Synthetic Bio Ascension Rush

[TheConundrum]

I'm going to share my thoughts on rushing Synthetic Ascension from Bio.

For those less aware, its a softer version of Synthetic Ascension from Machine - either Modularity (a Physical decision) or Virtuality (a Virtuality decision). The latter is softer in the sense as you don't have the Virtuality Tree that locks to 7 colonies or take a malus (leaving aside the Trade exploit), and both paths in bio give you the unique ability to Assiminate other Machine and Bio pop into your empire, aiding late game pop growth. I should call it later game, since the pop growth is insane anyway.

I have tried a soft rush with Machinist origin. The advantage with this is you will have the strongest pop with the extra traits that come with the origin and a cheaper machine automod pick. Unfortunately unless you go hard with + Research Alternatives you will find yourself delayed by the very long tech tree to Synth tech. So while they may be the best pop, you will be 50 years behind the other option...

The key to a rush is Synthetic Fertility as an origin. I have tried a number of configurations to rush. The universally critical components are:

• Taking Parliamentary Democracy opening to trigger month 3 Faction unity
• Selecting Intelligent+Engineering species traits.
• Colonising one planet for the engineering research
• Go hard into Research Labs immediately. Taking Property and Standard Templates, while being judicus in spending will allow you to be almost constantly producing research labs from the start, with maybe a month gap for the minerals. First labs is taken without the tradition bonus.
• Run Isolationist (Unity and delayed contact)
• Take the 40percent energy malus for engineering research bonus in your Origin situation.

Options I've tried with full tech cost (Montu's video is using cheaper tech)

1. Mil/Mat/Phobe with Soverign Guardianship and Aquatics. Aquatics helps with basic resources, your pop also get Waterproof out of the door post-ascension. Mil and Probe are suboptimal, but are pre-requisites for SG and taking Nihilisitc Aquisition. With the advantages of assmination, you can grow tall very quickly. I completed this in c26 years.
2. Lithoid FanMat/Egal with Relentless Industrialist and Aquatics. Ignore Food. Run with Utopia Abundance. As with Montu's videos unemploy pop for unity and extra research. I kept the beaucrats in role. Took about c23 years.
3. Lithoid FanMat/Egal with Dark Matter Consortium. Played like number 2. Not only is DMC a good pairing for the after the ascension due to Dark Matter Engines, but immediately trading out your Dark Matter will give you 26 energy. This is enough to unemploy all (six) energy workers for extra research and unity from day 1. I also disabled the Commerical District and Administrative offices on day 1. Unemployed, demoting specialists are still producing research and unity under UA. Completed ascension in c18 years.
   I had enough unity for another 2.5 traditions.

Takeaways (mostly from the 3rd option):

• RNG from events/anomolies/systems will affect your ascension date.
• Your research on day 1 is the most important. Unemploy everyone you can with UA. The faster you get Robot Assembly up the more robot pop you can produce to offset your pop loss.
• Do not unemploy your enforcer on day 1. Crime jobs kill.
• Prioritise minerals on building research labs first, I replace my Commerical district and Administrative offices, and fill the rest of the slots. I then replace one mineral district with a city district and add another lab.
• You don't need to go Civilian ecnomy or move to Factory Capital like Montu's video on day 1. I did move over to Civilian first and then to Factory Planet designation when I had to. The default Empire Capital designation boosts research jobs too, so you want to keep that around as long as possible.
• Research
  • Physics: General Energy/Mineral > Special building and Edict. Research station bonus isnt the worst.
  • Society: Planetary Unification for unity. Hydoponics is a good source to trade. Edict fund techs are ok. Ceramo-metal infrastructure for an extra building slot would be a great roll.
  • Engineering: No choice, you need to take the fixed available research option - make sure you hit the Origin's event each time for it to show up. Robomodding straight after unless Arc Furnace or something good and rare is available.
• Traditions Choices
  • I had 2.5 traditions available. Afer taking 2 from Prosperty, and dumping unity to complete Synthetic tree.
  • Montu takes the Statecraft opener also for the Edict fund. You could do that if you roll a good edict.
  • Continuing Prosperty for the Job Upkeep and Output bonus.
  • Taking Mercantile and pushing for Market Fee reduction would also save funds while trading around. Trade below 42min/en,32cg,12alloy to stop price movements.
• Agendas
  • You don't need Infinite Opportunities to complete.
  • Evolving Society for unity is a good initial filler.
  • Immediately switch to Favoured Society when you unlock Prosperty, and run that to the completion for huge bonuses.
  • Self Maintenance after for robot assembly. You should complete before this fires off, but I left this to finish before running Synthetic Yield after ascension.
• Exploring
  • Get a second science ship for the above. I cut this, but its not worth it if you keep the alloy jobs at the start.
  • You need alloys for expansion, and I have found jumping on deposits of size 4+ very useful to sustain my ecnomy when my pop has half died off. Unlike any other time, research anomolies while you go as its unlikely you can expand faster than you can survey. Extra energy/minerals and engineering deposits of caches will speed you up. Basic resources will be the first thing to go.
  • Improved Energy Initiative and Master's Teachings: The Greater Good are fantatic edicts. If you roll Limbo, get it. Its another few pop into your Identity Repository and boosts your robot output further and permemently (if you keep the building).
  • Steal pre-FTL species?
• Other Civics Options:
  • Meritocracy is (for these purposes) like running Relentless Industrialist but affects your science as well.
  • Functional Architecture could also streamline your costs and the extra building slot means another research lab up far quicker. (I might give this a go)
• Traits
  • I'm not sure if Aquatic is good.
  • Conservationist and Traditional could be better for CG reduction and Unity bonus, and certainly has a longer term affect after your workers are dead.
  • Photo/Radiotropic I don't think is good because of a micro economy and more minerals available in space, despite miners being trash vs energy workers
• Your colonies aren't going to net you anything until you ascend. The important point is to get one for the 1 year worth of engineering on first landing. Get this when you are at peak research towards the end. Get more colonies if you can, the perfect alignment would them come online as you finish Synth tech / Complete the Synth tree due to the innate assembly. You will not have innate assembly before that. Robo assembly plants are expensive to buy and to run.
• Do not get a second Identity Repository, the bonus is split on your other planet and the building cannot be destroyed!
• Post ascension Capitol World - A mean Forge or Research world. Until Ecum, your sacrificing housing and building slots. with going Industrial districts needed for your research lab buildings. I think I'd pick Mastercrafters for a Forge world to open up more building slots, and maybe go all in with Clerks while running a Megacorp. The advanced government you get from ascension allows your clerks to add a small amount to alloy job output. Clerks can alternatively boost researchers, but this is difficult prior to Ecum for Research due to competing building slots with Commerical Districts, but you will get some jobs from the City districts.

 

[TheConundrum]

I did a new run with Functional Architecture and Conservationist. Didn't get any great systems, got a second science ship, but only ran it for a while as my scientist ended up getting to level 3 with architecture trait, so I then put him onto my capital for the last few years.

Took Harmony's opener after Standard templates to double up with Conservationist with the CG upkeep with UA, and then went down Mercantile for the Market Fee reduction. I don't think that was really needed as I was trading pennys by the time I got that perk, with alot of infrastructure to move pop around for production.

I did get Limbo, and the another engineering anomaly, and pulled 11 trade from 2 systems within range. I ran Consumer Benefits when I could.

For this run:

1. Finished Droids about 3-4 months later, at the start of Year 8.
2. Finished Synths at first half of Year 17.
3. I did not have all the unity to complete, I was tradition short for auto complete, so had Efficient Power Systems left.
4. This isnt a huge deal, as you have the situation to run through anyway - converting pop to Synths, and with so few pop it doesn't affect the situation speed much.
5. Completed digital refactoring the following year, and shortly after that in mid Year 18.
   Mid Year 19, I can complete the tradition tree.

I think this might be slighly faster, but lacks the Dark Matter for the long term. I was able to run 7 Science labs on my captial after one City District expansion on top of the Functional Architecture.

 

[Abdulijubjub]

1. Virtual Synths really isn't much like Virtual Machines, other than the housing usage reduction. The defining feature of Virtuality is just absent.
2. Physical Synths isn't really a softer version of Modularity. It is (without Cosmogenesis) mostly just a better version of Modularity: all the traits, with extra output modifiers, with the ability to integrate grown/purchased/conquered/refugee organics replacing the reduction in assembly.
3. While Synthetic Fertility is undoubtedly the Synths rush origin, Mechanisms will definitely not be 50 years behind. Once you take the AP, you get an agenda that lets you replicate SF's advantage, by letting you skip straight Artificial Specialists to Artificial Administration without having to chew through the prerequisites or grapple with draw luck.

 

[cryptkeeper]

1. Virtual Synths really isn't much like Virtual Machines, other than the housing usage reduction. The defining feature of Virtuality is just absent.
2. Physical Synths isn't really a softer version of Modularity. It is (without Cosmogenesis) mostly just a better version of Modularity: all the traits, with extra output modifiers, with the ability to integrate grown/purchased/conquered/refugee organics replacing the reduction in assembly.
3. While Synthetic Fertility is undoubtedly the Synths rush origin, Mechanisms will definitely not be 50 years behind. Once you take the AP, you get an agenda that lets you replicate SF's advantage, by letting you skip straight Artificial Specialists to Artificial Administration without having to chew through the prerequisites or grapple with draw luck.

While mostly true you are missing some bonuses.
1. Virtual Focus policy is huge for Virtual synths, even if they don't get the instant pops.
2. Machines still have more trait points to work with in modularity then physical synths.

 

[Beauty Nova]

I'm actually rather annoyed virtual synth got the focus policies. Virtual is what I gravitate more towards thematically but now it absolutely neuters two out of three of my unity output, science output or leader exp gain and council. It badly needs a neutral option.

 

[cryptkeeper]

I'm actually rather annoyed virtual synth got the focus policies. Virtual is what I gravitate more towards thematically but now it absolutely neuters two out of three of my unity output, science output or leader exp gain and council. It badly needs a neutral option.

I usually go unity max traditions, then go research, the leader exp is usually not worth.

 

[Beauty Nova]

I usually go unity max traditions, then go research, the leader exp is usually not worth.

This is not really an answer to my desire to turn it off completely.

 

[cryptkeeper]

This is not really an answer to my desire to turn it off completely.

I think we should just change the leader exp option to neutral option.

 

[Thiend]

I think we should just change the leader exp option to neutral option.

There should be a neutral option, but the leader xp option should still exist (and possibly be a higher magnitude).

 

[Abdulijubjub]

Machines still have more trait points to work with in modularity then physical synths.

But this part doesn't matter, much. You can still make a template that has all the assembly speed and upkeep reduction modifiers, a template that has all the research modifiers, and a template that has all the alloy modifiers. And Modularity doesn't have enough points to do two of them properly with the same template (and wouldn't want to, anyway, because of the extra upkeep).

The difference is that Modularity gets a few minor benefits instead of taking on irrelevant negative traits. It's still a difference, but not nearly big enough to be better than what Synths gives.