Research is a fundamental part of the Stronghold Kingdoms experience: all skills, buildings, features and everything that a player can accomplish in Stronghold is tied in some way to research.
Players obtain research points to spend on researching new branches of the research tree. These open up new buildings, troop types, food types, features etc. Research takes a certain length of time – increasing with each completed research. Certain researches require a player to be of a minimum rank before they can be started, and certain branches of research open up new branches to the player once completed.
A player may carry out one level of research at a time; however, premium tokens allow up to five (5) levels of research to be queued, although only one will be researched at a time.
There are two (2) views in the research screen; branch and tree view. Branch view shows all currently-available research, as well as any buildings or branches these may unlock, while tree view shows the entire research tree, including still-locked research.
TIP: Hovering the mouse over queued researches will show you the name of the research and how long it will take for that research item is completed.
 Obtaining Research Points
When the player first begins the game, they are given eight (8) research points to spend. Once these are depleted, there are various ways to obtain research points. The most common method is by receiving three (3) points with each rank (including sub-ranks). Points may also be purchased for gold from the player’s treasury; however, the price of gold increases each time a point is bought. Players may also receive free research points from Strategy Cards.
TIP: It is a good idea to avoid buying research points with gold until later in the game.
Below is a series of four videos which takes an in-depth look at the entire Stronghold Kingdoms research tree tab by tab. Synergies and rank-appropriate research is discussed by a veteran Stronghold Kingdoms player of four years.