Builds to Minimize Empire Size

[TheConundrum]

After playing the vassal game to death, I've experimented with different builds to minimize Empire size, with a focus on pop then colonies. I'd be interested in your thoughts / adjustments to these builds, as well as your own.


1. Nanotech Guardian Machine Intelligence (System +125, Colony -25, District -85, Pop -100)
This is my current game.

Third Civic: OTA Updates

Traditions: Expansion (System and Colonies), Domination (Districts and Pop), Synchronicity (pop), Nanotech (Colonies), Statecraft (Overall).
Perks: Imperial Perogative (Colonies)
Origin: Somewhat indifferent, I went with Void, but Ringworld and Resource Consolidation would be good.
Cyber species: Lithoid with Army strength increase - to negate army strength malus from Guardian spawl.
Traits: Final trait that you can't see is one of the free machine traits. Dealers choice.

I believe this is the hardest counter in the game to the malus applied to Guardian civics - especially from Colonies.
I've overkilled on Pop reduction in the above, so I could drop OTA Updates or Domination (Districts are negligible) or Synchronicity.

Pop is further reduced partially due to Cyborg trait.

2. MI Alternatives

1. The above build but going Cyber Ascension with DA. You won't get the colony reduction from Nanotech, but you can squeeze another 10% Pop reduction by Memory Aggregator govenment, which opens your options for tradition trees further.
2. Exterminators with pop via Mechromancy.

3. Cyber Guardian Hive (System +125, Colony +25, District -85, Pop -100)

Civic: Guardian Matrix, Divided Attention then Subsumed Will.
Traditions: Expansion (System and Colonies), Domination( Pop), Synchronicity (pop), Cybernetics (District and Pop), Statecraft (Overall).
Perks: Imperial Perogative (Colonies)

Similar load out to the MI above, with a +25 rather than a -25 on Colony spawl. However Hive Cybernetics lack the pop spawl by its Ruler, but have extra elsewhere from their Cybernetic tradition tree.

Breakdown for Pop Sprawl.

• -50 Guardian
• -10 Dom Tree
• -10 Synchronocity Tree
• -10 (Psionic Theory)
• -20 Subsumed Will

The principle advantage of Hive over MI here is the reduction of the Empire Size Malus, with Cybernetic government and Divided Attention this should be -58%.

If I were playing the game above I'd be sitting on 537 vs 322.5 from Colonys which adds another 43% to tech/tradition cost. Added to the games 88% this is 131% tech/tradition cost that is reduced to 54% with the Hive's reduction in the effect. So this is more efficient than MI (88%) in this snapshot.

4. Psionic/Cyber Guardian Corporate (System +100, Colony +25, District -60, Pop -80/95)

Civic: Corporate Protectorate, Private Prospectors then Franchising (For branch sprawl?)
Traditions: Expansion (System and Colonies), Domination (Pop), Harmony(pop), Statecraft (Overall).
Perks: Imperial Perogative (Colonies), by way of switching after taking it to Corporate.

This megacorp build allows you to play the megacorp game, with a slight System advantage against the other two builds despite being Corporate due to Private Prospecting.

Breakdown for Pop Sprawl.

• -50 Guardian
• -10 Dom Tree
• -10 Harmony Tree
• -10 Tech (Psionic Theory)
• -15 Cybernetic Government

EDIT: With these builds able to achieve -90/100 on pop reduction if you switch to this after using Under One Rule and the Rebel route for Harmonizing Society

5a. Fanatic Pacifist Corporate, Individual Machine into Nanotech (System -50, Colony -100, District -10, Pop -60)
5b. Fanatic Pacifist Corporate, Cybernetic (System -50, Colony -75, District -10, Pop -75)

Civic: Private Prospectors then Franchising (For branch sprawl?)
Ethics: Fanatic Pacifist, Spiritualist (for Psi)
Traditions: Expansion (System and Colonies), Domination (Pop), Harmony(pop), Statecraft (Overall).
Perks: Imperial Perogative (Colonies), by way of switching after taking it to Corporate.

Dropping Guardian civic lets you run Pacifist, with Fanatic giving -30 to pop spawl. It might not be as good as Guardian's -50 in this respect, but you also do not suffer the malus of the civic. Also worth noting is you're not going to get districts dropping other than the 10 percent by tech without Gestalt or Guardian.

The key points for these are heavy reduction of both Pop and Colony spawl for a wide game, and nowhere near the System malus as Guardian civic. Infact this takes the two most reliable way of reducing system size (Expansion tree and Private Prospectors).
Breakdown for Pop Sprawl.

• -30 Fanatic Pacifist
• -10 Dom Tree
• -10 Harmony Tree
• -10 Tech (Psionic Theory)
• -15 Cybernetic Government

You can always shift into Fanatic Pacifist later in the game for more open play.

EDIT: You can achieve -85 on pop reduction on 5b if you switch to this profile after using Under One Rule and the Rebel route for Harmonizing Society

6a. Under One Rule, Fanatic Pacifist, Cybernetic (System -25, Colony -75, District -10, Pop -100)
6b. Fanatic Pacifist, Individual Machine into Nanotech (System -25, Colony -100, District -10, Pop -75)
Civic: Beacon of Liberty
Ethics: Fanatic Pacifist, Egalitarian
Traditions: Expansion (System and Colonies), Domination(Pop), Harmony(pop), Statecraft (Overall).
Perks: Imperial Perogative (Colonies)

Aside from the lack of Branch office game, the removal of Corporate gives us a smaller bonus in System size, but you get access to both Beacon of Liberty and Under One Rule. Combined this is another 100 reduction in pop.

Breakdown for Pop Sprawl.

• -30 Fanatic Pacifist
• -10 Dom Tree
• -10 Harmony Tree
• -10 Tech (Psionic Theory)
• -15 Cybernetic Government (for Cybernetic)
• -15 Beacon of Liberty
• -10 Harmonized Society (from the UoR)

Important note that Harmonized Society is via the Rebel route in the civil war, which also shifts you to Fanatic Egalitarian, and you will lose the Luminary. This also removes all civics that are invalid. Meaning you could start with a Barbaric Despoiler (Pop rush) or Inward Perfection (growth and Unity rush) for your initial growth.

Despoiler is harder. It would best work as FM, Auth start, shifting to M, FE after the civil war. The next move would be to switch to Pacifist. Xenophobic Militant also works and you gain faster pop growth and claim reduction, but your post civil war you will end up as either FE/M or FE/Xenophobe, and the later may be harder to shift to Pacifist as Militant is directly opposite and will be lost on ethics shift.

7a. Machine Intelligence into Nanotech (System -25, Colony -100, District -35, Pop -75)
7b. Driven Assminator into Cybernetic (System -25, Colony -75, District -35, Pop -85)

Civic: OTA Updates, Driven Assiminator (for Cyber)
Traditions: Expansion (System and Colonies), Domination(Pop), Harmony(pop), Statecraft (Overall).
Perks: Imperial Perogative (Colonies)

Breakdown for Pop Sprawl.

• -30 Level 10 MI Leader
• -10 Dom Tree
• -10 Harmony Tree
• -10 Psionic Theory
• -10 Cybernetic Government (for Cybernetic)
• -15 OTA Updates

Which brings me neatly in a round circle back to MI's without Guardian Civics. With a couple of GalCom Resolutions you could potentially reach 100% pop reduction but this more tenious than researching psionic theory as a MI.


Final Thoughts

Pop size will be the biggest effect towards the late game, so the builds with these at -100 would traditonally be the best.

As an alternative thought, the 100 reduction in colonies might be viable if you heavily lean into Habitat spam, with a Cosmogenesis and Nanotech build, specifically the Nanite and Fallen Empire buildings have large static outputs that don't require pop to work on them. You could ramp up exceedlingly quickly as a result.

Other than my current games build, I am wanting to try 6a - the Under One Rule Barbaric Despoiler rush (although Inward would be easier), rebel and then shift to Fanatic Pacifist.

 

[HFY]

I think the lowest you can get in any category is -90%, so some of those factors which take you to -100% will be ignored, and that means those resources can be spent elsewhere.

 

[TheConundrum]

Check out the second screenshot with the ingame spawl, its discounted pop size impact by 100%.

 

[HFY]

Check out the second screenshot with the ingame spawl, its discounted pop size impact by 100%.

Oh, nice!

That's definitely something to abuse.

 

[TheConundrum]

Updated the post with a few revisions.

There is one mistake above I'm aware of -Imperial Perogative can't be taken with Corporate, does anyone know what happens if you take an ascension perk then switching government to Corporate?

 

[Abdulijubjub]

Updated the post with a few revisions.

There is one mistake above I'm aware of -Imperial Perogative can't be taken with Corporate, does anyone know what happens if you take an ascension perk then switching government to Corporate?

It works just fine.

You can start as non-corporate, take IP, then reform into a megacorp after that. You will keep the AP and its reduction.

 

[DarkHelmet110985]

Been experimenting myself with min/maxing Empire Size reduction but with a typical Biological Empire(non-Corporate) with Psionic/Genetic Ascension and it just can't get as high as what can be achieved with Synthetic/Cybernetic and Corporate factions can do. At some point I do expect them to nerf reductions to a cap of -90% for any given factor so as to prevent players from outright removing it from the equation. I mean they did that for Job Upkeep so it doesn't take much for one to assume they won't do this for Empire Size. Note: I hate Sovereign Guardianship. If it was a Pacifist Civic, I'd warm up to it but as a Militarist Civic... nope. Anyways, this is the best I've been able to come up with for a typical Bio Empire Ascending as Psionic or Genetic(often the latter since I can add Docile Trait).

System: -25% Expansion Tradition
Colony: -75% Expansion Tradition + Imperial Prerogative
District: -10%/-40% if I can ever get Lost Building Methods Tech to roll via Pre-FTL observation
Pops: -85% Fan. Pacifist + Domination Finisher + Psionic Theory + Kinship(Harmony Tradition) + Beacon of Liberty + Balance in the Middle Resolution
Statecraft Finisher: -5% <- I assume this is multiplicative and not additive. Latter would be so much stronger too...

Galactic Community Resolutions are often overlooked but as an Egalitarian I try to abuse them if I can manage to do so since I'll never be in breach of it thanks to Utopian Abundance. Just wish Universal Prosperity Mandate or Tier 5 Greater Good Resolution was -15% or -20% Empire Size from Pops to really make it strong since it's virtually impossible to get. Anyways, I hit 0.75 for System, 2.5 for Colony, 0.45 for District(0.30 with Tech) and 0.15 for Pops. Statecraft finisher reduces all of them a modest amount and Ascending Colonies can reduce Colony, District and Pop sprawl a further 62.5%. If they were to ever add a 4th Ethic Point + 8th Tradition Slot(or decouple Federations from Diplomacy), I could squeeze in Ascensionist Civic + Holy Covenant to boost Ascension to 85%(while significantly reducing the cost to do so and making Culture Workers that much stronger). If they did, a Tier 10 Planet would have Empire Size from Pops under 0.02 or basically 1 Empire Size per 50 Pops

*Edit*: Above build when Cybernetically Ascending can hit -100% Pops thanks to Democratic Concurrency(S-Tier broken Authority). Yet this is locked behind Machine Age DLC so I tried to limit things to what people can use in general. Statecraft is locked behind Galactic Paragons so yeah... got to love DLC locked content no? With -100% Pops, Unruly Trait is effectively free Trait points at that point since 0 x anything = 0. Meaning the bulk of your Empire Size will come from Systems since Colony/District can be further reduced via Ascension.

Also Cybernetic Ruler adds 5% reduction to Districts so it's -15%/-45% respectively. Which is why Cybernetic is so damn OP right now and why I believe a -90% cap is due to happen at some point.

 

[Forblaze]

This is my current virtual rogue servitor build, which is almost at the end of the game with 221 sprawl

Most of my systems here are pointless and I could probably trim them down to get around 150 if I really wanted to.

There are currently 139 pops in the lathe and I'm producing around 35k science without them.

I'm not sure if virtual was considered cheating for this, but its ability to output so much with so few colonies is, imo, the best way to get around the guardian matrix malus. All of the extra specialist output from bio trophies really helps here as well.

I can still get +80% naval cap from the galactic community laws as well. Barely any of those ended up getting passed so far.

 

[DarkHelmet110985]

Yeah Rogue Servitor is quite strong right now. Yet I wanted to point out something for those who think Sovereign Guardianship is ok. It's true that it cuts Pops by 50% but the malus it applies to Systems and Colonies are quite punitive and the reduction to Districts is blatantly useless and I'll explain why. Firstly, you need an Official with the Urbanist Destiny Trait. Why Urbanist you ask? Well, it yields 75% Reduction to Districts for Planet/37.5% Reduction to Districts for the Sector(-50%/-25% for Building and District Upkeep too(which itself is quite nice)). This modifier is known as a Colony Modifier. Know what else is a Colony Modifier? Planetary Ascension. Since anyone min/maxing Empire Size reduction takes Harmony Tradition for Kinship, you also get +25% Planetary Ascension Effects from its Finisher. That takes -5% Empire Size per Tier and makes it 6.25%. 6.25 x 10 = 62.5% at Tier 10. For those too dense to put things together: 62.5%(Tier 10 Ascension) + 37.5%(Urbanist Destiny Trait) = -100% Empire Size from Districts. Who needs Construction Templates or Lost Building Methods so long as you do that. Keep in mind this can be done on pretty much every normal Individualist build I can think of(even Gestalt I think...). Why we put up with Empire Size from Districts is beyond me. Honestly surprised Urbanist Destiny Trait has gone this long without being nerfed. Maybe its thanks to Montu putting it in the F-Tier without realizing how stupidly broken it is.... Yeah blame it on Montu....

*Edit*: Granted this can be "fixed" if they simply change the scope or modifier that Urbanist affects. Seeing as Governors reduce Empire Size from Pops on the Pop Scope variable, Urbanist could do the same thing with respect to that variable for Districts. They wouldn't have to nerf the Trait in any manner, only in how it's applied for Empire Size.

 

[Dr. B]

You go a long way just by taking Expansion, Harmony, Imperial Prerogative and ascending the core planets. And the Docile trait. I usually do this almost every game, size matters.

 

[DarkHelmet110985]

Well the Docile/Unruly Traits become meaningless if you can get Empire Size from Pops reduction to -100%. This can be done with Fanatic Pacifist(-30%), Beacon of Liberty(-15%), Democratic Concurrency(-15%) after Ascending as Cybernetic, Psionic Theory Technology(-10%), Domination Tradition Finisher(-10%), Kinship in Harmony Tradition(-10%) and getting Balance in the Middle Resolution from Galactic Community(-10%). There's also the Under One Rule origin route where getting Harmonized Society Modifier yields the final -10%, wherein you don't even need the Galactic Community. However, I've never really liked having to deal with shifting Ethics and what not and getting Balanced in the Middle Resolution shouldn't be too difficult unless your galaxy is full of Factions with Authoritarian Ethics or Slave Policies. Then for Districts, you simply do Urbanist Governors combined with Ascending Planets to remove District Empire Size, leaving just Systems(-25-30% with Statecraft Finisher) and Colonies(-75-80% with Statecraft Finisher yielding at most -92.5% after Ascending the Colony to Tier 10). Hence the net result is .7 to .7125 Empire Size from Systems and .75 to .89 Empire Size from Colonies(depending on whether Statecraft is Additive or Multiplicative).

In a 150 System, 30 Colony Empire with 540 Districts(18 per Colony average) and 3k Pops(100 per Colony average), you'd have an Empire Size as little as (150 x .7) + (30 x .75) = 127.5. Do note this requires Ascending every Planet(no easy Task) and having Governors with Urbanist Destiny Trait. This is why, in time, this will be capped at -90% because it's possible to completely remove Empire Size factors from the equation and arguably the two that generate the most Empire Size to begin with. Not that I'm complaining but I know when something is too good to keep it as is for the sake of game balance.

 

[Abdulijubjub]

Unless you have a scaleable source of pops, for balance purposes, the last -10% is about the same value per point as the previous -90%.

With low/medium reduction, there's a point at which it becomes more effective to not grow further (to avoid out-scaling base output from space deposits, megastructures, edict fund, etc., and to take maximum advantage of the compounding effect of planetary ascension's size reductions) into you've already fully ascended everything. But with high reduction, all that overlaps with the region where the base contributes the majority of tech costs. That makes it so there's no point where you're better off not growing, even for the sake of tech costs.

And unlike with ship costs/upkeep, the pops you have are the pops you have. You can't just conjure pops from mid air (except Virtual, which has other restrictions) in the same way you can build more ships.

So the last -10% is the same as the previous -10%: -0.1ish size per pop, which, if you have 1000 pops, shaves 20% off your tech costs (whether you're going from -80% to -90%, or -90% to -100%).

It's the same as job upkeep (for which losing e.g. the last 1.2 minerals of metallurgist upkeep doesn't change much): the main reason to cap it at -90% is narrative, not balance.

-90% reductions (without significant sacrifices to get there, like Fanatic Pacifism) is already too much, since it's already neutered the mechanic's ability to equalize large and small empires.

---

That is all to say: there are too many empire size reductions available, but the last -10% isn't particularly problematic in particular, so capping at -90% doesn't change much.

 

[DarkHelmet110985]

It’s true that it takes significant sacrifice(5 Tradition slots + 2 AP + 1 Civic slot) to get to -90%, much less -100% via a GC resolution but the mere fact it can be done and for two sources of Empire Size no less seems somewhat unintended. Namely I feel like I’m cheating when going down this specific path despite Fanatic Pacifists restrictions/limitations. Empire Size from Pops is the single greatest source and yet can be completely nullified and without taking Under One Rule origin or Guardian Civic, aka the Civic meant to promote Tall and punish Wide. This makes Unruly, an already awesome negative trait, beyond S-tier because it’s effects are not even applied. So by removing Pops from play on sprawl, it blurs the line between going Tall and going Wide, with Tall benefiting from removing District sprawl(fewer Governors with Urbanist Trait, fewer Colonies needing max Ascension). With Districts removed, that leaves Systems and Colonies. Colonies are already -76.25% via Statecraft/Expansion/IP AP and any Colonies you ascend are reduced to the point of being as much as a System(~91% if memory serves).

Yet if a player opts to go Wide, resulting in Colonies that are not fully ascended, District sprawl can still be cut by ~67%(yielding sprawl that is in the single digits for a typical Colony). Colony, as mentioned is -76.25%(2.375 sprawl is nothing… and ascending doesn’t yield that much in terms of reduction) and Systems are -28.75%(.7125 sprawl is also nothing). Meaning founding or annexing more territory is simply not going to impact you that much given that Pops are completely out of the picture.

Going off on a tangent though, the only thing I wish were different for Pacifist Ethic is their Culture Workers. Increased TV from Living Standards is kind of weak honestly. Would kill if it yielded Job upkeep reduction. Like seriously it’d put Pacifist into easily A, if not S-tier if that were the case.

 

[DarkHelmet110985]

So here's a very specific Cybernetic build that achieves the following:

Systems: -25%(Expansion)
Districts: -45%/-100%*(Cybernetic Ruler + Construction Templates + Lost Building Methods or *Urbanist Governor + *Tier 10 Ascension)
Colonies: -75%(Expansion + Imperial Prerogative)
Pops: -100%(Fanatic Pacifist + Harmonized Society(UoR outcome) + Democratic Concurrency + Beacon of Liberty + Kinship + Balance in the Middle + Psionic Theory)
*Combined they add up to 100% due to being Colony scope modifiers but Empire Size from Districts, if not Empire Size in general, looks to be bugged right now

The above build requires that you take Under One Rule origin and that you overthrow your Luminary by siding with the Egalitarian Rebellion. Doing so will shift you to Fanatic Egalitarian + w/e Ethic you choose to be(Pacifist ideally). I typically start as a Fanatic Pacifist + Authoritarian for UoR but not everyone has to play that way. Anyways, once settling the Civil War, push to get Balance in the Middle via Galactic Community. It won't be an easy task because the AI is well... dumb to put it mildly. Once you do get it, do everything in your power to keep it since the AI may try to repeal it. As long as you have it, you will have -100% ES from Pops. By doing Balance in the Middle resolution AND UoR origin, it frees up a Tradition slot that you can use as you see fit. I recommend using it for Diplomacy as that will unlock the ability to form a Holy Covenant Federation. Holy Covenants will allow you to generate the Unity you'll need to Ascend your Colonies, cutting the cost to Ascend those Colonies, turning your Bureaucrats into Priests, upgrading Unity Designations and adding 2 Culture Workers per Colony(just wish Pacifist Culture Worker perk didn't suck...).

Yet you can also choose to take Domination to give yourself a free 10% cushion. Can come in handy should one of your Councilors get Bureaucracy Trait. Had that happen to me in my current game and it pissed me off to no end because I was forced to remove him despite being Level 10. Yeah... Level 10 Leader gaining a Negative Trait out of the blue... got to love that no. *rant over* I just wonder how long it will be before we get an 8th Tradition slot. One more slot would make above build that much stronger since not only could you squeeze in Diplomacy for HC but you could grab Adaptability for improved Designations(or Politics to make getting Balance in the Middle easier).

Edit*: Rather than bumping, figure I’d edit in another observation regarding 7b or the MI DA build in OP. It’s possible to hit -100% Pops due to Statecraft(+1 effective Ruler level), Experience Cache Civic(+1 effective Ruler level) and Balance in the Middle GC resolution. The last bonus puts you into breach of GC law but with Politics Tradition(a use for this Tradition… shocking I know), you can make yourself immune to GC breach. Hard to pull off but it can be done. Overall you’d have -25% Systems, -75% Districts(Lost Building Templates via Pre-FTL isn’t hard to get), -75% Colonies and -100% Pops. District and Colony sprawl can be reduced further with Planetary Ascension but otherwise the bulk of your Sprawl will come from Systems. If you luck into Oracle Governor, any Systems with it will have -100% from Districts once Colonies have been ascended(at least they should be).

Your Tradition usage will be Expansion, Sychronicity, Domination, Cybernetic, Supremacy, Statecraft and Politics(else Prosperity or Diplomacy).

 

[DarkHelmet110985]

Figure I’d update this now since Paradox decided to make this easy to accomplish. I give you the -100% Systems, -100% Districts*, -75% Colonies and -90% Pops MegaCorp build. Wide is back on the menu boys!

Origin: Under One Rule
Ethics: FP + A; shifts to FE + P w/ Rebels, shift to FP + E after war and MegaCorp Authority
Empire modifiers: Harmonized Society(UoR outcome), Balance in the Middle(Tier 4 Greater Good resolution)
Civics: Private Prospectors + two Civics of your choice. I recommend one be Pharma State
Traditions: Expansion, Harmony, Domination
Techs: Construction Templates, Lost Building Methods, Psionic Theory
Ascension: Cloning with Heightened Abilities(Purity) in Flexible Tradition II
Ascension Perks: Imperial Prerogative(while Dictatorial) + Interstellar Dominion

*Empire Sprawl from Districts can achieve -100% via Urbanist Governor + Tier 10 Planetary Ascension. They both share Colony scope modifier so additively stack but appears they do not yield a net zero result(hence bugged). Capped to -40% otherwise. Ascension reduces Colony and Pop sprawl by an additional 70% to yield 92.5% and 97% respectively. Districts are likely brought to 92.5% since it likely doesn’t count Ascension bonus from Harmony, Holy Covenants or Ascensionist correctly, which if the case means the Colony and Pop values are lower too.

Optionally, if you don’t like MegaCorps, you can sacrifice 25% to Systems and obtain -100% from Pops with Cloning Democratic Authority yielding another 15% and Beacon of Liberty yielding 15% too or 120% overall. This means you have options such as foregoing being Fanatic Pacifist and being Spiritualist for Ascensionist or saving yourself the hassle of going UoR origin and/or Domination tradition. In other words… they basically made going Wide extremely easy.

 

[Znikii]

Cybernetic Ringworld MegaCorp still work wonderfull

 

[TheConundrum]

I've looked at the new patch, and theres are the limits as far as I can tell. I'm sharing this incidently, I've written this for my own reference, so I have not outlined the sources of the reductions - which are empire scope only.

FYI Normal = Individual Non-Megacorp

SovGuardian

MegaCorp Nano +50S -25C -90D -90P (-10P Galcom) (-35D If you take Free Haven Civic as a Megacorp Galactic Emperor)
CreedCorp +50S -75C -90D -95P (-10P Galcom) * (-35D If you take Free Haven Civic as a Megacorp Galactic Emperor)
OliSuper +75S -25C -100D -100P
MI/Normal Nano +75S -25C -90D -100P
CyberHive +75S +25C -100D -100P

Non-SovGuardian

Paci MegaCorp Nano -100S -100C -40D -45P (-10P Galcom) (-35D If you take Free Haven Civic as a Megacorp Galactic Emperor)
MegaCorp Nano -100S -100C -40D -30P (-10P Galcom) (-35D If you take Free Haven Civic as a Megacorp Galactic Emperor)
Paci Haven/BoL Normal Nano -75S -100C -75D -60P (-10P Galcom)
Haven/BoL Normal Nano -75S -100C -75D -45P (-10P Galcom)
Paci Haven/BoL Normal OS -75S -100C -85D -60P (-10P UoR/Galcom)
Haven/BoL Normal OS -75S -100C -85D -45P (-10P UoR/Galcom)
CyberHive -75S -75C -80D -30P (-10P Galcom)
MI Nano -75S -100C -65D -65P (-10P Galcom)


FYI CreedCorp - the interesting part is the Advanced Government which loses the 50pc colony malus typically MegaCorp's have, with the gain of being able to load on the Private Prospectors civics (which usefully just canceld the Megacorps malus). This is also the only one on the list restricted by Origin and Ascension Path.

FYI CyberHive - Objectively not great in terms of raw numbers, but you have the Hive spawl malus reduction if you pick Integrated Hive (reduced further by civics)

 

[Sian]

Fanatical Pacifist/Egalitarian
Democratic
Beacon of Liberty + whatever (given the number of medical workers from Genomic research facility and Gene clinics (with +Job Efficiency from Flexible II making you lean into those), councillor position from Mutagenic Spa, giving them flat unity, is stupid strong. Even if the spas themselves are trash-tier worthless since it adds the habitability/happiness penalties to those same medical workers)
Cloning (with Purity as Flexible II), giving you Advanced Cloning Democratic
Domination tree
Kinship from Harmony tree
Psionic Theory OR Greater Good (4+)

-100% Pop ES without using Sovereign guardianship

Beyond that there's the 'regulars' with Imperial Prerogative, Interstellar Dominion, Exploration tree, fishing for 'Lost building Methods' etc giving you a combined
- 40% District
- 75% System
- 75% Colony
- 100% Pop

Making you able to have a quite wide empire (if you expand hard enough to get away with a lot of backfilling, or are able to chain peaceful vassalages and integrations) with next to no penalty

 

[Voidian]

The best one I ever tried is Overtuned origin, take all of the yellow traits you can fit, add some red ones to take even more yellow traits.

Game starts, every leader dies, then every leader in reserve dies, you'll get a new election every day, there are no leaders you can recruit, you can't explore any systems.

Smallest empire size ever, the ultimate tall gameplay.

 

[TheConundrum]

To confirm on the above - one of the tightest build for this low-pop wide-automation would be.

Non-Synthetic Pacifist into Synthetic Ascension (Virtual-Path for Oligarchic Supervison)
Egal, Pacifist, Xenophile
Under One Rule (Rebel Route)
Free Haven Civic/Beacon of Liberty
-75% System -100% Colony -85% District -70% Pop

System
-50 Intersteller Dominion
-25 Courier Network

Colony
-25 Courier Network
-50 Oligarchic Supervision
-50 Imperial Perogative

District
-10 Template Tech
-30 Pre-FTL Tech
-35 Free Haven Council Position
-10 Oligarchic Supervision

Pop
-15 Pacifist
-10 Domination
-10 Psi Theory
-10 Harmony
-10 Galatic Community Resolution
-10 Harmonizing (UoR)
-15 Beacon of Liberty


Or to avoid Pacifist restrictions...
If you avoid Xenophile, you can go Nemesis.
Sovereign Guardianship Cybernetic Creed MegaCorp
+50% System -75% Colony -100% District -90% Pop
Xenophile for Free Haven Civic after becoming Emperor. (Although if you have everything else this is jus the final 5% district)

System
+150 Sovereign Guardianship
-50 Intersteller Dominion
-25 Private Prospector
-25 Courier Network

Colony
+100 Sovereign Guardianship
-50 Private Prospector
-25 Courier Network
-50 Imperial Perogative

District
-50 Sovereign Guardianship
-10 Template Tech
-30 Pre-FTL Tech
-35 Free Haven Council Position
-5 Cyber Leader

Pop
-50 Sovereign Guardianship
-10 Domination
-10 Psi Theory
-10 Harmony
-10 Galactic Community Resolution


Or if you don't want to be forced with a poor origin for this sort of play- and start with say Void Dweller....
You'll have to wait for Existential Campaigns, so cheaper claims would be nice.
Democratic Individual Synthetic into Nano Ascension
-75% System -100% Colony -85% District -55% Pop
Egalitarian, Xenophile, Millitant
Free Haven, Beacon of Liberty, Nationalistic Zeal

System
-50 Intersteller Dominion
-25 Courier Network

Colony
-25 Courier Network
-50 Imperial Perogative
-50 Nano Ascension

District
-10 Template Tech
-30 Pre-FTL Tech
-35 Free Haven Council Position

Pop
-10 Domination
-10 Psi Theory
-10 Harmony
-10 Galatic Community Resolution
-15 Beacon of Liberty



EDIT: I've made mistakes, fixed.