Tech Tree Priorities: The Best Research Order, Phase by Phase

The tech tree has 226 entries across six tabs, 206 of them researchable, and buying the lot costs 11,157 red, 5,129 green and 4,132 blue. You will not afford that for a long time, and you do not need to. The order below gets you through all ten reputation gates on time, opens the factory, steel, Techbooks and top-tier reanimation, and spends red, the scarce colour, only where it changes your week. Everything else you buy when a quest, an order or a production chain asks for it.

Best research order by phase

That is 78 nodes for less than a quarter of the tree’s red, and it covers the systems the story leans on hardest. Each phase below names the exact nodes and why they earn their price.

Phase 1: the first days (110 red, 52 green)

Wood first. The Concept of Wood, Chopping and Woodworking I give you the Sawhorse, the Chopping Spot and Wooden Plank. Chopping is not optional: its Wood wedge is what lets you process stone, which The Concept of Stone opens next.

Then fix your energy. Gardening, Millstone and Bread cost 5 red and 40 green together (the farming guide covers the garden); after that, repair the home Kitchen Oven (2 Piece of stone, Building mastery 3) and bake; the cooking guide has every recipe.

Pottery I gives the Clay Plate the twins want for their fishing rod quest and leads to Brick Making, the quiet twelfth pick of this phase: Furnace I is built from 12 Brick and 6 Piece of stone, so your bronze waits on it.

Bronze closes the phase: Bronze Works (5 red: Wooden Anvil, Bronze Nails), Bronze Melting (Furnace I) and Bronze Craft (Bronze Detail, Hardening Bucket). Bronze Craft alone does not make details: the bucket has to stand beside the anvil and your Smithing mastery has to be high enough. Fishing I (the Basic Rod, 20 green from scratch) is a cheap optional extra.

Phase 2: first quests, first gates, first Science

• Bronze tools for Jack. Bronze Blades (Bronze Axe, Bronze Pickaxe) and Bronze Instruments (Bronze Shovel, Bronze Hammer). Since update 1.007, Jack in a Boat asks for 5 Wooden Plank, one Bronze Axe and one Bronze Hammer, and pays your first 20 Jack reputation.
• Herbert 20. Certificate, Please and Grave Expectations give +10 each. The second wants Graveyard quality 10, so take Wooden Gravestones I (Wooden Cross I, Wooden Fence I, 5 red and 2 green). Own Bronze Forge (20 red: Tin and the Sluice Box) so the gate opens the day Herbert is happy.
• Albert 10. Dungeons and… that’s it, probably. hands you Alchemy, Basic directly, and Albert’s first dungeon request is also what opens the Study Table. Follow with Alchemy Distillation (5 red, 5 green): its Distillation Cube makes the Melted Fat that every batch of Ink needs.
• First blue. The Anatomy and Alchemy tab opens with your first body on the autopsy table. Autopsy, Basic and Soft parts are free; Skin and Bones and Skull and Teeth cost 5 red, 5 green and 7 blue together and add extraction steps. Autopsy work is your first steady blue, and the Skin it yields becomes Leather Scroll, then paper.
• The Science loop (full detail in the science points guide). Holy Moly! opens the Theology tab and unlocks Writing Basic when you report Church quality 10. Add Writing Supplies (Clean Paper, Ink, Science Kit I), Glass and Glass Blowing (Alchemy Flasks I): 105 red, 25 green and 5 blue from scratch. The Writing Desk is built with 1 Polished Bronze, so Bronze Polishing (30 red) belongs here too.

Phase 3: Jack 40 and the Nun’s double gate

Tool Rack and Zombie Assistant (97 red and 7 green from scratch) give you the Zombie Supplier Station, so a zombie hauls materials while you work.

Jack 40 sits after Oiled wood. After Jack in a Boat (+20) come Docked and Found (+10) and Workshop Hours (+10). The last one is the trap: accept the order on Pride, then deliver one Supply: Iron crate (6 Iron Ingot, 4 Board, 8 Bronze Nails at the Woodworking Workbench, Building mastery 4). Iron Ingot means Iron Forge, 130 red from scratch with Furnace II (see the iron guide). The whole Jack 40 bill comes to 242 red and 32 green, and it pays out Circular Saw, the road to the Zombie Lumberjack stands. Plan the Supply: Iron crate.

Nun 25 and Nun 30 open together, because reputation moves in steps of 10. Agatha’s chain is Holy Moly! (+10), Nun of Your Business (+10 for 5 Clean Paper and 2 Ink) and The Nun with the Hairy Ass (+10 for Graveyard quality 20 plus 2 Polished Bronze and 4 Polished Stone, Building mastery 3).

Buy Stone Polishing for the stone, and pre-buy what sits in front of each gate: Graveyard Keeper III and Columbariums I (27 red, 40 green, 15 blue from scratch) on the Anatomy side, Church Furniture I (10 red, 5 blue) on the Theology side.

The payoff is Stone Gravestones I, Graveyard Decor I and Church Carpets, which is also a condition for the Improve the Church II upgrade.

Reanimation stays hidden until you repair the Resurrection device. It costs 40 red, 20 green and 17 blue from scratch and gives the Resurrection Table I, the Bronze Zombie Collar and the Prayer for Storms recipe at the Writing Desk, whose 90-minute blessing lets the Resurrection device work on any day instead of only on Envy. Own Alchemy Distillation and Skull and Teeth beforehand and buy Reanimation the moment it shows. The zombie workers page picks up from there.

Phase 4: the factory, Safe Harbor and the Astrologer

Jack 50 needs Tool Rack II (182 red, 37 green, 20 blue from scratch, so start banking red early) and Jack’s Back in Business, which pays +10 once you win Market Square Purge. Like most Town battles, it can only be started on Sloth. The reward is Conveyors (252 red, 37 green, 40 blue from scratch), the door to the whole factory and most town shops: see factory automation.

Gunter 20 (Theology) sits after Books I. Friendship Written in the Stars needs the Deck of Cards from Safe Harbor, where a first-tier stall costs 4 Building Kit I, 3 Wooden Kit I and 1 Iron Kit I. Building Kit I comes from Houses Repairing at the Woodworking Workbench I, Wooden Kit I from Oiled wood, Iron Kit I from Iron Works.

Talking to Linda grants Market Stalls I for free, but it sits after Woodworking II: own that first so the stall recipes land the moment Linda speaks.

Congregation Trouble then wants a Hypno-device, bought from Gunter and charged with 1 Faith at the Formulation Bench (Anatomy mastery 2), which Church Lighting I unlocks. Full bill for this gate: 507 red, 87 green, 20 blue from scratch.

What Gunter opens is worth it. Newspaper brings the Printing Press (3 Oiled Beam, 2 Bronze Gear, 6 Iron Detail), Writing Tools I brings Science Kit II, and Self-Help Books (115 red, 85 green, 85 blue from scratch) prints Red, Green and Blue Techbooks at Book writing mastery 6. Kit II also needs Alchemy Flasks II from Bellows (30 red after Iron Forge) and a Blank Softcover Notebook from Books I: the whole Kit II setup is 195 red, 105 green and 95 blue from scratch.

Phase 5: steel, the choir and Reanimation Liquid

• Nun 50, after Church Furniture II (80 red, 25 green, 45 blue from scratch). Brawns and Brains starts at 30 reputation and pays +10 for 2 Wooden Kit I and 2 Stone Kit. The Nun Also Reads pays the last +10: research Church Music I (50 red, 20 blue; it can stay hidden until the quest has started), build the Choir (4 Oiled Plank, 2 Bronze Detail, 4 Music Notes) only once the quest asks for it, since a Choir built earlier can break the check, then put a zombie in it and hold the Wrath ceremony. The gate opens Church Illumination, which unlocks Improve the Church III and leads to Furniture III, Lighting III and Church Music II, home of the Organ. Sermon planning lives in church, sermons and Faith.
• Gunter 20 (Anatomy and Alchemy), after Battle Potions II (55 red, 75 green, 35 blue from scratch). Battle Potions I only appears after First… Sludge?. The prize, Reanimation Liquid (85 red, 115 green, 85 blue from scratch), is itself hidden until The Ingenious Gentleman Don Keyote reveals it, and that quest’s last step wants 30 Gunter reputation, so the gate’s 20 is not enough on its own: a third Gunter quest such as Rhyme and Printed (+10) closes the gap. Reanimation Liquid then leads to Reanimation II and III; the rune mixes for it are in the alchemy guide.
• Jack 70, after Iron Products (505 red, 40 blue from scratch). Give materials wants 5 Building Kit I and 5 Wooden Kit I in two separate hand-ins (plan 5 Building Kit I). Man of Steel sends you to the Bishop at the Royal Foundry about high-quality steel; buy 3 Steel Ingot from him for Jack. Then Steel Smithing opens: 625 red and 55 blue from scratch, for steel details, screws and the Steel Anvil. The steel guide has the recipes.

Phase 6: the late-game sinks

Masterwork Equipment costs 1,135 red and 110 blue from scratch, and the Master Sword and Master Armor also need Smithing mastery 15. Self-Help Books II (265 red, 185 green, 215 blue from scratch) prints Techbook II at Book writing mastery 10, worth +100 points each. Reanimation III (235 red, 115 green, 635 blue from scratch) is where your blue surplus goes.

Prestige buys come last: Graveyard Decor II runs 1,187 red, 610 green and 625 blue from scratch, Winemaking 655 green and 110 blue. The two priciest single nodes in the game, Marble Gravestones II and Graveyard Decor II, cost 400 points each.

Reputation gates: the cheat sheet

Ten free gate nodes guard the best branches. A gate opens only when both conditions hold: you own the tech in front of it, and the character’s reputation has reached the number. The gate then unlocks silently the next time you open the tech tree, so open it after every reputation reward. The gate characters’ reputation only moves through quest rewards, +10 per paying step (Jack in a Boat pays 20 over two steps); trading and chatting give nothing. Linda and village reputation open no techs.

If a gate still refuses to open, the progression troubleshooting page walks through every known blocker.

Hidden techs to plan for

37 entries start hidden. The 20 Cooking groups are never bought: repairs, harvests, rare catches, first crafts and a few quests hand them out. The other 17 are researchable techs that only appear after a trigger (two of them, Market Stalls I and Lacquer, cost nothing), and the trick is to own their prerequisites before the trigger fires.

The zombie gathering line covers Zombie Lumberjack and its upgrade, Zombie Stone Mining, Zombie Marble Mining, Zombie Digging and Zombie Mining. Their reveal triggers are not confirmed, so keep a red cushion and buy each one the day it appears. Plenty of Fish in the Sea is the odd one: Fishing IV sits at the end of the vineyard line, and whether the quest also waives its 150 green price is not confirmed, so do not plan around a freebie.

How to earn tech points: the short version

Points from a finished craft come out as orbs you have to pick up. The three pools never convert into each other, and each one caps at 999. The science points guide owns the details: the Science Kit loop, the best studies, Techbooks and where the Study Table stands.

• Red: break stones and ore, dig and fill graves (2 red each), craft your own planks and stone, study every metal tool, weapon and armour, and read Red Techbooks (+25, or +100 for a Red Techbook II).
• Green: harvest garden beds (2 to 12 green each, see the farming guide), chop trees, study crops and food, and read Green Techbooks.
• Blue: open bodies at the autopsy table before they go in the ground, keep the Writing Desk busy, study cheap blue items and read Blue Techbooks.
• Automation trade-off: a zombie working a station keeps that station’s points in its own pool, so when red runs dry take a few bulk crafts back into your own hands.

Common mistakes

1. Sitting on 999. Each colour caps at 999 and it is not confirmed that the overflow survives. Spend before a long study session or a stack of Techbooks.
2. Buying a node you cannot use yet. Check the station, the materials and the mastery first: the Writing Desk needs Polished Bronze, Furnace I needs 12 Brick, Bronze Craft needs the bucket beside the anvil, and the Master Sword and Master Armor need Smithing 15 on top of the 1,135 red their tech line costs.
3. Earning the reputation without the node in front of the gate. The gate checks both. Woodworking II before Safe Harbor, Graveyard Keeper III and Columbariums I before Agatha’s chain, Tool Rack II before Jack’s fight.
4. Rushing military techs and fancy graveyard decor. Barricades, towers and high-end decor eat the red and green your production needs, and fancy decor is wasted on low-quality corpses. Buy defence when a battle actually asks for it: see battles and the army.
5. Automating every station at once. Zombies keep the points of the station they work. Leave yourself a few manual crafts in the colour you lack.
6. Burying before the autopsy when you need blue.