Every Stellaris game hides one precursor civilization for you to uncover, and which one you get shapes your mid-game economy for good. Some precursors hand you a game-changing relic and a shortcut to late-game tech. Others give you a couple of minor output bonuses and not much else. This guide ranks all nine into tiers based on what their homeworld bonus, relic, and Secrets project actually give you, and explains how to nudge the RNG in your favor.
Quick answer: Cybrex and the Vultaum Star Assembly are the best precursors to land, thanks to their strong permanent output bonuses, useful relics, and Secrets projects that unlock Mega-Engineering or major research techs. Yuht Empire is the weakest, since it comes with no relic and its rewards are mostly minor quality-of-life techs.
What a precursor actually is
Precursors are extinct spacefaring civilizations you uncover through anomalies (or archaeology sites for the DLC ones). You find scattered signs of one, collect artifacts, and eventually reveal their ruined homeworld. That homeworld gives your empire a permanent output modifier the moment you survey it, plus a Secrets project you can research afterward for a relic, a tech, or another bonus.
There are nine precursors total: five in the base game, two from Ancient Relics, and two from Cosmic Storms. Each has its own flavor and reward package, and no two games give you the same one automatically.
You’re locked in once you find the first sign
Here’s the part that actually matters for planning your game: the instant your empire discovers its first precursor sign, you’re locked into that precursor for the rest of the campaign. You can’t switch later, and you can’t collect bonuses from more than one precursor track in a single game. This is why “which precursor is best” is worth knowing before you start blind-surveying anomalies.
The five base-game precursors are essentially random, triggered by anomalies on ordinary celestial objects. The four DLC precursors are different: Ancient Relics precursors (Baol, Zroni) only appear through archaeology sites, and the two Cosmic Storms precursors (adAkkaria Convention, Inetian Traders) each have specific celestial-object conditions that start their chain. That means with those DLCs active, you can somewhat steer which precursor you end up with by prioritizing surveys of the object types tied to the one you want, instead of just hoping for the best.
One more incentive to survey precursor homeworlds fast: the first empire to survey the most precursor homeworlds in the galaxy gets a bonus reward plus the “What Came Before” achievement. And if you own Ancient Relics, even an empire that isn’t first to a given precursor’s homeworld can still buy into its Secrets project by spending 750 Minor Artifacts.
Stellaris precursor tier list
Rankings here are based on the strength of the permanent homeworld output bonus, whether you get a relic, and how valuable the Secrets project payoff is.
| Tier | Precursor | Why |
|---|---|---|
| S | Cybrex | Strong output bonus, relic, and Mega-Engineering unlock |
| S | Vultaum Star Assembly | 24x research across ALL fields, plus a relic |
| A | Irassian Concordat | Solid output bonus, relic, pop tech unlock |
| A | Zroni | Psionic Archive relic + Psionic Theory tech |
| A | First League | Strong output bonus, no relic but good secrets tech |
| B | Baol | Good relic and origin synergy, no output bonus listed |
| B | adAkkaria Convention | Decent situational reward, easy to miss |
| B | Inetian Traders | Useful relic and starbase building, easy to miss |
| C | Yuht Empire | No relic, mostly minor habitability techs |
S Tier: Cybrex
Cybrex is the best precursor to land, full stop. The homeworld (a Ruined Ringworld) gives you 120x unity, 48x engineering output, and 24x energy output, plus the Cybrex War Forge relic outright. That’s already the strongest output package of any base-game precursor.
The Secrets project costs 12,000 Engineering research, which isn’t cheap, but it pays off hard: it unlocks the Cybrex Mining Hub, opens up the Mega-Engineering research option, gives your empire the permanent Secrets of the Cybrex modifier, and your Head of Research gets the Expertise: Voidcraft trait. Mega-Engineering access alone is a big deal since it’s normally gated behind other prerequisites, and getting an early shortcut to it accelerates your entire megastructure game.
S Tier: Vultaum Star Assembly
Vultaum gives you 120x unity plus 24x research output across all fields at once, not just one. That’s the broadest output bonus of any precursor since it boosts physics, society, and engineering simultaneously rather than picking one. You also get the Vultaum Reality Perforator relic for free just from finding the homeworld.
The Secrets project is comparatively cheap at 3,000 Physics research, and it adds another 48x physics output on top of what you already have, plus the Vultaum Reality Computer research option and Expertise: Computing for your researcher. If you’ve taken the Cosmogenesis ascension perk, it also grants +1000 Advanced Logic, which is a nice bonus for that specific playstyle. For any empire leaning into a research-heavy strategy, this is arguably the single best precursor in the game.
A Tier: Irassian Concordat
Irassian Concordat gives 120x unity, 48x physics output, and 24x minerals output, along with the Javorian Pox Sample relic. That’s a genuinely strong output package, just short of Cybrex and Vultaum because it lacks their extra Secrets-project firepower.
The Secrets project costs 3,000 Society research, one of the cheaper ones on this list, and unlocks the next tier of organic pops tech plus the Irassian Naval Yards and Expertise: Biology. Good value for the research cost, especially if you’re playing a biological empire that benefits from the pops tech unlock.
A Tier: Zroni
Zroni is an Ancient Relics DLC precursor, only reachable through archaeology sites, and it’s worth targeting if you’re playing a psionic-leaning empire. It comes with the Psionic Archive relic and the Dust Off achievement.
The Secrets project runs 6,000 Society research and rewards you with the Zroni Storm Caster research option, the Psionic Theory tech, and Expertise: Psionics for your researcher. Psionic Theory is a genuinely useful tech to fast-track if you’re building toward the Shroud or psionic ascension, which is why Zroni punches above its output stats even though it doesn’t list a homeworld modifier the way the base-game five do.
A Tier: First League
First League’s homeworld is a size-25 Relic World that comes loaded with 10 Minerals and 10 Energy deposits on top of 120x unity, 48x society output, and 24x influence output. No relic here, which is the main thing keeping it out of S tier, but the raw output numbers are competitive with the top two.
The Secrets project costs 6,000 Engineering and unlocks Weather Control Systems, opens the Anti-Gravity Engineering research option, and grants Expertise: Industry. Solid all-around, especially the influence output boost, which is scarcer than energy or minerals bonuses elsewhere on this list.
B Tier: Baol
Baol’s homeworld is a size-20 Tomb World, and its Secrets project data doesn’t list a unity or output multiplier the way the base-game five do — the actual payoff here is the Last Baol relic, the Green Thumb achievement, and a nice synergy if you’re running the Evolutionary Predators origin, which gains plantoid DNA from it.
The Secrets project costs 3,000 Society research and unlocks the Baol Organic Plant research option, Epigenetic Triggers and Terrestrial Sculpting tech, plus Expertise: Biology. Terrestrial Sculpting in particular is handy for planet management, but without a stated output bonus this lands in the middle of the pack rather than near the top.
B Tier: adAkkaria Convention
This is a Cosmic Storms precursor, and it’s easy to entirely miss — its initial anomaly, “Ancient Signals,” doesn’t trigger a pop-up alert like most anomalies do. Keep an eye on your anomaly list if you’re running Cosmic Storms.
The reward is a Ruined Habitat with either the Tempest Invocator relic or turning adSul I into a continental world. The Secrets project takes 180 days to research and grants either the “True Potential of the adAkkaria” modifier or a large chunk of Unity, depending on which branch you take. Decent, but the either/or structure and lack of a guaranteed relic keep it out of A tier.
B Tier: Inetian Traders
Also from Cosmic Storms, and also easy to miss since its “Ancient Shelter” starting anomaly has the same no-alert quirk. The homeworld is a Desert World, and you get the Disturbance Oppressor relic plus the “Humility before the Fall” achievement for finding it.
The Secrets project also takes 180 days and unlocks the Hyperlane Detailer starbase building, the Storm Manipulation tech, and Expertise: Statecraft. Useful if you’re dealing with a lot of storm activity in your game, but situational enough that it sits alongside adAkkaria rather than above it.
C Tier: Yuht Empire
Yuht is the weakest precursor to end up with. The homeworld, a Ruined Hyper Relay, gives 120x unity, 24x energy output, and 24x minerals output — respectable but the lowest raw numbers on this list, and critically, no relic attached.
The Secrets project costs 3,000 Society research and unlocks the Atmospheric Filtering tech, the Yuht Astronomical Interferometer, Hostile Environment Adaptation, and Expertise: New Worlds. These are genuinely useful for expanding into marginal habitability planets, but next to Cybrex’s Mega-Engineering shortcut or Zroni’s Psionic Theory unlock, it’s a clear step down. If you’re chasing Yuht signs specifically, you’re playing for habitability convenience, not power.
How to aim for a good precursor
You can’t fully control which of the five base-game precursors you get — that’s tied to anomalies on ordinary celestial objects and comes down to what you survey first, with no way to filter for a specific one. But if you own Ancient Relics or Cosmic Storms, you have more agency. Baol and Zroni only show up through archaeology sites, so if you want one of those two, prioritize digging into archaeology sites over chasing random anomalies. adAkkaria Convention and Inetian Traders each spawn from a specific starting anomaly tied to particular celestial-object conditions, so if you know which triggers which, you can bias your early survey order toward the one you want.
Whichever one you land on, remember you’re stuck with it for the whole game the moment the first sign shows up, so it pays to know what you’re aiming for before you start clicking “survey” on every anomaly your science ships find.
