Stellaris: Ascension Perks Guide (Version 3.3 Patch “Libra”)

Here you’ll find a comprehensive tier list of all Ascension Perks in the game as of 3.3 “Libra”, as well as a general assessment of their usefulness. THIS IS NOT A TIER LIST, more so a guide intended to help in choosing Ascension Perks based on my 900+ hours of experience (as of writing this).

• Consecrated Worlds
  Solid Ascension Perk only available to Spiritualists. In exchange for some influence and making a world de facto uninhabitable, you get some bonuses based on the “holiness” of the world.
  PROS
  • For only 50 influence, can get solid bonuses out of planets that would otherwise make bad colonization choices due to habitability
  • Amenities boost can offset some of the penalties from the Repugnant trait, early development of Specialists, and lack of entertainment buildings, in addition to acting as a boost to happiness (and overall productivity)
  • Extra useful if you start near the Spiritualist Fallen Empire and have a sacred world in your borders; consecrating a sacred world gets you Holy World bonuses on a planet you are unlikely to be able to colonize for long early game
  • Easy way to grow the Spiritualist Faction, if you’re wanting them to become more dominant in your Empire

  CONS

  • Have to be some degree of Spiritualist, restricting your robotic/synthetic options
  • Generally speaking, good Consecrated Worlds are also good for colonization, and can directly compete with your growth options
  • Unity, Amenities and Spiritualist Attraction are already pretty easy for Spiritualist empires to get, with their access to Priests and certain events
  • One Vision provides similar bonuses, but without any costs or ethic requirements
• Eternal Vigilance
  This Perk gets a lot of flak, and the reasons are clear. It doesn’t actually give anything “new” to your empire, like many of the others at this level, and the boosts don’t really put starbases at a level where they can really hold their own. That being said, can still be useful.
  PROS
  • Good synergy with the Unyielding tradition, can provide enough of a boost to fend of small to medium fleets even in the late game with little to no fleet support
  • THE turtle ascension perk, with good choke points can compensate for an under-developed or crippled fleet
  • Can be really useful early game for protection and useful mid/late game for some extra firepower when guarding against crises

  CONS

  • Situational, there are almost always better options available
  • Fleets are generally a better use of alloys than starbases, and alloys are seldom an abundant resource
  • Still won’t make your starbases strong enough to defend choke points on their own
• Executive Vigor
  This perk is very straight-forward, and I can’t really give it much of grading. Edicts can be really good, but their usage often comes down to personal preferences. If you want to focus on edicts, get this perk, otherwise it can easily be skipped.
• Galactic Wonders
  What is this doing here? It can really be your very first Ascension Perk? Turns out, it can…although I wouldn’t recommend waiting for it to be your first. All of megastructures unlocked by this perk are fantastic, and there aren’t many games where this is a bad pick.
  PROS
  • Dyson Sphere and Matter Decompressor can easily make energy and minerals a non-issue for the rest of the game, allowing your economy to run massive deficits
  • Ring Worlds are one of the best habitable locations in the entire game, especially useful in the late game to dump excess pops. Even better if your empire accepts refugees, since ring worlds are 100% habitable to everyone

  CONS

  • Not particularly useful if there are <50 years left in the game, since the building times will make getting noticeable benefits out of the megastructures difficult
  • With the penalties to pop growth in larger empires, Ring Worlds can be difficult to fill up to the point of usefulness in the late game
  • Require sizable alloy investments at a stage of the game where you’ll also be wanting to build and maintain several huge fleets
• Hydrocentric
  The only Ascenion Perk locked behind a flavor pack, this one is tailor-made for the new playstyle the Aquatics Species pack provided. Fantastic choice if you meet the steep requirements.
  PROS
  • Makes the Aquatic trait and Ocean worlds incredibly strong
  • Unlocks a special Colossus weapon that drowns planets and turns them into ocean worlds, should you also pick up the Colossus Project perk
  • Ice mining is one of the few ways to increase planet size

  CONS

  • Has the most specific requirements of all Ascension Perks, and essentially requires you to build your primary species just so you can take this perk.
• Imperial Perogative
  Since the changes to empire sprawl, this perk underwent a rework and now cuts the administrative burden of new colonies by half. Unavailable to Megacorps
  PROS
  • Couples really well with the Expansion tradition to make rapid colonization less costly
  • Negates the penalties to empire size all machine intelligences suffer

  CONS

  • Not very useful for tall builds with few colonies
  • Doesn’t reduce the burden of pops, which will likely be a far greater contributor to empire size than colonies
• Interstellar Dominion
  This perk is all about expansion, and is a great pick for a wide and/or aggressive build that struggle with influence. Much less useful since the empire sprawl rework.
  PROS
  • Useful for all types of expansion, especially early game, either in unclaimed space or through placing claims on neighbors
  • Allows influence to be used for more things rather than just expansion
  • Makes claiming the empty space left over from clearing crises much easier
  • Good choice for Void Dwellers or other habitat-heavy builds, allowing you to stretch influence further

  CONS

  • Useless for Total Wars
  • Tall Empires or slower expansion strategies get little benefit
  • Since the Unity/Empire Sprawl rework, influence has become a lot less valuable, making this ascension perk far more situational
• Mastery of Nature
  An interesting perk, it allows you to spend some influence to make your planets “bigger” by adding two districts, boosting a planet’s productivity. Your planets will have to “build” the project once activated, but it doesn’t take particularly long.
  PROS
  • Good for tall builds with few planets
  • Comes with a significant (if ultimately minor) reduction on blocker removal

  CONS

  • Can only be used on planets, not habitable structures, and doesn’t actually increase planet size for purposes of special planet designations (Penal colony, resort world, etc)
  • Generally only good as an early filler perk
• Nihlistic Acquisition
  All this perk does is grant access to the “Raiding” bombardment stance, which is largely a crappier version of Selective bombardment but with a huge chance to steal a pop. Cannot be chosen by Barbaric Despoilers, since they already have Raiding bombardment. Largely pick this one if you want to toy with the alternate playstyle Raiding encourages.
  PROS
  • Can be a great way to bring slaves into your empire during wars without having to conquer planets, and can be a reliable source of population growth should you remember to use it
  • Acts as a semi-reliable (and fun) way to cripple neighbors aside from simply taking planets and territory

  CONS

  • Useless if your empire doesn’t care or rely on slavery much
  • Raiding stance does minimal damage to armies and is terrible at preparing planets for invasion and conquest
  • Conquering planets is generally a more reliable way to grow your empire

• One Vision
  This is the go-to perk for increasing internal stability. The increased governing ethics attraction also acts as a secondary boost to unity growth, as your governing factions will also grow.
  PROS
  • The reduction in amenities use can make features like Repugnant more manageable or allow entertainment buildings to be skipped.
  • The flat bonus to unity growth is a lot more useful now that unity has more uses
  • Streamlines your faction representation a bit and can make conquering pops of opposite ethics, or switching to dramatically different ethics, easier

  CONS

  • Bonuses aren’t that huge, and can be acquired from other sources
  • Internal stability is very rarely enough of an issue to justify this perk
• Shared Destiny
  Basically the Feudal Society of Ascension Perks, but Feudal Society can actually be a bit fun now. Only take it if you really want to, there are so many better choices. The two free envoys might be the only redeeming part.
• Technological Ascendancy
  Oh boy, do people have opinions on this Perk! You’ll find plenty of guides that claim this perk is an essential first pick, but I’ve finished far more games where I never picked Technological Ascendancy than games I have. It’s still good, I just don’t think it’s good enough to justify an automatic first-pick.
  PROS
  • The flat boost to tech is really good, largely because technology is always fantastic. A mild difference in tech can drastically change the outcome of wars, and there’s almost never a situation where having more tech would be bad.

  CONS

  • That 50% bonus to finding rare techs is not that good, changing a 1% chance to 1.5%. That’s still a tiny chance for rare techs to pop up, changing a 1/100 chance into 1/67.
  • Even without this perk, it’s pretty easy to get ahead of the AI with a few research-focused planets
• Transcendent Learning
  It boosts leader xp gain and level cap. Seems pretty dull, but high-level leaders can actually be really good.
  PROS
  • Makes getting good leaders faster, extra useful if you have high leader turnover
  • Excellent choice if you’re planning to skip the increased leader level caps the Domination Traditions give you, or want early powerful leaders

  CONS

  • Value drops in the late game as your leader’s maximum lifespans increase and technologies increase level cap above 10 (the hard cap)
  • Traits and traditions can provide comparable bonuses without using the Ascension Perk slot
• Universal Transactions
  The only Megacorp-only Ascension Perk, this one doesn’t need much of an explanation. Arguably a must-pick for Megacorporations, it makes the branch offices (and commercial pacts) much cheaper. Unless you’re not using branch offices as a Megacorp (why?!?), this perk is an incredible early pick.

  There are two scenarios where this perk is a poor choice:

  • 1) The nearby galaxy is filled with other Megacorps, making competition for branch offices fierce to the point that influence is not your limiting factor for expansion
  • 2) The nearby galaxy is dominated by Gestalt Conciousnesses, Inward Perfectionists, Fanatic Purifiers, or other empires that don’t allow branch offices on their planets
• Voidborne
  A nice perk, should you choose to use it. Habitability bonuses and building slots are difficult to find, and this should be a mandatory pick for the Void Dweller origin.
  PROS
  • Doubles the base building slots of Orbital Habitats, and makes Administrative or Research Habitats far more viable
  • The +20% habitability boost provides a noticeable output bonus to habitats

  CONS

  • Useless if you don’t use many habitats
  • Being able to build habitation buildings isn’t that good, the Habitation District provides comparable housing without using a valuable building slot
• Xeno-Compatibility
  A xenophile-only Ascension Perk, it allows the creation of hybrid alien races, and boosts immigration and pop growth. Actually a pretty great early perk choice, assuming you have researched Gene Tailoring.
  PROS
  • Hybrid pops get a free modification point and an extra slot. The extra slot is huge, there is nothing else in the entire game that can give you this.
  • Stays good throughout the game, providing native pop growth early on, and making up for many pop growth penalties in the late game through immigration

  CONS

  • Keeping track of hybrids is a notoriously tedious process, and can get annoying even if only the AI pick it up. Thankfully this perk can be turned off at game start.
  • Even with careful genetic alteration, you’re still going to be dealing with rogue hybrids that you don’t necessarily want, not to mention the increased society costs from all the modification projects
  • Unlike the Genetic Ascension perks, Xeno-Compatibility gives no bonuses to genetic alteration costs/speed, and a lot of the potential is wasted if you don’t choose that Ascension Path

• Enigmatic Engineering
  The first of the Tier 1 perks, and arguably the worst. There’s no reason to pick this in single player, as all the benefits, aside from the bonus to encryption, only apply to other players
• Grasp the Void
  Another not-so-good Tier 1 perk, all this does is increase starbase capacity by 5. Not much to talk about here, there are many other ways to increase starbase capacity, and you’ll seldom reach a point where you really need this perk. Penalties for having too many starbases can be dealt with relatively easy, too.
• Engineered Evolution
  The first of the Ascension Path perks, picking this will lock you into the genetic path. The only Ascension Path available to Hive Minds
  PROS
  • Useful for pretty much all empires aside Machine Intelligence (obviously)
  • Genetic Ascension is probably overall the strongest path
  • The 3 modification points, plus the 1 you get for researching the requirement for this perk (Gene Tailoring), goes a long way to enhancing your pops
  • Gene Seed troops are very powerful, and can take over all army operations for the rest of the game

  CONS

  • Probably the weakest compared to Mind Over Matter and The Flesh is Weak
  • Cloning vats aren’t particularly good, requiring a lot of food for upkeep and competing with robotic factories for growth
  • Despite the cost reduction, modifying species will still take a lot of society research, and you’ll likely have to do it multiple times
• Mind Over Matter
  The spiritualist/psychic Ascension Path begins here. You can hilariously still pick this as fanatic materialists if you get the Psionic Theory technology (extra rare for materialists), although the spiritualist ethic attraction will make for a pretty bad time.
  PROS
  • The Latent Psionic trait is extremely good, and completely free. No special projects required, just a lovely +5% boost to energy and research
  • Psionic troops are very powerful, and can take over all army operations for the rest of the game

  CONS

  • The Latent Psionic trait is only applied to your primary species, leaving out xeno pops
• The Flesh is Weak
  The materialist Ascension Path. In many ways the opposite of Mind Over Matter, and can similarly be chosen by spiritualist empires, although why you would not simply chose one of the other two paths is a good question.
  PROS
  • Provides some nice flat bonuses to all robots in your empire, in addition to requiring the Droids technology that allows robots to do specialist jobs
  • Cyborg pops get some really nice bonuses, including a +20% habitability (insanely good!) and +40 to leader lifespan

  CONS

  • Turning your pops into cyborgs is an expensive engineering project, and engineering is still the most difficult of the 3 to get
• World Shaper
  The last of the Tier 1 perks, this comes with a nice cost reduction to all terraforming in addition to allowing the terraforming of Gaia worlds.
  PROS
  • Provides the quickest and most reliable means to create Gaia worlds
  • Synergizes well with terraforming-heavy playstyles and poor habitability pops
  • Gaia worlds are incredibly good, and this perk makes it worthwhile to terraform all of your planets into Gaia worlds

  CONS

  • Gaia worlds are still the most expensive terraforming option, and uninhabitable planets have to undergo 2 phases to reach Gaia worlds
  • Value drops significantly for Empires that use lots of robots or have other massive boosts to general habitability that make Gaia worlds unnecessary
  • Less valuable if you got the Baol precursors or the Idyllic Bloom civic, although it does provide a cheaper and quicker alternative to either.

• Arcology Project
  Allows you to convert any planet into a Ecumenopolis, without the planet starting off as a Relic world
  PROS
  • A Ecumenopolis is essentially a mini ring world, but with a strong focus on specialists
  • Provides a sizable boost to pop growth and output
  • Costs minerals instead of alloys

  CONS

  • Destroys all planetary features, including both features that allow special extractors and those that provide colony-wide bonuses
  • The lack of workers means the Ecumenopolis requires the support of several non-Ecumenopolis colonies to function
• Galactic Force Projection
  Simple mid-game Ascension Perk that provides a boost to both naval capacity and fleet size. Decent pick, but not a must-have.
  PROS
  • Allows you to field bigger, stronger fleets without excessive technology investment
  • Useful for any empire once it becomes available

  CONS

  • Often unlocks around the same time other, more useful perks unlock, so picking it early can sometimes be a poor choice
• Hive/Machine Worlds
  This is technically 2 Ascension Perks, but they’re fundamentally the Gestalt Consciousness version of Arcology Project, one for Hive Minds and one for Machine Intelligences.
  PROS
  • Big boosts to growth and resource production make these worlds a straight upgrade from the default worlds
  • Leaves worker districts intact and removes their caps imposed by features, allowing for some extreme specialization

  CONS

  • Destroys all planetary features, including both features that allow special extractors and those that provide colony-wide bonuses
  • Renders planets completely uninhabitable to their respective non-Gestalt species
• Master Builders
  A great late-game perk that boosts megastructure build speed and capacity
  PROS
  • One of only two ways to boost megastructue build capacity
  • Drastically reduces the already long build time of megastructures so you can start getting those bonuses faster

  CONS

  • Can inadvertently cause severe alloy scarcity if you try to build and upgrade everything at once
  • Less useful if <50 years left in the game, or if you’ve already built several megastructures
• Synthetic Age
  The only Ascension Perk available only to Machine Intelligences, it gives pop trait points and a reduction to modification costs in a similar way to Engineered Evolution, but only for machines. There’s seldom a reason to not choose this perk, and earlier is better to make population modification cheaper and to take advantage of the extra trait points
• Evolutionary Mastery
  The ultimate goal of the biological ascension path, picking this doubles the bonuses already received from Engineered Evolution and unlocks the Genetic Resequencing technology
  PROS
  • Allows for unparalleled customization of species traits, giving you the ability to remove positive traits in addition to negative ones
  • The extra reduction in pop modification costs make massive, empire-wide species modification relatively simple
  • Only way to access the incredible biological ascension traits, particularly Robust and Erudite
  • Allows for Hive minds to assimilate non-gestalt pops, and non-hive minds to assimilate biological gestalt pops

  CONS

  • Due to most of the ascension traits being incompatible, this is a poor choice for lithoid empires
  • Takes a while to get the necessary technologies to upgrade this from Engineered Evolution
• Synthetic Evolution
  The ultimate goal of the robotic ascension path, this gives a robotic modification point, a small boost to robot mineral production, and a special project that converts all pops into synthetics
  PROS
  • The special project is a great way to homogenize your empire, as all species get converted into a single new robotic race
  • Comes with a sizable reduction to pop modification that makes modifying both old and new robot pops really easy
  • Gives a sizable boost to relations with other machine empires after the special project is researched, who will treat you as if you were another machine empire.
  • The special project makes leaders immortal

  CONS

  • Most technologically demanding of the ultimate perks, requiring the extremely late-game Synthetic Personality Matrix and the dangerous Synthetics tech
  • Converting pops into synthetics can sometimes be a big downgrade if your economy isn’t prepared for a bunch of pop upkeep to switch from food to energy, and locks you out of biological traits
  • Drastically spoils relationships with spiritualist empires
• Transcendence
  The ultimate goal of the psionic ascension path, this gives some nice boosts to intel/espionage, upgrades your primary pops to full-fledged psionics, and gives access to the Shroud
  PROS
  • Available immediately after Mind over Matter, there are very few reasons not to pick these up sequentially
  • The Psionic trait is really good, doubling the bonuses to energy and research production from Latent Psionic, plus giving a nice +5% boost to happiness. Doesn’t require a special project, either
  • All the upgrades that can be obtained from random encounters in the Shroud are best-in-class (aside from sensors, but that’s debatable)

  CONS

  • The Shroud is an RNG-fest on many levels. In addition to an encounter being randomly chosen each time you breach the Shroud, your options all have random chances of success, with rare exceptions.
  • The temporary buffs you can gain from the Shroud are generally too small and short-lived to have a noticeable effect
  • Only your primary pops become Psionic, xenos are excluded
• Become the Crisis
  An insanely powerful perk that starts the process towards becoming the crisis and eventually destroying the galaxy.
  PROS
  • Gives huge military bonuses at each level of Menace, from the fantastic Menacing ship (only cost minerals regardless of components) to some big bonuses to ship damage
  • Due to each level of Menace being locked behind a cheap special project, it allows the player to control the timing of advancing to each level
  • Not researching the final special project allows you to get nearly all the benefits of this perk without the entire galaxy declaring war on you
  • Provides a win condition that isn’t simply “have the most points by game end”

  CONS

  • Incompatible with Pacifist and Xenophilic ethics
  • Picking this perk locks you out of any Galactic Custodian shenanigans
  • Has a lot of anti-synergy with Diplomacy Traditions

• Colossus Project
  The first perk of tier 3, and the only one requiring an existing technology: Titans. If you haven’t researched Juggernauts yet, this will also allow you to create Colossus Assembly Yards at your starbases.
  PROS
  • Gives the Total War casus beli, making claims largely obsolete
  • The quickest way to destroy population centers, not requiring tedious bombardments or huge armies to pacify planets
  • A variety of weapons, each with their own pros and cons, allow you to fit Colossi into pretty much any build or strategy

  CONS

  • Destroyed pops cannot be used to grow your empire (pretty minor issue late game, and Spiritualist or Driven Assimilator empires can get a weapon that preserves much of the population)
  • Unnecessary if you get Star Eaters from Become the Crisis; they’ll blow up everything
• Defender of the Galaxy
  That endgame crisis giving you grief? That xenophobic neighbor of yours decided to become the crisis? Never fear, Defender of the Galaxy is here! Great perk that provides a hefty +50% bonus to damage vs both endgame crises and Become the Crisis empires
  PROS
  • Provides a big damage bonus against two of the most dangerous threats to your empire
  • Provides a flat bonus to everyone’s opinion of your empire, for being such a selfless defender

  CONS

  • Not particularly necessary on low crisis strength, and pretty much useless if the crisis spawns next door to an Awakened or Fallen Empire, who will probably defeat or badly cripple the crisis on their own
• Galactic Contender
  Essentially, this perk is the complement to Defender of the Galaxy, assisting you against all the crises that aren’t the late-game crisis. Plus it gives a bonus to diplomatic weight.
  PROS
  • No requirements, can pick this up as long as you’ve already spent 2 Ascension Perks
  • The bonus against Fallen and Awaken Empires really helps equalize some of the hidden bonuses both empires have vs regular empires. Awakened Empires in particular have a tendency to field some fleets that give endgame crises a run for their money, making this a nearly essential pick if a War in Heaven begins.
  • The boost to diplomatic weight gives you a bit more weight to throw around in the Galactic Council

  CONS

  • Seldom necessary vs. Gate builders, and it’s not a great pick if there’s no potential for War in Heaven

I feel like this topic deserves a section of its own in addition to the discussion of the individual perks. Most empires will be well-served by following one of the paths, but which to choose can be a difficult question. The choice is almost entirely situational, but there are a few things to consider for each pathway:
Biological Ascension

• Being able to extensively modify and customize your biological pops is almost always useful, and is compatible with all ethics
• Two of the best traits, Intelligent and Adaptable, get massive upgrades through ascension traits
• Authoritarian empires can stratify their pops to an even more extreme degree, such as creating late-game ultra-slaves
• Lithoids can’t use some of the ascension traits, but do get access to some previously forbidden traits instead (like rapid breeders)

Synthetic Ascension

• Cyborg pops are very powerful, and get many of the pros of both robotic and biological pops
• Cyborg pops are arguably strong enough that Synthetic Evolution could be skipped, allowing you to pick a different Ascension Perk
• Synthetic Ascension provides some nice benefits to regular robots, so synergies well with empires that use a lot of robots

Psionic Ascension

• Only requires Psionic Theory to unlock both Perks
• Latent Psionic species have middling bonuses, but the full Psionic species is far better, making completing this Ascension path extra valuable
• Far more subject to randomness than the other pathways, so avoid if you really hate that in your strategy games
• Special weapons and events from the Shroud are insanely powerful, assuming they pop up. Most of the time you’ll get a choice between 3 bonuses that won’t do much
• Insanely good if you managed to get Zroni precursors due to being able to access the Shroud more often
• Unlike the other two pathways, this Ascension Path only applies to your primary species

Each path can be chosen by any empire, but the technologies that gate each pathway will tend to pop up quicker for empires with a natural inclination towards one pathway (i.e. Materialists will likely get Droids before Psionic Theory).

There are two types of empires that do not get a choice: Hive Minds and Machine Intelligences. Hive Minds can only choose the Biological Ascension Path, and should probably be picked up in every Hive Mind game. Machine Intelligences have it even worse, getting access to NONE of these powerful paths. They get access to Synthetic Age, but it’s a disappointing substitute.