Is it okay to freeze rank at a low rank? I am currently visiting a research legion to get more of a jump on researching things like hulls, planet structures, and other things, especially getting closer to the CTL. But is it stupid to freeze rank at a low level. I'm a rank 78 with an average ship:

Rank 78 Aerlen Fixer
Combat Reputation: Master/Menacing

Player Kills 186
Deaths from Players 67
Non-Player Kills 278
Planets Found 78
Planets Occupied 20
Planets Captured 4
Missions Completed 206
Scans Performed 309
Successful Hacks 154
Successful Raids 128

Size Class: Heavy Cruiser (344 Decks)
Attack: 928, Defense: 508 (unbuffed)
Scan: 31
Cloak: 30
Cargo 1665
Upkeep: 4.5 mil

Crew:
294 engineers
171 Tactical Officers
186 Helmsmen
119 Scientists

2787hull, 229 shield (unbuffed)

Production:
~Mining: 548/hr
~Artifact: 962/hr
~Research: 1427/hr

Quantum Disassembly 0/3
Quantum Capacitors 0/4
Inverse Graviton Fields 2/3
Wideband Jamming 0/3
Nexus Grids 1/3
Inertial Dampening 0/3
Subspace Sensors 0/3
Quantum Assembly 0/3
AI Logistics 2/3

I feel like my ship is pretty weak at my rank. I have no problems with killing people, and raiding is very easy, but I want to stick on the smaller end of the scale as far as ship size goes, however I'm scared I'm behind where I should be at my rank.

Is it okay to stop ranking for a while and use energy to hack? I would also be burning research points and trying to get more rescued prisoners and the like to make my ship stronger, but I don't know if its too early to be thinking about this stuff or if its a waste of time. As of today I'm visiting a research legion to help get farther along on my research progression rate, which will give an extra 20k per day.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


Oh and one last thing, I am trying to work on getting my ratios to be 25:1 attack and 10:1 energy, and although I am far from that, I was wondering if freeze ranking to acquire more rescued prisoners to get closer to that ratio would be stupid or smart. Sorry if this is a noob thread lol...

Don't freeze rank or even slow rank, base your ranking on the planets you have scanned/planet slots. If you have planets that you want to colonise/invade rank to have enough planet slots, if you dont have planets you want on scan then rank at a pace you like but make sure when you do your next scan run that you have some spare planet slots or have the ability to rank to make room. You will also want to have a couple of planet slots free at all times in case a nice planet comes up ffa in your legion.

It depends on your goals, if you want to be strong for your rank then freeze/slow rank but if your freeze ranking at the expense of extra planets (ie artifact) then your progression in the long run will be slowed.

Artifact production and time spent with high artifact production is key for a strong ship. Research will only get you so far, artifacts will be the difference in the long run.

In short, no.

To piggy-back what whito01 has said, I also do not recommend freeze/slow-ranking at your current stage. In order for your ship to get really strong, you will need a lot more AP/hr. With less than 1K AP/hr, you are not getting enough rescued prisoners, bracket, xcharges or droids to really make a difference.

Currently, my AP/hr is around 80,000. I just pulled one hour of production, and I did not get a single rescued prisoner. Of course, sometimes I pull 5 prisoners in a single hour's pull. Just for argument's sake, let's say I average 3 prisoners pull hour's pull.

At your current pace, you will accumulate 80,000 AP over 83 hours, in which time you average 3 prisoners. That is less than 1 prisoner a day. Do you think that is a constructive way to grow your ship?

If you try to grow your ship a natural way, by ranking at a normal pace and opening up planet slots (and take artifact planets), you will see distinct growth over time. Much more than if you just freeze rank and just collect resources, which tbh aren't high enough to justify a slow growth strategy.

Thanks everybody for the responses, was just curious was all.

if you are going to freeze / slow rank there should be a purpose behind it >> goals, etc...

the best time to freeze / slow rank is :
if you are a member of a production race - Mylarai / Kronyn / Talitherian
your artifact production is good for your level [ 20k+/hr at level 350 would be an example ]

still people will say there is no point, as you can achienve the same if not more by ranking normally, but its really what you want out of the game, and slow rankers mostly are just about being tough for their rank range.

I just mostly figure I can work on blue badges and getting my planet structures, more hulls (just reached nexus armor) and then of course getting closer to that CTL lol.

Though I miss Defenders already ;o

If you can even have that thought, put logic aside and try it . If you find fun in it like I did, well done!

I'm at rank 300 and was asking if I should freeze rank for a lot of the same reasons and I've been getting similar responses. At your rank, I would say no, ask your leader a lot of questions about what to do, if he's a good leader he'll help you raise your ship from the ground up, combined with good resources and your ship could turn into a real killer. If you raise your ship well you shouldn't have to freeze rank.

Piece of advice though, freeze ranking is only doable at lower ranks IF you're in an artifact legion. Level 6 base or higher.

Research legion at low rank is usually more effective.... Get some nice hulls and planetaries..

And how is he going to pay for the upkeep for the high-end modules?

Not that high... Around 1 tier higher than the others around you... And besides... Sell artis or Ctp or maybe some high ranker might give you a couple bil or something.

I make 3-5 mil credits per shipment of minerals, and my ship upkeep is 7 mil. I did freeze rank for about 10 days, and got near 200 hacks done, got research through to +6 (closing in on +7s), getting VERY close to CTL opening up, and got to collect rescued prisoners and other useful artifacts to make my ship stronger for my rank. I did visit a research legion for a bit to help the cause, but just returned to my home legion, and although I found it boring to just hack the whole time, it was worth it for me. Allowed my ship to become much stronger and made a big dent on research trees. Got through a bunch of hull tiers, defense, shields (for planets), but mostly planet structures and CTL. That and I got to do a lot of hacking which I was in need of, so I could get a cipher bot and a decryption quad frame. I plan on freeze ranking for a while longer to get more cipher bots, but I have also been raiding as well if I find disables.

I don't know it was frowned upon for me to do it according to this thread, but I found it pretty beneficial to me.


Besides I don't need to worry about upkeep at the moment . SSB=very low upkeep lol

I was mostly told by leaders/higher ranks, that I needed to put a bigger dent into my research works. And from a personal level, I hadn't done much in the hacking area. I am in an artifact legion with ~60k arti payout, but I visited a research legion to get an additional ~25k research per hour (along with ~25k arti pay out) for some time.

I don't know it was somewhat boring to freeze rank, but from what I've seen in my ship strength and such, I've gotten much stronger then I was!

it tends to have that effect but yes freeze ranking can be quite boring, snail ranking on the other hand can be pretty fun.

well getting legion alerted tends to stem off the boredom people at my rank seem to get pissy when you use an EMP

people at any rank get pissy when you use an EMP, its like you gave their ship herpatitus B or something
wait till you have around 1k containment missles and you just start launching them at your battle tab cause you have nothing better to do with them, thats a fun game.

The weirdest thing is, they always hit me with them when I don't have any buffs. Or hit me with a positron cloud after I've hit a qft. Its like some kind of bizzaro world.

I don't know why people even bother with it XD. I just do it so I get better critical hits, but at my rank its like you use ONE artifact and "you've been alerted for using artis" its like why not lol. Krionite Torpedo, a few emps, and you are a 4-5 hit kill XD. easy. xD.