Ethos Tier List (1.0.2 version)

[Dnote]

I agree with the OP, but I'd rate Pacifism higher simply because it gives access to the Irenic Democracy which has a +20% Happiness bonus. And by the time you need to go into a war as a Pacifist, your already way ahead of anyone else and have more than enough resources to plow through the negatives of winning the war.

Happiness is too important at the moment, it basically makes everything better, compared to the other modifiers which are either singular in their focus or have disadvantages to go with their advantages.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

It seems a bit odd to put Spiritualist into the top tier for its happiness bonus and at the same time place Pacifist (which is the best happiness provider via Moral Democracy + Domes) into the low tier. That aside, there is no reason why a pacifist empire would have to avoid war, since their drawbacks only affect ground war related stuff - a pacifist fleet is just as effective as a militarist one.

Individualist certainly isn't that bad. Extra energy is an amazing early game effect. Divergence is mostly problematic due to the shelter, not the ethic effect itself. Even if your pops would lose the ethic (which they usually don't if you swiftly upgrade your colonies), you'd still end up with a empire wide Energy bonus and a super-effective happiness building.

Regarding "Spiritualist is trash":
I want to clarify again that this is *NOT* the case in my guide. Spiritualist is *weak*, because it comes at a high opportunity cost, does not like robots, has no unique building and is mutually exclusive with Materialist (which I consider as the strongest ethic). If just one of these limitations changes, it might as well go back to the "situational" category. And even in the current state, it works perfectly fine for a happiness-focused empire (although I prefer to get happiness with governments or buildings).

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Well, considering that the balance of Ethics and Governments as a whole is actually pretty good, I'd say it's a "near miss" at best.
There isn't one particular build that is strictly better than everything, and even the "bad" stuff is more like "only situationally useful" than "universally terrible".

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Speaking of that - here is a pretty good individualist build that also uses Spiritualist:

Fanatic Individualist + Spiritualist / Theocractic Republic / Thrifty + Nomadic + Weak
-> Fantastic E income (+35 to +50%) that leads to great tile efficiency
-> Great colonization speed at all stages (thanks to migration)
-> Lots of Core Worlds for direct control
-> Can get pops "Happy" with the Hyper Entertainment Forum
-> Has Divergence Reduction despite being individualist with Advanced Government type

 

[GAGA Extrem]

One thing people seem to forget is that Individualist has access to a +10% Tile Energy Yield building and a +15% happiness building, regardless if your pops shift ethics or not.
Yes, people might end up all over the place (which means you need to micro them constantly to place materialists in labs etc etc), but you still have that Energy advantage.