With this post, I'll end this rhyme.

crew counts ?

dont know why people are scared of a little leg room
ill take my ss cumfy pants ship over a tight squeeze any day, plus ive been looking at getting rid of guns all together and going solely off of tacs for my attack power, saves room and lets me store more jumk in my trunk.

1700 Engineers
7102 Tactical Officer
2275 Helmsmen
4826 Scientist

Lol, just lost a storage planet containing 5x Artifact and Mineral Towers. Also lost 720 TMs trying to make another storage planet... I guess it's the price you pay for changing your IGN .
On a positive note, I still have Time Manipulator (Uses Left: 4340) so, Operation De-Throne ICBLF is still online.

Now rank 481, briefly updating my post, been awhile since the last one. Feel free to comment/suggest/compare. Next Update will be when I reach rank 500, which is going to be awhile from now

Ship Statistics - Unbuffed
Space: 3335 / 3344
Attack: 17358
Defense: 15656
Scan: 1036
Cloak: 720
Cargo: 29598 / 49640
Hull: 23809
Shield: 11889
Energy: 4000 (max), recharge rate - 95/hr
Upkeep: 14B
Konqul: Attack +20%
Excavator: Artifact +10%

Crew count
2750 Engineers
8352 Tactical Officer
2695 Helmsmen
5226 Scientist

PvP/NPC Statistics
Battles 232188 (Epic Legend)
Player Kills 5405
Deaths from Players 345
Non-Player Kills 23054
Successful Hacks 1244
Successful Raids 10662

Planetary Productions
15824 research / hour - Research Capacity: 98000
Minerals 18912 units / hour - Mineral Capacity: 110000
Artifacts 26712 points / hour - Artifact Capacity: 250000
Planet Slot(s) Available: 3

Research Tree
Quasi-Chaotic Force - Research Levels: 3 / 3
Proxy-Universe Reactions - Research Levels: 2 / 4
Force Obviation Fields - Research Levels: 3 / 3
Inverse Flux Jamming - Research Levels: 3 / 3
Syncopated Phase Matter - Research Levels: 3 / 3
Entropy Field Warping - Research Levels: 3 / 3
Continuum Analysis - Research Levels: 3 / 3
Topopolis Rings - Research Levels: 1 / 1
Dimensional Logistics - Research Levels: 1 / 3

I have more Aph than you! never thought i'd see the day haha but nice ship! though I dont like your deck count! much to high..

hehe, as long as I keep my Ap/H above 55x my rank, I'm content with it. As for decks... I stopped caring, as well as getting disabled.

Ships/Allies:
Apparitious, Bane Familiar
Rank: 54

Sehrin, Bioship Ally
Rank: 2

Anubix, AI Assault Drone
Rank: 17

Pre-Rank 500 Stats
(Unbuffed - Rank 498)

your ship is building nicely, still no anubix for me though :/

Ty, I have it but I'm slacking on ranking the ally. My preferred goal before rank 500 was to get 10k T.Os, only have 9140 atm. Would slow rank to reach the goal but these damn legion mission is ranking me faster than I thought, now that I'm actually trying.

thats why you do the ones that give 0 xp, take your relays off when they dont come up and just build CTL stuff, thats what I do, that or purge planets

Only thing I have to worry from now on are the base tier(s). Research Wise.

Finally reached rank 500 which took 519 days to accomplish. Here's my rank 500 statistics, feel free to show your rank 500 statistics, I would love to compare stats. Also feel free to make suggestions about my ship.

lCBLF
the Marauder
Rank 500 Aerlen Explorer
The Unknown (59)
Combat Reputation: Insane

Back in my day... 519 / 730 days

Ship Statistics - Unbuffed
Size Class: Galaxy Destroyer
Space: 3568 / 3568
Attack: 15809
Defense: 22183
Scan: 3292
Cloak: 1106
Hull: 26726
Shield: 13589
Energy: 4716 (max), recharge rate - 95/hr
Cargo: 37112.2 / 55000
Upkeep: 15.2B
Aerlen: Defense +30%
Explorer: Scan +20%

Crew Count
2750 Engineers
9274 Tactical Officers
3184 Helmsmen
5693 Scientists

Ship Stats
Battles 249428 (Epic Legend)
Player Kills 5646
Deaths from Players 392
Non-Player Kills 24489
Planets Found 735
Planets Occupied 124
Planets Captured 123
Missions Completed 462
Scans Performed 6635
Successful Hacks 1267
Successful Raids 12841

Under the Cloak
Size: Class Galaxy Destroyer
Ships/Allies: Sehrin, Bioship Ally, Apparitious, Bane Familiar, Anubix, AI Assault Drone
Weapons: Heavy Quasi-Chaotic Blaster x8, Dominion Auto-Blaster x4, Chromatic Cannon x2, Cerulean Fighter, Korteth Twin-Blaster x4, Hypercharged Bane Emitter x4, Composite Ray - Type S x3, Exotic Bio-Disruptor 2.0, Atmospheric Decimator x2, Ion Pulse Ballistae x4, Lazuli Mind Controller x3, Combat Analyzer, Prototype Mech XV
Energy: Proxy-Universe Reactor - Mark IV x3, Xathe Containment Hold, Surge Plexus x3, XRP Warp-Charge Pack x3, XRP Battery Pack, Encephalon Core x4, HyperChannel Relay x4, Silthion T-Plasma Hub x3, F.A.T.H.E.R. x2, Omicron Injector, Chron-Transistor
Sensors: Continuum Analyzer - Mark III, Continuum Parser x4, Merged DataNode, Tetra-Seek Targeter x3, Voliir Modulator - Mark II x3, AI Supercomputer
Hull: Perfect Syncopated Plating x5, Scythe Plating x4, Korteth Plating x2, BioMimetic Sealer II x4, Protean Armory x3
Shields: Heavy Obviator Shield x5, T.O. Phase Barrier x2, T.O. Heliofield, Aegis Capacitor x3, T.O. Harmonic TeraPulser x4, Q-Phase Battery Array, Harmonic Resonator
Cloaking: Triaxial Array - Mark II x3, Gamma Channeler
Defenses: Trans-Entropy Drive - Mark III x4, Exergonic Inverter - Mark III x4, Velox Thruster x3, Sha'din Forcevoider x4, Silthion T-Phase Utricle x4, Dark Phase Engine x4, BM50 Convoy Shuttle x3, Auto-Evasion Node, Trinity-Core Drive x2, Subspace Compressor, Thrust Stabilizer

Anubix, AI Assault Drone
Rank: 17
Apparitious, Bane Familiar
Rank: 68
Sehrin, Bioship Ally
Rank: 36

Planetary Productions
14824 research / hour - Research Capacity: 101000
Minerals 17912 units / hour - Mineral Capacity: 150000
Artifacts 23712 points / hour - Artifact Capacity: 230000
Planet Slot(s) Available: 2

Research Tree
Quasi-Chaotic Force - Research Levels: 3 / 3
Proxy-Universe Reactions - Research Levels: 4 / 4
Force Obviation Fields - Research Levels: 3 / 3
Inverse Flux Jamming - Research Levels: 3 / 3
Syncopated Phase Matter - Research Levels: 3 / 3
Entropy Field Warping - Research Levels: 3 / 3
Continuum Analysis - Research Levels: 3 / 3
Topopolis Rings - Research Levels: 1 / 1
Dimensional Logistics - Research Levels: 1 / 3

first thing that jumps out at me is the quasis.
id drop those asap.
not worth their upkeep.
means you need less mining and can focus on arti more.

Grats on rank 500!

Your ship would have kicked my ass when I was at rank 500! though I would suggest upping your arti p/h, im at 34318 p/h with 25 planet slots open at rank 658.

Also, nice job on taking your time to reach rank 500 as well, it only took me 172 days

I'm fine with the current upkeep, also currently doing the DarkSmuggler mission for those -15% upkeep hull mods. Currently have 450B.

Ty, and also currently an Aerlen Explorer so I've lost quite a bit of AP and Attack, sadly didn't scan good ap Planets though I've found 3 planets with CSR, 2 SS Planets (VM Gas & VL Barren) and 5 Maxed Mining Planets and only scanned less than 200 planets. I don't know when but I will make sure to unlock Talth before rank 600. Hopefully

good work Rusty !

after we get the final ct.lab design, i think i will switch out of vygoid excavator and into zolazin hacker to go for the elite and hacker medals ... force myself to slow down and take some better planets to replace the crap that i took to rank up my bane. i think my racial and profession bonuses are making the resource productions look better than they are.

then, once i have done a couple more decent scan runs to build up a stockpile of worthy planets, i will auto.rank the talth chain (aiming to finish around 450) and then fill up those planet slots right away before freezing. hopefully maybe find at least one rift-worthy dyson, but if not, will start working on a max toxic to rift.

When I reach 13000 Raids, I'm going to do the Elite Medal, and No it's not a sign of defeat against ICBLF, more like a vacation and try the other side of the spectrum for once. I shall continue raiding after I obtain the medal.