“Tough little ship.”

“Little?”

-William Riker and Worf

Commanders, it is time to redefine what a “tough ship” looks like! We are pleased to bring you The Vindicator, a new STFC original starship designed for Armada combat. The ship is first available at Operations 40, and can be upgraded to a maximum of 18 tiers! A Battleship, The Vindicator is more durable than a K’t’inga when first constructed, and will continue to keep pace with comparable faction battleships as it advances in tier. While its weapons may seem underwhelming in comparison, it is important to remember that The Vindicator is designed for Armada combat, and it is in Armada combat that it truly shines.

The Vindicator possesses two ship abilities, one passive and one active. Both are essential to its function as the ultimate Armada combat vessel. Let’s discuss them both and explain how they can bring your Armada killing prowess to the next level:

Unfettered Revenge: Increases Weapon Damage by X% for 5 rounds each time you are hit by an Armada (cumulative).

This ability starts off at 5% when The Vindicator is freshly constructed and improves every level. Here is what you can expect if the ship is max level for its tier:

Commanders must be Operations 51 or higher to upgrade the Vindicator past Tier 6.

Commanders must be Operations 61 or higher to upgrade the Vindicator past Tier 12.

This boost is cumulative every time The Vindicator is attacked by the Armada target, and each individual stack lasts for 5 rounds. So for a freshly built Level 5 Vindicator, if it is shot four times on the first round by an Armada target, its weapon damage boost will be 125%. If it is shot three more times on the second round, it will be 200%. If it takes no damage at all for the next five rounds, the damage boost will drop to 75% on round 6 and to nothing on round 7.

The Vindicator needs to take damage to do damage, and has a tremendous amount of durability to enable that. But how can you ensure it takes damage when it’s just one ship in the group? That is where the second ability comes into play!

Taunt: At the start of combat, opponent Armadas will target The Vindicator for 20 rounds.

This ability will ensure that your target will aim directly at The Vindicator and not any of your alliance mates, or your other ships in a solo armada. If more than one Taunting ship is present, the target will be selected randomly between all ships actively Taunting. This ability must be activated before combat begins in order to be effective. It does not cost any sort of currency to activate, though it does have a cooldown period after being used. The duration of the Taunt will increase with tier, and the duration of the cooldown will decrease. At the highest tier of 18, there is no cooldown at all!

Upgrading The Vindicator – Vindicator Refinery!

Improving The Vindicator is done through exchanging bundles in the new Vindicator Refinery tab, which will appear once you have built the ship. In this Symbiosis arc there will be a weekly event similar in nature to the Cerritos event where you can use the ship to obtain a week’s supply of refinery tokens. There are three bundles that can be refined there:

Vindicator Strongbox – This is the primary bundle, it contains The Vindicator Parts needed to upgrade your ship. It also includes Interdimensional Data, the research material needed for the new nodes available in the Starship research tree that relate to The Vindicator. Also included in this bundle are some Temporal Disruptors to assist you in improving your Temporal Artifacts, and some Armada Countdown Speed Ups.

Fleet Commander Acquisition – This bundle provides you with 1 shard each of Fleet Commander Lorca and Fleet Commander Sloan. It also provides 3 shards each for Fleet Commanders Kirk, Spock, Locutus, Seven, and Janeway! It also provides you with a variable amount of FC credits, Lorca skill points, and Sloan skill points depending on the tier of your Vindicator. If you’ve been missing out on any Fleet Commander related content, The Vindicator will get you there!

Officer Acquisition – This bundle includes shards for a wide array of useful officers, some of whom have had quite limited sourcing in the past! The following officers can be sourced through this bundle:

Prepare for battle!

The Vindicator relies heavily on its Taunt, which ensures that it will be the target of the Armada’s attacks. Successful Commanders will make use of officers that also benefit from being targeted numerous times. Here are some suggestions of officers with abilities like that for you to experiment with!

Be sure to experiment and find the best way to make use of this new ship! The Vindicator has a hefty amount of Shield HP, so we recommend making the most of that. Among the new research nodes in the Starship tree related to the ship is a node that enables shield regeneration on The Vindicator. We recommend Commanders start by going for that one. We look forward to seeing what you can do with this powerful new anti-Armada tool, and how you use it during this Symbiosis Arc!

LLAP

-The Star Trek Team