Mysterious Nebula

Details:

• The Mysterious Nebula is always located at the 16th coordinate in a system (example [9:225:16]).
• Depending on yourplanet and Research, it will take anywhere from 30-40 minutes to get there.
• In order to get huge amounts of resources, you need to send constant exploration fleets.
• It's a common starting strategy to build up a Recycler fleet as quickly as possible in order to go on these so-called "neb runs".

Strategies:

• When starting out their "Neb Runs" in the beginning of the game build enough Recyclers so that you can have 300 for each fleet. Once you fill them out start building Probes and keep increasing the number of Probes sent but not the Recyclers. The 300 Recyclers can gather the 2 million each Probes help fill out the fleet cost requirement that lets you find 2 million. Continue to build mostly all Probes and eventually once you reach 1.2 million Probes per fleet stop sending the Recyclers with them. At this point the probes can pick up all the resources in the neb.Drop the Probes speed down to 10%. Since the probes are so fast even 10% speed will get to the nebula in under 40 minutes. This will save Gas, which 1.2 million probes will eat up.
• Note that Level 9 Astrophysics Tech is required to send 3 fleets from each planet.
• Pirates and aliens will rarely be able to destroy Recyclers if you send them in large amounts, and very few when they do.
• Do Not send any combat ships to "guard", because pirates appear much more often if you send combat ships, and the combat ships may be destroyed in battle depending on its shielding and strength.
• The more Recyclers sent the larger amount of ships you can return with as well.

• 667 Recyclers provides the maximum return on metal/crystals/gas obtainable from finding planets.

• 1334 Recyclers provides the maximum return from finding wreckage.

• 4002 Recyclers provides the maxiumum return from finding asteroids.

• When sending ships to the neb send as many probes are you can in your exploration fleet this will give you a massive amount ships from the neb .i.e. Light Fighter while not increasing the nebula aliens attack power.
• Some Large players send millions of probes to the nebula in order to gather Light Fighters, Recyclers, Large Cargo Ships, Probes, and Colony Ships. This will quickly accumulate millions of each creating a very large "meat shield" to protect your largest ships and planetary defenses.

• Espionage Tech levels 6 and above increase resource finding rate.
• Sending 2000 Cruisers with 250 Large Cargo Ships will get you Recyclers, Cruisers and Battleships

Outcomes:

Note: You can never get more than 10 million metal, 6 million crystal, and 8 million gas per Neb run.

Resources

• Our exploration located spaceship wreckage from a battle and is returning home with these items now:
• Our exploration successfully located the remains of an abandoned foreign ship containing Dark Matter!
• Our exploration successfully negotiated some Dark Matter from non-hostile aliens.
• Our exploration successfully located an asteroid containing resources that were harvested.
• Our exploration successfully located an abandoned rebel station which had ships in its hangar. (In this case, you will be awarded Colony Ships, Probes, Cargo Ships, Large Cargo Ships, Recyclers, Light Fighters, heavy fighters, cruisers, or battleships depending on what you sent and the quantity of what you sent.)
• Our exploration fleet successfully collected resources from a nearby planet. Your exploration ships are returning home now with storage containers filled to capacity.

Combat

Pirate weapons/shield/strength have -30% of players current tech strength, while aliens have +30%

• Our exploration encountered some pirates which were defeated. (Scavenger Pirates)
• We stumbled on a nest of pirates! (Fearless Pirates)
• Unknown hostile forces attack our exploration fleet without warning! (Hostile Aliens)
• Our exploration stumbled upon some pirates whom attempted to capture our fleet. (Ordinary Pirates)
• Transmission data between our exploration fleet was lost temporarily. Before communication broke, they indicated that they were under attack! (Fearless aliens)

Failure

• Your exploration fleet was attacked but managed to escape. They returned home empty handed.
• Led by a brave commander, our exploration fleet successfully navigated an asteroid field to return home but came back empty handed.
• Our exploration fleets flagship collided with a small asteroid and sustained damage. The fleet will return, albeit delayed.
• Our exploration fleet searched tirelessly but didn't come back with anything useful.
• A mechanical failure in the flagships reactor core nearly destroyed the entire fleet. Technicians are making repairs and the fleet will be delayed.
• Our exploration fleet unexpectedly encountered a sector populated by particle storms and will be significantly delayed.
• Despite the first, very promising scans of this sector, we unfortunately returned empty handed. Although initial scans were optimistic, our exploration fleet didn't return home anything useful.
• The fleet was suddenly swept into a black hole and was lost. (Entire fleet lost)

Failure + bonus

• Our exploration fleet encountered a galactic anomaly which hastened their return.
• Our exploration encountered solar wind on its return course and arrived ahead of schedule.

Additional gains from exploration:

• Lv1 Ship Armor Plate x ?
• Lv2 Ship Armor Plate x ?
• Lv1 Energy Device x ?
• Lv2 Energy Device x ?
• Lv1 Power Adaptor x ?
• Lv2 Power Adaptor x ?
• Lv1 Engine System x ?
• Lv2 Engine System x ?

Usually you get 1-10 of Lv1 Armor Plate, Lv1 Energy Device, Lv1 Power Adaptor or Lv1 Engine System. Usually you get 1 of Lv2 Armor Plate, Lv2 Energy Device, Lv2 Power Adaptor or Lv2 Engine System. It is less common to get Lv2 than Lv1.