Sanctum Research is a category of item that can be inserted into the Relic Altar to access the Sanctum floor of the Forbidden Sanctum. It is obtained by completing the previous floor in the Sanctum.
Sanctum Research includes:
Upon successfully completing that sanctum floor, the next floor is generated as a tradable item with all of the state of your sanctum run built-in. This means that the item stores what Boons and afflictions you had, what rewards you’ve locked in, and how much resolve you have left. You can then either play this floor or trade it to someone else if it feels more beneficial.
For example, let’s say you manage to lock in a really valuable reward. The example here is a Mirror of Kalandra. This is an example here where the player has a very good reward locked in, but a massive pile of dangerous afflictions and only one resolve on them. If you don’t feel capable of completing the rest of the sanction from this point, then it would normally be a write-off. You can now trade the sanctum state to someone else who is willing to pay for the chance to earn the Mirror or lose it.
To enter the Forbidden Sanctum, players must place The Mortinomicon Exitio Immortalis or a Forbidden Tome into the Relic Altar in the Forbidden Sanctum area. Doing so will grant access to the entire first floor of the Sanctum. Successfully completing a floor will unlock the next floor in the form of a Sanctum Research item. This can be traded, stashed, or placed in the Relic Altar to continue the Sanctum run. All of your progress, including Resolve, Inspiration, Aureus, Boons, Afflictions, etc. are carried over between floors. A Sanctum run contains 4 floors, each containing 8 rooms. The 8th room of each floor always contains a Boss. Each floor after the first also adds +1 to area level from the initial Forbidden Time (up to +3 on the last floor), up to a maximum of area level 83.
Crashing during a Sanctum room will reset the room’s progress, as long as the player did not fail the room due to resolve loss. However, any changes to your resolve and inspiration during the room’s progress will be retained. Aureus and rewards are locked in upon successful completion of a room. It is possible to return back into the room from the reward room to kill any remaining enemies or open aureus chests.
Each Sanctum run is independent between characters on the same account.