Mind Over Matter or Defender of the Galaxy?

[e11]

I'm wondering what to pick as my fourth perk. Having a major edge against the endgame crisis sure is tempting, but that is pretty much its only use.

Just how useful are psionics, on the whole?

[coolman552]

psionics can get you the best ship components if ur willing to gamble

[R131]

psionics is powerful in many ways but make sure you already set default rights to "soldiers only" because you will so rarely find your own psychic species in the leader pool it gets tedious quick, so at the beginning of every game you need to set default rights to soldiers only so other species dont contaminate your leaderpool later in the game.

if its a choice of those two then definately go psionics although it does cost 2 ascension perks to get full capabilities such as shroud buffs.

[Theutus]

Originally posted by Nom noms:

psionics is powerful in many ways but make sure you already set default rights to "soldiers only" because you will so rarely find your own psychic species in the leader pool it gets tedious quick, so at the beginning of every game you need to set default rights to soldiers only so other species dont contaminate your leaderpool later in the game.

if its a choice of those two then definately go psionics although it does cost 2 ascension perks to get full capabilities such as shroud buffs.

Slaves can't be leaders.

[GreatGatherer]

I would say hold off on defender until the late game and get psionics, plus, it isn't your last perk, you still have room to spare. I would suggest: MoM, Trancendance, Master Builders, Galactic Wonders, Defender - as that is the order you will be needing them in. If you get defender now it will be doing nothing for most of the game and will be taking up a slot

Do keep in mind this is my suggestions, not fact, you don't have to do this.

[AP WOLRD 5 MANIFEST TRUST IN GOD]

Originally posted by author:

psionics is powerful in many ways but make sure you already set default rights to "soldiers only" because you will so rarely find your own psychic species in the leader pool

But why not make all species psyonic? after you get trancendence, you can assimilate non-psionic pops into psyonic ones.

[Heimdall313]

I love Psionic, the leaders have amazing buffs all around.
Shroud dice rolls are usually either beneficial or nothing happens, the bad rolls are fairly rare. If you get any tech out of it (which is mostly a factor of time, tbh) its all very powerful. Main issue is getting Zro to fuel Shields.

[mss73055]

Psionic Ascension is lazy mode and instant. All ascension perks offer something. Psionics is click and forget, no need to plan.

Genetic tailoring is exactly that. Requires a lot of micro but luckily it's paid with green tasting science.

Synthetic Unification requires a lot of planning and jams your engineering research for decades.
But in the end you get 100% habitability even on tomb worlds and with project Cornucopia.

[R131]

Originally posted by Imp:

Originally posted by author:

psionics is powerful in many ways but make sure you already set default rights to "soldiers only" because you will so rarely find your own psychic species in the leader pool

But why not make all species psyonic? after you get trancendence, you can assimilate non-psionic pops into psyonic ones.

have you seen how many species you end up having in your empire? its never ending as the aliens gene mod aswell so you have x10 versions of each species, well over 250 to click through and 20 more within a year or 2 lol screw that, like i said dont risk your leaderpools getting contaminated you will regret it.

You can cherry pick certain species if they have brainslugs or are cyborgs or somthing then change their rights as you wish, but on the whole you keep default rights to soldiers only so all the new species cannot contaminate your leaderpools without your input.

[Leoscar]

Both are bad. Defender of the galaxy is a wasted slot, never ever pick it unless you're doing crisis strengh x25 shenanigans or something.

Psyonic ascension path can give you good stuff, the most notable being the ship components, a immortal personnality of your choice, and the "deals". But it's also the one ascension path that's very random, you will often get nothing or malus.

[Azunai]

the real question should be whether to pick mind over matter (and later transcendance - makes no sense to stop psi ascencion half way) or to pick one of the other 2 branches which require gene tailoring / droids tech to unlock.

i kinda like psionic because it has decent rewards for low effort. psi jump drives are great, psi computers are also good (basically a "sidegrade" compared to sapient AI computers)
the psi corps building is also useful (+5 stability and 2 telepath jobs that are basically deluxe version of enforcers), but can only be built on mature colonies (IIRC size 80 for the prerequisite level 3 planet capital)
psi armies mop the floor with generic defense armies, but the same can be said about android armies and gene warriors.
leader buffs are decent, pop bonuses are OK (energy, research, some happiness). fully gene modded pops and synth pops are overall more powerful, though.


imo defender isn't worth picking for the tiny relations bonus and the actual main bonus (combat bonus vs. crisis ships) doesn't come into play until you hit endgam, so no point picking it early. you *might* consider using the last ascencion perk for defender if you already have all the toys you wanted to unlock.

[Danny]

Psionic, praise RNGesus!
The one true god!

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by Nom noms:

Originally posted by Imp:

But why not make all species psyonic? after you get trancendence, you can assimilate non-psionic pops into psyonic ones.

have you seen how many species you end up having in your empire? its never ending as the aliens gene mod aswell so you have x10 versions of each species, well over 250 to click through and 20 more within a year or 2 lol screw that, like i said dont risk your leaderpools getting contaminated you will regret it.

You can cherry pick certain species if they have brainslugs or are cyborgs or somthing then change their rights as you wish, but on the whole you keep default rights to soldiers only so all the new species cannot contaminate your leaderpools without your input.

There's no need for that. Simply dont give them full citizenship or keep them as slaves. Soldiers only? I dont see why.

[randomuser1123456789]

Originally posted by Nom noms:

psionics is powerful in many ways but make sure you already set default rights to "soldiers only" because you will so rarely find your own psychic species in the leader pool it gets tedious quick, so at the beginning of every game you need to set default rights to soldiers only so other species dont contaminate your leaderpool later in the game.

if its a choice of those two then definately go psionics although it does cost 2 ascension perks to get full capabilities such as shroud buffs.

You can assimilate species

[randomuser1123456789]

Originally posted by Azunai:

the real question should be whether to pick mind over matter (and later transcendance - makes no sense to stop psi ascencion half way) or to pick one of the other 2 branches which require gene tailoring / droids tech to unlock.

i kinda like psionic because it has decent rewards for low effort. psi jump drives are great, psi computers are also good (basically a "sidegrade" compared to sapient AI computers)
the psi corps building is also useful (+5 stability and 2 telepath jobs that are basically deluxe version of enforcers), but can only be built on mature colonies (IIRC size 80 for the prerequisite level 3 planet capital)
psi armies mop the floor with generic defense armies, but the same can be said about android armies and gene warriors.
leader buffs are decent, pop bonuses are OK (energy, research, some happiness). fully gene modded pops and synth pops are overall more powerful, though.


imo defender isn't worth picking for the tiny relations bonus and the actual main bonus (combat bonus vs. crisis ships) doesn't come into play until you hit endgam, so no point picking it early. you *might* consider using the last ascencion perk for defender if you already have all the toys you wanted to unlock.

Andriod armies suck lets be real

[Azunai]

Originally posted by randomuser1123456789:

Andriod armies suck lets be real

last time i used them they were basically the equivalent of the other special armies (gene warriors / psionics). didn't pay attention to what happened in the meantime. wiki doesn't even list android army as its own type any more. no idea what happened there.

guess it doesn't really matter. army power isn't such a big deal either way.