# Influence Crew Market - Technology

This is the eighth in a series stepping through the crew market for [Influence](https://www.influenceth.io/), hoping to find some small nuggests of alpha to help you to make informed decisions when it comes to secondary purchases. For those not familiar, please reference the [Crew Member Jobs list on the official wiki here](https://wiki.influenceth.io/en/gameplay/crew-members). Check out other installments in this series [here.](https://hackmd.io/@Coldsnap)

Usual caveat: figures and ETH prices in the article were accurate only at the time of writing, but likely to be rapidly outdated as the market moves and new crew are minted.

### Numbers

The Technology department is one of the larger ones - fifth largest, in fact. Despite that, there are a low number of distinct job titles within the department. The overwhelming majority of crew within Technology are Engineers.

Since the Influence weekly Q&A session that took place on 7 Oct, we can be a bit more certain about the [department bonuses](https://discord.com/channels/814990637178290177/826213458386223125/895750568906211333). In the case of Technology, its bonuses will be towards research speed, i.e. researching new technologies, as opposed to learning new skills which will be the focus of the Education department. I think it's important to point out that based on the clarified language, the Knowledge department looks likely to interact with Technology, rather than Education. The Knowledge department's clarified bonuses are towards 'research variety'. More on this later.

Tier distribution:

|Tier| Job |Total | Specialists|Citizens|
| ----------- | ----------- | -- | -- | -- |
| T1 | Systems Architect |47 |8 | 55
T2 | Embedded Engineer |93 |15 |78
T3 | Software Engineer|198 | 43|155
T4 | Systems Administrator|282|28|254

### T1 - Systems Architect

|Tier | Class| Job | Total | Specialists|Citizens|Floor
| ----------- | ----------- | -- | -- | -- |--|--|
| T1 | Miner| ||||
T1 |Engineer |Systems Architect |44|8|36|0.75
T1 |Merchant |||||
T1 |Scientist | Systems Architect|2||2|na
T1 |Pilot |Systems Architect|1||1|na

The vast majority of Systems Architects are engineers, with a mere 2 scientists making up numbers. Clearly Systems Architects will be the R&D heavyweights of the game and anyone looking to speed along the the tech tree in-game are going to need these. Fortunately, due to high numbers, System Architects are one of the more easily accessible T1 roles, so get in early before Influence gains steam.

Edit: Shoutouts to the lucky person who minted the very first Pilot / Systems Architect literally the day after this article was written. A unique 1/1!

### T2 - Embedded Engineer

|Tier |Class| Job | Total | Specialists|Citizens| Floor|
| ----------- | ----------- | -- | -- | -- | -- |--|
| T2 | Miner| ||||
T2 |Engineer |Embedded Engineer|85|12|73|0.18
T2 |Merchant | ||||
T2 |Scientist |Embedded Engineer |3|1|2|na|
T2 |Pilot |Embedded Engineer|5|2|3|1|

Similar to T1, Embedded Engineers are overwhelmingly Engineers, with a very minor smattering of Scientists and Pilots. From a scarcity point of view, any Technology crew member who is not an Engineer is well worth a pickup. Looking forward to see if their unique synergies actually work, but I'd like to think they will.

Notably, there's a Pilot sitting there currently at 1 ETH - I think this is a solid long-term play for those with the liquidity.

### T3 - Software Engineer

|Tier | Class| Job | Total | Specialists|Citizens|Floor|
| ----------- | ----------- | -- | -- | -- |--|--|
| T3 | Miner|Software Engineer |25|3|22|0.13
T3 |Engineer | Software Engineer |173|40|133|0.075
T3 |Merchant | ||||
T3 |Scientist |||||
T3 | Pilot |||||

The first appearance of Miners in the Technology dept. appear here at T3, and again at T4. And in quite reasonable numbers too. Makes me think that there is a specific use case in mind for Technology Miners... perhaps useful as part of a mixed, all purpose crew where the player has a range of classes and job roles and uses a miner slot doubling up on research speed. Probably not a min/max play but not everything needs to be.

### T4 - Systems Administrator

|Tier |Class| Job | Total | Specialists|Citizens|Floor|
| ----------- | ----------- | -- | -- | -- |--|--|
| T4 | Miner|Systems Administrator|42|2|40|0.06
T4 |Engineer|Systems Administrator|240|26|214|0.048
T4 |Merchant|||||
T4 |Scientist |||||
T4 |Pilot |||||

See T3!

### Summary

So, as we can see, Engineers at all Technology tiers are likely to be fairly common. The interesting thing here is to consider how best to approach tech tree research. Is it simply squeezing it into your multi-purpose crew as best you can? Or is it stacking Technology crew to speed along the tree more quickly? Let's have a shot at theorycrafting both!

All-pupose crew - Mines multiple rocks, transports goods between them, some research and learning boosts:
* 1x Miner Logistics
* 1x Miner Maintenance
* 1x Engineer Technology
* 1x Scientist Learning
* 1x Pilot Medicine

Research min/max crew - stationary on one rock, locked down in a basement:
* 3x Technology
* 1x Knowledge
* 1x Education (or maybe Management?)

On this second crew, I'm particularly interested to understand the interplay between the Knowledge and Technology departments, given that there are no Engineers within Knowledge. To be revealed!