“I’m also looking into something unusual from the battle, and I know you love a good mystery. If that doesn’t whet your appetite like a good Scotch, then I don’t know what will!”
The V’ger entity was halted by a joint Federation and Klingon effort, but the victory came at a steep cost, leaving the alliance fractured. Though its replicated armada has retreated beyond Federation space, the V’ger is expected to rebuild and strike again—potentially with newly replicated vessels and Earth as its ultimate target.
As Starfleet monitors the V’ger energy cloud, Scotty analyzes battle data and uncovers a troubling clue about the V’ger avatar’s identity, one that may challenge assumptions about the true nature of the V’ger entity itself.
Watch the official Patch Notes here.
What’s in Update 87 – The Original Series: V’ger Rebirth Part 2
- A new building: The Signal Observatory
- A new officer: V’ger Ilia
- A new Daily Challenge
- A new hostile: The V’ger Orion Interceptor
- New missions
- A new addition to the Independent Archives: The Mantis
- A new Battle Pass and a new Mid-Ops Battle Pass
- V’ger Part 2 Scotty’s Research Ticketed Event Series
- New Prototype Tech and Chaos Tech
- And More!
Quality of Life Updates
Independent Archives: The Mantis
The Mantis has arrived in the Independent Archives and is available to Commanders with Shipyard Level 33 and higher. Designed to specialize in combat against Actian Apex hostiles, the Mantis introduces new progression and rewards to the Independent Archives. Mantis Mastery combines daily rewards from the Mantis Refinery, Mirror Universe Refinery, and Ex-Borg Faction Store into a single free daily claim in the Independent Archives.
Rewards include:
- Syndicate XP
- Synthetic Nitrium
- Synthetic Ion
- Hull Fragments
- Condensed Venom
- Actian efficiency bonuses
Outpost Improvements
Outpost improvements include new attack status notifications, a fix for ships stacking after completing an Outpost, and Outpost Speedups now being claimed in a separate bundle.
- Outpost Status Notifications: Players will now receive in-game notifications when an Outpost attack is successful or fails.
- Ships Stacking After Completing an Outpost. Commanders’ ships should no longer stack on top of each other in the system screen after completing an Outpost attack.
- Outpost Speedups: Outpost Speedups are now claimed in their own bundle separate from existing Armada Speedups.
Missions
Core Missions:
Natural Selection Parts 1-8 (Ops 51+)
It’s uncovered that House Amar is connected to the new V’ger. With the Klingon alliance fractured, now you must set out to find the original V’ger for answers, while Scotty, reeling from the battle with the new V’ger, desperately searches for engineering solutions to counter the growing threat.
Side Missions:
Orion Scientists Parts 1-3 (Ops 51+)
You receive intel from a downed Starfleet vessel about a new V’ger ship based on an Orion design. The vessel reveals itself, leading to a direct engagement…
New Hostile & Daily Challenge
The Daily Challenge Loop expands with the addition of the V’ger Orion Interceptor. New Easy and Hard challenges will run on Wednesdays and Sundays, replacing the V’ger Gorn and V’ger Silent hostiles that previously appeared on those days. With these new hostiles come new officer lockouts, as the V’ger continues to adapt to emerging challenges from Commanders.
This Orion Interceptor, once scanned and vaporized by the V’ger entity, and now replicated from its archive comes equipped with powerful abilities.
Ability 1: Replicated Particle Cannon
- Increases Isolytic Damage
- Increases Isolytic Defense
- Increases Apex Barrier at the start of combat
- Reduces the target’s Critical Damage each round
- Lowers Shield Mitigation for multiple rounds
- Shreds the target’s Apex Barrier after receiving a Critical Hit
Ability 2: Replicated Counter-Intel:
Suder and Kathryn Janeway join the SNW Officers from Update 86. If the following Officers are present on your ship, they cause the V’ger Orion Interceptor to gain a massive amount of Apex Barrier.
- Kathryn Janeway
- Suder
- SNW Pike
- SNW Pelia
- SNW Sam Kirk
- SNW James Kirk
- SNW T’Pring
The Signal Observatory
The Signal Observatory (Ops 51+) is a subspace radio telescope built around a living database of new and legacy transmission technologies. It improves V’ger challenge track payouts and enhances G7 Uncommon station material cost efficiency. And at level 71, it unlocks the Daily V’ger Bounty Challenge for free, allowing commanders to earn 50 Challenge Track Points each day without purchasing the contract from the store.
The Signal Observatory increases Challenge Credits and FKR Credits earned from the V’ger Challenge Track. Reaching key milestones immediately grants a Challenge Refinery Gift containing Challenge Credits and FKR Exchange Tokens, while each Challenge Track reset increases overall reward payouts.
At building levels 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 and 75, the Signal Observatory further enhances the V’ger Challenge Track by increasing Challenge and FKR Credit earnings. Additionally, upgrading the building grants Gifts every 10 levels, which include shards of the new Prototype Tech, the Neural Neutralizer, and Veil Warp Tolls.
Gifts and Challenge Track Rewards
Level 10:
- Challenge Refinery Gift
- Solo Outpost Directives chest is added to the Challenge Refinery
Level 20:
- Challenge Refinery Gift
- Challenge Track Tier 2: +20% Challenge Credits | +10% FKR Credits
- Elite Solo Outpost Directives chest are added to the Challenge Refinery
Level 30:
- Challenge Refinery Gift
- Challenge Track Tier 3: +30% Challenge Credits | +15% FKR Credits
Level 40:
- Challenge Refinery Gift
- Challenge Track Tier 4: +40% Challenge Credits | +20% FKR Credits
Level 50:
- Challenge Refinery Gift
- Challenge Track Tier 5: +50% Challenge Credits | +25% FKR Credits
Level 60:
- Challenge Refinery Gift
- Challenge Track Tier 6: +60% Challenge Credits | +30% FKR Credits
Level 70:
- Challenge Refinery Gift
- Challenge Track Tier 7: +90% Challenge Credits | +40% FKR Credits
Level 71:
- Free Daily Bounty Challenge
Level 75:
- Challenge Refinery Gift
- Challenge Track Tier 8: +120% Challenge Credits | +50% FKR Credits
Level 80:
- Challenge Refinery Gift
Building Buffs:
- V’ger Base Damage Increase
- G5+ FKR PvP Isolytic Defense
- G5+ FKR Non-Armada Critical Damage
- G7 Uncommon Materials Station Efficiency
New Additions to the Challenge Refinery
The following items have been added to the Challenge Refinery for players Ops 51+and can be purchased using Challenge Credits. Items unlock at various Signal Observatory levels and require a minimum Operations level.
Specialty Ship Blueprints
- Reliant (Signal Observatory Level 20)
- Serene Squall (Signal Observatory Level 20)
- GS-31 (Signal Observatory Level 30)
- Vengeance (Signal Observatory Level 50)
Other Rewards
- Solo Outpost Directives (Signal Observatory Level 10)
- Elite Solo Outpost Directives (Signal Observatory Level 20)
- G7 Station Uncommon Material Cost Efficiency Artifacts: Ezri’s Exographic Targeting Sensor, Nog’s Cane, and Sisko’s Romulan Ale Glass
Veil Toll Space
Veil Toll Systems
Nine new Veil Toll systems have been added to level 74–76 Veil Space, featuring improved Ore, Gas, and Crystal nodes with larger capacity and faster mining speeds compared to existing Veil systems.
Access to these systems requires a Veil Signal Warp Toll, which can be obtained as a limited gift from Signal Observatory Gift Bundles, as well as through a daily exchange in the Challenge Refinery for Ops 71+ players with a Signal Observatory at level 60 or higher. The daily exchange is capped at 2 toll tokens.
The U.S.S. Excelsior Research Tree
U.S.S. Excelsior V’ger Daily Sweeps
Two new research nodes have been added to the Excelsior Starship Research Tree, allowing Commanders Ops 51+ to complete V’ger Daily Challenges by defeating V’ger Fighters with the U.S.S. Excelsior. The V’ger Challenge Sweep unlocks completion of the V’ger Daily Challenge and the V’ger Assault Challenge Sweep enables completion of the V’ger Assault Daily Challenge.
With these new research nodes, Commanders will be able to complete 3 daily V’ger challenges in one swoop with the U.S.S. Excelsior.
Officers
Epic V’ger Ilia
Lieutenant Ilia served as navigator aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise during its mission to confront V’ger and she demonstrated deep compassion for her crew before being vaporized by the entity. Recreated as a mechanical probe that retained her memories and emotions, Ilia ultimately merged with V’ger and Will Decker, becoming part of a new lifeform now traveling the universe in search of understanding.
Officer Ability: Universal Empathy
- At the start of each round against non-Armada Hostiles, Outposts, and Outpost Retaliation Ships, if the target has any state applied, increases your ship’s Isolytic Cascade Damage by X% for 5 rounds.
- 3% / 5% / 7% / 10% / 15%
Below Deck Ability: Power of the Creator
- Increases Critical Damage by X% against non-Armada Hostiles, Outposts, and Outpost Retaliation Ships.
- 40% / 60% / 80% / 100% / 120%
Additional Content
Prototype Tech
The Neural Neutralizer
- Increases Critical Hit Chance against Outposts.
- Increases all Mitigation stats against Outposts and Outpost Retaliation Ships.
- Increases Base Damage against Node Outpost Retaliation Ships.
- Increases Apex Barrier against Node Outposts and Node Outpost Retaliation Ships.
Chaos Tech
Tan Ru
- Increases Positive Federation, Klingon, and Romulan Reputation earned when defeating hostiles while installed on a G6+ FKR ship.
- Increases Base Damage against G7 FKR hostiles while installed on a G6+ FKR ship.
- Increases Critical Damage against G7 FKR hostiles while installed on a G6+ FKR ship.
Cardassian Torture Actuator
- Increases Isolytic Damage against V’ger [VGER] hostiles.
- Increases Apex Barrier against V’ger [VGER] hostiles.
- Increases Positive Federation, Klingon, and Romulan Reputation earned when defeating hostiles.
Refits
U.S.S. Enterprise B Refit
The U.S.S. Enterprise-B Refit provides powerful bonuses for the U.S.S. Excelsior. It increases Challenge Credits and Rare Prototype Tech Protomatter rewards from the U.S.S. Excelsior Strongbox in the Challenge Refinery by 25%. Additionally, when enhanced by the U.S.S. Excelsior’s ability and Tal is not present on the bridge, your ship gains an additional 500 Apex Barrier in battle.
Battle Passes
V’ger Rebirth Part 2 Battle Pass (Ops 51+)
The V’ger Rebirth Part 2 Battle Pass will include Epic V’ger Ilia shards, Signal Observatory upgrade materials, Challenge Credits, Choice Reward Tokens, and FKR Choice Faction Credit Tokens.
Scotty’s Research Ticketed Event Series
Throughout the month, Commanders will work with Scotty to monitor V’ger and conduct research.
Completing daily Avofall Protocol SMS events will reward Scotty’s Common Research Tickets, while Heroic SMS events will provide Scotty’s Rare Research Tickets. Scotty’s Research Ticket events will be visible at the start of each week and unlock every Friday.
There will be three Common Research Ticket events and three Rare Research Ticket events. Commanders will have until the following Monday to use their tickets on these events to maximize their progress throughout the month.
Rewards include Signal Observatory upgrade materials, V’ger Ilia shards, and Challenge Credits.
Mid-Ops Events (Ops 20-50)
Machinations
The Swarm has been reactivated within the Delphic Expanse, breaking a long period of silence and unleashing destruction across the Federation. It’s up to Commanders Ops 20-50 to venture deep into the Expanse to uncover the source of the signal controlling the Swarm and shut it down.
Featured ships by Ops bracket:
- The U.S.S. Franklin for Ops 20-30
- The Amalgam for Ops 31-34
- The U.S.S. Franklin-A for Ops 35-39
- The NX-01 for Ops 40-50
Community Corner
On the official STFC Discord, Community Managers Simpauly and Obsidian Hamster are hosting Love Letter to My Ship, a creative event where players can submit a one-line message or poem dedicated to their favorite or most-used ship.
Commanders can post their entries in the dedicated channel, with voting done via upvotes. AI-generated submissions will be automatically disqualified, so originality is key.
Swing by the official Discord this month to join the Love Letter to My Ship event, where three random participants can choose a pack of their choice from the store (excluding New, Limited-Time, and Weekly Offer packs), and the top upvoted submission will receive two packs of their choice. Head over to the STFC Official Discord for full details
Bug Fixes & Improvements
HUD
- Resolved a long standing issue where the Alliance Help button would get stuck on the screen after clicking it several times.
- Addressed an issue where event PIPs did not disappear even when there was nothing available to claim.
Outposts
- Fixed an issue in Outpost battle reports where the Independent Outpost “Ship Ability” overlapped stats in the scan view and battle report.
- Addressed an issue where the “Outpost limit reached” pop-up appeared after undocking a ship from an Outpost and initiating another Outpost.
- Resolved an issue where, when attempting to start an Outpost, the Outpost Directive currency art overlapped the “Capture” text in the Outpost capture object viewer.
- Addressed an issue where joining an Alliance during the Outpost preparation phase could corrupt the Outpost.
- Resolved an issue where players experienced a persistent loading/spinning circle when attempting to assign a second ship to their Outpost, preventing them from completing the action.
- Fixed an issue where an “Active Armada” pop-up appeared when leaving an Alliance during an Outpost. The pop-up incorrectly stated that leaving the Alliance would cause the Armada circle to disband.
- Addressed an issue where, after initiating an Outpost and upgrading a buff in a captured Outpost to its maximum level for the current requirements, the locked labels and icons on buffs in other (uncaptured) Outposts disappeared.
Refinery
- Fixed an issue in the Challenge Refinery where the Vengeance Efficiency bundle odds info text incorrectly used “Modiles/Moduiles” instead of the correct term “Module.”
Fleet Commanders
- Fixed an issue where the activation pop-up for FC Benjamin Sisko’s “Written by the Victors” ability incorrectly showed the cooldown and duration as 0s.
Store
- Fixed an issue where the countdown timer on a store pack would overlap/misalign if the description was three lines long.
Armadas
- Addressed an issue where a Formation Armada Directive was deducted from the player if the Formation Armada failed to initiate.
Syndicate
- Addressed an issue where “SNW T’Pring” was incorrectly listed as “T’Pring” in the rewards for Syndicate levels 56 – 65.
Forbidden Tech/Chaos Tech
- Resolved an issue on the Multiphasic Chamber where the tooltip description reads “warp distance” instead of “warp range.”
- Addressed an issue where the swap screen for Forbidden Tech and Chaos Tech did not cover the entire screen, resulting in black bars on Windows and Mac platforms.
Wave Defense
- Fixed an issue where if two players try to join Wave Defense at the same time, the second player would get a pop-up that read “Wave Defense Error.”
Ships
- Resolved an issue for Ops 5 players where ship component upgrades failed despite meeting the requirements in the tutorial.
- Updated the description of the U.S.S. Excelsior’s Enhance ability to clarify that its power can be increased through research nodes.
- Fixed an issue where using the NX-01’s Reveal ability in V’ger systems caused an error to occur.
- Fixed an issue where the U.S.S. Excelsior Warp Range research buff values did not match the levels 2–10 in the research description.
- Addressed an issue where the U.S.S. Excelsior’s ASA Enhance ability icon appeared blue on the ship management and ship swap screens.
- Resolved an issue where the Enhance ASA icon overlapped with the cooldown timer when other ship abilities were applied to the ship.
- Fixed an issue where the Enterprise NX-01’s Reveal ASA timer displayed as 00 in the system object viewer after quickly switching systems, instead of matching the timer shown on the ship info card.
Challenge Track
- Addressed an issue where hotkeys don’t work on some screens on the Challenge Track.
- Fixed an issue where Challenge Track points were not being added after being acquired.
- Addressed an issue where Daily Goals milestone chests appeared in the Challenge Track.ST-159326 Resolved an issue in the V’ger Challenge Track where the “Points to Milestone 9” text was displayed on the Challenge Track screen even though only eight milestones were present.
Armadas
- Fixed an issue where ships outside of warp range of an Armada could initiate an Armada.
Hostiles
- Fixed an issue where an unintended extra space appeared in the V’ger Replicant hostiles’ second ability description.
Away Teams
- Fixed an issue where the rewards screen became stuck and unresponsive when opened just before starting an AT assignment.
Live Long and Prosper,
-The Star Trek Fleet Command Team
