Research
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What is research?
Research is the engine of progress for your empire. Through it you unlock new technologies, improve your existing ships, and expand your civilization's capabilities.
Important: Unlike constructions (which are per planet), research is global for your entire empire. Once you research something, all your planets benefit.
Research Categories
Design
Improve your ship components:
- Weapons: More damage in combat
- Armor: Greater resistance
- Reactors: More available energy
Civilian
Improve logistics and transport:
- Cargo: Transport more resources
- Hangars: Carry ships inside others
- Engines: Travel faster
- Collection per level: Mine asteroids efficiently
Empire
Improve your imperial capacity:
- Hulls: Design larger ships
- Administration: Control more planets
- Observation: See enemy fleets from a distance
- Mines/Industries: Greater production
Alliance
Research shared with your alliance:
- Only available if you belong to an alliance
- Benefits all members
- Paid with the alliance bank
- Include size specializations (Fighters, Corvettes, Cruisers, Battleships, Titans)
- And type specializations (Trader, Aggressive, Defensive, Pacifist, Banker, Designer, Collector)
How to research?
Steps to research
- Select the research you want to improve
- Assign the number of robots that will work
- Verify that you have the necessary resources
- Click the research button
About robots
- More robots = faster research
- Assigned robots remain busy until finished and are taken from the planet where you start the research
Research multiple levels
You can queue several levels of a research at once so you don't have to keep checking.
- Use the "Target level" selector to choose what level you want to reach
- The system will automatically calculate the total cost and cumulative time
- Resources are deducted in advance for all levels
- Each level is processed sequentially
Cancel research
If you cancel ongoing research, you recover part of the resources invested. By default, 30% of the resources are returned, but this percentage depends universe events
Attention: If you have several levels in queue and cancel one, all higher associated levels will also be cancelled.
Component unlocking
Every time you raise the level of a design research (Weapons, Armor, Reactors, Engines, etc.), you unlock new components that you can use in your ship designs.
Example: When raising Weapons Technology to level 5, you unlock class C Medium size cannons that you couldn't use before.
Components also improve automatically when you level up. For example, if you raise Weapons from level 10 to 11, all your ships (even those already built) will deal more damage.
Research discounts
Remember that research (not alliance research) becomes cheaper based on the difference in maximum points in the universe.
- Point difference: Each technology compares its own level with the global maximum of that same technology, so the exact discount changes from one research to another
- Active events: Some temporary events reduce costs or times
- This does NOT apply to Alliance research
Guide for new players
Recommended research order
- Ship Assembly — Unlocks larger ship sizes, the foundation of everything
- Empire Administration — Allows colonizing more planets and expanding your economy
- Mines and Industries — Increases production across all your planets
- Weapons and Armor — Improves your ships for combat
- Hyper Engines — Travel faster between star systems
First steps
- Queue several levels before going to sleep or logging off
- Join an alliance as soon as possible to access exclusive research and components
- Take advantage of events that reduce times and costs
- Always assign the maximum available robots to minimize research time
Common mistakes to avoid
- Trying to research everything at once — it's better to focus on a few and level them up quickly
- Forgetting to queue levels before logging off — lost time cannot be recovered
- Neglecting hyper engines — without travel speed, your fleets take too long to arrive
- Ignoring Space Mining — each level allows +0.5 fleets collecting extra resources
Advanced strategies
Queue optimization
- Queue long research during nighttime or periods of inactivity to maximize time usage
- Use the target level to schedule big level jumps: the system will queue all intermediate levels automatically
- When you have multiple pending research, prioritize those with the greatest immediate impact on your situation
Prioritization by game phase
- Round start: Ship Assembly + Empire Administration + Mine/Industry Improvement — establish your economic and territorial base
- Mid game: Weapons + Armor + Impulse Engines — prepare for combat and defend your positions
- Late game: Level all research evenly and specialize according to your strategy (offensive, defensive, economic)
Taking advantage of discounts
- If one specific technology falls behind, that card will show a bigger discount even when your other researches are already advanced
- Coordinate with your alliance to know when active events reduce research costs or times
- Point difference discounts do not apply to alliance research — plan these separately
Alliance research
- Size specializations (Fighters, Corvettes, Cruisers, Battleships, Titans) unlock exclusive components only available to alliance members
- Type specializations (Trader, Aggressive, Defensive, etc.) grant passive bonuses to all members
- Coordinate with your alliance which specializations to prioritize — bank resources are limited and decisions must be strategic
Expansion and collection
- Each level of Space Mining allows +0.5 collection fleets — at level 10 you can have 5 fleets mining simultaneously
- Observation is key for map control: more fleets with vision let you detect threats earlier
- Empire Administration determines how many planets you can control — each level allows additional planets, so prioritizing it gives you an economic advantage
Important! Ship Assembly
This is probably the most important research in the game. Each level grants you hull points that you need to design larger and more complex ships.
How does it work? Each level of Ship Assembly gives you hull points. The more components you add to a design, the more points you will need.
The unlocking of new ship sizes is controlled by universe policies. Currently the required levels are:
| Ship Type | Required level | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Fighters | 0 | Small and fast ships (available from the start) |
| Corvettes | 0 | Versatile light ships (available from the start) |
| Cruisers | 15 | Medium-sized ships |
| Battleships | 30 | Heavy combat ships |
| Titans | 45 | The largest and most powerful ships |
The hull points you gain per level are multiplied by x4 for each higher ship size.
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