Embarking

Embarking is when viceroys select where they want to go for their next mission and select what to bring with them.

Overview
After looking around the World Map, viceroys choose a tile for their next mission. This tile is defined by its biome and any adjacent map modifiers. When zoomed in, you can see more information about the tile before starting the mission, including the expected experience points, the resource nodes available in that biome, and any special biome mechanics (for example, archaeology in the Scarlet Orchard). Once zoomed in, the next few things can be done in any order:


 * Caravans: Select which caravan of villagers they want to start out with. Caravans consist of some random number of three Species, although one of the species will be unknown at this point. Caravans also bring with them a crate of standard starting goods and then a random assortment of other useful goods, which can include things like extra fuel or food.


 * Embarkation Points: Select how they want to spend their embarkation points. Viceroys can bring extra food, fuel, or even blueprints with them once they are unlocked by purchasing Upgrades in the Smoldering City. These Blueprints have a baseline cost of embarkation points, and then will randomly cost one more or one fewer points each mission. (For example, one mission you may see the Herbalists' Camp cost 4 points, and the next one 5.)


 * Difficulty: Select the Difficulty for the mission and preview the effects this will have, including any negative modifiers from Prestige difficulty levels.

Caravans


The caravan you pick before Embarking, along with the Embarkation points you spend, are going to determine the species and number of your starting villagers, as well as your starting resources. You only have 2 caravans available in the caravan menu when starting out. In order to unlock the third one, you have to acquire Pioneers’ Gate level 5 upgrade.

Only 1 or 2 of the starting species can be known before you start a settlement, never all 3. All 3 species are set in stone upon Embarkation - there is no way to affect what species your settlement is going to have after Embarkation.

Before World Events increase or decrease the number of starting villagers, every caravan has 6-8 villagers, as well as Base Goods, 2-4 Bonus Goods, and a 50% chance for 2 additional villagers. Additionally, all active World Event bonus resources will show up under Base Goods if you hover over the Base Goods icon (under the first species' icon, to the left of Bonus Goods). Pioneers' Gate level 3 and 9 upgrades increase the amount of Embarkation resources by 20% each, but they do not increase the amount of World Event goods.

Embarkation Costs
The cost of Embarkation Bonuses will change with every caravan, this is to encourage players to try out different starting patterns. They are as follows, per Discord user @cron3052: