Projectile Basics

Ship Basics 

There's a large combination of things that interact to evaluate a ship's suitability for kinetic builds. Remember how energy weapon builds could handle pretty well on cruisers, escorts, and anything in between, but science builds were kind of pigeonholed into science vessels? One of the most important rules about projectile builds is that the list of useful ships is even more narrow. 

• The most important thing is Command specialization seating at LtCmdr or above while also NOT sacrificing your LtCmdr Tactical for it. Torpedo builds without Concentrate Firepower III (a LtCmdr Command ability) are gimped.

• The more weapons the better: 8 = 7+Experimental Weapon (XW) > 7 ≥ 6+XW > 6. On 8-weapon ships, the difference between 5/3, 5/2+XW, and 4/4 won't matter much until the really high end.

• The more tactical and less engineering seating the better. In general, tactical > science >> engineering

• The more tactical consoles the better

• Ideally and if using Entwined Tactical Matrices, you'd like to have 6 tactical seats, 7 tactical seats if using mines, only 1-2 engineering seats, and the rest science/specialization alongside your LtCmdr Command. If you're using Auxiliary to Battery for cooldowns, you'll need 4 engineering seats (2 Lt, 2 Ens).

• Specializations: Cmd (Cmdr) > Cmd (LtCmdr-) >>> everything else. If you're talking about secondary specializations, which occur on some pricy ships, I'd say MW > Temporal LtCmdr+ > Intel = Pilot > everything else. We'll discuss specific powers below.

• Ships with 12 consoles (T6 Fleet-grade) > Ships with 11 consoles (T6) > ships with less (T5 and below)

• Other gimmicks: Hangars, innate "lance" damaging abilities. Of these, hangars tend to add an easy 15-20K DPS at least with the right pets. More on that below.

• These aren't the only variables tied to a ship's evaluation as we also need to consider our bread-and-butter bridge officer skills

Due to the requirement for a LtCmdr Command seat, projectile builds aren't great starter builds for your first ship unless you either have a T6 C-store ship with the seat, or are willing to wait until you have access to Fleet Ship Modules from T6 reputations which is a pretty long grind. Here's a list of ships that you can acquire with Fleet Ship Modules without paying Zen that have LtCmdr Cmd.

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), Hull Plating (x1), Hull Capacity (x1)

Science: Shield Regeneration (x1)

Tactical: Projectile 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 4 Engineering, 1 points in Science, and 19 in Tactical, leaving you 22 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. Engineering skills are of limited use to projectile builds. Warp Core Potential/Efficiency can help up bump up subsystems with low power. 

Science - Shield Restoration, Shield Capacity, Control Expertise (especially if using powers that scale with this like Gravity Well or weapons like Gravimetric Torpedoes)+Control Amplification, Drain Expertise if using weapons or abilities that scale with this like Quantum Phase or Neutronic Torpedoes), Exotic Particle Generator if mixing in exotic abilities, Long-Range Targeting Sensors if using multiple energy weapons. Note that high-end kinetic builds are all using at least some exotic abilities.

Tactical - Energy 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 sample skill build from Eph289's projectile builds includes all the essentials and 25 points in tactical, but also takes science skills to help boost the fact that it's using Gravity Well (Control Expertise, Control Amplification, Exotic Particle Generators). The build does use some energy weapons as well, so some energy skills are taken. 

Bridge Officers

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

• Slot Concentrate Firepower III at LtCmdr.  Do not slot any other rank of this ability, as lower ranks can override higher ranks. Why is this so important? Torpedoes have longer reload times than energy weapons, depending on type a torpedo can only be fired once every 1.5 seconds (lowered to every 1 second with a console) but have much longer base reload times, typically 6-12 seconds. Torpedoes and mines have a significant damage penalty (75% reduction) when hitting shields. Unlike energy weapon enhancements like Beam: Overload or Cannon: Scatter Volley, torpedo enhancements like Spread or High Yield only affect the next torpedo that's launched. Concentrate Firepower helps solve all of those, as it does the following:

  • Resets torpedo cooldowns once every 6/4/2 seconds and grants Torpedo High Yield I for an entity that has recently damaged the target with a torpedo

  • When the marked foe is damaged by torpedoes, adds 10/15/20% extra kinetic damage with 100% shield penetration

  • However, lower ranks of Concentrate Firepower (which have weaker effects) override higher ranks. Furthermore, Concentrate Firepower gives its reload/high yield buff at random to an entity that has damaged the target, which could be you or another player. Hangar pets have their own separate interaction from Concentrate Firepower as of 2023 that shouldn't use the same procs as players.

• Now we need to slot a torpedo enhancement at the highest rank, preferably III. On high-end builds, this is always Torpedo: High Yield to take advantage of a pricy starship trait called Subspatial Warheads. At the lower end, it doesn't matter as much until you have that or Entwined Tactical Matrices. Do not slot both High Yield and Spread as they share a cooldown. 

• If you have access to the starship trait Entwined Tactical Matrices (C-store), then you need to fit in Fire at Will and Cannon: Scatter Volley at the lowest possible ranks to trigger extra torpedo spreads on activating those abilities. If you have ETM, definitely use High Yield over Spread. Obviously that's outside the realm of a budget build but it's worth noting.

• Slot Attack Pattern Beta at the highest remaining rank after the firing mode is slotted. 

• 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). 

  • At the high end of DPS chasing, A2B is no longer used due to wanting to use a specific console from a C-store ship. In fact, at the high end, the most common builds are having allies give them cooldown reduction through a starship trait along with an expensive Lobi trait called The Boimler Effect. At the budget/basic build level, this is not a consideration.

  • 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).

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: Kemocite-Laced Weaponry (expensive). If you're using multiple mines and have extra seats, consider slotting a mine pattern, typically Beta. 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), Auxiliary to Structural (heal/damage resist) if not using Auxiliary to Battery, Reverse Shield Polarity (massive shield heal/absorption), Engineering Team (minor heal, slot at rank I only but see the note on Tactical Team). Emergency Power to Auxiliary can be useful if you're not using A2B to help boost a couple of traits, but it's marginal. 

• Science: Hazard Emitters is an important cleanse/heal effect for removing damage-over-time though there are other ways to get this effect. Science Team is a minor shield heal but suffers from the same activation time penalty as Tactical Team and 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, though it requires significant investment to do much damage. Destabilizing Resonance Beam is a solid AOE debuff and applies the Deteriorating Secondary Deflector on ships with a secondary deflector. Charged Particle Burst would be another option, albeit one that requires you to get close to your targets and scales with Drain Expertise, not Exotic Particle Generators.  If you have other traits or consoles that trigger based on using specific "Control" powers, Tractor Beam is a high priority slot at rank I.

Specialization Bridge Officer Seats

In general, Command >> Miracle Worker = Temporal > Intel = Pilot in terms of seating. Remember, Command is basically essential. 

• Miracle Worker: Mixed Armaments Synergy is the most valuable seat here and is easily triggered with either a turret or Omni-beam, or a fore energy weapon. Deploy Gravitic Induction Platform is a niche shield bleedthrough/pull ability.

• Intelligence: Intel Team can help with survivability by reducing threat but is fairly niche. Ionic Turbulence is a resistance shred and Kinetic Magnet is okay, especially if you have multiple mine launchers. However, it can also kill allies, so be careful with it.

• 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 improves with Entropy inflicted by other Temporal abilities.

• Command: Command seating is incredible valuable for kinetic damage. Besides Concentrate Firepower, Call Emergency Artillery III does very high damage on clustered targets but only truly shines on specific maps/scenarios. Rally Point Marker is a decent heal.

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 A2B with 3 Very Rare Technicians: No

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

• Photonic Officer I: 2-3 Tactical Readiness + Chrono-Capacitor Array (will have gaps, not recommended)

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. 

Example:

Here's an example build layout on a T6 Fleet Engle Strike Wing Escort, which is available for Fleet Credits and Ship Modules once T6 reputations are unlocked. It's using Photonic Officer and mines along with Entwined Tactical Matrices, which is why the energy modes are slotted. If I didn't have access to that trait, I'd slot the Mine Pattern on the Commander Tactical in place of Cannon: Scatter Volley and take the LtCmdr Universal/Command as science, slotting Destabilizing Resonance Beam I and Hazard Emitters I. That'd allow my Lt Science on the science seat to be Charged Particle Burst. 

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

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

Power Levels

Power levels are a basic way to boost your ship's effectiveness. Projectile builds, however, are fairly non-reliant on power. While exotic abilities and certain traits or consoles scale with Auxiliary power, energy weapons scale with weapon power, and the Tilly shield scales off shield power, torpedoes and mines do not innately scale with power, so power considerations are more secondary on this type of build. 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 and 2+ energy weapons, weapons to 70, shields to 15, engines to 15, auxiliary to 100

• If not using Auxiliary to Battery and less than 2 energy weapons, weapons to 15, shields to 70, engines to 15, auxiliary to 100

• If using Auxiliary to Battery, weapons to 100, shields to 70 (assuming you're using our gear suggestions), engines to 15, aux to 15

• If using the Custom Power Matrix, one should set all 3 modes active, which will drain -15 from each of shields, engines, and aux. This can be partially offset by putting the console into a Tactical slot (+20 engine power) or an Engineering slot (+20 aux power). Putting it into a Science slot (+20 shield power) is not recommended, but you will thus want to make sure you have at least 15 total power in each subsystem if using this console to ensure you don't knock any of those systems completely offline. 

• Console players will want to use setting 1 (100W/50S/25E/25A) or 2 (50W/100S/25E/25A) if using Auxiliary to Battery and setting 4 (50W/25S/25E/100A) if not.

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.

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, 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

For beams or cannons, energy type and subtype doesn't matter all that much and an astounding number of keystrokes have been spent asking whether Phaser or Disruptor is better, should I fill up with Spiral Wave Disruptors or Sensor-Linked, etc. when difference between them until one starts hard-core chasing numbers is minimal. That is NOT the case with torpedoes, where I will say that conservatively there's about a dozen usable types of torpedoes for high-level play and the rest of them are basically trash. The average torpedo is not strong, and 3 whole subtypes are basically not worth slotting (Transphasic, Chroniton, and Tricobalt). This is my personal list of strong/decent torpedoes. If it's not on this list, I personally wouldn't slot it on a kinetic build:

• Photon: Gravimetric (especially with sci builds!), Enhanced Bio-Molecular, Adv. Piezo Photon, Terran Task Force

• Quantum: Neutronic, Quantum Phase, Delphic Distortion (expensive), Dark Matter, Advanced Radiant

• Plasma: Particle Emission Plasma (especially with sci builds), Romulan Hyper-Plasma, Omega, Nanopulse

• Energy torpedoes are mostly for set bonuses or to synergize with a mostly-energy build. 

The Torp Finder tool has suggestions for the best torpedoes. The meta 4 for kinetic builds are Enhanced Bio-Molecular, Neutronic, Delphic, and Dark Matter. If Delphic is out of the budget, substitute with Quantum Phase. With the exception of the Delphic Distortion Quantum Torpedo, most other torpedoes recommended there should be available from reputations or missions. 

If you have Ceaseless Momentum, no more than 4 torpedoes can effectively be fired unless you're using very long cooldown torpedoes which is not generally recommended. Even on the Eagle Pilot Raider, 4 torpedoes tends to be the upper useful limit. If you don't have it, the possibilities to fire 5 torpedoes exist but still should probably be avoided. For the purposes of this guide, we're going to recommend no more than 4 fore torpedoes. If you have a fifth fore weapon slot, slot the Wide Angle Heavy Dual Beam Bank from the Discovery Legends reputation.

• Aft weapons: 

  • If all Photon, slot the Dyson Proton weapon (Dyson reputation). 

  • If using the Quantum Phase torpedo, slot its accompanying beam array

  • Mines have recently come into vogue with the use of the Relocate Mines captain ability and a pricy personal trait that lowers captain cooldowns to bring its cooldown to a usable level. Thoron Infused Quantum Mines from the Delta reputation store and Bio-molecular Photon Mines from the 8472 Counter Command reputation store are some of the most common on mixed builds; use the quantum mines only on quantum builds and vice versa for photon builds. The Modulating Quantum mines from the Competitive reputation are not exactly amazing and should generally be avoided, as should chroniton, transphasic, and plasma mines. Web mines are mostly for exotic builds looking to exploit a specific event-based console. Tetryon mines from the "Warriors of the Empire" mission are another option. 

  • The Morphogenic 3-piece set is a decent option that really shines if you have Entwined Tactical Matrices. If you choose to use it, the Omni and energy torpedo go here.

  • If using the Neutronic torpedo, consider slotting its accompanying Beam Array for the 2-piece and an Advanced Inhibiting Omni from the Gamma Reputation for its -DRR effect.

  • If you still somehow have aft weapon slots, consider slotting the Terran Task Force beam array for its 2-piece with the console.

Firing Order

Once you have selected your weapons, there are basically two schools of thought on firing projectiles (and the first does not apply for console players).

• Manual fire: For this mode, you will want to place the torpedoes you want to fire on a manual keybind, preferably with a mode of choice, to ensure that the "right" torpedoes get the right enhancement. For example, ensuring that the Enhanced Bio-Molecular, which is exceptional on High Yield, is on a keybind with the High Yield Firing Mode. 

• Autofire: Right-click all the weapon boxes and let "Jesus take the wheel," preferably with also including the firing enhancements in a keybind. This is simpler but has a somewhat lower ceiling. That said, it seems extremely taxing to manually fire torpedoes fast enough without neglecting other inputs on a full Pilot ship like the Eagle, so if you're using that ship, better steer clear of manual fire and go with autofire. To set the firing order on PC, right click the weapons icon on the HUD in the order you want them firing, from first-to-last.  On console, your torpedoes fire from left-to-right based on how you have them slotted. Ideally this means you put the longest cooldown torpedo first. 

Other Gear for F2P/New players

• Deflector: Elite Fleet Intervention Protomatter Deflector Array with [Colcrit] and either [CtrlX]x2 or [DrainX]x2 depending on which stat you use more from the Fleet Colony provides a wide range of useful offensive stats.

• To AMACO or not: The Adapted M.A.C.O. 2-piece set brings with it a 25% Cat1 increase to projectile damage, but only comes in deflector, shield, and engines. If you want the set, take the shield and engines to leave room for the Colony deflector. The question of whether to use it or not comes down if you want more defensive stats or speed out of your drive train. 

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

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

  • If you have the Tilly shield: Add the 2-piece Stamets-Tilly Field Modifications set (Discovery Legends reputation) via the core to augment the shield. The 2-piece provides substantial hull regen 

  • 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 but NOT Reman) for the critical severity boost 

  • If your core slot is open: The Revolutionary Core is event-locked, but if you have it, that's a solid option. Otherwise, the Delta Core has a smidgen of Drain Expertise.

• Honorable mention: The Gamma 4-piece is an option if you're building a ship designed to support projectile or exotic builds as its bonuses extend teamwide. For selfish builds, its effects are too small.

My preference would is Colony Deflector + AMACO engine + AMACO shield + Imperial Rift core but if that's not available, Colony Deflector + Tilly Shield + Tilly Core + Romulan/Competitive Engines is probably the better setup. Most cores by themselves do not provide any major boost. 

• Consoles: There are many options for consoles, depending on your build type and budget. This guide will list some options but the ALICIA tool was created to provide a tailored console recommendation for your budget and build. 

• Tactical Consoles: Save a slot for Lorca's Custom Fire Controls from the Discovery Legends reputation. Fill the rest with Vulnerability Locators that match your chosen projectile type from the Fleet Spire. If mixing torpedoes (i.e. Photon and Quantum, take generic +Torpedo consoles). Sadly, +Projectile is not an option. Vulnerability Exploiters are an option but generally are inferior for DPS until very high Critical Hit levels. 

• Other consoles:

  • Ferrofluid Hydraulic Assembly from the Terran reputation is a mandatory must-slot item.

  • Ordnance Accelerator from the Gamma reputation is very good, especially if slotting multiple mines

  • Proton Particle Stabilizer from the Dyson reputation is mandatory for Photon builds only. 

  • Covert Munition Deployment Console from Competitive reputation is very good for Quantum builds only.

  • Temporal Disentanglement Suite from the "Butterfly" mission but only on high-Auxiliary ships not using Auxiliary to Battery

  • Assimilated Module from the Omega Reputation

  • 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, Shield Absorptive Frequency Generator from the Valdore is cheap and unlocked now, so consider that first.

• 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 this checking out our tier lists for hangar pets.

• Devices: Kinetic 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. 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 weapons slotted for set bonuses do not need to be upgraded or re-engineered at all.

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 Gagarin or its cross-faction equivalent. 

If you're looking to exit the F2P world and pick up your first C-store (Zen) ship, the one you want is the Gagarin or its cross-faction equivalents. Its Entwined Tactical Matrices starship trait is a significant DPS boost on kinetic builds due to granting free torpedo spreads from energy firing modes. Other powerful traits tend to be expensive, but here are a few highlights that apply to virtually all 

• Ceaseless Momentum either from a dwindling supply of boxes on the Exchange or a Lockbox ship grants bonus Kinetic damage and torpedo reloads

• Advanced Precision Guided Munitions from the Cabot C-store ship does lots of damage to unshielded targets

• Subspatial Warheads from a Lobi Store ship (cheaper on the Exchange) creates rifts with every High Yield torpedo

• Rapid-Emitting Armaments from a Legendary bundle causes Tractor Beam to fire 3 Heavy Plasma Torpedoes. These also apply Subspatial Warheads for added synergy

Other generically useful things to look for in a starship trait or personal trait are critical chance, critical severity, 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, Omega Kinetic Shearing, Torpedo Pre-Fire Sequence

• 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: Magnified Firepower 

This example is from a build that doesn't need cooldown help and is using Photonic Officer, so Auxiliary Configuration: Offense is the third trait. 

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.

• Anti-Time Entanglement Singularity is a powerful ability best combined with Quantum Singularity Manipulation

• 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. 

External Resources

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

• Tilor's Starter Tier T5 T'Varo Refit with 143K in ISA and 184K in ISE

• The CasualSAB Approach to building a Torp Boat by Spencer/CasualSAB (geared towards high-end/premade teams)

• Mathematical derivations and comparisons of a variety of torpedoes can be found in our Torpedo Effects and Damage threads on the STObuilds subreddit: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5