I'm not sure if tips for the Academy event have been posted before, but here's a few things I've learned about the Academy event:
1. You don't need a cadet. Yes the game says you need one, but you don't, you can still collect particle fragments without a cadet. The only advantage a cadet has, is it allows you redeem your fragments anywhere without needing to run back to the mission giver.
2. If you concentrate on just three particles, you can farm those three for the whole hour. By the time you have gone from A to B to C and run back to A, A will either be there, or about to appear. Or you can run around all over the place ... your choice.
3. The amount of time for the particle to reappear is random, but within a minimum and maximum time.
4. If you are doing my three-particle system I described above, get to know where they appear.
5. When you get the hologram, walk backwards towards the next particle firing a rifle or pistol at it. This saves you time that you would have used to get to the next particle anyway. I find by the time I've beaten the hologram, I am at the next particle already.
6. If you don't get the hologram, and get the scanning the particle instead, the phases are Scan > Multiphasic Scan or Positron Imaging Scan > Particle Destroyed or Collect Stable Fragments ... I have noticed that after the first scan, before the choice of Multiphasic or Positron Imaging Scan, that you can see either "Dissipating Particle" or "Expanding Particle", it bounces around for you (but if watch others do it, it's stable) but if you see it say Dissipating, move on to the next particle. If it says Expanding, continue and collect them.
EDIT
No, do not skip dissipating particles. You can stabilize them with the positronscan:
Scan > Dissipating Particle > Positron Scan > Collect
Scan > Expanding Particle > Multiphasic Scan > Collect
Remember this and you won't see destroyed particles again.
7. If you see a man standing in the particle fragment when someone is scanning it, that is the hologram that would have appeared.
8. You only need to run if you see the particle you want next. This works really well with my three-particle system I described above.
9. If someone beats you to the particle, or you see someone else running to a particle you were running to, just accept it and run to the next one. Shouting things at your monitor might get it out of your system, but it is a free-for-all, and you will no doubt do it to others (not intentionally).
I am still new to STO, but I hope this helps. I have no problem getting 60 particles this way, I have done 75. I can't do 90, no matter how hard I try.
Comments
The cadet adds a smidge more DPS when fighting holograms, but not enough to make them worth bothering with.
You're GIMPING your return on investment of TIME SPENT because you're spending a whole lot of time NOT CLICKING particles. More particle clicking means more particles earned means bigger Dilithium payout at the end of the event.
ANY particle gatherer participating in the Academy Event is best served by knowing where all the particles spawn at.
Personally, I've found it faster to just Crouch and Aim so as to take less damage from ranged attacks (Crouch) and deal more damage per shot (Aim) so as to defeat the holograms faster.
At Starfleet Academy, the Klingon Holograms like to "cuddle up" and melee you, which means that if you can score an Expose on them you can use your 3rd Attack to melee them right back and do a roundhouse kick (or two, or three) to them which does on the order of 3 energy weapon shots worth of damage directly to the Hologram's Health (ie. excellent Shield Penetration).
At Klingon Academy, the Starfleet Holograms are all cowards who run away from you, but a tremendous number of NPCs in the zone will all willingly "dogpile on" to help you defeat the hated Starfleet. Don't bother with trying to melee at Klingon Academy, it just wastes time. Simply shoot the Starfleet Holograms from a Crouch and Aim.
Almost EVERY PARTICLE at Starfleet Academy suffers from the "Triangle Jitter" when it goes into Expanding Particle mode. Sometimes you can swing your camera viewing angle around to make it stop, but usually not. At Klingon Academy there are less than 5 particles that do this ... although Klingon Academy has the added bonus of putting some of the particle spawns into locations that are *inaccessible* because they spawn behind invisible walls (nice going, Cryptic Devs and QA).
You only need to run if you plan on scoring more than 1 particle collected per minute over the course of the entire hour. Most people interested in "farming" the Academy Event are motivated to collect more than just 60-75 particles an hour.
Running around, clicking as many particles as possible, in as short a time as possible, I've managed to collect 150+ in one hour in Starfleet Academy, and 180+ in one hour in Klingon Academy (due to the reduced population density and "competition" for particle spawns on Redside vs Blueside) ... although playing "PACMAN" running around gobbling up blue (or orange/red) dots and trying to eat the Ghosts that keep coming out to try and kill me does get ... old ... after the first 10 minutes. Fortunately there's never any need to redeem any of the particles until AFTER the Event is over, and there's plenty of time to do so, making the Cadet even more unnecessary. Spend every available second of the Event clicking on particles and waste as little time between clicks as possible.
Protonic Kool-Aid Down The Drain Cruiser
Immortal BOff Skills combo for Ground
Scan > Dissipating Particle > Positron Scan > Collect
Scan > Expanding Particle > Multiphasic Scan > Collect
Remember this and you won't see destroyed particles again.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
AH ... thank you ... now I know.
And by "cash in", he means take them to a vendor (nearest one is the bar at the Academy) and sell them for 50EC each.
I find it's actually more fun hanging around the academy during this event and just leap out of the bushes to assassinate holograms. Speeds up everyone else's collection rates and it's kind of funny to see some of the reactions.