Newbie

ozzymite

Hi
I have just started a few days ago and am up to captain. What i'm trying to find out does the enemy damage increase as you increase in level as i seem to be dying a lot quicker especially my shields both ground and ship disappear quicker?
Also the lock box keys can you only get them from the stores?

tom61sto

Yes, enemies increase in damage output and durability as you level, and you can't 'out level' an enemy. You'll need to keep your weapons, shields, etc. up in mark as you level: fix things up using vendors on your homeworld if you've not gotten good drops by buying the highest mark you can slot for your level (I would not try Upgrading gear directly until you have a better idea what you'll want at endgame).

Lockbox keys are from the C-Store for Zen or from the Exchange for Energy Credits ( and the ones there were still purchased with Zen).

arionisa

Tom already answered the main question for you. Just a bit of clarification about "you can't out level an enemy". If you take your "high level" toon into a "low level" mission the game lowers your effective level to match the level of the enemies in that mission. For example, I just (literally) took my lvl 62 Captain to Nimbus, a mission arc that you normally hit some around level 20 something. As soon as I beam down, in the top left corner, it now shows "Fleet Admiral (62) SC (26)". I forget exactly what the "SC" is short for but basically it is saying that I am a Fleet Admiral, level 62 but I am fighting at the equivalent of level 26.
I don't know all of the mechanics of what it does but I believe it basically does stuff like lowers you hit points etc to what they would be for a level 26 character. I believe it also lowers the DPS of my nice fancy Mk XII-XV weapons to DPS levels of whatever Mk a lvl 26 toon can use etc.

Don't take it wrong, taking your high level Captain and going back to that low level mission that gave you so many headaches, or that was so difficult that you skipped it is generally a lot easier, especially as you retain thee Captain skills/traits etc that you gained as you leveled, but unlike most MMOs, you can't just go in there and ROFLStomp the enemies because you are a way higher level than them. Space combat is also a lot easier. Even though your hitpoints, shields, etec might have been lowered, you are still flying a ship with a lot more weapons consoles and usable Boff skills than you had at the lower level.

Now then, keys...again Tom gave you the answer. You can use real money to buy Zen to buy keys, you can trade Dilithium for Zen to buy keys, or you can use ECs and get them from the exchange because of the people who did spend real money to buy the keys just so they could sell them for EC in the exchange.

If you are interested in buying keys to open lock boxes to get something really good, don't...

Pretty much anything that you get from opening a lockbox with those keys, you can just buy from the exchange for ECs instead. An exception is Lobi crystals, the only way to get those is by opening lock boxes. The odds of getting good stuff from a lockbox (especially the good ships) are extremely slim. You can open thousands of lock boxes and still never get what you were hoping for, whereas by saving your ECs you guaranteed of being able to buy it off the exchange.

That being said, spending real money to buy keys, to then sell them on the exchange is pretty much the fastest and most surefire method of amassing huge amounts of EC.

Of course, if you enjoy gambling, have lots of disposable income, and are okay with the fact that you can spend literally thousands of dollars on keys to open lock boxes and yet still never get what you were hoping for, by all means, do it, please. The real money that players spend on Zen is what pays the bills and keeps this game going, and it is only the players that have the disposable income buying Zen and trading it in game in various fashions that makes it possible for those who don't have disposeable income to have access to all that neat Zen stuff.