The Pal Expedition Station turns your idle Pals into a steady supply of spheres, crafting materials, and rare drops while you play or log off entirely. The payout you get from each run comes down to two numbers you control: how much firepower you send, and how far you have pushed the expedition research upgrades.
Quick answer: To max out a run, send Pals totalling 10x the expedition’s recommended firepower and complete the Expedition Time and Expedition Reward research. Together they raise rewards up to 1,348%.
Unlock the Pal Expedition Station
The station appears on the Technology Tree at level 15. Once unlocked, craft it with 20 Wood, 20 Stone, and 5 Paldium Fragments, then place it at your base. It has a very large footprint, so clear open ground before you drop it or you will struggle to fit it between chests and other structures.
Individual expeditions are tied to the game’s Towers. Each destination stays locked until you defeat the matching Faction Leader, and clearing Hard mode Tower bosses opens higher-tier expeditions with better loot. Pals sent on an expedition are unavailable for base jobs and your active party until the run ends, so keep a roster set aside for it.
How firepower is calculated
Every expedition lists a recommended firepower total. Each Pal you assign contributes a firepower value based on its stats and condense rank, and the game adds them up. The formula is:
Firepower = (HP / 5 + attack + defense) * (Condenser Rank + 1)^2A 0-star Pal multiplies by 1², a 1-star by 2², a 2-star by 3², and so on, so condensing has a large impact. Souls, Potential, Awakening, Trust, and Alpha status all raise firepower. Passive skills and food buffs do not. That means Alpha and fully condensed Pals of the correct element are the most efficient picks, since they reach the recommended firepower with fewer team members.
Reward scaling: minimum runs vs. maxed runs
Firepower controls both your loot amount and the run’s duration. There are two thresholds worth knowing.
At the low end, sending just 1% of the recommended firepower still returns the minimum reward, such as a single Ancient Civilization Core. That makes high-value expeditions worth running even before your Pals are strong enough to meet the requirement outright, which is the trick behind farming rare drops early.
At the high end, reaching 10x the recommended firepower unlocks the maximum reward tier. Combined with the fully upgraded research, that stacks to a 1,348% reward bonus, and the extra firepower also shortens the timer.
Research upgrades that boost every expedition
The Pal Labor Research Laboratory holds two permanent upgrade lines that apply to every base you own. The Time-Saving Expedition upgrades reduce base expedition duration by up to 35%, and the Mastery of Expeditions upgrades increase rewards by up to 35%. You will find both under the Mining and Lumbering research categories.
The lab itself unlocks at level 20 for 2 Technology points and is built with 10 Ingot and 10 Paldium Fragments. You can construct more than one lab to research several upgrades at the same time. Completing these should be an early priority, since the reward bonus compounds with the firepower scaling on every future run.
All expeditions, unlocks, and recommended firepower
There are eight standard expeditions, each gated behind its own Tower, plus Hard variants that appear after repeated clears and higher Technology levels. Recommended firepower climbs steadily as you move up the list.
| Expedition | Unlock (defeat Tower) | Recommended firepower |
|---|---|---|
| Cave in the Grassland | Rayne Syndicate | 25,000 |
| Forest’s Secret Realm | Free Pal Alliance | 56,000 |
| Volcanic Inferno Cave | Brothers of the Eternal Pyre | 144,000 |
| Hidden Ruins of the Desert | PIDF | 209,000 |
| Frozen Cave of the Snow Mountain | PAL Genetic Research Unit | 286,000 |
| Spirit Blossom Cave of Sakurajima | Moonflower | 375,000 |
| Dark Cave of Feybreak | Feybreak | 476,000 |
| Sunreach Isle | Azure Covenant | 589,000 |
Rewards range from Pal Spheres of every tier and Pal Souls to creature drops, ore, and slab fragments. A single drop appearing on the list is only a chance, not a guarantee, so expect to run a destination several times for a specific item.
Best expeditions for specific farms
Once you know a target material, the destination choice becomes simple.
| Target | Best expedition | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pal Souls | World Tree Subterranean City Ruins | 80 base souls per hour, up to 1,659 when maxed |
| Ancient Civilization Cores | Victor’s expedition | Run at 1% firepower for the minimum-reward core |
| Kinship Peaches | Lily’s Hard mode expedition | Drops double peaches, up to 41 per run |
| Food, ore, Paldium | Verdant Hollow | Cheap to max out early for basic materials |
Kinship Peach is one of the more valuable pulls, since it feeds breeding recipes, passive skill unlocks, and high-tier consumables. The World Tree Subterranean City Ruins also drops Radiant Gems and Ancient Relics used for Awakening, making it the endgame anchor.
Progression: early, mid, and late game routine
Early game: Spam Verdant Hollow. Its low requirement is easy to max out with weak Pals, giving you a reliable stream of food (Chikipi and Lamball), ore, and Paldium while you build up.
Mid game: Run Victor’s expedition at 1% firepower to farm Ancient Civilization Cores before your team can meet its full requirement. The minimum-reward mechanic makes this efficient even with underleveled Pals.
Late game: Cycle the World Tree Subterranean City Ruins for Pal Souls and Lily’s Hard mode expedition for Kinship Peaches. With maxed firepower and research, both destinations return their top reward tiers.
Collecting rewards and offline runs
Expeditions run on a real-time timer that keeps counting down even after you close the game, so you can start a long run before logging off and collect the loot on your next session. When a run finishes, the station shows an “Expedition Complete” prompt with an F-key input to open the doorway and claim the drops.
If your firepower falls short of the recommendation, expect the minimum tier and a longer timer. If it clears 10x with the research completed, you are pulling the maximum reward the destination can give, and that is the setup worth building toward for every high-value farm.
