STOBetter Tutorial: How to UPGRADE your gear the cheap and easy way!

[@joshbennett5119]

Cheap AND easy - you’ve got my attention

[@stobetter]

That's the goal! We even did some learning ourselves and figured out that some of the other methods we came up with just weren't cheaper, so stick with what works.

[@raijinmeister]

Nice to see a good guide for new captains.

[@stobetter]

Hey that's our goal! We want to help others play STO... better. 🤣

[@ossirioth]

Great guide, I didn't know about the Omega trick so thanks for that :) The one significant upgrade route you missed is the Gamma Recruit reward for attaining T6 in a Rep, where you get an ultimate upgrade locked to an Engineering, Science or Shields linked item. Hardly world stopping, but I often use it to bring a new toon's ground shield up to Mk15 Epic and make Advanced/Elite ground TFOs much more approachable while I'm still unlocking the rest of (mostly Disco!) Reps - far quicker to get a decent ground build on a new toon than an Elite ready space build and helps you get the Rep marks flowing early.

[@stobetter]

I think we mention the Gamma recruitment upgrade in the printable, but didn't make the script for the video. Thanks for pointing it out!

[@chadwickmccarty4944]

Thanks for the excellent instruction, & timely, upgrading video.

[@stobetter]

You are welcome! Aimed to have it out for Upgrade Weekend.

[@dexrose9998]

great vid! I have a question regarding kit frame upgrade tho. as a relatively new player, I'm struggling with choosing between new terraform frame(with 4 element modules) and old risian frame(traditional modules). any ideas? tks!

[@stobetter]

Hands down the "old" Risian kit frame - it doesn't lock you into some poor choice kit modules, and the new one is only marginally better at best than the old one.

[@outlawedTV88]

vet player here since 2013, I did that newer one and get my kit power to almost 700. But the issue is everything above 400 is not worth that trouble or resources, the damage diff is not that great, for example if I raised Kit Performance from 400 to 800 that is not like raising all your damage by double, but way less, maybe 30-40%. So my advice stay with the regular Risian frame and having around 400+ KP is enough with that 8 second 100 booster from ground trait gets you to 500. Mind you my Endeavor perks are 450 / Lazy :)

[@JCinLapel]

Interesting vid. I normally re-enginer my crafted consoles at level 2 and sell off any that hit an energy type I do not use. This way I am not waisting pheonix upgrades and then fish for the one mod I am looking for.

[@stobetter]

That's certainly a more cost-effective way to do it! Still can take a pile of dil.

[@JCinLapel]

@@stobetter true but what in this game is cheap lol

[@JCinLapel]

@@stobetter it does help your EC

[@dougpfundstein3384]

​@@JCinLapel I got 12 disruptor rolls to 3 phaser for my isomags. Looks like my alternate toons are flying the Bortasqu

[@JCinLapel]

@@dougpfundstein3384 Dump what you dont want on the exchange and use the EC for mats or the type you need you still will do bettert hen holding out to get the one mod you need

[@Jay-ql4gp]

Does anyone even bother with the Omega system any more? Last year I tried several times and all I got were red ones so I stopped. For context, I've been in the game since it began and I've never got a full Omega upgrade.

[@Jagaroth_]

I do the particle grind to focus solely on obtaining as many of the Omega (Quality) Upgrades as I can - managed enough materials for 500 of them at this year's Anniversary. They're by far the most efficient way of increasing rarity with low mark items, because done right every one will guarantee the quality jump each time, instead of trusting to luck. That's valuable and saves you from burning so many Phoenix Upgrades, that you would have to otherwise. To collect the different coloured Omega materials you have to go to different locations. If you only hang out at Earth Space Dock, Starfleet Academy, Qo'nos or Qo'nos Academy you'll only see red particles. My favourite locations are Drozana Station for yellow (both inside and outside), inside New Romulus Command for blue, and outside Deep Space Nine for red. Particles of the same colour do move around within these areas over time but they follow a regular pattern that is easy to predict. To prepare I leave one of my characters at Drozana station and one inside New Romulus Command so I have someone in place ready to farm yellow and blue at all times. Outside Deep Space Nine is a little trickier as the red particles move to different areas of space. I leave three of my toons there, one in each of the three areas I know the particles will appear in. So instead of having to fly from one area to another to find them, I can just switch from one character to another and start farming straight away.

[@gusty9053]

Ran into the same problem, a wiki dive later... you have to harvest in different zones for different colors (which rotate around to some degree). Managed to harvest around 30 omega upgrades last year.

[@Jagaroth_]

I did reply earlier but KZbin seems to think I said something nefarious and deleted it. Drozana Station is good for yellow, New Romulus Command for blue, and Deep Space Nine for red. I leave different toons at each area for the whole event, so I can collect each colour at will with little to no travelling required. The Omega (Quality) Upgrades are VERY useful to have as they prevent you from having to burn as many Phoenix upgrades as you ordinarily would. And if done right, guarantees a quality jump, instead of trusting to luck.

[@stobetter]

It's certainly worth your time if you can put time into it. If you do the daily minigame, it has you go to different systems and each one you go to will reward a different color. Also, scoring higher will reward some of the higher-tier pieces, reducing how many red/blue/yellow pieces you need.

[@VulpisFoxfire]

@@stobetter I was going to say..not to mention when you engage with the Omega to get the minigame, you already know what color you'll get. If someone is only getting one color, they're paying no attention at all.

[@david05111]

Fantastic video. Really well done. Even as a veteran player, I found some of the info to be interesting 👏🏼

[@stobetter]

Hey that's great! Thank you for the compliments. Always trying to include interesting info.

[@hal0justcal865]

Back in 2016 my bio molecular torp was ultra 89% chance to epic 😂 pain upgrading that SOB

[@stobetter]

Yeah back in the days when Omegas were the only show in town, no Phoenix boxes!

[@hal0justcal865]

@@stobetter I believe we had phoenix events! Once every three four months 😢

[@stobetter]

@@hal0justcal865 Phoenix Events started in Dec 2016, per the wiki.

[@ODST_Parker]

I've been grinding with Phoenix upgrades for years now, and I have multiple fully epic builds. Hell, I keep ultimate tech upgrades in reserve now, because pretty much all of my good gear is maxed out.

[@Yandarval]

I keep some ultimates around just to slot in the upgrade item. While it does not show the mods. It will show what other changes are, when an item is epic. As quite a few items are not worth upgrading to epic, of XV for that matter. Case in point. The Disco warpcore. Apart from The AMP mod at UR, and sector speed at epic. Which all cores get. There are zero stat changes whether XII or XV. I have saved loads of upgrades when there is only a few points change from a VR XII to epic XV.

[@stobetter]

That's a great tip for the UTUs, keeping one around!

[@ODST_Parker]

@@Yandarval I didn't even think of that, but it's a great way to test upgrades.