Star Trek Online at Ten Ton Hammer

Welcome back to Starship Basics, Ten Ton Hammer’s guide to starship knowledge for Star Trek Online. Starship combat is at the heart of STO as that many missions require you to defeat enemy forces in the cold confines of space, but also in that you do all your traveling via starship and can have unfriendly encounters at almost any time. Plus, starship combat is one of the coolest aspects of the Trek universe. Don’t tell me that you didn’t get excited in Star Trek II when the Enterprise blew off one of the Reliant’s warp nacelles, rendering Khan’s ship severely disabled! Or that you didn’t enjoy the fleet actions that took place in Deep Space Nine whenever the Dominion showed up? Of course, there have been some lame starship fights, such as in Star Trek: Insurrection when the Enterprise defeated the enemy by essentially farting on their spaceships? Purge your mind of such lame acts and focus on the gloriously cool space combats that permeate the rest of the shows and movies!

In the first installment of Starship Basics, we discussed the various terminology and stats of your starship. In this more advanced class, we will discuss the weapons that a starship can use to wreak vengeance upon the enemy. Weapons are one of the two principal components of your starship, shields being the other, in that if you can’t damage your enemy, then your mighty starship is as dangerous as a fluffy tribble…which is not at all!

Overall, there are three different types of weapon that a starship can wield: beam weapons, mines, and torpedoes. Each of those specific weapons have differing versions and can inflict various types of effects upon enemy ships based upon their damage type.


Types of Damage
All weapons do damage, no matter if they are beam or torpedo. However, there are different damage types. The main difference between types is that a shield that is specifically geared towards one damage type takes less damage (usually 20%) from a weapon that inflicts that type of damage. An example would be that you’re shooting at an enemy ship using your phasers. If the enemy ship had a shield that was geared towards phasers, you would inflict less damage than you would if you were shooting at him using disruptors. When you start out in STO, you’ll be limited to phaser and disruptor weapons. As you gain in level, weapons that use other damage types will become available to you. Overall, there are usually ten levels associated with most weapons, listed as Mark I through Mark X. The higher the mark of the weapon, the more damage it does, but it requires a higher character level to use. Listed below are the various damage types.

• Phaser : [Pha] – Standard Federation weapon, but able to be used by all factions. Has a 2.5% chance to disable a subsystem for 5 seconds.
• Disruptor : [Dis] – Standard Klingon/bad guy weapon, but able to be used by all factions. Has a 2.5% chance of -10% damage resistance for 15 seconds.
• Plasma : [Pla] – Normally used by Romulans and the Borg. Has a 2.5% chance of causing additional plasma damage over 15 seconds (scales up with the weapon level).
• Tetryon : [Tet] – These weapons aren’t specifically used by any one faction, but are available to all. Has a 2.5% chance of reducing all shields by 80.
• Polaron : [Pol] – This type becomes available at the Captain rank. Has a 2.5% chance of reducing all power levels by 25.
• Antiproton : [Ap] – Mainly used for end-game weapons, Antiproton weapons have an additional critical chance.
• Kinetic : [Kin] – Kinetic damage is inflicted by torpedoes and mines. While torpedoes and mines might use different types of warheads (Quantum, Plasma, etc.), they all do kinetic damage.

Weapon Arcs
You can place weapons in either the forward weapons slots or aft weapons slot on your starship. However, just because you place a weapon in a forward slot doesn’t mean that it will only fire straight ahead. Each weapon has an arc, expressed in degrees, where it can shoot at enemy ships. A weapon that has a 250 degree arc can shoot to the front and sides of the ship. A weapon that has a 90 degree arc can only shoot at ships directly in front of your starship. On a side note, a weapon that has a small arc (45 or 90 degrees) can shoot enemy starships directly in front of you. If they get too high or too low in relation to your starship, you will be unable to shoot them. Keep the nose of your ship pointed at the enemy to keep a continuous stream of fire upon them.

Beam Weapons
Beam weapons are the standard weapons of any starship and encompass many different types. Each style of beam weapons inflicts a certain type of damage (phaser, disruptor, plasma, tetryon, and polaron). Beam weapons have arcs ranging from 45 degrees to a full 360 degrees and can be placed in either the forward or aft weapon slots. Beam weapons have a range of 10 kilometers. The different types of beam weapons are:

• Array – The most standard type of beam weapon. They have a wide firing arc, which means that you can give a broadside to an enemy ship using the forward and aft weapons if they are both arrays. They have a 250 degree firing arc.
• Dual Array – Two weapons stacked into a single array. They inflict more damage than an array, but have a smaller firing arc of 90 degrees.
• Cannon – Inflicts heavier damage than an array and has a firing arc of 180 degrees.
• Dual Cannon – Inflicts more damage than a cannon, but at the cost of having an even more limited firing arc of 45 degrees and increased energy usage.
• Dual Heavy Cannon – These weapons inflict more damage than dual cannons, but use more energy and have a firing arc of 45 degrees. They also have a +10 critical severity buff.
• Turret – Turrets inflict the least damage of the beam weapons, but they have the bonus of having a full 360 degree firing arc, which means that they can hit any ship within range at all times. These are great to put in your aft weapon slots if you like to do a bull charge at your enemies as that you’ll be firing with all your forward weapons and your aft mounted turrets will be hitting too.

Normal beam weapons can be used by any ship. However, cannons above Mark IV can only be used on Escorts. Beam weapons use energy, so the greater the number of beam weapons that you have on a ship, plus the faster the rate of fire, the more quickly you will drain power from your weapons.


Torpedoes
Torpedoes can be mounted in either the forward or aft weapon slots for your starship. Torpedoes have a 10 kilometer range and have a recharge timer. All torpedoes have a 90 degree firing arc. Torpedoes are not effective against shields as that they lose their kinetic energy (damage) when they impact ship shields. Torpedoes are best used to hit a ship when their shields drop and you can directly hit the hull. In addition, if you fire one torpedo, all other torpedo launchers will begin to recharge and thus be unable to fire which means that you can’t fire two or more torpedoes at the same time. However, there is a skill, Torpedo Salvo, which can fire multiple torpedoes from a single launcher.  Torpedoes inflict kinetic damage and also have the warhead damage type which has various effects as listed below.

• Photon – The standard torpedo which has a 6 second timer. They have a 50% chance to inflict -20 Able Crew to the enemy ship.
• Quantum – This type of torpedo has an 8 second timer and travels faster than the other torpedo types. Quantum torpedoes have a 10% chance to inflict -10 Alive Crew to the enemy ship.
• Plasma – Plasma torpedoes have an 8 second timer and they can inflict a damage over time (DoT) debuff to an enemy ship.
• Chroniton – Chroniton torpedoes have a 10 second timer, but they slow down an enemy ship, reducing their flight speed and turn rate by 100% for 10 seconds.
• Transphasic – This type of torpedo has a recharge time of 10 seconds and has a chance to bypass ship shields.
• Tricobalt – These Mark X torpedoes inflict the most damage of all torpedoes, but have a recharge timer of 30 seconds. They also have a chance to disable the enemy ship for 2 seconds.

Mines
Mines are passive weapons and have no real firing arc. When used, you will launch 5 mines behind your ship. The mines will remain stationary until an enemy comes within 4 kilometers of them, at which point they will fly towards the enemy and detonate. If you are fighting several ships, the mines might attack different ships depending upon the range between the ships and the individual mines. Ship mines can also be targeted and destroyed by a single beam weapon shot. Mines can only go in the aft weapon slots.

• Photon – These mines have a +2 Critical Chance.
• Quantum – These mines have a +20 Critical Severity.
• Plasma – These mines have a chance to inflict Damage over Time (DoT) to an enemy ship.
• Transphasic – These mines have a +2 Critical Chance.
• Chroniton – Chroniton mines reduce flight speed and turn rate by 100% for 10 seconds.

During the course of your travels, you might come across rare weapon drops. These rare weapons can include additional bonuses to either accuracy (Acc), Critical Severity (CrtD), or Critical Chance (CrtH), or a combination of all three. The accuracy bonus is 0.1%, the Critical Severity bonus is +20, and the Critical Chance bonus is 2%. The bonuses can stack. An example would be that you find a rare phaser array that gives [CrtH]x2, which would translate into a Critical Chance bonus of +4%.

As you can see, there are three basic weapons for a starship: beam weapons, torpedoes, and mines. Each type of weapon can inflict various damage types, impacting the enemy in different ways. How you choose to arm your ship is a matter of personal preference and fighting style. Foremost, always make sure to upgrade your weapons whenever you get the chance. Aside from that, it’s all up to you. If you like to draw your enemies close to you, then use mines to create a minefield and lure the bad guys into your web of death. If you like to maneuver heavily, then use normal phaser arrays to maximize your broadsides as you fly around your opponent. If you like to charge ahead with guns blazing, then load up on cannons in the forward weapon slots and turrets in the aft slots to maximize your damage output as you hit attack speed. Remember, there’s no one way to destroy a Federation….I mean, there’s no one way to skin a cat! How you choose to deal doom to your adversaries is up to you.