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Stuck in a Causality Loop?
Team Zero
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in Ready Room
I've been playing for 6 or 7 weeks, reaching VIP level 14 (something that I'm not proud of, but I do click on things late in the evening after several beers and glasses of the red stuff that I wouldn't have done earlier in the day) a week or so ago and as a result accumulated rather a lot of stuff fairly quickly, some of which may well have been used wisely and without question, most of it not so.
Having found the forum a couple of weeks ago I read some bits and pieces and registered last week, it's not that easy to find sensible threads to make your initial posts, given the heading to this forum maybe a sticky thread for those new to the forum to actually say hello and ask for initial advice? Possibly even a 'Junior Officers' mess (sub-forum) for those trying to find their way in the game? From what I've read most threads (and the help sheets) focus on those a long way into the game, nuances are all well and good, but for those still trying to come to terms with the basics the requirements are somewhat different.
Having raced through the Episodes/ Missions at normal level, upgrading various crew members along the way to reach the victory condition but not picking up all the stars along the way, something that you fairly quickly discover actually is necessary to equip various members of your crew, today I finally managed to complete all Normal levels to 3 stars, Elite is problematical, Epic is a long way off, except for the ship battles, I spent a day a couple of weeks ago completing all of them.
Earlier this week I depleted all of my resources Immortalising six 2 star crew members that should enable me to complete the Mon-Fri Cadet challenges at the base level and over the next few of weeks , with maybe a few more crew needing levelling up, also sorting out the higher levels of difficulty. The Advanced weekend challenges have come to a grinding halt along with attempts to complete Elite Mission levels, I simply do not have the crew or the resources to progress, especially whilst those members of the crew levelled highest are out on Voyages and Shuttles that may or may not come across something useful to level up a crew member to enable a Challenge or Mission to be completed to level up another member of crew to do something useful and so on and so on. And that's without taking into account just which member of the crew is the most efficient to attempt to level up.
No issues with grinding things out for a few days or weeks to get something moving again, what I really need is a pointer in the right direction rather than my fairly haphazard, scatter-gun approach so far.
Thanks for your time in reading, even more thanks if given a direction to concentrate on going forward.
Having found the forum a couple of weeks ago I read some bits and pieces and registered last week, it's not that easy to find sensible threads to make your initial posts, given the heading to this forum maybe a sticky thread for those new to the forum to actually say hello and ask for initial advice? Possibly even a 'Junior Officers' mess (sub-forum) for those trying to find their way in the game? From what I've read most threads (and the help sheets) focus on those a long way into the game, nuances are all well and good, but for those still trying to come to terms with the basics the requirements are somewhat different.
Having raced through the Episodes/ Missions at normal level, upgrading various crew members along the way to reach the victory condition but not picking up all the stars along the way, something that you fairly quickly discover actually is necessary to equip various members of your crew, today I finally managed to complete all Normal levels to 3 stars, Elite is problematical, Epic is a long way off, except for the ship battles, I spent a day a couple of weeks ago completing all of them.
Earlier this week I depleted all of my resources Immortalising six 2 star crew members that should enable me to complete the Mon-Fri Cadet challenges at the base level and over the next few of weeks , with maybe a few more crew needing levelling up, also sorting out the higher levels of difficulty. The Advanced weekend challenges have come to a grinding halt along with attempts to complete Elite Mission levels, I simply do not have the crew or the resources to progress, especially whilst those members of the crew levelled highest are out on Voyages and Shuttles that may or may not come across something useful to level up a crew member to enable a Challenge or Mission to be completed to level up another member of crew to do something useful and so on and so on. And that's without taking into account just which member of the crew is the most efficient to attempt to level up.
No issues with grinding things out for a few days or weeks to get something moving again, what I really need is a pointer in the right direction rather than my fairly haphazard, scatter-gun approach so far.
Thanks for your time in reading, even more thanks if given a direction to concentrate on going forward.
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I would think you might focus on a few crew at a time. Start with all the 1, 2, and 3 star crew. Get them out of the way and frozen.
As for accidentally buying things after a few drinks, I have gone with the strategy of not having my account tied to a credit card. If I absolutely want something, I go buy a Google Play gift card and use that.
It sounds like you've got at least some of your weekday cadets sorted, but there are crew who are more ideal than others. Here's a link from the old STT forums (it's slightly outdated because some newer cadets have been introduced since then, but I'm too lazy to find the newer one here... and these cadets will still do the job, so it's a good start).
https://forums.disruptorbeam.com/stt/viewthread/52354
Being able to complete all the M-F cadet challenges at Epic level is your first priority, imo. Then once you've cleared all those stars, you can freeze those cadets and just warp the missions instead of manually running them, which is great to clear up crew slots.
After that (or concurrently), I'd suggest working on 3* crew for the weekend advanced cadet challenges. Among the crew I used for those: Lwaxana, Saavik, Mendon, and a few others.
At the same time, you'll want to keep an eye out for good Gauntlet crew. Keep in mind that they only need to be fully leveled to be at maximum strength — in other words, a fully leveled and fully equipped crew with just one star out of five will be just as strong in Gauntlet as the same crew with all 5 stars. Play Gauntlet for streaks of 3, not for rank, at least at first. This will get you the best odds of good drops. But the main reason to play Gauntlet is for Merits. Don't spend merits to refresh very often — it's usually not worth it. Merits are great to have for buying stuff in the various faction centers, and when you get a huge amount of them built up, they can be good for acquiring 3* crew with the Merit Rewards pulls in the Time Portal (and if you're very lucky, maybe a 4* or 5* crew, as well).
Another thing you can do while you're doing all of the above, is to check the wiki to see which missions on the Galaxy Map have the best drop rates for commonly-needed items. After a while, you'll start to get a good handle on which items come up often when you're leveling/equipping crew, so knowing where to get those items is helpful, especially when prioritizing which missions to clear first, so you can warp them when you're doing crew builds.
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
If you are already in a fleet i would suggest a different one bcuz you should be getting this help from your fleet not having to reach out here (not that there is anything wrong with that). But a helpful fleet to communicate with all day in game would be better.
Will continue with the plan to get the Cadet challenges maxed over the next few weeks and take on board that warping the highest level isn't necessarily the best way to collect what you need, no doubt that applies elsewhere too?
I've noted that in many attempts to pick up items for crew that I want to level up that Episode 8 missions frequently appear, so I'm looking to concentrate on the Elite levels in that and the crew needed to complete them to warpable for as long as it takes. The one I went for today hasn't managed to level up for quite a few Chronitons expended (not bought any though), level up tomorrow definitely, and the next required crew member will take a few days to get there afterwards.
For the Gauntlet I need to get more (or more selective?) crew up a few levels to hit the 3 in a row, not overly impressed that today's COM speciality level hasn't actually given me that many including COM or when it has I've been faced with numbers that are way above my crew throughout, no choice but to use Merits to try to find opponents that what I have can beat.
I have purchased the 2 available 10x crew today as it seemed a good deal, presumably I don't have to open them all immediately? I do have to come out of the game to make a purchase, but as with everything these days, its only a few clicks to do so, my issue to deal with if I can't learn to control myself (or my drinking!), but the intention is to be sensible and only spend on things that seem reasonable to the greater cause rather than they're a few pounds/ dollars cheaper today.
Outside of faction events, put your best crew on voyages. Try and time your voyages to return in the evening so you have them available for mission. Next best crew for shuttles.
Weekend (advanced) cadet missions. You can play and fail them, and they still count towards the daily missions. Get three 3* female aliens and just run through the missions, you will earn 50 chrons.
Next week is the start of a mega event. 5* Thrax will drop all four weekends. He will be the best security / command crew you will have for a long time. You probably won't be able to finish him, but even at level 50/60 he will be strong.
Next week is a faction event for the first two days, so concentrate your best crew there instead of voyages.Once you get thrax, don't waste chrons on the galaxy part, just hand one item in to get community rewards.
Cadet missions you need to look at rewards.
Mon, wed and fri, try to do the epic missions, space them a little over an hour apart, and use the double up add, you will get 50 chrons per mission
Thur I normally do the second mission on eilte for the medical experiment
If you haven't done so already, buy shuttles 3 & 4. That is the best use of DIL in the game.
As for the Episodes to use for equipment, use the wiki to find the best ones. The "pips" used in the game are not indicative of the actual drop rates.
Just clear the missions you can as your crew get stronger, and you'll also get some bonus chronitons whenever your captain level increases. Eventually you'll notice there are some odd missions you can't "unlock" without specific crew, those take a while to get the right crew don't worry about them yet unless you've got freed up crew space and start getting purple crew dropping in voyages (6+ hours).
It's really hard to level up legendary crew to lvl100 when your voyages are not long yet, you'll get there. Being in a decent fleet is critical as you'll get extremely important daily chronitons and honor, as well as help/advice and shared event crew.
230/230 slots filled at the moment, would take too long to type them all in. 41 legendary, 92 super rare (quite a few I''m prepared to cull for space), 66 rare, 30 common. (I know it doesn't add up, but see earlier posts re: alcohol)
Cadet stuff is going to take a while longer than thought due to needing 2/3 attempts at any given mission IF I've got the necessary crew to complete it in the first place, at least May until I can freeze crew. Up to 10 immortalised, , a fair way to go.
I'll have a look in the fleet forum when I get the time, my concern is building reliance on others, it's why I quit my previous time waster after 10 years, too many 'team-mates' going missing too often, incredibly frustrating and decided to just walk away rather than take the options to move 'team'.
all cadet challenges are warpable at elite, not pursuing Epic at this time. 9x 3* & 14x 2* in the freezer until I have the time, crew and slots to complete (could well be a very long time!).
I have joined a fleet, Feds R US approached me, so decided to give it a go, some very useful extra stuff coming in as a result, would definitely recommend joining a fleet to anyone doing all their daily bits and pieces.
Had a close look at the 2x Gladiator Spock offer, looked too good to pass up, along with the double your crew offer (I only got 1 Spock, not 2, false advertising???) and 10 x 10 pulls I had an immortalised 5* in no time at all along with a load of honor from the rejects. He has proven VERY useful thus far!
All galaxy missions complete at Elite level except one, I need a desperate scientist! Probably not an issue for most people, but the way my mind works, I do not like having that one item eluding me!
It's also clear from voyages I need stronger command, thinking of trying to push L50 1/5 Garrett along over the next week or two as she ticks both boxes and I don't appear to have better options at this time anyway. Or do I just sit and wait on both until something/ someone better turns up?
Yep, got that, but they do say 'double your crew'. if you buy 2 then you really should get two more!
Most of the time, people aren’t getting two stars right off the bat. They come from a straight drop or behold in a portal pack, event rewards from a top-1500 finish, gauntlet reward box, in-game mail surprise, or one of the special $10 deals. The $100 event offer and a top-25 finish in an event are the only two places I can think of where you are able to get two copies of one legendary crew at one time (it is possible but exceptionally rare for a double-drop in a portal pack), so the “double your crew” tagline is appropriate for most situations.
Anyway, it is what it is.
Questions if someone would be so kind.
Collections - Rare goes to 60 immortalised, so rather than hold however many and equip/ level as things drop, is it sensible to use something like the 'Do Not Airlock' sheet and airlock any beyond the 60 you want? Or given the frequency that some seem to drop only hold a set number that you want to work on as the opportunity arises until you've got a good number in the fridge?
Same goes for the uncommon, 40 gets the final bonus (at the moment) so no point having slots taken up by those that you will never work on deliberately?
Super rare crew - most seem unnecessary, some clearly are needed for nodes and others for events, if you don't have a better legendary option in place. I'm seeing no point in having loads of 3 or 4 star crew at level 10-50 that I'm unlikely to find the time or resources to progress to levels where they can be useful for voyages, let alone 1 and 2 star crew that just sit there waiting for something to drop from the sky to equip.
Does it make sense to simply airlock 30/40/50 crew (almost) regardless of level that just sit there and do nothing to focus more on picking up collection bonuses that are achievable and crew that will work more for the cause (whether it be Arena, Gauntlet, Voyages, Shuttles) until much deeper into the game?
As for super-rare crew, don't worry if you need to airlock some when running out of slots. As you mentioned the "do not airlock" checklist is a great resource to help you prioritize them, but your focus can be different depending on how far you are into the game. If super-rare crew can contribute significantly to voyages (you don't have a lot of well fused legends yet), that's definitely a factor to consider.
To me, second priority is main cast crew to keep for events, because later in the game this will be your primary use for super rare crew once you've got more legends fleshed out. There are a LOT of super rare crew that have zero or very little event potential, and should be strong options for airlocking. There are some special super rare crew especially valuable for gauntlet and arena as well, but pick those carefully as some are only intermediately strong until you get other crew then sit in the freezer most of the time.
Question for tonight, do I , with one (very expensive) click (okay, two to confirm) turn a 3/5 L70 into a 5/5 L70? Not sure that Jones, Pulaski, er Mulhall is going to make enough difference either at the place in the game that I am right now or in the long term. Looking at the numbers she'd be third in both SCI and COM if I had her FF/FE right now, but the best SCI/ COM until others pass her by.
Money IS an issue, no problems with a good deal (or an apparent one that doesn't turn out to be one), but spending big money to FF/FE someone for only shuttles, nah!
Any thoughts?
Main cast - your Kirks, Picards, Siskos, Janeways, Burnhams are crew worth focusing on. They will appear in more events, and will be useful in all other aspects of the game in the meantime. (Yes, I deliberately skipped Archer. Long running joke, but he was neglected for years in the game, although he has had a recent uptick in event appearances.)
Recurring cast (think Q as an example) are also worth the effort.
But... definitely review the wiki for stats (or ask your fleet). Many 4* and 5* cards from 2016-17 are no longer particularly strong, so only bother to get them if you like them.
Got the w/e cadets sorted now and have refrozen the 3* immortals. Need to finish Tues & Thurs sometime soon, if I have the right crew at the right levels.
Taking on board the main cast theme, with reference to the advice lists, I might as well spend a few hours (when available) air-locking a significant percentage of my crew that I'll not be likely to level/ equip to a usable standard in the near future. Events seem to provide an easy FF 4* (or two) that don't have any particular use if you can't/ won't FE them and possibly not even if you do.
Question for today, I have 37x 1/5, 17x 2/5, 8x 3/5, 1x 4/5 between L1 & L100 do I equip whatever drops to each/ any of them daily/ weekly and see where it goes or sit on them until 3/4 equipment slots are there to fill?
Assuming that's correct, to me anytime an equipment piece drops for an empty slot you should immediately equip it, so that dabo/campaign won't drop a duplicate of that equipment and maybe will give you something for a different crew member.
If that's not correct and you've been randomly levelling crew and stopped working on one without a specific reason (and you have a large number of partially levelled crew), I'm not sure what to advise it depends on if it's a crew-specific item or a generic one. Optimal playing would be that you should only be levelling 2-3 crew at a time, so you should not have a large number of empty slots to fill.
If you're asking about the very first clothing slot on a level 1 1/5 crew, yes absolutely equip that, but don't level that crew at all until you've committed to begin working on them up to lvl100.
As said above a lot of what I've done has been fairly random. Dailies require levelling and equipping, so some days I only have time for following the easiest option(s). Other crew I have targeted and gone as far as I could with the resources at hand (including time) and not remembered a day or two later that there was someone specific I was trying to get to L100, nor the reason why and moved with someone else.
I do have a very large number of partially levelled crew of most types, recently I have cut a lot of green and blue so that I can concentrate on a small number to hit the next collection target(s). I'm still dropping greys on receipt. Not doing much with purples, other than they are the easy equip/ level options at present when time/ resources are limited and sometimes I end up moving them up a fair way as I already have the equipment to do so without any extra effort required. I could easily airlock 30-40 without noticing that they'd gone.
I guess it makes sense to move the golds on whenever possible, but most won't be on a push to L100 any time soon and really that's the question, equip because you can or only do it if you're looking to push a particular card to L100 ASAP?
You may not realize it (I did not for a while), but there's an icon you can tap in the bottom right corner of the character card screen with a heart to mark a character as a "favorite". I'd suggest using this to select crew that you want to focus on, to help keep yourself on track. Keeping focused on a small number of crew will help progress in the game much better.
It does not sound like you're very heavily into legendary crew progression, so levelling each one of them to 100 might be a difficult task. you may be better off at this stage of your game just getting them high enough to contribute to shuttles and daily voyages, but early in the game the best bang for your buck is to focus on green "cadet" crew to get all the cadet missions completed to their maximum star value at highest difficulty. This allows you to warp the missions, and you don't need to have the crew in your quarters anymore and can freeze them.
all cadets warpable, most of the premium gautleteers (although not all worked on as yet), voyages hitting 8hrs every time, even during events, can hit top 1500 in events with time and resources - first and last days tend to be write-offs when working which obviously has an impact.
Out of just about everything for the time being, last credits used to get 1/5 Landry to L100 just in case the new Janeway is worth chasing,
Shuttles (outside of events) are 5* crew only and even then mostly golds.
1X2*, 1x3*, 3x4* for arena.
I get that some 4* are useful for events and some simply aren't even if they are event crew.
Looking for a direction, do I need voyagers that can push towards 10hrs? Do I need more gauntlet options (not going to win one any time soon), not going to work on 4* event crew that aren't really going make that much difference as to whether I can get the new gold, thresholds are (fairly) easily achievable.
For non-faction events you don't need the whole collection it's true, though putting more VP in the faction phase of a hybrid means less chron cost for phase 2.
As for gauntlet the super-premium ones are helpful but not much else. 10 hour voyages requires focus on very strong crew, don't be tempted to cite weaker crew to bring a voyage to 9.25 hours