So as I’m writing this, we’re just at the end of the Outlaws arc, waiting to see what comes next. (And though I can’t tell you what’s coming next, I can tell you that it’s big.) So with that, I’ve got a little bit of time to do some catch-up and write about some officers that were released before I started this blog. So today, we’re going to be covering the Augment Officers.
We’ve already covered Khan, Ravi, Pan, and Rima and you can click on them to find those articles. Today I’ll be going over (in alphabetical order) Joachim, Joaquin, Kati, Marla McGivers, and Otto. First I’ll be going over their in-game abilities and uses, and then a bit at the end where I’ll be going over their origins and trivia. (Including a fun mistake.)
Also, I’d like to apologize again for the site being down this morning.
Getting The Augment Officers
You can purchase chests with Augment officer shards in the Augment faction store. The higher your Augment faction rep is, the more officers will be unlocked.
Joachim
Captain’s Maneuver is Patient Tactician Patient Tactician – When attacking a Station, Joachim has a 50% chance of greatly increasing the mitigation of the ship for one round. You can increase to 100% with synergy.
This is basically Khan-lite, except that instead of mitigating the station’s weapons for two rounds, he only does it for one. But this is a really good captain’s ability until you get Khan.
Officer Ability is Unflinching Resolve – When attacking a Station, Joachim decreases the Weapon Damage of all opponent’s Ships and Defense Platforms by (10% 15% 20% 25% 30%.)
Joachim is a great officer to combine with Khan as captain, as their abilities will help you stay in battle longer, and give you more chances for the critical hits that Khan will give you the longer the battle goes on.
Joaquin
Probably the most functional of the Augments on a daily basis is Joaquin. He’s certainly the guy you want anytime you send out your Botany Bay.
His Captain’s Maneuver is Firewall Protection. Joaquin increases the Protected Cargo of the ship by 50%. Goes up to 100% with a maximum Synergy bonus. He’s going to be one of your go-to officers when it comes to any mining event. You can put him with T’Pring and One of Ten to increase your protected cargo even further. To increase the speed of your mining, replace one of those officers with Ten of Ten.
Joaquin’s Officer Ability is Data Miner. Joaquin increases the Mining Rate of the ship by (40% 60% 80% 100% 125%) when mining Corrupted Data and Decoded Data.
The same officer configuration for his captain’s ability works for his officer ability and data mining. Nowonshall’s video suggested using Pan as your captain, with Joaquin as one of your officers when data mining to increase the impulse speed of your Botany Bay on the newer faster (but smaller) data nodes.
As far as upgrading Joaquin, I think the change to smaller faster nodes makes this less important than it used to be. He’s still a useful officer for protecting cargo, but the difference in emptying a node between 8 seconds and say, 6 seconds doesn’t really make it worth it to spend officer badges or independent credits promoting him.
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Kati
Kati is an uncommon science officer. Her Captain’s Maneuver is “Hail of Fire.” (Not Ring of Fire, that’s different, or Ring O’ Fire. Also different.) At the start of each round, if the target of the ship is a Defense Platform, Kati increases the Chances of a Critical Hit by 4% for that round. Goes up to 10% with a maximum Synergy bonus.
Kati’s Officer Ability is “Enhanced Weaponry.” This gives you a bonus of (15% 20% 25% 30% 40%) each time you hit an opponent’s base with a critical hit.
This is a good combo with Khan and his increase to your critical hit chance every time your ship is hit. So each time you’re getting a critical hit because of Khan, the damage from that hit will be bigger and bigger, as you promote Kati.
If you’ve got Khan, it still makes sense to have him as captain, and not Kati. As his captain’s bonus of mitigating damage from stations in the first two rounds is more valuable in the long run. Khan’s critical bonus chance per hit will quickly make up for Kati’s 10% maximum bonus.
I’d certainly recommend upgrading her as much as you can, especially if you’re a base raider.
If you don’t have Khan, she can still be useful, just not nearly as much.
Marla McGivers
Captain’s Maneuver is History Repeats Itself – Marla increases the Repair Speed of the ship by 20%. Goes up to 50% with maximum Synergy Bonus.
I’m not sure why you’d use this, unless you were really short on repair speed ups. It’s a no-bonus bonus.
Officer Ability is Let Me Help You: Marla increases the Attack, Defense, and Health of the captain by (50% 60% 70% 80% 90%.)
As opposed to her captain’s ability, this one’s a little bit better. You’ll want to use her with Khan as your captain for two reasons. First of all, being an engineering officer, she’ll help you maximize synergy. You’ll have to weight that advantage against the combined bonuses of the two science officers with Khan. I generally go with Joachim and Kati, but it’s up to you.
The second reason for Marla is to increase Khan’s stats as captain, and since Khan as an epic officer has pretty great stats (attack in particular.)
I’d suggest trying all three out in combinations with your ships, and seeing which works best for you.
The one advantage you’ll have with McGivers as opposed to the rest of your Augments is that since she was originally an Enterprise crew member, she uses Federation credits instead of Independent credits to promote.
Otto
Captain’s Maneuver – Smash the Defenses – At the start of each round, if the target of the ship is a Defense Platform, Otto increases the damage of the ship by 20% for that round. Goes up to 40% with a maximum Synergy bonus.
If you don’t have Khan, this is a pretty good captain’s maneuver.
Officer Ability – “Brute Force” increases the Attack of each officer on the bridge of the ship by (20% 30% 40% 50% 60%.)
He’s got pretty good attack stats, so this will help him out. But I can’t see this as being better than Marla’s ability to increase all of the captain’s stats, especially with Khan. This bonus will work when you’re first getting the Augments, as Otto’s ability supports his own captain’s maneuver, and his own stats.
But I wouldn’t use any Independent credits promoting him.
Augment Officers Background
Other than Marla McGivers, who has a prominent role in Space Seed, and Joachim, who shows up in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, all the others here are much smaller parts.
They get a comical lineup entry in Space Seed, as Khan greets them as they’ve just woken up.
This is the closest I can find to the clip on Youtube. As you can see, most of the Augments start stretching and getting ready for a fight. And for some reason, Kati (who looks JUST a little bit different in STFC, see below) is doing the Frug. I mean, you can take Star Trek out of the 60s, but you can’t take the 60s out of Star Trek.
If you want to see it for yourself, it’s 34:40 into Space Seed (episode 22 of season one of the the Original Series.)
You can watch it on either Amazon Prime or CBS All Access.
Side-By-Side Comparisons of Augment Officers
Now on to the nerdy bits. Here’s some brief actor bios and a comparison of each character onscreen with their officer counterpart in the game.
Joachim
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Joachim was portrayed in the Wrath of Khan by actor Judson Scott. Scott, for those of you with great memories, also made appearances on The Next Generation in the episode, Symbiosis and on Voyager as a Romulan Commander in Ship in a Bottle.
Outside of Star Trek, he had a recurring role on The Dukes of Hazzard, and made a guest apparance on The Greatest American Hero.
And if you’re anywhere close in age to me, you’ve now got the theme songs of one or both of those shows in your head.
You’re welcome.
Joaquin
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Joaquin’s relationship to Joachim is a mystery, and there are two competing theories floating around on Memory Alpha:
1, From the Star Trek Encyclopedia – Joachim from Wrath of Khan was supposed to be Joaquin, and the writers simply made a mistake naming the character.
2. Greg Cox’s novel, To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh posits that Joaquin had a son on Ceti Alpha V, and that son was Joaquin.
Joaquin in Space Seed was portrayed by actor Mark Tobin. He later made an appearance as a Klingon crewman in Day of the Dove.
Kati
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Kati (pronounced KAH – tee) was portrayed in Space Seed by actress Kathy Ahart, in her only acting credit. It seems like the prime universe Kati is a little showier in her dress than Kelvin universe Kati.
Marla McGivers
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The Enterprise historian Marla McGivers who chose to go to Ceti Alpha V with Khan during the events of Space Seed, and was killed by the Ceti eels before Wrath of Khan, Marla McGivers was portrayed by actress Madlyn Rhue.
Rhue made over 100 television appearances in her career, most notably in a 1960 episode of Bonanza, where she played the wife of Ricardo Montalban’s character.
She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1977, and this is what prevented her from returning for The Wrath of Khan.
Rhue continued to work in television until 1996, though limited to parts that didn’t require her to stand or walk. Sadly, she lost her battle with MS in 2003.
Okay, changing gears from the heavy to the light.
Otto
No, not this Otto. Definitely not.
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Nobody really knows who played Otto in Space Seed, maybe he did play himself.