Best Breakthroughs/Inspired research's you've gotten?

[Fey Dragonette]

As title says, what are the best Breakthroughs or inspired researches you've gotten?

I'm doing an Commander Ironman run (I used to suck at xcom but I'm getting better and working my way up to Legendary.) And I got 3 breakthroughs in this order: Magnetic weapons > Plated Armour > Psionics.

Do you guys always take Breakthroughs/Inspires? Or do you take every inspire and only take Breakthroughs if it's damage related?

[Abrakadabra]

Depends what phase of the game you are in. Very early I wouldnt delay resistance comms or even resistance radio for some inpsired research that will maybe save you how much? A day? Inspired research isnt reall valuable anyway. It never ever mattered at all in my last lgendary ironman run.

Forget insipred reasearch. Its irrelevant.

Breakthroughs though....oh....they are powerful. Take any and all dmg breakthroughs.none of my team ever uses assault rifles. But I think the resistance fighters benefit from that breakthrough? If they do, take that breakthrough. If they dont then assault rifle breakthroughs are worthless too. But shotguns, sniper rifles, pistols, even vectorrifles or the autopistols....take all the of them. If you wont die delaying whatever you can delay by taking those breakthroughs then take them whenever they show up in whatever number they show up. Inspired stuff never really benefited me in anyway. You save a day or two or even three? Never changed anything. Compared to breakthrouhgs they are worhtless.

[happyscrub]

my commander iron man run I did lab 1st and did every breakthru/inspiration that came thru.

Its was nice but I found that I was rushing thru research so fast that my income/resources couldn't keep up with it. Also research was so spread around that I really had no focused strat. Just bits of power here and there.

Mods also came an issue. So many mod slots and not enough good mods.


edit: Good example of one for me to skip. Breakthru to resue stims. I don't hardly see a reason to get it. Can't see any good use for it.

[Fey Dragonette]

Originally posted by iluvpumpum:

Inspired stuff never really benefited me in anyway. You save a day or two or even three? Never changed anything. Compared to breakthrouhgs they are worhtless.

In my particular case, each of my breakthroughs saved about 15-20 days each I think because of how early I got it.

Originally posted by happyscrub:

my commander iron man run I did lab 1st and did every breakthru/inspiration that came thru.

Its was nice but I found that I was rushing thru research so fast that my income/resources couldn't keep up with it. Also research was so spread around that I really had no focused strat. Just bits of power here and there.

Mods also came an issue. So many mod slots and not enough good mods.

Fortunately I haven't encounter that issue, I've just made it down to my power coil so I can put the psi lab on it

[Fringehunter7719]

Breakthroughs are fixed bonuses that take 10 days and grant a special one off reward, you appear to be talking about inspirations.

Inspirations do not ever save you 15-20 days each. Even focused on a really important and lengthy research project like mag weapons they do indeed only save you 1-2 days.

As a rule most breakthroughs are better skipped. I only recently came to this conclusion after a discussion here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/268500/discussions/0/1700541698696934275 that made me think it through better.

[Fey Dragonette]

Originally posted by Fringehunter7719:

Breakthroughs are fixed bonuses that take 10 days and grant a special one off reward, you appear to be talking about inspirations.

Inspirations do not ever save you 15-20 days each. Even focused on a really important and lengthy research project like mag weapons they do indeed only save you 1-2 days.

As a rule most breakthroughs are better skipped. I only recently came to this conclusion after a discussion here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/268500/discussions/0/1700541698696934275 that made me think it through better.

I should've made note of the research time when I first started doing it. I remember at one point it said 9 days for plated armour and since the inspires cut research time in half it would've saved me at least 9 days yes? Or is there some kind of compliated math where the scientist research reduction takes it out from the time that's already removed by inspires?

I'll have a look at that link, thanks!

[happyscrub]

from I found online, it reduce around 20% of time but don't quote me

[Fey Dragonette]

Originally posted by happyscrub:

from I found online, it reduce around 20% of time but don't quote me

http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/Breakthroughs_and_Inspirations

I'm going off these guys, I'm hoping they're valid

[Fringehunter7719]

Originally posted by Radiant:

Originally posted by happyscrub:

from I found online, it reduce around 20% of time but don't quote me

http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/Breakthroughs_and_Inspirations

I'm going off these guys, I'm hoping they're valid

I haven't checked on commander, but on legend, that is definitely wrong.

Edit: Checked on commander. It's not 50%.

Experimental weapons inspired 8 days, uninspired 10 days
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1301931175
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1301931109

Mag weapons inspired 22 days, uninspired 28 days
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1301931039
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1301930934

Those numbers stack up with about a 20% reduction, I can't say what the formula is, and how it interacts with getting more scientists though - or with difficulty.

[tommynocker001]

Warlock weapons [inspired] one days research!

[Mr. Nice]

Inspire lowers the cost (so time taken in practice) by between 5% and 25%, the reduction randomly determined when the Tech is made inspired. On top of this, it will always reduce the required time by at least two days, Unless the uninspired amount of days was already 2 days or less, in which case it sets the time to 1 day, but a tech which takes 2-3 days to research uninspired will still be allowed to take less than one day with inspiration.
Also, thismeans if a Tech could already be researched in less than a day without inspiration, being inspired actually makes it take longer!

[Fringehunter7719]

Good info, thanks.

[learnedhand]

Originally posted by Mr. Nice:

Inspire lowers the cost (so time taken in practice) by between 5% and 25%, the reduction randomly determined when the Tech is made inspired. On top of this, it will always reduce the required time by at least two days, Unless the uninspired amount of days was already 2 days or less, in which case it sets the time to 1 day, but a tech which takes 2-3 days to research uninspired will still be allowed to take less than one day with inspiration.
Also, thismeans if a Tech could already be researched in less than a day without inspiration, being inspired actually makes it take longer!

Randomized! Makes sense since what I've observed has never been uniform.

[red255]

'best' breakthru is an early excavaction breakthru allowing you to get to level 3 in about 10 days. unearthing a power coil or something. or getting yourself some alloys so you can manage early plated armor or something.

Haven't exactly planned it because its not exactly likely and requires a number of factors to come into allignment.

As for always taking breakthrus and inspired.

Breakthrus if you don't take them come around again after you finish ALL research, so its a question if I can manage to survive deferring them till the end of the campaign and if I would bother dragging my feet at the end of the campaign waiting for them to come around again.

There are a few types of breakthrus.

+1 damage of a weapon tier. normal weapons +2 damage = mag weapons (except mag weapons have 1 more shred with shredder ammo, and mag weapons carry one more weapon mod. but for most cases)

and this weapon damage does not require me to come up with supplies.

If I get +1 damage shotguns as well, research time of 5 days for both, total of 10 days, I've upgraded my shotguns to Mag without paying any money. which is a great deal, especially if you are broke.

your team normally consists of 6 units. 1 reapers, rangers, and sharpshooters. the grenadiers exist but I can't count on them hitting anything with their guns, the specialists and psi operatives exist but its not their goal, Combat power of the specialist goes up giving him combat protocol as well as medical protocol and upgrading his gremlin.

so I'll take the damage boosts for sniper rifles, shotguns, swords, pistols, vector rifles and a particular weapon tier. the rest isn't worth deferring my research for.

I'll pick them up later when I'm sitting more pretty. either from the resistance ring or from a later game research breakthru. when research isn't as important.

I will never take something building related. they generally just make the building or its upgrade cost less saving you a pathetic amount of money for the time spent (unless of course the time spent is immaterial because the research is otherwise complete)

[Fey Dragonette]

Originally posted by Mr. Nice:

Inspire lowers the cost (so time taken in practice) by between 5% and 25%, the reduction randomly determined when the Tech is made inspired. On top of this, it will always reduce the required time by at least two days, Unless the uninspired amount of days was already 2 days or less, in which case it sets the time to 1 day, but a tech which takes 2-3 days to research uninspired will still be allowed to take less than one day with inspiration.
Also, thismeans if a Tech could already be researched in less than a day without inspiration, being inspired actually makes it take longer!

That's for that, that's a great clarification

[Kamen42]

I might be a bit late to the party, also I am right now starting my first ever Legend playthrough (I am in the middle of fourth month), but there ae a few things:

Originally posted by iluvpumpum:

None of my team ever uses assault rifles. But I think the resistance fighters benefit from that breakthrough? If they do, take that breakthrough. If they dont then assault rifle breakthroughs are worthless too. But shotguns, sniper rifles, pistols, even vectorrifles or the autopistols....take all the of them.

None of your squad uses assault rifles? What about Specialists? I know their main strength is not in weapon damage, but I still get a lot of value from them having a rifle. Not talking about Psi Operatives. I don't even know why they have a weapon at all.

Also Autopistols? I usually skip those completely. There is almost never a situation when I want my Templar to use the pistol

So far the Rapid Excavation breakthrough has been great. I got it as a reward for resistance operation that took 7 days. The excavation would take 30 days if I put 3 engineers on the task. Since I put an engineer in my Resistance Ring, I easily saved a lot of time by having this breakthrough in comparison if the Engineer spent the time actually excavating something.