Are the 3 new bio traditions better than the old one?

[Peepijeep]

Hi,

In 3.14, we had a tradition called genetics, which gave you ability to clone AND to modify your pops in high degree.

Now with the 3 new bio traditions, we have to choose.
Are the new ones really better?

Cloning is only available when choosing cloning tradition, auto middung only with mutation, and +6 trait points only with purity.

With the old genetic tradition, I had all of these.

May I be wrong, or are the new traditions pretty bad?

By the way, I only checked the Wiki, not the in game info. Are there dome informations missing in the Wiki?

 

[Thiend]

Short answer: they're good.

Slightly longer answer:

Previously, the ascension always had cloning vats, a large amount of trait points and picks, and leviathan traits. Of these, basically just cloning vats were good - the relatively low impact and very high cost of species modification made it take an extremely long time to just break even.

Now, all empires have access to cloning vats, so that's actually still an option for Purity and Mutation (and now Psionic, which is great), but actual Cloning empires have it far better than it was before. All three Genetic ascension options (to clarify, I say Genetic because Cybernetic and Psionic are still biological) CAN have access to leviathan traits, which are also better, but you have the option to take something else. All three CAN use a comparable amount of Genetic modification to 3.14, just Purity does it even more.

Basically, Purity with Nucleotide Isolation is effectively just a massively upgraded equivalent to 3.14 Genetic. It has clone vats rebalanced for 4.0, but better genemodding and many other upsides. You can trade off the better genemodding for better clone vats or access to effectively-new cross-phenotype modding, as prior phenotype traits only existed on plantoid/fungoid and could thus be imitated by just actually playing one of those two, plus mutagenic habitability.

It's better.

 

[Red Death]

As someone that doesn't even have the Biomorphosis DLC:

Cloning is only available when choosing cloning tradition

In the new update, Cloning is actually available to everyone, you don't have to take the Ascencion Path.

The old Genetics tree speeds it up. If you have the DLC, the Cloning options speed it up.

auto middung only with mutation

Auto-modding in the old version was already available to everyone, not part of the Ascension.

In the DLC, Mutation gets an extra auto-modding trait, that stacks with the old one. (or at least it's supposed to, apparently it's bugged right now).

+6 trait points only with purity.

Base game genetics gives you +6 points and +2 trait picks.

In the DLC:

• Purity: +6/+2
• Mutation: +4/+4
• Cloning: +4/+2

So, there is indeed a trade-off here. But it's just an option you have.


And if you ask me, DLC shouldn't be making things stronger over base-game.

 

[Deshiba]

The new traditions outclass the non-dlc Genetics tree at pretty much every stage.
-----
Genetics gives:

1. Adoption
   • Unlocks the Clone Vats building
   • Genetic Pursuit Agenda (yields times 4 on finisher)
     • +5% Biology research speed
     • −5% Modify Species special project cost
     • +2.5% Organic pop assembly speed
2. Genetic Resequencing
   • Full freedom of changing traits
3. Engineered Genesis
   • Change portrait
   • Assimilate Hive Mind pops
4. Allelic Expression
   • Genetic modification can add advanced genetic traits
   • +6 Genetic modification points
   • +2 Organic species trait picks
   • −50% Modify Species special project cost
5. Stem Cell Stimulation
   • +10% Habitability
6. Retroviral Manipulation
   • +1.5 Monthly organic pop assembly from Clone Vats buildings
7. Finisher
   • −33% Clone Vats upkeep
   • Can add and remove phenotype traits regardless of species
   • Can unlock organic leviathan traits

When comparing that to just cloning in isolation you can get:

1. Adoption
   • Unlocks the Clone Vats building
   • Unlocks the Replication Initiative agenda
     • +25% Monthly organic pop growth multiplier (4x on finisher)
2. Evolutionary Extrapolation
   • Medical Workers are replaced by Genomic Researchers
   • Unlocks assimilation into or out of Hive Minds
   • +15% Biology Research Speed
   • −50% Clone Vats Upkeep
3. Somatic Synthetization
   • Unlocks Perfected Clone Army
   • Genetic modification can change species portrait
   • +4 Genetic modification points
   • +2 Organic species trait picks
   • −50% Modify Species special project cost
   • Can add the Clone Soldier trait if founder species has the Clone Soldier Ascendant trait
4. Finisher
   • +1 Clone Vats planet limit per capital tier
   • Allows the adoption of Cloning authorities

----------
You loose:

• 2 gene mod points,
• +10% habitability,
• Modify Species special project cost from the agenda,
• Can unlock organic leviathan traits

You gain:

• x10 Monthly organic pop growth multiplier (assuming this is similar to the bio pop assembly speed)
• Genomic Researchers
• +17% clone vat upkeep reduction
• Perfected Clone Army
• +1 Clone Vats planet limit per capital tier
  • This vastly outstrips the +1.5 assembly from cloning vats.

-------------
And that's without going trough all the Flexible Traditions on top of that. Or getting into the Purity or Mutation trees.
If you take Genomic Growth, Heightened Attributes and Nucleotide Isolation as the flex options you just dunk on the old tree so hard with an aditional:

• +1 Monthly organic pop growth per 100 Genomic Researchers
• −10% Pop upkeep
• −10% Pop amenities usage
• +5% Job efficiency per medical building tier
• +15% Job efficiency per Genomic Research Facility
• −10% Empire size from pops
• Unlocks Nucleotide Isolation traits
• Can unlock organic leviathan traits

 

[DarkHelmet110985]

The new Genetic Traditions basically take the old Genetics and split it up into three paths and Players must choose which path, and consequently, which Advanced Government Authority they want. How I’d rank them is as follows:

Cloning: Clone Vats normally yield 1.5 Pop Assembly and are limited to one. Cloning doubles the Pop Assembly to 3 and allows you to build up to 4 per Colony(limit based on level of Capital Building). Cloning Democratic Authority is simply OP for those looking to minimize Empire Size. Downside is that you literally cannot remove Positive traits(save for vocational ones) or add Negative ones. Can only remove Negative and add Positive if you can squeeze it in since you only get 4 Trait Points and 2 Trait picks or the fewest of the 3 paths. Yet while you can’t modify very well, your pops will grow like weeds if you take advantage of the Clone Vat perk provided by the Cloning Tradition. 3.14 gave you 4.5 Pop Assembly… 4.0 Cloning pushes that to at least 16 or 20 if you took Cloning on first Flexible Tradition. Having three times the Assembly is just nuts.

Mutation: Set it and forget it path. Not only is it the best at Auto-Modding, it has the most Picks or a whopping total of 9(10 if you have Overtuned origin). It permits you to use any Pehnotype trait you want(brand new traits introduced with BioGenesis) and is arguably the best path for Hive Minds.

Purity: Pretty much permits you to take any Trait you want while being able to add/remove just about anything. Furthermore, Advanced Organic Traits cost less(3 points instead of 4 for the notable ones), which is a massive upgrade over 3.14 Genetics. Purity Oligarchic Authority is Job Efficiency central, while the Democratic Authority pretty much permits you to ignore Factions since with the right Purity score(Positive sum minus negative sum; Overtuned are zero I think) yields a massive boost to Pop Happiness.

Flexible Traditions also permit player preference. First tradition slot is really the only one where all 3 are worth taking. Cloning grants additional Pop Assembly via Genomic Researchers. Mutation sets Habitability to 50% on all Wet/Frozen/Dry Climate types and sets Tomb Worlds to 50% too. In exchange, you gain benefits for going over 100% Habitability(insanely strong for Lithoids). Purity yields +1 Leader effective skill along with bonus Leader traits(perfect for Leader focused factions and can offset Cloning’s Backup Leader malus).

2nd Flexible Tradition is really no choice in the matter. Purity is basically it due to -10% Empire Size from Pops. Final Flexible Tradition comes down to Cloning and Mutation imo. You either pick Cloning for Backup Leader Trait(grants +2 effective skill while it has it, allows Leader to cheat death but gains malus trait that can be offset by Purity choice in first tradition slot) or Mutation for the ability to add Nucleotide traits(Orbital Speed Demon traits, which have been buffed) and Leviathan traits(which are meh but that’s just me).

Each flexible tradition choice yields Empire modifiers based on which path was chosen and can gain up to two buffs from each respective tree so choosing Purity three times will not grant you a 3rd bonus(afaik). Cloning I modifier grants +1 Organic Pop Assembly from Genomic Researchers(doubling Flexible Tradition I) and Cloning II increases Amenities from Genomic Researchers by 300. Mutation I grants 10% Habitability from Medical Center(fully upgraded) and Genomic Research Lab(20% total) while Mutation II increases the amount of Pops that can be auto-modded per month. Purity I grants 10% Pop growth per Genomic Researcher and Purity II yields Maximum Negative Leader Traits -1.

Flexible Traditions add a lot of player choice and honestly I wish Cybernetic and Synthetic had that modularity or customizable functionality. Yet to say that 3.14 Genetic is better is an effective no by a mile.

 

[Abdulijubjub]

Hi,

In 3.14, we had a tradition called genetics, which gave you ability to clone AND to modify your pops in high degree.

Now with the 3 new bio traditions, we have to choose.
Are the new ones really better?

Cloning is only available when choosing cloning tradition, auto middung only with mutation, and +6 trait points only with purity.

With the old genetic tradition, I had all of these.

May I be wrong, or are the new traditions pretty bad?

By the way, I only checked the Wiki, not the in game info. Are there dome informations missing in the Wiki?

You can get everything the old version gave you by taking 1 from each branch (with Mutation third), then going Purity at the end. You don't have to substitute something else and trust that it's better.

You get:

• Advanced Traits
• The ability to fully rewrite templates and (at least) 6 trait points
  • Advanced traits are also cheaper for Purity now, so this is even stronger than it seems
• Leviathan Trangenesis traits
  • These have been buffed.
• 4.5ish pop assembly per planet that no one else gets (though it comes from Genomic Researchers, and needs two buildings [Genomic Research and Medical Center] instead of one [Cloning Vat]).

So... yes. The new version is strictly better than the old version, because if you want the old version you can still have it (and more besides).

Edit: this is not strictly true. Forgot about Lithoid/Plantoid Transgenesis. You're effectively forced to choose between an ultra-souped-up transgenesis option with Mutation and the ability to remove all positive traits with Purity. Previously you could get both (though Plantoid/Lithoid Transgenesis, the only two options, required researching the corresponding tech).

 

[DarkHelmet110985]

If you build Medical Center(fully upgrade it), Genomic Research Lab and a Clone Vat after researching Cloning and pick a Flexible Tradition from each path(Cloning -> Purity -> Mutation) and then promptly take Purity Tradition, you gain the following:

+6 Trait Points/+2 Trait Picks
Add/Remove any trait in the game save for Phenotype traits(Mutation is only path that can do so)
Cheaper Advanced traits(ex: Erudite costs 3 points)
+9.5 Pop Assembly before Genomic Researcher multiplier
+40% Pop Growth
+20% Habitability
Purity Advanced Authorities

If you swap around the Flexible Traditions and take Mutation, Purity and Cloning, you lose 4 Pop assembly, the ability to add Nucleotide traits(Orbital Speed Demon, which have been buffed) and Leviathan traits but gain Mutagenic Habitability that grants insane buffs when over 100% Habitability(bonus job efficiency, housing usage and amenity usage… insanely strong) while granting leaders the ability to cheat death with Backup Clone trait. The malus sucks but -1 effective skill beats having to train a new Leader.

In other words, it’s not just what Tradition path you take but what Flexible Traditions since it’s not just the Tradition itself but the Empire modifiers that come with it. I personally love Mutation -> Purity -> Cloning and take Cloning for its Democratic Authority. While I can’t modify Pops as I see fit(can only remove Negative and add Positive), I get insane Job Efficiency(+55% from Genetic ascension alone), Housing usage reduction(25%, if not more with Adaptability and other reduction sources) and Amenity usage reduction(up to 25%, which beats Cloning’s flexible tradition choice by 15%). I get -25% Empire Size from Pops(most from any Ascension path) and I can have a whopping 16 Organic Pop Assembly before Genomic Researcher multiplier or 80% of the 20 that would be possible if I had taken Cloning with first Flexible Tradition. TLDR: My pops grow like weeds and I produce a lot of resources via Job Efficiency provided they have enough +Habitability(which I get via Overtuned origin and Excessive Endurance + Damn the Consequences that yields a total of +60% Habitability or 120% Habitability with other sources(hence enough to make Relic Worlds 200% Habitability)).

 

[Sweeze]

IMO, the objectively strongest path is:

1 Cloning for maximum growth. However Mutagenic is also good here, and arguably better immediately, just worse long term due to much less growth.
2 Purity for muh empire size
3 Cloning. The backup clone trait is great and if you go cloning then it gets improved further

From there, Purity gets the best job efficiency. Played right you can have (IIRC) 15 positive trait points which gives +37.5% job efficiency and +75% Agenda speed if you are an oligarchy. The trick to maximize this is that the advanced traits are discounted by -1, but add to your positive total as if they weren't discounted, so you can take all them + negatives so you can take more effective positives.

Cloning on the other hand gets another -15% empire size from pops if democracy along with better growth. If you have to be a hive then it gets you an upgrade to -33% empire size effect.

Mutation on the other hand kinda just sucks unless you're evolutionary predator in which case its your only option.

 

[Abdulijubjub]

IMO, the objectively strongest path is:

1 Cloning for maximum growth. However Mutagenic is also good here, and arguably better immediately, just worse long term due to much less growth.
2 Purity for muh empire size
3 Cloning. The backup clone trait is great and if you go cloning then it gets improved further

From there, Purity gets the best job efficiency. Played right you can have (IIRC) 15 positive trait points which gives +37.5% job efficiency and +75% Agenda speed if you are an oligarchy. The trick to maximize this is that the advanced traits are discounted by -1, but add to your positive total as if they weren't discounted, so you can take all them + negatives so you can take more effective positives.

Cloning on the other hand gets another -15% empire size from pops if democracy along with better growth. If you have to be a hive then it gets you an upgrade to -33% empire size effect.

Mutation on the other hand kinda just sucks unless you're evolutionary predator in which case its your only option.

Mutation, Purity, Cloning gives substantially better long term performance than Cloning, Purity, Cloning.

• Assuming you've got ~60% in efficiency from other sources, the 25% job efficiency from Mutagenic Habitability means you get ~15% from every pop... including your Genomic Researchers (Medical Workers).
• 4*1.6=6.4 Genomic Researchers give 12.8 bonus growth, +96% growth, and +32% bonus growth, for a total of 5*1.96+12.8*1.32=26.6 extra
• 4*1.85=7.4 GRs without the cloning tradition give 7.4 bonus growth, +111% growth, and +37% bonus growth, for a total of 20.688 extra
• You lose 6 (out of ~26), but every pop is ~15% more effective. 20*1.15=26. So you get the same performance, but with lower empire size and needing fewer buildings.

Cloning, Purity, Mutation gives better growth than Cloning, Purity, Cloning (Polymelic stronk).

Nucleic Judiciary (Dictatorship) is basically as strong as Eugenic Hierarchy. For 2.5% efficiency to beat 0.5 society, the job would have to have a net output (before efficiency) of something equal to 20 society research (~30 energy). And under the dictatorship, your leaders practically max out stability just for existing.

Overall, though, the Purity ones are all quite good (except Democracy, poor democracy, getting ~30% happiness instead of the 80% it ought to because it's capped).

 

[DarkHelmet110985]

Mutation, Purity, Cloning gives substantially better long term performance than Cloning, Purity, Cloning.

• Assuming you've got ~60% in efficiency from other sources, the 25% job efficiency from Mutagenic Habitability means you get ~15% from every pop... including your Genomic Researchers (Medical Workers).
• 4*1.6=6.4 Genomic Researchers give 12.8 bonus growth, +96% growth, and +32% bonus growth, for a total of 5*1.96+12.8*1.32=26.6 extra
• 4*1.85=7.4 GRs without the cloning tradition give 7.4 bonus growth, +111% growth, and +37% bonus growth, for a total of 20.688 extra
• You lose 6 (out of ~26), but every pop is ~15% more effective. 20*1.15=26. So you get the same performance, but with lower empire size and needing fewer buildings.

Cloning, Purity, Mutation gives better growth than Cloning, Purity, Cloning (Polymelic stronk).

Nucleic Judiciary (Dictatorship) is basically as strong as Eugenic Hierarchy. For 2.5% efficiency to beat 0.5 society, the job would have to have a net output (before efficiency) of something equal to 20 society research (~30 energy). And under the dictatorship, your leaders practically max out stability just for existing.

Overall, though, the Purity ones are all quite good (except Democracy, poor democracy, getting ~30% happiness instead of the 80% it ought to because it's capped).

Purity Democracy’s Happiness bonus has a niche use case. It only really comes in handy when offsetting Pops in factions that are antithetical to your Governing Ethics(ex: Authortarian factions when you’re Egalitarian). Since unhappy factions yield a -40% Happiness malus, having +60%(or more) Happiness from Purity’s Democratic Authority basically makes stabilizing newly conquered worlds insanely easy provided you modify their pops to yield the same Happiness boost your Pops enjoy.

It’s also useful in Under One Rule where if you Genetically Ascend before the Civil War, you’ll take on Purity’s Democratic Authority upon siding with the Rebels(at least I hope it works that way) where after winning the war, you’ll have the issue of having to deal with the Authoritarian faction(s) that will give you a fat Happiness penalty. Purity’s Democratic Authority will make dealing with it that much easier.

 

[Sweeze]

Cloning, Purity, Mutation gives better growth than Cloning, Purity, Cloning (Polymelic stronk).

Only if you can find and beat the right guardian though, so kinda risky to take. Meanwhile Clone Backups are immune to death and also get +2 all skill levels, +5% research per scientist and +5% naval cap per commander.

Nucleic Judiciary (Dictatorship) is basically as strong as Eugenic Hierarchy. For 2.5% efficiency to beat 0.5 society, the job would have to have a net output (before efficiency) of something equal to 20 society research (~30 energy). And under the dictatorship, your leaders practically max out stability just for existing.

I take it you are assuming all research is equivalent? I would disagree eventually, society repeatables are the worst so society becomes a fairly useless tech to get a lot of.

 

[Thiend]

If I were to rate ascensions, I'd say Purity is best long-term in a small empire, Virtuality is best short-term in a small empire, Cloning is best for going wide. None of the new ascensions are BAD, but I think those are best.

Psionic is actually not terrible this patch. It's not GOOD, barring the telepath swap they're changing back to not happen, but having access to Clone Vats does allow Psionic to at least be improved from 3.14 even if its laughably bad compared to any other ascension right now.

 

[Abdulijubjub]

I take it you are assuming all research is equivalent? I would disagree eventually, society repeatables are the worst so society becomes a fairly useless tech to get a lot of.

I am assuming all research is fungible: if all your pops produce the equivalent of 17*(0.5/~15)=56% of a base biologist (before efficiency), then you don't have to bother having any biologists. Your researchers can be (almost) all physicists/engineers.

If everyone's walking around with ~1.85x efficiency (meaning the free society is equal to 0.56/1.85=30% of the economy), that means you can have ~30% of the economy on physics, 30% on engineering, and 40% on ships (energy, alloys, etc.), and still have balanced research output.

---

More importantly, I don't agree that society repeatables are the worst, especially not with bioships.

Unity, strikecraft, and food repeatables are great. Obviously army damage/health sucks, but you can just not research them.

 

[Sweeze]

OK, but at least once you reach repeatables you won't want a balanced research output, you'll want as much engineering and physics as possible.

If anything I'd say the army damage is the one good repeatable because otherwise army invasions of things like FEs can take a long time and be a major drag. Food repeatable quickly becomes irrelevant (though less so with bioships), strikecraft can't beat alpha strike, and unity scales awfully trying to ascend planets in a wide empire,

 

[DarkHelmet110985]

I am assuming all research is fungible: if all your pops produce the equivalent of 17*(0.5/~15)=56% of a base biologist (before efficiency), then you don't have to bother having any biologists. Your researchers can be (almost) all physicists/engineers.

If everyone's walking around with ~1.85x efficiency (meaning the free society is equal to 0.56/1.85=30% of the economy), that means you can have ~30% of the economy on physics, 30% on engineering, and 40% on ships (energy, alloys, etc.), and still have balanced research output.

---

More importantly, I don't agree that society repeatables are the worst, especially not with bioships.

Unity, strikecraft, and food repeatables are great. Obviously army damage/health sucks, but you can just not research them.

Army repeatable don’t suck. In my most recent game, I got an Army of 50 Warplings and proceeded to stack those repeatable Army Techs to 10 each(not hard given the Pop Growth from Cloning to fill in my Tech Ecu’s). Their HP and Damage were intimidating. I then picked a fight with the Hive Mind FE and proceeded to invade their Colonies one by one without sieging them down. The final Colony had 20k Defense strength while I had roughly 21k left. The Warplings just eviscerated them like a hot knife through butter. Ended up losing 21 Warplings Armies in total from the entire Campaign but conquered all of their systems. Lost 38 ships combined too(10 Cruisers, 11 Destroyers, 17 Corvettes). Attribute that to my Strikecraft repeatables so yeah Society certainly is worth investing in.

 

[Abdulijubjub]

OK, but at least once you reach repeatables you won't want a balanced research output, you'll want as much engineering and physics as possible.

If anything I'd say the army damage is the one good repeatable because otherwise army invasions of things like FEs can take a long time and be a major drag. Food repeatable quickly becomes irrelevant (though less so with bioships), strikecraft can't beat alpha strike, and unity scales awfully trying to ascend planets in a wide empire,

I disagree with literally everything in this post, start to finish (except maybe the alpha strike thing, which is the rocket-tag phase of "everyone has repeatables" that I mentioned, but even that is stated in too-absolute terms.).

Impressive.

Army repeatable don’t suck. In my most recent game, I got an Army of 50 Warplings and proceeded to stack those repeatable Army Techs to 10 each(not hard given the Pop Growth from Cloning to fill in my Tech Ecu’s). Their HP and Damage were intimidating. I then picked a fight with the Hive Mind FE and proceeded to invade their Colonies one by one without sieging them down. The final Colony had 20k Defense strength while I had roughly 21k left. The Warplings just eviscerated them like a hot knife through butter. Ended up losing 21 Warplings Armies in total from the entire Campaign but conquered all of their systems. Lost 38 ships combined too(10 Cruisers, 11 Destroyers, 17 Corvettes). Attribute that to my Strikecraft repeatables so yeah Society certainly is worth investing in.

I would get a few, but it's a problem that's just solved by resources.

Why invest hundreds of thousands or millions of society research into more than 10 or so of these army repeatables, when you could instead spend those same millions of resources on building an army to do the same? A biologist makes ~20 society. A miner makes ~20 minerals (by repeatables time). If you spent 1m on repeatables you could instead have spent 1m on minerals.

1 million minerals buys a lot of armies. And you can even build them in bulk now (from starbases).

The only obstacles you'll have once you're in repeatables are FEs and the crisis. But there's a finite amount of FE armies, and the crisis doesn't use armies (or at least, not to any meaningful extent). There's an optimal mount to invest in army repeatables vs. just building more troops, and that amount is quite small.

 

[Kava]

May I be wrong, or are the new traditions pretty bad?

There are a number of advantages that aren't immediately apparent.
For example, you replace all your medical worker jobs with genomic researcher jobs, and you get access to the genomic research facility. These will give you a powerful base of society research, pop growth, and job efficiency.
You also get new stronger government types.

 

[Kava]

Army repeatable don’t suck. In my most recent game, I got an Army of 50 Warplings and proceeded to stack those repeatable Army Techs to 10 each(not hard given the Pop Growth from Cloning to fill in my Tech Ecu’s). Their HP and Damage were intimidating. I then picked a fight with the Hive Mind FE and proceeded to invade their Colonies one by one without sieging them down. The final Colony had 20k Defense strength while I had roughly 21k left. The Warplings just eviscerated them like a hot knife through butter. Ended up losing 21 Warplings Armies in total from the entire Campaign but conquered all of their systems. Lost 38 ships combined too(10 Cruisers, 11 Destroyers, 17 Corvettes). Attribute that to my Strikecraft repeatables so yeah Society certainly is worth investing in.

Man I love the Warplings story. I wish I could further genetically enhance them with dragon scales. I tend to just keep a few of them as pets for my Gene Warriors.

 

[GuardianGI]

Cloning also has:
Doubled clone vat effectiveness vs mutation/purity (3 vs 1.5)
Powerful agenda ( 100% bonus assembly speed), purity agenda is pretty much useless
Powerful oligarchy government that gives +4 (2 from backup clone trait ) effective council skill and:
15% global trade per official on council;
5% society/physics/engineering output per scientist on council;
5% naval cap per commander on council.

 

[GuardianGI]

Mutation, Purity, Cloning gives substantially better long term performance than Cloning, Purity, Cloning.

• Assuming you've got ~60% in efficiency from other sources, the 25% job efficiency from Mutagenic Habitability means you get ~15% from every pop... including your Genomic Researchers (Medical Workers).
• 4*1.6=6.4 Genomic Researchers give 12.8 bonus growth, +96% growth, and +32% bonus growth, for a total of 5*1.96+12.8*1.32=26.6 extra
• 4*1.85=7.4 GRs without the cloning tradition give 7.4 bonus growth, +111% growth, and +37% bonus growth, for a total of 20.688 extra
• You lose 6 (out of ~26), but every pop is ~15% more effective. 20*1.15=26. So you get the same performance, but with lower empire size and needing fewer buildings.

Cloning, Purity, Mutation gives better growth than Cloning, Purity, Cloning (Polymelic stronk).

Very useful, but what about Mutagenic Spas? Those civics work against Mutagenic Habitability (ironic). Harder to maintain overhabitability, but you get +2 genomic researchers and massive growth modifiers.
Also you could relatively easily get 90% job efficiency (30% from capital productivity, 30% from Roboticist governor trait, 15% from tier 3 medical and another 15% from genomic building).

If we wanted to go completely crazy we could rush FE clinics with Enigmatic Engineering and Nucleic Judiciary. FE clinics make mutagenic habitability increasingly impossible to maintain with mutagenic spas, while cloning tradition gets increasingly better.

If I wanted to go for endgame runs with ridiculous numbers I would definitely choose Mutagenic Spas + Genomic Growth tradition over Mutagenic Habitability.