Thought Experiment Guide

Thought Experiment is the second of the three endgame modes you unlock as you progress through Silver Palace, and it is the pure combat one. If you have played other gacha RPGs, the closest comparison is Genshin Impact's Spiral Abyss, or Wuthering Waves' Tower of Adversity: a fixed set of timed rooms, no investigation, no dialogue, just your teams against a clock. If the main story is where you learn the mechanics, Thought Experiment is where you prove you have mastered them.

The single most important thing to know before you start: this mode is a two-team check. Rooms 1 through 5 run on one team. From room 6 onward the mode asks for two, and both of them have to be built. A run with one stacked carry and a bench of level 20 characters clears the first half comfortably and then hits a wall where enemy HP bars barely move.

This mode was first introduced during the Monotype Beta (January 2026) and carried into the Dichotomy Beta, where it served as both a progression milestone and a survey unlock requirement. Because the game is still in pre-launch testing, the numbers and structure below reflect what beta testers observed and may shift for the final release. The shape of the mode, which is room-based, combat-only, and reward-driven, is unlikely to change.

If you are still building your roster, pair this guide with the Combat Mastery page for the fight fundamentals, the Reactor Energy & Tactical Assault guide for the swap layer, and the Tier List to decide which characters to invest in first.

Quick Answer

Thought Experiment is a combat challenge mode of up to 10 rooms, unlocked after Main Quest Act II: Scene II: The Constabulary. You clear a room by killing every enemy inside it before the timer expires. Rooms 1 to 5 take a single team; rooms 6 to 10 require two separate Partner Teams. Each room awards up to 3 stars based on how much time you have left when the last enemy drops, for a maximum of 30 stars, and those stars feed a cumulative Depth Rewards ladder paying Reactor Crystals, Ounces, and Secret Science of All Things books.

What is Thought Experiment?

Thought Experiment is Silver Palace's answer to the endgame tower or abyss found in other gacha RPGs: repeatable combat content independent of the detective storyline. Where the campaign mixes investigation, dialogue, and exploration with combat, Thought Experiment is pure fighting: wave after wave or boss after boss, scaled to test the ceiling of your account.

The mode was part of both closed beta tests. In the Monotype Beta (January 13-18, 2026), it was one of the two combat challenge modes announced alongside the Real Estate Investment system and the Silverium Pegasus mount. Completing its Tier 7 was a prerequisite for the In-depth Combat Survey, which in turn granted automatic invitation to the next closed beta.

A note on naming: this mode was previously covered as Deep Cognito. Earlier Dichotomy Beta coverage, including this site's own, documented it under that name. A later tester's session shows the mode's Ongoing Project select screen headed "Thought Experiment," with the same team-builder layout, Power Limit gating, and Preset Partners options the mode has always used.

The Thought Experiment team builder as seen in the Dichotomy Beta client. Source: official Silver Palace build footage.

That is close enough to read as a relabeling rather than a new mode, but the same build also uses "Thought Experiment" as a location and quest name elsewhere on the map, so the rename is not airtight until Elementa says so directly. This guide now leads with "Thought Experiment" as the primary name and notes "Deep Cognito" wherever older footage or earlier site coverage is the source.

How to Unlock Thought Experiment

Thought Experiment unlocks through story progression, not account level. You need to complete Main Quest Act II: Scene II: The Constabulary to access the menu. Once that scene is cleared, navigate through these menus:

Game Menu > Agenda > Challenge > Thought Experiment

There is no additional key item or quest to start the mode: if you have reached that point in the story, Thought Experiment is available. The mode was PC-only during beta tests, consistent with the rest of the beta client.

In later footage the mode also appears as a marked node out in the world, labelled "Thought Experiment" on the compass and minimap, so you can walk to it directly rather than going through the menu chain.

The Thought Experiment node marked in the world. Source: official Silver Palace build footage.

How the 10 Rooms Work

Thought Experiment runs a maximum of 10 rooms, presented as Ongoing Project 1 through Ongoing Project 10. The loop in every room is identical: pick your team or teams, enter, and kill every enemy inside before the clock runs out. There are no objectives to interpret and no investigation layer. Speed is the entire scoring system.

Rooms 1 to 5 are single-team rooms. The select screen gives you one Partner Team slot, a Dream Enhancer modifier that applies to everyone you bring (all characters gain ATK +20% in the observed run), and three Challenge Objectives stated as remaining-time thresholds. Ongoing Project 1 asks for remaining challenge time above 60s, 110s, and 150s.

Ongoing Project 1 takes a single Partner Team. Source: official Silver Palace build footage.

Rooms 6 to 10 are two-team rooms. From Ongoing Project 6 the same screen opens a second slot, Partners2, and both squads have to clear their own half of the room. The time thresholds scale up with it: Ongoing Project 6 wants remaining time above 120s, 220s, and 300s. You cannot reuse a character across both teams, so this is where a shallow roster stops being viable.

Ongoing Project 6 opens a second Partner Team slot. Source: official Silver Palace build footage.

Inside the room you start the fight yourself from an hourglass prompt. Approach it, take the Start Battle option, and the timer begins along with the wave of enemies. The room's three time thresholds stay visible on the left so you can see which star you are still on pace for.

The hourglass Start Battle prompt inside an Ongoing Project room. Source: official Silver Palace build footage.

The practical effect of the timer being the score is that clear speed, not survival, is what you build for. A team that survives comfortably but takes four minutes to chew through a room banks one star where a faster team banks three, and the reward ladder pays on stars.

Rooms and Stars

Each room carries three stars, one per time threshold, so a full 10-room clear is worth 30 stars. The room track shows your standing at a glance: cleared rooms display their earned stars in gold, rooms you have entered but not fully starred show the remainder in dark, and rooms past your progress sit behind a padlock. The Depth Rewards counter in the corner tracks the running total, 15/30 in the observed run.

The Ongoing Project room track with a 15/30 Depth Rewards total. Source: official Silver Palace build footage.

Whether the room count grows past 10 after launch is not known. The pattern in similar games is to expand the ceiling over time through patches.

Earlier beta builds framed the same mode differently. During the Monotype Beta it was described in numbered tiers, with Tier 7 as the milestone that unlocked the In-depth Combat Survey, and a Dichotomy Beta stage was seen as a Roman-numeral Difficulty III named "A Most Irrational Number" that suggested a Level 40 team and paid 150 points toward a progress track. The room-and-star structure above is what later footage shows, so treat the tier framing as the older iteration.

Stars and Depth Rewards

Stars are the only currency the reward track cares about, and they pay out on a cumulative ladder rather than per room. Each threshold you cross unlocks a claimable bundle, and every bundle in the observed footage held the same three things: Reactor Crystals, Ounces, and Secret Science of All Things books, which are the character level-up material.

The Depth Rewards ladder at 15 of 30 stars obtained. Source: official Silver Palace build footage.

The crystal payout is the reason to care. The visible half of the ladder alone runs to 2,100 Reactor Crystals, which at 360 crystals per pull is close to six Revelations, and the full track from zero to 30 stars lands in the same range as the roughly 4,000-crystal figure a tester recorded for a complete clear. That is a meaningfully larger payout than a single temple-style farming run and closer to a 12 to 15 pull budget, which makes the last few stars worth chasing even when they demand a faster clear than you are used to.

Note that the ladder rewards total stars, not rooms cleared, so going back to a room you two-starred and shaving twenty seconds off it counts exactly the same as pushing a new room. If you are stuck on room 9, tightening an earlier room is often the cheaper way to reach the next threshold.

Team Composition Strategy

Build two teams or do not bother with the back half. This is the constraint the mode is built around, and it is worth stating bluntly before any of the finer advice. In the observed run a fully built Cinderella team made room 1 look trivial, and the same player's second team then failed to move an enemy HP bar at a meaningful rate in a later room. Nothing about your first team's investment helps once the second slot opens. Plan your account around two complete four-character squads with their own damage dealers, their own sustain, and their own Motives and Catalysts, rather than funnelling everything into one lineup.

Beyond that, Thought Experiment is designed to punish one-dimensional teams. A single over-invested carry will struggle in later rooms because the mode tests your full four-character squad's durability, sustain, and synergy. Beta tester reports and footage suggest three principles guide successful clears.

Balance roles, do not stack glass cannons. A clear from the Monotype Beta reached Stage 8 with a Level 30 team carrying two 5-star Motives. The key was having at least one character who could absorb hits while others dealt damage and healed. A mix of Striker DPS, Combat Support, and Survival & Healing or Guardian roles gives you the staying power later rooms demand.

Master the parry and Tactical Assault loop before climbing. Thought Experiment does not forgive missed parries the way story content does. Enemies in the later rooms deal heavy damage through even partial hits, and the Stun gauge is your primary way to create safe damage windows. A team that cannot consistently parry, build Stun, execute, and chain into Tactical Assault rotations will hit a wall well before the final rooms.

Invest in Motives and Catalysts across the whole team. The Stage 8 clear used two 5-star Motives, but those were distributed across multiple characters rather than stacked on one. Because Thought Experiment forces you to swap and rotate through all four characters since enemies do not die quickly enough for single-target focus, every squad member needs decent gear. Prioritize a strong Catalyst loadout on each character to maximize what their Tactical Assaults contribute.

Rewards

The primary confirmed reward from Thought Experiment is Reactor Crystals, the premium currency used in the Crystal Exchange. During the Monotype Beta, Reactor Crystals could be traded for the 5-star character Cynthia II (Luna's Scion) and limited Motives including "Riddle of the Other Half" and "Riddle of Curiosity."

Reactor Crystals were also obtainable from City Roaming (daily quests), the 5-Day Sign In event, City Exploration rewards, and chests, but Thought Experiment was listed as the dedicated acquisition path for challenging content. In a live-service model, this type of mode typically rotates rewards each season or patch, so the specific exchange items will likely change by launch.

Expected reward categories based on similar endgame modes in other gacha RPGs include character ascension materials, Reactor/Catalyst upgrade materials, premium currency, and potentially exclusive cosmetic rewards for completing the final rooms.

A full clear is worth roughly 4,000 Reactor Crystals. A tester who cleared all 10 stages tallied close to 4,000 Reactor Crystals total, which works out to about 11.1 Revelations at 360 crystals per pull (see the Gem Rewards guide for the full pull-cost breakdown). For a genre benchmark, Wuthering Waves' Tower of Adversity paid 800 crystals apiece from its stable and experimental zones at launch, roughly 5 pulls each before any reset-stage bonus, so this mode's current total lands a bit ahead of that comparison. Take both numbers as beta-era snapshots rather than launch guarantees.

Tips from Beta Testers

Beta testers who pushed into Thought Experiment's upper rooms shared specific habits that made the difference between stalling out and clearing.

Manage buffs and debuffs simultaneously. The combat loop in Thought Experiment asks you to track multiple timers at once: Execution buffs, Catalyst effects from each Tactical Assault, Silverdrip charge, and enemy attack patterns. The players who cleared the hardest rooms were the ones who stacked buff windows rather than overlapping them.

Swap often, never idle. Ability charge regenerates off-field, so parking on one character wastes your team's potential. Rotate through all four squad members, spending their ability charge and triggering a Tactical Assault on each swap, then cycling back to the first character once their charge has refilled. The mode punishes static play.

Learn enemy animations for each room. Later rooms modify existing enemy behaviors or introduce new attack patterns. A parry timing that worked in room 3 may fail in room 7 because the wind-up has changed. Treat each room as a new learning encounter rather than assuming the same rhythm carries forward.

Build for sustain, not just burst. Thought Experiment's multi-stage format means your team's HP, shields, and ability resources carry over between fights within a room. A strategy that burns everything in thirty seconds leaves you empty for the next wave. A Survival & Healing or Guardian with defensive Catalysts extends your team's lifespan across the full gauntlet.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Thought Experiment in Silver Palace?

Thought Experiment is Silver Palace's endgame combat challenge mode, a multi-stage gauntlet of escalating difficulty that tests team composition, gear builds, and mechanical skill completely outside the story campaign. It was available in both the Monotype and Dichotomy closed beta tests (documented as Deep Cognito in earlier coverage) and is expected to be a core endgame activity at launch.

How do I unlock Thought Experiment?

Thought Experiment unlocks after completing Main Quest Act II: Scene II: The Constabulary. Access it from the game menu by navigating to Agenda > Challenge > Thought Experiment.

How many rooms does Thought Experiment have?

Later gameplay footage shows a maximum of 10 rooms, labelled Ongoing Project 1 through 10. Each room awards up to 3 stars for beating its time thresholds, so the ceiling is 30 stars. During the Monotype Beta the mode was framed as numbered tiers instead, with Tier 7 as the survey milestone.

Do I need two teams for Thought Experiment?

Yes, from room 6 onward. Rooms 1 through 5 let you bring a single team. Room 6 opens a second Partner Team slot and both squads have to clear their own half, so a lineup with one invested carry and a shell of a second team stalls out there. Build two teams that can both actually kill things.

What rewards does Thought Experiment give?

Thought Experiment rewards Reactor Crystals, a premium currency used in the Crystal Exchange to obtain characters and Motives. Additional rewards likely include upgrade materials for characters, Reactors, and Catalysts, similar to what other gacha games offer in their endgame challenge modes.

What team should I bring to Thought Experiment?

Bring a balanced team with at least one primary damage dealer, one support or healer, and one tank or crowd-control character. A beta tester cleared Stage 8 using a Level 30 team with two 5-star Motives. Success depends more on mastering the combat loop (parry timing, Tactical Assault rotations, and buff management) than on raw stats alone.

Was Thought Experiment called Deep Cognito before?

Yes. Earlier Dichotomy Beta coverage, including this site's own, documented the mode as "Deep Cognito." A later tester's session shows the mode's team-builder screen headed "Thought Experiment," using the same Power Limit and Preset Partners layout, which reads as a relabeling rather than a new mode. The same build also uses "Thought Experiment" as a location and quest name elsewhere, so treat the rename as observed rather than officially confirmed.

How much does a full Thought Experiment clear pay in Reactor Crystals?

A full 10-stage clear totaled roughly 4,000 Reactor Crystals for one tester, about 11.1 Revelations at 360 crystals each. That is a beta-era figure and likely to be retuned before launch.

Thought Experiment rewards players who take the fundamentals they learned in the story and learn to execute them under pressure. Build two capable teams, master the parry and Tactical Assault loop, and treat each room as a new puzzle rather than a stat gate. From here, the Combat Mastery guide covers the fight fundamentals in more detail, the Reactor Energy & Tactical Assault guide deepens the swap layer, and the Tier List helps you pick the characters worth investing in for the climb.