Ascension Perks

[Azsouth]

Is there any way to swap them out once you've done all the tradition trees? I just finished them for the first time and chose picks as they came up rather than saving them, mainly stuff that would lower influence costs, buff my fleet, and give me damage bonuses to crisis' but I seem to have locked myself out of getting megastructures and teraforming worlds into gaia worlds (never even saw a megastructure tech in the tech tree). If not, whats the best strategy for this where you can get balanced damage to crisis' and be able to teraform or build megastructures, maybe even have a colossus as well? perks like "Interstellar Domination" and "Technological Ascendency" are great for early game in my experience, at least those are usually the first two I go for, but mid-late game they seem pointless.

EDIT: also is unity worth anything after the tree's are done? because I have like 4-5 buildings dedicated towards gaining unity per planet that consumes a ton of consumer goods and doesn't seem like it is useful after that point.

 

[FonVegen]

Build starbases with anchorages and only anchorages to increase your naval cap far enough that you can build a fleet large enough to beat down the crises. Once you have Voidborne (because for megastructures you pretty much have to go Voidborne>Master Builders>Galactic Wonders, or at least that makes them far easier to build and reliably get) construct habitats that you fill with nothing but fortresses, because each fortress will generate even more naval cap than an anchorage could. That way you get a fleet large enough to deal with any crisis, and if you position the habitats correctly you also get plenty of roadblocks for would-be conquerors (thank you, FTL inhibition).

Furthermore, perks like the Arcology Project give you ecumenopoli, which is inredibly powerful when it comes to advanced resources. Allows you to get alloys so fast that you can create entire fleets out of thin air with one or two dedicated shipyard starbases. If you couple it with megastructures and build the Dyson Sphere and the Matter Decompressor you also won't have to worry about upkeep much.
Both of the ecumenopolis and your fleets even if you go above your cap.

No, there is no way to swap Ascension Perks. Those are set in stone once chosen.

Unity does fuel ambitions in the Edicts menu. They cost as much as a tradition each but don't increase the cost of whatever you pick next, and they give some fun bonuses like +5 Influence, +33% minerals, +50% build speed and +33% megastructure build speed... very useful, but 5 unity buildings per planet might be a bit overkill, so you can replace a few (just be careful about emenities if you include gene clinics and holo theatres).

 

[Talanic]

For the Megastructures technology - which allows you to repair broken ones that you find, and unlocks the Galactic Wonders ascension perk - you can pick the Voidborne ascension perk, then the Master Builders ascension perk, which grants you the tech (but you still need to research it.

Your other option is to follow this guide to unlock it without picking Voidborne.

Many perks are kind of subpar. The best course of action is to decide (around your third ascension perk if not before) what you want to do with this run and stick to it. If you're going super wide, taking all star systems, you may want Interstellar Dominion. Technological Ascendancy is useful, especially early on. Eternal Vigilance is honestly pretty bad, as are Galactic Force Projection, Grasp the Void...a lot of them give bonuses you can just get elsewhere without trading something so rare. Building fortresses on your planets or habitats can apparently give you as much fleet capacity as you could ever want; keep that in mind.

But past those first couple perks, you're going to need to buckle down and decide if you're following an ascension path - biological, psionic or machine. I hear the third is not working well right now, but the other two tend to be pretty powerful. So that's going to account for two more perks.

Once that's done, decide for good whether you want to go megastructures, because you only get eight ascension perks and megastructures will take from one to three of them. One, if you follow the guide above and unlock the tech on your own, taking only Galactic Wonders without Master Builders to speed up construction (doesn't seem that necessary anymore, but I don't have Megacorp expansion; if I did, I would consider Ecumenopolis to be pretty essential). Three if you go Voidborne.

Anyway. Do megastructures OR terraforming perks, but I don't recommend doing both with a regular empire. Generally speaking, I consider megastructures to be better than Gaia worlds, due to the megastructures giving some unique bonuses compared to a bit of happiness, but honestly, do what you want.

 

[Azsouth]

as a Roman syled Empire w/ Bureaucratic Complexes and Unity from Precinct Houses, those are usually the first two I build on planets after 1 Civilian Industry, then build an Autochthon monument, Ministry of Culture (From artist guild), and later the Ministry of Production, thats what I meant by at least 5 buildings for Unity, the Complex usually covers the Amenties of the entire planet for most of the run to where I don't need to build Gene Clinics or Holo Theatres.

EDIT: another question I guess would be what Perks would you consider a must have 100% of the time?