STO Guidance for New Player

[Balok's Decoy]

I just got Star Trek Online for XBox One and while I have a lot of experience with video games, I don't have much with MMORPGs. So I'm still figuring out basic gameplay mechanics.

Specifically I'm wondering if there's a way to upgrade the basic stats of a starship to make it competitive even as you reach higher levels. I recently purchased the NX-01 replica, and I'd like to use it during missions and battles. But I found last night that now that I've reached Level 20, the NX-01 is just way too underpowered to be effective in mission combat, even if I give it the most advanced shields and weaponry items I've found. After I was blown up a few times, I relented and went back to the ship the game gave me at Level 10 -- the upgraded Constitution class. It's a fine ship, but I'm on an ENT kick right now and want to use the NX. Is there any way besides equipping new shields to make the ship you want to use competitive? Or do you have to use the higher tier ships they give you as you level up?

My second question is more general. I feel like while I am competent enough to play the game, I still lack a fundamental understanding of the mechanics and how to make my player and ship more advantageous. I'm looking for some kind of guide or in-depth overview of the game and various strategies, so that I can deepen my understanding and don't have to learn so much through sheer trial and error. Unless that's how you're supposed to learn to play this game, in which case I'll keep doing what I'm doing.

Do you guys have any recommendations for guides or detailed explanations of the game and its mechanics, items, upgrades, combat strategies, etc? Whether it's online or print, I'd be interested.

Thanks!

EDIT: Also, probably a dumb question, but are you supposed to move that slowly in space combat? Am I doing something wrong? Does your ship move faster as you level up?

 

[ItIsGreen]

Have you been using your 'space points' to upgrade your hull and shields? That will help to a point, as will engineering consoles that give you some sort of armour bonus or boost to your hull, but ultimately the ships are tiered and the ones you unlock as you play will get progressively stronger, meaning eventually you'll 'outgrow' your older ships.

You can increase your speed by equipping better impulse engines, but the space combat does generally feel a bit slow. It helps if you pick a ship with good turning speed.

 

[intrinsical]

do you have to use the higher tier ships they give you as you level up?

EDIT: Also, probably a dumb question, but are you supposed to move that slowly in space combat? Am I doing something wrong? Does your ship move faster as you level up?

Short answer is yes, you have to upgrade.

Think of your ship as a piece of gear. As you level up, you want to get better gear so you can be more powerful. As you level up, the starter ships won't cut it as they only have 3 weapons and as you have noticed, are very slow and turn like a snail.

The good news is there are high tier versions of the NX-01 that you can upgrade to, such as the Tier 3 Akira Heavy Escort, Tier 5 Armitage Heavy Escort Carrier and the Tier 6 Alita Heavy Escort Carrier. They won't look exactly like the NX-01, but they do have the same general shape. Since you're level 20, you can get the Akira for free.

My second question is more general. I feel like while I am competent enough to play the game, I still lack a fundamental understanding of the mechanics and how to make my player and ship more advantageous. I'm looking for some kind of guide or in-depth overview of the game and various strategies, so that I can deepen my understanding and don't have to learn so much through sheer trial and error. Unless that's how you're supposed to learn to play this game, in which case I'll keep doing what I'm doing.

There isn't a guide as far as I know, but feel free to ask here as we have many veteran players who can answer any questions you have. If you're looking for information, the STO Wiki is the place to go.

 

[intrinsical]

In terms of a general ship build that's beginner friendly, here's my extremely basic guide.

Pay attention to each weapon's firing arc.

Many new players make the mistake of using only forward weapons and neglecting aft weapons, halving the damage potential of the ship. So make sure both forward and aft weapons are firing. The easiest way to achieve this is to broadside with Beam Arrays. Beam Arrays have a 250 degree firing arc, so when your ship's left or right side is facing the target, both fore and aft beams can fire on it.

Another approach is to equip forward facing weapons (cannons, dual beam banks and torpedos) and have turrets as aft weapons. As long as you are pointing your ship at the target, all weapons can fire. Typically, this configuration only works with ships that have a high turn rate. So it's limited to escorts and maybe a small number of science vessels.

Energy Weapons. Stick to one energy weapon type. So if you like phasers, make sure every weapon (except torpedos) is a phaser weapon and you slot Phaser Relay Consoles in your ship's tactical console slots. If you like polaron energy type, make sure every weapon is a polaron weapon and have polaron phase modulator tactical consoles.

Kinetic Weapons. Also called torpedoes. Unless you know what you are doing, only use 1 torpedo on your ship, and it should be either a photon torpedo or a quantum torpedo.

 

[intrinsical]

Finally, I found a video that teaches the basics. Its 2 years old, so some stuff are no longer relevant but for the most part it is a good guide.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Balok's Decoy]

In terms of a general ship build that's beginner friendly, here's my extremely basic guide.

Pay attention to each weapon's firing arc.

Many new players make the mistake of using only forward weapons and neglecting aft weapons, halving the damage potential of the ship. So make sure both forward and aft weapons are firing. The easiest way to achieve this is to broadside with Beam Arrays. Beam Arrays have a 250 degree firing arc, so when your ship's left or right side is facing the target, both fore and aft beams can fire on it.

Another approach is to equip forward facing weapons (cannons, dual beam banks and torpedos) and have turrets as aft weapons. As long as you are pointing your ship at the target, all weapons can fire. Typically, this configuration only works with ships that have a high turn rate. So it's limited to escorts and maybe a small number of science vessels.

Energy Weapons. Stick to one energy weapon type. So if you like phasers, make sure every weapon (except torpedos) is a phaser weapon and you slot Phaser Relay Consoles in your ship's tactical console slots. If you like polaron energy type, make sure every weapon is a polaron weapon and have polaron phase modulator tactical consoles.

Kinetic Weapons. Also called torpedoes. Unless you know what you are doing, only use 1 torpedo on your ship, and it should be either a photon torpedo or a quantum torpedo.

Thank you, all of your comments are very helpful. This is the kind of thing I'm looking for. I'll probably have more questions as I progress, so I'll check back on this sub-forum and pose those for myself as well as other new players. Need to do some tinkering with my builds now.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

When you really know what you are doing and know the intricacies of the ganeplay mechanics to keep the NX competitive enough to deal with most things the game throws at you.
But to make that work you really have to equip the absolutely best gear available to you.
That is a hell if a lot easier if you can draw resources from veteran characters as your first one will have resource deficiencies until much later in the game. Basically you have to make do with what you find.

I made an entire playthrough once with a T1 constitution class ship, just to see if it it possible.
There usually was a difficulty spike at the end of each rank because the enemues become geadually more powerful while you only upgrade gear every ten levels.
Skill points alone are not enough to compensate.
A lot of battles still took a lot if time and patience because even upgrades leave you with only your basic hull strength and a 2-3 weapons.
Shield bleedthrough would be your T1's greatest enemy as a portion of damage always bypasses your shields and even a simple plasma burn proc from any Plasma based weaponry can kill you.
So if you really want to try this then use resilient shields and hull armor in your engineering slot to maximize damage resistance against energy and kinetic damage. I think neutronium plating is the one you want.
And you will still explode a lot of times, no matter what you equip. Any critical hit can be the wnd of your ship.

But this us really advanced play to handicap yourself like that, so better use at least the free ship upgrades you can get at each rank.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

When you really know what you are doing and know the intricacies of the ganeplay mechanics to keep the NX competitive enough to deal with most things the game throws at you.
But to make that work you really have to equip the absolutely best gear available to you.
That is a hell if a lot easier if you can draw resources from veteran characters as your first one will have resource deficiencies until much later in the game. Basically you have to make do with what you find.

I made an entire playthrough once with a T1 constitution class ship, just to see if it it possible.
There usually was a difficulty spike at the end of each rank because the enemues become geadually more powerful while you only upgrade gear every ten levels.
Skill points alone are not enough to compensate.
A lot of battles still took a lot if time and patience because even upgrades leave you with only your basic hull strength and a 2-3 weapons.
Shield bleedthrough would be your T1's greatest enemy as a portion of damage always bypasses your shields and even a simple plasma burn proc from any Plasma based weaponry can kill you.
So if you really want to try this then use resilient shields and hull armor in your engineering slot to maximize damage resistance against energy and kinetic damage. I think neutronium plating is the one you want.
And you will still explode a lot of times, no matter what you equip. Any critical hit can be the wnd of your ship.

But this us really advanced play to handicap yourself like that, so better use at least the free ship upgrades you can get at each rank.

Yeah it sounds like until I've progressed pretty far in the game and have a lot of advanced upgrades, it'll be more trouble than it's worth to try to make the NX work right now. Bummer.

 

[intrinsical]

Just bear in mind that TImelord's even more of a veteran than I am, so he's very experienced and knowledgeable at building ships.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

And one thing, wehen you make a low tier ship viable for most single player content, make sure you don't enter any team queues with it accidentally.
It is pretty frowned upon and you become a liability for the rest of the team.
Even in queues that are open to low level players you might get some... erm...looks.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

And one thing, wehen you make a low tier ship viable for most single player content, make sure you don't enter any team queues with it accidentally.
It is pretty frowned upon and you become a liability for the rest of the team.
Even in queues that are open to low level players you might get some... erm...looks.

Ha, well, I certainly wouldn't do that! If other people are relying on me, I'd probably pick a tank just to be safe.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Ha. That's better but if you really want to contribute bring the biggest DPS ship you have.
Damage is all queues are about.
There are obly a few missions where a pure tank is if any use.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

Ha. That's better but if you really want to contribute bring the biggest DPS ship you have.
Damage is all queues are about.
There are obly a few missions where a pure tank is if any use.

I think I'm a long way from attempting to play cooperatively, especially with people I don't know. Once I have a better handle on the game mechanics and become adept at combat and builds, then I'll try to join in. I've still got my training wheels on.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

So I'm at level 32 or so now, and I'm having an extremely difficult time fighting Romulan ships. I can't find any way to counter their tractor beams that hold me in one position, or whatever those slow-moving green orbs of energy are that deal humongous damage and are almost impossible to avoid. What strategy am I not employing here? I'm using an Intrepid class ship in the proper tier, the ship is outfitted with great weaponry and shields etc, and I'm pretty good about changing positions to even out damage around my shields/hull (when I'm not trapped in one position anyway). Really confused why the difficulty spike is so extreme in a lot of Romulan ship encounters. Am I missing something? It's almost like the game wants you to play Tactical and use tanks or something.

@Timelord Victorious -- interested to hear any tips you may have. Many thanks.

 

[ItIsGreen]

So I'm at level 32 or so now, and I'm having an extremely difficult time fighting Romulan ships. I can't find any way to counter their tractor beams that hold me in one position, or whatever those slow-moving green orbs of energy are that deal humongous damage and are almost impossible to avoid. What strategy am I not employing here? I'm using an Intrepid class ship in the proper tier, the ship is outfitted with great weaponry and shields etc, and I'm pretty good about changing positions to even out damage around my shields/hull (when I'm not trapped in one position anyway). Really confused why the difficulty spike is so extreme in a lot of Romulan ship encounters. Am I missing something? It's almost like the game wants you to play Tactical and use tanks or something.

@Timelord Victorious -- interested to hear any tips you may have. Many thanks.

The Romulan ships gave me difficulty too - I was using a Galaxy at the time. A couple of things I found that helped were building resistance to control effects using upgrade points, as well as upgrading any consoles I had that gave any control resistance buffs, as well as using the Space Pirates summon which brings in 3 pirate ships to assist for 30 seconds or so - usually long enough to gain the upper hand. The plasma torpedoes can be targeted and shot down before they reach you as they are pretty slow moving.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

So I'm at level 32 or so now, and I'm having an extremely difficult time fighting Romulan ships. I can't find any way to counter their tractor beams that hold me in one position, or whatever those slow-moving green orbs of energy are that deal humongous damage and are almost impossible to avoid. What strategy am I not employing here? I'm using an Intrepid class ship in the proper tier, the ship is outfitted with great weaponry and shields etc, and I'm pretty good about changing positions to even out damage around my shields/hull (when I'm not trapped in one position anyway). Really confused why the difficulty spike is so extreme in a lot of Romulan ship encounters. Am I missing something? It's almost like the game wants you to play Tactical and use tanks or something.

@Timelord Victorious -- interested to hear any tips you may have. Many thanks.

Keep your distance.
Tractir beams gabe a range of 5km.
If you get trapped regardless, try to orient yourself away from the warbird and hit evasive.
When a heavy plasma torpedo comes at you destroy it.
They are targetable. Difficult to hit with normal weapons but any AoE ability should make short work of them.
Also you fly an intrepid.
So use Target Aux to shut down any science abilities like tractor beam.
Hard counters to tractor beams are Pattern Omega and Polarize Hulk.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

So use Target Aux to shut down any science abilities like tractor beam.
Hard counters to tractor beams are Pattern Omega and Polarize Hulk.

Oh of course -- I need to think more like a science officer! Can't believe that shutting it down didn't occur to me. Thank you!

I've started to shoot the heavy plasma torpedoes but sometimes the targeting isn't...perfect. I'm working on that.

Thanks @Timelord Victorious and @Neelix's Feet for your suggestions. I'm going to try these strategies and hopefully win some more battles the first time.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

Hello again! Hoping I can pick your guys' brains once more. All of your suggestions from my previous question have worked beautifully. I'm having a much easier time operating my science vessel -- I'm effectively using Target Aux to shut down shields, weapons, etc, polarizing hull, and other science-based tactics to balance my battles. I haven't been having too many combat issues or difficulty spikes since I upped my strategy. Thanks!

So now I'm level 50, and it appears I won't be receiving "gift" ships from leveling from now on. I'm currently using a T5 Recon Science Vessel and it's been very effective. However, I want to plan for the future, and since I won't be receiving any new ships for free, I'm wondering what science vessels you guys recommend and enjoy using at the higher levels of the game? I am not opposed to investing money (real or otherwise) into a ship but I want to pick something I can use long-term. Is a T6 ship an absolute necessity or are T5 ships still competitive in end-game? What do you think are some good science vessels you recommend investing in?

Right now I have my eye on the Pathfinder, the Odyssey Science Cruiser, and the Scryer Intel Science Vessel.

Thank you again!

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Of those the Pathfinder is my favorite.
It is one of the purest science vessels out there.
You will never win conventional DPS battles in it, but it is a beast in controlling enemies and just messing up whatever they got up their sleeves.
Odyssey is not really a science ship, it still is a cruiser first and plays completely different wven if it has some science traits.
Never was a fan of the intel ships mostly for aesthetical reasons.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

Awesome! Definitely sounds like Pathfinder is the one -- I was leaning towards that. The Scryer interested me because it has a cloaking device.

Doesn't look like science vessels get much better than Pathfinder, unless I join a fleet. Many thanks!