The Saladin class interceptor is a small Starfleet construction used for dogfighting scenarios, mainly in the defense of outposts and Space Stations. Unlike its older cousin, the Mayflower class, the Saladin relies on a single nacelle and an array of thrusters along the saucer section to provide its maneuverability.
You’re Going to Love the USS Saladin
The USS Saladin was the first faction ship I ever got. Launched it almost a year ago, before the rebalancing of ships back in November of 2019. And for the next week or so anyway, it’s still my most powerful ship.
It’s pretty good for everything. I’ve used mine as a base raider, hostile hunter, mission bosses, for PVP, and for armadas. It’ll even take down higher-level swarms. I used mine to grind out my triple-faction lock.
The luxury item on the Saladin is the big gun. It’s a kinetic weapon, and it fires every third turn, starting in round one. This makes it ideal to run with your Gorkon crew, which gives significant boosts to critical hits in the first two rounds.
It’s also got a great warp range, and it will likely replace your North Star for exploring the galaxy.
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The Saladin’s Ship Ability, And How to Use it in PvP
The Saladin’s Ship Ability is Protector, which gives it a shield bonus if it’s attacked. And if it’s docked in your station, it gives this bonus to all of your defense platforms AND to any other ships currently docked.
It does make it an odd feature in PvP battles. You have to entice your opponent to attack you, but having done that, a properly-crewed Saladin can take down much larger ships. You’re not going to be able to take down an Enterprise, or another high-powered explorer, but I’ve taken down Interpids with over 2 million power, and higher-powered Saladins … if you can get them to attack you.
Here are a couple of screenshot examples from a base-defense this morning.
What’s Not To Like
It eats crystal, especially at higher levels.
How To Get It
Grinding for the Saladin is a bit of a catch-22. For most players, you won’t be able to grind out the Blueprints for a Saladin until you’re actually using a Saladin to grind out Blueprints. If you’ve got a Centurion or a Bortas, however, you find that hostile Federation ships in level 32+ systems will give you Saladin blueprints. I’ve had the most luck finding them in Wolf, but maybe that’s just because that’s where I’ve been hitting a lot lately. Alti is also a good place to look.
Saladin blueprints cost 200 Federation Credits in the Faction Store. You need to get your shipyard to be level 28 or above to build it, and your Federation rep to be consort or above to buy the blueprints.
USS Saladin Trivia
The Saladin never actually appeared on screen in any Star Trek movie or television show. It did appear as a schematic in the background of both Star Trek II and Star Trek III.
