Playable starship


 * For an overview of non-playable starships within Star Trek Online, see the Non-playable starship article

Playable Starships in Star Trek Online are as much a part of a player's avatar as their Captain.

Players are granted ships by their faction as they progress in rank. At each new rank between Level 10 and Level 40, players are given a free starship token for the respective tier. The last token they get, at Level 61, is for a Tier 5 ship which can be made Tier 5-U.

After this, any new Tier 5 (fleet, T5-U) or Tier 6 (fleet) ships must be bought with dilithium, Lobi Crystal , energy credits , Zen , or from a fleet, for Fleet Credits and Fleet Ship Modules 🇫🇲, or lastly, won from a Lock Box  or a promotion or event.

The abilities and stats of a starship are determined by the starship's tier, type, the equipment loadout, traits, bridge officers and power system management.

Operation
The operation of a starship covers various key mechanics. Notably, the innate stats of your starship, your subsystem power allocation and your loadout.

Stats
The following basic stats outline the innate combat strength of a starship:
 * Hull: This is the overall health of your starship, and refers to the actual body of the ship itself. Once the shields have been drained from a certain area, any damage to that area results in damage to the hull. Most shields have a "Bleedthrough" percentage, which is the amount of damage from any enemy's weapons that cause damage to the hull instead of the shields.
 * Fore/Rear/Right/Left Shields: These are the first line of defense for your starship. Shields are energy barriers placed around your ship to repel enemy fire and take the brunt of the damage initially. Once your shields are down around a certain area, any damage there will directly affect the Hull. Shields also have a "Bleedthrough" rating; if the Bleedthrough rate is 10%, then 100 Phaser Damage to your shields will result in 10 Phaser Damage directly to your Hull.
 * Crit Chance: This is the chance that each shot you take has of critically damaging the target. The modifier for Crit Chance is [CrtH].
 * Crit Severity: This is the amount of damage that a Crit shot does. If the Crit Chance is 5% and Crit Severity is 75%, then you have a 5% chance, with each shot, of doing 175% total damage to the enemy vessel. The modifier for Crit Severity is [CrtD]. It should be noted that this damage bonus applies at the same time as other bonuses, which may lead to you not seeing the full increase noted.
 * Inertia: This is a number that determines how sluggish your ship is to respond, for example, while turning. The lower your Inertia rating, the slower your ship is while turning. Cruisers, for example, have low Inertia ratings, which make for low turn rates, and low maneuverability. Escorts on the other hand, have high Inertia ratings, making for high turn rates and maneuverability. Science Vessels typically fall somewhere in the middle.
 * Resist: Your starship has a number of resistance types, which indicates how resistant it is to certain types of damage (e.g. Physical, Kinetic, Phaser, Tetryon).

The following stats were removed in 2015:
 * Crew Complement: This is the maximum number of crewmembers (non-Bridge Officers) that can serve aboard your vessel. Your Crew count affects hull and subsystem repair rate, as well as the effectiveness of boarding parties, the engineering team and crew-based skills your captain may have. Certain types of damage will temporarily injure Crew. Your current Crew count is indicated by a row of white figures below your Shields/Hull UI (injured crew are yellow-orange, disabled crew are grey).
 * Crew Recovery Rate: This is the number of Crew that will recover per second.
 * Alive Crew: This is the number of Crew members that are currently alive.

Slots
Similar to Bridge Officer stations, different ships have varying room for special modifications that can be added to the ship to increase its effectiveness. Similar to slotted gems in other games, mods provide small passive bonuses that affect game play and can be interchanged at will.

The differentiation isn't just between the Escort/Cruiser/Science categories; each individual configuration offers disparate settings for players to choose between.


 * Fore Weapons - These weapons fire from the front, usually within a certain arc width. For example, 45&deg;-arc fore weapons fire in a 45-degree cone area in front of your ship. All Ship Weapons other than mines can be placed here. Turrets were originally excluded, but are now allowed to be placed in the fore weapons slots.
 * Deflector - Ship Deflector Dishes can be inserted here.
 * Secondary Deflector - Most Science vessels (those that have both Sensor Analysis and Subsystem Targeting) can install a Secondary Deflector; other ship types do not have this slot.
 * Shields - Ship Shields go here.
 * Warp Core - a Warp Core (on Federation or Klingon Ships) or Singularity Core (on Warbirds) goes here.
 * Impulse - Any one of a number of Impulse Engines can go here.
 * Aft Weapons - These weapons fire from the aft, or rear, of your starship. Any weapon other than cannons and dual beam banks can be placed here.
 * Experimental Weapons - Experimental Weapons are available to Tier 5-6 Raiders and those with a Tactical Commander seat, 7 weapons, and 1 or fewer Hangar Bays.
 * Devices - Any Ship Devices can be inserted here. To use them, drag them to your shortcut bar while in space.
 * Engineering Consoles - Engineering Consoles go here.
 * Science Consoles - Science Consoles go here.
 * Tactical Consoles - Tactical Consoles go here.
 * Hangar Bay - Hangar pets go here.

Tier 5, Tier 6 and many Zen Store Tier 1-4 ships come with a unique Universal Console (which can be put in any console slot). These consoles can sometimes be used on any ship, or often only ships of the same type. Typically, consoles from similar ships have synergies granting bonuses when the player slots them together.

Bridge Officer Stations

 * Main article: Bridge officer

All starships have a number of bridge officer stations permitting each officer to use 1 to 4 of their abilities. The higher tier starships offer more seats with higher ranking abilities than lower tier starships. The starship has access to the space traits of any bridge officer who is slotted, regardless of how many slots they have.

Tier 1-5 starships have seats classified as Engineering, Science, Tactical and Universal; the latter being a seat that can sit an officer of any of the main three careers. Tier 6 starships have access to specializations: namely that some seats on each ship will be combined of one of the four main options listed above and a specialization such as Intelligence Officer and Miracle Worker. An Engineer/Intelligence Bridge Officer Seat can seat an Engineer, but if that officer has been trained in the Intelligence specialization then they may use Intelligence powers in place of some or all of their standard Engineering powers.

Subsystems

 * Main article: Starship (Power and Subsystems)

Subsystems for a starship are split into four sections: Weapons, Engines, Shields and Auxiliary. These subsystems share an overall basic amount of 200 subsystem power that all starships have, and increasing the power level of one subsystem will reduce it in another. Players are able to use presets to quickly reconfigure the ships power levels to focus on specific areas or balance power between more than one subsystem, even whilst in combat.

The highest a player can manually set any of their subsystems is 100. The lowest a player can set these systems is 15. The exception to this rule is running at Full Impulse which will lower all systems except engines to 5.

Starship Mastery

 * Main article: Starship Mastery

Each Tier 5-U or Tier 6 starship has its own "levels", called Mastery. Starship Mastery progresses as a character earns skill points while using a specific ship in combat (end-of-mission rewards do not apply). Levels 1 through 4 each unlock a passive bonus which is only active while flying that specific ship. The bonuses are specific for each ship type, e.g., Science Vessels, Warbirds, Birds-of-Prey. Tier 6 non-fleet ships also have a 5th mastery level which unlocks a Starship Trait. Different ships unlock different traits, of which 4 to 5 can be used at any one time by the player, regardless of the ship they are flying.

Tiers

 * Main article: Starship tier.

A ship's capabilities are largely defined by its tier, which determines the number of bridge officer stations, the rank of those stations, the number of console slots, and other factors. Except for Tier 6, that can be played from tutorial through to endgame, specific tiers are intended to be played at a particular rank and cease to become competitive beyond it.

Tiers 1-4
While levelling, lower level ships ranging from Tier 1 to Tier 4 are available at the faction's shipyards. One starship is granted each tier as the character levels via a Rank-Up Ship Token given at levels 10, 20, and 30. Further ships can be purchased for Dilithium.

Tier 5
Tier 5 (T5) starships are the first endgame-capable starships available from Rear Admiral (or equivalent) rank onwards. The majority of them have 5 Bridge Officer seats, and it is at Tier 5 when far more starship types are first represented. At level 40, the player may choose a free T5 ship, and at level 61 the player can choose an upgradeable T5-U ship using the Vice Admiral Ship Token. Further ships can be purchased for Dilithium.

Prior to the release of Tier 6 starships, Tier 5 were the sole endgame ships available. To allow them to remain competitive with the newly released Tier 6 ships, it is possible upgrade a Tier 5 to a Tier 5-U (T5-U) using an starship upgrade token, which costs 700 but can also be found on the Exchange.

Tier 6
The current highest tier in the game, Tier 6 ships are a moderate improvement over Tier 5 starships, featuring additional console slots, bridge officer abilities, and scaling hull strength. They also come with a unique ship costume, a unique Universal Console, and can be played from level 1 (with its capabilities scaling up as the player increases in rank).

Compared to a Tier 5-U version of the same hull, the Tier 6 version will have the same hull strength and other hull-related stats, and console slots, but one more bridge officer ability, one or more bridge officer specialization seatings, and a Starship Trait as its fifth Starship Mastery level.

These starships are typically found in the Zen Store for 3,000 Zen. Outside the Zen Store, they can be found in lockboxes, events and other promotions.

Types

 * See also: Ship abilities

Each faction has unique types of ships that favor different styles of gameplay. Generally, there is one type of ship for each type of career, but a player character can captain any type of vessel, regardless of their career choice. Below is a list of each type of ship, and their (endgame) capabilities, though there are a few ships that don't follow this template exactly. A ship's type also dictates its Starship Mastery package. Many ship designs come in different versions. While their outward appearance might be mostly identical, they may vary substantially in combat strength according to their Tier. While there are are many varieties of the above classes available at the endgame, there are also several variations on these basic ship classifications, some available more early on:
 * Cruisers have a Commander Engineering Bridge Officer slot, access to, and are generally more durable and less maneuverable than other types of ship. Endgame Cruisers can equip eight weapons, most often evenly distributed between Fore and Aft.
 * Escorts and Raptors have a Commander Tactical Bridge Officer slot, the ability to use Dual Cannons, and are generally more fragile but the most maneuverable vessels available to you. Endgame Escorts can equip seven weapons, more Fore than Aft, and can also equip an Experimental Weapon.
 * Science Vessels have a Commander Science Bridge Officer slot, the ability to equip a Secondary Deflector, and access to and some built-in  abilities to help provide support. Endgame Science Vessels can equip six weapons, most often evenly distributed between Fore and Aft.
 * Carriers are exclusively available at the endgame level, and have two hangar bays from which they may launch fighters, shuttles, runabouts or even frigates to combat their enemies. These large and slow vessels can come in Engineering, Tactical or Science Varieties, which determine their Commander Bridge Officer slot and weapon hardpoints.
 * Dreadnoughts are also exclusively available at the endgame level, and have a hangar bay (or two). Like Carriers, they tend to be larger and slower and come in different varieties; see below for specific examples.
 * Warbirds They equip Singularity Cores instead of matter-antimatter warp cores, and all have access to Singularity Core abilities. All warbirds may equip dual cannons.
 * Variants of the Cruiser, which may all equip dual cannons include:
 * Battle Cruisers, which lose the ability to and often a device slot in exchange for the ability to equip Dual Cannons.
 * Dreadnought Cruisers, which have both a hangar bay and the ability to equip Dual Cannons, but again only two Cruiser Commands.
 * Flight Deck Carriers, Cruiser-Carrier hybrids with two hangar bays, but only two Cruiser Commands.
 * Heavy Dreadnought Cruisers, a variant of Dreadnought Cruisers with a second hangar bay, bringing them up to Carrier-tier capabilities.
 * Frigate, an Engineering-focused variant of the Raider.
 * Variants of the Escort and Raptor, which may all equip dual cannons, include:
 * Strike Wing Escorts and Flight Deck Raptors, which are enhanced with a hangar bay.
 * Destroyers, which are more durable and gain an extra device slot in exchange for the loss of some maneuverability.
 * Warships, a subset of Destroyers which exchange the Experimental Weapon slot for an eighth standard weapon.
 * Juggernauts also have eight standard weapons, and are even more bulky and durable while sacrificing much maneuverability.
 * Raiders, which exchange a weapon&mdash;bringing them down to six&mdash;for, the ability to deal more damage to enemies along their rear shield facing. They also have mostly (or all) Universal Bridge Officer seating, allowing extreme flexibility. Raiders are maneuverable but fragile vessels that require experienced pilots to be effective.
 * Variants of the Science Vessel, which may all equip dual cannons, include:
 * Multi-Mission Science Vessels, which are enhanced with a hangar bay.
 * Science Dreadnoughts, larger vessels with a hangar bay comparable to Dreadnought Cruisers, but with a Science focus.
 * Science Spearheads, which are effectively Science Dreadnoughts without the hangar bay.
 * Scout Ships, a Science-focused variant of the Raider.
 * Variants of the Warbird, which may all equip dual cannons, include:
 * Tactical Warbirds have a Tactical commander bridge officer.
 * Tactical Carrier Warbirds, which also have a hangar bay.
 * Engineering Warbirds, also known as Warbird Battle Cruisers, have an Engineering commander bridge officer.
 * Dreadnought Warbirds have either a Tactical or Engineering bridge officer and a hangar bay.
 * A Heavy Dreadnought Warbird, the Valkis, has two hangar bays.
 * Warbird Science Vessels have a Science commander bridge officer.
 * Explorer Warbirds, which also have a hangar bay.
 * Science Carrier Warbirds, which have two hangar bays.

Summary
Ships can be broadly categorized by their Commander seating, and how many hangar slots they have.

Type notes
Anomalous bridge officer or console layouts: Exceptions and unique cases:
 * Power bonuses vary considerably. For a given type of ship, every single member may have a different power configuration, such as with Warships and Multi-Mission Science Explorers. There are too many to enumerate here. See individual ship type pages and ship pages to compare them.
 * Most Klingon vessels, including all their Battlecruisers, Raptors, Flight Deck Raptors and Raiders, have access to either  or  ; see the Cloak page for an exhaustive list.
 * Federation Raiders are known as "Light Escorts", such as the T6 Shran Light Pilot Escort and its fleet variant.
 * The T6 Martok Tactical Battlecruiser and its T5 version have 5 Tactical console slots despite having a Commander Engineering bridge officer.
 * The T6 Jem'Hadar Dreadnought Carrier and its retired T5 version at T5-U have 5 Engineering console slots despite having a Commander Tactical bridge officer.
 * The T6 Flambard Science Dreadnought Warbird and its T5 version have 5 Science console slots despite having a Commander Tactical bridge officer.
 * The T6 Khlinae Tal Shiar Adapted Battlecruiser and Tholian Jorogumo Carrier have a Commander Universal seating, but the usual stats of their class, including their Starship Mastery package. The same is true of their now-retired T5 versions. The Tholian Carriers' Admiralty cards are Engineering rather than Science, also.
 * The T6 Jem'Hadar Light Battlecruiser has two Commander bridge officer seats: an Engineer as expected, and an additional Universal one.
 * Starfleet Tutorial Starships may equip dual cannons despite being Cruisers, though they lack the corresponding cruiser commands. This is likely to simplify the initial experience.
 * The T1 Oberth-class Light Science Vessel does not possess the built-in Subsystem Targeting abilities possessed by other Science Vessels.
 * The T6 Eclipse Intel Cruiser is a Battlecruiser, despite its name.
 * The T6 Hur'q Vedcrid Hive Dreadnought Carrier has the mastery package of an Engineering Carrier, though it shares attributes with both those and Dreadnought Carriers.
 * The T6 Sphere Builder Edoulg Science Vessel is a Multi-Mission Science Vessel rather than a standard Science Vessel.
 * The T5 Kar'Fi Battle Carrier has 7 weapon slots, one more than other Science Carriers.
 * The T5 Patrol Escort Refit has a fourth rear weapon slot with a fused weapon in lieu of an Experimental Weapon slot.
 * The T6 Scryer Intel Science Vessel can equip dual cannons, unlike other pure Science Vessels.
 * The T6 Science Star Cruiser and Gorkon Science Battlecruiser possess the Sensor Analysis ability innately despite not being Science Vessels, but have neither subsystem targeting nor a secondary deflector.
 * The T5 Fleet Scourge Destroyer Retrofit, Sphere Builder Arehbes Destroyer and the T5 and T6 Mirror Universe Temporal Destroyers have the Starship Mastery package of a Destroyer, but only have two device slots, one fewer than other Destroyers, technically making them Escorts.
 * Likewise, the T6 Ketha Recon Raptor and its Fleet variant are Raptors, but with the Starship Mastery package of a Destroyer.
 * The T6 Kara Advanced Warbird and Command Battlecruiser Warbirds have a hangar bay, but are otherwise Warbird Battlecruisers.
 * Likewise, the T5 and T6 variants of the Guramba Siege Destroyer gain a hangar bay and loses a device slot compared to other Destroyers.
 * The Federation and Klingon Empire T6 Command Battlecruisers (eg. Concorde Command Battlecruiser) have the cruiser commands, device slots, weapon layout and ability to equip dual cannons of Flight Deck Carriers, but only a single hangar bay and the Starship Mastery package of a Battlecruiser. Thus, they could be considered a separate hybrid "Flight Deck Battlecruiser" type.

Purchasing Starships
Starships can be purchased with a number of different currencies, and several ships can be obtained for free. Extra ship and Dry Dock slots can be bought in the Zen Store. A single character can have a maximum of 50 ships but many more dry dock slots are obtainable.

Free starships

 * ''See also: Player rank

Characters are assigned a tier 1 ship to command after completing the tutorial mission. At levels 20, 30 and 40 (players gain one rank for every ten character levels) players receive a token for a free ship of successively increasing tier, up to Tier 5.

At Tier 5 and 6, further free ships can still be found during special events, such as the summer Lohlunat Festival and Q's Winter Wonderland. Some may also be part of special giveaways.

Dilithium and Zen
Additional ships cost Dilithium or Zen from the shipyard or Zen Store. Tier 5 and 6 ships become available from level 50. Tier 5 ships can sometimes be upgraded to Tier 5U. These special upgradable T5 ships can then be upgraded using an upgrade token purchased with Zen from the Zen Store.

Fleet Credits
Fleet ships require Fleet Credits and Fleet Ship Modules; these are available for cash from the Zen Store or for EC on the Exchange. Active subscribers who have received the 600 day Veteran Reward, including all lifetime subscribers, receive a 'VA Token' that allows them to purchase a single RA/BG or VA/LG ship for free.

Lock and Promotional Boxes
Lock Boxes, Promotion! - Research & Development Packs and Phoenix Prize Packs all contain a chance to win a free starship. However it is important to understand the low chances of success when buying these packs and keys with Zen or Dilithium.

Lobi
Lobi Crystal, from lock boxes, can be used to buy some starships such as the Kelvin Timeline Intel Dreadnought or the NX Escort Refit. T6 Lobi ships typically cost 900.

Exchange
Many ships mentioned above which are no bind-on-pickup can be found on the Exchange for varying prices in Energy Credits.

Customization
They are highly customizable, both cosmetically and functionally. Visiting shipyards will allow players to change all aspects of their ships. Each ship tier includes multiple classes of ships. Players can choose different parts (saucer, hull, nacelles etc.) of each class making a custom model, or stick with a set design. Along with the model the player can also adjust the color, windows, decals, registry number and prefix, which gives the player a custom feel to his/her ship.

Each time a player acquires a new ship they are allowed to edit aspects of the ship once for free. Each subsequent change will cost Energy Credits, depending on the change made. This includes exterior appearance, bridge and corridors.

To make changes to their ship, players must visit a shipyard. There are multiple shipyards in-game and they are found at all the major hubs such as Qo'noS for the Klingon Defense Force and the Earth Spacedock for Starfleet. The items that can be edited on a ship are:

For certain starships, if the character owns a different version of a similar starship then they can use parts of both when customizing a ship. For example, if the player owned the Scimitar Dreadnought Warbird (T5) and the Shamshir Operations Dreadnought Warbird (T6), then they could use some or all of the parts from the Scimitar in customizing the look of the Shamshir.

Material Types

 * Main article: Hull Material

Materials were usually designated "Ship Name" or "Type ". In addition to a ship's default material options, other materials could become available when the player gets access to other, specific ships. For example, the Epoch-class Aeon material became available to the commanding officer of a Wells-class ship if they owned both vessels.

Visual Slots

 * Main article: Visual Slots

Certain starship equipment, such as shields or impulse engines, can alter the appearance of a starship. Aside from equipping them in the usual slots, they can also be put into visual slots to override any visuals from the standard equipment. Alternatively, the visuals of slotted equipment can be disabled from the right click menu of that equipment.