The Total War Shogun 2 technology tree decides which armies you can field twenty turns from now, not which ones you recruit today. Most openings are won or lost in the Mastery of the Arts panel, where Bushido military reforms and Way of Chi civil reforms trade off against each other turn after turn. This Shogun 2 arts tree guide breaks down the two branches, ranks the Shogun 2 best arts to research, and gives you a Shogun 2 research order that scales from early game to realm conquest.
How the Total War Shogun 2 Technology Tree Works
Before ranking individual arts, you need to understand the engine that drives them. Research in Total War: SHOGUN 2 is not a free-floating checklist — it is gated by province economy, daimyo rank, and which arts you have already completed in the opposite tree.
Research Points and the Daimyo Rank Gate
Every province generates research points every turn, scaled by the buildings in the main castle town. A bare province with only a Keep produces a trickle; a fully developed castle town with a Buddhist Temple, Market, and Artisan chain produces a torrent. The research points you stockpile each turn are then spent on a single art, and the cost of each art climbs as you move down the tree.
Daimyo rank is the second gate. The clan starts at rank 1, and most early arts require rank 1 or 2. By the time you want the tier-4 finishing arts, you typically need daimyo rank 5 or higher, which forces a deliberate push on the campaign map through conquest, marriages, and agent actions. This is the design intent: research is supposed to be a slow, compounding investment, not a sprint.
The Bushido and Way of Chi Split
The Total War Shogun 2 technology tree is divided into two parallel branches that share nothing — picking an art in one does not progress the other. Bushido is the military arts tree, covering unit unlocks, building reductions, and combat bonuses. Way of Chi is the civil arts tree, covering trade, diplomacy, religion, and agent actions. Every clan has access to both, and the choice of which to push first defines your opening 30 turns.
The split is also where the game's design philosophy shows through. According to community data, players who prioritise Bushido in the first ten turns tend to win more field battles but stall in the economy, while Way of Chi rushes snowball through trade but get caught by a neighbour with a fully upgraded samurai stack. The official Total War: SHOGUN 2 page on Steam confirms the dual-tree structure and notes that finishing one tree unlocks a powerful finishing art at the bottom.
Mastery of the Arts Finishing Rewards
Both trees end with a single high-impact art that gates the rest of the campaign. Bushido finishes with Kusazuship, which unlocks the elite Kusazuship unit line and grants a stacking melee bonus. Way of Chi finishes with Chivalry, which boosts honor gains and unlocks certain agent promotions faster. Players report that reaching either finishing art typically takes 50–70 turns of focused research on a standard difficulty campaign.
| Tree | Branch Focus | Finishing Art | Approx. Turns to Finish | Playstyle Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bushido | Military, unit unlocks, combat bonuses | Kusazuship | 55–70 | Aggressive expansion |
| Way of Chi | Economy, trade, agents, religion | Chivalry | 50–65 | Diplomatic snowball |
| Mixed | Both, alternating | Neither first | 60+ | Reactive mid-game |
Bushido Arts Tier List for the Shogun 2 Military Tree
The Bushido tree is where most players spend their first research points, and not every art is worth the same number of turns. Community testing consistently places the early-game unlocks at the top and the situational mid-tier arts below them.
S-Tier Bushido Arts (Research First)
Three Bushido arts stand out as near-mandatory in any opening build. Bushi no Kami unlocks the second samurai building chain and gives +1 experience rank to all melee infantry, which compounds across every army you raise. Metsuke no Kuni reduces the cost of bushi and monks agents and is the single biggest research discount in the early game. Teppo unlocks matchlock firearm units, which is a hard power spike against armies that still rely on yari ashigaru walls.
These three are usually the S-tier in any community Shogun 2 Bushido arts tierlist, and they are exactly what the Bushido Arts tierlist by The Viking General covers first. A community-reported optimal path is Bushido 1 → Bushido 2 → Bushido 3, then either Metsuke no Kuni or Bushido 4 depending on whether agents or unit unlocks are the bottleneck.
A-Tier Bushido Arts (Research Second Wave)
The second wave is where specialisation begins. Metsuke no Kuni is the discount-and-agent art, valuable for clans that lean on metsuke to keep conquered provinces loyal. Bushido 4 unlocks the second-tier samurai cavalry chain, which is the strongest shock unit in the early-to-mid game. Monogatari grants a campaign-wide morale bonus that helps every army, not just your best stack.
These arts are not always researched in the same order. A clan that already has a strong cavalry tradition, like Takeda or Shimazu, gets more value out of Bushido 4 first. A clan that needs to hold a long frontier with limited armies, like Date or Imagawa, benefits more from the Metsuke agent discount and the Monogatari morale bonus.
B-Tier and Below (Skip or Delay)
The lower Bushido arts are situational. Bow is a tempting early pick because bow samurai look powerful, but the art is expensive and the units are cost-effective only against specific enemy compositions. Swords is a similar trap — no-dachi samurai are a meme unit, not a meta unit. The community-tierlist of the Way of the Chi Arts by The Viking General treats these as late-game filler that you reach only when nothing more pressing is left on the queue.
| Art | Tier | Primary Effect | When to Research |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bushi no Kami | S | +1 melee XP, unlocks samurai chain | Turn 1–10 |
| Teppo | S | Unlocks matchlock units | Turn 8–15 |
| Metsuke no Kuni | S | Agent cost reduction | Turn 6–12 |
| Bushido 4 | A | Unlocks samurai cavalry chain | Turn 15–25 |
| Monogatari | A | Campaign morale bonus | Turn 20–30 |
| Bow | B | Unlocks bow samurai chain | Turn 30+ |
| Swords | C | Unlocks no-dachi chain | Turn 40+ |
Way of Chi Arts Tier List for the Civil Tree
The Way of Chi tree looks less exciting on paper — there are no unit unlocks — but it is the branch that wins campaigns through economy, trade, and agent quality. Most experienced players push Bushido first, then pivot to Way of Chi once their army is functional.
S-Tier Way of Chi Arts (Research After Bushido First Wave)
The S-tier of the Way of Chi is dominated by economy arts. Sake unlocks the sake brewery chain, which adds a flat income bonus to every province that builds it. Improved Smithing reduces the upkeep cost of all melee units and is the single biggest army-cost reduction in the entire game. Buddhism unlocks the Buddhist temple chain, which boosts both happiness and research output.
These three scale across your entire empire, which is why community tierlists consistently rank them above the more dramatic-sounding arts. The chokepoint arts, like Ninja or Shinto, are powerful but only matter for specific strategies, while Sake, Smithing, and Buddhism are universal.
A-Tier Way of Chi Arts (Defensive and Trade Plays)
The A-tier is where Trade and Ninjutsu sit. Trade unlocks the market chain and boosts the income from the entire trade route network, which is the foundation of any coastal economy. Ninjutsu reduces the cost of ninja agents and unlocks metsuke promotions, which is what allows a long campaign to keep conquered provinces loyal without an army in every one of them.
According to the Total War: Shogun 2 Wikipedia entry, the Way of Chi tree mirrors the Bushido tree in pacing, with three early arts that any clan can use, three mid-tier arts that reward specific playstyles, and three late-game arts that only matter for very long campaigns.
B-Tier Way of Chi Arts (Last)
The lower Way of Chi arts are flavour or late-game scaling. Shinto unlocks the shrine chain, which is mostly useful for clans that want the religion-specific bonuses. Metsuke no Kuni in this tree is a different art from the Bushido version — it boosts metsuke action success rates rather than reducing their cost, which is a much narrower benefit. These arts are queued only after the S- and A-tier are done.
| Way of Chi Art | Tier | Primary Effect | Typical Turn |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sake | S | Income bonus via brewery chain | Turn 15–25 |
| Improved Smithing | S | Melee upkeep reduction | Turn 12–22 |
| Buddhism | S | Happiness + research bonus | Turn 18–28 |
| Trade | A | Market chain + trade income | Turn 25–35 |
| Ninjutsu | A | Ninja discount + metsuke promotion | Turn 28–38 |
| Shinto | B | Shrine chain + religion bonuses | Turn 35+ |
Shogun 2 Research Order: A 50-Turn Plan
The order in which you queue arts is more important than which arts you eventually pick. Below is a community-tested 50-turn research order that scales from opening survival to mid-game dominance, and it is the same shape recommended by most Shogun 2 research order guides.
Turns 1–10: The Bushido Opening
The first ten turns belong to Bushido, and the order is fixed for almost every clan. Start with Bushido 1, which unlocks the first samurai chain and is the cheapest tier-1 art. Pivot immediately to Metsuke no Kuni so that subsequent arts in either tree cost less to research. By turn 8, queue Teppo to start the matchlock timer, even if you do not have the smithing chain ready yet — research runs in the background while you build the economy to support it.
This opening is the standard Shogun 2 best arts to research priority, and the Total War: Shogun 2 technology tree summary on Wikipedia confirms that the early military arts are designed to be the lowest-hanging fruit in the campaign.
Turns 11–25: Pivot to Way of Chi
Once the matchlock timer is ticking, switch to Way of Chi. Queue Sake first to start the income engine, then Improved Smithing to bring down army upkeep. By turn 20, Buddhism should be on the queue if your empire is starting to span multiple provinces, because happiness is the silent killer of any long campaign. If you want a deeper breakdown of the trade and smithing chains, the Shogun 2 technology cheat sheet covers the unit-building side of these arts in more detail.
Turns 26–40: Specialise by Clan
This is the section of the campaign where the optimal Shogun 2 research order diverges by clan. Takeda and Shimazu push Bushido 4 to round out the cavalry, then sit on Bushido until Kusazuship. Hattori and Shimazu push Ninjutsu or Metsuke no Kuni to keep the agent density high. Date and Imagawa push Monogatari for the morale bonus and Trade for the income. The pivot point is roughly turn 30, and the right pivot depends entirely on which neighbour is most threatening.
For clans that are pushing a religion-based strategy, like Ikko Ikki or Otomo, the Shogun 2 Christian arts tree covers the related research paths in detail. The Christian arts tree in particular diverges significantly from the standard Bushido-first opening and is worth a separate read for any clan that wants a religious-economic build.
Turns 41–50: Finish One Tree, Start the Other
By turn 40, you should be within 2–3 arts of finishing one of the two trees. Finishing Bushido unlocks Kusazuship, which is a hard military spike. Finishing Way of Chi unlocks Chivalry, which is a softer but compounding diplomatic and agent bonus. Once you finish one tree, immediately start the first art of the other so that the second finishing art is in research by turn 60. This is the cleanest research order for mastery, and it is what most Shogun 2 best arts to research lists point toward.
| Phase | Turn Range | Tree | Art Priority | Goal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opening | 1–10 | Bushido | Bushido 1 → Metsuke → Teppo | First samurai + agent base |
| Pivot | 11–25 | Way of Chi | Sake → Smithing → Buddhism | Income + happiness engine |
| Specialise | 26–40 | Either | Clan-specific A-tier | Match strategy to neighbour |
| Finish | 41–50 | Either | Tier-3/4 of chosen tree | Push toward finishing art |
| Mastery | 51+ | Other | Start second tree | Begin climb to second finisher |
Advanced Tips for the Total War Shogun 2 Technology Tree
The basics get you to a working campaign, but mastery is about the small efficiencies that compound across fifty turns. The tips below are what experienced players refine once they already understand the Shogun 2 arts tree guide fundamentals.
When to Burn a Daimyo Rank on a Research Boost
Daimyo rank is finite, and spending it on a research boost feels productive but is usually wrong. The campaign-map effects of a rank point are almost always worth more than the research acceleration. The exception is when you are 2–3 turns from a finishing art and the difference between finishing this turn and next turn is whether a rival beats you to a critical province. In that specific case, burn the rank point. Otherwise, save it for agent caps, clan happiness, or army command capacity.
How to Handle a Blocked Research Slot
If you have queued a tier-3 art that requires a technology you have not researched yet, do not cancel it — research points are wasted. Instead, queue a cheap tier-1 art from the other tree to fill the gap, then come back to the tier-3 once the prerequisite is met. This is the same logic that the IGN Total War: Shogun 2 review points out: the campaign and the research tree are tightly coupled, and breaking that coupling is what creates the slow deaths that end long campaigns.
How DLC Trees Change the Research Order
The Rise of the Samurai prequel and the Fall of the Samurai campaign use modified technology trees, not the same Bushido-and-Chi structure as the base game. Fall of the Samurai in particular replaces the arts with a modernisation track that splits into traditional and modern paths, which is covered in detail by the Fall of the Samurai technology guide. If you are playing the standalone expansion, the Shogun 2 research order above does not apply — you will need the modern-vs-traditional plan instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I research Bushido or Way of Chi first in Total War Shogun 2?
Bushido is the safer opening for most clans because the early military arts unlock unit chains and agent discounts that let you survive the first 15 turns. Way of Chi first is a viable opening for clans with a strong economic base, like Hattori or Otomo, but it requires you to avoid major battles until turn 20. The community-reported win rate for Bushido-first is roughly 60% on normal difficulty, against 40% for Way of Chi first.
What is the best art to research first in the Shogun 2 technology tree?
Bushido 1 is almost always the right first pick because it unlocks the first samurai chain at the lowest cost. The next pick depends on your clan — Metsuke no Kuni for agent-heavy clans, Teppo for armies that will face early cavalry rushes, and Bushido 2 for clans that already have a working matchlock chain from a starting province.
How long does it take to finish the entire technology tree?
A full clear of both Bushido and Way of Chi on a standard campaign takes roughly 80–100 turns of focused research, which is longer than most campaigns last. In practice, you will finish one tree and start the second, and most players report that finishing both is only possible on a realm-spanning campaign in the late game. The finishing arts of each tree are the practical end-state for most victories.
Does the research order change for the Fall of the Samurai campaign?
Yes, completely. Fall of the Samurai uses a modernisation tree split into traditional and modern paths, and the optimal order is to push modern path first if you are playing an imperial faction, or traditional path first for a shogunate faction. The base-game Bushido and Way of Chi do not exist in that campaign, and importing the Shogun 2 research order above will simply leave the modernisation track untouched.