Library · Insight · permanent faction bonuses
Research: slow, permanent, and worth starting early.
Build a Library and you can research permanent bonuses for your whole faction: an extra roster slot, faster quests, better essences. Here is how to open it, what it costs, and what to take first.
Do this
- Get a Cartographer or Runecaster onto your roster (the Tavern's "Seek a Profession" can find one).
- Build a Library on a civic plot: 2,250 gold, 90 Driftwood, 60 Straw and 45 Quartz.
- Tap the Library, then Open Research.
- Start with Shadow Stores (Void tier 1, +1 roster slot), then clear the other cheap tier 1 nodes. Keep your one research slot busy.
What Research is
Research is a tree of permanent, faction-wide bonuses. Each node costs resources up front, then runs on a real-time timer (30 minutes to a day and a half) in a research slot. When it finishes, the bonus is yours for good. There are six branches: five elemental ones (Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Void) with tiers 1 to 6, and Crafting Knowledge (tiers 1 to 7), which reveals equipment blueprints. Within a branch you must finish each tier before the next.
How to open it
Research lives in the Library. You can have one Library in total. Build it like any other building (Map, a region's city, Districts tab) on a civic plot, with a Cartographer or Runecaster somewhere on your roster. Construction is instant. Then tap the Library and choose Open Research. Without a Library you have no research slots, so nothing can start.
The game's building data labels the Library as a Chapter 2 building, but in 2.0.7 construction only checks the profession, the plot and the cost, so you can build it as soon as you can pay for it.
| Library level | Research slots | Research time | Eureka chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lv.1 | 1 | normal | none |
| Lv.2 | 2 | -20% | none |
| Lv.3 | 3 | -20% | 10% |
| Lv.4 | 3 | -25% | 10% |
| Lv.5 | 4 | -28% | 12% |
What it costs
Nodes cost gold and core resources (the tier 1 names below are the basic fiber and gem), and from tier 2 on also Insight, research's own currency. You earn Insight by finishing quests once you own a Library: 5 per party member, doubled for members with the Studious trait and 1.5x for Casters. Deeper tiers also cost essence dust.
| Elemental tier | Cost | Base time |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 100 gold, 20 Straw, 10 Quartz | 1 to 1.5 h |
| Tier 2 | 500 gold, 50 Insight, 60 Flax, 30 Garnet | 6 to 8 h |
| Tier 3 and 4 | 2,000 gold, 150 Insight, 30 essence dust, 120 Cotton, 60 Amethyst | 16 h |
| Tier 5 | 8,000 gold, 400 Insight, 80 essence dust, 200 Silk, 100 Topaz | 24 h |
| Tier 6 | 20,000 gold, 1,000 Insight, 150 essence dust, 300 Spider Silk, 150 Sapphire | 36 h (needs Codex rank 6) |
- Speeding up: add essence dust when you start a node (100 dust per 10% faster, up to 50%), or finish it instantly for 1 gem per minute left.
- Cancelling a node in progress frees the slot and refunds half its base cost (dust spent on speed-ups is lost).
The branches at a glance
Void
- Tier 1
- Shadow Stores: +1 roster slot.
- Tier 2
- Divine Insight: +30% Temple devotion.
- Tier 3 (pick one)
- Void Sight (clouded essences identify as Rare or better) or Temporal Fold (expeditions skip 1 stage).
- Later
- T4 +30% power for Void-linked members. T5 Hollow Bargain: Epic-or-better identification, but Temple devotion halved.
Air
- Tier 1
- Windborne Scouts: quest-board quests take 5% less time.
- Tier 2
- Second Wind: injured members can still quest at 50% power.
- Tier 3 (pick one)
- Gale Force (quest-board quests take 25% less time) or Zephyr's Gift (+1 dispatch queue slot per quest).
- Later
- T4 +30% power for Air-linked members. T5 Forced March: -40% quest time, but stamina recovers 40% slower.
Water
- Tier 1
- Tidal Insight: +5% quest XP.
- Tier 2
- Deep Salvage: 25% chance to keep an essence when you salvage it.
- Tier 3 (pick one)
- Tidal Mastery (+20% dust from salvaging) or Deep Current (every essence's stat bonuses +50%).
- Later
- T4 +30% power for Water-linked members. T5 Dissolution: double salvage dust, but no refunds.
Earth
- Tier 1
- Resource Transmutation: convert any core resource into another of the same tier at 3:1.
- Tier 2
- Trade Mastery: +25% Trade Agreement rates.
- Tier 3 (pick one)
- Titan Foundation (+1 building plot in every region) or Living Stone (fortification bonuses doubled).
- Later
- T4 +30% power for Earth-linked members. T5 Quarry Rights: +2 plots per region, but salaries cost 25% more.
Fire
- Tier 1
- Rapid Deployment: recall members from a quest at 75% done for a share of the rewards.
- Tier 2
- War Doctrine: +20% War Room military strength.
- Tier 3 (pick one)
- Inferno Doctrine (+30% power for Fire-linked members) or Eternal Flame (home region buildings produce 2x).
- Later
- T4 another +20% War Room strength. T5 Scorched Ledger: home region 3x, every other region -30%.
Crafting Knowledge
- Tier 1
- Basic Craftwork: Woodsman, Militia and Prospector set blueprints (150 gold, 30 Driftwood, 20 Tin Ore, 30 min).
- Tier 2
- Advanced Smithing: tier 1 equipment recipes plus the Warband and Arcanist sets.
- Tier 3 (pick one)
- Masterwork: Martial or Masterwork: Arcane (tier 2 and 3 set blueprints).
- Later
- Tiers 4 to 7 reveal the Ironclad, Warlord, Titan and Primordial equipment tiers. Crafting itself opens after Chapter 1.
What to research first
Tier 1 nodes are cheap (100 gold and a handful of basic materials) and short, so the only real question is order while you have one slot.
- Void: Shadow Stores (+1 roster slot). Your roster starts capped at 4, and a fifth member means another quest party, another profession for buildings, and another essence bearer.
- Air: Windborne Scouts (-5% quest time) and Water: Tidal Insight (+5% quest XP). Small, but they apply to every quest you run from then on.
- Crafting: Basic Craftwork as soon as Crafting is open (after Chapter 1): your first set blueprints.
- Earth: Resource Transmutation (3:1 conversion) is a handy fix when one material blocks you, and Fire: Rapid Deployment rounds out tier 1.
- For tier 2, Air: Second Wind (injured members can still quest) is the most noticeable early, then whichever branch you plan to take to tier 3.
At tier 3, the picks that most new players feel straight away are Gale Force (-25% quest time) and Deep Current (+50% essence stat bonuses). Titan Foundation (+1 plot in every region) is strong once you are short on building space.
What you can undo
- Tier 1 and 2 are permanent and there is nothing to undo; they have no downsides.
- Tier 3 is a fork: finishing one side locks the other. The Research respec resets every tier 3 pick (and, in the same branches, anything above it) while keeping tiers 1 and 2 and any recipes you revealed. It costs 2,000 gold and 150 Insight the first time, and doubles each time after.
- Tier 5 tradeoff nodes (the ones with a downside) can be switched off and on again from the tree, with a 6-hour wait between switches. Off means no bonus and no penalty.
- Eureka warning: from Library level 3, finishing a node can trigger a Eureka that completes the next tier in that branch for free. If the next tier is a tier 3 fork, the Eureka takes the first option listed for you. The respec above can undo it.
The Codex
Every node you finish for the first time (and every Field Study) adds Codex progress. Each Codex rank makes tree research 2% faster, ranks 5 and 10 each add a research slot, and rank 6 unlocks tier 6.
Field Studies
A way to use a spare slot once the tree runs dry: pay Insight to start a study that advances as you play (quests, building upgrades, trade routes and more) and pays a small permanent bonus, such as +1% quest XP, plus Codex progress. They share slots with the tree, so they are a mid-game tool.
Endless Research and Essence Attunement
The Endless Research (resource sink) button on the Research screen holds six nodes you can level up forever (up to level 500). They are built for late-game stockpiles: a new player can safely ignore them. Each level costs 1.22x the last up to level 50, then 1.30x per level. You can pay toward the next level a little at a time (the button moves what you hold into that node), but anything paid in is committed and not refunded.
Essence Attunement
+1% to the stat bonuses of every equipped essence, per level. It is the only endless node that raises combat power, and the only one paid in essence dust.
- Level 1: 250,000 gold and 5,000,000 essence dust.
- Each level after: 1.22x the previous (1.30x past level 50), up to level 500.
- Built for players who have ranked their roster out and are sitting on huge dust piles. While dust still buys you flux or ranks, spend it there first.
| Endless node | Per level | Level 1 cost |
|---|---|---|
| Essence Attunement | +1% stat bonuses from every equipped essence | 250,000 gold + 5,000,000 essence dust |
| Vault Expansion | +1% warehouse storage cap | 1,000,000 gold |
| Industrial Tuning | +0.5% production from every resource building | 500,000 gold + 150,000 Tin Ore |
| Logistics Network | +1% gold from quest rewards | 750,000 gold + 80,000 Quartz |
| Scholarship | +1% Insight earned | 300,000 gold + 120,000 Fieldstone |
| Academy Expansion | -1% Field Study requirement | 400,000 gold + 500 Insight |
Related: Recruiting (finding a Cartographer or Runecaster), Set up your base (plots and building requirements) and Crafting.