Team city-building on Telegram
Town Hall 6: Research Pages, how a city earns and spends them, and the whole research tree, level by level.
Research is the heart of the Age of Technology. Your city spends Research Pages on a tree of permanent city abilities: bigger districts, sharper hunting, new banking tools, better shops and more. Research Pages belong to the city, not to any one player. They buy research and nothing else: they can't be traded, exported or turned into gold.
Research opens when your Library reaches level 6. The tree is split into 9 subjects. Each one lives on one of your buildings, and a subject only opens once that building is at level 6 too. Besides the Library itself, the host buildings are the Hunter's Lodge, Bank, Market and Chamber of Commerce.
Your Library's researchers add 10 Research Pages every hour, for a wage of 500 💸 Treasury an hour. If the treasury can't cover the wage, the researchers simply stop for that hour. Banked Pages are never touched, and work picks up again as soon as the treasury recovers.
Anyone in the city can help. Queue 🔬 Contribute Research and you spend an hour in the Library, adding 5 Research Pages (8 with a 😴 rested charge). With a Scholar's Charter from the vendor, that becomes 10 (15 rested). Volunteers are never paid, so contributions keep arriving even in an hour the treasury couldn't pay the researchers.
😴 Rested charges only top up the room that's left. Each hour, everyone's normal contributions (Scholar's Charters included) count first. A rested charge is used only if your city still has room under its limit after that, so it never takes Pages from another citizen's hour, and it's never spent for nothing. That's because rested charges can be bought, and research speed shouldn't be for sale where a city's own hands already fill the limit. A city with one or two researchers usually has room to spare, so rested charges help smaller cities keep up.
A city can take at most 20 contributed Research Pages in any one hour. Past that the extra hands are better spent gathering. If your hour only partly fit, your hour report says so, e.g. "+5 Pages (5 of your 10 — your city hit its limit of 20 contributed Pages this hour)".
Every hour that adds at least one Research Page also counts toward the 🔬 Researcher medal (see Reputation & Medals).
The Mayor, or a Minister of Research the mayor appoints from /roles, decides where the Pages go. Everyone else can read the whole tree. Nothing in it ever requires the Minister's seat, so a mayor on their own can research everything.
Pages can go into a piece of research a little at a time or all at once, and every spend asks you to confirm first. That's because it's permanent: Pages put into research can never be taken back out, even from research that isn't finished yet. Choosing where they go is the decision.
The order is yours. Within a subject, the research marked ⭐ opens the subject comes first and unlocks the rest of it, and each level of a branch needs the level below it. Nothing in one subject is ever a prerequisite for another subject. The only exception is marked 🏁 in the tree below: it waits until your city has finished all of its core research.
The tree holds 39 pieces of research worth 31,500 Research Pages in total. 30 of them are core research (17,500 Pages). They are the backbone of the era, the ones every city is working toward. The rest are bonus research: worth having, but optional.
A 🏛 after a name marks core research; anything without it is bonus. The top of each subject also says whether its research is all core, all bonus, or a mix.
Every city's own page on this site shows its research too: Pages banked, what's in progress and everything it has finished.
↑ Back to topEvery subject at a glance, then each one in full. Costs are in Research Pages.
| Subject | Building | Research | Total Pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Density | Library | 5 | 2,900 |
| Legibility | Library | 3 | 1,200 |
| Automation | Library | 4 | 10,100 |
| Naturalism | Hunter's Lodge | 6 | 2,050 |
| Solvency | Bank | 4 | 2,400 |
| Livelihood | Market | 4 | 2,650 |
| Commerce | Chamber of Commerce | 3 | 1,900 |
| Ambition | Library | 6 | 5,600 |
| Fortune | Library | 4 | 2,700 |
Opens with your Library at level 6. 5 pieces of research, 2,900 Research Pages in all.
| Research | Pages | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Cottage Row density Tenancy 1 · ⭐ opens the subject · core |
200 | Fit more families into every Cottage Row you have already built — more residents, and more upkeep with them. |
| Merchant Quarter density Tenancy 2 · core |
600 | The same for the Merchant Quarter: denser housing on land you already hold. |
| Grand Villa density Tenancy 3 · core |
1,200 | And for the Grand Villas — the richest residents, and the hungriest upkeep in the city. |
| District panel District Management 1 · core |
450 | Upgrade a whole district in one tap, and see the upkeep it will cost before you commit to it. |
| Demolish a district District Management 2 · core |
450 | Clear away a district you no longer want. The families return to the road and half the materials come back. |
Opens with your Library at level 6. 3 pieces of research, 1,200 Research Pages in all.
| Research | Pages | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Ticks remaining Runway 1 · ⭐ opens the subject · core |
200 | Every good in the city reports how many ticks it has left at the current rate — tightest first. |
| Per-resource ledger Runway 2 · core |
500 | And where each one goes: what earns it, what burns it, and whether the two cover each other. |
| Crafting insight Crafting Insight 1 · core |
500 | The crafting panel names what you are short of before you choose a recipe, instead of after. |
Opens with your Library at level 6. 4 pieces of research, 10,100 Research Pages in all.
| Research | Pages | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Library Insight v3 Deferred Resolution 1 · core |
1,200 | Queue an action that decides what it is at the moment it runs, taking whatever your city needs most by then. |
| Deferred crafting Deferred Resolution 2 · core |
900 | The same deferred choice, pointed at the workbench: queue a craft now, let it pick the recipe later. |
| Scheduling I Scheduling 1 · 🏁 after all core research · bonus |
3,000 | A permanent extra queue slot for anyone standing in this city — earned by the city, not by your tier. |
| Scheduling II Scheduling 2 · 🏁 after all core research · bonus |
5,000 | A second permanent slot, on top of the first. It follows the city, so every citizen here gets it. |
Opens with your Hunter's Lodge at level 6. 6 pieces of research, 2,050 Research Pages in all.
| Research | Pages | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Scouting I Game Scouting 1 · ⭐ opens the subject · core |
200 | Your scouts find a species on each of the first four grounds that nobody else can hunt there. |
| Scouting II Game Scouting 2 · core |
300 | Another on each — the old grounds you outgrew start paying attention again. |
| Scouting III Game Scouting 3 · core |
350 | A third on each. Your passport grows in places you stopped looking years ago. |
| Scouting IV Game Scouting 4 · core |
400 | Your naturalists come back with rumors rather than pelts. Something is out there that should not be. |
| Crossbow tactics Crossbow Tactics 1 · core |
400 | Crossbow trips come home faster from every ground — the heavy game, at less of the waiting. |
| Mythic discovery Mythic Discovery 1 · core |
400 | Mr. Crane has been abroad, and what he brought back is not in any passport. |
Opens with your Bank at level 6. 4 pieces of research, 2,400 Research Pages in all.
| Research | Pages | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Underwriting I Underwriting 1 · ⭐ opens the subject · core |
200 | Borrow against more of what you have earned, over a longer horizon than the Bank would otherwise allow. |
| Underwriting II Underwriting 2 · core |
700 | Lower fees on every term you take. The same loan, cheaper to carry. |
| Term deposit Instruments of Credit 1 · core |
1,000 | Park personal gold for a fixed term and it earns while it sits — interest minted for you, not taken from the city. |
| Audit Audit 1 · core |
500 | See what your Treasury actually earns and burns, and what the export valve would pay for the surplus. |
Opens with your Market at level 6. 4 pieces of research, 2,650 Research Pages in all.
| Research | Pages | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Resident demand Resident Demand 1 · ⭐ opens the subject · core |
200 | Residents spend more at the shops they already use, so a well-stocked shelf earns more from the same families. |
| Wage reform I Wage Reform 1 · core |
650 | Every worker in this city takes home a little more of what the city makes, every tick. |
| Wage reform II Wage Reform 2 · core |
800 | A second raise on top of the first. It applies to everyone standing here, not just citizens. |
| Labor market Labor Market 1 · core |
1,000 | Assign your workers recipe by recipe, instead of letting the planner decide for you. |
Opens with your Chamber of Commerce at level 6. 3 pieces of research, 1,900 Research Pages in all.
| Research | Pages | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Local restock Commerce Logistics 1 · ⭐ opens the subject · core |
200 | Restocking your own shops in this city stops costing a queue slot. Free to do, as often as you like. |
| Warehouse lease Commerce Logistics 2 · core |
1,200 | Tycoons trading here may lease deeper shelves from your city, paying you for the space. |
| Assessment Assessment 1 · core |
500 | See what your residents want to buy that no shop here sells — the gap between demand and your shelves. |
Opens with your Library at level 6. 6 pieces of research, 5,600 Research Pages in all.
| Research | Pages | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Patronage I Patronage 1 · core |
400 | Commission Tier I of a new generation of landmarks. They pay far more prestige than the monuments; a visitor earns the same either way. |
| Patronage II Patronage 2 · core |
700 | Commission the Tier II landmarks of that generation — costlier to raise, and worth more standing to the city that does. |
| Patronage III Patronage 3 · core |
1,200 | Commission the grandest of them. These are the highest-prestige buildings in the game. |
| Great Works I Great Works 1 · bonus |
500 | Your city attempts what nobody has proven. Unproven works fail in unproven ways — and a city that rebuilds earns real standing for it. |
| Great Works II Great Works 2 · bonus |
1,000 | Reach further, and the weather notices more often. Still nothing strikes a city that never took this chain. |
| Great Works III Great Works 3 · bonus |
1,800 | The most ambitious works a city can commission, and the most exposed. There is a switch to shelter while you are away. |
Opens with your Library at level 6. 4 pieces of research, 2,700 Research Pages in all.
| Research | Pages | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Wider outcomes Scratch 1 · ⭐ opens the subject · bonus |
400 | A scratch ticket can come up with outcomes it simply could not produce before. |
| Richer yields Scratch 2 · bonus |
800 | Scratch resource prizes are sized against what your city actually produces, so they keep their worth. |
| Tickets in the prize Bingo 1 · bonus |
600 | Scratch tickets start turning up inside bingo prizes, so one game feeds the other. |
| Richer prizes Bingo 2 · bonus |
900 | Bingo prize containers pay considerably more of everything they already paid. |