Expos … what is this … and why am I doing this?

Expeditions (Expos) are a way of using your spaceships to generate resources. To do this, simply select the desired expedition fleet in the fleet menu, select position 16 in a galaxy as the destination and then select the only available expedition item. But be careful: random events occur during an expedition.
Anything can happen, from huge finds of raw materials and new ships joining you to the complete destruction of your fleet. Sounds kind of spooky… so why risk it?
Well… the Expos are a bit like gambling… except you're the casino. You can make profits, but you can also make losses. However, unless you do it completely wrong, you will always make more profit than loss.

Note.
To fly expeditions, you need the Astrophysics research:
-Astrophysics level 1: One expedition fleet at the same time\
-Astrophysics level 4: Two expedition fleets at the same time\
-Astrophysics level 9: Three expedition fleets simultaneously\
-Astrophysics level 16: Four expedition fleets simultaneously\

The following events can occur during expeditions:
-Finding raw materials\
-Finding ships\
-Nothing happens\
-The return journey is accelerated\
-The way back is slowed down\
-Fight against pirates
-Fight against aliens
-Black hole (total loss)
====How does this work? ==== So you send out an expedition fleet.
-Your fleet flies from your starting planet to planet slot 16 to carry out the expedition there.
-Your fleet waits for the selected holding time.
-Expedition report arrives and the fleet flies back to the starting planet.

Note__.
The holding time only shifts the result of the expedition.
So it makes the most sense to only fly 1h holding time.

The size of the possible finds in your expedition depends on the so-called expo value. The formula for your expo value is as follows:

Expo value = structure points * 5/1000\

The structure points are the costs of a ship (e.g. small transporter costs 2,000 metal and 2,000 crystal. This results in a total of 4,000 structure points - interpretation costs are irrelevant). In addition, there is always an expower limit. This limit depends on the number of points of the rank 1 player in the universe. We have the following limits:

Rank 1 has less than 100,000 points = expo limit 2400
Rank 1 has more than 100,000 points = expo limit 6000
Rank 1 has more than 1,000,000 points = expo limit 9000
Rank 1 has more than 5,000,000 points = expo limit 12000
Rank 1 has more than 25,000,000 points = expo limit 15000
Rank 1 has more than 50,000,000 points = expo limit 18000
Rank 1 has more than 75,000,000 points = expo limit 21000
Rank 1 has more than 100,000,000 points = expo limit 25000
Optimal fleets at the end of the post

Okay… but since we are all not Asians… there are of course several calculators for the expo value. In my opinion, this one is the best:
http://bontchev.my.contact.bg/ogame/expeditions.html\
So now we know how to reach the limit of the expo value… so we just have to cram all the ships in!!! Nope… not like that… there's more to consider:

The most common events that cause potential losses are pirates (-30% of your combat technologies) and aliens (+30% of your combat technologies). Encounter fleets depend on your own fleet. If you send a large battle fleet, the bad boys will also have a large battle fleet. So when they clash, it can hurt. So what do we do about it? We build a fleet of as many large transporters as possible (large transporters are better than small transporters, as they can take significantly more hits) that do virtually no damage. As a result, the Encounters have mainly transporters in their fleets and therefore do little damage to you. An optimal fleet to suffer as few losses as possible therefore consists exclusively of large transporters.

However, the following should also be noted: If the triggered event is a fleet find, the type of ships to be found depends on the type of the highest ship sent. So if you only send large transports, the best possible battleship you can find is a heavy fighter. Okay… okay… let's make it simple… so here's a list of the ships to find.

On the left is the highest sent fighter, on the right is the highest findable fighter:
Light fighter → Heavy fighter
Heavy fighter → cruiser
Cruiser → Battleship
Battleship → Battlecruiser
Battlecruiser → Bomber
Bomber → Destroyer

Now we're almost there… one more point… and then we can assemble the perfect Expo fleets. The spy probe! It's best to always send a spy probe with every expo fleet.
Only 10 expos should be flown in a system within the last 24 hours, otherwise the chance of failed expeditions increases drastically.\
If you send a spy probe, a footnote will be added to your expedition report âla: “It's nice to be the first to explore this system” or ‘It seems we're not the first here’. The former message tells you that you are under the limit of 10 expeditions flown, the latter says you are over it.

What is the best way to fly?

Rank 1 <100,000 Pkt:
40 gt + spio\
39gt + 1 sj + spio\
38 gt + 1 xer + spio\
35 gt + 1 ss + spio\
35 gt + 1 sxer + spio\
34 gt + 1 Bomber + spio\
31 gt + 1 Zerri + spio\

Rank 1 > 100,000 Pkt:\
100 gt + spio\
99 gt + 1 sj + spio\
98 gt + 1 xer + spio\
95 gt + 1 ss + spio\
94 gt + 1 sxer + spio\
94 gt + 1 Bomber + spio\
91 gt + 1 Zerri + spio\

Rank 1 > 1,000,000 pts:
150 gt + spio 149 gt + 1 sj + spio\
148 gt + 1 x-er + spio\
145 gt + 1 ss + spio\
144 gt + 1 sxer + spio\
144 gt + 1 bomber + spio\
141 gt + 1 Zerri + spio\