PART 1 - BASICS
Due to the popular demand, I have decided to do a write up on the most easiest/quickest way to obtain the most important currency in STO - dilithium ore.
There are many ways to obtain dilithium ore in the game, but none is so flexible as is using the Duty Officer (Doff) system.
Why?
1. It requires very little effort - only real requirement is to reach lvl 11, which opens the doff system and gives you the first batch of duty officers.
2. It requires little focus - even the all-time-favorite dinopunching requires you to continually pay attention to the battlefield. Doffing can be done with far less focus, at tempo you decide - there is no time limit or anything else requiring your immediate attention. You can do it while surfing the net, listening to the music etc.
How to start
Starting is easy - you need to hit lvl 11 with your character and get the first batch of your duty officers. Once this is done, you gain access to the Duty Officer tab. I will not go into details here, spend some time to familiarize yourself with the interface - it has tabs for ongoing/finished missions, a list of your current doffs and lists of available missions - sorted by the current locations and departments.
You can have 20 doff missions running at any time. You can expand this by adding 3 more mission slots if you have tier 3 of the Romulan embassy, though doing so costs fleet credit.
Duty officers (doffs)
In order to earn rewards from the duty officer missions, you need duty officers aka doffs. First ones you will get are the common quality ones, but as time goes, you will acquire the uncommon and up to very rare doffs.
All doffs have 3 important aspects:
1. Doff quality: affects two things - chance to score a critical success, and the quality/amount of rewards.
2. Department: Tactical, Security, Engineering, Ops, Science, Medical, Civilian - most of the doff missions require doffs of certain department, or subdivision of that department. Having a doff of the correct department increases a base chance of a success.
3. Traits: every doff has at least one trait (it can go up to 5-6). Some traits depend on their race, and some are purely random. Certain missions require that doffs posses a certain trait(s). Having doffs with the correct traits also increases chance of a success/crit chance. Assigning doffs with the negative traits does the opposite - increases a chance of a failure/disaster.
Critical success/disaster
As you expand your selection of doffs, you will realize that the doffs from a certain departments favor certain types of traits - assault doffs favor aggressive/resilient traits, security doffs favor honorable/efficient, doctors favor teamwork/resolve, traders favor cunning/unscrupulous etc.
Getting a doff with such traits will greatly increase your chances for a critical success. Crit gives you boost to the rewards, and in some cases, it gives the additional rewards that you don't get by a normal success. It also greatly boosts the amount of base dilithium you gain. Most of missions give a base of 5 to 50 dilithium ore - crits will boost that to 125-250 range. It doesn't sound a lot, but when you start chaining those crits, it will soon become noticeable - especially of you doff with multiple toons.
Disasters means your doffs failed miserably - this usually means you get no rewards, and some or all of the doffs that participated in the mission go to sickbay and are unavailable for a mission for the next 20 hrs. Common quality doffs can even die and be lost permanently. Uncommon and better quality doffs are luckily immune to this fate - they escaped "ensign expendable" zone in time.
How to get new/better doffs?
1. Basic recruitment missions
You can recruit new doffs by running the recruitment missions at the SF/KDF Academy - find and talk to the Personnel Officer. He will give you options to recruit specific department officers, and a general recruitment mission. Last one costs 1000 refined dilithium, so use it only if you have spare dil. You also have the minor race personnel officers (Vulan, Tellarite and Andorian for Feds; Orion, Gorn and Nausicaan for KDF). These missions usually procure common quality doffs, but they have chance to give you better quality ones - up to very rare. These missions are available every 4 days (or so) so you should be checking them periodically.
NOTE: There are uncommon/rare quality recruitment missions of this type that are occasionally available in your faction's sector spaces - check under "Personal" mission list tab.
2. Lockbox doff packs
Not much to say here, each of the lockboxes can drop a pack containing better quality doffs. I do not advise gambling with keys - you are far better off selling keys on exchange and buying actual packs there - it will be far cheaper, and you can get some really good doffs.
3. Colonial mission chains
Remember those old exploration zones? There are many of those strewn all across the galaxy, and now they are only accessible via doff system. Each of these locations has a chain of doff missions that upon completion will award a specific doff of rare quality. You also get a repeatable mission which rewards either a refugee (FED) or a prisoner (KDF), and on critical success, very rare doffs of same type as first one! Exact list of actuall doffs you can get from each zone can be found here:
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Assignment_chain:_Colonization
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Assignment:_Support_Colonization_Efforts
Best way to increase chance of crit success here is to grind for purple armory officer doff from D'Kel star cluster. He/she has the best traits to recruit other doffs from other clusters. Security officer from T'ong Nebula is second best option.
NOTE: some of these former exploration zones are in Sirius and Omega Leonis sectors block and therefore not immediately available to your faction. You must either reach rank 3 in Diplomacy/Marauding doff commendation system, or finish "Surface Tension" episode to get access to those sectors. You can also ask people with tier 4 Diplomacy/Marauding to give you temporary Diplomatic Immunity/Marauding force buff to allow you entry to those sectors too.
4. Refugee doff missions
Refugee doffs can be gained by different means:
- Civilian personnel recruitment mission
- Standard reward from „Support colonization efforts“ repeatable mission for Feds
- Critical reward from „Offer sanctuary to refugees from Federation agression“ repeatable mission for KDF (gives 3 refugees)
These dudes are usable for only 1 mission type – „Asylum/Protective custody/Sanctuary on X planet“, where you have a chance to exchange the refugee for a useful doff of varying qualities. These missions are available either though „Current map“ or „Operations dept.“ mission list tab. Exact list is available here (you can access list of very rare missions via one of those two links below):
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Assignment:_Asylum_%28Rare%29
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Assignment:_Sanctuary_%28Rare%29
It usually pays to send doffs with required traits to certain locations – humans will usually have best traits for Asylum on Earth, andorians for Andor, Orions for Syndicate etc.
5. Prisoner missions
Prisoners can be gained by:
- Marauding missions for KDF: common quality prisoners
- Crit on „Strike against fugitive support network“ repeatable mission available after completion of „Facility 4028 fugitives“ mission chain: common quality prisoner and rare/very rare Dominion prisoner.
Common prisoners can be exchanged for usable doffs by „Negotiate prisoner exchange“ mission. Dominion prisoners can be exchanged for rare or better doff by „Exchange prisoners with the Dominion“ mission. This is by far best way to get good quality doffs. You can also exchange dominion prisoner for rare gamma quadrant commodities by „Deliver dominion fugitive to Gamma quadrant“ mission, but there are already trade missions for that.
6. "Instigate Defection" and "Extricate Intelligence Asset" missions.
Another good way to get better quality doffs, but requires high quality doffs to pull it off. Also, doffs acquired this way are bound to character and cannot be sold/traded, but can be exchanged for lower quality unbound ones though Personnel Officer.
7. Doff commendation rewards
All doff missions reward certain type of commendation experience (Marauding/Diplomacy, Science, Engineering etc...). You can see exact amount of this experience in "Overview" tab under "Commendation". Each type of commendation has 4 ranks. Whenever you hit a rank, you can requisition another doff from Academy (Lt. Ferra for Feds and Lt. S'stas for KDF, both are adjacent to Personnel Officers that give standard recruiting missions). First two ranks award a uncommon quality doff, 3rd rank awards a rare and 4th rank awards a very rare doff. All doffs are bound to character.
NOTE: Every 10k of commendation experience past rank 4 (100k) can be exchanged for fleet marks at fleet Starbase.
8. "Officer exchange programs"
These repeatable projects become available after you finish a corresponding "Consular Authority: Race X" mission chain. Basically, you exchange a lower quality doff (common and uncommon, don't bother risking better doffs) in hopes of getting a rare or very rare doff. I suggest buying a common doff with most suitable traits on exchange, unless you already have one spare.
9. Exchange
If anything fails and you got EC, you can buy necessary doffs on the exchange. Prices vary depending on the faction and quality, but unless you look for one of the popular doffs for your active space/ground roster, you can get rare quality doffs relatively cheap. Very rare will usually range from 250k to 1-2 million EC.
Continually working on all of the above recruitment options will help you fill your roster with good quality doffs, which will in turn increase rewards from doff missions. Keep in mind you have basic roster limit of 100 doffs, which can be increased up to 500 through zen store. But in general, you won't need more than 200 slots, unless you are looking for a lot of flexibility.
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PART 2 – SHOW ME THE DILITHIUM
Okay, you got some doffs, now where's that dilithium?
Basically, doff missions can be separated in 2 types (dilithium wise):
- Missions that directly award the dilithium ore
- Missions that award contraband, which can be turned in for the dilithium ore
We will cover both types of missions.
NOTE: If you know of a mission I have missed, do send me a tell/pm and they will be added to this list.
1. MISSIONS THAT DIRECTLY AWARD DILITHIUM
Firstly, be aware that all doff missions reward small amounts of dilithium – usually 5 to 50, depending on a mission. Critting a mission will greatly increase this amount: 125 for those missions that reward 5 base, and 150-250 for missions that reward 50 base dilithium. Therefore, critting often is good, and those small rewards do add up, especially if you doff with multiple toons.
Here's list of missions that reward larger amounts of dilithium. For exact list of required officers and positive/negative traits, check link to each mission:
"Turn over confiscated contraband“ : mother of all doff missions, and your main source of dilithium ore in the game (through doffing, at least). This mission takes 5 contraband provisions in exchange for 2k dilithium ore.
NOTE: This mission is available at any security officer - you can find these guys in First City, ESD, Ganalda Station, K7, Starbase 31, DS9 and fleet starbase (tactical floor, requires tier 3 SB).
You may not crit this mission. However, you can fail it and lose the contraband if you send common/uncommon doff with bad traits. Rare doffs of any type have no chance to fall this mission, even with the negative traits.
NOTE: as of August 2016., the cooldown of this mission was increased to 20 hrs (instead of previous 4).
"Dilithium mining in an unstable asteroid cluster“: 250 dil, 1k on crit. Available anywhere through „Engineering“ doff mission tab.
"Relocate colonists to the border": you spend 5 colonists in exchange for 500 dil, 1500 on crit. Crit chance depends on the colonists you send, and is around 10%. Colonists are obtained by the "Resettle colonists" doff mission or through admiralty missions (the latter are received packed in the inventory as common doff boxes and need to be unpacked). Both missions are available in "Operations" missions tab, and occasionally in "Current map" tab.
NOTE: colonists are also used for some missions in colonial mission chains. If you are short on colonists, you can buy some from the exchange.
"Transport settlers": similar to the previous mission, this mission is part of colonial mission chains, and also offers the same dil rewards. Unlike previous mission, it is not repeatable (it is doable only once per mission chain).
NOTE: There is a repeatable mission called "Grant passage to colonists" that is similar to Relocate colonists, but it has chance to fail and grants only 1000 dil on crit. Don't bother with this one.
"Execute changeling spy": you sacrifice one doff for a chance to get 500 dil. Crit on this mission is doubleplusgood since it awards 2000 dil and 5 contraband - effectively 4k dil! I suggest you choose only common and uncommon doffs to sacrifice, better ones are not worth spending on this mission.
NOTE: There's federation version of this mission, but it is very rare. Check the link in mission name for more info.
"Execute mutineers": KDF only, you sacrifice 5 doffs for 750 dilithium, 1,5k on crit. Use only if you have spare common doffs.
"Forced labor requisition on X": KDF only, you sacrifice 5 prisoners for 500 dil, 1500 on crit (around 10% chance). Mission can fail and in that case you lose all the prisoners for no gain.
NOTE: Prisoners are acquired through marauding missions, admiralty missions and on a crit success on "Strike against fugitive support network" repeatable mission. Andorian and Ferengi prisoners will lower the chance of success of this mission.
"Forced labor camp in X": KDF only, available in the old exploration clusters after you start the colonization mission chain. You sacrifice 3 prisoners for 350 dil, 1000 on crit. This mission is best for dumping andorian and ferengi prisoners, since they do not lower chance of success.
Crit on "Assess Risk of Assassination utilizing telekinesis": KDF only, available through "Military" missions tab, 1k dilithium.
To be continued...
Okay, you got some doffs, now where's that dilithium?
Basically, doff missions can be separated in 2 types (dilithium wise):
- Missions that directly award the dilithium ore
- Missions that award contraband, which can be turned in for the dilithium ore
We will cover both types of missions.
NOTE: If you know of a mission I have missed, do send me a tell/pm and they will be added to this list.
1. MISSIONS THAT DIRECTLY AWARD DILITHIUM
Firstly, be aware that all doff missions reward small amounts of dilithium – usually 5 to 50, depending on a mission. Critting a mission will greatly increase this amount: 125 for those missions that reward 5 base, and 150-250 for missions that reward 50 base dilithium. Therefore, critting often is good, and those small rewards do add up, especially if you doff with multiple toons.
Here's list of missions that reward larger amounts of dilithium. For exact list of required officers and positive/negative traits, check link to each mission:
"Turn over confiscated contraband“ : mother of all doff missions, and your main source of dilithium ore in the game (through doffing, at least). This mission takes 5 contraband provisions in exchange for 2k dilithium ore.
NOTE: This mission is available at any security officer - you can find these guys in First City, ESD, Ganalda Station, K7, Starbase 31, DS9 and fleet starbase (tactical floor, requires tier 3 SB).
You may not crit this mission. However, you can fail it and lose the contraband if you send common/uncommon doff with bad traits. Rare doffs of any type have no chance to fall this mission, even with the negative traits.
NOTE: as of August 2016., the cooldown of this mission was increased to 20 hrs (instead of previous 4).
"Dilithium mining in an unstable asteroid cluster“: 250 dil, 1k on crit. Available anywhere through „Engineering“ doff mission tab.
"Relocate colonists to the border": you spend 5 colonists in exchange for 500 dil, 1500 on crit. Crit chance depends on the colonists you send, and is around 10%. Colonists are obtained by the "Resettle colonists" doff mission or through admiralty missions (the latter are received packed in the inventory as common doff boxes and need to be unpacked). Both missions are available in "Operations" missions tab, and occasionally in "Current map" tab.
NOTE: colonists are also used for some missions in colonial mission chains. If you are short on colonists, you can buy some from the exchange.
"Transport settlers": similar to the previous mission, this mission is part of colonial mission chains, and also offers the same dil rewards. Unlike previous mission, it is not repeatable (it is doable only once per mission chain).
NOTE: There is a repeatable mission called "Grant passage to colonists" that is similar to Relocate colonists, but it has chance to fail and grants only 1000 dil on crit. Don't bother with this one.
"Execute changeling spy": you sacrifice one doff for a chance to get 500 dil. Crit on this mission is doubleplusgood since it awards 2000 dil and 5 contraband - effectively 4k dil! I suggest you choose only common and uncommon doffs to sacrifice, better ones are not worth spending on this mission.
NOTE: There's federation version of this mission, but it is very rare. Check the link in mission name for more info.
"Execute mutineers": KDF only, you sacrifice 5 doffs for 750 dilithium, 1,5k on crit. Use only if you have spare common doffs.
"Forced labor requisition on X": KDF only, you sacrifice 5 prisoners for 500 dil, 1500 on crit (around 10% chance). Mission can fail and in that case you lose all the prisoners for no gain.
NOTE: Prisoners are acquired through marauding missions, admiralty missions and on a crit success on "Strike against fugitive support network" repeatable mission. Andorian and Ferengi prisoners will lower the chance of success of this mission.
"Forced labor camp in X": KDF only, available in the old exploration clusters after you start the colonization mission chain. You sacrifice 3 prisoners for 350 dil, 1000 on crit. This mission is best for dumping andorian and ferengi prisoners, since they do not lower chance of success.
Crit on "Assess Risk of Assassination utilizing telekinesis": KDF only, available through "Military" missions tab, 1k dilithium.
To be continued...
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PART 3 - ABC or Always Be Contrabanding
2. MISSIONS THAT AWARD CONTRABAND
As you could see, there ain't many missions that award dilithium ore in a relatively reliable manner. Most of your effort will go into missions that net you a steady supply of contraband, and then turn that contraband into the dilithium ore by "Turn in confiscated contraband" mission. You can also send the contraband to other toons too, and keep most if not all of your toons supplied and cranking out dil at a steady basis.
Only way to get the proper amounts of contraband is through the marauding missions which are only available on the KDF side. Therefore, you will need at least 1 KDF toon to ensure any kind of a proper supply.
Alternatively, if you are swimming in EC, you can buy contraband on the exchange.
UNIVERSAL CONTRABAND MISSIONS aka Everyone Is Invited
"Confiscate contraband from crew": a basic contraband mission, available only from the "Personal" mission tab, awards 1 contraband, 1-5 on crit. Also rewards other trinkets (cannibal tribbles!) on a crit.
NOTE: Security officers from T'ong Nebula colonial chain are the best choice for this mission.
"Inspect civilian freighter": available from the "Current map" tab in sector space. 1 contraband on a succes, 5 on a crit.
NOTE: Security officers from T'ong Nebula colonial chain are the best choice for this mission.
"Strike against fugitive support network“: available after completion of "Facility 4028 fugitives“ mission chain. Awards 2 contraband on a success, 5 on a crit. Availabe from either the "Current map" or "Military" mission tabs.
"Investigate illegal gambling": available from the "Espionage" mission tab. Awards 2 contraband on a success, 3 on a crit.
"Barter Gold-Pressed Latinum for Contraband": available on the "Current map" mission tab in cardassian sectors. Requires 1800 GPL and awards 2 contraband on a success, 3 on a crit.
NOTE: GPL can be earned by playing the Dabo minigame at Quark's bar, Risa summer resort or D'Kora marauder bridge.
Crit on "Infiltrate Orion Syndicate" mission: available from the "Espionage" mission tab. Awards 3 contraband.
Crit on "Investigate Rumors of Intelligence": available from the "Personal" mission tab. Awards 5 contraband.
Crit on "Track X Fleet movement": available from the "Current map" mission tab in other faction/contested sectors. Awards 2 contraband.
Crit on "Sabotage X": available from the "Current map" mission tab in other faction/contested sectors. Awards 2 contraband.
NOTE: There are most likely other missions that award contraband on crit, but I believe these should not be your focus.
STARFLEET ONLY aka Nothing to see here:
"Investigate reports of trafficking in contraband": available in the "Current map" tab in Federation sectors. Awards 2 contraband on a success, 3 on a crit.
KDF ONLY aka Marauding is fun:
Now, we are hitting a goldmine. Get KDF toon to lvl 11 and the world of contraband aplenty opens to you. Marauding missions are a way to go, and they are available in the border and fed/romulan sectors.
Most of these missions are availabe through "Current map" or "First officer/Reman marauder" mission tabs.
"Intimidate unaligned system": Requires the energy weapons and/or projectile doffs. Awards 2 contraband on a success, 5 on a crit.
NOTE: this mission gives lots of different rewards and is bit harder to succeed.
"Disable X race freighter": requires either an energy weapon or a projectile officer doff and a tractor beam doff. Awards 3 contraband on a crit.
NOTE: May not reward contraband on a normal success, usually rewards random ground or space items up to rare quality and commodities, occasionally a prisoner. Exact rewards vary depending on race whom freighter belongs to - check the link for more details.
"Scavenge battle wreckage from skirmish": requires a fabrication engineer and a quartermaster. Rewards 1 contraband on a success and 3 on a crit. Also awards random space items and commodities.
"Unauthorized raid on illegal <Race> colony": awards mostly prisoners and commodities, even on a crit. Rarely awards contraband.
NOTE: Missions "Cripple Vulcan Science Station" and "Pillage Ferengi Trading Post" are pretty much same mission type with similar rewards.
Raid missions - 45 minutes duration (common quality)
There's bunch of these missions with different names, but all have one in common: they award 2 contraband on a success and 5 on a crit. This makes them the bread and butter missions to grind contraband. They are also most flexible regarding the doffs they require - all can be gained from colonial mission chains, and include:
- security officers: T'ong nebula
- armory officers: D'kel star cluster
- shield distribution officers: Rolor nebula
- assault squad officers: Betreka nebula
- energy weapons officers: Afehirr nebula
- projectile weapons officers: Khazan cluster
You can combine these doffs as you wish, and they will guarantee 100% success with at least 20% crit chance.
NOTE: some mission names include (strangely there's no entry in STO wiki for these): Blockade Federation transport terminal, Capture Starfleet ammunition depot, Offensive on Federation mining colony, Raid on Starfleet photonics research center, Raid Starfleet Foundry, Seize Federation Refinery.
Raid missions - 6 hours duration (rare quality)
These missions are available only in the old Sirius sector block (now Vulcan, Orion and Risa sectors), and are harder than the other missions - I didn't manage to reach 100% chance of success, even with the best quality doffs. They award large amount of commodities and 5 contraband on a crit (and even more commodities). They usually require combination of the tactical/security and operations doffs.
NOTE: again, there's no mention of these missions on STO wiki, but some include: Raid on Evacuation Station on Mimas, Raid on Terraforming Station on Venus, Raid on Training Facility on Titan etc.
There are also other marauding missions available, but I have mentioned only those that do/may reward contraband. If you have any other additions to this list, please pm me via Enjin (handle: gulremal).
2. MISSIONS THAT AWARD CONTRABAND
As you could see, there ain't many missions that award dilithium ore in a relatively reliable manner. Most of your effort will go into missions that net you a steady supply of contraband, and then turn that contraband into the dilithium ore by "Turn in confiscated contraband" mission. You can also send the contraband to other toons too, and keep most if not all of your toons supplied and cranking out dil at a steady basis.
Only way to get the proper amounts of contraband is through the marauding missions which are only available on the KDF side. Therefore, you will need at least 1 KDF toon to ensure any kind of a proper supply.
Alternatively, if you are swimming in EC, you can buy contraband on the exchange.
UNIVERSAL CONTRABAND MISSIONS aka Everyone Is Invited
"Confiscate contraband from crew": a basic contraband mission, available only from the "Personal" mission tab, awards 1 contraband, 1-5 on crit. Also rewards other trinkets (cannibal tribbles!) on a crit.
NOTE: Security officers from T'ong Nebula colonial chain are the best choice for this mission.
"Inspect civilian freighter": available from the "Current map" tab in sector space. 1 contraband on a succes, 5 on a crit.
NOTE: Security officers from T'ong Nebula colonial chain are the best choice for this mission.
"Strike against fugitive support network“: available after completion of "Facility 4028 fugitives“ mission chain. Awards 2 contraband on a success, 5 on a crit. Availabe from either the "Current map" or "Military" mission tabs.
"Investigate illegal gambling": available from the "Espionage" mission tab. Awards 2 contraband on a success, 3 on a crit.
"Barter Gold-Pressed Latinum for Contraband": available on the "Current map" mission tab in cardassian sectors. Requires 1800 GPL and awards 2 contraband on a success, 3 on a crit.
NOTE: GPL can be earned by playing the Dabo minigame at Quark's bar, Risa summer resort or D'Kora marauder bridge.
Crit on "Infiltrate Orion Syndicate" mission: available from the "Espionage" mission tab. Awards 3 contraband.
Crit on "Investigate Rumors of Intelligence": available from the "Personal" mission tab. Awards 5 contraband.
Crit on "Track X Fleet movement": available from the "Current map" mission tab in other faction/contested sectors. Awards 2 contraband.
Crit on "Sabotage X": available from the "Current map" mission tab in other faction/contested sectors. Awards 2 contraband.
NOTE: There are most likely other missions that award contraband on crit, but I believe these should not be your focus.
STARFLEET ONLY aka Nothing to see here:
"Investigate reports of trafficking in contraband": available in the "Current map" tab in Federation sectors. Awards 2 contraband on a success, 3 on a crit.
KDF ONLY aka Marauding is fun:
Now, we are hitting a goldmine. Get KDF toon to lvl 11 and the world of contraband aplenty opens to you. Marauding missions are a way to go, and they are available in the border and fed/romulan sectors.
Most of these missions are availabe through "Current map" or "First officer/Reman marauder" mission tabs.
"Intimidate unaligned system": Requires the energy weapons and/or projectile doffs. Awards 2 contraband on a success, 5 on a crit.
NOTE: this mission gives lots of different rewards and is bit harder to succeed.
"Disable X race freighter": requires either an energy weapon or a projectile officer doff and a tractor beam doff. Awards 3 contraband on a crit.
NOTE: May not reward contraband on a normal success, usually rewards random ground or space items up to rare quality and commodities, occasionally a prisoner. Exact rewards vary depending on race whom freighter belongs to - check the link for more details.
"Scavenge battle wreckage from skirmish": requires a fabrication engineer and a quartermaster. Rewards 1 contraband on a success and 3 on a crit. Also awards random space items and commodities.
"Unauthorized raid on illegal <Race> colony": awards mostly prisoners and commodities, even on a crit. Rarely awards contraband.
NOTE: Missions "Cripple Vulcan Science Station" and "Pillage Ferengi Trading Post" are pretty much same mission type with similar rewards.
Raid missions - 45 minutes duration (common quality)
There's bunch of these missions with different names, but all have one in common: they award 2 contraband on a success and 5 on a crit. This makes them the bread and butter missions to grind contraband. They are also most flexible regarding the doffs they require - all can be gained from colonial mission chains, and include:
- security officers: T'ong nebula
- armory officers: D'kel star cluster
- shield distribution officers: Rolor nebula
- assault squad officers: Betreka nebula
- energy weapons officers: Afehirr nebula
- projectile weapons officers: Khazan cluster
You can combine these doffs as you wish, and they will guarantee 100% success with at least 20% crit chance.
NOTE: some mission names include (strangely there's no entry in STO wiki for these): Blockade Federation transport terminal, Capture Starfleet ammunition depot, Offensive on Federation mining colony, Raid on Starfleet photonics research center, Raid Starfleet Foundry, Seize Federation Refinery.
Raid missions - 6 hours duration (rare quality)
These missions are available only in the old Sirius sector block (now Vulcan, Orion and Risa sectors), and are harder than the other missions - I didn't manage to reach 100% chance of success, even with the best quality doffs. They award large amount of commodities and 5 contraband on a crit (and even more commodities). They usually require combination of the tactical/security and operations doffs.
NOTE: again, there's no mention of these missions on STO wiki, but some include: Raid on Evacuation Station on Mimas, Raid on Terraforming Station on Venus, Raid on Training Facility on Titan etc.
There are also other marauding missions available, but I have mentioned only those that do/may reward contraband. If you have any other additions to this list, please pm me via Enjin (handle: gulremal).
11 Likes
This is incredibly useful, Remal! Thanks for putting the effort into this!
3 Likes
You're welcome. Doffing is extremely useful system for grinding dilithium ore and earning a fair bit of EC from selling the items from the marauding missions. Once you set up a decent doff selection on couple of characters, you can expect a solid dilithium ore income. Combined with admiralty, you can almost reach the daily refinement quota.
I'm planning on posting some budget ship builds, both for Starfleet and KDF in the near future.
I'm planning on posting some budget ship builds, both for Starfleet and KDF in the near future.
1 Like