Hello Hive Community.

This is my entry into the First Planetary Challenge hosted by eXode. eXode is a Space Colonisation Blockchain Game on Hive.

All images here are from exodegame.com, @Elindos and the artist

The contest is open to everyone on HIVE, so if you are interested in participating, you get read this post:

@exodenews/planetary-challenge-contest

Objective of the Challenge:

The contest post has introduced a scenario, and:

Given the scenario, you Captains are tasked with the mission to create a hive post that shows which card layout will be chosen given this information for the planet selected for colonization (you must colonize H24).

The deck you choose can consist of cards you have, or cards that you wish that you had. The more realistic the deck the better though, as it is quite unlikely that you will have a crew full of elite legendaries. Try something that you might actually use and if all you have is a starter pack why not test it out? eXode is designed for players at every level to win rewards!

My plan is to first analyse the scenario is detail first before I start planning my card setup. My strategy for problem solving is to firstly understand the problem/question properly before I come up with an answer. So lets are analyse the scenario in some detail

The Scenario

As you are preparing to dock at Starbase Aramea, you receive an encrypted message from a trusted source.

The messages reads:
Hyperdriven eXode Captain: Our proximity scans of the sector have revealed several planetoid objects of interest. The most desirable planet is located in the habitable zone of a binary star system and has been given the designation of H24. This planet seems to be a favorable sister planet to one with hellish landscapes and a radioactive surface.

Apprentice interpretation: First need to understand what a binary star system is. According to Wikipedia: "A binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common barycenter.".

Okay so there 2 planets picked up by the proximity scans, one is H24 and H24's sister planet (now referred to as SH24). Basically H24 is better than SH24. Why is it called H24 though, is it because there are 24 hours in a day? Anyways lets continue...

H24, however, has a thick atmosphere, oceans, and moderate climate which shows to be suitable for colonization. Further scans of the planet show that it is a young planet with evolved plant life, mineral deposits, breathable air, and drinkable water. Food is scarce as the plant life is simple (consisting mostly of plankton and grasses) and lacking substance for nutrition.

Apprentice interpretation: If a planet has a think atmosphere, it will be difficult to breath the air. However, the scenario says there are breathable air, so it may mean that there is breathable air, but limited, so some sort of equipment would be required to enhance the air if one wants to establish a colony.

There are evolved plant life and mineral deposits, which suggests that the mineral deposit can be mined and used for the purposes of advancing the science development of the colony.

Crucial point: Food is scarce and lacks nutrition, this means that it is key to bring our own technology/equipment that could produce food with the cost of energy. Energy can be produced fromt he minerals mined on the planet. Lets carry on...

The sister planet of H24 hosts a small contingent of alien hostiles who appear to be feeding off of the dying planet's radioactive surface. The aliens seem to be unaware of H24 but are operating in the sector. Sensors also picked up small traces of concentrated seismic activity near the equator of H24, nothing to signal geographic instability.

Proceed with caution.

Apprentice interpretation: Okay so there are alien hostiles living on SH24, and are feeding off the dying planet's radioactive surface. That suggests that they aliens are radio-active, and should they attack H24, our colony needs to have measures against that. The good thing is that they aliens are not aware of H24. So we can assume that the aliens will really only look for another planet once they have deplete the resources of SH24. When that time comes, our colony will need to be prepared to fend off the aliens.

So there are some concentrated seismic activity near the equator of H24. so there are potential earthquakes, so maybe one should not drill too much around the equator, or maybe establish the colony further away from the equator. However, it is unlikely to signal geographic instability. Maybe it is still safe to build a colony away from the equator and perhaps underground. That way it may limit the impacts of earthquakes and reduce detection from the aliens, and gives us more time to establish the colony to be ready for severe attacks.

Okay so based on the ExoAnalysis above. This is my EVAC setup so that I can establish a colony on H24.

My EVAC Setup

Initially I was tempted to bring the strongest setup from my collection, because I have probably opened 300 boosters and I have a few contracts so there were a decent range of cards to choose from. However I had to be more realistic...

The Objective mentioned that the more realistic the deck the better. Hence, I have decided to go with a very realistic deck and one that will be applicable to many new users. Therefore, my plan is to only use a Starter pack.

There are some really great articles on Start Packs and Origins that I will be referencing:

@steemmillionaire has made a great post explaining the standard cards that are found in the starter packs. He has sorted the images in a very structured way, and I will be using his structure in the deck setup instead of having to copy and paste from the Deck Expert which will be Hyperdrive ExoFun.
@steemmillionaire/exode-game-introduction-to-the-scientific-ark
@exodenews created an informative post about the origins.
@exodenews/comprehensive-guide-to-all-exode-alpha-edition-origins

In most cases, a new user would be using someone else's referral code, and get 2 additional boosters, and an epic character card (if the referral has more than 10 referrals).

Therefore the foundation of my deck will be based on the following:

A Starter Pack
2 Boosters (with expected distribution of cards according to loot chance)
1 Epic character (Potentially, but not every user may have the additional epic card)

Origin

Given my analysis of the scenario above, I have decided to choose Ark Scientist as the Origin. The contest is even named "The First Planetary Challenge", and Ark Scientist is the only Alpha origin that has the Planetary Skill and also part of the 3 Standard Origins in the Starter Packs.

She has synergies with Scientific and Planetary, Science. The planet H24 is a young planet with evolved plant life, mineral deposits, breathable air, and drinkable water. Food is scarce as the plant life is simple (consisting mostly of plankton and grasses) and lacking substance for nutrition. Hence, there is definitely scope for Scientific and Planetary Skills to thrive in this planet in terms of colonization.

Ark Scientist, according to a post from @exodenews, thrives in Research and development which is very suitable for a young planet. It lacks in Getting out of a fight alive, but that will not be the key issue once we have arrived on H24, because the Aliens hostiles are not aware of H24 as yet, so there will be some time to develop the colony to be ready to confront the alien's attack.

I will also be equipping Ark Scientist with a Suit. I went for common and rare suits options.

However, for an Origin, she will be eqipped with a Eisen Suit - Artic Edition. The Officers will also be equipped with Eisen Suits, and Crews and Passengers will be equipped with Lonestar Spacesuits. It may be quite difficult to get all citizens to wear Eisen Suit, but not impossible.

There will be some attack and defense force requires to get through Evacuation, and I will illustrate below how that can be achieved.

Ship

In terms of Ship, exolol hyperdrive to the max, I was planning to select an over powered ship. However, to be on the realistic side, I have chosen the Ark Ship "Orwell 1" which is a standard card that comes with the Starter Pack (currently 10$ in the Shop)

Even thought the Ship comes in the Starter Pack. It is still an Epic Card so should not be underestimated.

The Stats of the ship are as follows:

7 Crews
1 Equipment Set
7 Cargo
4 Passengers

Now lets go through the Officers first that we are taking, and then we will go through the rest of the setup that will fill in the Ship.

Officers (3 Slots)

Research Officer (QL 4)
Has Science Skill, It will also get Synergy from Ark Scientist. It will be useful to Research whilst we land on H24, to see what we can do to enhance the colony.

Exploration officer (QL 4)
Has Skill Spaceships and Planetary. It also has Investigation and Speed. It will be useful during Evacuation mode to assist with the Spaceship in terms of upgrades to the Hyperdrive and etc. During Evacuation it will be able to investigate areas quickly to discover which region has a rich mineral deposit.

Preservation Officer (QL3)
As mentioned in the scenario, that planet is a young planet with evolved plant life. The Preservation Officer will be required to capture the plants, investigate and preserve them for the benefits of the colony. The preservation may help in preserving certain edible plants that can feed the colony. Food is scarce as the plant life is simple (consisting mostly of plankton and grasses) and lacking substance for nutrition. Hence, it will need to preserve the limited nutrious plants that we can find.

Crews (7 Slots)

Crews are also very important for the Evac mission. Again to make it realistic, I have used the cards that available in the Starters.

Space Surgeon (QL 3)
Space Surgeon will be key in terms of healing the injured. As the Science Team are not the greatest at fights. A Space Surgeon is very important.

Xeno Analyst (QL 3)
Has Skill Science and provides reports about the Planet. This is especially important, it is important to understand the planet before performing any actions. The Xeno Analyst will be key to establish the area to set up the colony and to determine which mineral deposit to mine.

Space Bioscientist (QL 3)
Skill is Science again, as they are required make scientific breakthroughs to improve the colony.

Another 3 common crews that are found in the cards are:

Animal Handler (QL 3)
He had medical Skills which will be required. There might be some wildlife on H24 such as Space Dogs who are really eXoGood at discovering rich mineral deposits. Hence, the Animal Handler may be able to make peace with the limited wildlife on H24.

Life Searcher (QL 2)
Also has Science skills and will get synergy from Ark Scientist. In addition, like Animal Handler it will be able to assist with Planetary (Wildlife)

Lab Scientist (QL 3)
Also has Science Skills. However, its main purpose is in Research and Testing. It may be able to create plant food that is nutritious.

Support Cards (5 Slots)

There will be 5 escort slots, and it is very important to fill them up as I am bringing a highly concentrated science and development team. Hence, these escort support cards will be useful to buy us time to upgrade hyperdrive, load cargo, load fuel and escort passengers.

In order to make it realistic, I have only chosen common and rare escort cards. These are quite easily found in booster markets, and can be bought cheaply in starbase market so will be easily accessible to users.

Starsystem Garrison - Common X 3
A common card, but none the less will improve the interception chance, buying us some times

Cruiser Task Force - Rare and Longsword Squadron - Rare
These are rare escort cards, and will increase the interception chance more, and buy us more time during evacauation.

Equipment (1 Slot)

I have decided to go with the Rare Plants collection, because there is a Rewards Table: Rare Plants. So it might be useful for Colonosation.

Cargos (7 Slots - 14 Prefabs)

To make it as realistic as possible, I am went with mostly common cards.
The Epic Cards that I chose are 2 from Tom Settler's Premium Contract drops, and can be purchased quite cheaply from the market.

The other is the Tom Essentials Support Pack, which I feel is very relevant for the scenario. I have quite a few of them. However, now that Glorious 8s are burnt, there may be a limited supply of them.

In essence I need the necessary cargo to start up the colony in the Science and development area. However, I will also need to make sure that my colony is safe and there is food for my citizens.

Computer Room and Lab Equipment
These are not droppable, so need them in order to help with the research and development.

Energy Cells and X-Gen TR 20
This grants energy charges, and the X-Gen TR20 converts the charges into energy for the colony to use. I initially wanted to bring the X-Gen TR 100. However, to make the game as realistic as possible, will have to use the common card instead of a epic booster card.

Drilling Machine
Although there are detection of some seismic activity around the equator, the report says that it will is nothing to signal geographic instability. Hence, I will still use it to mine mineral deposit but with some caution, do not want to drill to deep towards the equator, or may Colony could be ExoGone.

Chips and Data
It grants chip implants components and Computer parts, will be useful for research and development.

Foodie Moodie
Given that there is a lack of Food. A Foodie Moodie is essential because it created Recombined Food also known as Vegan Tacos, which according to experts are very nutritious eXoFoo, but who knows. It also creates Happy Sodas (once per day). H24 means 24 Hours, and H could stand for Happy. This could be the special mission. Happy Sodas (once per 24 Hours/Day).

Happy Five Shelter
This is an Epic drop from the Tom's Contract, but can be quite accessible from the market. I wanted to stick to common and rare cards as they are more realistic. However, there is Happy in the card, and could be linked to the secret mission so I had to bring it. It provides 5 Habitat, but there are 11 people, so this is where QL rank comes in Exolol. The citizens with highest QL can stay in there. Exolol, I can always drop Smooty All-In-One for the rest, as they are common cards and really cheap on the market.

Tom Explorater X4
Again another epic drop from the Tom's Contract, and accessible from market, so quite realistic. I again wanted to use common autonomous Like the Tom Friendly Eyes XY-6. However, the planet is called H24, and the card has X4 in it, so quite close. However, 2 plus 4 is 6, and there is a 6 in Friendly Eyes so it could have been the better option.

In any case, the Tom Explorater will helps the experts to go around the planet to get minerals.

Ship Construction Parts
These can be used to construct a ship, or be used to fix existing ship. In any case, will allow us to run away if we can not handle the Alien attacks.

Robotic Parts
It says that it uses 1 cargo, so not sure if that was 1 prefab or 2 prefabs. If 2 prefabs then I can let go of the Extra Lab Equipment, as I do have it already above.

Okay this is probably the last 2 are the most exciting and essential cards to bring once we land on H24. These are cards from the Tom Essentials Support Pack.

Since Tome Essentials is given out as a Prize, I was Exothinking that maybe I should use the cards in it.

It has a market value of $20 before the Burn of Glorius 8s, so now it may be more expensive, and less accessible. However, it is not unrealistic to have one.

These 2 cards are super useful for the scenario provided:

Soup and Cook
Provides 200 Food Stockpile and 200 Water Stockpile. I only have 11 citizens, so that will last them for some days until I drop more Foodie Moodies to provide food to all the citizens in game.
It is also HAPPY FOOD.

Tom Beauty Air
H24 has a heavy atmosphere, which means that there may be breathable Air, but it is not way close to HAPPY AIR

Happiness brings peace to the colony. Maybe when the aliens discover our colony, we could offer them some Happy food and Happy air so that they are Happy and we co-exist together in peace and harmony.

Here are some Cargo, that I plan to drop later on the colony

Underground Construction
Initially I wanted to keep things underground, but I would need to have a underground construction card for each installation. That would be too much. I want to keep a stealth colony to avoid detection. However, the aliens have not detected H24 yes, so I suppose I dont need to keep everything underground at the moment, and it is a card that I can always just drop in the game, as it is a common card and relatively cheap and easy to get.

This is in case,the aliens still want to destroy us even though we offered them Happy food and Happy Air. In that case, we will move the entire colony underground.

Preservation Dome
This is to preserve the plants and wildlife that we may have. Such as the Special plants that may be eXoSuper Nutritious, or maybe the space dog or dragon that is super great at finding mineral deposit that we can train to become our friends. Again this is a Droppable card and not hard to obtain.

Passengers (4 slots)

Typically a new user would be using someone else's referral code. Hence, the new user will get 2 boosters. The boosters drop probability is as below:

That's a total of 133+ unique cards to be found in the Alpha Edition Boosters! Booster pack card probability is:

65% chance to be Common
30% chance to be Rare
4% chance to be Epic
1% chance to be Legendary

Hence, I will only be selecting rare and common passenger cards to use for this contest:

Scientific Student (QL X) Common
She has the scientific trait, so I can bring her along, and she has a chance to become a QL 5 citizen. Which may be useful for the colony

Unstable Genius (QL X) Common
Another wild card, the QL is also random, and hoping that he has at least has high stats in Combat or Science. Combat will be very much preferred as I have a strong Science Team already. So teh unstable Genius will either need to be a Martial Arts or Weapons Genius or a Mining Genius - Able to dig up all the mineral deposits within a ExoShort period of time. Also, if the Alien were to discover H24, maybe the Genius can fight them.

Socialite (QL X) Common
Also has a chance of being QL5, so hoping that it will have huge contributions to the colony. Again, hope that it has great combat or mining skills to be able to cover the weak combat side of the colony in case alien attacks.

Dangerous Passenger Rare
It has a chance to become QL 5. It also has violence, so potentially that can be used to protect the colony. It is however Disloyal and has Secret Agenda. So will need to watch out on that.

Secret

To be honest, I am more interested in the secret reward more than the top 3 prizes, and have no idea what kind of hidden objectives will need to be achieved. Probably I will need to max some attributes of my setup, or have to solve some hidden secret puzzle in the post. Could the reward be another Lucky Booster, or a Secret Booster.

After puzzling about this for many days rather than writing my post, I think the key word is "Secret" and "H24"

When thinking of Secret, I went and searched for the word "Secret" in deck expert: http://exode.io/tools/deckExpert.html

Maybe I need to use Secret Agent as the Origin:

However, she lacks in daily management of a Colony. In addition, she is an Epic character in booster so less obtainable. Or maybe I need to use secret or reward as a tag in the post?

I also searched for the word "Reward" and tried to bring the items that are relevant with me on the ship.

Then I thought it could be the word "H24"

H24: 24 Hours, 1 Day
The 2nd alphabet is 'B', and the 4th alphabet is D, so HBD, is that Happy Birth-Day!

So do I need to bring along all the cards that have Happy in it or is it some sort of celebration?

Probably I need to bring along this, the Happy Soda. Or maybe the Foodie Moodie, because it creates 1 Happy Soda per day which is 24 hours.

Anyways, that is the end of my speculation and my setup. Hope you enjoyed the read.

For those who do not know what Exode is:

EXODE is a new space colonization game powered by the HIVE blockchain.

Here are a few posts you can go through to get a high level understanding of the game:

This is the link to the Discord channel: https://discord.gg/GZcYNXz . You can ask questions directly to the creator of the game @elindos.

There is also a interview between @toocurious and the creator of the game @elindos: @toocurious/interview-with-elindos-phar-creator-of-exode

Always remember to do your own research before putting any money in.

If you are ready to purchase then you can consider using my referral link/code:
https://exodegame.com?ref=60d0a10

By using a referral link/code, you are able to receive 2 free booster packs, and if the referral group has least 10 members, then every member receives a random Epic Character card.

I currently have over 10 referrals, so if you use my referral code, you will be getting an Epic card.

For more information on the referrals: https://exodegame.com/wiki/doku.php?id=referral
It is alright if you don't use my referral code. No stress :)

Also, if you use my referral code when you purchase. Let me know, and I will send you 1000 Starbits. Want to know what Starbits are and the Rising Star Game:
@apprentice001/rising-star-game-10k-starbits-giveaway-winners-announced-and-new-giveaway

Maybe I will see you in game, Captain

Hope you enjoyed the post
Would really appreciate it if you like, comment and follow
Have a fantastic day!

eXode: My eXoSetup for the First Planetary Challenge. Prizes and Secret Rewards to be won.