Please note that parts of this guide apply to a LIMITED TIME EVENT. The following Cooldowns and Limits will (presumably) no longer be accurate after the event ends... though it'd be awesome if Keen decided to leave it like this now that SE2 has launched! *Fingers crossed*

The information below on Strong Signal loot requirements and farming have been current for many years, and should continue to apply as always after the event is over (unless Keen makes radical changes for some reason) - so, event or otherwise, if you've ever wondered how to complete your collection of skins efficiently, read on.


Signal loot cooldown (minimum time before becoming eligible for a new skin to drop) is ~15-30 minutes. Strong and Weak Signals each have their own independent timers.

There is a limit of 8-10 Strong Signal drops, and 18-20* total (combined) skin drops per 48 hour period. *I have hit a definitive hard limit at 8/18 per 48 hours personally, but I've gathered what I consider to be reliable info that some people have been able to hit 10/20 - though all of those accounts were from populated multiplayer games, while my own tests have all been in Private games with just myself. Unfortunately I don't have the time to properly test exactly why the discrepancy exists and what factors might affect it, but 10/20 is also a round and intuitive number - so my best guess currently is that you can get an extra couple of drops in games with at least 2 players online.

Strong Signals CAN be spawned and looted in non-dedicated games with only one player present; the only requirement for the special content button to work is a Survival game mode with multiplayer enabled (private or friends-only lobby is fine - it doesn't need to be public). No other players need to be present, but having at least one additional player in the game has always been suspected to increase the average rarity of Strong Signal drops (but has never been confirmed). I can confirm that prior to this event, I HAVE looted several Legendary skins from Strong Signals in a Survival Private-Lobby game with only myself present - so unless they've nerfed it specifically for this event (which would not make much sense), you CAN get all possible loot from Strong Signals as a solo player, at least theoretically. NOTE: though they can be USED normally, Strong Signal grids themselves will not spawn naturally if only one player is present... which leads to the next item:

By far the easiest way to farm Strong Signals in a solo game is via the Cat-oh-Lith Preset mod (blueprint) right here on the Steam Workshop. (You can also just paste any working Strong Signal blueprint, but it will be single-use, and that gets tedious). This mod's grid creates an infinitely-replenishable cycle of Strong and Weak Signal buttons using vanilla means. To use it, start a Survival game in any Multiplayer mode (Private or Friendsly-only is fine). Once you load in, enable Creative Mode tools via the ALT+F10 menu, paste the Cat-oh-Lith blueprint (or several if you'd like) via the standard F10 blueprint menu, then turn creative mode tools back off (otherwise your Cat-oh-Liths will eject components constantly), and follow the instructions on the Cat-oh-Lith LCDs. Each pasted Cat-oh-Lith will power down the FIRST time it is used after pasting it in or loading a save; this is normal - simply toggle its battery group off/on once it shuts down, and it'll stay on until the next time you reload the game. You can then loot signals to your heart's content. Thanks very much to the Cat-oh-Lith's author for their great work!

Many of the newer vanilla signal grids recently added to the game ARE broken (at least under some circumstances), so farming natural spawns should generally be considered more or less a waste of time - unless in your case you discover otherwise by accident.


Happy looting!