Expedition Mode

Queuing into Expedition mode matchmakes a lobby of up to four players and starts every run at the Expedition Center. From there the game generates a fresh grid of nodes, including Elite lanes and a Boss chamber, and your team escorts a slow moving payload as it travels from node to node.

Each node the payload reaches has to be cleared before it can keep moving, and checkpoints along the route are where players stop to buy Stat Anvils, turning the run into a build-as-you-go loadout rather than a fixed team comp fight. Clearing a node pays out immediately, and the payload itself gains Payload EXP for the run while your account banks Player EXP, so a full clear rewards both short term loot and long term account progress.

Because the node grid regenerates every run, no two Expeditions play out in exactly the same order, though the mix of node types, resistance scaling and reward pools stays consistent within whichever difficulty tier the team picks before queuing.

Eight buildings ring the Expedition Center, and upgrading them is the main long term reason to keep running the mode instead of only farming Story acts.

Expedition Center - the hub building that gates every other upgrade and controls the run itself.

Research Lab - spends Expedition Coins on the eighteen node permanent upgrade tree that boosts every future run.

Training Grounds - parks idle units to bank Unit EXP and Worthiness on a ninety second tick, up to a twenty four hour session.

Gold Mine - burns Expedition Fuel to passively generate Gold.

Resource Drill - burns Expedition Fuel to mine Geodes that crack into materials and equipment tokens.

Armory - rerolls equipment stats, crafts new gear from Scrap, and dismantles unwanted equipment.

Quest Board - runs the weekly milestone track, ten rewards deep, resetting every seven days.

Expedition Shop - sells materials, resources and reroll tokens for Expedition Coins on a rotating stock.

The Research Lab holds eighteen permanent upgrade nodes split across four branches plus a single root unlock, and every purchase carries forward into every future Expedition run, making it the account's main long term investment in the mode.

Economy branch (E1 to E6, six tiers) - boosts income and reward stacking on every run.

Payload branch (T1 to T5, five tiers) - extends payload durability and travel speed.

Power branch (P1 to P4, four tiers) - raises unit output on Expedition maps.

Progression branch (G1 and G2, two tiers) - speeds up account and milestone progression from Expedition runs.

Map Unlock (root node) - opens the rest of the tree once the Expedition Center itself is upgraded.

Higher tiers in every branch require the previous tier as a prerequisite, so the tree is meant to be cleared roughly in order rather than cherry picked.

Every checkpoint along an Expedition route sells Stat Anvils, the run's core power spike. Buying one rolls a stat from a pool of fifteen, covering everything from Damage, Range and Crit Chance to Expedition-specific bonuses like Payload Health and Yen Generation, and the strength of the roll depends on which rarity it lands: Epic at 60 percent, Legendary at 30 percent, Mythic at 10 percent, plus a rare bonus Rainbow tier on top.

Anvil bonuses only last for the run they were bought in, so stacking Damage, Crit Damage and Element Damage anvils builds an offense-heavy run, while stacking Payload Health and Summon Health anvils builds a defense-heavy one. A handful of stats are hard capped so a single lucky run cannot stack them into infinity. Full rarity ranges, per-stat caps and the complete roll tables live on the Anvil Stat System page.

Every run starts with a choice between three ascending difficulty tiers, and the choice affects both how hard enemies hit and how much every node pays out.

Normal - resistance ranges from 10 to 20, enemies hit for 5 damage per attack, and rewards carry a 1.25x multiplier with no forced enemy modifiers.

Hard - resistance ranges from 20 to 45, enemies hit for 7 damage per attack, rewards carry a 1.5x multiplier, and every node adds one random enemy modifier.

Nightmare - resistance ranges from 30 to 60, enemies hit for 10 damage per attack, rewards carry a 1.75x multiplier, and every node adds two random enemy modifiers, making it the highest difficulty currently in the mode.

Expedition mode is the account's main endgame loop once Story acts stop being a meaningful challenge, and progress here compounds across three tracks at once: permanent Research Lab upgrades, building tiers gated behind the Expedition Center, and climbing from Normal into Hard and eventually Nightmare difficulty.

Because Research Lab nodes and building tiers persist between runs, a fresh Expedition always starts a little stronger than the one before it, while Anvil rolls and difficulty choice reset every single run. That combination is what keeps the mode replayable well past level 20: permanent account power funds better runs, and better runs fund faster permanent upgrades.

Every completed node drops a mix of guaranteed resources and rolls from a per node reward pool, and the two node types pay out differently.

Elite node - rolls 8 to 11 of one resource from Map Resource, Expedition Coin, Equipment Scrap or Expedition Fuel, plus a guaranteed 100 Payload EXP, 40 Player EXP and 2500 to 5000 Yen.

Boss node - draws three separate Expedition Coin rolls, adds a guaranteed 5 to 8 Map Resource, 150 Payload EXP, 40 Player EXP, 5000 to 10000 Yen, and one guaranteed Expedition Tome, the mode's premium currency for its highest tier unlocks.

On top of per node loot, the Quest Board runs a ten step weekly milestone track that pays out Gem, Gold, Equipment Lock, Equipment Reroll and Trait Reroll rewards, resetting every seven days regardless of how many runs were completed that week.

Start on Normal until the team can clear it without losing the payload, then move up. The reward multiplier gap between tiers is real, but a wipe on Hard or Nightmare pays out nothing, so climbing too early usually loses more than it gains.

Prioritize the early Economy branch nodes in the Research Lab first. Faster income compounds into everything else, including how quickly the Armory and Gold Mine become worth using.

Spend Anvil rolls with a plan instead of grabbing whatever comes up first. Decide early whether the run is leaning offense (Damage, Crit Damage, Element Damage) or defense (Payload Health, Summon Health) and buy toward that build at every checkpoint.

Assign benched units to the Training Grounds instead of leaving them idle. The ninety second tick banks Unit EXP and Worthiness passively, so it is close to free progress as long as those units are not needed on the active roster.

Treat the Quest Board's weekly track as a standing to-do list. It resets every seven days regardless of progress, so unclaimed milestones are progress that quietly disappears.