Research points are a scarce resource in Port Liberty. They are required to research new technologies in the research tree. The Lab tab in the Guild Hall unlocks only after completing these tutorial tasks in order: [13] “Use 1 Manifest card”, [14] “Obtain pearls”, and [15] “Join or create a guild”. Then complete [16] “Obtain 1 research point in the laboratory” to unlock the Lab tab. Tutorial tasks are marked with a star icon in the top right corner of the quest log entry. Research points obtained earlier in the Library do not skip this order.
You can obtain research points in the following ways:
Tutorial quests
Manifest cards
Merchant quests
Pirate quests
Guild Laboratory
Up to three guild members can lead a workgroup in the laboratory by assigning one of their workers to it. All guild members can then contribute one of their own workers to this workgroup. A workgroup is always active for 12 hours. Participants can be removed at any time.
All participants (except the group leader) receive a research point after a certain amount of time. The more workgroup leaders there are, the faster learning progresses.
Intelligence: If a group leader has the Intelligence special trait, all participants learn faster. If multiple group leaders are intelligent, the effect stacks. If a participant is intelligent, they also learn faster individually.
Library
In the library, all players of a town can learn together. Simply assign a worker to a table. For generating research points, it does not matter whether your worker is sitting alone or together with another player’s worker—unless the other worker is intelligent. If your own worker is intelligent, research is accelerated as well.
If both workers at a table share the same profession but not the same specialization (e.g. a sugar cane gardener and an orange gardener), they learn from each other and improve their general gardener skill.