How to earn new Bridge Officers?

dratikus

The exchange prices for BOs is insane. There has to be another way to earn bridge officers. I am looking for very rare, and the personnel vendors do not seem to have them. maybe there is a vendor someplace I haven't seen yet? Or is there a way to upgrade a bridge officer from uncommon to very rare?

seriousdave

Methods to get boffs:

-leveling up: as you progress you'll get a bunch of boffs, nothing spectecular but roms have a chance of getting a SRO boff that way. Jem'hadar will have all of them right from the start.

-doff assigments: in various places doff assignments pop up which lets you get various faction corresponding boffs, though assignments for romulan and especially reman boffs are super rare.

-the exchange: dunno on what plattform you're on but on PC they're dirt cheap unless you're looking for a SRO boff

-reputations: some reps have boffs like the borg & dyson reps

-episodes: there are jem'hadar(tac), kobali(eng) and hiarchy(sci) boffs you get from certain missions

-c-store & lobi: wouldn't recommend this option but you can browse through them

As for boff "quality", it's dosen't do anything to their stats. It only serves as indicator of which traits a boff has.

Common: 2x basic + 2x standard
Uncommon: 1x basic + 3x standard
Rare: 1x basic + 2x standard +1x superior
Very Rare: 2x standard + 2x superior

On a sidenote some species can't even be VR because they have a set of racial traits which don't have a "superior" version.
Basically boff quality dosen't matter unless you want a romulan with 2 superior space traits like superior romulan operative+ superior subterfuge.

dratikus

Is there a way to upgrade BO traits or change them somehow?

dracounguis

there are quite a few duty officer missions that give you rare and very rare boffs. You just have look around major hubs for them to pop up.

If you have some Dilithium you can get Boffs from different fleet holdings.

Boff traits are fixed, there is no upgrading them.

baddmoonrizin

As has been stated, vendors don't sell them and their traits cannot be upgraded. The VR BOFFs that you're seeing on the Exchange are mostly going to have been earned via level up or DOFF assignments. Are you looking for something in particular?

seaofsorrows

Yeah, are you on PC? because Very Rare Bridge Officers on the exchange are dirt cheap unless you're looking for something rare.

mithrosnomore

It's mostly been said.

A lot of cheap purple bridge officers out there on the exchange, you can find DOFF missions to get them (or try to get them*), and some few are available as mission rewards or bonuses.

If you want something specific, like a Vulcan science officer, then you will probably have to pay a bit of a premium. It's not that Vulcan science officers are necessarily better in the game, it's just that Mr. Spock existed and so a lot of players are attracted to the idea of having a Vulcan science officer.

Female bridge officers also tend to go for more than their male counterparts. Point at whatever you want to as the cause, but it's reality.

But for the most part? You want a purple science officer then you should be able to find one at a reasonable cost.
You just can't be too picky about the gender, species, or especially species/field combinations.

In the meantime, blue bridge officers are nearly as good, are usually a good bit cheaper, and in all cases when you are ready to move on from a bridge officer then you can get a training manual out of them to use to train a different bridge officer or to sell on the exchange.

And for some particular species with particular trait combinations blue is as good as it gets anyway.




* There are two basic DOFF mission types to get bridge officers.
The first type you assign a DOFF to the mission and you are looking for certain DOFF traits to improve quality and you get either a purple or blue depending upon the result.
The second type you just pay energy credits for and do not assign a DOFF. For these it's simple; If you paid 750 energy credits for the mission then you are getting a blue. If you paid 1500 then you are getting purple.

dratikus

I find it interesting that people call 2milEC cheap. xD perhaps if I could grind out the game 20 hours a day 7 days a week I could say the same. But since I am returning after 5 years on a lifetime subscription and work a full time job with family obligations all other waking hours of the day and night, I am finding the Exchange to be rather expensive.


Why do I want new BOs? I was given a tip that I should replace all my common BOs with purple BOs just because "they are better". So, in a effort to make my game a bit more pleasant and playable in the face of insurmountable power differences between me and the NPC enemies at level 65, I have been attempting to upgrade everything I can.

I actually bought a BO for 2milEC and never received it. I have opened a ticket and they say they can not help me. So, I won't be doing the exchange ever again.

I will focus on DOFF missions and hope they grant BOs. I see I have a low level character that have about 15 BOs in the inventory, so maybe I'll get lucky on my main.

Cheers, LLAP, MTFBWY, and thanks.

mithrosnomore

dratikus wrote: »

I find it interesting that people call 2milEC cheap. xD perhaps if I could grind out the game 20 hours a day 7 days a week I could say the same. But since I am returning after 5 years on a lifetime subscription and work a full time job with family obligations all other waking hours of the day and night, I am finding the Exchange to be rather expensive...


Why do I want new BOs? I was given a tip that I should replace all my common BOs with purple BOs just because "they are better". So, in a effort to make my game a bit more pleasant and playable in the face of insurmountable power differences between me and the NPC enemies at level 65, I have been attempting to upgrade everything I can...



I will focus on DOFF missions and hope they grant BOs. I see I have a low level character that have about 15 BOs in the inventory, so maybe I'll get lucky on my main.

1) There are purple Bridge officers available for much less than 2 million EC.
As I stated earlier, some certain species and species/career combinations carry a premium, as do females in many cases.

With 2 million EC and I could fill up an away team with purple bridge officers... Everyone gets one for free from the game to start. You just need three more.

You can do the same as long as you just look for specializations with no regard to species, gender, or some hard-to-find trait.


2) They are "better" on ground missions. Few, if any, special space abilities have a "superior" option and so for space any quality of officer with that ability is usually, if not always, just as good for that purpose.

You may want to read up on bridge officers to better understand what you are actually paying for.

https://sto.gamepedia.com/Bridge_officer

And even their benefits in ground missions is at least partly dependent upon them being set up to use their traits to best benefit... An away team member with "Superior Strength" doesn't change how powerful their pistol or rifle attacks are, nor the effectiveness of their grenades, mortars, or tricorder scans.


3) Unless a bridge officer has been placed on active duty or is otherwise bound then it can be transferred to other characters through the mail. If you have other characters with an abundance of purple bridge officers then you can trade them.

mithrosnomore

I won't edit my previous post, just in case the forums are hungry, but I just logged in and did a quick search of the exchange for purple bridge officers...

The cheapest engineer was 14K.
The cheapest science officer was 25K.
The cheapest tactical officer was a whopping 8K.

That would give me a full purple away team for the staggering price of 47K EC.
So where did that 2 million figure come from?

And that was for the Federation. Klingons can get them much cheaper. I didn't pay attention to the Romulans, but I know that I saw at least one at a lower cost than it's Federation counterpart for that career.

Unknown

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baddmoonrizin

@dratikus , seriously, what are you looking for? If I've got it, I'll GIVE it to you.

seaofsorrows

dratikus wrote: »

I find it interesting that people call 2milEC cheap. xD perhaps if I could grind out the game 20 hours a day 7 days a week I could say the same. But since I am returning after 5 years on a lifetime subscription and work a full time job with family obligations all other waking hours of the day and night, I am finding the Exchange to be rather expensive.

I don't understand this post.

Many people on here are adults with full time jobs and families, so lets go ahead and hold the assumptions shall we? I would like to know exactly what you're looking for because I am on the exchange right now and Very Rare Bridge officers are not just cheap.. not just dirt cheap.. they're practically free. For example.. some current prices..

Saurian Engineering Bridge Officer - Very Rare - 1,000 Credits
Andorian Tactical Bridge Officer - Very Rare - 2,000 Credits

Human Very Rare Officers are 10,000 for Tactical and Engineering, 20,000 for Science. Where are you getting 2 Million?

I'm with baddmoon.. if there is something specific you're looking for let us know what it is. For those that have played a long time, 2M is less then pocket change. I am not saying that to be snide, I am saying it because if you have something you need one of us will very likely just send it to you for free.

What is it you need?

bughunter357

guess alot of you did not read the op reply that he had been out of game for 5 years and was returning so all this EC prices you people are showing does this guy no good as he is still trying to reup in EC.

seaofsorrows

bughunter357 wrote: »

guess alot of you did not read the op reply that he had been out of game for 5 years and was returning so all this EC prices you people are showing does this guy no good as he is still trying to reup in EC.

Clearly the one that didn't read anything was you.

There are officers on the exchange for 1,000 EC.. that takes how long to earn? Maybe 20 seconds? You get that from selling a couple shield battery trash drop from a random mission or whatever random green junk console you find floating in space.

Plus, we're offering to send him what he needs for free if he really needs it that bad.

I assure you, we understand the situation and are legitimately trying to help this guy.

mithrosnomore

bughunter357 wrote: »

guess alot of you did not read the op reply that he had been out of game for 5 years and was returning so all this EC prices you people are showing does this guy no good as he is still trying to reup in EC.

I guess you didn't read where players, myself included, were posting real exchange prices for these purples, and anyone that really wants to get those three extra purples for a full crew should easily be able to afford them after just a few missions.

Or the part where people were offering to *give* some purples to them.

The lack of EC is not an excuse here.

finsches123

You should be aiming for specific space traits on boffs. A purple boff without space traits is not better in any way for space combat. Probably make a "bridge crew" with good space traits, and, if you like, a separate "ground crew" for customization, if you want certain species on you away team, or something like that.

For space, try to acquire boffs with the following traits:

- Superior Romulan Operative (Romulan): Crit buff; can be acquired via doffing by the Romulan faction, or as a single blue-quality tactical exchange officer from the Romulan fleet embassy by others (you can buy more then 1x)

- Pirate (Nausicaan/Hierarchy): Dmg buff; all Nausicaans have that trait, easy to get for the Klingon faction; others can acquire a single Hierarchy science boff from a Delta quadrant mission, and a single Nausicaan officer of any career from tier 4 Diplomacy (doffing)

- Temporal ... Something (Krenim): cooldown reduction, tac officers reduce tac boff cooldowns, sci reduce sci, eng reduce eng; acquired from the fleet research lab

- Kentari Ferocity (Kentari): Dmg buff after killing an enemy; acquired from the fleet colony world