Two Point Hospital Research Guide

Research is an important component in Two Point Studios' Two Point Hospital, the spiritual successor to Bullfrog Productions' Theme Hospital. It's the vehicle through which you unlock new treatment options and upgrades for those options, but it can also be an arduous, expensive process that will hamper the progress of your level. A single level exists that is perfectly suited for solving this problem: Mitton University. We'll explore how best to take advantage of this level's unique bonuses in this Two Point Hospital Research Guide. 

If you're enjoying our Two Point Hospital coverage, you can head to the game's official page to find our other articles on the topic.  For example, you could take a look at our coverage of the Off the Grid DLC announcement. 

Two Point Hospital Research Guide

The first thing you need to understand is how research works in Two Point Hospital. Doctors need to first be trained in the Research skill (or hired with the skill already acquired). Much like Surgery or the M.E.G.A. Scan, a doctor won't be able to work in this room without this specialized training. The first level allows them to do this particular job, and levels II-V each increase their effectiveness by 50%.

There are three important elements concerning research. The first is unlocking new treatment options, the second is generating Kudosh, and the third is simply generating money. You will be able to research new machines once you've begun a level or discovered a new disease that requires the specialized treatment. After that, you'll only be able to unlock Level 2 & Level 3 upgrades once you've actually built and/or upgraded the machines in one of your hospitals. Unlocked treatments are available across all of your hospitals, so you don't necessarily have to discover these new technologies and upgrades in the same level that you need them in.

Use Mitton University

Enter Mitton University. This level is placed relatively early in the game and is thematically set at an institute of higher learning. Star goals aside, it has two particularly excellent bonuses available: a $10,000 bonus for every time you complete research and a $5,000 bonus for every employee that you successfully train. These bonuses make Mitton University ideally suited to act as your research hub for every hospital in your organization. As an added bonus, you can wholly avoid building this room in most of your hospitals, saving on costs and avoiding some of the game's most annoying micromanagement.

The first thing you ought to do is make it to Mitton University and get one star on the level through the usual means so you can progress in the game. Once this is done, you can (and should) restart the level so you begin with a blank slate. Although this might seem counterintuitive, you don't need to actually service patients at a hospital to keep it going. We'll be using our starting money to build only four rooms: a research room, a training room, a staff room, and a bathroom. You won't even build a reception desk or hire any assistants - you don't need them.

Find and Train Doctors

Once your research room is built, it's time to find doctors. Finding doctors with the right qualifications is sometimes a pain in Two Point Hospital, but another unique feature of Mitton University is that all doctors and nurses have no skills trained whatsoever. Hire at least a couple doctors and a single janitor (to maintain the facility) and get them trained in the Research skill. You'll then immediately put them to work in your (hopefully tricked-out) research lab.

Your main focus for the immediate future will be hiring doctors and training them up until you have a crew with Research V. Each research room can only accommodate 5 doctors apiece; I recommend going with at least two distinct rooms. It gets to be a pain to micromanage more rooms than that, but it can certainly be done if you really want to put the effort in. Keep in mind that you should keep your money above negative values; your only income will be through successfully completing General Research and the bonuses you get from completing research and training. If it gets too low, you can take out a loan. Bear in mind two important facts: you will need $1,000 to begin a new project and hitting -$300,000 (which would certainly be a feat in such a low-cost hospital) will cause you to lose the level.

Keep A Good Amount of Buffer Cash

I like to keep my money above $200,000 at all times so that I have a sufficient buffer of cash. As I played my way through the game, I would come back to Mitton University to research the new technology and then zip back over to my current hospital. When I could upgrade a treatment option, I again returned to Mitton University. If my money at Mitton dipped below $200,000, I would stick around for a bit and run some General Research until I was above the bar again.

Generate Kudosh

Aside from unlocking new technologies and upgrades, you can also generate Kudosh. Kudosh is the special currency used for unlocking new items in the game. Many of them are simply decorative items, but quite a few are incredibly useful functional items that no hospital should be without. Pay special attention to any items that boost diagnosis power (like the Medicine Cabinet) or add a lot of Prestige to a room (like the Gold Star award). You should also note that the "Items" list on the HUD won't show you everything; you'll have to check out the individual item listings for each room to see what kind of special unlocks there might be. These can mean the difference between a cured patient and a dead patient, and Two Point Hospital is the kind of game where you want to give yourself every advantage that you can.

You'll still get plenty of Kudosh through beating in-game quests and completing Career challenges, but the boost you can get from Mitton University will be plenty helpful. Once you have most of the stuff unlocked, you can transition towards running a proper hospital with all the staff you'd need to service patients. Until that time comes, Mitton University is great for keeping the rest of your foundation running smoothly.

Patient-Free May Not Be The Way to Go

One might be tempted to use this patient-free strategy to build up a nest egg for other levels. I tried it on one of the game's last few levels on a lark and it can certainly work, but it's very grindy and somewhat boring in the long term. It's also a good bit more difficult without the unique features of this particular level. Regardless of how you decide to do things with your foundation, you're now well-equipped with some great tips for Two Point Hospital. If you don't yet own this fantastic game, you can pick it up for yourself on Steam and on the Humble Store for $34.99 or your regional equivalent for PC, Mac, and Linux - be sure to check out our review!

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