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D2D

Claiming a Lighthouse (becoming Warden)

What this does

Every star system has a Lighthouse — a relic Authority beacon that once guided fleets across the dark. Claim one and you become its Warden: the sole captain the Authority recognises as the seat’s holder. Wardens post upgrade goals for citizens to fund, call Beacon Flares to drive system activity, and earn a passive tribute cut from everything under their beacon. A dedicated home-base room for Wardens arrives in a future update; for now, all Warden actions are slash commands.

Prerequisites

  • A build with all 7 part slots filled and the ship currently idle (not on an expedition). See the build and expedition guide.
  • At least 3 completed expeditions of any kind on your account.
  • No active claim cooldown. Each attempt — pass or fail — starts a 7-day cooldown before you can try again.
  • The target Lighthouse must be active and unclaimed.

Step-by-step walkthrough

1. Browse unclaimed Lighthouses

Run /lighthouse list to see what is available. Each entry shows the system name, band, star details, feature count, and an estimated difficulty score. Use this to pick a target that matches your ship’s capability.

Lighthouses come in three bands, each with a different base difficulty and slot count:

BandUpgrade slotsBase difficulty
Rim310
Middle525
Inner750

2. Understand the difficulty score

The full formula:

difficulty = base[band]
           + 5 × (number of system features)
           + 5  if the star is binary or trinary
           + 10 if the star color is exotic

The difficulty then sets the pass threshold for the three-event claim contract:

DifficultySuccesses needed (out of 3 events)
15 or below1
16 – 302
31 or above3 — perfect run required

A bare Rim Lighthouse (single star, no features) starts at difficulty 10 — 1 success needed. The hardest Inner targets with exotic stars and three features can reach 75 — a perfect run required.

3. Check your build’s status

Run /lighthouse status in a system channel to confirm the target is still unclaimed and active before you spend your cooldown. The Warden field shows unclaimed if the seat is open.

Run /hangar to confirm your ship is idle and fully equipped — the contract is rejected immediately if any slot is empty or the ship is already out on a run.

4. Launch the claim

/lighthouse claim system:<system-name>

/lighthouse claim takes a single required argument: the system name (autocomplete shows only unclaimed Lighthouses). The bot runs its eligibility checks and, if everything passes, dispatches the claim as an expedition contract. Your ship locks into the contract for the duration — you will get the standard expedition notification when it resolves.

What “success” looks like

On a pass: the Authority grants you the Warden seat. Your ship is automatically docked — no separate /dock needed. The 7-day cooldown starts when the contract resolves.

On a fail: you earn a 5% consolation payout of the contract’s credit cost, “for the attempt” per Authority custom. No damage is applied. The same 7-day cooldown applies.

Either way the contract resolves through your normal expedition notification. Check /expedition status to watch the countdown.

Common gotchas & troubleshooting

“Your build has empty slots — fill all 7 to claim.” Open /hangar and equip the missing slots, or use /autoequip to fill them automatically.

“Need at least 3 completed expeditions (N/3).” Run /expedition start to launch standard runs and return once three have completed.

“<build> is currently on an expedition and cannot start a claim.” Your ship is busy. Wait for the active expedition to finish, then try again. Check the ETA with /expedition status.

“Claim cooldown: Xd Yh remaining.” A previous attempt started the 7-day cooldown. Nothing to do but wait — there is no way to skip or buy out the cooldown.

“Lighthouse is … ; cannot be claimed right now.” The message names the target’s current state (dormant, contested, and so on) — it isn’t active, so it can’t be claimed. Pick a different system from /lighthouse list.

“That Lighthouse is already claimed.” Another captain got there first. Run /lighthouse list again for a fresh unclaimed target.