Research Items

Research Items are a collection of Medium objects. They come in a wide variety, differing in shape, color, and locations where they can be found. They are used in a Research Chamber to gain bytes, which are used to unlock better and more useful items. Learn more about the Research Mechanic.

Artificial Research Items
These type of Research Items can be found in EXO Dynamics Research Aids and around satellite wrecks. This type of research item provides the most amount of bytes but the longest amount of research time. They are white, typically with blue accents, with the exception of the cube that has gray accents.

Mineral Research Items
Most of these items have a cuboid shape or have decorations of gems around a bumpy rock, and are commonly found on surfaces of mountains and rocky hills. Glacio and Desolo provides most of this type of research item with its rocky and icy surface. This type of research item is all average in terms of byte output and research time.

Organic Research Items
Appear mostly ovoid or spherical, and most have plant-like protrusions on their surfaces which react to the wind like Flora. Found on the surface as well as. Since Patch 1.0, on Sylva certain Organic Research Items can be found nestled inside trees. Sylva and Vesania provide most of this type of research item. These research items have low byte output, but fast research time.

Hostile Organic Research Items
Unlike most organic items, these three can only be found under Hazardous Flora

Hazardous Flora Seeds (Research Items)
These type of research items are encountered when destroying various Hazardous Flora on Astroneer, which have a chance of dropping either a seed or Research Sample. Both the seed and Research Sample can be researched at a Research Chamber for a fixed amount of bytes. The Research Sample that is dropped can also be scanned similar to other Research Samples for a less amount of bytes, but is ultimately more beneficial if you're venturing far from your home base.

Trivia
Research Items have had many different names, changing often between stages and patches throughout the development. This causes a lot of confusion to many players, which is further exacerbated when each developer refers to them with distinctly different names.

List of alternate names for research item
 * Artifacts
 * Nuts
 * Rocks
 * Chests
 * Sliced Red Onions
 * Cacti
 * Drums
 * Discoveries
 * Researchable
 * Treasure Pods
 * Seeds
 * Fruits
 * Gems
 * Boxes
 * Bulbs
 * Research Cubes
 * Avocados
 * Yoda Dumplings
 * Lemon Pals
 * Weird Balls
 * Big Things
 * Research Blobs
 * Research Chest
 * Unknown Research
 * Research
 * Unknowns
 * Grimbos
 * Danger balls
 * Rambutan (in the case of the hostile organic research items)
 * Research Rocks
 * Dragon Eggs
 * Learning Balls
 * Research Balls
 * Research Pods
 * Research Nodes
 * Space-BBQs