The first 14 ops levels are for players to get a hang of the game and bases cannot be attacked.
Although these levels are safe, they also do not offer much in way of gameplay or game interactions. Make your way to higher ops to get more out of the game.
Follow the missions to learn how to play and grow
Pick up additional missions as you encounter them in the various systems to help you grow
Recruit officers (priority to be given to those listed in the Officers page)
Build the ships as they become available
Collect the daily rewards
Max all your building and ships before moving to Ops 15
Complete as much of your researches as your level allows
Store up as much raw minerals (ore, crystal and gas) as you can and just about anything you can get your hands on
Participate in all the events and try to get as much of the event rewards as possible
Ops 15 means PVP is now part of the game
Be careful, starting at ops 15, the top priority is to establish and maintain an impeccable shield discipline otherwise you will find your base emptied of resources (parsteel, tritanium and dilithium)
You will need a fleet of envoys to support you until you reach Ops 27
@Ops 27 start building your horizons but do not max them. ***Warning***building and then leveling up multiple horizons will cause massive crystal shortages that are required for your researches, ships and building constructions. They are also a waste as the faction miners (Antares/K'vort/Valkis) are critical at higher ops levels, require the same minerals and outperform the horizons in all aspects.
Although the Mayflower, D3 and Legionary are available with shipyard 26, it is highly recommended to skip them and push on to Ops 28 where your shipyard 28 will open up the Saladin, Bortas and Centurion. These ships can be your workhorses until you have obtained your G3 epics.
Build 1 Discovery, 1 Vidar and 2 Stellas
Depending on whether you are a fan of mining, build 1 or more of the following ships: Botany Bay, D'vor, Meridien
Participate in all the events and try to get as much of the event rewards as possible
Once you have reached Ops 28, the first thing to do is to get your shipyard to 28 so you can build your Saladin, Bortas or Centurion. *** Warning ***
Do not try to build more than 1 of these ships as again you will have materials shortages
Make sure to keep leveling the ship of your choice to ensure it is able to complete your dailies as you upgrade your station ops
Ops 30 means you can now build your faction miner to replace your horizon... Do it! Build all 3 faction miners gradually as you progress up your ops level and can spare some minerals. You will need them to be able to gather the raw gas, cystal and ore that you require.
Ops 32 opens up the Intrepid, Gladius and B'rel. It is recommended to again skip these ships. Keep leveling your Saladin/Bortas/Centurion. The reason is the epic ships aren't far away and they will outperform these ships very very quickly.
Ops 34 and the first order of the day is build that Enterprise/D4/Augur. Second order is to get tri-faction locked. Tri-faction lock is to get your reputation for all 3 factions (Federation, Romulan & Klingon) over 10 million.
Note:
The Enterprise is the all rounder of the bunch and it upgrades more readily than the others because it doesn't use crystal. Its demands for gas can be satisfied at higher ops level where the Si Vis Pacem event (Ops39+ only) delivers large amounts of gas as rewards.
The Augur is an incredible hostile grinder. However, it is slow and can never catch an enemy or run away in a pvp situation.
The D4 is fast. It gets to the target first and can run away if needed. It also takes a long time to max due to crystal requirements.
Participate in all the events and try to get as much of the event rewards as possible
Learn to raid and raid every chance you get.
Level up your first D'Vor to max to increase refinery yield. You will also need to scrap it to get the D'vor Feesha later.
Build your second D'Vor whenever you get the sufficient blueprints to do it. This is required as once you scrap your D'Vor for the Feesha, you won't have a ship that can mine raw latinum effectively as the Feesha can only mine concentrated latinum fast and not raw latinum.
Level up your Franklin to max. You will need to scrap this to get the Franklin-A later. You do not need to build the Franklin again once you have the Franklin-A
Important Note: Always ensure your primary dailies ship is strong enough to complete your dailies
Level up your base and rush to Ops 39 to reap maximum rewards. There is a jump in event rewards plus the introduction of the Si Vis Pacem and Jelly Fish Brawl* events (*you will need to have an ISS Jellyfish to see this event)
Participate in all the events and try to get as much of the event rewards as possible
Raid, raid, raid. You will need the resources for building upgrades that cost billions each.
Don't forget to keep your researches on track
Ships
Keep maxing out and scrapping your Stellas
At Ops 39, start building and scrapping Mayflower, D3 and Legionaries for G4 minerals
Max your Discovery and start hoarding the Discovery Refinery Tokensfor use at ops 40+
Scrap your Franklin for the Franklin-A. Ensure your Franklin-A is able to handle your swarm dailies requirements. Note: The Franklin-A takes a long time to build. Wait till your shipyard is higher and assembly line research is higher to reduce the build time. Prepare lots of speedups. Otherwise, you will have trouble to complete your swarm dailies.
Scrap your D'Vor (min level 41) to build the D'Vor Feesha in order to mine concentrated latinum. Note: make sure you have a second D'vor to continue mining raw latinum.
Make sure your Epic ship (Enterprise/D4/Augur) is able to complete your dailies (Tier-7 is recommended before going ops 40+)
Have at least 1 mining ship that can reach deep space for mining (assuming you already have access to 1 territory that has G4 mines)
Take your time to get the ISS Jellyfish.
Get ready for Ops 41
Note:
Getting the ISS Jellyfish is important as it gives you access to the Jelly Fish Brawl event.
However, do not level it up aggressively as it will cause problems later on when upgrading ops
Remember to keep a stash of up to 3000 2* uncommon refined crystals (final amount depends on your efficiency researches) for Drydock E as it is required for the initial build of this building.
Forget Ops 40 (It's a trap!). Make your plans to go straight to Ops 41. Otherwise, stay put at Ops 39.
Once you have made it Ops 41, start progressing your G3 epic ships and researches as your buildings no longer consume G3 minerals.
Building efficiency researches become increasingly important as building upgrade costs skyrocket.
Build your first G4 Survey ship (Hydra/B'Chor/Vorta Vor) to complement your DS G4 mining capability
Start refining your Discovery Refinery Tokens for 24 x 1 day speedups everyday
Keep building and scrapping Mayflower, D3 and Legionaries for G4 minerals
Scrap your Saladin/Bortas/Centurion for G4 minerals if you no longer use them
Important: maintain your faction reputation to ensure that the daily faction hostile requirements are in line with the daily hostile hunters. Pushing the faction reputation too high will result in difficulty in completing the dailies and may reduce the enjoyment you get from the game.
Note: It is recommended to skip the Kelvin/K'Tinga/Valdore as these ships will slow down ops progression and the G3 Epics/ISS Jellyfish are able to carry the dailies up to ops45
Get to Ops45 as soon as you can. Ops45 gives better rewards than 44 and opens up more research.
Ops45 is where the demands for G4 rare sky rocket. Any F2P or dolphin will be stuck at ops45 for months. So it is a good time to settle down and catch up on the ships and research that do not use G4 rare material.
You should also start gathering the materials and ship parts for the Ops46 (Newton/Pilum/Korinar) ships as they need huge amounts to level up.
If you havent been collecting Away Team Credits (ATC) it is time todo so. You may need it to supplement your faction credits as you continue to scrap ships and still maintain enough credits to buy the Ops46 ships once you reach Ops46 and upgrade your shipyard to 46.
Important: Ops45 requires huge amounts of G4 rare material. Do not spend these material on anything other than the buildings or you will be stuck at ops45 for many many months.
