Commander Profiles

Profile	Effects	Tech	Prefab or Unit	Group
Hydro Engineer	Fuel Refineries require 25% less Water	14,625 research Water Conservation System (Biotech) - Domes -50% Water	Water Reclamation System
Prospector	Start with a Water deposit revealed	13,000 research Deep Water Extraction (Physics) - exploit deep Water	Large Lake
Logistician	Prefab costs reduced by 25%	3,000 research Prefab Compression (Breakthrough) - Spires as prefabs	RC Transport
Ecologist	Farms consume 50% less Water	1,400 research Soil Adaptation (Biotech) - unlocks the Farm	Hanging Gardens
Professor	Outsourcing Research costs 20% less Funding	3,750 research Martianborn Adaptability (Biotech) - faster Martianborn graduation	University	Colonist
Doctor	Births behave as if colonists had 15 more Comfort	14,625 research Stem Reconstruction (Biotech) - increase colonist lifespan	Smart Complex	Colonist
Psychologist	Colonists recover 5 additional Sanity while resting in their homes	18,000 research Behavioral Melding (Social) - flaws become Perks	Sanatorium	Colonist
City Mayor	20 more Comfort from gardens and decorations	14,625 research Home Collective (Social) - residences give more Comfort	Medium Dome	Colonist
Nuclear Physicist	Power Accumulator and Atomic Accumulator store 25% more energy	8,500 research Nuclear Fusion (Physics) - unlocks the Fusion Reactor	2x Atomic Accumulator	Economy
Geologist	Start with a Rare Metal deposit revealed	4,500 research Deep Scanning (Physics) - scan deep deposits	Waste Rock Processor	Economy
Rocket Scientist	Scientists get +5 Performance	1,400 research Advanced Martian Engines (Engineering) - Rockets need less Fuel	Extra Rocket	Economy
Inventor	Drones are gradually optimized to work and construct faster (to +50% by Sol 100)	3,000 research Autonomous Hubs (Breakthrough) - self-sufficient Drone Hubs	2x Drone Hub	Economy
Oligarch	Fuel production increased by 25%	9,000 research Fueled Extractors (Robotics) - Fuel boosts Extractors	Arcology	Other
Futurist	Breakthrough techs are researched 30% faster	1,400 research Autonomous Sensors (Physics) - self-sufficient Sensor Towers	RC Explorer	Other
Geo Engineer	Seeds import cost reduced by 50%	3,000 research Designed Forestation (Breakthrough) - forests spawn Vistas	2x GHG Factory; 2x Forestation Plant	Other
Transport Tycoon	Stations require 50% less maintenance	2,000 research Luxurious Trains (Social) - no travel Comfort penalty	2x Large Station; RC Commander	Other

Notes

You do not pick a commander at setup: the colony starts with none, and a click notification at colony start offers a random three of these to choose from. Each profile gives three things: a unique Effect (perk), one free Tech already researched, and one Prefab or Unit (a free building, or a unit such as a rocket). For the unchanged base-game effects, see the vanilla Commander Profiles page.

By design no commander tech is also a sponsor starting tech.

Each profile has a Group, and the colony-start choice tries to offer three profiles from different groups so they span different playstyles. The four groups:

• Water - profiles built around a shortage of Water. Logistician sits here because its perk makes Moisture Vaporators (the water-from-air building) 25% cheaper to build, even though its tech and unit are about logistics.
• Colonist - profiles that mainly help the colonists themselves.
• Economy - profiles that hand you important early-game buildings, Money, or lower maintenance.
• Other - everybody else.

The offer avoids same-group duplicates whenever the checked pool allows; it cannot be guaranteed when the player narrows the pool to too few groups.

Difficulty is not shown: because the commander is picked in-game at colony start, the profile's setup-screen difficulty never feeds the Challenge Rating.

Balance

Every profile is balanced around Rocket Scientist. Its extra Rocket is a very powerful unit, so its other two bonuses are kept deliberately weak: the rocket alone already carries the profile. The rest are tuned to sit near that same overall power level.

Each profile's three bonuses are chosen to fit its theme, but they should cover different areas rather than pile onto one - a spread of perk, tech and prefab/unit that each pull in a different direction.

Future ideas

• Politician - dropped. It was boring: its bonuses basically only handed out Money (a Funding-tech discount plus the Martian Patents funding grant), with no distinct playstyle of its own. It is never offered and is hidden from the Possible Commanders checklist, the same way Russia is dropped from the sponsor lineup.

Sources

Base game plus two DLC commanders (Geo Engineer from Green Planet, Transport Tycoon from Martian Express); Below and Beyond's commanders are excluded because B&B is off. The mod patches the live commander presets at load; the vanilla effects it starts from are on the vanilla Commander Profiles page.