Research

In BlockFactory you do not craft science packs. You deliver the things your factory already makes to a research center, and the creatures there pay you research points. You turn those points into Knowledge Scrolls and test new technology with them at the Outlander Test Site.

The research loop

1. Make products: plates, gears, circuits, belts, and later engines and rune modules.
2. Deliver them to a Goblin Research Center or Golem Research Center. Each item pays points.
3. The center writes Knowledge Scrolls from the points on your account.
4. Bring the scrolls to an Outlander Test Site, pick a research, and wait for the test.

Research uses up your own production. You need enough of it, and you need variety, so it pays to automate early.

Research centers

	Goblin Research Center	Golem Research Center
Epoch	0	2
Unlocked by	Start	Golem Scholars
Size	4 × 4	4 × 4
Points	Gob	Gol
Studies	2 items per second	1 item per second
Writes	Knowledge Scroll I–II	Knowledge Scroll I–V
Rune module slots	2	2
Recipe	2 Trapped Goblin, 40 Stone Brick, 20 Iron Gear, 20 Iron Plate	1 Golem, 40 Stone Brick, 20 Steel Plate, 5 Gold Bar

You need creatures from the Portal of the Ancient to build a center. Two Goblin Scholars (or a Golem) work in front of the building. The goblins laugh when a new scroll is done and murmur when you deliver something. When they are bored of an item, the murmur gets low and quiet.

Delivering items

• Bring items by hand (crouch and use with the stack in your hand), on a belt pointing into the center, or with a grabber.
• Each center only takes items with a value of its own kind. Goblins want worked metal and early products; Golems want steel, electronics and runes. Raw materials (ore, stone, wood) are worth nothing.
• Up to 20 items wait in a queue. When the queue is full, the rest stays on the belt or in the grabber.
• Rune modules in the two slots speed up the center (see Rune Modules).

Point values

Gob (Goblin Research Center)	Points	Gol (Golem Research Center)	Points
Copper Cable	0.75	Concrete	0.5
Iron Plate, Copper Plate	1	Plastic Bar	1
Cartridge	1	Steel Beam, Gold Bar, Silicon	2
Pipe T1	1.5	Battery	3
Stone Brick, Brick, Glass	2	Engine Unit	5
Meat, Hide, Tallow, Bone	2	Advanced Circuit	6
Rail	2	Golem Core	10
Iron Gear	3	Rune Slate	12
Belt T1	4	Electric Engine	15
Electronic Circuit	5	Low Density Frame	20
Steel Plate	8	Processing Unit	30
Brick Walls	12	Rune Module Speed / Efficiency / Productivity MK1	40
Grabber T1	15	Uranium Fuel Cell	50

The rule of thumb: more processing steps give more points per unit of raw material.

Curiosity and the wish list

Each center has a curiosity for every item it takes, starting at 100 %.

• An item pays its value times the current curiosity.
• Every piece the center studies lowers curiosity for that item by 1 %.
• Curiosity recovers by 1 % every 6 seconds (10 % per minute).

In the long run, one center gets about one full value per item kind every 6 seconds. Sending only your best item quickly stops paying. Deliver many different products, or build more centers.

The center's window shows a wish list: all items it takes, sorted by what they would pay right now, with the current curiosity of each.

The shared account

Points do not stay in the building. They go to one account for your world, or for your team in multiplayer. Your centers can stand anywhere and still pay into the same account, and any center can write scrolls from it.

How long research takes

Research is meant to take hours per epoch, not minutes, and to push you into expanding: more drills, more centers, more automation. These are the total points for all researches of each epoch:

Epoch	Scrolls	Gob	Gol
1 Steam	18 × I	1,080	–
2 Logistics	60 × II	18,000	–
3 Oil	68 × III	27,200	10,200
4 Industry	80 × IV	24,000	48,000
5 Nuclear	49 × V	9,800	58,800

Late scrolls still cost Gob points, so keep your early production running to the end. Testing adds 30 seconds per scroll at the test site by default.

See also

• Knowledge Scrolls
• Outlander Test Site
• Research Tree
• Epochs
• Golems