Stellaris - Relic Tier List (3.6 Edition) 

Alright folks, tell me which your favourite Relic is and where it should fit on this list.

Don't forget that the Last Baol also can be used on a world that is already gaia to grant up to 10 pops a unique gaia habitability that grants an extra 5% output on them. That's in addition to the 10% bonus from the gaia world itself.

The Crisis Relics are amazing when you do all 3 crisis. Getting the contingency as the first crisis is absolutely superb. EDIT: I wish I could set the order of the crisis and their strength.

The rubricator can also be used to make a max level art installation!

Maw of the toxic entity gives you a planetary decision when you play the knights of the toxic gods origin.

The crisis relics improve if you have all three crises turned on. You can get the relics from the first 2 and use it to help you deal with the third crisis

I think the crisis relics matter quite a bit if you go for triple crises. There may come a point when you'll need those bonuses to overcome the next one

if you're playing as the knights (which is the only way you'll probably ever get your hands on the maw relic), doesn't it also let you consecrate habitats? Gives you more knight jobs, which are the strongest part of the origin. Still not a great relic, but an important detail to miss

Something you forgot to mention with The Surveyor is that, with each use, it has a 50% chance to give a second resource deposit 1-3 years after activation, and if that happens there's a 20% chance of getting a 3rd deposit 3-5 years after activation.

Really hoping aspec or montu go over how to push psionics without teacher of the shroud. I really like psionic, but being locked out of other flavor origins makes me sad :(

The crisis relics do have a bit of use if you pick the "all crisis scenarios" option.

i have unironically used nlade of the huntress to steam roll wars. that 20% sublight speed is nuts when you have hyperlane travel cooldown to boot. especially with fascinating flagella and the shanty boost. +40% subflight speed is SCARY

My three favorite relics are the Rubicator, The Blade of the Huntress and the Cybrex Warforge. I wish we could use relics simultaneously.

With the name "the Radiance" makes me think of a Psionic Beacon. In Horus Heresy, the Pharos Beacon would serve as rapid communication (and possibly transportation) between the 500 Worlds but its explosion possibly attracted the Tyranids attention. It'd be interesting to have an archaeological site decision that gives you a greater bonus output and maybe hyperspace charging speed or the ability to place two connected wormholes (one on "Pharos", the other on a planet of your choice) but causes the Praethoryn to spawn much earlier

@Aspec the relic of the toxic god relic has some kind of scaling in it i think. i jsut got it today for the very first time (completly vanilla game) and it gives me like 9.100 exotic gas per activation wich in my opinion is CRAAAAAZY honestly EDIT: i cant say what it scales of but as refrence i jsut looked up some points. its year 2356 , i got 1639 pops and 1974 empire size and 13k tech per month. i also thought if it jsut doubles your current gas-stock cos im roughly at 10k gas in the bank

Surveyor is insane. The way the resources stack every 5 years on your planets on a tall playthrough its practically game breakingly powerful.

24:35 I love how you said the line "Maximum Production of Everything!" It was beautiful.

You mentioned that the zeroni are rare, can you make a video explaining how the precursors are determined and why some are more rare than the others? I know it used to be tied to certain spots on the map but idk if that’s still true.

@30:22 I've noticed having a Maniacal researcher also ups the chance for certain rare tech, like psychic for tech empires and I found some rare things in the other two groups as well. Making more into maniacal is fantastic!

The 2nd and 3rd option for bonuses which you can choose for when you activate Psionic Archive is really strong (stability, happiness, SHIP DAMAGE, etc) as well as the passive ruler level cap increase (large increase) compliments your likely having an immortal ruler due to the shroud cooldown reduction. And you can get it super early consistently. I'd strongly argue it shouldn't be in C tier compared to the others on that tier. Head of Zarqlan on D tier is kinda harsh. Although I tend to usually get this at a point it doesn't matter a friend of mine, in one of our games, managed to get it super super early and that an argueably temporary reduction in happiness due to spiritualist ethics attraction doesn't matter if it allows you to conquer/vassalize your neighbors and snowball the game.

I got the head of zarqlan when i was playing machine intelligence. That immediately nullified the spiritual ethics attraction thing, plus all the holy worlds were in my borders because i was directly next to that specific fallen empire. So i like it quite a lot

I would place the Omni Codex in the low A, high B tier. As it allows you to make your species that much better when genemodding, something that you should do regardless of ascension. If only to give your biological pops just a slightly better trait, while the other pops are synths.

Finally we reach a point where Stellaris makes fun without mods. I remember playing years ago with ,,Slower than light" and ,,System Scale" in a 10.000 star galaxy without any other civilization to simulate a realistic expansion of humanity. But now, with all the politics, feudalism, megacorps and all these new origins and relics, it has become a really interesting game even if you play it like a normal person.

Hey ASpec, Would you try the complete overhaul of new acot? You showed other mods in the past before and made or made not recommendations... Greetings rabbitbear

"it kills the most important thing on the planet; the pops. Yeah, you kinda want those" Oh... I think I've been playing the game wrong...

Great work! Long live the algorithm

Psionic archive is kinda straight up better than khan's throne for psionically ascended empires. It buffs the shroud in every way, and one of the options for its active is +20% damage modifier. Sure it's only 5 years not 10, but in an emergency just as good. Now add the damage, fire rate and sublight speed that you get from the shroud (they can also overlap now) and it's not even close. And you have other choices for active effect. And you get it much earlier. Getting the zroni is a reason to go psionic on itself (as if it wasn't good already). I'd say psionic archive's an S tier

ah yes just when i needed my video showing me what every relic does thank you aspec!

I remember doing the caravaneer slots for the first time not really knowing what it does since I really never really was interested in the mechanic and got the Galatron on my first time. Now it’s fun to gamble.

They actually reduced it to 500 energy from selling minor artifacts with a 180 day cooldown

Surveyor with Void Dwellers is SSSSS tier especially for research habitats and rare resources. Miniature galaxy is nice because it is a GUARANTEED spawn in every map, along with a size 26 relic world!

I love geting the Baol precursor. I like to play tall with no robots so Gaia worlds and free slave pops are so good to have

Personally I do find pretty good niche uses for 3 of these relics. Isolated Contingency Core in coordination with a Machine Empire is very fun, because mechanical pop assembly speed boosts mean you can just act like a virus and replicate speedily. Megastructure build speed boosts are also great, and with the update that allows for two of each megastructure, its pretty powerful in my opinion; you can get two mega shipyards and just pump out ships at a ridiculous rate. So I'd probably bump it up to C. I can see a use for the Javorian Pox Sample's pox bombardment stance if you're playing fanatic purifier or a non-assimilating hive or non rogue servitor/driven assimilator, though I'm unsure as I've never gotten the Pox (I mostly get the First League or the Vultaum, gotten the Zroni, Baol, and Cybrex once, and the Yuht twice). Omnicodex is useful for Necrophage empires; you get three pops without even having to fight people, plus when you use necrophage purge they just become part of your own population as your own species with your species' perks, so any drawbacks from traits is pretty much negated. It can also be useful for Rogue Servitors, Driven Assimilators or Hives with the assimilation perks, but I don't exactly see much use other than for slaving empires. Personally though my favourite relic is definitely the Surveyor. Completely justified as to where it is.

I've gotten the head of zarqlan only once, when I was playing a hive-mind (one of the genocidals but I don't remember which). I was stuck in a prolonged war with a large neighbour and the extra fleets (plural, we had so many conflicts I got to max flleet power just by summoning them to fight this neighbour) absolutely saved me. The fleet may be negligible on higher difficulties, but I was a noob playing on ensign, so the extra fleet power made a tremendous difference.

When I play Stellaris I narrate my game with Aspec's voice in my head

with the crystal, does it count ALL energy income? like can i set up a ton of temporary monthly trades to inflate the income so i get more? and does it count energy income from vassals?

I would love to mention not all pops can be in an empires borders. As a hive mind undesirable species lower planet stability and resource production. Having the pox bombardment stance is hella useful considering this.

Talking about Baol. My last game had strict starting options: due to late-game performance issues, I decided to make the lowest level of pop growth and the lowest capacity of habitable planets in the galaxy (like 0,25, or so). During the game I've found only one more continental world besides my capital. But also I managed to find many other planets which sadly were "red" to colonize them (mostly tomb worlds). Imagine my reaction when the first relic I found was Baol artifact in the pre mid-game time. It's insane.

I like the way you presented the tier list. Others always go f tier to s tier and it Gets boring in the beginning but you're way is more engaging.

It would be interesting if the Surveyor and The Radiance Relics both go hand n hand with their effects. Like the surveyor loses its ability to find chemical gasses and crystal deposits and The Radiance takes over that job but doesn't find trade energy or mineral deposits with their passive effects being tied to sensor range and subspace speed respectively

>Head of Zarqulan isn't that great because it appears too late in the game >Be me, pirate bird people who find it literally in the first two years of the game >Conquer and enslave everyone with our lunatic spiritualist bros who think we're holy or something >*insert seagull laugh*

Tall play with the new Habitats in 3.9 and Surveyor is amazing, force extra research labs to no end.

Activating the psionic archive is great, you can get a ruler level (Never use), OR, you can get +20% ship weapons' damage, OR, +5 stability, +25% ethics attraction, and -10 edict cost. This last one is great and if I get the Archive I use it game long for the stability, or weapons damage during the crisis.

Will radiance allow the building of crystaline fleets which has their own special variants on weapon? Sorry for being optimistic lol

I think you underrestimated the Zroni relic. The shroud cooldown reduction stacks with the cd reduction of the holy covenant federation. The relic allows you to massively increase the chance of getting a 16k fleet in the early game, and instant vassalize almost the entire galaxy. And it allows you to have up to 4 boons active at the same time. Combined with the active part you can have +50%shield +60%weapon damage, +20% fire rate, and +30%evasion. If I get the Zroni precursor I always change my entire playstyle and do everything to get it asap. Combined with the other new psionic benefits they are by far my strongest runs.

The Radiance will probably be the Crystal Fleet version of the Prythorian Brood Queen. You use it and it spawns a fleet of crystal entities at the cost of a bunch of minerals. Passives will probably be energy weapon damage buffs and possibly litho species benifits.

In my first game after getting Ancient relics story pack I got the war forge the Rubicator the Head of Zarqlan and the Omnicodex. I feel a little bit overpowered. Finished first by a large margin in the shortest time. Was I lucky or does Ancient relics just make Stellaris easy?

Idea for the radiance:Crystalline conversion Gives a planetary decision that spawn a crystalline blocker on one of your planets, that makes all miners there produce 0.1 rare crystals in place of a quarter of their minerals production. The rare crystal income will be buffed by conventional miner bonuses.

I think the radiance might be what Gestalts will get from the Zroni Pre-cursor. As they can't go Psionic?

There needs to be more relics connected to origins honestly

Great to have all the relics explained, disagree though on your opinion of all the end game crisis relics, they super good if you playing with all 3 crisis active, depending on what order they arrive, but in my last game, with the prethoryn relic it saved my ass being to spawn an extra 175k fleet every 10 days while dealing with the Contingency and their 1M roaming fleets!

Pretoryn queen is like you get a relic that spawns one of those primitive space stations every time you activate it

Since I love playing Psionics I really love Head of Zarqlan + the fleet is great and it can ramp pretty quick in power + it gives the RP Awakened Empire bonus so for me it's A tier, and Yuht is just YUHH E or F tier for me

You will get the chrystal near the end game. One of it's passive effects is damage bonus to kinectic weapons. Active effect is that It spawns a new crisis at a random location in the galaxy.

Blade of the huntress is good builds that use close combat like those using lots of frigates and crusier torp boats

It's an update to all the Race DLCS where u also get a relic alongside them.

I love the head one because I most of the time play as spiritualist already and I use the fallen empire fleet as a home system honor guard of sorts hovering over my home world

As a hive mind empire, I got the head of Zarqlan relatively early, so I just kept pumping out extremely powerful fleets, pulling myself from one of the weaker galactic powers surpassing all galactic powers, other than some fallen empires, within several years. I agree with the placement due to the uneasiness it can cause in normal empires.

you forget, the box who give be ancient drone center, can be random self active, so if you dont use he still work not like others relic who not used have only pasive bonus

wonder if that Crystal Relic has something to do wtih the Crystal ships getting/having a home system? or what i would prefer the Calamitous Birth Origin somehow getting that by smashing into a planet and creating/finding and arch site

With the crisis relics I think with the all crisis setting they are actually a tier above where they are and the core 2 because you can have up to 2 crisis to fight afterwards.

Crisis relics are awesome and “the game being over” doesn’t matter, normally I have the crisis within the first 100 years anyway

The one caveat about the contingency core is that you can spawn the contingency possibly earlier than the late game through Ultima Virgil's, so if you can spawn them in earlier before the end game then it's much better.

Totally forgot about the relic rework part of this haha

I’m gonna run with the crystal idea and say passive boost to hull strength and active spawns a crystalline fleet.

There is a reason I designed a machine empire, and did a ring world start; not just because I like to bully the shit out of my neighbors once my economy is going, but also in homage to the greatest Machine empire ever the Cybrex. I both love that machine, and loath it’s rare spawn chance for me. For some screwy reason, I can’t get it nearly as often as the Baoli, which while they’re great, I don’t need Bio pops or new worlds terraformed. I NEED ALLOYS!!! And I have such a wealth of minerals often at the start of the game that this could make or break some starts man. It’s an insanely good item for my build. Also, the war forms are honestly a god send when research is hyper focused on rushing to Megastructures. So I tend to ignore army stuff till later…so building those saves me lots of grief. And did I mention I love Alloys?! If the Contingency only spawned earlier I would be the greatest machine to ever exist! Speaking of things I want, how do I get my grubby mechadendrites on that *Beautiful* Crystal? Because I need more energy to go with my yummy alloys yes yes very yummy. As for my thoughts on our mystery relic. The Radiance is pretty nice looking. I’d imagine it does something in one of the three categories I think the name might denote: 1. Diplomacy- Radiance is often a descriptor for certain leaders, and is often a means of annotating someone as high status. 2. Radiance as commanding presence: It could be a captivating leadership symbol in another right, and ergo give some form of internal modifier. Whether it’s a planetary, or production bonus depends on how they angle it. 3. Radiance as weapon-Sometimes our genius is blinding. Some form of OP combat modifier that greatly increases your command of the battle space. Honorable Mention: Something Unity related, what with Unity being such an important modifier.

I'm so happy I've been constantly getting the war forge I can neglect all alloy production with zero consequences.

Funny thing, I played lots of hours in stellaris but didn't even know about like the half of these relics!!

doesn't how bad -5 stability is kinda depend on difficulty settings? :D Like I think main reason why 20% research bonus for active effect isn't that good is because worm is likely end game event so you have already done most of the important research by then

Honestly the Yuht Cryo-core saved my butt in a (successful) Dark Forest achievement run where I ended up against a galaxy-wide federation and had to make an OBSCENE amount of fleets to counter their giant doomstack. Kept me defending and claiming turf until I could get more energy production online.

*25:40* sure ground units are terrible. However because of how combat width efficient they are. Ensuring that you spam a bunch before a war with a Fallen Empire means you can invade their planets super easily, that quality of life really does help

Maw of the Toxic God isn’t a very good relic in and of itself but you should definitely seek to have it as Knights of the Toxic God, because that means you haven’t disbanded the Order and the bonuses it gives you are just absolutely insane (at least last time I checked). It’s like having an empire within your empire ! The relic was never meant to be the reward, merely the tiny cherry on top (because I won’t spit on free buffs, as insignificant as they are) !

I think you underrate Psionic Archive. It is a solid B+ to A-. It is normally one of the first artifacts you get, and the process of getting it gives you psionic theory. So you can more quickly head psionic ascension. You have three choices on active. Leader level +1, Ship weapon damage +20% for 5 years, or (+ 5 stability, - 10% edict upkeep, and + 25% ethics attraction) for 5 years. I would likely put this in A unless you are psionically ascending then it is an S, going to the shroud twice as often guarantees you will get the good picks in time to use them in the game.

I don't even know how to "hunt" for some of the relics, I just do the archaeology and stuff. My current playthrough deigned to give me the blade of the huntress, and somehow I have the Psionic Archive. (As a devouring swarm) And been using it to level up my immortal leader. Or just before a war.

I was playing a game with one of my friends who was doing the toxic god origin. When he got to the part where he fights the toxic god, he didn't know if he had enough fleet power to take it on so, so he asked for my help. Apparantly, one of my ships got the last hit on it, so I managed to get the relic instead of him. It kinda broke the origin as he didn't get anymore events or anything. The funny thing is that he was having exotic gas problems the rest of the game while I was just hording them.

Those (end-of-game) crisis relics can be very useful, if you have a fucked-up galaxy. Where the crisis is over but the holy war is still ongoing and you're fighting both parties by you're self as all the other player joined one of them. I had one game where the crisis was over 20 years passed end-of-game date. Being only a hand full of star systems large at that point. Defeating both parties took me an other 80 years. But the +100% jump drive range + some tech bonus allowed me to jump to anywhere in the galaxy giving me the technical advantage needed to win the game.

I always get the Baol origin. Like literally. Even in my last two play throughs as machines!

is not 3% montly alloys multiplier each 10 years any good with some steroided research? (maw of the toxic god with knights origin)

my personal edits: Khan's throne in A tier, worm scales E tier, Miniature Galaxy as B or maybe even A tier, Omnicodex B tier, don't have experience with the Head of Zarqian but i'll just slot it in E tier and the Prethoryn Brood Queen in D tier maybe C tier, the Contingency core immediate S or A tier but that's just my machine biases plus its amazing with Gigastructural engineering, Extradimensional Warlock i would put in A maybe B tier just because of how hard it was for me to actually get it my first time, with The Defragmentor i would be inclined to put it in A tier but i understand it's B tier ranking, i somewhat agree with the Vultaum Reality Perforator's ranking tho i might put it in B tier because of it's backstory, i might put the Crystal of Odryskia in A tier instead but i can see it's vAlUe and finally i have no clue what The Radiance could possibly do but im excited to see what it does. I'm glad to have watched the video all the way through and I'm glad you have read my take this far, thanks!

I like beeing prospectorium and having the surveyer that is cool

i was wondering why you made the head of Zarqian so lower on the list since it also with activation grants you a fallen empire fleet the grow with each usage i may have missed it but if not why then?

The bigger problem with the Zroni precursor is how easily the damn thing breaks so you can never finish it. I've never gotten this precursor and had it complete properly.

If pox added more lifespan would it be better or still meh

The head of Zarqlan no longer gives diplomatic bonuses with the spiritualist FE ? I remember it giving such a high one I was able to do full cyber ascension while they were still friendly, while my friend did it as well and was constantly attacked and humiliated, so I thought it was absolutely busted !

The Radiance? It's right in the name, it gives radiant quests.

the head is great, probably because I keep getting it at the start of my games though.

I would agree with your placement of the boal if I would ever get it other than when I'm playing as a robot :(

I like to use the Lil Galaxy at the end after I have researched seemingly everything, just +5% tech, year after year. And then BAM, brand new cutting edge tech. Keeps the tech fresh after a few decades of tech rush Edit: I also love the Head of Zarqlan. I don’t care what ethic I am, I spam those fleets forever. I have had several fleets, maxed out, all of fallen empire ships. Silly but stronk

when i take the cube fast i on end game have 3 or 4 habitats on capitol system who have some jobs and all buldings are ancients structures, is so good S+++

Do the endgame crisis relics go up in tier in a game with all endgame crises in your opinion? as in that case, the game is not over after the first or second crisis, so two of the three relics might actually see use

Superb! :)

I'm pretty sure the Research Speed buff on the Scales of the Worm activation affects ALL research, not just physics. So for that I think it's pretty good. Especially, if you've got your worlds sitting close to max stability anyway.

9:15 isn’t the surveyor basically just being a tier 3 prospectorium?

I've gotten the omnicodex twice in my playthroughs. Both times I was playing a determined exterminator. The first time I was roleplaying as Skynet, so getting it was just a tad more funny.

Every game, I only ever remember to try for the Galatron about 3 times per game, and I have never got it.

I think you undersell the Crisis relics quite a bit, since a lot of people play with ALL the crisis.

There is something to be said for the crisis relics for a multi crisis game if you set all crisis to spawn one after another.

Cryo Core is pretty useful when you're. Federation leader with golden rule for more power for the challenge

You can activate ALL crysis in game one by one with random sequence. So technically there is no "post-win" relics.

Yeah, blade of the huntress is insanely good if you know what you're doing or if it's the only artifact you have. Most of the time any of your ships spend moving, is at sub light, I want it's like they spend 90% of their time moving at that speed. So boosting that by 25% means you survey faster, get construction ships in place to build stuff quicker or just maneuvering fleets. Now on planet surveying, I'll agree that your science ships don't spend 90% of their time moving at sub light, but they still spend like 80% of their time moving at sub light. So the active of blade of the huntress is probably improving your science ship's survey speed by almost 20%, I dare say it probably does more for speeding up surveying systems than all of the survey speed increases combined.