Total Research Guide

Strategy Breakdown 4 Research Trees Long-Term Growth

The research tree priority order, HP-focus strategy, and the Trader Prince stacking that turns weeks of research into days. Tier 6 ships with bad research lose to Tier 5 ships with good research — this guide tells you why, and how to make sure you're on the winning side.

// THE FOUR TREES

Priority Order

The research center unlocks around base level 12–14. You start with two trees; the other two unlock through progression. All four are essential — there's no "skip tree."

Priority 1 · Build This First

Economic Development

Target~70%+through T4 mid-ranks

Priority 2 · Unlocks Chests

Commerce Guild Duel

Target~65–70%all 9 chests unlocked

Priority 3 · After Tier 6 Push

Flagship & Combat Craft

FocusHP & Commandover everything

Priority 4 · GvG Computational Day

Combat Craft Modifications

Required forTier 7 Ships

// TREE 1 · ECONOMIC

Why Economic Development Comes First

Most players run a low Economic tree and pay for it forever. This is a mistake.

Research Speed

~18–20%

Maxing this tree gives roughly 18–20% research speed bonus. Every other tree gets faster from here.

Building Speed

~Similar %

Roughly equal building speed bonus. Compounds across every upgrade.

Trading Income

2x+

Trading sciences can more than double your daily trading income — critical once upgrades cost 30–40M resources.

The pain point: Around flagship level 25–26, resource costs explode. If your trading sciences are weak at that point, you're stuck. Push at least to level 2–3 of "Cutting Edge Instruments" T4 for the ~15% research speed bonus before moving on.

// TREE 2 · COMMERCE GUILD DUEL

Unlock All 9 Chests, Then Mobilize

Once your guild unlocks this tree, race to unlock all 9 chests. Each one is worth real money in rewards.

Unlock chests in order: 1–3 first, then 4–6, then 7–9. Don't fragment your research time.

Get Mobilization Expert to level 15+. That's a 75% bonus to points for unlocking chests — missing this is leaving free chest unlocks every GvG week.

The 9th chest alone is worth ~$20–$30. 500 computational components, millions of resources, over a day of speedups. Missing this 6 times a week = real money left on the table.

// TREE 3 · FLAGSHIP & COMBAT

HP Is King

About 2 months in, after your Economic and Guild Duel trees are solid, shift to combat. Don't start before that — combat research barely matters until you're pushing Tier 6 ships.

♥

Focus HP over everything. HP is foundational — defense mitigates damage against your HP pool. Low HP = obliterated in two seconds regardless of attack stats. High-damage low-HP builds get wrecked.

Pick your main ship type first. Max its tree before spreading out. RTS Mobile went Kinetic first — 15% attack, 15% defense, 15% intellect from one tree maxed.

Then unlock the others. Eventually you need three ranks in all three unit types (Kinetic / Ion / Beam) to progress past certain gates. Don't be surprised by the wall — plan for it.

Chase the HP gates. The next two HP tiers stack to roughly ~70% HP bonus. Push to unlock them — this is where ship survivability comes from.

Command is decent, but diluted late. As you empower gear, command's value drops — two or three lucky empowers can outdo the entire command science tree. Useful but secondary to HP.

// TREE 4 · COMBAT MODIFICATIONS

The Comp-Component Tree

Unlocks via the 7-8-9 chests of Commerce Guild Duel. Stats are weaker than Flagship Combat, but it has one critical job.

★

Required for Tier 7 ships. Maxing this tree is what unlocks Tier 7 units. Skip it and you're stuck at Tier 6 forever — even with everything else maxed.

Save this tree for GvG Computational Component days. Day 3 and Day 5 of GvG let you spend comp components for points — one or two researches here can burn 3–4k comp components and net you several million GvG points, unlocking 6–7 chests by itself.

The single-rank upgrade gains here are tiny compared to the 15% attack from a maxed Flagship Combat rank — but that's not why you research this tree. You research it to dump comp components on GvG scoring days and to unlock Tier 7. Don't touch it any other time.

// SPEED STACKING

Cut Research Time in Half

Once Zarnest is captured, the Trader Prince system lets you stack research speed buffs on top of your tree bonuses. This is how 7-day researches become 5.

Stay on good terms with whoever owns Zarnest. The Trader Prince controls who gets the title positions. If they set positions to "Open," anyone can claim a buff for a 5-minute window.

Research Counsellor grants +20% research and building speed. The headline buff for research days.

Construction Counsellor grants +10% research speed. Backup option if the Research Counsellor queue is full — better than waiting.

War Zone Titles (Post-Capture)

Once you capture an enemy server in War Zone, three additional titles unlock:

Chief Administrator — crazy building and research speed bonuses
Chief Military Officer — fleet production buffs
Chief Financial Officer — can more than double your trading income

Cosmetic frames stack too. The Dual Crown frame adds +5% research speed on top of your title buffs. Small but free percentage on every research.

// Real example: a 7d 9h research at base became 6d 8h with title + frame buffs stacked. Diminishing returns apply, but the savings are real.

// FINAL WORD

The Research Playbook

Three rules to lock in.

Economic first → Commerce Guild Duel → Combat trees. In that order. Don't jump into combat trees in your first month — HP and damage stats don't pay off until you're pushing past Tier 5.

HP > everything in combat trees. Damage means nothing if you die in two seconds. The next two HP tiers stack to ~70% bonus — chase them.

Stack speed buffs on research days. Trader Prince titles + Dual Crown frame can shave a full day off long researches. Free time, free progression.

RTS

Watch the Full Original Guide

For the complete walkthrough with in-game footage of every research tree, real upgrade timers, and Ian's full commentary on each priority — check out the original video on RTS Mobile Gaming. All credit for the strategy and analysis goes to him.

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