A Starters guide to the world of STO Introduction So you wanna start playing Star Trek Online. but you have no clue as to the universe, characters or gameplay. That's fine, and this is where this guide comes in. Firstly you need to decide what faction you wish to represent either 25th Century Federation, Klingon Empire, The Romulan Republic or the Newly added 23rd Century Federation Then comes your choice of Captain, either Tactical: Uses Martial arts moves, Grenades and party buffs like battle strategies and overwatch Engineering: Uses Turrets, Fabricated Med Stations or Shields plus a variety of Bombs Science: Uses Medic based heals, Debuffs and support powers and i'll expand on these later on. Once you have chosen this you get to choose your race, unlike most games STO gives you a massive choice when it comes to race (for the 25th Century federation especially) and each one has bonuses to a certain class or field. that's not to say you cannot pick any race / class combination, it's just that some are better assigned to certain paths than others Class Archetypes So you want to know what each class does before you choose one, fair enough. Tactical Tactical Captains are the DPS (damage per second) class of STO, much like a rogue in WoW or a Ranger in Neverwinter, your job is to inflict as much damage as possible in the shortest amount of time. and you gain the following abilities from rank to rank At Lieutenant you gain the following 2 Abilities, 1 Ground, 1 Space Target Optics (Ground) A visor appears around you characters head and grants bonuses to Dmg, Critical Chance and Critical Severity, generally lasts 15 seconds and has a cooldown of around 1 minute. your first power as a tactical captain cements what this class is about it increases all the things that make a Tactical Captain great, better at doing basically everything related to dealing damage for a short time. Attack Pattern Alpha (Space) A Red Triangle with the Greek letter for alpha appears over your vessel and grants bonuses to Dmg, Critical Chance, Critical Severity and Flight Turn Rate, Lasts 30 Seconds and has a cool down of around 1 Minute. This makes it easier to destroy enemy ships and also the added turn rate makes it easier to perform Hit and Run tactics, which later on if you choose an escort class ship with be a speciality. Engineering Engineer Captains are the tanks (Defensive) class of STO, you could compare them to a Paladin in WoW or a Warrior in most other MMO games, there sturdy and are designed with survivability in mind, and it's your job to increase the defensive abilities of those around you. at Lieutenant you gain the following 2 abilities Reroute power to shields (Ground) your captain brings up a display and taps into it, then you or the character you selected to receieve the buff glows yellow and there shield power regenerates unlike the tactical abilities, most engineering ones can be used on other party members as well as yourself reroute power to shields, gives to a shield regeneration buff, reduces dmg to the character you applied it to and sometimes although it's rare can place the expose debuff on the enemy targetting you. this can be very useful if you have a tactical officer who can take advantage of the exposed trait and increase the damage against them. Rotate Shield Frequency (Space) Your ship gains a floating 2nd shield which spins a few times then vanishes, this ability as a engineering captain is priceless, it grants for a time of 30 seconds, a damage reduction of 20% and a shield recharge boost this is very useful against a lot of enemies that use energy based weaponary that damage shields directly and can save your life often. Science Science Captain are an unusual choice in this game and are generally harder to play as in space than on ground, depending on how you build your science captain you can be any of the following Mage Type Focuses on Damage over Time powers that reduce the effectiveness of your current target while inflicting Damage Medic Type Focuses on Heals and buffs to health and health regeneration, and generally keeps people alive longer Warlock Type Focuses on Debuffs to reduce enemy effectiveness The science captain probably has the widest range of kits available to them and is considered a support class, they also gain there own science specific vessels that can disable certain sections of an enemies ship over time. The 2 Abilities you gain at Lieutenant are Tricorder Scan (Ground) Your science captain pulls out his / her tricorder and scans the enemy, granting a perception bonus to yourself and inflicting a dmg resistance penality and stealth penality to the enemy you used it on much like most of the science abilities they act in a dual fashion, buffing yourself , while debuffing your foes while it only lasts around 12 seconds, it recharges very fast so you can keep debuffing enemies around you Sensor Scan (Space) Sensor scan is the space equiv of tricorder scan, and it does exactly the same function as tricorder scan, however there are times as a science captain where this will be very useful to use, against certain enemies like Klingons, the Romulans and the Borg. Ship Archetypes Federation and Klingon Ok so you have decided on what type of Captain you wish to place as, great now you need to decide what sort of ship you'de like, although you don't get to choose your ship until rank 10 / 11, till then you get given that factions starter ship to ease you into the gameplay These are For Federation players you get a Miranda Varient a Light Cruiser which can be configured into either a Miranda, a Centaur or a Shi'Karr class frigate Klingons get a B'rel class Bird of prey type raider with a cloaking device and finally the Romulans get a T'liss type warbird, with a battle cloak and a singularity generator which when charged releases a plasma wave. all 3 starter ships gain a similar layout of 2 forward firing weapons, and 1 aft and you can configure what weapons go where as much as you like. moving on though. there are 3 Types of Federation ship, 7 Types of Klingon ship and 4 Types of Romulan ship which seems a lot, but each one comes with it's own unique bonuses and abilitys so lets start off with the Federation Ships Escorts Escorts are generally a tactical captain choice, that's not to say you cannot play one as Engineer or Scientist, in fact as a noob I played through my entire Engineering Captains Career using only Escorts which in theory proves it doesn't matter what type of ship you pick as long as you enjoy it Escorts are the fastest ship type, they all gain a bonus to weapon power and are easy to play, they have lower armour and defenses than most other types, but make up for this by hitting hard Pros Fast Easy to Turn Can Equip the most variety of weapons Cons Lower Defense Weaker Shields Cruisers Cruisers are a defensive choice of ship, they have stronger hulls and take a lot more to destroy, they all gain a balance to all power lvls and are considered a safe choice for new comers, in a recent patch they gained 3 powers to help increase there usefulness these are (Will fill these in once I have researched them properly) Pros Tough Best Defense Cons Slow Harder to turn Restrictions on certain weapons Science Vessels Science vessel are a balanced choice of starship, they have an average amount of armour, but wicked strong shields, there easier to turn than cruisers, but are slower than escorts, all science vessels gain a bonus to Auxillary power and 4 Disable subsystem powers which can target Weapons, Shields, Engines or Aux Pros Strong Shields Subsystem Targetting Balanced Abilities Cons Weaker Armour Restrictions on certain weapons Moving onto the Klingon Empire The Klingons have the most variety of ships at there disposal, however a lot of these can only be bought with Zen or real money and I will go through which ones these are so lets start with the most basic of ships the Bird of Prey Raiders The raider class of ship is much like a scout, it's very fast, can turn on a penny and has a cloaking device Pretty much all Raiders are bird's of prey, there are some exceptions such as Breen Heavy Raider which plays more like an escort The raider class is the first type of ship you fly as a klingon warrior, and it's easy to see why there a lot of fun, Pros Fast Cloak can be used for ambushes Can equip a lot of weapons Cons Weak Armour Weak Shields Raptors Raptors are the true escort class for the Klingons, they have a similar play style as the Fed escorts with the exception of being able to cloak before battle. Pros Fast (though not as fast as a Raider) Can equip all weapon types Cons Cannot Cloak mid battle Weaker Armour Battle Cruisers Battle cruisers are the klingon tanks, they can equip all weapons types, unlike there Federation counterparts, there incredibly tough, but move very slowly and turn like a tank, this can be ofset slightly with the right consoles equiped to increase turn rate. but they are a good choice for a starter klingon player Pros Tough as Hell All Weapons Available Cons Moves like a Slug Can take ages to get to where you want to Now we move into the Pay for section of the Klingon Arsenal. Destroyers (Zen Purchase Generally) Destroyers in the Klingon Navy are a fun ship to fly they gain bonuses to weapon power and engine power and a faster than most cruisers, while being a cross between a Cruiser and an Escort, the first Destroyer you can buy is the Vandal Destroyer a Nausicaan ship which costs 1000 Zen (about £10) all pay for ships gain bonus one off consoles and this one has the plasmodic leech, which drains an enemies power and shields and adds it to yours, while i'm generally against buying ships in game the consoles from any ones you do buy can be transferred generally to any other ship, so you don't just gain that ship for 10 lvls then that's it Pros A Balance between Escort and Cruiser Cool Consoles Cons You gotta pay for em Worth it?? Support Vessels (Zen Purchase Generally) The support vessels are the science ships for the Klingons, and this is where you have a problem if you want to play a science captain as the Klingons, all your specialist ships from rank 20 Onwards you have to buy. If I had know this when I had first started my science captain I would have changed it's career, and why, well the Klingon science vessels are much like the Federation Vessels, they share the same abilitys and the same lvl of use the only difference is you have to buy them the first of these is the Gorn Phalanx Support ship, it costs 1000 Zen (£10) and looks a lot like a tampon it does have a cool console which is the barrier field generator, which throws up an energy shield that nothing can get through for a limited time Pros Science Vessel for the KDF Balanced Cons You gotta pay for it looks like a tampon Flight Deck Cruiser (Zen Purchase Generally) The flight deck cruisers are mostly of Orion design and unlike the standard cruisers have a balance of power levels for the klingons and one of the best abilitys ever, a hanger bay this is by far the coolest ability your ships can have, and you can change what fighter craft you can launch by changing the respective fighter ship console, this ofsets the cruisers sluggishness greatly, as having a squadron of fighters attack can also fill in some gaps in you offense and unlike the Federation who don't get there Carrier Based cruisers till later you can gain this as early as Captain (Rank 30) But there had to be a downside and it's again that you have to pay for it, and again like most early game ships it's 1000 Zen (£10), but in comparison to a destroyer I would and have bought this and it's a lot better for your money Pros Has Fighters Tough Beats most Early or Equiv Fed Vessels Con's You gotta pay for it Doesn't last as long as you'de like Carriers (Zen Purchase Generally) The Carrier class of ship is the Largest ship class in STO and for good reason they support 2 hanger bays of fighters and are by far the toughest ship in STO to destroy Carriers aren't available till rank 40 (Admiral / General) and they cost a lot while some can be purchased for dilithum (About 120'000) ,most cost between 1'500 Zen (£15) to 2'500 Zen (£25) and it's here that you move into end game territory and the costs mount Are carriers worth it? in my opinion? no. there slower than flight deck cruisers which makes aiming at anything hard, there slow to turn which can be a nightmare and having more fighters doesn't generally make it easier Pros Toughest ships in the game has lots of fighters Cons Expensive to buy Slowest ships available Takes a lot of practice Ship Archetypes Romulan which brings us to Romulan ships. Romulans have the smallest selection of ships available that are romulan in design, however at rank 10 / 11 you get to ally with either the Federation or The Klingon Empire and you can also buy the ships from those factions the romulans don't gain any diversity in there ships till Commander (Rank 30) and all before that are of the Warbird / Escort Variety So lets start Warbirds All warbirds are equipped with Cloaks, and singularity generators, everytime a warbird fires it's weapons, gets hit or uses a power generates singularity, and the meter can build to 5 levels which increase the power and duration of the singularity ability you use with it at first you only have the plasma wave on the T'liss but you gain more and more singularity abilities with each new ship threshold so at Lieutenant you have 1, Centurion 2, Sub Commander 3, Commander 4 and finally Admiral 5 and all are very useful, and it lends a certain flair to when playing as the Romulans, the warbirds themselves are easy to manuvere, and are as fast as a Federation escort this makes the romulan faction very easy to play as, plus you have a battle cloak, which unlike the Klingons can be used mid fight to get away. Pros Fast Singularity Abilities Battle Cloak Cons Average Armour Armour Shields No Diversity Romulan Battle Cruisers There are very few romulan ships in this class but the most iconic one is the first one you can get which is the D'Deridex or Big D to most people, the big D is bigger than a galaxy class starship and is very much a cruiser ship, while you don't get one till Commander (Rank 30) this is the first true Romulan engineer ship and it's a beast it has very high armour and decent shields plus for the first time as a romulan player 7 weapon slots, while it's turn rate and speed are terrible it lends itself more so than federation cruisers to the term Broadsiding, if you have ever played Empire Total war you'll know what I mean, as you have to use the sides of your ship to inflict the most damage by lining up both your forward and rear weapons so they over lap creating a killzone in the middle where you can be firing all 7 weapons at once. It's not an easy class of ship to fly and most people who have been used to using escort style warbirds will hate having to adjust,but it's very cool to use and rewarding if used correctly Pros Tougher than 10 Day old meatloaf Heavy Armour Battle Cloak on a cruiser (Genius) Cons Slow to Turn Will find Haters Sluggish Romulan Destroyers (Pay with Zen or Lobi Crystals) Romulan Destroyers play much like there klingon counterparts, there a cross between Escorts and Cruisers, but with a power bonus instead to Weapons and Aux there's not a lot to say about this type of ship as there are only 3 in the romulan force and the first you can get your hands on is the Talveth Temporal ship, it's a nice ship handles well and has a cost of 800 lobi crystals (unsure of how much this works out to) and the only way to acquire Lobi crystals is to open lock boxes or compete in special events that give you them as a reward You get a special console called the Mainheim device which creates duplicates of you to fight for you, which is nice but considering you cannot get hold of this till at least rank 40 (Sub Admiral) your best off focusing elsewhere. Pros Nice Balance Good Alternative to Warbirds Cons Uses a funny currency to buy it Not Worth it which brings us finally to romulan science vessels Romulan Science Vessels You picked a romulan science captain only to find that for most of your career you have had to A. Use Federation Science vessels (Fed Allied only) or B. Go without, unless your willing to buy them (KDF Aliied) but fear not by the time you hit rank 40 (Sub Admiral) you now have a Romulan science vessel YAY, the first of these is the Ha'Nom and it's a Beaut, it's combines a Fed science vessel with romulan escort abilitys, what you get is a fast science vessel that can target sub systems, cloak and has reasonable armour. Pros Fast Cloak Sub System Targetting Cons You have to wait forever to get one Might be best sticking with escorts at this point while there are other ship types I will cover them when I have the time. Weapons and Energy Types Through out your career in STO you'll get to fly lots of different starships, meet loads of different races and customise to your hearts content the things you will change most often on your crew members and starships are the weapons, each weapon type has a specific function depending on how you want your characters to work for example Tetryon weapons do more damage to shields, an put your opponent at a disadvantage sooner, the downside is that they do less damage to everything else. so lets look at the energy types standard weapons Phaser Phaser energy is the standard for all Federation Vessels, it's bonuses are to accuracy and to disable random subsystems Disruptor Disruptors are more common on Klingon ships, there bonuses are to lower the targets resistance to dmg by 10% over time Plasma The Romulan choice, plasma weapons do damage over time, even though they appear to weaker than most Tetryon Found on ships belonging to the Tholians, Tetyron weapon do more damage to shields Polaron The weapons of the Dominion, have a chance to lower all power levels by 25 Antiproton Anti Borg and Voth weapons, increase the chance to do more damage per critical hit however these only apply to the energy weapon such as Beams and Cannons Torpedoes are different in nature and sometimes cooler, torpedo features are Photon 50% chance of - 20 able crew, less crew = less hull repair and systems repair Quantum 10% chance of -10 able crew, see above They also deal significantly more damage, or so I am told Plasma chance to inflict fire damage to hull and cause damage over time Transphasic Increased shield penetration, useful against science vessels and the Voth Chroniton -100% flight speed and turn rate for 10 seconds, a good torpedo type to use if your up against faster ships i.e. a cruiser against an escort Tricobalt A slow moving heavy torpedo that can disable a target for 2 secs, it also stacks if other people hit at the same time Hargh'peng An unguided radiation filled torpedo that cause radiation damage for 15 seconds, radiation is brilliant against most living creatures, but terrible against tholians and borg. Weapon Strategies So you had a look at all the weapons available, but are unsure of what build is best for you never fear I have some you might want to try and see how they work for you 1. The All One Type Build Quite often you'll see many high lvl players using just one weapon type, be it Phaser or Plasma or any of the above, why do that you may be wondering? Well it all comes down to the consoles you have on your starship, in the early lvls of 1 - 30 your buffs to using certain combinations aren't as noticable so you can have that rainbow firing starship and be ok, later on however you'll find that enemies seem tougher and that you die more, this is to be expected as after a while the game does get harder so going back to the question why 1 energy type?, well lets take into account a mid lvl ship like the Galaxy Class Cruiser you gain it as a Federation player at the rank of Captain (Rank 30) it has 4 forward weapon slots and 3 Aft and the standard layout is 2 forward phaser arrays, 2 Forward Photon Torpedo Launchers and 2 Aft phaser arrays and 1 aft torpedo which is a nice balance between energy and kinetic weapons, and this is where consoles come in to make it better A Galaxy Class Cruiser has 2 Tactical console slots, to make the most of your phaser damage you could fill these slots with Phaser Relays. at captain lvl the Mk VIII common phaser relay increases the potency of your phasers by 16.9%, and that just one of them so instead of doing your normal 100% Damage you doing instead 116.9% say we add another Mk VIII common phaser relay, most people would think tha it justs adds another 16.9% percent, it actually doesn't it adds the 16.9% to your existing (at this point anyway) 116.9% and this is where a bit of maths is involved 16.9% added to 116.9 isn't 133.8% like most people would think because 10% of the new figure is 11.69 not 10 which means your closer to 150% than that (sorry couldn't work it out in my head) which means your weapons are doing nearly 50% more damage than before, and if all your weapons are of the same type, well you get the idea. 2. The fire and forget build This is a nice build I use on my escorts, it's a quick way to swap between targets and do a modest amount of damage to them all for this build i'm using an Akira Class Heavy Escort which you gain at Commander (Rank 20) and you can add more weapons as wanted on later escorts down the line this build specifically works well in both PvP and PvE what you'll need 2 Plasma Torpedo Launchers, 1 Plasma Mine Launcher, 1 Tetyron Dual Cannon, 1 Tetyron Turret All rank VI as that's the highest rank a Commander can equip, firstly place the dual cannon and both Plasma Torpedoes in your Fore weapons slots and the Plasma Mine Launcher and Tetyron turret in the Aft Slots you'll also need to place 2 Tetyron Pulse Generators in 2 of the Tactical slots and a Plasma Infuser in the last the way this build works is it uses 1 of the aft slots to work at a forward firing weapon, so instead of firing 3 forward you have infact 4 forward the Tetyron Damage helps lower the shields quicker so your dual Plasma torpedoes can rip through the hull, plus with 2 plasma torpedo you have a greater chance of getting a DoT fire going and killing your foe quickly, but why mines you may ask well mines should be left of autofire, so that as you pass you enemy, you can drop them right on them, plus as there a plasma weapon they take advantage of the extra damage gained by the plasma infuser while you could do this with 1 Tetyron Pulse Generators and 2 Plasma Infusers, the extra Tetyron Pulse generator is there to make sure you open a window in his shields for both the torpedos and the mines. Currencies and things to buy with them (Part 1) If you've been playing a while, you'll notice you have earned a lot of different types of money, the mains ones you'll gain while playing are Energy Credits Dilithium Latinium Lobi Crystals Marks Zen So what does each Currency do, and how best to spend it Energy Credits (EC) Energy Credits will be the stuff you get the most of and will have to spend to upgrade weapons, shields and parts of both your ground officers and your starship, and you earn it from doing everything, Selling Unwanted Items Completing Missions Trading on the Exchange (more on that a lot later) Generally everything you can do normally in the game will earn you EC at some point, so how best to gather it for that 1 Mk (pick a number) console that you really need. well the best ways of gathering EC really quickly are farming missions, you'll find these under the Foundry section of the mission logs and most of these will be listed as not allowing any bonuses, this shouldn't worry you as your not playing them to earn anything but EC. A typical farming mission will last about 15 Mins, less if you have pimped out your Starship right and you'll have to destroy waves and waves of static enemies that while have there shields down (usually), they will fight back. and to do them quickly you'll want to place Torpedo launchers and nothing else on all your fore weapon sockets, this will cause massive amounts of kinetic damage, which to an unshielded foe makes it all the easier. However for all the people that doubt using this method, and i'm sure there will be lots, your gaining gear which you can sell either to a merchant on the exchange or using the replicator and who know's you might get lucky and get the console that you wanted to buy in the first place. but best places to spend EC are on the exchange, you can usually (and i use this term loosely) find what your looking to buy at a reasonable price, although there are some people that think it's ok to sell a Mk IV Photon Torpedo Launcher for over 100,000 EC. Dilithium Dilithium is a premium currency in Star Trek Online and don't let anyone else tell you different, it's used to buy the most expensive early and mid game items, want that extra starship well it's gonna cost you, to illustrate this point well lets look at the starship prices in Dilithium At Lieutenant (Rank 1) a starship costs 8'000 Dilithium At Lieutenant Commander (Rank 10) a starship costs 15'000 Dilithium At Commander (Rank 20)a starship costs 40'000 Dilithium At Captain (Rank 30) a starship costs 80'000 Dilithium At Admiral Lower Half (Rank 40) a starship costs 120'000 Dilithium At Admiral Upper Half (Rank 45) a starship isn't available to buy as it's only a small shift At Vice Admiral (Rank 50) a starship costs 2'000 Zen or 200'000 Fleet Credits (if your in a fleet) which as you'll have probably noticed if you can only refine 8'000 Dilithium a day, (9'000 if your in a fleet with that ability) it's going to take a while to buy a better starship, which is 15 days of earning 8'000 and then refining it but very few people earn 8'000 consistantly every day, because the ways you earn Dilithium are few the best ones are doing a spotlight foundry mission, this can earn you around 2'000 if you haven't done any foundry missions that day, or doing any of the following Complete a Exploration Mission (Fed only) Do a Empire Defense Mission (Kdf only) A Daily Mission, such as Tau Dewa Doing an Academy Event (These are awesome and can net upto 3'000) Doing a Lore Mission (try to do these when the bonuses apply) Asteroid Mining (Can earn around 1'500 if you good at the minigame) Duty Officer Missions (After Rank 11, some of these can earn 150 Dilithium a time) Turn over Contraband (a good mission to keep rolling as every 4 hours you gain 2'000 Dilithium) Currencies and things to buy with them (Part 2) Gold Pressed Latinum (GPL) Latinum is one of the more unusual curries in the game, you aquire it through various duty officer missions which you can get after reaching rank 11 or by playing Dabo at the various Stations and Planets that offer it GPL is spent mainly on cosmetic items such as Holographic Projectors, Trophies and one shots, its a fun, but generally useless commodity in the STO game and you won't be able to buy anything particularly useful with it Lobi Crystals Lobi on the other hand is very much a Premium currency, you gain Lobi through featured missions and unlocking Lockboxes, Lobi can be traded in for special duty officers, ships and equipment and is well worth it To cash in your Lobi crystals, you must travel to the Drozana station located in the Eta Eridani sector block Zen Zen ahh wonderful zen, there are only 2 ways to aquire this lovely stuff, the first is to actually buy it or recieve it through a monthy membership to the game. The second is to trade in your hard earned Dilithium through the Exchange at a very steep ratio Zen buys all the lovely things in STO, from Vice Admiral level ships, to extra character slots and the rarest items, while I believe that F2P shouldn't have a currency such as this, as it generally promotes a Pay to Win attitude, Zen is easy enough to aquire to not make this so much of a problem. Currencies and things to buy with them (Part 3) Ok so far we have covered the basic currencies, the ones that are easily obtained, these next ones however are much harder, and grant the best bonuses and gear So ladies and Gentlemen, we come to the Marks, I'll split them into Fleet Based and Individual based for reference Fleet Based Marks Fleet Marks upon joining a fleet, you gain the option through various starbase tasks and fleet events to earn "Fleet Marks", are earned through STF's PVE quests and help with the upgrade, of various Starbase, Embassy or Dilithium Mine projects, most events involve defending a Starbase, Escorting a Convoy or Defending Territory from the opposing faction. Fleet Credits Fleet credits are what you earn, by donating resources to your fleets projects, for example if you donate 10,000 Dilithium then you might end up with around 5,000 fleet credits. But what are they used for?, well once a fleet gains a Starbase and a Shipyard or other special attachments, you can spend these credits on Purchasing special enchanced versions of your factions starships that have increased armour and hulls or other special bonuses, so I emplore you guys, find a group of people that you like to play with and think about creating a fleet as you'll end up being able to get some of the best stuff in the game. Individual Marks Individual marks don't come into play for most players until they reach rank 50 with there respective faction/s and are considered all to be End Game Currencies, so you've got to rank 50, so what now? well this is where you gain the most benefits and coolest stuff Omega Marks Omega marks are earned through completing tasks for Task Force Omega, which you gain an invitation to join around rank 44, most involve stopping the Borg from taking over or changing the past Omega marks can then be used, once the reputation system unlocks at rank 50, to start Omega projects, which give you borg themed weapons and gear for both your Captain and your Starship and are well worth the effort. Nukara Marks Nukara Marks are earned from taking on the tholians on the planet Nukara, a demon class world where you'll need an enviroment suit or be burned to a crisp, Nukara marks are quite easy to come by the missions are repeatable with no cooldown and you'll find tholians to be very easy targets on the planets surface So why get them?, Nukara marks gain you access to Nukara projects, which also unlocks at rank 50, and some of these are genius, on average it will take a few days worth of grinding Nukara Marks to gain a Cryo Launcher or an armoured enviromental suit, or even Tholian based Tetyron weapons for your starship which are awesome for a science captain or science starship. Romulan Marks Romulan marks focus on missions that take place in the Tau Dewa sector block, you get two daily missions, one to take on tholians or borg in red alert events, (of which I never seem to get) and two to complete tasks for the various planets in the sector while I've heard the Red Alert event is very good at gaining marks, I would need somebody to tell me how many as like I've said I have never managed to get one, The Second Mission however grants you 60 to 75 (on a Bonus Marks Event) and generally involves doing around 5 to 8 Missions for the various planets in Tau Dewa, these are quick to complete and will only take you around 1 hour to do the amount you need to gain the marks So why bother with Romulan marks?, well the romulan and remans offer some nice gear and the ability to call in re-enforcement squads of either romulans or remans or can be spent on romulan projects to gain bonuses to your captain and starship and some cool gear for your ship. Dyson Marks Dyson marks arrived with the advent of season 8, and focus on the dyson sphere gateway located in the Tau Dewa sector block, this gateway warps you to a Dyson sphere in the Delta Quadrant thats currently under siege from a dinosaur like race called the Voth. All missions in the area grant Dyson marks, and there's a lot of missions in this area, from basic defense to cargo scanning and everything in between, there's also a cool battlefield where captains can with the help of some of there bridge officers fight the Voth on the ground to capture areas and earn even more marks So why bother with Dyson Marks?, Dyson marks grant Mark XII gear from the off, which makes getting other Marks, such as Omega, Nukara and Romulan that much easier, but that's not all Dyson marks can also be traded in for Dyson commendations, and it's these that are very useful Ever had that 2nd or 12th character that you really don't want to have to aquire marks over and over for, well never fear, Dyson Commendations, unlike the other marks can be traded between characters, this means that you can use your Primary character or Main to level other Alternate characters that you might want to End Game with and want a jump on getting better gear from the start. Walkthroughs Introduction Hi LB here writer of this guide, and if you've got this far please leave comments at the bottom, as they help both my Ego and with points I might have missed The way i'm going to go about writing the walkthrough's will seem weird to most of you, but I'll try to explain it the best I can The layout will typically be a synopsis of the mission i.e. tasks to do, items to grab, and special sections that are class specific which I will mention at the time they appear like so Tactical Only Objective these are to help new people, who might be completionists like myself to know when to give up trying to complete an objective that you just can't as your class, such as an early on which involves trying to revive crew members as an engineer, when you really need to be a science captain. Also will cover what upgrades, you should want at certain points and what equipment might be helpful So lets go Boldly forth, to seek out new life and new civilizations, and generally have a good time Federation Walkthrough from Rank 1 to 10 We are going to start as the Federation, so get ready with the character creator and lets get started Your class is really important as a Fed player, as the choice of powers, ships and equipment will either bolster your choice or cover any weaknesses. Starfleet Academy Cadet Welcome to the year 2409, your a fresh faced cadet who's done extremely well on his/her studies and are now ready to accept your first commission For the most part this will involve walking around the grounds, talking to the new graduates and following the mission guide, nothing too hard At some point you will get to speak to the captain, you need to ring the doorbell then walk in, and shock horror to be told your going to be offered a position on his bridge crew, but you didn't do the firing range task to qualify so you'll need to speak to elise flores to continue. She will be stood outside the building ,so you won't have to look far, she will then talk to you about life at the academy, then will offer to race you to the administration building. Klingon Walkthrough from Rank 1 to 10 Playing a Klingon is generally all about war, honor and generally killing things YAY after character creation you start your career in the Klingon Defense Force aboard a B'rel class Bird of Prey as the captains 2nd and are on a routine prisoner transfer mission to Kronus Bird of Prey Romulan Walkthrough from Rank 1 to 10 Playing a Romulan is all about stealth, suprise attacks and generally being sneaky, you start on the Romulan colony of Virinat as one of the Colonists, but adventure and betrayal are soon to come calling Virinat United Federation of Planets Circa 23rd Century Walkthrough When I first started this Era I squee'd, your brought back to where Trek first began in the 23rd century where women's skirts were tiny and you ended up generally having a fist fight in some sand. You start your career as the first officer of Captain Isaac Garrett, his right hand and trusted friend. Rank 11 and the Duty Officer System So you have reached rank 11 and have been told to go back to your home planet to collect your duty officers, fair enough for Both Fed and KDF you have to go to your respective Acadmies and speak to either For the Federation it's who can be found near the daily dilithium mission giver For the KDF it's Lieutenant S'tass (Maybe, Need to check) and he can be found in the academy building near the Warrior Recruiter The Romulans have Centureon Velaar and she is in the right hand area of the main command centre on New Romulus. Once you have recieved your first compliment of duty officers, what do you do? well once you have them I suggest talking to the personnel officer for your Fed / KDF contact and start earning more, you have 5 duty missions you can accept to earn general, tactical, operations, science and civilian officers and for the romulans you can earn your own faction and your allied faction which means Romulans can easily get the jump on the DoFF system. Joining a Fleet and getting the most out of STO **** Coming Soon **** End Game and Beyond So you've been playing for a while and you've reached Vice Admiral, Lieutenant General or Sub Admiral II, what now? well if you were like me and did a lot of foundry missions instead of the main quest path, then you will still have a lot of these to do, you don't have to complete all the story episodes but you do get the chance to build sets of faction specific items and some of these are very useful for the next tasks. Task Force Omega While you can start this at Rank 44, Task Force Omega doesn't come into it's own until rank 50, ay this point by clicking on the PvE button you'll get a list of Special Task Force missions of STF's that you can compete in. The Omega ones are funnily enough the ones that reward Omega Marks, these will help you earn reputation with this faction. For space missions ideally you want to be building towards getting a full set of MkXII space gear in blue or better For ground missions you can get away with the Jem'Hadar gear for a very long time, but again eventually you'll want to get gear MKXII. You can also go to the Defara system to stop a borg invasion, this will award small amounts of Omega Marks, for decent amounts stick to the STF's Nukara Chances are you read Nukara marks, and was thinking but how do I get these?, well unlocked at lvl 50 you get a mission called "Hot Lead", this involves you travelling to the Nukara system in the Eta Eridani system. upon which you will need to beam down. Note: You cannot do Nukara without an enviroment suit, the planet is demon class and you burn to death without one. Nukara as a rule is a very easy to do, it mainly involves Tholian bashing, good gear involves getting an armoured enviromental suit and either a cryo or sonic weapon and before you know it, you'll have around 200 marks in about an hour (I have actually done this, before people say it isn't possible) Romulan Romulan marks are some of the hardest to acquire, don't belive me, try , you get given 2 mission to get these Tau Dewa Sector and Tholian Red Alert Tau Dewa Sector You get given a percentage bar and have to complete task in this sector to earn a percentage to build it eventually to 100% the easist mission I have found is Japori, it involves blowing up 5 waves of Narcissican Ships, it can be done at any Tier 5 ship and drops a good amount of lockboxes and gear as well. This can be repeated 5 times to get you your 100% Tholian Red Alert This mission is hard to find, hard to acquire and doesn't give that many romulan marks for your trouble, to be honest, your best off avoiding this one. Season 8 Additions and Onwards Season 8 The Dyson Sphere While most of you will have played this now, there are some of you that are still leveling to 50 so you can try this, Season 8 sets you against the reptilian foes The Voth who if you watched star trek voyager should be familar. The Voth are a race of Dinosaur like humanoids that use advanced technology and cybernectics, and most of there missions take place on the Dyson Sphere, to unlock this you'll first need to do the special mission involving Worf, the romulans and an Iconian gate Dyson The dyson sphere is a massive battleground for both space missions and a ground arena where you fight off against the Voth to stop them from stealing Omega Particles. Your currency here is Dyson Marks and Voth Cybernetics and these are both very easy to acquire very quickly Season 9 A New Accord Ahh the Undine or Species 8472 if you prefer.. telepathic, Telekinetic and out to destroy everyone in our universe Undine Battleground As a section available in the Dyson sphere you fight as part of a group using your starships to fulfil various tasks such as restart Klingon weapons, Bring a Romulan Singulary to a generator and restart Federation Technology. It's a fun little diversion and once all of the battlefield has been changed to blue, you face off against three planet killers to earn Isomorphic Injectors and Undine Marks Your Build for this section is more important as you can (And Will) be destroyed more often, so defensive builds are better. Season 10 Iconian War For many years in Trek the Iconians were rumoured to be the boogey men the great evil should they return, and that's roughly what we got instead of a new battleground or area, which is a shame Iconia would have been perfect.. we got 1 ground PvE and 2 Space PvE's in which to earn Iconian Marks and Datacore.. Not my favourite one.. but oh well Season 11 A New Dawn And we come back to our favourite Enemies The Mirror Universe.. they made changes to the Badlands to allow for the Mirror Universe Invasion point, helping out the commander of the Defiant, to push back the Terran Spacedocks and there Allies You Earn Mostly Terran Marks here and the usual secondary object for reputations these days The weapons are withering Phasers or Disruptors which cause weakening radiation and a small damage over time Season 12 Agents of Yesterday A new season a new section, helping out Agent Daniels and the Temporal Investigations, we have 2 New Space PvE's to earn Temporal Marks.. (Anyone else spot a theme here?) It's interesting as these take place in the 26th Century Alongside Chekov and co Rank 52 and the Admirality System Starting at Rank 52, your captain (Admiral in this case) Can unlock the admirality system, this plays very similar to the Doff system, but instead of using Duty Officers that you gain at every tier, you use copies of every ship your captain possessed during there time levelling to Rank 52 So how does this work?, well each ship has a rank and amount of points as per determined by it's tier so the tier 1 ships you have will have much lower scores than say a tier 5 battle cruiser Each ship also has higher scores depending on what it's role was, so a Science ship has a higher Sci score, Cruisers tend to have higher Eng scores, while Escorts have Tac there are also the composite ships that have higher scores in two areas, such as the Ferengi Nandi, which has decent Tac and Sci scores. It's a fairly simple system, you pick a mission say protect the fleet and you get given 3 totals such as Eng 30 Tac 50 Sci 30 In this case you'll want more Tactical based ships than the others, if you succeed there is chance your ship won't be put into maintenance, this doesn't happen often, but it's nice when it does. As you progress through the campaign you will get tour of duty Missions, these are a seperate resource that you can use once per day to increase your tour bar Federation Tours grant Energy Credits Whist Klingon Empire Grants Dilithium Rank 52 and the Admirality System Cont' Now the problem with this system is, if you play F2P you will progress very slowly, sure you can gain extra ships as a critical success, and these are only for this system So if you earn a [T6] Intel Escort, you don't actually have that ship in your shipyard to use normally, you still have to acquire it with Zen or through the Delta Pack. Now as you level a new Character or Toon, (Depends on your MMO playing) You might actually want to not go with the ships that are for your class, so you get a wide range of ships for use when you reach Rank 52, and thus make the system easier.. also any Zen ships you own will be added once you have them in your shipyard at least once. Again this encourages a Pay 2 Win playstyle now.

Welcome to what I hope will be the most streamlined guide (for newcomers) to Star Trek Online that's designed to get you to the most important aspect of the game; enjoying it. So what are we waiting for, let's boldly go... Character Creation & Career The first step into the world of Star Trek Online is to create a character. Before you select the race, gender and look will come the most important aspect of the process; career. There are three to choose from; tactical, engineering or science. Each one changes how you'll play the game to some extent, so choose wisely. Tactical Officers The career of a tactical officer is one of security and warfare. You're a frontline fighter and protector and thus you're geared accordingly as your career progresses. Such officers wear red* and are best matched with escort starships. The Defiant is an iconic escort starship, the likes of which you can fly from level 30 onwards when promoted to Captain... Engineering Officers An engineer's life is spent building, designing and maintaining the many technological wonders of the 23 or 25 century. Such officers are highly capable of utilizing their technological knowhow to keep starships, shuttles and even away teams healthy and strong. Engineers wear gold* uniforms and are best paired with cruisers. The Enterprise D is an iconic cruiser starship, the likes of which you can fly from level 30 onwards when promoted to Captain... Science Officers This is the career of explorers, doctors and scientific curiosity. Science officers are adept at many tricks when their expertise is called upon, ranging from bolstering the starship and crew's health whilst diminishing the enemies, causing confusion and weakening enemies or simply bringing their medical or scientific knowledge to bare to repair the starship or heal its crew. Science officers wear blue and are best when in command of science starships. Voyager is an iconic science starship, the likes of which you can fly from level 30 onwards when promoted to Captain... Now that you've made your career choice you may be confused a mite by all the uniform options during the rest of the character creation process. Thankfully, the default (Odyssey) option is the modern uniform. If you've fiddled about a bit, fear not and use this guide to help you fix things; http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/6005803 And if you begin your career in the 23 century, I trust you can figure out the apt uniform for that era. * Please note that in the 23 century tactical characters wear gold and engineering characters wear red... Tutorial & Starting Starship Now, as soon as you hit engage after the character creation process, you'll begin your tutorial. This tutorial will walk you through most aspects of the game and how many of the mechanics and do-dats work. It's also damn good to get your Star Trek juices flowing with excitement and anticipation as to what's coming next. However, one aspect is neglected here; starship weapon auto-fire. If you want to press a single button and have your weapons fire when able once you've targeted an enemy starship then you simply need to right click your weapons symbols on the HUD at the bottom centre so that they have a green hue around them. Now when you click on one of your weapons with an enemy in range, they'll fire until your target is destroyed whenever they're able. It makes life a mite easier, so don't forget. ;) Sadly, you can't choose which starship you start with...you're not in command yet. But hang on in there and your time will come... Your tutorial will come to a close when you reach Earth Spacedock for the first time and talk to Admiral Quinn...or Admiral Garrett if you're from the 23 century. Welcome to Earth Spacedock Oddly enough this is the name of the mission that notes the end of the tutorial for you. Or if you're from the 23 century it will be a case of Explore Earth Spacedock first. Regardless, it is during this mission you'll be finding out all about new starships...sort of. You see, whilst this mission marks your first promotion and gifts you a new starship of your choice...it neglects to tell you how to ready your new starship or customise its appearance if you like such things. Don't worry, that's why I'm covering this here with you. Now each promotion will bring you back to Earth Spacedock and Admiral Quinn. And each promotion will give you a free starship up to the rank of Rear Admiral...also know as level 40. Plus a free T5 Galaxy class starship at level 61 via the Shipyard. Thereafter, you'll need the C Store if you want a new starship. The C Store can be accessed via a button just below your mini map at the top right of the screen. But more about this and Zen in a moment... To choose a new starship for free you simply need to go to the shipyard where you can see a number of starships docked. Press M to bring up the map if it help guide you better. Here there is a large desk-type area to the left and right. Find Lieutenant Laurel (first left) and fliter the starships by rank to help you out. Now, choose your new starship if you don't want to spend real-world money. As you do, please bare in mind that your career doesn't limit the choice of starship you may command. For example, even a science or tactical officer can command a cruiser.Now, if you don't mind spending some real-world money on the game, you'll notice refit versions (and the likes) of starships are available for something called Zen. This is an in-game currency you can get for a micro-transaction with Steam. Once you have money in your Steam Wallet, you can use it to buy Zen. In turn, you can use that Zen to purchase a refit (or some such) type of starship. C Store starships have a little more to offer than the free starships. The stats are typically better than their normal counterparts and you'll often get an additional bridge officer slot or a somesuch to give you more fighting power or survivability. And sometimes you'll get a unique console. Such consoles come in two varieties; universal or type specific... Universal consoles may come with a certain starship, but as you change your starship with future promotions or whims, you can take these consoles with you and place it on ANY new starship for use. A good example of this is the photonic displacer you get with the science vessel refit. Type specific consoles on the other hand are limited to a certain type of starship class. Over time they'll usually form a set with bonuses for each "matching console" in the set. Such "matching consoles" tend to come with a new tier version of the same starship. A good example of this is the nadeon detonator you get with the long range science vessel refit. AND, with all this in mind, you may now use a tier 6 starship once you've completed the tutorial and it will now level with your character... Take a look here to get a better idea of starships you may like; http://sto.gamepedia.com/Playable_starship OK, so now you have a new starship you'll no doubt want to use it...right? Of course you do! But where did it go game? Thanks for not telling me...GRRRR!!! Right, calm down, that's why you have this guide to help out. At the shipyard on Earth Spacedock I want you to find Ensign Obin (the first one on the right) and talk to them. They'll show you a list of all the starships and shuttles you have. You can only "ready" one starship and one shuttle at a time. So take all your old gear off your old starship (least you need it for the new one) and ready the new one you want to fly. Back out of this screen and click U to check all is well. Be mindful that some C Store starships you buy may go in a box into your inventory. If that happens just click I and right click the box to open...then try again. All good so far? Great! Now, if you want to customise the appearance of your starship look for Dirz Raxx on the left middle desk thingy and talk to them. You'll figure out the rest from here... Equipment When you start out you'll have some basic gear curtosey of the game. Thanks game! The game will even give you some new stuff as for finishing a mission. However,the key to starships and away team success is gearing up as you level. As you gain levels the mark of gear you can use increases...all the way up to Mk XV. That's mark 15 least you didn't know. Now that's simple enough, but there's many different types of each sort of item available that is can be confusing...or it can be to some. Calm down, it's fine. My advice to a beginner is to stick with the default types of gear if you're unsure. That means phasers and photon/quantum torpedoes for your starship and phasers for your away team. I would suggest full auto phaser rifles for away teams, just to make life a mite easier. As you level up you can upgrade your gear or buy anew. Or maybe even get a nice item as a mission reward... No doubt, in time, you'll puzzle out what all the different types of gear is and what they do, change your mind as to what works for you and maybe change it again later on after that. You'll no doubt have the means to dabble and try as you get more seasoned with the game. However, when in doubt just stick with the basics of phasers and photons in the beginning. True Federation Style Now, lets expand on the equipment we've touched upon and show you some of the basics in making a nifty cruiser or science ship with phasers and quantum torpedos in true federation style, without the need for fleet gear... On the fore weapons you'll (ideally) want; 1 Quantum Torpedo [Dmg]x3 X* Phaser Beam Arrays [Dmg]x3 * Basically X is the number of remaining slots you have for weapons on the fore weapons array after you have the quantum torpedo taking its slot up. When you reach a mission called Sunrise in the Future Proof season you will want to replace the quantum torpedo with the quantum phase torpedo and make sure you use torpedo spread (if you like to "upgrade" the torpedo attacks) to increase shield damage. You may also want to replay the mission and see if the quantum phase beam array works for you too... On the aft weapons you'll (ideally) want; 1 Trilithium-Enhanced Omni-Directional Phaser Beam Array** 1 Omni-Directional Phaser Beam Array*** [Acc] [Arc] [Dmg]x2 X* Phaser Beam Arrays [Dmg]x3 You may also prefer 1 quantum torpedo on the rear of your ship if you have a fast turn rate... * Basically X is the number of remaining slots you have for weapons on the aft weapons array after you have the omni-directional phaser beam array taking its slot up, and maybe a quantum torpedo too. ** You have to wait until you play Beyond the Nexus in the New Frontiers season to get this little gem to replace a phaser beam array. *** You will have to wait until you can equip mk XII gear before you can use these. In the interim a phaser beam array in its place will serve you well. For the engineering consoles; 1 Quantum Phase Converter**** (if you're flying a cruiser) then... As many Neutronium Alloy as you can get. For the science consoles; 1 Quantum Phase Converter**** (if you're flying a science ship) then... As many Field Generators***** as you can get. **** This will come from a replay of the Sunrise mission in the Future Proof Season. ***** You should replace 1 field generator with a Temporal Disentanglment Suite from the Butterfly mission in the Iconian War season. For the tactical consoles; As many Phaser Relays as you can get. And that's the basics of a solid, true federation style Cruiser or Science Ship. You'll still have to choose your deflector, (secondary deflector if on a science ship), impulse engine, warp core and shield...but I'll leave that up to you and your chosen playstyle to determine such preferences and needs. Escorts play a little differently and aren't my forte but I'll trust you to use what's above to find your way if you enjoy flying such starships... Now, lets finish up with some nifty ground gear. As I mentioned above, you'll (ideally) want a Phaser Full Auto Rifle [Dmg]x3, alongside a Polyalloy Weave Armor [RegHP] [ResAll], and a Personal Shield [Cap]x3 for yourself and all your away team members. Don't forget; either upgrade or replace your gear with higher mk and quality versions as you're able. In the end you'll ideally want all your gear mk XV and epic in quality. All geared up you'll really will be playing in true federation style... Admirality Now, least you're thinking of decommissioning your old starships you no longer want; DON'T! When you get to a high enough level a system called admirality will open up and allow you to put them to good use. By all means strip out the old gear least you can use it in your new starship or sell it to get better stuff, but keep the old starships for when you're able to make use of them anew... Pioneering the Future As time goes on you'll have a great many decisions to make as to how your develop your starship, crew and yourself. Such decisions can be difficult, but easily changed if you change your mind about how to broach the game and discover just how you enjoy playing. Such things are typically determined by equipment (as we touched upon earlier) as well as traits, skills, duty and bridge officer abilities we haven't... Don't worry, the game will go over most of these things with you. However, that's not to say the vast array of combining options can't become dizzying for you. Heck, it can still confuse me a fair bit at times...but you'll figure things out in time as I have. If you can sum up what you're after with your ship and crew however, the decisions can become a touch easier. Let me explain how with introducing you all to my starship; the U.S.S. Pioneer...The U.S.S. Pioneer; crew compliment of 150, asynchronous warp drive, quantum phase torpedoes, adaptive shielding and bio-neural circuitry. Believe it or not my first influence came from the bellerophon variant of the long range science vessel, its pure blue bussard and aesthetics...and as pathetic as this may sound, I fell in love with blue beam weapons and torpedoes. What I never saw coming in this aesthetic decision was an incidental anti-shield design concept... You see, tetryon weapons are blue. And the potential perk of a tetryon based weapon is to diminish your opponents shields. As soon as I realized this, I began to want everything I did to drain my opponents shield. After all, without shields my enemies would fall...FAST. It began to work, but soon I wanted more tricks to drain my enemies shields. You see, science ships can't really dish out a great deal of damage compared to escorts or cruisers. But I didn't let that stop me. A select active space duty officer and suddenly my tractor beam bridge officer ability was draining shields too. Needless, to say I didn't stop there. As I learnt more about how things worked and what did what in the game the Pioneer became a heavy shielded anti-shield tank that hit like a borg cube. However, as the seasons (and mission rewards) progressed I found I was not only able to use my anti shield design with phasers, but also take advantage of a firing cycle haste design atop of that... The Pioneer is a constant work in progress...but to think, it all began with a quirky desire regarding aesthetics. You can learn more via my Steam groups apt discussion in great detail if you so wish right here; http://steamcommunity.com/groups/vosorosgames/discussions/0/350533172682854617/ Who knows where your future will take you, but I have faith in you to find your way having read through this guide now. May you enjoy boldly going and live long and prosper... You're NOT Alone If you're happy playing the game alone, that's fine...you need do nothing more than enjoy the game. However, if you want to play with friends, pay attention... After the tutorial is over you can team up with anybody, so long as they accept an invite. How do you do this you may well ask? Simple, make sure you're on the same number map together, the info for which is just above your mini map in the top right corner. If you're not on the same map, warp or transport out somewhere at the same time...that should fix it. Alternatively, you can just click on the instance/map number you're on (top center above your mini map) and it should bring up an option to change your instance number to match up with your friends and/or would be team mates. Now, once on the same number map together, right click the person or their starship and click invite to team. Heck, if you like them enough, right click on them and friend them too. Now here's a thing, if you know somebody and just want to friend them and team up as and when, you can do so without them being about. Simply find the "3 heads" button to the right of your mini map at the top right. The button is 2 above the ? button and directly below the mail button. Now, this opens a tab and in that tab you want to click the friends bit at the top. After that you should see a list of all your friends both on and offline. Here, a button should appear at the bottom right called add friend. Click this and add them with their character name then @ then their username all together. If you've got it right, all is well, they now appear in your friends list and you can team up from here whenever you like too. The game will tell you when they come on and go offline too from now on. Nifty huh? FYI, you can see your game tag/name thingymabob by typing something into the chat window at the bottom left. It should preceed whatever you type in there every time... Once you're in a team you must remember one thing; you need the level match the lowest ranked team member as this determines what level enemies you face in missions together. So, make sure the lowest ranked member of your team level matched and then perhaps designated team leader too. How you may ask? Simple, when you're in a team your team mates are displayed in the top-ish left corner. Scan over the buttons over there and one should allow you to match a character level. You ALL have to do that...just FYI folks. OK, so with that done, make sure you have the same mission active and then boldly go together. Let the lowest level person click through the game text for you mind... Wargames Some folk claim that PvP is dead in this game. They're wrong... Although there are PvP areas, perhaps the best way to challenge another person is in a wargame. Wargames come in both ground and space varieties which is determined by the map you select when you challenge another person or group of people. How do you challenge other people then you may well ask. Simple, right click on a person or their starship and find challenge in the drop down menu. Click that and a challenge/wargame screen opens up that's pretty much self-explainitory. FYI, if you want the change which team you're on, just drag your name into the team you'd like to be on...provided there's an empty slot. The person who initiates the challenge has the option to change the map type, the number of defeats (of the opposing team) needed to win, etc. Keep challenging/inviting folk and make sure the teams are to your liking. And bare in mind this can be a 1 on 1 wargame as much as a group affair. When you and the other folk are ready, it's time to begin... A Picture-Prefect Ending The final joy of playing Star Trek Online is the ability to capture and share profound moments with your friends on Steam. No doubt you know that F12 will allow you to take a screenshot. But if you want to take a more dramatic shot you can pass around and perhaps use as a screensaver or background for your PC, try toggling the HUD off by holding ALT and then pressing F12. Don't worry, this won't take a picture at the same time...just toggle the HUD off...and then on again if you do it once more. You can manoeuvre you ship and fire your weapons (etc) still whilst the HUD is toggled off thus allowing you to set up and create a really dramatic picture of your ship or crew...故障排除 这就像是普通的故障排除，但主角是 Tribble（一种虚拟生物）…… 说真的，部分玩家在某些电脑上运行这款游戏时可能会遇到一些问题。导致这些问题的原因就像那些遇到此类麻烦的人一样难以解释。不过别担心，可以尝试以下 3 个实用的解决方案，它们应该能解决问题。 1) 当启动器打开时，点击顶部的【选项】，勾选【强制验证】，让游戏检查是否缺少任何导致无法运行的文件。 2) 尝试打开【选项】并以【安全模式】启动，这虽然听起来奇怪，但当显卡出现不兼容等问题时，这种方法似乎很有效。 3*) 通过输入命令行【-d3d9】来更改你使用的 DirectX 版本。这是你最后的办法，但令人惊讶的是，这么简单的方法竟然让很多人受益。 遗憾的是，这只能在2017年初的更新之前使用。 如果这个方法也不行，目前我也不知道该如何进一步为你提供建议了。不过，如果我了解到更多信息，我会努力保持本指南的更新…… 此外，图形更新有时会导致船只和角色看起来模糊。幸运的是，这个问题很容易解决：在游戏中按ESC键，然后在选项中进入显示设置，将分辨率缩放滑块一直拉到最右边，使其达到1。 希望这个小提示能帮你消除这些压力和担忧…… 除了让游戏流畅运行外，你可能还想在游戏中进行两项不错的设置更改。首先是开启自动拾取，其次是关闭那些烦人的通知，比如某某人从某种宝箱中获得了高级T6舰船。 开启自动拾取只需按下ESC键，然后选择选项并打开基础标签页。在这里你会找到一个用于切换自动拾取的按钮……这样你的拾取操作就会变得轻松一些。 至于关闭那些烦人的、关于某个你不认识的陌生人从某种宝箱中获得高级T6舰船的游戏内浮动文本通知……这也相当简单。找到小地图右下角的向下箭头，点击它并选择通知设置，然后取消勾选游戏内浮动公告选项，这样你在游戏时就能获得更多宁静。对了，如果你也加入了舰队，可能需要取消勾选舰队【每日消息】（MotD）。希望这些小提示能在你玩游戏时有所帮助。