World Explorer: chapters

The story chapter by chapter. Acts I and II are the 16 chapters the game has today: their stages and rewards are the game's own, and the story text around them (the thread of the Charter) is new. The career lines at the end are new. The frame is in README.md.

Each chapter ends where the next one starts, or on the way to it: a delivery to another world stays only where the story moves you that way, and raiders intercept it in each world it crosses. No chapter sends you back where you came from.

Act I. The Broken Frontier

You learn a trade in each world and open the route from Haven to Eclipse, where the Charter was lost.

1. A pilot earns their wings · Haven · ◆ 306

Scan → mine: Calibrate the mining scanner → Extract trial ore

Haven Anchorage hands out licences only to pilots who can bring ore it can trust. The dock master tells you about the old guild that once flew these lanes, and about the gate to Verdant that nobody uses any more.

2. Thorns in the canopy · Verdant · ◆ 522

Scan → hunt → recover → courier: Locate the swarm nest → Break the swarm patrol → Retrieve the nest telemetry → Run the telemetry home to Haven (intercepted in Haven, on the way to chapter 3)

The Thorn Swarm has grown around the Canopy Exchange. Its nest telemetry shows a signal that repeats on an old guild frequency: someone is still broadcasting from far beyond Verdant.

3. The refinery run · Dustfall · ◆ 540

Courier → defend → elite: Run the navigation core to Dustfall (intercepted) → Hold the refinery relay → Drive off the Marauder captain

The guild's navigation cores still steer every gate. Dustfall Refinery agrees to read the one you carry, if you get it past the Dune Marauders and keep them off its relay while it does.

4. Cartographers of the storm · Ion Reach · ◆ 774

Scan → defend → scan → recover: Align beacon alpha → Hold beacon beta through the storm → Align beacon gamma → Extract the storm log

The storm log of the Arc Spire holds the last guild chart: the route to Eclipse runs through Obsidian, and the Iron Dominion holds it shut.

5. Break the iron blockade · Obsidian · ◆ 1170

Scan → hunt → elite: Identify the blockade command ship → Thin the blockade → Disable the Iron commander

The blockade breaks. Bastion Dock opens its gates for the first time in a generation, and the route to the outer worlds is free.

6. Under frozen skies · Cryosphere · ◆ 1170

Mine → defend → escort → courier: Gather frozen relic ore → Protect the extraction relay → Escort the sample freighter → Run the manifest to Bastion Dock (intercepted in Obsidian, on the way to chapter 7)

Relic ore from the ice still carries guild markings. The manifest names the last ship that carried the Charter: a guild cruiser bound for the Last Light Citadel.

7. Heart of the forge · Nova Forge · ◆ 1800

Scan → hunt → boss → recover: Locate the flagship reactor → Destroy reactor pickets → Destroy the Ember flagship → Recover the reactor core

Only a guild reactor core can light the Eclipse gate. The Ember Legion built its flagship around one.

8. A light beyond Eclipse · Eclipse · ◆ 2880

Scan → defend → boss → recover → courier: Reveal the Void signature → Keep the last-light relay active → Destroy the Void Dreadnought → Recover the frontier archive → Bring the archive home to Haven (intercepted in each of the five worlds on the way)

The frontier archive is the Charter. It is torn, but every world's seal is still on it. End of act I: the Charter is home in Haven, and it is worth nothing until the worlds sign it again.

Act II. The Charter

Each world asks for something before it signs. A world signs only when it trusts you (see Reputation in README.md), so act II is also a journey of reputation.

9. Routes worth defending · Haven · ◆ 1200

Scan → escort → elite → courier: Trace the stolen convoy → Protect the relief convoy (Dustfall) → Break the pursuit → Report the safe route to Haven (intercepted)

Haven signs first, if its relief convoy gets through. The first signature.

10. The living archive · Verdant · ◆ 1450

Recover → defend → courier: Retrieve the seed archive → Keep the archive relay online → Carry the seeds to the Haven vault (intercepted; Haven is on the way to chapter 11)

Verdant asks you to save its seed archive, the memory of a living world, and to keep it in the cold vault in Haven, beside the Charter.

11. A profitable detour · Dustfall · ◆ 1700

Mine → trade → escort: Mine titanium sand → Sell the titanium to the Iron foundry (Obsidian, intercepted) → Protect the outbound carrier

Dustfall signs when trade with Obsidian runs again. Old rivals have to sell to each other.

12. Stormbreaker network · Ion Reach · ◆ 1850

Scan → elite → defend: Align the storm relay → Eliminate the Volt marshal → Hold the relay while the key resets

The Volt Collective jams every signal of the Arc Spire. The network key brings the guild frequency back.

13. The shattered armistice · Obsidian · ◆ 2150

Hunt → elite → recover → courier: Break the occupation fleet → Defeat the Dominion admiral → Recover the treaty → Carry the treaty to Glacier Relay (intercepted in Cryosphere, where chapter 14 starts)

Obsidian's old armistice with its neighbours is the model for the Charter's peace clause; Cryosphere signed it too, and gets its copy back.

14. Pilgrims of the ice · Cryosphere · ◆ 2350

Scan → escort → defend: Find the lost pilgrims → Protect the pilgrim freighter → Defend the resupply relay

The Glacier Relay signs when its pilgrims come home.

15. A second sunrise · Nova Forge · ◆ 2700

Mine → elite → boss: Collect reactor material → Defeat the Forge warden → Silence the Helios warship

With a second reactor the forge can power the guild's own gate network.

16. Beyond the last light · Eclipse · ◆ 3400

Scan → elite → defend → boss → recover: Chart the outer darkness → Break the Void honor guard → Stabilize the frontier beacon → Defeat the reborn dreadnought → Recover the expedition charter

The last signature is Eclipse's own. End of act II: the Expedition Guild is founded at the Last Light Citadel, where the Charter was lost, when you collect the chapter there; the frontier expeditions open. (It was founded in Haven, after a trip home of about 16 minutes of flight across Cryosphere, Obsidian and Ion Reach with nothing left to do.)

Career lines (new)

Three chapters each, optional, open with rank. Each ends with a guild seat: a title shown in the career tab, and a lasting perk.

Trader: the Merchants' seat · from rank 1 (Courier)

1. Cheap ore, dear cells. Buy ore in Dustfall, sell it in Ion Reach, and come back with cells: one full trade loop, with a profit target.
2. The market war. Two worlds bid against each other for relic components; sell to one of them, and lose reputation with the other.
3. The sealed contract. A merchant offers a fortune for sealed cargo through Obsidian. Inspect it and refuse, or carry it as a smuggler past the Bastion Guard (an outlaw choice).

Seat: market prices 5% better in every world where you are Established or higher.

Escort: the Convoy Masters' seat · from rank 2 (Pathfinder)

1. One freighter, one gate. Escort a freighter from Haven through the gate to Verdant.
2. The long convoy. Three freighters from Dustfall to Cryosphere, through four worlds; pay by cargo saved.
3. The ambush at the Bastion. A convoy is attacked at the Obsidian gate; hold the gate until the guards arrive.

Seat: escorted freighters have stronger shields; convoys pay 20% more.

Hunter: the Hunters' seat · from rank 2 (Pathfinder)

1. Wanted in Haven. The Rim Corsairs' ace, with a bounty on a wanted list.
2. The marauder's trail. Track a Dune Marauder captain across three worlds.
3. The Void marshal. An elite of the Void Armada who hunts guild pilots.

Seat: bounties pay 25% more; the wanted lists of all eight worlds show on the map.

Warden of the lanes: the Guards' seat · from rank 3 (Vanguard)

1. Patrol duty. Fly a full patrol route with the Anchorage Patrol and fight what you meet.
2. Inspection. Stop three ships at the Haven gate; one of them is a smuggler.
3. Amnesty. Bring a Wanted pilot in to pay their fine instead of destroying them.

Seat: guards of every world where you are Established or higher help you in a fight.

Surveyor: the Cartographers' seat · from rank 4 (Ace)

1. The silent beacon. A beacon that is on no map, in Cryosphere.
2. Charts for sale. Map a sector and sell the chart to two worlds.
3. Beyond the edge. The first frontier expedition flown under the guild's name.

Seat: expeditions show their objectives on arrival; survey contracts pay more.