As a lifelong Star Trek fan, I remember being excited for Star Trek Online back when it launched in 2010. Yet, for some reason, I never got around to playing it. Now more than a decade later with it being free-to-play, I decided now was the time to dive headlong into the sprawling world of post-TNG Star Trek. Here are the things I learned along the way.
THERE… ARE… TWO… FACTIONS!
So, you boot up the game for the first time and notice there are six factions to choose from: Starfleet, the Klingon Defense Force, the Romulan Republic, the Dominion, TOS Starfleet, and DSC Starfleet. But frankly, this is kind of a lie. When it comes down to it, there are really only two factions gameplay-wise, the Federation and the Klingons. While each of the eight factions has its own playable prologue to set everything up, once it’s done, you’ll either be railroaded into one of the two factions—or be forced to choose joining one or the other. Moreover, though certain factions have meatier stories than others that continue on from that point, everything eventually becomes a more or less unified narrative regardless of the side your on. The biggest impact of your Klingon/Federation faction choice is that…
You Can’t Use Ships That Don’t Belong to Your Faction
This means that Federation aligned characters can’t fly Klingon ships and visa-versa—including ships purchased with real money. That said, you can technically make all ships useable by any faction—but you either need to get a Klingon character (not a Klingon-aligned character but a straight up KDF Klingon character) to the level 65 level-cap or buy the privilege in the real money shop. Basically, if you’re free-to-play and/or are just playing for the plot, make sure you pick a faction that allows you to pick the ship you want to fly.
You Get Several Free Ships as You Level Up
Not only do you get a ship at the start of the game as part of your faction’s plot, you’ll also get an additional free ship at levels 10, 20, 30, 40, and 61 (except for Dominion characters as they start at level 60). Do note that Romulans do get the short end of the stick here because they only get one type of ship to choose from at levels 10 and 20 while the other factions get to choose from a group of three both times. That said, all of these free ships can be bought using in-game currency (i.e., dilithium) after the fact, so even if you don’t end up getting a specific one for free while leveling you can buy it later.
Tier 6 Ships Scale to Your Level (but Almost All Other Ships Do Not)
The rule of thumb is to not buy a ship with real money till you know what style you want to play—tank, DPS, or space wizard. However, if you have a ship you want regardless of playstyle, you may be tempted to buy it. But here’s the thing, the vast majority of ships are locked by player level. This includes ships bought with real money. So even if you buy a Tier 5 ship—like, say, the Multi-vector Attack Escort (i.e., the USS Prometheus)—you won’t be able to redeem it (much less use it) until your federation aligned character hits level 50.
That said, Tier 6 ships (i.e., end game ships) can be used at any level and will scale to your level accordingly (making it so you’re not too ridiculously overpowered). Of course, while you can’t usually get Tier 6 ships until you reach endgame (outside of special events), you can buy them from the cash shop at any time. So, if you have one you’re desperate to use and have $30 to burn, you can play the whole game with your chosen Tier 6 ship.
Weapons to Full!
When in your ship, you have the ability to balance how your ship’s power is allocated. At default, it is equally balanced across weapons, shields, engines, and science (read: space magic). The first thing you should do is put weapons to full and science to as low as it will go (balancing the remainder among shields and engines as you like). This will drastically cut down on battle time as your no longer hitting your enemies with the sci-fi equivalent of a wet noodle.
Keep Your Ship Weapons to a Single Type
Each ship weapon in the game does one of six damage types: Phaser, Disruptor, Plasma, Tetryon, Polaron, and Antiproton. You might be tempted to equip whichever ship weapons do the highest damage—but this would be a mistake. Keeping them the same type allows for you to boost their damage dramatically with tactical consoles of that damage type.
And as for what type of weapon to use, while you may be tempted to use canons as they do the most damage, their small firing arc means you have to always be facing the enemy—meaning you take all your damage on your forward shield. While this is doable early on, it will eventually become a problem. I recommend going full beam arrays for both your fore and aft. Their large targeting arc means that they overlap on your sides—allowing you to shoot with all your weapons at once as you circle an enemy. Moreover, if your side shield is low on health, you can just start circling in the opposite direction—giving them a fresh shield to shoot at.
Do Your Daily Roulette
To get some rare materials and quick money early on, be sure to do your daily Task Force Operation roulette. You’ll be paired with four other players and fight through a few waves of enemies—be that on the ground or in space. And while you’ll be nearly useless compared to the max level players you’re likely to be paired with, the game will scale your level up so you can at least help out a little. Moreover, there will be a ton of MK XII equipment drops. Even though you can’t use them at low levels, you can sell them to a vendor for a couple thousand energy credits a pop—which will help a lot early on. Oh, and don’t feel bad about hitting “need” on the loot rolls—no end game player actually needs any of the items that will drop. They’ll just sell them like you would.
Sell Unneeded Equipment to NPC Vendors
While you can use the replicator in your item menu at any time to turn unneeded items into cash, you get substantially more money if you sell to an NPC who deals in those items. So, it’s worth it to sell your ship parts to a ship parts vendor and your ground weapons to a ground weapons vendor at the very least.
It’s Okay to Trade Out Your Bridge Officers for Better Ones
Bridge Officers are the main characters of your very own Star Trek show. In space battles, they determine the majority of the abilities you can use. On the ground, they are your party members that support you in combat. Using training manuals you can give them the abilities you’d like them to have. However, you can only recruit up to eight (at max level) of them (unless you’re willing to pay real money of course) so it’s important to be trading them out again and again as you get better ones. This can kind of suck if you’re attached to them. Luckily, you can visually customize each and rename each when you get a new one so it’s not too hard to turn a new bridge officer into an old one—just with better abilities.
Make Sure Your Tactical Offer Has “Beams: Fire at Will” and “Beams: Overload”
Assuming you’re following what I recommended above, your ship should be nothing but beam arrays. If this is the case, you need to make sure your tactical officer has the following two abilities: “Beams: Fire at Will” and “Beams: Overload.” Beams: Fire at Will makes all your beams hit multiple targets for a limited time. Beams: Overload, on the other hand, gives a massive boost in damage to your beams for a short time. And while you can’t use both at once, having both means you have the tools to deal with both groups of weak enemies and powerful single ships. Training manuals for these abilities can be bought from Bridge Officer Trainer NPCs for a nominal cost
Don’t Forget to Equip Your Character Traits
This one may seem a bit obvious but there’s quite a lot of character customization you can do—so don’t forget to do it. If you’re using beams, make sure the beam boosting trait is turned on. If you’re focusing on trying to do critical hits, make sure all those traits are turned on as well. And don’t worry, you can swap out these traits at any time so don’t be afraid to try things out.
Just Set Up Your Skills Like This Guy
Unlike traits, skills cannot be unlearned without paying some real-world cash. So just follow this guy’s guide for what to pick. I just did as he said and it’s worked out well.
Level Up Your R&D Crafting Without Crafting
Honestly, you’ll level up too quickly just through the main story to use any gear you can craft—early on. But that said, you can still level up your crafting without actually making anything. Just click the “Research Project – X” project every 20 hours or so and by the time you reach end game, you’ll be ready to make the big guns.
Always be Sending Your Duty Officers on Missions
Aside from your bridge officers you also have “duty officers.” These are the lower decks members of your crew. You can assign them to go on various missions for you—bringing back money, dilithium, and a handful of experience points. It’s basically free exp and money so be sure to send your crew out as often as you can. Oh, but be sure to assign your R&D specialists to upgrade your crafting before you do; if they’re off on a mission, they can’t be building anything.
The Early Game is Rather Repetitive but Press On!
Most missions follow the same pattern at the start: fly to a location at warp, enter the system, fight enemy ships, beam down and investigate/fight on foot, beam up and fight more ships. However, the further you go in the story, the less true this becomes. Eventually, you’ll start to find yourself on plot-heavy missions with little combat (and familiar faces) that feel far more like Star Trek than the early game does. And let me tell you, the plot really picks up halfway through.
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