In the cold, dark reaches of space, it can be important to scout as much of your system as possible. The key to success in OGame is to leave no stone unturned in your search for valuable resources and planets to research them on. As you expand your reach across the galaxy, you need to find out what is out there. A great way to find out what is in your sector and to gain access to more resources is to send your ships out on an expedition.
Expeditions in OGame have a chance to turn up valuable materials and information about the worlds in a system, but you need to unlock them first.
How to send expeditions in OGame
The first step to sending ships out on an expedition is to unlock them. To do that, you must first research Astrophysics to at least level 1. Increasing your level of Astrophysics will increase the number of expeditions you can have running at any given moment. It isn’t a linear progression, however. The number of expeditions you can conduct at any given moment is equal to the root square of your level of Astrophysics. For example:
- Astrophysics level 1 – One Expedition at a time
- Astrophysics level 4 – Two Expeditions at a time
- Astrophysics level 9 – Three Expeditions at a time
- Astrophysics level 16 – Four Expeditions at a time
- Astrophysics level 25 – Five Expeditions at a time
Your level of Astrophysics also dictates how long an expedition can last, with each level in the science adding an hour to the maximum expedition length. This can increase your odds of finding something, but it is a diminishing return, so you’re generally better off just sending an expedition out for an hour and trying your luck.
Once you’ve unlocked Astrophysics, you can head to your fleet menu and select your ships like you normally would before sending them on a task. This time, go to the number 16 coordinate in a system and select Expedition for the mission type. Here, you can select which ships to send and how long to send them for.
It is possible to get many rewards, including dark matter, abandoned ships, resources, or a merchant. However, there is always a chance that your fleet will be attacked or even run into a black hole. It is important to weigh out the risk versus possible rewards. The more times you send an expedition to a certain sector, the more likely it is to have a negative result or just not find anything at all.
