The Research Center
The Research Center is a one-time Kitchen upgrade that slowly produces Scrolls, a rare currency you spend to unlock powerful new capabilities. It's a long-game: Scrolls come in slowly and buy things nothing else can.
Scrolls, in one line
Scrolls are an earned, off-chain premium currency — like Chef's Chits, but for the Research Center. You can't buy them with RSNC. You generate them over time, and you spend them to unlock capabilities (not consumable items).
Unlocking the Research Center
- Open the Kitchen tab.
- Tap Unlock Research Center and confirm — it costs 10 Chits + 10 Crests, one time. (This unlock is available to every player — it used to be limited to operators during testing. The price is the same for everyone.)
- A new Research Center tab appears in the Kitchen. That's your Scroll workshop.
The unlock is permanent for your account.
Research Center access is bought from the Hollow Merchant in a single transaction that spends both premium currencies: 10 Chits (earned in the Kitchen — the Chef's Challenge and the Call to Builders) and 10 Crests (earned on the Journey — the Daily Journey Quest and Campaign harvests). You need both on hand; the unlock button shows your balance and how many of each you still need, and it won't charge you if either is short.
How Scrolls are generated
By default, a lone strange aspect of the song works the Research Center and produces 1 Scroll every 7 days (168 hours). Scrolls bank automatically — there's no "claim" button; your balance just ticks up. The header shows three stat cards (Scrolls · Rate · Time) with a live "Next Scroll in" countdown so you can see the next Scroll approaching second by second.
You speed it up by putting Avatars to work:
- Assign up to 10 Avatars as workers.
- Each Avatar adds its power, and more power means faster Scrolls — roughly 5% faster per 420 total Avatar Power.
- Higher-level, more-ascended Avatars carry more power, so investing in your Avatars pays off here too.
It's a steep generator by design — a full roster of low-level Avatars only shaves off a little, while a roster of strong Avatars makes a real dent.
While an Avatar is researching, it's locked out of everything else — Journey runs, Militia bounties, Cultivators, Farms, and Group Quests. Release it from the Research Center first if you want to use it elsewhere. (The reverse is true too: an Avatar busy elsewhere can't be sent to research until it's free.)
Spending Scrolls
Scrolls unlock capabilities — permanent additions to what you can do:
| Unlock | Cost | What it opens |
|---|---|---|
| Celestial Smithing | 3 Scrolls | The ten-step chain that forges a Celestial Relic — the gear tier above Legendary. Also the gate on buying Celestial Trace. |
| Production Efficiency | 3 Scrolls / stack (up to ×3) | +1 output per stack to your value cultivators (foundry, smithy, apothecary, mystic). |
| Mining Efficiency | 3 Scrolls / stack (up to ×3) | +1 output per stack to your farm & extract cultivators (garden, extractor, mine). |
Celestial Smithing is the flagship at 3 Scrolls — about 3 weeks of research from the base rate alone, faster if you staff the Center with strong Avatars. The two efficiency tracks then give your ongoing Scrolls somewhere to go, and more capability unlocks will follow.
The Research Center also hosts the Geneticist tab, where you collect Pets — pair two, hatch the eggs they make, and fill out a Menagerie. Every pet grants a small always-on buff. It's rolling out now.
Tips
- Staff it early and leave it. Generation runs whether or not you're looking.
- Balance your roster. Avatars in the Research Center can't fight or quest — keep enough free for the content you're actively playing.
- Stronger Avatars > more Avatars. Because the boost scales with total power, ten strong Avatars beat ten fresh ones by a wide margin.