You win bonus points for this video for featuring _Atlantis: The Lost Empire._ Such an underrated, largely forgotten movie. It's got Spock, Ivanova, and a total Daniel Jackson expy!
The Last Baol is S tier, I once got it very early in the game, and steamrolled the galaxy. Colonising every habitable planet and turning it into a Gaia world is game breaking.
indeed its better than any S tier there especially that from my experience Boal chain you can end faster than all other precursor. Then you land your ass on Tomb worlds turn them into gaias with extra pops. How is that not S tier ? Not to mention 10% pop growth is literally 2 point trait for free ... that stacks with rapid breeder. Literally everything about it is good. It is not even terrible for Machine empires - like Rogue servitor or driven assimilator ... heck even Exterminators get some pops to exterminate. Also Gaia world still gives 10% jobs production output so yeah Machine empires benefit greatly aswell.
Baol also has a weird "working as intended" strat with fanatic purifiers where you take the random low habitability worlds you wind up occupying, make them liveable, and give you a bit of extra unity from the xenos that "coincedentally" appear after using it.
Baol isn't S tier, for some empires it is awesome for others it doesn't help at all; even bio based ones with nicely diverse populations find better ways to spend influence. The Cybrex used properly is far more of a game changer, I was actually impressed that Montu has spotted it as most online don't adapt their strategy enough and talk about the endgame ringworld which doesn't alter the game result.
Having spent a great deal of time with the Surveyor active, I have noticed that it has a hidden effect. Wile activated it will sometimes (~50%) locate an additional deposit during its 5-year cooldown, it will also very rarely produce a strategic resource. That being said, I still agree that it belongs in C-tier because after mid-game the bonuses are completely irrelevant. Also, I too have never gotten the Galatron (2.5k hours).
I wasn't aware that it was a 50/50 shot for a 2nd activation of the Surveyor. It seemed to me that every time I activated it, I'd get 2 pulses of resource discovery -- the first when I activated it, and the 2nd about 1/2 way through the cooldown.
I've been lucky enough to get Galatron twice on Ironman playthroughs with about 500 hours and one time have the Casus Belli to steal it from another empire I've never become one with the worm though. Wish I had done it before the patch to it
There's actually also a chance for a third deposit found. And honestly the Surveyor is by far the best relic. You can get it early. You can activate it often. And every activation stacks upon the next. I basically never activate anything else. If you get lucky, you even get rare resource deposits on planets and can then use those with a Habitat to exploit them even more.
Agreed. Plus the cooldown is shorter than other relics. I for one quite like it - and it is particularly useful if you happen to spawn in a rather barren stretch of space
Out of the minor relics, the Head of Zar’Qlan and the Blade of the Huntress are the most powerful. Anything that buffs ship speed and gives you free fallen empire ships in the mid-game is always a massive boon.
I'm not too sure about the Head of Zar'Qlan. 20yrs past mid game (minimum requirement for it to spawn) and its spawned fleets are typically not much compared to what I can build. I might use it once or twice? But it doesn't stay useful very long. Then when you take into consideration the Spiritualist ethics attraction? I typically just don't even dig it up.
@@MontuPlays Not when the Blokkarts are around the corner! (giga structures) But yeah, I'd much rather the contingency one, since thats 300% mega strucutre build speed.
Don’t know if this was a glitch, but the onetime I got the brood queen I was able to add an unlimited amount of ships to it and once added they no longer contributed to my fleet count, so I got massive million plus fleets with no upkeep!
I haven't seen that crisis for a long time, but originally it was possible to get it during the war with that crisis and get bonus ships for food that don't use any fleet cap. In case crysis couth you off guard because your settings were bit to high and you had to wage long attrition heavy war against Prethoryn, it was somewhat helpful. Exploit included with it was just bonkers.
@@MontuPlays - I don't play a lot so don't really know much about most of them, and probably wouldn't manage to use them as effectively as better players, however I think the decapitated head seems actually pretty good. Other than that, the only Relic I ever actually wanted significantly any time I would play was always the Baol - being able to terraform planets into perfect Edens just seems to be the best ability you could have in this type of game. I am more of a creator rather than a conqueror, I always loved using the special items and such to turn so many dead planets in Spore into tropical paradise worlds :)
Great list. Personally, I would bump surveyor into B tier, just becasue its so insanely cheap to use. Its a great general "filler" relic imo, to use if you have no better relic to use in your current situation or are short on influence.
When I saw Surveyor in C tier I thought maybe I was dumb for thinking it was really strong, but seeing all these people pointing out that Surveyor should be higher up is a slight relief, it's so easy to get and basically free so I always like using it
Got the head in my latest playthrough. We're ascended synthetics. The spiritual fallen empire was mightily confused, but they still were ok with us settling on their nice holy worlds in a little pocket no one else could access. Thanks fellas :)
I got the digsite for it in my latest run, and I'm also fanatic materialist synthetics. I like my pops at 100 happiness, so I decided to abort the dig before the final event. Spiritualists are such a nieusance.
Ah, the Cybrex Warforge. The 'fire and forget', or in this case, the 'land armies and forget' button of Stellaris. I can't remember just how many times I've forgotten about my invading armies whenever I get the Cybrex Warforge.
One small point: the Javorian Pox, AFAICT, is the only method that a non-FP, non-Crisis empire can make Tomb Worlds from enemy planets. So if you're going Radiotrophic / Post-Apocalyptic, it can be useful. Of course, since you cannot control if you get it, you can't rely on it, but it can make the game quite different if you do. (Not saying it should be in a different tier.)
Damn, i've forgotten how many relics Guillis' Planet Modifiers and Features adds into the game. But nothing beats Zer0s' Infinty Stones mod for relics (except the warforge here in the S tier, it rivals even those).
The blade of the huntress carried me so hard in the early game that I'm happy to see it being ranked at such good spot, this video did it justice along with the rubricator!
The Head of Zarqlan should be at least an A-tier because of its additional passive effect of allowing you to legitimately yell "ZARQLAN WILLS IT!" whenever you declare war.
So I'm playing stellaris and get a notification of a new Montu video. Cool, pause game and watch. We get to the A teir and I'm like "oh yeah, reliquaries." So I buy one... bam Galatron. I wish my luck was like that irl
If you're playing the StarnetAI mod you can camp the final system with the Unbidden's portal and secure the Warlock which in turn will be very helpful in war since at that point there'll be a few quite formidable empires on the map to overcome.
For me the surveyor is an a tier relic ! And for small empires an s tier because it boost your Systems heavy for a little bit of credits and u get many rare resorces over the game
Pox should be C Tier: Like any precursor artifact you can get it very early on and an additional +20 years leader lifespan on top of all research is nice to have. Surveyor is easily B or even A: Killing the Mining Hub can be done very early on, activation costs only 500 energy and it saves so many building slots wasted on refineries.
I quite like the Surveyor and would have probably put it somewhere on the B to A border. 500 energy for a shot of a permanent deposit of rare resources is a hell of a deal. When I get the thing, I almost always find myself running its triumph almost permanently. Plus, you can often get it much earlier than the other relics.
I love your added comment about the Galatron- "If you want to be THE senate..." lol. The Head of Zarqlan is my favorite relic especially if I get it early and if I'm extra lucky, the spiritualist FE are cute starfish people, Zarqlan wills it!!! I am torn between the War Forge and the Last Baol as the best precursor relic.
I really like the Head of Zarqlan just because I can get myself a nice fallen empire fleet. Throughout a full game you can get like 200 fleet power in fallen empire ships, and they are nice.
IMO The Surveyer should be in B Tier just because it takes only 500 credits to activate. That means while you are strapped for influence you can still use the Relic 24/7
I am doing what I've never done before and disputing the wisdom of Montu. The Head of Zarquon is an absolute game changer every time I've received it. And watch Jon (MATN) and his impossible run, and see how he, or Marc of the Templin Institute, leaned on them to survive in their games. All. Hail. Zarquon!
On the topic of the surveyor - let's say hypothetically you're running a tell empire that has deposits on literally every planet (maybe you've used it so many times over the span of a very long game). What happens if you activate the surveyor while every planet already has a bonus resource?
It will add another fitting resource on top of the other one. So a mining station might get additional alloys or rare resources, a research station might get additional research of a different or the same type, etc. If there's a weird resource like dark matter or living metal, it will sometimes be confused and you won't be able to take both deposits. In earlier version it could also affect habitats and ring worlds, but that was patched last update. Honestly the surveyor is the best relic, because it allows you to literally keep getting more and more benefits and become self-sustained without pops (except for food) in the long run. And it also doesn't "run out".
Only time I actually took advantage of an end game relic was durin my DE playthrough, battleships instant hyperlane jump and probably max sub light speed with the warlock, it was fun watching corvettes being intercepted by a fleet a battleships
That is not a bug! After you activate it once, there is a 50% chance to repeat this process in 360-1080 days and a 20% chance to repeat this process again in 1080-1800 days.
I love the Surveyor. I was able to get it early by spawning next to the home miner system. I did see double resource pops periodically, and early or midgame, it did matter to get a six mineral, energy, or greater on a useless body. I balanced my economy and exploded fleet production just from those bonuses piling up. It makes those resource poor starbases much more efficient, and is better for a less aggressive single play. It even helps with research and strategic deposits. I got the Galatron once, that influence was great!
A quick correction: With the Rubricator, the Relic World that it is attached to is random in size. In my many multiplayer games with friends, the Rubricator Relic World varied from size 14 to size 25.
To be honest, i'd rank the surveyor even higher, for the sheer fact oh how cheap and quick it is and how much it can benefit you in a long run, especially if you roll strategic resources.
With the Rubricators logic of getting the Relic World then you can technically bump Ether Drake trophy up based on what you get with it since Dragons Hoard is the true reason for killing the Ether Drake since you get a 30 Energy and Mineral mining station, Artificial Dragonscales research (tier 6 Armor), and a baby Ether Drake worth 7k fleet power by itself, then throw on your Admiral who killed the Drake getting Dragonslayer trait, which gets even sillier when you factor in Reanimators letting you bring slayed organic Leviathans back to life to fight for your side. Pretty much agree with the rest of what you said though on the tier list. Alone the Ether Drake Trophy isn't really impressive, but thats the thing with the trophy its a package deal.
I usually play with gigas and acot, so for me that tier list becomes S: contingency core (+300% megastructures build speed is huge and game doesn't end after defeating the crisis) A: baol, rubricator (all two early game), cybrex forge (both early for alloys and late for armies) A/C: surveyor is A if you are void dweller, C otherwise F: every other one Also, for precursor, you should also consider the "dwell into the secret of" bonus when evaluating the relic
I quite like the surveyor relic. I think it should be one tier higher, maybe, because of the short activation cooldown time, cost, and the probability to get between 1 and 3 deposits (which may include alloys or engineering research). Personally when I see the extraction hive I always go out of my way to try and get it.
My personal favourites are the Cybrex warforge, Khans throne & the boot relic? - SABATON!!! That was it. Made from liquid metal. Must be in a mod I use.
Surveyor is the ultimate relic for tall empires. You are boxed in 10 systems and you spam habitats everywhere, and this bad boi gives you all the specialty districts you would want!
Fun fact : i got the Galatron the first game i played. did not know it was this rare, and did not get to use it because my military was weak and the Khan spawned next to me
Surveyor is A tier for me. It actually has lower cooldown (5 years), a high hidden chance to trigger a second deposit a few years after the first and basically no cost for activation. Also it's quite easy to get if you find the droids base, you can get it in early mid game.
The Surveyor is very underrated, the thing is amazing, in my last run it was just spitting out loads of new strategic resources. And consider that the resource edict costs scale up along with the other edicts now, you always want to have as many sources of them as possible.
The Rubricator event chain doesnt guarantee a size 25 relic world afaik, the times ive gotten the chain they were always size 12 or 13 or something along those lines. A relic world is nice, but its something to keep in mind
With Zarqulans Head you are also allowed to settle on the holy worlds around the spiritualist fallen empire. The Rubricator does not generate a size 25 relic world, the size is random, but their might be an aditional lower limit, my last rubricator world was size 17.
Lol what? If I'm unlucky and get the Irassian Concordat, I usually get to their home system and get their relic LONG before I get cybernetics or any sort of ascension... Literally like 8 hours before I even begin to see those techs.
Extremely strongly disagree with Surveyor being so low. It being so cheap allows you to just spam it like no tomorrow and it routinely spawns rare resources, which is kinda great.
Only change I'd make is I'd add a D-tier, and put the Warlock, the Brood Queen and the Head in there (the Head gets a downgrade because that ethics attraction is painful for non-Spiritual/Gestalts). Yes that does mean Javorian Pox would be alone in F-tier and yes that's completely intentional.
Personally I disagree on the Warlock, because you can jump the portal very early on, and get it as one of the smaller empires, depending on where the Unbidden spawn. If you happen to have an armada in position to slip past most of their forces and take on their home system before they have anchors, it can be a *massive* help. Double range psi jump drives let you run circles around the rest of the galaxy :3
I once lost the rubricator because a small Marauder Fleet that normally comes to your capital to ask for tribute came across it before i started the fight. so they are fighting my fleet joins and does the most damage. But because they technically won. the marauders ofc got the rubricator. I hate my Life. even better i was in a multiplayer game. so yeah. that was nice.
The yuht cryo core is the same to me as the crisis ones by the time it becomes helpful it’s not a big deal since it just lowers upkeep it’s not as versatile as the cybrex war forge which turns minerals into alloys instantaneously witch can be used to make new ships and also offset the upkeep of existing ships and also also can also be used to make mega structures and also also also gets you access to cybrex war forms which are very good for invading planets so you don’t have to waist as much time bombarding them and also also also also comes with a ruined ring world (I may be mistaken but doesn’t it get you mega structures early?) so yeah if these two precursors both relate to alloys and one is far and above better than the other there’s no competition and unique niche for the yuht CRYo core. Plus one pop (which will be unemployed if you also get the expansion tradition that does the same thing but for unity and you can get earlier in the game making the CRYo core even less useful since there are only two colonists jobs upon initial settlement meaning they’re just more upkeep until you build a district which can take awhile!) isn’t as useful and becomes useless after you settle all your worlds! F tier for sure it’s not competitive not unique and you miss out on all the better precursor artifacts!
I think the Psionic Archive could at least be a B tier but I'm intrested in why you think the Psionic ascension path is the worse overall Montu (I think the technologies, Stablity buffs, and Boons make it very good(Espicially with the Zroni buff))(The only time I've found the shroud to be useless is when I get Living Metal tech from a Fallen Empire and no living metal is in the galaxy)(I do play on console so that might screw with my experiences)
Great stuff Montu! Just an Idea, but it would be neat to learn some meta combat strategies or tips from you. Just an Idea, but either way excellent work!
Correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure the Rubricator relic world isn´t garanteed size 25, or does it grow in size when shard dies? I would also personally rate Surveyor higher since you can get it super early and each activation can spawn multible deposits (I think it is 1.6 per activation on average).
The one game I had where I got the Head of Zarqlan was probably the best possible scenario, I was a driven assimilator surrounded by militaristic spiritualists on one side, and a spiritualist fallen empire on the other, this was also like, 40 or so years in, carried me for a while.
The surveyor is insanely good, can activate 2 or even 3 times per use, is basically free, very short cooldown and can even uncover strategic resources and of all the Relics is one of the most reliable to get as usually you can get to the Mining Drones base faster than AI can. Don't really agree with it being that low.
Fun fact about the surveyor that you didn't mention in the section on it: it doesn't just trigger once and give you one deposit, while it's cooling down you will continue getting random surveyor events every so often that reveal more resources each time. So it's better than it seems, though if that makes it good enough to go up a tier is doubtful.
Last Baol is great, particularly if can get it as early as possible, I mean every ten years you get a Gaia world and the pop growth is explosive. Once you have explosive growth on these worlds you convert the others to ecumonopoli and you can move the pops there to create like 900 monthly alloy production. For me as a bio player it is really nice.
Your only worry with Last Baol ironically for its early game usage is the fact you need 150 Influence which can really punch you in the gut if your have an AI in the game that is an expansionist. Though does help early to convert your first few colony's to Gaia as to pretty much guarantee Trade dominance.
I rather like the psionic archive, getting the Zroni precursor is usually enough for me to chose it for my ascension even if i had planned otherwise, you can often end up with 2 bonuses from the shroud at the same time, i feel the higher chance for positive outcomes makes psionic a good ascension path. better shields ain't bad either, just too bad you basically need FE tech to use them well.
I will say the Omnicodex is really good for Life-Seeded and Void Dweller empires as if you get it early you can start colonizing worlds without having to conquer natives (if your empire ethics don't allow it) or meeting another friendly empire to set up migrations with or getting Droids. You will have to colonize with one of your empire though, but then you can Omnicodex on the world you colonized and then get pops perfectly suited to where you landed
had to add a comment about "the surveyor" relic. it CAN add more than one during its duration. its low cooldown and cost makes it easy to just use constantly, and sometimes it can pop out 2-3 resources during its "cooldown". which is kiiiiiinda implied by the wording of it. edit: 2400 hours played and have seen the galatron 3 times. earlier today even! edit2: the chain for the rubricator VERY rarely spawns a 20+ relic world. its mostly size 12-16. and almost exclusively inside another empire. i would estimate maybe 20% of the time its possible to get the system without going to war for it
bro surveyor is very useful. it gives additional energy output on stars which mean this thing essentially doubles or even triples your dyson swarm output
I got the galatron on my first co-op campaign with a couple of friends, they were not expecting my diplomatic score to outweigh the entire galactic community combined (excluding me, of course) by 2360. Gotta love the snowball.
I believe ive gotten the Galatron once, though it mayve been a fever dream, as i remember it being a long time ago, and at that point in time, it didnt do anything as relics hadn't been implemented, but as it was so long ago, it may be one of those fake memories that happen when you try to remember something similar that happened.
>The Surveyor; 9:13 FYI, as of the current version of the game with Void Dwellers able to get orbital surveyor (and this having some pretty predictable outcome behaviors), Surveyor is only really "good" in the context of rolling strategic resource deposits; everything else, while nice, is not as advantageous for a Void Dweller as the cost of the orbital survey decision is peanuts. This would have been true prior to the tradition tree changes though.
Can confirm. Was lucky enough to get Cybrex and the relic world with the Rubricator. A second Relic world 5 jumps away. A ruined Dyson Sphere AND ruined Megashipyard in my 40 system sphere. Was rolling two ecuminopolises and a single ringworld and rebuilt Dyson Sphere before 2300 in a 0.25x habitable world game. Best unmodded game I ever had
I think there's probably an error about the Rubricator world, sometimes it was very small to the point where all the district blockers on it totally stalled growth. It was documented in the Wiki as being between quite a wide range. I haven't found quickly the state at the time of the video, but I did report the issue and they altered the minimum growth and I never heard anything about "fixes" to the event.
The surveyor should be higher up IMO, it gives you more than one deposit, usually about two per activation and also it can give you large deposits of strategic resources which save you having to make refineries
@@MontuPlays Got it! If only there was a spy operation where you could steal their relics. Maybe like a heist which costs a little more than a steal tech operation.
The Zroni precursor chain (and therefore the relic) is quite decent for Clone Army Origin (Ascendent + Psionic Ascension) The last time I rolled The Last Baol and was a machine empires I didn't reroll... Because I was playing Driven Assimilator. I also found the omnicodex and while neither made great pops, they were still pops, and their biological and technological distinctiveness was added to our own, in our quest for perfection.
Prethoryn queen is now actually pretty good, and you don't have to beat the crisis to get it. Sometime during the crisis galaxy wide event spawns that let's you get it if you clear cetrain enemy system. And the "small fleet" i got from this was way over 250k power fleet, my second (after federation fleet) biggest fleet.
to be fair, with some of these relics, they also come with a nifty little ecumonopolis or ruined world. the miniture galaxy and the omnicodex. you have to own the system to have the relic, so you obviously get both. It's a nice little bonus that can really supercharge your economy in the early game. as an aside with the last baol. they can also terraform ANY colonizable world that isn't a machine, relic, or ecumonopolis. What's that mean? you can colonize a size 25 tomb world with the bare minimum of habitability and once it's an active colony? instant gaia world. without turning it into a "normal" world first, then to a gaia.
I got Blade of the Huntress for the first time in my current playthrough, and good god it's fantastic, especially combined with Rapid Deployment. It's a huge tactical advantage, especially when you're fighting a war on multiple fronts.
The surveyor NEEDS to be at least two tiers higher, something not covered here is that it can also generate gas, crystals, and motes, and even at the same rates as the energy, minerals, and research. It is the the only relic that I make a point of getting every run so that I don't have to waste building slots on their respective producers
In my opinion, head of zarqlan is one of the best relics out there, for 1 reason: you are able to trade with the spiritualist fallen empire… I have gotten it many times and traded all my resources for alloys. The fallen empire has a massive stockpile of resources and is usually cheaper than buying it from the market, though you can only really use stragetic resources. But usually you gen get over 100k+ alloys for relatively cheap
A small thing you forgot to mention with the Head of Zar'qlan is that if a Fanatic Spiritualist Fallen Empire awakens, you can refuse to become their dominion without risking war with them.
In my last 3 determined exterminator runs I have consistently gotten the head of the prophet. So that means the galaxy really is meant to be cleansed of all life (Besides space whales)
The Javorian Pox once extended the life of my fleeting dictator's (with great traits and agenda) life long enough to make her the chosen one and immortal. In this ideal perfect situation it was C tier instead of F!
You win bonus points for this video for featuring _Atlantis: The Lost Empire._ Such an underrated, largely forgotten movie. It's got Spock, Ivanova, and a total Daniel Jackson expy!
Truer words were never spoken!
Atlantis? Underrated?
Have you heard of Treasure Planet?
@@vitaliitomas8121 I have, actually, heard of _Treasure Planet._ 😁
Don't forget Michael J. Fox :)
ruclips.net/video/J62nQSa335Y/видео.html
This LSD trip? :P
The Last Baol is S tier, I once got it very early in the game, and steamrolled the galaxy.
Colonising every habitable planet and turning it into a Gaia world is game breaking.
indeed its better than any S tier there especially that from my experience Boal chain you can end faster than all other precursor.
Then you land your ass on Tomb worlds turn them into gaias with extra pops. How is that not S tier ? Not to mention 10% pop growth is literally 2 point trait for free ... that stacks with rapid breeder.
Literally everything about it is good. It is not even terrible for Machine empires - like Rogue servitor or driven assimilator ... heck even Exterminators get some pops to exterminate.
Also Gaia world still gives 10% jobs production output so yeah Machine empires benefit greatly aswell.
Baol is absolutely S Tier.
Dont forget that it makes seeded life easier to play if you get it early as well.
Baol also has a weird "working as intended" strat with fanatic purifiers where you take the random low habitability worlds you wind up occupying, make them liveable, and give you a bit of extra unity from the xenos that "coincedentally" appear after using it.
Baol isn't S tier, for some empires it is awesome for others it doesn't help at all; even bio based ones with nicely diverse populations find better ways to spend influence.
The Cybrex used properly is far more of a game changer, I was actually impressed that Montu has spotted it as most online don't adapt their strategy enough and talk about the endgame ringworld which doesn't alter the game result.
Having spent a great deal of time with the Surveyor active, I have noticed that it has a hidden effect. Wile activated it will sometimes (~50%) locate an additional deposit during its 5-year cooldown, it will also very rarely produce a strategic resource. That being said, I still agree that it belongs in C-tier because after mid-game the bonuses are completely irrelevant. Also, I too have never gotten the Galatron (2.5k hours).
With the soon coming changes to admin cap, ways to acquire more resources without needing to get more pops or systems will be buffed I think
I wasn't aware that it was a 50/50 shot for a 2nd activation of the Surveyor. It seemed to me that every time I activated it, I'd get 2 pulses of resource discovery -- the first when I activated it, and the 2nd about 1/2 way through the cooldown.
I got plus 4 exotic gasses in my last playthrough, which is quite nice.
I've been lucky enough to get Galatron twice on Ironman playthroughs with about 500 hours and one time have the Casus Belli to steal it from another empire
I've never become one with the worm though. Wish I had done it before the patch to it
There's actually also a chance for a third deposit found.
And honestly the Surveyor is by far the best relic. You can get it early. You can activate it often. And every activation stacks upon the next.
I basically never activate anything else.
If you get lucky, you even get rare resource deposits on planets and can then use those with a Habitat to exploit them even more.
One great point of the Surveyor is that it costs no influence to activate... you activate it any time your're tapped out on influence...
Agreed. Plus the cooldown is shorter than other relics. I for one quite like it - and it is particularly useful if you happen to spawn in a rather barren stretch of space
I would put it in at least B tier just on the back of this, it's a button you can push with practically no downside.
1. Activation cost is very low. 2. Can grant rare resources deposit. 3. Can repeat the process twice. It's basically A tier.
Out of the minor relics, the Head of Zar’Qlan and the Blade of the Huntress are the most powerful.
Anything that buffs ship speed and gives you free fallen empire ships in the mid-game is always a massive boon.
ZARQLAN WILLS IT!!!!
cybrex one is cool too to make every land invasion a sandbox.
I'm not too sure about the Head of Zar'Qlan. 20yrs past mid game (minimum requirement for it to spawn) and its spawned fleets are typically not much compared to what I can build. I might use it once or twice? But it doesn't stay useful very long. Then when you take into consideration the Spiritualist ethics attraction? I typically just don't even dig it up.
@@pagatryx5451 Try to save up the fleets till you've got a full FE strength fleet.
@@pagatryx5451 I haven't tested it, but can you have the fleet destroyed and scan the debris for FE tech?
End game crisis relics seriously need a buff,why would I kill the prethoryn just to spawn more of the pests?
I mean, by that you've won the game already, right?
@@MontuPlays Not when the Blokkarts are around the corner! (giga structures)
But yeah, I'd much rather the contingency one, since thats 300% mega strucutre build speed.
Don’t know if this was a glitch, but the onetime I got the brood queen I was able to add an unlimited amount of ships to it and once added they no longer contributed to my fleet count, so I got massive million plus fleets with no upkeep!
Preserving the Queen to make more Prethoryns makes a lot of sense for Rogue Servitors and pretty much no-one else.
I haven't seen that crisis for a long time, but originally it was possible to get it during the war with that crisis and get bonus ships for food that don't use any fleet cap. In case crysis couth you off guard because your settings were bit to high and you had to wage long attrition heavy war against Prethoryn, it was somewhat helpful. Exploit included with it was just bonkers.
Atlantis is so beautiful !! I could watch it 10 times and never get bored by the animation !!
It is a shame disney has given up on 2d.
Very true!
@@MontuPlays - I don't play a lot so don't really know much about most of them, and probably wouldn't manage to use them as effectively as better players, however I think the decapitated head seems actually pretty good.
Other than that, the only Relic I ever actually wanted significantly any time I would play was always the Baol - being able to terraform planets into perfect Edens just seems to be the best ability you could have in this type of game. I am more of a creator rather than a conqueror, I always loved using the special items and such to turn so many dead planets in Spore into tropical paradise worlds :)
Great list. Personally, I would bump surveyor into B tier, just becasue its so insanely cheap to use. Its a great general "filler" relic imo, to use if you have no better relic to use in your current situation or are short on influence.
True.
When I saw Surveyor in C tier I thought maybe I was dumb for thinking it was really strong, but seeing all these people pointing out that Surveyor should be higher up is a slight relief, it's so easy to get and basically free so I always like using it
Got the head in my latest playthrough. We're ascended synthetics. The spiritual fallen empire was mightily confused, but they still were ok with us settling on their nice holy worlds in a little pocket no one else could access. Thanks fellas :)
I got the digsite for it in my latest run, and I'm also fanatic materialist synthetics. I like my pops at 100 happiness, so I decided to abort the dig before the final event. Spiritualists are such a nieusance.
I got it as Driven Assimilators once. Utterly hilarious.
I like The Surveyor because it costs no influence. I find myself influence starved most of the time.
Ah, the Cybrex Warforge. The 'fire and forget', or in this case, the 'land armies and forget' button of Stellaris. I can't remember just how many times I've forgotten about my invading armies whenever I get the Cybrex Warforge.
One small point: the Javorian Pox, AFAICT, is the only method that a non-FP, non-Crisis empire can make Tomb Worlds from enemy planets. So if you're going Radiotrophic / Post-Apocalyptic, it can be useful. Of course, since you cannot control if you get it, you can't rely on it, but it can make the game quite different if you do. (Not saying it should be in a different tier.)
Damn, i've forgotten how many relics Guillis' Planet Modifiers and Features adds into the game. But nothing beats Zer0s' Infinty Stones mod for relics (except the warforge here in the S tier, it rivals even those).
The blade of the huntress carried me so hard in the early game that I'm happy to see it being ranked at such good spot, this video did it justice along with the rubricator!
The Head of Zarqlan should be at least an A-tier because of its additional passive effect of allowing you to legitimately yell "ZARQLAN WILLS IT!" whenever you declare war.
throwback to the time both me and a friend scored a galatron in the same game, so there were 2 galatrons in the universe
So I'm playing stellaris and get a notification of a new Montu video. Cool, pause game and watch. We get to the A teir and I'm like "oh yeah, reliquaries." So I buy one... bam Galatron.
I wish my luck was like that irl
If you're playing the StarnetAI mod you can camp the final system with the Unbidden's portal and secure the Warlock which in turn will be very helpful in war since at that point there'll be a few quite formidable empires on the map to overcome.
For me the surveyor is an a tier relic ! And for small empires an s tier because it boost your Systems heavy for a little bit of credits and u get many rare resorces over the game
Pox should be C Tier:
Like any precursor artifact you can get it very early on and an additional +20 years leader lifespan on top of all research is nice to have.
Surveyor is easily B or even A:
Killing the Mining Hub can be done very early on, activation costs only 500 energy and it saves so many building slots wasted on refineries.
Agree on the surveyor, Montu severely underrated it.
I quite like the Surveyor and would have probably put it somewhere on the B to A border. 500 energy for a shot of a permanent deposit of rare resources is a hell of a deal. When I get the thing, I almost always find myself running its triumph almost permanently. Plus, you can often get it much earlier than the other relics.
"assassinate him and steal his *chair*"
Absolutely hilarious line, great use of Atlantis too. These tier lists are awesome!
I love your added comment about the Galatron- "If you want to be THE senate..." lol. The Head of Zarqlan is my favorite relic especially if I get it early and if I'm extra lucky, the spiritualist FE are cute starfish people, Zarqlan wills it!!! I am torn between the War Forge and the Last Baol as the best precursor relic.
I really like the Head of Zarqlan just because I can get myself a nice fallen empire fleet. Throughout a full game you can get like 200 fleet power in fallen empire ships, and they are nice.
IMO The Surveyer should be in B Tier just because it takes only 500 credits to activate. That means while you are strapped for influence you can still use the Relic 24/7
Saw Atlantis on the RUclips preview, never clicked faster in my life!
Can we talk about the fact how having a medievel blade in your empire increases your planetary sensor range?? Like seriously how does that work.
Use the sword like an antena?
I think it's a magic sword
@@lorekeeper685 citation needed, but probably is a magic sword
Also makes your ships fly faster
I am doing what I've never done before and disputing the wisdom of Montu. The Head of Zarquon is an absolute game changer every time I've received it. And watch Jon (MATN) and his impossible run, and see how he, or Marc of the Templin Institute, leaned on them to survive in their games.
All. Hail. Zarquon!
On the topic of the surveyor - let's say hypothetically you're running a tell empire that has deposits on literally every planet (maybe you've used it so many times over the span of a very long game). What happens if you activate the surveyor while every planet already has a bonus resource?
It will add another fitting resource on top of the other one. So a mining station might get additional alloys or rare resources, a research station might get additional research of a different or the same type, etc.
If there's a weird resource like dark matter or living metal, it will sometimes be confused and you won't be able to take both deposits.
In earlier version it could also affect habitats and ring worlds, but that was patched last update.
Honestly the surveyor is the best relic, because it allows you to literally keep getting more and more benefits and become self-sustained without pops (except for food) in the long run. And it also doesn't "run out".
Only time I actually took advantage of an end game relic was durin my DE playthrough, battleships instant hyperlane jump and probably max sub light speed with the warlock, it was fun watching corvettes being intercepted by a fleet a battleships
I don't know if it's a bug, but I have noticed that the surveyor seems to activate itself every once in a while
That is not a bug! After you activate it once, there is a 50% chance to repeat this process in 360-1080 days and a 20% chance to repeat this process again in 1080-1800 days.
I love the Surveyor. I was able to get it early by spawning next to the home miner system. I did see double resource pops periodically, and early or midgame, it did matter to get a six mineral, energy, or greater on a useless body. I balanced my economy and exploded fleet production just from those bonuses piling up. It makes those resource poor starbases much more efficient, and is better for a less aggressive single play. It even helps with research and strategic deposits.
I got the Galatron once, that influence was great!
A quick correction: With the Rubricator, the Relic World that it is attached to is random in size. In my many multiplayer games with friends, the Rubricator Relic World varied from size 14 to size 25.
I think I saw it on a size 12 or 13 in the past 2 months. But yeah, definitely random planet size.
To be honest, i'd rank the surveyor even higher, for the sheer fact oh how cheap and quick it is and how much it can benefit you in a long run, especially if you roll strategic resources.
With the Rubricators logic of getting the Relic World then you can technically bump Ether Drake trophy up based on what you get with it since Dragons Hoard is the true reason for killing the Ether Drake since you get a 30 Energy and Mineral mining station, Artificial Dragonscales research (tier 6 Armor), and a baby Ether Drake worth 7k fleet power by itself, then throw on your Admiral who killed the Drake getting Dragonslayer trait, which gets even sillier when you factor in Reanimators letting you bring slayed organic Leviathans back to life to fight for your side.
Pretty much agree with the rest of what you said though on the tier list. Alone the Ether Drake Trophy isn't really impressive, but thats the thing with the trophy its a package deal.
I usually play with gigas and acot, so for me that tier list becomes
S: contingency core (+300% megastructures build speed is huge and game doesn't end after defeating the crisis)
A: baol, rubricator (all two early game), cybrex forge (both early for alloys and late for armies)
A/C: surveyor is A if you are void dweller, C otherwise
F: every other one
Also, for precursor, you should also consider the "dwell into the secret of" bonus when evaluating the relic
I quite like the surveyor relic. I think it should be one tier higher, maybe, because of the short activation cooldown time, cost, and the probability to get between 1 and 3 deposits (which may include alloys or engineering research). Personally when I see the extraction hive I always go out of my way to try and get it.
My personal favourites are the Cybrex warforge, Khans throne & the boot relic? - SABATON!!! That was it. Made from liquid metal. Must be in a mod I use.
ah i love the boot, i think it's from more events. i appreciate the dwarf fortress reference in it.
The scourge queen should have a WAY lower cooldown. Like, a year tops. Basically “you can convert 10k food to a small fleet whenever you want”
The surveyor it's forced to reveal resources, it even gives resources to segments of rings. That is why I think it should be in B tier.
Surveyor is the ultimate relic for tall empires. You are boxed in 10 systems and you spam habitats everywhere, and this bad boi gives you all the specialty districts you would want!
Loved the Analysis !! Amazing work Montu
Fun fact : i got the Galatron the first game i played. did not know it was this rare, and did not get to use it because my military was weak and the Khan spawned next to me
Just got stellaris + all DLC on Winter Sale, your vids have been extremely helpful. Cheers!
Surveyor is A tier for me. It actually has lower cooldown (5 years), a high hidden chance to trigger a second deposit a few years after the first and basically no cost for activation. Also it's quite easy to get if you find the droids base, you can get it in early mid game.
The Surveyor is very underrated, the thing is amazing, in my last run it was just spitting out loads of new strategic resources. And consider that the resource edict costs scale up along with the other edicts now, you always want to have as many sources of them as possible.
The surveyor relic is really good if you can get it early. It becomes less and less useful as the game progresses
The Rubricator event chain doesnt guarantee a size 25 relic world afaik, the times ive gotten the chain they were always size 12 or 13 or something along those lines. A relic world is nice, but its something to keep in mind
With Zarqulans Head you are also allowed to settle on the holy worlds around the spiritualist fallen empire. The Rubricator does not generate a size 25 relic world, the size is random, but their might be an aditional lower limit, my last rubricator world was size 17.
Lol what? If I'm unlucky and get the Irassian Concordat, I usually get to their home system and get their relic LONG before I get cybernetics or any sort of ascension... Literally like 8 hours before I even begin to see those techs.
Extremely strongly disagree with Surveyor being so low. It being so cheap allows you to just spam it like no tomorrow and it routinely spawns rare resources, which is kinda great.
Only change I'd make is I'd add a D-tier, and put the Warlock, the Brood Queen and the Head in there (the Head gets a downgrade because that ethics attraction is painful for non-Spiritual/Gestalts). Yes that does mean Javorian Pox would be alone in F-tier and yes that's completely intentional.
Personally I disagree on the Warlock, because you can jump the portal very early on, and get it as one of the smaller empires, depending on where the Unbidden spawn. If you happen to have an armada in position to slip past most of their forces and take on their home system before they have anchors, it can be a *massive* help.
Double range psi jump drives let you run circles around the rest of the galaxy :3
I once lost the rubricator because a small Marauder Fleet that normally comes to your capital to ask for tribute came across it before i started the fight. so they are fighting my fleet joins and does the most damage. But because they technically won. the marauders ofc got the rubricator.
I hate my Life. even better i was in a multiplayer game. so yeah. that was nice.
The yuht cryo core is the same to me as the crisis ones by the time it becomes helpful it’s not a big deal since it just lowers upkeep it’s not as versatile as the cybrex war forge which turns minerals into alloys instantaneously witch can be used to make new ships and also offset the upkeep of existing ships and also also can also be used to make mega structures and also also also gets you access to cybrex war forms which are very good for invading planets so you don’t have to waist as much time bombarding them and also also also also comes with a ruined ring world (I may be mistaken but doesn’t it get you mega structures early?) so yeah if these two precursors both relate to alloys and one is far and above better than the other there’s no competition and unique niche for the yuht CRYo core. Plus one pop (which will be unemployed if you also get the expansion tradition that does the same thing but for unity and you can get earlier in the game making the CRYo core even less useful since there are only two colonists jobs upon initial settlement meaning they’re just more upkeep until you build a district which can take awhile!) isn’t as useful and becomes useless after you settle all your worlds!
F tier for sure it’s not competitive not unique and you miss out on all the better precursor artifacts!
Oh also a cool thing about the cybrex is that they’ll come back to fight the contingency under certain circumstances.
You need to do a tier list for reaching into the shroud effects too!
This esp with updated to psionics
The Head of Zarlquan makes me wish there'd be a mechanic to get rid of a relic...
I think the Psionic Archive could at least be a B tier
but I'm intrested in why you think the Psionic ascension path is the worse overall Montu
(I think the technologies, Stablity buffs, and Boons make it very good(Espicially with the Zroni buff))(The only time I've found the shroud to be useless is when I get Living Metal tech from a Fallen Empire and no living metal is in the galaxy)(I do play on console so that might screw with my experiences)
Great stuff Montu! Just an Idea, but it would be neat to learn some meta combat strategies or tips from you. Just an Idea, but either way excellent work!
Meta Empire Builds? Or more like space warfare tactics?
@@MontuPlays space warfare for me please
I concur.
@@MontuPlays honestly both would be fantastic but specifically warfare
Correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure the Rubricator relic world isn´t garanteed size 25, or does it grow in size when shard dies?
I would also personally rate Surveyor higher since you can get it super early and each activation can spawn multible deposits (I think it is 1.6 per activation on average).
The Rubricator world is random as random gets. Seen it as small as 8 or as large as 25.
"Stellaris Relics Tier List"
Me who doesn't own ancient relics: "Well well well let's find out"
I am loving the intros to these videos. Huge fan of Atlantis and Titan AE myself.
Hold up! How is it possible that someone does not accept the worm into their hearts and minds???!!!
The Prethoryns dont account to your fleet power nor have upkeep so if you have a longer game they can be quite good
They can also stack into a single Fleet without a limit.
@Montu Plays time to revisit this tier list with today's Dev Diary!
The one game I had where I got the Head of Zarqlan was probably the best possible scenario, I was a driven assimilator surrounded by militaristic spiritualists on one side, and a spiritualist fallen empire on the other, this was also like, 40 or so years in, carried me for a while.
12:00 This is why that’s the best relic in multiplayer games
And honestly I would hace put the head in F (unless you are Spiritualist, then C)
Spiritualist fallen empires be like "I hate the determined exterminators!"
One head of zarqualn later:
"Me and the homies!"
Genocidals should get the option to do something else with the head to fit their themes
The surveyor is insanely good, can activate 2 or even 3 times per use, is basically free, very short cooldown and can even uncover strategic resources and of all the Relics is one of the most reliable to get as usually you can get to the Mining Drones base faster than AI can. Don't really agree with it being that low.
Fun fact about the surveyor that you didn't mention in the section on it: it doesn't just trigger once and give you one deposit, while it's cooling down you will continue getting random surveyor events every so often that reveal more resources each time. So it's better than it seems, though if that makes it good enough to go up a tier is doubtful.
Last Baol is great, particularly if can get it as early as possible, I mean every ten years you get a Gaia world and the pop growth is explosive. Once you have explosive growth on these worlds you convert the others to ecumonopoli and you can move the pops there to create like 900 monthly alloy production. For me as a bio player it is really nice.
Your only worry with Last Baol ironically for its early game usage is the fact you need 150 Influence which can really punch you in the gut if your have an AI in the game that is an expansionist. Though does help early to convert your first few colony's to Gaia as to pretty much guarantee Trade dominance.
I rather like the psionic archive, getting the Zroni precursor is usually enough for me to chose it for my ascension even if i had planned otherwise, you can often end up with 2 bonuses from the shroud at the same time, i feel the higher chance for positive outcomes makes psionic a good ascension path. better shields ain't bad either, just too bad you basically need FE tech to use them well.
Montu which is better the scales of the worm or accepting the worms love?
I always play void dwellers, I love the surveyor! After a few thousand hours lol. I only got it once.
Surveyor is great for small empires because you can get things like a value of 6 gas deposit, and then it goes off again for free a few years later
I will say the Omnicodex is really good for Life-Seeded and Void Dweller empires as if you get it early you can start colonizing worlds without having to conquer natives (if your empire ethics don't allow it) or meeting another friendly empire to set up migrations with or getting Droids. You will have to colonize with one of your empire though, but then you can Omnicodex on the world you colonized and then get pops perfectly suited to where you landed
had to add a comment about "the surveyor" relic. it CAN add more than one during its duration. its low cooldown and cost makes it easy to just use constantly, and sometimes it can pop out 2-3 resources during its "cooldown". which is kiiiiiinda implied by the wording of it.
edit: 2400 hours played and have seen the galatron 3 times. earlier today even!
edit2: the chain for the rubricator VERY rarely spawns a 20+ relic world. its mostly size 12-16. and almost exclusively inside another empire. i would estimate maybe 20% of the time its possible to get the system without going to war for it
bro surveyor is very useful. it gives additional energy output on stars which mean this thing essentially doubles or even triples your dyson swarm output
I got the galatron on my first co-op campaign with a couple of friends, they were not expecting my diplomatic score to outweigh the entire galactic community combined (excluding me, of course) by 2360. Gotta love the snowball.
You should bump up the crystal one, because the path to it gives you psionic theory, so if you find the arch site early, it's a lot more powerful.
I believe ive gotten the Galatron once, though it mayve been a fever dream, as i remember it being a long time ago, and at that point in time, it didnt do anything as relics hadn't been implemented, but as it was so long ago, it may be one of those fake memories that happen when you try to remember something similar that happened.
>The Surveyor; 9:13
FYI, as of the current version of the game with Void Dwellers able to get orbital surveyor (and this having some pretty predictable outcome behaviors), Surveyor is only really "good" in the context of rolling strategic resource deposits; everything else, while nice, is not as advantageous for a Void Dweller as the cost of the orbital survey decision is peanuts. This would have been true prior to the tradition tree changes though.
Can confirm. Was lucky enough to get Cybrex and the relic world with the Rubricator. A second Relic world 5 jumps away. A ruined Dyson Sphere AND ruined Megashipyard in my 40 system sphere. Was rolling two ecuminopolises and a single ringworld and rebuilt Dyson Sphere before 2300 in a 0.25x habitable world game. Best unmodded game I ever had
Javorian pox is very niche, if you get it early as a robot it's incredibly powerful for landgrabs
I think there's probably an error about the Rubricator world, sometimes it was very small to the point where all the district blockers on it totally stalled growth. It was documented in the Wiki as being between quite a wide range. I haven't found quickly the state at the time of the video, but I did report the issue and they altered the minimum growth and I never heard anything about "fixes" to the event.
The surveyor should be higher up IMO, it gives you more than one deposit, usually about two per activation and also it can give you large deposits of strategic resources which save you having to make refineries
Is there a way you can take relics from another empire?
I read somewhere there is a chance you can get their relics if you defeat them.
You absolutely can, though it is very unlikely. A 10% chance you get 1 random relic when you take a enemy capital!
@@MontuPlays Got it!
If only there was a spy operation where you could steal their relics. Maybe like a heist which costs a little more than a steal tech operation.
The Zroni precursor chain (and therefore the relic) is quite decent for Clone Army Origin (Ascendent + Psionic Ascension)
The last time I rolled The Last Baol and was a machine empires I didn't reroll... Because I was playing Driven Assimilator. I also found the omnicodex and while neither made great pops, they were still pops, and their biological and technological distinctiveness was added to our own, in our quest for perfection.
Prethoryn queen is now actually pretty good, and you don't have to beat the crisis to get it. Sometime during the crisis galaxy wide event spawns that let's you get it if you clear cetrain enemy system. And the "small fleet" i got from this was way over 250k power fleet, my second (after federation fleet) biggest fleet.
to be fair, with some of these relics, they also come with a nifty little ecumonopolis or ruined world. the miniture galaxy and the omnicodex. you have to own the system to have the relic, so you obviously get both. It's a nice little bonus that can really supercharge your economy in the early game.
as an aside with the last baol. they can also terraform ANY colonizable world that isn't a machine, relic, or ecumonopolis. What's that mean? you can colonize a size 25 tomb world with the bare minimum of habitability and once it's an active colony? instant gaia world. without turning it into a "normal" world first, then to a gaia.
I got Blade of the Huntress for the first time in my current playthrough, and good god it's fantastic, especially combined with Rapid Deployment. It's a huge tactical advantage, especially when you're fighting a war on multiple fronts.
The last time I had the omnicodex I was a hive empire, so it was like calling out for dinner.
Everyone I know pronounces Baol as BAH-ol, and then there's Montu, who says "bowel."
... im confused. Thats the same word, just phonetically the first time
The surveyor NEEDS to be at least two tiers higher, something not covered here is that it can also generate gas, crystals, and motes, and even at the same rates as the energy, minerals, and research. It is the the only relic that I make a point of getting every run so that I don't have to waste building slots on their respective producers
In my opinion, head of zarqlan is one of the best relics out there, for 1 reason: you are able to trade with the spiritualist fallen empire… I have gotten it many times and traded all my resources for alloys. The fallen empire has a massive stockpile of resources and is usually cheaper than buying it from the market, though you can only really use stragetic resources. But usually you gen get over 100k+ alloys for relatively cheap
This list needs a redo because a lot of the relics have been reworked
A small thing you forgot to mention with the Head of Zar'qlan is that if a Fanatic Spiritualist Fallen Empire awakens, you can refuse to become their dominion without risking war with them.
In my last 3 determined exterminator runs I have consistently gotten the head of the prophet. So that means the galaxy really is meant to be cleansed of all life (Besides space whales)
The Javorian Pox once extended the life of my fleeting dictator's (with great traits and agenda) life long enough to make her the chosen one and immortal. In this ideal perfect situation it was C tier instead of F!
Imagine if you could get the extradimensional warlock through a shroud event, but it causes the unbidden to spawn 50 years earlier.