I have probably put in over 20 game hours trying to knock out all the sensor clusters on DS9 in the opening battle of the Operation Gamma mission. I have gotten close to winning the battle a couple times but whenever I knock out 3-4 clusters, a hirogen ship flys in and the sensors all go blank again, the ones I have not destroyed yet then disappear and by the time I destroy the hirogens, the clusters I have destroyed have repaired themselves and I have to start over from cluster Alpha.
I have crafted all purple advanced gear, have tried using a cloaking toj fighter and a general chariot (I'm KDF), I have dropped turrets, let myself get knocked to 50% then summoned a support ship too. I have put 2 beams on the shuttle and used FAW, I have put 1 beam and used a quantum combo with torp spread but nothing seems to work.
I'm an engineer (I've beaten it as a tac but even then it wasn't easy and took dozens of attempts) so I'm sure that has something to do with it, due to the inherently lower dps output, but for a shuttle, I believe my dps is relatively good, especially on the toj where I use 2 purple tac consoles for the appropriate weapon type (I've tried phasers and even switched to antiprotons) and have most of the rep consoles and even a couple c-store consoles but those hirogen fighters always seem to respawn and attack before I can get all the sensor clusters destroyed and I can't destroy them while keeping the worker bees destroyed at the same time.
I have read that some people have found this mission relatively easy but I'm a lifer, I have been playing for a long time (I want to beat this on elite) but this mission is KILLING ME!!!
Can someone, anyone, suggest tactics and a shuttle build that I can try before I lose my voice doing the aerial pullaway camera shot "Khan Scream"!?!
Aceton assimilator and point defense console make it easy.
If you don't have access to those items then hang in the cave exit and blow them up one by one.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
I've not tried it on elite difficulty, so all I can attest to is advanced. I've found that I've got to focus on the repair drones, and kill them off before dealing with the enemy fighters. Torp spread and DBB with BO & appropriate consoles help, but it's important to keep the speed up as much as possible to increase defensive values. I've inevitably been killed a few times each run thru this mission, but finish the DS9 portion within a few respawns.
Once in the Gamma quadrant, there is a similar challenge waiting in the asteroid field where you rendevous with the Ferengi trader; the swarmers are too agile to turn on, so you've got to make liberal use of evasive manoevers, and come back around a number of times with full torp spreads to kill off all 3 swarms. I usually get killed a couple of times here as well, but this takes less frustration than the DS9 portion.
Hope this helps; good luck!
Expendables Fleet: Andrew - Bajoran Fed Engineer Ken'taura - Rom/Fed Scientist Gwyllim - Human Fed Delta Tac Savik - Vulcan Fed Temporal Sci Dahar Masters Fleet: Alphal'Fa - Alien KDF Engineer Qun'pau - Rom/KDF Engineer D'nesh - Orion KDF Scientist Ghen'khan - Liberated KDF Tac Welcome to StarBug Online - to boldly Bug where no bug has been before!
STO player since November 2013
I haven't found a cave near DS9 so I assume Questerius is talking about swarmers. I haven't actually had too much trouble with them, using 2 beam FAW and evasive maneuver speed boost. It's the DS9 sensor clusters that are giving me fits.
I always ignore the fighters til the worker bee's are dealt with. An enhanced neutronium helps with that, I also forgo weapon enhancement abilities in favour of tactical team.
I used the shuttle that you can buy for around 40k energy credits, fitted with a disruptor omni and transphasic torp, appropriate vulnerability locator, embassy plasma console and the afore mentioned neutronium. I used the same set up on all three captain classes with no real issues.
you disable the sensors and repair bots come and fix em, along with fighter escort(s).
ignore fighters and destroy the repair bots... it's timed. if they get the senors back up... you go back to stage 1 and repeat all over again.
once repair bots are gone... you have all the time in the world to destroy the fighters.
this process repeats several times... 3 or 4?
so focus on the repair bots each time... number of repair bots should equal the number of sensors you took offline. the senors you need to take off line increases each wave/stage... so the number of repair bots each stage increases as well.
You are KDF! Buy the Draguas with the aceton assimilator. Equip it and drop it before you disable the sensors. Concentrate on the bees and the bees only. Just as the poster above me said.
Anyway, get that assimilator. And the plasmonic leech. It is the bread and butter for the KDF. Shuttle missions, evryone, become so easy with an aceton assimilator, it almost feels like cheating.
Engineers do not have "lower dps". The just don't have pattern alpha but their dps is identical to science or tactical when apa is not active. ENG have a shield heal / damage reduction and MW skill that should keep your shuttle alive easily, and a power booster that gives you high weapons power (damage!).
The easy way out is to load your shuttle with 360 AP beams and tab-target kill them while flying around at random. A shield healing officer is not a bad choice, and a stout high capacity shield. Or if you trust your survival, FAW1. Focus on the worker bees first and fight the combat guy last in each wave.
You can also use some summon items if the going gets tough.
After getting to the "second part"
The swarmers after being made angry are in small groups BUT you can get into 2-3 small groups at once making a LARGE group that is hard to fight. Try to avoid doing this.
I run Vault 3 times (one for the special reward, twice for shuttle beams) Then you need only set your weapon power to 100 and put everything else to shields, then add FAW for best results.
Going to give advice bases on a presumption you don't want to spend anything you don't already have. And I assume you will have nothing.
As a shuttle, make sure to at least pick the one that costs 37k ec. Not the free one, that one sucks horrible. A torpedo spread will be your friend. The secondary weapon can either remain an omni-shuttle-beam, or you go for a dual beam bank for additional frontal pew pew. Make sure to equip resilient shields and a neutronium alloy eng console, in order to maximize survivability. And focuss yourself on the work bees above all else.
In case this fails, either get the aceton/point defense system, or find a friend to pull you through.
I have probably put in over 20 game hours trying to knock out all the sensor clusters on DS9 in the opening battle of the Operation Gamma mission. I have gotten close to winning the battle a couple times but whenever I knock out 3-4 clusters, a hirogen ship flys in and the sensors all go blank again, the ones I have not destroyed yet then disappear and by the time I destroy the hirogens, the clusters I have destroyed have repaired themselves and I have to start over from cluster Alpha.
this is quite tricky and had to do it a few times before it got it licked, the first thing the remember is ignore the attacking ships when you knock out the clusters they are only there to distract you and you can deal with them later.
the next thing is every second forth and last cluster you get you get no attacking ship or repair bees so they are easy.
on the clusters where you get the bees learn where the bees go and park up in a spot where you can aim at each one without moving only turning but can still deactivate the cluster you need to.
then when you deactivate the cluster you should be able to take out the bees one at a time before they affect repairs, once the bees are gone take out the attacking ships, if you get knocked out at this point don't fret, the sensors will remain out and you can carry on after you have respawned and finished off the ships.
I only do it on normal but only use standard out of the box shuttle weapons and its fine.
it seemed pretty much the same to me on each character fed tac, kdf eng and rom sci.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
I have probably put in over 20 game hours trying to knock out all the sensor clusters on DS9 in the opening battle of the Operation Gamma mission. I have gotten close to winning the battle a couple times but whenever I knock out 3-4 clusters, a hirogen ship flys in and the sensors all go blank again, the ones I have not destroyed yet then disappear and by the time I destroy the hirogens, the clusters I have destroyed have repaired themselves and I have to start over from cluster Alpha.
I have crafted all purple advanced gear, have tried using a cloaking toj fighter and a general chariot (I'm KDF), I have dropped turrets, let myself get knocked to 50% then summoned a support ship too. I have put 2 beams on the shuttle and used FAW, I have put 1 beam and used a quantum combo with torp spread but nothing seems to work.
I'm an engineer (I've beaten it as a tac but even then it wasn't easy and took dozens of attempts) so I'm sure that has something to do with it, due to the inherently lower dps output, but for a shuttle, I believe my dps is relatively good, especially on the toj where I use 2 purple tac consoles for the appropriate weapon type (I've tried phasers and even switched to antiprotons) and have most of the rep consoles and even a couple c-store consoles but those hirogen fighters always seem to respawn and attack before I can get all the sensor clusters destroyed and I can't destroy them while keeping the worker bees destroyed at the same time.
I have read that some people have found this mission relatively easy but I'm a lifer, I have been playing for a long time (I want to beat this on elite) but this mission is KILLING ME!!!
Can someone, anyone, suggest tactics and a shuttle build that I can try before I lose my voice doing the aerial pullaway camera shot "Khan Scream"!?!
Effective cheap build for most shuttle missions.....
pick shuttle any will do most of their unique abilities are set on a really long timer so more gimmick than necessary.
Equip 1 - Photon torpedo
Equip 1 - Beam Array [omni beam not required as shuttles turn fast enough to keep target in arc]
Slot Torpedo Spread 1 as boff ability[ use the spreads to knock out any of the spammed fighters/worker bees]
Certain items are fun, make it easier, if you need faster completion, aceton assimilator [will wipe an entire swarm spawn due to rad release]
point defense console, subspace rupture, antimatter spread, Thoron generator [from Stalker fighter], or numerous other universal consoles
FYI there are no "Hirogen" in Operation Gamma those are Jem'Hadar aka Dominion
Wanting to beat a mission on "Elite" is not the same as needing to since the difference is frankly more HP Elite vs Advanced run, especially in a shuttle that is just being a TRIBBLE since there is not even an accolade for doing so.
[When done beating yourself up for not completing everything on Elite difficulty, grab a Cold beer hold against head till headache disipates then drink beer, the game should be fun, relax and enjoy your time playing]
Comments
If you don't have access to those items then hang in the cave exit and blow them up one by one.
Once in the Gamma quadrant, there is a similar challenge waiting in the asteroid field where you rendevous with the Ferengi trader; the swarmers are too agile to turn on, so you've got to make liberal use of evasive manoevers, and come back around a number of times with full torp spreads to kill off all 3 swarms. I usually get killed a couple of times here as well, but this takes less frustration than the DS9 portion.
Hope this helps; good luck!
Savik - Vulcan Fed Temporal Sci
Dahar Masters Fleet: Alphal'Fa - Alien KDF Engineer Qun'pau - Rom/KDF Engineer D'nesh - Orion KDF Scientist Ghen'khan - Liberated KDF Tac
Welcome to StarBug Online - to boldly Bug where no bug has been before!
STO player since November 2013
I used the shuttle that you can buy for around 40k energy credits, fitted with a disruptor omni and transphasic torp, appropriate vulnerability locator, embassy plasma console and the afore mentioned neutronium. I used the same set up on all three captain classes with no real issues.
you disable the sensors and repair bots come and fix em, along with fighter escort(s).
ignore fighters and destroy the repair bots... it's timed. if they get the senors back up... you go back to stage 1 and repeat all over again.
once repair bots are gone... you have all the time in the world to destroy the fighters.
this process repeats several times... 3 or 4?
so focus on the repair bots each time... number of repair bots should equal the number of sensors you took offline. the senors you need to take off line increases each wave/stage... so the number of repair bots each stage increases as well.
Anyway, get that assimilator. And the plasmonic leech. It is the bread and butter for the KDF. Shuttle missions, evryone, become so easy with an aceton assimilator, it almost feels like cheating.
Engineers do not have "lower dps". The just don't have pattern alpha but their dps is identical to science or tactical when apa is not active. ENG have a shield heal / damage reduction and MW skill that should keep your shuttle alive easily, and a power booster that gives you high weapons power (damage!).
The easy way out is to load your shuttle with 360 AP beams and tab-target kill them while flying around at random. A shield healing officer is not a bad choice, and a stout high capacity shield. Or if you trust your survival, FAW1. Focus on the worker bees first and fight the combat guy last in each wave.
You can also use some summon items if the going gets tough.
After getting to the "second part"
The swarmers after being made angry are in small groups BUT you can get into 2-3 small groups at once making a LARGE group that is hard to fight. Try to avoid doing this.
You need to keep the worker bees as your priority target. Always kill the bees first, before the Jem'Hadar. Do that and you'll succeed.
As mentioned above, as soon as you see a repair progress bar appear, go smack my bee up!
This.^^^^^^^
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
Never leave the shuttle bay without a hargh'peng.
As a shuttle, make sure to at least pick the one that costs 37k ec. Not the free one, that one sucks horrible. A torpedo spread will be your friend. The secondary weapon can either remain an omni-shuttle-beam, or you go for a dual beam bank for additional frontal pew pew. Make sure to equip resilient shields and a neutronium alloy eng console, in order to maximize survivability. And focuss yourself on the work bees above all else.
In case this fails, either get the aceton/point defense system, or find a friend to pull you through.
Join the Deltas today!
Just remember Kill the Bees first.
Fleet leader Nova Elite
Fleet Leader House of Nova elite
@ren_larreck
this is quite tricky and had to do it a few times before it got it licked, the first thing the remember is ignore the attacking ships when you knock out the clusters they are only there to distract you and you can deal with them later.
the next thing is every second forth and last cluster you get you get no attacking ship or repair bees so they are easy.
on the clusters where you get the bees learn where the bees go and park up in a spot where you can aim at each one without moving only turning but can still deactivate the cluster you need to.
then when you deactivate the cluster you should be able to take out the bees one at a time before they affect repairs, once the bees are gone take out the attacking ships, if you get knocked out at this point don't fret, the sensors will remain out and you can carry on after you have respawned and finished off the ships.
theres a useful vid here to show you how.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpBimJND8ws
I only do it on normal but only use standard out of the box shuttle weapons and its fine.
it seemed pretty much the same to me on each character fed tac, kdf eng and rom sci.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Effective cheap build for most shuttle missions.....
pick shuttle any will do most of their unique abilities are set on a really long timer so more gimmick than necessary.
Equip 1 - Photon torpedo
Equip 1 - Beam Array [omni beam not required as shuttles turn fast enough to keep target in arc]
Slot Torpedo Spread 1 as boff ability[ use the spreads to knock out any of the spammed fighters/worker bees]
Certain items are fun, make it easier, if you need faster completion, aceton assimilator [will wipe an entire swarm spawn due to rad release]
point defense console, subspace rupture, antimatter spread, Thoron generator [from Stalker fighter], or numerous other universal consoles
FYI there are no "Hirogen" in Operation Gamma those are Jem'Hadar aka Dominion
Wanting to beat a mission on "Elite" is not the same as needing to since the difference is frankly more HP Elite vs Advanced run, especially in a shuttle that is just being a TRIBBLE since there is not even an accolade for doing so.
Operation Gamma walkthrough
Hope that helps
[When done beating yourself up for not completing everything on Elite difficulty, grab a Cold beer hold against head till headache disipates then drink beer, the game should be fun, relax and enjoy your time playing]