[Terrell]

Hey everyone, I think the time has come for me to contemplate upgrading my MkXII equipment to XIV. Only problem is I have no idea what is currently the most efficient way to get there.

I know you have basic, superior etc tech upgrade kits. However each requires different dilithium costs and materials to craft, and I will be crafting since Exchange prices are so crazy given what my EC balance is like on any given day. So, what do you consider the most important things to upgrade first? I would like to do the deflector/shield/engine/core last since I change those out frequently for other reputation sets, so it's really between the weapons, science, engineering and tactical consoles.

I've managed to make one of the Omega kits, which are pretty nice (no dilithium cost \o/) but they take such a long time to make I don't think I'll be making many of those since I'm quite a casual player these days. So using the normal tech upgrade kits which are the most cost effective between the green and blue ones?

[Kerry Malone]

The most cost effective way to upgrade is using the Superior Upgraders. They provide the most "bang for your buck". I would avoid using the other ones.

But that's just me.

[Terrell]

Superior are the very rare kits correct? I'm only at rank eleven for my tech schools at the moment. Are they locked at fifteen?

[Cehus]

Yup at 15, or most can be purchased for ~250-375k via exchange.

[James Rean]

Ultimately upgrading comes down to a game of balancing. Time vs. EC. vs Dilithium. Time and EC can directly offset each other through doffing vs. exchange.

The break down looks something like this.

Common Upgrade II Advanced Upgrade II Superior Upgrade
Low Time ................ Medium Time .............. High Time
Low EC ................... Medium EC ................ High EC
High Dilithium .......... Medium Dilithium ........ Low Dilithium

I upgraded to all mk 14 in less than a month by using the following system.

Start basing from New Romulus.
Use all research slots unlocked to advance a primary field to lvl 15. (With the recent change allowing 3 slots to be used for one field this can be done quickly) Once one is at 15, push the others there.
Go to Tau Dewa Sector and take all crafting material doff missions as you travel to the Dyson gate.
Go to Solanae Dyson Sphere and take all crafting material doff missions.
Go to Jenolan Dyson Sphere and take all Delta crafting material doff missions.
Change to ground traits and run Ground ESTFs for Dil and crafting materials.
Run Argala for EC while waiting for cooldowns.
After 45 mins collect doffs missions and transwarp to New Romulus if sectors have updated.
Rinse and repeat.

Doing this you'll max your daily refining limit of Dil. You'll also bring in decent amounts of EC to buy superior upgrades off the market with until you can craft them. You can also sell off the salvaged technology to buy more superiors. Once you hit level 15 you will most likely have a lot of your gear already at Mk 14. Anything left you can use your massive store of crafting materials to make superior upgrades for.

[Dark]

Ah! You're still at Mk XII for your Fleet Elite Phasers, right? As I said in that other thread - they're a trap. Don't upgrade them, replace them.

Craft Mk II Phasers (assuming you're sticking with Phasers), and keep crafting until you get [CrtD]x3 or [CrtD]x2[Pen].

One Superior Upgrade will take them to Mk VII, with a 10% chance to upgrade in quality every step of the way. A blue Research booster will make that a 20% chance. An Omega kit should make it past VII and theoretically give a 40% chance of upgrading each step.

If you really want the best, then you'd toss them on the Exchange if it doesn't give you [CrtD] when it goes UR, but if you're willing to accept a non-[CrtD] mod, it'd still be a huge upgrade compared to Fleet Elite Phasers.

Lastly, I'm going to quote Vel'gon off his reddit post:

Weapons, shields, and science consoles all have good, easy to notice advantages, with weapons far leading the pack on that.

Universal consoles that grant crth/crtd, engines, and deflectors are all decent return for upgrades (though engines and deflectors from rep are going to be quite expensive to try for rarity on)

Warp cores, tac consoles, and engineering consoles are all really hard to notice the return on (unless you go for rarity on a warp core - expensive, but it's a decently helpful upgrade in most cases).

So basically your priority (in terms of best returns for your efforts) should be upgrading Weapons, followed by Shields and Fleet Embassy Science consoles, Universals (Assimilated, Zero-Point, and Lobi consoles), and then the other stuff.

Now that we can slot multiple 20hr projects from the same school, if you don't want to buy kits off the Exchange and are wiling to grind, I recommend using 3 of your slots to do 20 hr Beam research, and focus on grabbing Omega components in the meanwhile. Even if you don't want to craft your own Omega kits, the components have an excellent Time/Effort vs EC ratio if you sell them on the Exchange.

[Terrell]

Thanks Dark that's a really helpful post . So much for the "Elite" phasers, you'd think after the grind for the Starbase they'd be worth the hassle to upgrade. Looks like I'm going to be grinding these Omega kits like something possessed to make the most of them before going back to normal ones.