I.K.S. Aiden
T5 Vor'ca Battle Cruiser Retrofit
Released: 2024 - 01
Build Overview and Focus
Something that I've been thinking about for a long time, some 8 years now, is the idea of true F2P starter builds. Often when you see the idea of a 'budget' build you'll see people throw on 2-4 starship traits and various expensive exchange options. This is in my opinion an unrealistic presumption on how people think and act, and in some egregious instances I've seen people call 'budget builds" 7 C-store ships with gilded gear.
I believe that people are trying their best to reduce the cost to the player modeled after their own knowledge, but fail to understand that not everyone has, wants to, or can spend an amount on a video game. In that effort EPH and I have created a pair of builds that are very close in both performance as well as intent, mine being the Disruptor version with his being the phaser version. Both are held to the same strict budget outlined below as
Economic Costs
The goal of this ship build is to give you an Advanced-capable ship to finish out story missions, and grind reputations and/or fleet gear. We're going to very strictly limit the budget and make this as accessible as possible as one of our Starter builds:
Nothing from a fleet
Nothing from the C-store. Definitely nothing from the Lobi Store.
No trait unlocks, T5-U, T6X, Elite Captain status, etc.
10 million Energy Credits maximum of Exchange purchases (and we'll talk about to how to get the credits if that seems daunting).
No upgrades - everything on this ship will be Mk XII or Mk XIII
We are going to use reputation gear (including some T6 Reputation items), but we're also going to provide some alternatives for those pieces while you get there.
This is not a ship that you'll be able to build on Day 1 of hitting Level 50, this is a ship that you can build toward on Day 1 of hitting Level 50. We'd like to point to the long-standing Baby Steps 1 for a Day 1 build, and Baby Steps 2 for like a Day 10 build, but if you're thinking about Day 30 on this tier of ship and build, this is the ship for you. This is also a useful example of how a coherent, well-thought out build with minimal investment and good piloting can match or out-perform people in expensive ships with no idea what they're doing. And it's not necessarily their fault, because STO is terrible at teaching shipbuilding.
Trade-offs
We are not free of making trade offs. If I were to do this as legitimately as I wanted too, I would have made an entire new account to do this. However, I like the rest of the STOBetter team, do have real life obligations that consume our time. For the ease of posting and putting these builds together I've opted to do this on an existing character on my primary account. This means that any unlocks and progression I've made that effects my whole account carries over. This includes C-Store purchases but also Endeavors and event rewards. Notable is the Temporal Recruitment which makes my reputation project rewards Mk XIII ultra rare items and the Gamma Recruitment which improves the standard traits from completing specializations.
However, since neither of these things are huge deal breakers, nor is Endeavor progression un-obtainable with just play time, we've accepted these trade-offs in the hope that we can expedite the build progress and get them into the public faster.
This does mean that on this T5 ship I will have a few Mk XIII ultra rare items, but thats just it; no extra upgrades have been applied
This is a starter build, with no C-store items, no upgrades, and 10M EC limit. There are no Lobi, lockbox ship or promotional ship items, and no gear on this ship has been upgraded or re-engineered. See the build costs page for more detail.
Namesake
Hypocorism of the Irish Aodh, a god of the underworld
Resource gathering
I'm going to steal some methods for EPHs Sovereign here:
Doing Tour the Galaxy probably around 10-15 times to acquire the needed EC, or else sell a decent amount of loot. A moderately-geared ship can land about 500K from a lousy Tour the Galaxy run. Endeavors can help too.
Admiralty and Doffing: you won't have access to a huge selection of ship cards but you can still do it, and then combine it with DOffing from various places. My favorite place is the Undine space battlezone as these have very profitable repeatable missions that offer a large amount of duty officer commendation as well.
Patrols for Gear to either salvage or sell can supplement your own R&D material stock, get you some experience, and get marks
Meta Analysis
Normally I would just push numbers here, however I feel that would be disingenuous to do so without caveats. I have a combined playtime of 10,000 hours in this game. I would consider myself a remarkable pilot with a long standing understanding of game mechanics, maps, and more importantly the ability to stretch the limits and the knowledge to predict what to do next.
So the numbers:
Tzenkethi Front Advanced:
2 man TFA sub 5 minute Time: ~3:40s
ISA:
Pug: SCM - Infected [3/2] (S) - DMG Out: 6,738,949 DPS: 68,485.25 (16.6% of Team) - Jay@alcaatraz
I've been having trouble finding some good runs, this is the best I can do, lowest was a solid 50k, usually after I end up cleaning other peoples forgotten enemies after they rush off to the other side
2man with Tank support: SCM - Infected [LR] (S) - DMG Out: 16,075,937 DPS: 99,111.82 (42.0% of Team)
This was basically me and the tank, being a single target build this allows for better time on target
ISE:
Premade: SCM - Infected [LR] (S) - DMG Out: 34,696,064 DPS: 200,323.69 (16.4% of Team) - Jay@alcaatraz
HSE:
Premade: SCM - Hive (S) - DMG Out: 20,843,218 DPS: 129,060.17 (11.5% of Team) - Jay@alcaatraz
The ISE / HSE premades resembled what you would expect an average group of players to be, and while in both I was the lowest contributor, these are still very good numbers that will allow you to hold your own in all advanced content and breaking into elite with developed players.
Budget Analysis
T6 C-store ships
None
Lockbox Items
Infinity Prize Pack Starship Trait - Valued at 4mil EC
Salvaged Console - Hull Image Refractors - Valued at 5mil EC
Event consoles and Traits
None
Reputation Gear, All T6 Reputations (this isn't needed, but is handy for trait unlocks)
Omega Task Force
Discovery Legends
8472 Counter Command
Terran Task Force
Lobi Items
None
Promotion Items
None
Other
Vor'cha Battlecruiser Retrofit - Free with token
Valdore Heavy Warbird - 75,000 Dilithium, console access
Bajor Defense Hyper Injection Warp Core - Ultra Rare Phoenix Token
Change History
2024 - 01
Released
Mission Replay Requirements
Iconian War:
1x "Blood of Ancients"
1x "House Pegh"
1x "Broken Circle"
New Frontiers:
6x "Echoes of Light" - this can be reduced to 3 if you pick up the tactical consoles elsewhere
2x "Brushfire"
1x "Of Signs and Portents"
2x "Scylla and Charybdis"
1x "The Renegade's Regret"
Solanae Dyson Sphere
1x "Surface Tension"
Reputation Item Purchases
Omega Task Force:
Console - Universal - Assimilated Module
Discovery:
Non-Baryonic Matter Deflector Array
Tilly's Review-Pending Modified Shield
Terran Task Force
Terran Task Force Disruptor Dual Heavy Cannons
Terran Task Force Disruptor Beam Array
Build Breakdown
Lower end energy damage, a spattering of durability and agility choices, and of course disruptors on a KDF ship for thematic reasons all blended together in a small but powerful for the price point package
Skills
Skill Unlocks
Notes
This is an unoptimized skill tree. There's about a dozen nodes I would respec if I wanted too, however I think this is a fair blend between the wants and needs of the build class and what people might want. I have several more optimized skill trees but for people starting off I think this is a fair tree to follow.
If you have a goal in mind of what you want, you can always copy the skill tree of the build type you ultimately want to end up in:
Engineering Profession Jayiie - My all around generalist tree optimized for many different build paths, prioritizing tanking first
Science Profession Ayjei - Developed for a combination of directed Energy Weapons and Exotic powers
Tactical Profession Teryh - Developed for directed energy weapons
Engineering Profession Laura - Developed for hyper optimized exotic builds
Tactical Profession Korven - Developed for projectile damage builds
For people who are just starting their journey, here's some brief overviews of what this skill tree offers:
Engineering Skill Picks
Hull Restoration - +25% improved Hull Healing, effects your bridge officers as well as captain abilities, and any consoles you might have that apply direct healing (not regen)
Hull Capacity - +15% Hull Capacity, increases your health. Because of how the game can scale, this is often more preferable over restoration, but at low HP ships this won't have as much of an impact as out healing incoming damage will, which is why I've split these two nodes
Improved EPS Flow - +100% power transfer rate; this is a weird quirk of how the game works, but effectively this allows you to use your weapon power more effectively than if you just increased the subsystem
Impulse Expertise - +20% Turn and Speed, makes you move faster, also increases the magnitude of Evasive Maneuvers
Hull Plating - +15 Damage Resistance Rating for energy and kinetic, this is a sizable passive durability increase that almost all skill trees take
Improved Engineering Readiness - +17% recharge speed for engineering bridge officer powers. This will become less needed in the higher end of building but at this scale helps improve your ability usages
Science Skill Picks
Improved Control Expertise - This affects not only how much your controls are, but also your resistance too them. This includes holds, stuns, placates and confuses, as well as repels and pulls. This is very good to have when playing solo missions where you will often be
Improved Drain Expertise - Useful for engineering captains as this improves both Nadion Inversion and Intrusive Energy Redirection
Drain Infection - Triggers with Intrusive Energy Redirection, this is not a hugely beneficial slot anymore, I would skip this if you want too
Advanced Exotic Particle Generators - +100 skill, improves exotic damage
Advanced Long Range Targeting - Reduces the damage fall off (weapons deal more compare at higher ranges than they would without the skill taken)
Tactical Skill Picks
Advanced Energy Weapon Training - +50% Cat1 Energy Weapon Damage
Advanced Projectile Weapon Training - +50% Cat1 Projectile Weapon Damage
Advanced Targeting Expertise - +15 Accuracy
Advanced Weapon Amplification - +40% Critical Severity for Weapons
Advanced Weapon Specialization - +4.0% Critical Chance for Weapons
Advanced Hull Penetration - Effectively -10 Damage resistance rating to targets
Advanced Shield Penetration - +5% for weapons
Coordination Protocols - For team +5% Hull and Shield Cap for Team
Defensive Coordination - +5% Defense and +5 All Damage Resistance for Team
Offensive Coordination - +5 Accuracy and +5% Cat1 damage for Team
Note: I know running these might seem ineffective, but if everyone on your team is using these, its +20% Damage, +20 Accuracy, +20% Hull Capacity and Shield Capacity, and +20 all DRR to all team members, which is more than you can get with any other 3 skill picks
Advanced Tactical Readiness - +20% recharge speed for tactical bridge officer powers
Build
Starship Weapons
Notes
As a starter build we are limited to what we can pull from, and mission and reputation gear offers some of the best synergy available with the set bonuses. The Nausican torpedo is often seen as a poor performing torp but at this scale it hits pretty hard, and the set bonus for +28.5% Disruptor damage and +5 armour pen is more than I would get from a tactical console, so is very much worth it.
This ship also offers the ability to slot dual cannons, unlike it's sovereign equivalent. This means that we can slot both Terran reputation weapons. Naturally this means we have to get creative with some of the boff seating and go against some long held standards in slotting both beams and cannons.
As well, building up to this you can just use standard versions of these weapons. When setting these up I got some rare (blue quality) disruptor cannons, beams, and turrets off the exchange for a grand total of 100k ec that I used to carry me through all of the missions needed to get gear, replacing it as I went. If you want to skip this purchase you can use commons or even uncommons (white and green rarity) for the same effect
Starship Equipment
Starship Consoles
Set Bonuses
Tweaks and Notes:
Consoles are a little tricky here, as both the Hull Image Refractors and Shield Absorptive Frequency Generator are a large chunk of the builds overall budget.
Potential options include another Bellum RCS console, or if you have it the Temporal Disentanglement Suite. This console didn't make it onto the build as I am using Auxiliary power to Emergency Batteries which removes my aux power so the scaling on this console isn't very good for its offensive stats, but is a filler option you can pull on until you've acquired the funds
Bridge Officers
Notes
I am doing this on a Romulan Alien, and as such during my level up and from found Duty Officer assignments I get access to bridge officers with Superior Romulan Operatives. Each one grants me +2% Critical Chance and +5% Critical Severity, for a total of +10% Chance and +50% Severity. This is a free option for this character and Federation, KDF, and Jem'hadar would need to buy them from the Fleet Starbase Embassy.
Whiole not needed, this is a huge improvement to performance is why my ship has a resting 41.7% Critical Chance and 168.4% Critical Damage
Traits
Personal Traits
3 Crafting traits here for the Beam, Cannon, and Engineering portions fill out the bulk of the wait time on this. Accurate, Innocuous, and Projectile Training make good placeholders until you can get your R&D Schools finished.
** NOTE **: You can run 3 of any schools daily R&D project at any time, do this for fastest progression. I recommend beams first, then engineering, and cannons last.
Starship Traits
Notes:
Onboard Dilithium Recrystalizer has some interesting interactions. Contrary to popular belief, max is not just 125 power, but the literal subsystem max. If you have a +10 max to that subsystem, you will need to have 135 power present. This build requires 130 Engine power to trigger the buff. To set this up requires:
Use EPtW3 at T-20s prepull, this grants +10 from EPS Manifold Efficency
Use A2B at T-15s,
Use EPtE1 at T-5s, this refreshes EPS manifold and grants back extra Aux power with A2Bs effect ending
Use A2B when entering combat, this will bring you to 130 Engine power, From here use Engineering team to trigger the buff for 15%
From here repeating these powers, EPtW, A2B for cooldowns, EPtE, A2B for more cooldowns will constantly refresh Onboard Dilithium Recrystalizer. If you need a top up you can use an engine battery in pre-pulls to avoid this setup but you won't have the Energy Battery for its additional +20% bonus damage.
Reputation Traits
Active Reputation
Duty Officers
Miscellaneous
Ship Stats
Keybinds
Standard fare here for powers:
Emergency Power to Weapons - Initial power buff
Torpedo Spread - prebuff before firing, upgrades torpedo
Cannon Rapid Fire - prebuff for cannons, upgrades cannons
Beam Overload - prebuff before firing, upgrades beams
2x Aux2Bat - keeps cooldown rotation
Brace For Impact - Triggers Unconventional Systems
Directed Energy Modulation - Upgrades Energy Weapons
Emergency power to Engines - This is here so that every other rotation it can be activated and keep engine power high
Parse Breakdown
Record Damage Breakdown - ISE
41k DPS - Pets
17.6k DPS - Nimbus Pirate Distress Call
15.4k DPS - Republic Ha'apax Warbird
4.6k DPS - Anti-Time Entanglement Singularity (Rank 2)
1.9k DPS - Republic T'Liss Warbird
0.8k DPS - Sphere - I think these were picked up from someones Tachyon Net Drones
0.5k DPS - Borg Cube
0.1k DPS - Nanite Transformer
0.1k DPS - Gateway
0k DPS - Assimilator
0.4k DPS - Non-Baryonic Asteroid
0.3k DPS - Nimbus Pirate Distress Call
0.3k DPS - Mercury Class Escort
0.1k DPS - Ionic Turbulence II
22.8k DPS - Terran Task Force Dual Heavy Disruptor Cannons - Rapid Fire I
15.1k DPS - Dual Heavy Resonant Disruptor Cannons - Rapid Fire I
14.1k DPS - Terran Task Force Disruptor Array - Overload I
12.5k DPS - Nausicaan Energy Torpedo - Spread I
12.4k DPS - Terran Task Force Disruptor Array
10.6k DPS - Terran Task Force Dual Heavy Disruptor Cannons
9.1k DPS - Heavy Bio-Molecular Disruptor Turret - Rapid Fire I
8.2k DPS - Dual Heavy Resonant Disruptor Cannons
8.1k DPS - Disruptor Array - Overload I
7.6k DPS - House Martok Disruptor Array - Overload I
5.6k DPS - Disruptor Array
5.4k DPS - Digital Compilation Field - Digitizer Probe
4.5k DPS - House Martok Disruptor Array
3.9k DPS - Heavy Bio-Molecular Disruptor Turret
2.9k DPS - Nausicaan Energy Torpedo Explosion - Hvy Nausicaan Energy Torpedo I
2.8k DPS - Concentrate Firepower III
2.1k DPS - Nausicaan Disruptor Beam Array - Overload I
1.8k DPS - Destabilizing Resonance Beam I
1.6k DPS - Refracting Tetryon Cascade (Rank 2)
1.5k DPS - Plasma Torpedo - Heavy I - Rapid Heavy Plasma Torpedo
1.4k DPS - Nausicaan Disruptor Beam Array
0.9k DPS - Plasma Torpedo - Heavy II - Heavy Plasma Torpedo
0.8k DPS - Drain Infection
0.8k DPS - Plasma Torpedo - Heavy I - Heavy Plasma Torpedo
0.8k DPS - Nausicaan Energy Torpedo
0.5k DPS - Plasma Torpedo - Heavy I
0.5k DPS - Plasma Fire
0.3k DPS - Withering Radiation
0.2k DPS - Nausicaan Energy Torpedo Explosion
0.2k DPS - Disruptor Net
0.1k DPS - Anti-Time Entanglement Singularity (Rank 2)
0.1k DPS - Plasma Torpedo - Heavy II
0.1k DPS - Plasma - Plasma Fire
0.1k DPS - Hull Scraping
Portability
This can really go on anything and everything! The great part about a build with this budget is that theres an unlimited portablility. Want to fly a cruiser but can't equip cannons, grab some more standard disruptor beam arrays. Want to fly an escort, slot more tactical consoles.
The only major consideration when adapting to a platform will be the Bridge Officer seating you can fit. That I leave as an exercise to the reader.