Hello, Joe and STOers! It’s been a bit since I last updated about my Free-to-Play (F2P) Star Trek Online account. AllThingsTrek47 has me beat by I think 2 updates, so yeah, it’s time I get you one for what I’m doing and both my short-term and longer-term goals.
There’s a lot to dig into here, so let’s go one-by-one.
SYSTEMS
This section will be for things like Reputations, Endeavors, R&D, and Admiralty.
1) Reputations
Reputation progress has been slow, mainly because this account was made before any Recruits got re-run in its lifetime. Since the start, though, we’ve had the Gamma Recruit re-run, so I’m starting to get some account-wide Reputation Marks available. It’s not a lot, but anything that cuts a few queues out or lets me use account-bound Mark of Choice boxes for another Reputation or on another character is well worth it.
Only two characters are making the lion’s share of headway on Reputations: Remara’Etan (“Remara,” Tactical), and Ty’Ken (Science). Their Reputation progressions are below (top is Remara’s).
With all Reputations at Tier 5, all other characters will now be able to get 5,000 XP in each Reputation’s daily project, bringing their progression time from 40 days down to 20 days and their Marks requirements from 1,225 to 625. (To be fair, not all Reps got “Sponsored” by getting to Tier 5. More on that later…)
Notable here is that Remara won’t be doing much to get the more desirable Reputation items. Remara’s job is to complete the Account-Wide Reputation Gear Discount project in each Reputation. The Dyson one is shown below as an example (only Borg, Romulan, and Nukara have a variant that takes more Marks and Dilithium because they don’t have an “Elite Mark” [like Dyson’s “Voth Cybernetic Implant”]).
The account-wide gear discount is a project you get at Tier 6 of each Reputation. It cuts most of the costs of Reputation gear (like Dyson’s Gravimetric Photon Torpedo Launcher or Discovery’s Burnham’s CQC Armor) by half their original cost; the only thing not reduced is the “Elite Mark” requirement.
As for the Reputations on which I’ve gotten the discount on, anything Remara’s currently got at Tier 6 has the discount project finished and applied through the account.
Remara’s going to be a primary force on this account, but for right now, Ty’Ken’s assuming that role. When certain Reputations hit the cost reduction mark, Ty’Ken can start grabbing gear at reduced prices. What this means economically is spending less of one’s own EC and Dilithium in order to get better gear, effectively increasing your raw EC and Dilithium income from other sources. (Remember that at Tier 5 in most Reputations, you get enough base EC, Expertise, Dilithium Vouchers, and Elite Marks to get 1-2 pieces of gear, so reducing the costs in half means you can get 2 pieces without dipping into your non-Reputation currencies as long as you can grind out the Elite Marks needed for the 2nd piece).
2) Admiralty
Here, I have 3 characters turning over Admiralty “Tour of Duty” and regular missions to rank up, even if it’s a slow-but-steady build: Remara, Ty’Ken, and Korol (my KDF current main character).
Again, Remara’s progress is the best. He got in when Admiralty ships were mostly 1,000,000 EC or less (with some of the nicer ones for certain Admiralty bonuses went for 3-5 million EC each). As Korol and Ty’Ken started getting their ships, prices started rising. I think the market’s cooled somewhat. Currently, it takes almost 3 full pages (at 20 listings per page) to hit a ship that’s at least 2 million EC.
But for now, the progress of each character (Again, Remara goes first; then Ty’Ken; then Korol.)
At 20,000 Dilithium per Level 10 Admiralty campaign, that’s a minimum 100,000 Dilithium, currently valued on the PC Dilithium Exchange at 200 Zen. With 2 other characters on whom I could start pushing their Admiralties, plus what’s not finished here, that could be another ~300,000 Dilithium currently sitting and waiting…and I can make 5 more characters to boot! That would be a ton of Dilithium just for pointing-and-clicking.
You can also see the amount of Ships available. The majority of those ships are either Shuttles, Tier 1, or one-time-use ships (named for exactly how many times you can use them: Slot them once, and they’re out of your Roster afterward). I’m hoping to do an Admiralty guide later, but I’ll do a TL;DR here: Stock up on Shuttles and the 1,000-Dilithium Tier 1 ships (and the Jem’Hadar Escort (T5-U) on non-Jem’Hadar characters; it’s 1,000 Dilithium, so it’s likely the cheapest T5-U ship you can ever get).
3) R&D Schools
Admittedly, this has been the next-to-least important category of them all for me. Most Jem’Hadar character start with either Beams or Cannons (or perhaps both) R&D Schools at Level 15, so if I’m doing a build for that type, I have the school where I need it to be by default.
However, Ty’ken needs to get 1 school to Level 15 (along with 5 and 10, but I already did those), so I’m ensuring that gets done. Almost everyone else can wait. :p
4) Endeavors/Perk Points
Ah, the account-wide portion of the Systems progression! I’ve not done every Endeavor or even every day, but I’ve gotten the majority of what’s been available.
The only 2 Space perks I don’t have any points in are Control Resist and Drain Resist.
Ground is a much different story: I’ve picked Space most often as that’s what I’m mostly playing, but with Ground I’ve gone for as much damage as I’m able to get.
Energy Weapon Damage doesn’t seem like a lot right now, but +8% Cat1 damage boost means a 600-DPS weapon now does an additional 48 DPS. That seems weak, until you realize the category goes up to +50%! You’ll notice an extra 300 DPS per weapon real quick!
5) DOFF Commendations
And now onto the 2nd-least-progressed part of any of my characters! Leveling your Duty Officer commendations to Rank 4 is usually more a badge of honor than a meaningful progression for your character’s overall performance. True, Diplomacy (Fed)/Marauding (KDF) come with Sector Space bonuses (targeted and activated onto other players) and an extra Bridge Officer that’s normally only available to the other faction, but otherwise, it’s a relatively passive activity that adds another layer of completion to a character’s stats.
Only one character so far is doing anything with this, and that’s Ty’ken since it’s part of his Gamma Recruit duties. Even then, it’s not extremely serious yet. Finishing it does grant the account a DOFF that provides an across-the-board 10% Cat1 damage boost. While not a lot of extra damage overall, you can slot it in a Ground slot and it’ll boost your Space stats, as well. If you don’t play Ground content a lot or at a serious level, consider this a freebie Space DOFF as it doesn’t need to take up a Space DOFF slot to get its benefit.
Thank goodness being a Gamma Recruit is a long-term thing, because until I get to focusing on this exclusively, it’ll likely take me a while just to hit Ranks 2 and 3. However, in doing these previously on other accounts, I’ve found that focusing on DOFF Commendations does make the process seem a lot faster. I’d likely not prioritize this until it’s among the last things you need to do.
Economic Progress
Here, we’ll look at how my Dilithium has come along.
“Why not your EC?”
Because, simply put, EC keeps getting wiped out. Reputation projects, Reputation gear, Admiralty ships, Kit Modules, etc. I’m kind of surprised how much of the game requires EC. So as such, until that gets more settled, I’ll likely not provide an EC update.
1) Dilithium
However, I can give a Dilithium update as I’m a bit more frugal with that.
Below are only two characters’ pages because I’m transferring Dilithium around via the Dilithium Exchange.
410,193 of my Dilithium is ready to use (Fleet donations; buying Fleet gear; buying some ships with Dilithium; etc.), while a total of 110,923 Dilithium is waiting to be refined. That’s ~820 Zen I could get whenever I want (okay, okay, with a bit of waiting…) and ~221 Zen waiting to get refined for a total possible Zen value of 1,041 Zen.
…
That doesn’t seem like a lot when you consider this account started back on August 9th. That’s at least 93 days, so you’re thinking, “Okay, so 521,116 Dilithium over 93 days, so…5,603 Dilithium per day. Wait…that’s so slow!”
Ah, but you forget, there was a build-up for a short-term goal…and here it is!
2) Phoenix Prize Pack purchases
I’ve bought 10-20 Phoenix Prize Packs, so add back 40,000-80,000 Dilithium. (Nothing too terribly great, but it helped fill some equipment and Admiralty needs.)
3) Zen Purchases
Oh, yeah! I did spend some Dilithium to get some Zen throughout this period!
- The first purchase.
My first Zen purchase was to remove the EC cap (…okay, it’s technically set at 2 billion EC per character rather than 15 million EC, but as a F2P account that’s not heavily farming things, I won’t hit this so it’s effectively a removal). That was during a “Start Your Adventure” sale (among other things), so that’s 400 Zen worth of Dilithium used up, adding back 200,000 Dilithium (400 Zen x 500 Dilithium per Zen) to what I’ve earned so far.
- The second, bigger purchase.
The second Zen purchase I made took quite a while to get there, but in the end, I feel it was worth it.
Meet…the Jem’Hadar Vanguard Dreadnought Cruiser!
And trust me, the difference is noticeable.
- ~30k extra Hull Strength.
- Up to 4 NPC fighters alongside you. (And anecdotally, at my current build level on this account, their damage is no joke relative to mine.)
- Extra starship trait (likely fills out 1 gap in having all 4 of your default Starship Trait slots filled.)
- permanent Admiralty card.
- All for under 3,000 Zen…and actually under 2,000 Zen.
That’s right. As Gamma Recruit came up, there was a sale on all Jem’Hadar items (and yet another “Start Your Adventure” sale. 🙂 ). 25% off! So that made the bundle 1,500 Zen. I don’t remember exactly when I got it, but I posted about the possibility that the Jem’Hadar Vanguard sponsorship might extend out to other characters on October 15th, so I’ve had this Bundle a bit under 1 month.
For half the cost of a traditional T6 ship, I got:
- a Tier 6 ship;
- Jem’Hadar Vanguard character creation, which gives your Vanguard all the default Jem’Hadar pre-filled Reputations at full level and makes both Specializations of your chosen career full Specs (30 points spent in both, compared to 30 in one and 15 in the other for regular Jem’Hadar).
- All Reputations sponsored except Gamma and Discovery.
I’ll try to find time to do performance comparisons later, but suffice it to say, this ship survives a lot longer than any Tier 5 I’ve flown so far and dishes out damage better because of the combination of Jem’Hadar Vanguard Fighters and NPC hangar pets.
But anyway, back to the Economic aspect of this. That bundle cost 1,500 Zen, which equates to 750,000 Dilithium. So when you see I “only” have ~500k Dil (between available and unrefined), that’s really not a complete picture.
4) Fleet Dilithium Donations
I’m sure I’ve spent a bit in Fleet donations of Dilithium. Let’s call that 100,000 Dilithium so far.
5) Grand Total of Dilithium
If we add up all this Dilithium, you’ll see I’ve earned ~1,511,116 Dilithium. Divide that by the same 93 days and we get a per-day total of ~16,248 Dilithium per day. I’d say that’s not too shabby for 3 months’ time! That’s the equivalent of 2 characters refining their 8,000 Dilithium per day cap each day for 3 months.
TAKING AN ODYSSEY
Oh…yeah, there’s just one more little tidbit I didn’t cover yet.
Behold, a free Odyssey-class ship!
Okay…so it’s not quite free. Assuming you’re Federation-allied player or have Cross-Faction Flying unlocked (just need a KDF character [not allied, but an actual KDF from character creation] at Level 65), you can buy the 2nd Anniversary’s testbed free Odyssey (and Bortas) from your Fleet Shipyard for 200,000 Fleet Credits as long as your Fleet has a Tier 5 Shipyard and 1 Fleet Ship Provision available (plus high-enough Fleet ranking for you to have permission to access your Fleet’s stores).
But there’s a reason it had to be the Odyssey and not a more thematically-appropriate Bortas: Advanced Slipstream Drive. It’s a longer-duration Slipstream, faster, and has the same 1-minute cooldown that your Jem’Hadar characters’ default Matter/Anti-Matter Warp Core gives to your other ships’ standard 2-minute cooldown.
With this setup, which is really nothing more than a swap of the Warp Core and Impulse Engines for the Gamma Synergistic Overcharged Warp Core and Adapted K.H.G. Impulse Engines (or M.A.C.O. Impulse Engines if you’re a Federation character), I can hit “Transwarp” speeds of 23.6 and Slipstream speeds of 54.35! This thing can Transwarp about as fast as some ships can Slipstream!
This allows you to get out of the Alpha Quadrant with your 15-minute Tour the Galaxy timer, whereas with just the default Jem’Hadar Escort (T5-U), you could barely get through all but 2 systems in the whole 15 minutes.
While my route isn’t perfect, I can get ~700,000 EC in those 15 minutes. Do that for an hour (give or take for changing characters and getting your ship into position), and you have 4 runs making 2.8 million EC per day. While not a super useful long-term strategy, it is great for when you need a small sum of EC in a relatively short amount of time.
WRAP-UP
I hope this update has shown just what kind of progress is possible when built from the ground up. When I re-start any serious farming in January, it’ll be a bit easier to get right into the mix as some of my infrastructure is now set up and ready to go.
GOAL FOR REMAINDER OF 2023
Honestly, I’m likely to take it relatively easy on this account to end the year. I’ll run Events, I’ll likely farm Contraband to either sell for EC or to get ready for the push toward Dilithium-for-Zen generation starting in January, but aside from point-and-click activities and Events, chances are I’ve done the majority of the setup I’ll do until it’s time to really get serious to start 2024.
I still have 2 ships to complete from the 13th Anniversary Bundle, so I’ll use the remaining free time to get those tested and written up.
Until then, take care and continue enjoying Star Trek Online!
Joe and STO 