Expedition 2: Beachhead - Memorial Day Speedrun guide

I'm sure a lot of you only jumped on the Expeditions bandwagon when you heard that everyone's favorite Mass Effect ship, the Normandy, would be starring as the grand prize for completing it, and now you're wondering if its even possible to complete the expedition in 3 days. Good news - it is, and these last 3 days are a 3 day weekend (at least if you're an American) so here's my guide to completing the Beachhead expedition and getting that nice sleek N7 frigate in the fastest possible time (took me about 9 hours but that was with stopping to explore derelict freighters and such) so you can finish before the expedition ends.

Before you begin

If you haven't played Expeditions before, here's a brief run-down of how the mode works. You'll need to start with starting a new game on an empty save. When it asks you which mode (survival, creative, permadeath, etc) you'll want to select "Expeditions" on the very far right-hand side.

Once the game begins you'll spawn on the Expedition's starting planet and immediately begin from there. You'll spawn with some helpful tech already pre-installed on your Exosuit and Multitool, as well as items already in inventory, and you'll be ready to immediately begin Phase 1.

The expedition proceeds in five phases, each phase requires you to reach a rendevous point along a preset route. In addition to reaching the RVP you'll need to achieve specific milestones/objectives along the way. You can select a milestone by going to the Expeditions tab, selecting the Phase on the left, then the image for the milestone on the right. Each milestone you complete will earn you rewards which you can claim by selecting the completed milestone in the Expeditions tab. Once a phase is complete you can also receive the reward for that phase in the same way.

Couple things to note:

1. For the most part you do NOT have to complete milestones/objectives in order. For example, one of the Phase 4 objectives is to learn 10 Gek words. However, I learned these words in Phase 2 and was able to access the reward right away. AFAIK the only objectives that have to be completed in order are the rendevous points, and the encrypted objectives for Phase 5 at the end.

2. Everyone doing the expedition has the same route. Many players have established bases and placed items such as save beacons and message modules at important locations such as RVP's to help you along - don't be afraid to take advantage of these!

3: The rendevous points are all portal monoliths, all within 1.5 kus of the RVP marker. The game has a visor locator mode that works similar to finding hotspots and pushes you to land at the RVP marker and make your way on foot/roamer to the portal, but it might be easier to just find the portal from the sky.

3: You start with a starship and freighter, and receive quite a lot in the way of S-class modules, storage augs/cargo bulkheads, and exosuit/multitool expansions along the way. As a result I would hold off on grinding for higher-class ships/freighters/multitools until AFTER the expedtion is concluded, and concentrate all upgrades on your starter ship and freighter which will become veritable beasts with all the upgrades you'll be getting as expedition rewards!

4: Once the expedition ends the save slot you are in will become a standard save slot. If you are successful in completing the expedition any and all unlocks will become available in all game modes and can be purchased from the space anomaly using quicksilver.

Without further ado lets get that Normandy!

Phase One

Objectives for Phase one are:

1. Deploy a Roamer Exocraft
2. Reach your starship
3. Leave the planet
4. Reach your freighter
5. Warp to a new system
6. Reach RVP #1

Fairly simple, since you already start with Paraffinium and Ion batteries for building a Roamer geobay (just don't forget to take it with you). Snag some di-hydrogen for DH Jelly and condensed carbon for hernetic seals along the way as you will need both to repair your ship. Once in the air and off the planet, follow the mission indicator to locate your freighter. Yes, you already have a freighter and no you do not get a free one in this mode (well technically you do, but it's this one and not the first freighter you save from pirates in a normal game).

Use the freighter hyperdrive to warp to the system containing the first RVP then land on the indicated planet. The indicator is "near" the actual RVP and you'll have to locate it using your visor's locator interface, kind of like with hotspots. Or you could just look for a portal monolith within 1000u of the RVP marker because that is what it will be.

At some point one of the rewards for completing the objectives will give you 10x Navigation Data. SAVE IT, and gather as many more of them as you can - you will need it for Phase 2. You can find additional date by using the devices on the tables at stations (blue cubes/orange tetrahedrons that say " encrypted navigation data" when you look at them) or at save points the first time you interact with them ( the spinny cell-tower looking things at planetary sites)

Phase Two

The objectives for Phase 2 are as follows:

1. Reach the second RVP
2: Restore a crashed ship
3: Aid a stranded life form
4: Explore a freighter crash site
5: Fly for 500,000us

Remember the Navigation Data I told you to hoard in Phase 1? As soon as you complete it, swap the entire stack for emergency signal maps at the Cartographer. Then start spamming them until they say
"Nothing found" then explore the locations revealed.

Make sure you carry what you need to fix the Launch Thruster and Pulse engine of a downed ship: carbon for nanotubes and seals and di-hydrogen jelly, or a few repair kits (a lot of exposed derelict freighters along the expedition route!). The rest is really just luck, and it can get frustrating. It took me about 20 maps and 4 crashed ships with no life-signs before I was able to find one with a lifeform I could help.

Simply repairing the Launch Thruster and Pulse engine will suffice for obejctive #2, and you only need to access the beacon near the landing zone for objective #4. Finally objective #5 will take care of itself once you've flown the necessary distance.

Phase Three

Objectives for Phase 3 are:

1. Reach the 3rd RVP
2. Land on a scorched world
3. Land on a frozen world
4. Land on a toxic world
5. Land on a radioactive world
6. Scan one creature from a desert world
7. Scan one creature from a temperate world

That's it, these are the objectives! If you haven't already completed these by the time you get to Phase three it should take no time at all to visit the biomes you haven't already.

Phase Four

Objectives for Phase 4 are:

Reach RVP #4
Learn 10 Gek words
Learn 10 Korvax words
Learn 10 Vykeen worlds
Visit an Atlas interface
Discover 10 systems

The easiest way to learn words is to talk with aliens aboard the space station in each system. Talk to everyone and learn their word starting with the first jump out from the expedition start, and you should have the first three objectives completed welll before starting phase four,

As for the Atlas interface, simply summon the Space Anomaly then ask Polo and he will point you towards the nearest one.

The hardest part is the discovery mission. In order for a system to count towards this objective you must be its "first contact", and it is very difficult to find a previously undiscovered system when everyone in the galaxy and their dog is trying to do the same thing along the same route. My advice? Memorize the name of a station along the route, then jump in the other direction and keep jumping, as far and as fast as possible, until you come across a first contact system. Repeat until you have found 10, then stop by a station and use the teleporter to return to the expedition area.

Remember, all of the RVP's are portal monoliths within 1.5kus of the RVP marker and many have clusters of player-built structures around, so use these to find the RVP faster without having to deal with the locator mode.

Phase Five

Unlike the previous four, Phase 5's objectives are encrypted and must be completed in order. So here we go:

1. Reach the final RVP
2. Locate 3 alien sites and take readings using the Historical Dosimeter
3. Obtain a Myth Beacon
4. Deploy the Myth Beacon in the targeted system
5. Obtain the "sword of myth"

Once you reach the RVP, you will receive the Historical Dosimeter as a reward. Keep it in your inventory for the 2nd objective. Go and locate 3 alien sites (monoliths, plaques, etc) and interact with each, and then choose the option "take readings with Historical Dosimeter.

Completing this will unlock the Myth Beacon, which can be purchased in the Space Anomaly from the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion. It costs 80 Quicksilver - if you don't have enough you can play a quick Nexus mission to earn some.

Once you have the Myth beacon, follow the mission path in the Galaxy Map until you reach the marked system. Land on the indicated planet and use the locator mode on your visor or just look for the cluster of message modules surrounding a large vertical circle structure. Once you've reached this point, you can "deploy" the Myth beacon from your inventory. Do so and a very familiar ship with warp in and begin moving slowly across the planets sky. Hop in your starship and approach the SSV Normandy SR1 and then use the communications interface. Accept it as one of your frigates (its free)

Congratulations! You've completed the expedition and the Normandy SR1 is now yours to command in both this game and future ones!

[Oaklock]

Is there a way to still get the Normandy even if its past the May 31 date?

[Pwnzerfaust]

Super helpful, thanks for the great write-up!

One addition for everyone struggling to win the "First Contact" lottery ("Discover 10 systems" in Phase 4): Go offline prior to jumping to a new system.
and I mean completely offline - After loading your game, pull the ethernet cable, disconnect WiFi, disable your network adapter...whatever completely disconnects your PC from the NMS server.

Afterwards all systems you jump to will count as a first contact.
Makes it easier to complete without RNG, especially given the event ends tomorrow...