Introduction
Wayfinder Expeditions are essentially instanced dungeons within the game, and are essential to the core gameplay of Wayfinder. You will use these to progress the story and for leveling up to farm bosses for weapons, echoes, and Wayfinder specific parts. These expeditions are called lost zones, and the maximum party size for expeditions is currently set to 3. You can run these solo if you choose, and you will want to complete these often in order to gain valuable loot for your character.
The expeditions are procedurally generated. This means no two expeditions are the same. Each expedition can be modified for different mutations and difficulty levels. While you’re in the expedition or lost zone you will also encounter various puzzles, events, traps, and of course tons of monsters to fight.
Gloomsphere
In order to access an expedition or a hunt you will need to utilize the Gloomsphere. You can access the Gloomsphere in the town, Skylight. Every expedition will not initially be unlocked. You will need to discover them first. The entrance to each expedition can be found out in the open world and you can also enter them from there. Once you find the entrance to a particular expedition it will then be unlocked and you can access it from the Gloomsphere in Skylight at any time.
Recommended Power Rating
Each expedition or hunt will have a recommended power rating listed whenever you select it. You will also be able to see your current power rating so you can determine whether or not you are powerful enough to complete that particular instance.
Each expedition also has varying difficulties. You can unlock the higher difficulties by fully filling up the progress bar meter. Once that expedition is complete you can access it again from the Gloomsphere and select the next the next level of difficulty which will increase the recommended power rating requirement.
Imbuements or Mutators
Once you have progressed the main story far enough you will be able to modify your gloom dagger. With this modification you can then begin to add imbuements to each expedition. These imbuements are going to grant modifiers which can increase the difficulty by adding additional challenges to the expedition. Adding these does not increase the recommended power rating, but adds additional dangers within the expedition.
You can add a single imbuement or combine imbuements in order to give you additional mutators. For example, you can combine a chaos and flora imbuement to add chaos spores throughout the expedition. This will make monsters become hosts to chaotic spores that grow wildly without a host. This will cover the floor with toxic mushrooms that deal damage over time. You must then either avoid them or take them out before they explode.
You will want to add mutators for additional loot and rewards. Certain materials are only available in certain expeditions that have particular imbuements active.
Imbuements can be added to both expeditions and hunts. Adding a mutator to hunt can dictate what rewards the boss gives.
Hunts vs Wayfinder Expeditions
When you’re at the Gloomsphere you will notice that there will be two different choices you can make. You can choose to do an Expedition or a Hunt.
Wayfinder Expeditions
Wayfinder expeditions are procedurally generated dungeons that you will want to explore and loot in order to earn the maximum rewards for completion. You will encounter mobs throughout the dungeon, as well as, traps puzzles and expedition events. These can be done solo, in a group of 2, or a group of 3.
In order to maximize your loot from an expedition you will need to fully explore the zone. There will be a chest symbol and progress bar located at the top of your screen. You will need to fully complete the progress bar in order to gain the maximum loot at the end of the expedition.
To fill the progress bar you will need to kill mobs, loot chests, and complete events throughout the dungeon. If you die you will be penalized and the progress bar will drop. If it’s not fully filled at the end of the expedition then the rewards you receive will be reduced.
Hunts
A hunt is very different than a normal wayfinder expeditions. A hunt is a boss fight. These can not be entered freely like expeditions. You will need a key called a gloomtrace in order to enter the Hunt. A gloomtrace key can be crafted at an any echo matrix station as long as you have the required materials.
There is no need to explore the full zone here. You can simply run into the boss arena and begin the encounter. Just like expeditions, these can be done solo, in a group of 2, or a group of 3.
Each boss fight has varying mechanics and difficulty. You will want to farm certain bosses for certain echoes, weapon parts, and wayfinder parts. The items can then be used to increase the power of your Wayfinder, or to craft new weapons and wayfinders.
You will likely need to run a hunt multiple times in order to obtain all the pieces of loot you’re looking for.
