STO Game Systems For 1st-Time Captains (WIP)

The Character Sheet window, vertically is split between four entities, your Captain, shown at the top right, your ship, just below it, your small spacecraft, below that, and finally, all your bridge officers.

Your character sheet and ship sheets are important, you will spend lots of time tinkering, swapping out gear, and changing traits/skills.

Each entity (save for your ships) will have a character gear sheet (and an "Edit Record" button where you can type a bio, change your title or tell people you love cookies) where you compare and swap out gear, weapons and devices/consumables. It's important to note that you can only change your Bridge Officer's names, and sometimes at the cost of EC, but to change your Captain's screenname you will need a Captain Rename Token (which is purchased on the C-Store).

On the next tab is a Skills Sheet, where, on your captain you get skill trees, on your bridge officers you can swap Bridge Officer skills. It should be noted that the STO community refers to Bridge Officers as "BOFFs" and Duty Officers as "DOFFs" (Of which we will speak about later). After Level 40 you will gain access to Specializations, which can further customize the kind of captain you are.
After that is a Traits tab, where you swap out Traits for your captain and ship, and displays species traits for BOFFs.
On the Ship tab there is a "Seating" tab, where you can swap out BOFFs and change their skills.

It is important to note that you cannot switch gear/skills while in combat/at RED ALERT)

It is very important that you have all these slots filled with gear.

On the captain gear tab you get a Kit Tray, which determines the skills you use in/out of combat.

There is a "Kit" slot, Kits increase your stats.

In terms of protection you get:

-"Shield" slot - Shields provide a temporary amount of damage mitigation before they deplete from taking too much damage. Once a shield is depleted the damage starts filtering through your armor and starts dealing damage to your health.

-"EV Suit" slot - this is new. You can have Armor and an EV Suit equipped and switch between them using the capsule-shaped button to the right of it. It's important to note that when the game tells you to put the EV suit on, do it! It's embarrassing to die because you forgot to put on your EV suit and walked out into space or something.

-"Armor" slot - Your armor is what determines how much damage is done to your health. Some armor boosts certain stats, and the more armors you wear the more that unlock in the costume tailor. Some armors can only be unlocked by completing "Reputation" projects or from buying from a fleet.

In terms of Weapons, you get two for your captain, one for BOFFs.

Weapons can be energy, kinetic, and physical and even include melee weapons.

Weapons can be switched between by pressing "Z" or by pressing the capsule button. You can also hide your weapons by pressing the "eye" icon next to the weapon slots. You can also holster/sheathe weapons by pressing "H".

You and your Bridge Officers get device trays, which further expand the number of things you can do. Bridge Officers will use any weapon/device/skill you give them (including fire extinguishers, much to your chagrin) but you can instruct them to use certain abilities when you want them to (more on that later).

On the Bridge Officer sheets, you get a Skills tab, as mentioned above, where you can train them using training manuals, or even add Specializations. They also have Traits, and officers who have been upgraded using a bridge officer Upgrade token have an extra trait slot that you can add an extra trait to.

In the next Section I will go over the Ship Gear Tab.

Ship gear sheets are where the real magic happens. A well-equipped ship will bring you hours of enjoyment.

But in order for a ship to run, you need some basic parts.

"Deflector" slot - A deflector is needed on every ship. a deflector is responsible for not only "broadcasting" your ship's shields, but also to use a tractor beam, scan an area, or use Exotic Particle abilities/weaopons. A good deflector can boost Exotic particle damage, hull or shield healing, etc.

"Warp Core" Slot - A ship cannot fly without a warp core. (Trust me, I've attempted to.) There are many kinds of warp cores, but it's important to note that only Romulan characters can use singularity cores on Romulan ships. (This may have changed with the crossfaction ship usage update, which I will go over later).

"Engine" slot - A ship's flight also needs an engine. Some engines are perfect for combat, others for long-range flights. All engines pretty much do the same thing, (which is enable warp speed and Full Impulse) with the higher quality engines giving extra stats.

"Shield" slot - Although shields are not as important as hull hitpoints, I'd be lying if I said you don't need a shield. All ships need shields. It's important to note that shields can also change the look of a ship, the first shield to do this being the Reman shield from the mission "Arena" (writer's note, double check this). Some shields are cosmetic only, meaning they don't provide a stat bonus or shield hitpoints like a regular shield should. Make sure to read your tooltips!

"Forward" and "Aft" weapon slots - These are you bread-and-butter ship weapon slots. A plethora of weapons can be slotted, most being, but are not limited to, beams, cannons, torpedoes, and mines. Mines can only be slotted in the aft slots. Also, a review of the "firing arcs" tutorial is in order to explain how ship weapons work. Some ship weapons, like the Omni-directional, turrets, and Wide-Arc weapons have larger firing arcs than most traditional weapons. Mines are more powerful than torpedoes, but harder to get ships to fly into. Lots of choices!

"Experimental Weapon" Slot - Some upgraded/newer ships have these. This is where an Experimental Weapon would go, if you have one.

"Universal Console" slot - This is a slot specifically for a Universal Console. Universal Consoles fit here, but can also be slotted in any console slot.

Engineering Consoles - These consoles often provide utility or, for the most part, damage resistance.
Science Consoles - More utility, with a minor focus on sheild healing/drains or Exotic Damage.
Tactical Consoles - Tactical consoles boost your weapons' damage, but can also do things like grant ship stealth, increase weapon accuracy, etc. The more common consoles usually come in "energy type" and "weapon type" flavors.

A big note: I see alot of people using multi-colored weapons in their loadouts (I.E. Multiple damage types). Doing this isn't exactly against the rules, but it's kind of an unspoken agreement. It's a good idea to stack one or two damage types. Doing so will greatly increase your combat ability. Using Multiple damage types will not actually improve your ability to kill things.

You're probably asking, "What's the best energy damage type?"

The answer is "The damage type and/or color you like best.
There's no wrong answer. There are all kinds of weapons and honestly there's two things you are looking at, looks and what a weapon's proc does.


Phaser

Phasers are one of the most common energy weapons. Each energy type has a "proc" that when it activates by chance it will cause an effect to an enemy ship. Phasers will randomly knock out a subsystem of an enemy ship. The knock out is temporary. Phasers are generally gold yellow, but another Phaser energy type you may see are Andorian phasers, which, are blue (of course!). It's also important to note that TOS/Discovery Phasers in space are blue, (and have era-apporpriate animations and sounds) TOS-era ground weapons are pink and Discovery-era ground weapons are red.

Disruptors
Disruptors are another common energy type. A disruptor's proc is to reduce the damage resistance of an enemy ship when it activates. Disruptors are generally green.

Plasma
Plasma is generally minty-green and does damage directly to a ship's hull when applied. Its proc will cause a minor Damage-over-time effect. Many plasma weapons will set ships and people on fire. Infact in my top 20 worst ways to die in Star Trek, burning to death from plasma exposure is pretty high. It is to be noted if your captain walks into a leaking EPS conduit breach spray YOU WILL DISINTEGRATE. Be wary though, Plasma cannon builds are -LOUD-.

Polaron
Polaron weapons are purple/pink/magenta and it's proc is to drain a ship's power levels. I should note that Dominion characters get a ton of these by default. It's important to note that Lukari Polaron weapons (which are lime green) have a proc that heal nearby allies' health and shields which makes them excellent for support builds.

Antiproton
AP weapons are very powerful and alot of endgame players use these. It's proc grants an extra 10% more damage. Antiproton weapons are typically various shades of red.
The more expensive anitiproton weapons may have extra abilities, for example, Ba'ul Antiproton weapons' extra proc will have a beem strike it's target, then bounce to a nearby enemy, and strike that target, and keeps doing that every time a strike procs. Very handy for tanking builds and you wish to draw more threat.

IMPORTANT: Iconian Heralds are resistant/immune to antiproton.

Chroniton: Chroniton energy weapons generally are weak with one exception: They are strong for ground combat vs. Iconians/Heralds. Chroniton is usually depicted by a brilliant RGB-style rainbow of color (a similar effect on Lukari ships such as Kuumaarke's LSS Reskava).

Tetryon
Tetryon weapons are often brilliant light blue and its proc does damage directly to a ship's shields, effectively half the weapons strike's damage. Tetryon weapons recently got a buff thanks to the new Tholian EAC set, and are great versus enemies who have tanky shields and projectile builds. (Check out Augmented Dictator on Youtube for more projectile ship builds. Please, be polite.)

Agony Phaser
If you've ever seen an episode of Star Trek featuring the Mirror Universe, you are familiar with Agony Phasers. Instead of taking a random system offline, Agony Phasers do damage directly to a ship and its occupants, provided it can punch through a shield. Agony Phasers are surprisingly effective, however I should note that while this may be great for a Terran build, the good guys generally don't use weapons like these because they are cruel and inhumane, even disruptors are slightly more humane.

Specialty Phasers/Disruptors:

The Discovery weapons are reskins of regular Phasers and Disruptors, instead of the beam weapons firing beams, they fire beams with gaps between them, because Discovery aesthetic, IDK. Discovery ground phasers are red, and the Discovery Full-Auto/Burst Rifle is one of the strongest ground weapons in the game, and yes, that is meta, but you don't have to try and aim for it.

Other faction-based Phaser flavors are the Single and Dual Phasers from the TOS era, and come with those nifty TOS-era sound effects, which can be a joy or a earache, depending on your opinion. The TOS Ground weapons have that era's aesthetic, with pink lasers from the rifles.

Another Mention-worthy Phaser weapon are the Radiolytic Phasers and "Lower Decks" phasers, Radiolytic aren't the end-all be-all to phaser meta, but they are strong.

And finally, the headache that is Spiral Phasers... these Cardassian weapons feature both the phaser and disruptor procs, super-strong, but hard to obtain and explain how they work. I have yet to see a cheap way to incorporate these into a captain.

Also do not forget that Fleets have Advanced and Elite versions of these weapons, and they are all very strong and worth looking into.

There are mainly three types of projectiles.

Torpedoes: Torpedoes are the most common, and can cause large amounts of damage in a short amount of time, but often come at a cost of a large cooldown.

Mines: Mines can do even MORE damage, but are stationary until flown near, then they attatch to an enemy ship's hull and explode.

Cluster torpedoes: Cluster torpedoes are a hybrid of the two previous ones, a Cluster torpedo will hurtle towards it's target, stop just short of its hull, then split into 4-8 mines, then chase the target until they attatch to it's hull and explode. They are a favorite of mine.

Photon:
Photon are the most common projectile energy type in the game, and they are fairly cheap and provide fantastic damage. Photon torpedoes usually are red.

Hargh'PengThe Hargh'Peng torpedo is an anomaly in the early game because it's one of the few ship weapons unaffected by bridge officer firing modes. It does moderate damage with an added radiation DoT but with one exception to a spoileriffic enemy it is stupid strong against. The Hargh'Peng Torpedo can be gotten from the "Secret Orders" questline given by Admiral Burgess on the Fed side and won from a Duty Officer mission on the Klingons' side. You can easily slot this to boost your damage overall until you get your ship's seating and crew's bridge officer abilities in order. These projectiles are purple.

Quantum:
Quantum Torpedoes are fairly good too. they are usually depicted by a sort-of dull unfocused white lensflare ball and usually ignore half a ship's shields dealing damage directly to it's hull.


Chroniton:
Chroniton, once again having a weak showing. Chroniton weapons cause "temporal/quantum instability" to a ship and forces its engines offline and reduces it's damage resistance.

Tricobalt
Tricobalt torpedoes in canon are exceptionally powerful,

Exotic damage is like space magic. EPG can be boosted through skills, Traits, Deflectors, Bridge Officers, Duty Officers, Science consoles, and other stuff. An example of EPG would be Gravity Well, Tyken's Rift, Temporal Vortex, Let It Go, It's Cold in Space, etc. These are space hazards created by players and enemies alike, some are avoidable, and some are not.EPG requires a deflector to use, which is why many science vessels come with two.

Space Crowd Control

Crowd control EPG abilities are a specific type of gameplay that focuses on keeping ships from flying around randomly and shooting at your allies. it is a specific style of build that benefits from good modifiers like {CtrlX} and the like, but also benefits from a solid deflector. Tractor beams are also part of this, I equip "Tractor Beam Repulsors" to the dreaded "Gravity Kills" TFO to push badguys into the pull of the singularity because it's funny to do. (Thanks to Stu1701 for the protip, and be nice!)

Other abilities that make CC worthwhile is the asteroid ability from the Discovery Rep, It's one of the few CC abilities that is guaranteed to work, no matter your captain's build.

There is a specific build useful for coop play.

Shield Damage builds. Such builds are not viable in Solo play but in a team can be invaluable, especially vs. Borg.

Many Borg TFOs go smoother with a captain running this build, it focuses on energy/shield drain/damage, Polaron and Tetryon are useful for this purpose.

The Rep Tab does not open up until level 50(55?)-65 or so.

The Rep tab has factions representing research and development and advancement of their struggle against their chosen enemy, and you can help, if you're geared for it, and don't mind teaming up with players.

The first one to note is Taskforce Omega.

Taskforce Omega is explained by Admiral D'Vak, a Klingon who understands that the Borg are as much a threat to the Klingons as everyone else.

So is fighting the Borg worth it? The gear you can unlock and get for yourself -is- powerful, but what makes it worth having to remodulate your weapons when you fight them?

Again, it's the shiny gear. This -is- the best equipment in the galaxy outside of fleets.

The Omega Force and Klingon Honor Guard also enjoy the best equipment in their faction, and have distinct looks compared to levelling gear and other uniforms and costumes. anyone wearing these has earned their gear and the respect of those unwilling to take the fight to the Borg.

I debated on seperating this from my guide, but I feel this is going to be my "all-purpose" guide for the game. So this should be included.

First off, Male and Female have no meaning in this game, they are merely shapes/bodytypes. Even though many purists will argue this or that, you can be any gender you like or none at all. It has no bearing on the story or how people treat you, normally.

The few exceptions are slightly spoileriffic plot twists, but do not insult your choice.


If this is your first captain, you only have one choice, Modern Starfleet, aka Starfleet 2409. Starfleet 2409 differs from "launch" captains because 2409 captains have a specific set of starter bridge officers, some of which have voice acting in the new "Class of 2409" tutorial made for new players.

Don't worry about the old tutorial, it wasn't great. but Captains usually recieved random Bridge Officers during levelling.
If this is a captain made after maxing out the first's level, you have more choices. KDF are a different playstyle, your objectives are less paragon, but no less important.
Fed has voiceovers by Spock introducing some new maps.
KDF has Martok, doing Voiceovers for the maps explaining not only the new lands, but the essence of what it means to be Klingon.
Sela does the voiceovers for the Romulans entering new maps.
The Dominion is a mix of Odo, Loriss, and Weyoun.

All of these voices also play when you level up, congratulating you. You'll get used to it.

As for playstyles, Dominion are mostly Jem'Hadar, bred and born for battle.
Romulans focus on stealth and science, but ultimately your romulan captain is to decide to uphold "The Legacy of Romulus" or bring your crew to a new and strange and scary world of being open with others and earning their trust through courage and valor, instead of sneakiness and trickery.

TOS era captains get a neat little retro-style tutorial with their own cast of characters from core worlds.

Discovery captains are about the same. I have not fully played through Disco Klingon, tho.


Classes are more open ended in STo, while you can choose your career focus, there are options to consider within those career paths.

Tactical- While many argue that tactical is all about tactics and combat, I'd like to argue that tactical includes Command before Command was a specialization. Tactical officers have a way with people. this is evident in the "Attack Pattern" skills and "Motivation/Rally Cry" skills. One last specialty that tactical can spec into is a Grenadier or even a melee/unarmed combatant, or even Stealth Spy. Liek I said, Tactical takes a situation and the people involved and tries to forge a victory.

A Tac captain's ultimate ground ability is to summon a Security team at your location to help and fight for you. A redshirt who dies does not die but is transported back to the ship for medical attention.

Engineering- Engies experience an easier time, cruising through content that would normally trip up a Tac or science officer, especially if you choose a cruiser. this does not mean you "speed" through leveling. Cruisers are sometimes slow to fly, but tanky and with engineer abilities even tougher. Engineers get -two- awesome ultimate abilities... Orbital Strike, and Miracle Repairs. Engineers also use skills to buff allies, build and fix equipment that can deal damage, heal, and shield, or do demolitions and summon drones.

Science/Medical- this career is split into four types.
-Researchers, who use Tricorder scans to debuff the enemy,
-Medical Doctors/Nurses/Medics, who have taken the daunting task of healing teammates and players
-Scientists, who use abilities to debuff enemies and buff allies
and informally, "Battlemages." these characters often pass on the previous abiliites and go for environmental hazard skills, such as causing fires, doing toxic/radiation damage, using sonic abilities, or even, if cause massive and unavoidable environmental hazards that destroy the enemy, as with the Risian Kits and Modules. This is the closest one can get to becoming a Jedi/ Mass Effect Biotic in STO.


Each Faction has at least one species to choose, and some Species are featured in multiple factions.