Psionic Ascension Rush - Stellaris Meta Builds 

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This Origin is such a fun little snowball start. "How much Unity would you like sir?" "Yes"

The Shroud side of the Ascension paths is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.

Spiritualist Empires being meta, what a time to be alive.

The free AP and the Unity gain make this perfect for Crisis rushing. Not to mention, the focus towards Unity and away from maximizing Tech means you're less incentivized to go for Galactic Emperor due to Tech holding more DW than any other resource.

Making psionic theory available to research at any time is such a huge benefit. Just making a unity rush empire would be so fun just rush for The Shroud Roulette and see if you can bring the end times before midgame. Crisis? I was just curious!

Fun note: The Shroud Teacher decision also causes Psi Theory to become enabled for materialists, and stacks with Maniacal for roll chance. Meaning so long as you find the Walkers and have one Maniacal scientist, Psi Theory has the same roll chance as most t2 techs. Or as likely as a t1 tech if you have at least Spiritualist. So with some good luck or diplomacy, you can get it year 30 with most any start now.

At the very start of the game make sure to turn on and then off crystalline sensors edict to make your search for habitables easier.

Gotta love Psionics, one of my upcoming playthroughs is definiltely going to be some mixture of authoritarian and spiritualists. Hail the god-emperor!

Was expecting the 'teachers of the shroud' to have some more story elements to it

Holy Rome shall bring Enlightenment the galaxy, Papal Authority across every star! In all seriousness tho thanks for this! Been wanting to make my psionic build competitive for a while.

thank you Montu this is what I needed

They finally managed to make spiritualists and psionic ascension fun with all the unity changes and this origin. I really really love it, I was always drawn to spiritualist ethic but it was so underpowered for such a long time compared to materialist tech rush. I like the balance of it :) the changes to edict upkeep etc were also all very well implemented. They make going tall and trying to min max even more fun now. Love it. Love your vids aswell, you are giving us pretty good ideas on builds :)

I usually just pick the Psy path whenever I get tired of the Synth path. It's better than bio in that it has little to no micromanagement involved.

From a narrative perspective I’m quite disappointed that hive minds can’t be psionic

Only Montu would use the aquatic perk on the lion portrait, hydrokitty psychics ftw.

Thank you for the video. Looking forward to trying psionic ascension on my next run.

I am just starting to play this game and I have so much to learn. Going to play an overpowered origin and try this method so I can learn the basics of conquest and vassals. Have to watch the next vid as well to learn how to min max my planets better. Ty for the tips Montu.

Man I love your intros. Unique (at least to me lol) and fun!

I started with clone army origin and managed to have an archeology site to gain psionic on my clones. So I have ascendant psionic clone admirals and they have some fat buffs.

I think with the changes of a Shroud Enclave Psionic Ascension is good in the mid game and end game as well. Also, the Psionic Shields are great for snowballing later with the research loop: The amount of shields getting by researching the tech is based on the base of the shield and for that reason Psionic Shields are fantastic. Against any players theres a good chance to get great tactical opportunities with the Psi-Jumpdrives because these have a higher range. It's just sad that Biological Ascension is that bad.

Always nice to see the top bars with your videos.....trying to see if I'm keeping up with you in the video etc. :)

Montuwu! SO AMAZING!

Montu works so hard for us!

This game is so confusing to me but I love the genre. You help me understand better thank you! Nice video! Looking forward to being Psionic!

Thanks Montu very useful. One remark I have, trick with ships doesn't work in 3.5 anymore, but build works fine at least against bots.

I see the opening scene and I already pressed the like button xD

Would be great to see how you would build up different planets after the first 1-2 districts and buildings, especially in the lul where you don't get outstanding energy/mineral planets and still don't have the tech for economy boosting buildings.

This looks cool!

It might take a little more time but the clone origin with psionic ascension is also pretty neat. Basically the best admirals in the game.

Hopefully they'll buff dedicated origins for other ascension paths as well. I mean Machinists and Syncretic Evolution here. Starting with cyborgs is cool, thx PDX for making it a viable demand for balancing purpose with free ascension slot here;)

I'm glad you embraced Montuwu

Your movie editing is genius.

If you have a friend with the dragon start he can send it to you and let you kill it and thus gaining yourself the dragon scale T-VI armor that goes VERY nicely with the T2 psi shields

Aquatic cats. Your min maxing sometimes hurts the eye lol

I think this is also a good blueptrint to follow if, say, you wanted to Become The Crisis.

I am going to give this build a run for my first Overlord playthrough

I can see this would be amazing for tech rushes +15% if you pick up intelligent

Tried this Origin last night. Not gonna lie it’s super fun! Tweeted a few things from your build. Picked inward perfection and just went crazy with unity structures. I can run ALL unity costing edicts easily. With just 1 planet I’m getting over 200 tradition a month. My planet has 💯 happiness and stability. Never had a more satisfying empire… does have its downside my fleet is pretty weak but I’m quickly upgrading. Unity freaking rocks!

Just gave it a go and managed to get ascension in 2042, but only because my unity production didn't go up after I got attacked and had to shift minerals from temple construction to alloys. If I didn't spawn next to a fanatical purifier, I probably would have got there by 2030.

oh yeah, cannot wait to try exalted priesthood with this origin!

And here I am still over the moon, loving Gestalt Consciousness empires and thinking they're the best thing since breathing. XD Fine. I'll be sure to give this loadout a try once I get the newer DLC.

Just got this game. This game is deep!

Wait this origin just helps you get one ascension perk more than any other? Holy shit that itself is extremely powerful!

Wouldn't a budding plantoid/fungoid species pair better than rapid breeders (since you probably won't be constructing robots, and you won't be cloning either)?

FINALLY omg i love psionic i've downloaded a mod so i can get zroni precursor but i've never liked mod, this way its just in the game and i don't have to worry. i like to be a bit more pacifist then it seems like this build is meant for but the origin is unchanged so i'm gonna have so much fun with it.

An alternative variant to this would replace 'craftsman with Exalted Priesthood (and stack temples). Exalted will give you tech. If you disable initiates, that's extra pops to do labor. The Unity Rush from this is very fast. I use it to Become Crisis. If you really wanna crush this build, use the mod that let's you choose, at 100%, what Shroud boon you receive. Don't build a conventional navy at all in Early to MID Game, but gather Psionic Avatars while spamming defensive. Bum rush low tech neighbors, enslave, and then purge the pops to fuel Menace. THEN, at Crisis Level 3 or 4 push HARD to get the last Menace level(s) for Star Eaters. This Build is not as tech sensitive when using this mod and it frees you from excessive alloy demands.

another trick you can do is activate crystalline sensors for 1 day to reveal more of the map since you start with 25 cristals

Just got OL Gonna try this ought......gg

not to mention, in 3.6 there is no transcendence perk anymore, it is a tradition tree instead, so in essence, before this origin, you had 6 perks available to you (2 where locked) with this origin you had a a "fake" ninth perk, and with the tree now you have 10 "perks" and due to the new shroud mechanics you can decide on your own (no more rng bs hoping to land a pact with a specific entity) which one you want, (except end of the cycle)

Wonderful

This build is mental.

dang, that origin is crazy good

Combine that with Subterfuge and you can have something like the Second Foundation

Finally, violet is color of the season!

I think part of what needs to be mentioned here is that you can, from very early in the game, establish a Shroud Tunnel, which adds an additional expansion and exploration path to your empire. This is hugely useful. For one, it means that you're never stuck in Thunderdome.

"Why would you take this over prosperous unification?" Because prosperous unification is the most boring origin in the game and only good for hiveminds which were banned from most fun origins back in the day? XD

Great content! Just curious as to what 3rd civic would complement this build?

Making Psionic Theory great again.

I like how you called them Bene Gesserit.

Bene Gesserit officially Stellaris canon.

Couple years ago i managed to get transcendance by year 25 with prosp unification origin

I think this origin would be great with merchant guilds instead of focusing on masterful crafters. The extra building slot is great, but merchants are still overpowered and the tradeoff is worth it. I have never struggled to have 3 ascension slots fully unlocked by 2222. Then I typically switch it back to consumer goods to balance out my issues and my economy typically skyrockets from all the extra energy. To balance out the lack of consumer goods, in the beginning, I build an extra two industrial districts on the home system instead of the extra energy districts (because of merchants) and go civilian economy to keep consumer goods from increasing in price

I always played shroud, even if it was the worst one. I just loved the flavor!

This will be great for rushing max evasion psi destroyers lol

Wait, if we take the Teachers of the Shroud origin we don't need to get the Mind over Matter Ascension Perk!?

anyone else think a series set in the stellaris universe would be dope? animated or not i think theres definitely a market for it, and where most of the terms are generic it would hit the broader audience who doesnt play stellaris as a space series

With the changes to covenants, have people figured out what ethics/civics give the best chance to get the Desires covenant? Since that is the best one by quite a long shot. downsides are basically non existant while the upsides are 10% more job production.

Montu, I have a theory that you are in fact the documentary maker Louis Theroux. Voice and inflection are pretty much the same. Can you confirm or deny?

I found something which i think is a bit of an exploit. You give an about equal empire a titanic amount of subsides and all freedoms you can to make them your vessel, but don't prohibit absorbing them. 20 years later: you double your space without that many costs. (I did it with a comparable empire that had terrible tech by giving them +45% tech)

All hail overlord sempai MontuWu

Even with this build I am even in 2250 and don’t have that many destroyers. My fleet is 8k in total. Don’t know what went wrong so far. But again a great video

Let’s just say I didn’t do too well in MP lately. Took this build and yeeted the galaxy.

Montuwu isnt real he cant hurt you Montuwu:

I got transcendence in late 2214 on my run through. I didn't entirely maximize my unity production on a lot of stuff since I was playing a bit slow and taking things later than I should have. So I'm fairly confident you can get transcendence earlier then that if you play a bit more optimized. I don't think prior to 2210 is possible but I'd have to do some testing to see how early it can be rushed down if you beeline it. You're basically given everything you need for it right away all you really need is the traditions completed but you'll finish 2 pretty much instantly in the first few years.

@Montu Plays You should try subterranean lithoids, currently they don't get the additional popgrowth reduction from cavedweller! (only the lithoid one)

With Spiritualists finally having a psionic head start origin, do you think Mechanist could do with a buff in some way? What if they got 2 extra robot pops and an extra rural district at the start of the game? Would put it closer to Prosperous Unification like that.

Here comes a StarCraft playthrough. Made Zerg and Terran as well should be fun

Well... I need to do some tests. Since Remnants is also a free AP slot to have Ecu... If you want to rush Ecu AND Psi ascension... I'm not sure which one is the better. Yes, with Teachers of the Shroud you can ascend more rapidly but it postpone the arrival of the Ecu by some years since restoring is not the same as building from scratch...

I don’t know, it’s nice you get mind over matter for free. That alone makes it a great origin. But teachers of shroud....I’m not happy with them, got no idea what developers were smoking when they were writing their quests. -So you build that tunnel. Every time a leader goes through the tunnel he is changed into some horrid monster, usable still, but ...bleeeergh -you have to pay them with gold and influence for some weird quests that don’t really benefit you in anyway. They are just weird. Although some might hurt you a bit. I played around with those teachers a bit . The results are: -changed several scientists and admirals into some weird looking species -Lost a planet it turned into a blackhole (yeah that was weird) -When the scourge came to the galaxy, teachers were like: “we taught you all we could, time to ascend to another plane, good luck!” Honestly I felt like I was duped like when you order a festival from artisan troop, but instead they make a mess, take your Money and run away I don’t know, maybe I missed something, I hope to read some guide before playing again ( I do love psi path-best shields, and drive early on) But I don’t want to go blind about those quests.

Mont-uwu. I never thought I love something so much... Until now.

I mean, if you're willing to sacrifice your precursor relic you can explore and only scan habitable worlds, forcing the Zro dudes to spawn. Unless I'm missing something.

I haven't been able to play yet. Steam didn't let me buy it until noon USCST. Unfortunately, I work nights and had to go to bed at that time.

I wanted to try a certain build to see if it would work instead I broke the game. They should really either allow fanatic purifiers to be able to talk to the shroud watchers or cut them off from the origin because currently they can’t use the origin at all basically because they’re fanatic purifiers your not allowed to talk to them or get any of the benefits of the origin.

For traditions I had often gone for expansion first because of the free first new pop, influence cost reduction, and the pop growth addition. Is it not really that good anymore?

Rush Unity is the best strats

the 2 ascension perks won’t show up for me mind over matter and the other one (i’m new to stelarris) i have almost no clue what i’m doing i need help

cant figure it out, why does your start have an extra trait point? I start with 2 not 3 so I can't pick the same traits you have.

MONTUWU CONFIRMED 2022

It's nice and all. For Multiplayer-pvp that is. Unless you can garantie in some way that you won't get attacked before 2230 this is a risky play. If you are like me and like to play max advanced agressive Grand Admiral AI in singleplayer this path will get you killed more often than not.

Ah yes! The time has come for a devouring psy gelly fish swarm to eat the galaxy!

As of 2023, aquatics now cost 2 points instead of 1. If you want to do this build, you may have to take the non-adaptive trait, that is one of the only other traits to get you two points back to get the intelligent trait. One of the natural science traits may be a good substitute as well if you wish to keep deviants.

With Aquatic cost now at 2 points, what is recommended trair combo now? Starting a game now where I dropped Rapid Breeders' 2 points and picked up Natural Engineers instead. Comments?

Intro made me laugh 😂

palpy in the intro!

New Montu Mic. Nice

Did you intentionally try to sound more chill in this video? You are still talking the same way, but you sound super chill! it works well for you

Do you think issues from empire size should scale depending on the size of galaxy you play on?

I stop playing a bit later after Federations came out. I kind of want to go back into it by now. Quick question; I remember that if you were to go for Expansion or Discovery traditions, unless it was your first choice, a lot would be wasted by the time you get all of it as a 2nd or 3rd trad. Is it still something to think of?

How does this Supremacy style build compare to the same thing with Unyielding?