How to research new items and equipment at the Research Laboratory in Starfield

As you wander the galaxy in Starfield, you’ll find a wide variety of weapons, useful items, and equipment that make your journey more manageable. However, credits are perpetually in short supply. If you buy everything you need, you might never save up enough to pay for larger items that catch your eye. Fortunately, you can research items and equipment and then manufacture them yourself to save some expense. Here is our guide explaining how to research new items and equipment at the Research Laboratory in Starfield.

Starfield – how to research new items and equipment at the Research Laboratory

The Research Laboratory is a precious resource available to players right from the onset. You have a ‘Research Station’ available on the Frontier ship you receive near the start of the game. Once you own a home free and clear, you can also manufacture a laboratory. I love that option, because I set up the station and the various facilities that allowed me to get a convenient manufacturing center operating. To research items and equipment at the Research Laboratory, select the research category that interests you and invest the resources indicated to complete projects and level up your capabilities.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

There are five categories for research: Pharmacology, Food and Drink, Outpost Development, Equipment, and Weaponry. Suppose you are interested in researching in the Pharmacology category, which allows you to produce your own medical supplies. Initially, you will have a few research projects available. The simplest ones require common components. For instance, you can fully research the Performance Enhancement 1 project by supplying Argon x2, Tetraflourides x2, and Metabolic Agent x3.

More advanced research leads to better items and equipment

Once you finish a research project, the next project in that line immediately becomes available. It has stricter requirements. Continuing with the above example, your next step would be to research the Performance Enhancement 2 project. Besides requiring more materials, this project requires that you unlock the Chemistry skill at Rank 1. The various categories require different skill proficiencies in order to develop them at a higher level. Expect to spend a lot of skill points in the Science portion of your skill tree. This branch can also help as you learn how to build outposts. You can construct research stations in them for convenient use.

On a final note, you may find it difficult to remember what all components you need to gather. While viewing a project, you can choose the ‘Track Project‘ option. Doing so causes an ‘!‘ to appear when you encounter items in various menus, such as at the shop in New Atlantis. That should make your search easier. However, you’ll still need to spend a lot of time gathering resources on planets in order to craft the best new items and equipment.

Starfield is available to purchase on Steam and the Microsoft Store.