Post by eladaire on Dec 9, 2013 19:29:08 GMT
So ye folks wanna hear how to make some dilithium? Look no further since I shall tell ye the secrets!
How to do it? Make KDF character and thats about it. What? Not good enough, bah alright then I explain it with more details.
But it all starts with KDF character, roll one, play one minimum to level 11 to open up doff's and thats the starting point of the whole thing. For "optimal" performance you need to do the 2800 featured episode series to unlock the "Facility 4028" chain, just for the sake of the doffs that you can get from there by exchanging the dominion prisoners. For this "guides" sake I will assume you are level 50 and one the Facility 4028 mission and the assignment chain.
WORD OF WARNING FOLLOWS: DO NOT grind dilithium for sake of grinding, if you don't reach the daily cap of 8000 refined? Who gives a damn? It might take a day or two, or a week longer to get something? Don't matter in the longer run, the following WILL aid you to supplement what you get daily, be it 4000, 8000 or 16000 refined or be it 0. Play for fun! Also while doing doffing as KDF WATCH WHAT YOU ARE DOING! You DO NOT want to execute your doffs since it can be pain in the ass to replace them.
Daily missions:
At level 50 you have access to 4 Empire Defense dailies and the Pi Canis Sorties these are really valuable missions, but if you do it right you only need to run these once or twice, of course unless you want to do them but I don't find any need to do them once all is setup.
So the missions follow:
Empire Defense: Borg
Empire Defense: Cardassians
Empire Defense: Romulans
Empire Defense: Federation
Each of these rewards 1400 dilithium once completed, and they require you to do? Well... blow up 6 ships/ship groups three times each. So thats 5600 dilithium from them alone! But as an advice, bring someone with you goes faster since these are boring as hell personally, one or two is fine, but four of them only when I really have to.
Pi Canis Sortie Alpha
Pi Canis Sortie Beta
Pi Canis - Path of the Warrior
These three are tied together, alpha and beta have 30 minutes cool down and rewards 960 dilithium each, BUT! The Pi Canis - Path of the Warrior is daily which rewards 2400 dilithium when completed. So with the Empire Defense ones you have collected 9920 dilithium ore! Not bad I'd say, but don't do these daily despite them being called dailies since there are additional ways which follows.
Contraband
This, this is the whole purpose of being KDF to collect as much as contraband as you need. How do you get this? Easy doffing, doffing and more doffing! Turning in these nets 2000 dilithium ore every 4 hours, sounds long time don't it? But what happens when you set your characters to turn in this before you log off? Exactly, with two characters you already gain 4000 dilithium ore with this. So it is that much less you "need" to gain for that day, and by no means there is a requirement to get the 8000 refined dilithium per day. So what was the mission you needed again
So where exactly you get this really wonderful commodity? Plunder and Pillage! Examples of the doff missions follows:
Raid Starfleet Foundry
Capture Starfleet Ammunition Depot
Disable <race> Freighter
Unauthorized Raid on Illegal <race> Farming Colony
Unauthorized Raid on Andorian Military Outpost
Cripple Vulcan Science Station
And so on I think you get a picture. All of these have a chance to give 1 to 5 contraband, or at times you get 0, happens. But these missions also have "side" effect that I talk soon. And where exactly you get them? Fly around in the sector space from sector block to sector block. The general route I take starts from Omega Leonis (Qo'nos) => Pi Canis => Tau Dewa => Psi Velorum => Alpha Centauri => Regulus => Eta Eridani. And here comes slight diversion for most of you guys and galls, if you aren't Tier 3 Marauder you HAVE to take the route through the Orellius sector to Beta Ursae and to Alpha Trianguli, if you are Tier 3 marauder you can go through Sirius sector to Alpha Trianguli and to Beta Ursae. Essentially start from Qo'nos with dilithium turn in and end in DS9 for the next dilithium turn in and then run the route opposite way.
Also assignments called "Confiscate Contraband from Crew", "Inspect Civilian Freighter", "Strike Against Fugitive Support Network" and "Intimidate Unaligned System" gives out contraband the first three are available to the Federation as well so you might want to do them on that side as well when you see it. There is possibility that "Collect Tribute from Vassal Star System" gives contraband on crit, but that is something I wouldn't rely on. So now you gain contraband, anything from 0 to 50 a day if you bother doffing daily. Which you can then split between your other characters, with some left on your KDF character to turn in, personally I get 300 of them then send the 250 to be shared with other characters and keep always 50 contrabands on the KDF, but you need to find your own "sweet spot" that you are happy with.
But after doing all this has made my brig full what shall I do now? Well this is the side effect I mentioned of these missions, which is positive one. Now repeat after me: Slave Labor! And with that we move on to the next segment!
Prisoners:
So ready to sell people in to slavery? Good good. Now, I know the Security Officer that takes contraband away from your hands has nice little doff mission regarding prisoners, that and the Orion Syndicate offers some good latinum from perfectly healthy slaves... tempting. But DO NOT DO IT!
Instead, hop to your ship and fly to Pi Canis, Eta Eridani or Regulus sector blocks (in reality you will go all three) and look for "Forced Labor Requisition on <system>" assignments, either under the "main assignments" screen AND under the military in Department Heads. NOTE! Department heads CAN have this assignment if the main section don't show it.
So 4 prisoners in exchange of 500 dilithium? DEAL! You can have up to 5 of these running at the same time so 2500 dilithium if they don't fail, can happen once in a while but hey you are getting dilithium without any significant effort... also as a bonus, if the assignment crits (don't count for this) it is 1500 dilithium each. So potential? 7500 dilithium ore... Just don't count on this since one day you can get everything crit and one day everything fails badly. Also I should note that there is some labor camp missions in the exploration clusters that gives some dilithium out, don't bother with them unless you really have to. And as soon as you can get rid of these prisoners your brig has been filled from all the raiding you have done in the mean while.
And prisoners leads me to yet another thing...
Colonists
Somewhat ironically this "Federation" mechanic is more useful for the KDF then it is for Feds. Every time you see the "Resettle Colonists" and "Deport Colonists to Imperial Borders" DO IT, no questions asked, just do it, minimum of 500 dilithium from each deportation!
So what we got up to now? Just by doffing, assuming that we have had three labor camps that didn't fail or crit and had the colonists deported and turned in contraband, thats just without crits 4000 dilithium in for 15 minutes, 20 if I'm lazy, of setting doffs alone for one character, and if any of the labor camps or the colonists critted? Thats 5000+ dilithium from doffing once a day with one KDF character. Sure, it can go all to hell and you only get 2000 dilithium out of it (turning the contraband in cant fail if you use any blue+ quality doff without negative traits) that happens, have happened to me. But in other end of the spectrum? The stars aligned and gotten 8000+ dilithium from it.
But there is no labor camps, no marauding or colonists to do anymore got all that there was in the Alpha Quadrant!
Eh, fill the remaining slots with what ever you wish, I prefer filling the slots not used in marauding and labor camps with likes of the EVA suit training, Riot Control Exercise and others like them not that picky of them just keeping the doffs at work and hey, that 5 dilithium you get adds up, it can crit and come 125 so it piles up.
So sort of summary
Contraband, pile it up and spread it among your characters! But remember keep up some on your KDF toon so you can keep turning it in on that one as well. Prisoners? Send to forced labor, if you have too many, store them temporarily in to your mail. Colonists? Don't let them take advantage of your ships quarters! Kick them out as soon as you can! The Dailies? They are alright but not needed if you don't really want to do them.
But I'm loyal Starfleet officer I just can't associate myself with the KDF!
Well then you are doing it the hard way I'm afraid, while Feds do get some contraband they lack the raw volume of it to keep up with the "need" of it, also they don't really have anything useful to do with their prisoners. So that only leaves colonists via doffing and yeah it isn't THAT great amount alone.
So Fed options are mostly getting it via STF's, fleet actions and the like. And of course right now via Dyson Sphere ground battlezone which is sort of awesome for the dilithium but eventually it comes harder since people moves on when they have gotten what they need, or perhaps not need to see when Season 9 hits.
Then there is the dailies which give them out... So yes, federation characters have actually play the game if they want dilithium.
Also then there is the extra reputation marks that can be turned in to dilithium, but that isn't something you dear read will not do at that soon. So as a recommendation roll a KDF alt and just level it to 11 to open up the doffs and start raiding!
Hopefully this is somewhat helpful for you in your quest to get dilithium!
How to do it? Make KDF character and thats about it. What? Not good enough, bah alright then I explain it with more details.
But it all starts with KDF character, roll one, play one minimum to level 11 to open up doff's and thats the starting point of the whole thing. For "optimal" performance you need to do the 2800 featured episode series to unlock the "Facility 4028" chain, just for the sake of the doffs that you can get from there by exchanging the dominion prisoners. For this "guides" sake I will assume you are level 50 and one the Facility 4028 mission and the assignment chain.
WORD OF WARNING FOLLOWS: DO NOT grind dilithium for sake of grinding, if you don't reach the daily cap of 8000 refined? Who gives a damn? It might take a day or two, or a week longer to get something? Don't matter in the longer run, the following WILL aid you to supplement what you get daily, be it 4000, 8000 or 16000 refined or be it 0. Play for fun! Also while doing doffing as KDF WATCH WHAT YOU ARE DOING! You DO NOT want to execute your doffs since it can be pain in the ass to replace them.
Daily missions:
At level 50 you have access to 4 Empire Defense dailies and the Pi Canis Sorties these are really valuable missions, but if you do it right you only need to run these once or twice, of course unless you want to do them but I don't find any need to do them once all is setup.
So the missions follow:
Empire Defense: Borg
Empire Defense: Cardassians
Empire Defense: Romulans
Empire Defense: Federation
Each of these rewards 1400 dilithium once completed, and they require you to do? Well... blow up 6 ships/ship groups three times each. So thats 5600 dilithium from them alone! But as an advice, bring someone with you goes faster since these are boring as hell personally, one or two is fine, but four of them only when I really have to.
Pi Canis Sortie Alpha
Pi Canis Sortie Beta
Pi Canis - Path of the Warrior
These three are tied together, alpha and beta have 30 minutes cool down and rewards 960 dilithium each, BUT! The Pi Canis - Path of the Warrior is daily which rewards 2400 dilithium when completed. So with the Empire Defense ones you have collected 9920 dilithium ore! Not bad I'd say, but don't do these daily despite them being called dailies since there are additional ways which follows.
Contraband
This, this is the whole purpose of being KDF to collect as much as contraband as you need. How do you get this? Easy doffing, doffing and more doffing! Turning in these nets 2000 dilithium ore every 4 hours, sounds long time don't it? But what happens when you set your characters to turn in this before you log off? Exactly, with two characters you already gain 4000 dilithium ore with this. So it is that much less you "need" to gain for that day, and by no means there is a requirement to get the 8000 refined dilithium per day. So what was the mission you needed again
So where exactly you get this really wonderful commodity? Plunder and Pillage! Examples of the doff missions follows:
Raid Starfleet Foundry
Capture Starfleet Ammunition Depot
Disable <race> Freighter
Unauthorized Raid on Illegal <race> Farming Colony
Unauthorized Raid on Andorian Military Outpost
Cripple Vulcan Science Station
And so on I think you get a picture. All of these have a chance to give 1 to 5 contraband, or at times you get 0, happens. But these missions also have "side" effect that I talk soon. And where exactly you get them? Fly around in the sector space from sector block to sector block. The general route I take starts from Omega Leonis (Qo'nos) => Pi Canis => Tau Dewa => Psi Velorum => Alpha Centauri => Regulus => Eta Eridani. And here comes slight diversion for most of you guys and galls, if you aren't Tier 3 Marauder you HAVE to take the route through the Orellius sector to Beta Ursae and to Alpha Trianguli, if you are Tier 3 marauder you can go through Sirius sector to Alpha Trianguli and to Beta Ursae. Essentially start from Qo'nos with dilithium turn in and end in DS9 for the next dilithium turn in and then run the route opposite way.
Also assignments called "Confiscate Contraband from Crew", "Inspect Civilian Freighter", "Strike Against Fugitive Support Network" and "Intimidate Unaligned System" gives out contraband the first three are available to the Federation as well so you might want to do them on that side as well when you see it. There is possibility that "Collect Tribute from Vassal Star System" gives contraband on crit, but that is something I wouldn't rely on. So now you gain contraband, anything from 0 to 50 a day if you bother doffing daily. Which you can then split between your other characters, with some left on your KDF character to turn in, personally I get 300 of them then send the 250 to be shared with other characters and keep always 50 contrabands on the KDF, but you need to find your own "sweet spot" that you are happy with.
But after doing all this has made my brig full what shall I do now? Well this is the side effect I mentioned of these missions, which is positive one. Now repeat after me: Slave Labor! And with that we move on to the next segment!
Prisoners:
So ready to sell people in to slavery? Good good. Now, I know the Security Officer that takes contraband away from your hands has nice little doff mission regarding prisoners, that and the Orion Syndicate offers some good latinum from perfectly healthy slaves... tempting. But DO NOT DO IT!
Instead, hop to your ship and fly to Pi Canis, Eta Eridani or Regulus sector blocks (in reality you will go all three) and look for "Forced Labor Requisition on <system>" assignments, either under the "main assignments" screen AND under the military in Department Heads. NOTE! Department heads CAN have this assignment if the main section don't show it.
So 4 prisoners in exchange of 500 dilithium? DEAL! You can have up to 5 of these running at the same time so 2500 dilithium if they don't fail, can happen once in a while but hey you are getting dilithium without any significant effort... also as a bonus, if the assignment crits (don't count for this) it is 1500 dilithium each. So potential? 7500 dilithium ore... Just don't count on this since one day you can get everything crit and one day everything fails badly. Also I should note that there is some labor camp missions in the exploration clusters that gives some dilithium out, don't bother with them unless you really have to. And as soon as you can get rid of these prisoners your brig has been filled from all the raiding you have done in the mean while.
And prisoners leads me to yet another thing...
Colonists
Somewhat ironically this "Federation" mechanic is more useful for the KDF then it is for Feds. Every time you see the "Resettle Colonists" and "Deport Colonists to Imperial Borders" DO IT, no questions asked, just do it, minimum of 500 dilithium from each deportation!
So what we got up to now? Just by doffing, assuming that we have had three labor camps that didn't fail or crit and had the colonists deported and turned in contraband, thats just without crits 4000 dilithium in for 15 minutes, 20 if I'm lazy, of setting doffs alone for one character, and if any of the labor camps or the colonists critted? Thats 5000+ dilithium from doffing once a day with one KDF character. Sure, it can go all to hell and you only get 2000 dilithium out of it (turning the contraband in cant fail if you use any blue+ quality doff without negative traits) that happens, have happened to me. But in other end of the spectrum? The stars aligned and gotten 8000+ dilithium from it.
But there is no labor camps, no marauding or colonists to do anymore got all that there was in the Alpha Quadrant!
Eh, fill the remaining slots with what ever you wish, I prefer filling the slots not used in marauding and labor camps with likes of the EVA suit training, Riot Control Exercise and others like them not that picky of them just keeping the doffs at work and hey, that 5 dilithium you get adds up, it can crit and come 125 so it piles up.
So sort of summary
Contraband, pile it up and spread it among your characters! But remember keep up some on your KDF toon so you can keep turning it in on that one as well. Prisoners? Send to forced labor, if you have too many, store them temporarily in to your mail. Colonists? Don't let them take advantage of your ships quarters! Kick them out as soon as you can! The Dailies? They are alright but not needed if you don't really want to do them.
But I'm loyal Starfleet officer I just can't associate myself with the KDF!
Well then you are doing it the hard way I'm afraid, while Feds do get some contraband they lack the raw volume of it to keep up with the "need" of it, also they don't really have anything useful to do with their prisoners. So that only leaves colonists via doffing and yeah it isn't THAT great amount alone.
So Fed options are mostly getting it via STF's, fleet actions and the like. And of course right now via Dyson Sphere ground battlezone which is sort of awesome for the dilithium but eventually it comes harder since people moves on when they have gotten what they need, or perhaps not need to see when Season 9 hits.
Then there is the dailies which give them out... So yes, federation characters have actually play the game if they want dilithium.
Also then there is the extra reputation marks that can be turned in to dilithium, but that isn't something you dear read will not do at that soon. So as a recommendation roll a KDF alt and just level it to 11 to open up the doffs and start raiding!
Hopefully this is somewhat helpful for you in your quest to get dilithium!