Raven's R&D

[Raven171]

Hey folks. Seen a few requests for up-to-date R&D guides, so here's my stab at it. Reminder that deconstructing an object will raise tech to its level, then beyond if possible - (E.g. deconstructing a heart (Bio 5) at Bio 2 will advance to Bio 5. If deconstructing AT Bio 5, advance to Bio 6) - so if you need Materials 7 for a recipe, look for Materials 6 in the guide to advance.

Stage 0: Prep A couple things to grab before you start.

First, Scichem. Fill a beaker with 30+ units of Radium. Grab the monkey, or spawn one from a cube, and run through to Xeno. Throw the monkey on the table, and use the circular saw to amputate the Head. Then use the saw on the removed head to butcher out the brain. Bring it with you.

Stage 1: R&D Lab The stuff on the tables

Micro Manipulator (Materials 1, Data 1)

Basic Capacitor (Power 1)

Basic Microlaser (Magnets 1)

Welding Tool (Plasma 1, Engineering 1) From a toolbox on the desk

Toolbox (Combat 1)

High Capacity Cell (Power 2) Table at the bottom of R&D, next to the door

Stage 2: Basic Production (P)rotolathe, (C)ircuit Printer

(P) Advanced Capacitor (Power 3)

(P) Mass Spectrometer (Biological 1, Magnets 2, Plasma 2)

(P) Health Scanner HUD (Biological 2, Magnets 3)

(P) Advanced Reagent Scanner (Biological 3, Magnets 4, Plasma 3)

(P) Floral Somatoray (Biological 4, Materials 2) Load the Radium from earlier into the protolathe.

(P) Advanced Matter Bin (Materials 3)

(P) Advanced Hard Disk Drive (Data 2, Engineering 2)

(P) Holographic Sign Projector (Data 3)

(P) Security HUD (Combat 2)

(P) Large Grenade (Engineering 3, Combat 3)

(P) Tracking Beacon (Bluespace 1)

(P) GPS (Bluespace 2)

(C) SUPERPACMAN Board (Engineering 4, Power 4)

(C) GYGAX Weapons and Targeting (Combat 4, Data 4)

(C) Telepad Control Console (Bluespace 3, Plasma 4)

(C) Quantum Pad Board (Bluespace 4)

(C) Teleportation Hub (Materials 4)

All your standard techs should now be level 5. Remember to Sync to the server! Print 10 Pico Manipulators, 10 Super Matter Bins, 5 High-Power Microlasers, 5 Advanced Scanning Modules, 5 Advanced Capcitors into an RPED. Upgrade R&D, then Xeno (if anyone is there), then beeline it to the ORM. This should be at about to 10-15 minute mark, so it is super unlikely mining will be back yet. On your way back, upgrade Medbay Sleepers and Cloning, and Genetics (If anyone is there). If miners are taking their time, also apply basic upgrades to Robotics Mech Fabs and Botany's DNA scanner and Biomass generator (you might need to print more components). 

Nuclear War Ops Attacking? Rush this. Build Tech disks for cargo. Get them 6-800 points in 10-15 minutes, and get them to buy ALL THE GUNS. They will love you.

Stage 3: Miners are back! 

You will need at least 2 diamonds and 2 bluespace crystals to max out tech. You will need at 3+ of each to really upgrade the station. Hope mining are decent. Load 1 Diamond into the Circuit Printer, and anything else you have into the protolathe.

Monkey Brain from earlier (Biological 5)

(P) Reviver Implant (Materials 5)

(C) AI Purge Module (Data 5)

(P) Diamond Mining Drill (Materials 6, cheaper than a single diamond)

This unlocks Femto Manipulators. Perform a quick upgrade to your Protolathe and the Robotics Fabricators to minimise the cost of the following before you continue.

Captain's Chain of Command (Combat 5)

Robotics PX-Tesla Cannon (Combat 6, Magnets 5)

Robotics PX-Tesla Cannon (Magnets 5 again)

Robotics Phazon Torso (Plasma 5)

Refined Bluespace Crystal (Bluespace 6) Use a Polycrystal / Mesh from the ORM in hand to break it down to individual crystals

Refined Bluespace Crystal (Bluespace 6 again)

Xenobiology Charged Yellow Core (Power 5) If Xenobio aren't there yet, just use Super Capacitors to upgrade and come back to this later.

At this point you should have top-tier components for everything. Remember to thank and upgrade your Miners as you go! Print 20-30 of each component, into a Bluespace RPED. Also print 10 Technology Storage Disks, and load them with your current tech levels (Should all be 5s, 6s and 7s) - this will net Cargo just over 1000 points. 

Perform the upgrade lap of the station. Start with R&D, Robotics, Xenobio. Upgrade Cargo and the ORM, dropping your Tech Disks off as you go. As you drop the disks, order

Cargo Machine Prototype Crate (Engineering 6)

Cargo Machine Prototype Crate (Engineering 6 again) This can be skipped if Mining bring you a Miners Jetpack (engineering 5) before you do the first one.

Then proceed to upgrade the rest of the station.

Stage 4: Endgame, or your friends in Botany

A completionist, hey? The techs above should get you the ability to print most things, but if you want the super high tech stuff:

Xenobiology Sentience Potion (Biological 6)

XRAY Laser Gun (Illegals 1) Doesn't have to be taken out of its lockbox!

Mining Drone AI Upgrade (Data 6)

Then its time to ask the botanists. Sometimes a competent botanist will get you all of this in 20 minutes, saving you half a tech tree in research. Sometimes you'll have to break in and do it yourself. Remember, deconstructing two of these is an instant skip to Tech 7, so if you have a competent botanist thank them profusely. 

Botany Glowshrooms (Plasma 6)

Botany Glowcaps (Power 6)

Botany Ambrosia Gaia (Biological 6)

And that should be it. There's still more to find in Illegals, and if you happen to get Abductor tech you can do some fun stuff there. And there are many other methods to use to reach the top tech levels! Feel free to experiment, to work out your own methods. But this has been my tried and tested, and is yet to let me down.

 

[WingedYordle]

I didn’t see it but disks to cargo?

[Pennwick]

Whats the best way for Mining to help R&D out? Whenever you're going full in like this I like to be able to send more than just materials to help out. Usually I take a minute to pack up that roundstart silver and ship it to you so you can make a Bluespace RPED right away but beyond that what do you like from the vendor most? Usually Miners come back with 3000-6000 points worth of materials. Drone AI cost 1000, Lazarus injectors 1000, and Jetpacks 2000. But we also have our own stuff to get as well. We usually like to get magboots, NV Mesons, and the almighty AOE mining explosion.

Whats the best way for Mining to spend their points to give you guys a boost?

[Raven171]

Hey!

So, the big thing is in your initial haul. You come back with 400 gold, R&D can advance 2 levels. You bring back only 3 of everything, R&D can technically finish.

Mining Jetpack (2000) is the big one - there are only 2 ways to advance engineering beyond 5, and this is one of them. However, it can also be done by just buying a second machine prototype crate - so check Cargo. If they're bleeding points, bring a jetpack, if not Tech Disks should pay off any problems once R&D get the protos.

Drone AI (1000) is another critical one. Only need one of these, but it is the ONLY way (AFAIK) for Data 7.

Lazrus injectors (magnets?) are weird. If we get them early, it unlocks final tier upgrades for Scanner and Laser micros, but it's entirely possible to do without them - Combat 6 (Captain's Chain) unlocks Robotic Tesla Cannons that can do the same job.

When I mine, if I have about 4000 points I usually go Jetpack, Drone AI, 1000 for myself. Remember that R&D CAN print you your Cooldown mods etc, so you can afford to burn close the limit. 

If I'm on R&D, Preferred loadout would be (Jetpack, Drone AI) - so if you have 3000 points to spare, that is the most help you could give me. Thank you for the question, and for considering it.