Ascension Perks Guide

A simple guide to assist with selecting Ascension Perks in Stellaris version 3.6 "Orion"

Intro

Here you'll find a comprehensive tier list of all Ascension Perks in the game as of 3.8 "Gemini", as well as a general assessment of their usefulness. THIS IS NOT A TIER LIST, more so a guide intended to help in choosing Ascension Perks based on my 1000+ hours of experience (as of writing this). Please comment if you see any errors I may have made or corrections that feel should be added.

Tier 0 Perks

Tier 0 perks: Ascension Perks that do not require the selection of other Ascension Perks to unlock

• Archaeo-Engineers
  Added to the Ancient Relics DLC as part of the Canis Minor 2.7 patch, this gives some broad bonuses to the various Ancient weapons and components that were also added in the patch.
  PROS
  • Solid bonuses to already fantastic components
    
  • Boosts Archaeostudy buildings such as Ancient Refinery and Vultaum Reality Center
  CONS
  • Doesn't help with the primary feature that limits Archaeotech components: the tiny artifact pool. A full archaeotech fleet is simply not practical.
  
  
• Consecrated Worlds
  Solid Ascension Perk only available to Spiritualists. In exchange for a paltry amount of unity and making a world de facto uninhabitable, you get some bonuses based on the "holiness" of the world.
  PROS
  • For only 500 unity, can get solid bonuses out of planets that would otherwise make bad colonization choices due to habitability
    
  • Amenities boost can offset some of the penalties from the Repugnant trait, early development of Specialists, and lack of entertainment buildings, in addition to acting as a boost to happiness (and overall productivity)
    
  • Extra useful if you start near the Spiritualist Fallen Empire and have a sacred world in your borders; consecrating a sacred world gets you Holy World bonuses on a planet you are unlikely to be able to colonize until the late game
    
  • Easy way to grow the Spiritualist Faction, if you're wanting them to become more dominant in your Empire
  CONS
  • Have to be some degree of Spiritualist, restricting your robotic/synthetic options
    
  • Generally speaking, good Consecrated Worlds are also good candidates for colonization, and can directly compete with your expansion options
    
  • Unity, Amenities and Spiritualist Attraction are already pretty easy for Spiritualist empires to get, with their access to Priests and certain events
    
  • One Vision provides similar bonuses, but without any costs or ethic requirements
  
  
• Detox
  A new perk released in the Fornax patch, this one allows you to terraform certain uninhabitable toxic worlds found in your adventures.
  PROS
  • One of the only ways in the vanilla game to convert a completely uninhabitable planet into something useful
    
  • Solid pick with Toxoids and 2-3 terraforming candidates
  CONS
  • Highly situational, can easily be skipped if there aren't any great terraforming candidates
  
  
• Eternal Vigilance
  This Perk gets a lot of flak, and the reasons are clear. It doesn't actually give anything "new" to your empire, like many of the others at this level, and the boosts don't really put starbases at a level where they can really hold their own. That being said, can still be useful.
  PROS
  • Good synergy with the Unyielding tradition, can provide enough of a boost to fend of small to medium fleets even in the late game with little to no fleet support
    
  • THE turtle ascension perk, with good choke points can compensate for an under-developed or crippled fleet
    
  • Can be really useful early game for protection and useful mid/late game for some extra firepower when luring crises into choke points
  CONS
  • Situational, there are almost always better options available
    
  • Fleets are generally a better use of alloys than starbases, and alloys are seldom an abundant resource
    
  • Still won't make your starbases strong enough to defend choke points on their own
  
  
• Executive Vigor
  This perk is very straight-forward, and I can't really give it much of grading. Edicts can be really good, but their usage often comes down to personal preferences. A good way to think of this perk is that it's +100 free unity, but unity that can only be used for edicts. If you want to focus on edicts, this is a great perk, otherwise it can easily be skipped.
  
  
• Galactic Wonders
  What is this doing here? It can really be your very first Ascension Perk? Turns out, it can...although I wouldn't recommend waiting for it to be your first. All of megastructures unlocked by this perk are fantastic, and there aren't many games where this is a bad pick.
  PROS
  • Dyson Sphere and Matter Decompressor can easily make energy and minerals a non-issue for the rest of the game, allowing your economy to run massive deficits
    
  • Ring Worlds are one of the best habitable locations in the entire game, especially useful in the late game to dump excess pops. Even better if your empire accepts refugees, since ring worlds are 100% habitable to everyone
  CONS
  • Not particularly useful if there are <50 years left in the game, since the building times will make getting noticeable benefits out of the megastructures difficult
    
  • With the penalties to pop growth in larger empires, Ring Worlds can be difficult to fill up to the point of usefulness in the late game
    
  • Require sizable alloy investments at a stage of the game where you'll also be wanting to build and maintain several huge fleets
  
  
• Hydrocentric
  Introduced with the Aquatics pack, this one is tailor-made for the new playstyle the Aquatics Species pack provided. Fantastic choice if you meet the steep requirements.
  PROS
  • Makes the Aquatic trait and Ocean worlds incredibly strong
    
  • Unlocks a special Colossus weapon that drowns planets and turns them into ocean worlds, should you also pick up the Colossus Project perk
    
  • Ice mining is one of the few ways to increase planet size
  CONS
  • Has the most specific requirements of all Ascension Perks, and essentially requires you to build your primary species just so you can take this perk.
  
  
• Imperial Perogative
  Since the changes to empire sprawl, this perk underwent a rework and now cuts the administrative burden of new colonies by half. Unavailable to Megacorps
  PROS
  • Couples really well with the Expansion tradition to make rapid colonization less costly
    
  • Negates the penalties to empire size all machine intelligences suffer
    
  • Great for wide builds with lots of colonies
  CONS
  • Not very useful for tall builds with few colonies
    
  • Doesn't reduce the burden of pops or districts, both of which will likely be a far greater contributor to empire size than colonies
    
  • The penalties Empire Sprawl provide aren't particularly significant anymore, and can be countered by simply producing more technology and unity
  
  
• Interstellar Dominion
  This perk is all about expansion, and is a great pick for a wide and/or aggressive build that struggle with influence. Much less useful since the empire sprawl rework.
  PROS
  • Useful for all types of expansion, especially early game, either in unclaimed space or through placing claims on neighbors
    
  • Allows influence to be used for more things rather than just expansion
    
  • Makes claiming the empty space left over from clearing crises much easier
    
  • Good choice for Void Dwellers or other habitat-heavy builds, allowing you to stretch influence further
  CONS
  • Useless for Total Wars
    
  • Tall Empires or slower expansion strategies get little benefit
    
  • Since the Unity/Empire Sprawl rework, influence has become a lot less valuable, making this ascension perk far more situational
  
  

Tier 0 Perks (cnt)

• Lord of War
  Allows you to establish additional Mercenary Enclaves and increases the regular payout you get from said enclaves. Requires Overlord DLC
  PROS
  • Good synergy with many militarist playstyles, as mercenary enclaves will already be fairly easy to make
    
  • The increased diplomatic weight from fleets makes bullying others much easier
  CONS
  • Pretty much useless if you're not using mercenary enclaves, the extra diplomatic weight is not worth it
  
  
• Mastery of Nature
  An interesting perk, it allows you to spend some influence to make your planets "bigger" by adding two districts, boosting a planet's productivity. Your planets will have to "build" the project once activated, but it doesn't take particularly long.
  PROS
  • Good for tall builds with few planets
    
  • Comes with a significant (if ultimately minor) reduction on blocker removal
  CONS
  • Can only be used on planets, not habitable structures, and doesn't actually increase planet size for purposes of special planet designations (Penal colony, resort world, etc)
    
  • Generally only good as an early filler perk
  
  
• Nihlistic Acquisition
  All this perk does is grant access to the "Raiding" bombardment stance, which is largely a crappier version of Selective bombardment but with a huge chance to steal a pop. Cannot be chosen by Barbaric Despoilers, since they already have Raiding bombardment. Largely pick this one if you want to toy with the alternate playstyle Raiding encourages. Can actually be a really fun way to play, I'd highly recommend choosing this if you're looking for something a bit different.
  PROS
  • Can be a great way to bring slaves into your empire during wars without having to conquer planets, and can be a reliable source of population growth should you remember to use it
    
  • Acts as a semi-reliable (and fun) way to cripple neighbors aside from simply taking planets and territory
  CONS
  • Useless if your empire doesn't care or rely on slavery much
    
  • Raiding stance does minimal damage to armies and is terrible at preparing planets for invasion and conquest
    
  • Conquering planets is generally a more reliable way to grow your empire
  
  
• One Vision
  This is the go-to perk for increasing internal stability. The increased governing ethics attraction also acts as a secondary boost to unity growth, as your governing factions will also grow.
  PROS
  • The reduction in amenities use can make features like Repugnant more manageable or allow entertainment buildings to be skipped.
    
  • The flat bonus to unity growth is a lot more useful now that unity has more uses
    
  • Generally a better choice than Consecrated Worlds, unless you're really looking to grow the Spiritualist faction
    
  • Streamlines your faction representation a bit and can make conquering pops of opposite ethics, or switching to dramatically different ethics, easier
  CONS
  • Bonuses aren't that huge, and can be acquired from other sources
    
  • Internal stability is very rarely enough of an issue to justify this perk
  
  
• Shared Destiny
  The most useless Ascension Perk in the game has finally been given a worthy update! It's still not great, but can be a situational pick if you like using vassals and don't want to use the Feudal Society civic
  PROS
  • Great choice if you're planning to, or already have, several vassals. The envoys and removal of a loyalty penalty can go a long way to keeping troublesome vassals in line.
    
  • The monthly loyalty boost allows you a lot more freedom to put your preferred policies in your vassalization contracts
  CONS
  • Not a great choice if you're planning to assimilate all your vassals relatively quickly
    
  • The loyalty penalties for having several vassals can often be dealt with using clever vassal contract management
  
  
• Technological Ascendancy
  Oh boy, do people have opinions on this Perk! You'll find plenty of guides that claim this perk is an essential first pick, but I've finished far more games where I never picked Technological Ascendancy than games I have. It's still good, I just don't think it's good enough to justify an automatic first-pick.
  PROS
  • The flat boost to tech is really good, largely because technology is always fantastic. A mild difference in tech can drastically change the outcome of wars, and there's almost never a situation where having more tech would be bad.
  CONS
  • That 50% bonus to finding rare techs is not that good, changing a 1% chance to 1.5%. That's still a tiny chance for rare techs to pop up, changing a 1/100 chance into 1/67.
    
  • Even without this perk, it's pretty easy to get ahead of the AI with a few research-focused planets
  
  
• Transcendent Learning
  Updated in 3.8 for the new Leader system, it now adds 2 to your leader cap and +25%xp gain. Solid early pick, the increased xp gain can help you field more leaders over the cap as it offsets the learning penalties.
  
  
• Universal Transactions
  The only Megacorp-only Ascension Perk, this one doesn't need much of an explanation. Arguably a must-pick for Megacorporations, it makes the branch offices (and commercial pacts) much cheaper. Unless you're not using branch offices as a Megacorp (why?!?), this perk is an incredible early pick.
  
  There are two scenarios where this perk is a poor choice:
  
  • 1) The nearby galaxy is filled with other Megacorps, making competition for branch offices fierce to the point that influence is not your limiting factor for expansion
    
  • 2) The nearby galaxy is dominated by Gestalt Conciousnesses, Inward Perfectionists, Fanatic Purifiers, or other empires that don't allow branch offices on their planets
  
  
• Voidborne
  A nice perk, should you choose to use it. Habitability bonuses and building slots are difficult to find, and this should be a mandatory pick for the Void Dweller origin.
  PROS
  • Doubles the base building slots of Orbital Habitats, and makes Administrative or Research Habitats far more viable
    
  • The +20% habitability boost provides a noticeable output bonus to habitats
  CONS
  • Useless if you don't use many habitats
    
  • Being able to build habitation buildings isn't that good, the Habitation District provides comparable housing without using a valuable building slot
  
  
• Xeno-Compatibility
  A xenophile-only Ascension Perk, it allows the creation of hybrid alien races, and boosts immigration and pop growth. Actually a pretty great early perk choice, assuming you have researched Gene Tailoring.
  PROS
  • Hybrid pops get a free modification point and an extra slot. The extra slot is huge, there is nothing else in the entire game that can give you this.
    
  • Stays good throughout the game, providing native pop growth early on, and making up for many pop growth penalties in the late game through immigration
  CONS
  • Keeping track of hybrids is a notoriously tedious process, and can get annoying even if only the AI pick it up. Thankfully this perk can be turned off at game start.
    
  • Even with careful genetic alteration, you're still going to be dealing with rogue hybrids that you don't necessarily want, not to mention the increased society costs from all the modification projects
    
  • Unlike the Genetic Ascension perks, Xeno-Compatibility gives no bonuses to genetic alteration costs/speed, and a lot of the potential is wasted if you don't choose that Ascension Path

Tier 1 perks

Tier 1 perks: Ascension Perks that require one other Ascension Perk to have been selected in order to unlock

• Enigmatic Engineering
  The first of the Tier 1 perks, and arguably the worst. There's no reason to pick this in single player, as all the benefits, aside from the bonus to encryption, only apply to other players. Decent in MP simply because human players are clever enough to take measurable advantage of debris, and taking this allows you to maintain a tech edge.
  
  
• Grasp the Void
  Another not-so-good Tier 1 perk, all this does is increase starbase capacity by 5. Not much to talk about here, there are many other ways to increase starbase capacity, and you'll seldom reach a point where you really need this perk. Penalties for having too many starbases can be dealt with relatively easy, too.
  
  
• Engineered Evolution
  The first of the Ascension Path perks, picking this will lock you into the genetic path. The only Ascension Path available to Hive Minds
  PROS
  
  • Useful for pretty much all empires aside Machine Intelligence (obviously)
    
  • Genetic Ascension is probably overall the strongest path
    
  • The 3 modification points, plus the 1 you get for researching the requirement for this perk (Gene Tailoring), goes a long way to enhancing your pops
    
  • Gene Seed troops are very powerful, and can take over all army operations for the rest of the game
  CONS
  
  • Probably the weakest compared to Mind Over Matter and The Flesh is Weak
    
  • Cloning vats aren't particularly good, requiring a lot of food for upkeep and competing with robotic factories for growth
    
  • Despite the cost reduction, modifying species will still take a lot of society research, and you'll likely have to do it multiple times
  
  
• Mind Over Matter
  The spiritualist/psychic Ascension Path begins here. You can hilariously still pick this as fanatic materialists if you get the Psionic Theory technology (extra rare for materialists), although the spiritualist ethic attraction will make for a pretty bad time.
  PROS
  
  • The Latent Psionic trait is extremely good, and completely free. No special projects required, just a lovely +5% boost to energy and research
    
  • Psionic troops are very powerful, and can take over all army operations for the rest of the game
  CONS
  
  • The Latent Psionic trait is only applied to your primary species, leaving out xeno pops
  
  
• The Flesh is Weak
  The materialist Ascension Path. In many ways the opposite of Mind Over Matter, and can similarly be chosen by spiritualist empires, although why you would not simply chose one of the other two paths is a good question.
  PROS
  
  • Provides some nice flat bonuses to all robots in your empire, in addition to requiring the Droids technology that allows robots to do specialist jobs
    
  • Cyborg pops get some really nice bonuses, including a +20% habitability (insanely good!) and +40 to leader lifespan
  CONS
  
  • Turning your pops into cyborgs is an expensive engineering project, and engineering is still the most difficult of the 3 to get
  
  
• World Shaper
  The last of the Tier 1 perks, this comes with a nice cost reduction to all terraforming in addition to allowing the terraforming of Gaia worlds.
  PROS
  
  • Provides the quickest and most reliable means to create Gaia worlds
    
  • Synergizes well with terraforming-heavy playstyles and poor habitability pops
    
  • Gaia worlds are incredibly good, and this perk makes it worthwhile to terraform all of your planets into Gaia worlds
  CONS
  
  • Gaia worlds are still the most expensive terraforming option, and uninhabitable planets have to undergo 2 phases to reach Gaia worlds
    
  • Value drops significantly for Empires that use lots of robots or have other massive boosts to general habitability that make Gaia worlds unnecessary
    
  • Less valuable if you got the Baol precursors or the Idyllic Bloom civic, although it does provide a cheaper and quicker alternative to either.

Tier 2 Perks

Tier 2 perks: Ascension Perks that require two other Ascension Perks to have been selected in order to unlock

• Arcology Project
  Allows you to convert any planet into a Ecumenopolis, without the planet starting off as a Relic world
  PROS
  • A Ecumenopolis is essentially a mini ring world, but with a strong focus on specialists
    
  • Provides a sizable boost to pop growth and output
    
  • Costs minerals instead of alloys
  CONS
  • Destroys all planetary features, including both features that allow special extractors and those that provide colony-wide bonuses
    
  • The lack of workers means the Ecumenopolis requires the support of several non-Ecumenopolis colonies to function
  
  
• Galactic Force Projection
  Simple mid-game Ascension Perk that provides a boost to both naval capacity and fleet size. Decent pick, but not a must-have.
  PROS
  • Allows you to field bigger, stronger fleets without excessive technology investment
    
  • Useful for any empire once it becomes available
  CONS
  • Often unlocks around the same time other, more useful perks unlock, so picking it early can sometimes be a poor choice
  
  
• Hive/Machine Worlds
  This is technically 2 Ascension Perks, but they're fundamentally the Gestalt Consciousness version of Arcology Project, one for Hive Minds and one for Machine Intelligences. A better choice for Hive Minds than Machine Intelligences, as Hive Minds benefit from the increased habitability
  PROS
  • Big boosts to growth and resource production make these worlds a straight upgrade from the default worlds
    
  • Leaves worker districts intact and removes their caps imposed by features, allowing for some extreme specialization
  CONS
  • Destroys all planetary features, including both features that allow special extractors and those that provide colony-wide bonuses
    
  • Renders planets completely uninhabitable to their respective non-Gestalt species
  
  
• Master Builders
  A great late-game perk that boosts megastructure build speed and capacity
  PROS
  • One of only two ways to boost megastructue build capacity
    
  • Drastically reduces the already long build time of megastructures so you can start getting those bonuses faster
  CONS
  • Can inadvertently cause severe alloy scarcity if you try to build and upgrade everything at once
    
  • Less useful if <50 years left in the game, or if you've already built several megastructures
  
  
• Evolutionary Mastery
  The ultimate goal of the biological ascension path, picking this doubles the bonuses already received from Engineered Evolution and unlocks the Genetic Resequencing technology
  PROS
  • Allows for unparalleled customization of species traits, giving you the ability to remove positive traits in addition to negative ones
    
  • The extra reduction in pop modification costs make massive, empire-wide species modification relatively simple
    
  • Only way to access the incredible biological ascension traits, particularly Robust and Erudite
    
  • Allows for Hive minds to assimilate non-gestalt pops, and non-hive minds to assimilate biological gestalt pops
  CONS
  • Due to most of the ascension traits being incompatible, this is a poor choice for lithoid empires
    
  • Takes a while to get the necessary technologies to upgrade this from Engineered Evolution
  
  
• Synthetic Evolution
  The ultimate goal of the robotic ascension path, this gives a robotic modification point, a small boost to robot mineral production, and a special project that converts all pops into synthetics
  PROS
  • The special project is a great way to homogenize your empire, as all species get converted into a single new robotic race
    
  • Comes with a sizable reduction to pop modification that makes modifying both old and new robot pops really easy
    
  • Gives a sizable boost to relations with other machine empires after the special project is researched, who will treat you as if you were another machine empire.
    
  • The special project makes leaders immortal
  CONS
  • Most technologically demanding of the ultimate perks, requiring the extremely late-game Synthetic Personality Matrix and the dangerous Synthetics tech
    
  • Converting pops into synthetics can sometimes be a big downgrade if your economy isn't prepared for a bunch of pop upkeep to switch from food to energy, and locks you out of biological traits
    
  • Drastically spoils relationships with spiritualist empires
  
  
• Transcendence
  The ultimate goal of the psionic ascension path, this gives some nice boosts to intel/espionage, upgrades your primary pops to full-fledged psionics, and gives access to the Shroud
  PROS
  • Available immediately after Mind over Matter, there are very few reasons not to pick these up sequentially
    
  • The Psionic trait is really good, doubling the bonuses to energy and research production from Latent Psionic, plus giving a nice +5% boost to happiness. Doesn't require a special project, either
    
  • All the upgrades that can be obtained from random encounters in the Shroud are best-in-class (aside from sensors, but that's debatable)
  CONS
  • The Shroud is an RNG-fest on many levels. In addition to an encounter being randomly chosen each time you breach the Shroud, your options all have random chances of success, with rare exceptions.
    
  • The temporary buffs you can gain from the Shroud are generally too small and short-lived to have a noticeable effect
    
  • Only your primary pops become Psionic, xenos are excluded unless you subject them to the "assimilation" species right (unlocked with Gene Tailoring)
  
  
• Become the Crisis
  An insanely powerful perk that starts the process towards becoming the crisis and eventually destroying the galaxy.
  PROS
  • Gives huge military bonuses at each level of Menace, from the fantastic Menacing ship (only cost minerals regardless of components) to some big bonuses to ship damage
    
  • Due to each level of Menace being locked behind a cheap special project, it allows the player to control the timing of advancing to each level
    
  • Not researching the final special project allows you to get nearly all the benefits of this perk without the entire galaxy declaring war on you
    
  • Provides a win condition that isn't simply "have the most points by game end"
  CONS
  • Incompatible with Pacifist and Xenophilic ethics
    
  • Picking this perk locks you out of any Galactic Custodian shenanigans
    
  • Has a lot of anti-synergy with Diplomacy Traditions

Tier 3 Perks

Tier 3 perks: Ascension Perks that require three other Ascension Perks to have been selected in order to unlock

• Colossus Project
  The first perk of tier 3, and the only one requiring an existing technology: Titans. If you haven't researched Juggernauts yet, this will also allow you to create Colossus Assembly Yards at your starbases.
  PROS
  
  • Gives the Total War casus beli, making claims largely obsolete
    
  • The quickest way to destroy population centers, not requiring tedious bombardments or huge armies to pacify planets
    
  • A variety of weapons, each with their own pros and cons, allow you to fit Colossi into pretty much any build or strategy
  CONS
  
  • Destroyed pops cannot be used to grow your empire (pretty minor issue late game, and Spiritualist or Driven Assimilator empires can get a weapon that preserves much of the population)
    
  • Unnecessary if you get Star Eaters from Become the Crisis; they'll blow up everything
    
  • Doesn't actually increase your firepower, Collosi just provide a faster alternative to armies or armageddon bombardment when it comes to clearing planets
• Defender of the Galaxy
  That endgame crisis giving you grief? That xenophobic neighbor of yours decided to become the crisis? Never fear, Defender of the Galaxy is here! Great perk that provides a hefty +50% bonus to damage vs both endgame crises and Become the Crisis empires
  PROS
  
  • Provides a big damage bonus against two of the most dangerous threats to your empire
    
  • Provides a flat bonus to everyone's opinion of your empire, for being such a selfless defender
  CONS
  
  • Not particularly necessary on low crisis strength, and pretty much useless if the crisis spawns next door to an Awakened or Fallen Empire, who will probably defeat or badly cripple the crisis on their own
• Galactic Contender
  Essentially, this perk is the complement to Defender of the Galaxy, assisting you against all the crises that aren't the late-game crisis. Plus it gives a bonus to diplomatic weight.
  PROS
  
  • No requirements, can pick this up as long as you've already spent 2 Ascension Perks
    
  • The bonus against Fallen and Awaken Empires really helps equalize some of the hidden bonuses both empires have vs regular empires. Awakened Empires in particular have a tendency to field some fleets that give endgame crises a run for their money, making this a nearly essential pick if a War in Heaven begins.
    
  • The boost to diplomatic weight gives you a bit more weight to throw around in the Galactic Council
  CONS
  
  • Seldom necessary vs. Gate builders, and it's not a great pick if there's no potential for War in Heaven

Ascension Paths

Since the Orion patch reworked Ascension Paths, this section has been completely re-done. Ascension Paths are extremely powerful Ascension Perks that unlock a new tradition tree. The basic perks don't do much now, but the new traditions they unlock are very powerful. This naturally means you need more unity to get similar bonuses to the 2 perk pathway from before the Orion patch, but the final bonuses in the new system end up being better after the tree is completed. Nevertheless, there are very few reasons to not choose one of these pathways. Note that these are all mutually exclusive, you can never pick more than 1 path in a game.

Biological Ascension
• Being able to extensively modify and customize your biological pops is almost always useful, and is compatible with all ethics
  
• Two of the best traits, Intelligent and Adaptable, get massive upgrades through ascension traits
  
• Authoritarian empires can stratify their pops to an even more extreme degree, such as creating late-game ultra-slaves
  
• Finishing the tree allows unprecedented pop modification, allowing you to even access some forbidden species traits, like rapid breeders on Lithoids or fungal traits on non-fungal species
  
• Not a great path if you want to focus on robots, the Clone Vats building competes with robot assembly
  
• The Clone Vats building provides some useful growth boosts in exchange for food, one of the less-useful resources in the game

Synthetic Ascension
• Synthetic Ascension provides some nice benefits to regular robots, so works well with empires that already use a lot of robots
  
• Essentially makes habitability a non-issue
  
• Free robot modding points that can be used on your own pops
  
• Some useful pop growth/assembly bonuses that don't require buildings aside from the robotic assembly plant
  
• If used on biological pops, will transfer their upkeep from food to energy. On one hand, food is pretty easy to produce and is used for fewer things than energy. On the other hand, this can allow you to ignore food production altogether and allow your pops to focus on producing more useful resources
  
• Technologically the most intensive of the ascension paths
  
• Machine Intelligences get a similar tree catered slightly more to the Gestalt playstyle, replacing the previous Synthetic Age perk (yay! Synthetic Age was an underwhelming choice)

Psionic Ascension
• Requires the rare tech Psionic Theory to unlock
  
• Latent Psionic species have middling bonuses, but doesn't require a project to apply to your pops, unlike the rest of the paths
  
• Special weapons and events from the Shroud are insanely powerful, assuming they pop up. Most of the time you'll get a choice between 3 bonuses that won't do much
  
• The ship upgrades from the Shroud cost zro, but are all the best in their class.
  
• Insanely good if you managed to get Zroni precursors due to being able to access the Shroud more often
  
• The only pathway that doesn't provide any habitability or growth bonuses
  
• The Covenant with a Shroud entity is now baked into the tree, so you can now always make the Faustian deals this pathway unlocks, rather than relying purely on luck
  
• A poor choice if you hate RNG in your strategy games, the types of bonuses the Shroud gives you and their chances of working are largely random

Cybernetic Ascension
• Freshly split from the Synthetic tree in the Orion patch, this path can be chosen by anyone, save non-Rogue Servitor Machine Intelligences
  
• Can apply cybernetic traits to your pops, which are similar to robotic traits but often have an energy upkeep
  
• Allows you to assemble cybernetic pops instead of robots
  
• Cybernetic trait provides some good bonuses, including +20% habitability to start, and +10% production once the tree is complete
  
• While the synthetic path is generally more powerful, Cybernetics tends to become available earlier, being gated behind less tech. Makes a great 3rd or 4th Tradition tree pick
  
• Increases pop upkeep by adding an energy cost. This ADDS upkeep, doesn't swap it like the photosynthetic trait does. Usually not a big deal, energy is usually your most plentiful resource.
  
• The ability to add robotic traits to your biological pops (not to mention a free trait slot) can be really powerful

Each path can be chosen by any empire, but the technologies that gate each pathway will tend to pop up quicker for empires with a natural inclination towards one pathway (i.e. Materialists will likely get Droids before Psionic Theory).

There are a few exceptions that restrict certain empires to a few of these paths. Hive Minds, for example, are locked out of both Psionic and Synthetic Ascension. Machine Intelligences are similarly locked out of Biological, Psionic, and Cybernetic Ascension paths (except Rogue Servitors, they can pick Cybernetics), and are forced to go with the Synthetic path.

Teachers of the Shroud are a bit of an interesting case. You're forced into Psionic Ascension, requiring Psionic Theory (a tech you always have available) to unlock the tradition tree. Since the Psionic Ascension Perk is basically your origin, you essentially get a free Ascension Perk to play with!

Changelog & Notable Edits

8 April 2022

• Changed some wording for Imperial Prerogative, and added an extra CON
  
• Updated entries regarding the Psionic Ascension Paths, as the special psychic traits can be assigned to other species in your empire using the "Assimilation" species right
  
• Added a note to the Hive/Machine Worlds description, noting the added bonuses Hive Minds get from the increased habitability

13 April 2022

• Some tweaks to Colossus Project and Enigmatic Engineering descriptions
  13 May 2022
  
• Updated Shared Destiny and added Lord of War for the 3.4 "Cepheus" patch
  7 February 2023
  
• Updated list for "Orion" patch
  
• Reworked Ascension Path section to conform to the new Tradition system and the new Cybernetic Path
  18 May 2023
  
• Updated list for "Gemini" patch
  
• Added Archaeo-Engineers and re-did description for Transcendent Learning
  

[Shist]

Enigmatic Engineering is OK in multiplayer. Additionally Contender, Defender, and Colossus aren't the best, Arcology and Wonders are amazing, and the accession paths are always good picks.

[Gypsy]

@Myphicbowser The AI certainly CAN research debris, but that doesn't mean they always will. The AI also doesn't really understand that debris are intended as a catch-up mechanism for empires behind on military tech, so they won't exploit the tech boosts in the same way a player would.

[Myphicbowser]

Is Enigmatic Engineering really useless? I thought the AI could research your wrecks.

[DerRitter]

yes

[Shist]

No