So we’ve had some really obvious hints over the past few months that DS9 was going to be the next arc. And only one hint that it wasn’t. The Amalgam, being a Pakled ship, brought us a slight hint that Lower Decks might be coming up. But we got a whole Ferengi arc, and we got Martok and Gowron.
I thought it was to the point where I’d already started working on the bio pieces for Avery Brooks and Rene Auberjonois. But now you’ll have to wait for Spencer, for Hire, and Benson references. (Okay, your token MASH YouTube link here.)
But instead of the dynamic, and meaningful Deep Space Nine, we got the silly, but pretty great Lower Decks.
And to be honest, I’m really okay with that. I can wait. I say this as a person whose favorite Trek series is probably DS9. But a fun arc, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, is a nice way to bring in the spring. So you’re going to get some silliness this month. It will still help you play the game, and is in many cases, going to be really really useful.
But it’s going to be silly. The missions will have some fourth-wall-breaking. The animations in the game are there to make you smile, and this is the first time I’ve ever really wanted to have videos of new officers for my articles. Normally I’m fine with stills, but this month, the animations are fantastic.
So you’ve got a new ship, three new officers with brand new abilities, new research, a new game dynamic, for a change nothing at all new to mine, or any new types of hostiles. It doesn’t give you another tedious task to do in the game, just gives you a way to make all the tasks you already do in the game easier.
A New Type of Ship
This month, we’ve got the ship from Lower Decks, the California-class U.S.S. Cerritos. The Cerritos is an epic G3 ship, which you’ll be able to build starting at level 36. It’s a support ship, which is to say it will support other ships.
And not just your other ships. You can use the buffs it provides to support your ships, and those of players in your alliance, or players in other alliances. These buffs will cost you a new material, “Irvinite” and provide a specific benefit to the ship you’re targeting. These benefits will last for a limited amount of time, and there will be a cooldown period between uses.
Upgrading this ship will cost Cerritos Parts, which you’ll get from, you guessed it, a new refinery.
Getting your Cerritos will require an in-app Purchase in month one. Aside from that, players will be able to grind one out through the Lower Decks Wednesday’s events starting next month, but that will take you a few months. So you can get it for free, but, as with most things, that will take time.
New Refinery
So the Discovery Refinery will be getting some company, and that tab is renamed the Support Refinery.
So every 22 hours you’ll get a supply of Irvinite from your refinery. There’s a max of 30k, so you’ll want to spend it regularly. That Irivinite will be spent in the Cerritos Refinery, which will correspond to the tier of your Cerritos.
In there you’ll get parts for your Cerritos, Culver Particles for the research I’ll get to in the next section, and officer shards for Lower Decks officers. Right now there are only three of those, and more on them later.
New Weekly Event – Lower Decks Wednesday
Starting in May, each Wednesday you’ll see Lower Decks Wednesday events. These events will reward you with Cerritos blueprints and Irvinite, much like the Anomalous Phenomenon events each Sunday give you Discovery Refinery tokens. Players who don’t yet have a Cerritos will partake in the “California Class” event, where they’ll have to destroy hostiles while using a combat buff. Completing this event 10 times will get you enough blueprints to build your Cerritos.
Players with a Cerritos tier 1-4 will get a solo milestone event called “Second Contact.” They’ll destroy hostiles, and get a bonus for doing so while supported by a Cerritos. Once your Cerritos reaches tier 5, you’ll get a second event, “Second Contact Elite,” where you’ll destroy a different type of hostile each week. At tier 12, Second Contact Elite will give you Rare Culver Particles.
New Research
Along with the new ship, we’ve got a new research tree – the Starships Tree. Part of this is that all of your Discovery, Franklin, and D’Vor research will move over from the Galaxy Tree.
But more significantly, you’ll see the second half of the tree contains all the new Lower Decks-themed research.
All of these will require Culver particles and dilithium to upgrade. The three primes (Cybernetics Enhancement, Lower Decks Spirit, and Photon Acceleration) will require Rare Culver particles that will only be available from the refinery once you’ve gotten your Cerritos to tier 12.
The “Tactical Retreat” research at the end unlocks at level 50, and will increase the warp range of your Cerritos. This bonus starts at 5 at level 1, and tops out at level 10, where it’s a bonus of 315. Of course, you’d need to be level 59 to unlock that, so for just about everyone, that’s really academic at this point.
These researches will apply to your ships when another player’s Cerritos supports them. And it will be the level of the supported player’s research that will matter here. So if a level 50 player supports a level 38, the buff will be according to the level 38’s research.
Below Decks Ability Officers
As you saw in the above refinery, we’ve got three new officers: Beckett Mariner, Brad Boimler and …Badgey!!!
Unlike every other officer in the game, and in keeping with the format of Lower Decks, these officers have no captain’s abilities. It’ll just tell you that they’re “Unfit to Lead,” and that “This Officer does not have a Captain’s Maneuver. Equipping this Officer as the captain of a ship provides no benefit.”
Instead, they’ve got a “Below Decks” ability. Badgey, for example, will give you a bonus Armor Penetration, Shield Penetration, and Accuracy of 12.5% at tier 1. And since you’ll be able to use this in combination with your existing bridge crews, this will be a significant bonus.
Furthermore, you’ll be able to use as many Below Decks officers as you have and have room for. If you get all three of the Below Decks officers this month, you can use all of them on one ship, and get the benefits of all three. Now, you’re still going to need to consider the attack, defense, and health stats down there as these officers won’t provide a lot of those right out of the box, but still, these will be a big bonus.
And since they can be used with all of your existing officers, you’ll get a double impact from them. When going after hostiles, think of using your PMC crew for damage mitigation, with Badgey to increase damage. Now your battles are shorter, and the number of hostiles you’ll be able to grind will go up. Mission bosses who you’ve almost been able to defeat will now fall much more easily. Your Rom crew from last month now becomes more effective. Hiding these guys below decks on your miner could stymie a roaming Vi’Dar.
Lower Decks Avatars
So I normally never talk about Avatars. But this month, they’re pretty great. Here are just a few of them. We’ve got the Tom Paris Commemorative Plate, Badgey, Rumdar, Lieutenant Matt, the gold Miles O’Brien statue, and Captain Riker.
And One More Cool Feature…
So here’s a feature that’s been discussed in certain circles for well over a year. The departed CM Panic was pushing for this one.
Exportable Battle Logs.
Using the PC version of the game, you’ll be able to export your battle logs to CSV files.
Desealing Rod fragments are going to be added to the 30-day loyalty chest.
Have a great month!