Red-Dwarf Rapid Grind Pilot Master/Shadow guide

[Brock Sherwood]

Red-Dwarf wrote:

I sat down to write myself a step by step on how quickest to grind some pilots up as I have 18 toons on tcprime who will each hold at least one master pilot badge before I am finished (not sure how many will do 9-ace or more). As such I first started writing a way to (legally) level as quickly as possible with the use of an alt who I have already got to a high enough level. The goal was basically to get a boost into the start of tier 4, then to work on it normally.

As such this guide refers to a "master" and a "shadow", the master is one of my master pilots while the shadow runs on a laptop beside me, it might be you work with a friend who acts as your master or you act as a shadow to an established player from another server. NB when doing this - the master will still have their own faction restrictions on who they can shoot, so may need to change master if some missions can't be done by one master (for example no point having RSF help rebel pilots as they can't shoot imps unless they declare for pvp).

Having seen lots of requests for "how do I grind" (or variations on that) I figured publishing it wouldn't hurt and a few not sure they want to grind up on TCP, this might help you to reconsider. The guide is split in two, the first section is just a quick summary of the steps to master pilot with a hint or two about where to go and what kit to have, the second is written for experienced pilots who are trying to get themselves set up on a new server or a new alt.

Basic version for new pilots

1) Get a heavy Z-95 (rebel) heavy TIE (imp) or heavy scyk (freelance) as soon as you can afford one (they'll make it easier), as soon as you get an equipment box trade everything for the best you can get (better components = easier missions), make sure you have an ent xp buff before you do any grinding, that 15% bonus comes in handy, you can use the heavy starter ships to master, or change as noted in step 9.

2) Grind tier 1 on either a basic duty mission or the debris cult cruiser in yavin, waypoint is available from the yavin station, it's one of the early quest stages he offers (easier once got mk 2 guns)

3) At the end tier 1 your lvl 2 droid should hold a cap overload and a cap to shield shunt (optional as droids not essential at this stage, but useful)

4) Grind tier 2 on either duty mission or blackscales (near avatar station, kash) (unless they are too camped) or merc cruisers (near kash station) (unless they are too camped) or the debris cult cruiser

5) At the end tier 2 your lvl 3 droid should hold a cap overload, cap to shield shunt minimum and possibly an engine overload and a reactor overload (which versions depends on you) (not optional, droids are essential at this stage unless you are an uber pilot like Narf or Halyn)

6) No grinding needed for tier 3, just do the missions, some of these are tough to do solo.

7) At the end tier 3 your lvl 4 droid should hold RO3, EO3, WO3, CO4 and CTSS3 (can tweak this, but it is most likely to be safe to run)

Grind tier 4 xp on duty missions - Rebel - destroy blacksun from nyms hotel (havoc), Neutral - destroy blacksun from theed palace (dimler), imperial - ghrag duty from kash station or gcw duty from dath station. NB: Up till now it has gone very very quickly, it will be a lot slower from here on

9) Do 1mil xp and get 4333, get the box and can upgrade to heavy-x / vaksai / RGI. Depending on mood either do mission then next 1m xp then mission then xp etc.. Or do 3m xp then do missions all together (I know that sounds a horrible amount of work to do without getting the training, but it's basically two of the Havoc blacksun duties).

10) At the end tier 4 don't bother changing your droid / astromech, you only have 3 missions and the benefit of changing droid now is minimal as will change to lvl 6 once done the vette

11) You do NOT need to grind 7.5m for the last box, ignore anyone who tells you that you do (including if they are GM's), go to the admiral the tier 4 trainer sends you to (corsec get to choose, I suggest helping the imperials as TIE Aggressors annoy me more than A-wings, and if you have a friendly imp he can bomberstrike the vette to help out) and do two missions he sends you on and that's it, you will get the reward at that point, no grinding 7.5m!

12) It is possible to solo the vette (guides in the FAQ) but it is tough for a new pilot, do ask for help, most of us struggled with the vette the first time and have learned the tricks to defeat it from trial and error (and death and respawn)

13) When (yes, you probably will find it is when) you get stuck come and ask for help, your server pilot / galaxy chat channels (or chat.tcpa on tcprime) or server forums are your best bet.

Advanced guide for experienced pilots looking to quickly level a new alt or move to a new server such as TCPrime or Starsider

1) Need a master to escort you for this to work, this will totally fall apart if he/she is not available as the shadow will be doing tier 3 with the prototype weapon

NB: "Master" doesn't need to be master pilot box, but needs to be confident of soloing all missions as though the shadow isn't there

2) Gear shadow will need - a heavy starter ship, could use normal ships if can't afford a heavy, but will make it a slower process, easiest for freelance (use the dunelizard) or rebels (y-wing), imperials may need to modify the gear for what mass they can get.

• Mk 1 overdriven (or overhauled, little difference) engine
• Mk 1 booster (overdriven)
• Mk 2 (or 3 depending on quality) reactor
• Mk 3 and 4 engine (optional mk2, use if have tier 2 entry missions and are too slow in the mk1 engine, but it should be a 60+ speed so fast enough) overdrive or overhaul or stabilise as the mood takes you
• Mk 3 and 4 shield (optional mk2, use only if get ganked on tier 2 missions, but unlikely) intensified
• Mk 2 or 3 cap (depending on quality and how much energy you want to shield shunt, note you will not be using this until you are at 3322) heavy cap
• Mk 4 blaster (red or green, your choice, up until can use it will use a prototype) max dmg enhanced
• Mk 2 droid interface (or 1 if you are tight on mass)
• Lvl 4 FC / astromech with RO3, EO3, WO3, CTSS3 and CO4 chips.
• Re'd gear totally optional, could replace engines, shields (protectonet), cap, weapon (boltdriver/IPW) reactor and armour
• Max duration ent buff - xp bonus, speed boost and luck (up to you if more speed boost so shorter time between missions or more luck)

3) Rebel/Freelance get heavy ship set up, if not got heavy or imperial get starter ship and remove armour and add engine and booster (once got heavy/dune/y-wing add armour back)

4) Have the master escort the shadow through the first 4 missions, will need to be grouped from now until step 10

5) Both fly to blackscales (near avatar station in kash space), master disables ships, shadow then destroys for the xp. Tier 1 will take barely a few minutes.

6) Depending on squadron you may need to do a tier 2 entry mission, have master escort you if you do (IIRC Inquisition and Storm do, not sure on others)

7) once trainer offers duty missions go back to blackscales and get 60k xp (i.e. around 40 tier 3 ships or around 15 tier 4)

once got 2111 (third ship box, ixiyen/kirhaxz, y-wing longprobe, TIE/ln) return to blackscales and earn 180k xp

9) Have master escort shadow through any remaining tier 2 missions and all tier 3 missions, swapping out gear as follows:

at 2211 (lvl 5 equipment cert) - drop in mk3 engine, shield and reactor

at 3322 (lvl 7 equipment cert) - drop in rest of gear, at 3333 (lvl 4 droid cert) drop in flight computer / astromech

OPTIONAL: 9b) have master escort shadow through the rendili and kash vette series of quests, once hit 4333 (Actis/ARC/Bel ship cert box) can then use the heavy x/vaksai/rgi alternatively solo the missions, which is possible at 3333

10) Once at 3333 (lvl 4 droid cert) /wave goodbye and /thank to the master, you don't need him again unless one of the tier 4 missions gets too tough to solo or shadow can't yet solo the vette

11) Grind tier 4 xp on duty missions - Rebel - destroy blacksun from nyms hotel (havoc), Neutral - destroy blacksun from theed palace (dimler), imperial - ghrag duty from kash station or gcw duty from dath station. NB: Up till now it has gone very very quickly, it will be a lot slower from here on.

12) Do 1mil xp and get 4333, get the box and can upgrade if want to to heavy-x / vaksai / RGI. Depending on mood either do mission then next 1m xp then mission then xp etc.. Or do 3m xp then do missions all together. MAKE SURE HAVE ENT BUFF.

OPTIONAL: 12b) upgrade to mission reward shield (even un-RE'd) and or borstel/tri-cannon when available

13) If corsec choose to help the imperials (I hate TIE Aggressors more than A-wings), otherwise do what told to.

14) do master pilot missions solo, collect medal and helmet then dump any useable RE in loot houses and junk onto the chassis dealer.

If someone finds this useful that's great, if it is just for me to refer to while I grind away on tcprime that's fine to!

NB: I do not recommend at all that a brand new pilot uses the advance guide to skip to tier 4. While it is clearly possible it will be throwing you in at the deep end and as you haven't learned the skills needed as a pilot from the tier 1-2 and especially tier 3 grind you will find tier 4 especially tough. Having said that, if the only reason you want pilot is to get the coolest title in the game (Droid Commander - penultimate box in rebel pilot) or for the nice jackets then it won't hurt too much, but you will almost certainly need to call on a friend to help with the t4 missions and the kessel bash.

If anyone has any comments or thinks I've missed something do let me know

[Brock Sherwood]

sorry i got this up late...it was just posted today...but still will help if anyone decides to do another pilot squadron - this works and ive done it b4