Discovery and flora

    Finding new systems, how risk is worked out, and where rare flora comes from.

    You find new star systems by scanning out from where you are. You then send exploration pods to living planets and moons to find their flora. How long pod trips take and how often pods are lost is covered on the Expeditions page.

    Your home system

    Everyone starts in a home system in the galaxy's mid ring, around a yellow star, with a space station. It has 3 to 5 planets and 1 or 2 asteroid belts. Your first belt is always low risk.

    One planet in the home system is always a living terrestrial world, and the game tries hard to make it safe. That's a good place for your first exploration pod.

    Discovering a new system

    From the system you're in, pick one of four directions. You can run one discovery at a time, and not while your ship is traveling. When the timer runs out, complete the discovery and the new system appears on the map with your name on it as its discoverer. Completing a discovery doesn't move your ship, so you'll need to travel there.

    Direction Where it goes Time multiplier
    Inward Toward the galactic center × 0.7
    Lateral Around the galaxy at the same distance × 1.0
    Vertical Above or below the galactic plane × 1.2
    Outward Toward the outer rim × 1.4

    Discovery time

    30 min × (your distance from center ÷ 450) × direction multiplier

    Systems farther from the center take longer to scan from. Each tier of the Discovery Array upgrade cuts 15 % off (up to 45 % at tier 3). The minimum is 1 minute.

    Scanning distant stars

    Before you fly somewhere, the star panel's long-range scan tells you what orbits that star. How much it can tell depends on your Discovery Array. A star you've already visited always shows exact numbers. This is in the Decentraland version of the game.

    Your Discovery Array What the scan shows
    None Nothing. Install a Discovery Array to scan stars you haven't visited.
    Tier 1 A rough word for each: no, a few, several, or many
    Tier 2 A narrow range that always includes the real number
    Tier 3 The exact number

    At tier 1, the words mean:

    A few Several Many
    Planets 1–2 3–5 6 or more
    Moons 1–3 4–8 9 or more
    Asteroid belts 1–2 3 or more

    At tier 2, planet ranges span 3 numbers, like "5–7 planets". Moon ranges span 4 and belt ranges span 2. Each star's range is fixed, so scanning it again won't narrow it down.

    For stars you've visited, the panel also offers View survey. It shows that system from your visit, but you can't send pods or dock from afar.

    Visited and fully explored systems

    The galaxy map marks every star you've been to with a faint dashed green ring. Once you've cataloged the flora of every living planet and moon in a system, the ring turns bright and solid, and the star panel says Fully explored. Until then it shows how many you've cataloged, like "Flora cataloged 2 / 3".

    What's in a system

    The star. Near the center you see more blue giants, neutron stars and black holes. Out on the rim, red dwarfs and yellow stars dominate. Some systems are binaries with two stars.

    Black hole systems have a wormhole linked to another black hole system in the galaxy.

    Planets. Systems near the center have more planets: around 8 to 10 near the core, 6 to 8 in the mid ring, and 3 to 5 at 900 units out.

    Each star has a habitable zone where terrestrial, oceanic and desert worlds form. Closer in you'll find barren and volcanic worlds, and farther out gas giants, ice worlds and barren rocks. Neutron stars and black holes have no habitable zone.

    Moons. Gas giants have 2 to 6 moons. Other planets have 0 or 1, and barren planets have none. Moons can be rocky, icy, volcanic or barren.

    Asteroid belts. Most systems have 1 to 3 belts; about one in five has none. Belts are for mining, not flora. They're riskier toward the center and around neutron stars, and always extreme around black holes.

    Traits and risk

    Every planet and moon that isn't a gas giant or barren has six traits: atmosphere, temperature, gravity, moisture, radiation and soil. Each type only rolls certain values; oceanic worlds, for example, always have a standard or dense atmosphere.

    Risk is the body type's base risk plus a modifier for each trait:

    Body Base risk
    Terrestrial, oceanic 0
    Rocky moon 3
    Desert 5
    Ice moon 10
    Ice planet 15
    Volcanic moon 18
    Volcanic planet 20
    Trait Modifiers
    Atmosphere none +10, thin +3, standard 0, dense +2, toxic +8
    Temperature frozen +8, cold +3, temperate 0, warm +2, scorching +8
    Gravity micro +5, low +2, standard 0, high +3, crushing +10
    Moisture arid +4, dry +1, moderate 0, humid −1, oceanic +3
    Radiation none 0, low +1, moderate +3, high +7, extreme +12
    Soil silicon +1, iron-rich +2, calcium 0, organic −2, crystalline +4
    Risk Tier
    8 or less Safe
    9–18 Moderate
    19–30 Dangerous
    31 or more Hostile

    Oceanic worlds are safe about half the time. Ice and volcanic bodies are nearly always hostile. The tier sets how long pod trips take and how likely a pod is to be lost (see Expeditions).

    Which worlds have life

    Only living planets and moons can be explored.

    Planet Chance of life
    Terrestrial 60 %
    Oceanic 55 %
    Desert 30 %
    Ice 15 %
    Volcanic 10 %
    Gas giant, barren never

    A planet with no atmosphere never has life.

    Moon Chance of life Orbiting a gas giant
    Rocky 25 % 30 %
    Ice 20 % 45 %
    Volcanic 8 % 23 %
    Barren never never

    Moons with no atmosphere have no life either, with one exception: ice moons around gas giants can still hide life under the ice.

    Flora and rarity

    Every living planet or moon has exactly one flora species. Its name hints at the world it grew on: "Frost …" from a frozen world, "Tide …" from an oceanic one. Its rarity depends on how risky the world is.

    Tier Common Uncommon Rare Legendary Mythic
    Safe 80 % 20 %
    Moderate 10 % 50 % 40 %
    Dangerous 10 % 50 % 40 %
    Hostile 10 % 60 % 30 %

    Any flora in a black hole system is always Mythic.

    Claiming a species

    The first player whose exploration pod comes back from a world claims its species, and is listed as its discoverer for good. What counts is the pod coming back, not launching first. If another player's pod returns before yours, the claim is theirs.

    Scanning a species someone else already found still adds it to your catalog and can still bring back a sample.

    Your flora catalog

    Your catalog lists every species you've scanned, with its rarity, the world and system it came from, its traits, and who discovered it. A species is added the first time you scan it, or when you receive a sample of it in a trade. Entries are permanent, even if you later discard or trade away the sample.

    Samples and the vault

    Each successful scan also brings back a sample: a 3D scan of the specimen, projected as a hologram in your vault. You get one if your vault had room when the pod launched. If the vault was full at launch, you still get the catalog entry and any claim, but no sample. The game warns you when you launch with a full vault.

    Specimen Vault upgrade Capacity
    None 100
    Tier 1 200
    Tier 2 400
    Tier 3 650
    Tier 4 1000

    Samples you've put up for trade still take up space. To make room, discard a sample from your vault; the species stays in your catalog. You can't discard a sample while it's in an open trade.

    Example

    You're at a desert planet with a thin atmosphere, scorching heat, high gravity, arid ground, moderate radiation and iron-rich soil.

    Discovering onward from here? At 600 units from the center with Discovery Array tier 2, heading outward takes 30 × (600 ÷ 450) × 1.4 × 0.7 ≈ 39 minutes; inward is about 20.