The Economy
Two currencies, one honest job each — crystals measure how much you farm, Parts measure how often you show up.
01 Two currencies
- Collected by touch, in the water
- Paid continuously by charted fields
- Won from skill-pickup catches
- Spent at the Quartermaster’s counter
- One, automatically, per new Ledger discovery
- A chance per skill-pickup catch, on top of crystals
- Sold back to crystals at the same counter
A skill-pickup catch is a genuinely premium find, not a rounding error: a Quicksilver Wisp pays roughly 5× a single crystal from its own zone’s field, and it carries a real chance of a bonus Part on top. A Skittish Glowmote pays roughly 3× a crystal, in pure crystals — a glowmote catch never rolls a Part. See The World for how to actually catch either one.
Today the Quartermaster’s counter is the only real sink for either currency — there is no crafting cost yet for fitting a part you’ve already earned. That may change as the Bay grows; this manual will change with it.
02Charted fields & auto-drones
Collect from the same crystal field enough times and it becomes charted. A prompt then offers to assign an auto-drone to it (E) — once assigned, that field pays crystals every second on its own, whether you’re piloting elsewhere or standing at the Berth. That rate only runs while the game is actually open, though — for crystals while your tab is closed, the fleet has to be sent out on purpose (next section).
Field rates
| Field | Charted after | Auto rate |
|---|---|---|
| Sunlit Reef | 4 collects | 8 ⬡/s |
| Twilight Zone | 3 collects | 14 ⬡/s |
| Midnight Zone | 3 collects | 22 ⬡/s |
Every rate scales with your Yield stat, the same way a hand-collected crystal does — a ledger or part bonus to yield lifts both at once.
03 Fleet Dispatch — banking hours offline
Nothing is credited automatically while your tab is closed. Instead, active piloting — tab focused, actually moving or acting, not idling at the Berth — banks Expedition Hours at a fixed rate: one real minute of piloting banks one hour of offline work, up to a hard 24-hour ceiling. You can’t stockpile more than a day’s worth no matter how long a single session runs.
Banking hours doesn’t spend them, and it doesn’t send the fleet out by itself. Before you close the tab, open Fleet Dispatch (P) and throw the lever to arm it. Leave without arming and the fleet just sits idle — no matter how many hours were banked or how long you’re away, nothing is earned.
Come back with the fleet armed and a claim screen greets you before anything else. It pays for whichever is smallest of three numbers — the time you were actually away, the hours you had banked, or the 24-hour ceiling — at 60% of your live auto rate, and never more crystals than your cargo hold can carry.
The payout, worked
Say only the Reef field is assigned (8 ⬡/s). You pilot for four minutes before logging off — that banks four Expedition Hours — then arm the fleet and close the tab.
20 min × 8 ⬡/s × 60% efficiency = 5,760 ⬡, paid out in full — nowhere near the 10,000 ⬡ hold.
The bank only had 4h to give, so that’s what’s paid: 4h × 8 ⬡/s × 60% = 69,120 ⬡ raw, clamped down to the 10,000 ⬡ stock hold — upgrade cargo to actually carry home a longer haul.
Collecting is its own step, not automatic either — the amber Collect button on that screen is what actually credits the crystals. It also spends exactly the hours it paid for from the bank and disarms the fleet, so the next trip away needs its own arm. Dismissing with Esc instead is safe: nothing is lost, and the same claim (or a larger one) is still waiting next time you open the game.
It works this way on purpose: the bank only fills while you’re actually piloting, so offline pay is a reward for playing, not a substitute for it — and the 24-hour ceiling means coming back within a day is what makes the trip worth taking.
04 Exchange strategy
The Quartermaster’s counter trades 100 crystals for 1 Part, and 1 Part back for 60 crystals — a deliberate 40% spread on any round trip. The only strategy the counter actually rewards is trading for what you need in the direction you need it, not bouncing currency back and forth for the sake of it. Full detail on the counter is in The Berth.