The Crust the Crust Game Research Tree — Wiki & Guide
the Crust Game Research Tree explained: Research tree priorities and salvage research explained. Facts sourced from official pages, wiki and community discussio
The Crust research system runs on three colors of science points — Fundamental (blue), Engineering (orange) and Social (green) — generated daily by rovers, expeditions, contracts and science labs. Points feed one tree with three branches, and deep unlocks require all three colors working together, so a balanced income beats specializing early.
The three branches
| Branch | Point color | What it unlocks (per the community wiki) |
|---|---|---|
| Fundamental | Blue | Vehicles and the power system — Landing Platform, Repeater, Automatic Repair, Conveyor Elevator, Expedition Control Center, Flight Control Center, Fuel Generator & Fuel Factory, Cargo Drone, Rover upgrades, Tech Center |
| Engineering | Orange | Production, storage and mining buildings — Conveyor Mk.1/Mk.2, Regolith Pressing, Smelting Furnace, Rolling Mill, Components Factory, Extractor, Ore Detector, Underground Conveyor, Hard Rock Drilling, Programmable Splitter, Smart Concrete Factory, Rare Mineral Processing, Single/Multi-Regolith Refinery and its three upgrades, Microcircuits Factory, Assembler, large storage |
| Social | Green | Colonist life support and trading — Ice Extractor/Melter, Living Quarters, Electronic Board, Food Cultivation, Automated Kitchen, Oxygen Systems, Refrigerator, the three science labs (Fundamental/Engineering/Sociology), Big Water Tank, Bunk Beds, Large Hydroponic Farm, Mushroom Farm, Access To The Tender System |
The official Kickstarter research pitch matches: Engineering "focuses on machinery, automation systems, and resource extraction"; Social covers "trading networks, productivity, and life support"; Fundamental covers survival techniques and infrastructure.
Where points come from
Per the wiki, points are generated every day from:
- Rover Scout work and expeditions — data centers and "?" sites pay science; one streamer recorded +200/day from a recovered data center.
- Contracts — many Earth contracts pay science alongside credits (e.g. 75 silicon for $18,000 plus science).
- Science labs — the Social tree's Fundamental/Engineering/Sociology labs employ colonist scientists (a creator measured roughly 50/day per scientist, dropping when they get tired or unhappy).
- Buying from CRUST Solutions — the contracts menu sells science packages; the third (largest) option is the most cost-effective, the first two cost the same for less. Expensive, but it unblocks you when local science is zero.
Two hard rules: researches consume points until their requirement is filled, and unused points cannot be stored — idle science is wasted science.
A working unlock order for the early game
Synthesized from creator runs and forum advice:
- Drone reconfiguration + basic mining — get logistics drones converting to miners.
- Regolith Pressing → Smelting Furnace — your first bricks and steel; Smart Concrete is the early-game bottleneck material (used in nearly all construction and many contracts).
- Extractor + Ore Detector — expand beyond the starting vein; scans reveal iron, silicon, titanium and flag undiggable red hard-rock tiles.
- Underground Conveyor Mk1 — point-to-point underground links free your surface from belt spaghetti.
- Social basics in parallel — Ice Extractor/Melter, Oxygen Systems and the kitchen line are prerequisites for colonists, and one creator warns you "can't really bring any colonists until you get pretty far down this tech tree."
- Salvage (see below) — turns wrecked surface buildings into components.
- Single → Multi-Regolith Refinery + upgrades (I–III) — the community's favorite mid-game project; a dedicated series (E3 "Perfect Multi-Regolith Refinery Setup", 28K views) exists just for arranging it.
How to unlock Salvage (the components shortcut)
A frequently asked question — "what tech is salvaging under?" — answered by the finder in the game's forum: Salvage sits under the Fundamental branch and requires first completing Drone Upgrade – Oxide mining rate, Automatic Repair, and Hauling Drones. The player's verdict: "pretty expensive, but definitely worth it for the extra components before you get titanium online" — deconstructing damaged surface buildings is sometimes the only early source of certain parts. (Researched in the July 2024 build; verify positions in 1.0 as the tree has been rebalanced since.)
Research mistakes the community warns about
- Rushing one color. Deep research needs all three types; a healthy balance beats mono-branching (Pravus, after speeding one color "a fair bit" in his run).
- Spending early science on comfort. The wiki's Social tree is powerful but its payoff arrives with colonists — mid-game content in sandbox.
- Ignoring the daily cap. Since points don't stockpile, queue research continuously; if a contract pays science you don't need, let it fill the current project rather than banking it.
- Note the wiki's own caveat: its tree page was last verified in beta 0.95.67 and the wiki is partially stubbed — treat exact prerequisites as version-dependent and confirm in-game. For how the tree interacts with the rest of the economy, see the beginner tips and automation guide.