How can I have a bigger Away Team?

Question

I know that Away Teams are super important for exploration. I also know that to have a bigger away team to explore planets, I need to upgrade my rocket.

However, my away team that explores caves and chasms on my planet is still quite small (6 members), so they get defeated quite a bit.

Short of just giving them more weapons and armor (which I need RP to research) I need a way to make them less squishy. I figured adding more people to the team would work, but I have looked and looked for a way to do that and I can't see one.

How do I get a larger on-planet cave exploring away team?

Answer 1

The on-planet away team is location-specific. There is no way to increase it.

In order to make your guys less squishy, you'll need to level them up. That, plus weapons and armor, are your main methods to extend exploration length. The only problem is, leveling up your away team increases exploration cost.

When exploring an area and you can't defeat the monsters at the end, there are a few ways to increase your chances. I've ordered them from most effective to least, in my opinion.

1. Put ranged members behind the front line. Ranged weapons have a range of two, so they can attack while the melee guys keep them safe. Make sure they have support abilities, like power shot, or heal.
2. Change around your team composition - some of your colonists have higher health/attack than others. Use this to your advantage. Put those with higher health and skills like Rage/Power Strike in the front.
3. Level up your team
4. Upgrade weapons. This has a much better impact than armor. Applying damage directly means you go through monsters much quicker, thereby taking less damage.
5. Upgrade armor. In the last extreme, upgrading armor will keep your team alive longer.