2 months I believe.
I got a section done in 2hrs & none of the milestones are particularly difficult for the whole thing.
I’m going to guess that allocating 8 hrs in total would do it.
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I am down to the Frigate missions which is just a matter of buying a few more and waiting for them to complete their tasks.
Nice and easy expedition and fairly enjoyable.
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The top post includes a link to the countdown
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I am now waiting for my frigate fleet to complete their 8 missions. I object to HG’s hamfisted attempt to force me into multiplayer, so I won’t be visiting anybody else’s freighter.
I’m curious - why are HG so keen to force us to talk to each other, when they won’t talk to us themselves?
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Agreed. I have MP turned off because for the most part it just doesn’t interest me. It also has caused glitches & crashes for me in the past which I wish to avoid
That being said, I have recently travelled via the Anomaly teleporter to a couple of featured bases & marveled at some very creative structures.
I too am awaiting my fleets to finish up so I too can finish the expedition.
Won’t be keeping this save so it is very messy. My Capital ship is quite literally a thrown together collection of necessary rooms in HG’S stock white & orange flavour. My shuttle is sort of organised as is my standard issue multitool but other than the gifted augmentations & modules, they have no purchased upgrades.
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Actually, this is one I might keep - if only for the fact that I’ve learned most of the necessary freighter parts, without the pain of gathering salvaged frigate modules. I can always buy a new freighter, but it might take me the rest of my life to learn the parts again.
As an aside, since freighter modification was introduced, I must have searched hundreds of crashed freighters. You know how many salvaged frigate modules I’ve found? It’s easy to remember - none. Not one. I’ve also searched abandoned freighters - not as many, I must admit, but it must be dozens. How many frigate modules has that given me? Two. So unless I resort to piracy*, it looks like I’m never going to furnish a freighter by legitimate means.
*I have moral objections to piracy, just as I have moral objections to killing helpless animals. And I know it’s pretend, and I know it’s just animated cartoons - but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I don’t do it.
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In an older save I spent a couple of days farming derelict freighters and got more than a dozen modules. Enough to buy every new part. I went to many systems to find the best freighter to farm but the one that Xaine shows in his video at
is both better at getting modules and easier (no hard enemies) to run through. I ignore the crew manifest and captain’s log. I also ignore anything that doesn’t normally give the salvaged frigate modules. Those take time in the station to sell etc. I got the cycle time down to around 2 minutes per run. There are runs that come up empty, but a lot of them also yield two modules. You can make the run just using the heaters so I didn’t have to waste dioxite on the shields. And you can hide the scanner in the refiner so you don’t need to keep buying more. I had 39 of those but it is still faster to squirrel those away for each run.
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In my very old Legacy Save, I try to play as an honourable individual. (Actually in my head it’s generations of honourable individuals).
Farming & legitament employment plus merchant trading with trade goods supplemented with frigate missions has been that game’s main source of income. Killing has been something I chose to avoid if it could be managed. Even Snappy weeds were protected.
That save is based around exploration & seeking knowledge.
In my ‘pirate’ save, (created much more recently as part of the expedition based on piracy), I chose to embrace piracy as part of my character’s way of life. Not ruthless, bad attitude piracy…more contraband smuggling & selective ‘harvesting’ of pods once I worked out the system. (He was a bit brash as a young pirate but he’s more selective & more opportunistic now).
I accepted that this particular character came into being as a pirate & scavenger but still not without morals. His homeworld is life filled & both his bases embrace nature.
In general he isn’t driven to acquire the best, only what he needs. His suit slots & tech are not maxed out or loaded with 'S’level upgrades.
His standing among the factions & races is low but I dont think he cares.
It will interesting to see what his future goals become.
So as you can see, I’m not of a ruthless mercenary mindset.
I did once try to play as a bounty hunter but despite my efforts I simply didn’t enjoy the playstyle & ended up deleting that save file.
All this being said, the elusive Salvage Frigate Modules are an enigma.
They can be found on derelicts while opportunistically scavenging, either in space or as terrestrial wrecks.
They can show up as mission rewards while earning legitimate income.
They sometimes return in fleet missions.
…And they often turn up among the pods of a travelling merchant (& forgiveness is just a forged passport away).
And then I’m considering your point of having a fully fleshed out knowledge of freighter tech from the current expedition.
I could wipe my messy base(s) change my ships & character & use the expedition as a foundation for a 3rd save…
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I fully agree with you on this, though I can if I believe it is necessary, have my frontal cortex look the other way. And then I feel guilty for awhile until I can rationalize it all away. My fear is that it is affecting my psyche at some level regardless.
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Is that the beacon you use to find the derelicts?
I generally avoid exploits but… 
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That’s pretty much my thinking. I feel that if I practice casual cruelty, even in a simulation, it must dull my sense of the real thing.
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Yes. First you activate the beacon, go back into the inventory and move it to the backpack refiner. When you open the door in the freighter it won’t get taken. Then when you get back to the station after running though the derelict freighter take it out of the refiner and exit your ship. I don’t know the exact required timing. I think you can move it there anytime before opening the door on the freighter. You might be able to take it out immediately after opening the door, but I have never tested that. If you take it out after you exit the ship it will stay in the active state, pop in and out of the ship to reset for the next run.
I don’t normally use glitches like this. When it was just for fun I would get the beacon normally. But when they turned this into a grind… :-/ I have a lot of beacons in inventory and billions of units to buy them with. I use this to speed up the grind so I can get back to the fun parts of the game.
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@Polyphemus @Mad-Hatter
Unless this got fixed and I missed it, the so called ‘Optional Milestone’ is not so optional for completion to count.
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I don’t understand?
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I got really lucky on the optional mission. In the first system someone chatted out about there freighter being available for visits so I hurried aboard. You must dismiss your own freighter for theirs to show. Remember, we do have cross play now and you could join the game of someone here. If I am online, anyone can feel free to contact me on Steam however, being in experimental means I am not always in sync with others.
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Oh, duh, thanks, that‘s the clue I was missing! I was wondering why there were only NPCs.
I switch off multiplayer when it starts annoying me, e.g. stuff disappears out of the freighter refinery while I’m looking at it being processed… 
And then it randomly reappears later … but I can’t take it. Why do I let it bully me… Polyphemus would have long unplugged the Ethernet cable! 
Yeah, agreed. Defenders of sentient plants, unite! 
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I noticed this exp went straight to a normal save upon completion
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I’m not at the end yet, I’m not asking for spoilers, but do the ships‘ warp drives ever come back?
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