The B’Rel Takes Flight

As a kid growing up in the 80s, the Klingon Bird of Prey was one of my favorite ships. We had Star Trek III on VHS and watched it over and over again… until the tape started to wear out. And if you’re under 30 you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about… so moving on. The Klingon Bird of Prey shows up in Star Trek Fleet Command as the B’Rel. It’s a 3-star rare Klingon explorer.

 

What the B’Rel is Good At

Depending on the level, pretty much everything. Like the Intrepid, it’s great at killing hostile ships, with its Ship Ability: Cloaking System, which, for the first round of combat, reduces the enemy’s armor-piercing, shield-piercing, and accuracy by 25%.

The edge that the B’Rel has over the Intrepid is it’s firing pattern. It fires off its two photon torpedoes in round two, and they’re some pretty powerful guns.

So this makes it a pretty good ship for both PvP and Armadas. It’s even good at overcoming the Saladin‘s massive defensive bonus. And this comes in especially handy when you’re trying to knock out a pesky Saladin that’s defending a base you’re targeting. Use your B’Rel to destroy the Saladin, before you use your battleship to crack the base.

And my B’Rel is only Tier 5. As with all ships in the game, they get much, much more effective in tier 6 and 7.

How You Get the B’Rel

You’ll need 120 B’Rel Blueprints, and a level-32 Shipyard to construct the ship. They cost 500 Klingon Credits in the Faction store. You’ll need an Associate reputation with the Klingons to unlock them. You can also get them in Rare and Epic Armada chests. And you can grind them out in level 32+ Klingon space. I managed to grind mine out while I was working on building my Federation reputation in the Gya’han, Mempa, and Beta Penthe systems. Others have had success finding them in Ty’gokor.

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Background

The B’Rel, based on the Klingon Bird of Prey that first appeared in the Search for Spock was the brainchild of director Leonard Nimoy. He went to the production designers for Star Trek III and acted out how he wanted the ship to look, sweeping out his arms, and puffing out his shoulders. If you look closely, you can see the ship has shoulders.

The below feature from the Star Trek III DVD gives a great history of the design of the Bird of Prey.