How do you play spiritualists?

[UltraEarth]

I almost always play materialists (because of the research bonus and all) but recently I was curious to try playing spiritualists and... well, it was not a pleasant experience.
Little fleet capacity, quite behind in technology compared to other empires neighbors and a fairly low expansion capacity.
Maybe I'm pretty bad at playing as Spiritualist?, does anyone who plays as such know any tips?

[HappySack]

-With temples you never need to make entertainer jobs if you play your cards right
-You will always make boatloads of unity mainly because of the above
-Get all the edicts and change them up whenever you need to for versatility in any area, you also get a cheap edict at the start of the game for even more unity generation

[CosmicOdeum]

You get ascension perks faster than anybody else. Use them.

[UltraEarth]

Originally posted by HappySack:

-With temples you never need to make entertainer jobs if you play your cards right
-You will always make boatloads of unity mainly because of the above
-Get all the edicts and change them up whenever you need to for versatility in any area, you also get a cheap edict at the start of the game for even more unity generation

So the objective playing Spiritualist is going straight for Unity even if i get behind on tech and territory?

[HappySack]

Originally posted by UltraEarth:

So the objective playing Spiritualist is going straight for Unity even if i get behind on tech and territory?

Depends, the ethics of your empire is only a part of the equation, what's the point of your empire? what is it good at doing? you don't even need to be focusing on unity as a spiritualist if you don't need to.

[UltraEarth]

Originally posted by HappySack:

Originally posted by UltraEarth:

So the objective playing Spiritualist is going straight for Unity even if i get behind on tech and territory?

Depends, the ethics of your empire is only a part of the equation, what's the point of your empire? what is it good at doing? you don't even need to be focusing on unity as a spiritualist if you don't need to.

I said that because everytime i try focusing on other things apart from Unity as a Spiritualist i get crushed by other empires real fast (i have 500 hours on Stellaris btw), I even tried to make specialized sectors, but to no avail.

[Lady Crimson (RIP)]

Originally posted by UltraEarth:

I almost always play materialists (because of the research bonus and all) but recently I was curious to try playing spiritualists and... well, it was not a pleasant experience.
Little fleet capacity, quite behind in technology compared to other empires neighbors and a fairly low expansion capacity.
Maybe I'm pretty bad at playing as Spiritualist?, does anyone who plays as such know any tips?

Research bonus is frankly marginal in the grander scheme.

For spiritualists:

The main advantage will be unity, the main disadvantage is lack of robots in most set ups.

This means they are suited for expansionist empires that conquer and keep planets stable and docile.

[UltraEarth]

Originally posted by HappySack:

Originally posted by UltraEarth:

So the objective playing Spiritualist is going straight for Unity even if i get behind on tech and territory?

Depends, the ethics of your empire is only a part of the equation, what's the point of your empire? what is it good at doing? you don't even need to be focusing on unity as a spiritualist if you don't need to.

I have played with almost all ethics except spiritualist and pacifist, they are (for me) the most difficult (perhaps because I spawn all the time with genocidal neighbors who don't even give me time to breatheor micromanage things...)

[UltraEarth]

Originally posted by Lady Crimson:

Originally posted by UltraEarth:

I almost always play materialists (because of the research bonus and all) but recently I was curious to try playing spiritualists and... well, it was not a pleasant experience.
Little fleet capacity, quite behind in technology compared to other empires neighbors and a fairly low expansion capacity.
Maybe I'm pretty bad at playing as Spiritualist?, does anyone who plays as such know any tips?

Research bonus is frankly marginal in the grander scheme.

The main advantage will be unity, the main disadvantage is lack of robots in most set ups.

This means they are suited for expansionist empires that conquer and keep planets stable and docile.

I actually use robots literally every game so.. Hard, even in easy difficulty

[Castlegate]

I haven't played in awhile, but I remember that spiritualists have different ways of improving their governing ethics attraction. So, your pops should be happier and more productive if you can lean into that.

[Lady Crimson (RIP)]

Originally posted by UltraEarth:

Originally posted by Lady Crimson:

Research bonus is frankly marginal in the grander scheme.

The main advantage will be unity, the main disadvantage is lack of robots in most set ups.

This means they are suited for expansionist empires that conquer and keep planets stable and docile.

I actually use robots literally every game so.. Hard, even in easy difficulty

yeah I completely agree, robots are extremely economical, though they take a bit of a start up to get running.

Spiritualists -can- have robots.. it's just a bit of a hit on their faction happiness.. but otherwise very doable.

Although it's recommended to not do this if you're new, or keep them as workers, as you are more prone to A.I. uprisings with not ascending or giving them rights. (although you can still choose to ascend which does solve some happiness issues.)

if you really want, you could play spiritualist and still have robots and RP being some machine cult.. which while not the best mechanically, can be alright.

I would recommend playing a mega church, go megacorp and take that civic.. which is incredibly nice for spiritualists.

[UltraEarth]

Originally posted by Lady Crimson:

Originally posted by UltraEarth:

I actually use robots literally every game so.. Hard, even in easy difficulty

yeah I completely agree, robots are extremely economical, though they take a bit of a start up to get running.

Spiritualists -can- have robots.. it's just a bit of a hit on their faction happiness.. but otherwise very doable.

Although it's recommended to not do this if you're new, or keep them as workers, as you are more prone to A.I. uprisings with not ascending or giving them rights. (although you can still choose to ascend which does solve some happiness issues.)

if you really want, you could play spiritualist and still have robots and RP being some machine cult.. which while not the best mechanically, can be alright.

I would recommend playing a mega church, go megacorp and take that civic.. which is incredibly nice for spiritualists.

Never played as a megacorp but i will try.

[jacobellinger]

Originally posted by UltraEarth:

Originally posted by HappySack:

Depends, the ethics of your empire is only a part of the equation, what's the point of your empire? what is it good at doing? you don't even need to be focusing on unity as a spiritualist if you don't need to.

I said that because everytime i try focusing on other things apart from Unity as a Spiritualist i get crushed by other empires real fast (i have 500 hours on Stellaris btw), I even tried to make specialized sectors, but to no avail.

NOTE: I'm coming off from a 8 hour session and my brain is mush so forgive me for not remembering the name of things.

I have over 3k hours in this game. I almost always play spiritulest. my advice. make friends with other aliens and hold out to the late game, the idea behind spiritualist (at least to me) is focusing on economy and putting down just a single temple on every planet for the nice unity speed.
My tipical play.
1. first ex perk is expansion for less outpost cost, I go wide af, I usially choose spiritulest fanatic zenophile so as I stated I can make lots of friends.
2. Second ex perk is exploration because I want to make sure at the least my science leaders are able to level well.
3. choose diplomatic ex perk for your third because at this point you will be hurting for influence.
4. choose war or whatever it's called for your forth because at that point someone is going to attack you around this time, though if you think your allies are good enugh to help you you could also go with the tree that gives you more leader lifespane (sorry my brain is fried)
5. after this pick ether mineral ex perk or trading one whichever your econemy needs more.

after thispick whatever you want.

Now about your civics, your gonna want to choose the one that makes your leaders give you unity for their levels and the one that gives you a building slot for every 3 industrial districts.

Note about your ex perks, you don't actually have to finish each one, you can just pick and choose the first few perks for what you need and then unlock the next. IE choosing the first three in expansion for less outpost cost, one more pop on each planet you colinize and pop growth speen bonus. then unlock the science tree and unlock just the ones that rais your leaders max level then move on to the next tree and so on.

The main thing about spiritulest is tbh they are underpowered so you kinda HAVE to make friends and imo they are more of a RP ethic than a min/max one so take what I've said here with that in mind.

[Dave]

I've played Spiritualist many times so I feel like I should be able to give some advice but unfortunately I can't. I'm so screwed up in how I play due to OCD that I would most likely anger even opponents if I tried multiplayer because they wouldn't be able to comprehend why I'm doing that over there when this over here is significantly more efficient. My ass has been handed to me many times by the AI because of this.

I just do it because of the Shroud. That mechanic is awesome and the random events that occur from making a covenant with an entity are interesting and also debilitating at times. The whole Ascension perk that's more Materialist oriented just doesn't seem particularly interesting. Transferring one's mind into a robot body isn't nearly as interesting as Shroud stuff.

[UltraEarth]

Originally posted by Dave:

I've played Spiritualist many times so I feel like I should be able to give some advice but unfortunately I can't. I'm so screwed up in how I play due to OCD that I would most likely anger even opponents if I tried multiplayer because they wouldn't be able to comprehend why I'm doing that over there when this over here is significantly more efficient. My ass has been handed to me many times by the AI because of this.

I just do it because of the Shroud. That mechanic is awesome and the random events that occur from making a covenant with an entity are interesting and also debilitating at times. The whole Ascension perk that's more Materialist oriented just doesn't seem particularly interesting. Transferring one's mind into a robot body isn't nearly as interesting as Shroud stuff.

I don't even go for the synth perk, i just choose materialist only for the bonus for research, robots and cyborgs, almost a 80% of my all my empires are focused on that, thats why im having problems changing now to spiritualist, i don't have a clue how to play it.

[D-Black Catto]

easy? make lotsa unity and rush tradition trees, abuse edicts?