The ECS North Star

The ECS North Star is a freighter and survey vessel that has been in service for almost 100 years. Boomer communities in the mid-2100s favored the North Star for space faring and as a colonization ship. Families and communities were born and raised on vessels of this class for generations and an entire network of trade ships has grown over the years.

In the beginning, there were Realtas and Corvettes and Fortunates. If you were really lucky, you could win or earn a Jellyfish. And for a time, it was the age of the Jellyfish, ripping through systems, hunting miners. It feels like the pre-history of STFC.

And then the time of the Jellyfish passed. If you dig deep enough, you can find fossilized Jellyfish in the layers of the sediment, a testament to the games past… all the way back in the winter of 2018.

But the only ship from pre-level 20 that I’ll regularly pull out is the North Star. Now that I’ve hit level 35, it feels like it might be time to mothball it for parts, but I haven’t been able to do so yet. I still use it during mining events. It’s still a cheap ship with a great range that I can use to tap bases. Unlike the Jellyfish, it has aged like fine wine.

The North Star is the Swiss Army knife of the early game. It’s good at just about anything… except maybe the one thing that it’s sold as.

What the North Star is Good At

• Killing hostiles. Put your Starfleet Academy crew on there, and you’ll be able to quickly finish your dailies.
• Killing mission bosses. Get Cadet Kirk, Instructor Spock, and Cadet McCoy on board, .
• Breaking lower level bases. Think levels 15-23(ish). For me, this was my first real battering ram in breaking down bases starting at level 18.
• Exploring. Out of the box, it’ll have a warp range of 20. My tier 7 has a warp range of 34.

What it’s Not So Good At

• While it will technically mine really quickly compared to an Envoy, this comes with one major caveat.
• The protected cargo is TERRIBLE. The overall cargo capacity is also really, really poor.
• You could use it to mine in the territory of a hostile faction, and let the hunters bounce off it for a while. But you’re going to go overprotected really quick that way.

How Does One Get a North Star?

You’ll need 90 North Star blueprints and a level 18 shipyard to construct one. You can earn up to 18 blueprints from missions. The rest you’ll either need to purchase or get from an events store as available.

If you’re going to spend money on an early level ship, this is the one to get, as you’ll have it as a useful tool for a long, long time.

Trivia

The ECS North Star never appeared on screen, it was only mentioned during the Star Trek: Enterprise episode Fortunate Son, where the ECS Fortunate did appear.

Lastly…

And No, It has nothing at all to do with this, which existed. And was terrible.