PvE Content

The galaxy is full of dangers and opportunities beyond other players. Pirate camps, wormholes, asteroid mining, expeditions, outposts, artifacts, and field scanning provide rich PvE content for every stage of the game.

Pirate Camps

Pirate camps are NPC fleets that occupy systems across the galaxy. Players can scout camps first to assess enemy strength, then launch an attack for loot. A bounty system rewards players for defeating camps.

Pirate Tiers

Four tiers of increasing difficulty and reward:

Scavenger

The weakest pirates — small groups of drones and scouts. Found in Sentinel and Open zones. A solid first target for new players with a handful of scouts and fighters.

Loot: Basic resources (ore, silicates). Occasionally some cryo-ice.

Raider

Organized pirate bands with fighters and interceptors. Found in Open and Dead zones. Requires a proper combat fleet to engage.

Loot: Larger basic resource hauls, plus some rare materials.

Marauder

Dangerous pirate formations including heavier warships. Found in Dead Space. These require a strong, well-composed fleet to defeat.

Loot: Significant resources, higher chance of rare materials, and a chance at Precursor Fragments.

Scouting & Bounties

Reveal first — a newly spawned camp is hidden until a system survey backed by Anomaly Scanning reveals it, or a Hunt patrol uncovers it.
Recon the camp — Scout Camp accepts eligible espionage hulls and reveals the camp composition. If detected, the ordinary recon fleet is lost; an attached Leadership vessel returns.
Attack requirements — Attack Pirates needs at least one combat or EW ship; Tankers may accompany the force. Alliance combined assaults can also target pirate camps.
Bounty Board — daily and weekly merchant contracts rotate over time. Depending on your research, contracts may ask you to clear pirate camps or complete anomaly, wormhole, and expedition objectives.
Claiming — completed contracts are claimed while you are at one of your planets. Weekly offers can be rerolled through the interface.

Respawning: Pirate camps may reappear after some time. It's worth revisiting systems you've cleared — new camps bring new loot.

Danger: Pirate camps in more dangerous zones are tougher but offer substantially better rewards. Risk matches reward.

Wormholes

Wormholes are temporary anomalies that appear in star systems. Sending a fleet inside triggers a multi-phase run — a gauntlet of encounters with escalating danger and better discoveries the deeper you push. You can retreat mid-run if things get too dangerous, keeping whatever loot you've collected so far.

Wormhole Classes

Class	Difficulty	Reward Profile
C1	Low — introductory wormhole content	Starter salvage and materials
C2	Moderate — requires a solid combat fleet	Better caches and stranger contacts
C3	High — dangerous encounters and hazards	High-value salvage and rare finds

How Wormholes Work

Season 0 classes — C1 can appear in Sentinel or Open, C2 in Open or Dead, and C3 in Dead Space.
Discovery — you need anomaly-scanning capability, and a system must be surveyed after a wormhole appears before it becomes visible. The discoverer receives an initial exclusive-entry window.
Entry limits — each commander may enter a particular wormhole only once and may have only one active run in it. A wormhole also has a global cap on simultaneous runs.
Multi-phase runs — each wormhole consists of multiple phases. You progress through encounters one at a time, with escalating difficulty and rewards.
Retreat option — you can pull your fleet out at any time between phases. You keep all loot collected up to that point, but forfeit deeper rewards.
Temporary — wormholes disappear after a period of time. Enter before they collapse.
Preparation gates — Wormhole Theory covers C1-C2; Deep Wormhole Navigation is required for C3.
Shared mass limit — every run consumes part of the wormhole's remaining mass allowance. The limit is checked again on arrival, so another entrant can change what fits before your fleet reaches it.
Rewards escalate — each phase can drop resources, rare materials, and Precursor Fragments.
Hazards — some encounters involve gravitational anomalies that can damage your fleet even without enemies.
Support ships help — Scouts can warn about the next combat encounter. A Spy Probe can sometimes mitigate a hazard and is consumed when that intervention succeeds.
Cargo matters — a fleet that survives but lacks cargo room can still leave value behind.

Encounter Varieties

Inside wormholes you might face:

Pirate patrols — hostile NPC fleets
Debris salvage — non-combat, free resources
Supply caches — hidden stockpiles of materials
Precursor guardians — ancient automated defenses (higher classes)
Ancient armadas — remnant war fleets (very dangerous)
Dark matter wells — rare resource deposits
Gravity collapses — hazards that can damage your fleet

Strategic retreat: If your fleet is battered after a tough phase, consider retreating with what you have. A destroyed fleet earns nothing — a retreated fleet keeps everything collected so far.

Higher risk, higher reward. A damaged fleet can retreat safely only between phases. Decide before starting the next encounter.

Asteroid Mining

Asteroid fields scattered across star systems contain extractable resources. Mining is a critical part of your economy, especially for rare resources not easily produced by buildings.

Field Types

Field Type	Resources	Found In
Ore	Ore, some silicates	All zones
Ice	Cryo-Ice	Open+
Gas	Hydrogen	Open+
Plasma	Plasma Core	Open+
Quantum	Quantum Dust	Dead Space
Dark	Dark Matter	Dead Space

Field availability: Security zone controls which field types can appear and how rich they tend to be, but the system's star type still matters. A permitted field type is never guaranteed in every system, and some high-value fields may stay hidden until deeper scouting, station control, or later field activity reveals them.

Asteroid fields are finite and can also expire. A mining fleet returns when its target is depleted or disappears. If an outpost loses its assigned field, it becomes a drifting outpost: production stops, but the structure can be relocated to another eligible field.

How Mining Works

Send mining ships to an asteroid field.
Ships extract resources in cycles — each cycle yields a batch of materials that fills your mining cargo.
A normal mining run is capped at 10 cycles. The optional Mine Until Full mode ignores that cycle cap for an ordinary player mission and continues until cargo is full or the field is depleted. Scripted missions do not use this override.
Mining Vessels and Ice Drills can break down during a cycle. A breakdown ends that ship's mining for the run; other ships continue.

Mining yield depends on ship type, field type, field richness, cargo space, and active bonuses. Dedicated mining hulls must match the field they are sent to.

Specialized Mining Ships

Ship	Specialization	Notes
Mining Vessel	Ore, Plasma fields	The basic mining workhorse
Gas Collector	Gas, Quantum fields	Atmospheric/gas field scooping
Ice Drill	Ice, Dark fields	Handles exotic frozen materials
Excavator	Direct: Ore, Ice, Gas, Plasma. Support: every field type.	Improves the whole fleet and can support specialists in Quantum and Dark fields; it does not directly extract biological fields.

Pirate raids and PvP: A pure Sentinel fleet of up to five mining ships is hidden from Field Attack and field scans; adding any non-mining ship removes that protection. Watch and Hunt patrol coverage suppresses pirate raids, while an active pirate camp raises danger. An outpost turret can reduce raid risk outside Dead Space; its turret and shield fight if the outpost itself is attacked, but docked garrison ships do not escort the mining fleet. An attached Industrialist command vessel with Open Sector Safety can prevent pirate raids against a sufficiently small Open-space mining fleet; the Command Core shows the current ship-count limit.

Escorts and Civilian Protection

A mining fleet may carry an escort. If that escort uses its retreat rule, the entire mining mission stops and returns.
During a mining pirate raid, civilian ships are protected while combat or EW escorts survive for the first 10 rounds. From round 11 they can be targeted; if all combat and EW escorts are destroyed earlier, protection ends immediately.
Defend Mining sends a combat or EW fleet, optionally with a Tanker, to protect one exact active mining mission. Combined Operations extends this to alliance members and allied commanders. The defense returns automatically when that mining run or relationship ends.

Field Scanning

Before committing a mining fleet, you can scan asteroid fields to learn exactly what they contain. Field scanning uses at least one recon ship equipped for field analysis.

Standard Field Survey

Requires: Navigation Computer research
Ships: Probe, Spy Probe, and Stealth Ship are the allowed hulls. A command vessel may scan alone only when its fitted build supplies espionage strength.
Result: Detailed composition data for the asteroid field — resource types, richness, and estimated yields per cycle

Survey Volume and Diminishing Signals

Every completed system Survey increases one account-wide counter for the current UTC day. False signals count too, and the surveyed system still receives its normal cooldown. The dispatch window shows how many Surveys you have completed today.
After sustained Survey activity in the same day, later Surveys become progressively more likely to return a false signal instead of an anomaly. The exact thresholds and chances are intentionally not published; the counter resets with the next UTC day.
This affects only the Survey roll that decides whether a signal is found. It does not reduce Investigate loot, consume rested charges, or alter the separate daily Leadership XP efficiency pool.

Anomaly Investigation and Rested Charges

Investigate follows a confirmed survey signal. Probe and Spy Probe cannot join this mission.
Open-space investigations require at least 1,000 combat HP; Dead Space requires 3,000. An attached command vessel's base hull can contribute. Clearing known pirate guards instead requires at least one combat or EW ship.
Rested charges are account-wide and measured from the last successful Investigate that paid direct resources. On a newly created account this first successful resource result starts the rested timer. After an eight-hour grace period, one charge accrues every two hours, so the first charge arrives after ten hours; up to 20 can be stored.
A resource-paying Investigate consumes one available charge, doubles all direct resource loot from that result, and restarts the timer. A result with no direct resources neither consumes a charge nor restarts it. Artifacts, Precursor Fragments, and encounter chances are not multiplied.

Xeno Survey

Requires: Xenoarchaeology research
Ships: one Spy Probe and one Hacker Ship
Artifact gate: Artifact Analysis is required for an artifact to be recovered.
Result: Detects alien artifacts hidden within asteroid fields that standard scans miss.

Tip: Always scan a field before committing your mining fleet. Knowing the exact composition lets you send the right specialized ships and avoid wasting cycles on low-yield fields.

Expeditions

Season 0 expeditions send a specialist fleet into Dead Space to discover encounters, resources, and Precursor Fragments.

Requirements

Zone restriction — expeditions launch into Dead Space.
Fleet composition — the mission requires two Stealth Ships and one Hacker Ship.
Artifact recovery — Artifact Analysis is required before an expedition can bring back an artifact.

How Expeditions Work

Depth-based exploration — expeditions progress through increasing depth levels. Deeper levels take longer but yield better rewards.
Multi-phase — each depth level can trigger one or more encounters. The expedition progresses phase by phase.
Random encounters — ancient wreckage, void anomalies, precursor vaults, hostile contacts, and more. What you find depends on depth and luck.
Risk escalates with depth — deeper expeditions face stronger enemies but find better loot.
Cargo and support matter — combat power helps you survive, but cargo capacity and mission-specialist ships decide how much value you can actually bring home.

Expedition Rewards

Industrial salvage: ore, silicates, alloys, and other useful materials
Exotic traces: unusual materials from deeper or stranger encounters
Large hauls: bigger cargo opportunities when the fleet is built to carry them
Resource beacons: some discoveries leave a beacon in space. Send a follow-up collection fleet before someone else claims it or the signal fades.
Precursor vaults — can yield Precursor Fragments
Void anomalies — dangerous, but worth investigating with the right fleet

Commander synergy: The Explorer commander boosts expedition loot directly — if you plan to run expeditions often, Explorer (or Diplomat with the Expedition doctrine) is the natural pick.

Tip: Expeditions are a repeatable source of unusual discoveries once you can operate in Dead Space. Check cargo and mission requirements before dispatch.

Outposts

Outposts are autonomous facilities built on asteroid fields. They passively extract resources, store them, and serve as forward operating bases for your mining and military operations.

Building an Outpost

Research Outpost Engineering.
Build an Engineer Ship.
Send the engineer to an asteroid field.
The engineer is consumed — dismantled to become the outpost foundation.

There is a cap on how many outposts one player can own at the same time. Pick locations strategically.

Outpost Buildings

Building	Purpose	Details
Extractor	Passive mining	Automatically extracts resources from the asteroid field over time
Shield	Defense	Protective barrier that reduces incoming damage during attacks
Turret	Defense	Automated weapon system that fires at attacking fleets
Dock	Fleet operations	Expands the fleet garrison at the outpost with every level.
Storage	Resource storage	Adds basic and rare resource capacity per level.

Garrison & Fleet Operations

Base garrison: Every outpost has a small garrison capacity by default, before any Dock is built.
Dock expansion: Building a Dock grows that garrison capacity with each level.
Mining missions: You can dispatch garrisoned ships on mining missions directly from the outpost — no need to send them from a planet first.
Supply missions: Send ships loaded with resources to your outpost to resupply it.
Collect missions: Send ships to pick up accumulated resources from the outpost and bring them home.
Defense: You, alliance members, and allied commanders can reinforce an eligible outpost with a Defend Outpost mission. The fleet carries hydrogen for its stationed upkeep and returns when that reserve is exhausted. Hostile players can attack the outpost directly where zone rules allow it.
Field repair: A Repair Ship stationed in the garrison enables damaged ships to be repaired at the outpost without returning to a planetary shipyard.

Outpost production pauses during vacation mode, construction, relocation, and drifting. An Extractor works only on its assigned asteroid field; special quest fields are planet-only targets and cannot host outposts. Capital ships cannot be used to establish or operate Sentinel outposts.

An outpost attack first resolves its shield stage and then the structure battle. The turret and shield are the outpost's defenses; ships merely docked in the garrison do not defend a separate mining fleet in the field.

Relocating an Outpost

An existing outpost can be moved to another active, accessible and unoccupied asteroid field through the Relocate Outpost operation. Personal quest fields are invalid. This is not a second construction mission and does not consume another Engineer Ship, but it uses a fleet slot and hydrogen stored at the outpost. Construction, repair, an existing relocation, or active missions launched from or targeting the outpost block departure. Production stops during transit. If the destination expires or is taken before arrival, the outpost enters drift instead of appearing on an invalid field.

Storage Capacity

Base storage: Every outpost has a small baseline storage allotment without any Storage building.
Storage building: Each level adds both basic and rare resource capacity.
Resources produced by the Extractor accumulate in storage. If storage is full, production pauses until you collect.

Zone Production Bonuses

Outpost Extractor production scales with the security zone it sits in:

Sentinel — baseline output.
Open — modestly better than Sentinel.
Dead — the best outpost production in the galaxy.

Advanced Outpost Systems: Research Advanced Outpost Systems to raise the maximum building levels for all outpost structures, unlocking higher Extractor output, stronger defenses, and more garrison capacity.

Outpost destroyed? If your outpost is destroyed while a fleet is on a mining mission dispatched from it, the fleet will redirect to your nearest planet — the emergency return takes a long time regardless of distance, so don't count on that fleet coming home quickly.

Artifacts

Artifacts are rare relics found throughout the galaxy. They can be activated for powerful temporary boosts or permanently transcended for lasting benefits.

Finding Artifacts

Expeditions — deeper expeditions can discover artifacts
Wormholes — certain higher-risk wormhole encounters can yield artifacts
Special encounters — some rare events in the galaxy can reward artifacts
Xeno surveys — scanning asteroid fields with a Spy Probe and Hacker Ship can reveal hidden artifacts

Using Artifacts

Study — newly found relics are unidentified. Deliver them to a planet with a Research Lab and assign an available Artifact Analysis study slot to reveal their effect and rarity.
Activate — pay the displayed activation cost and wait for preparation. The artifact then provides a temporary effect. When its duration ends, it returns to your collection in an inactive state; activation does not consume it.
Transcend — unlock the Transcendent Artifacts research, then open a legendary artifact's card. The process consumes one inactive Common, Rare, and Epic artifact with the same bonus and scope, plus the displayed number of Precursor Fragments. These ingredients are the recipe for creating a Transcendent artifact; Transcendent artifacts do not drop as a separate rarity.

Your number of simultaneously active artifacts is limited. Duplicate effects with the same scope do not stack.
Only inactive artifacts can be discarded, transferred, listed, or activated. An active artifact cannot be deactivated early; it returns to inactive when its duration ends.
The three material artifacts must be inactive and available. If several matching materials of one rarity exist, the recipe consumes the weakest matching effect first, then the oldest acquired one if values are tied.
A successfully transcended artifact is permanent and cannot be deactivated, transferred, or listed. A planet-scoped effect remains bound to its chosen planet; a global effect remains global.

Artifact Effects

Artifacts provide various bonuses, including:

Increased planet resource production
Enhanced planetary defense strength
Boosted research speed
Improved ship construction rates
Other unique bonuses depending on the artifact type

Discovery policy: The guide explains the artifact lifecycle but does not publish a complete artifact catalog, encounter odds, or hidden reward tables. The interface shows the exact cost, duration, and transcendence recipe for artifacts you have identified.

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