The Trail of Mist and Shadows sends you undercover into an Orion tech auction to hunt down the con artist Harry Mudd. It is a level 26 story mission in the Discovery arc that starts close to home and reaches out to warp 13 at its furthest point. How you finish it is up to you: bid on the stolen tech for a big Parsteel and recruit-token payout, or walk away and fight for refined crystals instead. A solid mid-game mission with a real choice at the end.
The Trail of Mist and Shadows objectives
The mission runs in a straight line until the auction, where it splits based on one decision. Complete these in order:
- Find the Slaver ship in Labac.
- Defeat the Slaver in Labac (enemy strength around 129,975).
- Attend the auction in Orion.
- Bid on the auction? This is the choice split. The two paths below give different tasks and different rewards.
Path 1: bid on the tech
- Donate 10,500 Dilithium for the stolen technology.
- Defeat the Orion guard in Orion (enemy strength around 129,975).
- Catch Mudd in Bubeau.
Path 2: refuse to bid
- Defeat the Orion guard in Orion (enemy strength around 129,975).
- Defeat the auction master in Orion (enemy strength around 133,020).
- Catch Mudd in Bubeau.
Where and what warp
You pick the mission up at warp 1, so the first steps in Labac sit close to your home system. From there it pushes outward, topping out at warp 13 to complete, with the final chase for Mudd ending in Bubeau. The recommended level is 26, and the combat targets confirm that: every ship you fight sits near 130,000 in strength, so this is a mission for a crew that can handle a mid-tier battleship, not an early-game one.
The Trail of Mist and Shadows rewards
The payout depends entirely on whether you bid. The two outcomes are very different in kind, so pick based on what you need:
| Choice | Rewards |
|---|---|
| Path 1: bid (costs 10,500 Dilithium) | 400 Ultra Recruit Tokens, 201,000 Tritanium, 1,367,000 Parsteel |
| Path 2: refuse to bid | 9 Uncommon Refined Crystal (3-star), 25,000 Dilithium |
Bidding is the bigger haul on paper, with a large Parsteel drop and a stack of Ultra Recruit Tokens, but you pay 10,500 Dilithium up front to get it. Refusing keeps your Dilithium and hands you refined crystals plus a smaller Dilithium reward. Either way, completing the mission unlocks the next step in the chain.
Tips
Sort out your combat crew before you start. The Slaver, the Orion guard, and the auction master all sit around 130,000 strength, so bring a battleship setup that can take a hit and win three separate fights.
If you plan to bid, stockpile the 10,500 Dilithium ahead of time. Running short at the auction stalls the mission until you can cover the donation. If you would rather not spend it, the refuse path skips the donation and adds one extra fight against the auction master instead.
This mission scales with your Operations level. Lower- and higher-Ops players pick it up in different systems and face different-strength targets, so treat the systems and numbers here as the level 26 band. In the Discovery arc it follows A New World, A Violent World and leads into The Devil You Know, so finishing it keeps your story progress moving.
