The Gauntlet Rules For Intermediate Players
Bylo Band
✭✭✭✭✭
in The Bridge
You're not a new player anymore, but you don't have a freezer full of super-rare crew either. You're an intermediate player; you do well enough but you are still not really sure how to relate to people discussing 12 hour voyages either. If this sounds like you, keep reading because this thread will allow us to explore the "rules" of The Gauntlet, that thing we do every handful of hours when we shake down beginning players for trophies and hold them until the big players come to get them from us all in an effort to win a chest or two of merits.
Rule 1: If you screw up and win a couple of match ups in a row, you are going to get very acquainted with herds/swarms of Suraks, Bartender Guinans, Mirror Phloxes, various versions of Picards (Mirror and Locutus most often), Caretakers, and Kahless the Unforgettables. You will not have these crew members, everyone else will, and you will have no answer for them.
2. Here is how crit chance works; I will focus on 5% and 25% only. If you have 25% and your opponent has 25%, you will crit at most one time, your opponent will crit a minimum of three times, but four is just as likely. If you have 25% and your opponent has 5%, you will crit once and your opponent will crit once, possibly twice. Prepare yourself for this in advance and grip your device a little more firmly to aid in resisting the urge to throw it at nearby woodland critters. If you have 5% and your opponent has 25%, you will get zero crits and your opponent will get four, if not five. If you have 5% and your opponent has 5%, do not be fooled, you will get zero crits and your opponent will get two minimum. Basically, crit chance is in The Gauntlet to give you false hope when selecting your crew for the match. Just remember this simple rule: crits are for the opponent, not for you.
3. The game will tell you that The Caretaker can be found in Gauntlet boxes and crates. The game is lying to you. Every box or crate you open will contain trainers or trash you find in the first 10 minutes of voyages. Every so often you will find one that has a few chronitons in it just to prevent you from completely giving up hope, but realistically, the game took your hope when you weren't looking, put it in a crate, and gave it to a player that it accidentally gave The Caretaker to.
4. If you see ANY version of Quark, run away! Quarks only appear in The Gauntlet when they have a 65% crit chance, and at that point it doesn't even matter what the skills are, Quark is going to crit you so hard he'll have to buy you dinner afterward...only Quark never buys dinner for anyone, ever, so if you see Quark, just don't.
Those are the four I can think of right now. There are certainly many more, perhaps others can add to the list
Rule 1: If you screw up and win a couple of match ups in a row, you are going to get very acquainted with herds/swarms of Suraks, Bartender Guinans, Mirror Phloxes, various versions of Picards (Mirror and Locutus most often), Caretakers, and Kahless the Unforgettables. You will not have these crew members, everyone else will, and you will have no answer for them.
2. Here is how crit chance works; I will focus on 5% and 25% only. If you have 25% and your opponent has 25%, you will crit at most one time, your opponent will crit a minimum of three times, but four is just as likely. If you have 25% and your opponent has 5%, you will crit once and your opponent will crit once, possibly twice. Prepare yourself for this in advance and grip your device a little more firmly to aid in resisting the urge to throw it at nearby woodland critters. If you have 5% and your opponent has 25%, you will get zero crits and your opponent will get four, if not five. If you have 5% and your opponent has 5%, do not be fooled, you will get zero crits and your opponent will get two minimum. Basically, crit chance is in The Gauntlet to give you false hope when selecting your crew for the match. Just remember this simple rule: crits are for the opponent, not for you.
3. The game will tell you that The Caretaker can be found in Gauntlet boxes and crates. The game is lying to you. Every box or crate you open will contain trainers or trash you find in the first 10 minutes of voyages. Every so often you will find one that has a few chronitons in it just to prevent you from completely giving up hope, but realistically, the game took your hope when you weren't looking, put it in a crate, and gave it to a player that it accidentally gave The Caretaker to.
4. If you see ANY version of Quark, run away! Quarks only appear in The Gauntlet when they have a 65% crit chance, and at that point it doesn't even matter what the skills are, Quark is going to crit you so hard he'll have to buy you dinner afterward...only Quark never buys dinner for anyone, ever, so if you see Quark, just don't.
Those are the four I can think of right now. There are certainly many more, perhaps others can add to the list
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Comments
Privileged to be Admiral of the Great Fleet
Dilithium Causes Cancer, maxed Starbase level 134
Featuring photonic flee free holodecks and
All you can drink Neelix's Even Better Than Coffee Substitute!
Or better yet, not go into the gauntlet at all. And if you risk it, do it one week on one week not, to give your arm a rest (from throwing your phone across the room out of pure frustration).
Gauntlet doesn't get any easier with good crews. It is just a merit farm.
I've even lost several times with full health Caretaker against mirror LA Forge without any crits on either side.
There is definitely an undertone of "this is a merit farm" in my narrative, it is just not overtly stated, although I came close in the final sentence of the opening paragraph by suggesting the entire purpose of entering The Gauntlet for players is to try and hang in there long enough to win a few boxes of merits.
Well to me at least, this is the difference. If you go into The Gauntlet with your Surak, Mirror Picard, Mirror Phlox, Caretaker, and a tribble, you won't win every match up (obviously, because even players with great crew are still subject to rule #2!
And in the context of everything that has been said that isn't even that big of a deal, because losing isn't the end of the world. It is after all a merit farm. If anything, while cynical yes, the underlying theme of this thread is for people in the intermediate ranks to NOT give up hope. After all, how would I know these rules AND care enough to write about them if I weren't doing The Gauntlet a handful of times every single day? I just know there are people out there in the same position I find myself in and I want to just make these rules plain as day so they can read them, understand that it is not just them, and that it is worth still doing The Gauntlet, even though "victory" is impossible.
The Mega Event recurring legend is even at 1/5 fully equipped a frequent Gauntlet inclusion to win thru to some rewards.
Not advocating an exodus from fleets in pursuit of higher starbase bonuses, the camaderie in fleets of that ilk (Im in such a one) is amazing when we succeed in adding more rungs and see nodes fall that prior resisted becoming 3 stars.
Read rule 4, learn rule 4, strictly adhere to rule 4