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Help me with a strategy

I’m a new Captain that has only been playing a few weeks. I’m at level 23, no VIP, no dilithium. I have not completed any missions yet on Epic.

I have 61 crew: 3 4*; 13 3*; 32 2*; and 13 1*. I have some fully fused, most are not. My highest level crew are in the high 30’s. None are fully equipped.

I was fortunate enough to get the 5* Ferengi ship, so my general strategy is to throw only crew that need leveling on that ship as I farm for needed items to equip crew.

I’ve reached the point where I’m running out of room. I’ve airlocked one skill characters and realize I need to airlock more. I’ve used the “do not airlock” spreadsheet despite not having my characters maxed out.

So, where do I go from here? Try to immortalize select characters? Just play the episodes to gain needed items? The game can be a bit overwhelming.

Thanks in advance.

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    Hamsters2Hamsters2 ✭✭✭
    This isn't what many of the beginners guides say to do, so you've been warned. This is just what I did and served me well. Dump your 1* crew as needed. Focus only on the 2* and 3* crew that you need for cadet challenges, can dump the rest as needed. Those crew for cadet challenges will give you a well rounded crew to finish missions and cadet challenges give excellent rewards each day. Each week focus on crew that gives bonuses in event. You'll slowly get to the point where you will get a 3 or 4* SR each week and a 4/5* from mega. As a F2P, your best crew will come from event rewards. That was the key for me. Just focused on events. Each week that threshold event crew was a boost for all other parts of the game.
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    IronagedaveIronagedave ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2018
    Firstly Congrats on 5* ship - that will allow you to complete all ship battles you unlock up to epic

    My advice drop your Greys - they are not really worth their salt and are a drain on your resources (in particular trainers).

    Any dilithium you acquire save for purchasing shuttles, they will help getting you extra trainers that will be bottlenecked at this point you are at in game.

    Focus on greens that will help you complete weekday cadet challenges - these give you a really helpful leg up if you participate and complete these regularly. Key Greens to look out for Jaxa, Worf, Seska, Crusher and Kes, Sato, Festive Dax, Data (he will be a bit of a pain to level at this stage but he has best ENG for a green).

    Once you got a good core of greens work on Blue Crew that will work on weekend challenges such as female aliens like Saavik, Torres, Sniper Ezri, Mara, Winn Adami will be especially helpful as they can be used on both days. Adami will also help you out on campaign map as well with bajoran or cultural figure locked missions.

    Use the STT level 100 spreadsheet - choose purples that are good for voyages - voyages will be your bread and butter for replenishing chrons as well as topping up resources.

    It is overwhelming to begin with and you won't necessarily make prudent choices to begin with.

    But above all find a decent newbie friendly fleet to help you out as well.

    As to general farming for items completing and unlocking Episodes 1-3 and distress calls up to elite level will help you complete most leveling required at this stage coupled with ship battles completed up to epic.

    Edit
    Do one spin on dabo every day it refreshes you will get (hopefully) useful items, and quite often get extra ship schematics which will unlock multiple types of 5* ships and help level them up quicker.
    [was on Sabbatical/Hiatus] Currently a trialist at Galaxy SquadronSTAY SAFE and KBO
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    Thank you both and if anyone has any other suggestions, I’m open to them. Hamsters mentions beginners guides, but I haven’t been able to find any that were clear to me. Anyone have good recommendations?
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    DavideBooksDavideBooks ✭✭✭✭✭
    I also advise dumping all your gray, 1* crew; as needed. Don't dump them at once if any are being used, but don't add anything to them unless they are REALLY high level; then you can immortalize them for the dilithium. But seriously, they are not worth it. Once you get going, you can easily get them all again and immortalize them.

    Different people have different preferences for the green, 2* crew. Here are 9 to keep for a well-rounded crew that can handle ANY cadet mission. (They cannot crit every mission, for that you'll need a few others, but that will come in time.) Many here will tell you that you can do with fewer cadet crew; and you can. But at the start, I suggest a full compliment. Festive Jadzia Dax, Lt Naomi Wildman, Ensign Sato, Dr Phlox, CMO Crusher, Cadet Sito Jaxa, Gaia Odo, First Maje Haron (or Worf), and Lt Tasha Yar. Focus on them and spend no resources on others until you have them (or a crew similar). Any other 2* can be immortalized and frozen or just plain gotten rid of until you are ready to have space and resources for them.

    The same basic info applies to the 3* crew, but there are more combinations that work and they are not as easy to fully fuse. You can do cadet missions with fewer, but for a well rounded crew who can pass everything focus on the female aliens. I use Doctor Selar, Lieutenant Saavik, Maquis Takeover Torres, Lwaxana Troi (almost identical to Vedek Winn Adami who I used for the first 3 months), and Sniper Ezri Dax (Private Money and whatever make alien security you like work just as well; and I used that combination for 5 months).

    Keep any 4 or 5 * crew you get from events.

    ****SAVE ALL your premium portal pulls for now. You don't have space for them until you can level up your needed cadets and dump/freeze the others.

    It is a slow process, but works.
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    Seven of One Seven of One ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'd agree with getting rid of your 1* at the moment, you'll be able to get them again in the future.

    2* and 3* are the ones to focus on. Check the rewards table when there's an event on as there's often items for the featured 2* included, which could be a good help.
    With 3* I chucked a lot of human males out the airlock as they aren't anyuse to me on weekend challenges and its o ly now I can take one As a bit of a project and get them done.
    As much as possible try to get FF 4* from events. It took me quite some time to be able to FE these but once I did I was able to achieve better voyages.

    Find some focus, I was really bad for working on all my crew all at the same time, and never really finishing any so none were useful. I now try to work on event crew and high value crew.

    Where to get some great advice and tips:

    The Wiki, I lived here for the first month, and I still have a tab open on chrome all of the time so I can check crew statistics and dilemmas
    This Forum there's an older forum too which is also very helpful. I spent a lot of time reading a lot of posts (still do, actually :) )
    Fleets Not just joining a fleet, many of the bigger fleets have wiki pages with help and advice contained within them. Have a look around and its amazing the advice to be found.
    Discord if you download discord i'm personally on a couple of servers, my own fleet and Timelines fleet as well as GoT (who are another fleet) GoT have a bot that they allow other players to use, even if you aren't in their fleet. I believe there are restrictions placed upon other non-member players, but I don't know what they are and I find it pretty awesome anyway. I use these bots to find out where best to farm items I need and also stats for specific cards.

    it took me a bit of floundering around to find my feet with all of this so take your time. Above all,enjoy your game, its so much fun <3
    Ten Forward Loungers - Give Your Best, Get Our Best!
    Check out our website to find out more:
    https://wiki.tenforwardloungers.com/
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    Dirk GundersonDirk Gunderson ✭✭✭✭✭
    Lots of great advice up there but I don’t think anyone has said this explicitly: if you can, try to level one crew at a time all the way to 100. Spreading your efforts around just means you have a lot of crew that are sort of okay for some things rather than a slowly increasing number of crew very good at one thing or the other. As your crew allows, maybe level one COM-primary crew, then a DIP-primary, then the other skills in turn until you have someone who specializes in each skill that you can use to succeed in cadet challenges and away team missions in the first few episodes.

    Trying to level your 4* crew (and possibly some 3*s) might be a challenge without unlocking later missions that drop high-level components and equipment. It can be done with the replicator, if you can afford the credits cost and the fuel, but don’t try to bite off more than you can chew right now. Without spending money you'll need to play the long game...which has its rewards as well.

    Good luck!
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    RaraRacingRaraRacing ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2018
    Couple of points to add to the excellent stuff above:

    - I'm not really sure how useful the Do Not Airlock list is at your point in the game ... I'm not the greatest fan of that list, but hey ... I see it more as a tool you could use after you've built up a squad where you can get through the basics easily (see Ironagedave's greens and blues to keep).

    - While I also agree that you can ditch most of the 1*s (greys) ... there are a couple you might just want to hold on to depending on your other options for crew.
    a) Desert Ezri Dax
    b) Lt Jadzia Dax
    These two ladies can be used on ALL week days and they have handy skills in MED and ENG/SCI. When I first started out Desert Ezri was my weekday MED go-to for eons (had neither Crusher nor Kes (nor Phlox) for the longest time - back then it was a lot more difficult to get 1* and 2* crew) so I'll never say anything bad about her (she was the third crew I managed to immortalise). Anyway, both can run the missions on the first two difficulties (maybe the odd mission on the most difficult level due to bonuses, but I cannot remember).

    - You should take care in ditching one-skill crew ... 3* Selar, 2* Crusher and 2* Ro are actually pretty decent to have in the early stages of the game ... the 2* ladies can do cadet missions on each day of the week (Crusher on MWF) and Selar on both weekend days ... their replacements are; 3* D. Troi or 3* Kes; 2* Doctor, 2* Sito.

    - Lastly ... there are beginners guide at the top of the Ready Room --> Assistance for Players. That has all the info you need ... the Cadet Challenges and Crew Management links are best.
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    Stellar IceStellar Ice ✭✭✭✭✭
    USS Dart wrote: »
    Thank you both and if anyone has any other suggestions, I’m open to them. Hamsters mentions beginners guides, but I haven’t been able to find any that were clear to me. Anyone have good recommendations?

    The VIP 0 fleets have many resources and advice available to f2p players. If you haven't found a fleet yet or yours isn't helping you, let me know. We have openings and would love to help a fellow VIP 0.
    The VIP 0 Heroes and VIP 0 Champions are looking for like-minded fellow VIP 0 players to join our family of fleets. Please contact me here or on Discord.

    Come join the Star Trek Timelines Discord Community!
    Invitation code: https://discord.gg/8Du7ZtJ
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    If you're a VIP 0 player and you're new, boy do I have the fleet for you! The VIP0 Champions are an all-VIP0 fleet that is actively recruiting. We've got tools and the very smartest of the smartest VIP0 players around to help you with your game. You can PM me or fleet admiral StellarIce if you want more information.

    Fleet shilling aside... your best bet is to start immortalizing cadets. Once you've got the foundation there down, move on to fully fused characters. This weekend is a great place to start. It may seem a little insurmountable, but if you finish the thresholds, between those and community rewards, you'll be able to get a fully fused 4* for free.
    Proud Former Admiral of eXodus
    Proud Former Officer of The Gluten Empire

    Retired 12-14-20. So long, and thanks for all the cat pics!
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    Wildstar19Wildstar19 ✭✭✭✭
    USS Dart wrote: »
    I’m a new Captain that has only been playing a few weeks. I’m at level 23, no VIP, no dilithium. I have not completed any missions yet on Epic.

    I have 61 crew: 3 4*; 13 3*; 32 2*; and 13 1*. I have some fully fused, most are not. My highest level crew are in the high 30’s. None are fully equipped.

    I was fortunate enough to get the 5* Ferengi ship, so my general strategy is to throw only crew that need leveling on that ship as I farm for needed items to equip crew.

    I’ve reached the point where I’m running out of room. I’ve airlocked one skill characters and realize I need to airlock more. I’ve used the “do not airlock” spreadsheet despite not having my characters maxed out.

    So, where do I go from here? Try to immortalize select characters? Just play the episodes to gain needed items? The game can be a bit overwhelming.

    Thanks in advance.

    Man, great question. It's been a long, long time since I've started, and so much has been added to this game since. I've often wondered what I would do differently if I was to start over. My first instinct would be to copy what I'm doing right now, which is focusing on the Collections as I'm faced with decisions about air-locking. Especially with limited roster space. Next, I would keep crew based on their trait value for missions and cadet challenges. You are right that one trait characters are the least valuable. ENG-SCI-MED are the more rare traits, so those are a priority.

    About the ships: my advice is not to stress over them. Ships have been my least priority since I began, and without trying that hard, I eventually got 4 5* 10/10 ships (so far). The ships, imo, just aren't that important. Don't base your air-locking decisions on ship traits, ever, imo.

    This game requires 1 of 2 different things:

    1. Patience and diligence. Keep plugging away every day. Do all your daily requirements, if possible. Keep voyages running 24/7, as possible. Get to 4 shuttles asap and keep them running 24/7. Do NOT play extensively in the Galaxy Events. Not until you have enough components where it doesn't hurt you. Try to level up by 10 at least one character every day.
    Get in an active fleet. Also, listen to advice from more experienced players: my Voyage rewards and times have increased since reading and receiving, and applying advice from more experienced players.

    2. Money. If you're not patient, just pour money into it, lol. I can't imagine playing that way because I wouldn't find it rewarding. The fun part is the satisfaction of getting those characters immortalized. Buying your way there is hollow.

    May the force be with you. Oh, wait, wrong fandom, lol.

    Live long and prosper

    Hurry up before those things eat Guy!
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    [VIP0]USS Dart[VIP0]USS Dart ✭✭✭
    edited July 2018
    Thank you everyone! This is great advice. I've started jettisoning characters and will focus on my 2* cadets. One question on leveling up - I've got about 1000 3* trainers and that's what I've been primarily using to level up characters. Agree or is there a better method?

    Also, I've looked for VIP0 fleets by searching on "VIP0" and I get nothing. How do I identify them?
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    Seven of One Seven of One ✭✭✭✭✭
    USS Dart wrote: »
    Thank you everyone! This is great advice. I've started jettisoning characters and will focus on my 2* cadets. One question on leveling up - I've got about 1000 3* trainers and that's what I've been primarily using to level up characters. Agree or is there a better method?

    Also, I've looked for VIP0 fleets by searching on "VIP0" and I get nothing. How do I identify them?

    You start running into trainer problems around level 70 upwards. I used to buy gold trainers with honor but my OH (who is far more patient than I am) just worked on less crew at a time and waited until faction missions gave better trainers during faction events.

    As for fleets, if I were you I'd post in fleet central stating you are looking for a VIP0 fleet, everyone recruiting will post and then you can choose at your leisure. #justsaying you don't necessarily have to go VIP0 tho, there are ViP0 in my fleet, as well as the bigger spenders. Everyone is welcome <3
    Ten Forward Loungers - Give Your Best, Get Our Best!
    Check out our website to find out more:
    https://wiki.tenforwardloungers.com/
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    <TGE> Clifford<TGE> Clifford ✭✭✭✭✭
    USS Dart wrote: »
    Thank you everyone! This is great advice. I've started jettisoning characters and will focus on my 2* cadets. One question on leveling up - I've got about 1000 3* trainers and that's what I've been primarily using to level up characters. Agree or is there a better method?

    Also, I've looked for VIP0 fleets by searching on "VIP0" and I get nothing. How do I identify them?

    One of the fleets in question is named "VIP 0 Champions". I have an account in there, too! :)
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