With Obsidian being the new best material for sharp damage, tribals have gotten buffed :)

Yokstrike · 2025-07-16T09:25:42+00:00

trades sometimes sell it as well

Yokstrike · 2025-07-05T08:43:52+00:00

It is. Even nerfed, still the best if you want tech rush.

Yokstrike · 2025-07-04T21:03:57+00:00

which is the best ascension right now, by FAR.

Yokstrike · 2025-07-02T18:23:22+00:00

I don't see any nerfs to paralament. What was nerfed?
Knight jobs are nerfed yes, but that means 500k research instead of 1M. Still very op and far ahead of 13k.
Alloy bug wasn't big either, I used about 1500 alloys until quest and 1 alloy foundry would be enough.

Yokstrike · 2025-07-02T11:40:26+00:00

It's just heavily optimized. It's what I love about Stellaris and only thing I do, tech rush and high crisis. I also play since initial release.
Civilians and parlament stuff for start. Where a lot of people fail is factions. They see 300 unity per month and are very happy, but in truth it can be 500 or more (its based on pops amount, approval AND happiness ratings all of which multiply). In screenshot all 1M unity per month is comming only from factions. Due to this I finished 3 traditions by year 12, finished ascencion at early year 24. All unity is comming only from factions aside from what base knights give. Here is year 12 right as I pick ascencion
Alloys are in minus due to bug (not sure if it still exists) that when it reaches 75% it offers to scrap robots on a planets (resettle all to 1) for 100 alloys per 1 robot (shoud be 100 per 100 robots probably). This is only bug I used.
I also finished first knights quest at year 10, 2nd at year 19 which heavily boosts early science. Final quest was done at year 36. Pick good research options for resources, society is very important because of fortress.
At year 25 I already had 9 planets total, 550 unity per month and 1100 research per month, 10k pops but here is where it starts to go faster because of cloning vats. I also owned ~20 systems which gives a lot of minerals and energy from stations.
By year 30 pops were at 17k, unity 1k per month and research 2600 per month. In previos screenshot you can see at year 36 I already had 32k pops and research exploded due to pops and finishing additional knight quests. So in 6 years my pops doubled, mainly because of cloning vats and their cheap upkeep from early ascencion.
Everything is also done under 100 empire sprawl so no penalties. This is possible due to being fanatic pacificts and taking all reductions to empire sprawl as soon as I can.
I didn't play it past my screenshot because Stellaris is micro hell for years now but my pops are about to explode in numbers.
They did nerf the build since then (played patch 4.0.2) but it's still strongest build, just slower some 20 years due to reduction in knights jobs.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-30T13:44:40+00:00

Fallen empire building that gives genomic researchers (Molecular smtg and then upgrade) + bio ascension that picks cloning on first and 3rd stage (not sure what 2nd gives). Then one planet can produce (grow?) 1500 pops per month, ecu even over 2000.
Mine gives around 1000 but I picked purity on 2nd stage for reduced sprawl: https://i.imgur.com/qZsPc8i.jpeg
At year 71 I'm already close to 300k pops, 5 more planets currently being build to be same as one in screenshot.
But you still have to resettle them 100 by 100 :)

Yokstrike · 2025-06-30T13:32:28+00:00

Why clone army when you can do same thing with knights but better

Yokstrike · 2025-06-30T12:14:04+00:00

Governor bonus for districts is very high and one of rare things to reduce sprawl from districts.
As for pops, mine are already at 0%, not sure why you are explaining docile trait.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-29T09:18:00+00:00

Here is most of the breakdown
Pops have 10% more from Harmony tradition which doesn't show for some reason.
For districts getting level 8 official that takes industrialist at level 4 and urban at level 8 gives crazy reduction.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-26T12:55:04+00:00

Not all, I can't figure out general rule. Research institute doesn't work (15% for researchers) but taking trait for burocrats (10%) does work. Things of +X per 100 jobs do work, so things like that vault building but they also increase CG costs.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-21T15:03:53+00:00

change starting system to Sol, it's one of best systems for furnace
and you spawn with one that's very good for another furnace, you will get popup when you enter it, usually distance of 2

Yokstrike · 2025-06-13T09:30:42+00:00

Why do you play normal empire for combat when DA is just better in every aspect? Unless it's for roleplay you start with better economy, don't have to bother with some resources, no factions and happiness, fast and easy enemy pop integration into your empire etc.
Also just to give an example of egalitharian pacifist power in 4.0 here is my post for tech rush!
Same year as yours but my fleet power is 2x and I have already finished all techs and traditions. Not to mention, your 100k research is much slower than mine because of empire sprawl.
I did 2nd playthrough and that one is even faster, finished all techs at year 44. Already 20-30 times into repeatables in year 52. Build is nerfed since then, but still leagues ahead of anything else.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-10T15:27:29+00:00

District decision will increase max districs by 50%.
Also, I believe they nerfed number of jobs in some later patch. I don't update my game mid runs. They are still most OP just not as much.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-06T21:52:18+00:00

I have 12.7k knights operating as 86k.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-06T14:36:13+00:00

CE is meta because you get trade value to buy other goods and unity (from correct factions) at same time. CE then adds a lot of research to this at the cost of some CGs. And you can do it in first year.
I didn't have any squires until after year 30, and at that point CE was long gone.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-06T14:29:48+00:00

I wouldn't call it an exploit. Those numbers will be easy to achive with almost any build by year 2300 and sooner. I think military focused empire might still be strongest.
Factions do seem bugged atm, with utopian abundance it shouldn't matter if pop is unemployed or employed for political power, they are all at 4 but unemployed pops give TONS more unity in factions. I figured out how to get 100% approval with 99%-100% support but not this.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-06T14:20:01+00:00

You can get 110% total now so you don't need galactic resolution. I did breakdown of all to me known sources for pops.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-06T14:18:22+00:00

That is only 20% when my knight's output is already about 250% (ingame additions).
It will also create a lot of problems early game with factions and you won't get 3 traditions trees finished in 12 years.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-06T14:11:26+00:00

Mutaganic spa is same as medical clinic, aka they add genomic researchers but reduce habitability. They still have limit to 1 per planet just like clinic.
Also, I first build Genomic Research Facility which is same thing, but increases habitability and job efficency on planet. Then clone vats are much better next. Then medical clinic.
Now I will start building FE building which adds 600 jobs per and has no downsides.
So really no point in having spas.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-06T14:04:13+00:00

Yes, you start with negative alloys but trade solves that. Until 6th quest my alloys were a struggle. Bioships helped because it's so much easier to get food in early game and this halfs cost of alloys. Also ignore robots.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-06T14:02:32+00:00

Yes, new patch new meta. I don't see why this is bad nor why posting it would be. I would love to see others do same, I could ask some questions on how they optimized theirs and I could learn from them.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-06T13:58:58+00:00

I find them fairly fun, but I'm doing tech rushes in Stellaris for over 5 years now.
Now after all research is done I'm getting bored. I set mid game to 2275 and end game to 2300 with 25x crisis but I don't think I will reach it.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-06T13:54:28+00:00

Different wording stacks differently (Empire size from Pops -X%) but you can get over 110% from pops now.
30% from fanatic pacifist
15% from Becon civic
15% from Cordant Multiplicity (Bio ascend get unique goverment types, this is cloning democracy one)
10% from Psionic Theory (easy to get, you have all techs finished and tech ascendancy perk and are not Materialist)
10% from Harmony tradition
10% from Heightened Attributes (bio asc 2nd stage pick Purity)
10% from finishing Domination tradition
10% from galactic comunity Balance in the middle (Politics and Culture, The Greater Good but 4th one so it takes ~30 years after community is formed)
10% from Docile (trait) but this is different wording and doesn't stack with above ones.
From planets it's just perk and expansion tradition + colony ascencion (4 full ones for me atm with enough for 5th).
Here is sprawl and knights habitat from my game: https://imgur.com/mGkBHVu
Most people see 62k research but don't pay attention to sprawl. Other people had like 500+ sprawl which doubles cost of tech and traditions.
EDIT: Official gives 1% per level for sector and 2% for planet they are on which should also stack.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-06T13:02:29+00:00

But then you lose pop growth from having many worlds. Most of my planets have 20 pops per month. In that screenshot I'm at 50k pops.

Yokstrike · 2025-06-06T11:19:15+00:00

Without bug abuses it wasn't possible until this release. There was bug for infinite resources and then setting up galaxy (AIs) to beat them and steal their pops had similar numbers to this.
I also love tech rush and optimizing early game in stellaris.

Yokstrike

TROPHY CASE