Technology Branches
Alpha Nation Game Guide
There are 11 research branches. Tech is gained by spending turns on the Research page. Your Tech Per Turn (TPT) is based on your Research Labs-to-land ratio.
How Tech Percentages Work
Most branches start at 100% (a 1× multiplier on production) and increase toward their max through research. Two branches — Military and Medical — are downward branches that start at 100% and decrease toward their max, reducing a cost rather than boosting production.
Tech is relative to your size
Every branch's percentage depends on how much land you own — the same research goes further on a small nation than a large one. Gaining land lowers all your tech percentages at once (you'll need to research more to restore them), while losing land raises them. This is why small, high-tech countries punch above their weight, and why rapid expansion leaves you thin everywhere until you backfill research.
Government Tech Modifiers
| Government | Effect |
|---|---|
| Normal | Standard caps, standard research speed |
| Democracy | +10% higher cap on all branches |
| Communism | Same caps as Normal, but researches 20% faster (fewer points to reach any percentage) |
| Theocracy | −35% lower cap on all branches |
Democracy is the high-ceiling government — you can push every branch further than any other government type.
Communism is the efficiency government — you reach the same caps as Normal with significantly fewer tech points invested, freeing up turns for other actions.
Theocracy is penalized on all tech, reaching notably lower ceilings regardless of how much you invest.
Branch Reference
Agricultural Tech
Effect: Multiplies the food your farms (and unused land) produce each turn. The highest-ceiling tech in the game, because food is a hard requirement: run out and your population starves. Scale it alongside Residential to feed a growing nation.
Base: 100% · Max: 230%
Democracy: ~233% · Theocracy: ~211.5%
At 230% you produce 2.3× your base food output (+130%).
Business Tech
Effect: Increases the income generated per citizen, multiplying your total cash earned each turn. The backbone of any cash economy — pairs naturally with Residential, since more people × more income-per-person compounds.
Base: 100% · Max: 180%
Democracy: ~188% · Theocracy: ~147%
Residential Tech
Effect: Increases the maximum population your land and residences can support. Your population steadily grows toward this cap, and since income scales with population, a higher cap means more citizens paying taxes — and more mouths to feed.
Base: 100% · Max: 180%
Democracy: ~188% · Theocracy: ~147%
Industrial Tech
Effect: Increases the number of military units (troops, tanks, jets, turrets, and spies) each Industrial Complex produces per turn. More industrial tech means a bigger army from the same number of factories.
Base: 100% · Max: 160%
Democracy: ~166% · Theocracy: ~126%
Weapons Tech
Effect: Increases the combat strength of your units, applied to both attacking and defending across every conventional attack type. This is what decides who wins a battle — raise it to hit harder and hold the line.
Base: 100% · Max: 150%
Democracy: ~155% · Theocracy: ~117.5%
Spy Tech
Effect: Increases your effective spy power (SPAL), used both when running covert operations against others and when resisting their operations against you.
Note: Spy power is measured per acre of land, so smaller nations are naturally stronger spies for the same spy count — a great equalizer for the little guy.
Base: 100% · Max: 150% (+50% offense and defense)
Democracy: ~155% · Theocracy: ~117.5%
Military Strategy Tech
Effect: A direct multiplier on the spoils of a successful conventional attack — land captured, cash and food stolen, population and buildings destroyed, and enemy units killed. Weapons decides if you win; Military Strategy decides how much you gain when you do.
Base: 100% · Max: 140% (up to +40% on all attack gains and destruction)
Democracy: ~144% · Theocracy: ~113%
Military Tech
Downward branchEffect: Reduces the cash upkeep cost of your military units, and improves your private-market prices — buy units, food, and oil cheaper, and sell everything for more. A pure efficiency stat that lowers the cost of running a large force. At maximum tech, upkeep drops to 83.33% of base (−16.67%) and your buy/sell prices improve by roughly 16.67%.
Base: 100% (no savings) · Max: 83.33% (−16.7% upkeep, ~16.7% better market prices)
Democracy: ~81.66% · Theocracy: ~89.16%
Lower is better. Also harder to research than most branches.
Medical Tech
Downward branchEffect: Reduces your own unit losses when you are defending against an attack. Field medics and triage mean more of your troops, tanks, and turrets survive the battle. Defensive only — it does nothing on offense. At maximum tech, your defender casualties drop to 66.66% of base (up to −33%).
Base: 100% · Max: 66.66% (up to −33% defender casualties)
Democracy: ~63.33% · Theocracy: ~78.33%
The hardest branch to research — requires significantly more investment to see gains.
Warfare Tech
Special — Missile ProductionEffect:Each turn, gives an independent percentage chance to discover a new missile (Chemical, Cruise, or Nuclear — chosen randomly). It's the only way to obtain missiles, so this is your special-weapons production rate. Higher Warfare = missiles found more often, on average. With 0 Warfare Tech points, no missiles are discovered at all.
Base: 0.2% · Max: 5% (chance per turn)
Democracy: ~5.3% · Theocracy: ~3.25%
At 5%, there's a 5% chance each turn to discover a missile — roughly 1 every 20 turns on average.
SDI Tech
Special — missile defenseEffect: Reduces damage taken from incoming missiles (Chemical, Cruise, Nuclear). Each point of SDI Tech directly reduces missile damage by 1%, capped at 99%.
Base: 1% · Max: 90%
Democracy: ~89.1% · Theocracy: ~59.15%
At 90 SDI Tech points, incoming missiles deal only 10% of their normal damage.
Tips
- Agricultural has the highest ceiling (230%) and gives the most dramatic gains for food-focused builds.
- Warfare requires at least 1 tech point researched before missile discovery begins — zero points means zero missiles found.
- SDI is a direct point-for-point damage reducer (1 SDI point = 1% less missile damage), making it straightforward to value.
- Military and Medical are hardest to push to their caps due to exponential cost curves.
- Theocracy gets significantly worse caps across the board. Democracy pushes every cap higher. Communism reaches the same caps as Normal but gets there faster, freeing up turns for other actions.