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Research

Last updated: August 21, 2026

Research is where frontier technology branches are developed and inspected. It is the slowest-moving surface in Terminus and the one that determines the most: what you can build, what you can field, and which strategies remain open to you later. In a persistent game, research is the decision with the longest shadow — a branch neglected early is not merely behind, it has closed off everything downstream of it.

Branches as commitments

Technology is organised into branches rather than a flat list, which means progression is directional. Investing is choosing what kind of commander you intend to be, and the interesting question is rarely "is this good" but "is this the direction I am already going".

Downstream effects

Research gates the shipyard's classes and the buildings ledger's upgrades. When something you want is unavailable, the answer is usually here rather than in the surface where you noticed the absence.

Technology in the Universe

The Mechanum and Cyberion corpus in the Codex documents the technology Terminus renders as branches: networks, citadels, forging complexes, neural vaults, the Datasphere, automata and the Quaternary Code. The Grand Library's Encyclopedia guide to the Quaternary Code is the most approachable entry into it.

Branch contents, costs and prerequisites are defined by the current manual and shown in the interface. This page describes what the surface is for and nothing about its contents.

Official source

Canonical source for this subject: Research — Terminus. Checked 21 August 2026 — where this guide and the live service disagree, the service is right.

  • Shipyard — Laying down hulls and inspecting Starfleet classes in three dimensions.
  • Buildings — The colony structure ledger, its upgrade costs and its 3D dossiers.
  • Mechanum, Cyberion and Xdripian Technology — Orientation to networks, automata, the Datasphere and constructed infrastructure.
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