Hey. When I first started and checked out the message board for advice, what everyone advised was to put almost all your points into decks. No body mentioned any other viable strategy.
I'd like to offer an alternative. Put more points into engineers than decks.

The main purpose is to level quicker. That way your able to colonize more planets, which will allow you to produce more minerals/artifacts/research. In the long run, it will allow you to be stronger than someone who started at the same time as you. (But, it will also make you much weaker than someone at your own level. It isn't a big issue, which I'll explain later)

How effective is this strategy? I started playing several months after the game came out. DOO had already been established and I think Nocifer was around the 150 rank. Currently I'm 10 ranks higher than him. I've spent around $20 dollars so far (mostly to get the father artifact and change the race/profession). Right now the game mechanics is set up so that when you use artifacts and do certain missions with high energy to xp ratio it's possible to continually level without waiting for your energy to recharge. I've gained 10 levels in around 20 mins before without using an energy cube or buying energy (There are 2 or 3 missions which will allow you to do that if you have enough energy). At my current rank of 390 I can usually level twice a day (using artifacts to max out the energy to xp ratio).

The biggest drawback is that I don't have enough deck space to equip everything. I'm always having to equip/un-equip modules, which can become a pain with all the new modules coming out and also very expensive. Another drawback is that your very weak compared to others at your level ( I live up to may name ). But, it's not an issue since there's almost no point in pvp atm. Npc's give much better xp and drops than other players. As long as you don't talk trash to people they'll leave you alone. Even if someone does come after you, if you have all your traps up it will discourage most of them. I've been disabled 15 times and most of those came in my early levels.

This strategy isn't for everyone, but at least it is a viable option to the heavy deck strategy.

I put enough to get 300 engineers, before I learned much about the game it was how I play all of my FB games (energy only) purely to level faster but I don't really "play" the others I just level each day then wait for energy refill. I did missions only until around rank 60 when I finally had the tech and patience to remove one of the two damned Shroud Bases I had spawned from blocking other NPCs I could actually beat from appearing. This game offers actual interesting game play, and I started to realize I couldn't access a lot of stuff without diversifying my ship. However, these engineers have sped up my leveling a lot. Here's why:

If you do the math, 1 rank point = +2 engineer = +2 energy reserves for life. 2 energy is optimally 5-6 XP (maybe 7 with XP boosting artifacts) per level or energy cube. This allows fairly fast leveling at least to rank 50. Even at rank 125 it accounts for almost 1/3 of my capacity and allows me to un-equip a generator and still have 14 hours of energy storage. At higher levels relays increasing energy growth is more important than storage and so are the decks if you actually want to be effective or unlock missions.

While I don't think that decks are over rated, I do like the fact that someone is actually suggesting more than one path. Not to high jack your topic, but I offer yet one more possibility. You can go the other way. Instead of fast ranking, you can slow play it. Someone else mentioned the strategy they use on other facebook games. Slow playing is a time honored tactic... and it is perfect for a game where high ranks can't farm you unless you are foolish enough to hit someone in their legion. By slow playing, you get stronger over time respectively to other players your own rank. Someone was happy about ranking twice a day... other people are happy to rank once every two weeks!

since you get more decks from AP eventually anyways, levelling fast to increase your production with the use of engineers is a decent long term strategy. The best XP return is NPCs though and the 5 engineers a level don't keep up with the amount of extra xp each level takes. IMO it is more fun to at least be capable of PVP with a more powerful ship.

It's valid (slow ranking) for someone who wants to do heavy PVP or casual play, I personally did it for a few days and got tired of not getting XP for raiding/hacking, and the reward was not enough vs. what I already make and the cost (mostly the cost of lost XP gain). That's just me though.


Rank 125 = 5000 XP to level. At this rank, assuming I put everything into engineers, 125*5=625 rank point*2 per point engineers = 1250 energy reserve/rank * 2.4 XP/energy (assumed sustainable mission XP ratio) = 3000 XP. Not enough to level.

I think at rank 100 it was like 2000 XP to level, and following from the above I would still be leveling "instantly" from the engineer energy. However, XTS-9 Refinement (1.75) / Stellar Cartography (2.33) / Thetacron Yield Test (2.22) are the only infinitely repeating missions and Stellar Cartography requires rank 115 (assuming you have the exotic matter). For other missions you might be able to meet requirements through artifacts if you go AP heavy (forget high research with a low deck ship) as you will be getting a lot of planets here.


Conclusion: if you're going to do heavy engineers, do them for the first 50 ranks or so, or until you can no longer level from their energy with maybe a little downtime (it might work as high as 100, but it'll be hard on you after that to adjust). You'll get their full benefit for all those ranks and quickly. After that, their usefulness declines and you're better off doing energy tech and decks (and decks in general so you can actually install modules). You'll still continue to benefit from faster leveling, but the gain vs. having to use energy growth (relays) to level will decline. I essentially power leveled through 50-60 ranks and decided I liked the game and wanted more out of it than just spending energy each day.

And yes, I have since switched to NPCs mostly since if done right it gives 3.0+ XP/energy (better than almost all missions). It's also 10 eng per level not 5 isn't it (+2/point) ? The XP/level was almost linear but after 100 it becomes more exponential so trying to level from power storage alone won't work anymore.

I'm not advocating dumping everything into energy. It's inefficient and impractical. What I like is that it's a matter of finding the right balance for your situation to try and get the best efficiency. Atm, I've put in 1280 points into engineers (so I have 2660 engineers) and 1180 points into decks. This set up allows me to have a strong enough ship to kill a crap load of NPC's (over 5000 so far) at over 4.0 xp/energy (using artifacts) and play with over 4500 energy everytime I level, which allows me to level quicker than anyone else not using energy cubes or buying energy.

For me, when I play a game, I want to be competitive with the top players. Since I started later than a lot of players and I don't have the money to be a CC warrior, it would have been impossible to catch up using the same strategy everyone else uses. I feel going the heavy engineer route has allowed me to be competitive with the top players (competitive in terms of killing npc's and production of minerals/artifacts/research).

This approach is viable for those specific players who only love to do missions alone and hate PVP and NPCs.. This path isn't great at all if you also want to farm NPCs. Farming NPC requires strong ship to increase energy efficiency per kill.. For example, it only cost me mere 150 energy to lock-in loot on Graxis and my shield almost got depleted and zero hull damage at all for full 7% damage.. If I am on this energy route, it would easily cost me over 2k energy just to lock in loot on Graxis.. No thanks.. I prefer to minimize my energy requirement per NPC lock-in or kill. That's better long-term strategy for growth to handle ANYTHING.. The nice bonus to become strong at NPC combat is that you'll naturally become strong in PVP too if anybody ever wants to fight you and you'll be able to stand on your own to defend yourself just to stop them from farming you...

Since I had stopped doing PVP pretty much in last 2 months other than few PVP fights, my ship had gotten much more powerful from constant NPC farmings. When I finally did PVP, it had gotten SO much easier enough to bypass their traps to kill due to too much damage per hit.. If I did lot of PVP in last 2 months, I wouldn't be as powerful as I would be right now.. PVP doesn't give any way to power my ship up that NPC farming will..

And that is why decks kick ass.
However there is a limit to the maxium deck size, For example: You maxed out tech tree, you put the best modules on your ship (lets say that a grand total of 10k deck space) There is no point in having 12k deck space.

Yeah, once you maxed out decksize to fit ALL modules along with very high AP production, you'll find that your decksize will naturally grow and grow thanks to all free ship-bots from shipment. You'll find so much easier time to invest all rank points into crewmen such as energy like OP said..

I have almost 60 decksize surplus now thanks to shipment and I haven't even spend one cent into decksize growth since last summer. That's why I decided to accelerate my research tech so it can "keep" up with free decksize growth.

How much AP do you get per hour?

Currently 6k per hour. It seems is at the point that my deck size growth outpaces my demand of the space lately due to shipments plus NPC farming for vaults+prisoners..

It might be helpful if you actually read the previous posts before responding. The approach is actually great for killing NPC's in the long run.

I mentioned you earlier in a reference because your probably the best known of the top players (it's a compliment). As I stated, I started playing when you were already in the rank 150's. While only spending 20$ compared to the thousands that you have invested, I've been able to pass you in rank (I mention this because most people playing aren't able to put a lot of money into the game and so they are not able to use the same strategy that CC warriors can). And as to NPC killing I'm less than 300 behind you.

If we were to see who could kill more NPC's in a 1 hour span starting from full energy and not using energy cubes and not buying energy, I would win easily. The reason being is that even though you can kill them faster and more efficiently, you would eventually have to stop to let your energy re fill up. But, when I use artifacts I can continually kill without having to stop. I would actually have extra energy unspent when I level if I only killed NPC's and didn't do missions. (The reason I'm not a much higher level is that I run through artifacts quicker than I can get them)

In the long run the energy approach is a better option to killing NPC's if done correctly for non CC warriors.

Honestly I don't know why your bringing up the PVP and how much dmg you can do to them and how NPC fighting is better than PVP fighting (except to brag) since I already wrote about it. Seriously, read the post before responding. Thank you.

Oh yeah, I'm at 8k artifact per hour.

I never said that Decks aren't important. It's just that people are putting to much importance on it.

As I mentioned when I first started playing and looked on the forum, everyone was saying put almost everything into decks. Unless your a CC warrior, for the long term it's not the most efficient strategy. I'm just offering a different alternative to the "all in decks" strategy. One which I feel works well.

I can see frails point here that would help a lot. When I first started I put a lot of my points into energy however once I I realized that my models where getting larger than I could handle I stopped and I switched to decks so I could add more. Ever since then I have just kept adding them to my decks so know I have a huge ship and I am always adding more. At the same time now that my research is taking longer to do with each tier I am putting more with every rank or prisoner into energy and attack. While you may be able to beat Noc in NPC killing I think you would have a hard time with me if I was to be fully buffed. My attack against NPC's is a lot higher than Nocs pushing 12K I think if not higher. Not only that it would also be cheaper for me since my hull and shield fully buffed is 15,425 hull and 6,800 shield. Then you add in my higher energy modules as well. I only mention this because with out my 2,661 deck space I would not be able to put all these on.

If you are a more casual player I would suggest going more into energy. If you want to just log in once or twice a day collect your resources and do a few missions that is what I would do. However if you want to be more aggressive and do a lot of PVP fighting I would go with more decks so you can get more hull, shield, attack, and defense. I only say this because to me spending a rank point for two energy is not a good use for them. It takes me 42 deck space for one of my energy models and I get 337 for each of them. So that is a lot better ratio for me.

I do see your point, as many elders of GL suggested, at your early ranks you put most your points into decks, however once research takes longer to complete, you would find yourself adding rank points into other stuff.

Yeah, your definitely great at killing NPC's. Last time I saw you had almost 3 times as many kills as me, I think . But, as I've said all I want is to be competitive with the top players or it's not worth playing. There is no chance for me to beat a CC warrior who plays well.

But, you kind of proved my point. Since it sounds like you didn't dump everything into decks (I'm curious, how many engineers do you have?).

My own setup is extreme since I was trying to get to 400 as quickly as possible so I could catch up with the big dogs. I tried to go with as few decks as possible while remaining efficient. But, I plan to dump everything into decks after that. (Yes, it's a pain in the ass having to equip and un equip everytime I'm about to level and after)

I still think I can kill more NPCs than you in 1 hour unless you can level without using an energy cube or buying energy. Then you would slaughter me.

Yes, using 42 deck space to get 337 energy is a better ratio. But there is only a limited amount of energy modules out there. So, I don't understand what you mean since it obvious that you should get enough deck space to hold all your energy modules.

I'd like to point out that any non CC warrior (Most of the players) starting at the same time as a CC warrior has no chance to be competitive going the all deck route. But, someone going the energy route does have a chance to be competitive against a CC warrior who starts at the same time. (Competitive in terms of NPC kills and points from mineral/artifact/research production. That's why the energy route can be used by competitive players. But Mojo311 is right in that if you want to mainly pvp early on then energy is definitely not the route to go.

If you want to pvp, Then decks is the best choice since this game is a war game, decks is what most people choose.
I believe pvp plan is lots of decks at a early rank but then focus on the crew member (energy mainly). This strat is the same as yours frail except the other way around.

Frail as of now I have 13,811 NPC kills and that is going up daily.

Ya, I as of right now have 408 Engineers that with my models give me a grand total of 2059 energy. I am trying to raise that even higher as I go but I am getting to my max without more engineers.

Another thing that I will give you is this. Since you have a smaller ship I can't do as much damage to you as you could to me if our attacks matched and we had no defense. Since I would max out while you would not do to ship size. My Massive Star Destroyer would have a hard time hitting your Goliath sized ship. But since I have more deck I have shield's on, better weapons, better defense, and so on. So that goes back to the PVP I guess which we all ready covered. lol What I'm really trying to say thou is that as long as you have a small ship and traps on it you should be safe from most PVP at a higher rank. Which is an advantage of your idea as well.

Now lets say you split up your rank points into not just energy but attack officers as well. That way while it may look like you have a small ship with no weapons on it your officers make your attack mush higher allowing you to do much more damage than your enemy can. This has also been proved to work really well in the past. (Just ask Noc about it. lol)

My point is that if you go the energy route, in the long run you will be stronger than if you went the all deck route even in pvp (that's why I said early pvp and not just pvp. And yes it's a war game, but one that doesn't really give you a strong incentive to pvp, hence why almost all the top players have at least 4x as many npc kills as player kills even though Npcs haven't been around that long).

Why will the energy be stronger in the long term, because you will level more than twice as fast. Which will allow you to research much faster. And get a lot more artifacts such as ship bots, prisoners, and the permanent stat boosters.

Interesting point, I think i will focus a bit more on engineering now.
However what you have stated is a theory, this have not yet been tried and tested. Your energy route is also a small ship stratagy as mojo pointed out.