Research is crucial in Infection Free Zone – and if you want to last long, you need to get into it as soon as you can. But you’ll need science materials and a Research Centre to get it going first.
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How to get scientific materials in Infection Free Zone
The scientific material resource can be found and generated in Infection Free Zone, but before you can generate them, you have to find them.
Scientific materials are shown on your map by little open books, and will be available from places of education or research. Upon scavenging one, you’ll earn one scientific material to use on research.
Each map will have a finite amount of scientific research available to scavenge, and to find them all easily, make sure to have Scavenge View on, by pressing “V.” Zoom out, and you should be able to spy at least one scientific material. Thankfully, that’s all you need to start generating them by yourself.
How to unlock and build the Research Center in Infection Free Zone
The Research Center will produce scientific materials in Infection Free Zone for you, so you won’t have to scavenge around all the time.
You can find it in the buildings menu, in the “Other” tab. The game will tell you to “scavenge around” to unlock it, because you need a particular resource first, which turns out to be scientific materials. The moment you scavenge your first one, you’ll unlock it.
You will eventually get a quest to unlock the Research Center, at which point an orange ping will notify you of a nearby abandoned building with scientific materials inside, but you can scavenge some and unlock it ahead of time regardless of the quest.
Upon future playthroughs of the game, it seems you will start the game with the quest to get started on building a Research Centre right away. Note that you can collect any scientific material, not just the one the game points out.
To build the Research Center, find it again in your buildings menu. It costs 0.5 metal and 0.4 wood per 100m³. The bigger the building you select, the more expensive the building will be, but you’ll be able to house more scientists to produce scientific materials quicker.
Remember that you can “partially convert” buildings into other facilities, by clicking and holding on a structure. The blue zone indicates how much of that building you’ll turn into a Research Center, which dictates the cost and max number of scientists. Note that a building can’t be multifunctional, even if you only convert 10% of it into a facility.
Your buildiers will get onto constructing the Research Center, and as soon as it’s built, you will produce a scientific material at a speed relative to your scientists. With three scientists, I was producing one scientific material every 12 hours. When you are researching something, however, they’ll stop producing scientific material to speed up the research effort.
How to research in Infection Free Zone
You can purchase research in Infection Free Zone without a Research Center, although you won’t be able to begin research without one.
In the top left corner is a banner with a flask. Click that to bring up the Research Panel. There are six categories of research, and each will either unlock more buildings and items or improve efficiency.
To get started on a research, click on one that’s unlocked, and, if you’ve got enough scientific materials, you’ll be able to start research on it. For the most part, this takes some time, and it may need to get produced over the course of a day or two, depending on when it started.
You can assign more scientists during this time if you need the research ready sooner rather than later.
When the research is ready, you’ll be notified and can get started on the next one.
All research in Infection Free Zone
There are currently 20 different researches in Infection Free Zone for you to discover, and finding them all out is key to your survival and longevity. In total, it’ll cost 92 scientific materials to research everything.
Here is a comprehensive list of all the researches in Infection Free Zone, separated by category.
All Med research
Research Name | Cost | Max Time | Effect |
| Medical Care | 2 | 40 hrs | Unlocks the Medbay building |
| Drugs Production | 4 | 80 hrs | Shortens recovery time |
| First Aid | 4 | 80 hrs | Citizens treat themselves more efficiently (uses less supplies) |
All Communication research
| Research Name | Cost | Max Time | Effect |
| Basic Antenna | 1 | 12 hrs | Unlocks the Antenna building |
| Weather Forecast | 3 | 20 hrs | Unlocks the Weather Center building |
All Chemistry research
| Research Name | Cost | Max Time | Effect |
| Chemistry | 3 | 16 hrs | Unlocks other Chemistry researches |
| Fertilizer Production | 2 | 8 hrs | Unlocks the production of fertilizer |
| Manufacture of Synthetic Fuels | 2 | 8 hrs | Unlocks the production of synthetic fuels |
| Nitrocellulose Powder | 2 | 8 hrs | Unlocks the Arms Factory building |
All Arms Production research
| Research Name | Cost | Max Time | Effect |
| Pistol | 5 | 36 hrs | Unlocks the production of pistols |
| Assault Rifle | 10 | 80 hrs | Unlocks the production of Assault Rifles |
| Shotgun | 12 | 100 hrs | Unlocks the production of Shotguns |
| Sniper Rifle | 14 | 120 hrs | Unlocks the production of Sniper Rifles |
All Construction research
| Research Name | Cost | Max Time | Effect |
| Tool Factory | 2 | 16 hrs | Unlocks the Tool Factory building |
| Advanced Woodworks | 4 | 24 hrs | Unlocks the Houses building |
| Advanced Masonry | 8 | 32 hrs | Unlocks enhanced defences |
All Food research
| Research Name | Cost | Max Time | Effect |
| Farming | 2 | 16 hrs | Improves crop yield |
| Fertilization Techniques | 4 | 32 hrs | Unlocks the use of fertilizers |
| Food Preservation | 4 | 32 hrs | Unlocks the Cannery building |
| Efficient Cooking | 4 | 32 hrs | Improves the efficiency of kitchens (Cookhouses) |
And there you have it – absolutely everything to know about research in Infection Free Zone. I hope you have enough spare citizens to research all this.
