Recently, I've been hearing a lot of strange complaints about how hard dilithium is to come by or what a huge grind it is to earn. People have been making it sound as if you have to sit at a computer for eight hours a day mindlessly tapping keys over and over to get what you need, or keep playing the same boring, repetitive missons and patrols day in and day out.

In all the years of playing this game, I have never felt as if it was a grind or dilithium hard to come by. But it could just be down to play style. It seems as if some people treat STO as if it were a job. They log in, choose one activity that they can't stand but pays the largest amount of dilithium per session, and then do it over and over again until they hit their daily quota.

STO doesn't have to be this way. You can have fun in the game and still earn the dilithium you could possibly want. All it takes is learning about all the multiple ways of earning dilithium and then spending each day doing a combination of all the activities you find the most fun.

In this guide, we'll be looking at the most basic ways of earning dilithium. Then I'll do a little walkthrough of how I earned 10K dilithium one day by just doing what I enjoy.

This is by far the easiest way to get dilithium. There is absolutely no grinding whatsoever. All you do is click on all available assignments and start handing them out to your DOFFs, one by one. If the assignment is done successfully, you will earn a minimum of 5 dil.

Now I know what you're thinking, "Oh, big deal--5 dil per assignment! If I do 20 assignments a session, that only adds up to 100 dil a day. It's not worth it."

Well, guess what? Not all assignments are 5 dilithium. Some are 50 and others 125. Also, with each assignment, you have the potential to get a "critical success", which is the best possible outcome. Whenever that happens, you can get anywhere from 125 to 1500 dil, depending on the assignment.

So if you've been blowing off DOFF assignments all this time, don't, because you're potentially missing out on making upwards of 2000 of dilithium a day just by taking 5 minutes out of your time to click a few buttons.

On top of storyline episodes, there are several types of short, missions you can play every day to earn dilithium. Most of them don't take that long to complete. They are:

These are missions given out by various Fed/KDF/Rom/UFP personnel asking you to complete various tasks, such as repairing satellites or helping colonists out. To find these tasks, click the "Hail" button on your screen, then "Available."

^ Accessing the daily missions in Federation

Each sector block needs captains to patrol various star systems and protect them from various enemies. Some sector patrols, which are repeatable once a day, reward dilithium. To find some, fly from star system to star system, then click on "Enter ____ System" if the option comes up.

A special type of patrol mission is called a "Red Alert." They happen whenever an enemy--like the Borg or Tholians--suddenly pops up out of nowhere and launches an attack. To join a Red Alert, wait until a glowing red button reading "Alert Distress Signal" appears in the right hand corner of your screen, then click on it. You will then be told who is attacking and asked if you would ike to join.

Warning: Be very careful choosing certain patrols and daily missions, especially ones that pay out a lot of dilithium. Sometimes the highest paying patrols (like Aiding the Deferi) are so long and tedious that it's just better to do 2-3 lesser-paying patrols in a row than to do one long, boring patrol where all you're doing is fighting mobs for the better part of an hour.

http://sto.gamepedia.com/Dilithium

Adventure zones are special locations in STO that are chock full of repeatable missions that give out dilithium each time you do them. Some missions have a daily limit. Other missions, you can do as many times as you want. Adventure zones are located on:

• Nukara Prime (Eta Eradini Sector)
  
• New Romulus (Tau Dewa Sector)
  
• Kobali Zone (Delta Quadrant)
  
• Deferi Invasion Zone (Orellius Sector)
  
• Paradise City (Nimbus System)
  
• Dyson Sphere

Some are better and more fun than others. Just try out each zone to see which one you like doing the most.

There are DOFF missions in which you'll be asked to confiscate contraband. Confiscate enough contraband, turn it in to a security officer at any one of the major starbases and stations and get 2k dilithium.

Ouch, what a grindfest! =-)

You can earn dilithium by mining for it (go to Hail Starfleet-->Available-->Asteroid Mining). It's not as exciting as doing missions, patrols, or adventure zones, but for some, it's a nice change of pace and the perfect place to go to if you love bouncing around in an EV suit.

Once you reach level 50, you will have access to what's called "reputation." With this system, you will start earning special currency called "marks" that you can use to gain special skills and purchase gear. Marks are as follows: Omega, Delta, Dyson, Undine, Romulan, Nukara and Iconian.


Technically, marks are there to help players earn special gear to fight specific enemies. However, you can also use them to earn tons of dilithium, in three ways:

To level up in tier in each Reputation, you must contribute marks to what are called "projects." On top of earning points when you complete each project, you earn dilithium. Hourly projects earn you 125 dilithium. Daily projects pay 340 dilithium.

When you reach Tier V in each Rep, you will get a nice, fat juicy dilithium bonus, upwards of 32,000.

You don't have to contribute marks to hourly or daily projects to earn dilithium. You can skip all that by going to the "Upgrades" section of each Reputation and clicking on "Ongoing War Efforts".

• With "Ongoing War Efforts", for every 50 marks, you get 500 dilithium.
  
• With "Ongoing War Efforts (x5)", for every 250 marks, you get 2500 dilithium.
  
• With "Ongoing War Efforts (x10)", for every 500 marks, you get 5000 dilithium.

There are special types of loot that drops in Adventure Zones. By turning them in, you can earn a lot of dilithium. For example, a set of Voth cybernetic implants is worth 1K dilithium under Dyson Rep.

That's all it takes. Just one warning, though. Don't go crazy completing projects left and right, because you need lots of ECs to level up in each Reputation tier. If you have millions of ECs to spare, you'll be okay, but if you barely have a few thousand to your name, you'll burn through your balance in no time.

Playing PvE and PvP is another handy way of earning dilithium. Simply click on Hail Starfleet to see which ones are available.

I don't know why so many people seem oblivious to this fact, so let me shout it from the mountaintops--every so often, there'll be a special event where you can earn a ridiculous amount of dilithium than you normally would in the game, and with very little effort.

For example, at the time of this writing (March 2015), Cryptic is running the Crystalline Catalcysm Event. Every day that you play it, you get one crystal shard and 480 dilithium. After 14 shards, you get a cool 50,000 dilithium. If you do the math, that comes out to 56,720 dilithium. (50K + 6,720).

Even better, after you've earned your 56,720 dil, you can earn an additional 2000 each day you do the event!

So, say you played the event for the first 14 days to get your 56,720. Then you played every day for the rest of the event (which ran for another 7 days). At the end of March, you would have gotten an additional 17,360 (2K+480/day x7). That comes out to 74,080 in total for only completing an event once every day that only takes five minutes! Remember, this is in addition to all the other dilithium you could potentially earn in the game per day. So if you typically earn, say, 10K a day, you would have earned for the entire month of March, 384,080.

Another event STO runs from time to time is Bonus Marks, where you can earn more marks than usual playing an adventure zone. Remember that marks can be converted into dilithium, so if you wrack up thousands of marks during a Bonus Marks event and turn them in, you can increase your dilithium output.

Events like this run all the time. Of course, not all of them will pay a bumper crop like the Crystalline Cataclysm Event, but they go a long way in cutting down all the work you would have done otherwise earning dilithium.

Okay, so below, I'm going to walk you through a typical gaming session. You will see how I earn dilithium effortlessly, without any of the "misery" that I hear so many people complain about. Keep in mind that this isn't even the most you can make in one session. The whole point is just to show you how I earn dilithium by just playing the game for fun and in a way that isn't burdensome.

The first thing I am doing in this game session is to do a run of the Crystalline Event to earn a shard per day for 14 days. Why? After turning in 14 shards, I will earn 56,720 (50K reward + 480 a day for 14 days). After that, I will earn an additional 2480 every day I play it through March 26.


When I complete today's run, I earn 480 dilithium and my 7th shard. Not great, but remember, if I do this for the next 7 days, I will get 56,720. After that, every day that I play the event through March 26, I will earn an extra 2480 dilithium. (480+2000). Best thing about this event is that it only takes 5 minutes to complete!

Current total for the day: 480.

After I do the Crystalline Event, I decide to check on all my Reputation projects. I had four daily projects running, each one earning 340 dilithium. After collecting my rewards, I earn an additional 1360 dilithium (340x4). As a bonus, I turn in 100 Delta Marks to get 1000 dilithium. (50 marks equals 500 dilithium).

Total: 2840.

Keep in mind that between completing the Crystalline Event for the day and collecting rewards from the Reputation system, I have gotten that 2840 for only 7 minutes of playing. (Five minutes for CE, another two minutes by clicking through all my completed Rep projects.)

Whew, whatta grind!!!

Now I will pay one of my favorite adventure zone--the Kobali Zone. It has tons of open missions that each pay dilithium, even the ones you fail to complete. After playing "The Thin Blue Line", "Time on Target", and a few others for about 20 minutes, my dilithium total is now 3215.


The Kobali Zone doesn't pay as well as other adventure zones, but I enjoy playing it and wind up wracking up a lot of marks that I can turn in for dilithium under Reputation, anyway. So it all pans out.

There are some patrols I haven't played in awhile, so I decide to give one a try in the Tau Dewa Sector. It's a very quick and easy patrol, took me about 5-8 minutes tops. After I beat it, I earn 480.

Total: 3695

9 of my DOFF assignments have completed. And wow, have I hit a bumper crop! Not only did several of them earn me 50 dilithium, one earned me 1,500 because I hit critical success:


To add to the day's totals, I start a few brand new assignments that will be completed before my session is through.

Total: 5290

New Romulus is another favorite adventure zone of mine, so I go there.


After completing "A New Beginning" and helping out in the Paenhos Crater, I earn 720+320, which comes out to 1040. Now my total amount of dilithium for the day is 6330.

Now I am off to Dyson Sphere to play the Voth battlegrounds.


Between zones I have captured and the final boss bottles, I earn a whopping 3,402 dilithium! Wheeeee!

Total: 9,732.

Some assignments have completed, totaling 510 dilithium.

My grand total for the day? 10,242!

Keep in mind that I could've earned all this dilithium with much less effort or hopping around from sector to sector. If I had done a contraband DOFF assignment, I would've earned 2K. If I had spent an hour or so doing multiple runs of the Voth battlegrounds, I would've earned 10K in half the time as well. Completing one or two short foundry missions would've also yielded me more dilithium in a lot less time.

Also, know that this "walkthrough" is not something I do day in and day out. Tomorrow, I may do a completely different set of activities I feel like doing, like turning in contraband or completing foundry missions or hanging out at Nukara Prime for awhile. The day after that, I might do yet a different set of activities just to mix things up, like patrols/ red alerts, New Romulus, etc.

The whole point is to show you that getting dilithium is not as much of a "grind" as some players would have you believe. If you make use of special events, use the Reputation system to your advantage, play activities that you like, and change things up on a day to day basis, you will find yourself not only earning dilithium faster than you can refine it, but be wondering where it's all coming from.