All Starfield research projects and what they do

What are Starfield research projects? Spread across five distinct categories, laboratory research projects are another reason why you’ll want to stuff your ship full of trinkets, materials, and minerals as you journey across the stars. You’re free to fly the cosmos without hitting the books, but you’ll be holding yourself back.

The more you tinker with all that good stuff, the more powerful Starfield guns you’ll be able to piece together. You’ll also have plenty of room to improve the restoratives you craft at other stations. All in all, taking a peek under the microscope can help perfect your preferred Starfield build. You’ll just have to navigate the dozens upon dozens of Starfield planets out there to find what you need.

All Starfield Research Projects

Here are all of the Starfield Research project categories, the projects they include, and the effects they’ll have once researched:

What are the Starfield Research Project categories?

With each available research project designated by one of five different category markers, we can assume each category will focus on projects related to unlocks and items within that field.

Here’s what we understand each Starfield Research Project category to offer:

Pharmacology

By researching Pharmacology projects at your nearest Starfield Research Laboratory, you’ll likely increase the potency of restoratives, and maybe even concoct medicines that can stave off dangerous diseases altogether, potentially opening up whole new areas of planets that would otherwise be too treacherous to explore.

Outpost development

If you want to focus on setting up shop on various planets, you’ll want to get working on the Outpost development research tree. We can imagine certain high-value structures and technologies being unavailable until you commit precious resources here.

Weaponry

Without researching the weaponry tree, expect to see the same few guns over and over, with little in the way of weapon mods available to spice up your arsenal. A whole build could hang in the balance here.

Equipment

Likewise, this research category could hold various equipment mod upgrades, keeping them locked and unavailable for use until you carry out the specified research. Certain equipment types may be restricted until you complete a few projects.

Food and Drink

Expect this category to unlock new recipes for consumable items. The benefits each snack affords when eaten will likely change, too.

Where is the Starfield Research Laboratory?

You can progress research projects by finding the Starfield Research Laboratory onboard any of your Starfield ships. Whether it’s your starting ship or an enemy vessel you’ve hijacked and added to your collection, you’ll typically find a Starfield Research Laboratory against a wall in the chamber just before the cockpit.

You’ll find additional Starfield Research Laboratory equipment in key locations, too, but you might be limited to using just the items in your comparatively small inventory if you’re not using the one on your loaded ship.

How do I use the Starfield Research Laboratory?

You might have to do a little tip-toeing around to get the button prompt to appear. Successfully interacting with the Starfield Research Lab will bring up a simple menu, breaking down the research projects into the categories mentioned above.

To work on some research projects, you’ll find that you need certain Starfield skills unlocked, too. You won’t be able to research some of the Food and Drink projects unless you put a point into the Chef skill, for example.

How many Starfield Research Projects can I progress at the same time?

As far as we can tell, you can research one project from each category simultaneously. There’s a chance some Starfield skills will allow you to take on more projects at once, but pre-release footage showed a space to accommodate at least one project from each category at the same time.

Using a different laboratory table is unlikely to allow you to research additional projects. You’ll be shown the same projects currently available to progress, or the time remaining on any projects you started elsewhere.

How long do Starfield Research Projects take?

The time it takes to complete a Starfield research project differs wildly. You’ll get an overview of the expected time to completion before you commit resources to the effort.

Can I speed up Starfield Research Projects?

There stands to reason that certain Starfield skills will naturally reduce the time it takes to complete Starfield Research Laboratory projects. Some skills could reduce the time to completion of projects in specific categories, whereas others might have a smaller, general effect across the whole suite of laboratory options.

Further to that, Starfield companions with these skills will affect completion times when set as crew members. As they can sometimes have a high-level skill deep in the talent tree, you could save a lot of time by recruiting specific team members and bringing them along for the ride.

That’s everything we know about the Starfield Research Laboratory projects. There’s so much more to discover and make in this ambitious open-world game, so get a head start by checking out everything we know about Starfield ship design, which Starfield traits will help you the most, and all the Starfield companions we know about so far.

Still looking for more? While a good Starfield wiki can be a handy source of information, our new Starfield Database goes further, offering you daily news, searchable databanks, and even interactive tools.