Research

Research is how your planet evolves over a season. It unlocks new ship classes, improves your economy, speeds up your fleets, and hardens your defenses. Everything you want to do in the mid and late game depends on research you started in the early game.

Understanding the research tree — and making smart decisions about what to prioritize — is one of the clearest skill separators in Orbitarion.

How research works

One research at a time. Your planet can only research one thing simultaneously. If a research project is in progress, it must either complete or be cancelled before you can start a new one.

Research speed can be improved in two ways:

Research Labs — each level reduces research time by 10%
Race bonus — ATH gets +20% speed, ODO gets +15% speed

Ticks listed below are base values. With a Level 3 Research Lab, all times are reduced by 30%. ATH with a Level 3 lab effectively cuts research time nearly in half.

The critical path — Shipyard branch

This is the most important research chain in the game. It gates which ships you can build. You cannot skip ahead — each tier must be unlocked in order.

Research	Base Ticks	Cost Ti / Si / Ur	Unlocks
Fighter Operations	6	200 / 300 / 0	Fighters + Orbital Pods
Corvette Engineering	10	1 000 / 2 000 / 0	Corvettes
Frigate Engineering	14	2 500 / 4 000 / 0	Frigates + Transports, +1 build slot
Destroyer Engineering	18	5 000 / 7 000 / 1 000	Destroyers
Cruiser Engineering	24	10 000 / 12 000 / 3 000	Cruisers, +1 build slot
Battleship Engineering	32	20 000 / 20 000 / 8 000	Battleships

Total to Battleships: 104 ticks straight through — about 52 hours if you research nothing else.

In practice, no one researches only shipyard. Mixing in economy and scanning research pushes battleships to around tick 150–200 for most players. ATH players can reach battleships noticeably earlier thanks to their research speed bonus.

Scanning branch

Scanning research increases your chances of finding new orbitals and unlocks the ability to spy on enemy planets.

Research	Base Ticks	Cost Ti / Si / Ur	Unlocks
Basic Sweep Sensors	8	500 / 1 500 / 0	Orbital scanning (80% base success)
Advanced Orbital Sensors	12	1 500 / 3 000 / 0	+10% scan success
Deep Space Scanners	20	5 000 / 8 000 / 0	Planet + military scans
Scan Enhancement	16	3 000 / 5 000 / 0	+10% scan success
Signal Amplifiers	24	3 000 / 5 000 / 1 000	+10% scan success
Quantum Scanners	32	5 000 / 8 000 / 2 000	+10% scan success

Full scanning branch: 112 ticks, 18 000 Ti / 30 500 Si / 3 000 Ur

Completing the full scanning branch gives you a total of +40% scan success on top of your base rate. Combined with Scan Enhancer buildings, high-orbital planets can maintain reasonable scan success rates well into the late game.

Tip

Basic Sweep Sensors should be your first research every season, no exceptions. You cannot scan for orbitals without it, and orbitals are your economy.

Resource branch

Resource research permanently increases your core income — the base resources your planet produces each tick regardless of orbitals.

Research	Base Ticks	Cost Ti / Si / Ur	Unlocks
Titanium Processing I	8	800 / 800 / 0	+150 Ti/tick
Silicon Refinement I	8	800 / 800 / 0	+150 Si/tick
Uranium Enrichment I	12	2 000 / 2 000 / 500	+100 Ur/tick
Titanium Processing II	14	2 500 / 2 500 / 0	+150 Ti/tick (total +300)
Silicon Refinement II	14	2 500 / 2 500 / 0	+150 Si/tick (total +300)
Uranium Enrichment II	18	4 000 / 4 000 / 0	+100 Ur/tick (total +200)
Titanium Processing III	22	6 000 / 6 000 / 0	+150 Ti/tick (total +450)
Silicon Refinement III	22	6 000 / 6 000 / 0	+150 Si/tick (total +450)
Uranium Enrichment III	26	8 000 / 8 000 / 0	+100 Ur/tick (total +300)

Titanium and Silicon Processing I are high-value early researches — 8 ticks for +150 of your two most-used resources. Uranium becomes more important once you're regularly sending large fleets.

Engine branch

Engine research reduces the travel time of all your fleets. Each tier shaves one tick off every fleet movement — both outbound and returning.

Research	Base Ticks	Cost Ti / Si / Ur	Unlocks
Basic Propulsion	8	1 250 / 1 250 / 0	−1 tick ETA on all fleets
Advanced Propulsion	16	4 000 / 4 000 / 2 000	−1 tick ETA (total −2)
Warp Drive Technology	24	8 000 / 8 000 / 4 000	−1 tick ETA (total −3)

Combined with the Odonari Hive's racial −1 tick ETA bonus, a fully engineered ODO fleet moves 4 ticks faster than baseline — a significant tactical advantage for surprise attacks.

PDS branch — Planetary Defense Systems

PDS research unlocks static defense structures that fire before combat begins, dealing bonus damage to incoming attackers.

Research	Base Ticks	Cost Ti / Si / Ur	Unlocks
Basic Defense Systems	10	1 000 / 1 500 / 0	Pulse Laser + Plasma Turret
Advanced Defense Systems	16	3 000 / 4 000 / 1 000	Ion Cannon
Orbital Defense Platforms	24	8 000 / 8 000 / 3 000	Strike Platform + Shield Generator

PDS is a mid-to-late game investment. It doesn't replace a fleet — a planet defended purely by PDS with no ships will still fall to a serious attack. Think of it as a deterrent that raises the cost of attacking you.

Defense branch

Defense research makes your planet harder to spy on and gives you tools to catch enemy fleets in transit.

Research	Base Ticks	Cost Ti / Si / Ur	Unlocks
Scan Blockers	20	6 000 / 8 000 / 2 000	50% chance enemy scans fail
Advanced Scan Blockers	16	2 000 / 3 000 / 500	70% fail chance
Signal Jammers	24	4 000 / 6 000 / 1 500	85% fail chance
Counter-Intelligence	20	3 000 / 4 000 / 1 000	Failed scans reveal the attacker
Fleet Interception	28	10 000 / 10 000 / 5 000	Ability to intercept returning enemy fleets

Scan Blockers become relevant once you're a valuable target — large orbital counts, big fleet, high score. Counter-Intelligence adds a psychological element: failed spy attempts are reported back to you, revealing who's watching.

Fleet Interception is a late-game capability that enables one of the more advanced tactical maneuvers in the game.

Recommended early research order

For most players, the first 50 ticks should look roughly like this:

Ticks	Research	Why
0–8	Basic Sweep Sensors	Economy starts here. No scanning = no orbitals = no income.
8–14	Fighter Operations	Get your first ships on the line during protection.
14–22	Titanium Processing I	+150 Ti/tick pays for itself within 6 ticks.
22–30	Silicon Refinement I	Silicon fuels scanning and research costs.
30–40	Corvette Engineering	Corvettes before protection ends.
40–54	Frigate Engineering	First heavy ships. Ready for real combat.

By tick 54 you have: scanning, fighters, corvettes, frigates, and +300 Ti/Si income per tick. A solid base for whatever comes next.

Race differences

Research speed is one of the most impactful race bonuses in the game because it compounds across every branch you research.

Race	Research bonus	Practical effect
ATH	+20% speed	Reaches frigates ~11 ticks earlier than baseline. Battleships arrive significantly ahead of other races.
ODO	+15% speed	Similar advantage to ATH but slightly smaller. Combines with −1 ETA to create early-aggression pressure.
UEC	None	Compensated by +20% construction speed — ships come out faster even if research is slower.
STC	None	Compensated by cheaper scanning and initiation — economic efficiency rather than research speed.

The ATH research advantage is strongest in the early and mid game. By the late game, Research Labs close the gap for other races — but ATH will always have had a head start on every unlock.

Buildings that affect research

Two buildings directly improve your research output:

Research Lab — each level reduces all research time by 10%, up to Level 5 (−50% at max). A Level 3 lab cuts research time by 30% — worth building early for races without a research bonus.

Scan Enhancer — does not speed up research, but improves scanning success by 5% per level. Stack these alongside scanning branch research for reliable orbital discovery into the late game.