Research

Research is an account-wide tree of 167 nodes in nine branches. Each node costs research points and takes time. A finished node either unlocks a building or gives a permanent bonus to every village you own (production, build speed, storage, popularity, Renown, peasant arrival), to your armies and castles, to how fast your carts, scouts and armies travel and soldiers train, to your market trades and carts, to research itself, or to your feasts. Times on this page are at world speed 1; on a faster world divide them by its speed.

The full node table, with every cost, time, rank and prerequisite, is generated in the research reference. This page explains the rules and the numbers behind them.

The basics

• You start with 3 research points and get more each time you rank up. Points are also on some cards, and you can buy up to 90 with gold.
• Pick a node, pay its points, wait. Points are paid when the research starts, and cancelling refunds them in full.
• Without premium you research one thing at a time. With premium you can line up three (one running, two queued).
• A node needs its prerequisites researched (or ahead of it in your queue) and a minimum rank.
• Finished research applies to all your villages at once and is never lost.
• The whole tree costs 487 points. Ranks give 348 in all by Sovereign (including the starting 3), about 71% of it. Buying all 90 points with gold takes you to 438, about 90%. The last 49 points only come from cards, so nobody finishes the tree on ranks and gold alone. See How far you get.

Good first picks: Milling (1 point, 15 minutes, Cottar) for the Bakery, Brewing (1 point, 15 minutes, Cottar) for the Brewery, Devotion (1 point, 15 minutes, Cottar) for the Chapel, and Village School (1 point, 15 minutes, any rank) for +5% Renown.

Research points

Sources

Source	Points
New lord	3
Each rank reached	2 + level + floor(level² / 20), so 3 at Cottar, 8 at Yeoman, 17 at Banneret, 28 at Duke and 39 at Sovereign
Buying with gold	1 per purchase, at most 90 purchases per lord
Cards	Scholar's Notes 1, Monastery Library 2, University Charter 4, The Great Library 8

The points per rank table is admin-tunable (researchPointsPerRank). The cumulative totals per rank are in the ranks and Renown table: 15 at Villein, 38 at Reeve, 77 at Knight, 134 at Viscount, 210 at Duke, 348 at Sovereign.

Rank points are paid on the server tick after you rank up, with the message "Rank reached: <name>". The research state remembers the highest rank already paid (rankAwarded), so each rank pays once. If you jump several ranks at once you are paid for all of them. A lord who existed before research was added is given back pay for every rank already held.

Buying points

price of the next point = 250 + 150 x bought

bought counts your purchases so far and never resets. The nth point you buy costs 250 + 150 x (n - 1) gold, so the first is 250, the tenth 1,600, the 25th 3,850 and the 90th 13,600. Buying k points costs 250 x k + 75 x k x (k - 1) gold in all: the first 25 cost 51,250 and all 90 cost 623,250. The gold comes out of your treasury, which must hold the full price.

How far you get

	Points	Share of the tree
Ranks only, at Sovereign	348	71%
Ranks and all 90 bought points	438	90%
Whole tree	487	100%

Every node that unlocks a building, with all its prerequisites, costs 91 points together, and the last of them needs rank 12 (Viscount). A Viscount has earned 134, so a lord who wants every building can have them all by then and still have points left for a direction. By Sovereign the rank points alone cover every building, most of the speed lines and most of Industry and Farming.

What is left is where lords differ. The final 10% of the tree, about 49 points, cannot be bought with gold, so even a lord who buys every point has to leave some capstones out unless cards make up the difference. Which ones you leave out is your build:

• Producers go deep in Industry and Farming (Blast Furnaces, Manufactories, Industrious Realm, New Husbandry).
• Merchants take Commerce for a smaller market cut, more carts, bigger loads and a longer reach.
• Haulers for a guild, order or house take the cart lines of Commerce and Roads and Riders, so caravans to allies and capitals carry more and arrive sooner.
• Warmakers take the late Military nodes (The Art of War, Royal Armouries, Host of the Realm) and the march and training lines.
• Scholars take the Religion and Education research speed line early, so every later node arrives sooner.

The research test suite checks these shares (by Sovereign ranks open every building and most of the tree; gold cannot finish it), so a change to node costs or the rank formula that breaks them fails the build.

Slots and the queue

slots = researchSlots(premium) + extra slots from active cards
researchSlots = 1 without premium, 3 with premium (admin-tunable)

slots counts the running research plus everything queued. With one slot you cannot queue at all. With three you can have one running and two waiting. The cards Extra Scribes (+1 slot for 24 hours) and College of Scribes (+2 slots for 48 hours) add to this, also for non-premium lords. When a slot card runs out, research already queued stays; you just cannot add more until there is room.

Rules for queued research:

• Points are paid when a node is queued, not when it starts.
• A queued node may depend on the running research or on anything ahead of it in the queue.
• The rank requirement is checked when you queue it.
• When the running research ends, the next queued one starts at the exact moment the previous one ended, even if the server only notices a few seconds later. Several queued nodes can finish while you are offline.

Cancelling:

• Cancelling the running research (or a queued one by id) refunds its full cost.
• Any queued research whose prerequisites are no longer done, running or ahead of it is dropped and refunded too.
• If the running research was cancelled, the next valid queued one starts at once.

Research time

real seconds = node seconds x growth / (worldSpeed x researchSpeed x ownSpeed x cardSpeed)
growth       = 1 + 0.03 x researches already finished
ownSpeed     = 1 + research speed from the scholarship line (up to +45%)
cardSpeed    = product of (1 + bonus) over active research speed cards

Every research you finish makes the next one take 3% of its listed time longer, whatever it costs and whichever branch it is in. Your 1st research runs at its listed time, the 11th at 1.3 times, the 51st at 2.5 times and the last of the 156 at 5.65 times. The count is taken when a research starts, so a queued node uses the count at the moment the one ahead of it finishes. The 3% is the admin setting researchTimeGrowth. With one slot and no speed bonuses, the whole tree takes about 2,700 game hours instead of the 595 its listed times add up to; the order you pick changes that a little, because the long nodes cost most when they come last.

researchSpeed is an admin setting, 1 by default. Research speed cards are Midnight Oil (+25% for 6 hours), Learned Tutors (+50% for 8 hours) and Royal Academy (+100% for 12 hours). Different cards multiply; playing the same card again extends its duration instead of stacking. See cards-and-crowns.md.

The duration is fixed when the research starts. Two consequences matter for min-maxers:

• Playing a speed card rescales the research already running: its remaining time is multiplied by oldSpeed / newSpeed.
• When a speed card runs out, nothing is rescaled back. Research started or rescaled while the card was active keeps its shorter end time. A queued node that starts while a card is active gets the card's speed for its whole duration.

The cards Flash of Insight (rare, finish the running research), Council of Sages (legendary, finish half of the running and queued researches, rounded up) and Scholars' Conclave (mythic, finish the running one and the whole queue) complete research at once.

Worked example

Architecture takes 2 hours (7,200 game seconds). With Learned Tutors and Royal Academy both active:

cardSpeed = 1.5 x 2 = 3
real time = 7,200 / (1 x 1 x 3) = 2,400 seconds = 40 minutes

That is for a lord's first research. As the 21st, Architecture has growth = 1 + 0.03 x 20 = 1.6, so 7,200 x 1.6 = 11,520 game seconds, 64 minutes with the same two cards.

On a world at speed 2 with no cards, the same node as a first research takes 7,200 / 2 = 3,600 seconds.

Prerequisites and rank

A node can start when:

1. You do not already have it done, running or queued.
2. You have a free slot.
3. Your rank is at least the node's minRank.
4. Every node in requires is done, running or queued ahead of it. Prerequisites can come from other branches (Windmills needs Milling, Open Fields and the Industry node Carpentry).
5. You have at least cost points.

The tree is laid out in tiers. A prerequisite always sits in an earlier tier, and the server refuses to start if the content breaks that rule. Tier 1 nodes have no prerequisites.

The tree is tuned so the opening gates fit together. Pitch Rig (Forestry + Pitch Extraction, 2 points), Bakery (Milling, 1), Brewery (Brewing, 1), Vineyard (Crop Rotation + Viticulture, 3) and Chapel (Devotion, 1) cost 8 points together, and a Freeman (rank 4) has had 21. After those, every later building gate is affordable on its own by the rank its building opens at, but not all of them together.

Branches

Branch	Nodes	Points for all	Listed game hours for all	Tiers	Focus
Industry	17	55	70.7	1 to 8	wood, stone, iron, pitch, charcoal, build speed, all production
Farming	17	52	56.2	1 to 7	food production, storage, wheat and flour
Trade	23	71	92.3	1 to 8	ale, wine, salt, storage, Renown, market carts, feasts
Religion and Education	16	44	46.5	1 to 6	Renown, popularity, arrival, churches, research speed
Civic	17	47	49.8	1 to 6	justice, housing, monuments, arrival, popularity
Military	25	80	109.8	1 to 8	unit attack and armour, march speed, troop cap, training cost, weapons
Defence	11	30	34.3	1 to 6	walls, towers, moats, oil, castle build speed
Roads and Riders	25	88	122.7	1 to 8	cart, scout and march speed, soldier training speed
Commerce	16	47	58.7	1 to 7	market cut, carts per village, cart load, market reach, scout carry
Total	167	514	640.8

Industry

Starts with Forestry (+15% wood) and Carpentry (building 10% faster), both 1 point, 10 minutes, rank 0. Unlocks the Pitch Rig (Pitch Extraction) and the Charcoal Burner (Charcoal Burning). Its build speed line is Carpentry, Architecture (+15%, rank 6), Master Builders (+10%, rank 7) and Treadwheel Cranes (+5%, rank 10). After Guild Halls (all production +5%, rank 13) come Blast Furnaces (+25% iron, +15% charcoal, rank 14), Manufactories (all production +5%, building 5% faster, rank 16) and Industrious Realm (all production +10%, rank 18, 8 points, 18 hours).

Farming

Crop Rotation and Milling open the branch. Milling unlocks the Bakery; Open Fields the Wheat Farm; Windmills the Windmill; Viticulture the Vineyard. Cellars and Lofts gives +20% storage. Three Field System (+15% to every food, rank 9) and Enclosure (+10% to every food, wheat and hops, rank 11) lead on to Market Gardens (+20% vegetables and apples, +15% hops, rank 13), Royal Granaries (+15% storage, flour and bread, rank 14) and New Husbandry (+15% to every food and wheat, rank 17).

Trade

Brewing (Brewery), Hop Growing (Hop Garden), Trade Routes (Trade Post), Storehouses (Storehouse), Salt Panning (Salt Works) and Feasting (Banqueting Hall, needed for the two grand feasts). Weights and Measures (+10%) and Warehousing (+15%) add storage. A second storage line adds flat room to the stockpile, granary and inn: Barrel Vaults (+4,000, rank 5), Undercrofts (+10,000, rank 8), Staple Rights (+22,000, rank 11) and Great Warehouses (+40,000, rank 14). With every storage node a stockpile holds about 175,000 of each material (see village.md). Wine Trade, Merchant Guilds and Royal Charter add Renown.

After Feasting comes a line for feasts. Minstrel Galleries (rank 8: feasts give +20% popularity and last 25% longer) and Great Kitchens (rank 8: the rest after a feast is 25% shorter) lead to The High Table (rank 12, +30% feast Renown), Court of Revels (rank 15: +30% Renown, +50% length, rest 25% shorter) and Legendary Hospitality (rank 18: +40% Renown, +30% popularity, rest 20% shorter). All five give feasts +100% Renown, +50% popularity, +75% length and a rest 70% shorter. See feasts.md.

Religion and Education

The Renown branch. Village School (+5%), Scriptorium (+10%), Holy Relics (+5%), University (+15%), Pilgrimages (+5%) and Illuminated Manuscripts (+10%). It also unlocks the Chapel (Devotion), Wayside Shrine, Herbalist (Herb Lore), Church (Parish Church) and Cathedral (Cathedral Chapter, rank 12). Infirmary makes newcomers arrive 15% faster. Its scholarship line makes research itself faster: Cloister Library (+10%, rank 5), Schoolmen (+15%, rank 11) and Royal Academy (+20% and +5% Renown, rank 15).

Civic

Village Justice (Stocks), Harsh Justice (Gibbet), Sculpture (Village Statue), Heraldry (Lord's Statue, and a +3% Renown the in-game description does not mention), Monumental Masonry (Obelisk), Royal Patronage (Grand Statue), Waterworks (Village Fountain) and Manorialism (Manor House). Census Rolls and Chartered Towns each make newcomers arrive 20% faster. Crown Favour (+15% Renown, rank 14, 6 points, 12 hours) is the most expensive node in the game.

Military

Bonuses applied in battles and on the march: peasant, archer, swordsman and knight attack, pikeman defence, catapult damage, march speed. Militia Drill, Archery, Pike Drill and Captaincy are also required by units (see reference/units.md).

The warmaking line widens the army rather than one unit type:

Line	Nodes	Total
Soldiers kept per village	Mustering Rolls (+20), Garrison Rolls (+30), Royal Armouries (+50), Host of the Realm (+50)	+150
Training discount	Quartermasters (5%), Mercenary Contracts (10%), Host of the Realm (10%)	25% off
Armour for every soldier	Mail Hauberks, Plate Armour, The Art of War (each +0.05)	+0.15
Attack for every soldier	The Art of War, Host of the Realm (each +10%)	+20%
Weapons	Weaponsmiths' Guild (+20%), Royal Armouries (+15%)	x1.38 bows, pikes and swords

Weaponsmiths' Guild also needs Bloomery Furnaces from Industry.

Defence

Bonuses applied when your castle is attacked: wall strength, defending archer attack, oil damage, moat slowing, and castle build speed. See castles.md.

Roads and Riders

Speed on the world map and in the barracks, in four lines that cross over:

Line	Nodes	Total
Carts and caravans	Cart Tracks 20%, Greased Axles 30%, Paved Roads 30%, Draught Horses 40%, Coaching Inns 50%, The Old Roads 20%, Royal Post 60%, The King's Highway 70%, Logistics of Empire 80%	+400%
Scouts	Village Runners 20%, Woodcraft 30%, Outriders 40%, Signal Fires 40%, Spy Network 60%, Royal Post 40%, Master of Spies 90%, Logistics of Empire 80%	+400%
Army march	Marching Songs 20%, Paved Roads 10%, Supply Wagons 20%, Forced Marches 40%, The Old Roads 40%, Mounted Columns 60%, The King's Highway 60%, Professional Soldiery 20%, Logistics of Empire 80%	+350% (+400% with Captaincy and War College, 25% each, from Military)
Soldier training	Drill Square 20%, Barracks Routine 40%, Recruiting Sergeants 50%, Standing Army 60%, Drill Manuals 70%, Professional Soldiery 80%, Logistics of Empire 80%	+400%

The first nodes cost 1 point at rank 1 or 2. The last, Logistics of Empire, needs rank 18, 8 points and 18 game hours, and The King's Highway, Master of Spies and Professional Soldiery before it. Paved Roads also needs Stonemasonry from Industry.

Every line ends at five times base. With the whole branch at world speed 1, a cart moves 48 x 5 = 240 cells an hour instead of 48, a scout 54 x 5 = 270 instead of 54, armies march five times as fast (with Captaincy and War College), and soldiers train in a fifth of the time. Speed cards multiply on top of these (see cards-and-crowns.md), so a fully researched lord with a couple of stacked cards crosses the map in minutes.

Commerce

Better terms at market and more room on the road. Every trade loses 8% to the market's cut (the spread, see markets.md); Commerce shrinks that cut:

Line	Nodes	Total
Market cut	Haggling, Market Rights, Factors Abroad, Merchant League (each 10% smaller), Counting Houses, Merchant Princes (each 15% smaller)	70% smaller: 8% becomes 2.4%
Cart load	Wagon Wrights (+50), Ox Wains (+100), Great Wains (+150), Caravan Masters (+200), Wagon Trains (+400)	1,000 units a cart
Carts per village	Packhorse Trains (+1), Merchant League (+1), Caravan Masters (+2), Merchant Princes (+1)	+5
Market reach	Letters of Credit (+5), Factors Abroad (+5), Merchant Princes (+10)	+20 leagues: 50
Scout carry	Pack Baskets (+50%), Pack Ponies (+100%), Mule Trains (+150%)	four times as much: 1,600 from a stash, 320 meat from a hunt

Load and extra carts apply to caravans as well as market trips, so they help a lord who supplies guildmates, allies and capitals as much as one who trades. The first two nodes cost 1 point at rank 2; Merchant Princes needs rank 16, 7 points and 12 hours.

How bonuses stack

Village bonuses (production, productionAll, build speed, storage, arrival) multiply. Each node contributes a factor such as 1.15, and the factors multiply with each other and then with factors from cards, admin tuning and other features. Renown is the exception: Renown bonuses from research and Renown rate cards add, so Village School (+5%) and Scriptorium (+10%) give 1.15, and the admin Renown gain multiplies that sum (see ranks-and-renown.md). Popularity from research adds flat points (shown as one "Research" line in the popularity breakdown).

Army, castle, travel, market, research speed and feast bonuses add. Each node contributes a fraction such as 0.1, the fractions are summed, and the game applies 1 + sum (for the rest after a feast, 1 - sum; for the market cut and training cost, 1 - sum). Troops, carts and leagues are flat numbers that add.

Adding means every percentage on a node is measured from the base, not from what the earlier nodes already gave. Logistics of Empire's "carts travel 80% faster" adds 0.8 to the sum, so with every other cart node done the total goes from +320% to +400% and a cart moves 5 times its base pace. It does not multiply the 4.2 times you already had by 1.8. Speed cards then multiply that research total, so they are worth the same share whether you have researched much or little.

All-tree totals, if every node were done:

Bonus	Stacking	Total
Build speed	multiply	x1.611 (1.1 x 1.15 x 1.1 x 1.05 x 1.05 x 1.05)
All production	multiply	x1.273 (Reeves and Bailiffs, Guild Halls, Manufactories, Industrious Realm)
Storage	multiply	x2.112 (1.1 x 1.15 x 1.2 x 1.1 x 1.1 x 1.15)
Storage room	add, before the multiplier	+76,000 in the stockpile, granary and inn
Renown	add	x2.03 (thirteen nodes, +103%)
Peasant arrival	multiply	x1.656 (1.2 x 1.15 x 1.2)
Popularity	add	+13
Wood / stone / iron	multiply	x1.455 / x1.391 / x2.182
Apples / cheese / meat	multiply	x2.535 / x2.116 / x2.024
Bows / pikes / swords	multiply	x1.38 each
Research speed	add	+45%
Soldiers kept per village	add	+150
Training discount	add	25% off
Attack for every soldier	add	+20%
Armour for every soldier	add	+0.15
Market cut	add	70% smaller
Cart load	add	+900%: 1,000 a cart
Scout carry	add	+300%
Carts per village	add	+5
Market reach	add	+20 leagues
Wall strength	add	+60%
Castle build speed	add	+50%
Commander march speed	add	+45%
Army march speed	add	+400%
Cart speed	add	+400%
Scout speed	add	+400%
Soldier training speed	add	+400%
Feast Renown	add	+100%
Feast popularity	add	+50%
Feast length	add	+75%
Rest after a feast	add	70% shorter
Oil damage	add	+40%
Catapult damage	add	+30%
Moat slowing	add	+25%
Peasant attack	add	+25%
Archer, swordsman, pikeman defence, defending archer	add	+20% each
Knight attack	add	+15%

The per-resource production factors above do not include the two productionAll nodes, which multiply on top.

Edge cases worth knowing

• Build speed research only affects constructions that start after it finishes. Unlike build speed cards, it does not shorten buildings already under way.
• Storage research multiplies the stockpile, granary, inn and armoury capacity. Gold has no cap to raise.
• Production multipliers also raise the inputs a workshop consumes, since consumption is tied to its output.
• When research finishes, your villages are first advanced to the current moment on the old bonuses, then the new ones apply. Completion is noticed on the 5-second server tick.
• Commander speed (Swift Riders, Post Horses, Royal Couriers) applies to a captain or marshal riding out to found a village, and stacks with captain cards. Army marches use march speed (Captaincy, War College and the Roads and Riders march line), both setting out and turning for home.
• Cart, scout, march and commander speed also reach travellers already on the road when the node finishes: what is left of each trip shrinks by old pace over new (cards-and-crowns.md). A cart's return leg takes as long as its outward leg. Scout speed is read again when a scout turns for home.
• Training speed applies to barracks orders placed after the node finishes; orders already queued keep their times.
• Archer attack applies to every ranged unit, crossbowmen included. Defending archer attack applies to defending ranged units standing on a castle piece.
• Pikeman defence is added to the pikeman's armour, capped at 0.85.
• Oil damage also raises the fire damage of pitch traps.
• Research speed from the scholarship line applies to research started after it finishes, like speed cards. It multiplies with research speed cards and the comet.
• The research training discount multiplies with card discounts and is capped at 50% on its own. Armour for every soldier adds to each unit's armour, capped at 0.9 in total.
• The market cut reduction is capped at 90%. It changes the spread only; the territory holder's market tax is not reduced.

Interactions

• Realm events: research started while a comet shines runs 10% faster.
• ranks-and-renown.md: rank gates nodes and pays research points. Thirteen nodes add to Renown.
• village.md and reference/buildings.md: research tokens (research:<node id>) unlock buildings.
• popularity.md: seven nodes add a total of +13 popularity in every village.
• markets.md: Commerce changes the market cut, carts, load and reach.
• cards-and-crowns.md: point cards, speed cards, finish cards and slot cards.
• premium.md: premium raises slots from 1 to 3.
• military.md, battles.md and castles.md: army and defence bonuses, unit requirements.
• quests.md: the quest "Learned Counsel" waits for your first finished research.
• feasts.md: Feasting unlocks the Banqueting Hall.
• profile.md: counts research completed.

For maintainers

Source files:

• server/src/features/research/tree.ts: all nodes, branches, startingPoints: 3, pointPrice: { base: 250, step: 150, max: 90 }, armyStats labels (also used for the cart, scout, training, market and feast keys), flatStats (keys shown as plain numbers, not percentages).
• Readers of the army bonus bag outside battle: market/index.ts cartPace (cartSpeed), world/live.ts scoutPace (scoutSpeed) and scoutLoads (scoutCarry), military/index.ts (marchSpeed, trainSpeed, commanderSpeed), feasts/index.ts feastBoost (feastRenown, feastPopularity, feastHours, feastCooldown), military/index.ts troopCapOf (troopCap) and the training order (trainCost), research/index.ts speedOf (researchSpeed). Market keys (tradeTerms, cartLoad, extraCarts, marketReach, and cartSpeed for the pace) go through marketFor in packages/protocol/src/features/market.ts, called by market/index.ts marketOf, the automation sell and transport runners, and the client's market and caravan panels.
• server/src/features/research/logic.ts: durationMs, startResearch, cancelResearch, completeDue, rescaleActive, awardRanks, buyPoint, researchModifiers (multiplicative), researchArmyBonuses (additive, via researchBonuses in the protocol package so the client sums the same way).
• server/src/features/research/index.ts: researchSlotsOf, settle (tick; it also calls hastenTravellers from registry.ts as each node finishes), finishResearchNow, researchHooks.
• server/src/tuning.ts: researchPointsPerRank, researchSpeed, researchTimeGrowth (0.03), premium.researchSlots (1), premium.premiumResearchSlots (3).
• server/src/features/cards/index.ts and content.ts: research speed, slot, point and finish cards; researchSpeedBonus, researchExtraSlots.
• server/src/features/military/battle.ts, military/index.ts, castle/index.ts: where army and defence bonuses apply.
• packages/protocol/src/features/research.ts: startResearch, cancelResearch, buyResearchPoint, researchComplete, researchPoints.
• Generated table: docs/wiki/reference/research.md.

Update this page if node count, branch totals, any Renown, storage, build speed or arrival node, the point price, starting points, slot counts or the duration formula change.