Research

**Research** (also known as Upgrades) is a feature in Egg, Inc. which allows you to spend Bocks to upgrade some quality relating to your hatchery, habitats, vehicles, or anything else on the farm. Most areas of research offer multiple levels, each one costing more than the previous. An upgrade from Tier 1 doubling egg value plus an upgrade from Tier 2 doubling egg value again will quadruple egg value. Since no upgrades in one tier do the same thing, this effectively means that all research will compound with each other.

When the number of upgrades researched hits a certain number, the Research Building changes.

Each upgrade or research adds  3 or more to the Piggy Bank.

For the first few eggs without soul eggs, you can actually skip research and continuously only make chickens to upgrade your eggs (if you are patient enough), but late in the game you will have to use research to progress further.

## Common

**Common** research are purchased with Bocks. They reset when you sell your farm or prestige.

Levels of research items in a tier can only be purchased once the tier has been unlocked, which requires purchasing enough levels of research from previous tiers on your current farm.

## Epic

**Epic** research are bought with Golden Eggs. Epic Research does not reset when you upgrade your Egg or Prestige - you keep it forever.

The general formula for Epic Research totals is as follows:

* The costs of the first level and the last level, as well as the total number of levels, are hard coded by the devs.
* For any level in between, call the costs of the first and last levels "first" and "last", respectively, and the number of levels "levels". The cost of a given level "level" is

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{\displaystyle first + \left \lfloor \frac{\left ( level-1 \right ) \left ( last-first \right )}{levels-1} \right \rfloor}

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* Because of the floor operation, there is no concise formula for the total cost of a Research. However, there is one without the floor operation, which means there is one for a value which is greater than or equal to the actual answer, without being *significantly* larger:

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{\displaystyle \frac{levels \left ( first+last \right )}{2}}

	+ This will always be less than *levels - 1* too large, as it will always overcount by strictly less than 1 extra per level, and the first level can't be overcounted at all. It will never overcount by less than zero, so while it may be exactly accurate, it will never undercount.
* While it is not listed here, the Hyperloop obeys this formula as well, although it only has one level, so there is no need for a formula.

## Research Strategies

* Since the running chicken bonus can only appear when your habs are not yet full, players who use boosts to fill their habs may wish to only buy the first 24 levels of Wormhole Dampening boosting. This allows for them to buy the final level after boosting and hence still be able to take advantage of the running chicken bonus for nearly-full habs.
	+ An alternative strategy is buying all the levels of Wormhole Dampening, maxing the habs, and then activating a gusset. However, this would require one artifact slot to be used for the gusset (which cannot be taken off if that would result in habs overflowing).
* Hold to Hatch will only work when your Hatchery is not empty, so to take full advantage of this upgrade you should either activate a Quantum Warming Bulb or remember to release your hold occasionally to let the Hatchery fill up a bit again (being careful to resume holding before your running chicken bonus starts dropping, if you are trying to earn Bocks).
	+ Depending on many factors (your level of Hold to Hatch, your hatchery refill rate, your max running chicken bonus, your running chicken bonus per chicken, your personal timing of holding and releasing a button, and your personal skill at rapidly pressing a button), you might have an easier time maintaining your running chicken bonus (and therefore maximizing your income) by rapidly pressing the hatch button than by using Hold to Press.
	+ But in many situations (including having all common and epic research completed), it is still possible to hold and release with the right timing to never lose the max running chicken bonus. Players who are not skilled at rapidly pressing buttons and/or do not want to put in that much effort may prefer this method even if the occasional poor timing results in a moment of reduced running chicken bonus.

## Trivia

* The Warp Shift epic upgrade was removed and refunded in update 1.10.
* The Hover Semi, Quantum Transporter, and Hyperloop Train all count as hover vehicles for the purpose of the "Hover Upgrades" research in Tier 9.
* Epic Int. Hatcheries and Internal Hatchery Calm compound, so when both are fully upgraded your hatcheries perform at 6 times the rate they would without these upgrades.
* Since update 1.20.00, Prophecy Bonus costs  2,750,000, which is more than the cost of all epic researches prior to update 1.20.00.
	+ Zero-G Quantum Containment is now the most expensive epic research, costing  5,249,996.
* The FTL Drive Upgrades research only affects Spaceships with faster-than-light drives, or 'warp drives' (the Quintillion Chicken and above).
* The FTL Drive Upgrades and *Zero-G Quantum Containment* research both only apply to missions which are launched AFTER purchasing the research.
* Silo Capacity visually increases silo height with each level.
* It is easier to maintain maximum running chicken bonus if you keep Habs closer to your Hatchery smaller (and full) while Habs further away have space; this forces the chickens to run around much farther in order to disappear from the screen.