How to prepare for fleet prior to lvl 60

farm any ship that you can get in galactic war store, especially ashoka ship, jc ship, and any x-wing or arc-170. https://wiki.swgoh.help/wiki/Galactic_War_Store will give you an idea of which ships will show up there.

Ships won’t show up in the stores until you hit level 60. I think the only ones you can farm before you unlock ships are KRU’s and Vulture droid. Other than that there’s not a whole lot of preparing you can do but when you unlock ships, don’t neglect them. Start farming them as soon as you can. An advantage of focusing on ships early in the game is the added crystal income if you can get in the top 50. You can use Galactic War currency to purchase ships starting at level 60 so it is helpful to start saving some currency but you don’t have to neglect farming everything just to save GW currency.

As @whatissleep said, you can’t really prepare for ships. What you should do is farm Kylo-U and his ship because Kylo and his ship are pretty good.

You could also start farming and gearing up pilots of a certain ship that you plan to get in the future. An example being Wedge, Biggs, Ackbar and Phoenix so you could have them geared up and ready when you get their ships so they can be used in a rebel squadron and to get the Chimera.

There's not a lot you can do early except to put some gear on a few pilots you plan to use.

I disagree with some of the previous advice about gearing jedi councilor and clone sergeant. Their ships aren't that great and they aren't good characters. So don't gear them.

You can have geo solider and ftp unlocked before level 60 so gearing them as much as you can us good. Getting ashoka and gearing her is also good. You'll still have to use jc and clone sergeant some but ship leveling materials are hard to come by early so it isn't worth leveling their ships much at all.

Farming anakin and his ship as soon as you have the node is also helpful. He's a hard node and a 4 star unlock so it may take you past level 60 to unlock him but his ship is really good.

Kru is a possibility but he interferes with your ezra's and hers farms so it's up to you if you want to pause for that. Same with geo solider. Once you unlock the fleet store you you can farm sun face and geo solider from there but they are also 4 star unlocks so it takes a bit.

The fact is that you probably won't hit the top for awhile without spending. Those that buy the hyperdrive bundle get level 85 and a bunch of gear immediately. You just won't have that for a few months after you hit level 60.

But by the time you hit level 85, you can have boss and ht unlocked as well. If you're using a fleet of geos with ht, anakin, and ashoka as reinforcements. (Or tf, Vader's ship, biggs, or kru subbed in and you've focused most of your fleet resources on those ships you picked and their pilots you'll do fine.

If you're going for thrawn and an empire team, then tfp and Vader's ships are good choices since they do double duty.

I'm level 69 on my alt right now. I use Tf, biggs, and geo solider with fo tf and ashoka as my reinforcements and get in the 70s or 80s for now. Much beyond that are teams with twice th ef power as me so it just isn't going to happen for awhile.

I'm farming anakin and his ship, geo solider, and sun face to eventually replace fo tie and probably biggs and to use the next reinforcement spot.

When I get hounds tooths are and bossk's I'll add those to my farm as well but you have to be in the 70s before that becomes an option. And I have quite a few nodes going at a time as it is. I'm playing the long game and farming several at a time. Refreshing for 25 Crystal's uses a lot of crystals over time. And when you need dozens of characters are already over a 3 or 4 month period you'll unlock them all anyway farming the hard node without refreshes.

You could hoard gw currency until level 60 to get th ed ships faster but then you miss out on heroic raid rewards for longer since zeb is the easiest early character to 7 star.

"trustme707;c-2152420" wrote:
Thanks everyone - makes total sense. Since I’m going for an empire team (EP, Thrawn and Vader) - would tie fighter pilot make it to the squad? I’m this case, investing in him now would make sense

Yes. A normal empire squad is EP, Thrawn, Vader, Tarkin, and Tie Fighter Pilot.

"trustme707;c-2152420" wrote:
Thanks everyone - makes total sense. Since I’m going for an empire team (EP, Thrawn and Vader) - would tie fighter pilot make it to the squad? I’m this case, investing in him now would make sense

He's a good early toon for a ep team. The buff immunity helps prevents taunts and without a dispel, it is useful.

However you'll eventually want to replace him in the team. On my alt, I'm running ep, vader, thrawn, tarkin, and tfp. I plan on replacing either tarkin or tfp with dark Bastilla when she's unlocked.

And will probably replace the other with a good tank once I get one for Sith or empire. Probably sion or shore once I unlock their nodes.

Thanks everyone - makes total sense. Since I’m going for an empire team (EP, Thrawn and Vader) - would tie fighter pilot make it to the squad? I’m this case, investing in him now would make sense

"TheMaster12345;c-2152440" wrote:

"trustme707;c-2152420" wrote:
Thanks everyone - makes total sense. Since I’m going for an empire team (EP, Thrawn and Vader) - would tie fighter pilot make it to the squad? I’m this case, investing in him now would make sense

Yes. A normal empire squad is EP, Thrawn, Vader, Tarkin, and Tie Fighter Pilot.

"DarkHelmet1138;c-2152489" wrote:

"trustme707;c-2152420" wrote:
Thanks everyone - makes total sense. Since I’m going for an empire team (EP, Thrawn and Vader) - would tie fighter pilot make it to the squad? I’m this case, investing in him now would make sense

He's a good early toon for a ep team. The buff immunity helps prevents taunts and without a dispel, it is useful.

However you'll eventually want to replace him in the team. On my alt, I'm running ep, vader, thrawn, tarkin, and tfp. I plan on replacing either tarkin or tfp with dark Bastilla when she's unlocked.

And will probably replace the other with a good tank once I get one for Sith or empire. Probably sion or shore once I unlock their nodes.

That was exactly my plan! Thank you guys!