Star Trek Timelines is a stunning strategy RPG from Disruptor Beam. The company also developed the award-winning Game of Thrones: Ascent, another strategy role-playing game known for its unique game mechanics.
Timelines offers engaging gameplay and a deep storyline with multiple endings. It lets you build and command starships, recruit characters, teleport an “away team” to solve complex challenges, explore the universe and boldly go where no man has gone before. You will be able to recruit your favorite heroes, including characters from the original series and Star Trek: Enterprise. Space battles are impressive and the 3D visuals are mind-blowing.
Star Trek Timelines is not an easy game. You will need a skilled team to complete challenges and a right crew to power your starship. These beginner-level tips, hints and strategies will help you win missions, destroy enemy starships and have a stronger team.
Table of Contents
1. Select a Crew Member with a Matching Skill Icon for the Final Challenge
To emerge victorious in a challenge, the first step is to select the best crew member whose skill icon matches with a challenge’s skill icon. While selecting 3 best characters, keep an eye on the challenge map at the top of the screen. The challenge map gives a glimpse of the skill required to complete each challenge. Crew selection should be based on the challenge map.
Make sure that at least one crew member’s skill icon matches with the final challenge’s skill icon. If you don’t have a crew member with matching skill icon for the final challenge, then you won’t be able to complete a mission.
In the above screenshot, I have two crew members who have one of their skill icons matching with the final challenge’s skill icon. Note that matching skill icons in the challenge map have turned yellow. Skills, traits and crew efficiency are key factors that determine victory or defeat.
2. A Matching Skill Icon Does Not Guarantee Success in a Challenge
A crew member has different types of skills. These include “Command”, “Diplomacy”, “Security”, “Medicine” etc. Each skill has a unique icon. When taking up a challenge, select a character whose skill icon matches with the challenge’s skill icon. But wait – A matching skill icon does not guarantee success in a challenge. Skill points also play a key role in winning it. If your crew member’s matching skill’s number is equal to or more than the recommended skill’s number in a challenge, you will be able to complete it easily.
After tapping a team member’s portrait, you may have seen “Easy”, “Moderate” or “Hard” displayed at the bottom of each challenge. Well, these difficulty modes appear based on a character’s matching skill and points allocated to that skill. A challenge can be easy if the character’s matching skill points are equal to or more than the recommended skill points. In the above screenshot, Torres’s matching skill icon has 22 points and the challenge’s recommended skill points are also 22, hence the “Easy” label below one challenge. Had Torres’ skill been 20, then the label would have been “Moderate”.
Equip your character with items that you get as challenge completion rewards and mission rewards to add more points to their skills.
3. A Crew Member’s Matching Trait Helps You Complete a Challenge in a Mission
Besides skills, traits also play an important role in challenges. While selecting an away team, try to select those crew members whose traits matches with a traits in the “Suggested” list. A matching suggested trait turns green in color.
There are different types of traits, such as Tactician, Hunter, Diplomat, Resourceful, Federation, Saboteur, Pilot etc. Each character possesses some unique traits. If a character chosen for a challenge also has a matching trait along with a matching skill, then bonus points will be added to the challenge meter, helping him reach his “Target”. A character’s matching skill along with a matching trait can help you win challenges easily, so make sure you choose crew members that have more than one trait matching with ones on the “Suggested” list.
Some challenges are restricted to a certain trait, so if there’s no crew member with a matching trait for that challenge, it will be locked and you won’t be able to access it unless you have assigned a crew member whose trait matches with the challenge’s chosen trait.
4. How to Improve a Character’s Skills and Starship Ability
Equipping your crew members with items, costumes and weapons will add more points to their skill or boost their ship ability. You will be able to win challenges and ship battles. Equipment can be acquired by completing challenges and missions. Before attempting a mission or a space battle, have a look at the possible rewards.
Chances of getting a rare or uncommon item are more if you destroy enemy ship in 20 seconds. You will get three stars and a 3-star space battle victory grants more rewards. When attempting a challenge, keep an eye on the challenge meter. This meter also has a “Target”. After assigning a crew member to a challenge, the meter at the bottom must be full to receive a reward for that particular challenge.
Try to complete more challenges in a mission to get rare rewards. You may have to replay a challenge or a space battle to get those rewards that you haven’t received in the first attempt.
Rewards are performance-based, so make sure you have the best away team (for challenges), ship type and the crew members assigned to battle stations if you want to earn rare rewards.
5. Crew Members Boost Your Ship’s Attack, Accuracy and Evasion
Your crew plays a major role in space battles. Assign crew members to your starship’s battle stations to boost its stats and initiate stronger, accurate attacks and evade enemy fire faster. Make sure you add a crew member to a battle station with a matching skill. The skill icons of both crew member and the battle station should match.
To know each crew member’s skill, go to “Manage Crew” and note down each team member’s skill (Command, Security, Medicine etc.). If you don’t want to waste time noting down each character’s skill, then just tap on a battle station, and then tap a crew member. If skills don’t match, you will receive a warning message in red text – “Slot Requires Crew with DP (Diplomacy)/CMD (Command)”.
An assigned crew member may also grant an equipment bonus. The equipment bonus your ship gets is because of clothing and other items that you have equipped to your character. Some items, weapons or clothing equipped to a crew member can grant bonus to your spaceship.
When battle starts, keep an eye on your crew member’s portrait at the bottom of the screen. Tap on a portrait when it charges fully to initiate an action. A crew member’s action is determined by the attributes or ship abilities he/she possesses. You can see each member’s attributes when assigning him/her to a battle station. If you notice carefully, you will see some icons at the bottom of each crew member’s portrait. These icons show whether a crew member can initiate a stronger “Attack” or an “Accurate” attack or “Evade” enemy ship fire.
A Ship also has these three key attributes (Attack, Accuracy and Evasion) and by choosing a crew member with one of those attributes, you can boost a ship’s attack, accuracy and evasion. For Example: Captain Kirk has an Attack attribute. If you assign him to your ship’s battle station, he will boost your ship’s “Attack” ability by initiating a stronger attack when you tap his charged portrait. Travis Mayweather will boost your Ship’s Evasion and so on.
6. Train Characters to Equip Higher-Level Items to Them
Training a character in Star Trek Timelines not only lets you level-up a character and reach max level faster, but also allows you to equip higher-level clothing, weapons or items to him. To train a character, you will need training materials such as Basic Survival Training. Such items can increase a crew XP by 10 points.
There are advanced training materials that can help you train and level up crew faster. You can upgrade a character’s max level by tapping on “Advance” to upgrade his max level, but you will need all 4 equipment slots filled.
You can get training materials after completing faction missions. These missions take some time to complete and grant extra rewards. You can also earn training materials as Daily Rewards. Login and play daily to receive them.
7. How to Find Items, Weapons and Clothing
You can equip weapon, clothing or special item to a character to improve his skill points and ship ability. A character’s equipment slot glows, indicating that an item/weapon/clothing can be equipped to him.
Many items are mission-specific and to get them you will need to complete certain missions. You may even have to replay older missions. To find and obtain equipment for a crew member, go to “Manage Crew” and tap on the empty equipment slot.
Next, tap “Get” to know the whereabouts of the equipment. You will see a list of missions or space battles. They can grant the required equipment after successfully completing them. However, you may not get some equipment after the first attempt and may have to replay the same mission to obtain it. For example, to get three stars and rare rewards, you will have to destroy an enemy ship in 20 seconds. Rewards, especially the rarer ones, are performance-based and so you will need a strong crew to get them.
Additional Tips and Tricks
Faction missions are special missions where you will have to assign an away team to complete them. These missions take time to complete. For your away team, select characters with a matching skill icon to improve a faction mission’s success rate. A higher success rate guarantees a successful mission completion. Upon completion, you will receive rewards. Faction missions can be accessed from the home screen. It is located at the bottom of the screen just beside the “Scan” icon.
Characters assigned for a faction mission can’t be assigned to a mission or space battle, so make sure you recruit more characters and select those that you may not need in the main mission or space battle.
You get free scans that may help you scan the entire universe for salvage items. If you want more items, crew and ships, then head straight to the Time Portal. You can buy a basic reward for 10000 credits.