How quickly do you unlock the tech tree?

[SorryDave]

I usually play two kinds of career:

Low tech - Earning science only from crew reports and EVAs. Profits can be low, but rockets are cheap. I end up prioritizing the techs I unlock for the next missions.

High Tech - Grinding reputation raising from tourism and rescues, I unlock all the techs and buildings before leaving the Mun with a lab base. I then end up building science and mining bases everywhere. My program focuses on re-usable, or multi-mission rockets. 

[DChurchill]

I aim for solar panels and batteries first, as they enable anything beyond LKO. After that it's science instruments and then heavier lifters with the Skipper. I tend to go slow, because once it's all unlocked, there's nothing to look forward to.

[JoeNapalm]

1 hour ago, DChurchill said:

I aim for solar panels and batteries first, as they enable anything beyond LKO. After that it's science instruments and then heavier lifters with the Skipper. I tend to go slow, because once it's all unlocked, there's nothing to look forward to.

Except building whatever the @#$% you want.

 

-Jn-

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

I started with a bee-line to the Mk1 Passenger bay. To spam tourism.

Then I went straight after the NERV and ISRU modules. I still don't have high altitude jets or large rockets. My biggest lifter is 2 orange tanks and a mainsail. Year 2 day 50

So its like a 1960s sci fi movie. I have Gemini level rockets but interplanetary tech. I can only lift 20 tonnes at a time but I'm building interplanetary cruisers in LKO. I have three moonbases but not supersonic flight.

[SkyRender]

I have something of a strategy, a long-time hold-over from the earliest days of the tech tree that still works well even now.  The first mission is the obligatory "sub-orbital flight plus science grab" one, the second is a basic orbiting one (that goes to high Kerbin orbit too if possible), and the third is a multi-landing Minmus trip with a scientist.  From there I have enough science and Funds to build a Mun-sweeper mission that basically gets me all the science from the Mun (except for Gravioli data, of course; unlocking the top tier of the R&D facility is not nearly so swift).  And that pretty much gives me all the science I ever need.