Expansion Era

From Blaseball Wiki

The Expansion Era is the second era of Blaseball, following the Discipline Era. Initially labeled Peace & Prosperity in Season 11, the era was renamed by the Boss during the Season 12 Latesiesta as the Baltimore Crabs descended.

Periods

The Expansion Era has seen several periods, or subtitles, to distinguish it in history. The names of these periods were also declared by the Blaseball Gods. In the eyes of Blaseball fans, they have been visible as subtitles to the Blaseball.com site header.

  1. The Return
  2. The Expansion Era
  3. Home Free
  4. The -ides
  5. Live Bait
  6. Mass Production

Peace and Prosperity and New Features

Season 12 marked the Return of Blaseball following a lengthy Grand Siesta, and with a great deal of new systems and mechanics to mark the era of Peace & Prosperity. According to an issue of The Blaseball Beat, Blaseball has been gone for more than a decade. Fans speculate the absence of Blaseball is closer to 18 years, using the length of normal seasons as a measurement.

During its absence, new Ownership revamped several systems for Fans, seemingly in the interest of Fairness.

Concessions

See the main article on this topic: Concessions

Concessions has replaced the old Shop, offering fans a new inventory called a Snack Pack. The Snack Pack can hold 8 items at once, such as votes, peanuts, and snacks that offer similar functionality to the Pendants previously sold. Fans can also purchase new items that allow them to look into the Shadows, participate in Wills, or draw Tarot Readings for the Earlsiesta. Fans can sell their items back to the Concessions as a reduced cost, thereby freeing up a slot in their Snack Pack. The Food and Beverage Director for Concessions is the Monitor. [1]

Wills

Joining the typical Decrees and Blessings are a new system called Wills. Wills are voted on by teams, with two granted to each team each season. Wills allow Fans to enforce their will on Blaseball by specifically targeting players on their favorite teams or opponents to shuffle players all around the league.

Schedule

See the main article on this topic: Schedule

Each Season will also contain two siestas: the Earlsiesta after Day 27, and the Latesiesta after Day 72.

Ballparks

See the main article on this topic: Ballparks

Additionally, the first Earlsiesta brought with it the opportunity for Fans of the Baltimore Crabs to build the first Ballpark, which was funded in approximately 15 minutes. Construction was completed on the Latesiesta following Day 72. All other teams were able to view their Ballparks during the first Latesiesta, and were able to begin contributing to their construction following Season 13, Day 27.

Miscellaneous Changes

The Feed was introduced to Blaseball in Season 12 as well, a feature which catalogs notable events directly in the game, including speeches from NPCs.

During The Return, the Tacos were renamed as well, from the Unlimited Tacos to the LA Unlimited Tacos.

The Crabs Descend and Expansion Begins

On Season 12, Days 71 and 72, Fans noticed that sometimes, the Black Hole weather event shown for the next game was being switched out for Flooding, a brand new weather type in Season 12. The weather forecast would return to Black Hole before the games started, however Fans were on alert.

At the end of the Day 72 games, an emergency alert went off, suggesting that a Breach was imminent. Boss arrived to reassure Fans that We are actively monitoring the situation. As a precautionary measure We have activated Expansion protocols ahead of schedule. The Crabs had returned from the Big Leagues, and they brought with them three new teams: Atlantis Georgias, Core Mechanics, and Ohio Worms. Each new team had several championships to their name already, suggesting that they too were participants in the Big Leagues due to winning three championships, much like the Crabs did to Ascend in Season 10. Following these events and the start of the first Latesiesta, Fans were greeted with a events log, detailing the events of the day. Additionally, Boss declared Blaseball to be in the Expansion Era.

MVP Voting

See the main article on this topic: Idols#Expansion_Era

At the start of Season 13, the Idol board was updated with a new feature called MVP Voting. It reads "MVPs are selected each Endseason. Players above the line will be named season MVPs and will receive an Ego Boost." The aforementioned line is wavy with a golden color, similar to the text Boss speaks in.

Following the Day 99 games, Boss introduces the MVPs for this season, all of whom receive a new modification, starting with Ego+, then for each week they are selected as an MVP, they are upgraded to Ego++ and Ego+++ after three weeks. The effect of the Ego modifications seems to make it so that players do not get as easily swept away during Flooding weather.

MVP Voting continued each season.

Flooding Crisis

Scattered Elsewhere

After the Crabs descended, additional Flooding occurred, which would have a chance of sweeping players off their bases, even sometimes sweeping them  Elsewhere.... Wishing to assure Fans of the sweeping floods, Boss said We have everything under control. Thanks to Our swift action Things seem to be leveling off. Rejoice! You can expect less Flooding in the Future.

However, despite assurances from Boss in the Season 13 Preseason, Flooding continued to plague the League. Players were being swept off their bases regularly, and on occasion, swept  Elsewhere.... Even more concerning was that when players returned from Elsewhere after 20 or more days, they returned Scattered, frequently missing letters in their names and having no Vibes. The first player to return like this was Beasley Day, who returned under the name "-easley Day." A few games later, Day's full name was restored, however, more and more players began returning with more and more letters missing from their names, such as when Pitching Machine returned as "Pi-ching -ac--ne".

Credit to the League

In the midst of the ongoing Flooding crisis, Boss delivered a message to Fans in which she suggested that "we ramp up efforts to stay afloat. We'll be honest That will require sacrifice. It's vital that we all do our part."

To that end, Boss introduced a new mechanic called Levels, which placed a rating on each team. "We've empowered you with new Ratings to gauge your Team's contributions.", she said. "Each and every one of you is a Credit to the League."

She also announced that she would be going on break at the end of Season 14, leaving all management of ongoing ILB operations to the Food and Beverage Director, also known as The Monitor.

Live Bait

Over the course of Seasons 14 and 15, the Levels for teams ranged from a low 0D rating up to a peak AAAAA rating. Once a team reaches Low-A, a small blinking red dot appears next to the team. This makes the team susceptible to attacks from The Consumers, displayed as a shark inside the game log text box. The first Consumer attack took place on Season 14, Day 96, when Nicholas Mora of the Hades Tigers was attacked. They lost 2.7 in the attack.

Consumer attacks grew exponentially more frequent in Season 15, with Chorby Soul personally enduring 138 Consumer attacks in Season 15. Several other players suffered from Consumer attacks this season, most notably Nagomi Mcdaniel and Alyssa Harrell. On Day 104, in a first round playoff series between the Baltimore Crabs and the Kansas City Breath Mints, both Mcdaniel and Harrell were attacked by Consumers when they had a single unit of Soul left. Upon being attacked and their Soul being eaten, both players were immediately taken from their teams and Redacted. Their player profiles show that they do not have any Soulscreams.

The Investigation

See the main article on this topic: The Investigation

A Disappearance

As is tradition, the ten teams playing in the Postseason are granted a Postseason Birth, a new player to live in each team's Shadows. The Kansas City Breath Mints were given Brisket Friendo in Season 13 and the Charleston Shoe Thieves were given Tad Seeth in Season 12.

During the Season 13 Elections, both Friendo and Seeth were given the modification Redacted, which says simply "This player is Redacted." Neither player could be selected as an Idol. Very briefly, Boss appeared to ask Where'd you go, Friendo? A followup from The Commissioner indicated that a missing persons report had been filed, and that "Ownership has enlisted the help of two top-tier investigators and assures no expenses spared."[2]

Over the course of Season 14, little changed about the disappearances. On Season 14, Day 99, Friend and Plasma's Feeds displayed that they "had a Hunch..." and during the Season 14 elections, The Meadow and Choux Stadium gained the Crime Scene modifications.

The Mystery Deepens

In the Season 14 Elections, York Silk and Chorby Soul were resurrected following their incinerations in Season 14 and Season 3, respectively. As with previously resurrected players, these two players had a Debt modification. Unlike Jaylen Hotdogfingers, however, Silk and Soul did not inflict Unstable on their opponents. Instead, they marked their opponents with Observed, a modification last seen during the Coffee Cup, an exhibition tournament run between Season 11 and Season 12. Observed lasts until the end of the in-game week, or every nine games.

Once Silk or Soul marked opponents with Observed and those players played during games with Coffee 2 weather or Coffee 3s weather, there was a possibility that those Observed players would disappear from their team's rosters, receiving the modification Redacted. It is speculated that Observed players can be Redacted in Coffee weather (as distinct from Coffee 2 and Coffee 3s), but no such instance occurred in Season 15.

The players Redacted via this method in Season 15 include Wyatt Glover, Ren Hunter, Peanut Holloway, Liquid Friend, Chorby Short, Forrest Best, and Alx Keming.

Meanwhile, the investigative duo of Uncle Plasma and Liquid Friend continued their search, even after Friend was Redacted. On Day 33, Plasma entered the Crime Scene at The Choux and found "traces of coffee". The Choux lost its Crime Scene modification at the end of the game, when Plasma returned to the Millennials. Once again, on Day 52, Plasma entered the Crime Scene at The Meadow, but did not find anything. The Crime Scene modification was removed from The Meadow as well at the end of the investigation. At several other points in the season, Plasma "sensed something fishy", felt "like they missed something", and had "a sinking feeling". They declared on Day 78 that "Someone's keeping Secrets...but who?"

Secret Base

The disappearances grew even stranger following the Season 15 Latesiesta where several teams in the league opted to build a Secret Base renovation in their Ballparks. On Day 75, Kurt Crueller was marked with Observed by Chorby Soul. A few games later, on Day 78, in a Philly Pies vs. Yellowstone Magic game, Crueller walked into the Secret Base in Yellowstone National (Ball)Park and received the modification Redacted. That same game, Crueller exited the Secret Base at Choux Stadium with the brand new modification Attractor, which reads "When this player scores a Run, they'll join the Lineup of the Team that scored them, if they're not already on their roster." Crueller's Soulscream had disappeared and their star ratings appeared been significantly boosted. However, Crueller's Player Attributes, which govern the star ratings, had not increased. Crueller did not score a run while on second base, and disappeared promptly after.

Several games later, on Day 94, one of the original Redacted players, Tad Seeth, walked out of the Secret Base at An Undisclosed Location, also with the modification Attractor, a missing Soulscream, and visually boosted star ratings (with unchanged Player Attributes). Seeth was not batted in and also disappeared again soon after.

Miscellaneous Events

The Second Wyatt Masoning

See the main article on this topic: The Second Wyatt Masoning

At the Season 14 Latesiesta, thirteen new Wyatt Masons were pulled through the Rift and localized to the teams that built the PsychoAcoustics Ballpark renovation. All the Wyatt Masons had the Echo modification, the effects of which ultimately resulted in eleven of the thirteen Wyatt Masons becoming Static and disappearing from the League, along with Receiver Wyatt Quitter. At the end of Season 14, only two Wyatt Masons remained: Wyatt Mason IV on the LA Unlimited Tacos and Wyatt Mason X on the Seattle Garages.


  1. The Commissioner [@blaseball] (28 Feb 2021). "congratulations to our new food and beverage director" (Tweet) - via Twitter.
  2. BLASEBALL COMMISSIONER [@blaseball] (14 Mar 2021). (Tweet) - via Twitter.