@Brad107
Just a little addition - people are generally steering you well:
As Old Ben said, you can use Kru's Silencer 5* but other ships you can only start at lvl 60. Vulture droid comes with Jedi Consular's fighter
This is not quite true. Your main other ships are the Geos, and it is certainly true that you can't start on those until you hit level 60. At that level they will begin to show up in the Galactic War store. (Of course even though you can't buy them yet, you can begin saving up GW Tokens around level 55 or so to make sure you can rush the Geo ships as fast as possible once you hit level 60. Make sure you get Cad Bane to 7* before you start saving crystals, however.) There are many other ships that will also be found in the GW store and you can use those to make sure you get your 8 ships at 5 stars needed for the zeta challenge.
However, there are also ships that you can access before level 60 other than the TIE Silencer. I just wrote up something in another thread yesterday or the day before about what to go to get ready for ships if you're still under level 60. Let me quote from that:
Ships available before level 60:
- Extinction Bomber (LS 6-C; accessible at level 54) -- Comes with Veers, who is necessary long-term. Not recommended, but possible. You'll farm this node later, but probably not now.
- IG-2000 (LS 6-E; accessible at level 54) -- a decent ship in the right context + same node grants Poggle, an important geonosian character who fits well with a Fleet-focus since the easiest fleet to acquire is a Geonosian fleet with Spy, Soldier & Sun Fac. Also required later for Han's Falcon, which is a great midgame to early-endgame ship.Light recommendation. Of course, if you don't farm right away, you'll be farming eventually anyway.
- Imperial TIE Bomber (DS 5-A ; accessible at level 49) comes with a worthless Jedi, but has synergy with early fleet commander (Tarkin) and is Pilotless, and is an excellent early tank for various reasons. NOTE Has the earliest accessible AoE dispel to help deal with enemy ships under stealth. Level 49 is also early enough to get this ship to 5* before the beginning of fleet, so it has the chance of dominating early while others catch up. Strongly recommended. Farm ASAP.
- Rey's Millennium Falcon (DS 5-D; accessible at level 49) comes paired with one of the two required pilots, who is also a good early toon for her ability to dish damage at relatively low gear. You would still need to get Finn from a separate source, and this ship will have no synergy with any Fleet Commander for a long time. Not recommended, but possible. It's possible never to farm this node, as Rey is available elsewhere, but you'll probably come back for this ship at some point.
- TIE Silencer (Cantina 3-F; accessible now) -- Paired with the only pilot the ship needs, so ready to rock. A strong attacker with decent survivability. No synergy with early commanders, but worth it because the pilot (Kylo Ren Unmasked, or KRU) is so useful for so much of the early to mid game, and then becomes useful again once you get to the very-very-endgame where you have acquired SLKR, one of the Galactic Legends. There's a small gap in there where he is not relevant to what you want to do, but he does help you early and late, so there's never a need to regret getting and gearing him. Strongly recommended. Farm ASAP
- Vulture Droid (LS 4-D; accessible now) -- Pilotless!! Paired with worthless IG-86, but that doesn't matter. This ship rocks, and it's available before any others in Regular Energy Battles. With no pilot to gear it's always going to be on the bleeding edge of best ships. Works fine with Tarkin, and thus can pair well with TIE Bomber in the earliest days. Strongest Possible recommendation. Farm ASAP.
Strongly recommended Pilots:
- KRU (Get for free with TIE Silencer, accessible now)
- Geonosian Spy (Cantina 4-D; accessible now)
- Geonosian Soldier (Cantina 1-A; accessible now)
- Sun Fac: Guild Store (Accessible now, begin purchasing now)
TIE Silencer you already know is a good ship even if not a separatist. The TIE Bomber likewise doesn't fit your separatist plan, but is still a great ship, so I recommend the same for you as I did for that other person seeking advice: get some ships together before level 60 even if they don't seem like a good, integrated fleet. Get your Geonosians pilots ready. Save up some GW Tokens as you approach level 60, and then go nuts on Geo ships in the GW store right away, the moment they're available.
By level 65 at the latest you should have 6* Geos x 3 + all 3 pilots at 6* or better, level 60 minimum, and gear tier 6 or 7. You should also have a 6* TIE Bomber and TIE Silencer, which is enough to get every advance allowed for Tarkin's ship at your level.
You'll still be working on finishing one or two of those ships so they're all at 7*, but you'll be way ahead in crystals and constantly ready to conquer Fleet Battles as soon as your level opens them to you. Although you don't need any more dark side ships, you will still need 3 more 5* ships for the zeta challenge and you'll want Vader's TIE Adv. x1 and Boba's Slave 1 (both purchased from fleet tokens) to be among them. Why? Even though they aren't going to be available to you early, Vader is a pilot your going to be throwing gear at for other reasons, so you might as well gear his ship and take advantage of it, while Boba's Slave 1 is a requirement for Han's Millennium Falcon and only performs well early on. If you wait until much later to get it, you'll never see any use out of it other than the Falcon event.
Somewhere in there you're going to want to get IG-2000 because it will work with your Separatists in a way that other ships won't. Hyena Bomber you'll want as early as you can get it, but that won't be until much later.
I know this seems to skip light side ships entirely, but don't worry about it. You'll use GW Tokens to get many light side ships, you just won't be doing it first. When all the Geo ships are 7* you can farm the rare GW Store ships, which include Resistance X-Wing, Clone Sergeant's ARC, and Imperial TIE Fighter. You want to start with this because, being rare ships, you can't get them every time you want them. Since they're rare, though, you might start gaining a stockpile of GW Tokens -- especially if you have finished one of them, but probably even before. Once your stockpile of GW Token is over 3,000, you can start spending anything over that amount on other ships. Prioritize ships for pilots you already have given some stars and some gear. It seems like a ton of work, but even getting every single ship available in the GW store doesn't take that long.
Hope all that helps. If you do it right, you'll crush your ship opponents early on & get lots of crystals to use in making your both your fleet and your toons better and better. When I started taking 1st in fleet Arena is when I finally started moving up in Squad arena and everything just got better and better from there.
Of course, one final note, and this one is the most important:
The people here are great people, & we can try to tell you how best to gain power & characters in the game. But we can't tell you what is going to be fun for you. If you think that someone's advice is just not going to be any fun, do something different. This is a game, and there's no point playing the game, no point in even "winning" the game, if it's not fun.
Good luck & hope you do have great fun with your great success.