Radical Technology R&D

Where it fits among the four R&D team types

When you set up a team in an R&D Center, the Set Up a Team of R&D Units window offers up to four tiles.

Two questions decide which one you want: what are you researching, and are you willing to gamble?

Setting up a Radical Technology R&D team

1. Open one of your R&D Centers and set up a team as usual. Choose the Radical Technology R&D tile and the team size (1–9 units — a bigger team researches faster).
2. Hire a team lead who knows a technology. Because this feature needs the Digital Age DLC you are always playing with talents, so the unit researches the technology its team lead knows — the researcher you hire decides what gets researched.
3. Press [Start Radical R&D] on the unit.
4. Choose the research duration. A longer period produces a larger base gain, which the multiple then multiplies.
5. Choose the target multiple in the “How aggressive is your radical research project?” window — from 200% tech gain up to 600% tech gain, each with its own success rate.

The multiples

How high you may reach is capped by the higher of your CEO’s and CTO’s R&D expertise:

Only the multiples your executives can support are listed, so the window itself tells you where your R&D leadership stands. Promoting a stronger CTO widens the range immediately.

When the research period ends

Bad luck does not last forever

An anti-frustration rule guarantees a success after enough consecutive failures on the same unit, so a losing streak always ends:

The counter resets on every success and belongs to the unit, not to the technology.

Reading the unit

While a radical project is running, the unit’s detail panel shows:

• Original Tech and Target Tech, with the multiple in brackets — e.g. 228 (300% gain). The target already includes the multiple, so it shows what you stand to win.
• Success Chance — the odds of actually getting it.

• Last — a tick or a cross recording how this unit’s previous gamble ended, with a ? icon beside it. Hover the ? for the details: which technology it was, the multiple it aimed at, the chance it had, how much technology was won or forfeited, and how many failures have accumulated in a row.

Using it well

• Gamble where you are behind. If a rival leads you on a technology, one 4×–6× success can close a deficit that steady research would take a decade to grind down. If you are already the leader, ordinary Technology R&D banks progress with no risk.
• Never gamble your whole research program. A failed period is a period in which none of the products depending on that technology advanced. Keep at least one reliable Technology R&D team running alongside.
• Mind the products waiting on it. If a technology is the last prerequisite for a product you want, a failed gamble delays that product too — automatic invention only fires on a successful gain.
• Match the duration to the target. The multiple scales whatever the base gain was, so a longer period is worth more per successful roll. A long period at 300% often beats a short one at 600%.

Your competitors do it too

AI companies build Radical Technology R&D teams under the same rules you do, aiming their gambles at the technologies they are furthest behind on and reaching for a bigger multiple the bigger the deficit. One thing they stay away from: any R&D Center their company is relying on to invent a specific product. Leaving a rival trailing on technology is therefore no longer a safe assumption — a trailing AI can leapfrog you in a single research cycle.

At a glance