My companion, Khem Val, has a bonus of "+5 Research Efficiency". What is Research? Is it another name for Investigation perhaps? Or, does it mean you get a better chance at schematic rewards from some sort of mission skill? Does it have anything to do with crit chance? It can't be reverse engineering, as I do that, not my companion.

My bet is that when you send that specific companion out to perform a mission, it will return to you faster and not take as much time as say a non proficient crew member.

My companion, Khem Val, has a bonus of "+5 Research Efficiency". What is Research? Is it another name for Investigation perhaps? Or, does it mean you get a better chance at schematic rewards from some sort of mission skill? Does it have anything to do with crit chance? It can't be reverse engineering, as I do that, not my companion.

 

Research is when you get schematic rewards from an item you created, by destroy the item and getting some mats back. It may take several times to research an item before you get a better schematic variation of the same item.

Companions don't reverse engineer though, your character does. Anyone know for certain what "+5 research efficiency" means on Khem Val?

I'm wondering if research is just an old name for investigation. There are no Imperial companions with any modifiers to investigation, but a few that have modifiers to research. I didn't check the Republic side.

This is most likely a tooltip issue, where that should read +5% Investigation Efficiency because:

 

There is no Research crewskill

 

No companion has any bonuses to Investigation

 

Research is synonymous with Investigation