Hearth and Hamlet Tech Tree Guide

Research system overview

Research is the long-term progression layer in Hearth and Hamlet. The official Steam description says upgrades feed into a research tree that permanently unlocks new technologies, including buildings, policies, magic, and other upgrades as your civilization advances.

That makes research different from a short-lived production boost. An unlock expands what the settlement can do for the rest of the run, so the best early choices are the ones that remove a current economic bottleneck or open a system you can use immediately.

Confirmed branch themes

The official Steam material does not publish a complete node list, but it names the themes the research tree permanently unlocks. The table below separates what is officially confirmed from what remains unspecified.

Use the in-game research panel as the authority for the current version's node names, costs, and ordering — this table exists so you know which systems are officially confirmed to exist before you plan around them.

Recommended unlock order

There is no single fixed order that fits every town. A safe roadmap is to strengthen the resource loop first, solve the settlement's immediate constraint second, and only then spend toward specialized late-game systems. An Into Indie Games early-game guide likewise recommends prioritizing early research that improves tools and gathering speed.

Treat this as a decision framework rather than a list of named nodes. Before buying an upgrade, identify what it unlocks, confirm that you can use it now, and check that the purchase will not empty resources needed for food, housing, or the next essential building.

For the first tier specifically, these named nodes (community wiki catalogue, build 1.0.04) are cheap, always useful, and fit the framework above:

• Construction Advisor (Keep 1 + Carpenter 1) — notifies you when you can afford a building upgrade, so you stop re-checking every panel.
• Critical Success I (Keep 1) — a 2% chance of a critical success when personally harvesting.
• Extra Accommodation (Tavern 1) — +8 max population.
• Apprenticeships (Library 1) — +2 global resource harvesting.
• Research Advisor (Keep 2 + Library 1) — notifies you when new research becomes available, which matters because many nodes stay hidden behind building levels you have not reached yet.
• The Sturdy Tools line (production building 1–2 + Blacksmith 1) — roughly +50–100% production of that one resource; buy the entry matching your current bottleneck.

Late-game research: the Undead siege

Building the Keep triggers a quest chain that runs through the cathedral and ends in the Ancient Evil siege — repeated zombie-horde battles that players in the Steam thread call the biggest challenge in the game. Two research nodes decide whether that phase drains your treasury or funds it:

• Consecrated Weapons (Church level 4) — +20% damage to Undead and prevents Undead from reviving. Players describe this as the node that makes the horde fights trivial, and also warn that it sits at the end of the church upgrade line (“behind the cathedral”) — a two-step investment: building levels first, research second.
• Battle Loot: Undead (Mage Tower level 3) — unlocks battle rewards for defeating Undead. Player-reported yields run roughly 50,000–100,000 gold and magic per horde fight, which turns the siege into your best late-game income as long as you keep the research current.

For how many soldiers to bring and how the waves behave, see the combat guide's Ancient Evil siege section — soldier count scales from population, and that rule is what the siege punishes hardest. Surviving the siege is also the Ancient Evil achievement, so the research pays into a guaranteed unlock most runs reach anyway.

Magic research and the Magic Academy

The most common magic mistake is hunting the research panel for a way to buy magic. There isn't one: the quest that asks you to acquire magic by trading is completed from the buying side of a trade expedition, as the developer confirmed in the Steam thread after two players reported losing an hour to the search. The step-by-step lives in our trade guide FAQ; what the research tree does own is the Magic Academy branch (catalogued as the Mage Tower in the community wiki):

• Magical Trade Goods (Mage Tower 2 + Market 3) — unlocks Magical Trade Goods. This is the research the developer pointed to when players asked where the “trade magic” tech lives.
• Enchant Weapons I / II (Mage Tower 2 / 4) — unlocks and upgrades the soldier-attack enchant shop items (+3, then +6 attack).
• Enchant Armour I / II (Mage Tower 2 / 4) — the defence counterpart (+10, then +20 soldier defence).
• Mana Tap (Mage Tower 3) — unlocks a shop item worth +50% magic production.
• Battle Loot: Undead (Mage Tower 3) — the siege-income node covered above.

Kingdom Policies

Research also connects to laws and policies that shape how the kingdom operates. The official description specifically mentions taxation rules. In the Keep interface, the visible tax choices trade greater income against citizen happiness, so the strongest option is not automatically the highest rate.

Alchemical labs and magical academies are also confirmed parts of the game's advanced building system. Official material does not establish their exact prerequisites or costs, so use the in-game research panel as the authority for the current version.

FAQ