Exploration and Leveling Up

This section covers sector space, missions/episodes, patrols, leveling up, skills, traits and accolades.

Throughout this guide, look out for items marked ALERT in red text for special cautions and italicized picture captions for related images. 

2.1 Missions & Episodes

When you first start out, you’ll be given an episode (sometimes called a mission or a quest) by an NPC. You'll complete the mission, travelling through the stars to fight, find, and fix various problems. Then you’ll turn it back in. At any time, you can pull up the Journal (J key) to see what episode you’ve done, what you’re currently working on (along with its rewards), as well as other episodes in the story arc. Most episodes are connected to others in an overarching story segment called a story arc (sometimes called a season).

You can replay most missions if you want, usually because there are multiple rewards from it you’re after and you can only claim one per replay. You can also skip them, but for your first time through the game, we strongly recommend you do not do this. Enjoy the storyline and the Star Trek and save the power-leveling until after you’re comfortable with the game’s systems. The game’s pace through the first few story arcs is designed to take you through at a fairly measured pace. 

After you finish the tutorial the order in which you can progress each story arc is up to you. Your faction leader will have a number of quests available to you after gaining command of your first ship formally.

Faction leader with many available quests shown

However we strongly advise that instead of accepting any of these you use the Journal.The Journal is your access point to virtually all story related content. You can access this with the J key by default. 

Journal menu

To accept new missions/quests, navigate to Episodes. The story arcs are listed in an chronological order (with any science fiction universe with time travel this is never an easy statement). Selecting the top most arc, then selecting the ‘Hail’ for the next available quest will put you on the right path to experiencing the story. Doing arcs out of order could lead to spoilers, events happening out of order, and characters and plot points being introduced without context. As well there may be times where you will have to double back as more game features become unlocked. 

Left: Federation journal with mission selection button highlighted; Right: Klingon Defense Force mission screen

Now, unfortunately, the game has broken out some content away from the main episode structure and some content post level 65 technically takes place earlier in the timeline, but without it, the storyline does not make quite as much sense. Even more unfortunately, that progression looks different for different factions since not all factions unlock those side missions at the same rate. In order to access them, select the journal (J) key, and open the Available tab. There is a dizzying array of available missions all over the storyline here, so don’t just pick the top one. 

Journal with available tab:

2.2 Playthrough Order Suggestion

Without further adieu, here is our recommended Playthrough Order:

After these arcs, players from either faction should follow the same progression:

If you are struggling to keep up with the levels based on the recommendations above, consider 1) participating in events once you hit level 20 or so (see Section 8), 2) running patrols (Federation from Akira Sulu, especially the repeatable ones near New Romulus) or Sorties (KDF only from Lieutenant Commander K’vex), or Empire Defense (KDF only from Lieutenant Commander Mara), or 3) using duty officers and deep space encounters to help you level. STO is very much open-ended so you can approach the game as you see fit; we suggest the above to help keep the storyline coherent and avoid entering certain areas without having the right in-game systems, chiefly Reputations, unlocked. The best option for gaining levels quickly is to play Red Alerts if that event is active; they are very fast and rewards lots of experience points. 

Again, these are suggestions, intended for players who want to maintain a cohesive story experience and not have to revisit areas after unlocking other systems, and also avoid running into difficulty spikes too early. You can do the story in whatever order and pace you like, or even skip most of it. Once you’re out of the tutorial, there are only a few guardrails. 

If you have a large number of active missions queued up in your objectives window and want to focus on a single one, go to the Journal. Choose the "In Progress" tab, find the mission you want to focus on in the list, and select "Make Primary." This will bring it to the top of the objectives list, and highlight it in yellow (as well as its objective circles). 

Make Primary button in Journal

 2.3 Resource Nodes 

While you are in mission space (or on a ground map), or on a patrol, you might find scannable resources nearby. Approach them and press F to initiate a scanning minigame. Use the arrow keys to line up the wave-lengths until the red line matches the blue line in both frequency (width) and amplitude (height) to collect your resources, which will be deposited in the R&D tab of your inventory. These are used for crafting and upgrading, which we cover in section 6. 

Left: Approaching a resource node. Right: Resource node modulation in progress.

R&D materials in inventory

2.4 Patrols 

While sojourning through the stars, you might happen across an option to “Patrol” a system. This opens a new single mission untied to the storyline where you’ll have limited objectives to complete in the system. Most of them are combat-focused, but there are a few that are not. Some repeatable patrols can be accessed directly in the task force operation window under the Patrol tab, while there are other repeatable patrols in the Beta Quadrant near New Romulus, all over the Delta Quadrant, and Alpha Quadrant near Deferi. Be aware that some patrols may be offered far before they would be encountered in the storyline, specifically the repeatable ones in this menu. 

Patrol Menu

We mention repeatable patrols because some patrols are from the game’s earliest stage and cannot be replayed. Unlike the repeatable ones, they are faction-specific to Federation characters and can only be accessed by visiting that planet in sector space. 

Klingon Defense Force characters have access to two different systems that are similar to Patrols: Empire Defense and Sorties. Both are available from the Journal (J), under Available. 

Sorties, from Lieutenant Commander K’vex, will task you with going to a number of systems in the Beta Quadrant and completing small missions in each one. You can repeat a Sortie every 30 minutes, and there is an additional daily reward for completing all of the optional objectives in both sorties under a mission called Path of the Warrior.

Sortie prompt

Empire Defense, from Lieutenant Commander Mara, will send you to a number of nebulas around Qo’Nos to fight one of four enemy types: Borg, Cardassians, Federation, and Romulans. You’ll enter the nebula to find a number of scan points. Scan them until you find an active map, which will transition you to a combat map where you’ll have to defeat a number of enemy ship groups. Both Sorties and Empire Defense are repeatable. 

Empire Defense prompt

Patrols, Sorties, and Empire Defense are easy ways to get some space combat experience and level up between doing missions. They scale with your level so as long as you haven’t been focused on leveling up only and neglecting your gear, you should be able to complete them without issue. 

2.5 Deep Space Encounters

You might also find glowing red clouds in sector space called Deep Space Encounters. These are small combat scenarios that happen in between systems, occurring at random times and locations. Other players can enter these zones as well and you might find it more challenging if you enter one with higher level players. They are marked with this symbol on the sector space map and award dilithium, skill points, and expertise, along with some R&D materials.

Left: Deep Space Encounter node in Sector Space; Right: Example Deep Space Encounter

These typically involve combat against waves of enemies. Other players can join as well to help defeat the opponents. 

There are other types of teamed content you can get into, but that is a topic for Section 8 and the Task Force Operation system. 

2.6 Quality of Life Interface, Control, and Display Settings

In this we are going to point out a few quality of life changes and effects that we think people should change for a better experience. This has 3 main components:

Chat Window Settings and Popups

Access from the small gear wheel at the right most point in the chat window is the chat settings, and more importantly notification settings

This will open the fly-in window, where we can change what appears for the green fly-in text

By and large these can be tailored as you need them, some people want more feedback to show if the buttons they're clicking are registering  and some want no pop ups at all. The real big takeaway from this menu is to turn off gameplay (both chat and fly in) announcements. We do not need to be notified who the most recent winner of GambleBoxPrime3000 is. 

Just to go over a couple:

• Announcements: This will be things like server restart messages. 

• Inventory: Related to drops, opening of packs, and other items

• Missions: relative self explanatory, these are related to both Task Force Operations (see 8.2) and episodes

• Character Progression: rank up being leveling up or getting a specialization point, also applied to bridge officers

• Team: Team Invites, difficulty, and other settings like gear distribution, open or closed, etc.

• Fleet: Examples being contributing to or starting fleet projects

• Friends: Logging on and Off, useful for spying on when that one guy who owes you energy credits (see 4.2 for discussion of resources and 5.2 for discussion of the friend system) is back online

• Miscellaneous: Queue is about queue starting or stopping for Task Force Operations, Mail is when mail is received (see 4.5), Duty officer is starting / collecting Duty Officer assignments (see 3.2), and help popups are all the pop-up tutorial boxes the game presents when first encountering a new system.

Basic Options

Under Options -> Basic:

• Disable Auto Hail: This should be left on while leveling up but once you’ve completed the story, or start doing Task Force Operations (TFOs) this can start impacting (damage) performance, when you’ve done the same TFO 100 times the briefings that come on each stage get in the way of going from target to target, and can be detrimental in elite TFOs. Think of this as the Starfleet Command Pop-up blocker.

• Enable Auto-Loot: HAVE THIS ON, loot goblin good!

• Colour Palette, changes the ui colour! Make this what you want it to be!

• Compact UI: Changes the borders on some UI elements, useful for those playing on smaller screen sizes or lower resolutions

• Enable Directional Shield FX: enables or disables the blue quadrants that show shield facings being up or not when in combat.

Advanced Options

Under Options -> Advanced

• Reduced Files Streaming: HAVE THIS ON IF YOU HAVE DISK SPACE!!! This causes the game to download instances on your drives for better retrievability. Note this does take storage, so only do if you have free space.

Everything else here will depend on the GPU and performance, hardware dependent

Control Settings

Under options -> Controls, these will give you some options that are not directly modifiable and will change how you engage in combat.

Camera Type:

• Free Camera allows the camera (where your screen view is pointing) to be set by clicking and dragging with the right mouse button

• Follow Target: When selected the camera will attempt to put the target in the middle of the screen. The camera can be moved but after a few seconds it will snap back to the target.

• Chase Camera: When selected the camera will attempt align to the direction facing; think dogfighter or pilot's seat. The camera can be moved but after a few seconds it will snap back to the facing direction

Looking at the options, important ones are mentioned in CAPS.

• Reset Tab Targeting: This does not actually seem to work, but having it on tends to make the last selected enemy target the next target after the current target is defeated

• Show Team Damage/Player Damage Floaters: Once you get into teamed content like TFOs, this can get very very busy and impact framerate so we recommend turning these off.

• Click Unselects Targets: Clicking a non-targetable area deselects target

• Only attack if target selected: HAVE THIS OFF, this will allow you to shoot first

• Select auto target on attack: HAVE THIS ON, Auto selects an available target if none selected

• Assist target on attack: This can be either on or off. Target priority for attacks will be enemy target of friendly target. Target priority for heals will be self heal, then friendly target of target

• Never auto target objects: HAVE THIS OFF, this will cause weapon auto targeting to not target certain things when enabled

• Never auto target pets: HAVE THIS OFF,  this will cause weapon auto targeting to not target certain things when enabled

• Target threatening enemies first: HAVE THIS ON, this will cause auto targeting to prioritize things shooting you!

• Select attacker if attacked: We have this defaulted to off, its is very helpful 

• Tab selects offscreen targets: HAVE THIS OFF, this will limit tab targeting to only be targets within the screen space

• Keep moving during contact dialogs: HAVE THIS ON, If a dialogue box appears, this will allow you to keep moving when it appears

• Auto Attack: SET THIS TO MAINTAIN AUTO ATTACK. We do not want our ship to stop shooting at bad guys. 

UI Settings

The following are Jay’s UI settings, designed to eliminate screen clutter. Because of how many options there are we encourage you to experiment and find what works best for you.

2.7 Leveling Up

When the gray experience bar across the top of the HUD fills up, you’ll increase in level. After the first level, every 10 levels, you’ll increase in rank as well. The gold bar indicates how far you have to go until the next rank but…it’s somewhat misleading, as you’ll rank up every 10 levels. Don’t worry about the progress bar beyond that. Increasing in rank will allow access to higher tiers (marks) of equipment, increased numbers of trait slots (see below), and a new ship up until level 50. You’ll gain experience points through completing missions, fighting enemies, and virtually any other gameplay outside of social zones. Levels go from 1 to 65.

Expertise is a separate stat accrued for training bridge officers and some endgame projects. It’s earned in the same way as experience points–by playing the game. Be careful not to dump too much expertise into a single bridge officer.

Experience bar with tooltip

By default, the skill tree shows space but there’s also a separate tab for ground skills. To learn a skill, click on it, and confirm. As you progress through the ranks, you’ll unlock unique skills. Some skills have more than one node offering the same stat, e.g. Energy Weapon Training/Improved Energy Weapon Training/Advanced Energy Weapon training. Each higher node offers less of a given stat, so it is not a good idea to exclusively focus on maxing out a given tree right away, even if you ultimately intend to. 

ALERT: The skills you choose are completely divorced from your captain career. So many people get this wrong. Don't be one of them.

You could have an engineering captain that ends up taking mostly tactical skills in their space tree and this is much better than maxing out engineering skills. Skill selection is irrevocable. Once you are much later in the game, you will have an opportunity to unlock a limited number of skill re-specs (see: Reputations)

If you have a specific skill tree or build purpose you’re going after (example: I am going to fly exclusively torpedo-focused ships on this character), then feel free to ignore this next section, or refer to our Basics pages for sample skill trees and choices pertinent to a specific playstyle. For players just starting out, we’re going to list out the highest-priority nodes in each skill tree for a generalist build:

• Lieutenant: Your first 5 points should be allocated as above, with 1 point in Hull Restoration (Engineering), 1 point in Hull Capacity (Engineering), 2 points in Energy Weapon Training (Tactical), and 1 point in Projectile Weapons Training (Tactical).

• Lt. Commander: The second tier of skills is unlocked after 5 points have been spent, the earliest would when you reach level 10. Priority is 2 points in Impulse Expertise (Engineering), 2 points in EPS Flow (Engineering), 1 point in Control Expertise (Science), 1 point in Drain Expertise (Science), 2 points in Targeting Expertise (Tactical), 1 points in Defensive Maneuvering (Tactical). Go back to the Lt-rank skills and pick up another 1 point in Projectile Weapons Training (Tactical). This will get you 15 points to where you can unlock Commander-tier skills. 

• Commander: 1 point in Hull Plating (Engineering), 1 point in Shield Regeneration (Science), 3 points in Weapon Amplification (Tactical), 3 points in Weapon Specialization (Tactical). Pick up the 3rd point in Energy Weapon Training (Tactical) from the Lieutenant tier. Pick up a 2nd point in Hull Capacity (Engineering) at Lieutenant as well. This gets you to 25 points and unlocked Captain skills.

• Captain: 3 points in Long Range Targeting Systems (Science), 2 points in Exotic Particle Generators (Science), 2 points in Hull Penetration (Tactical), 3rd point in Projectile Weapon Training, and 2 points in Shield Penetration (Tactical) will get you to the Admiral/General skills. This gets you to 35 points, where you can invest in admiral rank skills. 

• Admiral/General: 1 point in Warp Core Potential (Engineering), 1 point in Warp Core Efficiency (Engineering). All 3 coordination protocol nodes (Tactical) and 2 points in Tactical Readiness (Tactical) are advised as well. This gets you to 42 points, where you'll have 4 points left in space.

Example space tree with 42 points filled in.

Finishing it out: From here this leaves you with 4 skill points to use as you wish. We would recommend you can spend these on 1 point to increase hull restoration (engineering Lieutenant), 1 point for Control Amplification (Science Lt, Commander) which will give debuffs on your control powers, and 2 points into Tactical, the 3rd of Targeting Expertise and the 2nd in Defensive Maneuvering. Again, see the various Basics pages if you’d like a more specialized skill tree for a given playstyle, but this generalist tree will serve you admirably for 99% of all builds you can make. This will leave you with an 11 Engineering/9 Science/26 Tactical tree. Alternately, if you'd like to even out the skill tree a little more, taking the second point in Control Expertise over Hull Restoration will significantly benefit any science/exotic builds you want to make, leaving you with a 10 Engineering/10 Science/26 Tactical tree.

Completed skill tree

Skill Unlocks: 

Below the skill tree are a series of node unlocks that become available with more skill points spent in each career path, in increments of 5. Some offer bridge officer training options for rank III of certain powers based on your career, which is not much of an incentive. The larger nodes offer choices, and here are our recommendations for those, based on the skill tree above:

• Engineering 5/10: Battery Expertise is essential at 5; this is basically the only way to get this stat. Maximum Hull Capacity at 10 is marginally better than Subsystem Repair

• Science 5: Generally think Transwarp Cost Reduction is more useful in the late game but if you spend a lot of time flying around sector space, sector space travel speed is not a bad choice either.

• Tactical 5: Threat Control is essential at 5; this is basically the only way to get this stat. Tactical 10 should prefer Projectile Critical Chance and Tactical 15 should prefer Energy Critical Chance. Tactical 20, choose Accuracy.

• Ultimates: Spending more than 24 points in a skill tree will unlock Ultimate enhancers. Of these, the Tactical one is the only one that is any good, and it’s an active ability that allows you to target an enemy and increase your attack speed when striking them. After spending 25, 26, and 27 points in tactical, you’ll unlock 3 more enhancements, which allow you to also increase weapon damage, offer these buffs to teammates, and reduce bridge officer cooldowns on striking the enemy. For the suggested tree, choose Team Frenzy and Frenzied Assault.

Tactical Ultimate

We cover skills much more in-depth on the Basics pages for a given build type and if you don't know what build types are out there, see Section 7. If you like to tinker and plan out your own path, give the Skill Tree tool at the Terran Imperial Guard fleet’s website a try. 

Ground Skills 

Ground skill tree

Ground skills are much simpler, with no specific career unlocks and far fewer points available. Ground tends to be much more offensively focused than space, which is reflected in the skill tree. The standard approach would be to take all the points in Weapon Proficiency, Weapon Penetration, Weapon Criticals, Kit Performance, and Kit Efficiency, eschewing all defensive skill points. If you want to take more defensive stats, keep Kit Performance and Kit Efficiency maxed, and take a point in Endurance Training and Armor Expert or Personal Shields, but don’t use more than 2 or 3 points at the very maximum on defensive skills.

Ground unlocks:

Just like space, ground has unlocks for investing in skill nodes, but they’re unlocked every 2 points spent in ground. The critical one is Device Expertise, improving all of your devices. Beyond that, Improved Aim, Fatal Fists (this one doesn’t matter much), Improved Flank Damage, and Offensive Mastery are standard choices. 

2.9 Traits

Next to the skills tab on the Status Menu is the traits tab, and you’ll want to start paying attention to this around the time you hit Lieutenant Commander (LtCmdr).

Traits tooltips

Most of these trait slots will not be filled until much, much later in the game. You start with 3 personal trait slots (unless you’re an Alien, which gets a 4th one rather than having a racial trait) and earn a new ground and space trait every 10 levels, capping out at 9 at level 60 for non-aliens. Your racial trait can be viewed by pressing the “Details” button at the top of the Active Traits screen; most of them do not matter very much. Turning a captain into an Elite captain will unlock another personal trait slot for both ground and space. 

For starters, you will want to select the following 3-4 traits. Ground traits tend to be more widely diversified based on species so we’ll give a few more options. 

Ground:

• Rifle, Pistol, OR Assault Training depending on which weapon you’re using.

• Lucky for Critical Hit Chance if available

• Field Technician for Kit Readiness if available

• Creative for Kit Performance if available

• Soldier for Weapon Damage 

• Plasma Weapon Specialist for Romulan characters

Space:

• Operative (or Romulan Operative for Romulan Characters)

• Beam OR Cannon Training depending on whether you have beam arrays or cannons on your first ship. KDF starter ships have cannons and Federation ships have beam arrays. Romulan ships have a mixture of both, but you’ll want to try and get to either all beams or cannons by the time you hit level 10 via going to a gear vendor if you don’t have the loot for it

• Projectile Training for the torpedo launcher you’ll have up front starting out.

• Bulkhead Technician increases the hitpoints of your starship.

As you level up, consider the following traits. Most of them are relatively small bonuses, so you can experiment and see which ones you like best. Ones that are useful for endgame play even for players with money/time invested in the game are underlined. 

Ground:

• Strike Team Specialist (Tactical only): Increases Critical Hit Chance

• Nanomolecular Architect (Engineer only): Helps with survivability of Turret, Mortars, Drones, and other summons

• Field Researcher (Science only): Improves damage dealt to controlled or debuffed enemies. 

• Peak Health for Hit Points

• Stubborn reduces the effect of holds, stuns, slows, and placates

• Sure Footed reduces the effect of knock backs and roots

• Resilient adds extra ground resistance. 

Space:

• Fleet Coordinator to give damage based on team size. This won’t matter too much until you start doing team content.

• Innocuous will reduce incoming threat and increase the amount of damage you inflict on critical strikes (critical severity) somewhat

• Elusive will make you harder for enemies to hit, depending on your throttle. 

• Thrill-Seeker increases flight speed and full impulse speed. 

• Techie helps increase hull regeneration and repair

• Warp Theorist or Efficient Captain help increase ship power levels. 

• Astrophysicist for if you want to start investing into exotic damage abilities like Tractor Beam or Gravity Well.

• Conservation of Energy (Science only!) increases exotic damage when struck by energy weapons.

• Photonic Capacitor (Science Only) reduces the cooldown of photonic fleet on use of science abilities. 

• EPS Manifold Efficiency (Engineers only!) grants extra power when using Emergency Power abilities. 

• Grace Under Fire (Engineers only!) reduces the cooldown of miraculous repairs if you take more than 20% hull damage within 5 seconds. 

You can add one more personal space and ground trait as well as a kit module slot by applying an Elite Captain token to your captain. This can be purchased from the Zen Store (see 4.7) or as part of the yearly giveaways, typically near anniversary. See 8.3 for more information.

2.10 Accolades

Upon completion of a variety of objectives, story arcs, defeating certain enemies, or thresholds of dealing/taking/healing damage of certain types, your character will receive an accolade, which is a little badge or achievement associated with your character. There are literally hundreds of them, and most of them are cosmetic only in that they mark a little progression for your character but don’t do anything to the gameplay. You can view accolades, including both completed and incomplete ones, by going to the journal (J) key and selecting the accolades tab.

Accolade earned

Some accolades are technically used for key level-up milestones to award new abilities, and others offer a very small damage increase for certain types of weapons. Others are associated with duty officer commendations and offer new transwarp options. The wiki has a full list of accolades, as well as a list of accolades that affect gameplay on the same page. Of course, if you’re interested in hunting for more accolades that’s certainly an aspect of the game you can explore. 

You can see what accolades are out there from the Accolade tab on the Journal.

2.11 Open Worlds

STO has numerous open worlds, which are combat zones either in space or on ground. Sometimes these are called Adventure Zones or Battle Zones. Enemies and small found missions can be found throughout these areas, and both will frequently respawn; there is no “completing” an open world in terms of clearing all enemies and achieving all objectives as it is a constantly cycling zone. Even in battle zones with defined finish quests unlocked by progressing the zone or completing objectives in certain areas. Once the cycle (either local region or global to the instance) is complete, it will start over. 

Each zone has their own miniature quests or found missions, which come with their own rewards. They might include scanning objects, fighting enemies, rescuing or defending NPCs, or even dispersing bugs. The first zone you’ll likely encounter, Nimbus, only rewards dilithium ore and experience points, but subsequent zones have rewards that tie into the Reputation System, discussed more in 6.6.

The desert wastes of Nimbus await. 

Area missions are found missions encountered by arriving at a certain area in an Adventure Zone 

Unlike missions or Task Force Operations, which start a new instance of the map only with the party (or team), you’ll share an instance of an Open World freely with other players of any faction and any level allowable by the zone. There can be up to 20 players on a single map. Think of them like social zones with fewer vendors and more combat and mini-quests. 

Battle Zone Tutorial 

Here is a list of the Open Worlds and their environment, and their level restriction:

• Nimbus (ground)

• New Romulus (ground),

• Sphere Space - Allied Zone (space)

• Sphere Space - Contested Zone (space)

• Sphere Space - Voth Battle Zone (ground)

• Sphere Space - Space Undine Battlezone (space)

• Defera Invasion Zone (ground)

• Nukara (ground)

• Kobali Prime (ground)

• Badlands (space)

• Gon’Cra Nebula (space)

Some zones only have isolated missions and mini-quests (Nimbus, Defera, Sphere Space - Allied Zone, Nukara, New Romulus), while others have progression mechanics, where completing more of the smaller zones progresses the map to a larger set of objectives. Clearing that larger set will earn you a final boss fight, possibly against waves of enemies (Sphere Space - Contested Zone, Voth Battle Zone, Space Undine Battlezone, Badlands, Gon’Cra, Kobali Prime). 

Capturing/completing all the zones in the Undine Space Battlezone unlocks a fight against three Planet Killers, which unlocks a fight against a fleet of Voth.