A guildmate dropped some credits on some ship upgrades then tried to take on the Drexel Sweep. From the sound of it, it did not go well. So, two birds, one stone, I'm coming back to the blog with some basic (Very basic) advice on how to handle TOR space missions. I'm not an ace pilot, but I have earned my "Hot Shot Pilot" title, so I think I know what I'm doing well enough to teach some basics. Anything I say in here will probably be obvious to players that have been doing space missions since they got their ship; this article is aimed at players starting later in the game, or coming back to the missions after a lapse.
1. Keep your ship upgraded
With the possible exception of the final tier of ship gear, make sure you have the latest gear before trying the bright shiny, with the following exceptions. If memory serves me, you will receive the following equipment free the first time you beat a mission of a new tier:
- Grade 1 ship armor (premium)
- Grade 2 beam charger (prototype)
- Grade 4 beam charger (prototype)
- Rendilli Hyperworks beam generator (artifact)
Knowing you'll get these can save you some credits at the GTN, but the savings are really minimal. If you're tight on cash in the late levels, you may be better off spending your hard-earned creds elsewhere before you buy the maximum tier gear from the GTN: The artifact level items available at 45 and above only provide marginal upgrades over grade 5 gear and cost >30k each on our server.
Also, make sure you're buying the other usable upgrades: the power conversion module (PCM), electronic warfare pod (ECM, stands for electronic counter-measures), the electromagnetic pulse generator (EMP), and the proton torpedo tube. These upgrades provide active abilities to your ship that help you succeed in more advanced missions. They all cost fleet commendations (FCs), so you'll have to complete space missions to get them.
2. Take your finger off the blaster trigger
Don't just lean on the fire button through the whole mission. When you're firing, your shields aren't charging, and if your shields aren't charging, you're a sitting duck for incoming fire. Learning when to fire blasters and when to charge shields is necessary for your survival in these missions. Sometimes taking out the source of the fire is more effective than charging your shields. Familiarity with the missions will help you know when to do be aggressive or defensive.
Luckily, you can still fire missiles while charging your shields. An effective strategy when you have a larger missile magazine is to let your shields charge and take down enemies with only missiles for a few seconds. For more on this, read #3 below.
3. Learn to use your power conversion module effectively
I really think this is the single most important skill needed for successfully completing space missions. The module is available for 30 commendations at level 25. If you're above level 25, don't have one, and don't have the FCs to get one, run some low level missions to accumulate the commendations you need. Trying to get the FCs from the higher level missions will be a pain without a PCM.
The PCM allows you to divert power to your shields from weapons, or to weapons from shields, substantially increasing the effectiveness of your weapons or shields, while halving the effectiveness of the other. Effectively, this gives your ship three "stances": aggressive, balanced, and defensive. Also, when you divert power to shields, your shields will continue to charge slowly even when you fire your blasters. However, this will mean that your shields are charging poorly AND your cannons do crap for damage, so any benefit of the defensive stance is lost.
I'm sure there are different opinions on how to use the PCM and stances. For simplicity, I think the following rules provide a good framework to build from.
- If you're firing, divert power to the weapons.
- If your shields are failing, stop firing and divert power to shields. Use missiles if need to keep damage up.
- If you're not firing (no hostiles), divert power to shields until charged to full, then back to weapons.
Obviously, these 3 rules are not perfect for 100% of all possible situations, but they cover about 95% of them. There two notable exceptions to the above rules, but are DEFINETELY atypical. Both involve MASSIVE amounts of incoming damage. First, if you know there will be incoming damage, stop firing, divert power to shields, and let them charge as much as possible entering the firefight. This will improve your survival by increasing the buffer of damage you can take. Second, if there is so much incoming fire that you can't keep your shields charged, don't try. Just divert power to weapons and keep firing. There is no point to trying to charge your shields in these situations; the small mitigation of damage from the improved charge simply can't offset the loss of damage output.
4. Use your missiles effectively
Don't be stingy with your missiles. Early on, when you have 50 missiles or less for a mission, you need to hold onto them for mission objectives. But after you start getting 80+ missiles per mission, you can (and should) be a bit more liberal with their use. NEVER hesitate to use missiles for mission objectives (except clearing mines. If you use missiles on mines, stop playing the game. seriously.)
In the later missions, fighters are shielded and simply take too long to kill with blasters alone. I've found the most effective method of dealing with fighters in later missions is to spray them with a short burst of fire, lock a missile, and move onto the next target. It take some practice to know how long to hold the fire on the fighters, but you can destroy a LOT of fighters quickly with this method. This also goes along well with the next point...
5. He's dead, he just doesn't know it yet
And you don't have to keep firing to convince him. There is a substantial transit time for missiles and blaster fire to reach your target. Do not keep firing until distant targets are dead. They're dead, the instrument of their demise simply hasn't reached them yet, and any blaster fire you sent after whats needed to make him dead is wasted time and shields. Hold the fire on the target long enough to kill him, then move onto the next target. This will lead to more kills/second, and less incoming fire for you to deal with.
6. How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Practice. Practice. Practice. The later missions are hard, and they're harder if you don't know what to expect. Luckily, Bioware got lazy and recycled all of the missions once (except Syrvis Evac, I think). And they are almost EXACTLY THE SAME. The only differences are that the enemies in the later missions take more damage to kill, and sometimes the objectives are increased (e.g. kill 4 hangars instead of 3). OCCASIONALLY they toss in a player ship for bonus xps, but they're more distractions than anything. So if you're having trouble with a particular mission that requires grade 3 gear or better, its pretty likely there's an easier version out there. Go try that one and learn where ship appear, when you take heavy fire, and where the objectives are. Better yet, take the gear off your ship (except for the PCM and ECM, and maybe the missiles) and do the lower level missions. This will help you figure out where you charge weapons or shields, when to use missiles, etc, on a lower level of difficulty. After you're familiar with the mission, go back and try it again.
This is getting long, but there's one more I want to mention...
7. You don't have to shoot everything that moves
You don't have to kill every enemy in the mission to win, and sometimes trying can cause you to fail. Let some fighters go by if you need to charge your shields. Don't get distracted by those bonus turrets if there's a ship you need to shoot down for a mission object. And don't steer into an asteroid to try to shoot down a fighter you don't need. Just let it go. Stay alive first and foremost, and then work get your mission objectives, and then bonus, and then whatever else.
I think that's enough for now. If there's a demand, I'll try to write up advice for specific space missions later. Let me know if I missed anything, and leave comments below. Thanks for reading!
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