Stellaris 3.10 Origins Tier List
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- Опубликовано: 25 июл 2024
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Stellaris Origins explained and ranked into a tier list. Lets look at all of the origins available to empires in Stellaris, work out their benefits and drawbacks, then compare them!
Lets dive in!
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Tier List Playlist: • Stellaris Tier Lists
Chapters:
0:00 What are Origins?
1:58 F Tier
16:00 C Tier
29:12 B Tier
41:41 A Tier
45:56 S Tier
Stellaris Version 3.10
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I'd actually like to see some "The Tribe Must Survive" Gameplay, it looks really interesting.
@@fierylightning3422 I'll see if I can make a video or stream it?
@@MontuPlays I think maybe a Video might work?
the lol c bit lol i c what you did there ceee lol
I always really appreciate you going back and giving us updates on these tier lists. It really helps someone getting back into Stellaris or new incoming players!
agreed! :)
Incoming player here, just waiting until it goes on sale.
Yeah I'm a new player and some of the older lists are harder to decipher in terms of relevance when entire mechanics have been removed merged and reworked since so some of the bonuses mentioned in older videos simply dont exist, I use them more for understanding what it is that makes a high tier choice even though even that can be made irrelevant with time thanks to meta and balance shifts making certain resources and bonuses more or less valuable
wait, wait, this isn't the Leader's Trait Tier list !!!!!! and don't think we didn't hear "Galactic DoorSTOP" 🤣
given the 3.11 changes in the beta. I had to go back to formula... again.. well again again again again.
Now I wait for those changes to be finalised and THEN we can get a tier list...
Well done Sir and david, nearly thought I was the only one noticing xD
@@MontuPlays are they not finalized yet? I thought the last major update was the final one for them
@@MontuPlaysI cannot wait for your origins 3.11 tier list. We have been waiting forever for that one.
@@MontuPlays isn't it better for your sanity to just.. abandon it? Like, they're clearly changing it way too often for you to manage to keep up
I think gateway origin would be interesting if the gateway is already active or could be active in 3-5 years.
Imagine having another front to expand and possibly forming a very unique empire shape
I think it would be cool to have it just spit out random stuff more often. If you had enough things, it would be a fun RNG one... especially if it had rare, wacky things come out. Could use it even as a change-of-pace game.
@@Kasaaz true, in general, there are a lot of things paradox could do to balance stellaris, currently it's honestly kind of a nightmare
@@toxiq5295 I don't even mind Galactic Doorstep being 'bad' from a balance standpoint, as long as it's INTERESTING. You know?
@@Kasaaz I feel you, same with tomb world, it does so little and the tiny bit it does isn't good, what is kind of sad, because I bet with just a few tweaks you could make so many origins and also civics quite more competitive and interesting
You arledy have so much like take ove other empire just remember first make them open to you so your fleet can fly to they part og glaxsy. You can spread federationto entire galaxsy very fast ect ect and mega corp do magic on that origin... Just you have need not open another gate like 2 system out your system.
Galactic Doorstep - I'd personally like bonuses that make use of your capital being accessible from anywhere. Random ideas in order of complexity:
-66% Missing in Action - Whenever a ship is lost, all it has to do is find and traverse through the nearest Gateway to make it back home.
+50% Migration Attraction - It's far easier and more appealing to migrate to a planet knowing you can both arrive and leave safely.
+5 Amenities in Colonies with a Gateway - The joys of quick, safe, and efficient merchant routes.
Ships in orbit of any colony or any megastructure (including gateways) in systems with an active Gateway are considered docked (-25% upkeep) - Far easier to supply your military when you have a near instant supply line.
How about the gateway being able to access gateways in enemy systems? All of a sudden you get a bonus that becomes more and more relevant as the game progresses as you get a huge strategic advantage being able to abuse enemy gateways or deny them using them effectively in mp
I think they should allow an espionage mechanic to be able to hack open other gateways in the galaxy if you have this origin.
@@IAreSmeegoo Whoa whoa, let's calm down... Espionage is already the most overpowered thing in the game 😂
To go off of this, the idea of your homeworld becoming the galactic trade hub is an amazing idea. Like maybe give a fair amount of nerfs to more then 2-3 planets. Making you focus more on your own systems. But then give us something more to do in-game other then managing a couple of systems. Pretty much, we should be encouraged to hunker down and build a Trade Empire like no other. Putting the first league to shame.
It's only natural that something that can be accessed by the entire galaxy, would become a big trade center.
08:25 But without the Cave Dweller origin I can't roleplay my dreams of a Space Dwarf Empire.
I do the same with psionic space elves with immortal leaders haha
Rock and stone
for the Kyn!
"I wouldn't Take Void dweller as Lithoids"
Tell me, have you ever heard of the Void Dweller + Terravore combination? It is an exceptionally powerful way to Become the Crisis.
That sounds like such a cool combo. Habitat supremacy
That was my first thought when I saw void dweller, it MASSIVELY boosts your economy early on and makes building on your habitats ridiculously easy
regarding fear of the dark, while it has early negatives, there is a massive upsite it can give you that can be easily forgotten:
The very first empire contact starts an event chain, that allows you to INSTANTLY GO TO TOTAL WAR with them.
its a difficult, but incredible early rush option.
taking over an entire ai empire that early (basically for free) can be incredibly powerful.
You also get a +5 alloy deposit in the form of divider. That alone makes up for nearly half of the lost pops.
You can also just do a pre contact war. You technically have Total War on any empire or entity in space that you have yet to make contact with as long as you choose aggressive first contact policies.
@@kirbcakeThats not how it works, i know, its stupid. you cant actually take anything if you fight before establishing contacts. its really useless.
@@MrVentches if you recolonize an uncontacted enemy planet using a colony ship after invading it, you get all the pops that were on the planet, plus planetary unification modifier, and without any detriments to pops complaining about being conquered. When fighting that early, it's pops you want, not territory or resource deposits.
The best part though is the ability to become fanatic purifiers mid-game, once you're prepared and strong enough to become the crisis extremely quickly
what common grounds need is some co-op functionality, lets 3 players take this origin to start together in a federation, that can be fun
I can taste the backstabing potential in this)
That would be great!
I don't think so. Getting 3 players into a federation is already very easy (only need 2 tradition unlocks) so the upside of your idea would only be that they (the 3 coop players) are spawned close to each other whereas the downside would be that none of them get the benefits of an actual origin. I don't know if a mod exists to influence empire spawn position - but if I needed to set up a game for my friends where we all spawned close to each other, I'd be able to move their systems close to mine manually without disrupting the galaxy.
@@prixtront7240 That would be good too if we could get players to start close together, though maybe just have the one player start as a common ground origin and just let the other one or two start with prosperous unification, though I suppose that makes the one taking common ground be at a disadvantage?
As I believe I mentioned before in earlier Origin tier lists, Stellaris is at its most fun when you go full role-play and thematic for your empire. So, analyzing pure meta-data like this is... useful, but only as something to compare if you have trouble deciding between two specific origins for the race you want to build.
But still very much appreciate the work you do, so I don't have to. 🖖
Agreed! ❤😊 But bear in mind; these lists are narrated from the perspective of PVP tournament play (which is what a big chunk of of the channel viewer base is here for, due to montu's ones being so good; so that crowd will naturally be catered for). Not single player. These events, while tactically vicious ("Cough Cough Pax & Kizzie Cough Cough" ❤😊), seem really fun to play (& instructive to watch) once one gets around the learning curve. For what it's worth; they also are a really good natured community too 😊, with a truly refreshing degree of organisation than a great many other lobbies. Well worth getting into if you ask me; assuming interest that is, of course.
Tbf most of the bad ones here have very little actually interesting gameplay mechanics.
Most of the good ones tend to be both good at pvp and rp
@@hardcorelace7565 Tell me you've never done a full playthrough as Knights, without telling me you've never done a full playthrough as Knights. I'm kidding.. but seriously.. KotTG is one of the most STUPIDLY overpowered mid/late game origins. By 2300-2325, I was producing 1k tech from my Demesne habitat alone. If you're dealing with trolly "corvette spam pvpers" who are dripping from week old sweat while covered in cheetoh dust, then yeah.. it might not be good. But for any other regular pve/rp/pvp-lite gameplay.. it's S tier.
@@natedaniels3655 I believe that's been weakened or patched out entirely...
But yes I've never done toxic god cus I don't like the themes.
I did indeed not skip ahead too slingshot to the stars
I know subterranean is not great but i do very much enjoy desert world preference + sub origin, that means i never get useless worlds. Desert preference means planets tend to have lots of generator districts and if nothing else i can always strip mine a planet to the core thanks to unlimited mining districts, i often find myself with 2 useless guaranteed habitable worlds so this origin guarantees no world is ever useless.
the dwarf roleplay is always worth it as well
It's also has interesting synergy with noxious so your pops have 80% habitabily on every planet
It is also nice for lithoids - they do not get -20% to pop growth (that is only for BIO) and they actually eat minerals
@@MyHydraliskYeah, I think it should be a C or even B class origin for lithoids.
@@MyHydralisk Subterranean with Noxious Lithoids is great for early rush - you invade other planets and they're always habitable for you. Noxious part is important, because it's a huge buff for your Ground Forces before proper researches pop up
Subterranean is actually quite a bit better than F tier, because Lithoids ignore the pop growth reduction, and it does something extremely important that no other origin does: It widens the base potential of every world for your economy. Every normal empire needs minerals as the staple resource of expanding their economy, and so what this does is make every world significantly more valuable for resource extraction, giving whoever you play a much more robust economy.
It has a number of good uses, especially when playing as lithoids and with Relentless Industrialist. For me, I run Radiotrophic with the origin regardless of whether they're lithoid or biological, but if if they use food, I make them plants or fungi and run the origin with Invasive Species to compensate. Invasive species completely negates any of the negative growth issues from the trait, and is staggeringly overpowered when used correctly.
i came into the comments to bring up how lithoids work quite well with the trait. however ive never considered going relentless industrialist or radiotrophic since it just ignores the modifiers anyways. thats a really good and fun idea i'll sometime try out :D
6:30 My real problem with Life-Seeded is the change from a max of 15 Building Slots to a max of 11. Before that change, it made sense to allocate slots to exploit the Gas and Crystal Mines, get ahead that way, but with only 11 Slots, it's really, really tight, and it basically never makes sense to allocate even one single Slot to Gas, as long as you're tied down on one single planet. And the SRs really only function as a "boon" or "sweetener" if they can reasonably be exploited early. Otherwise they're a noob trap.
I think Life-Seeded would get a huge boost if instead of the 3 SR Mining Sites, it gets a Planet Modifier that grants 1 Miner job of each type, Gas, Crystals and Motes, so that it's no longer tied to Building Slots. That would definitely elevate Life-Seeded in tier, although probably not all the way up to B tier. But itd make it fun to play.
one of the builds ive ran with that was lithoid plus noxious trait basically letting me inhabit every single planet, plus you can take unadaptive as a free 2points and your habitability is always 80% on every world even nanite worlds, same goes for subterranian with noxious
One fun perk of Overturned is that the traits can be used with Invasive species. You can easily get some massive pop growth that way while still getting some other benefitial traits
Ringworld trader build is IMO one of the most OP builds I have ever played in my 3000+ hours of the game, I can produce obscene amounts of trade in the thousands before getting anywhere close to mid game and use a entire world for alloys with so many alloy buildings. Even on grand admiral no scaling I end up as the strongest empire each game with ease.
Is this up to date for right now or was that more than a few months ago? I feel like such a thing is GUARANTEED to get a big nerf from Paradox.
@@kirbcake Funny thing is, they nerfed trade for everyone except ringworld, they actually bufffed ringworld trade by giving you 2x high value traders rather than 1x merchant per a district, and with the leader that gives +0.4 per a leader level in the government, they give more than merchants did so now it is more powerful than ever.
I‘m eating up your ranking videos every single time😂
Keep them coming
Glad you like them!
Doomsday is S tier as long as you constantly shout "THIS IS CETI ALPHA V"
KHAN!!
i did in fact decide to watch that bit, so thanks for the secret callout. I don't play with origins often (since i'm still making my way through the pre-built empires to try all of them, and regularly change my mods), so it's nice to see some tier lists ranking the vanilla mechanics, so i can get an idea of potential interests, mechanics, and pitfalls for my games.
Montu didn’t mention it, but there is special benefits from under one rule that come from the ascension trees. Depending on which one you go for, you will get different benefits, but your leader is immortal. However, there are downsides. There is a large upkeep cost for all of these and Psionic is one of the worst upkeeps, requiring 3 Zro per month. My favorite tradition is the synthetic (robot pops) tree as it gives bonus resources and has an alloy upkeep, and alloys are already pretty easy to get ahold of anyway.
3 Zro pre month is basically nothing though, once you actually get a supple of Zro.
Yay new tier list!
I love your tier lists videos! I've watched some of them multiple times. Thank you!
Returning to Stellaris after some time, I'm so glad you chose to update these tier lists. First, they're fun. Second, they can really help trying to pick some strong origins if I'm looking to metagame. I would love to see updated tierlists like Ethics, etc and see the view on things that changed, since Stellaris is always changing constantly. (I'm looking at you, food builds.)
I'd like it more if the post-apocalyptic origin started with two small/medium sized tomb worlds. That way it would be more unique than just giving a pop trait. It would also be an improvement if the Doomsday origin was related to the Void Dragon or the Stellarite Devourer. It would also be more interesting if the galactic doostep origin portal was an l-gate.
Mechanist is my favorite origin, but I wish it were better. It would be nice if you started with machine template as well (which the specialized robots would tend to support), and instead start with droids as the guaranteed researchable technology.
Love these tierlists, recently bought stellaris and these help alot!
Update: Machine Worlds have been buffed to have 2x as many jobs for each district as before and they have also added Unity districts to the world type. These two buffs have arguably made Machine Worlds an 'S Tier' pick.
You do not have to think of the slingshot in terms of long range assaults. You can easily use it defensively for the ambush bonus and at that range, the accuracy doesn't matter.
Heck, I once used it in an early corvette war. Was a bit behind in ship numbers because I invested in the catapult. Once the opponent went in for the attack, I just slung my fleet and some transports into their home system (with 100% accuracy since it was close range) and just took the damn thing. By the time they had reorganized their fleets, I had catapulted in enough reinforcements to win the battle.
Tho it would be nice if the origin gave a persistent bonus to megastructure building. The temporary bonus you do get from finishing the archaeology site usually comes at an inopportune time. Would be nice if it just gave a flat permanent modifier rather than what it does now.
thanks for this! i always checkout your tier list. really useful
i miss these videos. glad theyre back!!!
Hi Montu will you do remake of old tier lists?
tbh your tier lists are amazing to watch and i catch my self repeating to watch prewious ones several times xD
Yes, next up should be civics!
You know I did not expect montu to say that with the scion origin. Choked on my drink when I heard that.
I did not skip ahead and I did see your message in the middle of the vid.
I'm still very new to Stellaris and feeling very overwhelmed. Last space 4X I played was Master of Orion 2.
Thanks dude, always fun to see all origins ranked in a comprehensive manner!
I'm starting to make my own Stellaris mods and these videos are a great help, especially the explaining what could be done to bring the less good origins up.
What mods are you making?
@@David-bf2cg just small personal mods like a new purge (plus bugfix), some espionage asset stuff and changing some civics.
@@SolymribnWaliBarad Cool, good luck.
Love your lists! Even the secret for slingshot!
If you start with the Imperial Fiefdom Origin, you may get a Gateway close to you, including a planet that can be turned into a Fortress World to hold the System, which is kind of cool. So you somewhat get the Galactic Doorknob Origin included. It doesn't give you any of the technologies, but Galactic Doorknob doesn't do much of that either.
There is a fun tech you can do with a quantom catapult. Catapult to a system with a gateway, then use that gateway to ambush an enemy.
I was just checking the playlist about the traditions, imagine my surprise when I see a new and updated video about Origins?
Never not an enjoyable experience.
In case it helps, I always watch these vids straight through without skipping, since you ask :) I like your explanations, they're succinct but thorough.
We tried Imperial Fiefdom in a test game and I played my Pharma/Permanent Megacorp trade build. It was interesting and being science specialist did eventually catapault me in the tech race, however I'm not sure that as a Tall Megacorp it was the best origin for me, especially as your early game influence costs for systems is increased - meaning I had to choose between systems and early branch offices.
I love special callout's!
And i do see what you did!
A few updates back, I had a Life Seeded MegaCorp and scored the Baol relic lmao
At 26:00 hi montu. Looking to start playing again and watching this to re-familiarize
I was just thinking about which origin to choose and and this came out. Thanks!
P.S. found a sea-cret
Slingshot with that Astral-Upgrade is nasty though.
Lost colony power lies in a powerful ally, or free citizen pops, or combining psionic and bio accession.
Great one thank you, please do an updated civic tier list next
for doomsday, use Machine intelligence DA, with lithoid second species.
you have a total war goal, that you help with capturing another empires capital, and get the resources from this planet.
your assimilated lithoids have 80 (planet class) + 30 (homeworld, hidden) + 50 (lithoid) + 10 (cyborg) percent habilitaty at game start iirc, which goes down to around 90 in the last moments, but before that, it has 100 %
Montu does update tier list? what a lad :D
I ❤ your tier lists. Thanks for keeping them coming!
More to come!
Amazing tier list as always!!
I would love to see the caretaker team get in contact with you like Firaxis did with Potato McWhiskey about Civ VI.
I got lucky with a Fruitful origin and was only about 5 years in when I got a potential colony notice for one almost on the other side of the galaxy (spiral). I spawned near the bottom, this was about at "2 o'clock' and near the edge. Then another notice about one at 9 that was 1/2 between me and edge. It was expensive, but I was able to colonize them both and spread from there.
Yooooooo Montu's back! 🎉
Love rewatching this
ANOTHER HOUR LONG RANKING VIDEO LET'S GOOO!!!
The part where you started to go on about the "Scion" origin was great LOL
Ringworld habitability can also live on relic worlds (and arcologies obv)
I think we need an option to turn off and on Gateway from origin since we have such mechanic know. And yeah, bonuses needed
Wow, i thought Under One Rule would be higher. Its so powerful.
Now im curious how you would rank the leader traits.
love your videos, montu is Swarm Strikers way worse than Ancient Driller Drones ?
ayyyy i was hoping for this!
I came back to the game recently and started with the Payback origin and it's probably my favorite starting scenario by far and I wish there were more like it. Especially with the right galaxy setup and random conditions around you it's one of the most immersive starting scenarios in the game and makes the early game / mid game a blast. I wound up spawning pretty close to the huge slaver AI from the origin and it was a real fight to survive for such a long time, to the extent that I eventually lost the initial war and had to build up again to liberate myself.
It feels way more fun to me to have to dig yourself out of a hole and work within constraints than have a super advantageous start.
I've heard this bit and really appreciate your work 👌
On subterranean the case dweller trait appears to not reduce pop growth on lithoid species. I found it super strong when you can ignore food completely
Main bonus of Fruitful Partnership is actually seed bombing. It gives planets bunch of blockers that you can clear for +1 pop. So good rush option is going hivemind, find some primitive nearby and bomb it into infinity (you can bomb undefended planets with this stance). Capture, get some livestock and a bunch of energycosted pops ( like 150 or something). And later on, when fighting actual enemies it still helps to get some free pops. As individualists it's a bit harder to 'exploit' as origin requires pacifism or xenophilia - which makes early primitive invasions costlier
Roftworld should have a garanteed rift to the throne.
Maybe even a small event chain giving interactionnwith the throne and turn them to allied or enenmy.
Montu, did you ever consider making a behind the scenes video? Especially on the challange videos, I think it'd be awesome!
Relaxing on a Saturday afternoon with a rum enjoying this video. Thanks.
A galactic doorstop would be pretty powerful. Whenever someone tries to close a gate, rift or wormhole you simply slide it in and keep it open for your ships to enter.
You can create gouretoen tomb worlds with the funtatic purifier
Recently played a game where i went an oppresive autocracy, under one ruler origin game and went synthetic. You get a leader trait that gives you +25% pop output and honestly i think that that one trait alone raises it from c to b
It would be helpful to know what dlcs are needed for specific origin traits
47:19 I wasn't ready for that😂😂
Definitely loving the updated tierlist. Not sure what it says about me though, when half the origins i like are all F tier. :P
Lololol I just watched the previous version this afternoon, guess it's time to compare and contrast!
With Shoulders of Giants, during my initial expansion, I try to cut off a large section of systems with my starbases. I explore but not survey. I can also do the same for deadend systems branching off of my starbase systems. This way, I have a fresh field of surveys I can complete in the midgame to try to trigger the late Precursors. You lose any early Precursor bonus, but you will likely find one when the time comes.
I always used Subterranean to boost my alloy/rare resources production. Not the best origin, but if you want to use multiple forge/foundry/refinery worlds it's quite good.
I wonder where you would rank the giga structures origins if you ever do a list about those.
secret callout! Dig it.
I remember rolling lost colony and I spawned next to the advanced AI empire it comes with like 8ish jumps away..... they were fanatic purifiers and took their 3k fleet into my space at like year 10 and I was like wtf man lol
35:34 "Day One Ish".
I see what you did there, uce.
Gotta say straight out the gate,
1) subterranean has to be rated higher simply for its synergy with noxious, become the crisis, lithoids
In my opinion, definitely not f tier, not even close
2) here be dragons b tier????????
Did you forget the dragon reanimation rush?????
Well, dragons is B tier if played as intended, just as fruitful partnership is C tier if played as intended. Several origins could be ranked a tier or two higher if played “creatively”. Point taken, though.
Totally agree with subterranean. It’s great for lithoids, becoming the crisis, or the noxious trait (I’m surprised Montu didn’t mention lithoids in his tier ranking, though perhaps he forgot, and that’s why he rated it as F tier).
This list is the origins as they’re designed to be played. For example, the ones that start you with two other empires in a federation- normally they’re weak because you lose your guaranteed worlds and are limited in early game expansion. But if you play cheekily and rush to leave and then conquer your old allies, they’re arguably the best in the game because by year 20-30 you can have 3 capital planets under your control and you’re basically unstoppable
Voidborn hive is such a great combo. The slow expansion early game is remedied dramatically by the removal of consumer goods from your economy.
Overtuned works really well with cybernetics ascension too, because you can triple-dip on specific resource production traits, and that's on top of the global resource production improvements Cyber has natively built into it. And cybernetics has 0 issues removing or adding the overtuned traits. Bio ascension becomes rather optional. And cybernetic scientist governors easily make up for not having access to erudite. Cyber loses out on removing some garbage traits from assimilated pops, but you can't really have everything in life
I would rank the @26:20 callout no higher than C tier. Needs a little bit of a re-tweak to be on par with better callouts.
can you do a machine specific tier list. and hive specific. those are the only ones i play lol
Syncretic evolution has been great for my current playthrough where I am getting the authoritarian achievements
I don't think you could easily remove the gaia world preference assignment, from my experience, that seems to be automatically set for whatever planet your capital is on at game start.
I like the Gateway because its a easy method of making sure you get Skrand Sharpbeak, which honestly makes the fact that its otherwise lackluster worth it.
I wish there was a guide for the best build for each origin
I'm surprised Riftworld isn't higher, since it almost garanties getting the crystal sphere event chain and the relic that makes leaders immortals.
Lost colony and survivor can be solid tier B combined with fanatic purifiers from META or RP perspective.
I will say you missed one perk of the teachers of the shroud, the shroud beacon if you’re lucky and build it quick enough gives you a random singular gateway somewhere in the galaxy
My favorite build is starting with the remnant origin and the barbaric despoiler and feudal empire civics.
If all goes well you can have an ecumonopolis with over 100 pops, 2 or more vassals, and a disgustingly overpowered fleet 50 years into the game.
I enjoyed the roleplay of playing Subterranean as dwarves. Even managed to get the achievement 😊
I don't think doorstep should unlock mega-engineering
gateways are just not big enough for that, they and habitats may be technically mega-structures, but the whole point of them is that they are (comparatively) small and have no capacity
in regards to life-seeded I think the habitability preference is a good handicap that gives you a decent challenge otherwise you just get an op homeworld with zero drawbacks
it's pretty fun to be stunted until habitats, xenos or other means of expansion are secured
or the old trick with robots that do most of the work while your guys only fill ruler jobs
For the "tree of life" I found Intresting strategy.
I start with "Organic Reprocessing" and make sure mine civ have good farmers. Then on mine world's I build bioreactor so that makes sure mine civs not only makes food but also energy. Then I make "Food Procesing" building to make mine food production skyrocket and use because I use food to make alloys but also mine refinery building. This is so good is I find ancient refinery tech so with food and this type refinery there is a chance that I can make almost every planet in mine empire selfsufficient. Its very specific playstyle but I found it can be very profitable.
Payback is F-tier power but A-tier satisfaction. Something special about dropping a re-purposed ship on MSI and saying "Hey! Remember me?"
How do you feel about the unique bombardment stance fruitful partnership gives the player?