Research

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Research is the primary method through which players can enhance and expand the abilities of their colony. Certain buildings require research in order to be built.

Once a player constructs a research bench, and selects a project from the list of available research topics, a researcher will work at the bench to generate research points. The rate at which points are generated depends on the researcher's skill level. Multiple research benches worked by researchers will further increase the speed at which points are generated.

Only 1 research project can be actively researched at a given time, regardless of the number of research facilities available. However, you can freely switch between research projects, even if another is already underway. The progress towards finishing the research project is retained.

Research difficulty is related to your faction’s tech level. Researching techs above your level is harder. So if you’re a tribe, researching electricity will be difficult, while industrial colonies will find mastering spaceflight harder.

Research is presented in a tech tree form, with earlier research placed to the left and later research more dependent on the earlier ones placed on the right. Mods can add their own research projects; they can be manually placed, or automatically placed if not specified. Projects will be moved apart if they overlap.

As of version 0.17.1546 (23 May 2017) modders can add separate research tabs for their research projects, so any new research projects appear there, instead of having to be in the main research tab along with base game or other modded research.

Research Projects

As of Alpha 17, the following research projects are available. Prerequisite research listed in (parentheses) is not officially a prerequisite, but is required for the necessary research bench.

Name	Description	Tech level	Base cost	Industrial start cost	Tribal start cost	Required Research	Required Research Bench	Required Facilities
Batteries	Build batteries for storing electricity. (Needed for tribal starts only)	Industrial	400	400	1200	Electricity	Simple	None
Autodoors	Build autodoors which open to permit movement without slowing anyone down.	Industrial	400	400	1200	Electricity	Simple	None
Passive cooler	Make passive coolers, a way to cool indoor spaces without using electricity.	Neolithic	400	400	400	None	Simple	None
Psychite refining	Learn to refine psychoid leaves into flake and yayo, different forms of the euphoric drug psychite.	Industrial	400	400	1200	Drug production	Simple	None
Devilstrand	Allows colonists to plant devilstrand, a slow-growing mushroom which yields a valuable plant fiber (also called devilstrand) that can be used to make clothes.	Neolithic	500	500	500	None	Simple	None
Pemmican	Make pemmican, a preserved mixture of meat and plant matter that doesn't go bad for a long time. Great for traveling. (Research needed only for non-tribal starts)	Neolithic	500	500	500	None	Simple	None
Complex clothing	Sew complicated garments like pants, dusters, and cowboy hats. (Research needed only for tribal starts)	Medieval	500	500	1000	None	Simple	None
Electric cremation	Build crematoriums that can vaporize unwanted corpses.	Industrial	500	500	1500	Electric Smelting	Simple	None
Colored lights	Allows colonists to construct colored lights for decorative purposes.	Industrial	500	500	1500	Electricity	Simple	None
Microelectronics basics	The basics of working with delicate, complex electronics. This unlocks the Hi-tech research bench, comms console, orbital trade beacon and other research projects like tube televisions, and cryptosleep caskets.	Industrial	700	700	2100	Electricity	Simple	None
Shipbuilding basics	Allows you to start researching more advanced shipbuilding technologies and eventually build a ship to escape the planet.	Spacer	1000	2000	4000	(Microelectronics basics) (Multi-analyzer)	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer
Drug production	The basics of drug preparation and synthesis. Allows creation of the drug lab. Further research is required to make specific drugs.	Industrial	500	500	1500	None	Simple	None
Penoxycyline production	Learn to produce Penoxycyline which blocks against 3 diseases: malaria, sleeping sickness, and the plague. Taken every 5 days for full protection.	Industrial	500	500	1500	Drug production	Simple	None
Solar panels	Build solar panels for electrical generation. (Needed for tribal starts only)	Industrial	600	600	1800	Electricity	Simple	None
Air conditioning	Build air conditions to cool rooms in the heat, or to keep freezers.	Industrial	600	600	1800	Electricity	Simple	None
Wake-up production	Your chemists learn the formulas and techniques for synthesizing wake-up, a work performance-enhancing drug.	Industrial	600	600	1800	Drug production	Simple	None
Nutrient paste	Build nutrient paste dispensers which efficiently produce edible meals from raw nutritive feedstocks.	Industrial	600	600	1800	Electricity	Simple	None
Packaged survival meal	Learn to produce packaged survival meals, a preserved and sealed food that never goes bad. Great for travelling.	Industrial	2000	2000	6000	Nutrient paste	Simple	None
Hydroponics	Allows you to build hydroponics basins to rapidly grow crops indoors regardless of the terrain or weather outside.	Industrial	700	700	2100	Electricity	Simple	None
Brewing	Allows you to build a brewery to transform hops into tasty, tasty beer.	Neolithic	700	700	2100	None	Simple	None
Smithing	Build smithies for crafting metal weapons and tools.	Medieval	700	700	2100	None	Simple	None
Tube television	Allows the production of tube televisions	Industrial	800	800	2400	Microelectronics basics	Simple	None
Gun turrets	Allows the production of automated gun turrets.	Industrial	800	800	2400	Microelectronics basics	Simple	None
Firefoam	Allows the construction of firefoam poppers; fire-safety buildings which spread fire-resistant foam in response to encroaching flames.	Industrial	800	800	2400	(Microelectronics basics)	Hi-tech	None
Multi-analyzer	Allows colonists to build [multi-analyzer]]s which increase research speed, and allow higher level research projects, if placed near a research bench.	Industrial	800	800	2400	Microelectronics basics	Hi-tech	None
Go-juice production	Learn to produce the synthetic combat-performance-enhancing drug go-juice.	Industrial	1000	1000	3000	Drug production	Simple	None
Carpet making	Allows colonists to build carpets to increase the quality of their environments.	Medieval	1200	1200	2400	None	Simple	None
Electricity	Generate and use electricity for cooking and other simple tasks. (Research only needed for tribal starts)	Industrial	1200	1200	3600	None	Simple	None
Moisture pump	Allows the construction of moisture pumps, which turn wet ground dry.	Industrial	1200	1200	3600	(Microelectronics basics)	Hi-tech	None
Machining	Build machining tables to craft guns and machinery or disassemble dead mechanoids.	Industrial	1500	1500	4500	Smithing Electricity	Simple	None
Medicine production	Produce medicine from herbal medicine, neutroamine, and cloth.	Industrial	1500	1500	4500	Drug production Microelectronics basics	Hi-tech	None
Deep drilling	Allows you to build deep drills for extracting resources from deep underground. You'll need a ground-penetrating scanner to find the resources.	Industrial	1500	1500	4500	Microelectronics basics (Multi-analyzer)	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer
Ship cryptosleep caskets	Allows you to construct ship cryptosleep caskets for transporting cryptosleeping colonists between the stars.	Spacer	1200	2400	4800	Shipbuilding basics Cryptosleep casket Microelectronics basics (Multi-analyzer)	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer
Explosive IEDs	Allows colonists to build improvised explosive device-based traps from mortar shells.	Industrial	1600	1600	4800	Electricity	Simple	None
Incendiary IEDs	Allows colonists to build incendiary explosive traps from mortar shells.	Industrial	1600	1600	4800	Electricity	Simple	None
Vitals monitor	Allows colonists to build vitals monitors which increase treatment quality if placed next to medical beds.	Industrial	1600	1600	4800	Microelectronics basics Hospital bed (Multi-analyzer)	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer
Electric smelting	Build electric smithy and smelters. The electric smithy allows smithing items without fuel. The electric smelter uses heat and powerful electromagnets to extract useful metal from slag chunks and other items.	Industrial	1700	1700	5100	Electricity	Simple	None
Geothermal power	Allows you to build geothermal power plants on top of steam geysers, for uninterrupted power.	Industrial	1800	1800	5400	(Microelectronics basics)	Hi-tech	None
Refining	Build refineries to make chemfuel from wood.	Industrial	1200	1200	3600	Electricity	Simple	None
Smokepop belts	Learn to build smokepop belts which can provide an automatic defensive smokescreen.	Industrial	1000	1000	3000	Refining Machining	Simple	None
Mortars	Learn to build mortars which can lob mortar shells long distances over walls.	Industrial	2000	2000	6000	Machining Electricity	Simple	None
Hospital bed	Allows colonists to construct hospital beds which increase the chance of successful medical work.	Industrial	2000	2000	6000	(Microelectronics basics)	Hi-tech	None
Hydroponics	Allows you to build hydroponics basins to rapidly grow crops indoors regardless of the terrain or weather outside.	Industrial	700	700	2100	Electricity	Simple	None
Cryptosleep caskets	Allows colonists to construct cryptosleep caskets, which can put living beings in a state of suspended animation.	Spacer	1100	2200	4400	Microelecronics basics (Multi-analyzer)	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer
Ship antimatter reactor	Allows you to use an antimatter containment core to build a working antimatter reactor to power a ship.	Spacer	1400	2800	5600	Shipbuilding basics Microelectronics basics (Multi-analyzer)	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer
Component assembly	Allows you to build the Component assembly bench, where colonists can make components from simple materials.	Industrial	3000	3000	9000	Microelectronics basics (Multi-analyzer)	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer
Transport pods	Construct launchable transport pods that you can use to launch people and supplies long distances across the planet's surface.	Industrial	1100	1100	3300	Microelectronics Basics	Hi-tech	None
Powered armor	Neuro-mimetic robotics and advanced plasteel weaving technologies allow you to build the power armor and power armor helmets.	Spacer	1600	3200	6400	Microelectronics basics (Multi-analyzer)	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer
Shield belt	Momentum-repulsion field technology allows you to build shield belts, which block ranged attacks coming in or going out.	Spacer	1500	3000	6000	Microelectronics basics (Multi-analyzer)	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer
Charged shot	Understand the secrets of pulse-charged energy/projectile munitions. Allows you to build the charge rifle.	Spacer	1500	3000	6000	Microelectronics basics (Multi-analyzer)	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer
Multibarrel weapons	Allows you to build miniguns.	Industrial	3000	3000	9000	Microelectronics basics (Multi-analyzer)	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer
Ship computer core	Allows coercing an existing AI persona into a usable AI computer core for ship guidance.	Spacer	1500	3000	6000	Shipbuilding basics Microelectronics basics (Multi-analyzer)	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer
Ship antimatter propulsion	Allows you to use an antimatter containment core to construct an antimatter drive for a ship.	Spacer	2500	5000	10000	Shipbuilding basics (Microelectronics basics) (Multi-analyzer)	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer
Long-range mineral scanner	Allows the construction of long-range mineral scanners which automatically detect precious minerals like gold or jade in the nearby areas (but not in which the scanners were built).	Industrial	700	700	2100	Microelectronics basics	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer
Ground-penetrating scanner	Allows you to build ground-penetrating scanners that can detect drillable resources deep under the surface.	Industrial	7000	7000	21000	Microelectronics basics (Multi-analyzer)	Hi-tech	Multi-analyzer