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The Nightmare Mode!

Captain IdolCaptain Idol ✭✭✭✭✭
edited January 2022 in The Bridge
Good morning/afternoon/evening!

Are you tired of grinding away crew levels to complete collections? Feeling sick of levelling useless Super Rare crew only to immediatly put them in cold storage for eternity. Looking to spice up your Timelines experience with a revolutionary new challenge. Then let me introduce NIGHTMARE MODE!

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The concept of this was created about 3 months ago by Jenos Idanian and we've been discussing the rules, playing this mode and testing it for a while now. The main concept is to start an alt where you can only use or level up a crew if the prequisite rarity has been totally completed. Simply put, no using Uncommon crew until you have immortalised all Common crew. No using Rare crew until all the Uncommon crew have been completed. And yes, this includes the Honor Hall crew.

So you started the game, oh brilliant Mirror Phlox just dropped. However, no using or levelling him up until the Common, Uncommon and Rare crew have all been completed! He will have to sit there at level 1 until the time comes! This has been a really interesting challenge and has given me a whole new apprieciation for the Grey crew. So far it's taken me about 2 months to complete all of them, and Jenos and I have been noting down a few variants and differences in our gameplay as we go.

To Summarise:
  • * To start the game, you can only use Common crew, this must include Stargazer Picard.
  • * You cannot use or level up Uncommon Crew until ALL Common Crew have been immortalised, this must include EMH Mk 2.
  • * You cannot use or level up Rare crew until all Uncommon Crew have been immortalised, this must include Commanding Officer Sisko.
  • * You cannot use or level up Super Rare/Legendary crew until all Rare crew have been completed. You don't need to complete all Super Rare crew, that is borderline impossible.
  • * Using means sending crew on Shuttles, Voyages, Missions, Tanking, Cadets, Arena or Gauntlet.
  • * Using any crew before you have completed ALL crew in the previous rarity invalidates the challenge.
  • * And by all crew we mean not just the collection, the entire lot. Exception of course is crew not in the Portal at that time.
  • * All levels of Starships can be used.
  • * Must be VIP0
  • * Portal/Giveaways/Dabo/Campaign wins can be claimed (i.e. The Kirk/Bones/Uhura one) but the crew cannot be used or levelled.
  • * Using Squad Share crew in event is allowed, as this benefits your squad mate more than it does you.
  • * Retrieval is allowed too, however you must retrieve the rarity you are currently in, no retrieving Mirror Phlox whilst you still have an unfinished Racquetball Bashir on your roster
  • * Objective Events that require fuses cannot be achieved until Uncommon crew are unlocked. So no pulling two green crew, fusing them, then airlocking them.
So, the real question you are all asking as I can mentally see the tortured expression on your face, OH GOD WHY? Well, the first was to add a bit of challenge to the game, after a certain point we as player do feel like we're going through the motions. Nightmare Mode added a new way to experience the early game and gain a new perspective for the Common crew which are terribly unutilized throughout the game. Another for myself was to see how far one could get using purely Common Crew. Turns out, all the way to episode 10.

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Jenos and I have been playing slightly different variants. Jenos' version has been the vanilla nightmare ruleset, but I decided to add an extra layer of challenge onto my game.
In Nightmare-On-Elm-St Mode you cannot physically keep any card unless the previous rarity has been competed. Yes, this means straight out the airlock! That gold Laborer Kirk I got in the giveaway, bam, 550 honor. No exceptions. This is not for the feint of heart!
Also, no Legendary Gold starships. Lucky people usually get them straight away from Dabo and I felt like I wanted to utilize the Rare/Super Rare starships more.
Shuttlebays can be purchased with Dilithium as usual, but after that any Dilithium has to go on regular Portal pulls, either Single or 10x, your choice. This can be saved until Rares are unlocked. Once rare has been completed, Dilithium spendage can resume on players choice.
Once the Rare tier has been completed, you are....mostly free to resume a normal account. Except every time you get a BeGold, you must consult BigBook.app and take the lowest Tier/Rated crew on that list. Then any crew you work on must be levelled and cited in worst-best order. For example, got a Braxton on your first Merit pull? Great! Got Joseph Sisko on the next Begold...guess who you are citing first....oh yess

Roughly this has taken both of us about 2 months to complete the Common Crew, we're both now onto the Uncommon Crews and it has been a really interesting experience! I recommend it to anyone wanting to start an alt and add a little extra spice to the progression!
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Comments

  • WebberoniWebberoni ✭✭✭✭✭
    Even without going to this extreme, I do miss the challenge and strategy that came in the early days of playing. There was such a sense of accomplishment as you worked through all the storyline missions, planned crew succession to ensure each skillset was covered for both those missions and daily cadet challenge missions, etc.... and that was all long before voyages came along, when chrons were at far more of a premium! Sounds like a morbidly fun and challenging idea though!
  • I still want to try chronological order nightmare mode.

    Do you have a special nightmare starbase setup for this quest?
    I want to become a Dilionaire...
  • Captain IdolCaptain Idol ✭✭✭✭✭
    I still want to try chronological order nightmare mode.

    Do you have a special nightmare starbase setup for this quest?

    No but I am using the 10F Training Fleet which has some bonuses, but doesn't forfill dailies, adding to the difficulty
  • I still want to try chronological order nightmare mode.

    Do you have a special nightmare starbase setup for this quest?

    No but I am using the 10F Training Fleet which has some bonuses, but doesn't forfill dailies, adding to the difficulty

    Fleet...Starbase... same thing
    I want to become a Dilionaire...
  • Prime LorcaPrime Lorca ✭✭✭✭✭
    I still want to try chronological order nightmare mode.

    Do you have a special nightmare starbase setup for this quest?

    No but I am using the 10F Training Fleet which has some bonuses, but doesn't forfill dailies, adding to the difficulty

    Fleet...Starbase... same thing

    The 10FH retirement fleet is also available. It's almost level 13. Most days there's nothing from dailies. I got 60 honor the other day though, when I had to run some missions to complete Dixon Hill. :D

    When I started my alt, I thought, "ok, what's the fastest way to make this account useful." I never considered taking the opposite approach. So odd that Nightmare Mode never crossed my mind. 🤔
    Farewell 🖖
  • AviTrekAviTrek ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ok, you inspired me. I'm giving it a shot now. The first challenge I see is you need 3 1* crew before you can even run an away team mission. So I'm stuck for a couple days with only 1 space battle until I can earn enough credits to buy enough portals to get 1* crew. Talk about a nightmare.
  • Captain IdolCaptain Idol ✭✭✭✭✭
    AviTrek wrote: »
    Ok, you inspired me. I'm giving it a shot now. The first challenge I see is you need 3 1* crew before you can even run an away team mission. So I'm stuck for a couple days with only 1 space battle until I can earn enough credits to buy enough portals to get 1* crew. Talk about a nightmare.

    yay keep us updated! It's a struggle, but a fun one!
  • So what are you going to do when honor sales come up? Sit them out? Or take the free Legendary citation and airlock your Legendary crew?
  • So what are you going to do when honor sales come up? Sit them out? Or take the free Legendary citation and airlock your Legendary crew?

    I think they can keep all crew, they're just not allowed to level them up or use them. But that will probably lead to a scarcity of crew slots too.
  • AviTrekAviTrek ✭✭✭✭✭
    So what are you going to do when honor sales come up? Sit them out? Or take the free Legendary citation and airlock your Legendary crew?

    Personally, I doubt I'll have enough honor to matter. For Idol, I would guess he'll just skip the sale and save the honor. There will likely be a second honor sale before he reaches the ability to use 5* crew.

    Also, the challenge is working through the early levels. Once you reach the ability to use 5* crew it's just a f2p account. So I don't know if you keep it active.
  • I'm taking a different approach to the nightmare mode challenge, which may not be a true nightmare mode. I'll let you decide; however, I have found it fun and challenging regardless. It is still a VIP0 account, but essentially you can use whatever crew you want. The kicker is that you can't progress to Elite and Epic modes unless you have achieved all of the stars in each episode. Also you cannot move on to the next mission unless you have achieved all of the stars on the level of difficulty that you are on. This has posed challenges on equipping the crew and limits how fast you can level them up and progress through the missions. At such an early stage of the game, even replicating is difficult. Also it is difficult if you don't have certain character traits to finish a particular node in a mission such as prodigy or warp theorist. I like the flexibility of this method, which allows you to keep your Legendary and Super Rare characters, but also providing a challenge on completing each stage.

    I started three weeks ago and just getting to mission 7. I only have one immortalized character, 2* Enterprise D Picard, and still only running two shuttles.

    Let me know what you think of this version!
  • To me, progressive order on all levels was presumed, but not specifically outlined in @[10F] Captain Idol's brief overview.

    In addition to the crew outlined, (only being able to up level once all crew of that sort were immortalised), the same would be true in Arena, - you can't start 3* ships until all 2* ships are finished, etc.

    In Episodes, Distress calls and Cadets, all have to be done in order and you can't start the next mission until all 3*s are complete from the previous mission, and you can't start Elite util all missions on Normal are finished, and so on, which you really may not be able to start until you get to 2* crew anyway.

    Correct me if I'm wrong Idol, but that seems logical in keeping with your nightmare theme.
    I want to become a Dilionaire...
  • Captain IdolCaptain Idol ✭✭✭✭✭
    I had not specified that but I like that as a twist if you wanted to add another challenge. You can get all missions Normal, Elite and Epic done with just 1* crew on Episode 1 btw.
    I think the underlying theme is to stagger the rarities of crew, getting the most out of the 1* crew was the initial idea but I like people are coming up with variants!
    For ships we stated that any will do, but you can add that layer of challenge. On my version I set myself all ships except Gold could be used. That way those Dabo spins turn into easy replication fuel and I get to see what a lot of the under-used 3-4* ships are like.
  • Shy KhanShy Khan ✭✭✭✭✭
    Why am I doing this...? Why am I doing this on a Skirmish weekend...? Why am I doing this on a skirmish, Superbowl weekend......?
    Come join the Steeler Nation Fleet!
  • Captain IdolCaptain Idol ✭✭✭✭✭
    Shy Khan wrote: »
    Why am I doing this...? Why am I doing this on a Skirmish weekend...? Why am I doing this on a skirmish, Superbowl weekend......?

    You can feeeeel the challenge calling to you!
  • AviTrekAviTrek ✭✭✭✭✭
    Shy Khan wrote: »
    Why am I doing this...? Why am I doing this on a Skirmish weekend...? Why am I doing this on a skirmish, Superbowl weekend......?

    Lol. I've basically ignored most events on my nightmare account. Getting crew that I won't be able to use for a while doesn't have much appeal. Staffing ships with 1* crew and trying to complete a skirmish on any level is a recipe for frustration. I just play a couple rounds to collect some of the easy threshold rewards and then focus on my main account.
  • AviTrekAviTrek ✭✭✭✭✭
    A quick update on my own nightmare account. The first two weeks while waiting to get 3 1* crew were terrible. Sitting there running the same one ship battle over and over for credits.

    Once I got three crew things began to move. I just reached episode 9 last night. I have all the 1* crew on my roster and a little over half are FE. I'd forgotten how much trainers are a bottleneck initially. All my honor has gone to trainers so far. Replicator rations have limited my ability to replicate past annoying faction items too. I unlocked the third shuttle yesterday with Dil from the free campaign. Having that campaign really improves things for f2p accounts compared to when I started my main account.

    Overall I'm enjoying the challenge. It's fun seeing how far into the game I can get with only 1* crew. I'm looking forward to moving onto 2* crew once I earn enough trainers to level all my crew.
  • Captain IdolCaptain Idol ✭✭✭✭✭
    AviTrek wrote: »
    A quick update on my own nightmare account. The first two weeks while waiting to get 3 1* crew were terrible. Sitting there running the same one ship battle over and over for credits.

    Once I got three crew things began to move. I just reached episode 9 last night. I have all the 1* crew on my roster and a little over half are FE. I'd forgotten how much trainers are a bottleneck initially. All my honor has gone to trainers so far. Replicator rations have limited my ability to replicate past annoying faction items too. I unlocked the third shuttle yesterday with Dil from the free campaign. Having that campaign really improves things for f2p accounts compared to when I started my main account.

    Overall I'm enjoying the challenge. It's fun seeing how far into the game I can get with only 1* crew. I'm looking forward to moving onto 2* crew once I earn enough trainers to level all my crew.

    You can get all the way up to Episode 10!
  • AviTrekAviTrek ✭✭✭✭✭
    AviTrek wrote: »
    A quick update on my own nightmare account. The first two weeks while waiting to get 3 1* crew were terrible. Sitting there running the same one ship battle over and over for credits.

    Once I got three crew things began to move. I just reached episode 9 last night. I have all the 1* crew on my roster and a little over half are FE. I'd forgotten how much trainers are a bottleneck initially. All my honor has gone to trainers so far. Replicator rations have limited my ability to replicate past annoying faction items too. I unlocked the third shuttle yesterday with Dil from the free campaign. Having that campaign really improves things for f2p accounts compared to when I started my main account.

    Overall I'm enjoying the challenge. It's fun seeing how far into the game I can get with only 1* crew. I'm looking forward to moving onto 2* crew once I earn enough trainers to level all my crew.

    You can get all the way up to Episode 10!

    Now that I've got crew to cover all the cadet missions and have hit the first level of the possibile collections, I'll have to go and check who are the best at each skill to get to 10.
  • Jenos IdanianJenos Idanian ✭✭✭✭✭
    AviTrek wrote: »
    A quick update on my own nightmare account. The first two weeks while waiting to get 3 1* crew were terrible. Sitting there running the same one ship battle over and over for credits.

    Once I got three crew things began to move. I just reached episode 9 last night. I have all the 1* crew on my roster and a little over half are FE. I'd forgotten how much trainers are a bottleneck initially. All my honor has gone to trainers so far. Replicator rations have limited my ability to replicate past annoying faction items too. I unlocked the third shuttle yesterday with Dil from the free campaign. Having that campaign really improves things for f2p accounts compared to when I started my main account.

    Overall I'm enjoying the challenge. It's fun seeing how far into the game I can get with only 1* crew. I'm looking forward to moving onto 2* crew once I earn enough trainers to level all my crew.

    Fantastic work! I'm still working on mine, and I'm into blues now. Finally do not need to spend honor on trainers, and have 4 shuttles due to cheevos and campaign!
  • Never sleep and you will not have nightmares thus avoiding the nightmare mode.

    But what about your hallucinations from lack of REM sleep?
  • DavideBooksDavideBooks ✭✭✭✭✭
    ALeeRocks wrote: »
    Never sleep and you will not have nightmares thus avoiding the nightmare mode.

    But what about your hallucinations from lack of REM sleep?

    Just look for the number 3.
  • AviTrekAviTrek ✭✭✭✭✭
    ALeeRocks wrote: »
    Never sleep and you will not have nightmares thus avoiding the nightmare mode.

    But what about your hallucinations from lack of REM sleep?

    Eyes in the dark... One moon circles.
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