Best 1st ascension perk for swarm

[Rivazar]

Which one is best as first perk?

[the sandwich]

IMO Tech acendency is always the best 1st pick No matter what you are playing as.

[Greb]

I always take Technological Ascendancy and then usually One Vision. The rest would be down to either RP or the best possible meta. No matter what style of play you go for, research speed is always useful.

I'm not too familiar with 2.2+ stuff, but I'd assume the next ones for a Devouring Swarm would be Hive Worlds. I guess you could RP a bit with Nihilistic Acquisition by raiding for food, but I doubt it's worth it.

Then probably Colossus Project / Galactic Wonders and Master Builders, I guess. Assuming you want to go down that route, anyway.

[mk11]

Originally posted by the sandwich:

IMO Tech acendency is always the best 1st pick No matter what you are playing as.

Why? Typically you will have a 30% or better bonus to tech (from specialisation, level, and techs) so the +10% is actually more like +8% or less.

A swarm always has sprawl penalties so a +30 to admin is -7.5% to tech costs, -15% to unity costs, -30% to leader and campaign costs. These though are reduced by the amount of remaining sprawl e.g. if it went from 80 to 50 that would only be a 6% tech cost saving. So Imperial Prerogative is not quite as much tech bonus but gives unity and cost bonuses but gives up on the bonus to rare tech option. The value of Imperial Prerogative tends to zero as the game progresses so would only be worth it as an early bonus.

However, I think Transcendent Learning and Executive Vigor are both worth considering. Mastery of Nature is good but not much use early so you might take it if you have higher priority things planned for the next couple of perks.

[Sea Base]

Depending on how fast you are expanding, Tech Ascend for the reasons ^
or if you are rapidly eating up Admin Capacity, go with Imperial Prerogative so you can keep up the expansion without the cost to your tech or unity.

[HugsAndSnuggles]

Originally posted by mk11:

A swarm always has sprawl penalties

Which are irrelevant when it comes to determining effective tech ascendancy bonus: you have sprwal penalties regardless of said perk.

Still, getting a perk that does not give you something unique is a waste, IMO. Not to mention, swarm playstyle is more about making alloys than science (most techs you need, you'll be getting from wrecks anyway).

Originally posted by mk11:

Transcendent Learning

Was pointless even before tradition rework, now getting to cap of 10 is trival, and I don't think that xp bonus is worth it.

Originally posted by mk11:

Mastery of Nature is good but not much use early so you might take it if you have higher priority things planned for the next couple of perks.

There's also little else to take as the first perk (Executive Vigor is the only other candidate I'd consider, provided you even need to run edicts); of course, you can also wait for voidborne...

[Helios]

Dont forget Technological Ascendancy also now gives 50% higher chance to roll a rare tech.

[dfhuscarl]

I found Executive Vigor to be an excellent first pick for hives; for my play style it changed everything for the better. A friend of mine swears by Interstellar Dominion, but he's a (in my words) a crazy expansionist, while I stop expanding before penalties set in. Mastery of Nature is usually my alternate first pick.

Experiment and find what suits you and your style. Personally, I found One Vision and Technological Ascendency more of a mid-game selection, if I choose them at all. For first picks, they don't have an immediate impact early game where expansion and basic resources are the priority.