U.S.S. Recognizer

Build

Starship Weapons

Notes

If you are familiar with our Starter-tier T'Varo, you'll recognize a lot of the same equipment is used here. You could use the Terran torpedo over the Gravimetric torpedo, but I switched that one out due to the "Destructible Torpedo" damage consoles equipped. Turns out that Swarmer/HYDRA don't benefit Gravimetric or Enhanced Bio-Molecular, but the torpedo change stayed. The rest are very standard reputation torpedoes. We could use mines on the rear, but without Resonating Payload Modification, which is extra-buffed by mines, they aren't as impactful. If you have the lobi, you could replace the Gravimetric with the Delphic torpedo as it has a ton of -DRR potential. 

Notes

Anymore on your builds in general, you need to start the discussion with Advanced Consoles since they take up multiple slots and lock each other out. In this case, we could use Hangar Craft Power Transmission [Torpedo] (aka HCPTs) consoles instead of Vulnerability Exploiter [Torpedo] consoles. The major thing about that is budget. Vulnerability Exploiters come at Mk XII Ultra Rare and you can pick your modifiers. HCPTs are easy to pick up on the exchange, but have something like 45 modifiers to re-engineer through which is a huge expense. You could pick up throwaway mods at Ultra Rare, but you could spend weeks-worth of dil just rolling for Torpedo. "But ___ mod is cheap on the exchange", Torpedo, Photon, Quantum might be cheap at one point, but as soon as there's a demand, the price will skyrocket right out of Economy tier. This build did just fine with Exploiters, you can chase HCPTs if you want to, but you'd need the full set all at once - you can't replace Exploiters one at a time so it's a huge economical hurdle to jump. 

With that out of the way, we start by filling all of our Tactical and Universal slots with Exploiters. The Lorca console and Morpho console are both tactical-locked, so we drop two Exploiters for those. The Morphogenic 3pc is great due to its CrtH, CrtD, and Cat1 damage, not to mention slightly more uptime on our firing mode powers. 

We have two consoles from C-Store ships, and one of these is more what you'd expect on a Carrier build than a Torpedo build, so why did I pick these two consoles? Let's talk through C-Store ships for a moment. For a torpedo-based build, you need Lt. Commander-Command for Concentrate Firepower III. This is still a pretty wide net. We want a tactical-focused ship, and at least 4 fore weapons. Commander-Command also allows us to pick up Call Emergency Artillery III, which is a big chunk of damage on kinetic-focused builds like this one. Next, we can look into damage from an experimental weapon or a hangar bay. At this budget tier, Experimental weapons are pretty tough to get much out of. The strong ones either come from event ships or using one of our limited C-Store ships for a single weapon. Hangar pets, however, are often a lot easier to obtain and have a higher damage potential. If we look for ships with two hangar bays, there's only one ship that fits the bill: the Typhon. Since this is a newer ship at the time of writing, it seemed like a great candidate for a new build. It also comes with an S-tier starship trait for ships with hangar bays. In fact, about 1/3rd of this ships overall damage comes from what is essentially 3 bays of Valkyries. That's going to beat out any experimental weapon at this budget tier. Unfortunately, the console on the Typhon is more showy than beneficial, but the platform and trait on the Typhon is fantastic. 

Next, hands-down the best ship for Torpedoes is the Gagarin for Entwined Tactical Matrices. This trait is useful for Fire at Will builds as well, which not only show up on FAW DPS builds, but also supports and tanks as well. I'm able to pick up many more torpedo spreads from what would normally be wasted tactical seats. It's hard to measure overall contribution, but I had roughly the same damage from Torpedo Spread I (entirely from ETM) as I did from the Typhon's Repurposed Cargo Bay Hangar trait. The console is not great, especially for torpers, but with such a wide-application trait and overall damage boost, it's hard to pass it up. This uses two of our C-Store ships at this budget tier. 

At this point, you can go a couple different directions. The Appalachia and Achilles both have good consoles and traits for torpers. The consoles are pretty weak passives but strong clickies. Without Unconventional Systems or Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field (Vovin console), these are strong burst damage consoles but won't benefit you beyond damage output on a torpedo build. The Appalachia is a worse Typhon, trading an experimental weapon for 2 hangar bays. It's quite doable as a torper, but is very similar to the Typhon. If we think about builds in a wider, more general sense, there are some better options for us. The Support Carriers are an interesting option for carriers, but its really the trait and console we take advantage of. Any build you have hangar pets on will benefit from both the console and trait. If you don't have pets, the console still applies an AoE -DRR if nothing else. If you do have hangar pets, the trait is a boost to your Captain power cooldowns as well as your own survivability and healing just for launching pets. The console is a boost to hangar pets by immediately ranking them up. This is great on any type of build with a hangar, not just torpers. As such, I went with a Support Carrier and the Achilles console.

That leaves us with our 4 Engineering console slots to fill. If we look through reputation consoles, there are a lot of available options. I bolded the best ones to consider. 

• Omega - Assimilated Module - A solid choice for all around damage and easy to obtain. Didn't make the cut this time, but I tend to pick one up on every character to use as filler if I don't have everything I need.

• Romulan - Zero-point Energy Conduit - No reason to use this console, only ever applicable on a very narrow subset of plasma energy builds. 

• Nukara - Nukara Particle Converter - No reason to use this console, only ever applicable on a very narrow subset of tetryon or beam builds.

• Dyson - Proton Particle Stabilizer - A solid option on some EPG builds and Projectile builds, especially Photon-based. It would be a solid option here since we would pick up the 2 piece with the torpedo, but isn't quite as strong as what we end up with. 

• Undine - Multi-Conduit Energy Relay & Hydrodynamics Compensator - while we would get the 2-piece set from slotting one of these, neither one is very strong. Hydrodynamics Compensator has yet to find a place on any build, while Multi-Conduit Energy Relay has some niche uses, but struggles because it is a forced tactical console. 

• Delta - Bio-neural Gel Pack - This is a great utility console, and if we had issues with cooldowns, this can help round out the cooldown package as well as give us better uptime on the Neutronic torpedo. However, with Concentrate Firepower and the Morpho set, we don't have any uptime issues left for the Bio-neural Gel Pack to solve. 

• Iconian - Sustained Radiant Field - While a nice all-around console, it's a little too generalist and just outclassed by other options that are available. 

• Terran - Ferrofluid Hydraulic Assembly - This console is an absolute must on torpedo builds. This reduces the minimum cooldown between firing torpedoes, giving us a flat 25% faster firing capability.

• Temporal - Chroniton Drive Actuator - I've never really found a place for this console, its again a bit too generalist and outclassed.

• Lukari - Piezo-electric Focuser - This console is best-in-slot... on Polaron or Plasma energy builds. Not beneficial for our build here.

• Competitive - Covert Munition Deployment - This console is specifically Quantum, and just gets straight outclassed even there. The 3-piece sounds neat, but really just struggles with a lackluster mine and turret/omni as the other two pieces. 

• Gamma - Ordnance Accelerator - While this is pretty replaceable on this build as it just applies Projectile damage, it's absolutely a best in slot if you are using mines as it's the Ferrofluid of Mines. Works well on this build as it boosts all of our torpedoes as well as the Achilles console. 

• Discovery - Lorca's Custom Fire Controls - This shows up on pretty much every damage build. It's especially powerful on a torpedo build with Shield Penetration. However, when coupled with other pieces of the set, it gets even stronger. We only get the 2-piece here, but torpers can even benefit from the extra free torpedoes with the 3-piece, however at this budget level, we do just as well with a 4th torpedo.

Set Bonuses

Bridge Officers

Traits

Personal Traits

Notes

At this budget, you won't see a lot of expensive personal traits. A Good Day to Die let's you get your captain power Go Down Fighting at any Hull level. If you aren't on a Tactical, then you have your freedom to pick up something else. The rest of the traits are free. If you want some more premium options, check out some of our more premium Kinetic builds. Most of what we chose from free traits are just generalist damage traits. Give Your All is a fantastic survivability power that cuts damage significantly every time we use an Engineering power. Kinetic Precision and Superior Projectile Training are great free options on torpedo builds. The rest of the traits can come and go as budget allows. 

Starship Traits

Here's where our four C-Store ships go: Starship Traits. We apply the consoles that come with these ships where we can, but the traits are just so much higher impact that consoles at this budget level. 

Repurposed Cargo Bay Hangar

This comes with the Typhon, which is the ship we are flying now. This means it is essentially "free", and if you ever want to do a carrier build, this is S-Class best-in-slot. Launching pets gives you more pets, essentially a 3rd hangar bay of some top notch pets. Not Elite, but Advanced doesn't drop the damage output that much and lets you clearly see how much the trait gives you in a parse as normally you wouldn't be running Advanced anything pets. Since this is free with the ship, this is kinda the last one to drop from the build. 

Entwined Tactical Matrices

This is the one ship we only get for the trait, not the console. While the ship is usable itself, there is a fleet version so you don't absolutely have to buy the C-Store version. However, the trait has wide application for a variety of build types, and even occasionally can show up on an Exotic build if you don't have better things to slot and a glut of Tactical seating. In our case, it turns some otherwise wasted tactical seats into extra Torpedo Spreads. This has a pretty high ceiling for damage output, and wide application, so it's recommended not to skip this one. This should be where your first C-Store ship goes, after the Typhon. If you don't have this, your build gets shifted around pretty heavily. 

Angle on the Bow

This is almost essentially the same as Piercing Projectiles, so don't feel you need to replace Piercing Projectiles with Angle on the Bow if you have it already. We also use the console as a solid damage clicky, so this is pretty beneficial to this build. While beneficial, it is merely a stat boost and takes a lower priority to Entwined Tactical Matrices. Since this triggers off of firing torpedoes, nothing else is needed to trigger the power. 

Relaunch and Repair

This is really the odd one out on this build, and the last one to pick up. This lets us get Captain cooldowns and some extra healing for launching hangar pets. We also get great benefit from the console. Neither are essential to this build, and in fact Intel Agent Attache will just about completely obsolete this. However, if you ever want to fly carrier or support, the console that comes with this is just about essential. If you need to save on build costs further over what we have here, just don't pick up the support carrier. 

Reputation Traits

Notes

Active Reputation

Duty Officers

Ship Stats