Expeditions/Depth System

Expedition Depth System

Subpage of Expeditions. Wiki path: Expeditions/Depth_System.

Each depth is a timed layer with its own event roll. Deeper is slower and pays more, with a looser ship-loss cap — not a loot-wipe, not a rally-only layer, and not a guaranteed fragment at a fixed depth.

Unlock extra depths with Celestial Orrery (base max 3, then +1 per Orrery level). Details: Expeditions → Maximum depth.

Contents

• How a depth works
• Duration
• Earning multipliers
• Depth 1–3
• Depth 4–10
• Ship loss and stun by depth
• What this page used to claim

How a depth works

1. The fleet spends the depth’s duration on station.
2. One weighted event resolves (resources, ships, items, empty, stun, or ship loss).
3. Rewards and penalties apply immediately to the fleet.
4. If max depth is not reached, you have 30 minutes to Extract or Continue (or your saved default runs).

Continuing does not put earlier loot at risk. Extract whenever you like the pile. Full flow: Expeditions → Core flow.

Event tables are shared by difficulty. A depth is eligible for any outcome whose minimum depth is ≤ the current depth, so D4+ reuses the D1–D3 pools with higher earning and a stricter loss cap — there is no separate “Realm 3 rally-only D4” table.

Duration

Base time per depth (Orrery / exploration speed can shorten this):

Depth	Duration
1	30 min
2	1 h
3	2 h
4	4 h
5	4 h
6	6 h
7	8 h
8	10 h
9	12 h
10	15 h

Earning multipliers

Live resource depth multipliers (not 1.0 / 1.5 / 2.5, and not 6× / 10× at D7–D10):

Depth	Multiplier	Risk notes
1	×1.0	Lowest payout; Easy has no stun. Medium/Hard can still EMP-stun.
2	×1.2	Ship-loss and stun events join the pool.
3	×1.6	Disasters (stun and/or loss) appear. Item finds more common.
4	×1.8	Same event pool; loss cap rises (see below). Relic / monument / boost chance −2 points.
5	×2.0	Same; no guaranteed fragment.
6	×2.2
7	×2.4	Loss cap 50% of expected loot.
8	×2.6
9	×2.8	No guaranteed relic piece.
10	×3.0

Difficulty stacks on top (Easy ×1.0 … Extreme ×2.0). Reward math: Expeditions/Rewards.

“Fragment chance 10–30%” is not a live per-depth guarantee. Item weight rises up to depth 3 and with difficulty, then specialist / sensor / class bonuses.

Past depth 3, each item type (relic pieces, monument pieces, nano boosts, tech boosts) loses 2 percentage points of chance per extra depth, down to a floor of 2%. For example, a 10% monument chance at depth 3 becomes 8% at depth 4, 6% at depth 5, 4% at depth 6 and 2% from depth 7. Types already below 2% are not reduced. The lost chance becomes an empty roll; resource, ship and cosmetic chances are unchanged.

Depth 1–3

Depth 1

Low-stakes introduction. Typical Easy events: Derelict Probe (resources), Quiet Drift (empty). Medium/Hard add radiation damage and short EMP stuns.

Depth 2

The first real Extract-or-Continue decision. New outcomes include cargo wrecks, salvage (ships), caches (items), Ion / EMP storms (stun), debris (ship loss), and on Medium+ Pirate Ambush (ship loss, not a full battle).

Depth 3

Higher item weight (nano / tech / relic / monument depending on difficulty). Disasters appear (e.g. Easy Spatial Anomaly Collapse stun; Hard Antimatter Cascade ship loss; Extreme Reality Breach long stun).

Depth 4–10

Unlocked by Celestial Orrery, not by “Realm 3 rally” or “Realm 4 guaranteed fragment.”

• Same outcome families as D1–D3 (minDepth ≤ current).
• Earning keeps climbing (table above).
• Relic / monument / boost chances fall by 2 points per depth past 3 (minimum 2%), so deep runs pay mostly in resources.
• Ship-loss value cap steps up at D4 and again at D7.

Ship loss and stun by depth

Stun pauses the fleet 15–120 minutes, then you still Extract or Continue. Loot stays. Hangar / monument / Protocols+Legendary (combined 25% cap) shorten stun and cut loss rate.

Ship loss is permanent hull, typically ~1–5.5% of counted ships, then capped against expected loot:

Depth	Max loss vs expected loot
1–3	10%
4–6	25%
7+	50%

Science Vessels count as quantity / 1,000 (at least 1 if present). This is not “10–30% hull damage” and not “0–50% loot retained.”

Full rules: Expeditions → Stun and Expeditions → Ship loss.

What this page used to claim

Ignore older copy that mentioned:

• Depth multipliers 1.0 / 1.5 / 2.5 (and R4 6× / 10×)
• Failure keeps 0–50% loot or full loot loss
• 10–20% / 30% hull damage as the loss model
• Realm 3 rally-only depth 4 and Realm 4 guaranteed fragment at depth 5
• Codex / fragment-farming as the D3 purpose

Those do not match live depth behavior.