Rain World – Ultimate Expedition Mode Guide (Downpour DLC)

Everything you need to know about the new game mode added with Rain World: Downpour.

Definitive Guide to Expedition Mode

Introduction

Expedition is a challenge oriented game mode featuring permadeath and progression. Pick a character and prepare for an expedition by selecting which challenges to undertake.

A successful expedition will grant points and varying rewards depending on what was accomplished, these can range from new Perks to use in future runs, Burdens to increase the difficulty in interesting ways, and music tracks that can be played in the Jukebox menu.

Gameplay

Slugcats

Characters must be unlocked before they can be played in Expedition. The unlock requirements for each slugcat are:

  • Monk and Survivor – Unlocked by default.
  • Hunter – Unlocked once Monk or Survivor’s campaigns are beaten.
  • Others – Unlocked once their campaign is beaten.

Permadeath

In Expedition, dying whilst at the lowest karma level will result in a Game Over and all progress will be lost. Avoiding taking risks when your karma is low! The only thing that can save you from permadeath is reinforced karma, but karma flowers do not spawn naturally, instead they are unlocked by a perk.

Objective

In Expedition, your goal is to complete a set a of randomized challenges assigned by you or given to you by a Mission (more on those later). Once all of the challenges have been completed, the run will end upon the next successful hibernation and points and rewards will be given based on what was accomplished.

Changes to normal gameplay

Expeditions take place in the same world as the selected character’s campaign, but with story elements removed. There are also various changes to normal gameplay to facilitate the game mode, these include:-

  • Players start in a randomly selected shelter.
  • All characters start with a karma level of 2.
  • The karma cap is fixed at 5 and cannot be increased.
  • Echoes will not appear on the first cycle.
  • The Survivor passage is completed by default, and other passages are not gated by it.
  • Passages are disabled by default, instead being unlocked by a perk.
  • There are no cycle limits for any characters.
  • Arena and other unlock tokens do not appear in Expedition.
  • Saint can throw spears (but is very bad at it).

Challenges

This page is where you will set up the objectives for your Expedition before you depart. The challenge list can hold up to a maximum of five different challenges.

You can adjust how many challenges are required for your Expedition by using the [-] and [+] buttons. At the end of an Expedition, the number of completed challenges affects the multiplier that is applied to your score. Undertaking an Expedition with more challenges is more difficult, but also more rewarding.

The slider at the top of the page controls how difficult a challenge will be when you re-roll it. This mostly affects quantities for non-combat challenges, and the lethality of creatures for hunting challenges. You can re-roll a challenge by selecting it individually or all at once by using the dice button.

By selecting the Filter button to the left of the randomize button, you can adjust which types of challenges can appear when re-rolling. You can use this to exclude challenges you don’t like, or make it easier to get ones you need.

Hidden Challenges

You can change a challenge in the list into a hidden challenge by selecting the eye button to the right of the challenge. A hidden challenge is completely random (but still respects the difficulty slider). The challenge will only be revealed once all normal challenges have been completed. Hidden challenges award twice as many points as their regular counterparts.

Challenge Types

Below is a list of all available challenge types in Expedition and what you need to do to complete them:-

Passage

Passages refer to the meters present on the sleep screen that change as you make progress towards certain goals. An understanding of what each of these are and what you need to do to complete them is required for this challenge. The challenge is complete once the passage has been earned.

Echo

To complete this challenge you must make contact with the specified Echo in the region mentioned. Upon encountering the Echo, the challenge is completed.

Global Score

Much like in Hunter’s campaign, creatures are worth a certain number of points when killed. In order to complete this challenge you must slay creatures over the course of multiple cycles until the required score has been obtained.

Cycle Score

Just like the above, you must reach the required score to complete the challenge, only this time you must earn all points in a single cycle, which can be far more challenging. If you do not meet the score requirement by the time the cycle ends, your progress is reset.

Hunting

Rather simply, to complete this challenge you must hunt and kill the specified amount of a certain creature. Good knowledge of where each creature can be found in your chosen character’s campaign is an important part of this challenge.

Item Collecting

To complete this challenge you must find and transport a certain number of a specific item to a shelter. An easy challenge if you know where to find (or how to craft) the items you need.

Pearl Hoarding

For this challenge you’re tasked with finding and storing a number of pearls in a shelter in a specific region. For most characters, you will be asked to find ‘Unique’ pearls — these are the colored lore pearls hidden around each region, and not the ‘Common’ grey pearls Scavengers like to collect.

Pearl Delivery

Similar to the above, you are tasked with finding a ‘Unique’ colored lore pearl from a specific region and delivering it to Looks To The Moon or if playing as Artificer — to Five Pebbles.

Spear Pinning

During the heat of combat you may have found that you’ve impaled a creature to a wall. For this challenge you must to the same, until the goal is reached. Each creature can only be speared once. However the creature need not be alive to be pinned.

Vista Visiting

A vista in Expedition is displayed as a floating ‘Wanderer’ symbol and is hidden somewhere in the region. To complete the challenge you simply need to find it. Each region has a total of three possible locations a ‘Vista Point’ can appear, so it may not be in the same place each time. When you enter the same room as a vista point, a message will appear telling you it is nearby. Frequent use of the map can help you keep track of where you’ve been.

Progression

As you complete Expeditions, you make progress towards certain milestones and unlock additional rewards in the form of:

  • Perks: New abilities and buffs to make future runs easier.
  • Burdens: Increase the difficulty in interesting ways and the number of points awarded.
  • Music Tracks: Playable in the Jukebox menu.

Quests

The main form of progression in Expedition; Quests are a set of goals that must be met either during a single Expedition or over the course of multiple. You can view each quest on the Progression page, simply highlight a quest to see what is required, and what you will earn as a reward when the quest is completed.

  • Grey – Unlocks music tracks.
  • Green – Increases the number of perks you can have active at once.
  • Teal – Unlocks new perks.
  • Red – Unlocks new burdens.
  • Orange – The final music track, complete all other quests to unlock.

Missions

Missions are pre-set Expeditions for each Slugcat, with designated spawning locations and challenges. Some quests will require you to complete one of these missions in order to grant its rewards. Missions can be repeated to save faster times!

Warning: In the current patch, saving Mission progress is bugged. If a Mission is not completed in a single session, the rewards for completing it will not be given. It is recommended you avoid Missions until the next patch.

  1. Scavenger Lantern

Start the expedition with a Scavenger Lantern, a portable light source — and for some Slugcats — a source of vital warmth.

  1. Scavenger Bomb

Start the expedition with a Scavenger Bomb, a potential head start for combat related challenges.

  1. Vulture Mask

Start the expedition with a Vulture Mask, helping to keep hostile creatures at bay, or make them fleeing targets.

  1. Neuron Glow

Start the expedition with a persistent glow around the player, usually granted by consuming a neuron. Useful in dark environments or when using the BLINDED burden.

  1. Back Spear

Grants The Hunter’s ability to store spears on their back to other characters. A useful buff for players engaging in combat challenges.

  1. Passage

Re-enables the use of passages to travel to previously visited shelters and recover all karma while doing so. Rather than being granted by achievements, a passage is awarded for each completed challenge.

  1. Karma

Start the expedition with reinforced karma. Reinforced karma is the only way to prevent permadeath at the lowest karma level. If the cycle ends in failure, a karma flower will appear at the site of death. Will be permanently lost if not recovered.

  1. Slow Time

Grants the ability to slow time at will by holding PICK UP and pressing MAP. A visual indicator for the ability’s cooldown appears above the cycle timer.

  1. Electric Spear

Start the expedition with a charged Electric Spear. The spear is extremely useful for dealing high amounts of damage and stunning creatures. The spear can be recharged by impaling centipedes.

  1. Singularity Bomb

Start the expedition with a Singularity Bomb, a devastating weapon that can eliminate even the toughest of creatures, just make sure not to get caught in the blast.

  1. Crafting

Grants The Gourmand’s crafting ability to other characters. Experiment with objects you find by combining them into new ones to help in different situations. Activate by holding UP and PICK UP with an item in each hand.

  1. Explosion Immunity

Withstand explosive encounters by borrowing The Artificer’s explosion immunity. Useful if unfavored by the Scavengers, or for surviving situations where an explosion may be a last resort.

  1. Explosive Jump

Gives The Artificer’s explosive double-jump ability to other characters, activated by pressing JUMP and PICK UP whilst in the air. Very useful for traversal and escaping dangerous situations.

  1. Dual-Wielding

Bestows the Spearmaster’s dual-wielding ability to other characters. Being able to carry a spear in each hand greatly increases the speed at which you can deal damage.

  1. High Agility

Increases the chosen characters running and jumping abilities by borrowing The Rivulet’s high agility, letting you cross great distances with ease. Less effective for larger characters.

  1. Joke Rifle

Start the expedition with the Joke Rifle. Originally shown off as an April Fools joke, the Rifle makes its way into Rain World: Downpour as a useful tool. Experiment by loading different items as ammo by holding the Pick Up button, and fire the Rifle with the Throw button.

Burdens

Burdens are difficulty modifiers that you can add to your Expedition to make them more challenging, in exchange for a higher score. Just like Perks, these are unlocked by completing quests.

  1. Blinded +20%

Shrouds the entire world in an endless night, obscuring danger in every shadow. A light source will be vital for survival.

  1. Doomed +75%

Removes the safety net that karma provides, triggering permadeath for any failure. Made only slightly less punishing with the use of the Karma Flower perk.

  1. Hunted +50%

Makes the player public enemy number one. All hostile creatures in the region will know your location at all times, making standing still a bad choice.

  1. Pursued +35%

Something stalks you through the world, endlessly searching for its target. Though not impossible to defeat, it will always return.

Jukebox

The Jukebox menu is where you can listen to any of the Music Tracks you’ve unlocked during your Expeditions. Newly unlocked tracks appear on the left with the ‘NEW!’ label. Select a track in the list to listen to it, and navigate through each page using the arrows below the list.

Controls

  • Previous – Go to the previous track in the list.
  • Play/Stop – Play and stop the currently selected track.
  • Next – Go to the next track in the list.
  • Repeat – Plays the current track on a loop.
  • Shuffle – Plays an unlocked track at random when one finishes.
  • Favorite – Select this track to play as the Expedition menu theme.
Egor Opleuha
About Egor Opleuha 4429 Articles
Egor Opleuha, also known as Juzzzie, is the Editor-in-Chief of Gameplay Tips. He is a writer with more than 12 years of experience in writing and editing online content. His favorite game was and still is the third part of the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic saga. He prefers to spend all his free time playing retro games and new indie games.

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