Gameplay-Strategy #16: North Star as a Hammer

The North Star is a rather effective ship that is a specialty mining ship that improves as it is leveled up, but it has a really good hull. It is also available at OPS18, and can be used to hit hostile ships up to 9 levels above the OPS of the player, and it doesn't really get replaced until OPS26 with upgrades or OPS28.

Once a player reaches OPS20, they unlock the Refinery LVL20, allows a player to refine 3* materials. The chances of Uncommon is low and batches are small, but when Bonus Refineries show up, the yield is still good. 

Some issues with leveling and tiering the North Star at these lower levels can include:
    1. Long tier up times (lower level players do not have a surplus of speedups)
    2. Mining ship parts need Latinum (Participate in events and Away Team Missions)
    3. Dilithium cost (Low level players cant get Dilithium tokens, Events are best bet)
    4. Base Raids (Don't forget to shield your base or you may loose your saved materials)
    5. High ship XP demand (Use auto level technique at night)

Getting the North Star blue prints (BPs) can be a challenge though, as there is not enough missions to get the ship for free. 

There are Event Stores every few months that the BPs can be purchased for free, based on participation in events. The pack for a full unlock is only $20 in the store and shows up quite often. 

Gameplay-Strategy #15: Auto Level Ships

Ships can be leveled up automatically by sending a ship to hostile space. This can be a little challenging for regular faction spaces for predicting the type of hostiles that will be generated. This is really easy though when properly crewed and ship sent to the right place, especially before going to bed as it is easier than to manually grid hostiles.

One thing that is consistent is Augment space, which is always an Explorer coming after when entering space. There are no locations to park a base, but it is easy to put ships on the edges of the systems and let the Bounty Hunters start hitting your ship. When using the edge of the system, its harder for other players to hit your "chaser" ship, and to keep it going for as long as possible.

General-Gameplay #14 - Base Raids

 "Shield or Share" is part of the game. If a base is not shielded, it is ripe for hits and theft of resources (Parasteel, Tritanium and Dilithium). Sometimes a lot of patience is needed to pull off a successful raid, other times it is just a good opportunity. The but part is a decent ship with the right crew. As a good rule to gauge if a raid will be successful, a players ship will need at least 1/2 of the strength of the base they are attacking. Otherwise it will not work. Ships in port get attacked first, then the defense platforms. 

Once the shield is down, start the resource raid. Switch to a mining ship with better cargo stats, and move base closer if possible. 

Beware of the Nova Icon, as that will draw attention to your raid and bring other players to the party.

A new officer has made base raiding easier as he delays the base and ships firing by 1 round so the attacker has a chance to bring down everything after a few hits. Caption ROM, combined with Honor Guard Worf and either Gorgiou or Mudd is effective for raids.

This is the defense against a Rom base raid, as this crew will negate Rom's ability to delay the defenses. 

Gameplay-Strategy #14

 Here is the PvP Banding Chart from LCARS. This shows which levels can hit others. Be careful when upgrading your operations building as that is linked to your player level, making you available to hit by bigger players (Max research before upgrading Ops).

Gameplay-Strategy #14 - Galaxy Quirks

In STFC, there are several places on the galaxy map that are different, unique, or just odd in how it acts. Some of these can be an advantage to other players, especially if others don't know about them. Here are some interesting quarks of the galaxy that I can came across:

System	Area	Warp Required	Information
Wolf (39)	Federation	40	This area is unique area as it allows for "pocket mining" of Gas (Groombridge 34 (40)) and Latinum (Barnard's Star (38)) using ships with a Warp range of 8 for Barnard's Star, and Warp 27 for Groombridge. The warp 40 limit to the area reduces the hassle of mining in the area, but requires a Warp 40 ship to enter and leave the area. This limits Swarm and Borg activity if based in Wolf. Wolf also has Explorer Hostiles, making Pike/Moreau/Chen a good crew for grinding, especially during a Faction Hunt. See Faction Hunt
Romii (38)	Romulan	40	Mining 3* Gas in Romulan space? Usually the Federation is associated with Gas, Romulan with Crystal, but there is a single system near Romulus that has 3* Gas nodes.
Ty'Gokor (39)	Klingon	53	This area is hard to get to, but spawns only trade ships LVL38-40. This area also has a higher PVE loot chest yield than other systems of similar level.
	Borg Transwarp	20	These systems require special warp tokens to access, but have a higher mining base rate (5x), and huge nodes (1m). Due to this, it is an easy way to get a stock of materials built up. See Lucrative 3* Transwarp Systems
	Rogue Transwarp	20	Simular to the Borg Transwarp systems, these systems require special warp tokens to access that can be gained from the Rogue faction store. Mining nodes in these systems have a higher mining base rate (2x), and larger node sizes (27k). Due to this, it is an easy way to get a stock of materials built up. See Rogue Warp Tokens
Pareleon (26)	Area		Pareleon contains Explorer ships for the Separatist Bosses. These ships are strong, but are only energy weapons, making Pike/Moreau/Chen an excellent crew for grinding these hostile ships See Separatist Event
Roda Gamma (29)	Borg		Roda Gamma contains Borg probes that rarely fires energy weapons, making Pike/Moreau/T'Laan an excellent choice for hitting hostiles, without taking much damage. This system is special because the unique firing pattern of the hostiles, and the ability to hit many targets for more cargo. See Probe Hunt Testing
Groombridge (40)	Federation	40	Groombridge not only has 3* Gas nodes, and is difficult to get to (needs Warp 40), it also contains LVL40-41 Mining ships that yield 4* Broken Survey Parts or 4* Broken Explorer Parts. This is one of the systems to contain hostiles that can be destroyed without going to Dark Space.
Ursva (40)	Klingon	40	Similar to Groombridge, but containing 3* Crystal nodes, it has LVL40-41 hostiles which yield 4* Broken Survey Parts or 4* Broken Explorer Parts.

Gameplay-Strategy #12 - Battle Triangle

All ships when playing either PvP (Player vs Player) or going against the Yellow Hostiles as part of a mission, fall under the Battle Triangle, which stacks certain ships with an advantage over others. This enhancement can be increased by using Offensive officers on the bridge, or the Battle Triangle can be broken to level the ships against each other by using Defensive officers on the bridge.

The list of officers per ship type is not a Bridge lineup, but it is a recommendation of officers to use on that type of ship. Stack for synergy and special abilities to get the most advantage of the officers you have. By building your crews correctly, you can have great success against players.

There are 3 officers specifically for either breaking the Battle Triangle, or enhancing it. These special officers are:

Kang (Klingon - Accuracy Enhancement)

Charvanek (Romulan - Armor Piercing Enhancement)

Marcus (Federation - Shield Piercing Enhancement)

As with any officer, these special officers don't work really well until they are promoted:

These officers are also linked to the total stats of the officers on the ship
(see Officers #5: Below Deck Officers Driving Bridge Officer Abilities)

Gameplay-Strategy #9 - Nova

Watch for the Nova graphics on the Galaxy map, as it indicates the Top 3 systems by activity. This can indicate activity due to an event, base raid, or mass PvP battle.

Nova graphics on the Galaxy map can indicate a lot of activity in a system. Typically a Nova graphic will show for the Top 3 systems in the galaxy at the time. This system appears to be driven by the number of attacks (not damage) in a system.

Events can heavily drive the Nova graphic to move:
- Borg Probe event made all three LVL25 Borg systems go Nova
- A large base raid will also move the Nova graphic

Gameplay-Strategy #11 - Events

Many different types of events to play, and save resources for. Its all about patience in this game.
Events can be found by tapping the icon on the top right of the screen.

Some events are over multiple days, but the start and end of events are always linked to the server time, so the start/end times is about 8AM PST. Multiple types of events, they are Alliance Leaderboard (ALB), Solo Leaderboard (SLB), Solo Milestone (SMS).
ALB events are won by active alliance members participating in the event to get points
SLB events are independent players and these events are typically bracketed (players in a group by level), and the higher participating players get better rewards
SMS events are individual player type with a max to the points and reward. These type of events are pretty common to see at least one per day.

Gameplay-Strategy #10 - Shields Up

Don’t get raided, put up shields. Every player can gain enough peace shields to be to stay protected all day long. For active alliances that get Armada Points on a regular basis, those can be redeemed for more shields.

By completing your daily goals, players will gain:
4 Hour Peace Shield
8 Hour Peace Shield
12 Hour Peace Shield

This effectively gives players the ability to keep their shield up most of the time. Players that participate in alliance events will gain Alliance Points, which can be redeemed for additional Peace Shields.

Gameplay-Strategy #8: Helping Hands

Donating RSS goes a long way with the alliance (AP - Alliance Points), as it grows the size of the alliance, as well as allows more helps to be asked per member to speed up buildings/research/repairs.

Daily Alliance helps are needed to complete all daily goals.
A few ways to complete the “Helping” quotas:
- Be online when alliance members ask for help
- Donate RSS to the Alliance

When you are also going after the alliance Reputation events, the RSS donated counts towards those events.
*Just make sure those events are active for you before you spend.

Don't burn all of your speedups if you don't need your ship/building/research ready at the moment. This will allow alliance members to give helps to you, which completes one of their daily goals.

If you don’t need your ship or Building/Research completed immediately, resist the urge to claim it on the final 5 min countdown (especially on quick repairs).

The daily goal is for players to help the alliance members, so if they don’t get the chance because of the quick repairs when you don’t need it, it takes players longer to complete daily.

This technique can also be used to slow down the advancement of levels but still accomplish the daily goals of building/research. Don’t collect the building/research if you already got the points for building/research that day.

Gameplay-Strategy #7: Regaining Dual Faction

Many players do not have a faction locked in (Reputation over 10M on Federation/Klingon/Romulan) and it is a royal pain to achieve anyways. Loosing dual faction makes dailies harder to complete as well if you don't have very strong ships. Faction reputation can be repaired, but it will take some grinding and giving up some of the daily points.

Highly recommended to not attempt this until you have Pike, for your hostile grinding crew.

To repair a reputation of a faction:
1. Stock up on your main factions resource
2. Stop Mining for your main faction resource
3. Do not join the Reputation Event
4. Start attacking opposing mining ships to gain Reputation Points that you want.
5. Look for Missions that give Reputation points for your target Faction.
6. Redeem Charged Nanoprobes for Faction Points

7. Use the Away Team Stores to your advantage.

This process will take time, and it will hurt on mining events and daily goals
but this will gain dual faction eventually, and make mining easier in more areas.

Once you achieve Neighbor status, start mining in target faction space. Do not mine in primary faction until you can balance the points you will loose in target faction.

Mining Ships
Romulan: Energy Based (Use Chen)
Federation: Energy Based (Use Chen)
Klingon: Kinetic Based (Use T'Laan)

Below is what it looks like when you hit 10M reputation for a faction lock (this one is actually a triple lock). When you hit the last hostile for points, a notification will show that new items are available in the store. The Faction lock is immediate (no need to wait for server reset), as you can hit an opposing hostile and the score will bottom out at 10,000,000. If you go to the Borg Refinery and redeem for faction points, the negatives will gray out to not drop below 10,000,000. You will still loose the points if you have enough to loose in redeem, but never drop below the lock.

Grinding for Faction Reputation also changes the daily goals but improves the rewards, so be careful and make sure that you have a powerful enough ships to take on the next higher hostiles.

Gameplay-Strategy #6: Intel Gathering

It is extremely helpful to be able to see in many systems, especially when looking for troublemakers or resources. Pre-scouting systems can enhance response times as well.

Later, when looking for bases, it’s as easy as hunting for the number, then zooming in to see if it is the target alliance/player.

Once you have scouted systems, an icon shows on the system to show the resources inside or you can use the Mining Resources button to quickly see resources that can be mined in the galaxy.

Gameplay-Strategy #5: The LCpl Maneuver

Sometimes being the David against the Goliath can be really helpful. This one is named after a member of the team who would turn the tides of battle, with weak ships compared to the opponent we were against. This move slows down the large ships, and they have to retarget. This can give your other alliance members a chance to catch the ship as well. This can also just irritate someone to the point that they give up, as its not worth the trouble.

Use tiny ships to intercept the larger ships that are attacking a friendly base/ship. This tactic is not designed to damage, but to cause effective delays. Each hit will delay attacking ship by at least 6 seconds, and they will have to re-target.

The Realta has a really fast Impulse Engine, faster than nearly all bigger ships unless crewed with Klaa/Pan/Burnham (most players don’t use them), making quick attacks, and it can outrun them if they start chasing you. See Officers #6: The Need For Speed

Gameplay-Strategy #4: The Troll Maneuver

Use what we know from #3 about how ships enter a system to wait for an enemy to arrive on a predictable path. This can be useful if you are not powerful enough to effectively raid their base, you can cause damage/irritation on ships returning home.

*Troll Bonus: If you see the target/enemy warp off of a mine, there is a good chance they will be on that predictable path to their base in a few minutes. Sometimes a hit on their base will cause them to recall their ships for a defense or to move their base.

Gameplay-Strategy #3: Location of Your Base

Related to countering #2, consider where you locate your base. If you have a single inlet (where the ships come in from) to the system, it will make locating your base by enemies more difficult to locate (providing your not causing problems in the hub of that area).

Once a system is identified, look at the inlets and pick a location away from the inlet. This will allow more tactical ability for you and the alliance to defend your base if needed. If you pick a location close to the inlet, enemies can come in quickly and attack without much chance for a defense. The pic below shows the defendable area that enemies must cross to get to a base because it’s not at the edge near the inlet.

Gameplay-Strategy #2: Locating a troublemakers base

If there are consistent problems with a player destroying ships or trolling your base, pay attention to what direction they arrive from when entering the system. All ships will arrive from the same angle/direction that relates to the galaxy map.

Once a direction is identified, it’s easier to locate the enemy base because you can usually eliminate many systems from your search. When searching, it’s easiest to look at the level of the player, then zoom in to see the name.

Gameplay-Strategy #1: Hide in Plain Sight

*This "bug" may have been fixed by Scoply in a recent patch

Some of you have noticed the planets in systems that have missions, but they also have another purpose. Set a course to them, and then you are parked above the planet, your ship can’t be scanned by other players. Try it yourself. Hide above a planet in a system and wait for a mining node to be available. Now you are not in open space to be attacked. You can’t be attacked if you can’t be scanned.

Beware, if a player sees you heading for a mission planet, and manages to open the scan/attack button, they can still hit you while on the planet because they got your ship sighted first.