7 Off-Label Ship Uses in Star Trek Fleet Command

When the Stella came out, and I put out my review of it, I had someone tell me it was a “one-trick pony.” That all it could do was hit Eclipse hostiles. After the article, he admitted that it was a two-trick pony. Turns out that it’s much more than that. So I started thinking about other ways to use ships. This got me thinking of off-label medication uses. That’s when a doctor prescribes something for something other than what it’s normally used for.

So here are 7 examples of great off-label ship uses in Star Trek Fleet Command.

Stella as Hostile Hunter

If you put your Pike, Moreau, and Chen crew on your Stella, it can do some serious damage to hostiles. This would be a great use for players who don’t have bigger ships like an Intrepid or a B’Rel.

So I’m in the middle of the Military Supremacy! event, where I’ve got to kill 500 hostiles of level 40 (or higher). The problem thus far with this event is that it gets really, really expensive in both resources and repair speed-ups.

I saw someone post about this on Facebook, so I figured I’d try it killing level 40s with my Stella, and much to my surprise, it worked like a charm. My Tier 3 Stella, with 376k power, can wipe out Level 40 Federation explorers in Wolf!

This is about as big a difference for hostiles as the Franklin makes on swarm, and for the same reason. The repair costs are minimal, but it’ll take out 40s like an Intrepid. Amazing.

The reason this works is that the PMC crew minimizes the damage, and the Stella’s 4-2-4-2 firing pattern just batters these ships into oblivion.

And here’s the first round of the battle log. It just. keeps. shooting.

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So after it killed 10 level 40s, it needed to be repaired. So let’s compare the repair costs of the Stella and the Intrepid.

As you can see, the Intrepid (at right), costs 15 times as much tritanium to repair, 17 times as much dilithium, and over six hours more in repair time.

Given the number of times you’re going to have to repair in these big hostile events, this is going to make a huge difference.

Vi’Dar as a OP Collector

The Vi’Dar has everything you’re looking for when you’re out hunting for overprotected materials.

For comparison, I’ll match up my maxed-out Saladin and my Vi’Dar. For a crew, I went Pan as captain, with Rima for synergy and Helvia for empty warp speed.

	Saladin	Vi’Dar
Power	1.5 mill	856k
Empty Warp	12.9	11.4
Impulse	155	162
Total Storage	80,000	220,000
Protected Cargo	1,154	33,000

So while the Vi’Dar comes up short in power and warp speed, it’s a little faster on impulse, and it’ll store a great deal more Latinum, and is more than a match for any D’Vor you’re going to see. Plus, if you get caught by a bigger ship while hunting, you’re not going to lose anything due to the massive protected cargo. It’s got more protected cargo than most of my miners.

By the way, it’s Ferengi Monday – time to break out those Vi’Dars.

Botany Bay as a Base Looter

This one got even better with the new research tree introduced in the Outlaws II arc. The Botany Bay has always had a pretty good cargo capacity, especially for players who don’t have a faction miner.

Where the Botany Bay becomes a great base looter is if you’re trying to raid a base in close quarters, and another player is trying to stop you. That’s where having a much faster impulse speed can make a huge difference – when you’re trying to get to an open base past an opponent’s ISS Jellyfish.

Ship	Tier	Impulse w/Pan	Warp w/Helvia	Cargo Capacity	Trips to Match Antares
Envoy	5	112	10.1	138,628	12.25
North Star	7	149	19.1	15,260	111.24
Botany Bay	9	165	20.9	546,000	3.11
Horizon	6	101	13.8	600,936	2.82
Antares	5	101	18.6	1,697,584	1

The Antares will get you more per trip, but it’s much slower, and much more likely to get caught by a warship. The Botany Bay is much more likely to be able to sneak past defending ships.

North Star As Anything other than a Miner

The North Star is a terrible miner, due to it’s minuscule cargo capacity and protected cargo. It’s a big upgrade over say, a Fortunate, but compared to a well-crewed Envoy, it’s not that great. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not a great ship.

It’s got a great warp range, (warp 39 at tier 5, 44 with a maxed-out Cadet Scotty,) so it’s probably going to be your best system explorer until you build your Saladin, Centurion, or Bortas.

If you’re level 18 until you get your Kumari, the North Star is your go-to base breaker.

And, it’s good at destroying both hostiles and mission bosses – and because it’s a survey ship, you’re not limited at all by the combat triangle.

Attack Piggy!

I had a lot of people get very upset with me for suggesting that you shouldn’t mine for Latinum with anything other than the D’Vor, and that doing so was just a waste of your time. On the other hand, if you’ve got a strong enough D’Vor, you can use it as an “attack piggy” and use it to collect Latinum from other unsuspecting piggies.

This is especially true in the Borg Latinum systems of Yoria-3, Torra Sedra, and Zed Alpha. It would be a waste to send your Vidar there, as it’s unlikely you’re going to be able to fill your cargo just from overprotected miners there (you get no event points for hitting the Borg traders) – but, a powered-up piggy can enter the system, hit op D’Vors, and then stay to mine some more.

And the kicker is that you’re more likely to be able to these miners with your Attack Piggy than you are with a warship.

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Realta as a Blocker

The first ship you get in the game is the Realta. It’s a fun little ship. Darts around like a jitterbug, and costs nothing to repair. It’s never going to defeat anything other than tiny ships, but you can use it in more advanced battles to get in the way of bigger ships so that you can either escape or get to your intended target.

And finally…

Kehra as a Lawnmower

The Kehra isn’t really good at anything, else, so why not hook it up to an attachment, and let it trim your lawn.