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Starbase Incursion Guide.
jenel79
Member Posts: 67 Arc User
I've been doing a lot of Fleet missions lately and I've personally found that the Starbase Incursion mission has the highest Fleet Mark potential. However it's beginning to aggravate me that a lot of people doing it have no idea what they should be doing. Space missions usually tend to go wrong if you've got teammates who are not VA and it's limiting their abilities and even survivability, however with the ground missions, a poor score usually equates to people not knowing what to do and just running around blindly or charging in and getting killed again and again.
So here's my thoughts on how a good Starbase Incursion mission should go.
General Points:
Make sure to pick up a flashlight, equip it and turn it on. It really helps with spotting Saboteurs. And I'm surprised at how many people will run around in the dark without one. Don't worry about using up a quickslot, it's unlikely that you'll need Hypo's or Shield Boosts, or even any of your fancy toys. All you need is a decent weapon.
Rank isn't really an issue here, or in Colony Invasion either, so don't feel that you shouldn't sign up because you're not a Vice Admiral, as long as you can shoot you're fine.
DO NOT WASTE TIME WITH TURRETS AND PATROLS! Sorry for the caps but I couldn't emphasise that more. Killing turrets and patrols are a waste of time, they don't add to your score and pose no threat to you or your team. Turrets will likely only ever get one shot on you before you break line of sight with them, and even then they will probably miss and if they do hit, your shields will recharge back to full before they hit you again. This goes the same for patrols, you can usually run past a patrol and they won't even agro, and if they do, just keep running and they'll give up quickly enough. Wasting time killing these guys and the turrets is just less time you could be killing saboteurs.
Make sure to check every nook and cranny, you could run past a saboteur and not notice them due to your camera angle, so make sure to regularly check the hidey holes.
Get yourself a route and try and keep to it, you'll find that you will cover more ground this way and pick up a lot more saboteurs. Obviously feel free to deviate when called for, if you see a saboteur in the middle section from where you are and you have a clear shot on him, then take it, that's just another in the bag.
Phase 1:
Pick a section and stick with it. Every mission I join I'll announce that I'm going to take the Top Right section (I choose this one as I know it like the back of my hand now, so if you do pick a section, try and stick with it every mission). Getting the whole team to pick a section and stick with it means that all sections are covered and you can just run around in your section picking off the saboteurs knowing that your teammates are doing the same. Too often I'll be the only one who choose a section and nobody else did, we finish up on about 18-20 killed and I know that I've gotten half of that myself easily if not more and that we could have gotten a hell of a lot more if people stuck to a section.
If everybody else calls the four corner sections, don't feel that taking the middle is drawing the short straw. The middle can be the linchpin in getting a good score. Taking the middle section allows you to easily spot saboteurs as the section is more visible, it also allows you to spot saboteurs in the other four sections (usually just up the sides of the dividing walls). Feel free to take out any saboteurs you spot in other sections, but make sure not to deviate too far from the middle as while you're taking the time to venture into others sections, other saboteurs are spawning and beaming out in your section.
And remember, if everybody else picks a section and you don't, then you're letting a lot of saboteurs get away as they have their sections covered while you're running around killing saboteurs that they would have easily killed 2 seconds later.
Phase 2:
Now this is the hard one. And to be honest there's no real tactic here. Even sticking together as a team and heading in will still get the entire group killed. I think this phase could do with some fine tuning myself, but it's still very manageable. What I tend to do is head to the bottom right section myself as this has the most direct route to the target, and just charge straight through the adds. As a Tac I'll usually use my Security Escort once I reach the target and they'll take the flack off of me while I shoot the hell out of the saboteur. You'll likely die once you've killed him but hey, he's dead too. Respawn and head off to the next target.
I'm not going to get into the other sections here as like I said, there's no real tactic here and surviving long enough to kill the saboteur is really the key. There are a lot of tricks you can do to get them however. I've seen people jump up onto the crates and take them out with a sniper rifle, it works, but you've got to know exactly where to look otherwise you're going to be dead before you find him. Keep an eye out for others doing stuff like this and you'll eventually pick up what you need to do and even give them a go yourself.
A point I can't stress enough in phase 2 is don't waste time killing adds. Get in, kill the saboteur, or do as much damage as you can, die, respawn and then get back to finish the job. If you stand around killing adds then all you're going to do is die very quickly as you're looking at odds of almost 10-1. Also, once you do die, respawn as fast as you can and run back to the saboteur or the next one if you managed to kill it. DO NOT engage in combat with the adds attacking the NPC's at the spawn point. You're only wasting time here and infact bringing more adds to the respawn point. The NPC's can handle it and it has no bearing on the mission if they do die.
Phase 3:
Probably the easiest of the 3 as you're just killing adds and as it's usually 5 of you against 3 of them, they die easily. However the main point to remember here is that you want to kill them all as quickly as possible so you can get the shields down to kill the Captain before they beam out. The key to this is making sure that all your team is alive and present at the respawn point. The phase does not begin until somebody runs out of the door. So make sure that you're all ready and charge in together and that Captain will be dead in no time.
So those are my thoughts. Please feel free to add your own tips on how to do this mission and I'm sure we can all benefit from more Fleet Marks and less frustration of wasting your cooldown on this and only walking away with 19 marks when you could have been getting well over 30.
So here's my thoughts on how a good Starbase Incursion mission should go.
General Points:
Make sure to pick up a flashlight, equip it and turn it on. It really helps with spotting Saboteurs. And I'm surprised at how many people will run around in the dark without one. Don't worry about using up a quickslot, it's unlikely that you'll need Hypo's or Shield Boosts, or even any of your fancy toys. All you need is a decent weapon.
Rank isn't really an issue here, or in Colony Invasion either, so don't feel that you shouldn't sign up because you're not a Vice Admiral, as long as you can shoot you're fine.
DO NOT WASTE TIME WITH TURRETS AND PATROLS! Sorry for the caps but I couldn't emphasise that more. Killing turrets and patrols are a waste of time, they don't add to your score and pose no threat to you or your team. Turrets will likely only ever get one shot on you before you break line of sight with them, and even then they will probably miss and if they do hit, your shields will recharge back to full before they hit you again. This goes the same for patrols, you can usually run past a patrol and they won't even agro, and if they do, just keep running and they'll give up quickly enough. Wasting time killing these guys and the turrets is just less time you could be killing saboteurs.
Make sure to check every nook and cranny, you could run past a saboteur and not notice them due to your camera angle, so make sure to regularly check the hidey holes.
Get yourself a route and try and keep to it, you'll find that you will cover more ground this way and pick up a lot more saboteurs. Obviously feel free to deviate when called for, if you see a saboteur in the middle section from where you are and you have a clear shot on him, then take it, that's just another in the bag.
Phase 1:
Pick a section and stick with it. Every mission I join I'll announce that I'm going to take the Top Right section (I choose this one as I know it like the back of my hand now, so if you do pick a section, try and stick with it every mission). Getting the whole team to pick a section and stick with it means that all sections are covered and you can just run around in your section picking off the saboteurs knowing that your teammates are doing the same. Too often I'll be the only one who choose a section and nobody else did, we finish up on about 18-20 killed and I know that I've gotten half of that myself easily if not more and that we could have gotten a hell of a lot more if people stuck to a section.
If everybody else calls the four corner sections, don't feel that taking the middle is drawing the short straw. The middle can be the linchpin in getting a good score. Taking the middle section allows you to easily spot saboteurs as the section is more visible, it also allows you to spot saboteurs in the other four sections (usually just up the sides of the dividing walls). Feel free to take out any saboteurs you spot in other sections, but make sure not to deviate too far from the middle as while you're taking the time to venture into others sections, other saboteurs are spawning and beaming out in your section.
And remember, if everybody else picks a section and you don't, then you're letting a lot of saboteurs get away as they have their sections covered while you're running around killing saboteurs that they would have easily killed 2 seconds later.
Phase 2:
Now this is the hard one. And to be honest there's no real tactic here. Even sticking together as a team and heading in will still get the entire group killed. I think this phase could do with some fine tuning myself, but it's still very manageable. What I tend to do is head to the bottom right section myself as this has the most direct route to the target, and just charge straight through the adds. As a Tac I'll usually use my Security Escort once I reach the target and they'll take the flack off of me while I shoot the hell out of the saboteur. You'll likely die once you've killed him but hey, he's dead too. Respawn and head off to the next target.
I'm not going to get into the other sections here as like I said, there's no real tactic here and surviving long enough to kill the saboteur is really the key. There are a lot of tricks you can do to get them however. I've seen people jump up onto the crates and take them out with a sniper rifle, it works, but you've got to know exactly where to look otherwise you're going to be dead before you find him. Keep an eye out for others doing stuff like this and you'll eventually pick up what you need to do and even give them a go yourself.
A point I can't stress enough in phase 2 is don't waste time killing adds. Get in, kill the saboteur, or do as much damage as you can, die, respawn and then get back to finish the job. If you stand around killing adds then all you're going to do is die very quickly as you're looking at odds of almost 10-1. Also, once you do die, respawn as fast as you can and run back to the saboteur or the next one if you managed to kill it. DO NOT engage in combat with the adds attacking the NPC's at the spawn point. You're only wasting time here and infact bringing more adds to the respawn point. The NPC's can handle it and it has no bearing on the mission if they do die.
Phase 3:
Probably the easiest of the 3 as you're just killing adds and as it's usually 5 of you against 3 of them, they die easily. However the main point to remember here is that you want to kill them all as quickly as possible so you can get the shields down to kill the Captain before they beam out. The key to this is making sure that all your team is alive and present at the respawn point. The phase does not begin until somebody runs out of the door. So make sure that you're all ready and charge in together and that Captain will be dead in no time.
So those are my thoughts. Please feel free to add your own tips on how to do this mission and I'm sure we can all benefit from more Fleet Marks and less frustration of wasting your cooldown on this and only walking away with 19 marks when you could have been getting well over 30.
Post edited by jenel79 on
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Comments
Agreed with everything you said but quoting this for emphasis. If it doesn't say Saboteur, then ignore it! Once in awhile you may draw agro from patrol and they follow you around, hitting you with flanking shots. That's the only exception in my opinion. Otherwise target the Sabos only!
some decent suggestions.
Also, any enemy will "light up" your attack 1&2, sometimes that is more useful than a flashlight, and often you will see the saboteurs "Progression bar" before you can actually see him.
All decnt suggestions, nothing to add from me.
Tac captains using an Operative kit can sneak right past everything else, get close behind the Saboteur for a flanking shot, Use Ambush+Battle Strategies+X-AIM+Puslewave secondary attack at less than 5 meters = Saboteur dead with the second shot
Engi Capatains Shield recharge power allows them to straight bulldog their way thru everyone else to start blasting tha saboteur.
Sci Captains, i have no suggestions for at this time.
Just want to reinterate the "WAIT!" for everyone to be respawned part.
And everyone should focus their fire on the Captain when you bring his forcefield down.
Part 1:
Split up! Like said above, 1 per corner, with 1 in the Middle. And the one in the Middle. And everyone ends up seeing Sabotaurs you missed.
Turrets: It's okay to mess with turrets, if you can do it fast. Remember KDF gets 480 Dilithium for killing 10 Turrets.
Flashlights: You don't need Flashlights. Actually they are a negative, because your line of sight is focused on the light itself. The room is bright enough you can see where you are going.
LISTEN!
The majority of people don't realize it, but you can HEAR the Sabotaurs being beamed-in! Turn up the volume, listen for Klingon Transporter noise and run to that direction! KDF, have to be mindful that Federation AND Turrets use the Federation Transporter sound effect.
Part 2:
Tacticals - Use your Cloaking Kits. Sneek to the Sabotaurs, find a hiding spot that prevents the NPCs from seeing you (they don't react if you are behind them).
Engineers - Use Cover Shield and Mines. DO NOT use Turrets and Mortors, EXCEPT the locations where the Sabotaurs spawn in Round 2. Else you will cause NPCs to aggro and cause problems at the respawn point.
Also BE VERY CAREFUL in dropping mines in preparation for Part 2. If the Sabotaurs die as they are Beamed In, it bugs the Event, making it impossible to get 4/4.
PART 3: Teamwork!
THE KEY is TEAMWORK! Work together to kill enemies as fast as you can, before the Captain beams out! The timer starts as the first person leaves the room, so don't skip the cutscene!
Use fast and deadly weapons like Shotguns / Pulsewaves. KDF use your Honor Guard Grenade Launchers!
Tacticals, since you are using the Stealth Kit, you use Ambush with Shotguns to clean up fast!
Engineers, use Orbital Strike! If there is more than 1 Engineer, one uses immediately while the others save for the final battle! And DO NOT use Turrets and Mortors, they are too slow, especially when taking precious seconds when deploying!
That's my experience with Incursion.
The afformentioned tactics for tac and eng in 2nd round are good too, tacs use stealth, eng uses cover shield near the saboteur and mine, bomb and orbital him to death.
Just quickly glancing through, I agree with everything except for this. This map in particular, flashlights sem rather pointless, at least on my PC (which may have a better graphics card then most, idk). Equipping the flashlight doesnt do much of anything, I see it a little brighter, but it doesnt really help... you can spot the sabs just fine as is, just look for the progress bar, which is clear regardless of whether you have the flashlight or not. Having hypos and everything else is far more important than wasting you device slot on essentially nothing.
But again, maybe on lower end PCs, it makes a difference... no idea, I dont have anything to test that out with myself...
I play on my laptop sometimes which has pretty bad graphics using bare minimum settings and still don't need a Flashlight and don't notice a difference when using it.
Great guide!
The problem here, is that mid, and low end cards (or settings) can't handle that light being projected from your position. So we fake it, by projecting a brighter texture out, onto objects in front of you. But it doesn't work as well as the actual light. On REALLY low end, you don't see anything I think.
So, since our low end customers essentially don't get a light, I have to make the map bright enough that you can at least see a little bit where ever you go. It sucks on higher end though, because the map isn't dark enough to make the flashlight necessary.
Theres clearly power down there as they are using the consoles
Emergency lights are a priority like air and gravity
putting the mission in the dark has never seemed particularly a good idea
also i found to my cost. dont shot the guards from the doorway on stage 3. if you kill them before the timer starts then they dont count to the final score and the mission in not completable.
1 No one should leave the start room until EVERYONE is on their feet and at full power.
the Timer does not start until someone (pc or Npc) crosses the doorway
2 Do not under any circumstances pop drones or escorts before you reach the centre
Also do not fortress the start area
EITHER error will lead to guards (and possibly the captain ) wandering off to attack them and thus slowing your kill count
3 on arrival in the ffz take down all guards quickly and effectively do not mess about with holds, skev (skill effect visuals) or fancy melee
4 Guards spawn in ALL quadrants be sure to patrol all of them
5 when option to lower forcefield comes up deploy mines bombs etc before it drops if you can
Dropping the forcefield is a good role for the lowest ranked player present (or a particularly lame VA)
6 Target the character immediately behind the forcefield console thats the captain
7 at this point skev as much as you like , pop as many drones as you like it won't matter
8 specific to Orion female only FEMALES , Saurians , Andorians , Gorn and other creatures immune to seduce should close engage .
Anyone else effected by the chemicals will fire on comrades
Specific to Borg Captain do not close engage at all EVER
Specific to Klingon captains circle straif works poorly on this captain
Phase 2
Run past the guards.
Don't shoot anything to draw agro.
Only shoot the saboteurs
SCI should have a medic kit.
Fleet Pulsewave
Sabo 1
Go top right run past all, don't shoot, shoot sabo and heal.
While shooting Sabo keep back to right side crate
Sabo 2
run past all to south to bottom right.
When you get to Sabo area pop a pet, I prefer the shard.
Move to right flank of Sabo keep front of toon pointed towards the room.
Shoot Sabo use all heals and boast.
Sabo 3
Run to bottom left
I like run left at the end of the hall right before the wall to get out of the flank attacks.
Run to Sabo dont shoot anyone
In the Sabo area pop of a neural buff
I like to get with my back to the crates here shoot Sabo.
Use heals and boast as needed
Sabo 4
Run top right past all the guards
Last group of guard before the Sabo I like to pop my second pet.
Duck into the cubby hole to the right of the Sabo
Face out shoot and use heals.
I thought this was true for the first month of Season 6 and (edit) it now turns out to be the case. Because after all, you don't see the enemies beam in until you leave the room, right? I'd appreciate it if this was made more clear since it's a recurring problem in incursion instances that people either think the timer starts instantly or they don't wait for teammates to respawn and get ready before running out the door.
My STOwiki page | Reachable in-game @PhyrexianHero
Fed Armada: Section 31 (level 730, 2700+ members)
KDF Armada: Klingon Intelligence (level 699, 2100+ members)
Anyone else have a problem with the sabateurs not counting past 39? Twice I have reached 43 only to have it reduce to 39 at the end.
As a fleet, we just clear all enemies on phase 2. A coordinated team can do that pretty easily, they do not respawn. An engineer can also fortify the start point and hold off the enemies while the team kills the four guys.
I have used mines to set a trap for the second phase. It did not go past 3/4 and I thought we lost the bonus, however at the end report it showed 4/4. I don't know if we got full credit though, so I never do that anymore.
Would you please please please (with whipped cream on top of it) explain them that you painted shiny coloured lines on the ground for easier orientation?
... exactly the moment the first player enters the main area. I had succesful captain kills even when the team waited 30 seconds on a respawn in the start area. Usualy there are only three reasons that fail the captain kill at the end. 1) Someone rushes in ahead of the team or wasn't beamed back into the start area at the end of phase 2. 2) One (or more) mob(s) of the first guard group aggro 'legacy' player 'items' that were placed close but not in the middle area and 'wanders' off. Those are the real fun incursions, captain beams out while you still search for the last mob of group one. Or 3) The team does not focus the captain once the forcefield is down.
There 'might' (with a really big IF) be some extra seconds granted on the beam out timer if you manage phase 2 with a good time bolster but I favour that my brain is just playing tricks (aka the timer is the same, just the kill time is shorter on average with teams that manage phase 2 well too)
Sorry, I'm not sure I understand what you're asking?
I put colored lines around each quadrant with the thought that players might use those colors to help coordinate attacks. Rather than saying "He's in the top left!" you could potentially say "He's in the Red section!"
Who knows if it's easier or better, or not, but I figured it was better to have that option than not.
People did refer to colors at first. But since many people didn't know which corner was which color (due to the jamming), people felt it was simpler just to call out Upper / Lower Left / Right or NW,NE,SW,SE.
I asked for exactly that. Thanks.
And red is bottom left! or front left. or down left. or SW or.... or.... or....
Tests
Wait til everyone up before entering
result Captain taken down
Wait 2 MINUTES before entering
result captain taken down
Wait 5 minutes while Alan went to the bathroom and keith and I had sandwiches
Result captain beamed out while we were taking him down but was still there
I can confirm that when those tests were conducted the timer starts ONLY when the first character crosses the line
(as does the stupid pop up)
If this is the case, it is still best to skip the cutscene just so everyone is aware *when* the first person crosses the line. I'd suggest that Cryptic make that cutscene unskippable like the round 2 one to avoid one or more people triggering early captain early.
My STOwiki page | Reachable in-game @PhyrexianHero
Fed Armada: Section 31 (level 730, 2700+ members)
KDF Armada: Klingon Intelligence (level 699, 2100+ members)
wait... what colors?
*note to self* look out for colors
That cutscene isn't long enough to stop people from rushing out the door before the rest of the team is ready. Phase 2 tends to have a fairly high kill rate, so odds are good at least one person will be on a 30 second CD before they can respawn.
I'd say most people rush out the door because they believe the timer starts as soon as the phase starts. So the problem is mostly one of ignorance, but there is no good way to fix that in a MMO. Most people skip the mission text completely, fewer will bother reading a guide.
Then perhaps simply making it clearer that the timer starts when it does. Before leaving the room, one sees the captain but not his protectors. There are a number of possible solutions:
I'm sure there are further options out there but those were just off the top of my head.
My STOwiki page | Reachable in-game @PhyrexianHero
Fed Armada: Section 31 (level 730, 2700+ members)
KDF Armada: Klingon Intelligence (level 699, 2100+ members)
Start of phase one
Everyones chat window opens and local and team chat turns on
The words "comms test" appears in yellow above the box
Everyone says something in local or team chat
WHEN they all have timer starts
if anyone Doesn't reply within 1 minute they despawn and someone replaces them
at end of phase one when everyone is back in the room the door stays shut for 30 seconds
EVERYONES chat windows pop open and local and Team chat turns on
A mission briefing option pops up (but not filling the screen)
At end of phase two All players return to start as previously
BEAMING those on cooldown into the room still on cool down
Chat window opens
as above
Door remains CLOSED until everyone is standing up
Short (30 second ) timer then runs before door opens
ok the missions a little longer
but success rates have at least doubled
My thoughts exactly.
I and others I've played with just refer to them as top/bottom left/right working off the mini map.
Seriously, I've never noticed the colours, lol
For a Caitian/Ferasan to get onto the wall, climb onto one of the things sticking out of the wall, so your no longer touching the ground, face your camera up a bit and jump up. I only play feline species characters and their have been many instances where the rest of the group are dead in the spawn area and I'm able to still solo the 4 saboteurs in section 2.