Best breakthrough?

[Alex]

in my first lap I had 2 breakthroughs that I missed sorely in my current lap.
- Service bots
- and automated fusion reactors.

I have to admit, I don't miss these breakthroughs as I currently occupy every job I have, I even disable upgrades that reduce the number of workers so that fewer colonists are unemployed.

I currently consider the "semi-automatic mines" to be the best breakthrough.
50% output with 0% colonists gives me the opportunity to operate mines without domes and without mods. That's really worth a lot.

What are the best breakthroughs for you that you would love not to be without?

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

I love the Superior pipes/cables breakthroughs, no build cost and no breakage in disasters/meteor strikes.

Autonomous mines plus nano refinement is a lovely combo though, infinite workforce free mines.

[Alex]

Originally posted by Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia:

I love the Superior pipes/cables breakthroughs, no build cost and no breakage in disasters/meteor strikes.

Thx. Yes annoying but is usually done quickly if you have enough drones in use.
I always have good reserves so that it never became critical.

Originally posted by Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia:

Autonomous mines plus nano refinement is a lovely combo though, infinite workforce free mines.

That sounds like a dream combination

[Bobucles]

All the free labor techs are great. Resource techs and drone buffs are kinda "meh". Colonist buffs are solid and plentiful. New gameplay options are great.

Superconducting research + eternal fusion is a great combo. The first one can change your entire game, and with EZ power it's free real estate.
Extractor AI lets you mine the map without using a single dome. You can even make money at 0 colonists with rare metal spots. Fantastic tech. Combo with Nano refinement.
Diamond or oval dome are both great unlocks.
Rapid sleep is a great sanity boost for punished colonists. Safe mode similarly lets coloinsts be pushed hard. There's several performance boosting things that add up.

[TazmanianD]

Originally posted by Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia:

I love the Superior pipes/cables breakthroughs, no build cost and no breakage in disasters/meteor strikes.

Yeah, I like this one as well. Makes it very practical to just connect all of your locations with pipes so you only have a single network to deal with.

[DavidWebb]

depends who you play with. For me, as i always struggle with colonists, forever young is brilliant. Of course if you play with the church, this is rather useless. Superior Cables and pipes are always good. Also the one where you dont need colonists in the reactor to work is ecellent.
I think you cant tell whats best. Depends on you.

[Wastefield]

Overcharged Amplifications makes a nice effect on research especially - while it increases effectiveness of the "Amplify" upgrades on every building that has them, it boosts Network Node Spire and Hawking Institute together even further! A well-staffed Node then reaches over 60% boost which multiplies the already-multiplied Hawking Institute which has its own overcharged Amplify and which also even has the highest baseline Amplify effect (+50% without breakthrough) to start with... Not that you'd really need much more research mid-late game but it's still cool to see your colonists' production cranked up to max! :)

[yupthisrlyismysn]

I definitely feel that Extractor AI is the most useful, game-changing breakthrough. I've never had it in combination with Nano-refinement but that's a dream combo.
Close second would be Forever Young, just to make seniors less annoying.
I agree with @Bobucles that oval and diamond domes are great, once I get them they're all I want to build even though they're expensive.
On my current playthrough I got Neo-Concrete and Martian Steel, and generally I think anything that makes building domes cheaper is great
I don't think it's the best or anything, but I really like Artificial Muscles because it makes my little drones into stronkbois.