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Waking from cryo sleep and need directions....
abbandon
Member Posts: 19 Arc User
in The Academy
I've got a 60+ a 50+ and a 30+ captain. Im coming back from a veery long cryo sleep but even when I left I was a total newb. Im on ps4.
I will never pay 30 real life $$'s for a freaking video game ship, so im stuck with T5 mk12 TRIBBLE gear... Where do I go from there??
Im working on my reputation with various factions to unlock weapons/gear from them???
I reached the Dyson Sphere and recently went there and that is sorta fun but I have like half or less than half the storyline missions in there locked?? How I unlock missions? Like I finished 1,2,3 but 4 is locked, and then 5,6 is finished and then like more are locked. I have no idea how to pick up the storyline so I can finish off the dynson sphere and move on.
But anyways I have fun for the most parts just TRIBBLE around and engaging in ship combat. Absolutely hate ground combat. But I've kinda touched on some things that I would like to pursue more earnestly.
-Upgading stuff you own. I took a couple of my stronger beam weapons and upgraded them until I ran out of materials... Where do I get more upgrade materials?? I need the base elements and I also need catalysts so I can improve their rarity. My one captain wants to specialize in tetryon beam weapons is there anywhere I can go to see where I can possibly get these from enemy drops or mission rewards?? I need more. Also is there a maximum you can upgrade stuff. Will my beams eventually cap out on damage?? All my beams are like 500-600+ dps right now.
-Duty officers. Is the only way to get MORE duty officers to pay ZEN/ aka real money?? There is nothing in-game where you get like 1-2 for doing a mission or something??? I'd even be willing to do ground missions!!! I just endlessly send my peeps out on missions. Is this going to help them level up and become better?? It can also get them killed....which i think has happened lol. But mainly I need more officers because I have more roles to fill. I cant do some of the mission because I dont have any officers of that type.
Also I read a little about active duty officers and scanned through my entire group to see if I had any cool ones. I got one who can reduce my cooldown on slipstream movement on sector map by 50%. He was in a mission at the time though so I didnt bother trying to figure out how to make him active duty lol.
-R&D I JUST started doing. I know I get R&D boxes from doing TFO. Is there any way to farm them faster or easier??
-I dont think it is possible but can I make a solo fleet for the sole purpose of gaining access to better ships??? I think in order to make a fleet you need like 5 people total or something??
This game is a major trainwreck with its pay to play and ground combat/on foot mechanics but I really love the space combat side of things even though thats completely broken to.
-Whats the best way to gain power if your not willing to buy ZEN?? Im also working on my admiralty ranks but I dont know what will come of that??
I will never pay 30 real life $$'s for a freaking video game ship, so im stuck with T5 mk12 TRIBBLE gear... Where do I go from there??
Im working on my reputation with various factions to unlock weapons/gear from them???
I reached the Dyson Sphere and recently went there and that is sorta fun but I have like half or less than half the storyline missions in there locked?? How I unlock missions? Like I finished 1,2,3 but 4 is locked, and then 5,6 is finished and then like more are locked. I have no idea how to pick up the storyline so I can finish off the dynson sphere and move on.
But anyways I have fun for the most parts just TRIBBLE around and engaging in ship combat. Absolutely hate ground combat. But I've kinda touched on some things that I would like to pursue more earnestly.
-Upgading stuff you own. I took a couple of my stronger beam weapons and upgraded them until I ran out of materials... Where do I get more upgrade materials?? I need the base elements and I also need catalysts so I can improve their rarity. My one captain wants to specialize in tetryon beam weapons is there anywhere I can go to see where I can possibly get these from enemy drops or mission rewards?? I need more. Also is there a maximum you can upgrade stuff. Will my beams eventually cap out on damage?? All my beams are like 500-600+ dps right now.
-Duty officers. Is the only way to get MORE duty officers to pay ZEN/ aka real money?? There is nothing in-game where you get like 1-2 for doing a mission or something??? I'd even be willing to do ground missions!!! I just endlessly send my peeps out on missions. Is this going to help them level up and become better?? It can also get them killed....which i think has happened lol. But mainly I need more officers because I have more roles to fill. I cant do some of the mission because I dont have any officers of that type.
Also I read a little about active duty officers and scanned through my entire group to see if I had any cool ones. I got one who can reduce my cooldown on slipstream movement on sector map by 50%. He was in a mission at the time though so I didnt bother trying to figure out how to make him active duty lol.
-R&D I JUST started doing. I know I get R&D boxes from doing TFO. Is there any way to farm them faster or easier??
-I dont think it is possible but can I make a solo fleet for the sole purpose of gaining access to better ships??? I think in order to make a fleet you need like 5 people total or something??
This game is a major trainwreck with its pay to play and ground combat/on foot mechanics but I really love the space combat side of things even though thats completely broken to.
-Whats the best way to gain power if your not willing to buy ZEN?? Im also working on my admiralty ranks but I dont know what will come of that??
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Comments
Upgrade materials come from basically doing anything, you'll constantly get them from missions (even solo missions), stfs/tfos, etc. Just play the game and they'll come in. Duty officer assignments can also get that stuff, if you do the right ones.
Duty officer packs will be awarded as you level up, and you can buy them from the exchange for energy credits. You can set up to 5 'active duty' space and 5 active duty ground duty officers (once they're not doing missions), which can give you a lot of different skill boosts, like reducing cooldowns on abilities or making some abilities more powerful, there's a lot of options out there you just have to find the right duty officers for what you need.
R&D I'm still a little sketchy on myself, so I cant really answer questions about that too well.
You can make a 5 person fleet and then remove the other players, and keep yourself as the only fleet member, but you wont get a lot of benefit out of it. It takes a lot of people to make the fleet features work. You're better off looking for a large, active fleet to join so you can reap the benefits of membership, dont be afraid of being a part of a big fleet, it can help get a lot done ingame.
I was never a huge fan of the ground combat here either, but had a blast doing the dyson sphere ground battlezone with a couple other random people I teamed up with tonight, and in just a couple hours I made like 600-800 dyson marks and a good bit of reputation.
If you dont want to buy zen, you have to do things the slow way: Collect dilithium from doing missions/duty officer assignments/stfs and tfos/etc., refine it (you can refine up to 8,000 dilithium per day), and then use the dilithium exchange to buy zen. It can take a few weeks, but if you're diligent at farming dilithium on multiple characters you can get enough zen for a starship or other items from the cstore.
There's vendor you can buy the weakest upgrade tokens from though those tokens aren't really cost efficient.
The missions should not be locked. The only thing I can think of is that you have a mission to do a TFO (Group Queue) and the missions beyond it are locked. If that's the case, you can simply skip that one and move on with the story. Look back through your journal and see if you have a mission that has a hail and a skip option. If you don't want to do it, hit skip and it should unlock everything after it.
For the time being, don't worry too much about upgrades. As you proceed through missions, you're going to keep getting better drops and are likely going to end up trashing everything you have now anyway. The most efficient way to upgrade is using Phoenix Kits which come from Phoenix Box Events. There is currently one going on right now, you buy the Phoenix Boxes from the Dilithium Store (it's 40k Dilithium for 10 boxes.) What most people do (myself included) is they open boxes and convert all their tokens into Phoenix Upgrade Kits. One Phoenix Kit gives you the upgrade points of 4 Superior Upgrade Kits. Most people will just horde them until an Upgrade Weekend where you get double points and then upgrade for a fraction of the normal cost.
At this point though, I am assuming that 40k per 10 boxes is a lot for you so I wouldn't worry about it. As you get later into the game, you'll get some nice stuff from Event Rewards, you can also get stuff pretty cheap by just buying them on the Exchange. You can search 'Tetryon Beam Array Mark XII' and set the rarity to VR. I wouldn't worry about anything past Mark XII right now.
Go to Earth Space Dock, look for Lt. Ferra on your map. You can purchase Duty Officers from him for Dilithium, you can collect free Officers that you have earned through mission XP and you can also run a project to Requisition New Duty Officers that will give you some free officers. You can also buy them on the exchange, most categories of officer are pretty cheap even for purple. Some however, can be quite costly.
Tough to answer without knowing your build and what you have access to, but generally speaking just put anyone on duty that you think can help you. Not too much to worry about yet, you'll be refining this later at end game when you start nailing down a build.
There is a daily project in each category. It takes 20hrs to complete and gives you a ton of XP for that RnD School. I would focus on one at a time right now, start with Beams and run 3 of the projects every day. It won't let you run more then 3, just keep doing that until the school reaches level 15 and then do the same to another school.
Honestly, don't do this. This game has so many 1 man fleets it's just silly and you'll never be able to get anywhere. You're best served joining an established fleet with good people that can help you learn and will let you buy ships. If you're on PC and you need a good fleet with some friendly and helpful people, I can invite you to mine. (I don't own the fleet, I am just in it.)
Actually, it's not. The game has the most generous free to play model of any game out there right now. You just need to learn where things are, it's an almost overwhelming task.. I know. The game is HUGE and there is so much to know, but you can get help with stuff. Don't feel like you have to spend a ton of money, you don't.
For now, the best thing you can do is play your missions, do your RnD Projects and do your Reputation Daily Projects as well. You're at a phase right now where you should just be enjoying the story, it's a great time.. don't be so quick to shoot past it because things will only be new once. Move at a steady pace, do your daily projects get those RnD and Rep levels up and collect what you can along the way. Once your done, it will be time to start farming Dilithium and grinding out Rep and Fleet Marks and Elite Marks to get what you need from stores and hording upgrade materials.
Embrace where you are now, enjoy the game and move at a comfortable pace. It's intended to be a slow process, if you obsess with speeding through it it won't be as much fun.
Just to add a little map to Sea's suggestion. Beam down to Starfleet Academy. Go see Lt Ferra at the red star inside the building at the top of the map. Then also see the Andorian and Tellarite exchange officers outside the building (left most red star) and the Vulcan exchange officer (lower most red star) to start additional doff missions to get free doffs.
Similar exchange missions are available for KDF at their academy and Romulans can get even more by going to New Romulus Command as well.
Unbound whites you don't need can be sold on the exchange for EC which can assist in buying a handful of additional doffs with the characteristics you need to get you started.
While in space some doff missions as well as the Clusters actually award very nice doffs. Cryptic also holds junior officer appreciation events that reward doffs.
You could also see if anybody has a Suliban Cel ship up in a fleet or public service channel for some 120 hour missions that can award unique doffs as well. While on a Cel ship the owner can provide you with instructions for which missions to grab and how to take them all before starting them. If you're in a fleet there's even more opportunities at the fleet Starbase.
You could darn near write a book just about doffing. The same applies to the rest of the game.
Well maybe there aren't any real books but there are some excellent online resources including a wiki, reddit, and various other websites covering STO from ship builds to general interest.
You made a good choice by posting in this forum as well. We're here to help.
I think Sea frames things very well. Doffing, like a lot of things in game, requires a bit of study and some practice, but over time you end up doing very well. Enjoy your journey.
Huge +1 to all of this.
Well said and 100% accurate.
I know I get small amount of D from TFO's, duty officers, normal missions. I know there is a Feringi in control of a rock that will let me keep a small portion of what I mine for them although I have never tried that yet.
Any other really good places to farm it?? How much D should you try to farm? I guess your target is 8k. (I saw that npc for people who pay to play that lets them process an extra 1k ore at New Romulus command).
Anyways thanx for all the advice I will try to run with it.
You can do the Breen daily missions from Ambassador Surah in the Alpha quadrant
You can do the three missions on Nimbus from Yamlon Nuck in the bar.
Each of those, that's around half your daily refine cap.
Plus, if you get good at the mining minigame you get 1000 from Vlugta. If you join a fleet that has their dilithium mining opened up you can get another 3000 from doing that. Plus there's a Reman in there that will give you a DOFF mission that will get some more dil. And he can refine an extra 500 dil if you accumulate more than the daily refine cap.
Another good source for Dilithium is doing random TFO’s. Even if the queue itself doesn’t reward well, the bonus boxes for doing randoms can be quite lucrative.
When I look at the exchange its telling me 1 zen is about 230 Dil.... and that its going to cost me 680-700k Dill for 3k zen lol....Does that sound right??? Thats is a whole hell of alot of grinding lol. (im on ps4)
Sounds like a bargain!
It's about 315:1 on PC right now, and that's way down from where it was. Not too long ago, it was well over 400:1.
That's why people have a lot of alternate characters. I have 8 myself, but most have a lot more. With 8 characters, I can refine 64,000 Dilithium per day which comes out to 448,000 Dilithium Per week. At 315:1 that means a T6 ship costs 945,000 Dilithium so I can get one every other weekend.
It's really not that hard.
Every single Rep Project grants you a bit of Dilithium, but the most important thing: When you reach Tier 5, you get a lump sum of Dilithium, extra Marks, and Elite Marks (for Reputations that have an Elite Mark).
Every day, you get 50 Bonus Marks per Reputation for the first time you complete a task that grants marks for that reputation. (TFOs, some Patrols, Battlezone Stuff). Together with the typical base mark reward of such activity, that is enough Marks for 2 Daily Reputation Projects.
While it takes weeks to complete one reputation, this way you can easily work on multiple one at the same time.
It's a once-per-character thing, but it can greatly help you get that character decent stuff - or, you can use him as a mere "slave" for your main and use the Dilithium Exchange to transfer the Dilithium to another character, or to get Zen that you spend for stuff for other characters.
On console, you don't need to worry about the EC Cap unlock, but what might be useful acquiring if you intend to run multiple characters is an Account Bank. Trade some Dilithium for Zen to buy that. This will allow you to transfer bound-to-account (and unbound) items and Energy Credits between characters. This way, it's easy to have only one dedicated Crafter, for example (if you bother with Crafting at all.)
If you want to earn a lot of Dilithium with Admiralty, you probably also need a lot of ships. Consider buying cheaper Tier 5 ships from the exchange, if available. (On PC, they are really cheap, I don't know how cheap and common they are on consoles). (It's of course a lot easier if you actually own basically all C-Store ships). Also, make sure you get all the Shuttles you can get for cheap or free. They can't help you do difficult Admiralty tasks, but they can help you get your ships back faster, or get crits (and with them, potentially get one-time-use Admiralty cards.), or as an improvised pass token. (Still needs an Admiralty slot, but you don't need to spend any actually good ships on unbeatable tasks.)
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Unrelated to the above: I think Strategist is a decent Secondary Specialization to level in early. It has a way to help you manage cooldowns, and a kinetic/torpedo immunity that you will probably enjoy against Tzenkethi and a few other enemies. Since you won't have a lot of Starship Mastery Traits without a lot of C-Store ships, it might be the kind of help you need.