Energy Basics

Bridge Officers

Rather than walking through every possible combination of bridge officer skills, let's prioritize what we need:

• Pick one energy weapon firing mode (Fire at Will, Beam Overload, Cannon Scatter Volley, Cannon Rapid Fire, etc.) at the highest rank. There are setups that use multiple firing modes for specific reasons or more niche firing modes but those are more advanced. For the purposes of beginning shipbuilding, pick one and only one. Weapon firing modes are powerful damage boosts but typically only one can be active at a time. 

• Slot the highest rank of Emergency Power to Weapons you can fit. Weapons power and bonus damage are both critical to energy builds. 

• Slot Attack Pattern Beta at the highest remaining rank after the firing mode is slotted as it debuffs enemy resistance. If you can't fit Beta and your firing mode for a beam build, you can do Overload/Fire at Will at rank I and Attack Pattern Beta I. 

• Decide on your cooldown scheme. Bridge officer abilities have a base cooldown which is almost always longer than its minimum (aka) global cooldown. There are a number of ways to improve that; here are some common inexpensive ones:

  • If you have a LtCmdr Science seat, consider using Photonic Officer II

  • If you have 2 Lt+ Engineering seats, considering two instances of Auxiliary to Battery with Rare/Very Rare Technician duty officers. These can be acquired for free from the completing the Engineering duty officer commendation (1 Very Rare) or the B'Tran cluster colony chain. (Very Rare, repeatable but requires critting the assignment)

  • It's possible to use a single copy of Auxiliary to Battery but ONLY if your energy weapon firing mode is Fire at Will

  • If you don't have either option available, slot Photonic Officer I on your Lieutenant Science seat. There will be gaps in your cooldowns without another method like The Boimler Effect (expensive Lobi/Exchange purchase).

These are the important ones. Now we fill in the gaps. The priority will depend on what the emphasis of your build is and your available seats:

• Tactical: Torpedo Spread or High Yield if using a torpedo. Kemocite-Laced Weaponry (expensive Exchange purchase). Distributed Targeting (expensive Exchange purchase) or Focused Assault are additional filler powers if needed. Consider slotting Tactical Team at rank I if you have remaining tactical seats. This has a small offensive boost but is mostly there to distribute your shields for survivability. However, be warned that Tactical Team and the other "team" abilities like Engineering Team have the drawback of having a longer activation time (1 second compared to the usual 0.2 seconds for most abilities) that slows down the activation of the next ability. Consider carefully whether you need the survivability from not having unshielded facings (typically fore shields) compared to the DPS loss of activating Tactical Team and slowing down your firing cycles and abilities. 

• Engineering: Emergency Power to Engines (speed boost), only one of Auxiliary to Structural (heal/damage resist) or Auxiliary to Dampeners (speed/turn/kinetic resist) if not using Auxiliary to Battery, Reverse Shield Polarity (massive shield heal/absorption), Directed Energy Modulation, Engineering Team (minor heal, slot at rank I only but see the note on Tactical Team)

• Science: Hazard Emitters is a hugely important cleanse/heal effect for removing damage-over-time. Science Team is a minor shield heal (again with the same activation time delay as Tactical or Engineering Team) while Transfer Shield Strength is a stronger heal without the cleanse effects. Gravity Well can be a valuable pull to cluster targets together for cannon builds, though it requires significant investment to do much damage. Mixing more science and energy abilities together is a delicate and more advanced topic, but see example builds here and here and here.

Thus our decent energy weapon ships have seating to support 3-4 tactical powers, including LtCmdr or higher (Cannons), LtCmdr Engineering seating, and either 2x Lt Engineering or 1x LtCmdr Science to support our cooldown scheme. As we optimize further, more tactical seating is preferred unless mixing in offensive science abilities (aka "Exotic") along with specialization seating detailed below.

Specialization Bridge Officer Seats

• Miracle Worker: Narrow Sensor Bands is the best general-use power that rewards good piloting, Mixed Armaments Synergy can be good but requires specific setups or timing. Deploy Gravitic Induction Platform is a niche shield weakening/pull ability.

• Intelligence: Override Subsystem Safeties is a powerful energy weapon damage steroid. Intel Team can help with survivability by reducing threat but is fairly niche. Ionic Turbulence is a resist shred/anomaly at higher ranks but generally outshone by Override Subsystem Safeties.

• Temporal: Recursive Shearing is a considerable single-target damage amplification boost. Chronometric Inversion Field can be used to debuff enemy damage appreciably. Causal Reversion is an okay heal that gets better if you have other Temporal abilities to build entropy.

• Command: Command seating is not particularly valuable for energy damage, strictly speaking. Concentrate Firepower III is excellent if adding in a torpedo that behaves well under High Yield. High ranks of Suppression Barrage are incredibly useful for tanking. Rally Point Marker is a decent heal and Overwhelm Emitters isn't terrible. Call Emergency Artillery III does very high damage on clustered, immobile targets but only shines on specific maps/scenarios.

• Pilot: Fly Her Apart is the standout power. You'll need some minor healing to mitigate the health loss, but it provides a very high damage buff that can be preloaded during briefings. Don't put it on a spambar as it is a toggle and will cancel. 

Do I need other cooldown help?

Three other easy methods of help with cooldowns are the Readiness skills, Krenim bridge officers from the Fleet Research Lab, and the reputation trait Chrono-Capacitor Array. The question is do we need them?

The answer is it depends and the best way to find out is to take your chosen cooldown scheme and bridge officer powers from above and put it into the cooldown reduction calculator (make a copy) and see what you need. Here's our cheatsheet for general use:

• 2x Auxiliary to Battery (A2B) with 3 Very Rare Technicians: No

• 1x A2B with 3 Very Rare Technicians: 2 Tactical Readiness, 2 Engineering Readiness + 1 Krenim engineer + Chrono-Capacitor Array (Fire-at-Will only)

• Photonic Officer II: 2-3 Tactical Readiness + Chrono-Capacitor Array

• Photonic Officer I: 2-3 Tactical Readiness + Chrono-Capacitor Array

Advanced reading on cooldown mechanics

Control:

While the full implementation of keybinding is outside the scope of this guide (and not applicable to console players anyway), PC players should consider using a keybind file or an app like the STO keybind for more efficient usage of abilities. Further discussion and links to the app can be found here. 

Conclusion:

That's it. That's the general formula for energy weapon ship evaluation and how to plan your bridge officer skills. The more/higher numbers of the good things you can slot, the better the ship is. If there's a question of what should be valued more, we would suggest the following hierarchy:

• Beam Arrays (Broadside): Number of weapons >  Good primary seating > Desirable specialization seating > # of tactical consoles > # of consoles > # of fore weapons > Other gimmicks

• Dual Beam Banks / Cannons: Number of weapons >  Good primary seating > Desirable specialization seating > # of fore weapons > # of tactical consoles > # of consoles >  Other gimmicks

• However, those are more like "guidelines" rather than rules

Below is a sample bridge officer layout on the T5 (level 40) Assault Cruiser using Beam Overload. Limited tactical seating forces us to move Beam Overload down to rank I to keep Attack Pattern Beta.  

Skills

There are a wide variety of skill trees out there depending on how general or hybridized your build is, but here's the important ones:

Essential

Engineering - Impulse Expertise (x2), Electro-Plasma Flow (x2), Hull Plating (x1), Hull Capacity (x1)

Science: Long-Range Targeting Sensors (x3), Shield Regeneration (x1)

Tactical: Energy Weapon Training (x3), Targeting Expertise (x2 or x3), Weapon Specialization (x3), Weapon Amplification (x3), Hull Penetration (x3), Shield Penetration (x3), Coordination Protocols/Offensive Protocols/Defensive Protocols (x2 or x3, possible to skip Defensive)

If you fill these in, you'll have 6 Engineering, 4 points in Science, and 19 in Tactical, leaving you 17 points that can be flexed depending on your build and needs (but don't forget about the Readiness skills per the previous section). Regardless of career, taking 25-26 points in Tactical is valuable to pick up the tactical enhancements Focused Frenzy, Frenzied Assault, and potentially Team Frenzy.

Secondary/Build Dependent

Engineering - Hull Restoration, Hull Capacity, Warp Core Potential/Warp Core Efficiency

Science - Shield Restoration, Shield Capacity, Control Expertise (especially if using powers that scale with this like Gravity Well or (expensive) traits like Fragment of AI Tech)+Control Amplification, Drain Expertise if using weapons or abilities that scale with this like Tetryon weapons or Overwhelm Emitters. This also helps reduce the offline time of Override Subsystem Safeties or if the Quantum Phase torpedo is in play, Exotic Particle Generator if mixing in exotic abilities.

Tactical - Projectile Weapon Training if you're slotting a torpedo, Defensive Maneuvering is a low priority

Skill Unlocks

Battery Expertise and Threat Control are the two most important. Between CrtH and CrtD in tactical, choose CrtH. Our builds section has many full examples to look at.

Example: This skill build is used on Eph289's Fire-at-Will battlecruiser. All the essentials are included and 26 points in Tactical grants the Tac ultimate with Focused Frenzy/Team Frenzy/Frenzied Assault. Two points in Drain Expertise were chosen because this build uses the Quantum Phase Torpedo, which has an AOE shield drain effect scaling with that stat.

Specializations

• Intel primary, Strategist secondary for general weapon DPS. Players utilizing Intel will want to learn how to take advantage of flanking for best results

• Miracle Worker primary, Strategist secondary for tanking

• Temporal Operative primary, Strategist secondary for ships that mix science abilities heavily with their energy damage.

Power Levels

Power levels are a basic but very important way to boost your ship's effectiveness. If you want to know the why behind the power level suggestions, check out our advanced reading on this topic.

• If not using Auxiliary to Battery, weapons to 100, shields to 15, engines to 15, auxiliary to 70. There are many traits, abilities, and items that scale damage increases with Aux power as well as 2 captain abilities so it's a good secondary power source.

• If using Auxiliary to Battery, weapons to 100, shields or engines to 70 (assuming you're using our gear suggestions),  the other of engines or shields to 15, aux to 15. The reason for this is that Auxiliary to Battery is being used for cooldown purposes and will dump your auxiliary power periodically, so power in that subsystem is generally wasted. The other Auxiliary Power abilities don't drain Aux but this one does.

• If using the Soliton Wave Impeller Experimental Weapon on escorts or destroyers or the Dragonsblood Flame Reactor on a Disruptor build, you should add more power to engines and avoid using Aux-scaling items instead. 

• Console players will want to use #1 setting (100 weapons, 50 shields, 25 engine, 25 aux)

Gear

Our intent with this suggestion is to offer a number of viable gear choices, not to dictate cookie-cutter builds. If you want to use something else, be our guest. For those of you who want a narrowed-down menu from the dizzying array of choices out there, this one's for you. Most of the gear options here, save for non-tactical consoles, are the same ones being used or considered at the high end until you get to replacing weapons for specific procs/benefits, which is very expensive.

Ground rules: only fleet, reputation, easily-crafted, or mission reward items will be considered along with low-tier Phoenix Box rewards. Finishing out reputations is essential to completing an endgame ship. A quick refresher on what those are:

Fleets: Fleets are player groups that allow players to contribute resources (fleet marks, energy credits, refined dilithium, common duty officers, etc.) to various holdings, which unlock a variety of stores carrying fleet-specific items. Fleet holdings with more tiers and unlocks open up more items. Joining a fleet is not essential to succeeding in Star Trek Online, but it can be highly valuable to join a fleet at least temporarily to go shopping even if you don't intend to stay long term. 

Reputations:  There are 13 reputations that reward players for playing specific pieces of content, either battle zones/adventure zones, or task force operations. Fighting against certain enemies will improve a player's efforts with the associated organization devoted to countering them. Reputations must be advanced, typically through daily projects, and takes 70 days of daily projects to fully level to the highest tier (tier 6) for the first time on an account. Starting the reputation climb and advancing through the ranks is a top priority upon reaching level 50. Reputations have both a series of items that combine into sets with bonuses for multiple pieces as well as reputation stores that sell Mk XII items for dilithium. 

Mission Rewards: Come from playing particular missions. It may be desirable (if grindy) to replay a certain mission multiple times. We'll only be recommending items at Mk XI Rare or better because Mk XII Rare should be pretty cheap on the Exchange. 

Phoenix Boxes: Are available from the dilithium store and should generally be purchased in lots of 10 for 40,000 refined dilithium. While some consoles and duty officers are useful and easily available from a rare or very rare token, ship rewards at the Ultra Rare and Epic level are exceedingly unlikely and restricted to a single character. The most frequent choice from the Phoenix Box is the Phoenix Upgrade, which helps upgrade gear items. Phoenix Upgrades are best applied on special upgrade weekends to double their efficiency; it takes about 200 Phoenix Upgrades on an upgrade weekend to take a ship with gear at Mk XII-XIII to Epic Mk XV. 

The Exchange: Allows players to buy and sell a variety of items. Many items are enormously expensive due to their rarity and are thus priced out of the reach of a new or semi-casual free-to-play player; however, they are not needed for this guide. Some items, if cheap on the exchange, may be accessible, like a Mk XII Rare Beam Array so their use may be recommended sparingly.

Crafting: Allows players to create items through leveling their research & development schools (typically via another series of daily projects). R&D unlocks personal traits at level 15, which are particularly valuable in the Beams, Engineering, Projectiles, Science, Ground Gear, and Kits and Modules. Crafting items below level 15 is not efficient as higher crafting skill will lead to greater rarity on first result. 

Picking Weapons and Weapon Types

Beam Arrays do the least damage, but have the widest firing arc (270 degrees). Beam Arrays are the preferred weapon choice for tanks due to their ability to hit targets all around them combined with the Beam: Fire at Will ability. Because of the 270 degree firing arc, Beam Arrays are more forgiving to ships with numerous aft weapon slots, as all weapons can be brought to bear by bringing the ship alongside the target in a technique called broadsiding. 

Dual Beam Banks deal more damage, but only fire in a 90 arc and are restricted to fore weapon slots. Ships that use Dual Beam Banks should fly nose-on to targets and slot 360-degree firing arc weapons in the aft. For this reason, Dual Beam Banks are not popular on ships with 4 aft weapon slots due to the restriction on Omni-Directional beams.

Omni-Directional Beam Arrays sacrifice some base damage but have a 360 degree firing arc. They are restricted to 2 per ship, one from a set and one not belonging to an item set. 

Dual Cannons/Dual Heavy Cannons fire multiple pulses of energy at targets. They have a 45 degree firing arc and are restricted to fore weapon slots on certain ships. Dual Heavy Cannons fire more shots and have additional innate Critical Severity but drain power faster. Cannon builds should fly nose-on to targets.

Turrets fire multiple pulses of energy at targets in a 360 degree firing arc at the cost of base damage (100 vs 288 on a dual heavy cannon). For this reason, they are generally slotted only in aft weapon slots. Due to the difference in base damage, cannons are not popular on ships with 4 aft weapon slots.

• Generally pick one main weapon type (Beams vs Cannons)

  • Dual Beam Banks with Omni-Directional Beams

  • Beam Arrays with Omni-Directional Beams

  • Dual and/or Dual Heavy Cannons in front with Turrets in the back

• Sometimes there are good reasons to mix (i.e putting a turret with a beam ship, or adding a DBB to a beam array ship) to trigger specific bonuses or to simplify power

• The benefits of adding a single torpedo depend on which traits and set bonuses the torpedo will bring to your build. Of course, torpedoes can be considered more immersive so if that's valuable, make sure you select the right torpedo. Our Torp Finder tool offers good options for each energy type under the 1-torp category. Aft torpedoes are generally not a good idea for energy weapon builds. 

• Lastly, we are going to stick with a single flavor (i.e. all Disruptor, all Phaser, all Polaron, etc.) While it's possible to mix-and-match, the rewards are not usually worth it. There are greater gains from consoles and set bonuses for stacking a single type and there are relatively few consoles and set bonuses that boost all energy types; they tend to be expensive as well. If you want to do that, at least stick with all beams/all cannons (and possibly 1 torpedo). 

Advanced Reading

Other Gear for F2P/New players

• Deflector: Elite Fleet Intervention Protomatter Deflector Array with [Colcrit] and [EPS] from the Fleet Colony provides a wide range of useful offensive stats.

• Shield Array: Tilly's Review-Pending Modified Shield from the Discovery Legends reputation is the preferred shield choice for its passive increase to damage dealt to enemy shields

• Engines and Warp/Singularity Core have several different options:

  • Tanking: Round out the rest of the Stamets-Tilly Field Modifications set (Discovery Legends reputation) with the engines and core. The 2-piece provides substantial hull regen and the 3-piece shoots lightning

  • You need a way to go fast. Every ship needs to be able to move quickly, so either

    • Slot Emergency Power to Engines (bridge officer ability, rank I is fine), the Deuterium Surplus device, and the Emergency Conn Hologram duty officer (Phoenix Box, Very Rare)

    • Prevailing Regalia Engines (Competitive Reputation), choosing Innervated if you have multiple firing modes or Fortified if you have a low cooldown hull/shield heal like Science Team or Auxiliary to Structural

    • Or both, especially in a larger cruiser/dreadnought

  • If your engines slot is still open: Romulan Advanced Prototype Engines (Romulan reputation NOT the Reman ones) for the critical severity boost

  • If your core slot is open: Elite Fleet Plasma-Integrated Warp Cores at the Fleet Spire or Elite Fleet Sustained Protomatter Singularity Cores at the Fleet Colony are the offensive option

    • [A->W] and [AMP] are the desirable warp core mods for high-Auxiliary power builds

    • [W->E] or [W->S] depending on whether you want speed or offense and [AMP] are the desirable warp core mods for low-Auxiliary power (aka Auxiliary to Battery) builds

    • [AMP] is the most desirable mod on a Singularity Core

    • The Discovery Legends core (with the shield for 2-piece) is an acceptable defensive substitute

  • Honorable mention: the Iconian Reputation 3-piece is a decent teamwide boost for more supportive builds, but has been narrowly outclassed for selfish purposes, especially if the Competitive Engines are desired.

• Weapons and Flavors: Each of the six energy weapon flavors (Antiproton, Disruptor, Phaser, Plasma, Polaron, Tetryon) has a series of freely-available reputation and mission reward items. You'll want to fill in the rest either with Rare items that match your weapon type (Cannon, Beam Array, Turret) and flavor bought cheaply on the Exchange at the appropriate mark or from the Fleet Colony/Starbase. As far as Phaser vs Disruptor or other concerns of that sort, it doesn't matter, they're all viable for the purposes of Advanced and Elite TFOs and even moderately high DPS chasing. 

  • Antiproton

    • Beam Arrays: Advanced Temporal Defense Beam Array (Temporal Defense reputation), Generic ones are acquirable at MK XII Very Rare from the "Blood of the Ancients" mission.

    • Dual Beam Banks: Hyper-Dual Refracting Antiproton Beam Bank (Nukara reputation, T6). Generic ones are acquirable at MK XI Very Rare from the "Fluid Dynamics" mission.

    • Omni-Directional Beam Arrays: Omni-Directional Support Beam Array (Competitive reputation, T6)

    • Dual Cannons/Dual Heavy Cannons: Advanced Temporal Defense Dual Heavy Cannons (Temporal Defense reputation). Generic ones are acquirable at MK XII Very Rare from the "Blood of the Ancients" mission.

    • Wide-Angle Dual Heavy Cannons: Consider crafting these or purchasing if reasonable on the Exchange

    • Turrets: these have to be crafted/purchased on the Exchange or from the Fleet Colony

    • Consoles: Crystalline Absorption Matrix (Phoenix Box), Voth Phase Decoy (Phoenix Box), Chroniton Drive Actuator only with matching Beam Array or Cannon (Temporal Defense reputation)

  • Disruptor

    • Beam Arrays: Terran Task Force Disruptor Beam Array (Terran reputation), Experimental Romulan Disruptor Beam Array (Romulan reputation T6), Resonant Disruptor Beam Array (mission reward "Blood of the Ancients"), Nausicaan Disruptor Beam Array (mission reward "Echoes of Light.") Generic ones are acquirable at MK XII Very Rare from the "The Khitomer Discord" mission.

    • Dual Beam Banks: Generic ones are acquirable at MK XII Very Rare from the "Ragnarok" mission. The Dual Heavy Wide Angle Beam Bank from the Discovery Legends reputation (T6) is also a powerful option, with a wider firing arc that can allow it to be included in beam builds. Do not use it on Exceed Rated Limits or Reroute Reserves to Weapons builds as those modes' haste do not apply to it. 

    • Omni-Directional Beam Arrays: House Martok Omni-Directional (mission reward "Brushfire")

    • Wide-Angle Dual Heavy Cannons: Consider crafting these or purchasing if reasonable on the Exchange

    • Dual Cannons/Dual Heavy Cannons:  Terran Task Force Dual Heavy Cannons (Terran reputation), Resonant Disruptor Dual Heavy Cannons (mission reward "Blood of the Ancients"). Generic Disruptor Dual Heavy Cannons are available at MK XII VR from the "Knowledge is Power" mission. 

    • Turrets: Heavy Bio-Molecular Disruptor Turret (8472 Counter-Command Reputation). Otherwise, these have to be crafted/purchased on the Exchange or from the Fleet Colony. 

    • Consoles: Nausicaan Siphon Capacitor (mission reward, "Echoes of Light"), Zero Point Energy Conduit (Romulan reputation), House Martok Defensive Configuration (mission reward, "Brushfire"), Hydrodynamics Compensator with turret or torpedo ONLY (8472 Counter-Command reputation)

  • Phaser

    • Beam Arrays: Terran Task Force Phaser Beam Array (Terran reputation, T6), Prolonged Engagement Phaser Beam Array (Phoenix Box), Quantum Phase Beam Array (mission reward "Sunrise"). Additional Phaser Beam Arrays are best purchased from the fleet store or exchange if at a reasonable price. Upgrading at Mk II on upgrade weekend is also a good idea.

    • Dual Beam Banks: Can be acquired at Mk XII Very Rare from the "Sunrise" or "Ragnarok" missions. The Wide Angle Heavy Dual Beam Bank from the Discovery Legends reputation is also potent and its increased firing arc can allow it to fit even on beam builds. Do not use it on Exceed Rated Limits or Reroute Reserves to Weapons builds as those modes' haste do not apply to it. 

    • Omni-Directional Beam Arrays: Trilithium-Laced (mission reward "Beyond the Nexus"), Advanced Inhibiting (Gamma reputation, T6)

    • Dual Cannons/Dual Heavy Cannons: Quantum Phase Dual Heavy Cannons (mission reward "Sunrise") or Terran Task Force Dual Heavy Phaser Cannons (Terran reputation, T6)

    • Wide-Angle Dual Heavy Cannons: Consider crafting these or purchasing if reasonable on the Exchange

    • Turrets: Trilithium-Laced (mission reward "Beyond the Nexus"), Advanced Inhibiting (Gamma reputation, T6). Heavy Bio-Molecular Phaser Turret (8472 Counter-Command Reputation). Generic ones can be obtained from the "Sunrise" mission

    • Consoles: Quantum Phase Converter (mission reward "Sunrise"), Ordnance Accelerator (Gamma reputation), Reinforced Armaments with its Omni-beam or turret (mission reward "Beyond the Nexus"), Hydrodynamics Compensator with turret or torpedo ONLY (8472 Counter-Command reputation)

  • Plasma

    • Beam Arrays: Advanced Piezo-Plasma Beam Array (Lukari reputation T6), Experimental Romulan Plasma Beam Array (Romulan reputation). Generic ones are acquirable at MK XI Rare from the "Shadow Play" mission or the "Last Stand" mission (Romulans only). You can also acquire Digitizer Plasma Beam Arrays from "The Fujiwhara Effect" mission at Mk XII Very Rare, which awards 4 at a time, making it easy to get lots. 

    • Dual Beam Banks: Generic ones are acquirable at MK XII Very Rare from the "Ragnarok" mission. You can also acquire Digitizer Dual Beam Banks Arrays from "The Fujiwhara Effect" mission at Mk XII Very Rare.

    • Omni-Directional Beam Arrays: There aren't any good set Omnis that are cheap/easy to get. 

    • Dual Cannons/Dual Heavy Cannons:  Advanced Piezo Dual Cannons (Lukari reputation T6). Generic ones are acquirable at MK XI Rare from the "Shadow Play" mission. 

    • Wide-Angle Dual Heavy Cannons: Consider crafting these or purchasing if reasonable on the Exchange

    • Turrets: Heavy Bio-Molecular Plasma Turret (8472 Counter-Command reputation). Otherwise, these have to be crafted/purchased on the Exchange or from the Fleet Colony. There are Mk XI Rares available from the "Last Stand" mission for Romulan captains.

    • Consoles: Piezo-Electric Focuser (Lukari Reputation), Hydrodynamics Compensator with turret or torpedo ONLY (8472 Counter-Command reputation)

  • Polaron

    • Beam Arrays: Advanced Piezo-Polaron Beam Array (Lukari reputation), Chronometric Polaron Beam Array (mission reward "Time and Tide"). Dominion Polaron Beam Arrays are available at MK XI Rare from the "Boldly They Rode" mission.

    • Dual Beam Banks: Generic ones are acquirable at MK XII Very Rare from the "The Search" or "Doomed to Repeat" missions.

    • Omni-Directional Beam Arrays: Advanced Inhibiting (Gamma reputation), Morphogenic (mission reward "Home"). Chronometric is an option (mission reward "Time and Tide") but only good for builds mixing in Exotics. Remember you can only use 1 set Omni.

    • Dual Cannons/Dual Heavy Cannons:  Advanced Piezo Dual Cannons (Lukari reputation), Chronometric Polaron (mission reward "Time and Tide"). Generic ones are available at Mk XII from the "Storm Clouds Gather" mission. Dominion Polaron Dual Cannons are available at MK XI Rare from the "Boldly They Rode" mission.

    • Wide-Angle Dual Heavy Cannons: Consider crafting these or purchasing if reasonable on the Exchange

    • Turrets: Morphogenic (mission reward "Home"), Advanced Inhibiting (Gamma reputation). Chronometric (mission reward "Time and Tide")

    • Consoles: Morphogenic Matrix Controller (with the torpedo and energy weapon) is amazing as a 3-piece set if you have sufficient tactical seating to support. Still decent with just the energy weapon (mission reward "Home"). Piezo-Electric Focuser (Lukari Reputation), Ordnance Accelerator (Gamma reputation). Only consider the Chronometric Capacitor if using the 3-piece and mixing in a fair amount of exotic abilities since it takes up a tactical console slot.

  • Tetryon

    • Beam Arrays: Generic Beam Arrays are available at MK XII Rare from the "Revolution" mission. Resonating are available from "The New Link" mission.

    • Dual Beam Banks: Piercing are available from the "Installation 18" mission. Resonating are available from "The New Link" mission. Hyper-Refracting are available from the Nukara reputation.

    • Omni-Directional Beam Arrays: Omni-Directional Antichroniton Infused Tetryon Beam Array (mission reward "Butterfly"), Omni-Directional Tetryon Support Array (Competitive reputation T6)

    • Dual Cannons/Dual Heavy Cannons:  Generic Dual Cannons are available at MK XII Rare from the "Revolution" mission. Resonating are available from the "Spoils of War" mission. Piercing are available from the "Installation 18" mission.

    • Wide-Angle Dual Heavy Cannons: Consider crafting these or purchasing if reasonable on the Exchange

    • Turrets: Heavy Bio-Molecular Tetryon Turret (8472 Counter-Command reputation T6), Omni-Directional Antichroniton Infused Tetryon Turret  (mission reward "Butterfly"). Resonating are available from the "Spoils of War" mission. Piercing are available from the "Installation 18" mission.

    • Consoles: Hydrodynamics Compensator with turret or torpedo ONLY (8472 Counter-Command reputation), Emitter Refocuser (Mission reward "The Renegade's Regret"), Nukara Particle Converter (Nukara reputation, only with Dual Beam Bank), Temporal Disentanglement Suite (Mission reward "Butterfly") with either Omni beam or console AND high auxiliary power.

  • Kinetic Cutting Beam: We generally don't recommend this. It has comparable DPS to a turret and does not benefit from firing modes as well as has significant damage penalties against shielded targets. Its main use case would be on a 5 fore/3 aft weapon ship running Beam Overload, alongside the Assimilated Module for the chance to reduce weapon power cost. Otherwise it's not worth it, as cannon builds should generally be using turrets in the aft and Fire at Will builds should be using Beam Arrays. If your ship is running the Miracle Worker ability Mixed Armaments Synergy, use a turret instead, even on a Beam Overload build. 

• Consoles: There are many options for consoles, especially in Tactical or Engineering consoles depending on whether you're using Spire consoles (Locators/Exploiters), Advanced Engineering (Isomag) consoles, or something at a lower budget. This guide will list some options but the ALICIA tool was created to provide a tailored console recommendation for your budget and build. 

• Advanced Consoles: Choosing between Spire consoles and Isomags has a number of influencing factors. Isomags are expensive or harder to grind, while Spire consoles are cheaper but require being in a reasonably-developed fleet and fit into Tactical/Universal console slots. Advanced Engineering Isomagnetic Plasma Distribution Manifolds are stronger than Locators or Exploiters 1-to-1 and go in Engineering/Universal console slots. usually even with Locators+1 for tactical energy modes (i.e. not specialization modes like Surgical Strikes), but again, they are harder to acquire. Since you can't slot them both, pick one type and roll with it. If you want to know the optimal choice, try the ALICIA or TRINITY tools. 

• Tactical Consoles: Save a slot for Lorca's Custom Fire Controls from the Discovery Legends reputation. If you're tanking and in a fleet, consider Energetic Protomatter Matrix Infusers from the Fleet Colony (defensive/tanking). If you're flying a Plasma build, the Fek'Ihri Torment Engine from the "Leap of Faith" mission is a solid and free slot, especially if you're using the Dark Matter Torpedo Launcher. 

• Other consoles: See the Weapons and Flavors section or ALICIA for 3-4 type-specific console choices that fit each type. Additionally:

  • Temporal Disentanglement Suite from the "Butterfly" mission but only on high-Auxiliary ships

  • Assimilated Module from the Omega Reputation

  • M6 Computer from the T3 Temporal Escort, 75,000 dilithium

  • Bellum EPS Flow Regulator from the Discovery Legends reputation store

  • Zero Point Energy Conduit from the Romulan reputation

  • Sustained Radiant Field from the Iconian reputation

  • Interphasic Instability from the Phoenix Box

  • Consider slotting 1-2 defensive consoles as well (but no more than that!). If you don't have any of the nicer ones like Ablative Hazard Shielding or Protomatter Field Projector, which come from C-store ships or events, slot the Trellium-D console from the "Ragnarok" mission.

• Experimental Weapons: Based on this ranking, your best best is the Experimental Flak Shot Artillery from the Competitive reputation if you don't have one of the better ones like the Soliton Wave Impeller or Voice of the Prophets (event ships). If you want to shell out for a T6 ship, the Subatomic Field Disruptor from the Earhart/Sech is decent, as is the Hypercharged Field Projector from the Shran/M'Chla. 

• Hangars: We recommend our tier list for the "Base" configuration for most builds

• Devices: Energy Amplifiers (crafting R&D) and Deuterium Surplus (crafting once you run the Defense Contract mission once) are both helpful and free, if having an unfortunately low stack limit. Reactive Armor Catalysts or Hull Patches help with survivability.

Upgrading and Rarity

For the majority of items in the game, a build filled with Mk XII+ gear at Rare+ rarity and flown well is capable of tackling Advanced content reasonably well. Some maps are harder than others and some builds will do better at certain maps than others, but it's certainly possible to quite well with Mk XII and Mk XIII on a F2P/new player build. I've done it twice while building up my builds. 

If you want to fly Elite, you will need to strongly consider Mk XV gear as the difference between Mk XII and Mk XV is about as big as the one between Mk I and Mk XII. Enemies are much harder to kill; while there are a few maps that are relatively easy on Elite that could be completed with Mk XII gear, it would be a slog. 

Epic'd and re-engineered gear is never "necessary" and is only for optimizing builds and/or DPS-chasing. 

Lastly, let's go over things we aren't going to worry about.

Things That Do Not Matter Much

• Energy weapon type (i.e. plasma vs disruptor) doesn't matter much, especially when you are first starting. Phaser, Polaron, and Disruptor tend to have more items sets and consoles that are easy to acquire, whereas Tetryon is difficult to acquire gear for outside of Dual Beam Banks and Antiproton / Plasma are worse.

• Mods (CrtD and Dmg are good and very close to each other, Pen is good on crafted weapons, Over is gimmicky but fun) and re-engineering; these are less than 5% difference. If you really want the optimal answer for your build, look into using a copy of the Energy DPS Calculator.

• Weapon procs don't matter until you start truly min-maxing. The difference between Agony Phasers and regular Phasers, for example, is minimal.

Traits for F2P/New players

See our tier list for starship and personal traits and look for the ones that are free, a mission reward, or from R&D schools. Some traits can be enhanced at the Fleet K-13 holding for marginal gains; those are options as well. 

If you're looking to exit the F2P world and pick up your first C-store (Zen) ship, the one you want is the Arbiter or its cross-faction equivalents. Its Emergency Weapon Cycle starship trait is worth around 20% final DPS on most energy builds even if you don't end up flying it longterm. The next priority should be traits that extend the duration of your firing mode:

• Withering Barrage for Cannon Scatter Volley from KDF Recruitment or a T6 C-store ship

• Entwined Tactical Matrices or Redirecting Arrays for Fire at Will from 2 different T6 C-store ships. Note that Redirecting Arrays is only reliable for tanks or solo play since its trigger condition is you being hit.

• Superweapon Ingenuity for Beam Overload from a Lobi ship (cheaper on the Exchange but still pricey)

• Go for the Kill for Cannon Rapid Fire from a Promo or Legendary ship

• Vanguard Specialists for Surgical Strikes, Exceed Rated Limits, and Reroute Reserves to Weapons from a Legendary ship. Note that the same legendary ship also provides the Go For the Kill extender. 

• Other generically useful things to look for in a starship trait or personal trait are critical chance, critical severity, weapon haste, damage, hull penetration, and shield penetration, but there are many variables that play into evaluating a trait's strength, including magnitude, conditionality, and stacking.  Please see the Progression Guide, the Tier List, or our various Builds for more information and examples. 

Reputation traits:

List is sorted top to bottom in terms of priority:

• Always slot: Precision, Advanced Targeting Systems

• If you want to self-heal a lot or are tanking: Energy Refrequencer

• If you need the cooldown help, Chrono-Capacitor Array

• If your ship has over 90,000 hit points: Tyler's Duality

• If you're using Photonic Officer: Auxiliary Configuration: Offense

• If you're using Auxiliary to Battery and Cold-hearted: Controlled Countermeasures

• If you still have slots left: Enhanced Shield Penetration (no torpedo) or Magnified Firepower (torpedo)

This example is from a cruiser that doesn't need cooldown help and is tanking with Photonic Officer for cooldowns. It has plenty of HP, so Energy Refrequencer, Tyler's Duality, and Aux Config: Offense are the traits of choice. 

Active Reputation Traits:

These all have 5 minute cooldowns and most of them don't matter much.

• The Bio-Molecular Shield bubble from the 8472 Counter Command reputation is a valuable defensive tool especially when you aren't moving much

• Deploy Sensor Interference Platform from the Iconian Reputation is an okay defensive tool but does not last very long

• Quantum Singularity Manipulation is a temporary cloak that also boosts your science stats by +100/125 at T6 for 8 seconds.

• Refracting Tetryon Cascade does decent bouncing damage on a Tetryon build and fairly negligible otherwise. 

• Unlocking the fifth active reputation slot should not be a priority.

Duty Officers for F2P/New players

See our tier list for duty officers and look for the ones that are free, from mission rewards, from the fleet holdings, or from colonization chains.

Piloting

An overview of piloting and ship handling is covered in our Mechanics slides. 

Full Builds

If you'd like some other resources, check out:

• Jay's Starter Tier T5 Vor'cha Retrofit with Disruptors, parsed at 200K in premades and 68K in pick-up groups

• Eph289's Starter Tier T5 Sovereign with Phasers, parsed at 140K in premades and 90K in pick-up groups

• Baby Steps Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 by neuro1g (disclaimer: Eph289 helped edit these) progresses through sample energy weapon builds starting with the level 40 Tier 5 Assault Cruiser (Sovereign) through a level 65 Fleet T6 Sovereign DPS-monster level build in three stages