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How to Beat the Undine Dreadnought in Stop the Signal

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
I posted this on someone's thread, but there are too many to keep reposting it, so here's a simple how-to. First of all, the Undine dreadnought is not invincible, it is very doable in single player. Secondly, it helps if you're at least a Lt. Cdr. and you have Mk III weapons and shields (preferably, quantum torpedoes and regenerative shields.)

The key to defeating the dreadnought in single player is to do it while the Klingons are still alive. If they all die, you might as well give up and try again. First, ignore the frigates, they're there to distract you. Target only the dreadnought and throw the kitchen sink at it. Every weapon you have fired as often as you can and lots of turns prevent the same shields from being repeatedly hammered. Abilities that help are: high yield torpedoes, emergency power to aux, weapons and shields, evasive maneuvers and shield rotation (though, you have to be an engineer to rotate the shields.) Items like shield, weapon, engine and aux. batteries also help.

Teaming up with others also helps. There are enough people who hate the mission enough that they'll be glad to team up with you, just holler on the chat line.

I actually teamed up with someone earlier who was having problems with the dreadnought and we beat it. However, I didn't do the rest of the mission first, so I had to go back in. The person I helped was helping me but had issues warping to the dreadnought, so it was just me and the Klingons. With the Klingons' help, I beat the dreadnought in just a few minutes by ignoring the frigates and using the abilities I mentioned above. I was in a Tier 2 cruiser with fore and aft MkIII phasers, fore MkII quantums and rear MkIII photons. I had MkIII regenerative shields and hull strength, shield regen and weapons boost consoles. The dreadnought never stood a chance and then we wiped up the frigates. :)

Fortunately, the next few missions after that one aren't that hard.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Nice write up. However, I just did this as a LtC 1 with just the gear i had for my tier 1 ship. I died once but by the time i respawned and was flying back to the fight the nice klingons finished it off for me. In other words I had no trouble. I am wondering if its a random bug?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I did this mission at lt.9, and had a mk II dual phaser beam bank, and a mk I phaser turret, and a mk II quantum torp. All my shields, engine, and deflector was standard issue. My skills were Beam Overload 1, Hazard Emitters 1, and Emergency Power to Shields 1.

    I pretty much started off thinking "I will just kill the stupid frigates and let the Klingons handle the big ship..." and found out pretty quickly that the Klingons don't survive very long... which left me alone against EVER SPAWNING frigates and a nearly full strength (And angry) Undine ship to do solo. Originally I tried using Torp Spread... the problem there was that I kept hitting the frigates and drawing their attention. Having a giant Undine ship and like 5 smaller ships all mad at you, well...

    Yeah... that didn't work out.

    So I pretty much did exactly what you suggested, as soon as I reentered the map, I made a beeline straight for the stupid Nictus and opened fired. I stayed behind it and hugged its hull, never letting up even once. Just keeps putting all my shield power into my forward face, kept healing, and completely ignored the frigates. I managed to blow it up in about 4ish minutes of constant pressure and it was easy to mop up the massive mob with all my Klingons still alive. Switching to BO1 really helped, because as long as you don't draw all the aggro to yourself, the Klingons pretty much keep the heat off of you.

    Easy peasy!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Nice write up. However, I just did this as a LtC 1 with just the gear i had for my tier 1 ship. I died once but by the time i respawned and was flying back to the fight the nice klingons finished it off for me. In other words I had no trouble. I am wondering if its a random bug?

    myeah were you a tactical officer? because i'm thinking it's not so random. I play science and have mk II at low levels science ships officers have no debuff on damage so there is a huge issue if this is as intended.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    My friend and I beat it together by focussing on the frigates. We also used Engineering Team 1 to keep the Klingon ships healed up.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I'm sure there are other strategies, I just offered my thoughts for the people who are stuck. I've been there myself. The first time I tried this mission was a couple weeks ago in Holodeck using my TOS Connie (with quantums) and I was firing at the stupid frigates. Meanwhile, the dreadnought was regenerating. The Klingons all died except one, which is the commander's Neg'Var. He won't lift a finger to help you if he's the only one left because he has to survive. :rolleyes: I tried and tried but couldn't kill the thing, so I gave up.

    At that point, I started doing later missions, which isn't an option on the new system, so I knew I had to beat the thing. (though, I was dreading it.) However, it worked out OK.

    I decided when it was just me and the Klingons that it was best to just target the Dreadnought and ignore the frigates. And, since the Klingons did the same (NPCs stay with the same target until it's destroyed and the dreadnought spawns first) and I noticed the dreadnought's power was going quickly, so I stuck with it. I died once but came back and kept hitting the dreadnought and it worked. That's why I suggested leaving the frigates alone. They're not very dangerous to a light cruiser or cruiser with decent shields and they can easily be wiped up after the dreadnought dies. Plus, 6 will spawn at any give time but only 6 at once. If you destroy one, another replaces it and you're getting nowhere until you kill the dreadnought.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    gnobber wrote:
    myeah were you a tactical officer? because i'm thinking it's not so random. I play science and have mk II at low levels science ships officers have no debuff on damage so there is a huge issue if this is as intended.

    Yea I was a tactical.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    to be honest, i know many, including myself who tried diffrent tactics when soloing it and getting hammerd every time.

    wich has ended up with me sitting there as RA helping around 10 - 15 teams of people beeing stuck at the same place.

    and i bet there is even more then that who is having issues, and it shoulnt be as hard as it is.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Switching to BO1 really helped...!

    Eh? Switch to BO1? What exactly do you mean?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    SojournerX wrote:
    Eh? Switch to BO1? What exactly do you mean?

    BO1: Short for the skill "Beam Overload 1". I had another tac officer that had it, so I switched them around.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Like you said, everyone gets stuck here, so the quickest way to do it is just hang around Bomari for five minutes and post in zone "LFT stop the signal dread." Chances are there are already at least four other people there who are also stuck on it, and with a team it goes down quick and easy no matter who you bring along. Fortunately the over the top frigate spam is not any worse when you have a team than when you're alone, so you can just ignore them and focus the dread until it dies.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    The problem i found was that the dreadnought seems to focus all it's agro on you meaning you don't last very long and by the time you've flown back from the respawn point (which is in the wrong place) the Klingons are dead and you have no hope.
    I finally grouped with another Lt. and found it really easy as now the dreadnought can only focus on one of you at a time while the other lets rip with everything they've got.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    When I was on a toon with low DPS I used a different strategy...
    I was using decent shields and a few heal abilities though.
    Should even be possible in a T1.
    Make sure that you are able to outrun the frigates if necessary with power to engines.
    Then start grabbing their attention completely pulling away their aggro from the Klingons.
    The Klingons will keep focused on the big ship and will be able to destroy it if they don't take any other damage.
    In the meantime you can simply pull the frigates behind you harmlessly and with a clever course even assist the Klingons (by debuffing the boss and healing up a damaged BoP or two)
    This strategy takes a bit of time and maybe practice.

    It's probably easier to ask a friend or random zone people to help.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    ive done this twice today one with a friend and the other by blowing up underneith it.....

    its a victory in both accounts but as this was a PVE mission i have to give it 1/10 great lead up but useless with the learning curve of the game being shallow as it is!!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    When I was on a toon with low DPS I used a different strategy...
    I was using decent shields and a few heal abilities though.
    Should even be possible in a T1.
    Make sure that you are able to outrun the frigates if necessary with power to engines.
    Then start grabbing their attention completely pulling away their aggro from the Klingons.
    The Klingons will keep focused on the big ship and will be able to destroy it if they don't take any other damage.
    In the meantime you can simply pull the frigates behind you harmlessly and with a clever course even assist the Klingons (by debuffing the boss and healing up a damaged BoP or two)
    This strategy takes a bit of time and maybe practice.

    It's probably easier to ask a friend or random zone people to help.

    going to have to argue with you on this one i did this tactic the other night along with several others and none of them worked i feel this bug has its lows ands highs which is why some of us are having alot of problems and some of us are having little or no problems
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    LTC? Easily done and repeatedly done at LT 7

    - Fight the same shield side as the Klingons
    - Gain aggro on the frigates but dont destroy
    - Pop heals on the Klingons, prioritizing on the Negvars
    - run away when the dreadnaught is at about 50% to heal your hull, then repeat till dead

    Works every time
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    That's because the story missions increase in difficulty as you increase in rank. So, anybody should be able to defeat it as a Lt. just as easily as doing it as a Lt. Cdr. However, some people are clearly having issues beating this thing as an Lt., that's why I suggested the increased rank. Lt. Cdr. ships have more hull strength and extra weapons slots. Plus, your character will have more abilities, you'll have another bridge officer slot and one of your bridge officers will be able to use Lt. abilities. It gives you more options than an Lt. Captain has in the fight. It never hurts to have more options. :cool:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    ...beatable, but this is being considered a bug, or rather a game balance issue, right?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    ...beatable, but this is being considered a bug, or rather a game balance issue, right?

    I don't really know about that... I mean, after all it's kind of the first 'Boss' you encounter in the game. When you go through all the story arcs before it, it all leads to this one mission. Plus when you beat it, you pretty much get a free "CONGRATULATIONS LT.COMMANDER" when you turn it in. The exp in this beta is REDICULOUS, but fun when you level up every major mission. Keeps things fast paced and fresh. Plus if you don't like your ship, it wont be long till you get a new one! LOL
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Hi all.
    I have not been able to defeat it yet with my Lt Eng. I now am LtCom2 with all the things Eg180 says I should have on my Eng Cruiser Ship.
    I will give it a try as you have all suggested I do it and I will let you know how I do.
    Good luck to me - lol.
    God Bless, BFN, LtCom Saillie A. Frigeng.......
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I've done this mission as an Engineer and a Tactical Officer and both times I had my hull handed to me as a Lt flying a Light Cruiser fitted out with standard kit.

    In both cases I revisited the mission at LC2 with the next tier of ship (Standard Load out). As a cruiser Captain I thinned out the Frigate Groups (they regenerate on what looks like a timed basis up to 5(?) Frigates) and also hit the Dreadnought hard and often enough to attract it's agro.

    I then switched to survival mode while the Klingons pounded the Dreadnought and I did my best to keep most of the ships alive while delaying destruction myself.

    As an escort it was about limiting the frigates to 1 or 2 while removing the shields from the Dreadnought. I coped a lot of damage as I still got every ship aggroing me.

    In most every successful solo mission I died at least once and had to warp back to the damaged Dreadnought and a group of 5 frigates. The Dreadnought was, in the successful runs down to under 25% and the last Klingon, invariably fell as I approached the area.

    I hit the dreadnought as hard as I could took it down and then made a bee line for the back side of the nearest asteroid to break LOS from the remaining support ships.

    I found that they give up once you heal a bit then you can go back to clean things up if you are so inclined.

    The point for me is that these are the same tactics I employed the first time around (as in, at launch) so i didn't feel that this was overly hard. Irritating yes, but there is more then enough other content in the immediate area to get you to LC1 or 2 to do the mission solo if you want to do it that way.

    Just my 2 cents.

    J.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Did it at Lt9, science captain. BOFFS had HY1 and Emergency power to weapons, and hazard emitters. Failed horribly on first attempt where I tried to kill the frigates. Second attempt I unloaded everything on the Big Bad, using HY, EptW and sensor scan as soon as they came off cooldown. Also tried to stay as much as possible on one of the biggies shield arcs. In the end it was me, a K'tinga and a raptor left alive.

    Mission is a bit on the hard side for solo though, especially for that low level where many new players might not be fully up to things. It should be toned down a little.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    As i mentioned in the other thread, I'll state again here.

    Play the mission up until dreadnought at whatever level you get the quest first go round.
    Drop out, collect a group of other players who are also stuck, try to get the maximum size group, say 5 or so.
    Make sure everyone has reached the same point of the mission "unforseen enemies" or somesuch.

    Everyone drops in. 3-4 people take down dreadnought, other 1-2 focus on killing frigates to keep their friends clear of hostiles.

    This should win the mission quite easily at anywhere from Lt7 onwards.
    At this level, classes don't seem to matter, so don't worry if you have 5xSci or whatever.

    I was using torp spread, energytoweapons, and the beam from the science officer (I forget what it's called right this second). Had the basic phaser banks, and a mk2 photon launcher, plus the largest capacity shield I could find.
    Ended up just dandy.
    Groups = win.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Or... as I suggested in a seperate thread, that apparently got deleted (at least I can't find it anymore), show a disclaimer that says recommended for teams of 2-3 players.
    A mission format I would very much welcome throughout the game.
    Hard but not impossible to solo (just be aware it's not your average solo mission) but ideal for small teams.
    Champions uses this format successfully for example.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Stop the Signal got you down? Here's how to win it.
    One semi easy way, one hard way, and one incredibly easy way :)
    Method 1 This is the default and easiest to do solo. We'll call it No Mooks Out Today. The basic jist of Method 1, is to ignore the mobs and just stay on the Dreadnought at all times.
    Just balance your shields, crank your weapon power, have full ranks in your boff's bo1, and spike the sucker every chance you get. Crank EPTS (that is Emergency Power to Shields) when the focus fire pours in the first time, then the npcs invariably take the aggro back off of you (since the aggro mechanics in this game are virtually non existent X enemy will always target Y where Y is whoever is doing the most dps to it rather than helping it's team mate)

    If the focus fire gets to be too much lay off the hate on the dreadnought, crank your shield power (this is generally after EPTS has worn off... assuming you didn't have it maxed out on ranks like I Didn't.), eat an aux battery and pop hazard. (assuming you have hazard. If you don't just eat your sci team if your shields are that dangerously low)

    Switch weapon power back on, when the hate fades off or when your shields are mostly recovered and finish the job. In my case, pump torp every time it's off of CD as even a torp hitting shields is still more dps than a single DBB hitting the target.

    I had some unlucky warpcore from a couple npcs hit me so I had to go defensive during method 2 (as the klink npcs actually focus fired a couple of frigates) once, and then after that I laid the hate on heavy and thick.

    Conversely you could also, while your shield power is cranked crank a weapon battery every chance you get and spike with bo1, so even in turtle mode you don't necessarily have to lose your punch if you think you are that close to beating the npc. I had my engines set to 25 power the whole time, and was able to stay on one or two facings really easily with only adjusting my throttle maybe once. And those klink npcs -will- help you pound the thing down.

    It's far from the unbeatable monster that the 'casuals; are trying to paint it as.

    I did it with two very different methods, the first (Warp Core Torpedo) was the more advanced and far more difficult method, due to the sheer number of variables involved and the horrid movement capabilities of the Frigate.

    Both times however I had a very unfavorable setup and didn't even have a single console equipped on my ship.

    As far as "elite skill" goes, there's really not much you can do in a Miranda in my opinion to eek -that- much more mileage out of it. It's a garbage ship and it really is that poor of a vehicle. Especially with a DBB and Torp as your only effective weapons. (yeah that's right for once the default weapon loadout on a ship is superior to what I fielded)

    I'm 90 percent sure I could have done it easier on method 2 even had I a beam array upfront so I could broadside the dreadnought (as 2x beam arrays is more dps vs shields than a dbb and photon torp) and heck for gravy I -know- it would have been easier with consoles and non Standard Issue Shields.

    Method 2, is quite abit more tricky especially in the horribly under powered Frigate. It's much easier to do in a shuttle, but piloting a shuttle requires very intensive power level management, the actual piloting part in this mission is easy enough and if you do it right you'll get plenty of second shots with the warp core torpedoes.. I mean frigate spawns. If you are doing it in a shuttle you'll find it much more rewarding and it teaches you more about power management. the Frigate can get somewhat frustrating since it's a dog in terms of agility.

    The aim here is to spike the frigates with BO1 and a torp and as much hate as you can throw as close to the dreadnought as you can. You want the frigates warpcores to detonate if possible point blank on the hull of the dreadnought or on the shields without frying your friendly and oh so competent pilot npcs (they are anything but during this method I have Warp Core Killed half the NPCs on two different attempts and the dread and future spawns finished off what was left). However when it pays off it's utterly hilarious.

    You will be hitting the dreadnought very little as you are trying to get the hate of individual frigates (or just try to torp spread them to death if they get in a group around the dread that might work too but I have not tested this yet). You'll have them chase you in the way that npcs lazily amble about, get close and then blam you spring the trap and nuke the frigate next to the dread.
    It can take alot of practice of managing your weapon power vs shield power (I also recommend making sure your engine power is set to 50 in full on shield power mode), and positioning is difficult due to the variables.

    If you've got fraps or use Demorecord though the video you can have for posterity would be just awesome.
    Method 3 is the easiest of all, seek help. There's going to be plenty of people that have not beaten this one yet solo. However with 2 players, the mission gets incredibly easy especially with Method 1 employed. if no one wants to, and you are still unwilling to give it another go keep at it. I promise you'll find someone helpful enough to do it with.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    My method of beating the mission:

    1. Wait for the devs to fix the bug. It's in the works, so it shouldn't take too long.
    2. Beat the mission normally.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Mirai wrote: »
    My method of beating the mission:

    1. Wait for the devs to fix the bug. It's in the works, so it shouldn't take too long.
    2. Beat the mission normally.

    I am forced to agree with my esteemed colleage...
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