Empires & Allies rolled out a new feature on June 22: Research Labs!

What is a Research Lab?

Research Labs are buildings that allow you to upgrade your units. As you build upgrades, your units will become more powerful, less expensive, and faster to build!

How do Research Labs work?

Research Labs can be found in the "Build" menu, under "Military".

Once you've built the Research Lab, you'll be given the option to do research, which will allow you to upgrade your units. Each individual unit type has to have its upgrades researched separately.

In order to research the upgrades, you're going to need parts! You can purchase the parts, or you can collect them by sending requests to your neighbors.

Once you've done the research, you can upgrade the unit five different times, with different bonuses. Each upgrade will affect all units of that type! For instance, if you research higher damage on your Cadet Soldiers, all Cadet Soldiers you own (and any you build from then on) will do more damage.

Note: Combat upgrades won't be applied to units that are currently engaged in battle! Only battles that are started after the upgrade is complete will get the benefits of the upgrade!