STO Helpful Hints

What are some of the cool tricks you've discovered in-game that your fellow fleeties might find helpful?

I was thinking of this as I tried to coach my bf through some missions last night. (Yes, I'm thankful that he even occasionally comes online with me.)

Mine are:

Use the V key to scan (either in space or on the ground)

Use the Y key to have your BOFFs attack your target (ground)

Use your power pre-sets to crank up the damage! (space)

When playing the waveform-matching scan game, adjust the amplitude first, then just hammer the side arrows to match the frequency. You can't overshoot.

And this one I just discovered, although I'm sure everyone else already knew about it:

Drag an item into the Exchange search box to avoid typing in the description.

So what are your favorite helpful hints?

Talking to myself, but I thought of another one:

Give your BOs Expose weapons, and use an Exploit weapon yourself. This is simplified, but basically there's no point in your whole team using expose weapons, or your whole team using exploit weapons. You need both.

Some others that may seem obvious, but totally aren't if you're just starting out:

Match your ship weapons to your captain's weapon skills. If you already have 9 training points in phasers, and none in tetryon weapons, try to find some good phaser weapons on the exchange.

The same goes for matching tactical consoles to ship's weapons. This is also kind of obvious, but there are consoles for weapon flavors (phaser, disruptor, tetryon), and weapon types (beam, cannon, torpedo). A pre-fire chamber won't help out a ship with all beam arrays and torpedoes.

You get a free respec at each major promotion, so don't be afraid to use it. Did you accidentally assign training points to mines, when you never equip mines? You can fix it by visiting the trainer at the center of ESD (among other places). You can also buy respec tokens in the C-Store.

When you're just starting out, get a tac BO with high yield torpedoes. This is totally a matter of opinion. When I first started in open-beta, I loved beam overload (even though it was bugged and your beams sometimes stopped working completely). Then I discovered high yield torps. Hit an average enemy with a tachyon beam from 10 km, fire your high yields, and then quickly broadside them with beams, and you can often take the ship out with just that first volley, even as a lowly Lt.

Here's one I read recently, but haven't really tried yet. Get your BOs to mount a frontal assault, while you sneak off to the side or back of the group for maximum flanking damage. You can do this by setting waypoints for your team. Also if you tell your team to attack first, they'll draw most of the aggro, leaving you free to flank. (Learn the team and team member commands available to you as icons by your team members in the upper left corner of the screen.)

Anyone else? Helpful hints for our newbie brothers and sisters?

If you want emblems quickly on fleet actions (big dig,and such) and do not want/need high power gear from them, change instances. You will end up in the lower tier game (ltcmdr or such) and your admiral can waltz through with almost total impunity.

These are all great tips. The only suggestion I have is that I've found equipping one of your Tac BOs with an Exploit weapon works really well. I've definitely seen the AI use this set-up effectively an exploit an exposed enemy when I'm busy dealing with something else.

Seannewboy: LOVE your captain's look! That's the kind of detail I can't get with my unsupported video card. Time for me to upgrade, eh? :-)

A couple of my tips:

* Can't find one of the historians for the Vulcan diplomatic mission? Go down the stairs. Keep going the same direction, around and past the fountain. You'll see a faint trail going up a steep hill, which ends up being marked by huge torches. At the top of the hill is a round building. If you think of the building like a compass, and you're at South on the building, the last historian is at Northwest, just outside the building behind a little hill. Very hard to find but one of the keys to solving the mission.

* Have an unsupported video card, but want more detailed screen captures of your characters and ships? Go into Options > Video and crank the video quality all the way up. Your sound and manoeuverability will be shot but you'll get more details in for your pics. This is best done at a tailor or ship customisation station, or at an idle point in a mission.

Cool! I haven't done the Vulcan diplo mish yet, so now when I do I'll be prepared.

Thanks for the helpful hints, all! I'm definitely going to give my tac's exploit weapons and see how good they are a vaporizing my enemies. But I'm also going to keep one for myself, because I love watching the baddies go poof. Bwahahahahaha!

Want 30 diplo points quickly and have fun doing it? Go to Memory Alpha. Three of the four Ferengi on there offer diplo missions to be carried out on the station. They're more entertaining and are structured more sophisticatedly than the Bajor and Vulcan missions (even if they're Comic Ferengi whereas I loves me my Serious Ferengi).

I did the Memory Alpha Ferengi missions you described. It was so quick...just a bit of running back and forth telling people things. It's ashame that when you "Hail Starfleet" for missions, that you cannot filter them by criteria: like only show missions that offer Diplomatic points. I'm at Vice Admiral 1 but still am only at the second level of Diplomatic achievement. Going back now and doing some daily missions that give 10 Diplomatic points but it takes awhile!