Reputation and R&D Grind

ghostrunner521 · October 2015

Is there any reason to level an R&D section past 16?

Is there any reason to grind out the reputation on each character just to get the store items? Is the grind only necessary for the passives?

Is there any reason to grind the R&D to max on more than one character? Can one character craft items and then give to all my others?

lucho80 · October 2015

To the max on more than one toon? Not really unless you're planning to print out upgrades to sell. There is no incentive to go to 20 anymore unless the devs add level 20 items or if you're into accolade hunting.

sirmayday · October 2015

I don't know the level at which it become irrelevant, but higher R&D level means higher effective skill for relevant projects, which means a higher chance to crit and a higher chance to produce higher rarity equpment. Like lucho80 suggested, though, the main purpose seems to be for more efficiently producing upgrades.

ghostrunner521 · October 2015

So there is no need to do anything with R&D on alts? My main can create whatever is wanted and drop it in the bank for my alts?

How about reputation purchases?

sirmayday · October 2015

Rep purchases are bound to character, so they'll need to be acquired on any/every character you want to have them.

lucho80 · October 2015

ghostrunner521 wrote: »

How about reputation purchases?

Here is the thing. If you expect to actively use the alts, then the reputation might help. If you want to get a bunch of dil for reaching tier 5 in each rep, also the reputation helps. Only problematic one is the Romulan one which requires a mission run to get the dil.

ghostrunner521 · October 2015

Ok so I will want to narrow down the choice of characters I actually want the rep gear on so it's not so time consuming. Can someone point me in the right direction of how to even begin this process? I see a few projects that can be started but no real help on if I should pick the 20 hour project or the shorter one.

And where can I find what locations to go to in order to find each type of mark?

tom61sto · October 2015

ghostrunner521 wrote: »

So there is no need to do anything with R&D on alts? My main can create whatever is wanted and drop it in the bank for my alts?

How about reputation purchases?

You'll want to take Beams to 15 for the trait that gives on beam boats, and Science to 15 on Science boats, but beyond that I don't really touch the R&D system on alts. Crafted items are only Bound to Account on Equip and can even be sold on the Exchange prior to being used. I usually just grab whatever I want on the Exchange, as mods and even rarity is random if you're not really into it. Going hardcore into can yield some nice things worth millions, like [EPS] Conductive RCS consoles, but it's very random for the really expensive stuff and you'll go through a lot of stuff worth less than what the materials to make it would sell for on the Exchange.

Reputation stuff (all bound to character on pickup) is going to depend build, but Omega for the Assimilated Module and Kinetic Cutting Beam is a near must-have. Beyond that, DPS builds go for a three or four piece set of the Iconian Deflector, Shield, Engine, and/or Core. Mostly it's the lovely Reputation Traits and the occasional Space Active Ability that Reputation gets ground for on my Alts(usually just one daily per).

alex284 · October 2015

There's no need to do any rnd at all, just buy stuff off the exchange. it's less frustrating. I do a bunch of rnd but just to make the ec to buy the stuff i want, that way i can specialize instead of trying to make everything.

but if you do, for whatever reason, feel the need to craft all your own stuff, there's no need to get alts involved; crafted gear is bound to account and only upon equip.

Going to level 20 increases the crit rate, which is just another reason to do all your crafting on one toon in one school.

ltminns · October 2015

You also need to do a mission to find Nelin Exil for Dyson to get all the goodies.

ghostrunner521 · October 2015

alex284 wrote: »

There's no need to do any rnd at all, just buy stuff off the exchange. it's less frustrating. I do a bunch of rnd but just to make the ec to buy the stuff i want, that way i can specialize instead of trying to make everything.

but if you do, for whatever reason, feel the need to craft all your own stuff, there's no need to get alts involved; crafted gear is bound to account and only upon equip.

Going to level 20 increases the crit rate, which is just another reason to do all your crafting on one toon in one school.

What is it you do R&D wise to make the EC?

bernatk · October 2015

Always run 20 hours projects. That's the general rule of thumb with Cryptic.

markhawkman · October 2015

alex284 wrote: »

There's no need to do any rnd at all, just buy stuff off the exchange. it's less frustrating. I do a bunch of rnd but just to make the ec to buy the stuff i want, that way i can specialize instead of trying to make everything.

but if you do, for whatever reason, feel the need to craft all your own stuff, there's no need to get alts involved; crafted gear is bound to account and only upon equip.

Going to level 20 increases the crit rate, which is just another reason to do all your crafting on one toon in one school.

Actually, I find a load balancing approach best.
Char A does beams, char B does torps, etc...

Getting to 15+ in 1 school on each character is pretty easy. You can just park the characters on a space map if you want.

mustrumridcully0 · October 2015

I would follow markhawkman's suggestion and do some load balancing with your characters when it comes to crafting. You don't need every character to know everything, and you can optimize the time to maximum level if you spread the craft skills across multiple characters.
Some skills might be neat to double up on: If you want to make your own superior upgrades, you will need a lot for Beams or Cannons, and if you don't want to wait too long and stock up on a lot of upgrades, you might want two characters that can do these two. But that might be just a luxury or convenience thing. (And won't do you good if you don't have enough crafting materials. (I buy R&D boxes in the C-Store a lot, only on sales, promos or R&D events to maximize what I get. But that's a "throwing money at it" solution that I would not recommend to anyone...)

You might also want to look into traits that you want on certain characters. The Science and Torpedo traits are IMO interesting for any character focused on science vessels.

Reputations basically are the source of a lot of end gear, in two important ways:
1) Reputations contain reputation set items that are usually better than regular gear.
2) Reputations reward a lot of Dilithium.

My recommendation is to level reputation on every character you have eventually, using sponsorship tokens from characters that already completed the reputation. Each daily reputation project awards a small sum of Dilithium, and when you got to Tier 5 and unlock the final reward (which sometimes requires a small mission), you will earn bonus marks, (sometimes even elite marks) and a large sum of Dilithium.
The Dilithium rewards from reputations will probably allow you to outfit any alt with decent endgame gear.

Romulus, Nukara and Borg marks are the easiest to acquire via the various Red Alerts and benefiting from the daily bonus marks. Once you have access to the Dyson Sphere, you can also easily get Dyson and later Undine Marks. THe Undine Battle Zone is perfect for people that prefer space combat, as it grants marks and elite marks by just flying through space, shooting bad guys and doing a few interacts. (And a bit smart play to recognize when you need to retake certain areas).
Once the Delta Quadrant becomes available, Delta Marks are also easy to get.
Once you can get to Kobali Prime and unlocked the final two open missions, you will also have a reliable source of Delta and Iconian Marks and Elite Marks.

zarato4218 · October 2015

mustrumridcully0 wrote: »

My recommendation is to level reputation on every character you have eventually, using sponsorship tokens from characters that already completed the reputation.

I adamantly second this part of the archchancellor's advice. Always complete a Rep on your main first, then use sponsorship tokens for each alt you want to level. It will save you an immense amount of time, marks, and of course the frustration caused by trying to run multiple un-sponsored reps at once over the course of more than a month. Also, since I don't think anyone mentioned it yet, don't forget that the two "holiday" events provide a great source for bulk marks collection, if you don't mind a bit of a wait and a daily mini-game. I don't know how far along any of your reps are, but you should have plenty of time to finish a first run of each before Q's Wonderland (The next event.) Then just collect up marks on your alts during the event and slot the 20hr project daily for a couple weeks. Again, thats how I usually get reps done on alts such as how I got my two Deltas' reps all up to 5 just with Lohlunat Birds and Monkeys. Either way, good luck.

farmallm · October 2015

Not to me. I stopped at Lv15 since that was the last one that open new stuff. But since I got to that level. The mats are too hard to get, so I don't even craft those top end level stuff. I mostly use it now to equip my lower alts and to make upgrades so those alts can get better gear. Or to upgrade my own mains gear.

ghostrunner521 · October 2015

Where do you see what traits unlock with what level of R&D? And do these traits unlock account wide?

jbmaverick · October 2015

Each R&D branch unlocks a trait at level 15, the traits are per character.

Reputation and R&amp;D Grind

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Reputation and R&D Grind