So here we are at the conclusion of the Strange New Worlds Arc. We’ve got a new ship, an expansion of the Syndicate system that makes the generators finally do something, and a new PvP crew.
A New Ship – The Mantis
This month we’ve got a brand new ship, the Mantis. It’s the anti-Cerritos. Rather than buffing up the ships of you and your allies, this one will debuff enemy players. It’s also got a hostile grinding loop that lets you grind out Syndicate XP, among other goodies.
I go through a complete rundown of the new ship here, including what I like, and the major missed opportunity of the ship.
When it comes to acquiring this ship, it takes 100 blueprints, and will initially only be available for In-app purchase. There will be some early Mantis events in the first four days of the event that will only be open to early adopters.
If you get the Elite Battlepass this month, you’ll be able to unlock 50 shards. There will be a free-to-play path, much like the Cerritos, but that’s not going to be coming this month.
Syndicate Expansion
This month also sees a big expansion of the Syndicate system. Ten new levels, a new Syndicate Officer (see below), extended buffs, daily goal increases, three new officer presets, and a pretty significant building buff.
This has been a complaint of mine for a long, long time. Rev Deuce did a whole video complaining about it over two years ago. The fact that the generators cost a great deal to upgrade, need to be upgraded to advance your ops level, and provide little to no benefit.
Now they’ll provide a pretty big benefit. Your A and B generators will now give you big buffs (and I cannot lie.) Your parsteel generators will give you a buff to hull health, titanium will buff shield health, and your dilithium generators will buff the amount of damage your ships do. And these buffs all max out at 800%.
But of course, there’s a catch, and it’s a really big catch. Huge.
Those buffs only take effect at syndicate level 30. Given that most players are sitting around syndicate level 14 or 15 right now, this one stings. But it’s out there, and now that the Mantis PvE loop gives you an opportunity to grind out Syndicate XP, it should come a little quicker. And this is a big carrot just sitting there at level 30.
Five New Officers
The bad news is that we aren’t getting the SNW survey grinding officer this month. Also no M’Benga and no Chapel.
The good news is that we are getting five new officers, all of which seem okay. The PvP crew should be interesting, if specialized.
There’s only one new addition to the SNW crew, Hemmer. The Aenar is a rare engineering officer, who’ll slide into the place of Una and give you a boost to the Actian venom loot you’ll get from grinding Actian hostiles.
He’s also got a Below Decks ability that increases officer health.
The new Syndicate Officer is called Mavery. You’ll get him from the Syndicate, and he gives a captain’s boost to your overall cargo, and his officer ability increases ore, gas, and crystal mining. He’ll be a really good secondary officer who you’ll eventually get for free.
And then there are three new officers in what’s called the Battleship Strike Team crew. There will be more Strike Teams to come. These are battle-triangle-specific PvP officers. This month it’s Strike Team SNW La’an, Strike Team SNW Ortegas, and Strike Team SNW Una will right out of the box be a pretty solid PvP crew – however one that’s extremely specialized. If you’re looking to pick off an Enterprise with your Augur, for example, then this is a pretty good crew. But if another Augur or a D4 comes around, you’re out of luck.
La’An gives a bonus for your weapons and can burn the enemy ship. Una increases officer stats and decreases shield mitigation, and Ortegas burns enemy ships and can delay opponent attacks.
In terms of getting this month’s new officers, Hemmer will be in the Elite BP, and there will be a solo leaderboard and solo milestone event for him. You can also get shards for him in the Treasury, Mission rewards, and in the Mantis refinery (if you buy the Mantis.)
New Una and Ortegas will have shards in both the free and elite Battlepasses, and will be available through some solo milestone events and in mission rewards.
The epic PvP La’An will have an solo leaderboard and milestone event.
Event Store
There’s an event store this month, where you’ll be able to pick up SNW officer shards,
Missions
Lots of new missions this month. 10 core missions for all players 34+ to continue the Strange New Worlds arc. Five new missions for players level 33 and up about the Mantis. 15 new weekly side missions for players ops 15+, 34+, and 51+. There will also be 40 missions added to the Holodeck.
Avatars and Frames
The Avatars this month exist. Nothing that I’m all that excited about.