Intermediate Shipbuilding

This section will walk through different classes, tiers, and types of ship builds, along with other features found on more advanced and higher tier ships.

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

7.1 Ship Tiers

As you’ve been progressing through STO, you’ve been gaining more and more powerful ships. Ships in the game are organized by tiers, where each tier represents a significant increase in capability. Ships of higher tiers gain additional weapons, bridge officer, and console slots, as well as having higher stats.  If you’d like to see the full breakdown, including the in-between tier “Refit” variant stats, you can see the wiki  page here. 

Ships at Tier 1-4 are available at your faction’s ship requisition officer, and you gain one ship via a token earned at levels 10, 20, and 30. We cover those ships extensively in 3.1. You can buy other ships on a per character basis for Refined Dilithium. Since you won’t usually spend much time in these ships, this guide won’t cover them exhaustively; the chief reasons to acquire one later are for a certain console or  a particular ship customization option. Some notable purchases from these ships:

• The Valdore Warbird (T3) provides the Shield Absorptive Frequency Generator, a strong defensive console for energy builds used on many endgame builds. 

• The Perseus Temporal Escort (T3) provides the M6 computer, which has a strong damage-boosting active ability

• The Thunderchild Heavy Escort Refit (T3) provides a Point Defense System console, which makes most any small craft content much easier due to its active shredding nearby small craft and fighters

• The B’Rotlh Bird-of-Prey (T1) offers Enhanced Induction Coils, which offer a quick-recharging boost to all power levels. This console also comes on the M’Chla Bird-of-Prey Refit earned through Klingon Recruitment (see 6.5)

• The Gemini Temporal Cruiser (T4) provides the Temporal Destabilization Matrix, which has an active that reduces enemy shield hardness and resistance in a PBAOE. This is an okay starter console for supportive ships.

• The Dhael Warbird (T2) has a console called Singularity Inverter, increasing Singularity charge per incoming hit.

At level 40, you can gain a Tier 5 ship and another choice of T5 ship at level 61. Other T5 ships must be purchased account-wide with Zen, and there are a few that can be purchased either for Fleet Credits or cheaply on the Exchange. While many F2P players will top out at tier 5 ships, the game does offer several opportunities to earn a tier 6 ship throughout the year. If desired, you can upgrade certain T5 ships to T5-U via a starship upgrade token purchasable on the Exchange or the Zen Store for 700 Zen.  Most every T5 ship has a T6 equivalent and those equivalents can be customized to look like the T5 version (see 6.9) so it’s generally a better idea to purchase the T6 version rather than the T5. Starship traits also unlock at level 5.

Tier-5U and Tier 6 ships have additional passive bonuses called mastery unlocked through playing on that ship, and non-Fleet Tier 6 ships unlock a starship trait that can be used on any ship on that character.  You do NOT have to use the starship trait that comes with a ship on that ship.  Ship Mastery is specific to that ship and tied to the type of ship it is. Different ship types will have different mastery packages, ranging from superfluous to impactful. If you want to level up such a ship faster, using a Patrol with infinite waves  like Rescue and Search, Ninth Rule, and Trouble Over Terrh will offer lots of ship mastery experience.  

Fleet Ships retain the mastery package of the base ship and can be purchased from the Fleet Store for a large sum of fleet credits and 1 or 5 fleet ship modules, depending on if you have the base variant from the C-store already. Fleet Ships have an additional console slot and better stats, but lack a starship trait and unique console, as well as any unique experimental weapons. They do retain any unique hangar pet unlocks. The value of using Fleet Ship Modules, of which one can be earned through each maxed out Reputation (see 5.10), versus acquiring the base variant depends heavily on the console, trait, gear, and customization options unlocked through the base variant. 

For a practical example, consider the following: the Avenger Battlecruiser is a Tier 5 battlecruiser with a potent 5/3 weapons layout, 9 console slots, base 37,500 hit points, and 12 bridge officer stations. To acquire it, you need 2,500 Zen off sale. You can upgrade it further to a maximum of 56,250 hull at level 65 with a T5-U token for 700 Zen off sale. This will also unlock its starship mastery package and a console slot, bringing it up to 10 consoles. The Fleet Avenger is also an option, costing 20,000 fleet credits and 4 fleet ship modules and has 61,875 hull at level  65 with a T5-U upgrade. It also has 12 bridge officer stations and 10 console slots.

Now consider the T6 version of this ship, the Arbiter-class Battlecruiser. It retains that same 5/3 weapons layout, has 10 console slots base,  has an additional bridge officer station and adds Intel specialization seating. It also comes with a unique console as well as a very strong starship trait for energy weapons builds on virtually any ship. The Arbiter has 56,250 HP at level 65 and unlocks the T5 Avenger Battlecruiser’s appearance for free, meaning that you can you make an Arbiter look exactly like an Avenger without paying for it. The T5-U Avenger has the same HP, fewer/worse bridge officer seats, the same console count, and costs 200 Zen more to buy and upgrade while also bringing a worse console and no starship trait. Simply put, there’s no reason to buy the T5 Avenger when the T6 Arbiter exists at 3,000 Zen off sale. 

The next step is to consider the Fleet Avenger (T6), which is available for 20,000 fleet credits and 5 fleet ship modules, reduced to 1 if you own the C-store Arbiter. This ship has 61875 hull at level 65, the same seating as the Arbiter, and one extra console slot. It also unlocks the T5 Fleet Avenger’s appearance. So, if you were after the look and stats of the fleet variant and could spend Zen, the most economical route would be to buy the C-store Arbiter to pick up the starship trait, console, and fleet ship module discount, level it, and then purchase the Fleet Avenger (T6) as your actual flying ship.

To give it one final evolution, some ships have bundle-exclusive Legendary variants that come at full fleet grade without needing fleet ship modules. The Avenger/Arbiter is one such ship, with the Legendary Miracle Worker Avenger Battlecruiser as part of a 12,000 Zen bundle (off-sale; wait for a 35% sale to acquire it at 7800 Zen) which has even better stats and a secondary specialization, Miracle Worker, at full spec. Legendary ships also come with all the consoles and traits of their usual variants, plus an additional one. The Legendary Avenger has 13 bridge officer stations, but a whopping 13 console slots since it’s a full Miracle Worker ship (see 5.11 specializations), and it has 67,500 hull at level 65. Moreover, the contents of that bundle give you basically enough consoles and starship traits to build out an Elite-capable starship when combined with reputation/episode/fleet gear. We discuss this more in 4.7. 

Note that not all T6 C-store ships have a fleet equivalent. Lockbox, Legendary, Promotional, Epic Phoenix, and Lobi ships also come at fleet-grade (12 consoles) already. 

Once you have a T5-U or a T6 ship, you can upgrade it further via Experimental Ship Upgrade Tokens, available from either the Zen Store, Red Alert events, or converting Phoenix Tokens during specific Phoenix events (see section 4.6 and 6.3.2). The first Experimental Ship Upgrade Token applied adds a -X to a ship, adding a device slot, universal console slot, and starship trait slot.  Adding two more experimental ship upgrade tokens increases it to -X2, which adds yet another device slot, another universal console slot, and starship trait slot. That’s how you get full T6-X2 ships which look like this:

T6-X2 Legendary Avenger Miracle Worker Battlecruiser

7.2 Ship Types

There are many different ship types in STO and the naming conventions aren’t always consistent. However, there are a few basic pointers to understanding a T5/T6 ship from its name:

• If it has “Cruiser” in the name, it will have a Commander Engineering seat

• If it has “Scout Ship” or “Raider,” it will have mostly universal seating. Raiders usually give up a weapon and/or a bridge officer station to gain more damage while flanking

• If it has “Science” in the name, it has a Commander Science seat

• If it has “Escort,” “Warship,” or “Destroyer,” it has a Commander Tactical seat

• If it has the name of a specialization in it, i.e. “Pilot,” it has that specialization on its Commander seating. For example, the Gagarin Miracle Worker Battlecruiser has a Commander Engineering/Miracle Worker seat

• If it has “Multi-Mission,” “Dreadnought,” or “Strike Wing” in the name, it has a hangar bay.

• If it has “Carrier,” it has 2 hangar bays

• If it has “Warbird” in the game, it uses a Singularity Core instead of a Warp Core.

The type of ship has considerable influence over which builds best synergize with it. For example, the secondary deflector, limited weaponry, and Commander Science on a science ship will lend it towards an exotic build more than an energy weapon build. You can find more breakdown of this on our build types guide, discussed briefly in the next section and more here.

7.3 Ship Build Types

As you gain more and more capable ships, you’ll have the opportunity to specialize them further as more gear options open up beyond what you can find in missions. Reputations, Fleets, and even the Exchange open up opportunities to specialize your build as you acquire more unique and powerful gear. STO is a game of synergy, so specializing your build to focus on a specific aspect will often gain you a better-performing build. You’re of course free to hybridize how you want, but it can come at a performance cost. Different types of builds perform better against different enemy sets and conditions, and while it’s certainly possible to make a one-size-fits-all build, that works better with a larger budget, and focusing on one type will serve you well as you enter the endgame. Ship mastery and layout will naturally lend some ships to certain types over others. Knowing the different build types and goals will also help you understand what other builds you can draw from (for example on this site) to help your own goals.

Fundamentally, there are 5 competing goals that fight for build space on a build. What does build space mean? That's the parts that go into a build: consoles, gear, traits, doffs, and even the ship platform itself. So, what are the goals? In decreasing order of popularity, they are:

1. Weapon Damage

2. Exotic Damage

3. Tanking

4. Team Support

5. Pet Damage

Of course you can subdivide and hybridize between many of them as well. At the highest level of map-specific DPS chasing (see Section 8.10), the current reigning type of build hybridizes Exotic and Weapon damage, but those builds tend to be hyper-specialized and expensive. Below that, it's still possible to draw meaningful distinctions between the build types and we'll do that as well. It's also worth noting that there are niche builds that don't fall into these categories, but they're niche for a reason. There's also some useful terminology discussions to be had. 

Ship build type diagram 

Any type of build listed below can do well in Normal or Advanced, even at budget or semi-optimal levels, though some really thrive in Elite. Non-supportive builds of any type can be made capable on any Elite maps. Supportive builds are typically for specific Elite maps but can be used elsewhere 

We talk more about each type of build, whether that’s energy and projectile builds, under the overall header of weapon builds, to exotic builds, tanks, supports, and even carriers on our Ship Build Types guide and the Basics guides for each type, but here is a brief overview of each.

• Energy builds principally use beams and/or cannons as their damage sources, and can be further subdivided based on the main firing mode. Most builds in the game are probably aiming to be energy builds. They excel at shorter or spread out combat because they're not dependent on travel time or cooldowns like Projectile or Exotic builds are. They deal steady damage, but are weak to reflect effects like Feedback Pulse (see 3.11.2)

• Projectile builds emphasize torpedo and/or mine weapon damage and are best subcategorized by the type of weapons they use. Projectile builds typically deal much higher damage once an enemy's shields are down, but struggle on maps where the enemies are heavily-shielded, many, fast, or flimsy, as the travel time of torpedoes makes them inefficient at clearing a swarm. 

• Exotic builds  focus on items that (generally) scale with Exotic Particle Generators, generally building around consoles, bridge officer abilities, and the secondary deflector rather than straight weapon damage. Exotic builds are great at fighting large groups of enemies in a small-ish area, and thanks to the persistent nature of many exotic damage sources, don't care about repeatedly warping-in waves of enemies as they all go into the space-time blender. They struggle when fights are frequent and spread-out, as they're more cooldown dependent. These builds synergize well with ships with a secondary deflector, but can also be applied to ships without.

• Tank builds are a subset of energy weapon builds, specifically Fire at Will, designed for the express purpose of absorbing damage AND drawing fire away from the team. 

• Support builds in STO are not generally healers but rather buff/debuff ships designed to help teammates reach new DPS thresholds. Support builds by their very nature are not intended to be DPS machines in their own right and are typically geared for Elite content only; Advanced is too easy/fast for a support build to really shine. These are specialized builds for chasing DPS.

• Carrier builds focus on using hangar pets to inflict significant damage, at least 40%, and have specific gear and consoles designed to amplify the effectiveness of hangar pets. 

7.4 Experimental Weapons

Some ships, typically Escort, Strike Wing Escorts, and Raiders, give up an aft weapon for an Experimental Weapon slot. This is a unique weapon that can either be worse than an aft turret or significantly better, depending on which one you choose. Unlike standard weapons, these are not freely acquirable and cannot be directly purchased. Instead, you must unlock them through either starship purchases or a single one in the Reputation system (see 5.10). The default one is not great so that Reputation unlock will be a benefit if you’re not purchasing ships. There’s generally no special micromanagement needed for Experimental Weapons, just slot one, turn it to autofire, and enjoy the fireworks. You can find a sortable, filterable tier list for them on our site. Be careful of the firing arc of these weapons. Many of them have a full 360 degree firing arc like a turret but some of the more powerful ones have a narrower firing like dual heavy cannons.

 Gol-Type Psionic Resonator Experimental Weapon slotted on Andorian Chimesh Pilot Escort

7.5 Hangars 

Some ships have the ability to launch smaller craft to support the starship, called a hangar bay. Carriers, Flight Deck Carriers, Escort Carriers, and Dreadnought cruisers are some common types you’ll come across. Hangar bays are limited to 1 or 2 per ship and most ships do not have them. To use a hangar bay, you’ll need to equip a hangar pet in the hangar bay slot on the ship. Any ship with a hangar bay has pets by default and you can buy other Normal-ranked versions for pets you have unlocked at the Ship Gear Vendor. You can buy Elite versions at the Fleet Starbase.

ALERT: It is an unwise investment to spend refined dilithium for Advanced versions of hangar pets in the Dilithium Store. Only do this if you refuse to interact with fleets at all. 

Hangar tutorial tooltips

Left: Advanced hangar pet purchases at the Dilithium Store NOT recommended; Right: Elite hangar pet purchases at the Starbase

Hangar pets are classified as fighters, shuttles, and frigates. Fighters have the most pets per bay, typically 6, but are the most fragile. Frigates can only be slotted on ships with 2 hangar bays and only have 2 per bay, but are the toughest and have the most abilities. Shuttles are in between and can be slotted on any ships with a hangar.

There are many ways to unlock new hangar pets. Most are unlocked via purchasing or completing an event granting a Tier 6 starship. A handful are unlocked via fleet holdings or Reputations (see 5.9 and 5.10). Some pets are also exclusive to certain classes or ships. For a full listing, see the wiki, and for a tier list that best describes what pets are actually worth slotting, check out our tier list.

To use a hangar, slot the “Launch _____” on your tray and activate it. This will deploy the bays. You can also right-click on the icon just like with weapons to set the bay to auto-launch. Bays set to auto-launch are indicated with a green outline. 

Once the bay is launched, you’ll see a menu with four possible carrier commands from left to right:

• Attack tells the hangar pets to attack your current target

• Defend tells the hangar pets to defend your current target, or yourself if you have any enemy targeted.

• Intercept tells the hangar pets to defend you from enemy fighters and torpedoes

• Recall orders the hangar pets to return to their bay and regenerate. 

In combat, hangar pets will respond to your orders and will gain increases in health and damage the longer they stay alive while fighting. This is represented by stars appearing under them. 

It is possible to build your ship around buffing your hangar pets, but it tends to be less efficient and more expensive than just focusing on your selfish damage. Still, it is an Elite-capable way of building and you can find plenty of examples on our site at varying budget levels under “Carriers.”

7.6 Secondary Deflectors

Science vessels, scout ships, and science dreadnoughts, along with a couple of unique science carriers, have a secondary deflector. This applies additional effects to targets depending on which bridge officers you use. For the purposes of general play, the only one that is relevant is the Deteriorating Secondary Deflector. It is well-worth slotting at least 2 if not more triggers for this if available, as it inflicts a deadly radiation damage-over-time effect on targeted foes. Trigger abilities that affect more than one enemy are even better. The Deteriorating Secondary Deflector can be up to a third of an exotic build’s damage at lower price points. 

Abilities that apply the Deteriorating Secondary Deflector are as follows:

• Tachyon Beam (Ens/Lt/LtCmdr) - single target

• Structural Analysis (Ens/Lt/LtCmdr) - chains to multiple targets, Exchange/Lockbox purchase

• Destabilizing Resonance Beam (Lt/LtCmdr/Cmdr) - AOE, requires mission “Blood of the Ancients”  to get manuals

• Energy Siphon (Lt/LtCmdr/Cmdr) - single target

• Charged Particle Burst (Lt/LtCmdr/Cmdr) - PBAOE

• Tyken’s Rift (Lt/LtCmdr/Cmdr) - AOE

• Viral Matrix (LtCmdr/Cmdr/Cmdr) - single target

This science ship features a Deteriorating Secondary Deflector in its secondary deflector slot 

7.7 Subsystem Targeting and Sensor Analysis 

Science ships and carriers have innate subsystem targeting commands corresponding to each of the various subsystems. In theory, you could use these to disable weapons, shields, engines, etc. on a target, but the problem is that 

1) it’s a low 6% chance to disable the subsystem on a single target with no other damage modifiers

2) NPC subsystem offline duration is modified by their resistance, which makes the offline shorter than practical, and 

3) Most importantly, these share a cooldown with other firing modes like Beam: Overload and Cannon: Scatter Volley. This is why you can train Tactical bridge officers in these abilities, but we recommend you not do so.

There are two specific uses for subsystem-targeting:

1. Using the trait from the T6 Lockbox ship Tholian Jorogumo “Precision Multi-Targeting” grants you Fire at Will instead. There are better ways to extend Fire at Will but . . . it exists.

2. If you’re using the Imperial Rift set, specifically the Deflector, use of these abilities will activate the conditional Control Expertise and Exotic Particle Generators boost. This is the main reason for using these abilities on an Exotic build with that set.

Sensor Analysis applies a stacking increase to damage when applied to enemies and a healing increase when applied to allies. It is a toggle, so you will not want it on any kind of spambar. You’ll want to manually activate it on a large target and enjoy the benefits. Secondary Deflectors can have the [SA +Dmg] mod which further increases this bonus, and you will want to slot one with that mod.

Left: Innate subsystem targeting; Right: Sensor Analysis UI element

7.8 Cruiser Commands 

Cruisers of all types and Flight Deck Carriers have access to 2-4 cruiser commands depending on the ship class. These are ships with Commander Engineering. Cruiser Commands provide an aura that buffs you and nearby allies:

• Weapon System Efficiency reduces energy weapon power cost. This is usually the most desirable one on most energy builds. 

• Shield Frequency Modulation boosts the shield regeneration and hardness of the cruiser and nearby allies. 

• Strategic Maneuvering grants a speed, turn and inertia boost. This one can be used out of combat on ships that would otherwise want Weapon System Efficiency, and uniquely works well on Exceed Rated Limits or Reroute Power to Weapons builds because there is no weapon power cost under those modes. 

• Attract Fire: Increases threat level, drawing enemy fire and attention, and increases your resistances. Decreases threat of nearby allies. Tanks will generally use this one. 

Cruiser Command element

7.9 Lances (AKA Superweapons)

Some ships, typically those in the Juggernaut class, have innate special attacks broadly called lance, or maybe Juggernaut Array. Ships that have these include the Terran Lexington Dreadnought Cruiser and Empersa Alliance Miracle Worker Juggernaut. Of course, they might not be called a “lance,” but it’s basically an extra button to push that does damage. Some of them require aiming, as they will only fire directly in front of you, and some of them are actually small craft that launch from the ship. To use a lance, simply place it on your tray and fire at a good time/target. The specifics of each one vary somewhat so reading the fine print is important here, as these have a long cooldown. They’re generally not build-defining so don’t worry too much about them.

The World Razer’s Juggernaut Array fires a large AOE bolt of Phaser Energy directly in front of you, requiring some aiming. 

The Lamarr’s “lance” is actually a summonable small craft. 

7.10 Singularity Commands 

Singularity Core Commands are unique to Romulan ships, specifically warbirds. Singularity Cores gain unique abilities compared to warp cores, at the cost of only having 160 power to distribute across all subsystems instead of 200. There are 5 different singularity commands. Not all ships will have all 5 commands; lower-tier ships only have access to some basic commands. Singularity Commands require Singularity Charge to activate, which builds up in combat over time (and you cannot be stealthed to build charge). You can activate the command as long as you have at least some charge, for lesser effect. Activating a command drains the stored singularity charge and starts a brief timer before charge can be used again. 

• Plasma Shockwave is a minor PBAOE damage. The damage scales with Exotic Particle Generators but is not significant. 

• Quantum Absorption is far more useful, granting temporary hit points and a shield heal over time. 

• Warp Shadows is another defensive ability, creating 1-5 decoys of your ship that draw fire, and cloaks you. It also teleports you to a random nearby location, so this is far trickier to use well than Quantum Absorption.

• Singularity Jump teleports you 5 kilometers forward and leaves behind a small anomaly similar to Gravity Well that does minor damage and debuffs enemy accuracy and damage. This has some utility but is tricky to use fully since you will generally not want to leave enemies behind you.

• Singularity Overcharge upgrades weapons to deal additional damage for 4-12 seconds and makes your weapons act as if they have +20/40/60/80/100 extra weapon power. It also sets your weapons power drain to 0. While this sounds good on paper, it shares a cooldown with conventional energy weapon firing modes like Beam: Overload and Fire at Will. There is an exception here: Reroute Reserves to Weapons can be active at the same time, and ideally that’s paired with an [Oload] mode to gain critical severity while this command is active and a [SingC] mod to reduce cooldown on Singularity Cores. This is very niche, but powerful.

There are a few ways to increase Singularity Charge gain, chiefly from the Dhael T2 warbird, which has a console called Singularity Inverter, increasing Singularity charge per incoming hit. The other option is a trait called Singularity Specialist, exclusively available to Remans and Romulans that gives you a chance to build singularity level while attacking. 

Singularity Command UI element

7.11 Cloaking Devices

Some ships, mostly Klingon and Romulan ships, but also most ships with full Intel seating have some form of cloaking device. Certain consoles also grant cloaking. Cloaking turns off your shields and makes your ship more or less invisible as well as harder to hit. After you decloak, you’ll gain a brief 5 second damage buff called “Ambush.” There are ways to increase the duration of that bonus, but that is largely specific to Romulan characters with Reman bridge officers using the Infiltrator trait while Klingon Defense Recruits can get a single bridge officer with Infiltrator. While there are many different types of cloaking device and subtle differences between them more fully described on the wiki, they broadly fall into three categories:

• Standard Cloaks cannot be activated in combat, nor can weapons or most bridge officer abilities be used while under cloak. This means it has very limited utility as sneaking past enemies is not usually a mechanic allowed by the game’s objective systems and you won’t generally want to fall out of combat (Red Alert state) just to cloak for 5 seconds of damage bonus. Most interacts (pressing F) will drop the cloak.

• Battle Cloak can be used in combat after a short delay and also increases your flight speed and turn rate, though you still can’t fire weapons while cloaked.

• Enhanced Battle Cloak is the most powerful variant, featuring all the benefits of Battle Cloak, but also allowing torpedoes and mines, and certain Experimental Weapons, to be fired while under cloak. 

To use a Cloak, make sure it is added to your tray, then either click it or use a keybind to activate it. It is worth mentioning that all cloaks are a toggle, so putting it on a spambar is NOT a good idea unless you want to turn it on and then off again immediately. All cloaks have a cooldown before they can be reactivated. Cloaks that come from console actives that aren’t the Cloaking Device console, like Hull Image Refractors, have much longer cooldowns. When you’re cloaked, your ship will turn translucent blue.

Two different cloaking abilities; on the left is Hull Image Refractors, primarily used out of combat to charge up temporary hit points, on the right is an Enhanced Battle Cloak. 

Cloaked Eagle Raider 

7.12 Loadouts

STO allows you to save multiple configurations of ship loadouts. Each loadout contains the gear, traits, duty officers, and tray configurations of your ship. You can swap to a different loadout using the loadouts tab on the ship status window. A couple of limitations are in order here: loadouts do NOT account for different skill trees, nor do they account for specializations. If you want different specialization selections, you will have to choose them manually each time. Also, the loadout system can be a little bit . . . buggy. While it generally works, it’s worth checking each time you change loadout (or even swap ships) to make sure everything is in order. Occasionally a trait or a duty officer or two will not make it on the loadout.

Loadout system used to set up builds at different price points.