Research Station

Conducts Novice Research to unlock new technologies.

Dimensions

2×2 tiles

Usage

Research Station is mandatory to progress deeper on the tech tree. It is usually built early and used constantly as most of the researches in the first row are very useful. Multiple Research Stations can work on the same Research Task at the same time, however doing that early on is very likely to lock the entire colony into researching, as it not only needs operating duplicants but also other ones delivering Dirt.

Duplicants with high Science attribute are the most useful on the Research Station. At the start of the game, picking Duplicant with the highest Science possible regardless of their Decor expectation is recommended as increasing Decor near the Research Station is easy (by placing it near the Printing Pod for example, it also will provide lit workspace bonus).

Using Duplicants with low Science can still be a strategy, and the increase in this stat they might get by researching will help them level up faster later on.

A Duplicant with high research skill will automatically replace another Duplicant with low research skill at Research Station.

Mechanics

The Research Station uses 50 kg of Dirt to produce a research point. Its base material consumption rate is 3333.3… g/s. Dividing 50 kg with the consumption rate gives 15 s per research point produced in the base case where a Duplicant with 0 science works at an unlit Research Station outside a Laboratory room.

The consumption rate ( $\dot{m}$ ) varies for each Research Station depending on whether it's in a Laboratory Room and the science attribute of the Duplicant using it ( $S$ ) as well as whether they have the Lit Workspace buff. You can calculate it using the following equation:

$\dot{m} = 3333 . \overline{3} \frac{g}{s} \cdot (1 + 0.1 \overline{3} \cdot S + 0.05 \cdot L i t + 0.0 \overline{3} \cdot L a b)$

where Lit and Lab is 1 if the respective buff is applied and 0 if not.

The Duplicant's science attribute includes buffs and debuffs from Skills, traits and other states.

Note, that even if the consumption rate should be lower based on the equation due to the Duplicant's negative skill (for example because of Zombie Spores), the minimum value is 2777.5 g/s.

As shown, skill points, Lit Workspace and the room buff only contribute a 13.3%, 5% and 3.3% additive bonus as opposed to the usual 40%, 15% and 10% they do with other buildings. Another way to formulate the previous equation, which is conceptually closer (but is mathematically equivalent) to how the game calculates it uses a base rate of 1111.1… g/s and applies a hidden 200% buff to the Research Station:

$\dot{m} = 1111 . \overline{1} \frac{g}{s} \cdot (1 + 2 + 0.4 \cdot S + 0.15 \cdot L i t + 0.1 \cdot L a b)$

A Duplicant with a high, but practically achievable science attribute of 30 at an ideally situated Research Station would produce a point every 3 seconds.

Duplicants are considered to be on the bottom-left tile of the structure for purposes such as Decor and Lit Workspace.

If multiple Research Stations are working on a research and one of them finishes the last Novice Research needed, all other Novice Research production will be halted, however they can be resumed and used for another research task later.