What are the best (top 5/10?) Wonders? What are the least useful?
What are the best Wonders?
- Thread starter Birdjaguar
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GAGA Extrem
Emperor
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It's actually quite hard to find 5 really good wonders (even more so if you take required techs into account). I guess I'd go with the following (in alphabetical order):
(1) Deep Memory
(2) Ectogenesis Pod
(3) Gene Vault
(4) Promethean
(5) Xenomaellum
The rest is either very situational or completely overpriced. The worst 5 (imho and again in alphabetical order):
(I) Armasail
(II) Daedalus Ladder
(III) Mass Driver
(IV) Nanothermite
(V) New Terran Myth
(1) Deep Memory
(2) Ectogenesis Pod
(3) Gene Vault
(4) Promethean
(5) Xenomaellum
The rest is either very situational or completely overpriced. The worst 5 (imho and again in alphabetical order):
(I) Armasail
(II) Daedalus Ladder
(III) Mass Driver
(IV) Nanothermite
(V) New Terran Myth
I like the Panopticum (+1 Sight for all military units), and its an early wonder, so not too expensive. Master control (which gives the workers +1 movement) is also very nice.
Of course, wonders should rarely have priority over other things.
Of course, wonders should rarely have priority over other things.
Promethian
Warlord
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I strongly second Panopticon. That vision is a huge benefit in war, especially against a human opponent. If you are Supremacy stack it with the quest from optical surgery for an extreme intelligence advantage.
Master control is imo under-rated; basically chopped 1 turn off every tile improvement you will do.
Gene vault is godlike, not because of its effect, but because it's dirt cheap (9,10 turns in my last game).
Ecto Pod can be pretty good in a farm spam strategy; farms have the potential to get +2f +1e +1sc with the good tech, although late game. Problem is that academy spam seems a bit too strong at the moment.
Promethean with a free virtue is never bad.
Gene vault is godlike, not because of its effect, but because it's dirt cheap (9,10 turns in my last game).
Ecto Pod can be pretty good in a farm spam strategy; farms have the potential to get +2f +1e +1sc with the good tech, although late game. Problem is that academy spam seems a bit too strong at the moment.
Promethean with a free virtue is never bad.
Coming here just to third Panopticon. A really underrated gem. The Crawler tactic bhavv says is also good, but it only works with one city, so make sure you never lose it 
Armasail and Nanothermite are also solid, but situational. The opportunity cost you sacrifice to tech to them is a bit of a pain sometimes (though you're usually guaranteed Nanothermite as it's on the way to an Affinity Victory).
Armasail and Nanothermite are also solid, but situational. The opportunity cost you sacrifice to tech to them is a bit of a pain sometimes (though you're usually guaranteed Nanothermite as it's on the way to an Affinity Victory).
1. Ectogenesis Pod. +1 food is priceless.
2. Crawler. Since in 4 out of 5 victories you need to build a wonder.
3. Xenomaellum for academies spam
4. Promethean. Virtues are valuable and that health bonus is useful
5. Archimedes Lever. I just love to hear the stories about Jhon Henry )))
Deep Memory is not on my list because it comes too late.
Cynosure - not worth it imho. 7 science is almost nothing.
They really should have great engineers in the game. Speeding up the wonders could make late wonders useful.
2. Crawler. Since in 4 out of 5 victories you need to build a wonder.
3. Xenomaellum for academies spam
4. Promethean. Virtues are valuable and that health bonus is useful
5. Archimedes Lever. I just love to hear the stories about Jhon Henry )))
Deep Memory is not on my list because it comes too late.
Cynosure - not worth it imho. 7 science is almost nothing.
They really should have great engineers in the game. Speeding up the wonders could make late wonders useful.
All of your comments have been most helpful. Thanks.
Ryika
Lazy Wannabe Artista
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Does of course also depend on the difficulty and the reason you're play. I almost tend to think there's not a single wonder that's really worth building in "I want to win fast on Apollo!"-strategies right now. Reason is simple: Agricultural or Scientific Development Projects as well as scientific tile improvements are so strong at pushing you to the next level that it seems to me that no wonder can really keep up with the massive amount of production that is needed for the later ones and it seems that, even more so than in Civ 5, building an early wonder delays infrastructure just by too much.
For me the Crawler is the only one that's really interesting at all, but Jesus Christ... 1250 production? To get that amount you have to give up SO much science at a point where teching up still unlocks useful buildings that I can't see how that would fit into a quick victory.
But in a scenario where I could just conjure a wonder out of thin air (at the time I'd usually get it), I'd probably rank them:
Best Wonders
1 - Crawler
2 - Gene Vault (mainly because it comes so early)
3 - Promethean
4 - Memetwork
5 - Bytegeist (Probably controversal - yeah, it comes too late, but I like the effect)
Worst Wonders
1 - Resurrection Device (Not sure how you'd ever get enough extra population to use 8 local(!) health - so it literally doesn't do anything for me other than allowing my to get rid of the 1-2 health-only-buildings I have in that city, translating into +2 gold per turn)
2 - New Terran Myth (4 Culture per turn for 750 production at a time where the game will probably not last much longer than 50-80 turns? On a tech that doesn't give ANYTHING else? What?)
3 - Mass Driver
4 - Nanothermite
5 - Armasail (so basically the 3 "give City Defense + X" wonders - at that point AIs just aren't problematic anymore)
For me the Crawler is the only one that's really interesting at all, but Jesus Christ... 1250 production? To get that amount you have to give up SO much science at a point where teching up still unlocks useful buildings that I can't see how that would fit into a quick victory.
But in a scenario where I could just conjure a wonder out of thin air (at the time I'd usually get it), I'd probably rank them:
Best Wonders
1 - Crawler
2 - Gene Vault (mainly because it comes so early)
3 - Promethean
4 - Memetwork
5 - Bytegeist (Probably controversal - yeah, it comes too late, but I like the effect)
Worst Wonders
1 - Resurrection Device (Not sure how you'd ever get enough extra population to use 8 local(!) health - so it literally doesn't do anything for me other than allowing my to get rid of the 1-2 health-only-buildings I have in that city, translating into +2 gold per turn)
2 - New Terran Myth (4 Culture per turn for 750 production at a time where the game will probably not last much longer than 50-80 turns? On a tech that doesn't give ANYTHING else? What?)
3 - Mass Driver
4 - Nanothermite
5 - Armasail (so basically the 3 "give City Defense + X" wonders - at that point AIs just aren't problematic anymore)
GAGA Extrem
Emperor
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Hey, those extra hammers from priests were not that bad if you ran a religion-focused strategy.
...oh, wait, CIV5?
...oh, wait, CIV5?
Alkaid
Warlord
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- Oct 29, 2014
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I only play on Apollo and even though the wonders aren't nearly as big of a deal as they were in Civ V, I'm thankful that it seems the AI doesn't manage to monopolize them as easily as they did in V.
I thought of my top 5, but I think I'll do top 10 just because I was thinking of honorable mentions and it might as well just be 10 anyway.
1. Genevault
For the reasons people already said, you can get it early and I like it helps you compete with how fast the AI seems to manage to grow their cities and getting it denies them from being able to get even bigger faster.
2. Ectogenesis Pod
I have a bad habit of spamming farms even when it might be better to use generators or extra academies in some cities, so +1 farm food is great for me, even if I'm not going purity. I usually try to get both Genevault and Ecto Pod before the AI can grab them so I can get my cities as big as possible.
3. Panopticon
Since I like domination best, +1 unit sight is great for everything. Plus as people have said it's pretty cheap to build and comes relatively early. This is one I always try to make sure I get, even if I don't plan on fighting a lot.
4. Deep Memeory
I should probably put this below Promethean but I tend to give it some extra priority in the late game since the 2 virtues usually help me get to the bottom of the Might tree (which I get after I got what I needed from prosperity and industry trees already) to either get the 50% unit maint reduction and 10% combat boost or get the +50% resources. I almost always go domination and either way it's great to have a bigger and better army late game since. Plus the AI is usually pissed off at me by then, even if I'm not doing domination. It might be higher if it wasn't so out of the way, at least if you're not going Purity.
5. Markov Eclipse
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this one yet. If you plan on fighting a lot, like I end up doing, it's really nice to have this to speed up promotions significantly. When defending or moving in to attack under heavy fire, using heal instantly can also mean the difference between a dead unit and one that can keep attacking or defending. Needing less attacks/hits to get that heal can be a nice bonus for keeping your defensive line alive to soak up more attacks or allow an attacking unit to keep going/hold position. I don't prioritize this as much as the first 4 wonders but it's noticeable when you have it. This + the might virtue lets the promotions roll and/or your army stay alive longer.
6. Master Control
As the list goes down these each become less of the wonders I really prioritize, and Master Control is one I probably don't focus on that much, but I probably should since it's pretty nice to have. This is especially useful with how good academy spam. In the same way worker speed % helps you construct the improvements faster, this helps you get workers on site faster to get started. If you usually have a small army of workers like me the benefit from this thing is certainly noticeable.
7. Crawler
Bytegeist would of gone here, but lately I've been trying to make the Crawler more often and it's pretty nice. I actually feel like an idiot after seeing it mentioned here about how it helps with the affinity victory wonders. Somehow I never had that even come to mind, and thinking about that benefit makes this move up from what I would of had it at. My main problem with it is that it's from a tech that's usually out of the way for me, plus it's a bear to build in itself. But if you wanna go for stuff like Deep Memory or Xenomalleum(aside from victory wonders), since you can get the Crawler easily before those, it's helpful. Also almost worth getting if you're the PAC for super fast wonder building. I almost always play PAC mainly for the worker speed bonus, but Jesus Christ the PAC wonder % bonus + industry wonder % virtue + the Crawler is hilarious. I've had Deep Memory be like 12 turns, and victory wonders be similar.
8. Bytegeist
I actually don't get this one very often, since where it is on the tech web I usually don't go for soon enough before the AI can make it. However since virtues are so strong, and playing wide is so common the -15% virtue cost is pretty nice to help mitigate your expansion from slowing up your virtue progress as much.
9. Precog Project
After I get the tech of Academies, if I'm going Supremacy I'll usually go for the tech with this + the affinity boost right after. Even if I'm a different affinity, I'll try to swing back around to try and get it if it's not been taken yet. This thing is both cheap and a really nice benefit all around. It helps both in defending your own territory, and if you're attacking an enemy with how taking cities and converting the enemy territory can give your units the bonus for some of the time as they advance. It's also nice to keep it out of AI hands at the least, so it's not harder to attack them instead.
10. Xenomalleum
I've actually almost never built this thing, which is a big part of why it may seem really low, but I still see why it can be really good. Personally, I don't have many money problems in my games, and unless I have lots of tundra I don't use many generators, even when I have lots of academies up. But I still see why a lot of people would like this one if they do use lots of generators. I also don't tend to get to that part of the tech tree until very late and I don't put any priority on getting over there. I'll have to try generator spam sometime though, with this plus the other techs that help generators and see if they're really that beastly. It's just a strategy I haven't tried yet.
Honorable Mentions:
Even after 10 good wonders, I think an honorable mention would be Memetwork. I never really put extensive focus on culture in a city like I do science, but this is nice to have if you wanted to do that. Like the Xenomalleum it's just something I haven't really messed with much yet.
The Drone Sphere can go here since it's kind of similar to the Precog Project. It's not quite as good as the PP in my opinion and it's more expensive. And since you always want to get Academies the PP is a bit more natural to go for. Plus even as a different affinity Supremacy affinity is nice to get for the sake of the free roads/rails at rank 3. The Harmony affinity with the DS is pretty useless for anyone else.
Cynosure is also kind of an honorable mention but it's one of the slowest to build and 1 extra veterancy level isn't that big of a deal. If this game's promotions worked like Civ V and had stuff like logistics, +1 range, etc then maybe. I can only really see the value on the super units with an extra +10% to their like 100 strength, but still kinda meh. If it was a lot cheaper it might be worth it.
Don't really need to put much comment on the worst wonders, since they really speak for themselves.
1. New Terran Myth
2. Ansible
3. Daedelus Ladder
4. Nanothermite
5. Mass Driver
All of these either add nothing but minimal yields to culture and whatnot and provide nothing else, or have a pretty useless effect. I didn't put the city defense or production wonders as the worst just since if you had to make me choose I'd rather gain city defense/HP or +6-9 production than a tiny bit of culture or food and nothing else. And good lord I may have went on too long with this post.
I thought of my top 5, but I think I'll do top 10 just because I was thinking of honorable mentions and it might as well just be 10 anyway.
1. Genevault
For the reasons people already said, you can get it early and I like it helps you compete with how fast the AI seems to manage to grow their cities and getting it denies them from being able to get even bigger faster.
2. Ectogenesis Pod
I have a bad habit of spamming farms even when it might be better to use generators or extra academies in some cities, so +1 farm food is great for me, even if I'm not going purity. I usually try to get both Genevault and Ecto Pod before the AI can grab them so I can get my cities as big as possible.
3. Panopticon
Since I like domination best, +1 unit sight is great for everything. Plus as people have said it's pretty cheap to build and comes relatively early. This is one I always try to make sure I get, even if I don't plan on fighting a lot.
4. Deep Memeory
I should probably put this below Promethean but I tend to give it some extra priority in the late game since the 2 virtues usually help me get to the bottom of the Might tree (which I get after I got what I needed from prosperity and industry trees already) to either get the 50% unit maint reduction and 10% combat boost or get the +50% resources. I almost always go domination and either way it's great to have a bigger and better army late game since. Plus the AI is usually pissed off at me by then, even if I'm not doing domination. It might be higher if it wasn't so out of the way, at least if you're not going Purity.
5. Markov Eclipse
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this one yet. If you plan on fighting a lot, like I end up doing, it's really nice to have this to speed up promotions significantly. When defending or moving in to attack under heavy fire, using heal instantly can also mean the difference between a dead unit and one that can keep attacking or defending. Needing less attacks/hits to get that heal can be a nice bonus for keeping your defensive line alive to soak up more attacks or allow an attacking unit to keep going/hold position. I don't prioritize this as much as the first 4 wonders but it's noticeable when you have it. This + the might virtue lets the promotions roll and/or your army stay alive longer.
6. Master Control
As the list goes down these each become less of the wonders I really prioritize, and Master Control is one I probably don't focus on that much, but I probably should since it's pretty nice to have. This is especially useful with how good academy spam. In the same way worker speed % helps you construct the improvements faster, this helps you get workers on site faster to get started. If you usually have a small army of workers like me the benefit from this thing is certainly noticeable.
7. Crawler
Bytegeist would of gone here, but lately I've been trying to make the Crawler more often and it's pretty nice. I actually feel like an idiot after seeing it mentioned here about how it helps with the affinity victory wonders. Somehow I never had that even come to mind, and thinking about that benefit makes this move up from what I would of had it at. My main problem with it is that it's from a tech that's usually out of the way for me, plus it's a bear to build in itself. But if you wanna go for stuff like Deep Memory or Xenomalleum(aside from victory wonders), since you can get the Crawler easily before those, it's helpful. Also almost worth getting if you're the PAC for super fast wonder building. I almost always play PAC mainly for the worker speed bonus, but Jesus Christ the PAC wonder % bonus + industry wonder % virtue + the Crawler is hilarious. I've had Deep Memory be like 12 turns, and victory wonders be similar.
8. Bytegeist
I actually don't get this one very often, since where it is on the tech web I usually don't go for soon enough before the AI can make it. However since virtues are so strong, and playing wide is so common the -15% virtue cost is pretty nice to help mitigate your expansion from slowing up your virtue progress as much.
9. Precog Project
After I get the tech of Academies, if I'm going Supremacy I'll usually go for the tech with this + the affinity boost right after. Even if I'm a different affinity, I'll try to swing back around to try and get it if it's not been taken yet. This thing is both cheap and a really nice benefit all around. It helps both in defending your own territory, and if you're attacking an enemy with how taking cities and converting the enemy territory can give your units the bonus for some of the time as they advance. It's also nice to keep it out of AI hands at the least, so it's not harder to attack them instead.
10. Xenomalleum
I've actually almost never built this thing, which is a big part of why it may seem really low, but I still see why it can be really good. Personally, I don't have many money problems in my games, and unless I have lots of tundra I don't use many generators, even when I have lots of academies up. But I still see why a lot of people would like this one if they do use lots of generators. I also don't tend to get to that part of the tech tree until very late and I don't put any priority on getting over there. I'll have to try generator spam sometime though, with this plus the other techs that help generators and see if they're really that beastly. It's just a strategy I haven't tried yet.
Honorable Mentions:
Even after 10 good wonders, I think an honorable mention would be Memetwork. I never really put extensive focus on culture in a city like I do science, but this is nice to have if you wanted to do that. Like the Xenomalleum it's just something I haven't really messed with much yet.
The Drone Sphere can go here since it's kind of similar to the Precog Project. It's not quite as good as the PP in my opinion and it's more expensive. And since you always want to get Academies the PP is a bit more natural to go for. Plus even as a different affinity Supremacy affinity is nice to get for the sake of the free roads/rails at rank 3. The Harmony affinity with the DS is pretty useless for anyone else.
Cynosure is also kind of an honorable mention but it's one of the slowest to build and 1 extra veterancy level isn't that big of a deal. If this game's promotions worked like Civ V and had stuff like logistics, +1 range, etc then maybe. I can only really see the value on the super units with an extra +10% to their like 100 strength, but still kinda meh. If it was a lot cheaper it might be worth it.
Don't really need to put much comment on the worst wonders, since they really speak for themselves.
1. New Terran Myth
2. Ansible
3. Daedelus Ladder
4. Nanothermite
5. Mass Driver
All of these either add nothing but minimal yields to culture and whatnot and provide nothing else, or have a pretty useless effect. I didn't put the city defense or production wonders as the worst just since if you had to make me choose I'd rather gain city defense/HP or +6-9 production than a tiny bit of culture or food and nothing else. And good lord I may have went on too long with this post.
How do i get the beacon to work? I've placed it on the map, but nothing seems to happen.
tedeviatings
Warlord
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You have to have 1k energy - then you can click the beacon and activate it to start the countdown
My strategy, if I want a lot of useful wonders is to start as PAC. They have 10% production bonus toward wonders. First, in the tier 1 of Industry virtues I unlock the Labor Logistics virtue and Scalable Infrastructure. Labor logistics gives me a 10% production bonus toward buildings, but more importantly scalable infrastructure gives me a 15% production bonus toward wonders. Then on the virtue tree I try to get toward the Monomyth virtue this gives all Wonders a +7 culture bonus. Next, on the tech tree I go straight to Mechatronics, which allows you to unlock the Crawler wonder. The Crawler gives me a whopping 25% production bonus toward wonders and +8 culture with the Monomyth virtue. The next technology I try to unlock is Orbital Networks, which will allow me to build the Memetwork. The Memetwork gives me a 25% culture bonus in the city it is built, it also gives you a +11 culture bonus with the Monomyth virtue and +2 health no matter what. Any wonder will be worth building with the Monomyth virtue, plus any wonder will be built 50% faster with the wonder bonuses I use.
ohu1111
ohu1111
sylvanllewelyn
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Those are also the exact (only) two that I think is worth the distraction.
A couple others are simply on the way and then I will build them:
- Promethean if the AI has not started it yet. That's what spies are for.
- Quantum Computer if going for The Promised Land. MANTLEs are actually useful.
- Xenodrome is OK, 450 for xeno sanctuary and 300 for 4 culture is not too shabby.
Does the Crawler speed up the victory tile improvement? Never tried it.
