Expeditions are special fleet missions sent into unknown space. In Inter-War, an expedition targets position 16 of a selected system. The result is not known in advance, so an expedition can bring valuable rewards as well as real risk.
What can you find on an expedition?
An expedition may return with resources, ships, antimatter or an item. Other outcomes include finding nothing, a delayed return, an encounter with pirates or a dangerous anomaly that can damage or even destroy the fleet.
Expedition slots and daily limit
Expeditions use dedicated expedition slots and are also subject to a daily limit. The number of available slots can increase through relevant technologies and bonuses. The fleet screen shows both slot usage and how many expeditions you have sent that day.
Exact rules and formulas
An expedition always targets position 16. The event type is selected from weighted outcomes. Built-in default weights are:
| Event | Weight | Share with default weights |
|---|---|---|
| Resources | 28 | 25.00% |
| Ships | 18 | 16.07% |
| Dark matter | 10 | 8.93% |
| Item | 14 | 12.50% |
| Nothing | 10 | 8.93% |
| Pirates | 20 | 17.86% |
| Black hole | 4 | 3.57% |
| Delay | 8 | 7.14% |
Important: these are default weights, not fixed percentages. An administrator can override them in expedition configuration, so the real distribution may differ.
Resources: reward ≈ random(500–2000) × clamp(ship count, 1, 50) × random(0.80–1.40) × expedition bonus. The result is capped by free fleet cargo space. Metal, crystal or deuterium is chosen at random.
Dark matter: the same structure, but with a base of 50–200. Ships: 1–3 ship types already present in the expedition fleet are selected; for each one the found amount is based on roughly 10–60% of the sent count, modified by the expedition bonus.
Risk: pirates use a default intensity of 30–80%, with final losses per ship type clamped to 10–95%. A black hole has a default 12% chance to destroy the entire fleet; otherwise it destroys 30–95% of each ship type. A delay adds 30 minutes–6 hours to the return.
Example: with 10 ships, the resource event has a pre-bonus, pre-cap range of roughly 4,000–28,000. With 50 or more ships it is roughly 20,000–140,000.
How does fleet size affect the reward?
For resource and antimatter finds, the mechanic uses the total number of ships in the expedition fleet, not their price or combat power. The fleet factor is capped at 1–50, so sending 80 or 500 ships no longer increases this base component beyond the value reached with 50 ships.
| Ships | Resources before bonuses | Antimatter before bonuses |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 400–2,800 | 40–280 |
| 10 | 4,000–28,000 | 400–2,800 |
| 25 | 10,000–70,000 | 1,000–7,000 |
| 50+ | 20,000–140,000 | 2,000–14,000 |
Your expedition bonus is applied on top of these ranges. Antimatter may also receive an active event multiplier. Resource finds are additionally capped by the fleet's free cargo capacity.
How should the default chances be read?
The default event weights add up to 112. A resource weight of 28 therefore means 28 / 112 = 25%, while a black-hole weight of 4 is about 3.57%. If an administrator changes the weights, every effective percentage changes automatically; the weights do not need to sum to 100.
When ships are found, the game selects 1–3 ship types from types already present in the sent fleet. For every selected type, the base find is 10–60% of the number of that type sent, then the expedition bonus is applied; the minimum result is 1 ship.
Example
A fleet with 30 Small Cargos and 20 fighters contains 50 ships and therefore reaches the default maximum fleet factor for resource/antimatter rewards. A ship-find event, however, calculates the percentage separately from the amount of the selected ship type.
FAQ — expeditions
Can I lose my fleet on an expedition?
Yes. Some events, including pirates or a black hole, can cause losses.
Does every expedition give a reward?
No. Finding nothing or encountering a negative event are also possible outcomes.