Expedition

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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:

Event	Result
Find abandoned ships (note Deathstars can't be found)	Gain ships
Find an Alien Virus	Nothing
Find some small pets	Nothing
Particle Storm	Fleet is delayed
Find an alien or pirate fleet and be attacked	A combat report is made; your ships may be destroyed
Find a hostile planet	A combat report is made; your ships may be destroyed
Find Solar Wind, a wormhole, or other propulsion aid	Your fleet returns sooner
Get lost / Hyperspace jump misscalculated	The fleet takes longer to return
Get lost	The fleet is lost
Your fleet took some good pictures of outer space	Nothing
Find friendly aliens	Gain one merchant
The Fleet gets sucked in by a Black Hole	The fleet is lost
Save a cargo vessel after an emergency signal	Gain one merchant
Find an asteroid with minerals	Gain some minerals
Foreign ship jumps into middle of the Fleet and explodes, dealing damage to Fleet	Fleet gets delayed making repairs

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

Expedition Logs

Message	Result
"Your expedition took gorgeous pictures of a supernova. Nothing new could be obtained from the expedition, but at least there is good chance to win that "Best Picture Of The Universe" competition in next months issue of OGame magazine."	Nothing
"A failure in the flagships reactor core nearly destroys the entire expedition fleet. Fortunately the technicians were more than competent and could avoid the worst. The repairs took quite some time and forced the expedition to return without having accomplished its goal."	Nothing
"A living being made out of pure energy came aboard and induced all the expedition members into some strange trance, causing them to only gazed at the hypnotizing patterns on the computer screens. When most of them finally snapped out of the hypnotic-like state, the expedition mission needed to be aborted as they had way to little Deuterium."	Nothing
"Despite the first, very promising scans of this sector, we unfortunately returned empty handed."	Nothing
"Due to a failure in the central computers of the flagship, the expedition mission had to be aborted. Unfortunately as a result of the computer malfunction, the fleet returns home empty handed."	Nothing
"A strange computer virus attacked the navigation system shortly after parting our home system. This caused the expedition fleet to fly in circles. Needless to say that the expedition wasn't really successful."	Nothing
"Your expedition has learned about the extensive emptiness of the space. There was not even one small asteroid or radiation or particle that could have made this expedition interesting."	Nothing
"Besides some quaint, small pets from a unknown marsh planet, this expedition brings nothing thrilling back from the trip."	Nothing
"Well, now we know that those red, class 5 anomalies do not only have chaotic effects on the ships navigation systems but also generate massive hallucination on the crew. The expedition didn't bring anything back."	Nothing
"Your expedition fleet followed odd signals for some time. At the end they noticed the signals were being sent from an old probe which was sent out generations ago to greet foreign species. The probe was saved and some museums of your home planet have already voiced their interest."	Nothing
"Your expedition nearly ran into a neutron stars gravitation field and needed some time to free itself. Because of that a lot of Deuterium was consumed and the expedition fleet had to come back without any results."	Nothing
"Our expedition team came across a strange colony that had been abandoned eons ago. After landing, our crew started to suffer from a high fever caused by an alien virus. It has been learned that this virus wiped out the entire civilization on the planet. Our expedition team is heading home to treat the sickened crew members. Unfortunately we had to abort the mission and we come home empty handed."	Nothing
"The only thing left from the expedition was the following radio transmission: Zzzrrt Oh no! Krrrzzzzt That zrrrtrzt looks krgzzzz like .. AHH! Krzzzzzzzztzzzz... Transmision terminated"	Loss of fleet
"Your crew decided to go rogue and start their own settlement. The last transmission received made it seem likely they will not return."	Loss of fleet
"Contact with the expedition fleet was suddenly lost. Our scientists are still trying to establish contact, but it seems the fleet is lost forever."	Loss of fleet
"The last transmission we received from the expedition fleet was this magnificent picture of the opening of a black hole."	Loss of fleet
"A core meltdown of the lead ship leads to a chain reaction, which destroys the entire expedition fleet in a spectacular explosion."	Loss of fleet
"Your expeditions doesn't report any anomalies in the explored sector. But the fleet ran into some solar wind while returning. This resulted in the return trip being expedited. Your expedition returns home a bit earlier."	Fleet returns earlier
"The new and daring commander successfully traveled through an unstable wormhole to shorten the flight back! However, the expedition itself didn't bring anything new."	Fleet returns earlier
"Your expedition went into a sector full of particle storms. This set the energy stores to overload and most of the ships main systems crashed. Your mechanics where able to avoid the worst, but the expedition is going to return with a big delay."	Fleet takes longer to return
"The expeditions flagship collided with a foreign ship when it jumped into the fleet without any warning. The foreign ship exploded and the damage to the flagship was substantial. As soon as the needed repair are carried out the fleet will begin to make their way back as the expedition can not continue in those conditions."	Fleet takes longer to return
"For unknown reasons the expeditions jump went totally wrong. It nearly landed in the heart of a sun. Fortunately it landed in a known system, but the jump back is going to take longer then thought."	Fleet takes longer to return
"The solar wind of a red giant ruined the expeditions jump and it will take quite some time to calculate the return jump. There was nothing besides the emptiness of space between the stars in that sector. The fleet will return later than expected."	Fleet takes longer to return
"Your navigator made a grave error in his computations that caused the expeditions jump to be miscalculated. Not only did the fleet miss the target completely, but the return trip will take a lot more time than originally planned."	Fleet takes longer to return
"The new navigation module is still buggy. The expedition's jump not only led them in the wrong direction, but it used all the Deuterium fuel. Fortunately the fleets jump got them close to the departure planet's moon. A bit disappointed the expedition now returns without impulse power. The return trip will take longer than expected.	Fleet takes longer to return
"Your expedition fleet made contact with a friendly alien race. They announced that they would send a representative with goods to trade to your worlds."	Gain a merchant for one trade
"Your expedition picked up an emergency signal during the mission. A mega cargo vessel was caught by a powerful gravitation field generated by a planetoid. After the vessel and cargo was successfully freed, the captain announced that the person who saved them would be their favorite and exclusive client."	Gain a merchant for one trade
"Our expedition accomplished a unique experiment. They were able to harvest Dark Matter from a dying star."	Gain Dark Matter
"The expedition followed some odd signals to an asteroid. In the asteroids core a small amount of Dark Matter was found. The asteroid was taken and the explorers are attempting to extract the Dark Matter."	Gain Dark Matter
"We found the remains of an alien ship. We found a little container with some Dark Matter on a shelf in the cargo hold!"	Gain Dark Matter
"The expedition was able to capture and store some Dark Matter."	Gain Dark Matter
"We met an odd alien on the shelf of a small ship who gave us a case with Dark Matter in exchange for some simple mathematical calculations."	Gain Dark Matter
"Our expedition took over a ghost ship which was transporting a small amount of Dark Matter. We didn't find any hints of what happened to the original crew of the ship, but our technicians where able to rescue the Dark Matter."	Gain Dark Matter
"A spontaneous hyper space deformation allowed your expedition to harvest large amount of Dark Matter!"	Gain Dark Matter
"Our Expedition located a rusty space station, which seemed to have been floating uncontrolled through outer space for a long time. The station itself was totally useless, however, it was discovered that some Dark Matter is stored in the reactor. Our technicians are trying to save as much as they can."	Gain Dark Matter
"Our expedition reports a spectacular phenomenon. The accumulation of Dark Matter in the energy storages of the ship shields. Our technicians try to store as much Dark Matter as they can while the phenomenon lasts."	Gain Dark Matter
"Mineral belts around an unknown planet contained countless resources. The expedition ships are coming back and their storages are full."	Gain Resources to max ship capacity
"Your expedition ran into some spaceship wrecks from an old battle. Some of the components could be saved and recycled."	Gain Resources
"The expedition found a radioactive planetoid with an extremely toxic atmosphere. After multiple scans, it shows that it has loads of resources. With the help of automated drones, we tried to harvest as many resources as possible."	Gain Resources
"On a tiny moon with its own atmosphere your expediton found some huge raw resources storage. The crew on the ground is trying to lift and load that natural treasure."	Gain Resources
"Your expedition discovered a small asteroid from which some resources could be harvested."	Gain Resources
"On an isolated planetoid we found some easily accessible resources fields and harvested some successfully."	Gain Resources
"We met a small convoy of civil ships which needed food and medicine desperately. In exchange to that we got loads of useful resources."	Gain Resources
"Your expedition found an ancient, fully loaded but deserted freighter convoy. Some of the resources could be rescued."	Gain Resources
"Your expedition fleet reports the discovery of a giant alien ship wreck. They were not able to learn from their technologies but they were able to divide the ship into its main components and made some useful resources out of it."	Gain Resources
"We found an enormous spaceship graveyard. Some of the technicians from the expedition fleet were able to get some of the ships to work again."	Gain Ships equal in points to the sent ships (up to 500K units)
"We found a deserted pirate station. There are some old ships lying in the hangar. Our technicians are figuring out whether some of them are still useful or not."	Gain Ships
"Your expedition ran into the shipyards of a colony that was deserted eons ago. In the shipyards hanger they discover some ships that could be salvaged. The technicians are trying to get some of them to fly again."	Gain Ships
"Our expedition found a planet which was almost destroyed during a certain chain of wars. There are different ships floating around in the orbit. The technicians are trying to repair some of them. Maybe we will also get information about what happened here."	Gain Ships
"We came across the remains of a previous expedition! Our technicians will try to get some of the ships to work again."	Gain Ships
"Our expedition ran into an old automatic shipyard. Some of the ships are still in the production phase and our technicians are currently trying to reactivate the yards energy generators."	Gain ships
"We found the remains of an armada. The technicians directly went to the almost intact ships to try to get them to work again."	Gain ships
"We found the planet of an extinct civilization. We are able to see a giant intact space station, orbiting. Some of your technicians and pilots went to the surface looking for some ships which could still be used."	Gain ships
"We needed to fight some pirates which were, fortunately, only a few."	Fight pirates
"Some primitive barbarians are attacking us with spaceships that can't even be named as such. If the fire gets serious we will be forced to fire back."	Fight pirates
"Your expedition had an unpleasant rendezvous with some space pirates."	Fight pirates
"Our expedition reports that a Moa Tikarr and his wild troops request our unconditional capitulation. If they are going to get serious they will have to learn that our ships are able to defend themselves."	Fight pirates
"We caught some radio transmissions from some drunk pirates. Seems like we will be under attack soon."	Fight pirates
"Some really desperate space pirates tried to capture our expedition fleet."	Fight Pirates
"That emergency signal that the expedition team followed was in reality an ambush set up by some Star Buccaneers. A fight could not be avoided."	Fight pirates
"The connection to our expedition fleet was interrupted for a short time. We could decrypt their last message. They are under heavy attack, the aggressors could not be identified."	Fight aliens
"Some exotic looking ships attacked the expedition fleet without warning!"	Fight aliens
"Your expedition fleet made some unfriendly first contact with unknown species."	Fight aliens
"The expeditions fleet reports contact with unknown ships. The sensor readings are not decipherable, but it seems that the alien ships are activating their weapon system."	Fight aliens
"Our expedition was attacked by a small group of unknown ships!"	Fight aliens
"Your expedition fleet seems to have flown into territory that belongs to an unknown but really aggressive and warlike alien race."	Fight aliens
"We had a bit of difficulty pronouncing the dialect of the alien race correctly. Our diplomat accidentally called `Fire!` instead of `Peace!`."	Fight aliens

Pro's and Con's

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

External links

• OGame Expeditions Calculator 7.1