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Reducing active cadets to 3
Commodore Decker
✭✭✭
in The Bridge
I'm sure someone has figured this out already. I want to reduce my number of active cadets to 3. I'm looking for a group of 3 cadets (obviously they must be female-alien-starfleet) who:
- are guaranteed to pass some Epic*-level cadet mission on each weekday (doesn't need to be the 5th one, and don't need to crit all nodes)
- in that daily Epic* mission I'm having them pass, don't fail any reward nodes. (If that's not possible, fail as few as possible across the course of a week.)
*Thursday can be Elite instead.
- are guaranteed to pass some Epic*-level cadet mission on each weekday (doesn't need to be the 5th one, and don't need to crit all nodes)
- in that daily Epic* mission I'm having them pass, don't fail any reward nodes. (If that's not possible, fail as few as possible across the course of a week.)
*Thursday can be Elite instead.
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Ensign Seska
Cadet Sito Jaxa
Yep. Close it up, we're done here.
Seska, Jaxa, Palazar/Dax
with those 3 you can do at least 1 epic M-F
Love your avatar picture.
Thank you!
Seven doesnt have Starfleet trait, but Naomi and Ro do quality. The difference is that Ro is inferior to Sito and Seska has SEC.
Of course, you could just keep Worf/Yar around as a 4th.
I've found the biggest problem with Cadet Missions is that there's no solid generic DIP or MED and its more helpful to keep a variety around because EASm1,3 and 5 are all very useful at the Epic level.
-Lord Wizzlestix I
Yes, that drives me crazy. I've added Worf on occasion for exactly this reason. But the truth is, if you want 3 crew, there is no one else better than Seska that can qualify for SEC.
It just occurred to me that I can probably dump Sato from my crew. I never do Epic ACF. Festive Dax can do EASm3*** because she can do the last node without failure. The question is can she do the last node if there's a failure. Her minimum roll is 371. You might be able to do Sito-Sito-Sito-Seska-Dax.
Otherwise you're stuck doing EASm4*** which is a bunk mission.
EAS-M1 290 SEC/MED/ENG (2* Security Codes)
EAS-M2 310 ENG/SEC/(SCI or CMD) (2* IDIC)
EAS-M3 325 SEC/CMD/DIP (0* Sci Exp)
EAS-M4 345 CMD/SCI/(ENG or MED) (2* Novel)
EAS-M5 380 SCI/MED/(ENG or DIP) (0* Trans Alg)
I could get by without M5 as TA's can be had elsewhere. But, to successfully pass all nodes (after getting all Rare Rewards) for all Cadet Mission days, I have been able to reduced my 2* crew to 8:
CMD - Cadet Sito
DIP - Ensign Sato (Starfleet) and Persis (Alien) ... Troi might make it for most, but will def fail M5
ENG - Lt Naomi Wildman
SEC - Yar (Starfleet) and Persis (Alien)
MED - Crusher (Starfleet) and Kes (Alien)
SCI - Festive Dax
I don't even have Seska in my lineup because she's too risky as SEC. She doesn't have Resourceful or Hunter for M1, Inspiring or Klingon for M2, or Pilot or Marksman for M3. Even at 7% SEC starbase bonus (which I don't have as my fleet is at 3%), DBRNG has to roll 18 points higher for min to pass M1, 38 for M2, and 53 for M3. In my book that's too much in this game.
My only concern for Saturday is max Credits, so I only have these 3 3* Crew:
DIP - Lwaxana
CMD - Saavik
SEC - Private S Money
These are the 11 2*/3* crew I have in my crew slots for Cadet Missions. All the rest are in Cryo.
This may be for another thread, but I don't know where your excess merits come from, but I sure as hell don't have merits to blow on unfreezing crew. My only source for merits are Dailies, Gauntlets, and Events.
Dailies - 215 Max/day
Gauntlets - While I do get a fair share a day from Gauntlets when RNG plays fair and I can win a few rounds, I seem to get more 1k-3k Cred rewards or some shirt or trainers if I make it to 3rd round rewards. Many times I'm 5 rounds and out as my opponent's crit is ungodly as usual. So I'd give a range of 300-700 merits a day from Gauntlets.
Events - Once a week and mostly don't place high enough for the extra 500/1000 merit reward. I do usually get most VP merit rewards, but still miss the 1000 at 250k VP sometimes (if offered in that week's event)
So, given I could possibly earn 900-1000 merits in a day with some bonus during events, I then have to spend it on replenishing Faction Transmissions (4 shuttles running 24-32 missions/day) at 75 a pop, or buying 3* items in the Faction stores at 250 merits each (or basic holoprograms, ancient films, orchids, etc at 50) - I usually need 3 or 4 a day so that's 750-1000. Where am I supposed to get these extra merits to freeze/unfreeze crew?
I'm stacking merits due to three circumstances, 1) I don't refresh the gauntlet ever anymore, just crash folks into the wall, 2) faction stores aren't giving me what I need to buy for merits very often and 3) I'm only buying transmissions as I need them. Exhausting all other transmissions esp if an item Is in more than one faction before buying except events.
M5 also drops 0* Encoded Communiques and 2* First Contact Protocols. TA's are readily available elsewhere but you usually need tonnes of them. Its easily the best cadet mission in terms of variety of useful drops.
M4 is skippable. I usually run TUFm3 for them which also drops 2* Encoded Communiques. I usually run out of EC's well before the novels.
I recently decided to downsize my crew to only 5 cadets: Worf, Seska, Crusher, Dax and Sito. I can do ACF on Elite, TUFm1,3,4 on Epic and any EAS on Epic.
Between dailies and gauntlet it's easy to bring the merits in. After that, it all comes down to discipline in gauntlet refreshes and I hardly ever buy 3* items anymore, but thats part of what you sacrifice to do this trick.
You don't. The list of 3 are the minimal crew required to pass at least 1 mission on epic every day. If you want to pass all the crew you will need a lot more. For some people the crew slots are worth more than the ability to run all the missions. For others the flexibility is worth more than the crew slots and they can carry more cadets.
There are other lists for the min crew required for every mission. It's something like 10 cadets if I remember correctly. Plus another 8-9 I believe for advanced cadet missions. That's 18 crew slots used for cadet missions. Not everyone has 18 crew slots to spare. The OP asked how to reduce to 3 active cadets, and Riker's Angels is the answer as was given.
You say easy, I say RNG. I said I use Gauntlet to get merits, I never said I used merits in Gauntlet to refresh choices. There is no discipline for me - I have good crew, but defenders are always in DB's favor so I stopped "paying" the odds. Their 5% crew crit 3x more than my 45% crew OR roll in the 80th percentile vs my 30th. I win a few, but am lucky to make it to a 3 streak without an **tsk tsk** whippin! Back to the merits though, this morning on a set, I won 8 times (not consecutive) of 13. In those 8 wins, I received merits twice - 32 and 65; the rest were credits. Wait 4 hours, rinse and repeat. As for 3* components, I can waste replicator uses on them and pay 32k, or buy in faction stores for 250 merits. I don't waste 250k or dil in faction stores. I've played Gauntlet everyday since release... not always religiously every 4 hours, but tonight, after 5 months (June 13th Achievements introduced), I will hit 5,000 round achievement and get 1500 merits. It's nice to get a bonus now and then. At this rate, it will take me about 2 years to get Locutus.
We're really going out into the weeds here, but I was using your own estimation of 300-700 merits from gauntlets for my "easy" estimation. I am not going to criticise your playing style, but I have the merits to spare to unfreeze three cadets everyday simply because I don't spend as much as you do in faction stores, and I am aware of the opportunity cost of doing so.
Tuesdays I usually do UF-M3 Epic for 1* and 2* Encoded Communiqués and 0* Bajoran Earrings (of which Niners Kira ate like 30 or so) and no other mission except sometimes UF-M2 Elite for 0* Medical Experiments. Crew used there: Seven, Worf and Leeta (even though she wouldn't be required as the first DIP node could be failed and Dax instead of Seven would still clear the last SCI node and Data instead of Leeta would do the ENG node). I could probably save Leeta's and Seven's crew slot here.
Thursdays I always do ACF-M2 Elite for 0* Medical Lessons. For that I can use almost any crew due to the low skill requirements to pass nodes. Mostly I use Seven and Leeta (that's one reason why I kept them active).
Saturday is clear - max money ... so it's ACF-M5 Epic with Private Money, Lieutenant Saavik and Lwaxana Troi.
Sunday usually I go for UF-M3 Epic again (just like Tuesdays) to get more useful communiqués and earrings. Crew used there: Constable Odo, Maquis Takeover Torres and Lieutenant Saavik (failing the first DIP node on purrpose and still safely clearing the final SCI node with Saavik).
Dax will always pass the first node of TUFm3 because of the Astrophysicist trait. Leeta's only necessary if you want to do TUFm5.
That avatar is EPIC
I made a list. Sito is almost Immortal now.
Cadet Sito Jaxa: Level 99, 1/4 Equipped.
Ensign Seska: Level 50, 2/4 Equipped.
Festive Jadzia Dax: Level 30, 3/4 Equipped.
Ensign Pazlar: Level 70, 3/4 Equipped.
Seriously need a good Crew. {And some of the Mon/Wed/Fri Epics still need Crit Drops.}
Scott