Research

Wars are fought with technology, and technology comes from research. All research happens at your Research Lab. A tech belongs to your empire and not to one planet, so once you learn it every planet you own gets the benefit, and you keep it even if you abandon the planet you researched it on.

New commanders start with Energy Tech at level 3 and Jet Drive at level 3. Everything else starts at zero.

The Research Page

The sidebar shows the Research Lab level on the planet you are standing on, and the level of every tech you own. The main list shows every tech you have unlocked, with the cost and the time for its next level.

• More Info opens a panel with what the tech does, what it unlocks and what it needed to unlock.
• The pin next to More Info makes a tech a favorite. Favorites sort to the top of the list on that planet.
• Techs you have not unlocked yet are not listed at all. A line under the list tells you what the next one needs.
• You need a Research Lab of at least level 1 on the planet you are standing on to open the page.

One Research at a Time

You can only run one research at a time, and that limit covers your whole empire, not one planet. While something is being researched every Upgrade button on the page is greyed out.

A running research shows its progress, the time left and the planet that paid for it. Cancel stops it and refunds all of the ore, crystal and hydrogen. Complete finishes it right now for credits, at 1.12 credits per second still remaining, and it is free once the task is under five minutes from finishing.

Two other things block new research:

• A Research Lab being upgraded anywhere in your empire. Finish or cancel the lab upgrade first.
• Standing on a Hephaestus Class Attack Platform. Platforms cannot research.

Time to Research

The time for the next level of a tech works out as:

Time(hours) =

Ore Cost + Crystal Cost 2000 * (Effective Lab Level + 1)

Effective Lab Level is the level of the lab you research from, or the pooled total you get from ARCNet. Some things worth knowing:

• Hydrogen is part of the price but it is not counted in the time. Only ore and crystal are.
• An alliance that has bought the Research Relay perk divides the time further, down to half at the top level.
• Every research takes at least five seconds, no matter how small.

ARCNet

Without ARCNet only one lab counts, the one on the planet you start the research from, and that lab has to meet the tech's lab requirement on its own.

With ARCNet the game looks at every planet you own, keeps the labs that are high enough for that tech, takes the best 1 + your ARCNet level of them, and adds their levels together. That total is the Effective Lab Level in the formula above, so the more high level labs you own the faster research goes.

An example with real numbers. Your homeworld has a level 12 lab and a colony has a level 8 lab, and ARCNet is at level 1 or higher. Armor Tech only needs a level 2 lab, so both labs qualify and the Effective Lab Level is 20. Armor Tech level 11 costs 1,024,000 ore, so the research drops from 39h 23m on the level 12 lab alone to 24h 23m with both.

Three things to keep in mind:

• Only labs high enough for that tech join in. ARCNet itself needs a level 10 lab, so in the example above the level 8 lab adds nothing towards researching ARCNet.
• ARCNet does not let you research two techs at once. It only makes the one research faster.
• There is no point going past level 9. You can own at most 10 planets, and level 9 already pools 10 labs.

Technologies

Laser Tech: The science of light, Laser Tech is used for advanced engines and weaponry. Research unlocks new units and technologies, and it is the road to Particle Tech and Plasma Tech. Requires: Research Lab 1, Energy Tech 2	Armor Tech: Armor Technology makes your ships more durable. Each level adds 10% to the hull rating of your ships and defenses. Requires: Research Lab 2	Weapons Tech: Weapons Technology is the science of destruction. Each level increases the power of all of your weapons by 10%. Requires: Research Lab 4
Shield Tech: Shield Tech lets your ships take more punishment. Each level increases the shields on your ships and defenses by 10%. Requires: Research Lab 6, Energy Tech 3	Particle Tech: Particle Tech is the science of the atom. Research unlocks new units and technologies. Requires: Research Lab 4, Laser Tech 5, Energy Tech 4	Jet Drive: An ancient technology that is still being improved, the Jet Drive powers small engines and missiles. Each level increases the speed of units powered by Jet Drives by 10%. Requires: Research Lab 1, Energy Tech 1
A.I. Tech: Artificial Intelligence runs the mainframes that control your fleets. The number of fleets you can have out at once is your A.I. Tech level plus one. Requires: Research Lab 1	Energy Tech: Energy Technology is the science of power. It lets you build more advanced structures and raises the output of your Nuclear Power Plant. Requires: Research Lab 1	Espionage Tech: Espionage Tech shows you more of what your opponents have and what they are attacking you with. Higher levels give you more information, and make it harder for others to read you. Requires: Research Lab 3
Pulse Drive: The Pulse Drive uses nuclear explosions to generate thrust. Each level increases the speed of units powered by Pulse Drives by 20%. Requires: Research Lab 2, Energy Tech 1	Plasma Tech: Plasma is a partially ionized gas in which electrons roam free. Research into it unlocks powerful new units and defenses. Requires: Research Lab 4, Energy Tech 8, Laser Tech 10, Particle Tech 5	FTL Tech: FTL, or Faster-Than-Light, is the science of travelling faster than light. Research unlocks the Warp Drive and more powerful units. Requires: Research Lab 7, Energy Tech 5, Shield Tech 5
Expedition Tech: Expedition Tech lets you explore remote regions of space. Research unlocks more Missions, the Carmanor Class Cargo and the Hephaestus Class Attack Platform. Requires: Research Lab 3, Espionage Tech 4	Warp Drive: The Warp Drive reshapes the space-time continuum so ships can move faster than light. Each level increases the speed of ships powered by Warp Drives by 30%. Requires: Research Lab 7, FTL Tech 3	ARCNet: The Advanced Research Communication Network links the labs on your planets so they can work on the same research together. Each level adds one more lab to the pool, which cuts research time. See the ARCNet section above. Requires: Research Lab 10, FTL Tech 7, A.I. Tech 8

Base Costs and Requirements

Every tech doubles in price with each level. The numbers below are the price of level 1, so level 2 costs twice as much, level 3 four times as much, and level N costs the base cost times 2 to the power of N minus 1. Plasma Tech starts at 2,000 ore, so its level 7 costs 2,000 x 64 = 128,000 ore.

Tech	Lab Level	Ore	Crystal	Hydrogen	Tech Requirements
ARCNet	10	150,000	200,000	80,000	FTL 7, A.I. 8
A.I.	1	0	400	600
Armor	2	1,000	0	0
Energy	1	0	800	400
Espionage	3	200	1,000	200
Expedition	3	4,000	8,000	1,000	Espionage 4
FTL	7	0	4,000	2,000	Energy 5, Shield 5
Jet Drive	1	400	0	600	Energy 1
Laser	1	200	100	0	Energy 2
Particle	4	1,000	300	100	Laser 5, Energy 4
Plasma	4	2,000	4,000	1,000	Energy 8, Laser 10, Particle 5
Pulse Drive	2	2,000	4,000	600	Energy 1
Shield	6	200	600	0	Energy 3
Warp Drive	7	10,000	20,000	6,000	FTL 3
Weapons	4	800	200	0