Within
minutes of starting Star Trek Online, people (bridge
officers) will start reporting to you as if you know what you are
doing.
Luckily the tutorial provides some introductory information so you
don’t
embarrass yourself too badly during your first day on the job. From
there
though, the learning curve can seem quite steep with the numerous
different
skills, merits and skill points available, not to mention the fact that
players
can buy bridge officers and skills.

Bridge
officers arrive standard with two skills, one for
ground adventures and one for space encounters. This is helpful at
first due
the fact that players will fill up the slots for Tactical, Engineering
and
Science bridge officers and need to use those same officers for ground
and
space combat. As soon as the bridge officer page starts filling up
though the
officers can be tailored for one area (space or ground) and captains
can start
setting up different away teams (ground) from space officers.

style="">Bridge Officer Roster

Right
out of the Starfleet academy, Captains have four
bridge officer slots. These slots can be filled with any combination of
officer
careers (science, tactical, or engineering). The away team can be made
of any
career-options (i.e. the away team can all be tactical). The ships have
specific
officer stations though. The first ship acquired has three stations
(one of
each career). Those stations allow for the bridge officers of those
careers to
occupy the stations. Those first stations are called Ensign stations
that means
officers in those slots can only use one skill (Torpedo Spread I).
Second tier
ships have an additional slot depending on the ship type (tactical
escort ship
has one additional tactical slot, engineering has one more engineer
slot and so
on.)

style="width: 625px; height: 536px;" alt="Bridge OFficer Roster"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/81017/preview">

If the
bridge officer roster is full and another bridge
officer is awarded/acquired, the new bridge officer will go into the
Bridge
Officer Candidate area. See below for how to use the officer candidates
to
train existing officers or hold on until achieving the rank of
Lieutenant. Achieving
the rank of Lieutenant will provide two more slots for bridge officers
on the
roster.  If
there are still officers in
the candidate category, they can be added to the roster.

style="">Bridge Officer Basics,
Building a Better BO

Bridge
officers have specialties that come in the form of
skills. When hovering over the rewards of different bridge officers
available,
the skills will show up as bolded text so that captains can evaluate
fairly
quickly whether or not that officer will fill a need with the crew.
Even if
those aren’t exactly the skills desired, take the career
needed since skills
can be changed out. This means that filling a Science officer spot is
more
important than taking another Tactical officer if the science slot is
open.

class="MsoNormal"> style="width: 313px; height: 359px;" alt="Elsa Mora"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/81020/preview">

Acquiring
Bridge Officers is not tough, but sometimes they
don’t arrive quickly enough or pre-set with the right skills.
Thankfully,
everyone is for sale on the internet. Bridge Officers may be purchased
for 100
Starfleet Merits from Elsa Mora in the Personnel area of the Earth
Spacedock.
The list is lengthy of available candidates, but they all cost the same
so take
your time, or heck, buy as many as you can fit in your assignments.
Bridge
officers can also be purchased on the player exchange, so watch for
those rare
officers on the “auction house.”

style="width: 264px; height: 71px;" alt="Officer Skill Points"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/81022/preview">

Through
mission rewards, captains earn Officer
Skill Points
. These are the
points used to increase
existing skills of bridge officers. Example: a starting Tactical
Officer may
have Torpedo Spread I as a skill (it will be skill level 1). Spending
Officer
Skill Points in Torpedo Spread I will make that skill more effective in
combat
(all skills ramp up to skill level 9). Two hundred Officer Skill Points
must be
spent on an Ensign level bridge officer in order for that officer to be
promoted to Lieutenant (which will also cost 300 Starfleet Merits).

class="MsoNormal"> style="width: 406px; height: 264px;" alt="Officer Skills"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/81019/preview">

Once
the officer is a Lieutenant and is placed in a
Lieutenant’s Station, two skills become available as attacks
(Torpedo Spread as
one, and maybe Rapid Fire as the other). Spending those Officer Skill
Points is
wise, but make sure to spend them on an officer worth the investment,
or make
that officer better with the methods described below. Saving up skill
points
isn’t really viable since bridge officers can’t
skip to second tier skills
without the first tier purchases.

class="MsoNormal"> style="width: 270px; height: 241px;" alt="Ship Stations"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/81023/preview">

style="">Changing Skills and
Specialties

Luckily
Bridge Officers aren’t like real employees, bridge
officers can be told what to do and that they have to change (and they
won’t
file with the HR department). Specializing a bridge officer can be
completed in
a couple of ways. The first is to use acquired bridge officer
candidates as
trainers.

class="MsoNormal"> style="width: 251px; height: 100px;" alt="Officer Candidates"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/81021/preview">

When a
new bridge officer candidate is provided, he/she/it
(aliens) will show up in the Assignments area under Bridge Officer
Candidates.
As a candidate they can train your existing crew skills for a price.
This can
be helpful if you have a full complement of officers and
can’t take on anymore,
but want some of the skills a candidate may have.

The
second way to gain new bridge officer skills is through
purchase at the Earth Spacedock from Bridge Officer Trainer (he
didn’t get a
cool name like Elsa Mora I guess). For varying Starfleet Merit costs
(Ensign
75, Lieutenant 150, etc.) most of the basic skills can be trained
directly to
existing bridge officers. This is an easy way to get the exact skills
desired
quickly. This will be very beneficial for leveling up alts later on.

class="MsoNormal"> style="width: 463px; height: 420px;" alt="Officer Training"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/81018/preview">

The
third way to gain new bridge officer skills is through
player trainers. Every bridge officer can train the bridge officers of
other
captains (players). The catch is that bridge officers can only train
other
bridge officers up to the level below their current level –
i.e. a Lieutenant
ranked bridge officer could only train up through an Ensign-ranked
skill. This
is seen as both a social tool for the game and a secondary market for a
“gathering” type profession. It reminds me of
Enchanting in World of Warcraft
in that the players have to be in proximity and the transactions are
all
completed outside of the game’s currency exchanges.

style="">Playing Favorites

There
are a couple of different schools of thought when it
comes to managing the bridge officer teams. One school is to load up
skills and
gear on a select few officers versus the other philosophy of spreading
points
to all officers so that “all boats rise.” Both
strategies can work, it’s more
of a personal preference. The reality is that in the early stages of
the game
it won’t matter all that much. One of my captains
didn’t spend an officer skill
point until he became a Lieutenant and it didn’t matter too
much. There really
is no scarcity of bridge officers or points to spend on them for the
most part.
Take your time and try to make solid decisions, but don’t
beat yourself up if
you get down the road and see some mistakes in what you did. The game
gives you
opportunities to rectify most of those mistakes.

Have
you been entertained with the bridge officers handed
down, or have you found yourself out on the corner hiring talent at 100
Starfleet Merits a pop? Are you making a couple of uber-skilled
officers or
bringing the skills of all officers up at the same time? Have you
trained other
people’s bridge officers or vice versa? Plenty of different
ways to get your
bridge officer on, share some of your experience with us in our forums.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Star Trek Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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