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.

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 food production from farms and unused land.

Base: 100% · Max: 230%

Democracy: ~233% · Theocracy: ~211.5%

At 230% you produce 2.3× your base food output.

Business Tech

Effect: Multiplies your per-capita income (PCI), directly boosting cash revenue each turn.

Base: 100% · Max: 180%

Democracy: ~188% · Theocracy: ~147%

Residential Tech

Effect: Multiplies your maximum population cap. Higher tech means more people your nation can support.

Base: 100% · Max: 180%

Democracy: ~188% · Theocracy: ~147%

Industrial Tech

Effect: Multiplies unit production output from Industrial Complexes (troops, tanks, jets, turrets, spies).

Base: 100% · Max: 160%

Democracy: ~166% · Theocracy: ~126%

Weapons Tech

Effect: Multiplies your military strength in combat. Affects both attack power and defense power of all units.

Base: 100% · Max: 150%

Democracy: ~155% · Theocracy: ~117.5%

Spy Tech

Effect: Multiplies your spy power (SPAL). Higher spy power increases the success rate of your offensive spy operations and makes it harder for enemies to succeed against you.

Base: 100% · Max: 150%

Democracy: ~155% · Theocracy: ~117.5%

Military Strategy Tech

Effect: Increases the percentage of land captured per successful attack. Each tech point contributes a small flat bonus to your land capture rate.

Base: 100% · Max: 140%

Democracy: ~144% · Theocracy: ~113%

Military Tech

Downward branch

Effect: Reduces military upkeep cost. At maximum tech, your upkeep drops to 83.33% of the base cost — saving roughly 16.67% on all troop, tank, jet, turret, and spy upkeep.

Base: 100% (no savings) · Max: 83.33%

Democracy: ~81.66% · Theocracy: ~89.16%

Lower is better. Also harder to research than most branches.

Medical Tech

Downward branch

Effect: Reduces population-related losses. At maximum tech, the multiplier drops to 66.66% of base — up to a 33.34% reduction.

Base: 100% · Max: 66.66%

Democracy: ~63.33% · Theocracy: ~78.33%

The hardest branch to research — requires significantly more investment to see gains.

Warfare Tech

Special — Missile Production

Effect: Unlocks and accelerates missile discovery. Each turn you accumulate a fraction of a missile based on your Warfare Tech percentage. Once it reaches 1.0, you gain a random missile (Chemical, Cruise, or Nuclear). With 0 Warfare Tech points, no missiles are discovered at all.

Base: 0.2% · Max: 5%

Democracy: ~5.3% · Theocracy: ~3.25%

At 5%, you accumulate 0.05 missiles per turn — roughly 1 missile every 20 turns.

SDI Tech

Special — missile defense

Effect: 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.

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