Exploration

The crew of the Daedalus can embark on Expeditions to foreign planets, restocking the ship's resources and discovering various adventurous zones and artifacts. Some precautions need to be taken before an Expedition can be started, and a larger number of characters will need to work together to load fuel, send the Daedalus on its course and embark on the journey.

Launching an Expedition

Expedition procedure:

• You have to find a planet with the Astro Terminal.
• Someone has to put the correct amount of Fuel into the Combustion Chamber. If the Daedalus moves to a wrong position, the planet will be lost forever.
• Your Commander has to turn the Daedalus in the right direction and then engage the trip. See: Navigation.
• Optional: Everyone can look at the planet and finish the surface scan now, if you have not done so already, for a cheaper cost. Do this in order to confirm that the planet really contains what was reported, and you won't encounter things you do not want to (generally this means Volcanoes, Mankarog and Seismic zones).
• Assemble your expedition crew in Icarus Bay and take off. The only cost is 4 AP for launching, from the person who launches. Everyone else in the bay is brought along automatically, and more AP is not needed to return.
• The Expedition will happen automatically. Exception: The U-Turn skill will allow you to abort an expedition in progress (even if you're not participating in the expo).
• When you are on an Expedition, all discovered items, fruit and food appear in the Icarus Bay. When on a patrol ship, they appear in the respective bay when the patrol ship gets back.
• Once the Expedition is done, someone will have to put 1 in the Combustion Chamber, and the Commander has to move out of orbit before you can scan for new planets.

You can't launch an expedition under these circumstances:

• The planet has been fully explored
• An expedition is currently happening
• If the BIOS Crew Lock is on [Pilot], but you have no Pilot to start it.

Miscellaneous notes:

• As long as there are Mush on board, it is highly recommended to take the acting Commander along for the expedition, and secure the Hacker Kit, to prevent them from moving the ship.
  • With the possibilities of the new Politician skill, it would also be wise to take Kuan Ti along, launch at a time where the expedition won't be outside during a cycle change (at least 1h20m left for a full trip), or guard the paths to the Nexus or Bridge.
• If the Icarus is still on the planet when the Daedalus moves, the Icarus and all expedition personal will be lost forever. If the Magnetic Return project is installed, the Icarus will be returned... but not the crew.
• If someone dies during the expedition, everything they were carrying is permanently lost.
• For a successful landing, it does not matter who launches the expedition, as long as a Pilot is part of the crew. Having the NERON Administrator temporarily allow this can be useful for saving Pilot .
• After exploring the planet in a patroller, you will be returned to space outside the ship rather than land in a bay.
• Bug: You can be hit by a steel plate while on a planet.
• Bug: A member of the Expedition can die due to lack of oxygen on the Daedalus.
• Normally up to 4 crewmates can participate in the expedition, because Icarus Bay is blocked for entrance if there are 4 people or more (6 or more with Large Bay Upgrade) in it. It is possible, however, to enter Icarus Bay when the expedition is in progress, resulting with more people there when expo finishes. If there will be a second launch, and 7 or more people are in Icarus Bay, the game randomly chooses 6 players and sends them to the planet (be careful, because there are only 6 Spacesuits on board).

Useful Skills

Certain characters' skills lend themselves to Expeditions especially well, granting the exploring crew various bonuses. Expedition gains from multiple same skills do stack.

Botanist: +1 to fruit gained from Harvests.

Diplomat: Prevents any Combat events on the planet. It won't protect you from creature-related accidents like getting smashed by a Mankarog, however.

Sprinter: +1 area visited per Sprinter. (Even if they go missing during the mission.)

Shooter: +1 to group combat strength if the Shooter carries a blaster

Polyvalent: Combines the effects of Diplomat and Botanist.

Survivalist:

• Individual damage to the Survivalist is reduced by 1 point.
• The event Provision gives 1 more Alien Steak.
• Last to die in case of fatal events. It means that if a random person dies, it will not be you unless you are the only one left.

Useful Equipment

Quadrimetric Compass:

• Protects the group from the Wandering event.
• Protects the wielder from the Lost event.

Spacesuit Allows explorers to go on a planet without oxygen. If you don't have a spacesuit on such a planet, you won't take part in the expedition, and you will wait in the Icarus. (Which can be desirable for a Traitor, so be wary / do not forget your suit.)

Rope Protects the wielder from the 3-5 damage accidents that can happen in Seismic Activity, Caverns and Mountains zones. (Does not prevent instant death in Seismic.)

White Flag Cancels the chance of Combat (only) in the Intelligent Life event.

EchoLocator Chances to explore Hydrocarbon Deposits zones are multiplied by 5.

Drill Doubles any Fuel gains during the expedition.

Babel Module The chance to gain an artfact in the Intelligent Life event is doubled.

Thermosensor Chances to explore Ruminants, Predators, Intelligent Life, Mankarogs, Insects and MIA zones are multiplied by 5.

Post-it / Plastic Scraps / MAD Kube / Duct Tape / Old T-Shirt Can be used to fill empty inventory slots, reducing the chances of losing an important object during exploration.

Weapons

Blaster +1 added to the strength of your team during Combat.

Knife +1 added to the strength of your team during Combat.

Natamy Rifle +1 added to the strength of your team during Combat.

Lizaro Jungle +1 added to the strength of your team during Combat.

Old Faithful (Machine Gun): +2 added to the strength of your team during Combat.

Rocket Launcher +3 added to the strength of your team during Combat.

Grenade +3 added to the strength of your team during Combat, but the Greande is consumed. (If a crew member carries more than one, only one will be used per fight.)

Gameplay Mechanics

The exploration occurs automatically, one zone every 10 minutes.

• 9 of the planet's zones explored with the Icarus ship, and 1 more for each Sprinter in the group.
• 3 with a patrol ship, 4 if you are Sprinter.

Each zone can be explored once, but a visit may fail to explore in case of Wandering event.

Each zone has 4 possible outcomes. (for details see Zones)

Item gains (Steaks, O2, Fuel, Fruits) reported by the game already include the bonuses from any Skills and inventory items mentioned above.

Fight

Combat events are calculated as follows:

• The creature's strength is determined by the zone, the Shipwreck encounter being the exception.
• The strength of the crew is 1 per member plus any bonuses from weapons and Shooter.
• If the group's strength is inferior to the creature's strength, the difference in strength is spread across the group as damage (not necessarily in an equal way).

Note: Plastenite Armor does not reduce damage from Fight events.

• If the group's strength is superior, the crew simply doesn't take any damage. There are no other effects.
• There is a small chance to get one of the illnesses. Log example: "Your attacker has infected you (Flu)."

Return

After an expedition is finished, anyone who joined the expedition will be offered to see the expedition log page. The link to this expedition log page can be shared with the rest of the crew.

The health of the crewmembers who survived the expedition is always shown as 12 in the public expedition log page. It does not reflect their actual status.