Grand Cathay tech tree

The Grand Cathay tech tree consists of technologies that unlock new advantages throughout the game. Research takes place constantly, but the rate at which discoveries occur can be increased by using heroes to spy or building additional research buildings at your settlements.

Technologies

Tech	Prerequisite	Effects	Description
Seasoned Trackers		Campaign movement range: +5% for Yang characters Casualty replenishment rate: +5% for Yin units	The Dragon Emperor's Celestial hand shall ease our path, no matter what might assail us on the way. All we need to do is look for His radiance, and follow after it.
Hardened Bamboo	Seasoned Trackers	Armour: +20 for Peasant Horsemen units	A drying process, taught by an Ogre Butcher outcast from his tribe due to too many vegetable-based recipes, stengthens peasants' makeshift armour without rendering it brittle.
Peasant Levy Edict	Hardened Bamboo	Leadership: +10 for Peasant Long Spearmen and Peasant Horsemen units	The people cannot protest against the Jade Dragon's law if they are paid in the Jade Dragon's coin.
Contained Aggression	Peasant Levy Edict	Hero action success chance: +10% Melee attack: +4 when attacking	Cathay's provincial troops are loyal and numberless, but they are crude and unrefined soldiers. There is such great potential in them, waiting only to be unlocked.
Harmonic Balance	Peasant Levy Edict	Enemy Hero action success chance: -20% Melee defence: +4 when defending	As the moon's silver light washes over us, Quai Yin shall grant Her blessing. Darkness shall hone our blades, and shadows shall form our armour.
Alchemic Mortar	Peasant Levy Edict	Construction cost: -5% for Province Capital/Settlement buildings Construction time: -1 for Province Capital/Settlement buildings	The House of Secrets refuses to disclose quite which reagents have been added to the mixture, but there is no denying that it builds sturdy structures at minimal cost.
Fletching Mentors	Seasoned Trackers	Ammunition: +10% for Peasant Archers, Celestial Dragon Crossbows and Jade Warrior Crossbowmen units	Because the Moon Empress blesses every arrow in the Celestial Empire, it is contigent upon our fletchers to construct them with the utmost care, and our archers to not waste even a single shot.
Dragon Scales	Fletching Mentors	Armour: +10 for Jade Warriors, Jade Warriors (Halberds), Jade Warrior Crossbowmen and Jade Warrior Crossbowmen (Shields) units	"Strike fast, strike hard, no mercy" is a fine mantra, but futile should the enemy feel similarly. Defence is of equal import, and uncannily lightweight alchemical steel shall provide it.
Harmonic Discipline	Fletching Mentors	Corruption -1 (all provinces) Income from Industry (Yin) buildings: +15%	Patience, planning and practice; this is the way of the Yin. Obey this creed always, and we shall move as the night wind - silent, graceful and unimpeded by any obstacle.
Grace of Quai Yin	Harmonic Discipline	Grants the Banner of the Moon Empress to your faction Upkeep: -10% for Yin units	The Moon Empress loves every child of Cathay dearly, but she most favours those who seek fealty to the elemental winds of shadow and spirit.
Defensive Formations	Grace of Quai Yin	Leadership: +4 when defending Melee defence: +4 for Peasant Long Spearmen, Celestial Dragon Guard, Jade Warriors and Jade Warriors (Halberds) units	Absolute discipline. Perfect alignment of purpose. Every soldier knowing their place. This is the Harmony of Stone and Steel.
Harmonic Mastery	Harmonic Discipline	Income from Cities: +10%	True balance requires the trust and participation of all souls. Only when we think and work as one will absolute harmony of purpose be achieved.
Yin Hex	Harmonic Mastery	Base missile damage: +20% for Yin units	The Moon Empress shall bind our foes in tendrils of night, and in balance her kiss shall grant our bows new strength.
Chelonian Stance	Harmonic Mastery	Armour: +25 for Peasant Long Spearmen units Melee defence: +4 for Peasant Long Spearmen units	The Dragon Emperor has seen countless species rise and fall, and can teach us much of them. The ancient Chelonian turtles possessed nigh-unbreakable shells - this, we can recreate with wood and steel.
Drill Training	Seasoned Trackers	Recruit rank: +2 for Peasant Long Spearmen units Leadership: +4 for Peasant Long Spearmen units	Harmony brings unity, and unity brings efficiency. The warriors of wind and field must be taught to trust one another implicitly, for each is an extension of the Dragon Emperor's will, fighting as one.
Jade Stance	Drill Training	Vigour loss reduction: -15% for Jade Warriors, Jade Warriors (Halberds) and Jade Warrior Crossbowmen units	As majestic as jade, as unbreakable as stone: this what every devoted warrior of Cathay, whether born to power or peasantry, must eternally strive to be.
Bureaucrat Training	Drill Training	Growth: +5 (all provinces) Income from Industry (Yang) buildings: +15%	As the Dragon Emperor once more directs His great compass to harness the Eight Winds, a great wave of Yang shall infuse the land, bestowing good fortune and prosperity upon every soul.
Rite of Yang	Bureaucrat Training	Grants the Banner of Feng Shi to your faction Upkeep: -10% for Yang units	The school of Feng Shi sorcery, named for the Dragon Emperor himself, grants strength and protection to all those who wield it. It is the highest honour to march beneath the Yang banner.
Horse Bonding	Rite of Yang	Recruit rank: +3 for cavalry units Charge bonus: +10% for cavalry units	Cathayan horses are no less flighty than their otherwise inferior Old World kin, but an expert rider knows that bestowing stillness upon their anxious steed is paramount to victory.
Inner Chai	Bureaucrat Training	Income from sacking settlements: +10%	Stillness of the mind and soul are virtues to which we all must aspire. Only with impeccable discipline and balance may we truly prefail against wickedness.
Inner Speed	Inner Chai	Speed: +20% for Yang units	Once freed from doubt, fear and distrust, their minds governed only by their absolute devotion to the Dragon Emperor, the Celestial legion shall move like the Eight Winds themselves.
Improved Brazier	Inner Chai	Recruit rank: +2 for Sky Lantern units	A system of bellows and fine brass funnels ensures that escaped heat is recaptured and reused rather than wasted, thus granting greater lift and range for our Sky Lanterns.
Administrative Subsidies	Requires 1 technology: Improved Brazier Chelonian Stance Alchemic Mortar	Recruitment cost: -20% for Peasant Long Spearmen and Peasant Archers units	Every soul in the Celestial Empire, no matter how low-born, is deserving of the Dragon Emperor's care. It falls to Yuan Bo, the Jade Dragon, to share His purse amongst the commonfolk.
Dynastic Finishing	Administrative Subsidies	Lord recruit rank: +3 for Caravan Masters (factionwide) Lord recruit rank: +3 (all provinces)	There are those who obtain status thourhg ignoble means, and there are those who debase their heraldry. Fortunately, true Dragon-blooded may replace them at a whim.
Astromantic Choir	Dynastic Finishing	Hero action success chance: +10% for Astromancers Hero capacity: +2 for Astromancers Hero recruit rank: +4 for Astromancers	By putting ego to one side and working together, there is no limit to the innovations the outcast Sorcerers of the House of Secrets might devise.
Blessed Temple Guardians	Astromantic Choir	Corruption: -1 (all provinces) Armour: +15 for Jade Lion, Jet Lion and Celestial Lion units Speed: +10% for Jade Lion, Jet Lion and Celestial Lion units	It is said that each stone sentinel sings a constant and divine song of purification, sadly inaudible to all those not born of Dragon-blood.
Peasant Triage	Blessed Temple Guardians	Casualty replenishment rate: +15% for Peasant Long Spearmen, Peasant Archers, and Peasant Horsemen units	So numerous are the warriors of wind and field that it is impossible to keep a tally of the wounded, but learned physicians can at least identify the most grieviously harmed.
Stalking Techniques	Blessed Temple Guardians	Attribute: Stalk for Peasant Archers units	What the warriors of wind and field might lack in formal training they make up for with the wily skills of born hunters.
Sea Dragon Edict	Blessed Temple Guardians	Income from trade tariffs: +7% Income from faction capital settlement: +50% Income from Ports: +25%	Yin-Yin rules over the Jade Sea and far beyond, and it is she who keeps Cathay's ports safe from crime and corruption. Only by the Sea Dragon's grace is fresh trade allowed or disallowed.
Nan-Gau Weaponry	Dynastic Finishing	Melee attack: +5 for Jade Warriors (Halberds), Celestial Dragon Guard and Celestial Dragon Crossbows units Weapon strength: +10% for Jade Warriors (Halberds), Celestial Dragon Guard and Celestial Dragon Crossbows units	The grand artificers of Cathay's impregnable heart of industry are capable of creating weapons reputedly as everlasting as the Great Bastion itself.
Yin Defence	Nan-Gau Weaponry	Melee defence: +4 for Yin units	Our legion can learn to draw from within themselves an invisible miasma of the Moon Empress' enduring love, which as it envelops our foes shall blunt their every strike.
Moon Wood	Nan-Gau Weaponry	Construction time: -1 for Yin infrastructure buildings	Previously unseen beyond the Forests of the Moon, a pitch-black tree which yields lumber as tough as fresh-forged iron has spread to the slopes of Kunlan - no doubt with Quai Yin's blessing.
Jagged Shrapnel	Moon Wood	Armour-piercing missile damage: +2 for Iron Hail Gunner units	A criss-crossing of miniature blades within the gun barrel's interior scores hundreds of vicious edges into every piece of shot. Only Nan-Gau's most diligent artificers can achieve this feat.
Target Ranges	Jagged Shrapnel	Recruit rank: +2 for Jade Warrior Crossbowmen and Jade Warrior Crossbowmen (Shields) units Ammunition: +25 for Jade Warrior Crossbowmen and Jade Warrior Crossbowmen (Shields) units	A fresh edict: only those born to a family which has known no short-sightedness or blindness for five generations may wield a Jade crossbow. Even then, they must prove themselves.
Yin Muse	Moon Wood	Campaign movement range: +10% for Yin characters	To drink of purest Yin energy, filtered from the silver waters of the Dragon River, is to become as swift and weightless as a spirit, unbound by corporeal convention.
Wadding Cartridges	Yin Muse	Ammunition: +30% for Grand Cannon units Reload time reduction: +10% for Grand Cannon units	The Ogre merchants of the Ivory Road charge a pretty penny to have their trained Giants stomp on our cannon wadding, but the compressed results can be loaded with incredible speed.
Harmonic Mindfulness	Yin Muse	Ambush success chance: +20% Ambush defence chance: +20%	The cloak of darkness is merely a state of mind. Practitioners of Yin can attune to it at will, and thus move unseen and unheard even in the broadest daylight.
Improved Winches	Dynastic Finishing	Range: +5% for Celestial Dragon Crossbows, Jade Warrior Crossbowmen and Jade Warrior Crossbowmen (Shields) units Armour-piercing missile damage: +3 for Celestial Dragon Crossbows, Jade Warrior Crossbowmen and Jade Warrior Crossbowmen (Shields) units	All the world envies Cathay's most grandiose technologies, but it is in the smallest of things, such as cogwheels no larger than a hummingbird's eye, that we truly innovate.
Inner Strength	Improved Winches	Melee attack: +4 for Yang units	Yang is the strength of the soul. Yang is the flame in the heart and the fire in our veins. Yang is the roar from the lungs. Yang is the iron within our bones and the stone beneath our skins.
Yang Kiln	Improved Winches	Construction time: -1 for Yang infrastructure buildings	The Dragon Emperor's Celestial fire burns hotter than all else. Bricks baked in the Burning Wind emerge strong and flawless, all the better to build great monuments to Xen Yang.
Sentinel Rights	Yang Kiln	Melee attack: +5 for Terracotta Sentinel units Missile resistance: 10% for Terracotta Sentinel units	It takes time for a newly-awakened Sentinel to regain its full might, as it sheds the moss and earth of years, but the correct incantations will instantly purge all such detritus.
Jade Veteran Facility	Sentinel Rites	Hero action success chance: +10% for Gate Masters Hero capacity: +2 for Gate Masters Hero recruit rank: +4 for Gate Masters Recruit rank: +2 for Jade Warriors and Jade Warriors (Halberds) units Missile resistance: 10% for Jade Warriors and Jade Warriors (Halberds) units	It is the Jade Warriors who keep the great cities of Cathay safe, but they are too gracious to demand promotion. Thus, we must identify and raise up their finest ourselves.
Mastery of Yang	Yang Kiln	Campaign movement range: +5% for Yang characters Casualty replenishment rate: +5% for Yang units	The Celestial Dragon will raise us all up - we need only to heed His wisdom. And so, by tapping the flame within their souls, the Dragon Emperor's soldiers shall become tireless.
Flanking Stratagems	Mastery of Yang	Attribute: Devastating Flanker for Jade Lancers units	So well-drilled are the Jade Lancers of Cathay, and so fluid their steeds, that they could outflank their enemy even within the narrowest of alleyways.
Magnetic Polarity	Mastery of Yang	Attribute: 360 Missile Block for Wu Xing War Compass units Missile block chance: +45% for Wu Xing War Compass units	If the great magnets within a War Compass are suddenly inverted, they will repulse incoming fusillades, scattering missiles like blossom on the breeze.
Nan-Gau Forges	Requires 1 technology: Sea Dagon Edict Harmonic Mindfulness Magnetic Polarity	Income from Industry: +10%	The great inventions of the City of Smoke generate more wealth than most other empires put together. We are fortunate indeed that it shares its technologies with us.
Alchemist Compact	Nan-Gau Forges	Hero action success chance: +10% for Alchemists Hero capacity: +2 for Alchemists Hero recruit rank: +4 for Alchemists	The House of Secrets skirts the edges of morality and legality, but a carefully-worded edict would further legitimise its renegade wizards. In turn, it would share its best and brightest with us.
Festival Edict	Alchemist Compact	Armour: +30 for Zhangu War Drum units Armour-piercing weapon damage: +200 for Zhangu War Drum units	It is on the backs of the hard-working commonfolk that every noble of Cathay stands, and it is past time they were shown gratitude. Send forth for the finest dishes in all the Celstial Empire!
Incorruptible Dogma	Festival Edict	Leadership: +10 when fighting against Warriors of Chaos, Daemons of Chaos, Chaos Dwarfs and Norsca Weapon Strength: +20% when fighting against Warriors of Chaos, Daemons of Chaos, Chaos Dwarfs and Norsca	Every child of Cathay is tuaght to fear the Great Enemy, but as adulthood descends, so too does temptation grow. Mandatory re-education and thrice-daily prayer to the Dragon Emperor is thus required.
Thieves' Guild	Incorruptible Dogma	Post battle chance of stealing a magic item: +30% (all characters)	Retired Gate Masters - with the Dragon Emperor's tacit approval - often train underworld denizens in the ways of the Jade Warriors. In this way, even criminals are taught balance.
Clay-Scrying	Incorruptible Dogma	Casualty replenishment rate: +15% for Terracotta Sentinel units	The Terracotta Sentinels are ancient indeed, but the Celestial Court believes it can recreate the invocations of Xen Yang used to infuse their stone forms with a semblance of life so long ago.
Alignment Calibration	Incorruptible Dogma	Wu Xing Compass cooldown: -1 turns	A single brass lever activates thousands of pulleys, arranged in a dense lattice even the most brilliant of minds could not untangle, and quickly drags the Compass into shuddering arrangement.
Jade Bolts	Alchemist Compact	Armour-piercing missile damage: +4 for Celestial Dragon Crossbows units	By augmenting each missile's tip with shards of the Celestial Dragon's most favoured stone, they shall become able to pierce even the strongest steel.
Moon Reflecting	Jade Bolts	Leadership: +10 Yin units	Some mistake darkness for wickedness. Those who worship Quai Yin know that, in truth, darkness is purity, and to give themselves to the peace of night will answer their every need.
Grace of the Dragon Empress	Jade Bolts	Grants the Banner of the Empress' Eye to your faction Speed: +20% for Peasant Archers, Celestial Dragon Crossbows and Jade Warrior Crossbowmen units Bonus vs Infantry: +6 for Onyx Crowmen and Great Moon Bird units	Great feats of archery, great deeds of subterfuge, great acts of charity: this is how the Moon Dragon's blessed favour is won.
Crane Sights	Grace of the Dragon Empress	Range: +10% for Crane Gunners units Armour-piercing missile damage: +10% for Crane Gunners units	Vermillion Warbird hatchlings, before they reach full and fiery naturity, may be used as spotters, scattering harmless dancing flames in the vicinity of Crane Gunners' distant targets.
Sky Junk Rigging	Crane Sights	Speed: +20% for Sky-junk units Ammunition: +20% for Sky-junk units : Missile strength: +10% for Sky-junk units	When not dousing the Dragon Emperor's foes in purifying flame, the Dragon Fire Throwers mounted upon a Sky-Junk's perimeter can belch their emissions towards the craft's rear, further increasing thrust.
Powder Mixing	Grace of the Dragon Empress	Recruit rank: +3 for Fire Rain Rocket units Ammunition: +25% for Fire Rain Rocket units	When its powder is laced with deadly Warpstone, courtesy of the House of Secrets' e'er-scheming Alchemists, each fresh Fire Rain rocket can be produced for a fraction of its former cost.
Yin Flow	Powder Mixing	Sale value of cargo: +25%	Come the next rainstorm, a system of canals and reservoirs can capture and share the Dragon River's over-spilling, mystic waters far and wide. And thus, the Yin shall flow.
Yin Healing	Powder Mixing	Immune to Chaos Wastes attrition (all armies)	The Moon Empress weeps for every fallen child of Cathay. For this reason, she ahs been known to walk amongst those who follow her creed, disguised as a peasant healer, tending to the wounded and dying.
Celestial Endurance Training	Alchemist Compact	Physical resistance: 5% for Celestial Dragon Guard and Celestial Dragon Crossbows units	With Celestial fire coursing through their veins, quaffed without hesitation from a jade goblet, the Dragon Emperor's honour guard shall never again know fatigue.
Enhanced Yang Sight	Celestial Endurance Training	Ward save: 5% for Peasant Long Spearmen, Celestial Dragon Guard, Jade Warriors and Jade Warriors (Halberds) units	The Dragon Emperor sees all, and so it is that an infusion of His Celestial magic can grant sight beyond sight to His most loyal believers.
Grace of Xen Yang	Celestial Endurance Training	Grants the The Great Celestial Banner to your faction Character experience gain: +50% (all characters)	In public, all obey the Dragon Emperor without question, but in private many provinces vie for independence and power. Those who serve Him faithfully shall be rewarded.
Improved Husbandry	Grace of Xen Yang	Charge bonus: +15 for Peasant Horsemen and Jade Lancers units	The Moon Empress can take any form, and and it is thanks to her time spent running with the herds, free as the wind, that we may now learn the language of horses.
Longma Bridles	Improved Husbandry	Charge bonus: +20 for Great Longma Riders units	Every Spirit Qilin yearns to return to the Celestial Mountains, and have been known to depart for them even in the heat of battle. Incanting a Yang rite upon their reins will ensure obedience.
Kunlan Anvil	Grace of Xen Yang	Armour: +10 for Celestial Dragon Guard and Celestial Dragon Crossbows units	Rare crystals litter the peaks of Kunlan, each of which absorbed a fragment of the Celestial energy unleashed by the Dragon Emperor's birth. Once socketed into an anvil, divine armour may be forged.
Dragon Fleet Aegis	Kunlan Anvil	Construction cost: -25% for Ports Construction time: -2 for Ports Income from faction capital settlement: +50%	But a word from the Sea Dragon is all that is required to grant passage or permit. We may also petition her for aid in constructing coastal defences, for what is the ocean but another bastion?
Yang Reflection	Kunlan Anvil	Armour: +20 for Yang units	Some say meditation is relaxation. This is a grave misconception, for Yang meditation amplifies the will and dampens all need. Its most capable practitioners can go days without rest or fodder.
Dragon Emperor's Blessing	Requires 1 technology: Yin Healing Alignment Calibration Yang Reflection	Winds of Magic power reserve: +3 per turn (all armies) Recruit rank: +2 Hero and Lord recruit rank: +10	By harnessing the magic of Azyr, Xen Yang may divine what is to come, and thus He shall knowthe hour of our need. When He tells His faithful that hour has not yet come, they shall belive Him.