User:Eklinaar/Duty Officers: A Recruitment Guide

The purpose of this guide is to outline all the ways to obtain duty officers, especially high-quality and unique duty officers. This is not a general guide to the DOff system, but is rather intended to augment already existing general guides. This guide assumes the reader already has a basic understanding of the DOff system. If you're looking for a general guide, I highly recommend the following.


 * Heretic's Duty Officers 101 thread
 * Hevach's DOffs for Doofuses thread
 * The Duty Officer page on this wiki.

Starter Packs
At level 12, a pack of 20 low quality duty officers is awarded. These officers are identical for everyone and they are all bound. Booster packs of 3 random, unbound duty officers are also awarded at levels 18, 23, 31, and 41.

Basic Recruitment assignments
The whole purpose of the recruitment category is recruiting crew members, both DOffs and BOffs. Assignments in this section are the easiest to find and repeat.

Academy Recruitment
There are eight assignments always available from NPCs at each faction's academy. The vast majority of DOffs in the game originate from these assignments. These assignments always result in a success or critical success. Most officers from these assignments are white quality.

Five recruitment assignments are available from the personnel officer, while race-specific recruitment assignments are available from individual recruitment officers of that race. Only the most common races for each faction are represented.

Additionally, the Romulan Republic has its own versions of the five Personnel Officer assignments from a console labeled "Duty Officer Recruitment" in New Romulus Command, but there are no race-specific recruitments on New Romulus. Romulan Republic captains also have access to all the recruitment assignments of their ally.

It should be noted that seven of these eight assignments require no inputs at all, thus are essentially a perpetual source of free DOffs, only requiring time and assignment slots. However, "General Recruitment" costs 1000 and, in the opinion of this author, is not worth that cost, since the DOffs are usually white.

Asylum
assignments appear in the sector block that contains that species's homeworld, or additionally on that homeworld itself. They require a single refugee as an input. The quality and traits of that refugee influence the quality of the DOff reward. This is one of the most reliable ways to get high-quality DOffs. Most of the KDF Asylum assignments have multiple versions with slightly different names, such as "Sanctuary with..." or "Protective Custody with...".

Cultural Exchange
Cultural exchange assignments can appear in the Personal tab. They usually only appear in sector space in the sector which contains the homeworld of that species. Despite their low quality color, these assignments are quite rare.

Advanced Recruitment assignments
There are a number of unique or chain assignments that award rare or high quality duty officers.

Colonial chains
Every exploration zone has a chain of colonial missions. At the end of each chain is the local assignment which grants a unique blue quality DOff. Each exploration zone has its own chain and its own unique DOff. Not only does completing the mission open up the next assignment in the chain, but also opens up other repeatable assignments that give minor CXP and other numeric awards. Failing a chain assignment still unlocks the next step in the chain. The normal and elite versions of B'Tran and Azlesa zones share their respective chains. Though they are separate instances and offer different assignment lists, they share chain progression and only offer one unique DOff between them.

Upon completion of the whole chain, is unlocked for Federation captains, which awards one refugee, and  for KDF captains, which awards one prisoner. On a critical success, it grants a purple quality DOff with the same specialization and traits as the Renown DOff of that zone (with the exception of Arucanis Arm, which has a completely different DOff for Federation, and a difference of only one trait for KDF). The cooldown for this assignment is precisely 24 hours from completion.

Other Chains
Caitian Diaspora, Ghosts of the Jem'Hadar, and Project Chrysalis are all story chains which award a unique DOff at the conclusion.

The four Consular Authority chains for each faction unlock repeatable assignments which allow you to trade one of your DOffs for a DOff from a featured race in the Gamma Quadrant expansion. I recommend only sending white DOffs on these exchange assignments, because you might only get a white DOff in exchange.

The Facility 4028 Fugitives chain unlocks the repeatable assignment, which can award on a critical success a Dominion Fugitive prisoner. The fugitive can then be assigned to to receive a high quality DOff.

Espionage Assignments
Certain rare, high-risk espionage assignments award DOffs, which are usually high quality. has a chance to award a bound blue or purple DOff from the opposing faction. The DOffs from and  are not bound, and are green or blue quality.

Other Assignments
is a unique exploration assignment that can only be completed once per character. Regardless of success or failure, joins your crew.

is a very rare medical assignment that awards a green borg DOff only on a critical success. It can appear in various places in the galaxy.

comes in all four rarities, with the white rarity version becoming available at trade tier 1, the green at trade tier 2, the blue at trade tier 3, and the purple at trade tier 4. A critical success on this assignment awards a holographic entertainer with a quality color to match the rarity color of the assignment.

Commendation tier rewards
Each faction has a vendor that sells unique DOffs: Lieutenant Ferra at Starfleet Academy, Lieutenant S'stas at Klingon Academy, and Centurion Velaar at New Romulus Command (note that Velaar sells the same DOffs as the player captain's chosen ally). However, these DOffs are locked until certain commendation ranks are achieved. Each tier of each commendation category has a different set of 5 or more DOffs available at this vendor. Reaching a tier awards a token for one free DOff in the set, and unlocks the others for purchase with dilithium. Green DOffs cost 1000, blue DOffs cost 6000 , and purple DOffs cost 12000.

Additionally, each tier of the Medical, Military, and Engineering categories unlocks the ability to replicate a photonic DOff. The specializations of these photonic DOffs are Doctor for Medical, Assault Squad Officer for Military, and Damage Control Engineer for Engineering. The photonic DOffs available at each tier increase in quality and cost: white for 1000 at tier 1, green for 10000  at tier 2, blue for 100000  at tier 3, and purple for 1000000  at tier 4.

Fleet DOffs
Fleet Starbases have their own Personnel Officer that offers individual DOff packs for Fleet Credits. While the DOff packs contain random DOffs, the quality or department can be guaranteed by buying a specific pack. Each pack contains only one DOff. A table listing the different available packs is below.

The Romulan Embassy also has a selection of 9 unique DOffs available for purchase, depending on the tier of the Embassy's Recruitment Facilities.

Reputation
8 unique Liberated Borg DOffs are available through the Omega Task Force Reputation System.

Mission Rewards
awards the, which contains three unique DOffs.

awards.

In, a NPC named is standing near the beam-in point at the Hfihar mining facility. Any Romulan Republic captain can convince her to join the crew. Federation and Klingon captains need at least tier 4 Diplomacy or Marauding for her to join.

Testing rewards
Players who tested the Duty Officer system while it was in beta on Tribble before the launch of season 5 may have been granted up to three unique DOffs. These are account-wide unlocks and can be claimed through the C-Store interface.

Players who tested the Tholian Incursion on Nukara Prime on Tribble before the launch of season 6 may have been granted the unique.

When the Junior Officer Appreciation Week event is active, a unique maintenance engineer is available to any participant.

Event rewards
Every Friday the 13th and Halloween, the mission is available, which awards a  containing.

Attendees of select conventions may have received, a rare photonic entertainer.

C-Store
There's a whole section in the C-Store for Duty Officers with a variety of options. The Cadres function very similarly to the Cadres received by the basic Recruitment assignments, however they usually contain higher quality DOffs. Most DOffs from C-Store packs are not bound, but there are exceptions. Many of these DOffs are the same as DOffs that can be obtained through other means in the game, but a few can only be obtained through these C-Store Cadre packs. There's also a small chance to acquire an ultra-rare unique DOff from some of these packs.

Lockboxes
Most lockboxes have a chance to contain one of the C-Store DOff packs or items that grant unique DOffs or assignments. Many of these packs or items are not bound.

Reassign Underperforming Officers
The personnel officer at each faction's academy offers Duty Officer Reassignments, with a version for each of the white, green, and blue quality tiers. Each assignment requires five DOffs of that tier, which are then removed from your roster, and exchanged for one DOff of the next higher tier. These assignments also cost 500, 2500 , and 5000 respectively for each tier. They have a duration of 5 seconds and are immediately repeatable. This mechanic is similar to "fusing" in many other games. The specific racial personnel officers offer similar assignments for a 20% higher dilithium cost but guarantee a DOff of that race.

This is a very expensive way of obtaining high quality DOffs and probably isn't worth it. Buying DOffs from Lt. Ferra is much cheaper, and it might be more worthwhile to sell dilithium for Zen and buy DOff packs from the Cryptic Store instead, depending on the current exchange rate.

Exchange Officers
This assignment is also offered by the personnel officer, and is essentially a reverse of the previous assignment. Each assignment requires 1 green, blue, or purple DOff, and exchanges it for 3 DOffs of the next lower tier. No other inputs are required.

If your goal is to obtain high quality DOffs, then this particular mechanic is useless. The most common use of this mechanic is to downgrade green DOffs to white DOffs for contribution to fleet starbases.

The Exchange
Last but certainly not least, most DOffs can be bought and sold on The Exchange for energy credits. DOffs are sorted by category, but unfortunately DOffs from the opposite faction will appear and can be purchased, so be careful not to accidentally buy one. Many of the DOff packs and DOff-related items from lockboxes can also be found on The Exchange.

Frequently Asked Questions
"Where do I get colonists?"

The assignment awards 5 colonists, has a 4 hour duration, can appear anywhere, and has precisely a 24 hour cooldown from completion. Colonists are not bound.

"I'm stuck on a colonial chain! What do I do?"

The colonial chains have cooldowns between assignments and aren't guaranteed to appear when they're not on cooldown. is even more rare than the others, so it's common to think you're stuck when you're waiting on that one. Just keep checking. Eventually you'll be able to complete the chain.

"I keep doing the same mission in the colonial chain over and over! Is it broken?"

No, it's not broken. Completing any of the first five colonial chain missions unlocks other nearly-identical repeatable missions, with identical requirements and rewards, but a slightly different name. If there is no yellow text in the description that reads, "Completing this assignment will open up additional possible assignments within this star cluster," then it is not part of the chain and you have already completed that step in the chain. Additionally, most chains are now enumerated (they have numbers like "3/7" appended to the end of the assignment name), while the similar repeatable assignments are not.

"Can Federation captains do colonial chains in the exploration zones in Klingon space?"

Yes, but they need Diplomatic Immunity to enter Omega Leonis. KDF captains can do the colonial chain in Delta Volanis, but need Marauding Force to enter Sirius.

"I got a DOff from the opposing faction, but when I try to send it on a mission, I can't find it!"

DOffs are faction specific. However, you can buy opposing faction DOffs from the Exchange or mail them to captains of the opposing faction, which leads to some confusion. Even though DOffs from the opposing faction will appear in your reserve roster, they cannot be put on active duty or sent on assignments and will not appear in the roster on the "Plan Assignment" tab. This also applies to colonists and prisoners.

"I achieved a new commendation tier and claimed my free DOff, but I can't purchase any others from that tier for dilithium!"

Close the DOff purchase window and contact the vendor again. The unlocked tier will be at the bottom of the list for that commendation category, below the tiers for which you have not yet spent a free token. If you still can't purchase them, speak to Ferra or S'stas again and follow the prompts to repair your commendation tier recognition.

"Where do I get an EMH?"

As you gain commendation tiers in the Medical, Military and Engineering commendation categories, you gain the ability to use your ship's replicator to manufacture holograms of three specializations at increasingly higher cost and quality.

"Where do I get refugees?"

Refugees have a small chance to appear in most general or civilian recruitment assignments, however there are more reliable ways to recruit refugees. Federation captains can recruit refugees from the assignment, which is unlocked at the end of the colonial chains, and awards one refugee. Note that the KDF version of the "support" assignment awards prisoners, not refugees. KDF captains can, which appears randomly in sector space and awards three refugees on a critical success.

"Where do I get prisoners?"

KDF captains can get prisoners on normal successes from most Marauding assignments. Federation captains can get prisoners only from critical successes on certain military and espionage assignments. It's much more difficult for Federation captains to acquire prisoners, but there are far fewer Federation assignments that require prisoners as an input. Prisoners are not bound. So far, the only Federation assignments I am aware of that award prisoners are, , and.

"Where do I get contraband?"

Contraband currently is not used to acquire duty officers in any way, but it is used extensively throughout the DOff system. Follow the link to read more about it.

"Someone told me a specific assignment is available. Why don't I see it?"

There are a number of reasons why you may not be able to see an assignment that others are reporting. You could be on cooldown for that assignment, it could be above your level range, it could be part of a chain and you are not on the same step, it could be a personal assignment which are not synchronized between players, or it could be a unique assignment that you have already completed. The more general Duty Officer guides linked at the beginning of this guide contain more information on these mechanics.

"I have a completed assignment that awards officers/colonists/prisoners, but I can't accept the rewards because it says my inventory is full, but my inventory isn't full!"

There are limits on the number of DOffs you can have in your reserve roster, colonists in your passenger space, and prisoners in your brig. Your reserve roster starts at a maximum of 100 and can be increased by purchases in the C-Store. Your passenger space and brig cap out at 20.

"How does the Duty Officer system work for Romulan Republic characters?"

By the time Romulan Republic captains unlock the DOff system, they have already chosen an ally. Their DOff starter pack is all Romulan races and they have access to five Romulan recruitment assignments at New Romulus Command, but other than that, they have access to everything an allied captain does. They can even run the five Romulan recruitment assignments and the eight allied recruitment assignments simultaneously, allowing them to recruit more DOffs faster than any other faction.

Helpful Links
I have compiled a list of recruitment assignments, formatted in the same order as this guide.

A list of special duty officers.

The central listing page for all duty officers.