Top 1000? Pssshh... Where are the Winners?
Marko Ramius
✭✭✭
in The Bridge
All this talk about top 1000. I've been there once, for an expedition event no less. I'd like to hear from some people that have won an event before. #1. Numero Uno. I want to know what you did to get there, and any relevant trials and tribulations. For example:
By day 4 my hands were shaking so much from all of the tapping that I thought that I may lose a grip on my phone. It was frightening to say the least, but I gathered my remaining strength and dried my sweaty palms on my jeans and carried on.
But then... *knock*knock* Who is that at the door? Who could be so selfish as to interrupt me at zero hour, just when I cracked the top 3? While the missions of the galaxy event flew by with all of my collected items, I yelled out "Who is it?!"
"It's the police. Your mother asked us to do a well-being check because you haven't answered her calls in a few days."
"No time to talk!" I replied, concentrating on my incessant tapping. "This event win is almost within my grasp!"
I returned to the Star Trek world, and gripped my phone tighter, almost to symbolize my tighter grip on first place. FIRST PLACE! I am finally there. Now, just to keep it for another 3 hours...
Maybe I got carried away. Anyway, don't worry about giving away your secrets. 99% of players here don't have the combination of time, crew, shuttle boosts, money, and overall dedication that it takes to win an event with 25 billion VP. Seriously though. It's so hard to get into the top 1000. How do you actually win?
By day 4 my hands were shaking so much from all of the tapping that I thought that I may lose a grip on my phone. It was frightening to say the least, but I gathered my remaining strength and dried my sweaty palms on my jeans and carried on.
But then... *knock*knock* Who is that at the door? Who could be so selfish as to interrupt me at zero hour, just when I cracked the top 3? While the missions of the galaxy event flew by with all of my collected items, I yelled out "Who is it?!"
"It's the police. Your mother asked us to do a well-being check because you haven't answered her calls in a few days."
"No time to talk!" I replied, concentrating on my incessant tapping. "This event win is almost within my grasp!"
I returned to the Star Trek world, and gripped my phone tighter, almost to symbolize my tighter grip on first place. FIRST PLACE! I am finally there. Now, just to keep it for another 3 hours...
Maybe I got carried away. Anyway, don't worry about giving away your secrets. 99% of players here don't have the combination of time, crew, shuttle boosts, money, and overall dedication that it takes to win an event with 25 billion VP. Seriously though. It's so hard to get into the top 1000. How do you actually win?
"I would have told him anything. Anything at all. But more than that, I believed that I could see...five lights."
~Captain Picard ST:TNG Chain of Command
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Mariachi Q - Déjà Q Quote - But I feel like celebrating! - Thank You!
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Rascal Picard/Guinan - Rascals Quote - I want to see my father!
Kivas Fajo - The Most Toys Quote - What a marvelous contradiction. A military pacifist!
Batai - The Inner Light Quote - This tree is our symbol. Our affirmation of life.
Irumodic Syndrome Picard - All Good Things Quote - You said it was earl grey. I'd swear it was darjeeling. - Thank You!
B-4 - Nemesis Quote - Why do you have a shiny head? - Thank You!
Zero G Worf - First Contact Quote - Assimilate this!
~Captain Picard ST:TNG Chain of Command
Link to my list of helpful spreadsheets, websites, threads, and help for all players!
ST:TNG Crew Addition Wish List:
Mariachi Q - Déjà Q Quote - But I feel like celebrating! - Thank You!
H.M.S. Pinafore Data - Insurrection Quote - And his fist be ever ready for a knockdown blow. - Thank You!
Rascal Picard/Guinan - Rascals Quote - I want to see my father!
Kivas Fajo - The Most Toys Quote - What a marvelous contradiction. A military pacifist!
Batai - The Inner Light Quote - This tree is our symbol. Our affirmation of life.
Irumodic Syndrome Picard - All Good Things Quote - You said it was earl grey. I'd swear it was darjeeling. - Thank You!
B-4 - Nemesis Quote - Why do you have a shiny head? - Thank You!
Zero G Worf - First Contact Quote - Assimilate this!
11
Comments
I missed out on #25 on account of people mass rushing shuttles in order to get there. I figured, they wanted it more/had more dil so its all good, though I do wish there was more of a bonus to finishing in the top 50/100.
For Galaxies, saving up months' worth of items and chronitrons; Faction, stocking up on nearly-endless timers; Expedition, well, tapping away as fast as humanely possible.
All in all, it gets to a point that dilithium use isn't as necessary as it seems.
I'd agree with you on most of those- in a cutthroat faction event, you absolutely need dilithium.
As much as I'd like to take credit for a win, which is what I think you are saying (you may have misread), I'm saying I have only finished in the top 1000, one time.
The congratulations goes to you. 27th in a faction event is no small feat.
~Captain Picard ST:TNG Chain of Command
Link to my list of helpful spreadsheets, websites, threads, and help for all players!
ST:TNG Crew Addition Wish List:
Mariachi Q - Déjà Q Quote - But I feel like celebrating! - Thank You!
H.M.S. Pinafore Data - Insurrection Quote - And his fist be ever ready for a knockdown blow. - Thank You!
Rascal Picard/Guinan - Rascals Quote - I want to see my father!
Kivas Fajo - The Most Toys Quote - What a marvelous contradiction. A military pacifist!
Batai - The Inner Light Quote - This tree is our symbol. Our affirmation of life.
Irumodic Syndrome Picard - All Good Things Quote - You said it was earl grey. I'd swear it was darjeeling. - Thank You!
B-4 - Nemesis Quote - Why do you have a shiny head? - Thank You!
Zero G Worf - First Contact Quote - Assimilate this!
I suspected as much, but I was like "no one would have the patience to stock up for that long, so there must be some other strategy." Apparently I was sorely mistaken.
~Captain Picard ST:TNG Chain of Command
Link to my list of helpful spreadsheets, websites, threads, and help for all players!
ST:TNG Crew Addition Wish List:
Mariachi Q - Déjà Q Quote - But I feel like celebrating! - Thank You!
H.M.S. Pinafore Data - Insurrection Quote - And his fist be ever ready for a knockdown blow. - Thank You!
Rascal Picard/Guinan - Rascals Quote - I want to see my father!
Kivas Fajo - The Most Toys Quote - What a marvelous contradiction. A military pacifist!
Batai - The Inner Light Quote - This tree is our symbol. Our affirmation of life.
Irumodic Syndrome Picard - All Good Things Quote - You said it was earl grey. I'd swear it was darjeeling. - Thank You!
B-4 - Nemesis Quote - Why do you have a shiny head? - Thank You!
Zero G Worf - First Contact Quote - Assimilate this!
Dilithium bum rush is diminished significantly when you use timers as well. Practical? Not unless you're extremely well stocked in both. And again... Months' worth of grind
People do have the patience to grind. You'd be surprised at how much you can stock up in a pair of months' time.
(personally, I do have that patience to grind, but not to spend... At least, in Galaxy events)
To hit Number 1 in a Faction you will pretty much have to spend DIL. One of my fleet mates spoke to one of the guys at the top asking how he hit Threshold and above within an hour of the event starting and the response was that they were basically doubling up shuttles and paying to bring them straight back.
When you are up against that even 5 star timers are not going to be little help.
Although if you had a thousand of them and worked with a partner to send shuttles out every 30 minutes you could probably finish 1st.
Second Star to the Right - Join Today!
Shoot, I had to "go to the bathroom" with an "upset stomach" when we had guests over at Christmas just so I could monitor the last 10 minutes uninterrupted to see if I needed to buy dil and more expedition tickets just to stay in Top 1000 during the Mirror Crusher fiasco.
So the expedition and galaxy wins were back in the 'early' days of events and the game - where having tens of thousands of chrons stockpiled was not a thing and the only way to advance past a pain-point was to just open the wallet. The early early days of the game were very broken, but it was fun! The first events were the wild west, as we had never done it before and didn't know what to do. This was the first time a guaranteed portal was put up, and we had 3 weeks of FAQs and back and forth with Nod & the Dev team, including live streams of a mock event, just to show us what shuttles looked like.
12 Hours into the event, someone had 275k VP. Sounds a lot like today doesn't it?
Faction:
The most recent event I've won, which may likely be my last, was Retrograde - last September - with Laborer Spock. I spent right around $1,000 on that - between the event crew, buying shuttle boosts and then insta-completing shuttles. That event in particular is a stand-out because of the very low final VP totals on the leaderboard - i barely broke a million points in the last few minutes. The going rate to win a shuttle event a year before that? $1000. That's pretty much the standard answer, give or take a few hundred. I'm certain someone will swoop in and say they did it for cheaper, and more power to them.
I'll let you in on a secret - this event was around the time of Musketeer La Forge. I had been refunded $1,000 worth of DIL to my account from that and -guess what I used on the event?
Galaxy
So that's shuttles. Galaxy is simple - even back in the day - tens upon tens of thousands of chrons and time. It may even be close to 100k chrons needed now. That's mind boggling. Remember these two tips - you're sitting right now reading this and thinking "I've been hoarding chrons, i'm going to make a run at it" - well, guess what? You and 5 other people had the same thought this week. There are *a lot* of players that have run out of active crew to level, so they just accumulate chrons from voyages. It is not uncommon at all to run across someone with 50k or 75k in chrons. But that's only half the equation - the other half is time. You will get hand cramps. You will get sore. You will go mad. In the past, I've spent sad amounts of money to buy chrons or event offers with chrons just to have some to compete with. Always remember - for every person that is stedfast and plans, there is a fool with money behind him.
Expeditions
Expeditions are rare, and the formula has changed a bit with different rule alterations over time. The jist is - buy all the event crew and immortalize them the day before - multiple copies even. On your first ticket, go through with no particular order but unlock all levels and difficulties. End the ticket. Open a new ticket and go through starting at the last mission of the highest difficulty and work backwards. Evaluate each node and see based on skill and traits who provides the best bonus. Assemble a crew for that mission. Write it down. Now, repeat that for all the other missions and difficulties. When you are done, you should have a tight little excel spreadsheet with name groupings for each mission to use - a quick reference guide if you will. Print off 3 copies - one to tape to your desk, one to keep on your person and one to have whereever else you frequently play. That's the hard part. From there, bang out tickets. Buy more tickets. Rinse, repeat. I have a YouTube video showing me getting a ticket with all the VP done in about 27 mins, which is about as fast as you're going to get. That should net, depending on the rules or structure, 50-70kVP. Now do that 25-50 times, which means spend about 20 hours over the course of 4 days just banging out tickets.
So there you have it - 3 events, three winning methods I've used and honest cost breakdown. Hybrids are weird to break down and a triple hybrid I can't fathom. The skirmish is fresh and I'm still digesting that.
Its not a matter of patience, its more a matter of what the hell else am I going to do with all this crap?
I mostly just accumulate items. I can level almost anything in less than 10 minutes. The only time I don't is to game the Dabo wheel and Gauntlet for items.
I tried to win Prime Directive a couple months ago. I failed and only got 4th place. I now have more items than I did when I dumped into that one Galaxy Event. Next week I could probably make a pretty honest run for top 5 if I wanted to. Which I probably don't because the amount of tapping to get that far is diabolical.
Galaxy events probably need a tweak with regards to item management. They should probably increase the number of items per build. They should also think of new ways for us to use up our items. Currently Galaxy events and the Replicator do not really cause item depletion.
Faction events are something else entirely but the one time I tried to make top 25 I used up 70+ time reducers and still came up short. It was a repeat and I already the 5* crew at 3/5.
How much time do you reckon to win the galaxy? Or at least top 3.
I have the chronitons but wouldn't want to tap for more than around 12 hours. Would it be much more than this?
it honestly depends on how you do it. I know the Jake Hybrid event which DangerDrake won, he was hovering top 3 the faction half and was getting a ton of pms feeling him out on if he was going for it or not. He put in a hectic 9 hours straight off the bat on phase change to put a million point lead up and dissuade anyone else from trying. probably saved him a million or two in scoring/work. I would say he still probably put in at least 16ish hours of tapping in two days.
Edit: “To Win” refers to finishing #1, not top 1000