Terravore Necrophage is Still at the Top

[yuzhonglu]

Everyone is talking about virtuality and machine empires, but terravore necrophage remains one of the most OP builds in the game for SP. The ability to convert planets into resources and conquered pops into your own, and avoid the pop growth malus of lithoids by growing hive mind pops of other species means there's absolutely no downside to your genocidal empire.

[Sedmeister]

Honestly, both the necrophage and terrorvore dynamics confuse me.

Can you talk me through your build and playstyle? I'm interested in giving it a try.

Fyr, my go to builds are criminal heritage megacorp, some other kind of slave taking megacorp or authoritarian materialists.

[yuzhonglu]

You play a terravore and select necrophage origin. Find your two hive mind primitive worlds ASAP because those are the species you'll grow. DO NOT build your main species. Instead grow your hive mind species, which don't suffer from the lithoid and necrophage growth penalties.

Playstyle is very simple: build corvettes. Conquer. Necrophage purge all non-hive mind biological species (which will convert 75% of them to your species). Any hive minds you conquer you can keep 100% of the pops. Stay away from machines, though. You can't convert them. Because you start next to two primitive worlds, you don't need to build colony ships. Instead you can spend the resources on corvettes.

If you run low on minerals or alloys, start consuming planets. Keep the "good" worlds like capital worlds that you conquer, or any world that's larger than size 14 or has lots of districts/ buildings. Consume everything else.

Priority tech: Blue lasers. Build a research lab as your first building, then start spamming as many industrial and generator districts as you can afford. Save up 2k energy for the naval upkeep and by 2215 you should have 4-5k fleet power, which is more than enough to conquer your neighbor and start the snowball.

It's simple. The only thing you have micromanage is to make sure you never grow your main species. And the only real decision you have to make is whether or not to consume a world.

[Hyperion]

Assimilators though...
They got a buff from halving colony ship alloy costs so now in early game they can both corvette rush and colonize. And they can integrate machine pops.

[yuzhonglu]

But they can't integrate hive mind pops, which terravores can. Also, they don't start with two guaranteed primitive worlds nearby, their unity generation is pitiful compared to hive minds, they can't consume worlds, they get a -50% organic pop growth penalty, don't have the -25% empire sprawl reduction bonus of hive minds, AND they don't get the military bonuses of a genocidal empire.

[Hyperion]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

But they can't integrate hive mind pops

With Cybernetic tree they can.
And they don't have to consume planets for minerals because their research costs energy instead.

[yuzhonglu]

By that point you should be snowballing. It comes too late to matter.

Energy is still a resource. Terravores rely almost entirely on minerals, and they have easy access to it thanks to consume planet. In contrast getting energy as a machine is much more difficult because you have to build districts. And you still need ways to get minerals for buildings and alloys.

Midgame is all about getting your lathe up and feeding pops into it. Terravore necrophages can get to that point faster.

[Hyperion]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

In contrast getting energy as a machine is much more difficult.

Solar panels and bioreactors.

[yuzhonglu]

I'd rather have anchorages and logistics hubs. Starbase slots are valuable. Solar panels are inefficient, as are bioreactors.

[Hyperion]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

Midgame is all about getting your lathe up and feeding pops into it. Terravore necrophages can get to that point faster.

That is assuming I get lathe at all. Becoming a crisis is too nihilistic for my liking, as is the widespread superstition that "pops cause lags bring out the colossus".

[yuzhonglu]

I mean if you're going to play terravore it's all about that nihilism. Conquer half the galaxy and then use nihilistic acquisition on the other half to farm them pops.

[Bumc]

Can you corvette rush on GA?

I was always intimidated by the sizes of their fleets, but maybe with early supremacy you can dance around and actually capture stuff with 20-40 against 60-80.

[yuzhonglu]

Originally posted by Bumc:

Can you corvette rush on GA?

I was always intimidated by the sizes of their fleets, but maybe with early supremacy you can dance around and actually capture stuff with 20-40 against 60-80.

Easily. By 2213 you should have 50 or so, because you don't need colony ships. Combine it with your terravore military bonuses...

[DWI_Suriil]

""The ability to convert planets into resources and conquered pops into your own, and avoid the pop growth malus of lithoids by growing hive mind pops of other species means there's absolutely no downside to your genocidal empire.""

Bruh......Virtuality just pays 0 ♥♥♥♥♥ to any thing you are saying.
They have infinit insta pop to fill up all the jobs.

https://ibb.co/MSjyhhG
Thats my virtual year 2250....
Sorry...i didnt get it well...how many pop 2213 ? Ah! 50 or so...
What about 950 pop year 2250 on virtual?

Oh sry...comme again...when you start snowballing?...
Beacuse you better hurry up , by year 2300 virtual sit on 1200 fleet , about 300k each fleet , and megarstructures.

[Sedmeister]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

Find your two hive mind primitive worlds ASAP because those are the species you'll grow. DO NOT build your main species. Instead grow your hive mind species,

How do I do this? Just invade the planets and then manage them post invasion? Transfer some of my main species as rulers? If so how do I deal with planetary preferences?

Or do I kidnap or transfer them to my Homeworld? To other planets I want to set up as specialised for certain resources?

Thanks.

[yuzhonglu]

Invade. You can't transfer pop for 10 years. But once you change their species rights, you can grow them in your spawning vats.

And you don't have to transfer your ruler pops over. They're hive mind so they'll work for you now.