Advanced Research Communication Network

The Advanced Research Communication Network, or ARCNet for short, links the Research Labs on all of your planets. Every level you research lets one more lab join in, and the levels of the labs that join are added together to cut the time on whatever you are researching.

It does not let you run two researches at once. You still get one research at a time. It just finishes sooner.

Where to find it

ARCNet is a technology like any other, so it sits on the Research page with the rest of them. Research it once and it works on everything you research after that, from any planet.

Effect

Research time comes from the ore and crystal a tech costs and from your effective lab level. Hydrogen is part of the price but it does not count toward the time.

Time in hours = (Ore cost + Crystal cost) / (2000 x (Effective Lab Level + 1))

Without ARCNet, the effective lab level is just the Research Lab on the planet you start the research from. With ARCNet at level N, the game takes the N + 1 highest labs you own that are good enough for that tech and adds their levels together.

Example

A player has a level 10 lab on the homeworld and a level 8 lab on a colony, and wants Armor Tech level 10, which costs 512,000 ore. With no ARCNet only the lab on the planet they are standing on counts, so the effective lab level is 10. That is 512,000 / (2000 x 11), or 23.27 hours.

With ARCNet level 1 the colony lab joins in as well, so the effective lab level is 18. That is 512,000 / (2000 x 19), or 13.47 hours.

Which labs count

• A lab only joins in if it is high enough to research that tech on its own. Shield Tech needs a level 6 lab, so a level 5 lab adds nothing to Shield Tech no matter how high your ARCNet is.
• The game picks the highest qualifying labs for you. There is nothing to choose and nothing to set.
• Every level of ARCNet needs another lab to be worth anything. ARCNet 3 with only two labs behaves exactly like ARCNet 1.
• Once you have ARCNet, the planet you click Upgrade on no longer changes the time. The same labs get used wherever you start from. You do still need a Research Lab on that planet to open the Research page at all.
• Before you have ARCNet, the planet matters a lot. The time comes from that one lab, and a tech that needs a level 6 lab cannot be started from a planet with a level 5 lab.
• A moon cannot build a Research Lab, so only planets ever count.
• ARCNet cuts the time on its own upgrades too, but only labs at level 10 or higher qualify for it, because that is what ARCNet itself requires. A second lab at level 10 roughly halves the wait for the next ARCNet level.

Things that get in the way

• You can only research one thing at a time across your whole account, with or without ARCNet.
• If a Research Lab is being upgraded anywhere in your empire, all research is blocked until that upgrade finishes.
• If your alliance has bought the Research Relay perk, everybody's research runs faster, up to twice as fast at the top level. That comes off the time after ARCNet has done its part.

Costs

Level	Ore	Crystal	Hydrogen	Labs that can join
1	150,000	200,000	80,000	2
2	300,000	400,000	160,000	3
3	600,000	800,000	320,000	4
4	1,200,000	1,600,000	640,000	5
5	2,400,000	3,200,000	1,280,000	6
6	4,800,000	6,400,000	2,560,000	7
7	9,600,000	12,800,000	5,120,000	8
8	19,200,000	25,600,000	10,240,000	9
9	38,400,000	51,200,000	20,480,000	10

Every level doubles the price. Going all the way to level 9 costs 76,650,000 ore, 102,200,000 crystal and 40,880,000 hydrogen in total.

There is no point researching ARCNet past level 9. Level 9 already pulls in ten labs, and ten planets is the most you can own.

Requirements

• Research Lab level 10
• FTL Tech level 7
• A.I. Tech level 8

The level 10 lab only has to be on one of your planets, not on all of them. Click More Info on the Research page to see what you still need.