So I just passed “A long road to get here” medal and I am having a lot of fun at Chesterton Royal Academy. Thought it would be fun to share my setup and get people’s thoughts on next steps.

Here are my overall stats and setup, I tend to be a PvP-centric player. I am currently just trying to make sure I participate in legion missions, just finished Elite medal currently (sorry hacked folks!) and maxing my CK69 drone (sorry raided folks!). Before those darned things got put in I bought a lot of heist dispatch stations (oops!). Im pretty patient (ranking about every other day or so unless doing seasonal NPC hunts/Legion missions) and slowly starting to convert out of research planets and into more APH as scientists are starting to catch up to actual planetary research production.

Jhera:

Rank 512 (Taltherian Excavator)
Decks 560
Engineers 6571
Tactical Officers 18214
Helmsmen 12100
Scientists 15949

Total Medal Points Awarded: 1140 of 2390 (No specific goals on medals right now – 9/15 on solo conqueror, 126/300 million on In Your Infinite Wisdom, 53/100 on MVP, and I haven’t gotten the exotica medals yet)

Statistics

Player Kills: 4751
Deaths from Players: 122
Non-Player Kills: 24997
Successful Hacks: 8063
Successful Raids: 6783 (need a little over 300 more to max CK69 drone plus Cuniculus raids)
Missions Completed: 516
Planets Occupied: 135

Productions: [Have mission dyson and mission exotic (yes, burned some GP from a Christmas present last year), otherwise completely conventionally built up 2 MC 22x oceanics, 2 C 22x gaias, otherwise just very conservative invasions and scrimping and bartering up]

Minerals: 15,699 units / hour
Artifacts: 47,107 points / hour
Research: 30,826 research / hour

Research:

All research trees completed except for only on Tier 2 of Hyperlogistics
Total Research Done: 12.2 million

Unbuffed Stats:

558/560 Space
19503 Attack
17258 Defence
43025 Hull
17646 Shield
6825 Energy
1169 Scan
1750 Cloak
6.5B Upkeep [This high because of all of the amenities in cargo, biospheric decimators, 5xContinuum Mk IIIs, etc]


Installed Modules: [Usual load-out, varies with invasion, NPC, base-hitting]

Weapons: [Does not count the various Velcro straps outside the ship for all the TOs]

Dark Arbalest (x2)
CK69 Assault Sentry (350% level, this one is a bear to upgrade)
Biospheric Decimator (x2)
Sometimes I put on an autocannon, just because the visual is hilarious.

[uninstalled includes 3x Dominion tri-blaster, 1x Dominion Auto-blaster, 4xKorteth twin-blasters, 2 Zebreen, etc etc]

Defenses/Shields:

Velox Thruster x3
Trinity-Core Drive x2
Thrust Stabilizer
Subspace compressor

[Optional load-out includes Aegis Capacitor x3, Auto-evasion node]

Hull:

Protean Armory x 3

Energy: [129/hour]

Hyperchannel Relays x4
Silthion Hub x3
FATHER x 2
Surge Plexus x3
Q-Pedd Assembly Line 2.0 x1

[I keep 3x Proxy-Universe Mk IIIs and 4x encephalon, 4x warp-charge pack for rank-ups]

Devices:

Cipherbot 2.0 x3
Gravimetric flume x3
Merged datanode (maxed)
Tej-Sheel drone (maxed)
Tetra-seek targeter x3

[Have senary-frames x4, a sadly only 80%-upgrade Darmos Champion Seal, and continuums/Sha’din cores, stryll trackersx2 for scan runs ]

Ships/Allies:

Anubix, AI Assault Drone (Rank 100)
Apparitious II, Bane Familiar (Rank 79)
Bainar, Systems Cracker (Rank 79)
Cuniculus, Lepus Adjutant (Rank 100)
Thraccti, Scruuge Defector (Rank 100)

[Have Vortov in cargo, have 6 mercenary payments stored, waiting to get 100 before I unwrap him]


Missions: I am not very mission-heavy, I tend toward the utilitarian. I have done Taltherian Chain, 4x NPC slots, Tactical remodulation chain, Trellith influence chain. I have not unlocked any other races presently.

Trying to decide which chain is the best moving forward – adding a couple of NPC slots, getting T-plasma Gemini cannon, maybe doing the +5% hull modules. Also need to finish the Aeon Moon chain (yeah, I know).

Goals:
(1) Trying to up my energy/engineers more. I feel like I am a little light there, although I can battery up to 8600 energy at rankup if I switch my setup around.
(2) Making sure I try to complete a task for each legion mission, Eventually max Vortov
(3) Be a real pain to disable. I am not currently a true SSB, but I think most people give up rather than spend the E to disable me.

Looking for input:

(1) What would you suggest for the next few missions to complete? Looking for the most fun/useful thing to do next!
(2) Is there any tangible benefit in finishing the anti-cryptex mission just to avoid seeing the rogue data analyzers?
(3) In the 500-rank area range, when do you usually decide it’s not worth disabling someone? I mean, absent someone getting upset due to disables raids or hacks and decides to burn whatever is necessary? If I powered up on the T-plasma Gemini cannon, would that be a bigger deterrent?

1) +5% hull mods are nice.
2) Rogue Data Analyzers are actually quite nice for autoranking but of course there are benefits of getting rid of them. namely more terraformers. Personally i don't consider it worth the energy.
3) I'm rank 545 and have a mediocre to rubbish ship but I still will spend all my energy happily to disable one ship rather than give up, this one definitely depends on the player and whether they're just looking to have a bit of fun like me or are looking to max their reds, most who are farming reds would probably overlook you.

1. unlocking more npc slots is always good. the lazuli chain is more xp.efficient for that, but i would do a mission with each rankup as there is no need to rush it. you have a bunch of ctp.valuable npc's that disappear after rank 600, so it is a trade.off between having more slots to see those more often, or getting the slots after rank 600 so you can have more flexibility in targets. if you don't have the tactical remodulation ability yet, get that.

2. i finished the cryptex mission just before xmas last year as i was tired of them diluting the npc pool. it is not a priority now, but i would definitely finish them off before next october and the triple whammy of bane, harvester and scruuge npc's. until then, they are excellent for task 3 of the Carthyne Symposium legion mission.

3. i do not really worry about energy costs anymore ... it is more about xp costs for me. if i am doing double the damage cap (for their rank) on a target ship, i keep going until they are down or indicate that they are online.

Have Tactical Remodulation ability already. Probably will go for the Lazuli thing next, having more slots does seem like the next best thing! Cant hurt to have more chances for fab plants/TO Carriers, etc.

(1) I suggest you finish first the 25K e Aeon Moon chain first - you should have in "no time"
(2) yes, over long time .. however here I would suggest first to use energy to unlock 2 more NPC slots. More efficient also for the Tactical remodulation
(3) I actually stop attacks only when I see, that target is online and recharge shields/repair hull/setup traps... Otherwise I do not care about energy cost - I am r 521.

NB: very nice almost SSB with GP modules Impressive AP/hour - I suggest to think also about the TOs not only Engineers as due to deck limit, that is your only way to have higher invasion success rate. But if you prefer autoranking and gaining planets mainly thru trades, nevermind TOs.
I would suggest to get Protean Armories, 4x Dominion Auto-blaster and think about Surge Plexus modules (if they fit due to deck limit).
What I did not recognize are following: 5xContinuum Mk IIIs and 2 Zebreen - what are these?

Continuum Analyzer Mk III Scan +960
Scan modules, highest research tier.

Zebeeren's Cannon Attack +110
Dropped by Zebeeren, Scruuge Despot during the Christmas event.

thanks

Scan I use but never pay attention how it is called ...
however the Cannon - nice addition to have it from seasonal, with ratio 15/110 - for same 30 decks I can have attack 240 from 3x Ion Pulse Ballistae (10/80). To uninstall due to energy reduction when ranking up = BAU for SSB.

they are pretty but hoenstly if your going for hard core ssb, the only things you should have on your ship are things that give % bonus, and scanners ( anything and everything ) - thats just my opinion though.

Im clearly not a "hardcore" SSB although I tend to agree that % bonuses are the most efficient use of deck space. I anticipate carrying the current number of decks for some time, as it allows me to balance out a reasonably low damage cap versus still having space to efficient PvP/Legion Mission/NPC (in that order of priority).

I do have the ion pulse ballistae and so forth too, I just don't tend to let myself worry about 250 attack unless I'm specifically invading a high-quality planet.

I think I will take the advice on Aeon Moon and NPC slots as the next pieces to move toward - thanks all for the advice and input!

Also, didn't realize how few people went for the Elite medal - just doing that got me onto the hacks top 50.

my bad :
Rank 512 (Taltherian Excavator)
Decks 560
the extra 29 decks through me off

and about the elite medal, most people that pvp dont value hacking that much.
my theory is that its a randomized risk::reward situation as you always have a % chance to succeed / fail a hack, and at the same time critically succeed / fail a hack, in which case, even your invisible planets are at risk.

Ive had the same decks for so long I didn't realize I was approaching a true SSB ratio, my bad!

will you keep the ratio?
I am 1215 decks and I am already short on decks to install all my scan modules and working to get more of them => will grow again...

Elite - hack medal
working on it, but blue badge cost always 5e regardless rank... red and yellow tend to be more energy expensive with rank ups.

red yes but yellow depends on how you do it, ive found a nice way to reliably get yellow badges for 5 energy that doesnt require ice fishing from the BT.

Reds will come if you have semi ok ship even...yellow you could ice fish to maurader, we had a guy do it in about 5 weeks. Blues, well, you have to literally hack 8000 DIFF people/times, not multi to get. The reasons you don't see a ton of people with that:

1) medal only gives title
2) hacking many times is worthless--the only thing mid/high ranks want is a crit hack, which even then oft as not gives a crap planet
3) the payback isn't great- what do I care about a few thousand research pts. maybe if i was a level 15 hacking a level 1000 (somehow!) and they were feeding me research pts, sure...but how long would that go on for?
4) risk/annoyance of crit fail- I have maliciously high cloak and pretty decent scan and i still crit fail once every 100-150 times. That means I have to waste time searching through hundreds of planets to make sure I don't lose a decent planet due to poor rng
5) time/effort- most people simply don't want to keep hacking day in /day out to get there...at 20 hacks a day it would take 14 months to do. PLus for those of us who like to raid, we are wasting valuable tm's and actions to get a +1 count to a semi-pointless stat (imo)

If you want to hack, do it early ranks when no one has scan OR cloak installed on a normal basis. Also you have nothing worth losing, or in case you do, you have so few planets to worry about the check up is quick and painless.

Jhera:

Rank 662 (Aerlen Fixer)
Decks 638
Engineers 10802
Tactical Officers 36041
Helmsmen 22675
Scientists 30454

Total Medal Points Awarded: 1270 – got King of the Hill and MVP. No really new goals yet on this.

Statistics

Player Kills: 5959
Deaths from Players: 137
Non-Player Kills: 27629
Successful Hacks: 8639
Successful Raids: 8553
Missions Completed: 644
Planets Occupied: 162

Productions: [Have mission dyson and mission exotic (yes, burned some GP from a Christmas present last year), otherwise completely conventionally built up 2 MC 22x oceanics, 2 C 22x gaias, otherwise just very conservative invasions and scrimping and bartering up]

Minerals: 22,217 units / hour
Artifacts: 63,388 points / hour (not excavator or Talth anymore!)
Research: 42,782 research / hour

Research:

All research trees completed except for only on Tier 2 of Hyperlogistics
Total Research Done: 151 million

Unbuffed Stats:

626/638 Space
38944 Attack
40530 Defence
113102 Hull
34983 Shield
10941 Energy
2009 Scan
2456 Cloak
10.3B Upkeep [This high because of all of the amenities in cargo, biospheric decimators, 5xContinuum Mk IIIs, etc]


Installed Modules: [Usual load-out, varies with invasion, NPC, base-hitting]

Weapons: [Does not count the various Velcro straps outside the ship for all the TOs]

Dark Arbalest (x2)
CK69 Assault Sentry (fully upgraded!)
Biospheric Decimator (x2)
Dominion Triblaster (x3)
Sometimes I put on an autocannon, just because the visual is hilarious.

[uninstalled includes 1x Dominion Auto-blaster, 4xKorteth twin-blasters, 2 Zebreen, etc etc]

Defenses/Shields:

Velox Thruster x3
Trinity-Core Drive x2
Autoevasion Node
Thrust Stabilizer
Subspace compressor
Subquantum Tracing Console

[Optional load-out includes Aegis Capacitor x3, Auto-evasion node]

Hull:

Protean Armory x 3
Nanite Re-Assembler (maxed)

Energy: [129/hour]

Hyperchannel Relays x4
Silthion Hub x3
FATHER x 2
Surge Plexus x3
Q-Pedd Assembly Line 2.0 x1
Elios Collector x2

[I keep 3x Proxy-Universe Mk IIIs and 4x encephalon, 4x warp-charge pack for rank-ups]

Devices:

Alarri Probability Core
Cipherbot 2.0 x3
Gravimetric flume x3
Merged datanode (maxed)
Tej-Sheel drone (maxed)
Tetra-seek targeter x3

[Have senary-frames x4, a sadly only 80%-upgrade Darmos Champion Seal, and continuums/Sha’din cores, stryll trackersx2 for scan runs ]

Ships/Allies:

Anubix, AI Assault Drone (Rank 100)
Apparitious II, Bane Familiar (Rank 100)
Bainar, Systems Cracker (Rank 100)
Cuniculus, Lepus Adjutant (Rank 100)
Thraccti, Scruuge Defector (Rank 100)

[Have Vortov in cargo, have 56 mercenary payments stored, waiting to get 100 before I unwrap him]


Missions: I am not very mission-heavy, I tend toward the utilitarian. I have done Taltherian Chain, 4x NPC slots, Tactical remodulation chain, Trellith influence chain. I have not unlocked any other races presently. Finished Aeon Moon, working my way through Trovar Zane chain, then doing the two hull mods and deciding between Uldrinan, Litheor, or titanproxies. Thoughts?