This guide was in the largest part written by contributors to the Allegiance wiki[www.freeallegiance.org] before its Steam release, with only some edits and updates by me.

Technology
In an Allegiance match, each team will start off with only basic technology and a basic base, and has to advance their technology to the point that they can destroy the other team's bases to win.

Assuming relatively skill and strategy, it's technology that wins games, which is why the economy - protecting your mining and base construction and disrupting the enemies' - is so crucial. The commander controls the team's money and where to invest it, but any player can still open the Technology window with the f5 key to see the state of your team's tech.

Progression
There are two types of technological investment: 'techbases' and research. Techbases are large, expensive bases which players can launch from - if a team runs out of techbases, they lose immediately.

When a team has a given techbase active, it has access to that base's portion of the tech tree, and can invest in research to gain new ships, equipment, or passive upgrades - and if it has no techbase of a given type it loses access to that type's technology. These bases can also be upgraded to unlock even more of the tree, called advanced tech or simply adv.

While a team can have as many techbases as they want, the expense of bases and research means that generally a team can only pursue one or two in a given match, so the two teams' choice of techpath can influence the dynamics of a game as much as or more than their factions.

Besides investment by the commander, research can also be completed by bringing in tech found in space, either as random spawns or dropped by defeated enemies. Floating components marked with a T icon are techs your team doesn't have, and collecting them and returning them to base can get your team the research for free - but only if you have the appropriate techbase. If you're in doubt if a tech is useful, you can always ask.

Faction differences
Different factions often have different research available, and you can learn more about that from an overview of the wiki page on factions.[www.freeallegiance.org] Research speed also varies between factions, and has a major impact on the strategies suited to each one. However, some of the more dramatic differences in how technology works are:

• Belters[www.freeallegiance.org] (belts) are experienced scavengers, and gain access to any recovered tech even if it doesn't correspond to their techbases - and even if they lose techbases, they keep access to whatever was unlocked through them.
  
• The Ga'Taraan Federation (GT)[www.freeallegiance.org] have an expanded tech tree, and two additional types of techbase.

Garrison (gar)[www.freeallegiance.org]
Every team starts with at least one Garrison, the most central building. Although the upgrades available within it are very basic the garrison is still very important, as no other techbase can be built without one.

Garrisons are built on generic asteroids (brown). The garrison is not normally considered a "real" techpath as the ships and equipment within it are not normally enough to overpower an enemy team. Furthermore any equipment you spend money can be stolen and used by the enemy team immediately. The equipment and ships researched in a garrison are unique in that they can continue being used after the garrison is destroyed.

Supremacy centre (sup)[www.freeallegiance.org]
A Supremacy Center must be built on Carbon asteroids (purple). It allows for good bombing technology and fighters, the most versatile ship, mild in both attack and defense. Its upgrades concern mostly ship improvements and missiles.

The sup tech path is a "Jack of all trades", very flexible and adaptable but somewhat weak in certain aspects. Sup teams can research the galvonic blaster, a fighter weapon capable of destroying minor stations, making sup unique in having small-class ships with base destroying ability. A sup team will rely on galving, regular bombing, fighter bombers, and teleport probe attacks to win.

Expansion complex (exp)[www.freeallegiance.org]
An Expansion Complex must be built on Uranium (orange) asteroids. It allows for good economic upgrades and interceptors, the best dogfighting ships.

The exp tech path is a "brute force" approach and is very popular among players. An exp team will rely on heavy troop transports to capture enemy stations, however these are difficult to use and often the exp team will use their improved economy to pursue a second techpath to finish their opponents off.

Tactical laboratory (tac)[www.freeallegiance.org]

A Tactical Laboratory must be built on Silicon asteroids (green). It has few upgrades, although all of them are useful for the stealth fighter.

By itself, the tac tech path is a "win big - lose big" choice. The stealth fighter excels at destroying the enemy's economy completely and utterly and if you can continue killing miners faster than they build them you are well on your way to victory. However, with no miners to defend the enemy team will often respond by engaging on massive bomb runs and the stealth fighter is a poor defender. Tac relies on stealth bombers to destroy the enemy team which are very powerful ships - as long as they are escorted to the enemy sector, as they are sure to be camping the alephs.

Shipyard (sy)[www.freeallegiance.org]

A Shipyard can be built on generic asteroids (brown). It allows the team to get capital ships, massive and beautiful craft that specialize in different tasks, from head-on assault to stealth behemoths that serve as teleport receivers. Note that all these ships cost money, meaning that a pilot must get money from the commander to get one, and they often cost huge amounts.

Shipyards are not always a good choice because small ships, which are free, can take them down if used well. Most factions require that you build a regular techbase before you can build a shipyard, further increasing its cost.

Unique techbases
At this stage the main core, PCore, contains only one faction-unique station which also counts as a techbase - the Ga'Taraan Federation's Palisade. It has all the same attributes as the garrison, with the addition that it must be built before GT techbases can be upgraded - making it a vital structure.

GT can also build a research station on any type of tech rock (green, orange or purple). Although it is not a techbase it unlocks several new technologies in every other techpath. If the GT team has both a palisade and a research station then they can research unique ships such as the Mustang.