Season Eight: The Sphere

Season Eight: The Sphere was released on November 12, 2013. It is end-game focused, and saw the addition of a new hostile alien faction (the Voth), the new Solanae Dyson Sphere "space adventure zone", a new fleet holding (the Spire), a new reputation faction and new ships.

Preparation

 * Stand-alone Feature Episode: Sphere of Influence featuring as Worf - available from October 31, 2013, as a lead-up to the actual release of Season Eight
 * Time-limited reward: Faction_FedRomKDF.pngsk Carrier
 * New PvE Queue mission

New Enemy Faction: The Voth
The Voth are a new, powerful, hostile alien faction.

Systems

 * New Reputation faction: Dyson Joint Command for Solanae Dyson Sphere
 * New Fleet holding: Fleet Spire on Solanae Dyson Sphere

Playable Ships

 * Fleet Shipyard
 * Obelisk-class Carrier
 * Lobi Crystal Consortium
 * Advanced Obelisk-class Carrier
 * Voth Palisade-class Science Vessel
 * Voth Lock Box
 * Voth Bastion-class Flight Deck Carrier

Locations and Missions

 * New Solanae Dyson Sphere Space Adventure Zone
 * Adventure Zone uses persistent territory control. Players fight to reclaim areas from the Voth.
 * PvE Queue missions and.

Missions

 * Faction_Both.png - 50, 960
 * Faction_Both.png - 50, 960
 * Faction_Both.png - 50, 960
 * Faction_Both.png - 25, 480
 * Faction_Both.png - 10, 240
 * Faction_Both.png - 0-60, 0-960
 * Faction_Both.png - Tier 1 mission
 * Faction_Both.png - Tier 2 mission
 * Faction_Both.png - Tier 3 mission
 * Faction_Both.png - Tier 4 mission
 * Faction_Both.png - Tier 5 mission

Federation Tutorial Revamp
Revamp of the Federation tutorial, including a new federation ship interior.

Accolades

 * Exploration Accolades
 * Bumpin' - Bounce Off the Lower Atmosphere in the Sphere
 * The Four Towers - Aid joint forces in taking command of the control towers in the contested zone.
 * General Accolades
 * Dyson Joint Command (Tier 1)
 * Dyson Joint Command (Tier 2)
 * Dyson Joint Command (Tier 3)
 * Dyson Joint Command (Tier 4)
 * Dyson Joint Command (Tier 5)
 * Inspired - Fly Through Central Spire in All Three Sphere Zones
 * Need for Device Speed - You increased the speed of the device at a generator point in the battlezone.
 * Welcome to the Dyson Sphere
 * Kill Accolades
 * Doctrinal Differences - Defeat 20 Voth ships
 * Apocryphal Doctrine - Defeat 100 Voth ships
 * Heretical Doctrine - Defeat 200 Voth ships
 * Dino Hunter - Defeat 100 Voth
 * Dino Demolisher - Defeat 500 Voth
 * Extinction Event - Defeat 1000 Voth
 * Dinosaur Halted - You defeated one of the mini-bosses in the park area.
 * Mechanized Menace - You defeated one of the mini-bosses in the city area.
 * Conquered the Commander - You defeated one of the mini-bosses in the hybrid area.
 * More Mini Than Boss - You defeated one Voth mini-boss in each of the areas of the Dyson Sphere Battlezone.
 * Very Clever - You defeated the Voth's T-Rex in each part of the battlezone.
 * Explorer of the Battlezone - You travelled to all of the contested points in the Dyson Sphere Battlezone.
 * Swarmed the Swarmer - You defeated five of the Dyson Sphere's automated defenders.
 * Downed the Rex - You defeated one of the Voth's most dangerous weapons - a T-Rex.
 * Wants to Hunt - You defeated enough Voth to earn the "gold" reward in a mission in the battlezone.
 * Unusual Opponent - You defeated an Aehallh worm in the Dyson Sphere. How did it get all the way out here?
 * Lore Accolades
 * Voth Cultural Expert - You recovered all seven datapads regarding the Voth in the battlezone.
 * Testing the Limits - You discovered the area classified as the "city" by allied forces was used for psychological experiments. The intent was to create a weapon to use against enemies of the Dyson Sphere. (Note: This accolade is gained by using the 6 (3 city, 1 outskirts, 2 park) consoles throughout the battlezone; one is near the entrance of each zone)
 * Searched for the Truth - The area classified as a "park" by the allied forces has many things that make it seem more than a simple park. You investigated some consoles and discovered the previous inhabitants were using the area to conduct experiments on various creatures.

Test Weekend
Unlike previous Seasons, Season Eight did not have a publicly announced test weekend, though players could still try out the new content on the Tribble test server during the month of October and early November 2013. Furthermore, a Solanae Tribble was made available for all players with the release of Season 8.

Giveaway
The B'Rotlh Bird-of-Prey was given out for free on December 12 to celebrate Michael Dorn's return as Worf.

Season 8.5
On January 30, 2014, Cryptic, for the first time, released a major mid-Season update called "Season 8.5." It was rolled out together with the 4 Years Anniversary Event.
 * New mission: (featuring )
 * New ships: Faction-specific Dyson Science Destroyers: Solanae Class,  Nov Class,  Aves Class
 * New Lockbox:
 * Revamped content: Entire Klingon War-arc for Federation players was revamped ( was removed)
 * New systems: Quick equip & ship loadout functions

External link

 * Season 8 News Dev Blog Index
 * Bird-of-Prey Giveaway