Scrapping. Why the heck do you want me to destroy my beautiful fleet? In a word, resources. You spent all that time upgrading that ship and dumping resources into it. So why scrap such a nice ship? It takes the resources and upgrades them a tier, spitting them back out at you.
So 2* resource based ships will rewards 3* resources, and 3* ships 4*.
So what ships am I scrapping? Economically we are looking to start with tier 2 ships that we can easily upgrade and scrap. So that means, Envoy, Talla and Turas (the ratio is better for Envoy than Phindra, so don't bother scrapping them).
| Ship | 2* Unc Materials | 3* Unc Materials from Scrap | 2* to 3* Unc Ratio | 3* Rare Materials from Scrap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy | 913 Crystal | 18 Gas, 33 Crystal | 5.5% | 1 Gas, 1 Crystal |
| Talla | 1,611 Ore | 43 Ore, 24 Crystal | 4.1% | 1 Ore, 1 Crystal |
| Turas | 1,156 Gas | 16 Ore, 30 Gas | 3.9% | 1 Ore, 1 Gas |
| Phindra | 852 Crystal | 12 Gas, 22 Crystal | 3.9% | 1 Gas, 1 Crystal |
So it makes good sense to attempt to scrap whenever possible. Keep mining that 2* and keep upgrading these ships, they pay off very well.
As you start getting closer to level 39, you're going to want to tier up either a Legionary, D3 or Mayflower to scrap. Getting one to max tier and level will get you a pile of 4* materials that you can use to get a bunch of those primes that have been teasing you in your research tree.
As officers is the most powerful prime research, it's recommended the first ship you level up to scrap is either a D3 or a Mayflower.
| Dilithium | 4* Uncommon Gas | Ore | Crystal | 4* Rare Gas | Ore | Crystal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USS Mayflower | 3.7M | 3,096 | 1,667 | - | 486 | 262 | - |
| Legionary | 3.4M | - | 2,965 | 1,597 | - | 466 | 251 |
| D3 Class | 1.5M | 1,556 | - | 2,889 | 244 | - | 454 |
| USS Saladin | 2.3M | 2,259 | - | 4,195 | 355 | - | 658 |
| Centurion | 6.2M | 4,363 | 2,350 | - | 685 | 369 | - |
| Bortas | 3.4M | - | 4,440 | 2,391 | - | 697 | 376 |
| Intrepid | 18.5M | - | 8,228 | 4,431 | - | 1,291 | 695 |
| Gladius | 8.5M | 4,431 | - | 8,228 | 695 | - | 1,291 |
| B'Rel | 14.3M | 8,228 | 4,431 | - | - | 695 | - |
| USS Enterprise | 101M | 15,066 | 8,113 | - | 2,363 | 1,273 | - |
| Augur | 78M | - | 15,042 | 8,100 | - | 2,360 | 1,271 |
| D4 Class | 32M | 7,998 | - | 14,853 | 1,255 | - | 2,330 |
Check out prime research from this here: Prime Research from Scrapping