Research Facility Guide

The Research Facility is your Ark’s long-term power engine — the place where you convert knowledge into permanent upgrades that stay with you across every mode, season, and reset. Nothing here is temporary. Every node you unlock becomes a lasting perk that improves how efficiently your Ark runs, how often your agents act, and how consistently you progress.

All research is fueled by a single currency: Research Notes. They’re intentionally scarce, so each investment matters. Most Players will get their supply from Nono’s Shop, where you can purchase 35 Research Notes per week — a small but dependable drip that you should never miss. Additional Notes occasionally appear as rewards from policy implementation, though these are irregular bonuses rather than a reliable source. Think of Research Notes as long-term progression tokens: you won’t earn them fast, but the benefits snowball permanently.

The Facility is divided into three linear research paths, each specializing in a different part of your Ark’s infrastructure. As you spend Research Notes, you level up that line. Every five levels you invest breaks through a research wall, unlocking the next tier of upgrades. This pacing keeps the system structured while ensuring that high-impact perks are earned gradually.

The top line gives you tools that directly improve battle consistency and day-to-day management. Its highlights are the Protos Skills — arguably the most impactful utility unlocks in the game:

Alongside these, the top line boosts agent affinity gains from trauma recovery, gifts, and excursions, raises your maximum Aether capacity, and increases your daily supply of Communication Passes and Hourglass of Time/ Sands of Time. These upgrades don’t just help occasionally — they smooth out your entire gameplay loop.

The middle line upgrades the systems behind your Ark’s governance. You’ll unlock a higher policy cap, a shorter policy interval, and additional affinity gains for agents who propose policies. As you progress, this line also reduces the negative impact of Calamity, easing late-season pressure that often strains new accounts. Its most valuable reward, however, is the increased probability of Special-Grade Policies, which can define entire runs through powerful global modifiers.

The bottom line focuses on improving the Ark’s exploration options. It unlocks new excursion areas, broadening the pool of available routes and potential rewards. It also increases the number of agents who can appear as excursion candidates, giving you more freedom when choosing who to send. These upgrades enhance long-term efficiency, though they don’t provide the immediate performance boosts found in the other two lines.

Your first priority should be reaching the node that increases the probability of Special-Grade Policies (Epiphany Occurrence Theory Study). This milestone dramatically improves your policy quality and accelerates the rest of your account’s growth. On the way, you’ll naturally pick up two extremely valuable perks: faster policy intervals and reduced Calamity penalties.

Once you secure the Special-Grade node, the rest of the line becomes optional. Continuing deeper mostly provides further Calamity reduction — useful but not essential unless your season structure struggles heavily under Calamity pressure. If you want efficiency, you can also grab the node that increases affinity per implemented policy, though it’s a quality-of-life bonus rather than a core requirement.

After stabilizing your policy ecosystem, move into the top research line. The Protos Skills alone justify the investment, and the additional affinity gains, stamina increases, and daily resource boosts will noticeably improve both combat comfort and Ark management. The ability to Undo Turn or fix bad RNG can save entire Chaos runs, making this line incredibly impactful for both new and veteran Players.

The bottom line is helpful, but not urgent. Since it primarily expands excursion variety rather than boosting combat, policies, or daily operations, its impact is more indirect. It’s best treated as a late-game luxury: something you finish once the important power-scaling nodes in the top and middle lines are secure.

The Research Facility rewards planning, not speed. With limited Research Notes and significant long-term effects, choosing the right path at the right time makes all the difference. Prioritize Special-Grade Policies, secure your Protos tools, then fill out your exploration upgrades — and your Ark will be operating at peak efficiency for every challenge chaos throws at you.