Tier List: All 97 Doctrines

[WinSlaya]

Greetings commanders!

As requested by a comment on one of my guides on the stream, I am posting my tier lists here to the discussions, to make it easier for new players to find them.

If you want to watch the video version, here is the link:

https://youtu.be/1SPYvJaVbrY

FULL DISCLAIMER: My tier lists were put together using my preferences and playstyles that I have developed over the past 9 months of playing planetfall. I have a lot more experience with some doctrines than others, and I did ask others a few questions about the doctrines that I am less familiar with. If you have any strong opinions about where they doctrines should go, please keep that in mind, and know that this is a general guide to help new players understand why I choose to use some doctrines over others. With that being said, I want to encourage the discussion of my tier list, so please feel free to let me know what you would change in the comments down below. Likewise, if you do agree with my assessment, then I would find it helpful to hear those thoughts as well.

In this post, I will cover how to use my tier list, and my plans for future tier lists.

(I'm having issue posting the complete tier list image here, so here is a link to a copy of this post: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/tier-list-all-97-doctrines.1373602/)

General Explanation:

Doctrines in the S tier are what I consider the best in the game. Doctrines in A tier are slightly less useful than the ones in S tier. Doctrines in B tier are slightly worse than those in C tier. Doctrines in D tier are my least favorite, and what I would recommend you avoid, expect in a few very specific situations. For example, Inner communion only allows every one of your units to carry a single extra charge of essence, which is fairly negligible, unless you heavily invest in a strategy that generates essence quickly, then it can be okay. Doctrine that are further left within each tier are better than the doctrines that are to the right of them.


Legend Explanation:

Doctrines with a number on the top left corner can be research in the tech tree. The number represents how far down the tech tree a doctrine is. Noble Diplomats has a 1, because it can be research from the beginning of the game. Divine Legion has a 7, because it is a "tier 7' technology (it is 7 slots from left, requiring that other doctrines are researched before it is).

Doctrines with NPC written on the top left corner are doctrines that are unlocked by befriending a NPC faction, like the Growth or the Psi-fish.

Doctrines with a E on the top left corner are doctrines which are unlocked by completing empire quests.

Doctrines with a L on the top left corner are doctrines which are unlocked by clearing a landmark.

Doctrines with the blue arrow and a circle on the top right corner are doctrines than can get significantly better with the use of other doctrines or strategies that synergise with it. With that synergy, those doctrines can be consider as good as the doctrines in the tier above them.

Doctrines with the two swords on the bottom right corner do extra damage to specific unit types.



How to use this Information:

You only get access to 7 doctrine slots in Planetfall (Syndicate get 8 doctrine slots), so you only want to pick doctrines that you think you are going to use for a while or the rest of the game, making your decision on which doctrines you use one of the most important decisions in a game. If a doctrine you want to use is further down on the list make sure you are passing up on an better option. It maybe that a doctrine that I ranked lowly will benefit you a lot more than one I ranked highly, so use your best judgment. (for example, Indentured Contracts may save you a lot more energy per turn than Noble Diplomats makes for you in a turn)


Future Doctrine Tier Lists:

I will revisit this topic as new doctrines are introduced, but only after I have had a bit of time to play around with them. I will likely cover the shakarn doctrines in 4 or 5 weeks from now.

Oh and I do want to add the landmark doctrines to the next version of the tier list, but they don't show up in the imperial archive, so I don't know what all of them do. Something tells me that they are all S or A tier, but I want to place them in the right place within the tiers if I am going to add them to my tier list.


If you enjoyed reading this, then maybe you could do me a favor, and like the video on YT as well as leave a comment. Cya around!

[WinSlaya]

Vanguard Doctrines:

Hearts and Minds (A Tier)
I like this doctrine because absorbing colonies is the best option (when conquering another commander), and with this it gets even better. Getting more influence from quests will allow you to buy more from NPC factions, integrating them faster. I almost put this in the S tier.
Frontier Survival (B Tier)
I like this doctrine because getting more food in all of your colonies let's you get more pops quickly.
Planetary Conquest (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay, because you get +200 popular support, which reduces the upkeep of your units allowing your economy to support larger armies.
Colony Militia (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay, because making it cheaper to recruit units is useful, but usually not worth spending a doctrine slot on.
Big Stick Diplomacy (D Tier)
This doctrine is bad, because it makes it so being evil/starting war no longer give a reputation penalty, which won't really matter. After you win your second war, most AI commanders will want to attack you regardless.
Integrated Support (D Tier)
This doctrine is bad, because casting an operation on the 1st turn doesn't open up that many new strategies.. you can use it to rush down fights a tiny bit quicker.


Dvar Doctrines:

Fortification Efforts (A Tier)
I like this doctrine because reducing the cost of colony militia upgrades by 30%, giving colony turrets +3 armor and all colony militia +10 health makes playing defensive even more viable. Removes all upkeep from defensive structures! The AI love wasting units attacking annexed sectors. (+1 with synergy)
Revised Safety Regulation (A Tier)
I like this doctrine because it reduces the cost of building by 20%. Pairs nicely with the Builder empire quest doctrine, which also reduces the cost of buildings. (+1 with synergy, building lots of heavily fortified colonies)
Native Displacement Act (A Tier)
I like this doctrine because it reduces the cost to move independent armies, which cost influence. The impact of saving influence is that you will be able to buy settlements earlier in the game, as well as clear out sites, and you won't have to choose between those two options as often. Having more influence also means you can buy more from NPC dwellings. (+1 with peaceful synergies/strategies)
Cosmite Collection Program (B Tier)
I like this doctrine because it increases the income of cosemite nodes by 20%, which will allow you to apply more mods more often, but eventually you will probably find that you have more cosemite than what you know what to do with.
Chrysocracy (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay because all colonies get +2 energy per worker but each colony also loses 10 happiness. A worker can make roughly +5 energy or +5 happiness, so this doctrine is only good if you have on average more than 5 workers per colony. Gets much better the more large colonies that you own. (+1 with synergy)
Military-Industrial Complex (D Tier)
I don't like this doctrine because it only makes rushing units 25% cheaper, and reduces the upkeep of heavy units by 35%. That won't save you very much energy. (+1 with synergy)


Kir'ko Doctrines:

Hive’s Embrace (A Tier)
I like this doctrine, because getting +2 influence for every non-kir’ko colony is massive, and doubling the rewards from happiness event is pretty nice too. The only problem I have with it is how late in the tech tree it is (low accessibility) (+1 when you have more than 1 non-kir’ko colony/ +1 with synergy)
Planetary Swarm (A Tier)
I like this doctrine, because reducing the upkeep on kir’ko units by 35% will allow your economy to support a lot more units. Reducing the cost of recruiting light units is nice too. (+1 with synergy)
Act of Reconciliation (B Tier)
I like this doctrine, because you get a lot of influence out of this doctrines.
Preserving the Future (B Tier)
This doctrine is good, because having extra food growth (+20%) means you can more pops faster/get more production from workers and can annex more sectors more often.
Dream Sharing (B Tier)
This doctrine is good, because the kir'ko benefit a lot from leveling up, as their race focuses on expanding quickly and then using that momentum against other commanders. But extra experience does nothing once your units hit prime rank. (+1 with synergy/early combat)
Act of Retribution (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay, because getting a 10% damage boost to non-kirko units applies to so many units, but it is not as valuable as the benefits from other doctrines. (maybe +1 against certain opponents)


Assembly Doctrines:

Scavengers (S Tier)
This doctrine is amazing, because it increases the rewards from clearing structures, which is something you will do a lot in just about every game of planetfall. I like rushing to implement this doctrine before I clear out any structures. (+1 with synergy/early investment)
Battlefield Autopsies (A Tier)
This doctrine is good because it allows you to power through you tech trees in the early game. (+1 with synergy/heavy investment)
The Great Harvest (A Tier)
This doctrine is good because it gives 5 food and 10 production for enemy units killed, multiplied by their tier. This doctrine will give you great late game production for finishing off tougher opponents.
Re-cycle of Life (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay, because it allows you to recover a bit of the energy used to build a friendly unit when it dies. You get 25 energy per friendly unit that dies, which is multiplied by the tier of the unit, and, on top of that, cyborg units get +400 morale. Moved from B to C. (+1 with synergy)
Connected Society (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay, because getting 1 extra research per worker for 4 unhappiness on every colony is valuable as long as you have on average more than 4 pops in your colonies, and that only gets more valuable the bigger your colonies are. It is a very minor boost, and, unless you don’t have better doctrines to enact, it is not really worth the doctrine slot. (+1 with synergy/a wide empire)


Amazon Doctrines:

Ecological Construction (S Tier)
This doctrine is amazing, because getting a +10 boost to production for every forest makes forests as valuable as rivers, meaning you should annex sectors with forests unless the other sectors available to you provide cosmite or a free exploitation (i.e. landmarks).
Advanced Wildlife Militarization (A Tier)
This doctrine is great, because giving your animal units more hp, experience gain, and morale will make those already amazing units even better. Will make it easier to level them up to get them to evolve. (+1 with lots of animal units)
Progressive Cultivation (B Tier)
This doctrine is good, because getting a boost to food production is almost as good as production, but regular production is a bit more valuable. Having a bit more food is less likely to grow a pop faster, than having more production is likely to reduce the number of turns it takes to make a building or a unit. Rushing production is expensive too.
Arboreal Eden (B Tier)
This doctrine is good, because it makes forest even better than they already are for the amazon. (+1 with lots of forests inside your empire).
Ecological Warfare (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay, because it can help you improve your combat effectiveness by applying poison, which lower enemy morale, leading to them missing their attacks
Bio Crusade (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay, because doing +20% damage to mechanical and cyborg units is a big boost to damage, but only in specific circumstances. Now, gives frenzy your melee attacks (+2 when fighting certain opponents/ commanders with that uses mechanical and/or cyborg units)


Psynumbra Doctrines:

Initiation Rites (A Tier)
This doctrine is great, because giving all psynumbra units an extra rank as well as the ability to summon in a weak unit when it falls in battle is an effect that is better than a lot of the effects that the buildings from landmarks give to units recruited from the colony with that landmark.
Torture Regimes (A Tier)
This doctrine is great because dealing +20% psi damage is fantastic for this ST as all of its units have high dps and deal psi damage.
Sinister Chant (B Tier)
This doctrine is good because lowering enemy morale and their psi res will allow psynumbra units to deal more damage, as well as take advantage of more pysnumbra status effects. (+1 with synergy)
Sadistic Indoctrination (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay, because dealing extra damage to units with low morale is useless by myself, but the psynumbra focus heavily on lower their enemies morale. (+1 with synergy)



Synthesis Doctrines:

Worker Integration (S Tier)
This doctrine is amazing because getting more energy and production per worker on that job is useful for all synthesis playstyles and builds.
Total War Automation (A Tier)
This doctrine is great, because giving all mechanical and cyborg unit an extra rank and reducing this energy cost by 20% is better than a lot of the effects that the buildings from landmarks give to units recruited from the colony with that landmark.
Society 2.0 (B Tier)
This doctrine is good because you have to invest a lot of energy early on to make this profitable (maybe run though how long it might take to get a turn on it.. My Kirko synthesis playthrough could serve as an example) (+1 with synergy)
Organized Cyber Divisions (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay, because this doctrine costs energy to make things like stealing energy cost a tiny bit less influence. I have had a lot of success ignoring covert operations entirely, but I could see this being somewhat useful in a multiplayer setting. (+1 with synergy)


Heritor Doctrines:

Divine Legion (A Tier)
This doctrine is great because giving your drained resurgence, +2 shields, and allowing them to carry two more essence charges is useful at all stages of the game. Combine with empowered drained and/or the doomsday tech for amazing results. (+1 with synergy)
City of the Awakened (A Tier)
This doctrine is great because lowering the cost to get more workers is great until you get to the late game, then its ok. Getting +20 happiness is alway great.
Technoclast Crusade (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay, because the boost to damage against machine units is significant, but only useful when fights mechanical or cyborg units. So can be useful when clearing out certain archaeology sites, landmarks, or for fighting Commanders with Assembly units, and/or autonom units (+1 or +2 against certain opponents)
Inner Communion (D Tier)
I don't like this doctrine, because allowing all units to carry an extra essence charge can be accomplished through heritors mods that come with additional effects, and is not worth a doctrine slot. (+1 with Synergy)


Xenoplague Doctrines:

Biomatter Preparation Training (B Tier)
This doctrine is good because it will allow you to get a lot more free pustules units.
Organic Mutation Research (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay because getting more research is nice, but not worth pursuing as it costs a lot of research to unlock this doctrine, and then it takes up a doctrine slot. That research could have gone elsewhere and given you a tactical advantage a long time ago
Forced Infection (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay because increasing the rate in which you spawn and evolve xenoplague units will help you get awesome units if you make lots of bad units and then let them die in combat. You have to invest a lot in this strategy to get it to work, but it can work (+1 with synergy)
Biomatter Scavenger (D Tier)
I don't like this doctrine because it only heals a little bit, and it's really not that hard to keep your units near full health most of the time.


Voidtech Doctrines:

Echo Protocols (A Tier)
This doctrine is great because you will get a lot of resource production from this in the mid to late game. (+1 with synergy)
Quantum Energy Tapping (B Tier)
This doctrine is good because you will get a lot of production from this in the mid to late game. (+1 with synergy)
The Quantum Project (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay because getting more research is nice, but you can get a lot of your research from anomalies now.
Preventative Surveillance (D Tier)
I don't like this doctrine, because while knowing what your enemy is up to is nice, getting a tiny boost to vision range using a doctrine slot is a waste of the doctrine slot.


Promethean Doctrines:

Phoenix Defense Protocols (A Tier)
This doctrine is great because getting +2 armor on all units inside your border will allow a lot of your units to take a lot more damage before they die, and getting +6 operation defense on top of that makes this doctrine A tier, almost S tier. Slightly less good when fighting against enemies with psionic damage. Moved from S to A after comparing to other S and A tiers. (+1 with synergy/investment)
Phoenix Armament Protocols (A Tier)
This doctrine is great because making promethean units cheaper is a great way to build multiple stack earlier in the game. (+1 or +2 with synergy)
Extermination Protocols (A Tier)
This doctrine is great because very few things boost damage done by all unit by 10% without any other conditions to fulfill (like enlightenment) (+1 against certain opponents)
Phoenix Colonization Protocols (C Tier)
This doctrine is okay because it allows you to settle in a sector that you would have to put off too much later in the game otherwise. Not really worth taking up one of your early game doctrine slot.

[RafalBla]

Quality!!! Honestly, I really appreciate what you are doing. Thank you!

[Percopius]

Geez, good job!

[AnemoneMeer]

A fair few things here aren't remotely accurate I feel. Siren's Canticle is amazing in very specific builds and setups and honestly earns its slot and then some in builds that rely on Happiness stacking. Syndicate Happyness stack for example can easily generate gigantic piles of resources from stacking Bread & Circuses with Siren's Canticle with the various happiness buildings. Most notably, this can generate free cosmite and with population manipulation, can basically fire every single turn. City of the Awakened, Siren's Canticle, Bread & Circuses is +38 happiness and the resulting synergy between them. The highest happiness requirement a colony has for Happiness events is 70. the resulting chain firing of happiness events can easily result in an overwhelming resource advantage and thus City of the Awakened moves to S tier easy (it's key in any happiness abuse strategy), and Siren's canticle should be marked as being one tier higher/better with synergy (+6 globally is weighty for ST's that don't get easy happiness management and it's strong in happiness abuse strats).

Technoclast Crusade is disgusting and the very idea that it's at C is a complete joke. Entropic Decay is a damage over time effect, can stack up to 5 times, grants weakness to its damage type, and most importantly, TECHNOCLAST CRUSADE IS NOT REDUCED BY REPEATING ATTACKS. Let me reiterate that. YOUR BASIC VANGUARD TROOPER GETS THREE 8 STRENGTH SHOTS OF THIS. Except it's even better than that because every single time it lands, the chance of it landing becomes higher. I've watched two Syndicate indentured junk an Earth Crusher because of this. It also works on all Synthesis units, but vs most factions and some neutrals, this lets unmodded T1's gank T4 units. It's not universally applicable, but if it was, it would literally make all ST's but Heritor irrelevant. Use with unmodded repeating unit swarms (Syndicate/Vanguard T1s) and watch the cost effective hilarity. It's too situational to be S tier, but it's easily A tier simply because when you get a situation where it applies, it can carry the day.

Inner Communion is a B tier doctrine. It's simple and basic, but Heritor finds endless value in it. It's +1 shields with Essence Shields. +100 Morale with Acolyte. +5 damage with Conduit. +30% accuracy with Confiscator (Really it's overkill at this point, but it lets you snipe hidden who are in cover, so hey),. +8 damage to Explusion (expulsion with 5 charges is a sight to behold btw, 44 damage before any other effects), +2 maximum free EXP to your drained. +5 damage to Es'Teq Judgement. +6 healing from Sacrament of Vitality. +10% damage boost from Sacrament of Decay (You can SERIOUSLY abuse this for massive siphoner nukes) and +10% damage just for having 1 more essence if you cap out. The fact it only does anything once you stack to max Essence holds it down from A tier, but it's extremely good and honestly... you turn it on and never take it off. Those bonuses add up and Heritor is all about hitting hard and killing things before they close to melee and get past your shield stack. Hitting harder just plain helps with that. It's no gamechanger, but it is a game advancer.

Divine Legion is C tier at best. It looks really good on paper, but it comes online late and honestly it's a win-more doctrine. It won't help you if you're behind, as drained die fast and aren't likely to get good conversions before that unless you're expressly winning fights by a good enough margin that you can risk grabbing T3's with it. After it, those conversions are free, but you still need drained alive to benefit from this, and if you don't already have stacks of them, this isn't gonna do much for you. If you do, you probably don't need resurgence to keep them alive with how much you're winning that you can afford condemned to drain spam. Mind rebirth is also too low probability to really work at a single colony level (Final Rapture/Divine Legion is hilarious, but you've already won by that point). All in all, it doesn't help when you're behind. Won't break a deadlock. And makes you run away with games you're doing well in. It's a win more doctrine, and win more doctrines are less valuable.

Reawaken the Sanctorum is A tier. 20% cheaper siphoners adds up FAST. This has a special synergy with Syndicate, who can get Indentured Siphoners via control collars, who cost less upkeep, and making them cheaper to produce as well leads to Siphoner flooding, which is a very efficient tactic. Getting this early also allows you to rush High Lord and Lord Incarnation, which is DISGUSTINGLY effective on a hero (No, seriously. Try a High Lord Hero with Lord Incarnation, Confiscator and Conduit, they're incredible and can level entire battlefields singlehandedly)

Indentured Contracts is A tier. Because most T1 and T2 units can be control collared, and Overseers can disseminate psionic buffs across all your indentured at the same time via mods, the amount of money it causes you to save in a Syndicate army is gigantic. I have run armies of 5 soldier bees with slave collars and one overseer and paid a fraction of the upkeep of what it cost to field it. I've done Siphoners with the same tactic, costs nothing kills everything. Purifiers are pre-indentured, so unmodded purifiers are T2's with the price tag of T1's who can murder T3's when backed by an overseer. The sheer amount of money this saves you is jawdropping if you learn to lean into it.

Indentured Servitude is D tier. Honestly. I'd put it at F tier atm. F-. Dear god this is bad. Production in Planetfall is useful, but it's not mandatory. Energy can be substituted for production for anything you need and it is typically best to purchase with energy for all your main needs and just let production act on the backburner. 40% is nice, sure, but the happiness loss is especially painful for Syndicate, as Syndicate gets the best tools to Happiness abuse. Moreover, it's all colony, which makes any colony that is struggling with Happiness (volcanic sectors say hi) garbage, and prevents happiness abuse (Which Syndicate excels at). It also comes online extremely late into the game. If this was targeted per colony, it would be AMAZING, because you could set it up on a dedicated production colony. But as it stands now, it tanks your happiness on your energy colonies and your science colonies and your food colonies (not that you particularly care for their happiness value), all of which want happiness more than production so that they roll events that give massive amounts of their resource. It looks great on paper, but Syndicate is best played using happiness abuse strats atm, and this kills that. Oh, and it's a T9 Doctrine that kills it. Yeah. It's bad. Would be beastly if it was targeted.

Deep Infiltration is A tier. It costs 6 Op points to infiltrate. Just 6. You can cast this multiple times per turn until it lands. And you don't care if it's detected because you're killing them anyway. In exchange, you get a 20% damage boost. Just straight 20% more damage. For doing something you probably were gonna do anyway. Can't argue with just straight up more damage for free.

[AnemoneMeer]

Additionally, depending on faction/setup, energy massing is huge. Dvar for example should be energy massing hard later because the combined potential cost reduction to instant purchases with energy in late/endgame can let them absolutely flood elite units. A lot of this tier list reads as putting too much priority on production and too little on energy purchases. Production in Planetfall is unlikely to reach the point of being able to one-turn T4's, while a robust energy economy can do so. Furthermore, due to sector limits (max 2 of one type per colony) and synergy values, it is extremely effective to have your production and food colonies churn out large amounts of energy, which is then processed into your elite units via a Research/Energy/Production/Orbital colony that gets increased unit stats, cheaper purchases, and higher starting level on your units that you are buying every turn.

[WinSlaya]

AnemoneMeer

not sure if you missed it, but I marked doctrines that become much better if you invest in certain strategy with an icon, but their initial placement is mostly based off what it does by itself. (admittedly Indentured Contracts does more by itself than Noble Diplomats, but like for me I 100% always ally up with the first NPC faction, and its returns are quite big for how early you can get it, and I really prefer the syndicate none indentured units [runner, enforcer, and mirage] over the basic indentured. If you lean into being a good guy as Syndicate, I feel like you get better options than leaning into being a bad guy).

Oh and the swords symbol on the icon for the Technoclaust Crusade icon means that if you use it against the right opponents then its is better than C tier, putting it in either B or maybe even A tier. In my notes I even put: (+1 or +2 against certain opponents).

Like my disclaimer said, my placement is based of my experiences, and I appreciate your input :)