Research

See first Advanced ResearchResearch is a gameplay mechanic in Pulsar: Lost Colony, mainly affecting the Scientist. Research is a method used to unlock new talents which can then be used by the crew or by a particular class, depending on the talent.

Materials
Research materials are items which can be collected on various planets. They can be found easily on the Scanner as long as the player has the Scanner Mode: Research Materials talent, where they will show up as light blue dots. Picking up a research material will add it to your inventory, where you can then find which samples it will give in the description. Research materials have weight. To use research materials, take them into the science lab and interact with the Atomiser. It will open a menu similar to the locker, where you can place research materials into the Atomiser. Be careful, as other items can be placed into the Atomiser, and will be permanently deleted if atomised. Once the materials are in the Atomiser, the 'Research' button must be pressed to turn the materials into samples.

Samples
Samples are items created by the Atomiser. They are not physical but rather are stored by the ship. There are 6 types of samples, each with a different colour and shape shown on the research screen. To find the number of samples currently on the ship, go to the research screen in the science lab and look at the top of the screen. It will show the icon of each of the samples, along with the number of each sample currently stored. These samples can then be spent to research talents.

Researching
Research is performed through the research screen, located in the ship's science lab. As the scientist researches more materials and gains more samples, more talents will be unlocked for research. Talents unlocked for research are not necessarily researchable immediately, and often require more samples. Talents can be selected from the side list, which will display more details about the talent, including: If the talent is available for research, clicking the 'Research' button will show a progress bar showing how many more jumps are required to research the talent. Multiple talents cannot be researched at the same time - once a talent has begun research, the screen will lock. The research will not be able to be cancelled and another talent cannot be researched at the same time. Once the required number of jumps have been performed, the talent will be unlocked for upgrading through the 'Talents' menu.
 * The name
 * The class and number of ranks
 * The description of the talent
 * The sample cost
 * The time to research in jumps
 * A research button.