Intro

In this guide I will be going over how to save money through your expedition progress as well as discussing maximizing efficiency in order to reach Tarija (the last region) as fast as possible.

Basic Expedition Info

If you are a new player and just looking for the basics on how expeditions work please check out Jari's guide HERE which goes over how to start out expeditions. The wiki page on expeditions linked HERE also has great information on sicarios and the different regions.

I JUST UNLOCKED SANTA CRUZ WARNING

For those of you who just unlocked the Santa Cruz Region THIS IS NOT THE MAX RANK SICARIO. Yes they allow for rank 9 items to be equipped which is the max item, however the sicarios unlocked at Chuquisaca and Tarija have much higher stat totals.

Effort

In order to fully understand how reaching new regions work, you need to understand the hidden expedition stat effort. According to the wiki "Each region has a base level of Effort required to complete a given expedition, this is modified by the difficulty of the expedition. Achieving a certain amount of total effort is a requirement to unlock the next region for Expeditions." In other words for each expedition you complete you gain a certain amount of effort. Once your hidden effort reaches a high enough point it will unlock the next region.

If you have beeps.be (created by Jointo) installed you can check your current estimated effort and how much effort is needed for the next region. In order to view the below image you must update your report which Jari goes over in his beeps.be guide HERE.

Preferred Region/Rerolls

In order to unlock regions more efficiently you will be using preferred region and rerolls which I will quickly go over so you understand them before going more in depth.

Setting your preferred region gives you an 80% chance of getting that region each time it generates. The other 20% are normally the highest 2 regions that you have unlocked. You will be utilizing this to keep doing lower region expeditions while having higher regions unlocked.

You also get 6 rerolls every single day (resets when the CE day resets). These are best utilized when you have expeditions offered that are not 100% success rate.

Chance of Success

The first important factor of maximizing how fast you unlock regions is by ensuring that your success % when starting expeditions is always at 100%. This could mean setting your region to one that is much lower than your highest unlocked which is also needed if you are trying to go through the regions without spending tens of millions (something discussed later). How you obtain a 100% success is through ensuring your teams morale, combat, and caution are over the required amount for that expedition. Regarding the picture below the green circled numbers need to be higher than the red circled numbers to get a 100% success.

Sicario Speed

Sicario speed is the next important factor to maximizing your region unlocks. Each expedition that is generated will have a speed requirement. If your sicario team’s total speed is higher than that generated speed than you will be able to finish the expedition with a much faster time. Ensuring that your sicario team’s speed is always higher than the generated expedition is extremely important as it increases your effort gained per minute. Using the image below the green circled number needs to be higher than the red circled number in order for the time to be reduced.

Expedition Difficulty Categories

In order to understand the information that is provided in the next section you first need to understand how the different expedition difficulty categories work. When an expedition for a specific region generates there are three different difficulties which provide 3 different amounts of effort. These categories are easy hard and challenging. For example if you were doing expeditions in the La Paz Region, you could spawn an easy one which would give 175 effort, a hard one which would give 325 effort or a challenging one which could give 437.5 effort. (These totals are all pulled from the wiki)

Analyzing Region Efficiency

Something that has not been discussed much in CE so far is the difference in effort gain per minute that each region gives. If you were to be on 24/7 and immediately start expeditions right when they ended, choosing the right region could increase your gains by very solid amounts.

Using the Cartel Empire Wiki provided information I calculated the effort gained for each minute an expedition lasts. These calculations were done with the minimum time the expedition in each region could occur used. An explanation below the image depicts why this is relevant and how you can utilize it to plan what regions you will farm on your way to Tarija.

Disclaimer: The average effort per minute assumed that all 3 difficulties had an equal chance of spawning (unknown currently if that was true), however due to the results it would not actually matter in the grand scheme of things as the top 3 regions would remain either way.

If this chart makes absolutely 0 sense to you and you just see a bunch of random numbers, that’s fine!!! Here is breakdown for you:

From this chart (I highlighted them for you visual learners out there) you can see that the regions with the highest effort per minute are La Paz, Beni, and Cochabomba. If you were to be online 24/7 the fastest possible way to reach Tarija would be by doing one of these three regions. Having this be the case is fantastic for those who want to efficiently get to Tarija without dumping loads of money on sicarios/items in each region. Below I will be discussing how I recommend you approach purchasing items/sicarios knowing the above information.

Sicario/Item Upgrade Path

Utilizing the information from the last section in that La Paz, Beni, and Cochabamba are the most efficient regions for effort gain. I have devised an ideal Sicario/Item upgrade path to allow you to reach Tarija at net neutral cost or possibly even profit as fast as possible. This is purely a recommendation based off my research and by no means the “only way” to do expeditions.

Step 1: La Paz Farming

Your first goal is to get 3 Sicario teams that can 100% success La Paz with enough speed to beat the required stats in order to get the minimum La Paz time. To do this you will want to purchase and use La Paz sicarios until you have Beni Unlocked (this is possible within about 3-5 days of starting expeditions/farming la Paz) Once you have Beni unlocked you will want to purchase 15 Beni sicarios and equip them with all rank 3 gear. Since rank 3 gear is very cheap I recommend you just purchase it and take the loss here. Once that is done you will be able to farm la Paz with 100% success without problem until the next step.

Step 2 Version 1: Farm Beni/Oruro Unlocked

(Cheaper/More activity required).

The first option you have is when you unlock Oruro to purchase 3 full teams of Oruro sicarios. Once you do this you will want to run these teams on La Paz until all sicarios are lvl 10. At this point you have one of two choices, you can purchase rank 5 gear or you can try to farm it overnight doing low percentage success Oruro expeditions while sleeping. I recommend just biting the bullet and purchasing it if you have enough funds available as it will take you forever to fully equip your sicarios by farming Oruro. Once all your sicarios have rank 5 gear you should be able to 100% success on the lowest time for Beni Expeditions.

Step 2 Version 2: Farm Cochabamba/Potosi Unlocked

(More Expensive/less activity required)

The second option you have is when you unlock Potosi to purchase 3 full teams of Potosi sicarios. Once you do this you will want to run these teams on La Paz until all sicarios are lvl 10. At this point you have one of two choices, you can purchase rank 6 gear or you can try to farm it overnight doing low percentage success Potosi expeditions while sleeping. I recommend just biting the bullet and purchasing it if you have enough funds available as it will take you forever to fully equip your sicarios by farming Potosi. Once all your sicarios have rank 6 gear you should be able to 100% success on the lowest time for Cochabamba Expeditions.

Step 3: Reach Tarija

Once you reach Tarija while either farming Beni/Cochabamba you will want to purchase your Tarija max rank sicarios and level them up to 10 (either on Beni/Cochabamba/La Paz). When this is done you yet again have 2 choices, you can slow burn farm your way to max rank items by farming Tarija on low success % or you can bite the bullet and spend the hundred+ million on fully/partially equipping your sicarios.

Conclusion

This guide was not meant to tell you how to do expeditions. It is purely a recommendation on my research that would allow a player to reach Tarija as fast and as cheap as possible.

Nice guide, very well written. I especially love the part about region efficiency, since yes this isn't much talked about, and it really gave me some nice insights :-)

Great written guide and great addition to Jari's guide. I'm going to follow this, excuse me, I already started following this and building my first team of Beni sicarios and equipping them with rank 3 gear.

Nice guide, very well written. I especially love the part about region efficiency, since yes this isn't much talked about, and it really gave me some nice insights :-)

ERRANDO - 06/09/2024, 13:57:11

Couldnt agree more great job quack. 

Im almost ready to perma switch to Potosi for farming and darn sicarious you so pricyyyy hahaha. 

Great addition to my guide!! Nice one !