OGame Research Priorities: What to Research First

Research is the spine of every OGame account — the techs you choose in your first week quietly determine your ceiling months later. Rushing the wrong branch wastes production time that you never fully recover; ignoring a bottleneck tech keeps your fleet slots, engine efficiency, or mine output artificially capped for weeks. This guide gives you the full ordering for two proven paths — economy-first and military-first — and then explains how speed multipliers at 100x–400x (like those on OGames universes) change the calculus entirely.

Research as a Force Multiplier

Unlike buildings, research upgrades are global — every level applies instantly to every planet and moon you own. That asymmetry is what makes research so powerful: a single Weapons Technology 12 investment makes every ship in your entire fleet hit harder from the moment the lab finishes, not just ships built afterward. In a live-fire environment where players are farming and battling around the clock, that leverage compounds fast.

The flip side is that research queues are serial by default. Every hour you spend on a low-value tech is an hour your lab is not cooking the tech that would multiply your income or combat effectiveness. This is why priority ordering matters so much more in OGame than in most games — opportunity cost here is measured in millions of resources and fleet power.

Research is also the gating mechanism the game uses to pace progression. Graviton is locked behind Energy 3. Hyperspace Drive requires Hyperspace Technology 7. Battlecruisers need Hyperspace 5. The moment you understand that the tech tree is really a dependency graph, not a menu, the correct sequencing becomes obvious: you unlock prerequisites as efficiently as possible, then build the ship or tech that the prerequisite was blocking.

Veteran rule of thumb: Every research decision should answer one question — does this level make me more resources per hour, give me more fleet slots, or make my fleet kill more and die less? If the answer is none of the above, push it to the back of the queue.

The Universal Early Techs (First 48 Hours)

Regardless of whether you are going economy or military, there is a core set of techs that every account needs in the first 48 hours. Skip any of these and you will hit a hard wall within days.

• Energy Technology 1: Unlocks almost everything. Research this before anything else. Most players stop here until specific prereqs demand higher levels.
• Espionage Technology 2–4: You cannot safely farm without intel. Level 2 gives you ship counts; level 4 gives you defenses and tech levels. The resources you save by not sending fleets into defended targets pay for this tech many times over. See the espionage tech depth guide for the exact level breakpoints.
• Computer Technology 1–2: More fleet slots, immediately. One extra simultaneous fleet means one more farm run, one more colony mission, one more expedition running in parallel. Computer tech and fleet slots is one of the most underrated early investments in the game.
• Combustion Drive 6: Small Cargoes and Light Fighters both use Combustion Drive. Getting it to level 6 unlocks Large Cargo — the backbone of your early hauling operation. Do not skip this. The drive technology guide explains why each level increase changes your travel time meaningfully.
• Impulse Drive 1: Unlocks the Colony Ship so you can claim your second and third planets without waiting. Also required for Cruiser eventually.
• Research Lab level 4+ on your homeworld: Not a tech, but labs gate research speed. Do not queue advanced techs until your lab level justifies the cost.

These six items can all be reached within the first day or two on a fast server. At that point you have spying capability, decent cargo capacity, your first extra fleet slot, and colony ability. Now you choose your path.

Economy Path: Research Order

Economy-first is the path chosen by players who intend to out-produce their enemies rather than out-fight them in the early game. The theory is simple: more mines mean more resources, which eventually buys more and better ships than any combat rush. The research order reflects that philosophy.

1. Astrophysics 1–4 (as fast as possible): Every additional colony multiplies your mine income. Astrophysics is the single highest-ROI research in an economy build. Level 1 unlocks the Expedition System; level 2 enables your third colony slot; each even level adds another planet slot. Rush this before almost anything else once you have the Impulse Drive prereq. The astrophysics guide covers the exact slot unlocks per level.
2. Plasma Technology 1–8: Each Plasma level gives a percentage bonus to Metal, Crystal, and Deuterium production globally. On a server with a large number of colonies, this compounds enormously. It is expensive but the ROI arrives fast on high-production planets.
3. Energy Technology up to requirement: Plasma Technology 1 requires Energy 8. Plan your Energy levels as a ramp toward that unlock, not as a goal in themselves.
4. Computer Technology 3–6: Economy players run more simultaneous fleets than anyone — farming runs, trade routes, expedition fleets, colony transfers. Keeping Computer tech one step ahead of your fleet count prevents idle time.
5. Hyperspace Technology 1–3: Unlocks Hyperspace Drive (required for Battleships and beyond) and prepares you for the mid-game combat tech stack. Economy players should not skip combat research entirely — you will eventually need a combat fleet to defend your income.
6. Espionage Technology 6–8: At this stage you are a wealthy target. Higher espionage makes your spy probes harder to detect and gives you richer intel on attackers scouting you.

What the economy path deliberately defers: Weapons, Shielding, and Armour technologies. This is intentional. Your mines, not your fleet, are your engine. A Weapons 10 rush that delays your fourth planet by a week costs you far more in production than the combat advantage is worth. Pick up combat techs in the mid-game once your mine base is established.

Military Path: Research Order

Military-first players want to be dangerous as early as possible. The goal is a functional raiding fleet — typically Battleships or Cruisers — within the first few days, then progressive combat tech upgrades that keep that fleet punching above its numerical weight.

1. Combustion Drive 6 (already done in universals), then push toward Impulse Drive 5: Impulse Drive 5 unlocks Cruisers, which are the most efficient early raiding ship per unit cost. Do not build a Light Fighter spam when Cruisers are this close.
2. Weapons Technology 1–6: Every level is roughly a 10% damage increase across your entire fleet. Levels 1–6 are cheap relative to their impact. Get here before your first large farm operation and the resources you steal will cover the research cost in a single run. The weapons, shielding, and armour tech guide details exact damage formulas per level.
3. Shielding Technology 1–4: Shields prevent damage from reaching hull. Even modest shield levels significantly reduce losses against lightly armed farmers. Prioritize this alongside Weapons in alternating levels rather than maxing one before starting the other.
4. Armour Technology 1–4: Hull points scale with Armour tech. Same alternating logic applies — balanced defensive tech outperforms a single-stat rush because OGame combat resolves volleys round by round.
5. Hyperspace Technology 5 → Hyperspace Drive 3: Unlocks Battleships. This is the pivot point for a military account. Battleships have high base speed, massive cargo, and strong combat stats. Once you have Battleships in the hangar, your raiding income scales up sharply.
6. Computer Technology 4–6: Military players need fleet slots for offensive fleets, spy runs, and fleet saves simultaneously. Stay ahead of your actual fleet count.
7. Espionage Technology 5–8: You need detailed spy reports before every attack run. At higher spy tech levels you get fleet speed, full tech readout, and ship type breakdowns — essential for choosing safe targets.

What the military path deliberately defers: Astrophysics (beyond the minimum for one or two extra colonies), Plasma Technology, and the deeper economy techs. You will mine less, but you will steal more. The math works in your favor as long as inactive or lightly-defended farms exist — which they always do in the early weeks of a server.

Techs You Can Safely Postpone

Not every tech on the research screen is urgent. Here are the ones veteran players consistently push to the back of the queue without meaningful consequence:

• Laser Technology and Ion Technology: These are prerequisite ladders to other things (Gauss Cannon, Plasma Cannon, Destroyer, Death Star). Research them only as you approach those specific unlocks, not proactively.
• Graviton Technology: The Death Star is a late-game luxury — incredibly powerful but extraordinarily expensive to field. Graviton requires Energy 3 and a single Graviton research level costs an enormous amount of energy to complete in seconds (it is a special timed research). Save this for when your infrastructure can support building Death Stars reliably. The mechanics are explained in depth in the graviton and Death Star tech guide.
• Intergalactic Research Network (IRN): This tech lets multiple research labs across planets work together, dramatically cutting research time. It is powerful but the prerequisite chain is long (Computer 8, Hyperspace 8, IRN itself). Do not chase it until you have eight or more colonies all running level 10+ labs.
• Weapons/Shielding/Armour beyond level 8 (early game): The first eight levels of each combat tech are cost-efficient. Levels 9–12+ cost exponentially more for the same percentage gain. Push to 8 in each, then reconsider based on your fleet size and combat activity.
• Astrophysics beyond your intended planet count: If you are comfortable with six planets and do not need expedition slots, stop Astrophysics there. Higher levels unlock additional planets and expedition capacity, but the research cost grows steeply. Plan the endpoint, research to it, and stop.

Adjusting Priorities at 100x–400x Research Speed

Speed server research multipliers fundamentally compress the timeline but do not change the dependency graph. What they do change is how quickly you can correct a mistake — and that creates a different kind of trap for new players, who assume that speed means they can research everything in random order and catch up later.

On OGames, the three universes run at very different research speeds: Andromeda at 100x, Nebula at 198x, and Proxima at 400x. Here is what changes at each tier:

At 400x research speed, the biggest mistake is not a wrong tech choice — it is failing to keep your lab level (and later your IRN network) scaling alongside your research queue. A Proxima account with a level 8 lab can hit IRN prerequisites in a few days if managed correctly, after which research times become almost negligible. At that point, the game becomes almost entirely about production, fleet management, and combat — which is exactly what high-speed universes are designed for.

One other speed-server nuance: because everyone is researching fast, the combat tech arms race compresses. By the end of week two on Proxima, active players will have Weapons 10+ and advanced ships. If you fall behind on combat techs while focusing purely on economy, you will face raids from players with significantly higher damage multipliers. On Andromeda or Nebula the window is longer, but the principle holds: do not neglect combat techs past the mid-game even on an economy-first path.

For a broader look at how these speeds shape every facet of gameplay, the post on why speed servers change OGame is worth reading alongside this guide.

FAQ

What is the single most important research to get first in OGame?

Energy Technology level 1 is technically first because it gates almost everything else. Immediately after that, Espionage Technology to level 4 is the highest-impact early unlock — it tells you what you are attacking before you commit a fleet, which prevents losses that would set you back far more than the research cost. Combat knowledge before combat action is the veteran rule.

Should I max Weapons before getting Shielding and Armour?

No. OGame combat calculates damage against shields first, then hull. A fleet with Weapons 10 but Shielding 1 loses ships faster than a balanced fleet with Weapons 6, Shielding 6, Armour 6. The percentage bonuses interact: higher shields mean more of your hull survives, which means more ships survive to fire in the next round. Alternate between the three combat techs rather than spiking one. The weapons, shielding, and armour guide breaks down the interaction in detail.

When should I start researching Astrophysics?

As soon as you have Impulse Drive 1 unlocked and enough resources to fund both the research and the Colony Ship. On an economy-first path this is typically your first or second day. On a military-first path, get your initial raiding fleet operational first — then switch to Astrophysics. Every additional colony planet is a multiplier on all future production, so delaying it too long is one of the costliest mistakes in OGame.

Is Intergalactic Research Network worth the prerequisite chain?

Yes, but only once you have enough colonies with high-level labs to justify it. IRN lets all your research labs work together on a single project, multiplying effective research speed multiplicatively rather than just additively. On a slow server the prerequisite investment is enormous. On OGames speed universes, particularly Nebula and Proxima, you can reach the IRN prereqs (Computer 8, Hyperspace 8) within the first week or two and the payoff is dramatic — late-game tech levels that would take days complete in hours.

Does Dark Matter affect research speed on OGames?

Yes — Dark Matter can be used to activate Commanders (via the Academy system), including the Engineer and Technocrat, which provide research-related bonuses. On OGames all three universes provide free Dark Matter at signup and weekly: Andromeda gives 5,000 DM on registration plus 1,000 weekly, Nebula gives 10,000 at signup and 10,000 weekly, and Proxima gives 20,000 at signup and 50,000 weekly. This means you can maintain Commander bonuses without spending real money, which is part of what makes OGames a genuinely free-to-play experience.

Whether you are building toward a mine empire or a raid fleet, the research path you commit to in the first week will shape your next month of play. Start with the universal techs, pick your path, and stick to it — the biggest research mistake in OGame is not making a wrong choice, it is making no clear choice at all and drifting across the tech tree without a plan. Register on OGames and put this research order to work from day one across Andromeda, Nebula, or Proxima.