Job Board missions and quests#
XETODUS has two kinds of organized work, and you will use both from your first hour. Job Board missions are short, generated jobs offered at every station. Quests are written stories with characters, dialogue and choices, offered by named contacts over comms or at a station.
The Job Board#
Dock at any station and open Job Board in the station services. Each board offers you three missions at a time and refills over time. Press O in space to see your active missions. You can carry up to 5 active missions at once.
- Pirate Suppression
- Destroy a number of Hollow Crown ships in a named system nearby. Belts and staging points are the usual hunting grounds. Pays the most in Contested and Lawless space.
- Ore Contract
- Deliver a quantity of one ore to the station that offered it. The ore is chosen from what your Mining level can cut, or soon will.
- Courier
- Haul crates of trade goods to a station a jump or two away. The goods wait in the station hangar, and you put up a credit collateral that comes back on delivery.
- Survey
- Descend through the atmosphere of a named world and land anywhere on the surface.
- Scout
- Reach a system a few jumps away. Just get there alive.
Every mission card shows the reward in credits, Merits and skill XP before you accept. Merits buy faction gear at any station's Merit Store. Use Travel on an active mission to plot the route and fly it on autopilot. Kill, survey and scout missions can be claimed anywhere once the objective is done. Ore and courier missions are claimed by docking at the right station with the goods in its hangar or your hold.
Quests#
Press U to open your quests. The window has Story, Active, Available and Completed tabs. Up to 6 quests can be active at a time. Each one shows its current step, a waypoint on your HUD and a Travel to objective button that flies you there. When a step asks you to talk to someone, a Speak button appears.
Quest steps are checked by the game as you play: reach a place, land on a world, run a Deep Scanner sweep, mine ore, destroy Crown ships anywhere in a security band, survive waves of attackers sent to a site, or hand goods over at a station. Some final conversations end in a choice, and later dialogue remembers what you picked.
These are the questlines outside the main story. Each faction has its own three-part opening; the Exodus, Hollow Crown and Driftwatch arcs open to everyone.
| Questline | Open to | Quests | Premise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oath of the Accord | Solari Accord pilots | First Watch, Signal in the Static, The Red Warden | Commander Varro puts a new pilot on the border watch, and the Crown notices. |
| Margins | Kheper Syndicate pilots | Rock and Ledger, Freight Forward, Hostile Acquisition | Broker Okafor teaches you how the Syndicate turns rock, freight and rivals into profit. |
| Iron Discipline | Vanta Dominion pilots | Live Fire, Recon by Fire, The Butcher's Bill | Captain Holloway drills a reservist into a Dominion warfighter. |
| The Hollow Throne | Every faction, after its opening story | A Quiet Word, Tally of the Dead, The Hollow King | A disgraced admiral hunts the man uniting the pirate captains. |
| Echoes of the Exodus | Every faction, after its first quest | Ghost Signal, The Relic Hunter, Meridian | A signal on the exodus fleet's emergency band, three hundred years too late. |
| Shattered Oaths | Every faction, after its first quest | Graveyard Shift, Through the Ring, Answer the Call, Crowned in Wreckage, The Bastion Breaks | The Driftwatch keeps count of the Crown captains hiding in the wreck graveyards. Warden-Captain Orrin wants them counted down. |
From the game's own data
Daily contracts and weekly operations#
Every day at 00:00 UTC you are offered 3 daily contracts, picked for you from the list below. Every Monday at 00:00 UTC you are offered 3 weekly operations. The picks differ from pilot to pilot, so compare notes with your clan. Both appear on the Available tab of your quests, with a countdown to the next reset.
| Contract | Task | Reward (plus XP) |
|---|---|---|
| Belt Patrol | Destroy six Hollow Crown ships anywhere in the cluster. | ₡30,000, 10 Merits |
| Ore Quota | Mine 150 units of any ore for the Mining Guild's daily quota. | ₡25,000, 8 Merits |
| Survey Sweep | Land on a world outside your home system and run a scanner sweep for the Survey Directorate. | ₡28,000 |
| Scrap Drive | Deliver five Salvaged Tech at any station. | ₡30,000, 8 Merits |
| Hold the Line | Break up a Crown raiding party forming near a world in your home system. | ₡35,000, 12 Merits |
| Frontier Run | Destroy three Crown ships in Contested or Lawless space. | ₡45,000 |
| Drift Sweep | Help destroy one Shatterdrift elite anywhere in the cluster. | ₡40,000, 10 Merits, 10× Rift Residue |
| Rift Run | Clear one Rift of any tier. | ₡45,000, 10 Merits, 3× Surge Cell |
From the game's own data
Weekly operations are bigger jobs built around the cluster's group content: Shatterdrift elites, Rifts, dynamic events, world bosses and Strongholds (all covered below).
| Operation | Task | Reward (plus XP) |
|---|---|---|
| Elite Hunter | Help destroy six Shatterdrift elites this week. | ₡150,000, 40 Merits, Rift Key III, 40× Rift Residue |
| Riftrunner | Clear four Rifts this week (tier II or higher). | ₡180,000, 40 Merits, Rift Key IV, 2× Overcharge Coil |
| First Responder | Earn a share in three successful dynamic events this week. | ₡150,000, 50 Merits, 3× Drift Locator, 2× Hull Brace |
| Boss Breaker | Earn a world boss reward this week. | ₡200,000, 50 Merits, 2× Stronghold Chart Fragment |
| Stormbreaker | Clear a Stronghold this week. | ₡250,000, 60 Merits, 3× Stronghold Chart Fragment, Rift Key V |
From the game's own data
The main story#
The main story is Season One: The Open Door. Three hundred years after the Crossing, the exodus fleet's emergency band wakes up. Somebody wants the door behind us open. It runs from your first day as a pilot through to an expedition at the edge of the map, and folds in two of the questlines above as its first chapters.
| Chapter | Title | Quests | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prologue | Under the Charter | Under the Charter | A new pilot answers a beacon on the first day. |
| I | Echoes of the Exodus | Ghost Signal, The Relic Hunter, Meridian | Seven-Petrel, the Meridian, and the truth about the wormhole. |
| II | The Hollow Throne | A Quiet Word, Tally of the Dead, The Hollow King | Who is uniting the pirate captains, and whose face is behind the crown. |
| III | Dead Reckoning | Dead Reckoning | The Meridian's survey frame wakes and asks to hear a ring. |
| IV | The Listener | The Listener | An Ilari Listener, an ocean world and an old law. |
| V | The Bellframe | The Bellframe | The King's Archivist strips an instrument older than humanity. |
| VI | Horizon | Horizon | Through a singularity, to hear who is knocking. |
| VII | Choir of Ash | Choir of Ash | Silence the Drowned Ark's engine before it finds the note. |
| VIII | The Open Door | The Open Door | Into the Hushfall, where signals die. |
From the game's own data
The Story tab of your quests shows the chapter list and where you are in it. The prologue opens on your first day: you fit the Deep Scanner from your starter kit and listen to the old exodus band. Later chapters lead you to Ancient Gate Ruins and Derelict Megastructures, through a Wandering Singularity, into a Stronghold and finally deep into Lawless space.
- Difficulty ramps. The prologue is a short flight in your home system. By the last chapters you want a strong ship, a full fit and friends: Chapter VII asks for a Stronghold clear with a raid group.
- Choices matter in dialogue. Some chapters end with a decision. It sets what characters say to you later.
- One payout per account. Story credits and items are paid to the first pilot on your account who finishes each quest. Your other pilots still earn the XP and Merits.
Season Two: The Hush. The story continues next season. For the setting, characters and the history behind the Crossing, read the story of XETODUS.
Hunting: bounty tasks#
Hunting is the game's bounty career, and a skill of its own. A Bounty Master at a Bounty Office names a Hollow Crown quarry and a count ("Destroy 20 Crown Shades"), and you hunt them down for head prices, a contract purse, Bounty Points and Hunting XP. Press ] to open the Hunting window from anywhere.
- Take a task
Dock at a Bounty Office (in the station services of garrisons and pirate bases) and press Get a task. The master picks the quarry and the count for you.
- Warp to target area
One button plots the route to the nearest hunting ground for your quarry and flies it on autopilot.
- Hunt
At a hunting ground a quarry pack warps in for you, and the next comes after the last falls. Engage (V) picks your task targets first. Natural spawns of the right hull count too, anywhere in the cluster.
- Collect
The last kill completes the task on the spot. You get the purse, Bounty Points and a completion XP bonus, plus a New task button.
The Bounty Masters#
Five masters hand out tasks, each from offices across one kind of space. Harder masters ask for higher levels, charge a contract fee and pay more. Pirate-base offices keep a cut of what they pay.
| Master | Needs | Offices | Points a task | Purse (base) | Fee | Office cut |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ada Quell (tier 1) | Hunting 1, pilot level 1 | Garrisons in Secure space | 2 | ₡15,000 | None | None |
| Odo Varga (tier 2) | Hunting 20, pilot level 15 | Garrisons in Contested space | 6 | ₡40,000 | ₡5,000 | None |
| Hesper Kade (tier 3) | Hunting 40, pilot level 30 | Garrisons in Secure and Contested space of the frontier | 10 | ₡100,000 | ₡20,000 | None |
| Sorrel Dask (tier 4) | Hunting 60, pilot level 45 | Pirate bases in Lawless space | 14 | ₡250,000 | ₡50,000 | 12% |
| Corvane Ash (tier 5) | Hunting 80, pilot level 60 | Pirate bases in Lawless space of the frontier | 18 | ₡450,000 | ₡100,000 | 12% |
From the game's own data
Quarry#
A master never assigns a quarry above your Hunting level. Only Hollow Crown pirates and commanders count: never an Accord Marshal flying the same hull.
All quarry, by Hunting level
| Quarry | Hunting | Hulls that count | Hunting grounds | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crown Cutthroats | 1 | Sparrow | Secure and Contested belts | Knife-work skiffs that jump miners at the belts. Scrappers and scouts in the same worn hulls count too. |
| Crown Raiders | 5 | Dartwing | Contested and Lawless belts | Fast Dartwing hulls that run down haulers between gates. |
| Crown Shades | 15 | Nightjar | Contested and Lawless belts | Nightjar hulls that strike from the dark and are gone before the Marshals come. |
| Crown Reavers | 20 | Halberd | Contested and Lawless belts | Halberd gunships that lead the Crown's raiding packs. |
| Crown Butchers | 35 | Bulwark | Contested and Lawless belts | Bulwark warships that close a combat site's last wave and break convoys. |
| Crown Menders | 45 | Lifeline | Lawless belts | Lifeline field menders that keep a Crown line alive. Kill them first. |
| Frontier Crown raiders | 50 | Any Crown ship | Lawless belts of the frontier | Any Hollow Crown ship destroyed in a Lawless system of the frontier regions: far from any Marshal, with nobody to call. |
| Crown Ravagers | 55 | Carrion | Lawless belts | Carrion raiders, armored for boarding and built from what they took. |
| Crown Warlords | 65 | Ironclad | Lawless belts | Ironclad heavy warships that command raids. Bring a hull that can take a broadside. |
| Crown commanders | 70 | Named Crown commanders | Lawless belts | Named Crown commanders: escalation and stronghold captains, and the ones a Bounty Office marks for you. |
| Crown Dreadlords | 85 | Monolith | Lawless belts | Monolith ships of the line. Group content for most pilots, a long duel for the best. |
| World bosses | 95 | Any world boss | Wherever a world boss is abroad | Gravemaw or the Hollow King. Deal at least 2% of the damage in the fight to count. |
From the game's own data
Pay, points and streaks#
Every kill you get credit for on task pays a head price, and the completed task pays the purse. Both rise with your Hunting level through the pay rate below, with a big step at 70. You get credit for a kill when you dealt a fair share of the pilots' damage (or the most); for a world boss, at least 2% of the damage counts.
| From | Rate | Head prices and purses |
|---|---|---|
| Hunting 1 | Bounty rate | ×1 |
| Hunting 30 | Licensed Hunter's rate | ×1.1 |
| Hunting 50 | Seasoned Hunter's rate | ×1.2 |
| Hunting 70 | Master Hunter's rate | ×4.3 |
| Hunting 85 | Crownbane rate | ×4.4 |
| Hunting 95 | Apex Hunter's rate | ×4.65 |
From the game's own data
Bounty Points buy the Bounty Office's unlocks and wares. Completed tasks in a row build a streak: every 10th task pays ×5, every 50th task pays ×15, every 100th task pays ×25, every 250th task pays ×35, every 1,000th task pays ×50. Skipping a task keeps your streak.
| Unlock | Cost | Needs | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Field Commission | 200 points | Hunting 1 | Take, skip and swap tasks from any master you qualify for, anywhere: docked at any station or in space. |
| Hunter's Recall | 150 points | Hunting 10 | When a task is done, the same master assigns the next one at once, wherever you are. |
| Long Contracts | 100 points | Hunting 20 | Tasks are 40% longer: more kills, more XP and the same points. Switch it off any time. |
| Elite Contracts | 250 points | Hunting 70 | Sorrel Dask and Corvane Ash may assign named Crown commanders (a 250,000 credit contract fee each). |
| Crownbreaker Contracts | 400 points | Hunting 95 | Corvane Ash may assign a world boss: Gravemaw or the Hollow King (a 1,000,000 credit contract fee). |
From the game's own data
| Ware | Cost | Needs | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bounty Scanner | 90 points + ₡200,000 | Hunting 10 | A Deep Scanner retuned to Crown transponders: each cycle also pinpoints your task's targets anywhere in the system. |
| Tracking Beacon ×5 | 40 points + ₡40,000 | Hunting 1 | Drop one at a hunting ground and the next quarry pack comes in at once. |
| Tracker's Stripe | 300 points + ₡500,000 | Hunting 30 | Livery: gunmetal with a blaze-orange tracker's stripe. |
| Crownbane | 750 points + ₡2,500,000 | Hunting 75 | Livery: bone white over black with blood-red chevrons. |
From the game's own data
Skipping a task costs 30 points and blocking a quarry for good costs 100 (you start with 1 block slot and earn more through Hunting perks). At Ada Quell's offices you can also Ask for an easier task: she swaps your current task for one of hers, but your streak starts again.
| Item | From | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Quarry Tracker Railgun | Hunting 50 | about 1 in 450 task kills |
| Harrier Burst Thruster | Hunting 50 | about 1 in 450 task kills |
| Crownbane Emitter | Hunting 85 | about 1 in 1,500 task kills |
From the game's own data
Racing#
Every trade hub is a Racing Port, and every port lays out its six circuits its own way. A race is a timed run through a circuit of checkpoint rings against a grid of six. Other pilots fill the grid first; NPC racers fill any empty slots, so you can always race. Racing is a free skill trained by finishing races.
- Join a grid
Dock at a trade hub, open Racing Ports in the station services and press Join grid on a course. The entry fee is paid up front.
- Line up
Press Undock and line up. The autopilot flies you to the start line and points you down the track.
- Race
When the lights go green, fly through every ring in order for the set number of laps. Missing a ring means turning back for it: a warp through a ring does not count.
- Collect
At the flag the HUD becomes your result card: place, time, best lap, credits, XP and any podium prize.
| Course | Tier | Laps | Rings | Par a lap | Entry | Hulls allowed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sol Circuit | Rookie (Racing 1) | 2 | 6 | 92 s | ₡4,000 | Strike Craft, Outriders, Skirmishers, Circuit Ships |
| Switchback Slalom | Rookie (Racing 1) | 2 | 8 | 106 s | ₡4,000 | Strike Craft, Outriders, Skirmishers, Circuit Ships |
| Stormglass Run | Circuit (Racing 10) | 2 | 7 | 98 s | ₡14,000 | Strike Craft, Outriders, Skirmishers, Prospectors, Gunships, Warships, Circuit Ships |
| Crown Gauntlet | Circuit (Racing 10) | 3 | 9 | 102 s | ₡14,000 | Strike Craft, Outriders, Skirmishers, Prospectors, Gunships, Warships, Circuit Ships |
| Deep Sprint | Circuit (Racing 10) | 1 | 6 | 90 s | ₡14,000 | Strike Craft, Outriders, Skirmishers, Circuit Ships |
| Exodus Championship | Championship (Racing 25) | 3 | 8 | 101 s | ₡40,000 | Any hull |
From the game's own data
What racing pays#
Racing is about the race, not a credit farm. The purse is only paid in full when the grid holds 4 or more human pilots; a solo run against NPCs pays a token amount and mostly earns XP. The top three take 45%, 25% and 15% of the purse, and the rest of the field splits the remainder. NPC racers never take a share. Each account can run 8 races a day.
| Human pilots | Share of the purse |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5% |
| 2 | 30% |
| 3 | 65% |
| 4 | 100% |
From the game's own data
| Tier | Entry | Purse (full grid) | Purse (solo) | Racing XP (base) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rookie | ₡4,000 | ₡26,000 | ₡1,300 | 380 |
| Circuit | ₡14,000 | ₡95,000 | ₡4,750 | 900 |
| Championship | ₡40,000 | ₡320,000 | ₡16,000 | 2,400 |
From the game's own data
A podium finish also rolls for a prize: Racing parts (Sprint Cell Bank, Sprint Burst Thruster) and the Grid Marker and Checkered Flare liveries. The rare Slipstream parts only come off the top step, and are likelier at the higher tiers. Racing parts trade a little hull for more speed or battery, so they are never made in a factory: each one was won on a podium.
Shatterdrifts, elites and Rifts#
Every system has one or two Shatterdrifts: wreck graveyards of torn hulls, always listed on your Tactical list. Each one is held by an elite, a named Crown captain with an escort and a signature ability. Drift levels follow security: Secure 1 to 2, Contested 2 to 4, Lawless 3 to 5.
An elite wakes when you come within 60 km of a ready drift. After it dies, the drift goes quiet for a while (25 min at level 1 to 2, 30 min at 3 to 4, 40 min at 5). Every ability is telegraphed: a named warning on your HUD and a wind-up of a few seconds you can react to.
| Elite | Hull | Level | Ability | How to beat it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scrapjaw | Halberd | 1 to 2 | Scrap Barrage | Get beyond 2.5 km before the barrage fires. |
| The Tollman | Bulwark | 2 to 3 | Toll Surge | Burst it during the channel: 8% of its hit points breaks the surge. |
| Mine Weaver | Quarrier | 2 to 4 | Proximity Mines | Move off the marked spots before the mines arm. |
| Harrow Gaff | Carrion | 3 to 4 | Grapple | Break the line: get beyond 8 km during the wind-up. |
| Broodkeeper | Herald | 3 to 5 | Brood Launch | Point defense and area weapons clear the swarm. |
| Emberwright | Ironclad | 4 to 5 | Overcharge Lance | The aim freezes a second before it fires: sidestep. |
| Nightglass Lurker | Nightjar | 4 to 5 | Blink | Watch your six: its next volley after a blink hits twice as hard. |
| Reactor Despot | Monolith | 5 | Reactor Pulse, Meltdown | Get beyond 8 km or lose most of your battery. Below a third of its hit points it melts down: fight it from beyond 4 km. |
From the game's own data
Elites drop Rift Keys, Rift Residue, consumables, Drift Locators, Crown Lures and the occasional named module into their wreck. A Drift Locator lists the Shatterdrifts within 6 jumps that have an elite on station; a Crown Lure calls a quiet drift's elite back early.
Rifts#
Every drift holds a battered Rift Accelerator ring. Carry a Rift Key in your hold, fly within 12 km of the ring and press Accelerator to open a party lobby for 1 to 3 pilots. A Rift is a private pocket of space nobody else can enter: three waves, then a Warden elite, against a 15 minute clock. Leave early and you forfeit the reward.
| Tier | Key | NPC level | Suggested hull | Possible Wardens |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Rift Key I | 2 | Gunship | Scrapjaw, The Tollman |
| Tier 2 | Rift Key II | 3 | Warship | The Tollman, Mine Weaver, Harrow Gaff |
| Tier 3 | Rift Key III | 4 | Heavy Warship | Harrow Gaff, Broodkeeper, Mine Weaver |
| Tier 4 | Rift Key IV | 5 | Ship of the Line | Emberwright, Nightglass Lurker, Broodkeeper |
| Tier 5 | Rift Key V | 6 | Ship of the Line (pair) or Behemoth | Reactor Despot, Emberwright, Nightglass Lurker |
From the game's own data
- Rewards go straight to your home station: Rift Residue, consumables, a chance at named modules, the next tier's key and Stronghold Chart Fragments.
- Completion rewards pay for your first 8 Rift clears per account each UTC day.
- Rift Key I can be manufactured. Every tier also drops from elites, and three keys assemble into one of the next tier (hangar, Assemble). Keys trade freely on the market.
World bosses#
One world boss at a time roams the cluster. When one emerges, every pilot hears the announcement and the Almanac's Operations tab shows where it is with a travel button. Bosses appear at least every few hours while pilots are out in Contested and Lawless space, and sooner when the Hollow Crown's Wrath peaks. A boss nobody kills withdraws after about 40 minutes.
| Boss | Where | Mechanics | Trophy (top contributor) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gravemaw | Lawless | Spinal Lance: 6 s aim, frozen 1.5 s before it fires. Keep moving. Reactor pulses drain batteries within 10 km. Escort waves at 75/50/25%; Crown Menders repair it. Enrages at 20%. | Gravemaw's Fang |
| The Hollow King | Lawless | Fighter swarms and reactor pulses. Escort waves at 75/50/25%; Crown Menders repair it. Enrages at 20%. | Hollow King's Signet |
| The Ossuary Matriarch | Contested or Lawless | Brood Shield at 70% and 35%: invulnerable while its three Broodships live. Strike-craft swarms every 40 s. Enrages at 15%. | Matriarch's Broodstone |
| The Unbroken Wall | Lawless | Pylon Gates at 80/55/30%: four Shield Pylons make it impervious until destroyed. Barrage: three marked 2 km circles, 5 s, then 9,000 damage each. Enrages at 15%. | Shard of the Wall |
| The Stormwright | Lawless | Storm Cells: drifting 3 km hazard zones (damage, -50% battery charge). Chain Arc hits its target and everyone within 3 km of it: spread out. Below 50%: Storm Rider waves and reactor pulses. Enrages at 15%. | Stormwright's Coil |
| The Pale Regent | Lawless | Regent's Lance: aimed at the pilot hurting it most. Sidestep. At 60%: Court of Knives, two elites; the Regent is immune until both die. At 25%: Wrath, mines and reactor pulses, and it enrages. | The Regent's Veil |
From the game's own data
Bosses scale with the number of pilots in dangerous space, so each one is a fight of several minutes for a group, and no single ship can win it. Shield gates (pylons, broodships, a court of elites) make a boss immune until you destroy what powers them; damage into a gate counts for nothing.
Contribution and rewards#
Rewards go by contribution: your damage to the boss while it can be hurt, damage to its adds, pylons and broodships, and repairs on other pilots in the fight. A live panel shows your share and rank. Any pilot with a real share is rewarded, and each account gets one reward per boss, delivered to your home station.
Every eligible pilot gets a rare item, with better odds at Epic and Legendary gear for a bigger share. There are also chances at Stronghold Chart Fragments, Rift Key IV and the bound Skill Tome, and the top contributor takes the boss's trophy.
Strongholds (raids)#
A Stronghold is a raid: a fortress folded into a private pocket, entered from a Rift Accelerator in Contested or Lawless space. The leader carries a chart, which the entry consumes. Charts are assembled from Stronghold Chart Fragments (hangar, Assemble), which drop from elites, Rifts and world bosses.
| Stronghold | Where | Opens with | Pilots | Time | Phases |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crown Bastion | Contested or Lawless | Bastion Siege Chart | 5 to 20 | 45 min | Outer Batteries, then The Yard, then Regent Ashkar |
| The Drowned Ark | Lawless | Ark Warden Folio | 5 to 20 | 45 min | Keeper Ring, then Cold Halls, then The Choir Engine |
From the game's own data
- Boss and objective hit points scale with the group size at the start, and so do the waves of adds.
- Weekly lockout: each Stronghold's completion reward pays once per pilot and per account each week (resetting Monday 00:00 UTC). A locked pilot can still come along and help.
- Rewards are personal and go to your home station: Exodus-Pattern and Crown-Forged modules, Rift Residue, an Exodus Core Fragment, a chance at a Legendary and the Stronghold's trophy for the top contributor.
- Clan members can join a lobby without an invitation; anyone else needs an invite from the leader.
Dynamic events#
Dynamic events start on their own near where pilots are flying, more of them when more pilots are online. Each one is announced to pilots nearby with a travel button, and an Event card on your HUD shows the objective, the clock and your share.
| Event | Where | Time | Goal | Pay pool |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convoy Ambush | Secure or Contested | 15 min | Syndicate haulers crossing the system are ambushed. Get at least one to its gate. | Secure ₡300,000, Contested ₡900,000 |
| Distress Call | Anywhere | 6 min | A disabled ship is under siege. Keep it alive for six minutes and break the attackers. | Secure ₡200,000, Contested ₡600,000, Lawless ₡1,500,000 |
| Crown Strike | Secure | 25 min | A Crown strike force has jumped into Secure space and pinned the Marshals down. Drive it out. | Secure ₡600,000 |
| Salvage Rush | Anywhere | 15 min | A Shatterdrift has surfaced a haul of sealed salvage. First come, first served. | The loot is the reward |
From the game's own data
A successful event splits its pool by contribution among the pilots who earned a share. One pilot can take at most ₡150,000 from a Secure event, ₡600,000 from a Contested one and ₡2,000,000 from a Lawless one, and each account is paid for up to 6 events per UTC day. A Salvage Rush has no pool: the Surfaced Salvage Holds are the prize, first come, first served.
Seasonal festivals#
Three festivals run every year, starting and ending by the UTC calendar: Hollow Night in late October, Solstice Lights over the turn of the year, and Bloomtide in spring around the spring full-moon Sunday. The calendar runs from 2026 to 2031: 15 festivals in all.
| Festival | What happens | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Hollow Night | For two weeks the lanes go dark and old spacer superstition wakes: strange ember lights appear in the belts, by the gates and far out along the warp lanes, and Crown lamplighters prowl for anyone carrying a flame. | Ember Lantern Trove (floating), Wisp-light (drifting), Crown Lamplighter (Crown raider) |
| Solstice Lights | The longest night of the cluster's calendar. Stations string their docks with warm light, lost gift beacons glint in the belts and the lanes, and Crown gift-raiders try to steal the festival for themselves. | Solstice Gift Beacon (floating), Frost-glass Glint (drifting), Crown Gift-raider (Crown raider) |
| Bloomtide | Spring in the colonies: painted shells and blossom-pods ride the solar wind through belts, gate lanes and deep space, and Crown thornships try to scatter them first. | Bloomtide Shell Pod (floating), Blossom-pod (drifting), Crown Thornship (Crown raider) |
From the game's own data
Keepsakes#
Each festival has exactly one keepsake, designed afresh and stamped with its year. Once that festival ends, it never drops again, so every year's keepsake only gets scarcer. The first is the Hollow Lantern of Hollow Night 2026: A carved pumpkin lantern with a curling vine, its jagged grin lit by a caged plasma flame. Later keepsakes stay veiled until their festival is next.
- Where they appear: at random all over the galaxy, in every security tier: in belts, off gates and out in deep space along the warp lanes. Some drift slowly down a warp lane, and a few are carried by a Crown raider you have to shoot down.
- Watch the announcements. A sighting names the system. In that system the keepsake is on your Tactical list: warp to it and Loot it within 2.5 km. The first pilot there takes it, and unclaimed ones fade after about half an hour.
- Caps: each pilot can collect 2 a UTC day and 12 per festival; each account, 3 a day and 18 per festival.
- Trade them. Keepsakes are ordinary items: sell them on the market or swap them in contracts. NPCs never stock or buy them.
Ship ornaments#
Every keepsake is also a ship ornament for one of five slots. Keep it in your ship's cargo hold and press Display on the Almanac's Seasons page. The ornament shows only while the keepsake is aboard, so selling, trading or losing it takes it down.
| Slot | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Mast projection | A holographic ornament projected above the mast. |
| Hull string | A string of lights run along the hull's spine and flanks. |
| Running lights | A festive color pattern on the navigation lights and strobes. |
| Drive wake | A tint and drifting sparks in the ion trail behind the drive. |
| Salute launcher | A cosmetic firework-flare launcher: fire a salute from the Seasons panel (harmless, everyone near sees it). |
From the game's own data
Other pilots see your ornaments according to their Other pilots' regalia graphics option. Your own ship always shows them.
| Festival | Year | Starts | Last day | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hollow Night | 2026 | Oct 20, 2026 | Nov 2, 2026 | 14 days |
| Solstice Lights | 2026 | Dec 15, 2026 | Jan 1, 2027 | 18 days |
| Bloomtide | 2027 | Mar 21, 2027 | Apr 4, 2027 | 15 days |
| Hollow Night | 2027 | Oct 20, 2027 | Nov 2, 2027 | 14 days |
| Solstice Lights | 2027 | Dec 15, 2027 | Jan 1, 2028 | 18 days |
| Bloomtide | 2028 | Apr 9, 2028 | Apr 23, 2028 | 15 days |
| Hollow Night | 2028 | Oct 20, 2028 | Nov 2, 2028 | 14 days |
| Solstice Lights | 2028 | Dec 15, 2028 | Jan 1, 2029 | 18 days |
| Bloomtide | 2029 | Mar 25, 2029 | Apr 8, 2029 | 15 days |
| Hollow Night | 2029 | Oct 20, 2029 | Nov 2, 2029 | 14 days |
| Solstice Lights | 2029 | Dec 15, 2029 | Jan 1, 2030 | 18 days |
| Bloomtide | 2030 | Apr 14, 2030 | Apr 28, 2030 | 15 days |
| Hollow Night | 2030 | Oct 20, 2030 | Nov 2, 2030 | 14 days |
| Solstice Lights | 2030 | Dec 15, 2030 | Jan 1, 2031 | 18 days |
| Bloomtide | 2031 | Apr 6, 2031 | Apr 20, 2031 | 15 days |
From the game's own data
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