Beginner's Guide to STT

cannabination

This is going to be a port of knowledge from the "Things you wish you knew when you started" sticky from the old forum combined with new wisdom from the community that will be edited in. I feel like that post contained a lot of very useful info condensed into one thread and our new players will benefit from having it. Reposted from the Bridge as this is obviously the right place for it.

This is a game of resource management. Items, credits, chronitons, faction missions, and patience need to be effectively allocated to play the game without going crazy or broke. Know right now that while DB has made some effort, the interface of the game is not designed to help you navigate the minefield of resource sinks. There is a system to tell you which missions are the most efficient to farm whichever item you need, but that system is regularly inaccurate or misleading. The game will tell you 5 items that the 1* prime directive you just got can make, but not necessarily the ones you’ll need for that enterprise E Picard you're working on. DB doesn’t care about you, so it’s up to you to determine your play experience. The entire game is based on the whims of RNGeezus, it can be extremely brutal if you do it wrong.

Do a little research before you get anywhere near your crew limit. It’s good to learn early how to prioritize crew so you don’t end up airlocking Sito because you don’t like Bajorans, or taking DC Worf over Phlox in a behold because you hated Enterprise. Various things go into this, mainly the top end number of their stats, traits that unlock certain nodes that prevent you from moving to a tougher difficulty on a mission, and ease of leveling. It’s also good to know which characters are complete shite so you can airlock them immediately rather than wasting precious resources on them. For example, it’s super tempting to fire every Neelix you get out the airlock immediately, but you can fuse a fully fused Neelix with a 1/3 Tuvok to create Tuvix, a very strong 4* Sec/Dip/Sci character with a crazy list of traits. Don’t airlock either of those characters until you have a 4* Tuvix. The same is now true of the Duras sisters. With the additions of the gauntlet and voyages the calculus has changed a little as there is now use for characters with high base stats(shuttles), wide range(gauntlet) and those balanced between the two(voyages). The number of crew slots you possess will directly determine how many of these game modes you can effectively access, and how many crew you can afford to earmark for each. If you're playing on the cheap you need to really be clear about your needs and keep updating them frequently.

Make a plan. Evaluate your goals and needs pretty often so you don’t get stuck on a character for so long that they can do missions that no other characters in your crew can really go on, or spread yourself so thin that you feel like you’re wasting your time and chronitons. Knowing when to switch your focus from your core crew to your cadets is something you’ll get comfortable with over time, but have at least a loose idea of what you’re trying to accomplish before you start spending chronitons. Know the items that are toughest so you can decide whether you should replicate that Compression Rifle or 1* Prime Directive, and what to hold onto rather than equipping on the first character that lights up.

Get your cadets to where they can do the elite challenges asap. Obviously epic would be better, but that takes a while even if you focus on nothing else. Elite challenge missions drop many useful items in addition to the better rewards. This cannot be overstated, cadet challenges are one of the cornerstones of success in this game.

Don’t use shuttle boosts outside shuttle events. The missions just keep getting more difficult if you keep succeeding, so you’re basically wasting that boost by ensuring you will fail the next set of shuttles you send if you needed it to succeed. Definitely pick up the 3rd shuttle bay as soon as you can, and if you don’t have any faction in particular to farm, send Section 31. You will inevitably need hundreds of 1* security codes and holoprograms, may as well get started now. Also, visit the faction centers daily(reset is at the same time as the Dabo wheel). It can be worth spending dilithium at these(would you spin the dabo wheel hoping to get that item? If not, do not spend dilithium), but typically you want to hold out for items you can purchase with merits, which you will have aplenty.

If you’re going to spend money on the game outside the monthly card, do so on the event bundles or special offers. In addition to event packs(which always come with some kind of guarantee), you get chronitons, credits, and dilithium. Google the characters in the event and make sure you actually need them unless they’re your favorite guy and you just want them regardless of strength. If you do, the bundles are all quite solid on the deals. The $100 comes with 2 of the 5* characters, 1k chronitons, and 10 event packs. The $50 is 1/5*, 500 chrons, and 5 event packs. The $25 is 2/4 of the final reward purple, 500 chrons, and 5 event packs. I typically go with the latter if I’m going to get one because its cheaper and it’s easy to justify 5 $5 packs with all that extra loot. If you go with the $25 pack, never take a purple event character in a behold, as you will likely get enough of them through the event rewards that you will airlock a few anyway. The more expensive bundles are better if money isn’t an issue.

Even if it is, grabbing a $25 event pack early in your play is a great way to build up some crew to work on that you can be sure will be strong and worth your time. Almost any fully fused 4 or x/5* character is going to be worth your time. Also, it will bump up your VIP a touch which will give you some much needed crew slots and increase your replications per day.

Look ahead at the rewards in the events. Spending chronitons/replications on an item you’re going to get as a reward in 3 event successes is dumb, and will make you feel dumb. Aside from the early items that go with the green characters, typically you’ll want to save such reward items for the event characters even if one of your high priority characters wants it. If you have any interest in doing well in the event, anyway. Some events you’ll want to skip because you just don’t care about the characters or you don't like the event type... w/e.

Replicator food has become much more plentiful with voyages and the Sunday cadet challenge, but credits are still at a premium. Be sure that you dig into the items and find the lowest * level item that will be tough to build and replicate that. Many times you will be missing one faction only item to craft a 1* which is the only thing you're missing to craft the 4* version of that item. The cost of a ** item is 9k credit, a *** item is 32k, and a 4* is 90k. Be sure you aren't wasting.

cannabination

A few notes regarding crew prioritization:

It doesn’t matter in the slightest when you add stars to a character, they will be the same at level 100 4/4 whether you level the 1/4 and add stars as you go or wait to level the 4/4. Adding a star increases the amount of points each character gains per level. If you level a 1/3 character to 20 she might gain 2 of her prime stat in 15 of those levels and 1 on the remaining 5, let’s say 35 points. A 3/3 character will gain 4-6 in their prime stat per level, let’s say 100 points. If you were to fully fuse the 1/3, the stats gained would be the exact difference between her 1/3 stats and those of the 3/3 version from the second example.

It's important to remember that with the gauntlet utilizing range there are certain 5*s that you cannot pass up the 1/5 in a behold, but you never really need to add another star. Their only strength is their gauntlet value(for normal game play, obviously a 5/5 Seven of Nine will help in events where she's a featured character, but that's getting a little in the weeds). Point being, check out everyone you have on the wiki so you know their potential and don't pass on someone amazing to add a star to a character that doesn't really need it.

That said, you’ll most often want to focus on the characters with more stars, as you’re getting more bang for your buck in the short term. This will make the most meaningful difference in your ability to immediately progress in the game, provided you aren’t leveling some ridiculously useless character.

So we’re clear out of the gate, long term it is always best to level your purple or yellow crew. Inevitably, regardless of play style, you will add stars to the characters over time. There is now a list of blues that are effectively required for maximizing your success and minimizing the number of crew slots taken up by blue. I can clear the final Epic mission on Sat/Sun with Klingon Dukat, Saavik, Winn, and Ezri, once I opened the missions I was able to vault the rest of my blues. As you level you want to keep an eye out for femaliens that are green or blue and space the rest outside blue Odo and Dukat, and I guess Rifle Janeway. Basically want to build up a single character that’s strong in each attribute, and you want to pick the right guy from your available pool.

The things that make a character strong aren’t always immediately obvious, and often the things you prize higher than others will evolve as you collect a better, more rounded crew. Obviously the minimum, average, and maximum rolls are very important as you get into the end game, many of the best characters are very average until lvl 90. Hit up the wiki when you have a tough choice to make.

The importance of traits has evolved a lot with the game's progress. As you build your crew traits will be the difference between critting those rare nodes or just passing the mission. Mid-game you'll need certain traits to unlock specific nodes so you can progress to the next difficulty. At this point you'll be hunting Sec pilots and resourceful scientists and you'll get stuck on some items until you fill that void. Fencing Sulu and Disguised Tuvok are examples of characters that will be crucial to you at this point but likely be vaulted once you've cleared all the nodes they can open. At "end-game" you'll also use traits in the gauntlet and voyages to a lesser extent. At this point you'll know who you need, and they're basically all 5*s or 4*s you won't get rid of anyway.

What will make a bad character necessary are key traits. Many of the locks on the missions are opened by traits that are quite common and aren’t typically a consideration. A few, though, are tough to find paired with certain attributes(Interrogator on a medical character, for example) and should never be passed up. Mirror Phlox, Drunk Troi, Rakal Troi, and the Founder are examples of characters with unique or near enough pairings that you basically cannot pass on them should you find them in a behold with other characters you might like better, or might objectively BE better. This has changed some since the original writing as more crew have been added, but the point is still valid.

Ease of leveling typically revolves around the character’s race, which can develop a very painful reliance on RNG to get a character moving. A Romulan will be inherently more difficult to level than a Human because the only way to get many of the items you need for a Romulan are through 3 hour long shuttle missions with very large item pools. A starfleet human will typically only need component parts, which makes you rely on a different RNG which can be equally painful, but is at least something you can actively work for.

The replicator is an amazing addition to the game, and needs to be used strategically. In addition to faction items that are obviously tricky, there is a laundry list full of items that are a massive PITA to farm. Given the character limit on this post, you’re just gonna have to use one of the handy sites in the sticky to find those. What you do not want is to dump chronitons into a 0* item with an 80:1 chroniton to drop ratio. Replicating 0* items is cheap in regards to both fuel and credits. When you find yourself trying to make a 2* item that requires 4 encoded communiques or science experiments, you’ll be faced with the decision of dumping hundreds of chronitons into it, or just replicating the 2* item. Case by case. When you’re rolling as you rank up a chracter it can be tempting to replicate stuff that just requires a ton of common components. This is a trap. Farm those common components at the right places to work on other characters at the same time.

Keep your core crew around the same level and always progress until the checks are too high. The full chrons and max chron increase when you gain a cpt level make it a waste of your time to level characters when you can progress. The higher your level, the more max chronitons you have to farm once you *need* to. Once you get a decent(3+ star) ship, be sure to do the elite and epic space battles asap. Loads of XP for you and typically better drop items. Your ship will be able to handle it.

There are lots of resources to find which crew is best at various things. Let me just give small a list of characters you should never, ever pass.

Mirror Phlox, Scientist Degra, and Assimilated Janeway. Seven of Nine and Chancellor Gowron(1/5 only).

The game makes it hard to have fun at times. Find it where you can.

cannabination

one piece of advice i haven’t seen mentioned here is how useful rare rewards can be. instead of spending hundreds of chronitons on the more difficult items, you could just find that 3* Flux Coupler or Central Command Uniform in the wiki and go pick it up at a fraction of the cost. keep in mind that the mission list in the game will offer you rare reward spots at the very bottom, but not if the item can be built from lesser components. you have to check the wiki for a rare reward opportunity manually.
-p377y7h33f

(Since the original post the UI has been changed to indicate what missions will drop a rare reward as long as the item cannot be built. Tapping such an item will still open up its recipe)

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This is something I learned early on, but it’s still worth emphasizing. The first time you clear a mission you will get a massive Captain XP bonus. This also includes the first time you clear a different difficulty of the same as well, so there are three times per mission to gain the bonus Captain XP. Cadet missions count, too.

Since your maximum Chrons go up as your level goes up, not to mention that you get full Chrons when you level, you should always be on the lookout for missions where you might have passed up a higher difficulty. Go back and do these missions periodically, at least until your max Chrons are 100. At this point, the amount of Captain XP becomes too great and the amount of Chrons you will gain from leveling up will far exceed the Chrons you will gain from leveling up. At this point, only begin clearing older missions on higher difficulties as time and Chrons permit (which will not be often) or if you need those higher difficulties to farm a particular item. After this point, you will gain Captain XP (and levels) at a significantly reduced rate, but there’s really no way around that. It just makes the times when you do level up again all that more sweet.

As an exception, Ship Battles do not require you to get lucky with RNG in order to 3-star a difficulty. Simply defeat the opponent ship in within the specific time limit to get a 3-star. Since you will be spinning the Dabo wheel at least once per day (you are remembering to do this, right?) or twice per day if you have a monthly card, you will inevitably land on 150 schematics of a 5* ship. Once you have any 5* ship at Level 1, you should be able to clear any Ship Battle on Epic difficulty through Episode 6 with no problems. You should prioritize these missions and get 3-star on Epic as soon as you are able.
-Darxide

Another one that I would personally add from experience: Plan out your cadets well in advance. Know who to keep and who to airlock. There are a lot of cadets and many of them are not very useful, so avoid wasting time, chrons, trainers, and equipment on them. Threads like this one are invaluable. As a new player, you won’t be able to go after the “best” cadet lineup and instead you will have to go with the most efficient (making use of characters who can do two or three of the challenges). Only once you have opened up more crew slots and can afford to go for those elusive nodes should you worry about adding in the extra cadets.
-Darxide

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Simple:
Don’t spend money. Kidding.....mostly.

What would I tell myself if I could travel back to that cold weekend in January when I downloaded and started this journey? VIP isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, from poorly worded ‘features’ and abilities to the illusion of making the game easier. Don’t sink that initial $1,000 into the game to get VIP14. Instead, buy a monthly card.

This isn’t a ‘game’. It’s a card collecting dice roll with a Star Trek skin over it. For 10 months, more and more cards have come out, and I’ve spent thousands upon thousands of dollars to get them. But you can’t hold or keep them all.

See, I have an addictive personality. “No one is forcing you to stay & play”....well, actually, yes. I am. That’s what an addict does. We keep chasing the elusive.

So that’s what I’d tell myself.
Would I listen?
Probably not.
-Frank(seriously, he wouldn't listen. Format edited)

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That you can press and hold on trainers to “count up” how many to use at one time.
-Smauggie

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Getting WARP 1 and WARP 10 was a really big boost to efficiency/fun for me, so I would suggest from day 1 getting a monthly card (and I guess a $5 dil purchase for warp 10 would be my choice, rather than waiting for 3 months of cards to reach that VIP). Obviously that depends on individual finances and views on microtransactions, etc.
-Riker 2.0

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Regarding faction items that are available ONLY from the faction store or shuttle runs (or the replicator): Faction stores rotate the same items for sale for merits, dilithium, or credits over a period of a week or two. Four star faction items are not sold in faction stores. They only drop from shuttle missions.
-Taran4 (Format edited)

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Don’t airlock crew if you are well short of your crew limit, you might discover that they are actually useful later on when you see more missions (I airlocked Nurse Kes early when I got Temporal Shift Kes)
-garner

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I would add that whenever possible, you should try to level up to 100 and vault a character instead of airlocking them, because in theory you could end up needing them later on. Even the one-star cadet versions can be useful for expedition events and for shuttles when they get multiplier bonuses - during the last expedition, the bonus characters were Worf and Harry Kim, and it was very useful to have the 2/2 Worf and even the 1/1 Kim to unlock the lowest level missions after the more difficult ones were done!
-das411

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...save packs and single pulls instead of using them as they come in. Wait until you've got some crew slots that can be freed up and then pull 4-5+ packs at one time. This way you can potentially fuse some characters you might have otherwise airlocked.
-12345678 of 123456789

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This list has over 400 crew. Not sure how often it's updated, but good data nonetheless.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qzfdm7KlIfmZWLiJ-YYwo16i0lT1Q7KpP8hwxgvWnWc/edit?usp=sharing
-Captain Jello (Format edited)

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Failed cadet mission still counts for achievement and those useful 25/50 chrons. Initially you may lack rares to win even normal Saturday and Sunday - but play them anyway with any crew.

So does Arena for its achievement (and that 200 honor for completeness are useful).
-al103

cannabination

Regarding honor, I would advise not spending them on trainers or replicator rations. Saving honor to get better crew is going to provide more efficient sources of both trainers and rations over time.

One more small thing: don't spend 250K credits in faction stores, when replicating is cheaper (even if you are replicating a legendary item, that includes many components/equipment that could cost 250K in stores themselves).
-Bigstupidgrin

cannabination

Reserved for new wisdom.

al103

Speaking of Monthly Card for new players:
Steam Offers are your second Monthly Card. If you can afford Monthly - you can afford them. More than that initially it's BETTER to take them instead of Monthly if you are short on money.

They are:

Steam Starter Pack:

10 X 10xPremium Packs
500k Credits
700 Dil
500 VIP

Cost: ~ 1 monthly card

Steam Fleet Commander Pack:

1500 Schematics for Borg Cube (Voyages)
1500 Schematics for Bounty (enough to ace ALL naval missions on the map, Arena, Voyages)
1200 Schematics for Enterprise-D (Meh...)
1200 Schematics for USS Defiant (Arena beast, I keep in 10k with lv6 one)
4000 Dil (hello your third and fourth shuttles)
2000 VIP

Cost: ~2 monthly cards

2000+500 VIP = 35 crew slots for new player (and another 20 for many not so new ones)

It will immediately make your life much, much, MUCH, MUCH easier for new player. I had time to compare how it was before I bought them and after - there is no comparison.

Honestly I can recommend them even if you don't plan to buy monthly card.

Mr. Doctor

The question probably goes here as much as anywhere (sorry if it's answered elsewhere) but I see lots of references to crew being FF or FE. What does that mean?

Leshy

FF is Fully Fused, meaning crew having all their stars. A 2/4 crew is not FF, a 4/4 crew is.

FE is Fully Equipped, meaning crew having all their items equipped (at level 100).

al103

Leshy wrote: »

FE is Fully Equipped, meaning crew having all their items equipped (at level 100).

99.

FFFE does not always means Immortalized even if step between them is just 4 gold trainers and a change. Because it's not worth it to spend those 4 trainers on crew you don't plan to freeze if you aren't in trainer heaven yet (unless you are 1-2 immortals short of dil) - output mostly same anyway.

...

Well, "FFFE and freeze" does mean Immortal for obvious reasons.

On other hand Duras Sisters and Tuvix first merge are "FFFE but don't lv100".

Bigstupidgrin

May not be applicable to the beginning player's reality:

Regarding honor, I would advise not spending them on trainers or replicator rations. Saving honor to get better crew is going to provide more efficient sources of both trainers and rations over time.

One more small thing: don't spend 250K credits in faction stores, when replicating is cheaper (even if you are replicating a legendary item, that includes many components/equipment that could cost 250K in stores themselves).

Tempeau

Bigstupidgrin wrote: »

Regarding honor, I would advise not spending them on trainers or replicator rations. Saving honor to get better crew is going to provide more efficient sources of both trainers and rations over time.

Can you elaborate on this? Levelling crew seemed like such a slow process until I started buying those packs of 5* trainers every day. Is there a better way?

[ISA] Raven

with the "shuttle failure" giving back trainers... after a bit you will have trainers you need.
You are MUCH better served by saving honor for Crew citations, sometimes the only way to advance Legendary Crew
And with Voyages giving replicator rations again, much better off not spending honor for them as well.

cannabination

The best way to accumulate trainers is by getting more shuttle bays. They're expensive, but they're the best investment you can make.

Bigstupidgrin

Tempeau wrote: »

Bigstupidgrin wrote: »

Regarding honor, I would advise not spending them on trainers or replicator rations. Saving honor to get better crew is going to provide more efficient sources of both trainers and rations over time.

Can you elaborate on this? Levelling crew seemed like such a slow process until I started buying those packs of 5* trainers every day. Is there a better way?

Shuttles, voyages, and gauntlets all give out trainers. Like cannabination said shuttle bays are great for this.

Pallidyne

cannabination wrote: »

The best way to accumulate trainers is by getting more shuttle bays. They're expensive, but they're the best investment you can make.

They are expensive, but at least now F2P players do have access to get them via Achievements.
And if you have patience, you can get them for less than $10 USD if you do the monthly card twice as well.

Wright

How do I start a new topic?

cannabination

Wright wrote: »

How do I start a new topic?

There's a "New Discussion" button on the top right if you're lvl 2 or higher. If you post a bit you'll get there very quickly. Until then if you have a question you can ask in a thread like this one or in the engineering room if it's that kind of thing.

Clanof

Tempeau wrote: »

Bigstupidgrin wrote: »

Regarding honor, I would advise not spending them on trainers or replicator rations. Saving honor to get better crew is going to provide more efficient sources of both trainers and rations over time.

Can you elaborate on this? Levelling crew seemed like such a slow process until I started buying those packs of 5* trainers every day. Is there a better way?

Levelling crew is painfully slow when you're new, I would advise getting the trainers in the honour hall until you're strong enough to start getting gold trainers from shuttles.