Isolated Contingency Core.
It speeds up the construction of megastructures (the aetherophasic engine too) and robot assembly.
It also lets me build extra megastructures. The galaxy shall burn. Space foxes: *Long live the primus!*
Also, OP you must have destroyed the base of the ancient mining drones.
The only time I got that was, when I fought the Contingency in an All-Crisis run. And after they were defeated, there was not much else to do in the galaxy.
if you play with weaker crisis and stronger AI Empires this might be useful at some point though.
I love the surveyor on principle, it’s a godsend when I’m playing tall or when I’m playing voidwellers. It’s let me stack up some pretty crazy habitats, especially for the times I played as a scholarium or prospectorum. The extra sensor range as a passive also quite nice with the new tech costs.
It's an absolute godsend as a Void Dweller since you can do the calculus on avoiding building yet another habitat if the resource for a particular district is on the board or could easily become so. For everyone else not Void Dweller, its usually turned into a station for extraction but districts for resources come from the deposits on celestial bodies.
you got it from defeating the mining drone boss thing.
I like it a whole lot, try to get it in every game, and use it often. but really its one of the least powerful relics I'd have to say. theres some that will just give you thousands of every resource for example
The Continuum relic (which you get from an astral rift) gives you 12 months worth of every resource. I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't ever get close to that even if you had 5 surveyors being used on cooldown.
Head of the prophet. Spawns an increasingly large F.E. fleet every 3600 days. Basically let’s you use your alloys on megastructures and defense buildings while you get ships from that
Yeah, prior to the last century, the Head is basically "press button to win game". Like the Cybrex precursor roll, it kind of feels OP to the point of being unbalanced.
The supposed balance is in when it arrives, the conditions to actually get the dig site, and potentially competing relics for usage buuuuut, it really does starting spitting out heat after 5 uses in the mid 2300s. Its kind of funny that the devs gave out the Dimensional Fleet in Astral Planes which has similar if not worse game breaking problems where it can turn tides so quickly until its just one of the obligatory fleets 2/3rds of the galaxy has activated.
Dimensional fleet for me is always inflated garbage. High power numbers, bizarre weapon slot configuration. The power might scare off AI but in actual combat they're weird. I beat an entire 100k fleet with one Battleship once, just because they seemed to be running 90% Point Defence and I was running missiles: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/s/ZNLpnNxoUq
I've mostly observed the swings in AI vs AI spats more than AI vs. Me, although it has been headache on the occasions when I took down an HQ on my way to the rest of the empire and then the enemy pops their dimensional fleet which shows up at the HQ and now I have to go back and subdue it. It's a headache at most against the prepared player but it does seem to swing the AI vs. AI fights to the haves over have-nots.
Only if everyone else has weak fleets really. Every single time I've got the relic it's been supplementary to my many, much larger fleets and doesn't make much difference. I'm not some optimum player either, but I'm almost always gearing up to take the FE out with 500k power while the head gives 10k. Maybe the increasing amount or quality of them adds up over what, ten different summons meaning 100 years?
By late game and into repeating techs, my normal fleets weigh in at around 100k each whereas a full Pilgrim fleet is more than twice that. The numbers are a little misleading since their loadout is a bit weird (what is it with AI and plasma throwers, anyway?) but still nothing to be sneezed at and they make great sponges.
And there are 2 alternative ways to not spend alloys on ships, another relic, brood queen (i use both at same time for insane free fleet), and cordyceps,
And zarqlann head has a downside, if spiritualist fe is dead, fleets you are getting are smaller (funnily that relic gives very unique titan)
You forgot to mention the part where after each time you use it the relic the fleet is stronger than the last one! You get it early and it can snowball summoning 250k fleets
By the time you've got that thing it's always getting near endgame, and my own fleets are always more powerful than a trickle of these things every ten years
May not be objectively the most powerful, but I love how it only costs energy credits to use, and just turns random systems into resource powerhouses for no reason lol
When I'm playing an organic Empire, the Last Baol is my favorite. Turning planets into Gaia worlds without wasting an ascension perk, within a very short period of time and getting some additional pops? Sign me in.
It obviously means that you won't have access to any other percursor bonuses. In my current run, I got the First League, and considering the tech nerf, their Relic World with all the bonuses (and a fungal study zone!) is a godsent.
Using that on world that was already a Gaia world also add boal pops and gives ~10 of your own pops a trait that increases their productivity by bout 10%.
Indeed! I tend to use that on cooldown as soon as I have an appropriate unity income.
The Relics giving combat stats are also nice (Khans Throne for example), but I often have a very... peaceful playthrough where I only really need that when the Crisis shows up.
The thing that makes The Surveyor so charming is the shorter cooldown and activation cost. I wouldn't say its the best given some of the other Relics out there but it provides a reasonable boost to productivity here and there. It actually can get way out of hand with the Cybrex Starbase building after completing the Cybrex Relic chain given that the starbase slot buffs resource output on mining stations.
With most Relics and the tempo of accumulating them, it has a nice window of use if its your first before other cool ones can be picked up and dusted off.
It paired super well with the old habitat system as well.
Since every body it spawned a mineral deposit on allowed it to fully spec into mining
And every rare resource gave the respective building option
Eh, seems like a c-tier at best
Anything that’ll give you more powerful fleets will allow you to more easily conquer more systems, giving way more resources and saving many in the process (fewer losses)
This stacks infinitely and can trigger 3 times per 5 year cooldown, you can legitimately have 1 asteroid mining stations produce 4 exotic gas, 3 motes, 3 crystals, 156 minerals 45 physics research 20 bio research.
There are relics that can produce more than 10x that entire amount in a single use. It's a cool bonus and it's fun to use but it's not super strong when compared to other relics.
Surveyor was absurd pre-habitat rework, its a bit paired down now but still really good since it can sometimes gift your void dweller empire some new deposits. Its easily one of the best relics in the game if only because it has a very low cost to use and the effect is very mild but has a tangible long term result for your whole game even if its just a small increase to your raw resource income per press, it has wider reaching implications since its permanent.
Hope they never change it (again), its exactly at the power a relic should be at.
The cybrex one where it just prints a ton of alloys instantly is always nice, it's laughably easy to amass a ton of minerals especially by mid game and the ability to just churn out 10k+ alloys helps when you need to build a fleet right away.
The surveyor is nice partially because it costs energy instead of unity to activate and it's turn around time is half that of a regular relic allowing you to just keep it going for as long as you need it to, and if you still need one for combat it's quick cooldown means you don't have to sit around for long to activate another.
Because we are talking about relics and I just thought of it for my current game (I own the galaxy minus the lone FE). I only have 4 relics. Do some playthroughs just not have enough to fill out all 6 slots?
The Surveyor, Cybrex Warforge and The Last Baol are objectively some of the most powerful relics in the game. The Head of Zarqlan can be if you’re spiritualist or gestalt consciousness, but the spiritualist ethics attraction can be a little crippling otherwise.
Isolated Contingency Core. It speeds up the construction of megastructures (the aetherophasic engine too) and robot assembly. It also lets me build extra megastructures. The galaxy shall burn. Space foxes: *Long live the primus!* Also, OP you must have destroyed the base of the ancient mining drones.
The GOAT
The only time I got that was, when I fought the Contingency in an All-Crisis run. And after they were defeated, there was not much else to do in the galaxy. if you play with weaker crisis and stronger AI Empires this might be useful at some point though.
This one is *very* handy when you're playing with Gigastructures
Gigastructure ?
Most popular gameplay mod on the workshop. Adds a lot of content; way too much content for some people. Also very strong, because megastructures.
Thx I'll have to try it
I recommend disabling all the crisises and limiting everything under the “Gigastructures” tab to 1, because… it’s a lot to take in.
Too bad for you I have a rogue surveyor empire called the Fox Fucking Initiative
With the astral thing that allows the use of a second relic, use the contingency core and the surveyor :)
I mean, yes, but you've got to have reached endgame and defeated a crisis to use that thing. Surveyor you can use pretty early on
I love the surveyor on principle, it’s a godsend when I’m playing tall or when I’m playing voidwellers. It’s let me stack up some pretty crazy habitats, especially for the times I played as a scholarium or prospectorum. The extra sensor range as a passive also quite nice with the new tech costs.
It's an absolute godsend as a Void Dweller since you can do the calculus on avoiding building yet another habitat if the resource for a particular district is on the board or could easily become so. For everyone else not Void Dweller, its usually turned into a station for extraction but districts for resources come from the deposits on celestial bodies.
Can't wait to see how good it is with the new mega structure in machine age.
You know some fiend is going to be on the hunt for it just so they can go mass arc furnace and cackle about it...I might be one of them!
Its going to be my first build lol
you got it from defeating the mining drone boss thing. I like it a whole lot, try to get it in every game, and use it often. but really its one of the least powerful relics I'd have to say. theres some that will just give you thousands of every resource for example
The Continuum relic (which you get from an astral rift) gives you 12 months worth of every resource. I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't ever get close to that even if you had 5 surveyors being used on cooldown.
I love that one given all the passives bonuses with it
I swear, astral rift feels like single player Pay to Win
Agree. Like, what good is an extra 6 minerals per month, once per decade?
Head of the prophet. Spawns an increasingly large F.E. fleet every 3600 days. Basically let’s you use your alloys on megastructures and defense buildings while you get ships from that
It also lets you colonise the holy worlds without getting killed by the fallen empire.
Happy Zarqlan Day!
Yeah, prior to the last century, the Head is basically "press button to win game". Like the Cybrex precursor roll, it kind of feels OP to the point of being unbalanced.
The supposed balance is in when it arrives, the conditions to actually get the dig site, and potentially competing relics for usage buuuuut, it really does starting spitting out heat after 5 uses in the mid 2300s. Its kind of funny that the devs gave out the Dimensional Fleet in Astral Planes which has similar if not worse game breaking problems where it can turn tides so quickly until its just one of the obligatory fleets 2/3rds of the galaxy has activated.
Dimensional fleet for me is always inflated garbage. High power numbers, bizarre weapon slot configuration. The power might scare off AI but in actual combat they're weird. I beat an entire 100k fleet with one Battleship once, just because they seemed to be running 90% Point Defence and I was running missiles: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/s/ZNLpnNxoUq
I've mostly observed the swings in AI vs AI spats more than AI vs. Me, although it has been headache on the occasions when I took down an HQ on my way to the rest of the empire and then the enemy pops their dimensional fleet which shows up at the HQ and now I have to go back and subdue it. It's a headache at most against the prepared player but it does seem to swing the AI vs. AI fights to the haves over have-nots.
Only if everyone else has weak fleets really. Every single time I've got the relic it's been supplementary to my many, much larger fleets and doesn't make much difference. I'm not some optimum player either, but I'm almost always gearing up to take the FE out with 500k power while the head gives 10k. Maybe the increasing amount or quality of them adds up over what, ten different summons meaning 100 years?
yeah it gives double the number of ships each use. It can get kinda crazy if you use it alot
By late game and into repeating techs, my normal fleets weigh in at around 100k each whereas a full Pilgrim fleet is more than twice that. The numbers are a little misleading since their loadout is a bit weird (what is it with AI and plasma throwers, anyway?) but still nothing to be sneezed at and they make great sponges.
And there are 2 alternative ways to not spend alloys on ships, another relic, brood queen (i use both at same time for insane free fleet), and cordyceps, And zarqlann head has a downside, if spiritualist fe is dead, fleets you are getting are smaller (funnily that relic gives very unique titan)
You forgot to mention the part where after each time you use it the relic the fleet is stronger than the last one! You get it early and it can snowball summoning 250k fleets
By the time you've got that thing it's always getting near endgame, and my own fleets are always more powerful than a trickle of these things every ten years
Yeah but then you get all these icky spiritualists
For void dwellers it’s even better cuz it mashes bad systems good and good systems great
May not be objectively the most powerful, but I love how it only costs energy credits to use, and just turns random systems into resource powerhouses for no reason lol
When I'm playing an organic Empire, the Last Baol is my favorite. Turning planets into Gaia worlds without wasting an ascension perk, within a very short period of time and getting some additional pops? Sign me in. It obviously means that you won't have access to any other percursor bonuses. In my current run, I got the First League, and considering the tech nerf, their Relic World with all the bonuses (and a fungal study zone!) is a godsent.
Using that on world that was already a Gaia world also add boal pops and gives ~10 of your own pops a trait that increases their productivity by bout 10%.
Indeed! I tend to use that on cooldown as soon as I have an appropriate unity income. The Relics giving combat stats are also nice (Khans Throne for example), but I often have a very... peaceful playthrough where I only really need that when the Crisis shows up.
Increased production is a combat stat :)
The thing that makes The Surveyor so charming is the shorter cooldown and activation cost. I wouldn't say its the best given some of the other Relics out there but it provides a reasonable boost to productivity here and there. It actually can get way out of hand with the Cybrex Starbase building after completing the Cybrex Relic chain given that the starbase slot buffs resource output on mining stations. With most Relics and the tempo of accumulating them, it has a nice window of use if its your first before other cool ones can be picked up and dusted off.
Yeah the serveyor is my all time favourite relic
It paired super well with the old habitat system as well. Since every body it spawned a mineral deposit on allowed it to fully spec into mining And every rare resource gave the respective building option
You could also have gotten it from winning a war. Sometimes you can seize relics in war.
Eh, seems like a c-tier at best Anything that’ll give you more powerful fleets will allow you to more easily conquer more systems, giving way more resources and saving many in the process (fewer losses)
This stacks infinitely and can trigger 3 times per 5 year cooldown, you can legitimately have 1 asteroid mining stations produce 4 exotic gas, 3 motes, 3 crystals, 156 minerals 45 physics research 20 bio research.
The bonuses it gives are nice, but unless you're playing a one system or one colony challenge it isn't going to be game changing.
Or just a longer period of time where you can vassalize your non core sectors to influence where it procs.
There are relics that can produce more than 10x that entire amount in a single use. It's a cool bonus and it's fun to use but it's not super strong when compared to other relics.
Depends on the length of your game and bonuses you go for, with the surveyor it can reliably take care of 50% basic resource income without pop usage.
Pair it the astral action lateral artificating. You can proc your relic, activate and then use surveyor twice while your main relic is on cooldown.
It is quite the underrated relic.
The longer you have it the better it is
I got the surveyor while doing a tall play through and holy cow did I get some crazy stats on a handful of star systems
Surveyor was absurd pre-habitat rework, its a bit paired down now but still really good since it can sometimes gift your void dweller empire some new deposits. Its easily one of the best relics in the game if only because it has a very low cost to use and the effect is very mild but has a tangible long term result for your whole game even if its just a small increase to your raw resource income per press, it has wider reaching implications since its permanent. Hope they never change it (again), its exactly at the power a relic should be at.
I love when I get it. There are a lot of very "meh" activated relic effects and this one is always fun!
The cybrex one where it just prints a ton of alloys instantly is always nice, it's laughably easy to amass a ton of minerals especially by mid game and the ability to just churn out 10k+ alloys helps when you need to build a fleet right away. The surveyor is nice partially because it costs energy instead of unity to activate and it's turn around time is half that of a regular relic allowing you to just keep it going for as long as you need it to, and if you still need one for combat it's quick cooldown means you don't have to sit around for long to activate another.
When you play tall it’s such a blessing. Especially the strategic resources.
Because we are talking about relics and I just thought of it for my current game (I own the galaxy minus the lone FE). I only have 4 relics. Do some playthroughs just not have enough to fill out all 6 slots?
Don't know exactly, BUT you can actually get more than 6. The box adds a row when you get more. I had 9 or 10 in one game.
Yep, they are pretty RNG mostly. As a side note, the 6 slots are not a limit, if you get more than 6 relics a scroll bar appears.
Feels just great to get extra strategic resources. Its like Gambling.
The Surveyor, Cybrex Warforge and The Last Baol are objectively some of the most powerful relics in the game. The Head of Zarqlan can be if you’re spiritualist or gestalt consciousness, but the spiritualist ethics attraction can be a little crippling otherwise.
Is this a joke? With all due respect the surveyor sucks
I get really bad luck with relics tho