Research
Research is a guessing game played at a Lectern. Every project hides a few aspects, such as Metal or Magic. You test items to find out which aspects they are and fill each one up, and a finished project gives you its result.
Updated
Starting a project
A project starts from a research paper or a blank runestone.
- Sneak and right-click a Cartography Table to open the Research Station. Make a Parchment Paper from a Paper and an Alchemy Powder.
- Combine the Parchment Paper with a subject, such as an ingot, to get a Research Paper about it. You get the subject item back. Papers you have no ingredients for stay hidden. A Lost Knowledge Fragment instead makes an Unknown Research Paper, which studies a random topic. Every craft here also gives a little Herborist experience.
- Hold the paper and right-click a Lectern. The paper is used up and the project starts. A blank runestone from the Rune Station starts a project the same way, without a paper.
Only the character who started a project can work on it. You can run projects on several lecterns at once, and they survive restarts.
Running experiments
Right-click your lectern to open the project.
- Click an item in your inventory to put it in the test slot. Its preview shows the aspects it carries, how many points it would add to each, and whether each aspect is still Testing, already Confirmed or Rejected.
- Press Confirm Experiment. The test uses one Mental Point, and you get the item back.
- Pick the next item from what you learned, and keep going until every aspect is full.
- An item has a main aspect and sometimes a weaker second one. It adds more points to its main aspect.
- Each item can be tested only once per project. Items with no aspects can't be tested at all.
- A hidden aspect first shows as an Undiscovered row. Keep adding points to it until chat says "Aspect confirmed" and the row shows its name. Confirmed is not the same as done, so keep filling it.
- An aspect the project doesn't use is Rejected after a few tests. An experiment that only adds rejected aspects is refused.
- Points beyond what an aspect needs are wasted, and a test still costs a Mental Point when it adds nothing.
- Intelligence makes aspects show up and confirm sooner. On an Unknown Research Paper the result itself stays hidden until you have confirmed enough aspects.
Results and theses
Fill every aspect to finish.
When every aspect is confirmed and full, the result drops on top of the lectern. Pick it up quickly, because anyone nearby can. A runestone gives a random rune of its size, and a paper gives a Completed Thesis.
Right-click a Completed Thesis to add its entry to your Codex and earn experience. This uses up the thesis. If you already know that entry, you keep the thesis, so you can sell or trade it.
Ways to lose a project