The Alchemist researches new materials and technologies. It can often affect the power of ships and weapons, production rate of mines and farms and many other things.
Various research projects have different effects and broadly fall into the following categories:
- Improved gold and iron production rate
- Improved food production rate
- Improved wood production rate
- Reduced farm construction/upgrade cost
- Improved ship speeds
Most of the categories above have multiple research projects, each with a different cost, research time, and magnitude of improvement. Most research project can be researched multiple times, up to a maximum, and the improvement is cumulative. The cost and time of the project increase each time you research it.
- For example, a level 20 Woodcutter normally produces 2,076 wood. The Trump saw research project improves this by 5% to 2,180 at level 1. Researching the Trump saw project again improves this another 5% to 2,289. If you then research Processing the sawdust this improves another 2% to 2,334.
Research Projects[]
Costs and times in the following table are for level one; the price and time multipliers apply for subsequent levels.
| Project | Category | Multiplier | Cost (Gold) | Cost (Wood) | Cost (Iron) | Time (days) | Max level | Price multiplier | Time multiplier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Pick | Mining rate | +1% | 100,000 | 200,000 | 1 | 10 | +10% | +50% | |
| Well-drilling | Mining rate | +2% | 2,000,000 | 1,000,000 | 2 | 5 | +50% | +25% | |
| Arrastra | Mining rate | +4% | 2,500,000 | 2,000,000 | 3 | 5 | +10% | +5% | |
| Water wheel | Mining rate | +5% | 2,800,000 | 4,000,000 | 7 | 5 | +10% | +5% | |
| Steam engine | Mining rate | +2% | 4,000,000 | 2,000,000 | 20 | 3 | +10% | 0% | |
| Fertilizer | Farming rate | +10% | 500,000 | 1,500,000 | 5 | 5 | +15% | +05% | |
| Irrigation of the farms | Farming rate | +2% | 1,000,000 | 2,500,000 | 7 | 10 | +30% | +25% | |
| Chemical fertilizer | Farming rate | +2% | 5,000,000 | 1,000,000 | 12 | 5 | +10% | +15% | |
| Improved formula of the fertilizer | Farming rate | +2% | 2,000,000 | 1,000,000 | 15 | 5 | +15% | +5% | |
| Fertilizing spreader | Farm cost | -10% | 4,000,000 | 2,000,000 | 10 | 2 | +15% | +5% | |
| Trump saw | Wood prod. rate | +5% | 1,000,000 | 2,000,000 | 2 | 5 | +10% | +10% | |
| Processing the sawdust | Wood prod. rate | +2% | 2,000,000 | 1,500,000 | 7 | 10 | +10% | +10% | |
| Circular saw | Wood prod. rate | +5% | 2,750,000 | 1,500,000 | 12 | 5 | +10% | +10% | |
| Strip frame saw | Wood prod. rate | +4% | 2,000,000 | 2,000,000 | 15 | 5 | +10% | +10% | |
| Compass | Ship speed | 2% | 5,000,000 | 8,000,000 | 7 | ? | ? | ? | |
| Gyroscope | Ship speed | 2% | 2,000,000 | 12,000,000 | 7 | ? | ? | ? | |
| Cartography | Ship speed | 3% | 3,000,000 | 11,000,000 | 10 | ? | ? | ? | |
| Spyglass | Ship speed | 2% | 5,000,000 | 7,000,000 | 21 | ? | ? | ? | |
| Star chart | Ship speed | 1% | 4,000,000 | 2,000,000 | 15 | ? | ? | ? |