Tip For New(er) Players – Value Of Having 4 Shuttles
Irial
✭✭✭✭
in Ready Room
I realize the topic of having 4 shuttles has been mentioned numerous times already in these forums, but thought I would provide a concrete example to illustrate for new(er) players.
I had had 3 shuttles for some period of time, and was waiting to get to the next tier of Immortalize your crew members within the Achievements screen, so that I would have enough Dilithium to purchase my 4th. Running 3 shuttles during a Faction Event, if I put in a moderate effort (i.e., just flipping shuttles fairly regularly, but neither using Shuttle Boosts nor paying too close attention to the clock to ensure I did each flip right after 3 hours) I would finish with a Ranking of anywhere between 3,001 and 10,000, depending on how much luck I had with the missions coming back a ‘Success’. If I really pushed hard (i.e., used Shuttle Boosts, and tried to get as many flips in right at the 3 hour mark), then sometimes I was able to finish with a Ranking between 2,001 and 3,000 – that is, I could get 1 or 2 Stars for the Ranked Super Rare character. I certainly never came close finishing in the top 1,000 (i.e., getting a Star for the Ranked Legendary character was unachievable).
Then last week Collections were introduced, which provided me with enough Dilithium to get my 4th shuttle prior to the start of the War Interrupted (re-run) Event. I already had a 1/4* Rakal Troi, and so was hoping that my new 4th shuttle would allow me to finish with a Ranking of 1,501 to 2,000, which would allow me to FF her. I did not do the full ‘kickstart’ at the beginning of the event, but instead simply opened 30 Transmissions, and completed them all right away, bringing me to a total of 60 Victory Points. Then I ran my first set of 3 hour shuttle missions at the 2,250 Victory Points level, and patiently worked my way up to the 4,000 Victory Points missions. I did use Shuttle Boosts on all missions, and as I noted in a comment previously in another thread last weekend, I did have a good level of success relative to the strength of the crew I had available to use – as you can read there, I was definitely not sending out my shuttles at the 90%+ projected success level that is possible for many stronger players.
As the event unfolded, relatively quickly I saw I was able to increase my ranking to be comfortably in the top 2,000, and provided I did not have a terrible stretch of luck hit me, I was feeling optimistic about getting Rakal Troi Immortalized. My shuttles coming back on average at about a 75% (i.e., most often 3 out of 4) success level eventually started to push me up into the top 1,000, and when the event finally finished on Monday, I had a shiny new Obsidian Order Garak added to my crew, as I had ranked 773!!
My advice to new(er) players who are just purchasing the Monthly Card, or playing as VIP0/F2P players, is resist the urge to spend your limited Dilithium on anything else until you have acquired 4 shuttles. You will see other things in the game that might tempt you to indulge, but wait for them until later on, and get your shuttles to the max first.
(P.S. After you have your 4 shuttles, then wait for the next half-price sale to increase your Crew Capacity at 50% of the Dilithium price
)
I had had 3 shuttles for some period of time, and was waiting to get to the next tier of Immortalize your crew members within the Achievements screen, so that I would have enough Dilithium to purchase my 4th. Running 3 shuttles during a Faction Event, if I put in a moderate effort (i.e., just flipping shuttles fairly regularly, but neither using Shuttle Boosts nor paying too close attention to the clock to ensure I did each flip right after 3 hours) I would finish with a Ranking of anywhere between 3,001 and 10,000, depending on how much luck I had with the missions coming back a ‘Success’. If I really pushed hard (i.e., used Shuttle Boosts, and tried to get as many flips in right at the 3 hour mark), then sometimes I was able to finish with a Ranking between 2,001 and 3,000 – that is, I could get 1 or 2 Stars for the Ranked Super Rare character. I certainly never came close finishing in the top 1,000 (i.e., getting a Star for the Ranked Legendary character was unachievable).
Then last week Collections were introduced, which provided me with enough Dilithium to get my 4th shuttle prior to the start of the War Interrupted (re-run) Event. I already had a 1/4* Rakal Troi, and so was hoping that my new 4th shuttle would allow me to finish with a Ranking of 1,501 to 2,000, which would allow me to FF her. I did not do the full ‘kickstart’ at the beginning of the event, but instead simply opened 30 Transmissions, and completed them all right away, bringing me to a total of 60 Victory Points. Then I ran my first set of 3 hour shuttle missions at the 2,250 Victory Points level, and patiently worked my way up to the 4,000 Victory Points missions. I did use Shuttle Boosts on all missions, and as I noted in a comment previously in another thread last weekend, I did have a good level of success relative to the strength of the crew I had available to use – as you can read there, I was definitely not sending out my shuttles at the 90%+ projected success level that is possible for many stronger players.
As the event unfolded, relatively quickly I saw I was able to increase my ranking to be comfortably in the top 2,000, and provided I did not have a terrible stretch of luck hit me, I was feeling optimistic about getting Rakal Troi Immortalized. My shuttles coming back on average at about a 75% (i.e., most often 3 out of 4) success level eventually started to push me up into the top 1,000, and when the event finally finished on Monday, I had a shiny new Obsidian Order Garak added to my crew, as I had ranked 773!!
My advice to new(er) players who are just purchasing the Monthly Card, or playing as VIP0/F2P players, is resist the urge to spend your limited Dilithium on anything else until you have acquired 4 shuttles. You will see other things in the game that might tempt you to indulge, but wait for them until later on, and get your shuttles to the max first.
(P.S. After you have your 4 shuttles, then wait for the next half-price sale to increase your Crew Capacity at 50% of the Dilithium price
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Comments
Oh, well, that simplifies matters. I didn't realize it was capped! That's actually a relief.