Guide by our one and only friendly neighbourhood Moderator – Captain Epictetus
There are 5 primary officer groups within the game, there are also additional groups that are issued periodically through in-game events. For our purposes, we’ll focus on the primary groups that are available to recruit at all times.
I’ve put together the following rating system to make easy to identify what officers are effective, limited, or are broken.
Excellent | Officer is excellent on more than one ship class. Works well against hostiles and in PVP Improves the ship’s defense or offense markedly. Functions as designed. |
Good | Officer works well on more than one ship class but is not a top tier officer. Functions as designed. |
Hostile Heroes | It improves combat against hostiles and functions as specified. |
Situational | An officer then can be used to fill in for another when a better officer isn’t available. Only effective on 1 or 2 ship classes. |
Broken or Nerfed | It does not work as designed or is nerfed relative to its peers. Avoid using unless there aren’t any other officers available. |
Enterprise Crew
The Enterprise Crew are defense oriented. In general, their defensive stats are higher than any other. Their abilities typically focus on stacking endurance in a battle.
Officer | Type | Rarity | Captain Ability | Officer Ability | Preferred Ship Class |
Scotty | Engineer | Uncommon | Repair Speed Reduction | Increases hull health | N/A |
Arkady | Command | Uncommon | Chance of inspiring Morale when shield depleted | Increases shield health | N/A |
Sulu | Command | Uncommon | Chance of inspiring Morale when struck by a critical hit | Increases total damage made by energy weapons with Morale | N/A |
Uhura | Engineer | Rare | Chance of delaying opponent’s weapon fire when shield is depleted | Increases the accuracy of ship | Explorer |
Spock | Science | Rare | Increases accuracy of the ship by N% at the beginning of each round of combat. | While the ship has Morale, restores shield health to an amount equal to N% of the defense of the officers on the ship.Note: Spock cannot restore a depleted shield | Explorer, but effective on all ship types as well. |
Bones | Science | Rare | Gives a bonus of 20% to all the officer abilities. | Everytime the ship gets it, he increases the defense of all officers on the bridge by N% | N/A |
Kirk | Command | Epic | As long as the ship as morale, Kirk gives all the officers on the ship a bonus of 70% to all their stats. | At the beginning of each round, Kirk has a N% chance of inspiring Morale for 2 rounds. | N/A |
“Forever Shield” Ability
One of the most potent combinations are Spock’s ability to restore shield health complemented by Kirk’s Captain’s Maneuver increasing officer stats and Bone’s ability to increase defense by a certain percentage every time the ship is hit with a weapon.
Here are some important things to note about this ability:
- Spock will not restore a depleted shield — this means his ability is useless when paired with Arkady
- Mitigation mechanics are why the ship continues to receive hull damage despite the shield health being at 100% or more. However, a full shield improves mitigation and reduces hull damage. Shield health over the ship’s original amount will not improve mitigation as far as I can tell.
- Bone’s ability stacks throughout the battle, which means that shield health will stack as well
- For the sake of simplicity, lets calculate the increase in shield health against one officer, Kirk for example and we’ll use maxed officer abilities.
- Kirk has a defense stat of 2600 and with Morale he increases his own defensive stat by 70%.
- The ship is struck twice in a round and Bones increases the defensive stat of Kirk 30% each time.
- Spock increases the shield health by 750% of Kirk’s defensive stat
- (2600 * 1.3 * 1.3 * 1.7 ) * 7.50 = 56,023 added to shield health from Kirk alone.
Klingon Patriots
The Klingon Patriots are attack oriented. Their focus is on increasing offensive output through increased weapons damage, improved critical hit chance, and diminishing opponent’s mitigation. This group wants to end the engagement quickly and tend to be weaker in longer battles.
Officer | Type | Rarity | Captain Ability | Officer Ability | Preferred Ship Class |
Koth | Engineer | Uncommon | Koth decreases the repair time of a ship | As long as the opponent’s ship has a Hull Breach, Koth increases the damage dealt by Kinetic weapons | Interceptor, but still effective on ships with kinetic weapons |
Wotlen | Science | Uncommon | If the opponent’s ship is a battleship, he increases the damage of the weapons by 10% | Increases the dodge value on interceptors | Interceptor |
M’Ral | Command | Uncommon | M’Ral increases armor piercing of the ship by N% | M’Ral increases the total attack of all officers on the ship by N% | Interceptor |
Chang | Command | Rare | As long as the opponent’s hull health is under 60%, Chang increases the damage of weapons. | If the ship deals a critical hit to the opponent’s ship while it has Hull Breach, Chang has a N% chance of delaying it next weapon attack by 1 round | N/A |
Azetbur | Science | Rare | When hitting the enemy with a kinetic weapon. Azetbur has a N% chance of causing a Hull Breach for 2 rounds | While the ship has Everytime the ship hits with a weapon Azetbur increases the armor piercing of a ship by N% | Interceptor |
Kerla | Engineer | Rare | When the shields are depleted during the battle, Kerla increases the dodge of the ship by N% | Kerla increases the Critical Hit Damage by N% when firing with a kinetic weapon | Interceptor, but effective on battleships. |
Gorkon | Command | Epic | Increases the chance of dealing a critical hit by N% for the first 2 rounds. | When the ship hits the opponent with a critical hit, gorkon has a 90% chance of causing a Hull Breach for three rounds. | Interceptor, but can be effective on battleships |
Nero Crew
The Nero Crew are health oriented. In general, their health stats are higher than any other. The Nero Crew was designed to work effectively on battleships and their abilities tend to focus on diminishing the effectiveness of the opponent’s shield. This group also tends to be weaker in longer battles.
Officer | Type | Rarity | Captain Ability | Officer Ability | Preferred Ship Class |
Arix | Science | Uncommon | Everytime the opponent is hit by an energy weapon, Arix has a 10% chance of Burning it. | As long as the ship’s Hull health is under 70% of its value at the start of combat, Arix increases its Armor by N% | Battleship |
Javaid | Command | Uncommon | Javaid increases the Shield Piercing of the ship by 35% | If the ship is a Battleship, Javaid increases its Armor by 40% | Battleship |
Vella | Science | Uncommon | If the opponent ship is an Explorer, Vella increases the damage of weapons | Increases total health of all officers on the ship by 15% | N/A |
Vemet | Science | Rare | Can heal the hull health of a ship by 5% in the event the battle is lost. | At the beginning of each round, if the opponent’s ship is Burning, Vemet decreases its Shield Health by an amount equal to 700% of the Health of all officers on the ship | N/A |
Kumak | Command | Rare | At the beginning of each round, Kumak increases the stats of all Officers on the ship by 5% | As long as the enemy ship i Burning, Kumak increases the Armor, Shield, Deflection and Dodge of the ship by 100% | N/A |
Livis | Engineer | Rare | Livis decreases the time needed to repair the ship by 10% if it is a Battleship | If the ship is a Battleship, Livis increases its maximum Hull health by N% | Battleship |
Nero | Engineer | Epic | At the beginning of each round, if the opponent’s ship is Burning, Nero increases the damage of weapons by 60% | Everytime the ship strikes the opponent, Nero has a N% chance of Burning it for two rounds. | N/A |
Starfleet Academy
This group is entirely focused on improving offensive and defensive capabilities against hostiles. They can even outperform Epic officers when the opponent is a hostile. This group is ideal when doing hostile farming. Note, their abilities are not active against mission hostiles.
Officer | Type | Rarity | Captain Ability | Officer Ability | Preferred Ship Class |
Shev Akria | Engineer | Common | Increases Tritanium Rewards against hostiles | Increases energy damage against hostiles | N/A |
Gaila | Engineer | Common | Increases Parsteel Rewards against hostiles | Decreases critical hit damage from hostiles | N/A |
T’Laan | Science | Common | Increases ship experience gained by fighting hostiles | Decreases the damage done by hostile KINETIC weapons | N/A |
Vel K’Bentayr | Science | Common | Increases dilithium rewards for defeating a hostile | Increases the damage done to hostiles with KINETIC weapons | N/A |
Grace Chen | Science | Common | Chen increases the Dodge, Shields, Deflection and Armor of the ship against hostiles | Decreases the damage done by hostile energy weapons | N/A |
Lucia Gonzales | Command | Common | Increases the chance of dealing a critical hit against hostiles | Increases the damage of critical hits against hostiles | N/A |
Marlena Moreau | Science | Rare | After winning a battle, she heals the shield health by 40% | Decreases the armor piercing, shield piercing, and accuracy of hostiles by a certain percentage | N/A |
Glory In The Kill
This group is entirely focused on combating other players. In the event you find yourself engaging against a player with leveled rare/epic crews, this group can be used to neutralize the crew and diminish their effectiveness.
Officer | Type | Rarity | Captain Ability | Officer Ability | Preferred Ship Class |
Rukor | Command | Common | Increases weapon damage against players when in a explorer | Increases energy weapon damage if the opponent is a player | Explorer |
Vartoq | Command | Common | Increases weapons damage against players when inside a interceptor | Increases damage done by kinetic weapons if the opponent is a player | Interceptor |
Komal | Engineer | Uncommon | Increases weapons damage against players when inside a battleship | Decreases the damage of opponent’s kinetic weapons if the opponent is a player | Battleship |
Vixis | Science | Uncommon | Has a 6% chance of delaying an opponent’s weapon fire for one round | Decreases energy weapon damage of opponent players | N/A |
Klaa | Command | Rare | Increases the impulse speed of a ship | Increases critical hit damage by 20% | N/A |
Kras | Science | Epic | Decreases the effectiveness of the opponent’s captain maneuver. | Decreases the attack, defense, and health of all officers on the bridge of the opponent’s ship | N/A |
Augments
The Augments are attack and health oriented. Their captain and officer abilities are attack and critical hit oriented. They focus almost exclusively on improving attack and diminishing mitigation on a station and the docked ships.
Since the augment group are the most effective in earlier rounds and focus on improving critical hits they are well suited on interceptors and battleships (e.g. Bortas).
Officer | Type | Rarity | Captain Ability | Officer Ability | Preferred Ship Class |
Joaquin | Command | Uncommon | Increases the Protected Cargo of the ship | Joaquin increases the mining rate of decoded and corrupted date | Botany Bay / Surveyor |
Kati | Science | Uncommon | At the start of each round, if the target is a defense platform, she increases the chances of a critical hit | When attacking a station, she increased the critical hit damage | Interceptor / Battleship |
Otto | Engineer | Uncommon | At the start of each round, if the target of the ship is a defense platform, he increases the damage of the ship | Increases the Attack to every officer on the bridge of the ship | Interceptor/Battleship |
Marla McGivers | Science | Rare | Increases the repair speed of the ship. | Increases the Attack, Defense, and Health of the captain | N/A |
Joachim | Science | Rare | When attacking a station, he has a N% chance of greatly increasing the mitigation of the ship for the first round of combat | When attacking a station, he decreases the weapon damage of all opponent’s ships and defense platforms | N/A |
Khan | Command | Epic | When attacking a station, he has a N% chance of drastically reducing the mitigation of the opponent for two rounds | Everytime the ship is hit, he increases the critical hit chances by N% | Interceptor/Battleship |
Limited Edition Officers or Newly Released
These officers are introduced periodically through in-game events. They tend to have very effective abilities and maneuvers even when they have not been leveled. Their weak point is that their officer stats tend to be low and can reduce the ship’s officer bonuses
Officer | Type | Rarity | Captain Ability | Officer Ability | Preferred Ship Class |
John Harrison | Science | Rare | Increases weapons damage against explorers by 20% | In the first round of combat, Harrison ignores a certain percentage of the shield | N/A |
Decius | Science | Rare | When fighting a superior ship, Decius increases accuracy, armor piercing, and shield piercing by 10%e | Every time the ship gets hit, Decius increases its weapon damage by a certain percentage | N/A |
Mara | Science | Rare | When fighting interceptors, Mara increases the weapon damage by 20% | As long as the opponent ship has Hull Breah, Mara decreases its dodge N% at the end of each round | Explorer |
Krell | Engineer | Rare | Every time the ship gets shield health damage, Krell has a 30% chance of dealing a Hull Breach for 1 round | Krell increases the damage against Federation ships by 25% of the crew’s defense | N/A |
Paul | Zhou | Uncommon | Increases the defense of the officers onboard | Anytime the ship has morale Zhou boosts Armor/Deflection/Dodge by % of the defense of the crew. | |
Alexander | Marcus | Epic | When the enemy ship HHP dips below 80%, Marcus has a certain change to cause Morale | Marcus increases the shield pierce values as a percentage of the crew defense | battleship/explorer |
Liviana | Charvanek | Epic | When the ship’s HUll health goes under 80% at the start of combat, she has a % chance of Burning. | Increases the armor piercing of the ship by a percentage of the health of the crew. | interceptor/explorer |
Kang | At the start of battle, Kang has a percentage chance of dealing a Hull Breach to the opponent for 3 rounds | Increases the accuracy of the ship by a percentage of the attack of the crew. | explorer/battleship |
Crew Recommendations
The crew that you put on a ship is a situation relative to what kind of ship you have, what ship you are attacking, the damage output of the opponent, and whether it is PVP or Hostile. Below you’ll find a series of crew recommendations that I’ve put together based on my own experience. However, you shouldn’t hesitate to tweak or experiment based on the information I’ve provided above.
Hostile Farming
Effective hostile farming is all about being able to destroy as many hostiles before your ship is destroyed. Below is a list of different combinations that you can use depending on what officers you have available and what works best for your ship.
Captain | Bridge 1 | Bridge 2 | Below Deck Stats | Notes |
Pike | Moreau | Chen or T’laan | N/A | If you are lucky enough to have Captain Pike, leverage his captain ability paired with Moreau. This results in a 60% boost to Chen or T’Laan’s hostile damage reduction. This is hands down the best hostile farming configuration |
Cadet Uhura | Cadet McCoy | T’Laan or Chen | If you don’t have Pike this is a good alternative to boost damage output and reduce hostile damage. | |
Gonzales | Chen | Harrison | A mix of officers with health, attack, and defense to balance officer bonuses. | Gonzales increases critical hit chance against hostiles. Chen decreases damage from energy weapons. Harrison strips shield for the first round |
Chen | Moreau | Harrison | A mix of officers with health, attack, and defense to balance officer bonuses. | Chen increases dodge, deflection, and armor. Decreases damage from energy weapons. Harrison strips shield for the first round. Moreau decreases armor-piercing, shield pierce, and accuracy of hostile. |
Chen | K’Bentayr / Akria | Moreau | A mix of officers with health, attack, and defense to balance officer bonuses. | Chen increases dodge, deflection, and armor. Decreases damage from energy weapons.These two officers effective either energy or kinetic. Depending on what faction hostile, you’ll want to swap the two.Moreau decreases armor piercing, shield pierce, and accuracy of hostile. |
ChenAlternate: VellaIncreases damage against explorers. Useful for explorer hostiles | Krell | Moreau | Defense oriented officers to boost Krell’s ability | This is a Federation farming configuration. Chen increases dodge, deflection, and armor. Decreases damage from energy weapons. Krell increases damage federation ships relative to the officer’s defense. Moreau decreases armor-piercing, shield pierce, and accuracy of hostile. |
Gorkon | Koth | Chen | A mix of Defense and Health. | Interceptor ConfigurationI’ve used this configuration against difficult hostiles in dailies. Gorkon boosts critical hit chance. Koth boosts kinetics under hull breach and boosts Gorkon’s abilityChen decreases hostile damage |
Nero | Vemet | Chen | Defense and Attack | Battleship Configuration against Explorer HostilesNero increases weapon damage, Vemet strips hostile shield, and Chen reduces energy damage from explorers |
PVP or Armadas
PVP configurations are dependent on ship class and what officers are available to you. I’ve included a ranked list for each ship class type. Again, these are recommendations and I encourage everyone to experiment with their own configurations.
Mitigation Monsters
Paul Zhou
For any one of the configurations below the officer “Paul Zhou” can be swapped out for one of the bridge crew and is especially effective on Armadas.
Zhou can maximize the mitigation property of any ship to where it caps out at 71% mitigation — which is the maximum allowed by the game. Effectively, it negates any triangle advantage and any offensive piercing/accuracy values of the opposing ship.
Just remember that Zhou must be paired with an officer that can produce “Morale” (Kirk, Marcus, etc.)
Alexander Marcus, Kang, and Charvanek
These officers, when they reach Rank 4 and 5, increase offensive values (pierce, accuracy) to such a high degree (relative to below deck stats) that they can flip the triangle with respect to engagements against ships that normally would have an advantage OR they’ll further your advantage in the battle triangle.
They can push the mitigation factor well below 50% in PVP engagements which round-over-round can be the difference between winning or losing.
Anti-Faction
A relatively new introduction to the game are the anti-faction officers. These officers are Overpowered (“OP”) at Rank 4 & 5 (20-30). Especially if you have a deep officer roster with high officer stats. They can increase damage output by 5x or more when battling a faction ship.
Captain | Bridge 1 | Bridge 2 | Below Deck | Notes |
Kirk | Krell | Mirek | Defense — as much defense as you can put below deck without affecting ship bonuses. | This is an ideal combination when fighting Federation ships. Krell and Mirek will stack their abilities and Kirk will boost officer stats. |
Kirk | Yuki | Yan’Agh | Health — as much health as you can put below deck without affecting ship bonuses | This is an ideal combination when fighting Romulan ships. Yuki and Yan’Agh will stack their abilities and Kirk will boost officer stats. |
Kirk | L’Nar | Spock | Attack — as much attack as you can put below deck without affecting ship bonuses | This is an ideal combination when fighting Klingon ships. L’nar will boost damage and Kirk will boost officer stats to further stack damage output. |
Interceptor
Captain | Bridge 1 | Bridge 2 | Below Deck Stats | Notes |
Gorkon | Kerla | HarrsionAlternate: WotlenKoth | Defense, Health, and Attack. In that order | Gorkon increases the chance of a critical hit. Kerla increases the damage of a critical hit with kinetic weaponsKoth, with Hull Breach, increases kinetic weapons damage. |
Gorkon | Kerla | Khan | Defense and then an equal mix of health and attack. | Gorkon increased the chance of a critical hit in the first two rounds. Kerla increased the damage of a critical hit with kinetic weaponsKhan will increase the chance of a critical hit every time the ship is hit |
Kirk | Bones | Spock | Attack, Health, and Defense. In that order | These three officers are focused on providing an excellent defense. They may not end the fight fast. But they provide incredible battle endurance. |
M’Ral | Wotlen | Kerla | Health, Defense, and Attack in that order. | A serviceable alternative if you are limited on epic or rare officers. |
Battleship
Captain | Bridge 1 | Bridge 2 | Below Deck Stats | Notes |
Kirk | Bones | Spock | Attack, Health, and Defense. In that order | These three officers are focused on providing excellent defense. They may not end the fight fast. But they provide incredible battle endurance. |
Gorkon | Kerla | Koth | Defense, Health, and Attack. In that order | This group can be very effective on battleships withkinetic weapons (e.g. Bortas, Kumari) where the big Kinetic weapon fires in the first two rounds.Not effective on Intrepid or Legionary |
Nero | VemetAlternate:Javaid when Vemet is low level. | Livis | Health, Defense, and Attack. In that order. | While Nero’s weapons maneuver is not ideal, we want him on the bridge for Vemet.Vemet strips the enemy shield by a certain % of all the officers health. This is why health is a important officer stat in this configuration.Livis increases the overall hull health. |
Javaid | Livis | HarrisonAlternate: Arix | Attack, Defense, and Health. | Javaid increases armor and captain maneuver improves shield piercing (excellent against explorers)Livis increases hull health.Harrison ignores a percentage of the shield for the first round. |
Explorer
Captain | Bridge 1 | Bridge 2 | Below Deck Stats | Notes |
Kirk | BonesAlternate: UhuraUse Uhura if the defense stats of your crew are high or if you have the EnterpriseAlternate: Sulu orHarrisonCan shorten fights against a smaller or equally matched opponent. | Spock | Defense, Attack, and Health | This is an ideal crew for an explorer since it bolsters the primary defensive component of an explorer: shieldsSpock is only as good as the defensive stats of your crew. Weak officers on a high powered ship would result in a minimal increase in shield health. |
Sulu | ArkadyAlternate: HarrisonUseful against weaker opponents and you want to minimize rounds of combat. | Uhura | Attack, Health, and Defense | Sulu can inspire morale, and with morale he can increase weapons damage.Arkady increases shield health.Uhura increases accuracy |
Sulu | Arkady | Scotty | Attack, Defense, and Health. | If you are short on rare officers. This is a decent crew to increase base stats and weapons with morale. |
Base Breaking (Attacking Stations)
With the introduction of the Augment group attacking a station will require its own set of officer configurations to improve the effectiveness of ship combat against a station.
Captain | Bridge 1 | Bridge 2 | Ship Type | Notes |
Khan | Joachim | Marla McGiversorKati:She increases the damage of a critical hit. However, paired with Joachim Khan’s ability chance goes down to 85%. | Interceptor or Battleship | Khan is veryeffective in the first two rounds and cumulatively increased critical hit chancesJoachim reduces damage by the opponent throughout combatMarla ensures that Khan has a 100% chance of triggering Khan’s ability via synergy.Marla will also contribute to increasing ship bonuses by padding the Captain’s statsKati increases critical hit damage.Note: I know some of you are going to ask why not Harrison. Harrison and Khan neutralize each other and do not work in tandem. |
Joachim | Otto | Kati | Interceptor / Battleship | If you do not yet have Khan. This combination is still effective.Joachim decreases the effectiveness of station defensesOtto increases officer stats (bumping ship bonus) and contributed to Joachim ability chance. |
Gorkon | Kerla | HarrisonAlternate: Koth | Interceptor/Battleship(excluding Intrepid/Legionary) | This combination will deal a lot of damage in the first two rounds.The ship may not last long in combat, but so long as it can fire off a short or two it is an effective combo. |