the planet itself. Just remember that every city district you build is one less district you can use to mine resources.

The other three districts all have caps, represented by little squares in the planet view. Not all planets are equally resource-rich, so you'll want to plan strategically around that.

Meanwhile, there are buildings that can be built, as they were before, that affect overall planetary production.

Instead of these tiles being worked directly like they used to, you now get one building per 5 pops, and your maximum population is governed by food production and the number of city districts you build to provide housing.

It leads to a lot more specialization, especially since there are more resources; producing alloys from minerals, trade value for use with the game's new economic systems, and Unity for those Ascension perks described earlier is a matter of building the right advanced buildings.

And on top of all of the above, it's now easier for 'tall' empires to make up for the lack of territorial expanse, which was previously necessary for mining rare resources by producing those rare materials planetside.

Speaking of Trade Value, not only is there the trade value that your planets produce, but there's also now Trade Value produced the same way other resources have been in remote star systems.

• +50% Edict duration

Executive Vigor is also a decent pick. It doesn't save you as much influence as ID, but it's the perk that keeps on giving. Your Empire edicts will depend on your governing ethics, but every player (if they are thinking about going this route), should be sure to research Planetary Unification as early as possible, as the campaigns you unlock are where the real cost savings come in. In the mid game, this perk gets even better since the duration bonus applies to both the strategic resource edicts as well as the Unity Ambitions.

​

One Vision

• +10% Unity
• +50% Governing ethics attraction

One Vision is also another influence tradition, having all you pops attracted to the same ethic and thus the same faction does two things. First it makes that faction easy to satisfy, generating the maximum influence. Secondly it make all your pops happy. Happiness leads to planet stability. Planet stability leads to a hefty resource production modifier. If that wasn't enough, One Vision also gives you a flat +10% unity bonus, where unlike research labs, it's hard to ramp up unity generation early game since there's only one monument per planet. This perk is great for Egalitarians who generate more influence from happy factions.

​

Shared Destiny

• –75% Subject integration influence cost
• Subject Trust Cap +100

Finally, there's Shared Destiny. The biggest problem with this perk is having to wait 10 years before integrating. This makes much more sense as a second perk (with maybe Nihilistic Acquisition as first). To make this worth the pick you need to actually be getting vassals/ protectorates. Early game war is really risky, if you succeed great! If you fail, you've essentially gimped yourself for many years as you struggle to catch up. If you really want to corvette rush someone, go for it. This perk will help make up for you neglecting your economy by taking over someone else's, but it's risky. Unlike all the other first picks, this one becomes useless if you are behind. This perk is also useful on maps with the number of primitive species turned up, but waiting 10 years for 1 system still doesn't seem very strong, better to just take the planet by force. Trust cap is nice, but I don't have much of an opinion on it.

​

Next up are the governing ethic unique perks

Stellaris Best Ascension Perks Reddit

​

Consecrated Worlds (Spiritualist)

Stellaris Synthetic Evolution

• Consecrate Worlds decision

This is a stronger unity generating perk than One Vision as long as you are playing tall, since you can only make three of them. Consecrated worlds even provide their population with a strong spiritualist attraction. This perk is one of the primary reasons to play spiritualist empires, as it is exclusive to them.

​

Victor vran 2 07. Universal Transactions (Megacorp)

• -15% Branch Office Cost
• Commercial Pacts costs no influence

Universal Transactions seems good on paper, and it can be. To make it better than the other first picks though, you really need to commit to opening branch offices. Unfortunately unlike the other traditions, it relies on what the other players around you are doing. In SP some may be hostile AI, in Multiplayer they may simply refuse a commercial pact if they are fine missing out on the trade benefit.

​

Nihilistic Acquisition (Authoritarian/Xenophobe)

• Unlocks the Raiding bombardment stance

​

Xeno-Compatibility (Xenophile)

• +33% Immigration Pull
• +20% Pop Growth Speed if planet has at least 2 different species
• May trigger crossbreeding if planet has at least 2 different species
• Half-species have mixed traits, +1 Maximum traits and +1 Maximum trait point

Holy shit, this is THE reason to play as a Xenophile empire. Pop growth is so important this update, and this helps you in so many ways. First off, Xenophiles get reduced cost migration treaties. In SP the AI already loves Xenophile so you shouldn't have much trouble. In MP you need to hope your neighbors want your species, and they can live together in the same climate. This may make more sense as a later pick if it takes a while to find the right partner for a migration treaty, or to gain climate acclimation. The +33% immigration pull means your new colonies are going to reach 10 pop very quickly. The +20% pop growth means you might consider forgoing the gene clinics on your worlds (though who am I kidding, those buildings are great). The greater max trait cap is just a nice icing on the cake, as not even biologic ascension lets you go over 5 traits normally.

Finally, there are a few other niche first pick perks that we should talk about.

​

Mastery of Nature

• –33% Clear blocker cost
• Land clearance decision

Stellaris Best Ascension Perks Console

Mastery of Nature got a lot better this patch. Tile blockers have become more expensive to clear, so the 33% cost savings can start to add up. The big buff though is the change to Land Clearance. No longer does it add a tile or two based on planet size. Instead it add 2 district cap on any planet you enact it on. This is fantastic if you are building tall, or have a world with a lot of bonus basic districts you want to exploit. The tile blocker discount is a situational first pick, but the Land clearance perk means you don't regret grabbing this as you transition into the mid-game.

​

Technological Ascendancy

• +10% Research speed

This is a very weak first pick, and something I see as sort of a new player trap. When your first policy pops up you are usually making around 10-15 of each science. Adding a 10% bonus here means that it's essentially giving you 1 to 1.5 extra science a month. Do you know what else give a crap ton more science? Building a second research lab. Even keeping up on your research station construction will only be giving you +2 to +3 science as you creep towards 20 and 30 science generation. This can be a decent perk if you pick it up in the mid-game. But it just does so little in the first few years, at the cost of other great first pick choices, that I think it may be the weakest first ascension perk.

​

Transcendent Learning

• +2 Leader level cap
• +1 Leader Pool Size

I've loved this perk for a long time, so I'm sad to see it fall from grace. The removal of the max leader capacity means that this perk no longer provides those precious extra leaders. Instead it increases the number of choices you have to select from when you go to buy your leaders by 1. That can be situationally good, especially when looking for the right scientist discipline. The +2 leader capacity sounds great, but there are a bunch of other traditions (mainly the new discovery ones) that give you level cap without the need for a perk slot. Add on to that, you need your leaders to live long enough to actually make use of their level caps. You either need to be a long lived race, or grab this perk in the mid-game when you've got a few lifespan enhancing technologies. All told, I'm not going to say this perk is bad, but it's definitely not the powerhouse it once was. Only grab this as a first pick if you are playing a Venerable species.

​

Voidborne

• Can build Habitat stations

This will not be your first pick unless you play a very niche, very RNG based strategy. The worst part about this perk is actually being able to choose it. You see, you need to have Starholds (tier 3 outposts) researched in order to select this perk. The thing is, the Starhold tech card has a -10x modifier if the game year is < 50. You can improve the odds of this tech showing up by bordering a Fallen Empire since having a neighbor with this tech researched gives it a x10 modifier to being drawn. Now that being said, you also need enough tier 2 techs researched to even make this card legal to be rolled for, AND you actually need enough engineering research to be able to get this in a reasonable time. After all that, you need to actually have the economy to support building a habitat. I guess you could delay your unity production by going labs instead of monuments, snuggle up next to a fallen empire, crank out those alloy forges, and pray to RNG for the glorious habitat spam. It's a fun strat, but I'm not convinced it's competitive.

​

That's all the Ascension perks that you can chose from as a first pick. As you can probably tell, I love early game growth and I am hesitant to engage in early game wars, but that's just my playstyle. Let me know what you all think of my analysis, this patch has definitely shaken things up quite a bit with the planet overhaul and tradition changes.

• Let's discuss D2 Hirelings

  Everyone and their mother goes for the act 2 spearmen and their auras. But personally I really want to mix things up. Right now I'm a paladin with zeal, a 2 hander and lots of absorption. I use Might + my Act2 merc's defense buff which raises our combined offense/defense by 2x at the very…

• Let's discuss, Difficulty.

  I have been seeing this alot lately in reddit, in youtube comments, in twitter. So I would like to ask fellow hunters veteran or not. What do you think of the difficulty in Monster Hunter World? Personally, I do find Monster Hunter World easier than past games BUT thats a good thing. To me a…

• Let's discuss a new stamina system in the beta build

  (inb4: this text mostly relates to tank classes, as they lacks of mobility and rely heavily on blocking) How it was before: you block attacks, loosing your stamina shields. Then you kill something (technically, gaining temp HP), and you are good to go - your stamina was recovered from kill. How it's now: stamina recovery…

© Post 'Let's Discuss Options For Choosing Your First Ascension Perk' for game Stellaris.

Top 10 Most Anticipated Video Games of 2020

2020 will have something to satisfy classic and modern gamers alike. To be eligible for the list, the game must be confirmed for 2020, or there should be good reason to expect its release in that year. Therefore, upcoming games with a mere announcement and no discernible release date will not be included.

Top 15 NEW Games of 2020 [FIRST HALF]

2020 has a ton to look forward to..in the video gaming world. Here are fifteen games we're looking forward to in the first half of 2020.

Stellaris recently underwent some huge mechanical changes, and even if you haven't bought the new MegaCorp DLC, they are going to completely alter the way you play vanilla.

Whether you're just coming back to Stellaris after a long hiatus, you're a new player, or you've just purchased MegaCorp and want to be prepared for what's to come, there's a ton of stuff to go over.

From new civics and new planetary development types to new forms of diplomacy and non-military conquest, getting to the real meat of this DLC takes getting to the late-game. Just loading it up and starting a new game won't do it justice.

If you're going to invest that kind of time, you'd better be prepared to make the most of that new stuff when it becomes relevant in the game, right? Luckily, we've got you covered. Here's your guide to everything that's new in the latest release of Paradox's space oddity.

Free Patch Features

First and foremost, Unity Ambitions are no longer locked behind the Utopia DLC. They're free for all.

If you own Utopia, that's not going to be a big deal; it's the same mechanic you know and love. But for those of you who are new to the system, the gist is this: you can generate Unity through certain jobs for your pops, and those points can either be spent on diplomatic matters or a series of perks that improve certain elements of your faction.

Next, Democratic civilizations get all kinds of new Mandates and other perks that further offset the disadvantages of resource expenditure, as well as its leader-ousting effects. Again, that stuff's all beautifully explained by the game's extremely thorough tooltips.

But the real meat of the free patch? It's the new Planetary System.

Stellaris Ascension Perks Id

Gone are the days of tile-based jobs. Now, tiles have Districts, which are further divided into:

• City Districts (housing and clerk jobs)
• Generator Districts (energy credits)
• Mining Districts (minerals)
• Agricultural Districts (food)

This also makes it much more important to choose wisely when considering planets and colonies. The size of the planets, which previously determined how many tiles the planets would contain, now determines the maximum number of available districts.

You have a guns-or-butter choice here. You could convert every available district to city tiles, usable for housing or amenities to keep your pops happy, for example. The only limit on how many city districts you can have is the size of the planet itself. Just remember that every city district you build is one less district you can use to mine resources.

The other three districts all have caps, represented by little squares in the planet view. Not all planets are equally resource-rich, so you'll want to plan strategically around that.

Meanwhile, there are buildings that can be built, as they were before, that affect overall planetary production.

Instead of these tiles being worked directly like they used to, you now get one building per 5 pops, and your maximum population is governed by food production and the number of city districts you build to provide housing.

It leads to a lot more specialization, especially since there are more resources; producing alloys from minerals, trade value for use with the game's new economic systems, and Unity for those Ascension perks described earlier is a matter of building the right advanced buildings.

And on top of all of the above, it's now easier for 'tall' empires to make up for the lack of territorial expanse, which was previously necessary for mining rare resources by producing those rare materials planetside.

Speaking of Trade Value, not only is there the trade value that your planets produce, but there's also now Trade Value produced the same way other resources have been in remote star systems.

To exploit that resource, however, takes a lot more work. You'll have to build and upgrade Starbases to get at that trade potential, and you'll then have to establish trade routes back to your capital.

And the further away from the capital the resources are, the more you'll have to devote your fleets to protecting those trade routes, because otherwise you'll fall victim to piracy (don't worry, the game will tell you, to the last energy credit, how much you're losing to piracy and how much fleet cap you'll have to put out to stop all of it.)

When that happens, everything that the pirates get is lost to your empire.

Piracy suppression isn't just a matter of spaceship deployment; starbases can be packed to the gills with gun batteries that have not just an anti-piracy suppression value but also come in handy when more organized enemies show up. Fight defensively with a well-upgraded starbase present and it will be suicide for the enemy to try and crack that strongpoint. Open hardware resource monitor.

This adds a strategic dimension, especially if you're playing with Hyperlane FTL rules; you now have easily defensible border chokepoints.

There's a new policy, known simply as 'Trade Policy', now available under the usual empire policies tab that will determine what that trade value is used for. You can use it for 'Wealth Creation' (a 1:1 conversion of trade value to energy credits), 'Consumer Benefits' (0.5 EC and 0.25 consumer goods per unit of TV) or 'Marketplace of Ideas' (0.5 EC, 0.15 points of Unity per unit of TV.) As always, the tooltip is there to remind you what you're getting.

Taken together, not only is this a whole new way to play the base-game, but for those who can make the best use of the available new resources, it's a massively profitable one, something that, if you've got Utopia, will come in real handy when it's time to build those late-game Megastructures.

MegaCorp Features

Branches and Subsidiaries

Let's start with the DLC's namesake, the Megacorporations that are a whole new empire type in the game.

Unlike Machine Empires and Hive Minds, Megacorps allow you to use any combination of basegame societal ethics. And choosing between Materialist and Spiritualist now gives you two completely different ways to play the DLC; each comes with its own pros and cons on top of the previous dichotomy between science and happiness.

This is all made available by the new Corporate form of authority, which is a special form of government similar to the machine and hive forms from the other two DLC for the game.

When you take that, you get a whole new set of civics to choose from, and your planetary ruling class now produces trade value in addition to their other effects.

The biggest advantage that Megacorps offer is a higher administrative cap. 'Tall' empires can now develop those highly populated planets to their fullest.

The trade-off is that the penalty for going over the cap is now huge. This is not a playstyle for 'wide' empires. But don't fret; there's still a way to expand. This time, it's by building Branch Offices on friendly planets with whom you're able to conclude a Commercial Pact.

Once you've got the pact, the branch office provides energy credits both to you and to the target faction. And when the branch office gets powerful enough, you can turn it into a full Subsidiary, which is vassalage by another name.

The difference is that the 'vassal' still retains its sovereignty; it can grow and expand and wage wars and otherwise behave as an independent nation. The hitch is that you get a one-way Defensive Pact; they have to support you in your wars. And they have to pay 25% of their energy credits as 'tribute'.

All told, it's very profitable and mutually beneficial.

Criminal Syndicates

But maybe you don't want a mutually beneficial relationship. Maybe you want to be the Space Mafia, exploiting your victim rather than playing nice.

For you, there's the Criminal Heritage civic.

When you take that trait, you get a permanent, irrevocable change to your diplomatic relations with other factions. Nobody will enter into a Commercial Pact with you.

On the other hand, though, you don't have to ask permission to build a Branch Office. You can put one down wherever you like, whether the owning faction of the planet likes it or not. These branch offices grow stronger the higher the crime rate is on the target planet. As the Space Mafia, you have a vested interest in keeping things unstable and lawless.

But when some other faction tries the same thing on you, this gives you your counter-strike. Put simply, the more resources you spend on law enforcement, the more you strangle the enemy's income, turning their would-be takeover of your space into a lot of jailed aliens. No crime, no profit. So if you see a Criminal Heritage empire anywhere near your borders, make plans to stay on top of that crime rate.

Gospel of the Masses

With 'Gospel of the Masses', you get a MegaChurch instead of a MegaCorp. The bulk of your income now comes from tithing, and while you can still trade, your Branch Offices now become Temples of Prosperity, spreading religion.

A lot of it is 'same game, different name' and it plays fundamentally the same.

Keep in mind, you can combine Gospel of the Masses and Criminal Heritage, so they're not mutually exclusive!

Coruscant Simulator

Next, there's the Ecumenopolis, which is a 'city planet'. Think Coruscant from Star Wars.

Before we get into the details of how to use them, here's how to build one:

Step 1: Unlock the Arcology Ascension Perk. This is a big reason why they unhooked Ascension Perks and the Unity system from Utopia; MegaCorp wouldn't work without it.

Step 2: Replace every resource district on the planet with City Districts.

Step 3: Go to the planet's Decisions menu. Once the first two requirements are met, you'll get a Decision to construct the Arcology Project.

Once this is done, you get the Residential Arcology, Foundry Arcology, Industrial Arcology, and Leisure Arcology, which make use of all those pops to produce even more resources than you'd get on a regular resource-rich planet.

On top of this, you get new Megastructures to even further enhance your late-game experience.

The Matter Decompressor is basically like a Dyson Sphere but extracts a ton of minerals rather than harnessing a star to make energy.

Mega Art Installations produce Unity and Amenities, which means lower crime rate, faster gaining of the rest of the Ascension Perks, and less planetary buildings devoted to keeping the peace, so instead you can generate economic value with their slots.

Strategic Command Centers let your corporation have sharper teeth; building one raises your fleet cap dramatically, adds to the number of starbases you can build, beefs up the defensive weaponry you can use to protect your trade routes and territory in general, and improves the sublight speed of your warships.

Finally, Interstellar Assemblies massively increase immigration pull and turn all but the meanest AI factions into friends with huge diplomatic relation bonuses.

Miscellaneous New Stuff

There are two other additions to MegaCorp: the Caravaneers and the Slave Market.

The Caravaneers are random wanderers who come floating through your empire, and they offer deals on goods you can't find anywhere else. They also bring with them a slot machine game. They deal in 'Caravan Coinz', which are a special currency that you buy with your hard-earned energy credits. They're used for that slot machine game where you try and win more 'Coinz', which you can use to buy loot boxes.

And finally, there's the Slave Market.

This does exactly what you expect it to. Anti-slavery empires can buy slaves' freedom (and deny other empires the chance to own the resources the slaves provide.) Pro-slavery empires can buy what essentially amount to pops that are either better or worse laborers than your native pops, but you don't have to wait for natural growth, just plug the slave into the job slot.

Of course, which of those you do depends entirely on what kind of empire you are.

All told, there is a massive amount of content to be enjoyed here, and now you have the complete overview. Happy trading!