Bridge officer

A Bridge Officer (or "BOff") in Star Trek Online is a commissioned member of the player's bridge crew. A Captain may maintain up to 54 Bridge Officers, which are listed on the left of the Character Status window (default key U).

While merely serving as pools for abilities in space combat, up to four BOffs can fully join a player's away team in ground combat, offering both abilities as well as firepower.

Gender, career path, race
Like with player characters, the gender of a Bridge officer is purely cosmetic and has no gameplay effect (except for Orions). The career path of a BOff (Tactical, Engineering, Science; plus an optional specialization) determines which pool of abilities he/she has access to and which ship station he/she can occupy. The race of a BOff can have an impact on the Bridge Officer traits.

Traits

 * See additional article: Bridge Officer traits

Bridge Officers have four traits which cannot be changed. Like player character traits, most of these grant benefits for the individual officer in ground combat, while few also buff the entire away team or give a bonus in space combat. Most BOff races have between one and up to four required traits, i.e., traits a specific race will always have.

A specific property of BOff traits are their three potencies:
 * "Basic": 50% bonus
 * "Standard": 100% bonus
 * "Superior": 150% bonus

Potencies are determined by the BOff's quality/rarity:

Promotions and abilities

 * See also: Bridge officer and kit abilities

Like the player character, Bridge Officers have ranks. A Bridge Officer's rank determines her/his number of abilities (sometimes referred to as "Bridge Officer skills") in ground and space combat. A player can promote a BOff up to one rank below his/her own (up to (Sub-)Commander). A promotion also costs a small amount of expertise : Note that some very rare special bridge officers will always display a Starfleet/KDF rank, even for Romulan Republic players, who might thus have a BOff with the rank "Commander" (= Subcommander).
 * 1 ability - Ensign / Warrior / Citizen / Fifth - 1,100
 * 2 abilities - Lieutenant / Fourth - 2,300
 * 3 abilities - Lieutenant Commander / Centurion / Third - 3,600
 * 4 abilities - Commander / Subcommander / Second

Bridge Officers are promoted by clicking the Career Options button at the bottom of an officer's status page and selecting the "Promote" option; a dialogue box will be opened with details of the promotion. Players can only promote an officer to a rank below themselves; therefore a player at the rank of Commander can only promote bridge officers to the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

Training

 * See additional article: List of Training Manuals craftable by captain

Bridge Officers can be trained in new skills, i.e., their pool of available clickable abilities can be increased. Training an officer requires a Training Manual (consumed in the process) for the desired ability and costs expertise (amount increases with the number of abilities the BOff already possesses). While only having access to four abilities in space/ground combat at once, a Bridge Officer can be trained in (i.e., add to his selection pool) all abilities existing for his/her career path, if the player acquires all the required Training Manuals.

Specializations
Bridge Officers can be trained in a specialization by using a special type of Training Manual called a "Specialization Qualification". The ability to craft these manuals is unlocked once a player character has spent 10 points in a given specialization.

One specialization may be active per Bridge Officer at once. An active specialization gives access to four specific ground, and four specific space abilities, which may then be slotted for that particular BOff. Using specialization-specific space abilities requires a playable starship with the respective station slot.

Space
For space combat, bridge officers can be assigned to specific stations (i.e., seats) on the player's ship. In most cases, each bridge station requires a specific career and rank. Only Bridge Officers of the correct career can be assigned to a career-specific bridge station; "universal stations" can be occupied by any of the three career paths, but not in combination with a specialization. Bridge officers will only be able to use the number of abilities corresponding to the rank of the station, even if they hold a higher rank.

Ground

 * Main article: Away team

Bridge officers form your captain's away team when you enter a ground map. You can select their default composition on the Stations tab, but each time you beam from a space map to a ground map you will be able to select which officers you need for the mission.

Customization
Players can customize a Bridge Officer's appearance by visiting a Tailor. Bridge Officers can be renamed at any time through your character window. Some Special Bridge Officers cannot be customized or renamed.

Acquisition
Bridge officers are commissioned from Bridge Officer Candidates. These are obtained from a variety of sources, such as vendors, missions and the Exchange (see below).

Bridge Officer Candidates are commissioned by right-clicking on the candidate and selecting "Commission." When a Bridge Officer Candidate becomes part of your crew, they are Commissioned Officers. Alternatively, an obtained candidate can be "converted" into a Training Manual of an ability they possessed, which can then be used to teach another BOff this ability.

Slots
Your captain must have an empty Bridge Officer Slot to commission an officer. Additional slots are earned as the captain increases in rank, and they can also be purchased in the Zen Store, sold in pairs for 250, up to a maximum of 54 slots.

All characters start with 4 bridge officer slots.

Gold accounts unlock 2 additional slots at the following levels, for a total of 10 slots at level 50:
 * Level 10 (Lieutenant Commander)
 * Level 20 (Commander)
 * Level 40 (Rear Admiral, Lower Half)

Silver accounts unlock 1 additional slot at the following levels, for a total of 8 slots at level 60:
 * Level 20 (Commander)
 * Level 40 (Rear Admiral, Lower Half)
 * Level 50 (Vice Admiral)
 * Level 60 (Fleet Admiral)

Rank up
Generic bridge officers are obtained periodically as the player levels up (every 10 levels after level 15).

Vendors
Bridge Officer Candidates are primarily available from a requisition officer, such as Elsa Mora at Earth Spacedock, V'Qlar in First City, or Teelis on the Romulan Flotilla. New candidates may be purchased using Dilithium, and once acquired, are available to be commissioned. A player may maintain no more than fifteen (15) uncommissioned candidates.

Trading
Bridge Officer Candidates can be sold on the exchange for Energy credits. They can also be sent through the mail to other characters (on a players account) or other players. This can only be done at a mail console that allows adding items to a message.


 * Go to a mail terminal
 * Compose a new message
 * Open the Character Status window
 * Switch to the Stations tab and open the Candidates window
 * Drag the candidate to an open item slot in the mail window

Assignments

 * See also: Assignments rewarding bridge officers

There are also Recruitment duty officer assignments which reward Bridge Officers of various races, (excluding Zen Store or special officers) such as Ferengi, Alien, Trill, Saurian, Bolian, Klingon, Gorn, Andorian, Human, Orion, Lethean... etc. Note: Some assignments are faction specific and may require higher Commendation ranks.

Other means

 * Main article: Special bridge officer

Faction-specific bridge officer candidates are also rewarded for some tutorial and early storyline missions. Additionally, some unique, very rare cross-faction candidates are also rewarded from specific higher-level missions in the game. In addition, further ones can be gained from the Zen Store, promotions and other special means.