Star Trek Timelines is one of the most democratic strategy games currently on the Play Store. You can dump entire bags of cash into it and buy your way to the top ranks or you can play (at an actual competitive level) without spending a dime. We talked all about it in our guide to playing Star Trek Timelines for free.

By following just a few tips, you can easily make a name for yourself as Captain even if you don’t want to invest any real currency. Once you leave the early game, however, new challenges will come your way and you will need to know how to tackle them like an expert. That’s what these tips and tricks are for.

#1 – Nothing Like Merits for a Starship Captain

As an F2P player, you have to be resourceful when it comes to obtaining top tier ships, crew members, and gear. Most of the time, you’ll find some fabulous deals in the Faction shops, but in order to buy their best merchandise, you’ll need Merits.

This currency is something you can get entirely for free by completing Daily Missions and Tasks. As an active player, you can get a decent amount over the course of just one week.

#2 – You Don’t Always Have to Dismiss the Crew

Unfortunately, there is a cap to how many crew members you can keep at a time… and it’s not nearly high enough. As such, you’ll have to think carefully about the characters you keep unless you’re willing to spend Dilithium to get more slots.

Before you throw someone precious down the bin, however, consider whether you can fully upgrade them in order to get them “immortalized”. If the answer is yes, then you’ll be able to “freeze” the immortalized crew member and summon them back later for a small price.

#3 – Cadet Challenges Are Your Best Friend

Probably the best way to obtain more resources and Chronitons is by completing Cadet Challenges. There are a total of 5 challenges, each with their own trait requirements, so it’s important to get the right combination of crew members in order to be successful.

However, the rewards are well worth the effort. If you’re wondering which crew members are best to obtain/keep for this purpose, we’ve tackled the subject in our guide to the best characters for F2P players.

#4 – Traits Are More Important than Skills

When you evaluate a crew member, there are a couple of things you should consider. Skills are usually expressed in numbers and can be useful during campaign missions, events, and more, but what you really want to pay attention to is the Traits tab.

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Each character has a unique combination of Traits. Our tier 2 Data, for example, has Android, Federation, Starfleet, Cyberneticist, and Musician. These are much more important to consider because without the right combinations, some characters are useless in terms of completing Cadet Challenges.

#5 – There Is a Right Time for Distress

Once you complete an episode on the Campaign map, you are likely to unlock a Distress Call, which is like a mini-episode of its own. Although they’re not particularly flashy, these should be completed before you attempt the next episode because they give significant boosts towards the latter.

If you find yourself getting whooped in some chapters, make sure you didn’t forget to answer a previous Distress Call.

#6 – Battle Station Bonuses Don’t Stack

You should never leave battle stations unmanned during ship combat. However, you should also bear in mind that the buffs you get from the two heroes do not stack if they boost the same stat.

For example, if we want to use both Picard and Kor during a fight, we have to activate their buffs alternatively. Otherwise, it’s a waste.

#7 – Events and Featured Crew

Each week brings another event in the Star Trek Timelines universe. During these events, you have to send out mission shuttles for points and can usually collect a lot of goodies in the process.

Naturally, the more missions you complete, the harder they become. There is, however, a little trick you can use to make things a bit easier. To get a significant boost in success rate, you should consider using those crew members that appear as “featured” for the week.

#8 – Don’t Stress about Ships

Star Trek Timelines features some really cool legendary ships, but their purpose is more roleplay oriented than you’d think. You can complete most missions with a tier 3 ship and you can even compete in the arena with one.

Of course, you’ll need a tier 5 vessel to climb to the top of the ranks, but, until that becomes a concern, you should always focus on crew, rather than obtaining new ships.

#9 – If You’re Going to Buy, Buy the Monthly Card

Dilithium is excruciatingly difficult to come by in this game, which is not too bad since you can obtain most things without it, but can be frustrating for some.

You can buy Dilithium for real currency in several quantities, but our recommendation for those who are willing to pay is to purchase the Monthly Card. This is the single best deal you can get in the shop, although you do have to log in every day to make the most of it.

#10 – Starfleet Never Rests

The first shuttle missions you send out take just over a minute to complete, but the more reputation you earn with a faction, the longer the missions become. Eventually, some missions will take hours to complete, which can be extremely inconvenient since they will likely lock your best characters.

To avoid this, you should only activate long-lasting missions during the night, right before you go to sleep. This is especially useful if you decide to use 2x or 3x reward boosts, which add even more time to completion.

Much can be said about further optimizing your gameplay and fleet of ships, but, for the time being, these tips and tricks outline those issues that should be your primary concerns as you leave the early game. By the time you get the hang of these, you’ll likely have enough experience with Star Trek Timelines to make your own way through the galaxy.

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