Encounter Guide
Overview
Encounters are the core PvE mode of Outlaw Troopers. Explore maps and defeat enemies to earn resources and grow your Empire.
What You Earn
- Resources: Credits, Gears, OLT Tokens, Sacred Gene, and Radioactive Shards.
- Progression: Prestige and Reputation for the Leaderboards.
- Other Rewards: Encounter Fragments (from Dominators) used for Limited Blends, and progress toward A.R.C. Quests.
How to Start
- Go to Explore -> Encounters.
- Select a Tier: Choose your difficulty. You can view Sector Intel (Map Layout and rewards) and the Hostile DB (enemy types) before entering.
- Setup Build: Click "Initiate Encounter" to customize your loadout.
- Review your offensive and defensive stats on the right.
- Use Load to quickly apply a previous loadout.
Note: The game automatically saves your most recent build for quick deployment.
- Deploy: Click "Deploy" to pay the entry cost using Energy or a Discount Access Key.
Tiers
There are unlimited Tiers to explore. Defeat the boss node to unlock the next Tier.
- Training Tiers (1–4): Free to enter. These are for learning the game and do not reward Reputation or Credits. Map rerolling is unavailable.
- Standard Tiers (5+): Require Energy to enter. Costs and rewards increase every 4 Tiers (e.g., Tiers 5–8 share the same cost/rewards; Tiers 9–12 increase, and so on).
- Cleared Tiers: Boss defeated. These can be rerolled for new Layouts.
- Uncleared Tiers: Boss not defeated. The Map Layout is fixed, Credit nodes are unavailable, and Discount Access Key cannot be used.
Map Layouts & Rerolling
If you do not like your current map rewards, you can reroll the Layout (available for cleared Tiers only).
- Tier Specific: Each Tier saves its own Layout. Rerolling one Tier does not affect others.
- Cost: Each reroll costs Normal Access Keys (3x the Tier’s Energy cost).
- Free Reroll: Granted after completing an Encounter. These always generate a 3x3 map and cannot contain Sacred Gene or OLT nodes.
- Minimum rerolled map size: 3 × 3
- Maximum rerolled map size: 6 x 5
- Sacred Gene Safety: You cannot reroll a map that contains a Sacred Gene. Because these are rare and highly valuable on the Black Market, this safety feature prevents you from accidentally rolling over a high-value node.
Encounter Rules & Reward Mechanics
Encounters use a "node-based" system that rewards you for every step you take.
- Keep Your Loot: You earn rewards for every node you clear. Even if you fail the Encounter or die at the Boss, you keep all Reputation and items earned during the run.
- Node Scaling: Within a single Encounter, each cleared node increases difficulty by 20% and increases rewards (Credits, Gears, OLT) by 10%.
- Energy Scaling: Rewards scale based on the Tier's base Energy cost. Each point of Energy increases your reward bonus by 10% (e.g., 3 Energy = +20% bonus).
- End Conditions: An Encounter ends when you defeat the Boss node or your Ship is destroyed.
Node Queue
The Queue System lets you plan your path and automate combat.
- Automate Pathing: Click multiple nodes to create a path. Your Ship will travel and process them in order.
- Unqueue: Click a numbered node again to remove it from the queue.
- Pause/Resume: Use Pause Queue to stop between nodes. Click Resume Queue to continue.
- Reliability: If a connection error occurs, the system retries automatically. If it fails, the queue pauses at your current location. Simply click Resume Queue to continue.
Setup Mechanics
- Ship Stacking: Owning multiple copies of the same Ship (virtual or permanent Assets) increases its level and base stats automatically.
- Trooper Boons: Each Trooper provides unique "Active Boons" that changes daily. These are shown during the Troopers selection process.
- Gear Score: Your total equipped Gear cannot exceed your Gear Score Limit. This limit can be increased via the Tech Tree.
- Default Skills: Choose 3 skills for battle. Upgrade them using Credits to improve effectiveness.
- Combat: For details on damage, defense, and effects, see Encounter Combat Mechanic.