Research / TechnologyReport

English：Research / Technology　·　Game Mechanics

Kenshi's tech tree is gated by six "tech levels" and fuelled by four kinds of scavenged ancient artefact — books, ancient science books, engineering research and AI cores. Most weapons and armour cannot be researched at all; you buy their blueprints.

"Bigger and better research desks for researching bigger and better things." — in-game description of Tech Level

In Kenshi, "technology" is not an abstract progress bar but a stack of paper hauled back out of the ruins. Everything you research is a fragment left behind by the Second Empire; the research itself is just the work of understanding what somebody else wrote down long ago.

Tech level: six gates

Technology divides into 8 branches — core, crafting, defence, power, farming, industry, smithing and training — with six tiers under each. What determines how deep you can reach is your Tech Level, and Tech Level means exactly one thing: how advanced a research bench you are allowed to build.

The purpose of the ladder is plain: it locks endgame technology such as hydroponics and automated mining behind the gates and forces you to walk the sequence.

Research benches

The starting point is the Small Research Bench (3 building materials), which only fits inside a small shack and is also the one version that cannot be upgraded — for a tier II bench you have to demolish it and rebuild inside a larger building. From tier II up, benches have an "upgrade" button and step up in place, with no rebuilding required.

Research speed depends on the operator's Science skill. Several benches can work the same project at once, but each additional bench adds less than the last, so a whole row does not scale linearly.

The four research items

Research fuel is collectively called Research Artifacts, of which there are four, wildly different in rarity:

Books restock normally; the other three are generated through the "artifact system" — once bought they are gone, and shops never order more. If you want a supply, you dig for it yourself.

• Ancient science books: mainly in ancient tech labs, ancient labs, lost libraries and lost cities. The very few shops that sell them are the Scraphouse and the travelling repair shops in World's End and Flats Lagoon.
• Engineering research: post-ancient workshops, workshop complexes and deadland workshops almost always generate some.
• AI cores: fixed sources include the Scraphouse (3, buyable or stealable), Ash Domes I/III/IV, Cat-Lon's Exile, the island lab, the ancient tech labs in Shun and the Iron Trail, the Spider Factory and others. Some Skeletons and robotic creatures also carry one inside them — extracting it means executing them.

How many are there, exactly?

This is a point where the wiki disagrees with itself. To summarise:

• Individual item pages: 154 ancient science books, 19 engineering research, 32 AI cores.
• The player-compiled tech tree page (version 1.0.40): 317 books, 157 ancient science books, 19 engineering research, 29 AI cores.

Engineering research agrees on both sides (19); the rest do not. The reasonable reading is that the two counts are based on different versions and that the tech tree was tallied by hand. In practice, treat "about 150 ancient science books, about 30 cores" as the full-clear target — and note that the vast majority of players never need to full-clear at all.

Blueprints: the half you cannot research

This is the biggest blind spot for new players: most weapons and armour are simply not on the research bench.

Blueprints are spread across the traders of the various factions, and sold by faction: katanas, nodachi and the like come from weapon shops in the United Cities or Mongrel; hackers and the Paladin's Cross come from the Holy Nation; The Plank is Shek. The bookshop in Black Scratch stocks almost every weapon blueprint there is, and is the single stop with the least legwork.

A few blueprints are mandatory for construction and will jam the whole tech line if you do not buy them:

• Advanced Outpost blueprint (15,000 Cats) — without it you can never build Outpost type III or IV
• Advanced Harpooning (25,000 Cats) — this one is unusual in that it can also be researched; it is the prerequisite for the double-barrel and rotary harpoon turrets

Lines worth taking early

• Iron Plates (1 book) → Iron Plates II (2 books): the foundation of the whole industrial chain; research benches, machines and well upgrades all eat iron plates.
• Baking (2 books): unlocks the granary and bread oven, the start of feeding yourself.
• Fuel Generator Theory (4 books): the only way to live in a windless region.
• Heavy Building Foundations (1 engineering research): unlocks no building by itself, yet is the shared prerequisite for Outpost III/IV and large defensive walls.
• Steel Bars (1 ancient science book): the gate to robotics and harpoon turrets.
• Hydroponics (1 AI core, needs Research Bench V): frees farms from environment and fertility limits, letting you grow crops anywhere — including on town rooftops.

Common misconceptions

• "The Small Research Bench upgrades to tier II" — it does not. It is a dead end; you start over elsewhere.
• "More benches scale research linearly" — there are diminishing returns.
• "Completing the tech tree is a necessary goal" — it is not. AI cores mostly go into prosthetics and endgame mining/turrets, and most saves never use half of them.
• "Research proceeds automatically" — it does not. A character has to physically stand and work at the bench, and job priority depends on the order of the job list.

See also

• Base building
• Production and crafting
• Tech Hunters
• Skeletons
• Game mechanics overview