Research: one queue, and what to put in it

The tree has four branches — Habitation, Industry, Spaceflight and Defence — and it is drawn so that everything on one row is something you could begin next. The full list, with costs read straight out of the game, is on the technology page.

How to choose

Pick the thing that fixes the problem you actually have. That sounds like a platitude until you notice how many players research in the order the tree is drawn rather than in the order their colony is failing.

• Short of power — the power line, every time. Everything else you unlock will need current you do not have.
• Short of food — farming technology, or Hydroponics if your ground is poor rather than your farms.
• Short of room — habitation, which is also what lets you use the moon you have been staring at.
• Restless — the civic line raises the ceiling on how much crowding order can hold. See unrest.
• About to be attacked — defence, and note that orbital guns and shields protect a world far better than soldiers do.

The one thing you cannot put off

Warp Theory and the drive that comes with it. A people that never leaves its home system loses slowly and without drama: every rival is taking worlds while you perfect yours. If you are deep into a game and have not fitted a Warp Drive, that is the problem, whatever else is also wrong.

Research is not the same for everybody

The Caelari Conclave research at 130% and build at 85%, so their difficulty is affording what they unlock. The Kharaxi Brood research at half rate and have to plan the habitation line long before they need it. The Nemora Bloom have no research bonus at all and instead read research off their own fields, which makes their choice of ground the single biggest research decision in the game.

Keep reading

All of the guide →