Survival Guide - Dust Settles: Laboratory

Table of Contents:

Purpose:

One of the most important buildings in the entire game, laboratories give you the ability to open many other buildings throughout the game, multiple improvements to your actions and production, and allow you to get to advanced structures that exploring and recruiting just will not produce. They are a tad bit costly, especially at the beginning, but these buildings are the only way your camp can move from merely surviving to thriving. You will have to build at least one lab before you can open the Learn page.

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Basic Information:

Laboratory
	Building Name	Size (Land Units)	Supplies Cost
	Laboratory	1	4
	Workers to Construct	Staffing	Daily Cost
	6	4	2 Dsp
	Daily Production	Defense	Housing
	Research	2	0

Opening Requirements:

Laboratories are a starting building. You will use this building to research the basic research topics and open other, more advanced buildings.

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Improvements:

The only real improvement you can have for a lab is a research bonus that you get by setting your class as Nerd when you sign up for the game. Otherwise you will just have to rely on building enough labs to hit the max. daily research limits whenever possible.

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Limitations:

Your primary limitations for labs will lie in the daily costs, both staffing and resource. Population tends to be one of your most valuable resources. You have to have people to do anything in this game, and that include to do research. If you do not have enough people to staff your labs, they will not run. Also labs require disposables, after all the scientists need matches, filter paper, writing paper, pens, etc. to do their research. You must be able to provide these buildings with the disposables they need or they will not remain active, and thus will not add to your current research level. There are many different methods for doing this, ranging from sending a small recruiting group and throwing everyone else into research for three turns and only feeding them on the fourth, to producing your own food through gardens and sending out daily exploration teams for disposables since both structures use that resource. It is up to you how to run your camp, though, so think carefully and plan well. Also, you will want to keep an eye on storm reports in your end turn displays. Labs are fairly vulnerable to storms and may be destroyed if it is powerful enough.

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Displays:

Your primary display for labs will be on the Learn page. This page will show you all currently open research topics and what level each one is currently at. This is also where you will change what your labs are researching.

On the top bar you will also see a display showing you what you are currently researching and the current level for that topic. This will help you keep track of upcoming changes you may have to make or new buildings that may soon open.

Finally, you will be able see how many labs you have total, how many are staffed, and how many disposables they are using daily on the Construct screen.

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Special Considerations When Demolishing:

You will never reach a limit on research. Between the overall improvements that research can provide to many of your buildings, the number of advanced items that require high research levels, and the goal of mastery, you will want to keep your labs around. If you feel that you don't need the extra research you can demolish as many as you would like, but you should keep at least one active in order to keep the Learn page open and other advanced research related actions running smoothly.

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