Welcome to my third theorycrafting post about the new Exode Planetary Challenges!
My previous two articles in this series are:
This one will be short and sweet, as I am trying to post it before the results go out. I'm cutting it close as the only reason Elindos hasn't already posted them is that too many people froze to death!
Mystery
- Relevant Skills: Nomad, Group-Minded, Religious
- Time Limit: 2 Rounds
Requirements
- Limited Skill: We can accept only up to 5 cards with Piloting.
- Required Card: WHC Unit
There really is no reason with the current collection of cards to have 5 Pilots in this challenge. The WHC Unit is from the Tom Settlers Contract and very easy to find on the market and currently selling for 75 cents.
Risks
Environmental Risk - Freezing (All)
By now you should be very familiar with the answer to this risk, any QL3 item on a team guarantees that team's survival.
Social Risk (Colony)
Relevant Skills: Conversation, Empathy
Target Number: 2+ each round
Security Risk (Away Team)
- Relevant Skills: Tactical Shooting, Tactical Cover
- Target Number: 3+ each round
Advantages
- +2 Quality on Longsword Squadron: Not Relevant to this challenge.
- +6 Quality on cards presenting both Stealth and Discipline and Loyalty: Not Relevant to this challenge.
- +6 Quality on cards presenting both and Free from Drugs and Piloting: Not Relevant to this challenge.
- +2 Quality on cards presenting both Federal Values and Tactical Cover and Military: Several cards benefit from this.
Ambition
If you weren't already planning on including Alanna Vos because of her Advantage, what would you say if we added an extra 40 point bonus? I think that's 40 points per QL, but I'm not sure.
In other words, if she's not already in use elsewhere, USE HER!
Promising Cards
The Deck Expert Tool was very helpful, as usual, for this challenge. The one thing of note was Group-Minded is actually stored as "SocialExposure" in the database so it was a bit hard to find. That being said, there is only one character with this trait, the elusive twelve mint Cocktail Specialist. With that in mind, my approach to this challenge was to focus on survival and hope to get lucky on my mystery rolls.
Mandatory Cards
- Taurus Transport: Unless you ignore the Mystery, or have one of the ten Nomad Navigators, this is the only card for Nomad. It must be played in Colony Team Slot 4.
- WHC Unit: This Tom Settlers Contact card is directly required. This can only be played on the Colony Team (Slot 3).
- Cocktail Specialist: Again, unless you ignore the Mystery there are no other cards which are Group-Minded at this time. This should be played on the Colony Team.
Freezing
I considered just copy/pasting this portion and seeing if anyone noticed, but the armor which helps is slightly different.
- Arena Powersuit: Keeps your alive and provides QL10 towards your security risk.
- Spartan Elite Suit: Keeps your alive and provides QL7 towards your security risk.
- Any other suit with QL3 Atmospheric Shielding.
Social
- Cocktail Specialist: Mandatory. Group-Minded Mystery QL7, Social Risk QL7
- Galvin: Social Risk QL18
- Flesh Cult Recruiter: Religious Mystery QL4, Social Risk QL8
- Syndicate Geisha: Social Risk QL12
Security
- Alanna Vos: Security Risk QL24 due to Advantage Bonus
- Rebel General: Security Risk QL18 without any bonuses
- Space Federal Marshal: Security Risk QL16 due to Advantage Bonus
- Scarlet Sarah: Security Risk QL16 without any bonuses
- Nash, the Expert: Security Risk QL14
- Oskana: Security Risk QL14
- Cult Security Officer: Security Risk QL4, Religious Mystery QL4
Recommended Solution
This was one of the harder challenges to give a best / recommended solution. As mentioned there are a couple extremely limited quality cards which are perfect for it - the 12 Cocktail Specialists and 10 Nomad Navigators. To have a chance at solving the mystery I had to include the Cocktail Specialist, but I used the Taurus Transport instead of the better suited Nomad Navigator to make it slightly more accessible. This means your Colony Team is NOT protected from freezing, so higher QL cards are advised. Aside from that though, there are a LOT of options to allow you to tweak your risk dice pools and you have a huge amount of freedom for your Away Team.
Colony Team
- Cocktail Specialist: Group-Minded Mystery QL7, Social Risk QL7
- Galvin: Social Risk QL18
- WHC Unit: Mandatory
- Taurus Transport: Nomad Mystery QL6
Away Team
- Alanna Vos: Security Risk QL24
- Cult Security Officer: Religious Mystery QL4, Security Risk QL4
- Arena Power Suit: Freezing +2, Security Risk QL10
- Flesh Cult Leader: Religious Mystery QL6
This gives you the following pools:
- Mystery - Nomad: QL6 / 2 dice
- Mystery - Group-Minded: QL7 / 2 dice
- Mystery - Religious: QL10 / 3 dice
- Risk - Colony Freezing: No bonus
- Risk - Away Team Freezing: +2 to all rolls (auto pass)
- Risk - Social: QL25 / 8 dice with a target number of 2+
- Risk - Security: QL38 / 12 dice with a target number of 3+
While I certainly could work to further maximize my survival pool, I feel this is the best approach given the target numbers and challenges to aim for the top of the leaderboard. It's a bit of a Hail Mary as you will have a tougher time with the Mystery, but barring terrible luck you should be fairly high up the leaderboard. Even without hitting the Mystery, Alanna's bonus points will help.
That being said, if you don't have the cards for the Mystery and want to give up on it, you could maximize your Security Risk pool at QL68 by using Alanna Vos (QL24), Rebel General (QL18), Scarlet Sarah (QL16) and Arena Power Suit (QL10). While some might call this excessive, I prefer the term EPIC!
You could also easily increase your Social Risk survivability by replacing the Taurus with any QL3 armor and replacing the Cocktail Specialist with the Syndicate Geisha. This would give you QL30 instead of QL25 and remove the risk of Freezing.
My Personal Entry
While I didn't want to abandon the Mystery, I largely submitted an underpowered team. As long as I don't Freeze, it's good enough for colony work, and has a chance at solving the Mystery. Still, I don't have high hopes for it.
Colony Team
- Cocktail Specialist: Group-Minded Mystery QL7, Social Risk QL7
- Elize: Social Risk QL7, 40 Bonus points for Ambition
- WHC Unit: Mandatory
- Taurus Transport: Nomad Mystery QL6
Away Team
- Cult Security Officer: Security Risk QL4, Religious Mystery QL4
- Space Federal Marshal: Security Risk QL16 due to his Mission Advantage
- Arena Power Suit: Freezing +2, Security Risk QL10
- Camouflaged Sniper: Security Risk QL12
This gives you the following pools:
- Mystery - Nomad: QL6 / 2 dice
- Mystery - Group-Minded: QL7 / 2 dice
- Mystery - Religious: QL4 / 1 die
- Risk - Colony Freezing: No bonus
- Risk - Away Team Freezing: +2 to all rolls (auto pass)
- Risk - Social: QL14 / 4 dice
- Risk - Security: QL42 / 14 dice
Is this a good lineup? Certainly not.
With a tiny dice pool, and only two attempts, its highly unlikely I'll solve the Mystery. It's also possible my Colony Team will Freeze and completely die out. I can see it now, my Away Team heads out to the planet and slaughters all the way. They thrive and return to the Colony to find an abandoned ship with the word "CROATOAN" carved into the frozen metal exterior.
Share your thoughts! Share your teams!
I look forward to seeing the results.
Thanks for reading!