Crew Progression

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This page discusses some of the technical details of character progression: star ratings, levels, experience, and skill increase.

Star rating

Telek R'Mor being fused.

Crew members come in different rarities (star rating), from common to legendary. However, every character in game is obtained one star at a time - for instance an Enterprise-E Picard has a five stars potential, but will have one filled star and four empty stars (★☆☆☆☆).

When a player has several copies of a character, they can merge them in order to obtain a stronger version of that character. This can be done only if that crew member isn't at maximum rank, i.e. if there is a star to be filled. A common Neelix can't be fused since he has no empty star, an uncommon Telek R'Mor (★☆) can be fused once to reach his potential (★★), and an Enterprise-E Picard will need four fusions to achieve his potential (★★★★★).

More is explained here.

Fusing improves the ship battle ability of a character. The effect of fusion on skills is discussed below.

Experience and levels

Total XP required to reach a certain level. Despite looking exponential, a loglog plot suggests a much more complex behaviour. However the result is the same: the cost of XP per level increases enormously.

Your crew gains experience (XP) by participating in away missions, space battles or by receiving training programs. When reaching a certain amount of XP, the crew member level increases. The required XP does not depend on star rating - a common crew member requires as much as a legendary one.

The amount of experience required to pass to reach a milestone (a level that is multiple of ten). Thanks to the forum user UL1R53 for collecting and sharing this data.

Level From 1 to this
milestone
From last
milestone
Milestone Trainings Equivalent*
Common UncommonUncommon RareRareRare Super RareSuper RareSuper RareSuper Rare LegendaryLegendaryLegendaryLegendaryLegendary
10 135 135 14 6 <2 <1 <1
20 510 375 38 15 4 <1 <1
30 2310 1800 180 72 18 4 <1
40 7760 5450 545 218 55 11 <3
50 18210 10450 1045 418 105 21 <5
60 36210 18000 1800 720 180 36 8
70 64210 28000 2800 1120 280 56 12
80 110460 46250 4625 1850 463 93 19
90 181710 71250 7125 2850 713 143 29
100 293910 112200 11220 4488 1122 <225 <45

A detailed level-by-level analysis is given here:

Crew XP Needed by Level   
Lvl 1-10   Lvl 11-20   Lvl 21-30   Lvl 31-40   Lvl 41-50
1 -   11 20   21 90   31 320   41 820
2 5   12 20   22 110   32 370   42 870
3 10   13 25   23 130   33 420   43 920
4 10   14 25   24 150   34 470   44 970
5 15   15 25   25 170   35 520   45 1,020
6 15   16 40   26 190   36 570   46 1,070
7 20   17 40   27 210   37 620   47 1,120
8 20   18 55   28 230   38 670   48 1,170
9 20   19 55   29 250   39 720   49 1,220
10 20   20 70   30 270   40 770   50 1,270
  135     375     1,800     5,450     10,450
 
Lvl 51-60   Lvl 61-70   Lvl 71-80   Lvl 81-90   Lvl 91-100
51 1,350   61 2,350   71 3,500   81 6,000   91 8,800
52 1,450   62 2,450   72 3,750   82 6,250   92 9,400
53 1,550   63 2,550   73 4,000   83 6,500   93 10,000
54 1,650   64 2,650   74 4,250   84 6,750   94 10,500
55 1,750   65 2,750   75 4,500   85 7,000   95 11,000
56 1,850   66 2,850   76 4,750   86 7,250   96 11,500
57 1,950   67 2,950   77 5,000   87 7,500   97 12,000
58 2,050   68 3,050   78 5,250   88 7,750   98 12,500
59 2,150   69 3,150   79 5,500   89 8,000   99 13,000
60 2,250   70 3,250   80 5,750   90 8,250   100 13,500
  18,000     28,000     46,250     71,250     112,200

As a side note, a character doesn't gain experience when they have reached a milestone but haven't been advanced.

Skills

(Disclaimer: changes in the balance can result in changes to character growth. This info was up-to-date in March 2016.)

The skill of a crewmember in the six different types of challenge (Command, Diplomacy, Engineering, Security, Medicine and Science) can be increased in ways: by increasing the level or by equipping an item. Item mechanics are not covered here.

The skill received for passing a level depends on the star rating and on the character progression (which is a specific to each character).

Skill proficiency (the random number that is rolled during away missions) does not depend on characters, but depends entirely on items. It will be neglected here.

Look at her, how she smiles!

As an example however, let's consider Vedek Winn Adami's progression between level 50 and level 60. Of all the items she equips, only her Uncommon Winn's Robes ★★ grants a skill boost (15 Diplomacy). So her "natural progression" (that is, subtracting 15 Diplomacy) is:

Rating Skills at 50 Skills at 60 Increase Overall increase
★☆☆ 99Command 164Diplomacy 110Command 200Diplomacy 11Command 21Diplomacy 32
★★☆ 123Command 182Diplomacy 139Command 221Diplomacy 16Command 24Diplomacy 40
★★★ 157Command 222Diplomacy 180Command 269Diplomacy 23Command 32Diplomacy 55

It can be shown that this progression is fairly linear: ★★★ Vedek Winn tends to gain 23 more overall points each ten levels than ★☆☆ Vedek Winn, resulting in a estimated difference of 230 points at level 100.

She is serious and concerned. Is this too many numbers?

A faster overview on Commando Crusher as an example of a three-skill character. Once again the proficiency is neglected and the added skill values from items were subtracted (+5Science and +7Medicine between level 10 and 20, +10Medicine between level 20 and level 30).

Rating Increase between 10 and 20 Increase between 20 and 30 Overall increase
★☆☆ 12Security 6Science 20 Medicine 12Security 6Science 20 Medicine 38
★★☆ 17Security 9Science 24 Medicine 17Security 9Science 24 Medicine 50
★★★ 24Security 12Science 32 Medicine 24Security 12Science 32 Medicine 68

Once again, there is a much stronger progression for a character with a max rating. Also, Commando Crusher's main skill (Medicine) grows as fast as Vedek Winn's main skill (Diplomacy), but Crusher's overall progression is stronger since she has a third skill.

Let her step in!

The next question is, clearly, the difference between a Common, Uncommon, Rare, Ultra-Rare and Legendary character. As an example, let's have a look at Captain Janeway.

Rating Skill increase every 10 levels Overall increase
★☆☆☆ 20Command 12Diplomacy 12 Science 44
★★☆☆ 25Command 17Diplomacy 17 Science 59
★★★☆ 33Command 24Diplomacy 24 Science 81
★★★★ 45Command 35Diplomacy 35 Science 115

While her overall growth is surely bigger, her growth is comparable to the growth of a Rare character of equal star rating. She has however three advantages: she can upgrade to ★★★★, she can equip much more powerful items, and her two non-main skills (Diplomacy and Science) grow at an equal pace.

There are little data available for Legendary crew. For Mirror Kirk, the progression seems to be:

Rating Skill increase every 10 levels
CommonUnfilledUnfilledUnfilledUnfilled 31Command 28.5Security
UncommonUncommonUnfilledUnfilledUnfilled 34Command 29Security
RareRareRareUnfilledUnfilled 42Command 38Security
Super RareSuper RareSuper RareSuper RareUnfilled 55Command 50Security
LegendaryLegendaryLegendaryLegendaryLegendary 70Command 62Security

Note that Mirror Kirk gains about 320Command and 298Security from his initial stats and from the items he equips - compare this to the 310Command and 285Security he gains as CommonUnfilledUnfilledUnfilledUnfilled, and to 700Command and 620Security he gains as LegendaryLegendaryLegendaryLegendaryLegendary.

Scientist Degra's progression on the other hand is:

Rating Skill increase every 10 levels
CommonUnfilledUnfilledUnfilledUnfilled 31Engineering 31Science
UncommonUncommonUnfilledUnfilledUnfilled 34Engineering 34Science

We can set propose the following conclusions (which are yet to be tested more thoroughly):

  • Increasing the star rating of a character (if possible) enormously increases their potential. The difference seems minimal at low level and star ratings, but it can be massive at high levels and star ratings.
  • Crewmembers with two skills don't necessarily increase their skill faster than those with three skills.
  • Items however make a big difference. Characters with two skills equip items that help only their two skills, and thus can gain more in their main skills. Rarer characters also can equip more powerful items.

Crew progression fusion rule of thumb

As a general rule of thumb, the effect of fusing a character on its base skill can be expressed as a percentage of the difference between the skill level of the fully fused character to itself at the same level and equipment at 1 star. The difference in percentage is summarized in the table:

Star Rating Common to UncommonUncommon UncommonUncommon to RareRareRare RareRareRare to Super RareSuper RareSuper RareSuper Rare Super RareSuper RareSuper RareSuper Rare to LegendaryLegendaryLegendaryLegendaryLegendary
UncommonUncommon 100%
RareRareRare 40% 60%
Super RareSuper RareSuper RareSuper Rare 20% 35% 45%
LegendaryLegendaryLegendaryLegendaryLegendary 6.5% 20% 35% 38.5%

As an example, let's have a look at Captain Janeway Diplomacy skill: Fully fused fully equipped at level 100, Captain Janeway has a Diplomacy skill level of 532, while at 1 star but fully equipped at level 100, she has a Diplomacy skill of only 304. The effect of fusion on her base Diplomacy skill, or her fusion difference is therefore 532 - 304 = 228. To estimate Captain Janeway Diplomacy skill 2 star fusion, fully equipped at level 100, take 20% of her fusion difference: 228 * 20% = 45.6 and add it to her 1 star fusion level: 304 + 45.6 = 349.6. Captain Janeway 2 star fusion, fully equipped at level 100 actually has a Diplomacy skill level of 355, only a 5 difference from the estimation.

This rule of thumb has been found to give good results but should only be used where real information is unavailable.

Fusion difference averages at level 100

In case no data is available the average fusion difference at level 100 can be used. The averages are from all the characters of that star rating and are divided to primary skill (the highest skill at no fusion and level 1), high secondary skill (close to the primary at no fusion and level 1), and low secondary skill (far from the primary). The average differences for fully equipped level 100 is summarized in the table:

Star Rating Primary Skill High Secondary Skill Low Secondary Skill
UncommonUncommon 45 45 29
RareRareRare 115 115 60
Super RareSuper RareSuper RareSuper Rare 230 230 120
LegendaryLegendaryLegendaryLegendaryLegendary 390 390 - 430 225

As an example, let's have a look at Captain Janeway base level 1 skills: Command: 57 -> Primary, Actual difference: 718 - 474 = 244. Diplomacy: 42 -> High Secondary, Actual difference: 532 - 304 = 228. Science: 42 -> High Secondary, Actual difference: 475 - 247 = 228. The actual figures are quite close to the estimation, providing a realistic reference where no data is available.

See also