What's the estimated completion time for the Beachhead Redux expedition?

[Fdruid]

I went all in on the last expedition which wasn't so long ago and I'm a bit burned down. It got complicated for me in the end. I don't want a grindfest.

So just how hard or long is this one? Two weeks puts a lot of pressure TBH.

[Spocks Toupee]

Not sure, but I'm around halfway through right now, and I started around 5 hours ago

Some 'goals' are stupidly easy, like travel on foot a 1,000, or 10,000 U.

I got that one by surprise while I was working on another goal.

[smurfy]

I'm about 5 hours in with a lot of mucking about and forum posting and have just reached Phase 5.
The time-consuming milestones so far are:
Doing 3 Frigate missions for Phase 3. Hint 1: start one asap and hope for RNG to give you three <1 hour that your fleet can handle. Hint 2: If you are only getting 1 hour play sessions at a time, start them at the end of your session and they'll be done when you start your next session. Hint 3: I also brought in the Leviathan and Ship of the Damned from the QS vendor to help out rather than recruiting extras.
Finding 8 undiscovered systems for Phase 4.

All told, it should be easily doable in less than 6 hours total.

Edit:
There is a Community Milestone in Phase 5 (just like there was in the original versions of this Expedition) that could take several days to be completed. This time is not included in my estimates.

[smurfy]

Total duration 5:56
Since we don't have to wait for Collective Consciousness

[Jaggid Edje]

It's pretty dang fast. No obscure milestones and no time-consuming milestones. I would bet that the speed-runners manage to do it in less than an hour or so.

Edit: the biggest slowdown in the expedition will be the milestone that requires you to complete 3 frigate expeditions, given that those take x amount of time to actually complete.
They do not require you to actually be playing the game though, so really it will only be an issue for someone who waits until the very last minute to even start the expedition.

[Kelzid]

The cursed expedition burned me out a bit trying to do it on both ps5 and pc(which I have now abandoned since I can play it offline later or its reduxed in a month) and limited gaming time. I plan on using every possible shortcut to get this one done and probably won't enjoy it as much as I could. I dumped a ton of mats in the terminal before starting. I used to enjoy exploring and base building during expeditions, but will leave that to non expedition time later.

[Johnny in the Clouds]

Originally posted by Kelzid:

...I used to enjoy exploring and base building during expeditions, but will leave that to non expedition time later.

If you join the expedition from an established save then whatever you build during the expedition will be appended to that save, when you finally complete and exit the expedition instance. So if you find a nice looking planet while doing the expedition you may want to return to continue a base build there later. So it might be useful to think of it as your main save and enjoy it without breaking a leg speed running it : )

The redux Beachhead expedition can though be done quite fast which is a fun challenge too. But it seems far simpler along the route compared to the last few expeditions which is a nice contrast. The milestones 'topple like dominoes' as some complete others while you do them. I'm sure once the speed runners work out which order to do them in it can be completed probably under an hour maybe. Possibly. Quicker than that too, maybe using previous claimed rewards to make progression easier. Lol I haven't finished it yet and I won't be under and hour... ! But I think @Jaggid is right,

[Kelzid]

Originally posted by Johnny in the Clouds:

Originally posted by Kelzid:

...I used to enjoy exploring and base building during expeditions, but will leave that to non expedition time later.

If you join the expedition from an established save then whatever you build during the expedition will be appended to that save, when you finally complete and exit the expedition instance. If you find a nice looking planet while doing the expedition you may want to return to continue a base build there later. So it might be useful to think of it as your main save and enjoy it without breaking a leg speed running it : )

In my head I know I have plenty of time, just feeling burnt out as I was only on the 3rd phase on cursed on PC as time ran out and I went offline and extended the deadline but losing time on this redux in online mode. I just started the beachhead on ps5 and will now only do them once since I know I will be able to port my save to pc later either after beta cross save is over or if i get added to the beta. I have over 400 hours on both platforms, but I mostly played 2016/17 on ps5, then came back in 2022 after missing a bunch of expeditions, and then started over on pc last year fresh.

[Spocks Toupee]

Originally posted by Ilearnyourwayz:

lmao rofl. i am pointing and laughing at you. ohh the pressure omg i just cant keep my panties from crawling up my crotch. NMS a grindfest ima about to die. someone help me ima gonna have a stroke. NMS hard and a grindfest. I cant stop laughing im choking here.
taheehee

WHAT?
How is this even relevant?

[Guyver8]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

It's pretty dang fast. No obscure milestones and no time-consuming milestones. I would bet that the speed-runners manage to do it in less than an hour or so.

Edit: the biggest slowdown in the expedition will be the milestone that requires you to complete 3 frigate expeditions, given that those take x amount of time to actually complete.
They do not require you to actually be playing the game though, so really it will only be an issue for someone who waits until the very last minute to even start the expedition.

my memory isn't wot it was... but isn't this milestone the one where you could send a frigate out, immediately recall the frigate and this still registered as counting for the milestone

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Guyver8:

my memory isn't wot it was... but isn't this milestone the one where you could send a frigate out, immediately recall the frigate and this still registered as counting for the milestone

Most players wouldn't even think of doing that I don't think. I haven't tried it in the current expedition so I can neither confirm nor deny if it still works (probably does though, HG rarely bothers closing loopholes like that).

[smurfy]

Originally posted by Spocks Toupee:

Originally posted by Ilearnyourwayz:

lmao rofl. i am pointing and laughing at you. ohh the pressure omg i just cant keep my panties from crawling up my crotch. NMS a grindfest ima about to die. someone help me ima gonna have a stroke. NMS hard and a grindfest. I cant stop laughing im choking here.
taheehee

WHAT?
How is this even relevant?

Originally posted by Fdruid:

{snip}I don't want a grindfest. {snip}

Anyway...

Originally posted by Guyver8:

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

It's pretty dang fast. No obscure milestones and no time-consuming milestones. I would bet that the speed-runners manage to do it in less than an hour or so.

Edit: the biggest slowdown in the expedition will be the milestone that requires you to complete 3 frigate expeditions, given that those take x amount of time to actually complete.
They do not require you to actually be playing the game though, so really it will only be an issue for someone who waits until the very last minute to even start the expedition.

my memory isn't wot it was... but isn't this milestone the one where you could send a frigate out, immediately recall the frigate and this still registered as counting for the milestone

I'm about to start run #2, I'll test whether that works. I let them run on run #1 and they were all under an hour each (didn't do any simultaneously, only 1 terminal installed).

[Guyver8]

@Jaggid Edje: Lol, not so much a loophole... it doesn't say that you need to complete any of the expedtions just send them out... just HG being sneaky

@smurfy: it worked on the original and the redux... no reason to expect HG will change it now

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Guyver8:

@Jaggid Edje: Lol, not so much a loophole... it doesn't say that you need to complete any of the expedtions just send them out... just HG being sneaky

@smurfy: it worked on the original and the redux... no reason to expect HG will change it now

I just confirmed, it still works. I hadn't started that milestone yet when you first asked, but wasn't on my freighter to check. Just finished the milestone now using that method.

[Jaggid Edje]

I just finished the expedition and can now say with certainty that it is very fast.

All told, I spent just a bit over 5 hours on it, and that includes time spent doing things I didn't need to do. I scanned 100% of fauna on about a half dozen planets and took the time to fill my frigate fleet until I was out of units (to convert units into nanites basically) and scavenged more of some resources than I ended up ever needing.

[smurfy]

Originally posted by Guyver8:

@Jaggid Edje: Lol, not so much a loophole... it doesn't say that you need to complete any of the expedtions just send them out... just HG being sneaky

@smurfy: it worked on the original and the redux... no reason to expect HG will change it now

I never did the original nor the 1st redux, I had actually just started the Offline redux for it a couple of hours before this 2nd Redux started and had to abort it.

It does actually specifically say "complete" the Frigate Expeditions... but the exploit sure works. I feel dirty now ;)