Expedition

A fleet can be sent to explore in each system to the planet coordinate "16". The maximum duration of an expedition increases by 1 hour with each level of the relevant technology. The maximum amount of expedition fleets you can have out at the same time is the square root of your astrophysics technology level rounded down.

Any player using the discoverer class receives two additional expedition slots above the normal amount.

The reset times for expedition chances, from testing, is 3 days.

Possible results
The exploration fleet has the chance to:

Other results not on this list. Feel free to add into the table below anything you come across, if it is currently unlisted.

Resources
Since the release of version 7 in late 2019, expeditions have become a lucrative source of resources. This is especially the case for players of the discoverer class. The resource gains can often be much higher than traditional methods such as mines and fleetcrashes. (In prior versions, the resource gains from expeditions were much more modest).

Expeditions are able to find only one type of resource at a time, whether it be metal, crystal, or deuterium. The maximum amount of resources that can be gained depends on a variety of factors.
 * The fleet sent on the expedition, particularly the structural integrity total for the fleet and the amount of cargo space available.
 * The number of points the strongest player in the universe has. As the strongest player gains more points, expeditions can find much greater amounts of resources but also require larger fleets to be sent.
 * The speed of the universe. Resource gains are multiplied by the universe speed, so a 5x universe will have a maximum gain 5 times more than in a 1x universe.
 * Whether pathfinders are included or not. Inclusion of even a single pathfinder will double the potential maximum find.
 * The class of the player. Those of the discoverer class have a significant multiplier applied to successful expeditions, making their maximum finds exponentially higher than the other classes.

These multipliers and factors can add up quickly. In an old universe with an economy of 5x and where the top player has greater than 100 million points, a discoverer class player using pathfinders may find up to 75 million units of a resource on an expedition.

Of course, the maximum find is not found very time. The average finds will be much smaller but still scale in relation to the factors listed.

Expeditions do come with some risk. A percentage of fleets will be destroyed on expeditions. As opposed to Battleships or Destroyers, cargos are easy to replace; although, sending a fleet of Large Cargos is not always the best idea. If your maximum expedition length is low, sending 3 times as many Small Cargos can result in higher resource gains. Sending a fleet comprised solely of Small Cargos or Large Cargos will allow you to find lots of resources, whilst, reducing your losses if you are unfortunate enough to encounter Pirates, Aliens, or "your fleet is lost forever." When attacked by pirates or aliens, they can outnumber and use different ships.

Pirates & Aliens
Regarding the influence of player upgrades, pirates have (each) of your technology levels subtracted by three levels; likewise, aliens have (each) your technologies but added by three. As you increase your levels, the (percentage) difference between player and enemy diminishes. At level 0, for any and all techs the player has, pirates will have 70%, whilst, aliens will have 130%. If you reach level 10, pirates will rise to 85%, but aliens will drop to 115%.

Battles that result from expeditions leave 10% of the destroyed fleet in a debris field. Unlike normal debris fields, these must be harvested with Pathfinders instead Recyclers. Only players of the discoverer class can see debris fields in slot 16. However, other classes can still harvest them if they know they are there.

Ships
The best way to find ships, is to send a Destroyer which can find Reapers and are capable of holding their own against Pirates and Aliens. {C}Some people have claimed that they get attacked much less by pirates and aliens when they send +150 espionage probes with them. It is said to decrease your chances of getting attacked, and will increase your chance of finding ships/resources, since espionage probes are used to scan things. This is a very effective tool, but requires +150,000 crystal to make the probes (which are easy to accumulate from expeditions).

GameForge says that the maximum unit value that can be found is 500,000, e.g., an espionage probe is 1,000 units, and a Battleship is 60,000 units (45,000 metal + 15,000 crystal = 60,000 units). Thus, the maximum amount of probes you could find in one expedition is 500, the max amount of battleships you could find is 8; however, there have been reports of people finding units up to 600,000.

Much like resources, the amount of ships to be found increases based on several multipliers. These include the speed of the universe, the points value of the strongest player, the class used, and the inclusion (or not) of Pathfinder ships.

Version

 * Introduced in version 0.78.
 * Modified in version 7 to dramatically increase finds, especially for Discoverer class.

Requirements

 * Astrophysics Technology Level 1