Dilithium farming is a tricky topic. Not every info that i can provide will turn out as useful since the missions require being unlocked... some are random... some depend on the rank.
So please always keep in mind that the following stuff is based on a lvl50 char that has unlocked practically everything.
First off... I am a lazy guy.
I dont like to do more work than necessary. This includes traveling. It makes no sense doing a mission in Alpha centauri then you travel to Beta Ursae and then to Regulus.
Keep the traveling as short as possible and do only missions that are worth it.
I am personally at the point to say that farming dilithium makes only sense if you do it every 2nd day.
explanation: e.g. on day one I accept the mission where you have to get dilithium from the asteroid near DS9... but i dont do that mission on day one
I fly their on the 2nd day... do that mission... and get my reward...
While still standing on that roid i get the option to accept this mission again... and since its the 2nd day I can play it a 2nd time (without that i have to travel around... without that i need to wait for loading screens) and the best is... I practically stand with my char already right at the first mission zone.
So with other words this mission can be done twice... every 2 days. Each time you can get 1000 dilithium (that if you get a score of 700 or higher on all 5 mission zones). It takes 10 minutes in total to do this mission 2 times. 10mins = 2000 dil.
Doing missions twice every 2nd day can be done on most missions (not on all).
However... Lets assume you are at Sol and start your dil farming day. You dont fly to the asteroid... no.
First you go to the academy and do the daily quiz that is offered by an npc called "Viola" (worth 500dil).
Then you accept the Diplomatic investigation mission, the explore the delta volani cluster and the mission where you have to finish an exploration mission (no matter which).
-> and you practically can do that on day 1
On day 2 you launch from Sol and fly to delta volani... that takes incredible 20 seconds. There you launch the diplomatic investigation mission (the button on the lower right corner).
Now you fly to the mission where the people tell you that they need supplies, medical stuff.. shield generators ... whatever. You accept to help.
Dont leave the system now!
Open your inventory... open your replicated... replicate whatever these people want (that does not cost much)... close the replicator.... ooops... now you are told that have finished this mission.
Diplomatic mission done... you also will notice by doing that you also have finished 1/3 of the explore the delta volani cluster mission.
Very often you get the chance to do a 2nd diplomatic investigation mission now... so while you are in delta volani already... do it a 2nd time. And you will read 2/3 systems explored.
Now... you will have to do the exploration of the 3rd system manually... just scan the anomalies until you find an unknown system and do the mission there (they usually dont take long).
So.... now you should have done 2 diplomatic investigations which should have cost you maybe 5mins in total... and one normal exploration mission so lets say 10-15mins.
-> that means you also finished the mission objective of the delta volani exploration missions... and with that you also finished the "explore a sector" mission
15mins work... 4 missions done... and about 1500 dilithium more
From there i would advice you to make a transwarp jump to the K7 station of the Sherman system.
After you reached the station you dont dock. Just jump back to sector space... now fly south-east and you will find a transporter called "Sh'mar". Hail it, it will request your help. All you need to do is to defend it. That takes 5mins and rewards you with about 500 dilithium.
From there you head to the traelus system (north of your current location).
There you do the Satellite repair mission (this mission btw. can be done twice every 2nd day"). So the reward will be 2x500 dil.
From there you head to the orrelius sector block (left). Now here you can do 3 deferi missions, one is worth 1500 dil, the other 2 are worth 500 each. They take about 30mins.
All 3 missions can be done twice every 2nd day (just make sure you accept them on day 1).
Now that this is done you can fly to the beta ursae sector block where you can do the asteroid mining mission that ive explained above.
*phew* - lets see how much dilithium we got so far
1. the quiz 500 dil
2. The missions in delta volani 1500 dil
3. The Sh'mar defence 500 dil
4. Traelus repair 1000 dil
5. the Deferi missions 2x2500 dil -> 5000 dil
6. asteroid mining 2000 dil
That is 10500 dilithium... but infact you can refine 16000 dil per day so we still need 5500 dil.
Ok... we are not done yet...
We still have the daily missions... so lets assume in the 2 days you can do 2 daily missions with a reward of 1500 dil each (3000 dil in totoal) we still need 2500 dil from somewhere.
What do you think your DOFFs can do per day? 500-1000?
You for sure can do the rest by playing PVEs, STFs or Foundy missions. Thats no big deal anymore.
You can get the 8000 dil per day guaranteed if you decide to play effective... and the good thing is... every 2nd day you dont need to make any dil.
AND NOW THAT IVE EXPLAINED THAT...
here is the best way earning Dilithium and supporting the fleet.
You for sure have got the mission "Investigate Officer Reports". This is a repeatable mission with a 30mins cooldown.
Each mission is worth 50 Fleet marks and 960 dilithium. If you choose foundy missions that only take 15mins like the battleship royal (the missions should at least take 15mins to get the reward) you can make 8000 dil and 400 Fleet marks in 2 hours
The perfect fleet support.
