Help a new(ish) player out please

michael

So been playing for a month or so. Dropped some cash and got an Arbiter BC. Character is 65. Been playing missions and have a nice set of purple armaments (phaser) from the Sunset mission and another set. So everything is LVL XII, Purple, and sets. So what do I do next? Should I just grind rep and play with what I have for a while? Should I start getting Phoenix boxes and upgrading my current items to XV? When I got the Arbiter I got some lvl II items that were pretty good (phasers were +crit and +damage vs. +accuracy from the Sunset mission). Should I spend my tech points on those instead?

A little stuck on the "mid-game" part of the end game. I haven't done TFOs yet but I'm not struggling with missions. I've read a few end game guides that tell me what I would want to end up but not much between "just hit 65 and I'm all done with gear".


Thanks!

davefenestrator

Your gear sounds like it's good enough for standard TFOs. For Advanced you might want some of it at higher levels. What you might do is wait for an upgrade weekend when those phoenix tech upgrades will be twice as good.

Some Reputation gear sets have better stats and set bonuses than loot drops and episode rewards. Working on reputations will also earn you dil and once you hit tier 5 reputation you'll get free reputation dil to buy the gear sets.

If your fed captain is not a Delta Recruit this is a good time to create a Romulan captain. You don't need to finish all the Recruit tasks during the event, you just need to create the captain, do the tutorial, and get the temporal device. After that you can spend as many years as you want working on the task list. Romulan is better than Klingon because there will be a separate Klingon Recruitment event sometime in the next year so create a KDF captain then. There will also be a TOS recruitment event in the next year, create your Captain Kirk then. The same for the Dominion recruitment.

Endgame is TFOs, reputation, admiralty, endeavors, duty officer missions, new episodes when they're released, and trying out different ships and gear sets. Part of trying different things is creating captains with different careers (sci, eng, tac) and in the different factions for the different story episodes.

Fleet gear is also better than loot drops, and many C-store ships have a fleet version with better stats and an extra console slot. On PC it should be easy to find a decent fleet that doesn't ask a lot from its new members. On console, especially Xbox, that's harder.

For many of us, Space Barbie is the real endgame -- not just different ships and gear, but different costumes and themes for the captain and crew. For example I have a "Terran Defector" captain flying a Terran ship, wearing 2409 Terran uniforms, and with a reprogrammed Holo-Leeta loyalty officer as part of the bridge crew. She's at least 70% less evil.

baddmoonrizin

/moved

protoneous

michael#6711 wrote: »

So been playing for a month or so. Dropped some cash and got an Arbiter BC. Character is 65. Been playing missions and have a nice set of purple armaments (phaser) from the Sunset mission and another set. So everything is LVL XII, Purple, and sets. So what do I do next? Should I just grind rep and play with what I have for a while? Should I start getting Phoenix boxes and upgrading my current items to XV? When I got the Arbiter I got some lvl II items that were pretty good (phasers were +crit and +damage vs. +accuracy from the Sunset mission). Should I spend my tech points on those instead?

A little stuck on the "mid-game" part of the end game. I haven't done TFOs yet but I'm not struggling with missions. I've read a few end game guides that tell me what I would want to end up but not much between "just hit 65 and I'm all done with gear".


Thanks!

Nice choice of ship! I wouldn't be overly concerned about upgrading your current items as there's more stuff to come as you complete reputations. For many of us, Space Barbie is NOT the real endgame -- it's not so much about different costumes and themes but more about getting our Captain and ships working as effectively as possible in order to better battle the multitude of hostile aliens and other parties the game presents to us. Most of the game is about defeating enemies after all. Here's a rough checklist for you to work on..

1. Being a "turtle" (going heavy on defense) is ultimately defeating. Do more damage instead.
2. Ships power levels set to "attack" (max power to weapons) with the second highest power level being engines.
3. If using torpedoes limit of 1 (one) forward facing torpedo.
4. Energy specific tactical consoles are the only thing that goes into tactical console slots. Join a fleet and get better ones.
5. For ship's weapons any combination of CrtD and damage is the way to go.
6. Emergency Power to Weapons always.
7. Take advantage of story line consoles that do multiple things even if they're not part of a set i.e. House Martok Defensive Configuration, Trellium-D Plating
8. Take every opportunity to maximize your damage, bonus damage, CrtH, and CrtD in your skill tree, traits, and consoles.
9. Utilize as many CrtH boosting consoles as possible i.e. Temporal Disentanglement Suite, Assimilated Module, Zero Point Energy Conduit.
10. An Emergency Conn Hologram (from Phoenix token) + Emergency Power to Engines is your friend. Leave the non-believers behind.
11. Cooldown reduction: Use Photonic Officer or Aux2Batt.
12. If on PC use a simple keybind for your basic tactical rotation. No need to form bad habits like so many players do that then need to be unlearned. Avoid frantically clicking on things at all costs as it just makes things more difficult!
    
    Nobody really wants to click on all these things, repeatedly, when flying their starship in battle so why bother? Photonic Officer -> Emergency Power to Weapons -> Beam firing mode -> Attack Pattern Beta -> Tactical Team. Tying them all to a single key or spacebar is sooo much easier 👍
    
13. When you're done with beams on your Arbiter try all dual heavy cannons front + turrets rear to defeat enemies even faster. Most critters shouldn't need much more than a volley or two before gloriously exploding.

thaedaris

michael#6711 wrote: »

A little stuck on the "mid-game" part of the end game.

We've all been there before so we all know that pain. MK 12 is Level 45 so you've been using Level 45 equipment in Level 65 content.

Good advice in the thread thus far!

I recommend that you start using Phoenix Upgrade tokens to get all your ship's weapons, 2 x neutronium alloys, and appropriate tactical consoles to at least MK14. Upgrade them to MK15 if you want to start doing Random TFO (Advanced Difficulty).

You can craft them at level 2 to save on time and R&D materials. Crafted gears are highly recommended since they become Account Bound items which you can then transfer to your future alts via Account Bank after you finish setting up your end game equipment with your current Captain.

You can do the same on your ground and Away Team equipment.

Those will set you up to do all the episode missions quite smoothly at Level 65.

inferiority

thaedaris wrote: »

MK 12 is Level 45 so you've been using Level 45 equipment in Level 65 content.

Mk XII isn't just level 45 - some Mk XII stuff cannot be equipped until level 50.

I'd say purple Mk XII is still good stuff to be using at level 65, but getting it upgraded should be the goal.

1. Collect the gear you want to be able to use.
   There's some really nice stuff among mission rewards and the Reputations, so you can put together a very nice build quite quickly.
2. Start to upgrade the stuff you know you're not going to be replacing any time soon.
   You might be using some stuff to help you get better stuff - it's likely not worth upgrading it too much, if at all!
3. Red Alert events will be a massive boost for upgrading stuff due to their Ultimate Tech Upgrade reward.
   You'll be able to get one item to Mk XV gold every time we get Red Alert events. (Tends to be one every four weeks, sometimes five.)

davefenestrator

Red Alert events will be a massive boost for upgrading stuff due to their Ultimate Tech Upgrade reward.
You'll be able to get one item to Mk XV gold every time we get Red Alert events. (Tends to be one every four weeks, sometimes five.)

Also, besides saving this for something you know you'll keep using, it might help to know that reputation gear sets cost much more in tech points to upgrade than basic consoles. Don't waste your ultimates on tac consoles or neutronium consoles, use phoenix upgrades for those. And don't try to get anything to epic unless it's an upgrade weekend.

protoneous

2 x neutronium alloys

Unlike a Neutronium Alloy console the Trellium-D Plating console does multiple things. This makes it a top pick.

With diminishing returns on resists and the game being focused on damage, using one of the +CrtH consoles mentioned above in place of a second armor console can work very well.

michael

Thanks for the advice all. Going to do some upgrading with the new event. Didn't know that about rep gear costing more... will have to be careful when I start.

vetteguy904

once you can start reps, spam competitive until you get to level 3, then get one of the impulse engines, one boosts speed when you hit a weapon enhance CRF, BFAW, so forth another boosts you on heals. whichever one fits your piloting style.