Research

In other languages: 한국어.

Research is the decisive factor in the contest of Man versus Alien. X-COM forces start out badly outclassed by their alien foes, but quickly bridge the gap by researching new technology with the hard efforts of the X-Com scientists.

Through research, X-COM forces gain access to vastly improved weapons technology, armour, base facilities, new aircraft, and a variety of other useful technologies. Researching captive live aliens provides information about the aliens' methods and traits, and is ultimately the only path toward winning the game.

Research Basics

Researching a topic is simple. As the Commander of X-Com, all you need to do is order your scientists to study a topic, sit back and wait until they are done.

To take a more detailed look at how to do research, you will need to have the following:

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1. A research topic
2. Laboratory
3. Living Quarters
4. Scientists

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Research topics are made available several ways. They are provided at the start, obtained by capturing alien artefacts and are derived from previous research topics/interrogations. Each research topic require a certain amount of research hours to complete. This value is hidden to the player but you are given a general indication of the progress. This value is randomly adjusted ±50% when the topic is started, so some projects may finish sooner or much later than expected. After a research topic is complete, you will be able to build and use the technology and sometimes gain access to new topics to research.

A laboratory is required as a place for the scientists to do their work. Each lab has space for 50 scientists to work at a time. You can have a maximum of 255 scientists working at a time, though it is recommended to work within multiples of 50.

Living quarters are required to house the scientists, and sometimes for captured aliens in-transit to the base when transferred from another base. It is unclear why the latter is required, but bed space is allocated for aliens while they are in transit.

Finally, and most importantly, the scientists themselves. Each scientist that is allocated to a project will reduce that project's number of research hours by 1 every hour. Calculations to the remaining research hours are applied at midnight every night. The scientists are otherwise free for most of the day.

For more detail on how research works or other information such as the maintenance costs, refer to the auxiliary articles at the end.

Research Basics: Starting

You start the game with one Laboratory, sufficient space in the Living Quarters, 10 Scientists, and the following research topics that you can start on immediately: Laser Weapons; Medi-Kit; Motion Scanner

The choice of which technology to start with is entirely up to you, as there are merits to all the possible choices (irrespective of what some veteran players may argue!). They are quick to research and provide good equipment that can last all through the game.

In addition to deciding which topic to start with, you will need to consider how to improve your research operations with your limited starting resources. The starting set up is reasonable, but will quickly prove to be inadequate once you get research topics that require a greater number of research hours to complete.

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Some good short-term options to consider include:

• Buying an Alien Containment
• Raise your scientist numbers to 50

Buying an alien containment allows the capture and interrogation of aliens. While interrogations as a whole serve mainly as a means to provide more background information to the plot of the game, a few ranks such as the Navigator or a Sectoid Leader provide some high level research. If found early, are very useful to have and can set the tone of the rest of the game.

Raising your number of hired scientists to 50 allows you to fill all vacant spaces in the first lab. Keep in mind that the lab is rented, so any unused workspace will mean you are not getting making the most of your monthly investment.

Long term options you want to consider:

• Building additional living quarters
• Building additional laboratories
• Hiring additional scientists (50 per living quarter and lab)

All three points work hand in hand to increase the number of scientists at your disposal, allowing you to work through the research topics at a faster pace.

Caution: Be aware that research facilities and staff are expensive to obtain and maintain. Over-exerting your limited finances to build a massive research facility right from the beginning may prove to be much more detrimental than beneficial to the cause. You may want to only plan your expansion at this stage.

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A comfortable medium for beginners and perhaps any level of player is to work with 100 scientists. It strikes a good balance of speed and the maintenance cost is not too hefty. Veteran players familiar with what technologies they are after can easily get away with 50 or even lesser scientists.

Scientists quantities of 150, 200 and 250 are best considered later once you have more means of income.

Research Basics: Beyond

After your first mission, you will start to obtain new topics in the labs depending on the artefacts and aliens that you are able to bring home from the battles. This opens up a world of better technology that you can access right away. Many of these technologies will also form the foundation of even higher tier technologies that you will need in due course.

Due to the open nature of this game, and the various playing methods that players will adopt, there's no one true path on how to proceed from here. Pick what technologies fancy you the most, or go for the ones with the most immediate benefits. Make up your own system of how research must progress, or just start picking topics at random. It's entirely up to you.

See Also

For more advanced information on research, refer to:

• Research Basics
• Popular Sequences and Tips
• Research Trees
• Researching Live Aliens
• Technical Details