Relay Research

Relay Network

• Bays
  • Mint
  • Refinery
    • Transmutation
  • Cooling
  • Recovery
• Salvage
• Relay Heat
• Relay Research
• Bay Upgrades
• Network Store

Relay Research unlocks permanent improvements for your whole Relay Network. A Research node applies to every Bay you own, unlike Bay Upgrades, which improve one Bay.

Each node costs Salvage plus a basket of items. Many nodes need other nodes first; the Research screen shows the tree, prerequisites and exact costs. Nodes that change numbers can be switched off again later. Nodes that unlock a feature stay on.

Research and Bay Upgrades

Some Research nodes do nothing by themselves except make a Bay Upgrade available to buy. For example, Work Coupling unlocks the Mint's Work Amplifier and Work Cooldown Destroyer upgrades, and Capacity Foundations unlocks the buffer size upgrades. Check both steps and both costs before saving up.

Branches

Branch	Notable nodes
Thermal	Thermal Reserve, Passive Dissipation, Thermal Buffer (less heat while Overclocked), Thermal Routing (weight Cooling toward chosen Bays)
Economy	Mint Baseline Trickle, Raw, Crafted and Consumable Efficiency for the Refinery, Capacity Foundations, Refinery Output Scaling, Work Coupling, Mint Fuel Efficiency, Grid Resonance, Vault Routing (send Mint BC to a Vault), Overdrive
Operations	Bay Telemetry (exact numbers on screen), Batch Operations (bulk claim, pause and level), Overflow Cutoff (stop wasting items when the Refinery buffer is full), Auto-Deposit
Recovery	Recovery Targeting, Recovery Fuel Efficiency, Quest Banking, Quest Bank Control, Quest Bank Auto-focus, Cross-System Recovery. See Recovery
Transmutation	Transmutation, Transmutation Queue. See Transmutation

Good early choices: Bay Telemetry, Overflow Cutoff and Batch Operations.

Apex titles

Finishing a branch unlocks a title for it: Thermal Master, Economic Engineer, Status Watchdog, Relay Architect and Auxiliary Overseer. Beyond those:

• Network Sovereign needs all five titles, every Bay family and every upgrade at maximum.
• Stellar Ascendant needs Network Sovereign plus every Bay full and maxed.

Both grant exclusive profile cosmetics.

Changelog

Release date	Update	Changes
August 22, 2026	v2026.08.22	The Relay research tree now reads left-to-right in tidy columns. Research nodes are colour-coded by the title they lead to (nodes that feed several branches blend colours; the two core nodes stay neutral). You can expand the tree to fill the page with a new ⛶ button. Not available on mobile. Several title prerequisites changed, which means a few people will need to acquire the new prereq research before re-unlocking those lost. Thermal Master now requires Thermal Routing; Economic Engineer now requires Mint Baseline Trickle and Mint Fuel Efficiency; Relay Architect no longer requires Mint Fuel Efficiency; Status Watchdog now requires Thermal Routing, Mint Faction Routing, Recovery Bank Control and Recovery Auto-Focus. The Refinery upgrade label is now “Base output buffer cap” for clarity. The research view has Graph and List modes, with search and filters. Search queries title, effect text and branches of each node. Hovering a node lights up its whole chain and dims the rest. A list view toggle shows research as a sortable table (state, name, branch) for quick scanning, and your view mode and filters are remembered between visits (search always starts empty).
June 5, 2026	v2026.06.05	New Features You can now turn a purchased research node’s passive effect off and back on without losing the node or its prerequisites. Improvements Effects of research is now easier to read. Research cost is visible before unlocking prerequisites and after purchasing.
May 25, 2026	The Relay Heat Update	Research changes A few Relay research nodes changed to fit the new heat: Thermal Reserve changed to decrease the output penalty while throttled. Interlock Harmony still does the same thing, but the amount was retuned to the new, smaller heat numbers, and the fact that overclocking is possible without worrying about shutdown while socializing.
May 21, 2026	Welcome to the Relay Network	TL;DR An account-wide research tree unlocks Salvage-paid upgrades that apply everywhere. Salvage The research tree (account-wide upgrades) The research tree The research tree is account-wide. Once a node is unlocked, every bay benefits. Unlocks cost Salvage plus a basket of items, and they cannot be undone. There are 18 nodes plus one completionist apex. The four cosmetic apex titles (Thermal Master, Economic Engineer, Status Watchdog, Relay Architect) each require finishing their full branch. Each one gives you a trophy and a research-themed title you can set. Network Sovereign sits on top of all four apexes. It also requires every bay upgrade maxed out across your bays. It is free to unlock once you qualify and is the ultimate “you have done everything” flex. Nodes worth knowing about up front: Capacity Foundations unlocks the Refinery output buffer and the Mint fuel buffer. Without it, the Mint will not accept fuel and your Refinery only earns into a tiny starter pool. Batch Operations lets you claim every bay in one click and unlocks bulk pause/resume and bulk module level-ups. Bay Telemetry reveals all the heat readouts, time-to-shutdown projections, and mode comparison rows. Auto Deposit lets you pre-allocate up to three slots of items into your Refinery’s auto-refill list. When a committed basket empties, the next basket gets queued up automatically. Overflow Cutoff stops your Refinery from burning items when the Salvage buffer is full.

Guide: Relay Research and Transmutation

Bconomy