Research (XCOM2)

Overview

Your research team will primarily be Dr Richard Tygan... just him. You'll need to recruit scientists when you can, either through mission rewards/rescues, home base hiring, or on rare occasion on the Black Market. Naturally, more scientists will reduce your research time. You can also build a laboratory or two to further speed things up. At least some of the research will require mandatory number of scientists to prevent you from rushing them for early game advantage (namely, psionics).

The black market will often have one or two research credits for sale in exchange for Intel: packs of detailed notes and schematics acquired from refugees and loose talkers that will reduce research time on some of the projects you have listed in your research backlog. The Black Market will update these available research credits monthly, at the same time as when you get the latest Spokesman's assessment and Supply Drop notification. The prices will drop if you've already made progress on that research project

Tygan himself is a former ADVENT researcher, who was basically shanghai-ed by ADVENT to run some of the earliest 'Gene Therapy' labs: this position let him see behind the scenes at the true nature of ADVENT's (and the Aliens) goals. Horrified, he eventually managed to contact Bradford and the remnants of XCOM in the Resistance. Occasionally, you may see him from behind, where you can see some massive scarring on the back of his neck: he managed to operate upon himself and tear out the implanted chip that ADVENT had put into his skull, showing his determination in opposing the alien forces.

Keep in mind that when you encounter new types of aliens/ADVENT in missions: you will only gather the corpses, and thus be able to do research on them, when the mission did not end with an Evac. The two plot critical corpses will be collected regardless of this limitation.

Also, be sure to Skullmine and Hack for Blacksite Facility leads, and gather any ADVENT/alien datapad drops: Tygan can research the leads for the Facilities (for a moderate Intel cost), which you'll then can assault without needing to first contact the local Resistance cell, and the datapads themselves for significant Intel rewards. If there are currently no active Facilities, the leads will go into storage; once a new Blacksite is put up by ADVENT (and is not 'discovered' right away anyways by being in a pre-contacted sector), they can be researched for the new sites.

On occasions, the lab will notify you that a project can be performed instantly due to recent developments. This is usually happens after major research projects. There doesn't seem to be direct links between particular research projects and autopsies, it seems to be semi-random.

Research Projects

Alien Weaponry

Project	Prerequisites	Cost	Unlocks
			Items	Facilities	Research
Modular Weapons	-	-	Weapon Mods	-	Magnetized Weapons
Magnetized Weapons	Modular Weapons	-	Mag Pistol Mag Rifle Shard Gun	-	Gauss Weapons
Gauss Weapons	Magnetized Weapons	-	Mag Cannon Gauss Rifle	-	Elerium
Plasma Rifle	Elerium	10/10/10/15 Alien Alloys 10/10/10/15 Elerium	Plasma Rifle Beam Pistol	-	Beam Cannon Plasma Lance Storm Gun
Beam Cannon	Plasma Rifle	5/5/5/10 Alien Alloys 5/5/5/10 Elerium	Beam Cannon	-	-
Plasma Lance	Plasma Rifle	5/5/5/10 Alien Alloys 5/5/5/10 Elerium	Plasma Lance	-	-
Storm Gun	Plasma Rifle	10/10/10/20 Alien Alloys	Storm Gun	-	-

Alien Materials

Project	Prerequisites	Cost	Unlocks
			Items	Facilities	Research
Hybrid Materials	-	2/2/2/4 ADVENT Trooper Corpse	Nanoscale Vest		Plated Armor
Plated Armor	Hybrid Materials	10/10/10/15 Alien Alloys	Predator Armor Spider Suit E.X.O Suit Heavy Weapons		Elerium
Elerium	Gauss Weapons Plated Armor	20/20/20/40 Elerium			Powered Armor Plasma Rifle
Powered Armor	Elerium		Warden Armor Wraith Suit W.A.R Suit Powered Weapons		-

Alien Biotech

Project	Prerequisites	Cost	Unlocks
			Items	Facilities	Research
ADVENT Trooper Autopsy		ADVENT Trooper Corpse	Battle Scanner
ADVENT Officer Autopsy		ADVENT Officer Corpse		Proving Grounds
Sectoid Autopsy		Sectoid Corpse	Mindshield		Psionics
Psionics	Sectoid Autopsy		Advanced Psi Amp	Psi Lab
ADVENT Stun Lancer Autopsy		ADVENT Stun Lancer Corpse	Arc Blade
ADVENT Shieldbearer Autopsy		ADVENT Shieldbearer Corpse			Experimental Armor (PG)
Faceless Autopsy		Faceless Corpse	Mimic Beacon
Viper Autopsy		Viper Corpse			Battlefield Medicine (PG)
Muton Autopsy		Muton Corpse	Plasma Grenades		Advanced Explosives (PG)
Berserker Autopsy		Berserker Corpse	Overdrive Serum
Chryssalid Autopsy		Chryssalid Corpse	Hellweave Vest
Archon Autopsy		Archon Corpse	Fusion Blade
Andromedon Autopsy		Andromedon Corpse	Proximity Mine
Gatekeeper Autopsy		Gatekeeper Corpse	Alien Psi Amp
ADVENT Turret Breakdown		ADVENT Turret Wreck		Defense Matrix
ADVENT Mech Breakdown		ADVENT Mech Wreck	Gremlin Mk II
Sectopod Breakdown		Sectopod Wreck	Gremlin Mk III