--BOTSE--

Special gear requirements: No

Can this fail: Yup!

Where does it fail: Not disabling the Iconian devices in time, not saving the Orion Syndicate contact.

But is it hard: Not really, but a little harder than the previous 4 missions.

1. You start at First City near the Great Hall. There are 4 areas where you need to do 4 things in each area (16 things total):

a) Clear all the Heralds (i.e. kill everything)

b) Complete required objectives, specific to that area

c) Disable the Iconian device in the middle of the area to show 2 other Iconian devices that were invisible

d) Disable those 2 other devices. 2 people need to do this because they will reset if they're not simultaneously disabled.

If they reset, repeat c and d as much as possible. You don't need to kill all the Heralds in order to disable the devices; the Heralds will disappear once the devices are disabled.

3. For the specific objectives, here they are in order of area:

a) None in the first area near the Great Hall

b) At Fire Lake, run down the *left* side of the lake and kill the Heralds there. That's one required objective.

At the end of the lake (at the door that goes to the exchange normally), there will be some people hanging out. Interact with them. Right in between them and the Iconian device, a group of Heralds will spawn. Kill them. That's the other objective.

c) At the Forge of First City, you have to release the targs. Someone should jump in with the targs (on the right) and go to the door that's shining and interact with it.

The other requirement is the hard one. At the south end of the area, behind the Iconian device, there's an Orion male. Talk to him. He will follow you. Lead him to the slums of First City (to the west, across from the Lake of Fire, up a ramp). Go fast and he'll escape and the objective is done. Do *not* use the Iconian device before the Orion has escaped (and the objective is checked off in green).

d) No special objective in the arena.

4) Go back to the first area in front of the Great Hall. There are some Heralds, kill them. Then kill the boss, the Harbinger of M'Tara.

It's over!

--BHE--

Special gear requirements: No, but the TR-116b isn't good here. Split beams, pulsewaves, or the shotgun work better. Also, get some resistance to Toxic damage, through the Peak Health trait, your innate racial trait, or some armor. If your team is decent, then any more than 1 or 2 sources of toxic resist is overkill.

Can this fail: Yup!

Where does it fail: Not killing the alarm bugs.

But is it hard: Not at all. Annoying? Yes. Long-ish? Yeah. But actually hard if you have decent gear? No.

1. You start out having to listen to some dude. Click the narration boxes to shut him up.

2. The invisible door opens! Start running. You'll see a purple bug and that's one of the 3 alarm bugs you have to kill fast to keep from failing.

3. I'm not going to describe the entire map because it's really self-explanatory: run some, kill a bunch of bugs, run some more or drop into a hole, then kill some more bugs. Instead I'll give some bug-killing tips:

a) AOE attacks work great, so use them often. Chroniton mines, quantum mortars, grenades, exo/endothermic induction field, orbital strike, concussive tetryon emission....

b) Don't crouch. Keep walking while aiming because the toxic balls will leave a hazard that you have to move out of. Also, the bugs also deal physical damage which crouch only worsens.

c) If you're tactical, the best thing you can do is use Tactical Initiative often so everyone can keep accessing their AOE abilities.

4. You're now at the end. Attack the queen. Use everything. Respawn and jump back in until she's dead.

It's over!

--UIE--

Special gear requirements: No.

Can this fail: Yes!

Where does it fail: The first part, with the questioning of the Bajorans

But is it hard: Good God no. Well, not with premade teams. In PUGs, some people have problems with the questioning.

1. You're in a room, waiting. Set your weapon to stun and change into a nice outfit. You're in a fashionable city! Door opens. One engineering captain should run to the temple and set up a Cover Shield to block the door.

2. You have to talk to 10 Bajorans and figure out which are the Undine imposters. There are 2 clues next to each Bajoran that you should read first. You then ask the Bajoran questions and they will lie about both questions if they're Undine. (For example, they might say they don't like Jumja when there is a picture of them eating a Jumja stick.)

If they lie, quarantine them. If they tell the truth, let them go. Be careful! One wrong choice and the mission fails. Take your time and if you don't know, ask someone else to do that one.

3. At the same time, a special objective will pop up. Either there are fires or the Undine are trying to get the orb.

If there are fires, get a fire suppression device from one of the yellow circles on your map and put out the fires at the red circles. This part is annoying because you have to equip the device and then put it in your power tray... but it's not so bad, seriously quit your whining.

If it's the Undine with the orb, everyone should run to the temple and start killing Undine. This is why an engineer needed to set up a Cover Shield - the Undine can be held off for a little while to give people time to show up.

Don't finish the interrogations before the Undine have all been killed because it can cause the mission to bug.

4. Once all 10 Bajorans have been dealt with, go to the pond to confront the Undine agitator. Kill him! Run after him! 3 times! He'll then go in a door and you have to follow him.

5. You're now in some caves. Kill undine! Run forward and kill some more!

6. At the end of the cave you'll have to scan the caves (press F). Then you can jump in a hole!

7. Kill the Undine leader. Halfway through killing it, it'll be un-attack-able and you'll have to kill some other Undine. Then you can kill it again.

It's over!

--DRSE--

Special gear requirements: TR-116B. Not absolutely necessary, but it really helps

Can this fail: Yup!

Where does it fail: The second phase, when you have to save engineers. There's a timer and it goes quickly.

But is it hard: Heavens to Betsy no. But phase 2 can fall apart if no one knows where they're going.

1. You start in the basement and wait for no reason. The lights go out and you can climb the ladder. You have no mini-map, but who cares, all you have to do is destroy 6 Elachi devices. Spread out! Ignore the Elachi as much as possible! This can be really fast if everyone focuses on the devices.

2. You're back in the basement again. Go up the ladder. Here is the hard phase, where you have to rescue 6 engineers. Each engineer is being held by a group of Elachi. You have to kill the Elachi first to save the engineer. Even if the Elachi wandered off, you cannot save the engineer until the enemies associated with that engineer are dead.

Right as you get up the ladder, go through the big door to your right to the Singularity Core. There are 2 engineers in this room, one on the right and one on the left. Kill all the Elachi and run up to the engineers to save them.

Now is the tricky part. You don't have a minimap, but the entire complex is like a giant circle with 3 rays going into the middle (the room at the top of the ladder). You cannot run around the circle fast enough to save the engineers.

So half the team has to go through the door at the right of the Singularity Core and the other half has to go left (OK, it's a 3/2 split). You will be in a long hall with another engineer and some Elachi, so free that engineer.

Then go through the door behind the engineer and at the far end of that big room is another engineer to save. Kill Elachi, save engineer.

If all went well, the other team did the same and you've moved on to phase 3. If not, keep on running through that last room to the other door (not the one you came from). You will cross a hall and through another doorway to another room that's the mirror image of the room where you saved the last engineer. Run through that room and save that engineer, and through the other door to the hallway in case the other team really wasn't doing their job.

3. You're back in the basement. Go up the ladder, turn right to go to the Singularity Core. Kill everything. Run up to the Core itself and use the console.

It's over!

--NTTE--

Special gear requirements: EV suit

Can this fail: Yes

Where does it fail: There are 5 phases, each with a timer of 60 to 120 seconds. Kill things fast! Or you will fail!

But is it hard: No! Just kill things fast.

1. Run up to the console. Set up Chroniton Mines and fabrications and put "r" in the team chat channel. When everyone is ready, someone should start the mission by using the console.

2. Attack the Tholian Project Leader! Give it everything you've got!

3. The Project Leader left! Now destroy the things that appeared, focusing on the transdimensional portals.

4. Everything is destroyed! Now the Project Leader is back (exactly where it left) and you have to kill it again! Die, spider alien! Or... extraterrestrial arachnid! Whichever you prefer!

5. The Project Leader left again! Destroy stuff again!

6. The Project Leader is back! Don't use Concussive Tachyon Emission (T5 Delta ability) or your teammates will yell at you! Don't worry about the other enemies! Kill the spider for real this time! Get a paper towel to clean that dead spider up!

It's over!

Here are walkthrus for the ground farming missions:

1. NTTE

2. DRSE

3. UIE

4. BHE

5. BOTSE

6. NSDTE

7. Defera

8. Voth BZ

It helps to have played the normal version of these queues before reading these walkthrus so that you have an idea of what the maps look like.

There are also parts 1 (Basics) and 2 (Gear).

--Top 10 non-kit, non-weapon abilities on the ground--

Here are my favorite abilities in the game that aren't from kit modules or weapons. I use these as often as I can because they're awesome!

10. Precision Offensive (Intelligence Specialization) - This provides a large bonus to armor and shield penetration for the whole team. Not everyone has finished their Intelligence Specialization so there's little chance of overlapping with teammates.

9. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (innate) - This is a big difference between ground and space - on ground, you can save your teammates the time of waiting to respawn and come back to the action.

8. Target Optics (tactical captains) - Buffs damage, crit chance, crit severity, and perception. With the DOFF Fova Gedel, it also reduces your target's damage resistance. Most importantly, it gives you a cute visor for the duration of the ability (bonus cuteness for Caitians, Ferasans, and Gorn).

7. Security Escort (tactical captains) - Beam down buddies to kill things for you! Security DOFFs give you a chance to get more escorts and you can equip 3 of those DOFFs. Because of the game mechanics, having 3 of those DOFFs does not triple your chance to get extra security escorts but triples the number of escorts you get when you do get bonus escorts. So 3 purple Security DOFFs means you get a 35% chance at an army of security escorts.

6. Tricorder Scan (science captains) - A big armor penetration bonus that affects multiple enemies and has a short cooldown. The way damage is calculated in STO, small damage resistance debuffs can have a larger effect than large bonuses to damage.

5. Large hypospray (item drops and vendors at various stations) - These things have saved me so many times. Don't be afraid to use consumables in STO; 100 of these costs very little and lasts a long time.

4. Gambling Device (Ferengi lockbox/exchange) - 10% bonuses to CritH and CritD (and a dodge bonus) make this by far the best tribble-esque device in the game.

3. Concussive Tachyon Emission (Delta reputation T5 active ability) - A seriously over-powered skill that does kinetic damage to all the enemies around you. With the right buffs, I've seen it do damage in the 1000's range and wipe out fields of enemies. It does heal the shields of large enemies so don't use it on the Tholian Project Leader in NTTE or the giant dinos in the Voth BZ.

2. Tactical Initiative (tactical captains) - Greatly reduces recharge time on kit and captain abilities for everyone on the team. This is one of my favorite abilities because it basically gives your team extra copies of all the other abilities. With 3 or 4 tactical captains on a team chaining this ability, everyone can use their kit and captain abilities almost constantly.

1. Orbital Strike (engineering captains) - The Orbital Devastation trait from the Profession-specific genetic resequencer makes it follow enemies around. It also makes you wonder why you're doing ground combat at all when your ship could just blow everything up for you.

--Science kit modules--

Science captains have fewer options for damage output but more defensive and healing modules. Dathan the Vorta Biochemist DOFF (reward from the Facility 4028 episode) adds a damage resistance debuff to kit abilities.

I have a Science toon that I do a lot of ground combat with. He can't do the damage that my Tacticals and Engineers can, but he does more than what's needed to get through Elite ground content.

-Medical Tricorder - Heal with a few defensive buffs. A high enough mark/rarity can entirely heal your character. With a 10-second cooldown, this is a really nice heal to keep on tapping.

-Vascular Generator - Heal over time, clears debuffs, and has a bonus to damage resistance. Its heal is comparable to Medical Tricorder's (of a similar mark/rarity) but spread out over 10 seconds. It's like Hazard Emitters on the ground. 20-second cooldown.

-Nanite Medical Monitor - If your health drops below 75%, it heals you and gives you a damage resistance buff. It has 3 charges.

-Vaadwaur Shield Drone - Follows you around and reduces incoming damage by 90% for up to 30 seconds. It can be targeted by enemies.

-Exo/Endothermic Induction Field - AOE attack that produces a hazard that generates more damage, and a DOT that does more damage. The long activation time is a downside, but it's the best damage-inflicting kit module for Science captains. Endothermic Induction Field is available at the Winter Event. The Vun Kralla DOFF adds projectiles to this ability.

-Hyperonic Radiation - Small DOT that can be spread to other enemies. Geologist DOFFs can shorten the cooldown on Exothermic Induction Field and Hyperonic Radiation when these abilities are used.

-Seismic Agitation Field - Generates a 20-second hazard that deals mild kinetic damage and knocks enemies over.

--Engineering kit modules--

-Quantum Mortar - Engineers can use mortars, turrets, bombs, and mines to deal damage from their kits. From my parsing in NTTE and DRSE, mines and mortars deal much more damage than bombs and turrets can (the first time I parsed ground I saw that my Neutronic Mortar from the Delta reputation was doing over 15 times more damage than my Plasma Turret from the Fleet Embassy). Mortars have a longer range than turrets and don't require a line of sight.

-Chroniton Mine Barrier - In missions where the team has to move a lot, well-placed Chroniton Mines can deal more damage than turrets or mortars. This is probably why they're the most expensive kit module on the exchange for engineering captains (a Mk XII UR module is available at the Fleet Spire for a more reasonable price). The trick with Chroniton Mines is knowing where to place them, which comes with familiarity with the missions.

-Equipment Diagnostics - Shield and damage resistance buff. Not great by itself, but Diagnostic Engineer DOFFs add a damage bonus and you can equip 3 of those DOFFs.

-Biotech Turret - Turrets aren't great, but this is the best turret currently available in terms of damage output. It does about twice as much damage as the flame-thrower turret at the Fleet Embassy with a larger range, plus it repels enemies.

-Transphasic/Freeze bomb - Useful in some situations. It has a long activation time and then you have to wait a second or two before detonating it, which reduces its usefulness in fast-paced PVE queues, but if you can place it where it needs to be before enemies spawn then it's basically a Chroniton Mine that an enemy doesn't have to step on.

-Shield Pulse - This module heals shields. It heals more than Shield Recharge does and it heals your teammates around you.

-Quick Fix - A small bonus to damage and a heal to fabrications. The heal isn't useful in PVE queues because by the time your fabrications get destroyed, you've either moved on to another area or the cooldown is over and you can put up another one. But the bonus to damage is always good.

-Shield and health generators - These are worth a mention even though I don't use them and I don't see them in channel runs. The main problem in PVE queues is that people are moving too fast to be able to stand under them for long, and everyone is usually carrying a few heals and the enemies are dying quickly so there's no need.

--Tactical kit modules--

There are so many kit modules at this point that I just wrote about some that stand out to me as being really good. Consider this a perpetually incomplete list of ideas on what to use.

Obviously, there are "bio" and "neutronic" and "tropical fruit flavor" versions of these modules from various fleet holdings and reputations; unless I specifically mention them then I'm considering them basically the same kit module.

Modules cannot be upgraded. The rarity and mark you buy them at is what they'll always stay at.

-Trajectory Bending - Causes all attacks to be flanking and gives a large CritD bonus. Less than 1-second activation time, 10 second duration, and a 30-second cooldown that can be reduced with the Commando specialization down to 24 seconds. This is my favorite kit module in the game, across all careers.

-Rally Cry - Heal over time (HOT), damage resistance bonus, and substantial CritH and CritD bonuses, for the whole team. The downside is the 2-minute cooldown and the slow activation animation.

-Motivation - Team damage buff and lets you absorb some damage as a heal. The damage buff is less useful than the critical buffs from Rally Cry but the cooldown is a more humane 35 seconds.

-Graviton Spike - On your first shot, it creates an anomaly that pulls enemies together and causes a lot of damage. According to my parses, graviton spike causes the most independently counted damage of any tactical kit ability, and grouping enemies gets them ready to be grenaded.

-Ambush - Stealth buff and big damage bonus (187% for Mk XIII VR) on your first shot. There are DOFFs that increase the damage bonus or turn it into a DOT. Also, if you throw a grenade before firing, it will get the Ambush damage bonus and your first shot will also get that bonus.

-Polaron Bombardment - Like a weak Orbital Strike for tactical captains. It sends 5 polaron strikes randomly centered around your target, so it's better as an AOE attack than to strike one enemy. It benefits from the grenade skill but doesn't share a cooldown with other grenades. The downsides are the lack of shield-penetrating damage, the long activation time (around 3 seconds), and the long cooldown. I was carrying it but never using it because 3 seconds of shooting did more damage than Polaron Bombardment could, and enemies were usually dead by the time Polaron Bombardment hit.

-Photon Grenade - I carry one grenade on my tactical captains, and this is that grenade. It does more damage than other grenades, has 50% shield penetration, and causes some knockback. Plasma and Stun Grenades are also decent choices, but I've found that having more than one grenade is too much (and having more than 2 just means that you're wasting kit slots because grenades share a cooldown).

--Kits--

There are lots of choices for kits. Here is what to look for:

-Mk XII or Mk XIII - Lower marks do not have a setup that allows for 2 of each type of kit module available to each career (assault/strategic, research/medical, fabrication/mechanic) with a slot that allows either. Kits cannot be upgraded and lockbox kits are available at a maximum of Mk XII, so Mk XII may be better than Mk XIII.

-Very Rare quality - Get bonuses to 3 skills instead of 2.

-A bonus to crith or exploit damage. These bonuses will help you move through content faster more than any other skill. CritH is the best mod, followed by ExpDMG and CritX.

There are cheap options on the exchange that fulfill the 3 requirements above (a VR Mk XII engineering kit with CritH is available for 22,000 EC right now, for example).

For the other 2 skill bonuses, just look at what abilities you use regularly and buff those. My tactical captain uses the [Combat] and [Spec] bonuses since the former gives a bigger bonus to critical chance and severity and the latter gives bonuses to a few abilities I use often.

The Romulan Imperial Navy Kit (reward from the "Uneasy Allies" episode) is a perfectly viable end-game kit that is completely free. It also buffs plasma weapons, so maybe pair it with a plasma split beam rifle....

--Primary weapons--

The weapons that I see in DPS channel runs are fairly limited, and I list them below. Here's what to look for:

-Exploit weapons are better than expose weapons because there are so many opportunities to exploit anyway. Many kit abilities will expose enemies.

-Bonuses to crit chance and crit damage are more useful than most other bonuses, even bonuses to damage. This is because of how Cryptic set up the damage formula.

-Armor penetration bonuses can be very powerful in this game because they a) often don't depend on the target's damage resistance rating and b) are multiplicative with all other bonuses to damage (not true for many pure damage bonuses).

-Shield penetration is less useful because ground shields are weaker than space shields and few enemies carry shield heals. Borg and Elachi enemies are the exceptions.

-I haven't seen anyone test the new DMG mod on ground yet, but before the change CRTD was king on ground.

-Weapons that work over long distances work better in most queues where enemies can appear at all distances. BHE, for instance, throws many Bluegills right next to you, but then you have to be able to shoot the Delvers and Ravagers on the cliffs and flying above you, farther than the shotgun can shoot. You can't change weapons fast enough for this.

Here are some great weapons:

-Antiproton Split Beam Rifle Mk XIV [critd]x4 [dm/crh] - This is what I see the most in DPS runs. It's really expensive, but it is the best weapon for most PVE queues. A version with different mods (maybe a CritH in there or an ACC) will be substantially cheaper.

-Other Split Beam Rifles - Split Beam Rifles work because they're exploit weapons, can hit long distances, and their secondary attack does more damage to the main target and hits up to 2 other targets. There are internet posts going back several years with players saying that these weapons are overpowered, but here they still are, still overpowered. Use a different energy type or other mods if you want; you can find lots of cheap MkXII VR split beam rifles on the exchange that can be upgraded to Mk XIV to make powerful weapons.

-TR-116B sniper rifle - This is popular because it has 100% shield penetration. This makes it useful against the Borg (because they adapt to energy weapons) or Elachi (because they have thick shields), but not that useful for enemies with weaker shields because its damage isn't the best. If you're looking for one gun for everything, I'd start with a TR-116b because the Elachi and Borg are important ground enemies.

-Zephram Cochran shotgun - Very powerful at close range, an even more powerful AOE secondary mode, and 100% shield penetration. On the downside is that it has a steep damage drop-off as distance increases, its shield penetration is useless against unshielded enemies, and it was a reward for a Mirror Universe event last year so if you don't already have it, you can't get it.

*****MORE TO COME****

--Armor, shield, and secondary weapon--

There are lots of ways to go when it comes to ground gear. But consider:

-Not all set bonuses are useful. For example, if you have 2 pieces of the Undine reputation set, then you get a nice 5% bonus to critical chance. But the third piece gives you a radiation damage-over-time (DOT) ability that you can use every 3 minutes. Is that really worth giving up fleet armor for, fleet armor that can give you a 70% critical severity bonus?

-You might plan to use X set for one enemy and Y set for another queue and Z set for a battlezone, but, in reality, I've noticed that players (me especially) are a lot lazier than that. Look for gear that works well in all situations (except for the weapon and an EV suit) unless you're sure you're going to keep all that gear in your inventory and switch every time.

--What to buy--

My favorite combination and the one that most elite ground farmers use is: the Undine reputation rifle (for a secondary weapon), the Undine reputation shield, and the Advanced Fleet Recoil Compensating Armor.

Some people use the Omega/Klingon Honor Guard weapon and personal shield instead. That 2-piece bonus is defensive.

For maps that need an EV suit, the Shattering Harmonics Environmental Suit is useful for its bonus to critical severity along with its decent damage resistance bonuses. Otherwise, any of those EV suits that you get while working on the Nukara reputation can work.

The shield and armor should be upgraded to Mk XIV. The secondary weapon doesn't need to be upgraded. Raising this gear to Epic quality isn't necessary.

--Traits--

Traits either come from your character's race and career, as mission rewards, or as lockbox rewards. Currently, you have to take out space traits to use ground traits, which is useful if you're doing a few ground queues in a row.

Some stand-out racial traits include: Covert, Lucky, Resilient, Teamwork, Soldier, and Aggressive. Creative and Peak Health can be useful sometimes.

For other traits, some useful ones are Vicious, Sniper, Orbital Devastation (from the profession-specific trait box; it makes Orbital Strike follow enemies and find new targets), Bombadier, Adrenal Release, Up Close and Personal, Penetrating Rounds (from the Ground R&D school), and Overcharging.

For reputation traits, Deadly Aim, Lethality, and Armor Penetration are the best for damage output. I usually use Energized Nanites for a heal. Omega Graviton Pulse Module inflicts a small amount of damage but also greatly increases the time you can fire energy weapons on the Borg without have to remodulate frequency.

There are currently 3 ground active reputation traits, and all three are worth equipping on a toon that does a lot of ground combat.

--Skills--

You can put 66,000 to 100,000 skill points into ground skills. Most people put in 66,000 in order to use the most possible in space.

Each career can access Weapons Proficiency, PS Generator, Threat Control, Willpower, and Combat Armor. Weapons Proficiency is worth 9 points, PS Generator should get around 6 points, and Combat Armor should get 0 to 3 points (because it's an expensive skill and damage resistance has diminishing returns).

Each career also gets 5 other skills that relate to kit abilities. Speccing into these depends on what's in your kit.

Combat Specialist for tactical captains does not relate to any kit ability; instead it increases critical chance and severity. I put 9 points into it.

--Specializations--

Intelligence is better than Command Officer, but if you already have more points in Command Officer then it would make a better choice.

Commando provides many useful bonuses and is worth filling. Even if you haven't put any points into it, it still provides a decent damage bonus in ground combat.

--Starting a ground character--

(Skip this if you already have a toon you want to do ground on)

Faction is less important on ground than it is in space. All factions can access almost all the same gear. Teaming is the only thing affected by faction as cross-faction teams are not allowed in battlezones and a few PVE queues are faction-specific (but all the queues discussed here are cross-faction).

Each race gets an innate bonus on ground. They range from completely useless to marginally useful but not noticeable. If you're creating a new character for ground, pick the pretty one.

Career, on the other hand, makes an enormous difference for ground. Four of the captain abilities, the team abilities, kit modules, and half the ground skill tree are career-specific.

Engineers are better at AOE attacks and can use turrets, mines, generators, and mortars. Tactical captains can use grenades and buffs. Science captains can use a few debuffs and heals in their kits as well as a couple of AOE attacks. Engineers and tactical captains tend to do substantially more damage than science captains, but each career is fully capable of beating any ground content in this game.

This part of the guide is about setting yourself up for success. All the best intentions and knowledge of the missions won't help if you don't have the right tools.

Obviously, I have not tried everything so maybe I left something out that you find awesome. There's just too much gear in the game at the moment to really get to know everything. Instead, I focused on what I see in Elite Ground Tours formed in the DPS-Ground channels, because those folks, collectively, have tried everything.

This section has the following structure:

1. Starting a ground character

2. Traits, skills, and specializations

3. Armor, shield, and secondary weapon

4. Primary weapons

5. Kit Frames

6. Tactical Kit Modules

7. Engineering Kit Modules

8. Science Kit Modules

9. The 10 best non-kit, non-weapon abilities in the game... a count-down!

10. BOFFs

11. DOFFs

There are also parts 1 (Basics) and 3 (Walkthrus).

--Keybinds--

Just like with space combat, setting up your keyboard and your power tray properly can turn these missions into a cakewalk.

Below are my ground keybinds (slightly different from what I use in space). Feel free to use them if you don't have ground keybinds; if you do, then they're just an idea.

Space bar uses the left-most power on Row 10 of your power tray, "," is Row 9, H is Row 8, and G is Row 7 of the power tray. In Row 10, I put short-cooldown buffs and debuffs (Rally Cry, Equipment Diagnostics, Tricorder Scan, etc.). In Row 9 I put my Frosted Boots (because I'm impatient... you can use it for something more useful). Row 8 is for health heals and Row 7 is for shield heals.

I moved jump to "/", right next to shift, and holster to ".". The right side of the keyboard is for various UI's - don't feel obligated to use that part if you're doing something different in space.

I then put my most commonly used abilities in Row 1, less commonly used abilities in Row 2, and in Row 3 I put a few abilities that I have in Rows 7-10 so that I can watch their cooldowns.

To set up a keybind, copy the text in between the asterisks (without the asterisks!) into a .txt file and save it as "groundkeys.txt". Copy it into the main folder for STO that includes the GameClient.exe file (for me, this is C:\Program Files (x86)\Star Trek Online_en\Star Trek Online\Live). In game (while on a ground map), write "/bind_load_file groundkeys.txt" in the chat field, and you're done!

These keybinds are set up for a US QWERTY keyboard. You might have to adjust them if you have a different keyboard.

*************

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, "TrayExecByTray 8 0$$+TrayExecByTray 8 1$$+TrayExecByTray 8 2$$+TrayExecByTray 8 3$$+TrayExecByTray 8 4$$+TrayExecByTray 8 5$$+TrayExecByTray 8 6$$+TrayExecByTray 8 7$$+TrayExecByTray 8 8$$+TrayExecByTray 8 9$$+TrayExecByTray 8 9$$+TrayExecByTray 8 8$$+TrayExecByTray 8 7$$+TrayExecByTray 8 6$$+TrayExecByTray 8 5$$+TrayExecByTray 8 4$$+TrayExecByTray 8 3$$+TrayExecByTray 8 2$$+TrayExecByTray 8 1$$+TrayExecByTray 8 0"

h "TrayExecByTray 7 0$$+TrayExecByTray 7 1$$+TrayExecByTray 7 2$$+TrayExecByTray 7 3$$+TrayExecByTray 7 4$$+TrayExecByTray 7 5$$+TrayExecByTray 7 6$$+TrayExecByTray 7 7$$+TrayExecByTray 7 8$$+TrayExecByTray 7 9$$+TrayExecByTray 7 9$$+TrayExecByTray 7 8$$+TrayExecByTray 7 7$$+TrayExecByTray 7 6$$+TrayExecByTray 7 5$$+TrayExecByTray 7 4$$+TrayExecByTray 7 3$$+TrayExecByTray 7 2$$+TrayExecByTray 7 1$$+TrayExecByTray 7 0"

g "$$+TrayExecByTray 6 0$$+TrayExecByTray 6 1$$+TrayExecByTray 6 2$$+TrayExecByTray 6 3$$+TrayExecByTray 6 4$$+TrayExecByTray 6 5$$+TrayExecByTray 6 6$$+TrayExecByTray 6 7$$+TrayExecByTray 6 8$$+TrayExecByTray 6 9$$+TrayExecByTray 6 9$$+TrayExecByTray 6 8$$+TrayExecByTray 6 7$$+TrayExecByTray 6 6$$+TrayExecByTray 6 5$$+TrayExecByTray 6 4$$+TrayExecByTray 6 3$$+TrayExecByTray 6 2$$+TrayExecByTray 6 1$$+TrayExecByTray 6 0$$"

. "holstertoggle"
/ "+up"
home "killme"
delete "logout"

shift+0 "combatlog 0"
shift+1 "combatlog 1"
shift+2 "walk 1"
shift+3 "walk 0"

o "options"
p "dutyofficer"
[ "costume"
j "journal"
k "PvEQueues"
l "fleetwindow"
n "lootrollneed"
shift+n "lootrollgreed"

****************

--Autofire and other options--

Autofire is much better than clicking to fire each time. The computer will fire precisely when the weapon is ready, it will find a new target faster than you can, and you can focus on things other than firing.

1. Open the options menu (click the gear to the right of your mini-map, and it's the second choice on the menu) while on a ground map.

2. Go to the "Controls" tab.

3. Scroll down to the bottom. There's a drop-menu for "Auto attack." Choose "Toggle, non-combat cancels."

4. Click OK.

5. Right-click your weapon's primary attack in your power tray. It will have a green outline around it, showing that autofire is enabled.

While in the Options menu, you can also change whether you want to use a First-Person Shooter mode for ground combat instead of the default RPG mode. It depends on your machine and your personal preference.

Under the "Basic" tab, you can turn on auto-loot, which also makes the game go faster.

--Why Ground is the best place to farm--

Ground is great for getting dilithium, crafting materials, salvaged tech, reputation marks, or elite reputation marks (like Borg Neural Processors). Elite ground PVE queues give the same rewards as elite space PVE queues (salvaged tech, an elite crafting materials package, some specialization XP, multiple elite reputation marks, and 1440 dilithium) but with one-tenth the effort.

Here's why ground is better for farming than space:

1. Ground is faster: NTTE and DRSE can be completed in less than 5 minutes with a good team. NSDTE takes exactly 5 minutes of play-time if it's successful, less if it fails. UIE and BOTSE take around 10 minutes, and BHE can be beaten in less than 10 minutes with a good team although it may take a bit longer with a PUG team.

2. Ground is easier: If I use a toon with the best gear in an elite space PUG, I will probably fail. In a DPS channel run, failing is still a possibility.

With a completely geared toon in a elite ground PUG, we will probably succeed. In a ground DPS channel run, we will definitely succeed.

Even if money is no issue and I can have the best gear for both ground and space, ground will still be more likely to succeed.

3. Ground is cheaper: To get top gear for space elite queues, you'll need tens to hundreds of millions of EC to get 6 to 8 crafted weapons with the right mods; hundreds of thousands of fleet credits for tactical consoles and elite carrier pets; thousands of reputation marks or more fleet credits and dilithium for a fleet or reputation deflector, shield, engine, and core; more space moneys for science and engineering consoles, like tens of millions of EC for lockbox consoles, hundreds of lobi for lobi consoles, or more fleet credits or reputation marks and dilithium for fleet or reputation consoles. Then you need to upgrade all that to MK XIV *at least*, preferably to epic quality for some of the pieces of gear, for a cost of more millions of EC and hundreds of thousands of refined dilithium.

If you want to get fancy, you'll get space traits (for millions of EC) and starship traits (for thousands of Zen... do you want All Hands On Deck or not???).

And of course you need a nice ship, which costs thousands of Zen.

For ground, you need a weapon, an armor, and a shield. The better ones are from the reputation system or the fleet (some are crafted), and cost less than their space counterparts. You might want an extra weapon for a set bonus, maybe a third depending on what missions you're doing, and an EV suit. You can also get a kit and some modules, but some of those are free mission rewards that are viable end-game options, and the not-free ones are cheaper than any individual piece of space gear anyway. You'll want to upgrade the weapon, armor, and shield to Mk XIV, but going gold is really beyond what's needed for any of these missions. And your kit and modules can't be upgraded.

Oh, and you don't have to buy a ship, you don't need starship traits, you have more innate ground traits than innate space traits, and lockbox ground traits cost a fraction of what space traits cost on the exchange.

--Concepts and terms--

NTTE - Nukara Prime: Transdimensional Tactics (Elite), a PVE queue with Tholian enemies

DRSE - Defend Rh'Ihho Station (Elite), a PVE queue with Elachi enemies

UIE - Undine Infiltration (Elite), a PVE queue with Undine enemies

BHE - Bug Hunt (Elite), a PVE queue with Bluegill enemies

BOTSE/BOSE - Brotherhood of the Sword (Elite), a PVE queue with Herald enemies

NSDTE - Nukara Prime: Self-Destructive Tendencies (Elite), a PVE queue with Tholian enemies

HGE - Into the Hive (Elite), a PVE queue with Borg enemies, and the hardest ground PVE queue in the game

Elite ground tour - NTTE, DRSE, UIE, BHE, BOTSE, and sometimes NSDTE. A player proposing an elite ground tour in a channel will likely have a private queue of NTTE or DRSE open. At the end of each queue, players say "X" in chat instead of "gg" to sign up for the next queue. The 6-mission tour rewards 8640 dilithium, 6 Salvaged Tech, 16638 specialization XP, R&D materials from 6 elite R&D reward packs, at least 30 fleet marks, and several hundred fleet and reputation marks. The tour takes between 40 and 80 minutes to complete.

Voth BZ - Voth Battlezone, an open-world-style ground battlezone accessible through the Salonae Dyson Sphere (near New Romulus in the Beta Quadrant). It's the most efficient source of dilithium in the galaxy, and it also rewards Dyson reputation marks and Voth Cybernetic Implants.

Defera - Borg Invasion of Defera Adventure Zone, an open-world-style ground battlezone accessible through Defera (north of DS9 in the Alpha Quadrant)

Defera hards - The 4 "hard" missions available on Defera: Temple, Probe, Power Plant, and City. They reward 240 fleet marks, 40 Omega marks, some dilithium, and 4 Borg Neural Processors. But like how the silk worm is not really a worm and the guinea pig is not really a pig, the Defera hards are not really hard at all.

Set or Reputation set - Weapon, armor, shield, and sometimes kit from a single reputation that grant bonuses for equipping two or more pieces from that reputation

2-pc, 2-piece, 2-piece bonus - The bonus a reputation set gives for having 2 pieces of it. e.g., "the dyson 2-pc is an ap buff" means "Having 2 pieces of the Dyson Joint Command Reputation ground set increases your damage from Antiproton weapons." There are also 3-pc and 4-pc bonuses.

DPS - Damage per second. The average points of damage a player generates measured in a round of NTTE on ground

SCM - STO Combat Meter. A third-party program that calculates a player's DPS. It's free.

Flanking - Attacking an enemy from the rear 180-degree flank of a target on ground. This results in 50% more damage. If a team surrounds the enemies, then some flanking is guaranteed.

Melee combat - Attacks involving fists or weapons that make direct contact with the enemy (like a sword or a lirpa). These attacks produce physical damage, which is different from kinetic damage (which comes from fabrications, grenades, the TR-116b, or the Zephram Cochran shotgun). I won't discuss these attacks because they're less efficient than ranged weapon attacks, and this guide is about efficiently moving through ground content.

Aim - Aim ("X" by default) increases damage by 33%. For ranged weapons only.

Crouch - Crouch ("C" by default) increases dodge by 50% for ranged weapons but *decreases* resistance to physical/melee attacks.

Expose/exploit - Enemies can be exposed by certain attacks. When exposed, an exploit attack will get a +200% damage strength bonus. If that is enough to kill the enemy, then they will be vaporized.

If an enemy is exposed and you have an exploit weapon, then the secondary feature will start blinking in yellow.

All the standard weapons and most special weapons come with a expose or exploit secondary attack. Dual pistol, stun pistol, wide beam pistol, full auto rifle, assault minigun, blast assault, and pulsewave assault weapons all expose; compression pistol, high density beam rifle, sniper rifle, and split beam rifle weapons all exploit. Additionally, melee combinations can both expose and exploit. Certain kit abilities can expose.