With Update 86, the U.S.S. Excelsior was added to the lineup! In this blog, we’ll break down the power behind the U.S.S. Excelsior’s Enhance Active Ability and explain how it can significantly boost your fleet’s combat performance.
How does the Enhanced Ability Work?
The Enhance ASA gives the ENHANCED status to all of your deployed ships in the galaxy if they are not currently docked, battling or warping.
Much like the U.S.S. Cerritos Support or U.S.S Titan’s Fortify abilities, the real power lies in the Research that improves the buffs your ship gets whilst you are Enhanced.
When you are enhanced your ships get a base damage bonus of +150% in addition to the buffs unlocked by the U.S.S. Excelsior Research.
Your ships will have a special designation when Enhanced by Excelsior.
How do I Improve the Power of Enhance?
The effectiveness of the Enhance ability can be improved through U.S.S. Excelsior Research, located at the end of the Starship Research Tree for players Ops 51+.
Once unlocked and leveled, this research grants powerful bonuses to any ships that are ENHANCED during combat. These bonuses can have a significant impact when you need extra power to overcome difficult enemies.
Enhance Research That Improves General Battle Performance
Several Excelsior-related research nodes improve combat performance across all gameplay loops when the Enhanced ASA is applied:
PvE (Hostiles and Armadas)
- Enhanced PvE Apex Shred: Increases Apex Shred against hostiles and Armadas while ENHANCED
- Enhanced PvE Apex Barrier: Increases Apex Barrier against hostiles (not Armadas) while ENHANCED
Increasing your own Apex Barrier reduces the damage you take overall, while shredding an enemy’s Apex Barrier increases the damage they receive, shortening combat duration and improving survivability.
PvP Combat
When the Enhance ASA is active, additional research improves PvP performance:
- Enhanced PvP Apex Shred: Increased Apex Shred against players (not at stations)
- Enhanced PvP Apex Barrier: Increased Apex Barrier against players (not at stations)
- Enhanced PvP Critical Damage Reduction: Reduced critical damage taken from players
Similar to PvE, Apex Shred further reduces an opponent’s available Apex Barrier, giving you an edge in combat while strengthening your own defenses and reducing incoming critical damage.
V’Ger Challenge Hostiles
Struggling against V’Ger Replicants? The U.S.S. Excelsior can help through two specialized research nodes that boost your combat power against V’Ger Challenge Hostiles:
- V’Ger Enhanced Isolytic Damage: Increases Isolytic Damage dealt to V’Ger Challenge Hostiles
- V’Ger Enhanced Isolytic Defense: Increases Isolytic Defense against damage from V’Ger Challenge Hostiles
In addition, general Enhance ASA research, such as Apex Shred, Apex Barrier, and Isolytic Defense, also applies during V’Ger encounters. This increases both damage output and survivability during Daily Challenges, including Assault-type challenges.
Maximum Effort Battles and How Enhance Fits In
Facing a particularly challenging enemy and need every edge to win? There are many ways to boost your performance: from Exocomps to Cerritos Support, Titan Fortify, Fleet Commander Active Abilities, and now Excelsior’s Enhance.
Enhance is ideal for short, high-impact scenarios, such as V’Ger encounters, where a 10-minute boost can help you secure extra kills, punch up for better rewards, or take on a superior PvP opponent.
Enhance fits neatly between longer-duration buffs (Exocomps, Cerritos, Titan) and short-burst Fleet Commander abilities, giving you another powerful option when you need to go all-in.
How Do I Unlock and Level U.S.S. Excelsior Research?
Once you own the U.S.S. Excelsior, you can unlock and level its research in the Starships Research Tree.
This research requires U.S.S. Excelsior Experimental Research, which can be obtained daily from the Excelsior Strongbox or the Store. Certain research levels also require specific U.S.S. Excelsior ship tiers.
Additional Excelsior Research (No Enhance Required)
Beyond Enhance, the U.S.S. Excelsior also provides powerful general research bonuses that apply in all battles, even when Enhance is not active:
- G5+ FKR PvE Isolytic Defense: Increased Isolytic Defense for G5+ FKR ships vs hostiles, Armadas, Invading Entities, outposts, and retaliation hostiles
- G5+ FKR PvE Weapon Damage: Increased weapon damage for G5+ FKR ships vs hostiles, Armadas, Invading Entities, outposts, and retaliation hostiles
- G5+ FKR PvP Isolytic Defense: Increased Isolytic Defense for G5+ FKR ships defending fleets during the opening combat round
- G5+ FKR PvP Apex Barrier: Increased Apex Barrier for G5+ FKR ships defending fleets at combat start
The U.S.S. Excelsior’s Enhance ability delivers powerful, short-duration fleet-wide buffs that can dramatically improve combat performance when you need an edge most. Through dedicated research, Enhance becomes a flexible and impactful tool across PvE, PvP, and V’Ger challenges, making Excelsior a key asset for Ops 51+ Commanders.
LLAP
The STFC Team
