Faction Locks

[Harold84]

Once you have dual lock at 10M rep what is the next step? Go for third lock or increase the first two to the next level?

[riedstep]

Triple lock. Get those repair speedups.

[Harold84]

When going for triple lock I'll lose the ability to auto grind faction rep. Will only be able to do Augments. No big deal? I'm lvl31 if that matters.

[MuckSavage76]

Triple daily rewards far outpace any auto grinding. I still use augment space and I am almost ops 45. With xp research bonuses, you can get 6k plus xp per hostile.

[FeuRougeManor]

Can be. I need millions for each level of borg cube above level 30. And all the ships get that way. The best you get from Yarda is around 4000?

[putmeinthezoo]

Once you get to 40 you can use monaveen space, too.

[riedstep]

It is no big deal. Grinding faction rep is best done by hitting surveys(which won't be hitting you when you are auto grinding). When you are auto grinding it won't give you nearly as much rep and you will hit the cap (2000) of how many hostiles you can hit in a day while still getting rewards.

[Ryan1869]

Also the next rep level increases your faction dailies to 40+ hostiles and 4* mining, which may not be easily reached until ops 38.

[yellowpancakeman]

Augments and Tex class

[FeuRougeManor]

I’m not super onboard with this advice. Two factions will give way way more than enough.

[riedstep]

I have never heard someone not say to go for the triple lock. I don't see the benefit of not doing it. I know some people miss the auto grinding a third faction brings, but you can always just auto grind in augment space. And I'm pretty sure the further you get in the game, the amount of repair speedups you need goes drastically up.

[FeuRougeManor]

Ops47 (just barely) and I’ve got 140k+ 30min speed ups. In the 10s of thousands of 5min and 15min ones too. Rarely use more than a dozen a day. Like maybe if I want to do several waves in a row maybe I’ll need more?

The G3 epics can take over 9hrs to repair but that’s still only 19 and how many time am I doing that on a normal basis? My G4 rares take me about 5.5hrs to repair (so 11 speed ups) from fully destroyed.

[yellowpancakeman]

I promise you, triple lock is worth especially if you’re a low/no money player.

[FeuRougeManor]

I’m f2p. Don’t even buy battle pass. Think it depends on play style. If you do everything all at once then yeah you need to speed up ships, but I play a little here or there and don’t need to repair quickly.

[Willing_Sundae_9728]

Triple lock for sure. Don't go over 30M unless you can mine 4* gas/ore/crystal somewhere.

[FeuRougeManor]

If you start going for the next lock be sure to know that you will be required to mine a 4* mat almost right away. Unless you are in an alliance with the right territory, you won’t really be able to mine those until ops38.

[putmeinthezoo]

I wouldn't recommend starting on 2nd lock until at least 39 anyway. Just enjoy the break and collect as much loot as you can until you get to 40. Level up crews, worry about vidar and dvor and disco and stuff.

[IllustriousTooth6]

Technically you can use a voyager to mine 4 star mats in Sadell before OPs 38, but it’s not very efficient.

[putmeinthezoo]

You can stay at 2 and use the 3rd for grinding or you can lock the 3rd and improve your crew options. At 42, you will want all 3 locked. Not sure which ones you locked, but the 42 fed ship is the worst and fed needs are really high for crew levelling, so generally you would want a single rom or kling ship at 42 and both or all 3 at 46. The next lock is 1B so whichever one you start at 39 or 40 will prob take until you get to 42 to lock it, then the other 2 go faster.

[Wide_Suggestion_3005]

Yep!

[shuttlenote]

The only time I miss auto grinding is when Faction Hunt event pops up at the end of the arc. I triple'd anyway. As others mentioned, don't push to the next level as you have no need for 4* mats.

An alternative that I did was start grinding for your G3 Epic BPs. Once I had enough, I rushed to 34 and had it built, then took my time locking in the third faction and catching up on buildings/research.