Technologies

In Pixel Privateers send your team of Mercenaries through a mysterious wormhole on a quest to gather Technology for your employer. In a twist of fate, your journey becomes a one-way ticket – with an entire galaxy of Worlds to explore, Factions to encounter, and epic Gear to collect. Will you make it back home, make your mark in this new universe, or become another victim of the many Dangers of the cosmos? Ultimately, how your story plays out is up to you!

Research
The tech tree is progressed by gaining Research Points(RP) by researching the various artifacts you find exploring the galaxy. RP is gained over time while an Artifact is being researched, once done being researched the artifact will be converted into matter.

Items that are blue grade quality or higher also need to be researched to 'identify' them. But doing this -subtracts- from your total RP. It's a trade off to getting top quality loot for your privateers.

The Tech Tree
The tech tree is divided into multiple tiers. Each tier has multiple clusters of various upgrades for your squad, and even some for your ship! Each Cluster has a main skill and three to four sub skills. Unlocking upgrades work by first unlocking the main skill in the cluster, then you'll have access to the sub skills of that cluster. You will have to unlock at least one sub skill in that cluster to be able to unlock another main cluster skill.

A quick elaboration on what that means!
We have Clusters A, B, and C.

You first unlock the upgrade for Cluster A.

Now you have access to the upgrades A1, A2, and A3.

To be able to unlock Cluster B, You'll need to research at least one of those A skills.

You can start in any order, So instead of starting with A, you can pick C.