Expedition

Expedition is the primary game-mode of Shatterline. Expedition is a Rogue-lite Cooperative mode where a squad of 3 players must defeat the Envoy of the Voice.

## Summary

A squad of operatives is dropped into the *Faroes Impact Zone*, a large open map where players must work together to complete a series of 3 randomly generated primary objectives, as well as a Finale Event.

* Cooperative Roguelike PvE
* Estimated Duration: 30 - 40 Minutes.
* Squad: 3 players who will be pitted against various encounters and traps involving the Shattered and the Strafe as they progress to defeat the Envoy of the Voice at the heart of the Farroe Impact Zone.
* Players start with only their uncharged Ultimate Ability and their G5 Earl.
* Load outs for Operative *equipment* are ignored in this mode.
* There are 4 *Primary Objectives* that must be completed per Expedition run.
* The Expedition's difficulty will increase after successful completion of each Primary Objective.
* Rewards: *XP*, *Credits*, and *Blueprints.* The amount of rewards increases after each primary objective is completed; current rewards are halved (50%) if all three players are killed.
* The Expedition ends upon completion of the Finale Event, an early extraction is voted for, or the squad is killed without possibility for revival.

## Introduction

Expedition is one of the Signature PvE modes of Shatterline where you, the Immunes, get dropped into one of the “Impact Zones”, a hostile environment dominated by the Crystalline. Your goal is to complete random objectives, as well as defeat a boss, for which you get progressively better rewards. During your mission, you will have to collect supply drops to upgrade your gear, and fight groups of enemies blocking your way to the objectives. But while you are taking your time to run around and explore, the crystalline infection becomes worse and worse, eventually forcing you to extract from the impact zone.

## Rewards

In every match you finish you will get rewards; the amount of the rewards differs based on how far you get before you die, extract or win. There is one main objective and four sector contracts, one dungeon. Every time you beat a stage you get more rewards. If your entire team dies you will lose half of the rewards you have acquired. But if you leave the game you will lose all of your rewards.

* Satisfactory: 10 blueprints, Defeat 2 sector bosses
* Impressive: 13 blueprints, Defeat 4 sector bosses
* Phenomenal: 20 blueprints, Defeat 7 sector bosses

Whilst you are playing and killing enemies you also earn weapon xp provided the gun you are using has not been maxed out. This unlocks attachments for the weapon being used.

Alongside the blueprints you get, there are other resources such as shards, spores, capacitor, energy core and, red matter. Here are ways you can extract such resources

* Certain World Activities
* Chosen Stashes
* Objectives
* Reward Crates
* Sector Bosses

## Contamination

Contamination is a big part of the game mode; the more time you spend in the match the greater the level of contamination becomes. When the level of contamination rises the game will become harder. The contamination effects will spawn and bother/attack/stun you wherever you are on the map and even underground in some cases. If the contamination level reaches the maximum time limit you will be forced to extract.

Some of the contamination effects are:

* **Chasers**: These are monsters that will spawn and attack one of the players. It is a flying tentacle monster that flies around and sticks to players. When it is stuck to someone it will slowly kill the player. The only way to get rid of the chaser is to kill it and if it is stuck to someone the other team mates will have to help to kill it.
* **Fireflies**: These are small flying monsters that spawn when you kill another enemy. they will follow you and kill you if you don’t kill them first. It will not count as a kill when you kill them.
* **Eruption**: Lava geysers erupt from the ground and leave damaging fire and lava pools where they explode.
* **Explosive anomaly**: These are explosive “balls” that spawn when you kill an enemy. They create a force-field and if you stand inside you will take a lot of damage.
* **Healing anomaly**: These are healing orbs that float towards an enemy. They will proceed to heal an enemy as long as they are within range.
* **Meteor strike**: These are meteors that will come out of the sky. They fall down in waves where you won't be killed by the first one but you take a lot of damage. It is possible to escape them by running away from the marked area before they fall.
* **Ball Lightning**: This is a flying ball that will spawn at random. The ball will only affect one player at a time. The ball will shock you, when you are shocked you will get stunned and take damage. The way to get rid of the ball is by shooting it.
* **Increased melee damage**: Enemies do much more melee damage than usual.
* **Shielded Strafers:** Strafers gain a shield by default. This means you have to rely on either explosives or shooting the rotating weak point before doing any real damage to strafers.
* **Crystalline Tornado:** A crystalline tornado spawns when you kill an enemy and they go straight towards you. They deal tiny damage but can be lethal in higher threat levels.
* **Glass Hawks:** a group of flying hawks (usually in waves) fly straight towards you and your team mates. Lethal in groups and can wipe a team if not taken care of. They can be shot down.

## Extraction

There are two ways to extract during a run.

1. If you and one more member of your team feel like you can’t keep going you or you feel like you have done everything possible, you can request to extract with mules scattered around the impact zone. **Extractions are considered a win, and encouraged in the case where the outcome of an expedition is bleak. It is always better to extract on your own terms and start a new run. 2 of 3 players must request for an extraction to start. If 2 of 3 players decline, the run continues.**
2. The second way to extract is when you are forced to. If the contamination reaches a maximum you will have to extract in five minutes or you will slowly start losing health.

When you either choose to extract or you are forced to do so you will get a new way-point. The way-point normally isn't far away and is easy to reach. When you arrive, you will have to fight the strafers and potentially the Goliath. After you defeat all the enemies you will be extracted.

Alternatively, you can end a run by having all player die. You lose half of everything. Your highest rarity perk, abilities, guns do not carry over to the next run.

## Sector Bosses

During your mission, you will be presented with 4 sector bosses per run, every boss fight is optional and can be skipped but, completing it bears great rewards such as resources and a supply bin.

### Cyborg Stilt

Once you activate this objective, the Cyborg Stilt as well as a great number of Strafer enemies will spawn; to complete it, you must first deplete the shield of the Cyborg Stilt before you can do permanent damage. It’s as easy as that!

*pro tip: explosive damage can take away a huge part of the shield*

### **Koschei**

A premature stilt is out to get you. Lure it close to the koschei and when they start glowing, only then can you shoot it allowing the stilt to take damage. It takes time for these koschei to respawn so make every pop count.

### Bomber Dogs (Specimen Grinder)

The Specimen grinder (Shown as “Bomber Dogs”) is a Crystalline structure, protected by an impenetrable shield and constant waves of crystalline enemies. To defeat it, you must kill Hound enemies that try to run towards the grinder and use their dropped spine to damage the shield. Don’t let the dogs reach the grinder, as it will then start attacking you! Once the shield is down, you can damage the grinder with your normal weapons and your ultimates.

### Power Stones (Urchin)

You will see a big glowing orb, shielded by three floating Stones, that is spawning waves of enemies. To damage the Orb, you first have to destroy the Stones. After that, you can shoot the orb itself with weapons and ultimates. The stones will regenerate after a short time. If one stone is active then the shield will come back; destroy all three stones at the same time to keep the shield down.

### Transmutator (Runners)

Burning Runners will run towards a gate, and upon reaching the gate will respawn as Adamants. Prevent the runners from reaching the gate. The core will eventually become exposed, allowing the squad to unleash their weapons and ultimates upon it. While the core is exposed, a dangerous Death Ray will zap the squad in an area from above.

### Soil Probe Defense

Karin Velasquez will send down probes to collect soil samples. The team must defend the probes from a Strafer ambush. The probes will be attacked by the Strafers and take damage. The probes can be destroyed. Probes will keep being dropped after one gets destroyed. Once the team has successfully defended three probes, the mission will be successful.

### Research Station (replaced by corrupted research station in R78)

The team must enter a Strafer research station and hack their data center. Upon hacking the terminal, exposed data clusters will appear in succession. The team must stand on these exposed points to capture them while defending against a heavy Strafer assault. The squad is locked in an enclosed area during this objective.

### **Corrupted Research Station**

The Strafers have abandoned the research stations and the crystaline have overrun it. You have to manually override the temperature and shoot some things stuck to server racks to override. After shooting all 4, you can then finish the override. Beware, you are fighting enemies that are dangerous up close.

### **Gravity Tower**

The strafers have utilized the power of gravity. It is your job to shoot down the vents by platforming across and shooting them down. There are spinning lasers of death. The boss reaches its second phase when you can shoot the core. Described as one of the easiest sector bosses by many.

### **Turret**

The turret is a stationary enemy known for shooting slow but hard hitting bullets. The turret occasionally shoots out missiles that can do major damage alongside getting staggered. The only way to deplete its shield is with EMP's regularly spawned around the area. You have to defend these EMP's from walking mines and utilizing boxes to act as a shield against the turret. When the turret's shield is down, you can shoot down the thing at the center. After receiving enough damage, the turret goes back to shielded form. A group of strafers then come to fight.

### Fusion Reactor

The Fusion reactor involves shooting lightning orbs into the fusion reactor core in the middle of the arena. For every successive ball that gets shot in, the reactor spins faster making it harder for balls to get shot through. You need to call in a ball before being able to progress. In between balls spawning, strafers will come and try to eliminate you from teleportation pads found around.

tips:

* if you have lightning ball contamination, those balls count if you shoot them in.
* to speed up the fight, have something explode really close to the strafers. The damage from explosions is enough to wipe most of the enemies. This means killing the pyro immediately will clear out enemies in no time.

### Uber Gardener

The uber gardener is your regular gardener on lots of extra power. To progress, you have to prevent gardeners from reaching the middle, should that happen; the uber gardener gets increased health. Upon regular gardners disappearing, you have to clear the area from more crystaline. After the third one, you now fight the uber gardener. It has a purple ring of death similar to the one that the Queen spawns. Don't let the small size fool you, stand in for more than a second and you'll likely die.

tips:

* you can use your tactical knife to continuously stun the gardener, effectively making the fight a lot easier
* Pill's and Mongoose's ultimate deal massive damage to the uber gardener

## Encounters

Normal Supply Drops are always linked to Encounters; Once you get into its proximity, a red circle will appear and an Encounter will start. There are many different Types of Encounters, each posing a different challenge for the players. Once you have completed the Encounter, for example by destroying glowing balls or killing every enemy in the area, you can stand by the Supply drop to unlock it, causing any structures generated by the Encounter to be destroyed.

From the Supply Drops you will get gear (selecting from two or three options), including weapons and abilities, but also perks. These perks can range from a higher ammo capacity to Enemies randomly exploding when shot. While there is an indicator for rarity (The colour of the Item), it is more of a guideline; An item of a higher tier will probably be better than one of a lower tier, but read their effects carefully and choose the one best suited for your play style.

## Lost Supply Crates

There are also hidden supply drops scattered all across the map. These supply drops don’t spawn any enemies, but are harder to get to. The operations manager will occasionally point out that there’s a hidden supply drop somewhere nearby, so keep an eye out for that and keep an eye on the map as supply drops will be shown there as well. Some of them are locked away behind a door or above a ledge, and for these you will need an Exo or Recon operative player to help the other players reach this supply drop. However, breakable doors can also be opened by explosives like flammable Barrels or the Troopers' damaging grenades.

Sometimes, using the Terrain to your advantage or getting creative with your abilities might secure you supplies you would normally not get to. Working together and calling out these lost supply drops will greatly help you and your teammates gear up without having to waste time on fighting enemies!

If you play long enough, you'll start memorizing supply bin locations and whenever Dr. Sullivan says there's a supply bin nearby, you know where to look.

## Teamwork

Teamwork is Important in this Mode; You shouldn't split apart from each other or go in different directions. Should you still wish to split off, make sure you can hold it out on your own. The respawn Timer is 60 seconds, meaning once you are downed, you can only participate in the fight again after a whole minute. If the entire team dies, the mission is over, so stick together and help each other!

## World Activities

World activities are side objectives you can do around the impact zone. Completing activities grants you rewards

**Mules -** Call in a supply drop, request extraction, accept the sector objective.

**Decontaminator** - Defend the decontamination tower from two waves of enemies. They typically remove one decontamination if done correctly. The cost scales with higher threat levels.

pro tip: enemies in threat 1 do not have enough damage to destroy the tower.

**Salt Mining -** Defend the salt mining rig from enemies for a set amount of time. If you successfully defend it, You are rewarded with a lot of salt which can be used to call in a supply bin, interact with the refill points, decontaminate.

**Abandoned Sample** - Defend the VSL-4 container from strafers that either spawn in from their pods or flashbang you before falling from the sky. It rewards you with salt albeit less than the salt mining. The activity completes when the helicopter successfully grabs the container.

**Strafer Depot (Formerly called Locked Towers)** - 3 EMP devices fall down from the sky, activate all 3 within a set time to unlock the tower. It can either give you resources or a supply bin.

**Stasis Traps** - lure out a specific enemy to walk into a trap. Get resources in return.

**Levitating Anomaly** - Platform your way to the top and get a guaranteed chosen stash for the team to use.

**Strafer Outposts** - Fight a variety of strafers and get a supply bin in return. Sometimes, there are chosen stashes nearby. **For some reason, the game does not highlight such activities.**

**Crystalline Treasury** - Having one person be in close proximity for the ball to be vulnerable, players go inside and shoot down some enemies. If they kill enough crystalline creatures, they are rewarded with some chosen caches.

**Dungeon Bosses -** Upon getting dungeon intel from refill points, there will be a persistent dungeon icon in your scanner that can be scanned from any sector. Most dungeons are threat level 5 except for the strafer base, threat level 6. Completing them potentially grants you red matter, an incredibly important resource for activating the end of skill trees in PvE.

**Ball by the river -** A glowing ball that runs alongside the river, destroying it yields you one chosen stash (formerly two)

**Salt Deposits -** These are veins of salt that can vary between one salt and several salt in a group.

## Maneki Neko Figurines

Maneki Neko figurines is a different interactable that spawns in the place of a lost supply bin. In return for interacting with one, both tactical cooldowns are reset and a percentage of your ultimate is recharged. Sometimes, a box with the letter 'X' is the model used for a maneki neko figurine, the effect remains the same. For pill, he gains roughly one stack of ultimate charge.

## Chosen Stashes

Chosen stashes are found all across the impact zone. They can be spotted from a distance before they reveal themselves by how they give off a reddish discoloration to its surroundings. They also tend to camoflauge themselves although the immediate area around seems a bit warped. Additionally, when you get close enough to one without realizing it, Dr. Sullivan says "A chosen stash, you're in luck" and there should now be an audible sound coming from the stash.

Items that you can get out of a chosen stash are as follows

* Lazarus tool - A tool that gives you 3 self revives
* Resources
* Salt
* The Gomorrah - spawn balls of lightning that remain at their spot for a while. The more the merrier.
* Jericho - Crystalline chain gun best used against a crowd of enemies
* Sodom - Hand Cannon that deals massive damage to anything caught in its radius
* Chakram - A 3 round revolver that can deal massive damage to single enemies.

## Environment Scanner

The environment scanner is a device that sends out pulses for points of interest around the map. It can find the general location of a sector boss when close enough, allows you to ping supply bins and even show what you intend to do by pinging around world activities. During an active fight, your scanner is temporarily disabled. Sometimes, the strafers will activate an EMP to disable your scanner throughout the sector. World activities work fine but without any way to find them at a larger scale, it makes it difficult. You can regain them by arriving to one of the strafer outposts located around the map and a large beam of light coming from the EMP device.

You can click right click again to send out a pulse or signal to catch points of interest otherwise unreachable upon the first scan.