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 Senatorhung's Analysis: When to hit matched rank NPCs 
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so, we all know that NPCs provide lots of goodies, especially the current Elios seasonal ones, but there are some rank ranges where it makes more sense to focus on specific NPCs and skip others in the meantime.

was just noodling around in my ranks spreadsheet and figured i'd collate this info before tinypic shuts down. 3 rank range charts of matched rank NPCs follow, that exclude seasonal or mission-related NPCs.

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so, at rank 100, stryll assassins take a minimum of TWELVE hits to drop .. so that is generally not a great use of scarce energy resources. same thing with most of the NPCs. the only exceptions at rank 100 would be t.o. troop carriers (9 hits min) and mylarai extractors (4 hits min). if you only have 2 NPC slots available, you can probably expand your NPC pool to include dark runners (3 hits min), sha'din chargers (4 hits min), and rogue tech collectors (6 hits min). runners and chargers give only xp, but the ctp from tech collectors can be sold on the Galactic Trade Center for decent credits. basically, your game should be focused more on PvP, learning how to decide which planets to colonize or conquer and how to build them up, and based on your intended playstyle, figuring out which mission chains make sense to do.

once you move up to rank 250, you can probably throw blade harvesters (3 hits min) and rogue labpods (5 hits min) into the pool. those can help you build up your own planetary research and mining richness. if you have unlocked the battle market, you can add RSL siege cannons as well, but 50 research points for 15 energy might not otherwise be worthwhile. and stuff like stryll assassins and shockfighters should still be left to expire untouched. outside of matched rank NPCs, look for vortul (6 hits min), okkilor (8 hits min), and korteth (9 hits min), whose drops scrap for 19 to 38 ctp. stalar command center is a shared NPC which requires 10 hits min to lock, but gives decent ctp as well. also look forward to lazuli fabrication plants starting at rank 260. around rank 300, you should start looking to unlock at least 4 NPC slots.

getting up to rank 400, you would still be avoiding sha'din penetrator, dark trafficker, lazuli harrower, sabre gunship, stryll trapper, and stryll assassin, but everything else should be doable. you should have access to all legion mission NPC tasks, but should still avoid a couple of the more challenging ones, particularly darmos or nabai. outside of matched NPCs, you will lose vortul, but will still have access to okkilor and korteth. if you want a replacement ctp source for vortul, add reynard (10 hits min) to your NPC target pool. you should be considering pursuing the tactical remodulation ability to be able to flush your NPC battle tab every 8 hours. going back to stalar command center, that NPC is also the best target for acquiring the medal, "if you want something done right", which requires 180 hits min to drop solo - remember that this NPC disappears at rank 500!


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moving to rank 600 .. you will have lose access to okkilor and reynard and stalar. you will still have korteth until rank 650. PvP targets might be getting a bit tougher, so adding sha'din penetrators, lazuli harrowers, sabre gunships, and stryll trappers may be a good idea. shockfighters can be added to the pool if you are dealing with any tougher mission NPCs, but are otherwise not essential. dark traffickers and stryll assassins should still generally be avoided (though i understand the 12 hour timer on traffickers can be annoying when you are waiting for the slot to clear). if you haven't already unlocked up to 6 NPC slots, this would be a good time to work on that.

at rank 1000 .. stryll assassins join the shockfighter at 4 hits minimum, and you likely will be able to find a use for their dark badges now. dark traffickers are still garbage, but at 2 hits minimum now, they can be cleared without sacrificing too much energy or xp. dark runners and mylarai extractors go down to 1.hit wonders. you should also consider pursuing the raix megaweapon to be able to drop tougher solo NPCs with a single shot - once you have that, darmos and nabai LM NPC hunts will be much more feasible.

at rank 1500 .. sha'din chargers join the 1.hit wonder pool. pretty much every standard matched NPC is okay to smack around. if you haven't already unlocked up to 8 NPC slots, this would be a good time to work on that. remember that you lose t.o. troop carriers at rank 2200, so take down as many as you can at 3 hits per finish.


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at rank 2200 you lose access to t.o. troop carriers and blade harvesters. stryll assassins go down to 3.hits to join the shockfighter, while RSL siege cannons join the 1.hit wonder pool. pretty much every other available matched rank NPC is at most 2 hits as long as you avoid attack debuffs.

at rank 3500, sha'din penetrators and rogue tech collectors also become 1.hit wonders, while stryll assassins and shockfighters go down to 2.hits.

at rank 5000, dark traffickers go down to 1.hit. NPCs are a breeze now !!

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Last edited by senatorhung on Thu Jul 25, 2019 12:24 pm, edited 4 times in total.



Wed Jul 24, 2019 7:37 pm
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Really interesting, but aren't you forgetting something? Most rank 100, 200 and even some rank 300 don't have more than 2 NPC slots, or 4 at the most, so it's really tough for them to avoid any individual NPC. Yeah, they can use Tactical Remodulation three times each day, but they're still going to have to kill a bunch of them.


Thu Jul 25, 2019 1:40 am
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xencindy wrote:
Really interesting, but aren't you forgetting something? Most rank 100, 200 and even some rank 300 don't have more than 2 NPC slots, or 4 at the most, so it's really tough for them to avoid any individual NPC. Yeah, they can use Tactical Remodulation three times each day, but they're still going to have to kill a bunch of them.

nope, just let them expire. at rank 100, i had 524 PvP kills and 93 NPC kills. total NPC kills did not surpass PvP kills for me until rank 219. i reached 10x NPC kills to PvP kills at rank 1181. i am just under 35x now.

also edited my post to add a few more wiki links, including references to tactical remodulation and the raix megaweapon.

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Rank 3950 Litheor Governor 100% DCR r385-r2200 GL Marauder #26
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PvP leaderboards: 70212 raids: #1; 40852 kills: #1; 96377 hacks: #3;


Thu Jul 25, 2019 12:33 pm
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I envy both your patience in letting them expire, and your ability to remember to come back and kill some more NPCs, but only the ones you wanted.

I've recommended your post to our lower ranks, but I don't know if any of them have gotten in here to see it.


Sat Jul 27, 2019 4:54 am
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xencindy wrote:
I've recommended your post to our lower ranks, but I don't know if any of them have gotten in here to see it.

thx for that. it obviously isn't as helpful a guide for those over rank 1k who should already be aware of most of it. but we have a couple of folks under rank 300 here at Zentzu and the legion chat isn't accomodating enough to host content like this.

xencindy wrote:
I envy both your patience in letting them expire, and your ability to remember to come back and kill some more NPCs, but only the ones you wanted.

patience ? lol. just got me used to tracking timers earlier than most. there were occasional days back in the 2-slot NPC days that i didn't hit a single NPC since the most efficient NPCs only gave xp and no drops. and since i was a slow-ranking SSB, PvP targets were plenty to keep me occupied. anyone who tries to 'start' to focus on PvP after rank 1500 is in for a tough slog on those medals lol.

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Rank 3950 Litheor Governor 100% DCR r385-r2200 GL Marauder #26
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PvP leaderboards: 70212 raids: #1; 40852 kills: #1; 96377 hacks: #3;


Sat Jul 27, 2019 2:16 pm
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I didn't start getting serious about PvP until about rank 1800, and didn't start working on the 5k Raids medal until after rank 2k. It is doable, with some tolerant friends letting me multi-raid


Wed Jul 31, 2019 12:19 am
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