SAND: Raiders of Sofie is, in part, an extraction game. You select a mission in which you spawn onto a large map, you, your friends, and your Trampler. Afterwards, the player mostly wanders the map in their mech, checking locations for gear and occasionally getting into scrapes. So, what does one do when they are ready to leave? Just take their collection of parts and weapons off the map and add them to their storage? Well, it’s not hard, but not particularly straightforward.
The first thing you need to do is survive. While other extraction shooters I have played start right off the bat with at least one or two exit points on the map that can be used for a quick escape. Not here in SAND, though. Here, extraction points do not spawn in until later. Players can perma-die on a mission should their Trampler be destroyed, but if not, the player will respawn on their Trampler, with respawns taking up to a minute. This means even in a context where you need to wait to leave, death might not completely ruin your run, though you will lose what’s on your person.
After around 10-15 minutes, typically around two shrinkings of the storm that surrounds the map, several points will pop up on your map. The icons are represented by a door with an arrow through it. These points can be far apart, so set your Trampler for one and head in that direction. What you are looking for is a radio tower, a tall structure that requires the player to climb a ladder up to the top that you want to reach. You then climb up to the top to trigger the extraction period. As you get closer to the tower, an indicator will pop up. Note: All things you have found during exploration need to be on your person OR secured in a box and safely on a shelf on your Trampler if you want to keep them upon extraction. Everything else will be lost.
Extraction takes around a minute for the ship to arrive and pull you off the map, and 15 seconds to the center itself, and drops a line for you to extract. During this period, other players can attack you, so you should continue to be alert. Once the timer runs out, though, look up to see the ship arrive, and wait till it drops down ropes that you interact with to zip up and get the notification that you have indeed completed the expedition.
Once you do this, you will be returned to the orbital station and receive a menu indicating all the loot you brought back with you. Weapons can be equipped to your person when you return to your next exploration, while supplies and scrap can be used to upgrade your Trampler in the base. That’s all there is to it. Since the SAND: Raiders of Sophie run through this loop, once you know this, you can plan expeditions more effectively. Happy Hunting.
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