So you were expecting a new ship this month. And this wasn’t it, was it? But the Meridian still a ship you’re going to want, and the good news is, you’ll probably get it.
While the look of the ship is a little too close to the Horizon-style, the saws on the front of the ship are pretty cool.
Functionally, it’s going to be a fast Isogen miner, and it’s going to unlock new refining options and new research nodes.
Getting Your Meridian
So for the first time in a long time, you can get the new ship in the free battle pass track. Woohoo! You’ll need to be at least level 25 to build this ship.
It will be available for purchase earlier if you just can’t wait. And you might not want to wait, as there will be events using the Meridian earlier in the month.
The Meridian is your Isogen Miner
The Meridian gives you an enormous boost to isogen mining. As the D’Vor is to raw latinum, the Meridian is to Isogen. It’s going to start off with a 2,000% bonus for iso. You’ll get small increases for leveling up the ship in the early stages, but it’ll max out at 4,300% by level 45.
This will let you mine enough isogen to do your daily refines a lot faster.
Protected Cargo
The rub is that the protected cargo on this ship is tiny. You’re probably going to want to crew for cargo capacity and protected cargo rather than iso mining speed.
This isn’t going to be passive mining, you’re going to need to be constantly emptying your ships. And depending on your server ROE, you’re likely going to need to have a ship there to defend against raiders.
| Tier | Total Capacity | Protected Cargo |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 87,000 | 1,200 |
| 2 | 96,000 | 1,430 |
| 3 | 106,000 | 1,670 |
| 4 | 134,000 | 1,900 |
| 5 | 272,000 | 3,500 |
| 6 | 295,000 | 4,000 |
| 7 | 468,000 | 7,200 |
| 8 | 606,000 | 8,700 |
| 9 | 784,000 | 10,600 |
Upgrading the Ship
The Meridian is another G3/G4 hybrid ship. You’ll need Iso-emulsion to upgrade it, in addition to Ore and Gas. It
It is ops gate locked at levels 34 and 39. If you’re level 40+, you could max it out right away. Y’know, if you had those materials lying around. The prime reason to upgrade your Meridian is for the cargo capacity.
The Iso-Resin Refinery
Building this ship will give you access to the new “Iso-resin” refinery. It’s another new currency that you’ll spend on new research nodes in the Territory Capture tree.
And these new nodes are pretty great.
- Iso-Infused Deflector Shields – PvP damage taken is reduced when your are attacked.
- Iso-Infused Defense Cannons – PvP damage dealt when you’re attacked
- Iso-Infused Cargo Hold – A bonus to the max cargo size of your miners (big for the Meridian.)
- Iso-Infused Close Encoungers – Damage bonuses when fighting on nodes.
Each of them will require the new Iso-resin from the new refinery to complete.
Meridian Refit
The Meridian comes with a Refit. This refit, which for the time being is only available for purchase, will unlock a 4-batch option for each of your Isogen refineries.
Meridian in Trek
There is no Meridian ship in any Star Trek canon, but the name Meridian does show up in Trek. Not as a ship, but as a planet in the season 3 episode of Deep Space Nine named, fittingly enough, Meridian. That, for those of you major Trekkies is notable a little for being the Star Trek version of Brigadoon.
But really, it’s notable for being the Trek debut of the great Jeffrey Combs, who back in the mid-80s was a runner-up for the role of Riker on TNG, and would later go on to play Brunt and multiple Weyouns on DS9 and Shran on Enterprise.
And tying everything together, Meridian was directed by Jonathan Frakes.
And I’ll finish with this, I’m pretty sure I’ve never found a way to reference Johnny Dangerously on this site, so here it is. The best “meridian” joke out there (and there are so many.)
“Post meridian, antemeridian, uncle meridian… all the little meridians.”