What does Reseach And Download Speed Mean?

[Fallon]

I understand building more comm hubs and upgrading them speeds up research, but what does the science beaker next to the download icon mean?

And what is the benefit of bioscanning everything?

[Panterich]

You don`t "research" techs from first 2 branches. They are existing tech you download by comm hub.
Alien techs (third branch) are unknown and need to be properly researched. For that you need labs.

Originally posted by Volks:

And what is the benefit of bioscanning everything?

First levels of familarity give you new info. Later levels boost some stats. See in-game database for more info.

[TankHunter678]

Alien Research needs the beakers, which is your lab research speed.

Scanning enemies and plants gives numerous benefits. For enemies it tells you what they drop, how much HP they have, what their resistances and weaknesses are, and grants you both a damage bonus and resource drop bonus. For plants it does similar, after 10 scans (level 3 familiarity) you can use the plant in the cultivator, each level beyond increases the yield when harvesting those plants be it by hand or by Harvester.

The Cultivator and Harvester are the best resource structures in the game. They allow you to obtain any resource you want, all you had to do is scan plants and setup harvester/cultivator setups where you got mud (preferred) or sludge to convert into water.

[GrabbusDEV]

Downloaded research comes from earth, which is separate to alien research which is based on your bioscanning of organisms and is researched in your base rather than downloaded.

[Fallon]

What kind of plants should I cultivate?

[TankHunter678]

Originally posted by Volks:

What kind of plants should I cultivate?

That depends on your needs. For example Fungus Pileus strain will give plant matter for plant biomass burners, carbon, iron, and each of the 3 variants gives one of the 3 main advanced materials: Titanium, Uranium, Palladium. Fungas Crystallo meanwhile has each strain give plant biomass, iron, and either ferdonite, tanzanite, or hazenite with the Corulus variant also giving cobalt.

[Panterich]

Mushrooms and crystals (all kinds) are best bets.