[brawndo_mom]

It's Q's Winter Wonderland time again! OK, I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but what the heck, it's a Tier 6 ship for minimal grinding! But it's Mom's job to make the grinding a little less grindy and a little more fun.

Let's start with the "Fastest Race on Ice" - the daily race that yields the autographed photos of Q that you need for the Breen Rezreth Dreadnought.

First of all, it's not a difficult race. To pick up the mission, visit the Breen race official at the main ice gazebo.


After doing so, go down the stairs, and find the Breen Race official near the bottom of the stairs. You should get the "Signal Race Official" prompt. When this happens, click the button. (You can get dq'd from the race if you and someone else click on this at the same time. Go see the race official and start again.)

You will be transported to the race start, and after a brief countdown, you start running.

It is you versus some alien creature - but you do get a headstart, which you don't really need, but takes the pressure off.

That said, start by running a straight line, rather than trying to make the tight corners in the first section. (This is going to remain the same plan throughout the race: CLIP THE CORNERS!) You can jump over the snow banks quite a bit, because, unlike the Fast and the Flurrious, the Fastest Race on Ice is pretty liberal on the race borders. You want to try to stay to the inside of the light fixtures, but as long as you don't slip too far, you can make it.

It's the slipping (the lack of traction) that creates the biggest problem. Despite liberal borders, you can slip so far that you will be 'disqualified' - which, should it happen, just requires you to go back the the Breen and get the mission again. Once it's happened a few times, you'll know how far you can get out of the 'lane'.

One trick I've found is to run on the edges of the track, where there is snow, and therefore more traction.
You can also double-click the forward button and roll, which will stop all forward motion. This however leaves you with having to start from a dead stop each time. A final compromise is to jump, which will kill forward momentum, but, with a little practice, allows you to land on a snowbank, and you can accelerate faster than from a dead stop. (I jump and turn at the same time, so when I land, I'm on target for the new direction.)

If you start to slide, stop running and let the momentum die, then start running again.

As for wearing frosty boots, well, they will give you extra speed, but they decrease traction.

Alternatively, the 8472 exo-armor grants you the ability to get a 3 second speed boost after a roll, and really reduces the problem of regaining speed. (As evidence of this, I won the Fast and the Flurrious twice in 10 minutes after donning my gear - a quick 24 epohh tags)

After completing the race - and be careful toward the end where there are several hairpin turns: you can clip them a little bit, but not too much.
If you've been keeping a constant pace, you will have more than enough time to be careful here and still finish ahead of your 'opponent.' Don't forget to return to the original Breen to get your photos (you can turn them in through the 'event' tab on the reputation bar.