If you want access to the best crafting recipes, you'll need to complete a few Starfield research projects first.
Once you’ve built an outpost or constructed a Starfield research laboratory aboard your Starfield ship, you’ll soon discover a plethora of Starfield research projects that unlock new Starfield weapon mods and armor mods, Starfield food recipes, and new outpost objects.
Each project requires a number of resources, but that doesn’t mean you need to gather all of the materials required for the research project. Occasionally, you will get a “Sudden Development” boost when adding resources to a research project. Upon getting a Sudden Development, a random number of resources will fill the research project’s remaining requirements. In effect, this reduces the overall cost of each project. You can take the Research Methods skill or take medical items like the Synapse Alpha in order to boost the chances of getting a Sudden Development.
More advanced projects will require a number of Starfield skills from different skill trees, so make sure you prioritize where you’re spending your resources.
Research project categories
There are five categories of research projects:
- Pharmacology – covers healing items, meds, and performance-enhancing drugs.
- Food and drink – unlocks more powerful food and drink recipes, which provide healing and stat bonuses.
- Outpost development – unlocks new modules and structures.
- Equipment – unlocks armor mods for your equipment (helmets, spacesuits, and packs).
- Weaponry – you’ll need to research weapon mods first before you can craft them.
While you can run multiple research projects simultaneously by depositing resources into them, certain projects will require you to complete previous projects in the same category before they become available to you.
Here's a list of every Starfield research project:
How to research projects in Starfield
Before you get started researching anything, you’ll want to digest our Starfield base building guide first. Research projects are very resource-intensive, so building mining outposts to get those resources and transport them to a central location will make research projects much easier to complete.
Then, make sure you stock up on Synapse Alpha, and consume it before opening the research lab menu in order to reduce every project resource cost. Each Synapse Alpha lasts for 10 minutes, giving you plenty of time to make the most of a single consumable.
Finally, head over to a research station and select the projects you want to complete. Don’t forget that you’ll need specific skills to unlock a number of research projects.
