Since there are so many playstyles and builds in Stellaris, it’s no wonder there are a lot of unbalanced and downright broken ways of playing the game, hence why we made this Stellaris ascension perks tier list. With the newest release of the Machine Age DLC, we have a lot of new stuff, especially regarding the Cosmogensis ascension perk.
This Ascension Tier List is up-to-date with the new Machine Age DLC and patch 3.12.
Ascension perks can make or break your game and it’s hard to experiment with different playstyles and builds. Although we suggest that you play your game without looking up too much information, it’s important to know what things are viable and what are boring and useless. That said, let’s get into our ascension perk tier list.
SS Tier
Cosmogenesis
Effects: Start the Cosmogenesis Crisis Path.
Cosmogenesis is one of the most impactful ascension perks, in many ways. It is the new Machine Age DLC ascension perk that changes the game and is in its essence a “Technological Victory” path. That said, while everything is focused on Research, there are a lot of things that make this ascension perk much more complex than a simple Tech Victory from Civ 5/6.
Let’s break this down into a few segments:
- You will get the option to construct the new Sythethic Lathe megastructure, which can essentially sacrifice your Pops for Science and Logic (a new currency that can further your Crisis Level). It works exponentially, which means that for example, if you have 5 Pops in the Lathe, you will get +5 Science/+1 Logic, and 1 Pop will die every year. If you have 50 Pops, you will get 300 Science/+60 Logic and your Pops will die every month. So the more Pops you have, the exponentially higher you get in Science/Logic, and your Pops will die at an exponentially higher pace too. In essence, this means that you need to be ready to sacrifice A LOT of Pops to further your Cosmogenesis agenda.
- You will get super powerful ships – Riddle Escort and Enigma Battlecruiser, which are essentially one of the best ships in the game, with high cost and low upkeep.
- You will get the ability to build Fallen Empire buildings.
- In the final stage, you will need to create the Horizon Needle, a megastructure ship that will win you the game, and make no mistake, other Empires will not like this.
There are a lot of endings and quirks with Cosmogenesis and we don’t want to ruin the magic for you, but if you wonder is it powerful, yes it is. The ships are super strong, Riddle Escort is probably the best ship in the game, the Synthethic Lathe can boost your Research to simply broken levels if you have a good plan on how to get a lot of Pops, and the Fallen Empire buildings are just miles better than your regular ones. Finally, it is a new, fresh, and exciting ending and a unique way to play the game, so we must put it above all else in our ascension perk tier list.
Defender Of The Galaxy
Effects: +50% Damage to endgame crisis factions, +200 Opinion from all regular empire.
We find this perk pretty boring, but extremely necessary. If you cranked up the difficulty of the endgame crisis to an x5, x10, or x25, this perk is a must. You get 50% damage to any endgame crisis and get an opinion boost from all empires. Notably, the most important thing against the endgame crisis is the endgame ship designs you’re going to go for. We suggest picking this perk last as it doesn’t have much benefit (only opinion) if the endgame crisis is not close.
Become The Crisis
Effects: Unlocks Menace and the Galactic Nemesis crisis progression.
Technically, we don’t consider this ascension perk a “perk” since it’s so game-changing. Basically, you get to unlock a different game path that is primarily focused on making you the bad guy. Soon enough, everybody starts hating you and your mission is to build a machine that can wipe the whole galaxy out starts.
Again, we don’t consider this a “perk”, it’s more of an alternate way of playing the game. Your missions will mostly consist of wrecking havoc in the galaxy and you will get bonuses that will be geared towards more war and destruction.
Synthetic Evolution/Age
Effects: Unlocks the Synthethic Evolution path.
This ascension perk can be a separate article in itself. It’s probably the most powerful perk in the game and the benefits of going fully into the Synthetic Age has wast and absurd benefits.
Some of these benefits include:
- Modularity – A lot of benefits regarding Alloy production, robot assembly, Trait Points, Stability, resource output, upkeep, and more.
- Virtuality – Gives you the ability to create instant Pops when you create jobs, a bonus on resources output, and a new policy that grants you research output through jobs. Overall, very powerful.
- Nanotech – Benefits revolving around producing Nanites, nanite edicts, Nanite ships, Empire Size from Colonies reduction, and more.
This isn’t everything. The ascension perk is just too broad and gives you too many benefits to be any lower than SS Tier.
*This is a Synthetic Ascension Path, you will not be able to go to different paths after picking this perk.
S Tier
Colossus Project
Effects: Gives you the option to build a Colossus ship type.
This ascension perk basically gets you the option to build Titans and more importantly, the World Cracker ship. Titans are superships that can be a benefit to your fleet, but the real reason why this perk is at the top is because of the ship called World Cracker. If you ever tried to play Stellaris until the end (2500), you know that at around the year 2400, your game starts to get slower.
This is the dreaded endgame lag that is inherent in the Stellaris engine. One of the best ways to mitigate this is to destroy every planet you conquer. Basically, it comes down to killing pops since they are the main reason for the lag. If you want to play the game to the year 2500, Colossus Project is a must-pick.
Mind over Matter
Effects: Unlocks psionic potential in species, leading to various psychic abilities.
Apart from being one of the most fun roleplays, mind over matter is also extremely powerful. The benefits you get throughout the game are just hard to overlook. Unlocking the path to transcendence is where all the best benefits are. You get job bonuses, leader perks, connection to the shroud, psionic jump drives, immortal leaders (chosen one), and much more. These are bonuses that follow you through the game and mind over matter is considered one of the most reliable choices.
*This is the Psionic Ascension Path, you will not be able to go to different paths after picking this perk.
Technological Ascendancy
Effects: 10% research speed boost and a +50% chance of finding a rare technology
Since one of the most important factors in the game is tech progression, it’s no surprise that Technological Ascendancy is just too good. Even if it’s just a 10% research speed boost and a +50% chance of finding a rare technology (this means a jump from 1% to 1.5%), the benefits are powerful since it can get the ball rolling.
This perk is usually the first or second pick and there aren’t better alternatives at the early stage of the game. It may not be ideal if you are going for a specific build, but even then it’s arguably a close second.
One Vision
Effects: −10% Pop amenities usage, +10% Monthly unity, +50% Governing ethics attraction
Similar to technological ascendancy, this ascension perk can be picked early. It remains one of the most reliable ascension perks since it gives you 10% monthly unity, -10% pop amenities usage, and +50% governing ethics attraction. This gives you a nice boost and it can be very useful throughout every stage of the game. Unity is always welcomed, and sometimes ethical attraction can stabilize your factions and circumvent faction problems.
Arcology Project
Effect: Allows the transformation of a planet into an Ecumenopolis, greatly increasing housing, resource output, and pop growth, but prohibiting all non-city district construction.
If you are a fan of tall builds, the Arcology Project is a must-pick perk. It gives you the option to build an Ecumenopolis which is sort of a superplanet. This planet can be the home to a huge number of pops and with the correct setup, you can get some crazy benefits. Furthermore, if you see that you are stuck with only 3-5 worlds, this is the best way to expand your empire with the need to acquire more worlds.
In our experience, it worked extremely well with the megacorp “tall build”, and with any other type of civilization where you are forced to play with a few planets. Even if you don’t need a huge planet, this ascension perk is still a nice option to have since the difference between a regular planet and an Ecumenopolis is just that impactful.
Universal Transactions
Effects: +1 Official capacity, +20% Commercial pact efficiency, −15% Branch office cost, Commercial pacts are free, Commercial pacts do not require an embassy
Basically, if you’re playing MegaCorp, this is a must-pick. -15% Branch office cost early in the game with save you a ton of resources and make steamrolling the game easier. Furthermore, commercial pacts are free of charge which means you get to save that precious influence that you need so much if you are playing, for example, a xenophile MegaCorp and making deals with everyone.
A Tier
Machine Worlds
Effects: Ability to terraform Planets into Machine worlds.
The Machine Worlds are very good when playing Machine Empire. Terraforming a random semi-habitable world to a Machine World is very powerful. The district system, habitability, and various bonuses are all there and are very worth the trouble of terraforming planets, unlike something like Consecrated Worlds, which is a far cry from Machine Worlds.
Hive Worlds
Effects: Ability to terraform Planets into Hive worlds.
Hive Worlds, just like Machine Words are very powerful and justify spending an Ascension Perk as a Hivemind empire. There are a lot of bonuses: +10% Resource Output, 100% Habitability, unlimited districts, +1 Drone, bonus Housing, and more. Simply put, Hive Worlds are great.
Galactic Wonders
Effects: Ring World, Dyson Sphere, Matter Decompressor research options.
If you like cool sci-fi buildings, this ascension perk is a must. It unlocks the option to build Ring Worlds, a Dyson Sphere, and Matter Decompressors. Ring Worlds are a way to further expand your world and give you jobs if your space is too cramped. If you find yourself struggling with energy, Dyson Spheres generate huge outputs of it (1000 to 4000), not to mention they look really cool. Matter decompressors basically do the same but for minerals. Besides that these buildings look cool, they provide solid benefits across the board and that’s the main reason why it’s so high up our Stellaris ascension perks tier list.
Arcaheo-Engineers
Effects: + 1 Scientist capacity, +33% Archaeotech weapon damage, −10% Minor artifact ship cost, +2 Archaeo-Engineers from Faculty of Archaeostudies and additional effects from ship components and starbase modules.
This new-ish ascension perk is kinda controversial. On the one hand, there are good arguments for it being a bad pick as it doesn’t scale well in the late game. On the other hand, the weapon’s bonuses are very underrated and can be extremely beneficial. All of the Archeological weapons are very powerful and have unique traits in them, and buffing them +33% is powerful. Pretty underrated perk.
Galactic Contender
Effects: +20% Diplomatic weight, +33% to awakened, and fallen empires, as well as +33% damage to The Gate-builders.
Although it’s somewhat situational, we really love these perks just for the diplomatic weight alone. If you’re going for the Galactic Custodian and want to have all the political power, the Galactic Contender is a great choice in this build. Of course, it will help you defeat Awakened and Fallen empires as well, which is situational, but +33% is very good.
Master Builders
Effects: +50% to Megastructure build speed and +1 to build capacity.
There is not much to say about this perk. If you want to build a lot of megastructures, this is the way to do it. Keep in mind that +50% is a lot and generally if you want to build something like a Quantum Catapult as soon as possible, this can be a game changer. We had one game where we were building the quantum catapult and it was done just in time to launch us to where the Unbidden were spawning. This made the game 10 times easier since the endgame crisis didn’t have time to spread. All thanks to that +50% build speed.
World Shaper
Effects: Ability to terraform Planets into Gaia worlds.
Simply put, Gaia Worlds are just super powerful. They have the “Ideal Habitability” modifier, which means no matter what other traits the species have, they will have 100% Habitability on the Gaia planet. Moreover, it provides +10% Happiness, +10 Resources from Jobs, and +50% Automatic resettlement destination chance, as well as other positive planet modifiers that you happen to get. Overall, an excellent choice and much more reliable than something like Consecrated Worlds and Hydrocentric.
The Flesh is Weak
Effects: Starts the Cybernetics Path.
To unlock this perk, you must complete the Integrated Cybernetics technology. The starting cybernetic bonuses your population gets are 20% habitability, and +40 years leader lifespan, which is not that impressive. That said, once you turn your population into Cyborgs, you will get around +15% of bonus output from them. All in all, it’s kind of a lite version of going full robot mode with Synthetic Evolution. The main differences are that you get The Flesh Is Weak much earlier and can help you overwhelm other empires sooner rather than later.
*This is the Cybernetic Ascension Path, you will not be able to go to different paths after picking this perk.
Mechromancy
Effects: +15% L slot weapon damage, +15% XL slot weapon damage, +15% T slot weapon damage, defeated organic Guardians (space monsters) can be resurrected, and 33% chance to resurrect each purged pop as Cyborg Zombie.
As you can see, this ascension perk gives you a few things. The ability to resurrect giant space monsters to fight alongside your fleet is super cool, and the Cyborg Zombie mechanic is good if you are going on a massive purge war. Finally, the weapon damage is very, very good, since those types of weapons already do a ton of damage, and boosting them +15% more is not underwhelming at all.
B Tier
Galactic Force Projection
Effects: +1 Commander capacity, +2 Max influence from power projection, +50 Fleet command limit, +100 Naval capacity.
Adding +100 naval capacity, and a +50 fleet command limit can be useful but ultimately it’s an underwhelming and quick, fixed gain that will later hog one ascension perk slot. But, the Max influence from Power Projection is also useful into the late-game, so this Ascension Perk is very good now.
Imperial Prerogative
Effect: −50% Empire size from Colonies
Essentially, an extremely powerful ascension perk if you have a lot of planets. Since Colonies give you +10 Empire Size, having 15 Planets means that Imperial Prerogative will lower your Empire Size by 75, which is a lot. Remember, all Planets count as Colonies, as well as Habitats. Again, powerful if you have a lot of planets, but weak if you don’t.
Nihilistic Acquisition
Effects: Unlocks the Raiding bombardment stance.
Even though it is situational, we really like the idea. This can yield pops by bombarding enemy planets and abducting enemy pops while doing so. As you devastate the planet more and more, you can accumulate a lot of pops in the process and send them to your planet. It’s pretty quirky, but pops are the backbone of a strong empire and Nihilistic Acquisition provides that.
Engineered Evolution
Effects: Starts the Biological Path.
One of the coolest paths in our opinion. It lets you assemble clones, tailor traits to your liking, and generally play around with different species and attribute bonuses. It excels in pop assembly and with this path, you will probably be the most populated empire in the galaxy. One of the popular builds is to get the Overtuned origin and combine the traits you get from there with Engineered Evolution.
*This is the Biological Ascension Path, you will not be able to go to different paths after picking this perk.
Voidborn
Effects: +20% habitat habitability and +2 habitat building slots
If you lack worlds and find yourself building a lot of habitats, Voidborn can be a good choice, especially combined with Voidborn origin. Habitats can provide extremely high outputs of research by combining the origin and this ascension perk.
Mastery Of Nature
Effects: −33% Clear Blocker cost + unlocks Mastery of Nature Decision (+2 Max District, +50% Max Resource District)
This one is situational. If you find yourself clearing a lot of blockers on worlds, like if you have a Shattered Ring Origin, this is good. Moreover, if you are playing a tall build, and want to make gigantic planets, for example, if you have Ocean Paradise Origin, the Mastery of Nature decision will give you a very considerable amount of new districts so you can keep your focus only on a few planets.
Lord Of War
Effects: +1 Mercenary enclave Capacity, +25% Diplomatic weight from fleet power, −2.5 Months dividend wait time if patron of a mercenary enclave.
This perk is situational. Having diplomatic weight can make or break some games cause of the federation’s powers and voting. The best thing it gives you is +25% diplomatic weight from fleet power. You will be able to build a large fleet with the Mercenary mechanic, and the ship upkeep will cost Energy Credits instead of Alloy, which is much better. But the Mercenary thing doesn’t alone justify picking Lord of War, but combined with the need for extra diplomatic power, this may be a good choice, otherwise, we suggest you skip it.
C Tier
Consecrated Worlds
Effects: Unlock the Consecrate World decision. Basically, make a “Holy World”.
Briefly said Consecrated World is just not worth it. It basically gives you more Unity production and some government Ethics, but in no meaningful way something game-changing. And with the current list of ascension perks, there isn’t really a place for something this non-impactful to be picked.
Hydrocentric
Effects: Ability to terraform Planets into Ocean worlds.
Similar story to the Consecrated Worlds perk, Hydrocentric is just not good enough to be picked as an ascension perk. There are benefits to Ocean Worlds, but other worlds have bad habitability and the trade-off with wasting a perk is just not good enough. Do note that you can have a Gaia world and keep 100% habitability despite having Hydrocentric. Nevertheless, it’s just not good enough resources-wise.
Grasp Of The Void
Effects: +5 Starbase Capacity and +50% Chance to discover FTL technologies.
Expanding your starbase capacity can be good when you have a lot of choke points that need to be covered. Usually, this comes in handy when you are conquering an empire and find yourself having a lot of weak spots in your empire. Also, more starbases mean faster rebuilding and repairing which is crucial when waging long and exhausting wars.
Executive Vigor
Effects: +100 Edicts Fund.
You can’t go wrong with picking Executive Vigor since the +100 Edict fund is a powerful boost in the early game. Although it can fall off and perhaps be underwhelming in the later stages, the Edict fund that you get in an instant can give you the option to have 2 to 3 edicts constantly active.
Interstellar Dominion
Effects: -20% Starbase influence and -20% claim influence cost.
The main problem with this ascension perk is that the -20% number is just not enough, and there are a lot of other most likely much more impactful ascenion perks to choose from. The idea is nice, and there are a lot of scenarios where the influence cost claim reduction is very beneficial, but the numbers are just not good enough.
D Tier
Transcendent Learning
Effects: +25% Leader Experience Gain, +2 Scientist Capacity.
Unless you are going with some crazy “Leader” build, this one is simply not that impactful. +2 Scientist Capacity and 25% experience gain are always fine, but there are usually much better choices. It can be fun if you want to role-play having 200-year-old Necroid leaders perhaps, but it doesn’t impact the game that much, even with all the leader changes. Stacking everything up into leaders doesn’t really make that exponentially more powerful like some other mechanics in the game.
Eternal Vigilance
Effects: +1 Commander capacity, +25% Starbase Hull point, +25% Starbase damage, +25% Defense platform damage, +5 Defense platform cap
At the current state of the game, spending extra precious resources to upgrade your starbase defenses generally isn’t an optimal playstyle. Furthermore, it’s very boring and unless you have a huge defense chokepoint, there isn’t any reason to heavily rely on starbase defenses and by extension, this perk is pretty useless.
Shared Destiny
Effects: +2 Available envoys, +1 Subjects exempt from Divided Patronage.
Usually, a must-pick if you’re playing as an Overlord. +2 envoys will boost your relationships throughout the game and having no loyalty loss from subjects is key for keeping your subjects glued to you. But, it got nerfed really hard from “no loyalty loss from subjects” to “+1 Subject Exempt from Divided Patronage”, which basically means that you will start losing more Loyalty after the second subject, instead of the first, it’s really not that good or impactful and a far cry from pre-nerfed Shared Destiny.
Enigmatic Engineering
Effects: +2 Cloaking strength, +2 Encryption, destroyed ships don’t leave debris, Enemy Steal Technology operations fail.
Unfortunately, everything that has to do with Encryption is very underpowered in Stellaris. +2 Encryption doesn’t do much and the perk that your ships don’t leave space debris isn’t something that will help you. This may be okay in multiplayer, but it’s extremely situational and most of the time useless.
Detox
Effects: Can terraform worlds with the Toxic Terraforming Candidate modifier.
You have a chance to transform a toxic world into a “usable” one. You can usually find worlds in Stellaris by exploring or conquering them and just having a chance to turn one toxic world into a non-toxic one seems more like a technology rather than an ascension perk. Pretty underwhelming and a big vast of an ascension perk slot making it one of the worst perks in our Stellaris ascension perks tier list.
Xeno-Compatability
Effects: Lag…
Interesting in theory, laggy in practice. The majority of Stellaris players disable xeno-compatibility before the game because of the mid-late game lag. It’s a shame since xeno-compatability has some crazy ways of playing. Basically, you get to play around with dozens of species and cross-breed them. While it’s not the most powerful thing, we do appreciate the creativity and options you get from this perk. The main reason it’s not higher in our Stellaris ascension perks tier list is that more species equals more lag, and the whole experience is ruined by the lag.
Conclusion
It’s important to take this list with a grain of salt. Every Stellaris player has different playstyles and ideas of fun. Furthermore, it’s important for an empire to have a “rich roleplay” story and play by that logic. The best Stellaris games are when you create empires for fun and love, not for maximizing specific outputs, tech, or something else. Do keep in mind that it’s really hard to know what synergies exist because there are so many origins, traits, civics, traditions, and perks. This Stellaris ascension perks tier list isn’t overarching for every build and situation so there are a lot of times when something considered “bad” can be useful. Nevertheless, we hope we gave you an idea of where Stellaris’ perks stand in the current state of the game.
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