Starship combat is the heart of Star Trek Online, but the game does not clearly define what makes a good starship as opposed to a bad one. What kind of shield should I use? Are these engines better than those? What are all those weird modifiers? Can I cook a grilled cheese sandwich on a Mark V Combat Impulse Engine? (The answer is yes, but don’t let it sit for longer than .0000002587 seconds or it’ll get burned.) Well, your pals at Ten Ton Hammer are here to help you with the latest class on Starship Basics – Shields and Engines.

Impulse engines are the ship’s engines that you use in encounters, not for warping around the galaxy looking for tribbles. The impulse engines impact three things that define your starship’s movement: the normal flight speed, the turn rate, and the full impulse flight speed. Normal flight speed is just that, the maximum flight speed that you can attain in combat.

Read about starship engines and shields for STO.