Here are some demographics from 483 members of top 10 legions:

That's really interesting to see, thanks for posting this.

I thought there would be more Lazuli. lol

Either ppl haven't finished the chain yet, or they want to be drannik instead. I'd rather have the attack bonus.

Honestly, I'm surprised to see any Genetarr really.

See with that much attack though all it helps me with is the boss's. The extra hull helps me more over all. Oh and I too am surprised to see any Genetarr.

Hey now don't be dissen the purple people.

I happen to love my choice of Genetarr FIxer.

I expected more konqul or excavator.
Thought the top 10 legions isn't really enough.

I believe it was chosen that way to show what the really strong players are like, not just in general.

i too expected more konqul, but am not surprised at all to see over 1/3 of people chose builder. the best choice for people that have high level modules. i AM surprised to see all those vygoids tho... i would have thought there would be more drannik, sillix, or humans.

Vygoid is how they get those high level modules. Some of them will probably change when they get what they consider to be "enough" research, but that would still take a while.

Yeah I did intend it as an endgame sample. My own order of races throughout my development is:
Vygoid Builder, high research and money saving, for awhile, starting out
Vygoid Excavator, for max artifact production when I finally learned that artifacts build up the ship
Inergon Builder, to rank, to get more planets, to get more AP, it was too early to do excavator, and I switched to energy building
Human Miner, thinking it would rank a bit faster than inergon, it does but losing builder prevented teching up more efficiently
Drannik Builder, I expect is my endgame for npc farming and putting max tech on the ship.

Builder might not be necessary if you run out of things to spend credits on. once the tech tree is done you get research contracts for credits. Once there is only upkeep left and you have a ridiculous amount of 15x mega rich toxic mining planets, you probably can live without the builder profession.

I actually think its important to build the best planetary structures before your upkeep gets truly ridiculous because of the difference between "sales" and "profit" and how long it takes if you wait until your upkeep is 60% of your income and the rest is spent on settling planets and repairing.

Excavator is much more useful in the long run then builder once you reach higher ranks in my opinion. To keep your upkeep down, just don't install the top tier modules.

What everyone is missing here...

There's a biologist in that list. Whats that person thinking? Biologist = useless trait!

i think the reason why there are not enough drannik and lazuli in the population is because getting the race is a very tough nut to crack.. it takes a lot of energy and effort to get one. Took me more than 2 months to get drannik without recharging energy..

I have no idea the conversion of RP to credits or if it's a lot, it probably does supplement income enough. The very top modules are 9.5B upkeep right now, estimated. Above 1.35B, repair cost is always 200m, so there is a point where Builder does not save on repair costs anymore, it has the potential to save 4-5B upkeep, maybe more if tech increases. However, in context of Drannik, Available Professions: Physicist, Builder, Explorer, Hacker, Merchant, Fixer. To me, Builder saves more in upkeep (and repairs if under 200m repair cost) than Fixer saves on repairs due to 30% hull increase, or Physicist in terms of shields (if you can afford to wait for the recharge, then you can wait it out without the bonus). For me shields didn't recharge fast enough when boss npcs start piling up and its time sensitive to lock, so I switched back to hull. The other options just aren't worth it.

"Excavator is much more useful in the long run then builder once you reach higher ranks in my opinion. To keep your upkeep down, just don't install the top tier modules."

I agree your 10% artifacts is a lot, but for Drannik is not an option, and Drannik NPC farming yields the highest experience gain for the energy of any activity I can find; indirectly, that faster ranking will give you your 10% more planets over time to compensate, I think.