Researching technologies allows you to unlock more components, more buildings, and upgrades for your mecha, your mecha's drones, and the Logistics Drones and Logistics Vessels.
Technology vs Upgrade
Research (accessible via the T key or by clicking the large icon in the bottom right) is broken into two categories: Technologies and Upgrades. The primary difference between them is that Technologies almost always unlock new components, buildings or abilities, while Upgrades focus more on improving your existing abilities. There are a few cases where the line is not quite clear, such as requiring Drive Engine Level 4 (an Upgrade) in order to use Space Warpers in your mecha, but the Space Warpers themselves are unlocked via Gravitational Wave Refraction, a Technology.
Automation
At the start of the game, research can only be accomplished by hand - that is, directly from the inventory of your mecha. Many of the earliest technologies require regular materials to research them, such as Iron Ingot or Copper Ingot. After researching Electromagnetic Matrix, you will gain access to Matrix Labs. You will also require Automatic Metallurgy to make the Glass that is a component of these buildings.
After placing a Matrix Lab, you must select which mode it will operate in:
- If you select a Matrix type on the left, it puts the Lab into production mode, creating the specified type of science matrix so long as you provide the requisite materials.
- In production mode, like with other production buildings, be sure to automate the removal of the created matrices, via sorters and conveyors.
- If you select Research, on the right, it puts the Lab into Research mode, consuming matrixes to research the technologies that you have queued up.
- In Research mode, the Matrix Lab must be supplied with matrix cubes from an external source (often, other matrix labs in Manufacturing mode). A lab cannot both create and consume matrices at the same time.
The choice is not final - you can switch between the two freely. Doing so, however, will eject all materials that were stored in the lab into your inventory.
Note: the Matrix Labs can only consume Matrix cubes when in Research mode - they cannot be used to research Technologies or Upgrades that do not require Matrix cubes.
Concurrence
Regardless of how many Matrix Labs you have set up for Research mode, they will all work toward the current technology or upgrade in your queue. Additionally, if you have Matrix Labs researching technologies and you try to research a technology by hand, you must also contribute only to the current technology in the queue. There is no method that the game provides to research multiple technologies or upgrades simultaenously.
This restriction does not apply to the manufacture of matrix cubes, for research labs in Manufacturing mode. Different Matrix Labs (or different stacks of them, see "Stacking" below), can work manufacture different types of Matrix cubes at the same time.
Stacking
It is possible to stack multiple Matrix Labs on top of one another. Initially, the game permits up to 3 matrix labs to be stacked. This can be further increased to a maximum of 15, through the Vertical Construction Upgrade.
Stacked Matrix labs automatically share the same task - manufacturing or researching, as the other labs that they are vertically stacked with. This permits the player to set the task on only one lab in the stack, and know that all others will help work toward the same goal, and it even permits adding a new lab to the stack while they are active, the newly added lab will inherit its task immediately.
Stacked Matrix Labs can be fed from the bottom, after the internal inventory of the bottom-most lab fills up, it will send additional resources to the next lab up, and so on. Similarly, when extracting from a stack of Matrix Labs in Production mode, you need only extract from the bottom - upper labs will move their product down to fill the open slots lower in the stack.
Use Inventory Item
The Use Inventory Item checkbox, seen on the Manual Research information box in the top left of the screen (when present), is the player's method by which to specify whether items in the player's inventory that are needed for the current research, should be allocated to it. If you have any materials that are needed for the current research, they are immediately removed from your inventory and held in an inaccessible reserve for the purpose of research. This can be very misleading to the unaware player, as it is frequently interpreted as materials merely vanishing from your inventory without warning.
Cancelling the active research, or disabling Use Inventory Items, will return all reserved items to your inventory. It is advised, if you do not intend to manually research a technology, to disable Use Inventory Item so that you do not run into this confusion.
To re-enable this feature, you will find it on the Technologies screen.
Matrix Production
| Belt Tier |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
18 | 36 | 48 | 60 | 72 | 90 |
 |
36 | 72 | 96 | 120 | 144 | 180 |
 |
90 | 180 | 240 | 300 | 360 | 450 |
Number of Belts and Ingredients needed to saturate one output belt.
| Matrix Produced | Number of Belts | Item |
|---|---|---|
| |
1 |  |
| 1 |  |
| Matrix Produced | Number of Belts | Item |
|---|---|---|
| |
2 |  |
| 2 |  |
| Matrix Produced | Number of Belts | Item |
|---|---|---|
| |
1 |  |
| 1 |  |
| Matrix Produced | Number of Belts | Item |
|---|---|---|
| |
2 |  |
| 1 |  |
| Matrix Produced | Number of Belts | Item |
|---|---|---|
| |
0.5 |  |
| 0.5 |  |
| Matrix Produced | Number of Belts | Item |
|---|---|---|
| |
1 |  |
| 1 | | |
| 1 | | |
| 1 | | |
| 1 | | |
| 1 | |
Note1: Gravity Matrix (Green) is the only matrix that produces 2 per cycle
Consumption
Each Matrix is worth 180 hashes, and lasts 3 seconds in the lab at base speed.
Labs needed to consume a fully saturated belt of matrices:
| Belt Tier | Labs Needed |
|---|---|
| |
18 |
| |
36 |
| |
90 |
Flowchart
This flowchart outlines the production chains for each type of Matrix Cube
