Skilling Guide - Feel Free to Contribute
I think a few tips on increasing skills in a fast and efficient manner is important so here are a few notes.
Overskilling:
First of all, it is important to note that skills and experience go hand in hand.
Should you spend all your time skilling without ever killing a creature, you would soon exceed your skill limits as dictated by your XP.
The Fearsome Ship Calculator ([Pardus Manual - Links - Data Vault - Fearsome ship Calculator]) contains an approximation to the skill limits at a given XP value.
On the other hand, you don't really want to kill a good skilling creature with an unpredictable spawn location (everything above X993 level except for space crystals) too quickly, but want some skills from it while it lasts.
Thus, choosing slightly lesser guns that you might fit into your ship (but not necessarily the smallest of the kind) may be a good idea.
_____________________________________________
[HA 15-30]
At the very basic level, most skills will increase while doing missions for the Don, fighting creatures up to the level of Elder Space Dragons, Space Worms and Albinoes and perhaps Saracenias. Staying a few days in a dragon den will likely get your skills above this level, and Albinoes are great as well.
[HA 30-42]
At this level, it is time to seek out X993 squads. You need at least x3 armour with a small ship (marauder, inty, mercury) or at least x4 armour if you have a chitin or hybrid. Weapon size is unimportant as the X993s keep spawning the same place so the faster you kill them, the more you just have to wait to get a certain amount of skills - but you increase XP faster.
NW Edenve (1 X993 squad spawn) or SE Remo (3 X993 squad spawns + a few Battlecruisers and the mother (!!!) ) are good for camping these creatures. Once your TAC/Man exceeds 35, X993 Battlecruisers may also be worth including in your diet if you are careful and if they are near.
[HA 40-45]
If you are already in Remo, staying and camping the X993 Battlecruisers (they shoot missiles) after you don't get much gains from the squads is a good option and will increase Man/Tac a lot as well as give good XP.
[HA 40-55] - [EM or Conventional Armour]
At this level, energy sparklers and energy bees are great and worthy foes. Next to the X993 squads, the energy bees give some of the greatest gains, albeit they stop around 55 HA. Energy Sparklers are also worth taking down. With a good shield and a little care, you can skill on these two creatures even with Organic Armour, but of course EM armour is better.
[HA 50-60] - [EM Armour]
Taking on Solar Banshees start to become a viable option though I don't remember their HA limits. With a good shield (q-standard or higher), taking down Medusae swarmlings is a good choice as well, especially when nearing or exceeding 60 HA. Space Crystals also give good gains up to 55 HA and have the great advantage that few people kill them and they have fixed spawn points (so you can really exploit a big, fast-recharging shield here).
[HA 50-60] - [Conventional Armour]
Keep on skilling on Energy Bees (HA 55) as well as Medusae Swarmlings (HA 66). Don't go for medusae unless someone are standing by to help you out.
[HA 40-50] - [Organic Armour]
For an Organic Armoured ship, this jump is the most difficult. A few Organic NPCs give skills in this range (Roidworm Horde, Snail, Frost Crystal) but they are usually armed with a big missile that can pose a serious risk to careless skillers.
Thus, I recommend going for X993 Battlecruisers until their HA gains are very low, then finding some small energy creatures like Energy Sparklers and Energy Bees
[HA 50-60] - [Organic Armour]
At this level, organic armoured Hawk-Class ships should be able to take out Medusa Swarmlings. Depending on Ship and Armour, at some point taking on Medusae mothers is also a viable option. Though they give lesser gains than their smaller kin, they last a lot longer - but also has missiles and a fierce tractoring ability so bring bots and play safe.
[HA 60-66] - [Organic Armour]
Medusae stop giving HA gains at 60 HA, though their TAC/MAN gains go up to 66. Swarmlings are great all the way to 66 HA though, if you can find them. Another solution is to go to a Z-place (EPR: HW and Nusakan) and target the smallest kind (Z14 scout). See below.
[HA 60-70 (trade-in)] - [Preferably Exotic x5 or Ebidium Armour]
Keep on hunting swarmlings until you tire of looking for them. They give much better gains than the creatures below. However, at some point you want to proceed to hunting Z-kindred, at least if you have a well-armoured hawk-class ship. Sectors to find these include a few sectors in each neutral zone (For EPR: HW3-863, Nusakan).
Z-kin are generally very tough, uses missiles and tractors a lot. They give much less gains than medusae kin and skilling on them are expensive in the way of repairs and bots as well as occasional drugs. Some of them (the scouts - learn to recognize them) roam around, and occasionally you risk retreating onto another Z, which will then NOT let you retreat!
Choosing your prey: Many kinds of Zs clutter the Z-hunting grounds, but only a few of them (Z15 scout, Z15 Repair Drone) are really worth taking on, unless you have über skills. Both may fire up to 5 missiles in 20 rounds (!!!) so start going only 11 rounds at a time until you feel comfortable around them.
Bots: Because of their tractoring, always carry a full load of bots (refuel at the station so you have plenty of fuel in your engine and frees up space for bots). If you're new to Z-camping, don't start retreating with less than 10 bots in your hull, preferably more. You may go four times attacking a Z without it tractoring you, only to be tractored 5 times on the fifth attempt!
APs: Again, because of their tractoring, always try to start attacking a Z only if you have a lot of APs (4k+) and preferably nearby drugs. Never engage if you have less than 700 APs (you can't use bots if you have neg APs) but try instead to spend a few credits on drugs first, if you are close to killing your chosen creature (they give great XP as well). Better to end up with 500 APs too much than with too few APs... and subsequent death.
Trading in Skills:
These Z-kin will readily take you to trade-in values. It will take some time and cost some money, but you can get there. But then - when all your skills are ready to be cashed in, what do you do???
Well, that depends on your goals. With Advanced Skills, you can specialise in a LOT of fields, much more than can be covered here.
Some people opt not to trade in TAC/MAN/HA but only the more inferior skills. Other people cash in everyything and keep on ATPing for a long time.
Of advanced skills worth buying are Defensive Combat (great for skilling further up to tradein again), Agility Boost (Great overall skill) and Ambush Fallback and Ambush Endurance (great for fighting pirates with a more safe retreat).[/quote]
Advanced Skilling Guide
Once you have skilled up into the high end of skills, there are some things that makes skilling for ASPs easier. These include using advanced skills and/or focussing on one or a few skills to increase:
WEAP Skilling:
Once you have your HA as high as manageble (preferably at trade-in value of 70 or beyond), you can try skilling up your weaponry (5 points here gives you 8 ASPs). You will need as high HA as possible as well as the smallest guns (1MW particle lasers or for some of the tougher beasts, BSAs may work as well) - if you have offensive combat, that will help you greatly.
This works best on: Blue Crystals (if you have EM arrmour preferably), Saracenia/Drosera (if you can find a lot of them), perhaps nebula serpents (unconfirmed) and also Exocrabs.
At the moment, camping Exocrabs with 66 HA and 5x1MW particles, I get app. 0.4 WEAP for 5.000 APs, meaning 0.7 ASP per day with no significant repair expenses. Blue Crystals give approximately 0.03-0.04 WEAP per crystal for an AP cost of 400-500 APs, meaning some 0.8 ASP/day.
WEAP/ENG Skilling on Medusae/Swarmlings:
If you get offensive combat and have 1MW peashooters on your ship, you may be able to get quite nice gains from switching this on while fighting some of the mediocre NPCs. I have only heard about a few pilots doing so, however.
Euryale/Euryale Swarmling Skilling in nooks
What has been termed the most effective way to gain ASP, arm your ship with 1MW particles and/or a few BSAs and find Euryale kin. These provide some of the better gains in the game, even past tradein values.
Advanced skills that will help you here is definitely defensive combat (for retreats, primarily) and Agility Boost (if close to repair base).
Bee Shield Surfing
If you have a BBB with mining lasers, Offensive Combat (irregardless of level), a Q-huge shield and all shield skills, you can successfully harvest ASPs by camping on bees. With 55ish TAC/MAN (Bees will take you to 62ish, then E-Swarmlings is the way to go towards 65ish and trade them in), you can trade in ENG every 8 days (More than 1 ASP per day with no significant expenses, with all shield skills and OC, I earn 1.9 ASP equivalents per 5.500 APs in Orion from 55ish to 62ish skills).
Past ASP skilling - getting to the max
Once Agility Boost is maxed, Defensive Combat 3 and Ambush Mastery - Ambush Retreat level 2 is reached, one might continue ASPing for more ambush rounds, for offensive combat, or for weapon specialization.
At some point, however, you will not want to ASP any more. Here is where the really hardcore fighters go:
I think a few tips on increasing skills in a fast and efficient manner is important so here are a few notes.
Overskilling:
First of all, it is important to note that skills and experience go hand in hand.
Should you spend all your time skilling without ever killing a creature, you would soon exceed your skill limits as dictated by your XP.
The Fearsome Ship Calculator ([Pardus Manual - Links - Data Vault - Fearsome ship Calculator]) contains an approximation to the skill limits at a given XP value.
On the other hand, you don't really want to kill a good skilling creature with an unpredictable spawn location (everything above X993 level except for space crystals) too quickly, but want some skills from it while it lasts.
Thus, choosing slightly lesser guns that you might fit into your ship (but not necessarily the smallest of the kind) may be a good idea.
_____________________________________________
[HA 15-30]
At the very basic level, most skills will increase while doing missions for the Don, fighting creatures up to the level of Elder Space Dragons, Space Worms and Albinoes and perhaps Saracenias. Staying a few days in a dragon den will likely get your skills above this level, and Albinoes are great as well.
[HA 30-42]
At this level, it is time to seek out X993 squads. You need at least x3 armour with a small ship (marauder, inty, mercury) or at least x4 armour if you have a chitin or hybrid. Weapon size is unimportant as the X993s keep spawning the same place so the faster you kill them, the more you just have to wait to get a certain amount of skills - but you increase XP faster.
NW Edenve (1 X993 squad spawn) or SE Remo (3 X993 squad spawns + a few Battlecruisers and the mother (!!!) ) are good for camping these creatures. Once your TAC/Man exceeds 35, X993 Battlecruisers may also be worth including in your diet if you are careful and if they are near.
[HA 40-45]
If you are already in Remo, staying and camping the X993 Battlecruisers (they shoot missiles) after you don't get much gains from the squads is a good option and will increase Man/Tac a lot as well as give good XP.
[HA 40-55] - [EM or Conventional Armour]
At this level, energy sparklers and energy bees are great and worthy foes. Next to the X993 squads, the energy bees give some of the greatest gains, albeit they stop around 55 HA. Energy Sparklers are also worth taking down. With a good shield and a little care, you can skill on these two creatures even with Organic Armour, but of course EM armour is better.
[HA 50-60] - [EM Armour]
Taking on Solar Banshees start to become a viable option though I don't remember their HA limits. With a good shield (q-standard or higher), taking down Medusae swarmlings is a good choice as well, especially when nearing or exceeding 60 HA. Space Crystals also give good gains up to 55 HA and have the great advantage that few people kill them and they have fixed spawn points (so you can really exploit a big, fast-recharging shield here).
[HA 50-60] - [Conventional Armour]
Keep on skilling on Energy Bees (HA 55) as well as Medusae Swarmlings (HA 66). Don't go for medusae unless someone are standing by to help you out.
[HA 40-50] - [Organic Armour]
For an Organic Armoured ship, this jump is the most difficult. A few Organic NPCs give skills in this range (Roidworm Horde, Snail, Frost Crystal) but they are usually armed with a big missile that can pose a serious risk to careless skillers.
Thus, I recommend going for X993 Battlecruisers until their HA gains are very low, then finding some small energy creatures like Energy Sparklers and Energy Bees
[HA 50-60] - [Organic Armour]
At this level, organic armoured Hawk-Class ships should be able to take out Medusa Swarmlings. Depending on Ship and Armour, at some point taking on Medusae mothers is also a viable option. Though they give lesser gains than their smaller kin, they last a lot longer - but also has missiles and a fierce tractoring ability so bring bots and play safe.
[HA 60-66] - [Organic Armour]
Medusae stop giving HA gains at 60 HA, though their TAC/MAN gains go up to 66. Swarmlings are great all the way to 66 HA though, if you can find them. Another solution is to go to a Z-place (EPR: HW and Nusakan) and target the smallest kind (Z14 scout). See below.
[HA 60-70 (trade-in)] - [Preferably Exotic x5 or Ebidium Armour]
Keep on hunting swarmlings until you tire of looking for them. They give much better gains than the creatures below. However, at some point you want to proceed to hunting Z-kindred, at least if you have a well-armoured hawk-class ship. Sectors to find these include a few sectors in each neutral zone (For EPR: HW3-863, Nusakan).
Z-kin are generally very tough, uses missiles and tractors a lot. They give much less gains than medusae kin and skilling on them are expensive in the way of repairs and bots as well as occasional drugs. Some of them (the scouts - learn to recognize them) roam around, and occasionally you risk retreating onto another Z, which will then NOT let you retreat!
Choosing your prey: Many kinds of Zs clutter the Z-hunting grounds, but only a few of them (Z15 scout, Z15 Repair Drone) are really worth taking on, unless you have über skills. Both may fire up to 5 missiles in 20 rounds (!!!) so start going only 11 rounds at a time until you feel comfortable around them.
Bots: Because of their tractoring, always carry a full load of bots (refuel at the station so you have plenty of fuel in your engine and frees up space for bots). If you're new to Z-camping, don't start retreating with less than 10 bots in your hull, preferably more. You may go four times attacking a Z without it tractoring you, only to be tractored 5 times on the fifth attempt!
APs: Again, because of their tractoring, always try to start attacking a Z only if you have a lot of APs (4k+) and preferably nearby drugs. Never engage if you have less than 700 APs (you can't use bots if you have neg APs) but try instead to spend a few credits on drugs first, if you are close to killing your chosen creature (they give great XP as well). Better to end up with 500 APs too much than with too few APs... and subsequent death.
Trading in Skills:
These Z-kin will readily take you to trade-in values. It will take some time and cost some money, but you can get there. But then - when all your skills are ready to be cashed in, what do you do???
Well, that depends on your goals. With Advanced Skills, you can specialise in a LOT of fields, much more than can be covered here.
Some people opt not to trade in TAC/MAN/HA but only the more inferior skills. Other people cash in everyything and keep on ATPing for a long time.
Of advanced skills worth buying are Defensive Combat (great for skilling further up to tradein again), Agility Boost (Great overall skill) and Ambush Fallback and Ambush Endurance (great for fighting pirates with a more safe retreat).[/quote]
Advanced Skilling Guide
Once you have skilled up into the high end of skills, there are some things that makes skilling for ASPs easier. These include using advanced skills and/or focussing on one or a few skills to increase:
WEAP Skilling:
Once you have your HA as high as manageble (preferably at trade-in value of 70 or beyond), you can try skilling up your weaponry (5 points here gives you 8 ASPs). You will need as high HA as possible as well as the smallest guns (1MW particle lasers or for some of the tougher beasts, BSAs may work as well) - if you have offensive combat, that will help you greatly.
This works best on: Blue Crystals (if you have EM arrmour preferably), Saracenia/Drosera (if you can find a lot of them), perhaps nebula serpents (unconfirmed) and also Exocrabs.
At the moment, camping Exocrabs with 66 HA and 5x1MW particles, I get app. 0.4 WEAP for 5.000 APs, meaning 0.7 ASP per day with no significant repair expenses. Blue Crystals give approximately 0.03-0.04 WEAP per crystal for an AP cost of 400-500 APs, meaning some 0.8 ASP/day.
WEAP/ENG Skilling on Medusae/Swarmlings:
If you get offensive combat and have 1MW peashooters on your ship, you may be able to get quite nice gains from switching this on while fighting some of the mediocre NPCs. I have only heard about a few pilots doing so, however.
Euryale/Euryale Swarmling Skilling in nooks
What has been termed the most effective way to gain ASP, arm your ship with 1MW particles and/or a few BSAs and find Euryale kin. These provide some of the better gains in the game, even past tradein values.
Advanced skills that will help you here is definitely defensive combat (for retreats, primarily) and Agility Boost (if close to repair base).
Bee Shield Surfing
If you have a BBB with mining lasers, Offensive Combat (irregardless of level), a Q-huge shield and all shield skills, you can successfully harvest ASPs by camping on bees. With 55ish TAC/MAN (Bees will take you to 62ish, then E-Swarmlings is the way to go towards 65ish and trade them in), you can trade in ENG every 8 days (More than 1 ASP per day with no significant expenses, with all shield skills and OC, I earn 1.9 ASP equivalents per 5.500 APs in Orion from 55ish to 62ish skills).
Past ASP skilling - getting to the max
Once Agility Boost is maxed, Defensive Combat 3 and Ambush Mastery - Ambush Retreat level 2 is reached, one might continue ASPing for more ambush rounds, for offensive combat, or for weapon specialization.
At some point, however, you will not want to ASP any more. Here is where the really hardcore fighters go:
From: Sludge Vohaul 2008/07/04 - 09:54:36
Subject: Re:
I do not have 95 yet, Im working on it. Well, Here is the table:
My experimental HA table
>81-82 Z15RD
>82-83 Euryale but very-very marginal
>85-86 or so Spacepad
>88.5-89 Z15F
>92-93 Z16RD << I am here now.
>95-96 Z16F (former ZFS) I still ahve to confirm myself.
>105 or so LS (I can not skill on them in a PASC)
(edit by Daemon: Indeed, Lucidi skilling is manageble in Scorpions with AB4, DC3 and Q-Huge shield, once TAC/MAN reaches the 80ies. Preferably shield skills as well.)
For MAN it is different:
>87 Z15F, Z16RD, Euryale
>90: Spacepad and Rive Crystalls still bring MAN after 88 but Euryale does not.
