Research Bureau/Research Points regrind thread.

[Kaiserliche_garde]

Since this is the new forum and the old forum is permanently going away in the near future, I thought I would start a thread that gives a basic overview of the Research Bureau and how I "interact" with it.  I know this could be considered a guide, but since General Discussion gets more eyeballs, I thought I would put it here (if it needs to get kicked over to Guides, then so be it).  Any and every other player who wants to contribute to this thread, and I more than welcome your input and opinions on how everyone else "interacts" with the Research Bureau. This thread is for new and veteran players alike.

First things first, what is the Research Bureau?  Short story: WeeGee wants you to spend various real and fictional currencies in the game, and they created a way for you to do that.  You earn Research Points for resetting a ship line and re-unlocking the ship line from playing.  Research Bureau and resetting ship lines only become available for players after completing five (5) full ship lines.  When you reset a ship line, every ship is sold for 50% of the cost of the ship, and all of your modifications on each ship do not get sold and are stored in your inventory.  You can use these modifications from your inventory on the same ships when you repurchase them after resetting a ship line, and it does help save credits by not having to sell modifications at half price and then repurchasing them at full price.  Basically, you have to start all over; that's where the regrind criticism/jibe comes from, but you are rewarded with Research Points (an in-game currency) when you unlock and play a ship that you have reset.

What can you use these Research Points for?  Right now, in the Armory, there are three different options to spend your hard-earned Research Points on: Ships, Unique Upgrades for specific T10 ships, and combat signals.  There are currently 12 ships available in the Armory available for ranging from Overpowering to meh, and the prices for each ship can range from low 60k Research Points for Battleships to low 40k Research Points for certain Destroyers and Cruisers.  The Unique Upgrades are special modifications for ships that give unique upgrades that improve the effectiveness of a ship.  Not all Unique Upgrades are created equal; some give a bonus to defensive capabilities, and others give a bonus to offensive abilities.  These Unique Upgrades will only work on the designated ship and not be able to transfer to other ships.  Each Unique Upgrade costs 19,200 Research Points.  Finally, you can purchase combat signals for Research Points, and the cost will vary between the types of combat signals.

If you are a new player and you have unlocked five (5) full ship lines, your first reset will be (should be) a double reset.  The normal reward for all ships, t5 through t10, is 10,200 Research Points, and every three months, a double reset becomes available.  You can also "stack" resets on any one ship, and it collects each reset until you purchase and play that specific ship.  For example, what I do, and I am guessing other players do (or at least hope they do), is when I reset a ship line, I do not repurchase and play the T10 ship every time.  This way, I save credits, and resets are saved and stacked on the T10 ship until I purchase and play that specific T10 ship.

Not all ship line resets are created equal.  There is/was a guide on the old forum and also on the Reddit page for WoWs, but basically, different ship lines take more XP to completely unlock to the end than others.  What I mean by this is generally speaking, and as an example, Battleship lines take more XP to finish than Destroyer lines take to finish.  If my memory serves me well, the Yamato line takes over 900k XP to complete, while the Harugumo line takes about 750k XP to complete.  This will affect how quickly you complete each reset.  Now, this is just from me, but it is a popular opinion/option; I reset the Harugumo line.  You can also use another in-game currency called Free XP (FXP); it's the green number in the top right of your home port screen.  You can spend all 750k FXP to unlock the whole Harugumo line at once if you have the resources (and willpower) to do so; however, personally I spend 170k FXP to unlock T7 Shiratsuyu and then play out Akizuki and Kitakaze to finish the line (my Shiratsuyu, Akizuki, and Kitakaze commanders are all 21 pointers so I can rack up Elite Commander XP during a reset).

Everyone plays this game a different way, and that's okay. You should only do what is comfortable for you.  I remember my very first "interaction" with the Research Bureau.  Back when it first went live, I did not fully understand the gravity of my mistake until after I had made it.  I mistook getting the reward (Research Points) as earning them when you hit "Reset" and not when you re-purchase and play the ship again.  What I had done was gleefully reset both United States Cruiser lines and the United States Battleship line (pre-first split) all at once.  Yeah.  Never made that mistake again, and I now focus exclusively on the Japanese Destroyer gunboat line.

My God, what have I done?  I did not mean to write War and Peace, but it looks like I did.  Captains, if I have missed anything or explained something incorrectly or in poor quality, or if you would like to add anything, please do so.

Edited August 28, 2023 by HogHammer
Minor edits (Spelling/Capitalization)

[Dareios]

Looks about right.

One trap that first time resetters (if thats a real word) fall into is thinking that a reset instantly gives you the RP to spend, and not understanding that you only get the points pro rata upon regrinding (in whatever form), repurchasing and playing the ships again.

[Kaiserliche_garde]

15 minutes ago, Dareios said:

Looks about right.

One trap that first time resetters (if thats a real word) fall into is thinking that a reset instantly gives you the RP to spend, and not understanding that you only get the points pro rata upon regrinding (in whatever form), repurchasing and playing the ships again.

Thats EXACTLY what happened to me back when it first went live.  I suddenly found myself needing to regrind three whole lines all at once (BIG OOF!).  I thought I was going to get ~40k Research Points, but nope.  Was quite the Lucy and her football moment for me.

[ZeuSueZ1337]

@Kaiserliche_garde great introduction to RB, especially for the newcomers.

I wanna suggest two things if this gets turned into a guide.

First of a massive(!) warning stating that resetting the lines means you must regrind ‘em again to obtain the RB-points. At least on the old forum this was a recurring topic and seems to be the thing that players overlook. @Dareios adressed that aswell.
Secondly there is a quarterly double-up on RB points. If memory serves me well it’s around the beginning of August, November, February & May(ish) that doing your first reset in that period of time, will net you a double up on points. This is highly useful if you’re on a “stacking mission” i.e. re-resetting lines to obtain multipliers for the RB points. 

However remember: the re-grind needs to be completed within the three months period, otherwise you won’t obtain those RB-points and the entire exercise becomes a waste of time/ingame currency.

The above paragraph seems to be a misunderstanding for my part, please disreagard that.

https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/game-updates/research-bureau-update/

I’ll do a showcase. Reset the Haru-line (with the afromention 2x bonus) come November and burn free-xp to research the line. Do the same in February & May using free-xp. Spoiler; yeah it will cost you ~2m free-xp, that might not be feasible for everyone, but you can - imho - still pretty easily re-grind one line within a three months window.
Finally in august reset it the final time, and free-xp up to say the Akizuki. Then play that and Kita as to preserve just a few free-xp.

That will net you 4 x 20,4K = 81,6K RB points that can be turned into useful stuff.
 

Edited August 28, 2023 by ZeuSueZ1337
Typos etc.

[dommo77]

3 minutes ago, ZeuSueZ1337 said:

However remember: the re-grind needs to be completed within the three months period, otherwise you won’t obtain those RB-points and the entire exercise becomes a waste of time/ingame currency.
 

It is not the case as far as I know, there is no period limit for RB regrind? Would it not contradict what you wrote about stacking up multipliers every three months?

[ZeuSueZ1337]

Welp - Now you have me doubting myself.

Found this on the wiki and It's not entirely clear for me if you need to complete it within a 90 day period or not.

https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Research_Bureau

Anyone able to clarify if the grind needs to be completed within the 90-day period?

Seems you're quite correct @dommo77, alas if the original RB-points rules still are in effect, see link below:

https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/game-updates/research-bureau-update/

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by ZeuSueZ1337
Added paragraph

[dommo77]

24 minutes ago, ZeuSueZ1337 said:

Welp - Now you have me doubting myself.

Found this on the wiki and It's not entirely clear for me if you need to complete it within a 90 day period or not.

https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Research_Bureau

Anyone able to clarify if the grind needs to be completed within the 90-day period?

Seems you're quite correct @dommo77, alas if the original RB-points rules still are in effect, see link below:

https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/game-updates/research-bureau-update/

 

I thought so, as I just finished regrinding Shima line that I was resetting last 9 months 🙂 I think the "90 days period'' refers only to the period between double bonuses, with no limitation in mind. 

[Efros]

Currently awaiting the next bonus, 2 months, to take me to 4x on the Harugumo line. I'm about 50k short on XP right now but by the time it comes around I will be all set. I'm eyeing Sevastopol or perhaps Siegfried.

[Kaiserliche_garde]

1 hour ago, ZeuSueZ1337 said:

Welp - Now you have me doubting myself.

Found this on the wiki and It's not entirely clear for me if you need to complete it within a 90 day period or not.

https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Research_Bureau

Anyone able to clarify if the grind needs to be completed within the 90-day period?

Seems you're quite correct @dommo77, alas if the original RB-points rules still are in effect, see link below:

https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/game-updates/research-bureau-update/

 

Reading that entry from what looks like the games Dev Blog it says that you need to click the "reset" button to gain the double reset within that specific season.  If you do NOT click the "reset" button before the season ends you will not get the double reset for that season.  Once the new season begins, a new double reset will be available.  If you DO click the "reset" button you DO NOT need to COMPLETE the reset within that specific season (aka no time limit), this is how the stacking mechanic works.  As an example, if you click the "reset" button at the very end of one season and then the next season begins you can spend all 750k FXP to unlock Harugumo, then click the "reset" button again in the new season and you now have x4 resets stacked on the IJN gunboat line.

The other part of that Dev Blog post you clipped says that if you click the "reset" button on one ship line for the double reset and then you click the "reset" button on a completely different ship line AFTER the first reset, then the second reset will only be the standard or single reset.  As an example if I click the "reset" button on the Harugumo line for a double reset and then I click the "reset" button on the Shimakaze line, the Shimakaze line will only have the standard or single reset.

Right now I have x12 reset on Minekaze and x13 reset on Hatsuharu, and I have had I at one time x9 resets on Harugumo itself.  Once a reset is assigned to a ship, it stays with the ship until it is cleared, and the only way that can happen is purchasing the ship and clearing the requirements in a match.

[Kaiserliche_garde]

34 minutes ago, Efros said:

Currently awaiting the next bonus, 2 months, to take me to 4x on the Harugumo line. I'm about 50k short on XP right now but by the time it comes around I will be all set. I'm eyeing Sevastopol or perhaps Siegfried.

I have 9 of the 12 Research Bureau ships.  Sevastopol has Speed Boost, a long, slow Repair Party and NO radar 😠.  Siegfried is basically a t9 Gneisenau with a hydro, but the main guns I think are more accurate.  I would say Sevastopol because she's a t10, but with the changes to the Anniversary event thats out the window, same goes for the changes to the Christmas/New Years/Santa event.

[Kaiserliche_garde]

2 hours ago, dommo77 said:

It is not the case as far as I know, there is no period limit for RB regrind? Would it not contradict what you wrote about stacking up multipliers every three months?

This is correct.  Once a reset is assigned to a ship, it stays with the ship until it is cleared (aka no time limit).

Edited August 28, 2023 by Kaiserliche_garde

[torino2dc]

2 hours ago, ZeuSueZ1337 said:

Found this on the wiki and It's not entirely clear for me if you need to complete it within a 90 day period or not.

No. The RB points sit on the ship like an indefinite snowflake until the ship achieves its first win/300bxp. 

The first reset in a 90 day period is worth double points, that's all. 

[palestreamer]

5 hours ago, Kaiserliche_garde said:

Research Bureau and resetting ship lines only becomes available for players after completing five (5) full ship lines. 

Not quite correct. If you buy the upgraded battle pass, RB points are part of the rewards. For example in the current battle pass at level 7, you get 300 RB points as a reward. As soon as you get any RB points, you can reset lines. At the moment I have only four tech tree T10 ships (and a Kurfurst premium) but I am able to reset lines. I'm pretty sure I only had three tech tree ships when I was able to reset.

[OldSchoolGaming_Youtube]

3 hours ago, ZeuSueZ1337 said:

@Kaiserliche_garde great introduction to RB, especially for the newcomers.

I wanna suggest two things if this gets turned into a guide.

First of a massive(!) warning stating that resetting the lines means you must regrind ‘em again to obtain the RB-points. At least on the old forum this was a recurring topic and seems to be the thing that players overlook. @Dareios adressed that aswell.
Secondly there is a quarterly double-up on RB points. If memory serves me well it’s around the beginning of August, November, February & May(ish) that doing your first reset in that period of time, will net you a double up on points. This is highly useful if you’re on a “stacking mission” i.e. re-resetting lines to obtain multipliers for the RB points. 

However remember: the re-grind needs to be completed within the three months period, otherwise you won’t obtain those RB-points and the entire exercise becomes a waste of time/ingame currency.

The above paragraph seems to be a misunderstanding for my part, please disreagard that.

https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/game-updates/research-bureau-update/

I’ll do a showcase. Reset the Haru-line (with the afromention 2x bonus) come November and burn free-xp to research the line. Do the same in February & May using free-xp. Spoiler; yeah it will cost you ~2m free-xp, that might not be feasible for everyone, but you can - imho - still pretty easily re-grind one line within a three months window.
Finally in august reset it the final time, and free-xp up to say the Akizuki. Then play that and Kita as to preserve just a few free-xp.

That will net you 4 x 20,4K = 81,6K RB points that can be turned into useful stuff.
 

Great info, I would also mention to new players since you brought up Harugumo line (which if im not mistaken is still the "cheapest" line to grind) is that from T8 to T10 the "grind" becomes a breeze compared to most other lines, since Aki, Kita and Haru is arguable the most powerful DDs in their tier, or at least Top 3. So, its mostly the early tiers which a kind of fast to grind with some boosters that are the worst. 

I think most consider T9 Kita to be much stronger than the already strong T10 Haru.

Doing this grind right now and am currently on Akizuki.

Also if you plan on doing this now and then make sure to save an experienced captain on the last 3 ships so you dont have a hassle on re-speccin and re-training every re-grind. I have a 19 point captain on Aki right now, 21-point Yamamoto on Kita and another 21-pointer on Harugumo just sitting and waiting.

[Dareios]

additional: an aki with a blue boost can pick up 30K of your regrind per operation run.

[Kaiserliche_garde]

25 minutes ago, palestreamer said:

Not quite correct. If you buy the upgraded battle pass, RB points are part of the rewards. For example in the current battle pass at level 7, you get 300 RB points as a reward. As soon as you get any RB points, you can reset lines. At the moment I have only four tech tree T10 ships (and a Kurfurst premium) but I am able to reset lines. I'm pretty sure I only had three tech tree ships when I was able to reset.

The WoWs wiki says that when you earn Research Points via Dockyard or Battle Pass the Research Bureau is unlocked for the player and you can make purchases with any accumulated Research Points, but are otherwise unable to reset ship lines.  However, it still says you need five (5) ship lines fully unlocked to become fully qualified for the Research Bureau.  A player does not need to own five (5) t10 tech tree ships, but a player needs five (5) t10 tech tree ships unlocked.  If you have four (4) t10 ships and are able to reset a ship line, you must have an un-purchased t10 ship somewhere that you have researched/unlocked.

[ApocalypseMeeow]

While the Haragumo-Reset is seen as the most viable one, IMHO this only apply for players with lot of FXP or the desire to get RP by FXPing the line and buyying the T10.

An alternate approach may be to buy a favored line, FXP it to T6/T7 and than playing the (T7), T8 and T9 (as indicated by Kaiserliche_garde). Nevertheless, with this approach it is not mandatory to play the Haragumo line, but to concentrate on lines which may be more fun, easier to play or whatever.

While this can be done with every line, I have three basic strategies to optimize FXP and/or credit spending (which can be interesting also for newer players). Please note, that is intended for a normal cash-in of RB points and not necessarily the multi-stack operations (while also viable).

1.) German BB lines: for several years, near end of may the German BBs are discounted. Interestingly, the T8s get a discount of 50% (sic!). So the line can be resetted, re-bought until T8 with minimal silver spending (T2- T5 and T8: 50%, therefore no loss; T6 and T7 with normal 30% discount --> minimal net silver spending). XP required for T9/T10 may be more than the JP DD line, but if a player tends more to the BB style, this may be more productive.

2.) Early Access: Typically one can acquire the T7 or T8 with early access. If the T10 is researched, one could skip the process of buying, reset the line, FXP it to a convenient point and grind and re-buy than towards the T10. This saves tpically approx. 10 milllion (for the T10).

3.) Russian DD: A few days before the bonus reset one of the russian DD lines can be reset (and remain resetted); after the bonus reset (a day or few days later) the second DD can be re-settet. As both lines have the same ships including T7, the FXPing is much cheaper and both lines can be played starting with T7 or T8. While the japanese lines appear to be similar, their split is at T5; therefore, the FXP savings are much lower. E.g. if the Russian reset is in Februar, the FXP'ed ships can be bought in May with discounts and the RPs be cashed in (not necesssary in case of multi-tacks, of course). The upcoming second Japanese BB line will give a similar option for BB players (as well as already the three US BB lines starting from Colorado).

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by ApocalypseMeeow

[Ensign Cthulhu]

22 minutes ago, ApocalypseMeeow said:

While the Haragumo-Reset is seen as the most viable one, IMHO this only apply for players with lot of FXP or the desire to get RP by FXPing the line and buyying the T10.

You need to buy and play them all to get all the RP, but it's possible to accumulate it in the background by doing various things such that you might not have to buy them all back to get the ship you want. For example, I recently did two double resets either side of the season (with FXP), but when I re-researched up to Harugumo to start claiming RP, buying the Harugumo alone gave enough RP to kick me over the line to get the Illinois. That saved me tens of millions of credits. The rest of the RP is still on the other ships and will remain there until another back-to-back double opportunity arises. 

If you're not going to do it with FXP, you need to choose a line that you like to play and do well in, so you can enjoy playing it over and over again.

Reminders:

1) Playing ANY line to the second crate daily for 90 days is enough to get to Tier 10. In fact, if you were prepared to completely ignore all event mission requirements and just play for the research bureau, you could play one line to the second crate and then two more to the third (dividing honours evenly) (and if you ARE playing three lines, it still might be possible to juggle which lines you grind in order to have the variety of ships needed to complete missions).

2) Playing split lines that branch at high tier - e.g. Russian cruisers or destroyers, US battleships - is a good way to get multiple lines to Tier 10 as you only have to do the Tier 1-7 climb once. 

3) Resetting a line DOES NOT reset the supership. You get to keep that one. 

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by Ensign Cthulhu

[Verblonde]

In addition to what others have said, any newcomers to regrinds may fine this site useful: https://wowsft.com/research

If you click into one of the nations, and select the start and end points of a given research pathway, it'll tell you how much xp you need to complete that pathway. For example, this shows the xp needed to get from the IJN T1 to Harugumo:

[Justin_Simpleton]

7 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

If you click into one of the nations, and select the start and end points of a given research pathway, it'll tell you how much xp you need to complete that pathway. For example, this shows the xp needed to get from the IJN T1 to Harugumo:

I can't figure out how to select the start and end points. 

Nevermind.  I left-click the mouse on the ship, then click on another ship and the XP is indicated at the top of the ship chart.

Edited August 28, 2023 by Justin_Simpleton

[Ensign Cthulhu]

16 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

For example, this shows the xp needed to get from the IJN T1 to Harugumo:

 

It needs to be borne in mind that this is a grind straight through the hulls, without any upgrades to gunfire control systems, torpedoes, etc. By and large these can be done without if you are pushed for time. The only one I'd truly recommend taking is the torpedo upgrade for Hatsuharu (T6 in the IJN gunboat line), which pushes the torpedo range out from 6km to 10km and makes play in Randoms much more comfortable. 

[iDuckman]

9 hours ago, ZeuSueZ1337 said:

Found this on the wiki and It's not entirely clear for me if you need to complete it within a 90 day period or not.

You do not.  The 2x season bonus is applied to the first line reset in the season, if any.  You can take as long as you like to finish a re-grind.  If it's not finished, you can't reset it.

In the meantime, a different line can be reset to receive the next season bonus. 

 

[iDuckman]

5 hours ago, palestreamer said:

Not quite correct. If you buy the upgraded battle pass, RB points are part of the rewards. For example in the current battle pass at level 7, you get 300 RB points as a reward. As soon as you get any RB points, you can reset lines. At the moment I have only four tech tree T10 ships (and a Kurfurst premium) but I am able to reset lines. I'm pretty sure I only had three tech tree ships when I was able to reset.

Not true.  Or, at least, WG says it's not true.  Research points gets you into the RB Armory page but by themselves do not allow you to reset.

I bet you acquired GK while it was still tech tree.  When it was moved to premium Special, the line was still counted as complete.

  

5 hours ago, Kaiserliche_garde said:

you must have an un-purchased t10 ship somewhere that you have researched/unlocked.

Or it moved to Special status.  🙂

 

Talking about you, GK.

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by iDuckman

[palestreamer]

8 hours ago, Kaiserliche_garde said:

A player does not need to own five (5) t10 tech tree ships, but a player needs five (5) t10 tech tree ships unlocked.  

You are right, the key word is "researched". I thought you had to actually have 5 in hand to be able to reset. I have 4 bought and one researched.

 

3 hours ago, iDuckman said:

Research points gets you into the RB Armory page but by themselves do not allow you to reset.

You are correct.

[SureBridge]

On 8/28/2023 at 10:13 AM, iDuckman said:

Or it moved to Special status.  🙂

 

Talking about you, GK.

 

Or Khaba, which happened at the same time...