Ascension Perk Elimination

[Lord Beyer XVII]

Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 17
Imperial Prerogative: 13
Interstellar Dominion: 18
Mastery of Nature: 15
Nihilistic Acquisition: -1
One Vision: 13
Shared Destiny: 16
Technological Ascendancy: 18
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 11
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 15
Galactic Force Projection: 15
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 15
Synthetic Age: 11
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 15
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 15
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14 (-2)
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 15
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 18 (+1)

Psionic Ascension allows you to have the GOD EMPEROR and to play lootbox every five years
Bio Ascension, while having the strongest bonuses, is just plain boring (and while we still have tiles, a hell of micromanagement)

 

[Jabby]

Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 17
Imperial Prerogative: 13
Interstellar Dominion: 18
Mastery of Nature: 15
Nihilistic Acquisition: -1
One Vision: 13
Shared Destiny: 14 (-2)
Technological Ascendancy: 19 (+1)
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 11
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 15
Galactic Force Projection: 15
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 15
Synthetic Age: 11
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 15
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 15
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 15
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 18

 

[Jmes Snowscoran]

Nihilistic Acquisition is the first perk to be eliminated! It's been added to the graveyard in the first post and removed from the list.


Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 17
Imperial Prerogative: 13
Interstellar Dominion: 18
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 13
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 19
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 11
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 15
Galactic Force Projection: 15
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 15
Synthetic Age: 9 (-2)
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 15
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 15
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 15
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19 (+1)

Psionic Ascension is really good- great leader bonuses and you don't get the delays and costs in the form of projects that have to be completed to ascend your pops. You do have to spend resources to access the Shroud, but the Shroud has some pretty fantastic benefits if you're lucky.

Machine Empires get enough robomodding points without SA, making it a bit of a pointless option.

 

[Halatung]

Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 17
Imperial Prerogative: 13
Interstellar Dominion: 18
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 13
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 19
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 9 (-2)
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 15
Galactic Force Projection: 15
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 15
Synthetic Age: 9
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 15
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 15
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16 (+1)
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

 

[Retry]

Psionic Ascension allows you to have the GOD EMPEROR and to play lootbox every five years
Bio Ascension, while having the strongest bonuses, is just plain boring (and while we still have tiles, a hell of micromanagement)

Since the selection criteria is most/least useful perks for winning games and surviving crises, I have to wonder how Bio Ascension being 'boring' impedes in that?

 

[GloatingSwine]

Bio Ascension, while having the strongest bonuses, is just plain boring (and while we still have tiles, a hell of micromanagement)

If RNGesus likes you enough and you get your covenant with the Instrument of Desire, Psionic Ascension has the best overall output of Minerals, Energy and equal best Unity. You're 20% behind Bio for pop production (can't stack Very Strong, Industrious, and Serviles and don't have Robust or Nerve Stapled), but Instrument of Desire is 25% so you end up ahead, especially as IoD applies to space resources too. All way ahead of Synths because slavery is so good at pink rocks.

You're way ahead of Bio for energy because there's no good biological way to produce it, and very slightly ahead of Synths (Synths get +35% at pop level and +10 from ruler and governor, Psi gets +25 at pop level and +25 from IoD.

And you match Synth for Unity assuming you have one point of Spiritualist, and way ahead of Bio because there are no biological unity traits, and the synth one and the general synth production matches all the spiritualist and general psychic bonuses.

Synths beat you out in research unless you also get Brain Slugs. With Brain Slugs you're second to Bio, which can do the best science if it gets Brain Slugs and double best if it also gets Uplifted by the Enigmatic Cache or worms Intelligent back in with Erudite.

(Like all optimised biological species this requires Fanatic Authoritarian, Spiritualist, Syncretic Evolution with Strong, Industrious Serviles and Thrifty Intelligent Traditional main pops. Though energy optimisation doesn't actually matter so you can drop it, 3/4 of your energy is going to come from space and Psi double wins there with IoD. You can get +65% bonuses to space energy production because someone missed the fact that Engos Vapour is a 10% multiplicative bonus that applies empire wide.)

Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 17
Imperial Prerogative: 13
Interstellar Dominion: 19 (+1)
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 13
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 19
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 9
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 15
Galactic Force Projection: 15
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 15
Synthetic Age: 7 (-2)
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 15
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 15
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

ISD is great for expanding fast and also maximising your claim efficiency in early mid game wars.
Machine Empires can barely spend all the points they get even without Synthetic Age, they are far more held back by the five trait limit.

 

[pryr]

Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 17
Imperial Prerogative: 14 (+1)
Interstellar Dominion: 19
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 13
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 19
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 7 (-2)
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 15
Galactic Force Projection: 15
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 15
Synthetic Age: 7
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 15
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 15
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

Imperial Prerogative gives me 5 more planets without sector taxes and i give me easier time if i conquered a bunch of planets and i wanna take my time for rebuilding them.
Enigmatic Engineering is too specific. It may be useful but i do not think that it will make a huge difference when it matters.

 

[PirateJack]

Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 17
Imperial Prerogative: 14
Interstellar Dominion: 19
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 13
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 19
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 7
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13 (-2)
Galactic Force Projection: 16 (+1)
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 15
Synthetic Age: 7
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 15
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 15
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

Galactic Force Projection is really useful for those times when you just need to increase the size of your doomstack. Eternal Vigilance, on the other hand, is only really useful for Inwards Perfection empires and doesn't scale well into the late game.

 

[InvisibleBison]

Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 17
Imperial Prerogative: 15 (+1)
Interstellar Dominion: 19
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 13
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 19
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 7
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 15
Synthetic Age: 5 (-2)
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 15
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 15
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

The sector AI is not as good at developing planets as I am, so having a higher core sector limit is very useful.
Robot pops simply don't have enough trait picks to take advantage of the additional points granted by Synthetic Age, and by the time it's available I've already done all the robomodding I'm going to do, so the decrease in robomodding time isn't useful either.

 

[Leylos]

Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 17(+1)
Imperial Prerogative: 15
Interstellar Dominion: 19
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 13
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 19
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 5(-2)
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 15
Synthetic Age: 5
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 15
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 15
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

Enigmatic Engineering is absolutely atrocious. The main feature of the perk is based around the idea of helping you out if you lose fights to prevent your opponent from catching up.

However if you are technologically ahead you will likely not lose (if you do you should have picked another perk that would have prevented that from happening), and if you are technologically behind it won't matter anyway.

Executive Vigor can be absolutely incredible with the right edicts and it scales beautifully into the end game.

 

[Rios_]

Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 17
Imperial Prerogative: 15
Interstellar Dominion: 20 (+1)
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 13
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 19
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 5
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 15
Synthetic Age: 5
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 15
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 13 (-2)
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19


If your trying to do a rapid conquest playthrough, your aim should be to minimise your influence costs (so you have more avalable for claims/starbases) and maximise your fleet size (via resource income and upkeep reductions). Unless you are running a genocidal setup (and so start with access to a total war CB) Interstellar Dominion is one of the best ways to reduce outgoing influence costs for the majority of the game. On the other side, Galactic Wonders comes in far too late with it's prerequisites to have much impact, and requires you to sink significant quantities of time, minerals and influence to gain any benefit.

 

[Sopbucket]

Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 17
Imperial Prerogative: 13 (-2)
Interstellar Dominion: 20
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 13
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 20 (+1)
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 5
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 15
Synthetic Age: 5
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 15
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 13
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

My first perk is usually a toss up between Technological Ascendancy and Interstellar Dominion, but more often I go with TA. Technology in this game is something you don't really think about too much until you have something you specifically want to do that is locked behind a certain tech you don't have. Personally, I like to avoid that as much as possible. Being ahead in tech seems to make it easier to stay ahead in tech, which makes early bonuses that much better.

Imperial Prerogative (I always thought it was Perogative...) is something I find I just don't need. The goal generally is to get enough core sector limit bonuses to allow me to build up my planets before handing them over to sectors - if I can get 7 to 9 core systems that tends to do it. Around 11 planets or so you find that managing them is a full time job, which makes the game really tedious. Late game this perk doesn't really do much at all, you save a few planets from the 25% resource tax, but that margin just grows smaller the larger you get. Compared to the benefit from Executive Vigor, it's almost nothing.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Imperial Prerogative (I always thought it was Perogative...) is something I find I just don't need. The goal generally is to get enough core sector limit bonuses to allow me to build up my planets before handing them over to sectors - if I can get 7 to 9 core systems that tends to do it. Around 11 planets or so you find that managing them is a full time job, which makes the game really tedious. Late game this perk doesn't really do much at all, you save a few planets from the 25% resource tax, but that margin just grows smaller the larger you get. Compared to the benefit from Executive Vigor, it's almost nothing.

IP had its uses before we could build into sectors.

Now sector planets are just inconveniently absent from the outliner, and 5 more outliner slots is not worth an ascension perk.

 

[Secret Master]

I am a bit surprised. I didn't think that many people would love executive vigor. I thought I was the outlier.

I also thought that the Colossus Project would get move votes due to opening the Total War war goal.

I see Nihilistic Acquisition was eliminated already. That's no surprise.

 

[pieman]

Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 18 (+1)
Imperial Prerogative: 13
Interstellar Dominion: 20
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 13
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 20
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 5
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 15
Synthetic Age: 3 (-2)
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 15
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 13
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

Executive Vigor is strong, and useful with pretty much any type of empire build. Synthetic age is only available for a niche empire type, and isn't even useful for the niche it's supposed to boost.

 

[General Guderian]

Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 18
Imperial Prerogative: 13
Interstellar Dominion: 20
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 14 (+1)
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 20
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 5
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 15
Synthetic Age: 1 (-2)
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 15
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 13
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

More Unity means more Traditions, more APs and more Edicts

 

[GloatingSwine]

I am a bit surprised. I didn't think that many people would love executive vigor. I thought I was the outlier.

I also thought that the Colossus Project would get move votes due to opening the Total War war goal.

I'm not really sold on Executive Vigour.

For an expanding conqueror Colossus Project makes it irrelevant because you'll have nothing else to spend the influence on so the less frequent edict renewal won't matter, and a non-expanding empire won't need it for the same reason.

So you have to be an expansive empire looking for conquests which doesn't already have Colossus Project which solves the same problem better. (I suspect that @Pointyearedgit doesn't know about CP's unlocking Total War and removing influence cost from expansion....)

And for Unity ambitions you can easily outproduce the cost and be running four or five for the giggles. Especially if you're sensible and stop one pick into Diplomacy and Domination (Dynamic Ecomorphism and Colonial Viceroys, only things you need from those two trees). Keeping your unity costs down nicely and transitioning early into ambitions. (by six ascensions you've already won stop kidding yourself the last two are meaningful).

 

[Jmes Snowscoran]

I'm not really sold on Executive Vigour.

For an expanding conqueror Colossus Project makes it irrelevant because you'll have nothing else to spend the influence on so the less frequent edict renewal won't matter, and a non-expanding empire won't need it for the same reason.

So you have to be an expansive empire looking for conquests which doesn't already have Colossus Project which solves the same problem better. (I suspect that @Pointyearedgit doesn't know about CP's unlocking Total War and removing influence cost from expansion....)

And for Unity ambitions you can easily outproduce the cost and be running four or five for the giggles. Especially if you're sensible and stop one pick into Diplomacy and Domination (Dynamic Ecomorphism and Colonial Viceroys, only things you need from those two trees). Keeping your unity costs down nicely and transitioning early into ambitions. (by six ascensions you've already won stop kidding yourself the last two are meaningful).

Well, in your example, you could spend unity on 4 domination tree traditions (3 fairly worthless and a unity booster) to finish the tree and unlock executive vigour, you would eventually break even with the alternative route of just spending unity on unity ambitions. Assuming the additional unity costs from 4 new traditions is in the ballpark of your gains from Vassal Acculturation and that there are no other modifiers to edict length, it would happen after 12 ambitions (no executive vigour) or 8 ambitions (with executive vigour). Not necessarily a great tradeoff, but worth consideration.

 

[Secret Master]

And for Unity ambitions you can easily outproduce the cost and be running four or five for the giggles.

That may be true for some empires, but I run plenty of empires that struggle to generate enough unity to do that due to absurdly high unity costs (xeno slaves and a lack of paradise domes or temples).

Being able to keep mineral and fleet edicts up during an ill timed crisis has real advantages.

That being said, I'm not the biggest fan of focusing on unity, though when not doing a peaceful run.

 

[RedPearlA]

Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 18
Imperial Prerogative: 13
Interstellar Dominion: 20
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 14
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 20
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 5
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 15
Synthetic Age: -1(-2)
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 16(+1)
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 13
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

If you fighting against a stronger end game crisis then default you're going want to bring some extra firepower.