The Tech Lab is one of the first buildings you'll construct in Ixion, and it lets you unlock blueprints for more advanced structures. Once you've researched a building, you can make it even better by researching upgrades! Common upgrades reduce a building's power consumption or make it work more efficiently, saving you resources in the long run.
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While every upgrade in the game is potentially useful, there are several that are basically required if you want to complete the game. Let's take a look at the best upgrades available, and the reasons you should research them as soon as you can.
10 Panel Purification (Steel Mill)
For most of the game, you'll need at least two Steel Mills operating constantly in order to keep up with the Tiqqun's demand for Alloys. From hull repairs to new construction, a constant pipeline from iron-rich asteroids to your production centers is required.
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Alloy Development and Panel Purification both reduce the amount of iron needed for each production cycle. With both upgrades in place, you'll be able to make your iron reserves last longer without slowing production!
9 EKP Optimization (Cargo Ship)
The Tiqqun lives and dies by its ability to get resources from outer space. By speeding up your Cargo Ships, you'll be able to fill your stockpiles faster and risk fewer shortages.
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EKP Optimization increases the movement speed of Cargo Ships by ten percent, and you can increase this bonus further with later upgrades. Even if you don't take the others, this first upgrade is essential, especially when you need to send supplies to a science expedition.
8 Exoskeletons (Science Ship)
Space is full of dangers, and your Science Ships are the ones most likely to suffer an unfortunate fate as a result. Exoskeletons, which is available to research fairly early, unlocks additional options when exploring, giving you better results and fewer casualties.
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Researching Exoskeletons as soon as its available has the potential to save dozens of lives over the course of the campaign. You'll also save on Polymers from not having to rebuild destroyed vessels.
The first time a Science Ship is lost with all hands, the Tiqqun suffers a permanent Stability penalty. Avoid this at all costs - if even a lone survivor makes it back, you'll avoid the penalty.
7 Accelerated Growth (Insect Farm)
For roughly the first half of the game, most of your food will be produced at Insect Farms. Each can feed fifty crew, assuming no breakdowns in production or transportation. Accelerated Growth speeds up their production, effectively boosting the number of people you can feed by ten percent.
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While you'll eventually need to phase out Insect Farms for their much more efficient counterparts further along the tech tree, your initial reliance on them means you should boost their output early. It won't be long before your population grows beyond your ability to feed them, so you have to be sure to keep up!
6 Dormitory Cell (Colonization Training Center)
This entry contains minor spoilers.
In each system after the first, you'll be required to train colonists to set up outposts on planets. The number required grows with each chapter, and there's no guarantee they'll make it back. Adding dorms to the Colonization Training Centers lets you train more colonists at no increase to the costs incurred.
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One of the game's final challenges is to train all of your non-worker crew members as colonists. You'll never be able to pull this off in a timely manner without at least researching Dormitory Cell, and the upgraded version, Team Rotation, might also be necessary. By researching Dormitory Cell early, you can continuously train colonists at a good pace throughout your journey, reducing the number of extra training sessions needed during the endgame.
5 Vertical Parking (Stockpile)
Stockpiles are necessary as a staging point for all the Tiqqun's resources, but that's only half the story. Each stockpile has a dedicated fleet of transporters, which bring goods to the places they're needed. Vertical Parking adds an extra transporter to each stockpile, letting them move goods more quickly throughout the station.
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If you're lucky, you may happen upon the Collapsible Frames upgrade while exploring with your Science Ships. This upgrade adds more transporters to the stockpiles, further increasing your overall efficiency.
4 Reorganization Of Care (Infirmary)
The nature of the game means that you're going to be dealing with injuries on the crew very often. Every sector needs to have at least one Infirmary to get people back on their feet. An injured crew member that goes untreated will die, reducing your workforce and reducing the happiness of their home sector.
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Large accidents can cause dozens of injuries, so researching Reorganization Of Care to increase the capacity of Infirmaries ensures that crew members to be treated when they'd otherwise be stuck in the waiting room. Even better, Reorganization Of Care is a prerequisite for the next upgrade on this list...
3 Additional Beds (Crew Quarters)
One of the challenges you'll face throughout the game is housing and feeding a growing population as you awaken hundreds or even thousands of Cryopods. During the middle chapters in particular, it's easy for homelessness to occur in several sectors at once. Additional Beds allows each housing structure, regardless of type, to hold thirty percent more crew.
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You can also research new housing types from the Crew Quarters section of the tech tree. Optimized and Domotic Quarters hold more crew with better accommodations, all for the same footprint and power draw as two standard housing blocks!
2 Photosensitive Lamination (Solar Panels)
The Tiqqun's solar panels are arguably the most important feature. They provide energy, allowing you to power buildings and avoid blackouts. Hitting the limit of your energy production is the surest way to see expansion grind to a halt, usually followed by a loss of crew trust.
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You should research upgrades for the solar panel array as soon as they become available, and the best strategy is to take Photosensitive Lamination first. This reduces the Polymer cost of new solar panels by ten percent, which adds up. The largest solar panel arrays have costs running well into the hundreds, and you don't want to be caught coming up short when you needed those panels built five cycles ago!
1 Intelligent Lab (Tech Lab)
Yes, you can research upgrades for your research facility! The Tech Lab produces science at a very slow rate early on, so the only real way to get any research done is to have Science Ships explore the system. Once you research Assistant Promotion, the Tech Lab starts to pull its weight more.
Three points of research every five cycles is decent, especially when supplemented by your Science Fleet, but once Intelligent Lab is available it's a game changer. Not only does it unlock several upgrades for your factories, but it also changes your passive science income to one per cycle (collected every five days). When it's too dangerous to send out Science Ships, you'll still be able to research new upgrades to solve the Tiqqun's many problems!
Next: Things We Wish We Knew Before Starting Ixion
