STOked Season 2 Episode 7: We cover the latest state of the game, up coming STO missions, Cryptic’s new transparency and guide you through “The Infected”

PLUS – We take on an exploration mission while we chat!

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NEWS:
Tribble Launch Announcement: https://www.startrekonline.com/test-shard/character-transfer
Character Copy available
Up-time seems to be 24/7, minus patch/maintenance downtime.
Very low population. Unable to PvP
The Escapist: March Madness – Developer Showdown https://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99064-2010-March-Mayhem-Developers-Showdown-Brackets-Are-Live
Cryptic is the #4 Seed! I infer that this is a good thing…. It’s a sports thing… so I don’t get it…
“Season One: Common Ground” — First Big Update announced! https://www.startrekonline.com/season_one
Biggest feature: RESPECS (available both in-game and via C-Store)
Details: https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=2356310#post2356310
1 free Respec, and 1 free token per Rank-up. Can also be purchased via merit (cost not yet released)
Numerous other features… see the link for details!
IGN releases news of upcoming features of STO: https://pc.ign.com/articles/107/1077103p1.html
Lifetime Subscriber perks! A “Captain’s Table” social map and special title (“Career Officer”)
Unconfirmed: Rumor has it that Dev Chats might be held at the Captain’s Table via in-game zone chat.
Everything else listed in “Season One” announcement above.
Interview w/ Bill Roper (CO) and Zinc @ Massively: https://www.massively.com/2010/03/11/gdc10-a-chat-with-cryptics-bill-roper-and-craig-zinkievich/#continued
Zinc jokes about “Salegate” (90-day free offer) — “Don’t do it!”
“We are probably terrible businessmen” when talking about just wanting to make good games.
EXCELLENT response posts by JacobFlowers: https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=136929
Too many details to mention by name — it’s totally worth the read.
STF “The Cure” Announcement: https://startrekonline.com/node/1307
No new info, except that it’s in the Vorn system.
From the description, is another primarily ground-based STF.
Survey One Results: https://www.startrekonline.com/survey_one_results
Bridge Interiors and Bridge Functionality ranked as top requests.
Why???? Waste of resources… more places to do nothing…
Approximately 40,000 responses. (seems low?)
State of the Game 3/12/10: https://www.startrekonline.com/node/1308
“Transparency Forward”
“So, rather than waiting until everything is done, finalized, blasted into sacred stone and prepped for PR and marketing — the traditional way of operating — we’re going to post what we’re planning on doing as soon as we finish planning it. It’s risky, yes, but it’s definitely the right thing to do.” — Zinc
Exactly what we’ve been clamoring for — Bravo!

MATH:

A Guide to “Infected”

Suggested Team:
* At least one Medic. Science officers are a must for the ground portion, and especially for the final boss.
* At least one Bunker Kit. The ability to use Cover Shields and Force Fields are incredible against the Borg. Especially in the final room.

I have now completed this twice without a Tactical officer. I surmise they are great to have for the final boss (with the Draw Fire ability), but they do not appear to be a necessity.

Walkthru:

Step 1 — Space Battle

When you first warp in, you’ll see two cubes and some spheres/probes. Proceed off to the left or right, and engage one cube (+stragglers) at a time. Don’t Impulse straight forward.

Once these are clear, you’ll be told to shutdown (aka DESTROY) the Transwarp Conduit, to prevent reinforcements from appearing.

If you approach the conduit from “behind” you can avoid aggroing the swarms of probes/spheres that spawn in front of it.
Destroy it quickly — it has a timer that will launch an additional group of Cube+Friends if it reaches zero.
If you start losing against the Borg fleet, just wipe. No death penalty! Best to regroup, and lure out small groups at a time.
Approach to 10km, fire and retreat… they will eventually follow you.
Once the conduit is destroyed, a Tactical Cube will spawn.
The Tact Cube has no special abilities beyond a normal cube. Just more hitpoints, stronger shields, and more powerful weapons.
Don’t bother reinforcing shields if you’re fighting this thing alone – it can drain them in 2-3 hits. Prepare to hull-tank!
DO reinforce your shields if you have probes/spheres attacking at the same time. And KILL THEM FIRST.
Make sure to remain >3km away when it dies – it’s warp core breach is HUGE and can instakill even a T5 Cruiser w/ full shields/hps.

Step 2 — Drone Clearing

When you beam down, you’ll be told more of the storyline behind the mission (pretty cool – read it, when you get time). The barricade that’s been set up will then be attacked by a huge mob of borg. These can be killed normally, and are just a glimpse of the crazyness that’s about to ensue.

For all groups that you encounter, make good use of the following tactics:
PULL
Shoot one, and then fall back. By using Cover Shields and corners, you should be able to break line-of-sight with the borg, and force them to come toward your group. The entire instance is packed so tightly together that this is a must in order to avoid excessive numbers of enemies at once.
FOCUS
Do your best to assist your groupmates with the targets they are firing on. Try to have at least two people shooting a target at any time.
FIRE WITH CARE
Don’t make excessive use of AOE attacks. They will get you killed by either pulling extra groups, or drawing excessive aggro onto a single target. It’s best to split up the damage being dealt to the group.
Don’t waste your Exploit attacks – they do infinitely more good when used against Exposed targets. Press G to target the nearest Exposed target, and then fire!
STAY ALIVE
This means running for cover if you’re taking too much damage, calling for heals, and/or using your consumables. The loss of a single group member imbalances the odds out of your favor.

As you progress thru the station, you’ll come across two types of groups of borg:
1) Patrols
These groups can be killed normally and will only present a challenge in the fact that they occasionally wander in while you are fighting another group.
Take it slow, and watch for them. Pull them first when you can do so without also getting a Linked group.
2) Linked Groups
These groups will be stationary, and will cluster near an Interlink Node
They CANNOT be killed while their Node is still active – only disabled for ~10seconds.
Always target the Node first, when it is within line of sight. If you cannot see it, then assign 1-2 groupmates to rush in past the Borg and attack the node while the remaining group members pull and distract the group of enemies.
If you are facing a group that you might not be able to kill, make sure the Node and all MEDICs are killed (Medics can resurrect a destroyed Node if you respawn).

As a general rule, it’s a good idea to kill the weaker borg first. Here is a rough hierarchy of their relative strengths, weakest to strongest:
Proto Drone, Drone, Infected Drone, Medical Drone, Tactical Drone, Heavy Tactical Drone, Elite Tactical Drone

Learn the Node placement throughout the mission. It is recommended to have at least one person that knows where to expect each upcoming Node.

Step 3 — First Ground Boss

Clear his room in the usual manner – nodes first, pull the groups out to the hallway to engage.

Once you are ready to engage the boss, RUN TO HIS PLATFORM. Fight him right where he begins.

Once he is wounded, he’ll stop the combat for a minute and ‘spring his trap’:
Two groups of Linked Borg will spawn in — one at the base of his platform, and one by the door where you entered.
Destroy the Node on his platform, then engage and kill any weaker drones (Medical and down).
Ignore any additional drones and focus ALL firepower on the boss — he takes a huge beating to kill.
If you are using weapons with knockback, push him toward the rear corner that is left from where you entered.

After this boss is dead, you will need to activate three green rods that are in the corner of the room. This is a preview of things to come in the final room — learn to coordinate your pressing of three separate buttons, by three separate people.

After you defeat this quick mini-game, you will continue to clear more additional groups of borg, until you reach the final room.

Step 4 — Final Countdown

First I’ll tell you your goals in this room, then how to best achieve them:

Goals:
Drop the shield protecting the psuedo-queen, and kill her.
In order to drop her shield, you must destroy the node in the center.
In order to destroy the central node, you must drop its shield.
Once its shield is down, destroy it with weapon damage.
In order to drop the large central shield, you must first inject a virus into the four corner nodes – one in each corner.
In order to inject the virus, you must first lower each node’s shields.
This requires 3 people, and I’ll explain in more detail below.
Do not touch the floor! The entire bottom of the room is filled with warp plasma and will kill you in about 2-3 seconds. Learn to jump!
Knock borg into the plasma – they die just as easily as you do when exposed to it.
Enter together and DO NOT DIE. Once you have gained aggro from ANY borg inside the room, a shield will pop up in the doorway preventing you from re-entering. If you use the Respawn option, you will pop up outside this shield. If you die, wait for your teammates to resurrect you.

How to:
Split your team into two Strike Forces:
Force 1 — Stands in the middle of the room and assists in killing borg from the platform ahead of Force 2.
Force 2 — Proceeds around the room disabling the shields and uploading viruses. MUST BE SKILLED AT JUMPING.
From the time that you upload the first of a series of four viruses, you only have four minutes to get the remaining 3 uploaded AND destroy the central node.
When clearing the borg, it’s easiest to knock them into the plasma instead of DPSing them down.
Use knockback weaponry with “+25 Repel” in their special attack (this means it has a 100% chance to knock back)
Bat’leth works well, too. 2-2-1 combo = large knockback
If using special weapons to knock borg around, remember to switch back BEFORE engaging the boss! (can only switch when not in Red Alert)
Each corner node requires the same coordination that it took to open the door after the first boss — 3 people on 3 separate nodes.
Activating one code starts a ~4 second timer window. All 3 codes must be completely input before this window closes – each require 3 seconds to activate.
After the shield drops, quickly upload the virus into the large node in each corner.
When hopping corner-to-corner, some routes must take you back thru the middle.
If you fall into the plasma and die (noob!), your teammates may be able to resurrect you from a cube above. Clear communication is a must – they must WARN YOU that they are waking you up. Be prepared to run quickly to the nearest ramp, or pipe, to get out of the plasma asap.

Step 5 — Eliminate the Boss

Spread out! She has a nasty AOE damage blast that will knock your shields offline, even from full. It’s best to have only one person take this blast whenever possible, as she then follows it with a nasty attack that takes about 75% of your hitpoints off.
If you have a TANK capable of keeping her attention, position him in the middle of the central platform and have everyone else spread around to cubes & corners.
There is a “safe spot” in the doorway that will allow ONE groupmate to avoid being shot by borg drones that respawn in the corners – this is the healer’s spot!
Don’t cluster up in this spot, or she will AOE you all down at once. Ouch.
Consume, Consume, Consume! Bring every Hypospray that money will buy, and as many Shield Charges as you can fathom. If you can spare the inventory space after this, bring Large Battery Cells to help take out the final boss faster.
Heal as if your life depends on it! Because, well, it does. This is where your Medic gets a chance to shine. Or cry. Those heal recharges are murderous.

Addendum — General Tips & Tricks

Tricorder Scan does not cause aggro. Use it on Nodes repeatedly until it Exposes (10% chance) and then use a high-damage Sniper Shot to quickly kill them in a single shot.
Weapon Damage Types:
GOOD: Antiproton, Disruptor, Phaser. BAD: Plasma, Tetryon, Polaron
Why?
Many borg have no shields (so Tetryon is bad) and no weapons (so Polaron is bad)
Medical drones can (and do) quickly extinguish Plasma fires.
Antiproton weaponry typically comes with high DPS and crit modifiers — the damage is consistent.
Disruptors can debuff damage resistance.
Phasers can randomly stun enemies.
Melee is highly advised against.
Roots will prevent you from getting in range of enemies.
Borg have very strong melee attacks of their own.
Antiproton Armor and Shields seem to reduce the borgs’ damage during ground combat.