Research

Research is completed in a Research Room, which is unlocked during the introductory section of Mitton University. An essential aspect of managing a Hospital Foundation, research grants access to new Rooms which allows for new methods of diagnosis, the development of treatment for freshly discovered Illnesses, and for machines to be upgraded to the latest tech Two Point County has to offer. In addition, Research skills themselves must be developed here, as well as repeatable projects to generate money for hospitals and Kudosh for the Foundation itself.

Research Screen
To start a research project, the player must either click on the Research Pod, or drop a researcher into an inactive Research Room. In the research screen, a project may be selected from the available projects list.

Once a project has been started, a Doctor with a Research Qualification will be required to carry out the work. They will contribute research to the project over time, based on their research skill, which can be upgraded with training. The Output section of the research screen features the name and icon of the selected project; the text below informs about the nature of the project and the intended result.

Below this can be seen two values. The first, Research Progress, will show how many more Research Points need to be generated before the project is complete, while the second, the Green Light Fee, indicates the monetary cost of beginning the project.

It should be noted that projects do not have to be completed in a single session. At any time, a project may be halted in favour of another, and no progress will be lost. Projects may even be started in one hospital and resumed in another. Each time a project is resumed, either in the same hospital or another, the Green Light Fee must be paid again. Multiple Research Rooms can be used in a single hospital, either working on different projects, or the same one.

Once a project has been completed the qualification/room/machine upgrade will be permanently available for all hospitals in the player's Foundation, and any researched cash or kudosh will be added to the total for the hospital or Foundation, respectively.

Research Points (RP)
Research progresses over time. There are two main methods to speeding up the generation of Research Points: Staff By default, the Research Room is set to allow one Doctor to work at a time. Similarly to a Ward, a setting in the Room Inspector can allow up to four further researchers to operate in the room at once. Over time, they will accrue experience (Training Units), and be able to level up. Once researched (see below)), Research staff qualifications can reach level V, resulting in very fast researchers once trained.

Items Several items are available which provide boosts to research speed. These are usually small increases, but installing many items will have a cumulative effect. Some of these items may be unlocked with Kudosh, some are Star Level rewards (in Mitton University, Melt Downs and Chasm 24) and some are awarded for completing the Local Superbug Initiative Project Learning Machine Learning.

In addition, capturing a ghost may generate a small number of Research Points, which will be assigned to a research project relevant to the patient's cause of death.

=Projects= Research projects can be broken down into three main types:

Repeatable Research The first two of these projects are made available after the player has completed five other research projects, and differ from other projects in that they remain available indefinitely even after their first completion. Generate Kudosh does exactly what it claims, with K20 as the reward for each complete run. General Research grants the player $20,000 upon completion, and is accompanied by other higher-yield projects, which do require more Research Points and a higher Green Light Fee.

Training Only the first level of the Research staff qualification is available upon receiving the Research Room in Mitton University. These four projects unlock Levels II to V, so that researchers may be sent to the Training Room to be made more effective.

Rooms (Base Game and DLC) Once researched, each room and its respective machine can be used in any hospital in the player's Foundation, including existing ones, as can the two upgrade levels for the each machine that can be researched. Through the course of the base game, access will be granted to research projects to unlock three diagnostic rooms, six treatment rooms, and the DNA Lab which does both.

Each of the five major DLCs adds three more treatment rooms to research, except Off The Grid, which adds four.

The research screen will show all available research projects, and any progress which has already been made on them. Outside of repeatable projects, projects will have multiple stages, the next stage only becoming available after the completion of its predecessor. For example: Completing the first research project for Chromatherapy will grant the ability to build the room itself with the Colourizer at its first level. At this point the second project will appear on the Research Screen: Completing this will unlock the Colourizer II upgrade for a Janitor to apply to an already-built machine and cause the third to appear in its place: With this project complete, the Colourizer III upgrade will be available, and no further Chromatherapy-related projects will appear. All room/machine projects will follow this three-stage pattern; only the Training: Research projects have a fourth level, so as to unlock the Research V qualification.

Repeatable Research
While other projects are intended to grant permanent additions to the player's Hospital Foundation, such as rooms and machines, those listed here can be repeated without limit, in order to obtain money and Kudosh.

Herb-Garden-Icon.png Herb Garden
While this room is granted to the player (indeed, one is already built) upon starting Old Newpoint, the Flower Bed has an upgrade which must be researched.

Sandbox Mode
These research projects are not given to the player in Career Mode, as all of the rooms and equipment they cover are granted as rewards for making progress and completing Star Levels. In Sandbox Mode, however, unless the player opts for all rooms to be unlocked from the start, they must be researched as described below.

General-Diagnosis-Icon.png General Diagnosis
Even in Sandbox Mode, only the upgrades are researched, as the General Diagnosis room is available upon starting a new game.

Cardiology-Icon.png Cardiology
Even in Sandbox Mode, only the upgrades are researched, as the Cardiology room is available upon starting a new game.

Pharmacy-Icon.png Pharmacy
Even in Sandbox Mode, only the upgrades are researched, as the Pharmacy room is available upon starting a new game.

Herb-Garden-Icon.png Herb Garden
While in career mode, only the Flower Bed upgrade must be researched, in Sandbox Mode, the research department must also come up with the room itself. For this to appear in Sandbox Mode will still require the Off The Grid DLC.