How do people rush precursors? How early can you do it? (2024)

I definitely run a more sparsely populated galaxy than default, but the key features are:

1. Science ships - do you have enough? No you don't, build more. Until you meet someone else, your alloys are for science ships and outposts, nothing more.
2. Scientists - the + anomaly chance trait is your friend, if you can get it.
3. Anomaly research - don't research the time-intensive ones until later, at least so long as they'll be in your borders anyways.
4. Discovery traditions - fairly self-explanatory, but this boosts survey speed massively early on.
5. Map the Stars - a costly early-game investment, but it will help you finish the precursors fast and also means your space will have more in it to mine and research. It may be wise to take the influence payout instead of the habitable worlds survey and the like.

Remember, you are competing with the other empires to survey everything for the first time.

DukeLeto42 said:

Remember, you are competing with the other empires to survey everything for the first time.

Click to expand...

Another aspect of this is that you should try to keep an eye on which systems other empires have already surveyed - if someone else beat you to it, don't waste your survey ship's time doing it again unless you need to build a starbase there.

If you build something like 8 science ships and open up with discovery traditions, the tech and tradition to enhance survey speed and map the stars edict you're almost guaranteed to get them early. Don't waste time on non-essential anomalies.

You do however need to also play in a non crowded galaxy and with cluster spawns turned off. It also helps to understand that precursor sites tend to appear in clusters so if you find one, chances are there are others to be found nearby.

There is also a new anomaly that can give you a precusors artifact and is not named "signs of precursor activity" but I can't remember the name.

One good trick with those extra science ships is to find your neighbors and then explore the sides where they're not as far as you can go until you bump into other science ships. Then just stay ahead of them and survey backwards towards your territory, and you can be sure that the whole area will be yours in terms of Anomalies. On some maps, you can be the first to survey a LOT of extra territory if you spread out and move back towards your territory compared to doing it the other way around.

And if you're lucky enough to get the Asteroid Blast Door Arc Site, that's 50-100 Minor Artifact, which means 2-4 Clues if you really want them. Though, personally I'd sell for energy if I have the option.

Lots of good tips here, discovery tradition and map the stars edict is always available though costly.

But even if you stack the odds it is mainly a matter of luck, you can get 6 anomalies or good dig sites early, or only a few anomalies or poor dig sites. Fallen empires or poor hyperlane grid can screw you, or you can be blocked by fun things like dimensional horrors or stellar devourers. It is up to chance.

SirBlackAxe said:

Another aspect of this is that you should try to keep an eye on which systems other empires have already surveyed - if someone else beat you to it, don't waste your survey ship's time doing it again unless you need to build a starbase there.

Click to expand...

You can still find anomalies in systems others have already surveyed, only if they find an anomaly on a specific body will you not be able to get one on that body.

I, for one, make like five or six science ships and send them to explore, don't investigate any anomaly. Until it's more late and i am starting founding anomalies that are way beyond my borders i don't bother with them, and then i build another science ship to go making the older ones while my science ships that got more level for exploring can resolve the new ones fairly quickly. The more level your scientist got the less time it takes to investigate them. Doing anomalies on the begin of the game is way time consuming, scouting is more of a priority. Also consider enabling the Map The Stars edict it increases the chances of finding them, i like to use it at first when i am exploring and later take it out when most of the galaxy is either maped or most other empires have been meet

Precursors aren't something you rush or that you can rush. The normal ones depend on anomalies, best thing is to wait for ass much precursor anomalies you can get before starting doing them. I have got up to seven of the six needed. The other two precursors, Zroni and Baol, don't use the same system but archaeological sites. On those you can go and just do the field work. Archaeological sites take time, but unlike the others those are a chain, they will point out the next step. The other precursors are just getting six artifacts

Origin choice can play a factor as well. On the shoulder of giants gives you several archaeology dig sites in your home system, which can get you a nice load of minor artifacts which you can then use to find precursor sites in case you've gotten boxed in and cannot survey anything else (or just want to burn the minor relics to get the precursor ASAP for whatever reason... first league and baol are useful to have early as possible while with cybrex, you can't actually do anything with the ringworld until you get mega engineering tech, so in that case saving them as a backup plan is far more optimal). Remnants also can get you some extra relics (3 to 33 depending on RNG when clearing archology blockers on your homeworld). "Bad" origins for precursor rushing would probably be 'common ground' and 'hegemon' as your federation allies can easily box you in (reducing optimal surveying and having the precursor homeworld when found spawn in a spot not necessarily great for your empire depending on how everybody expanded).

As for leader traits to grab, besides the "meticulous" trait DukeLeto42 mentioned, "roamer/cataloger" is great as that allows you to survey faster. "Carefree" lets you research anomalies faster (which can really help on the higher level precursor anomalies if they're near the border of another empire that's expanding). Two other traits are the "custom ai assistant" and "sapient ai assistnat", which boost both survey speed and anomoly research speed, although those wont really show up early game, but may be useful if you're getting bad RNG on finding precursor anomalies early game. There's also archaeologist for if you want to stockpile minor relics faster.

Also, it can help to have a ruler with the "explorer" trait for building science ships faster and anomaly research speed on all your scientists. And while not *directly* influencing a precursor rush, "Eye for talent" and "charismatic" are good as well if you can't get explorer. Eye for talent will increase your leaders' skill gain (higher level scientists research anomalies faster) and charismatic will give you lower edict costs (pay less for activating "map the stars edict", useful for early game when you want both the map the stars survey bonus and still need influence for your own expansion.

Ridixo said:

I, for one, make like five or six science ships and send them to explore, don't investigate any anomaly. Until it's more late and i am starting founding anomalies that are way beyond my borders i don't bother with them, and then i build another science ship to go making the older ones while my science ships that got more level for exploring can resolve the new ones fairly quickly. The more level your scientist got the less time it takes to investigate them. Doing anomalies on the begin of the game is way time consuming, scouting is more of a priority.

Click to expand...

I do the really short ones (100 days or less), because it can generate some nice resources for my early expansion, but anything longer than that is definitely a waste for that precious early-game exploration.

DukeLeto42 said:

I do the really short ones (100 days or less), because it can generate some nice resources for my early expansion, but anything longer than that is definitely a waste for that precious early-game exploration.

Click to expand...

I agree, but waiting is usually also a strength.

Any anomaly whose rewards is stored science will scale with your empire's output, meaning a difference of hundreds to thousands of CG depending on how up-scienced you are. Unless you know the rewards of the anomalies (such as very high-value ones like the one that gives you a relic world), it's generally better to wait anyways, even without the time consideration.