Hello folks!
This is a guide on how to earn a decent amount of EC in a relatively quick time. I'll be focusing on the methods that require least amount of investment (aka the biggest bang for your buck). If you have other suggestions/advice, feel free to post it below the OP.
What is EC?
EC is short for energy credits - a basic ingame currency of Star Trek Online. It's the most prolific currency (compared to the refined dilithium or lobi crystals), but with enough EC, you can buy a wide assortment of things from the Exchange (even the ships and trinkets usually acquired from lockboxes and promotion packs).
OK, how do I get the EC?
There's many ways to earn EC in game, and in most cases you'll need a semi-decent ship build and occasional reputation piece of equipment.
1. "Tour the Galaxy" - a daily mission (you can acquire it from the faction mission tab) where you visit as many certain systems in the Alpha and Beta quadrants within a time limit. You are not required to visit all the systems to claim the reward, but if you ace the mission, you can earn up to 925k EC. While this mission can be started from lvl 10, you should be at least lvl 50 (access to quantum slipstream drive) to be able to achieve any relevant amount of success (and therefore EC).
REQUIREMENTS:
- lvl 50 (access to a quantum slipstream drive)
- engine with bonus to the system space speed: Assimilated subtranswarp engines (from tier 3 Omega reputation) are the most cost-effective engines for the task, you can also use other engines from the same reputation (MACO or Omega engines), but assimilated engines are the best all-rounder.
- Polaric modulator console: for the boost to turn rate while in slipstream, a free reward from the Delta Flight SP mission
I'm not going to discuss exact strategy of how to do this mission most effectively, there's a lot of youtube vids that can do it better, like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEHTSny6TiI
2. System patrol missions: there's bunch of these missions in the romulan space (Japori, Carraya, Gamma Eridon, Narendra, Archer, Beta Thoridar systems) and the Delta quadrant which are repeatable. They award you small amount of dilithium, reputation marks and the loot from killing enemy spawns. There's usually 5 enemy spawn groups and when you kill the last spawn, mission ends. This does put you on 30 minute cooldown, but you can evade this if you warp out from the mission before killing the last spawn. Mission will reset and you can start it again.
Best patrol mission in regards to the loot drops is the Argala System Patrol in the Delta quadrant.
REQUIREMENTS: lvl 50 and a ship (build) that won't blow up if the enemies look at it. For Argala system patrol, you'll also need to gain access to the Delta quadrant.
3. Space battlezones: you can choose between Undine and Terran battlezone. The amount of loot will depend on the amount of allies - more allies on the same spot equals more enemies and therefore more loot drops. I suggest getting a team of buddies and set the loot distribution on "Round Robin" (loot gets immediately distributed by player order - this will prevent a bunch of loot pop-ups on your screen and prevent any loot arguments).
REQUIREMENTS: lvl 50 and semi-decent ship build.
Honorable mentions:
- Admiralty system: if you have a decent selection of ship admiralty cards, you can focus on the missions that reward EC (either as a base or a bonus reward). No campaign has a special focus on the EC, but to maximize the profits, I suggest focusing on KDF and Ferengi campaigns as they also reward the biggest amount of the dilithium ore.
- Lockbox keys: if you followed my previous guide about dilithium farming through doffing, and have a nice amount of refined dilithium, you can use that dilithium and buy Zen currency on the Dilithium Exchange. With that Zen you can buy lockbox keys in the Zen Store, and then you can sell these keys on the exchange (current price is around 4.1 million EC per key).
To maximize profits, do not buy zen or sell keys during an actual lockbox event - at these times Zen is the most expensive and the keys are the cheapest (due to supply and demand) - buy Zen when there's no special events going, and buy keys when they are on a sale.
Final words
- Note that I haven't mentioned things like selling upgrades/crafted gear or selling doffs (either free doffs from recruitment missions or those bought from fleet starbase with fleet cred). These options are more time consuming and require a more in-depth knowledge of the Exchange prices and what's the "hot stuff", and it goes against the basic premise of this guide.
- While most of the loot is vendor trash, keep an eye on purple drops - especially beams, dual heavy cannons, turrets and tactical consoles. These can still fetch a decent price on the Exchange, so you should check the current price of such items before you vendor them.
13 Likes
For utilization with Tour the Galaxy, this is a list and breakdown of a lot of routes as well as the math behind them. There are many options to fit many different abilities and resources your different characters may have.
The Traveling Starship Problem.
The Traveling Starship Problem.
2 Likes
Edit: removed Foundry entry as Foundry is no longer available.