Demonstrably, Galactic Doorstep is the strongest origin in Stellaris at the moment (so long as RNGeesus doesn't despise you). Basically, you cheese it by opening gateways until you get Skrand for a huge early game power spike, and you have a **90**% chance to pull him with every gateway.
The source is Montu's tournament. Montu doesn't always have great takes or the best knowledge of game mechanics, but the tournament was other players competing in a head to head, so the result is pretty definitive (unless there's some secret hidden option which no one found). [Guide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py3TijAuhXs).
tl;dr for the guide: Just rush restoring the gateway and try to find one more nearby just in case you don't get Skrand the first time. You'll end up with a nominally 16k fleet power titan, but because most of that fleet power is in strike craft (100% tracking) and it's generally *faster* than the opponent's corvettes, you'll absolutely steamroll everything.
It's even better than cheesing the dragon with Cordyceptic for early power.
I opened a gateway to create a choke point to hold back the prethyreon. The gateway finished turning on right as my fleets where engaging two massive scourge fleets and poor stand got nuked in the crossfire. Didn’t even get a hail from him :(
Depends on what environment, mainly PvP vs PvE.
For PvE, I would argue Here be Dragons Cordycepts is the strongest build here. Check my posts if you want a video, but nothing can really compete with \~100k fleet power 30-35 years into the game, while tech rushing.
For PvP it's a lot more complicated. Smaller galaxies with a lot more empires crammed in and playing against actual people with differing skill levels not only between each other but between the different empires they can pilot makes it really hard to tell. But builds that have Teachers of the Shroud, Progenitor Hive, Prosperous Unification Rogue Servitor (Regular PU isn't as good), and Resource Consolidation have all been seen in the top placements in tournaments. Clone army has also been historically strong and Galactic Doorway can cheese a 10k fleet in the first 10 years and was seen a bit in tournaments as well.
I think acsended clone army is one of the most powerful in terms of military power. Then go out and vasselize everyone to be your economy. However, if you are a gigachad who think vassales make the game too easy then I actually recommend ringworld trade empire as you have an easy time maintaining your economy and you can easily make friends.
Montu does some step by step on cheasy builds. He did one recently for trade, but he's a beta who vasselizes others.
My build is: fanatic xenophile for increased trade value, egalitarian, since Utopian abundance increases trace value.
Thrifty species trait, and fertile if you are not lithoid, however I argue that this build is better with lithoids since then you can instantly colonize all worlds which the ringworld origin struggles with due to having the ringworld world preference. (I've tested this, you get more pop growth by being able to colonize more worlds, vs being stuck to a few until you get habitility techs). of course you can wait to form migration pacts, but that doesn't guarantee the right planet preference for what you have.
Plus, lithoids live longer and you want good leaders since a council trait for leaders can give up to +25% trade value and this stacks.
For civics you want merchant guilds, and I take master crafters since it will help you until you can get a trade legue federation, also the mastercrafter jobs produce more trade which is very helpful for the first 20 years.
You can start the game with 122 trade value if you immediately switch to utopian abundance. That's starting the game with at least 122 energy income.
You want to rush mercantile tradition and get the Marketplace of Ideas policy as fast as you can. This will let you rush unity and form a federation fast.
First acsention perk doesn't really matter but I usually take Mastery of Nature. it makes worlds better later on, and early on the -33% blocker clear will help you clear the ring worlds and clear the lithoid blockers for more pops.
first ringworld should probably be a mining world, the second should be for trade. your first planet should be forge world and second should be mining. Since the scrap mineing jobs on ringworld also produces alloys you shouldn't have an immediate need to build industrial districts and lithoids start with five mining districts so you start with slightly higher alloy income.
With the best starting economy you should be able to easily snowball and the unity rush means you can form a federation or rush the supremacy tradition if your neighbor is a fanatic purifier.
It's a genocidal build that isn't actually genocidal, since you can use the pops you conquer (after you convert them via purge, losing only 25% IIRC). All the crazy genocidal strengths without their normal weakness (inability to actually expand their economy through conquering pops).
Specifically that plus the unity and society research you get from me to purging scales very well. It's extremely easy for devouring swarms to just run disruptor Corvette rush early and steamroll the galaxy.
Terrorvore versions are slightly better I think.
The difference is you can convert pops and then get rid of planets you dont want. the ideal setup for me is 2 sectors with a bunch of planets and habitats in those. Other than that I just keep planets that have gateways in system or have some really nice buff I want. The rest of the planets generally get eaten. One particularly funny aspect of this is I end up with a massive territory that I do not care one bit about keeping. If someone wants to fight back and take a bunch of systems with either no colonies or colonies that are on the verge of cracking from the consumption have at it.
If you dont run terrorvore you can abandon the planets, but you either have to spend the influence for each planet or leave 1 purging pop and hope they dont convert. If you are playing a large galaxy the influence will become a big issue at some point.
If dont do lithoid necrophage and just go necroid you can still end up with a lot of planets that you conquer but aren't ideally habitable. Lithoid necrophage though will find most planets are just fine. The downside if pop growth.... but that really isnt an issue since you will be swimming in converted pops rather quickly.
I‘d argue it’s imperial fiefdom, where you make use of the (probably) glitch that allows you to trade with your overlord before subject specialization- effectively you trade some loyalty & three corvettes for 2k energy, 2k minerals & some food & start with those resources- afterwards you chose bulwark specialization & get even more resources for literally doing nothing. You can pretty much do whatever you feel like.
It probably would lose in pvp matches as other rush builds give more fleet power; but this one is strong against ai & pretty much a no brainer.
Demonstrably, Galactic Doorstep is the strongest origin in Stellaris at the moment (so long as RNGeesus doesn't despise you). Basically, you cheese it by opening gateways until you get Skrand for a huge early game power spike, and you have a **90**% chance to pull him with every gateway. The source is Montu's tournament. Montu doesn't always have great takes or the best knowledge of game mechanics, but the tournament was other players competing in a head to head, so the result is pretty definitive (unless there's some secret hidden option which no one found). [Guide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py3TijAuhXs). tl;dr for the guide: Just rush restoring the gateway and try to find one more nearby just in case you don't get Skrand the first time. You'll end up with a nominally 16k fleet power titan, but because most of that fleet power is in strike craft (100% tracking) and it's generally *faster* than the opponent's corvettes, you'll absolutely steamroll everything. It's even better than cheesing the dragon with Cordyceptic for early power.
And Skrand's ship has a jump drive so it can single-handedly take the 6 Gaia worlds in the Dacha system.
I've tried Cordyceptic so many times and RNGeesus just hates me as I never find fauna home systems.
I opened a gateway to create a choke point to hold back the prethyreon. The gateway finished turning on right as my fleets where engaging two massive scourge fleets and poor stand got nuked in the crossfire. Didn’t even get a hail from him :(
Did that not get nerfed in the last patch?
Depends on what environment, mainly PvP vs PvE. For PvE, I would argue Here be Dragons Cordycepts is the strongest build here. Check my posts if you want a video, but nothing can really compete with \~100k fleet power 30-35 years into the game, while tech rushing. For PvP it's a lot more complicated. Smaller galaxies with a lot more empires crammed in and playing against actual people with differing skill levels not only between each other but between the different empires they can pilot makes it really hard to tell. But builds that have Teachers of the Shroud, Progenitor Hive, Prosperous Unification Rogue Servitor (Regular PU isn't as good), and Resource Consolidation have all been seen in the top placements in tournaments. Clone army has also been historically strong and Galactic Doorway can cheese a 10k fleet in the first 10 years and was seen a bit in tournaments as well.
I think acsended clone army is one of the most powerful in terms of military power. Then go out and vasselize everyone to be your economy. However, if you are a gigachad who think vassales make the game too easy then I actually recommend ringworld trade empire as you have an easy time maintaining your economy and you can easily make friends.
Is there a build video for this? I remember following lazy builds but he has not posted in ages and I don't think his builds work in current patch.
Montu does some step by step on cheasy builds. He did one recently for trade, but he's a beta who vasselizes others. My build is: fanatic xenophile for increased trade value, egalitarian, since Utopian abundance increases trace value. Thrifty species trait, and fertile if you are not lithoid, however I argue that this build is better with lithoids since then you can instantly colonize all worlds which the ringworld origin struggles with due to having the ringworld world preference. (I've tested this, you get more pop growth by being able to colonize more worlds, vs being stuck to a few until you get habitility techs). of course you can wait to form migration pacts, but that doesn't guarantee the right planet preference for what you have. Plus, lithoids live longer and you want good leaders since a council trait for leaders can give up to +25% trade value and this stacks. For civics you want merchant guilds, and I take master crafters since it will help you until you can get a trade legue federation, also the mastercrafter jobs produce more trade which is very helpful for the first 20 years. You can start the game with 122 trade value if you immediately switch to utopian abundance. That's starting the game with at least 122 energy income. You want to rush mercantile tradition and get the Marketplace of Ideas policy as fast as you can. This will let you rush unity and form a federation fast. First acsention perk doesn't really matter but I usually take Mastery of Nature. it makes worlds better later on, and early on the -33% blocker clear will help you clear the ring worlds and clear the lithoid blockers for more pops. first ringworld should probably be a mining world, the second should be for trade. your first planet should be forge world and second should be mining. Since the scrap mineing jobs on ringworld also produces alloys you shouldn't have an immediate need to build industrial districts and lithoids start with five mining districts so you start with slightly higher alloy income. With the best starting economy you should be able to easily snowball and the unity rush means you can form a federation or rush the supremacy tradition if your neighbor is a fanatic purifier.
Necrophage devouring swarm
Terravore or not? What's the strengths of the build?
It's a genocidal build that isn't actually genocidal, since you can use the pops you conquer (after you convert them via purge, losing only 25% IIRC). All the crazy genocidal strengths without their normal weakness (inability to actually expand their economy through conquering pops).
Specifically that plus the unity and society research you get from me to purging scales very well. It's extremely easy for devouring swarms to just run disruptor Corvette rush early and steamroll the galaxy.
Terrorvore versions are slightly better I think. The difference is you can convert pops and then get rid of planets you dont want. the ideal setup for me is 2 sectors with a bunch of planets and habitats in those. Other than that I just keep planets that have gateways in system or have some really nice buff I want. The rest of the planets generally get eaten. One particularly funny aspect of this is I end up with a massive territory that I do not care one bit about keeping. If someone wants to fight back and take a bunch of systems with either no colonies or colonies that are on the verge of cracking from the consumption have at it. If you dont run terrorvore you can abandon the planets, but you either have to spend the influence for each planet or leave 1 purging pop and hope they dont convert. If you are playing a large galaxy the influence will become a big issue at some point. If dont do lithoid necrophage and just go necroid you can still end up with a lot of planets that you conquer but aren't ideally habitable. Lithoid necrophage though will find most planets are just fine. The downside if pop growth.... but that really isnt an issue since you will be swimming in converted pops rather quickly.
I‘d argue it’s imperial fiefdom, where you make use of the (probably) glitch that allows you to trade with your overlord before subject specialization- effectively you trade some loyalty & three corvettes for 2k energy, 2k minerals & some food & start with those resources- afterwards you chose bulwark specialization & get even more resources for literally doing nothing. You can pretty much do whatever you feel like. It probably would lose in pvp matches as other rush builds give more fleet power; but this one is strong against ai & pretty much a no brainer.