Hints & Tips

Wixiban · Posted Mon 31 Mar, 2014 8:24 PM

Si scitis, in lucernis eorum sunt alii.
If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.

Hints & Tips

[COLOR="#66ccff"][B] Hints & Tips is something we at Starfleet Operations are looking to introduce on a regular basis to help you the community with current, upcoming or existing tips, tricks and decisions on changes in STO.

This post will also serve as a contents page which will catalogue all of the hints & tips.

Table of Contents
Tip 1 - Mark Boxes
Tip 2 - Fleet Kits
Tip 3 - Crystalline Catastrophe
Tip 4 - Romulan Bridge Officers
Tip 5 - Tier 5 Hourly Rep Projects
Tip 6 - Acquiring Kits and Modules
Tip 7 - Free Lobi
Tip 8 - Distribute Shields Keybind
Tip 9 - Building Your Ship
Tip 10 - Risa - Summer Event
Tip 11 - Using Materials Wisely
Tip 12 - Leveling Hint

Please feel free to post comments or send PM's direct to me if you would like to have a tip included.

Wixiban
Starfleet Operations Executive Officer

Wixiban · Posted Mon 31 Mar, 2014 8:24 PM

Si scitis, in lucernis eorum sunt alii.
If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.

Tip 1
Mark Boxes

What are Mark Boxes?
Mark Boxes are rewards for completing missions that reward marks of your choice, Dyson, Romulan, Nukara, Omega, Fleet.

As the new mirror event currently is rewarding multi mark boxes. Here is this week’s tip.

Keep hold of them unopened until there is a Reputation weekend so you can maximize on the reward. At the minute if you do a normal mirror event you should receive up to 55 Marks. If you hold out until a reputation weekend you will get the 55 marks plus an addition 50% also if you have a reputation token you will also get a further 10% on top of that.

Another tip to take note of is that with the new Undine(8472) rep that is coming you will find that these boxes should also be updated with undine marks, so this will also give you a head start on mark collecting.

Please feel free to post questions or comments and look out for further tips of the week.

Wixiban
Starfleet Operations Executive Officer

Morris · Posted Mon 31 Mar, 2014 9:51 PM

Nice tip! Thanks Wixi!

Gillion · Posted Mon 31 Mar, 2014 10:15 PM

This is a good idea to help people who might be new, but are you sure those work? Because I tried that before the Dyson rep came out and it neither of them worked for me. When I opened a box during the rep weekend I didnt get any extra marks, and also the boxes I collected before the Dyson rep didnt get updated to include Dyson marks when I opened them.

Three of Seven · Posted Tue 01 Apr, 2014 5:43 AM

The boxes I collected before the Dyson rep did update, I still have some of them

Wixiban · Posted Tue 01 Apr, 2014 6:17 AM

Originally Posted by Gillion

This is a good idea to help people who might be new, but are you sure those work? Because I tried that before the Dyson rep came out and it neither of them worked for me. When I opened a box during the rep weekend I didnt get any extra marks, and also the boxes I collected before the Dyson rep didnt get updated to include Dyson marks when I opened them.

It does work and they do get updated - I'm not going to guarantee Cryptic will update them as soon as the new rep hits, but you generally find that once the new rep hits the existing boxes get updated.

For instance when the rep weekend happened I had a couple of 200 multi mark boxes left over from the winter event from trading Eppohs - they rewarded 300 marks when opened during that increased rep weekend.

If you can hold on to them if you do not need the marks for anything specific.

phil · Posted Thu 03 Apr, 2014 8:30 AM

This tip was very helpful. i would have just opened them at any time.

is there an archive of previous tips of the month.

thanks.

NeoTrident · Posted Thu 03 Apr, 2014 8:52 AM

The tip of the week is new, we will be sending them out weekly from here on.

NeoTrident · Posted Mon 07 Apr, 2014 1:37 PM

Si scitis, in lucernis eorum sunt alii.
If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.

Tip 2
Buy Fleet Kits Now

Season 9 is nearly upon us and with it comes a dramatic change to Kits, Kits will include module slots with the abilities themselves as modules. The current style of kits would still exist but won't be obtainable from anywhere but the exchange, the new kits will be available from Drops, Dilithium Stores, Fleet Stores and Rep Systems. Buying a new kit from the Fleet Stores after the change will grant you only one module instead of the five in the current style, thankfully Fleet Kits can be converted.

The Tip: Buy your Fleet Kits before Season 9 to ensure that when the change comes that you can trade them in for the full five modules you are due.

Please bare in mind that this information is based on Tribble information at the time of posting and may change.

NeoTrident
Executive Officer, Starfleet Operations

Wixiban · Posted Mon 07 Apr, 2014 4:54 PM

I guess I should pick up my Fleet or Spire Science Kit before season 9 kicks in.

Thanks Neo

Daedalus · Posted Mon 07 Apr, 2014 5:32 PM

If purchased now, will fleet kits be eligible for a five module kit (including modules)? If so, where can players obtain the fleet kits?

NeoTrident · Posted Tue 08 Apr, 2014 7:14 PM

The modules won't be released until Season 9 but if you were to purchase one now you would get the 5 abilities one of which will be more powerful than the norm. When Season 9 comes around you would trade it in for 5 modules of the same abilities.

Fleet Kits of various types are available at the Fleet Spire and the Fleet Embassy.

Daedalus · Posted Tue 08 Apr, 2014 7:23 PM

Thanks for the reply. :-)

Three of Seven · Posted Mon 14 Apr, 2014 7:20 AM

Si scitis, in lucernis eorum sunt alii.
If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.

Tip 3
Crystalline Catastrophe

Greetings one and all, today I am bringing you all a few tips to play the Crystalline Catastrophe mission on elite to help maximise your chances of coming in one of the top spots.

One thing many forget is that healing does count towards your total score, so if you see an ally in need of a heal, be sure to give them that extra boost. That is if your ship can support some heals, if not then you are going to be going for maximum damage.

It would be a beneficial to take a torpedo and the kinetic cutting beam from the Omega reputation, in addition to those you can get Tractor Beam Repulsors and if possible a Gravity Well. All of these will continue to do damage to the Crystalline Entity during its absorption phase and the two Bridge Officer abilities do AOE damage as well.

Surviving the absorption phase can be achieved in two ways by most ships, the safest method is moving 10km+ from the entity, the more risky method is flying into the centre of the entity, this is risky due to shards still being able to hit you. A few ships have consoles that grant them invincibility such as the Voth Reflective Shield Amplifier, this will protect them from the blast at the end of the phase, the long cooldown for such abilities does mean it can only effectively be used once in a game.

I hope you have found these tips on Crystalline Catastrophe assist you in some manner, if there are any questions, answers shall be given.

Three of Seven
Commanding Officer of Starfleet Operations

Wixiban · Posted Tue 22 Apr, 2014 5:57 PM

Si scitis, in lucernis eorum sunt alii.
If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.

Tip 4
Romulan Bridge Officers

What's the deal with the Romulan Officers?

This weeks tip revolves around the famed and infamous Romulan Bridge Officer and traits.

After having a few discussions this weekend about what bridge officers to you I thought I would put it in for this weeks tip to help out all those that are still unsure.
Now lets start with a preconception that is wrong. Purple Boffs that have the Superior Operative Trait are not better the Blue boffs with the same trait.

The trait is where the percentage increase is, not the quality of the officer.

Any Romulan Bridge Officer with the “BASIC OPERATIVE” trait has the below stats
+1% Critical Chance
+2.5% Critical Severity
+5% Power Recharge Speed for Cloaking

Any Romulan Bridge Officer with the “ROMULAN OPERATIVE” trait has the below stats
+1.5% Critical Chance
+3.8% Critical Severity
+10% Power Recharge Speed for Cloaking

Any Romulan Bridge Officer with the “SUPERIOR OPERATIVE” trait has the below stats
+2% Critical Chance
+5% Critical Severity
+15% Power Recharge Speed for Cloaking

So it really doesn’t matter if that officer is white, green, blue or purple if it has the superior trait you will get the top stats.

Hope this helps

Please feel free to post questions or comments and look out for further tips of the week.

Wixiban
Starfleet Operations Executive Officer

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