There are two basic ways to improve the rate of resource gathering in Dungeon Overlord. The first is to increase the number of creatures gathering the resource. The second is to get a % bonus to the gathering rate.
There are several different ways to increase the gathering rate.
- Some technologies, like Miner's Efficiency, increase the rate.
- Mined resources (Gold, Iron, Quicksilver, etc.) and Food get a bonus from the number of tiles of the appropriate type (Mine or Farm) that you have in your Dungeon.
- Furniture like Bookcase and Turbo Miner increase the rate (up to the max saturation based on Library level and number of Library Tiles.
- Having a friend become a Taskmaster for your room will increase your rate.
While any of the individual items are additive to the rate (e.g. 2 Bookcases will give you a +10% total bonus) within the bonus type, the bonuses are multiplicative across various methods. So, if you have 2 Bookcases (+10%), Warlocks that have been shocked 5 times (+25%) and a Level 5 Taskmaster in your Library (+10%), then you will get a total of 110%*125%*110% = 1.5125% = +51% bonus to research. Because of this, it's a good idea to diversify your bonus methods instead of simply focusing on one method.