GUIDE: *Optimal Continuum Mission Strategy
Bylo Band
✭✭✭✭✭
in The Bridge
(* while this is a detailed description of what I actually do every week. I have not tested every possible alternate strategy, I do not care to, but I went with "Optimal" anyway because it is amusing and because it perfectly encapsulates the blend of authenticity, sarcasm, and satire in the rest of this post.)
Everything you are about to read is 100% useless in the event the reward for 100% completion on Epic difficulty returns to something akin to the Ubiquitous Borg Queen, this "guide" is intended only to be used during these regular weeks where the reward for 100% completion on Epic difficulty is a single begold. If you ever encounter a week where the reward for 100% completion on Epic difficulty is akin to the Ubiquitous Borg Queen, that would be considered a special circumstance and this "guide" should be ignored and you should consider trying hard to acquire it.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Over the course of the week, do the following:
Step 1: Pick your team, however you do that.
Step 2: Clear Normal difficulty with your selected team without using any Quipment (or if necessary, use one of those green +250 items you have in stock). Collect your 150 Quantum Energy.
Step 3: Clear Elite difficulty with your selected team, Quipping them with a single +500 golden Quipment and a single +250 green Quipment. Collect your 150 Dilithium.
Step 4: Use 50 Dilithium from your winnings to reset your Contiuum Mission rewards.
Step 5: Working backward starting from the last mission, clear Elite difficulty a second time.
Step 6: Clear as much of Normal difficulty as you can before the week ends, focusing on clearing nodes with the best rewards for your needs (which is code for nodes that drop Medical upgrade components).
JUSTIFICATION:
The reward for 100% completion of Normal difficulty is good, 150 Quantum Energy is a not-insignificant boon toward your next Crew Retrieval, which for the purposes of this "guide" I will assume you will use toward acquiring a card that you want/need and which will definitely help you in some way that you can know in advance.
The reward for 100% completion of Elite difficulty is good, 150 Dilithium is useful for many untold things including being more than enough to pay to reset the rewards on the weekly Continuum Missions and still generating a modest 100 Dilithium profit.
The reward for 100% completion of Epic difficulty is not good, it is an assortment of 3 randomly selected legendary cards pulled from a massive pool of potential options and has a decent chance to simply be 550 honor or a permanently lost crew slot for another 1/5 card. This reward in a vacuum is actually not bad, however when the cost of acquiring it is factored in, namely the additional gold and purple Quipment needed by your entire team to clear Epic difficulty, it becomes reduced to the worst of the 3 rewards.
A single gold Quipment requires 8 of one kind of golden material and 8 of the other kind of golden material (I have been told they have unique names and are in fact different thing but they look identical so who can say for sure?!) associated with the desired skill. It only requires a single golden piece of Quipment per character to clear Elite difficulty and in that pursuit the player is likely to acquire as many or more of each kind of golden material as was required to build the golden Quipment used which will be useful to build more Quipment next week and which will last long enough once Quipped to allow the player to clear Elite difficulty twice this week, earning a handsome profit of golden materials which can be banked to amass a sizeable surplus which can be utilized in the future should the reward for 100% completion on Epic difficulty return to something akin to the Ubiquitous Borg Queen, be used to assemble Quipment for additional cards to be used in Gauntlet/Voyages/etc, or any other reason. Take it from the guy who started the thread about hoarding, surpluses are good, you do not need to justify why you have one, what is important is to have one!
This strategy also relies on those green +250 Quipment items we all have a lot of and it gives them a real purpose. Not only does this strategy make them useful by being an effective alternative to building much more costly Quipment while still enabling the player to clear Elite difficulty, since they expire so rapidly a player might need to use 2 of them during the week which will help said player make progress on the "Strengthen Your Crew by Equipping Quipment" account Achievement!
Using the methods described in this "guide" I have amassed hundreds of golden materials and have built myself a nice surplus of them despite skipping the unpaid beta-testing era of Continuum Missions which initially had me at a big disadvantage when I ran Contiuum Missions for the first time during the first week where the reward for 100% completion on Epic difficulty was the Ubiquitous Borg Queen.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, it is my hope that you find it useful.
Everything you are about to read is 100% useless in the event the reward for 100% completion on Epic difficulty returns to something akin to the Ubiquitous Borg Queen, this "guide" is intended only to be used during these regular weeks where the reward for 100% completion on Epic difficulty is a single begold. If you ever encounter a week where the reward for 100% completion on Epic difficulty is akin to the Ubiquitous Borg Queen, that would be considered a special circumstance and this "guide" should be ignored and you should consider trying hard to acquire it.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Over the course of the week, do the following:
Step 1: Pick your team, however you do that.
Step 2: Clear Normal difficulty with your selected team without using any Quipment (or if necessary, use one of those green +250 items you have in stock). Collect your 150 Quantum Energy.
Step 3: Clear Elite difficulty with your selected team, Quipping them with a single +500 golden Quipment and a single +250 green Quipment. Collect your 150 Dilithium.
Step 4: Use 50 Dilithium from your winnings to reset your Contiuum Mission rewards.
Step 5: Working backward starting from the last mission, clear Elite difficulty a second time.
Step 6: Clear as much of Normal difficulty as you can before the week ends, focusing on clearing nodes with the best rewards for your needs (which is code for nodes that drop Medical upgrade components).
JUSTIFICATION:
The reward for 100% completion of Normal difficulty is good, 150 Quantum Energy is a not-insignificant boon toward your next Crew Retrieval, which for the purposes of this "guide" I will assume you will use toward acquiring a card that you want/need and which will definitely help you in some way that you can know in advance.
The reward for 100% completion of Elite difficulty is good, 150 Dilithium is useful for many untold things including being more than enough to pay to reset the rewards on the weekly Continuum Missions and still generating a modest 100 Dilithium profit.
The reward for 100% completion of Epic difficulty is not good, it is an assortment of 3 randomly selected legendary cards pulled from a massive pool of potential options and has a decent chance to simply be 550 honor or a permanently lost crew slot for another 1/5 card. This reward in a vacuum is actually not bad, however when the cost of acquiring it is factored in, namely the additional gold and purple Quipment needed by your entire team to clear Epic difficulty, it becomes reduced to the worst of the 3 rewards.
A single gold Quipment requires 8 of one kind of golden material and 8 of the other kind of golden material (I have been told they have unique names and are in fact different thing but they look identical so who can say for sure?!) associated with the desired skill. It only requires a single golden piece of Quipment per character to clear Elite difficulty and in that pursuit the player is likely to acquire as many or more of each kind of golden material as was required to build the golden Quipment used which will be useful to build more Quipment next week and which will last long enough once Quipped to allow the player to clear Elite difficulty twice this week, earning a handsome profit of golden materials which can be banked to amass a sizeable surplus which can be utilized in the future should the reward for 100% completion on Epic difficulty return to something akin to the Ubiquitous Borg Queen, be used to assemble Quipment for additional cards to be used in Gauntlet/Voyages/etc, or any other reason. Take it from the guy who started the thread about hoarding, surpluses are good, you do not need to justify why you have one, what is important is to have one!
This strategy also relies on those green +250 Quipment items we all have a lot of and it gives them a real purpose. Not only does this strategy make them useful by being an effective alternative to building much more costly Quipment while still enabling the player to clear Elite difficulty, since they expire so rapidly a player might need to use 2 of them during the week which will help said player make progress on the "Strengthen Your Crew by Equipping Quipment" account Achievement!
Using the methods described in this "guide" I have amassed hundreds of golden materials and have built myself a nice surplus of them despite skipping the unpaid beta-testing era of Continuum Missions which initially had me at a big disadvantage when I ran Contiuum Missions for the first time during the first week where the reward for 100% completion on Epic difficulty was the Ubiquitous Borg Queen.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, it is my hope that you find it useful.
3
Comments
2) Don't bother with the 2* Quipment unless it is needed for Epic, it really is not worth the effort.
This goes against what Bylo Band suggests.
There are really two strategies that I use, and these are both best with all the containers unlocked.
3) Play once a week, Quip you continuum crew once every second week.
3a) Tuesday (day one) do normal. Wednesday/Thursday finish Normal, clear as many nodes as possible on Elite without using and Quipment. You want to be aiming to reduce the number of paths for later in the week. Judicious use of crew traits helps here if you have the crew.
I have finished a mission on Elite like this without Quipment.
3b) Saturday Quip your crew enough to clear Elite, and do so. Use only legendary gear.
3c) Sunday Attack Epic, Quiping crew as needed. This is where you decide whether to use more legendary gear, or use the 2* gear.
3d) Monday, you should have all bar one or two nodes done, finish off, if you need to use super-rare quipement, then this is when to use it, maybe an extra piece of legendary.
Week 2.
3e) Tuesday New continuum, rush through normal.
3f) Check which crew have super-rare Quipement needed for Epic, clear these missions and epic nodes first.
3g) Thursday you should have most of the nodes clear, finish them off on Friday, use 2* quipment again if needed.
3h) Take three days off from Continuum, or use this time to level other crew.
4) Method 2.
Do method one up until Saturday, then on Sunday fully Quip all your crew. use every legendary piece that will fit.
Run through the upper levels, use the 2* quipment as needed.
Week 2 clear the continuum, and then spend your 50 dil for a reset, clear again.
When the Quipment expires, it will all do so at the same time, and you replace it all.
If you want you can drop back to method one on the Friday. Quiping on the Saturday makes switching between the two methods easy.
Method 2 will get twice as much components, but will need twice as many to do, and require spending 50 dil.
I used method 2 until just before the Borg Queen was the reward, but now use method one, and have a reasonable stock of gear.
I do like Quiping all the crew at the same time, it reduces confusion, especially with the bug, which have been fixed.
When using method 2, remember to use other crew when possible for normal to level them up. Also when you only need two crew for a path, boost another crew by putting it in as well.
I normally clear the 4th Epic node as fast as possible since it’s usually the most challenging.
Recently we've had a lot of Maquis/Athlete nodes that made me decide to get Duelist Torres up and running for Continuum (by citing her, as I'd always seen her as a niche gauntlet pick so kept her at 1/5), and because she gets that Assessment of Weakness widget as a Maquis she has a very good top roll and has become my general go to for ENG nodes on epic even when she doesn't get a trait match.
With that being said, thank you to people who are sharing their strategies and trying to help people in here, by all means continue
The time and effort and resources needed to get the final reward is simply not worth it to some players. The game makers don't seem to understand. This original post shows that.
Personally, I don't know what it takes because I've never bothered. I can't justify the time needed because of how I would have to time everything else to make sure my best crew were not on shuttles or voyages. It just isn't worth it to me. Therefore getting extra containers isn't worth it. Therefore I just do the lowest level each week and I'm fine with that. I don't have a dog in this fight.
But satire concerning the viability of getting the final prize or not, it seems valid for making better use of what I do. I may attempt it if I overcome my current game apathy or if they let us use any crew, even if they are on shuttles or voyages.
Edit to add that I have no animosity to any opinion here. And especially I appreciate that the game makers put in the feature in the first place since it seems so many players like and use it. I'm not one of the users, but I appreciate that many are and I'm pleased that the game makers seem to care that people Ike this. Hopefully they can continue to make adjustments to improve it.