Four years ago (!!!) I wrote about setting up a science vessel to do high burst damage with all its interesting exotic particle abilities. A lot has changed in those four years (we’re all so old) but there are a couple of new starship traits that turn science from just great burst damage into a map-controlling destroyer of worlds. I almost never want to fly anything else anymore!
Four years ago (I feel like that guy from the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the one who chose poorly) cooldown reduction was an issue. I used the combination of All Hands on Deck and Reciprocity combined with various equipment choices to bring down the cooldown times of all the necessary science abilities as much as possible, things like the Bioneural Gel Pack, the Temporal Phase warp core, and the Timeline Stabilizer field, and even then in a group where drawing aggro wasn’t guaranteed there were going to be occasional times when the exotic damage attacks were not available and I wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything for a period of time. This is no longer a problem and it all comes down to the change that was made in the mechanics of Photonic Officer, and leads to a number of equipment substitutions that pack a huge punch.
Build:
Either a tactical or science captain in one of several appropriate science ships focusing on exotic damage abilities and using primarily torpedoes. In many ways tactical would be able to provide a bigger punch, with Attack Pattern Alpha giving the biggest boost, but science, with Scattering Field and Sensor Scan (both heavily buffed by maximum auxiliary power) will not lag far behind and will be tougher. Engineering is really not a good fit for this build as Nadion Inversion will be entirely useless and even EPS Power Transfer will have only marginal utility. Which ships are good to use? We’ll get to that later on. The discussion surrounding them will need a bit of background information before an informed choice can be made.
You’re not going to use your usual build blog article format, are you? Not exactly. Some theory crafting needs to be addressed first at the very beginning or else the conversation won’t make a lot of sense.
Also, it’s been years since you’ve written one of these. Do you even remember how? Not exactly. I have one of the old ones open in a different window to use as a rough guide. And the changes to the WordPress editor are aggravating me too.
You took a year off and haven’t been following all of the changes in the game since then and if we’re being honest, even before that. Do you really know what you’re talking about anymore? In many cases I do not. But in this case, I do!
Are we going to finally get to this theory crafting section now? I guess it’s about time.
Theory Crafting:
Photonic officer used to have a very long cooldown and its effect was not very potent, lasting for 60 seconds every 2 minutes. A little over a year ago the mechanics were changed to have a 20 seconds out of 30 seconds uptime with a slightly improved potency, turning it from only situationally useful to a must have. It also pairs with the first of our three new starship traits to really make a difference, that being Improved Photonic Officer obtained from the Tholian Itkomi science ship which increased the uptime to 100% of the time and becoming a cooldown reducer almost on par with a full A2B build out of a single lieutenant boff slot. Not only that, it adds 25% bonus exotic damage and all healing which, I don’t have to tell you is excellent for an exotic damage-based science build.
The second of our essential starship traits is Spore Infused Anomalies from the Somerville (Fed aligned) and Batlh (KDF aligned) Intel Science Vessels. This trait causes a burst of electrical damage to all enemies within 5km of the center of your spatial anomalies (and a power drain if you care about that) whenever you activate a science or intelligence bridge officer ability. The abilities that count as anomalies are: Gravity Well, Tyken’s Rift, Very Cold In Space (Winter Store), Subspace Vortex (lockbox), Timeline Collapse, Chronometric Inversion Field, and Ionic Turbulence. With a large number of science abilities and perhaps some intelligence abilities, the rate of activation will be prodigious and contribute the plurality of your damage outside of the anomalies themselves.
And finally, the third essential starship trait, Improved Gravity Well, obtained from the Allied Science Pilot Escorts. I recommend the Dewan Ikkabar since it can be used for both Fed aligned and KDF aligned characters, but if you really must have the styling of the Andorian Chimesh or Lethean Nemosin be my guest. Improved Gravity Well increases the duration of GW from 20 seconds to 40 seconds, reduces its cooldown to the global minimum (which isn’t useful with Improved Photonic Officer in use), and debuffs the damage resistance of the primary target. (Note that in some DPS runs this trait is often ignored because the match moves so quickly that no enemies survive in the same spot for more than 20 seconds, but in general play this is a great trait to have.)
These three starship traits make for an unparalleled ability to control the entire field of battle while dealing phenomenal damage to everyone in weapons range (and possibly more depending on your control skill). The rest of the exercise is how to fill in the equipment, abilities, and remaining traits to maximize your effectiveness.
We see above what makes this build work. So what we need to maximize it is this:
- bridge officer abilities that work with Spore Infused Anomalies, and lots of them. This means that you want as many of the listed anomalies as possible, and as much science/intel as possible,
- equipment to maximize the size of your gravity well (size is capped at 12 km at 400 control skill so any extra skill past this point only improves the strength of the pull effect),
- equipment to maximize your exotic damage,
- equipment to increase your critical hit performance (which affects exotic AoE DoT damage as well as weapons),
- just enough of everything else to get by and not a bit more.
And now to discuss what we can do to achieve this:
Weapons and associated set equipment:
There are two weapons that are wonderful on their own for exotic damage builds, those are the Particle Emission plasma torpedo (crafted, can be found on the exchange) and the Gravimetric Photon Torpedo (Dyson reputation). Both of these create spatial hazards that have good synergy with this build, especially the plasma clouds from the Particle Emission plasma torpedo. The Gravimetric Photon Torpedo can also be paired with Dyson Proton weapon to increase criticals and photon damage. Both of the hazards created are buffed by particle generator skill though do not count as anomalies for the purposes of Spore Infused Anomalies.
Outside of these there are various options that can be used to provide some benefit. Most of the other choices will be to increase critical rating as the weapons damage delivered by the weapons of a science ship will be insignificant compared to that done by the exotic damage abilities.
Equipping all 3 items in this set (Morphogenic polaron energy torpedo, Morphogenic energy weapon, and Morphogenic Matrix Controller, from the episode “Home”) can result in a very large bonus to critical hit and critical damage when used with CSV and FAW. Why CSV and FAW instead of CRF and BO? For synergy with the starship trait Entwined Tactical Matrices (Gagarin and Qugh miracle worker battlecruisers) for prodigious rates of TS1 to increase the effectiveness of your Particle Emission plasma torpedo and Gravimetric photon torpedo. You can even use a boff torpedo spread when using ETM and Morphogenic set as the lock-out your boff FAW and CSV only minimally overlaps with their natural cooldowns. The full Morphogenic set bonus will be achieved, just a little slower. Most science vessels won’t have enough tactical boff slots to make good use of this but some do exist. You may not want to commit so heavily to this particular set depending on ship’s boff arrangement (Note: original version of this article stated not to use TS in the belief that the 3rd stack of critical hit bonus would not be achieved).
Equipping 2 pieces from this set (Discovery reputation) can greatly improve critical damage. The console provides some critical hit improvement, some power, and shield penetration and is far more powerful than it looks like it should be. A popular arrangement is the DBB and console, as the torpedo would not add critical hits to the set bonus as quickly. You might conceivably use both weapons from Lorca’s Ambition without the console to get the critical bonus while leaving room for a different console. This would best be done in a ship with 4 forward weapons while not using the Morphogenic Armaments set.
The Chronometric Capacitor console from this set provides a decent collection of particle generator skill and torpedo damage with a little bit of weapon power and a worthless bonus to polaron weapons. It’s probably not worth a slot on its own unless you’re skewing to more of a torpedo focus than is usual for this style of science build (I actually do this personally), but it can be an interesting alternative to the Morphogenic Armaments set if you are not sold on using CSV and FAW and buying the Gagarin/Qugh. If you combine it with 2 weapons from this set, the 2-piece adds a small bonus to auxiliary power and the 3-piece activatable is a brief but potent bonus to exotic damage. The 4-piece set increases the duration of the activatable but this would only be doable in a spearhead or dreadnought. This set is obtained from the episode “Time and Tide”.
Other options:
I’ve seen some players recommend the Terran reputation torpedo and console but I think this is a poor use of a console slot for this style of ship. It has some radiation damage, will result in a slightly higher rate of torpedo fire, and a slight boost to torpedo damage.
I used to use the Neutronic torpedo, Advanced Thoron Polaron beam array, and Bioneural Gel Pack console set from the Delta Alliance reputation set, which is a decent radiation using torpedo (with an AoE component), a small radiation damage bonus, and a now-useless cooldown reduction with a nifty but only situationally useful Isokinetic cannon set bonus attack. This is mostly obsolete but I feel like I must mention it.
A la carte: If none of these set options strike your fancy, the Omega kinetic cutting beam is pretty much the only rear energy weapon that is capable of noticeable damage on its own. The set bonus with the Assimilated Module is insignificant and the damage it produces will be less than 2% of your overall once everything else is accounted for so take from it what you will. A good mine can outperform this but is still going to lag behind all other sources of damage. One of the biomolecular photon mines from the 8472 reputation store can be purchased with [radius]x2 (and can be upgraded to [radius]x3) which gives those mines a 1km blast radius which has good utility with GW, and is my preferred non-set rear weapon. Sadly, there are currently no mines that create an AoE hazard. The old Hargh’peng torpedo has some synergy with this build on a ship with 4 forward weapons, especially science spearheads and destroyers, as it can be used with projectile weapons duty officers to greatly increase the rate of torpedo fire while not stealing torpedo spreads from the two must-have torpedoes. The Hargh’peng radiation and secondary explosion mechanics do not contribute any meaningful damage but the torpedo hit itself is modestly powerful.
Can I do this build as an energy weapon user instead? I’ve been trying for 8 years to make a tactical sci-scort work. I’ve always thought that by being able to take the best parts of a tactical cannons or DBB built escort and the best part of a pure science particle generator I could make something greater than the sum of their parts. And I’ve never been able to do it. It ends up falling short in both categories and the result is somehow less than the sum of their parts. That’s not to say you couldn’t make an effective ship; I have one, it’s more than okay, but if you want to have cannons and control you’re better off just using a temporal warship and ignoring the exotic damage aspect, and if you want to do massive exotic damage follow the rest of this guide.
Space Equipment:
Your deflector, secondary deflector, engine, warp core, and shield can make a huge difference in your power with some must have items.
Deflector: You really have two options here, the Counter Command deflector from Undine reputation has a good mix of bonuses to EPG, control, projectile damage, and toughness. The Colony Fleet Intervention deflector can be re-engineered to give a large bonus to EPG and control along with a few other bonuses and most importantly the ColCrit modifier which significantly improves critical hit and severity when healthy.
Secondary Deflector: A conventional secondary deflector re-engineered for EPG and control is the best choice here, with Competitive (more drain and improved sensor analysis) and Colony (more toughness or projectile damage) also options.
Engine: Here we have the major dichotomy inherent between two types of ships. If you are using a faster ship, like a scout ship or a science destroyer, one that is comfortable turning well on its own and fast enough to get where you need to go, the best impulse engine by far is the Gamma Synergistic Combat Impulse engine, which has a bonus to control skill and does not drain auxiliary power while in full impulse, in fact giving you a bonus to auxiliary power when exiting full impulse for 10 seconds. If you are in a slower science ship or dreadnought you will need to use the Prevailing engines from the Competitive reputation instead, most likely the Innervated version unless you are having difficulty with survival. If you are in a ship with an in-between amount of speed and maneuverability? You’ll have to test them out yourself and see what you are comfortable with using. There are a few equipment options that can help as well, such as the Temporal Vortex Probe console. In a lot of missions you will just start your GW going and sit there waiting for enemy ships to be dragged in front of you, but some other missions do require you to actually move in which case the Prevailing engine may be necessary. If you are participating in DPS League runs, many of them are very speedy so the Prevailing engine might be necessary anyway for you to reach the fighting in time to participate unless you are in the fastest of the fast science ships.
Warp Core and Shield: For these two the Temporal Defense warp core and shield are the best choice, with the 2-piece set bonus providing a large +25% damage for all DoTs and hazard effects. The warp core and shield themselves are nothing special but this set bonus is just so good. In some builds using the Morphogenic set and ETM there is not enough tactical boff slots to use TT so in tougher matches keeping your shields facing the direction of battle healthy can be difficult. Some of our members in this case favour the Regenerative Crystal Shield Matrix and use the Temporal Defense Impulse Engine instead for the 2-piece set bonus. As this negates the possibility of using the Prevailing engine it is therefore only possible on faster ships.
Other non-set consoles
Plasma Storm Module: Only a moderate amount of Control and a small amount of EPG but the most powerful of the activatable console damage AoE abilties by a wide margin. However, it’s also very expensive, requiring the purchase of the Maquis Raider Lobi Store ship. I do not use it partially because I refuse to pay that much for a console that is only slightly better than much cheaper options but mostly because the swirling plasma storm visuals make me seasick.
Exotic Particle Field Exciter: These provide a large amount of shields, a good amount of EPG, plus one other skill when it goes ultra rare. This console is available from crafting and the exchange. It cannot be re-engineered so the modifier it comes with is the only one it gets. With that being the case, make sure you get either EPG or Ctrl as its ultra rare modifier. Consoles with those modifiers are very expensive.
Exotic Particle Focuser: These can be obtained with large amounts of EPG and moderate amounts of Ctrl or vice versa and have a chance for bonus exotic damage when using exotic damage dealing boff abilities. The bonus only activates at the end of the damaging effect (i.e. after your 40 seconds of GW or your 20 seconds of subspace vortex) so it’s not as useful as it would immediately appear. But you can stack several of them and in longer matches the effect can be pronounced. Purchased from the Fleet Research Lab.
Constriction Anchor: This provides a very large passive bonus to exotic damage. The activatable constriction anchor itself is largely useless. Lockbox and exchange.
Delphic Tear Generator: The bonus to exotic damage isn’t quite as big as the one from Constriction Anchor but it’s close, and it has a small CrtD bonus as well. Its activatable ability is a fairly potent (though short range) cone attack. Lockbox and exchange.
Retrofitted Assimilator: This provides a decent amount of EPG and Control skill. The damage from its activatable ability is minimal (and can be cleansed with Hazard Emitters) and the ships that it assimilates are fun but generally not very useful (poor damage output and extremely squishy). Lockbox and exchange.
Disruption Pulse Emitter: This provides a modest amount of EPG and Control skill and has a mediocre cone attack. Cheap for Federation or (slightly less cheap) for Romulans from lockbox and exchange.
DPRM: Its passive effects are unhelpful for this build but its activatable ability provides a very large boost to all damage and is a mainstay of most DPS builds, at least in quicker runs. Cheap-ish for Klingons and Romulans from lockbox and exchange. These last two consoles are part of a set but the 2-piece set bonus is energy weapon damage so not useful in this build.
Auxiliary Ejection Assembly: The passives are quite good, providing decent bonus to exotic damage and auxiliary power. The activatable would help you run away but that’s about it. Cheap for Klingons and their allies from lockbox and exchange.
Cascading Subatomic Disruptions: Has a small amount of auxiliary power and EPG skill and a good activatable attack. Cheap for Klingons and their allies from lockbox and exchange.
Assimilated Module: You probably already have this and despite its age it is more than a placeholder with good Control skill bonus as well as critical hit and damage. The 2-piece set bonus with the kinetic cutting beam is unhelpful in this build. Omega Reputation.
Temporal Disentanglement Suite: I used to use this console as part of the 3-piece set with the Temporal Phase warp core and Antichroniton Infused Tetryon 360 degree beam array for some modest set bonuses to go along with the warp core that helped with cooldown reduction. On its own the console is decent, providing a large bonus to critical hits and critical damage plus shield toughness and a little auxiliary power. A nice, cheap option if survivability is a problem. Episode reward from “Butterfly”.
Temporally Shielded Datacore: This is also a good option for someone who wants more toughness while still retaining good EPG and Control skill at a cheap price. Episode reward from “Temporal Reckoning”.
Entangled Quantum Bombardment: A moderate amount of EPG and a good, easy to use activatable attack, it’s a placeholder console if you don’t have anything better and have already purchased either the Edison, Chargh, Kholhr, or Jem’Hadar Vanguard temporal warship.
Temporal Vortex Probe: Has a good bonus to exotic damage, a very effective turn rate bonus if you’re using a slower science ship without using the Prevailing engine, and an excellent (in the right circumstances) activatable attack. Obtained from the 2020 First Contact Day event.
Neutronic Eddy Generator: Provides a modest amount of drain expertise and auxiliary power. The real stars here are the neutronic eddies, which spam the space around you with 4 swirling hazards that cause significant damage (roughly on par with the plasma storm) and shield drain for 20 seconds. The downside is that it also tends to fling affected targets a great distance, sometimes even out of the widest of gravity wells, so use at your peril. Obtained from the Risian Weather Control Vessel. The 2-piece set bonus with one of the other summer ship consoles is actually a nice bonus to exotic particle generator and control skill with a small bonus to engine power but the consoles themselves are pretty useless.
Enhanced Tipler Cylinder: Moderate bonus exotic damage and healing, plus temporal backstep heal/immunity. Comes with the Verne/Qul’poH/Sui’Mor Temporal Science Vessels.
There are also several Lobi Store consoles that can work here as well, such as Bioneural Infusion Circuits, Interphase Quantum Distributor, and Tachyokinetic Converter.
Starship Traits:
We already saw that there were 3 necessary starship traits required to make this build tick. As a recap they are Improved Photonic Officer (Tholian Iktomi from the Lobi Store), Improved Gravity Well (Allied Science Pilot Escort from the C-store), and Spore Infused Anomalies (Somerville/Batlh Intel Science Vessel from the C-store). That leaves us with 2 other traits to round out the 5 slots. There are some that are really handy, others that are only so-so but they’re cheap, and some that work better for some builds and less so in others.
Entwined Tactical Matrices (Gagarin/Mogh from the C-store) activates TS1 when any CSV or FAW is used, and activates CSV1 and FAW1 when any TS is used. This is a favoured trait when using the Morphogenic weapon set. How this would work would be using FAW1 and CSV1 as your two tactical boff abilities. Every 15 or 20 seconds one of these would activate and proc the Morphogenic set bonuses for improved critical hit and damage. ETM would then automatically activate TS1 twice so your next two torpedo strikes are spreads (and with Particle Emission Plasma Torpedo and Gravimetric Photon Torpedo these can leave multiple large hazard zones). Sadly, these spreads do not count toward your Morphogenic set activations but as the torpedo related activations are for weapon damage this is not such a handicap.
Electrified Anomalies (Risian Weather Control Vessel from the 2020 Summer Event) causes continuous electrical damage around all of your anomalies. It’s not as powerful as Spore Infused Anomalies (a third to slightly less than half as much damage in the matches I’ve parsed) but does not require the micromanagement to be effective. A side bonus is that friendly vessels within 5 km of your anomalies get a small boost to all power levels.
Highly Specialized (Lockbox and exchange for Federation and Klingon, Kelvin Timeline T’laru Intel Carrier Warbird from a lockbox for Romulan) provides a small amount of hull healing, weapon specialization, and EPG skill every time you use a specialist boff ability for 20 seconds and can stack 5 times. You probably won’t get that many stacks but if you’re using a ship that can slot Timeline Collapse, Chronometric Inversion Field, and Ionic Turbulence or a third temporal ability then it can add up. It’s probably only good for builds with 3 or more specialist abilities slotted. Very cheap for everybody except Romulans.
Ceaseless Momentum (Lockbox for Federation, Na’Qjej Intel Battlecruiser from a lockbox for Klingon) is great when used with more torpedo focussed builds. Every time a torpedo is fired you gain a moderate amount of bonus kinetic damage which not only improves your torpedo attacks but more importantly your Gravity Well and Subspace Vortex. Side effects also include more toughness against kinetic damage for yourself and a slightly improved torpedo rate of fire. Stacks 5 times and lasts for 45 seconds so you can expect a lot of benefit. Very cheap for Federation aligned characters.
Exotic Modulation (Chronos Temporal Dreadnought Cruiser from the C-store) provides a moderate boost to exotic damage after using temporal boff abilities. If you are using a science ship with several temporal boff abilities then this can provide a very noticeable boost (though I’m not sure if it stacks).
Assimilated Power Circuits (Khlinae Tal Shiar Adapted Battlecruiser from the Lobi store) provides a large boost to your exotic damage critical hit and damage when using Emergency Power to Auxiliary. If you are using a ship with a little too much engineering then Emergency Power to Auxiliary is a must have and this would do well to boost it.
So which ones of these optional traits do you use? I would gravitate naturally toward whatever is cheap, so no Ceaseless Momentum on a Klingon ship and I’d probably not buy a C-store ship just for an interchangeable trait if I didn’t already have the ship for a previous reason. Which optional traits you take won’t make that huge of a difference to your overall performance as long as the ones you choose are appropriate for your ship and equipment.
Space Traits:
There have recently (“recently” as in over the past few years) been a lot of lockbox traits that are both expensive and extremely useful. This along with more conventional traits that play well with exotic damage can help bring your science ships to the next level. Here are some very good exotic damage specific traits (and two not so good ones):
Particle Manipulator (R&D reward for level 15 Science school) provides an extremely large bonus to your exotic damage critical hit (bonus capped at 50%, you will be at the cap very easily) and critical damage (not capped) based on your EPG skill, which will be sky high. Note that consoles that boost “Exotic Damage” instead of “Starship Exotic Particle Generator” (e.x. Constriction Anchor, Temporal Vortex Probe), do not contribute to your EPG skill for the purposes of this trait and therefore do not improve your critical severity rating.
Enlightened (lockbox) gives a 15% bonus to your exotic damage and hull regen. Moderately cheap.
Conservation of Energy (free for science captains only) has a large bonus to exotic damage when struck by energy damage. Probably a must have except in the rare match when you don’t have aggro.
Superior Astrophysicist (K13 fleet holding) actually only provides 15 EPG skill that is useful here, so it can easily be ignored.
Positive Feedback Loop (lockbox) gives a buff to your next exotic damage attack after using a heal, and a buff to your next heal when you use an exotic damage attack. Since one effect replaces the other and there’s no stacking this isn’t as useful as it would appear at first glance.
And here are a control buff trait that’s a must have and one that can be ignored:
Fragment of AI Tech (lockbox) grants 50 control skill, which is one of the best sources of this in the game. It also buffs energy weapon skill proportional to your control skill. While your control skill in this build will be easily high enough to get the maximum +30 to energy weapons, you will have 2 at most 3 energy weapons firing so this secondary benefit is irrelevant.
Psychological Warfare (lockbox) improves the effectiveness of control abilities BUT it does not increase the size of your Gravity Well so it’s only slightly useful.
And here are some noteworthy more generic traits (as many of these traits are useful for everybody they can be expensive):
Principled Insubordination (lockbox) might be useful for adding some survivability in the form of the occasional TT1, ET1, and ST1 for those running with very few heals, however it does not work to increase damage for the purposes of this build; the science team procced by this trait does not proc Spore Infused Anomalies.
Anchored (lockbox) is very interesting in this build. In many missions you won’t be moving at all, instead your big gravity well will be dragging all the enemies to you. In this case you can gain a pretty big all damage bonus, at the cost of reduced damage resistance to yourself. Of course, this is situational and would not be appropriate for all purposes.
Unconventional Systems (lockbox) reduces the cooldown of activatable consoles after activating a control ability. Your mileage may vary depending on how many activatable consoles you end up using and how many control abilities (GW, TBR, TB, SS, JTS) you slot. Addendum (edited for clarity): Unconventional Systems does not work to reduce the cooldowns of Entangled Quantum Bombardment and Temporal Vortex but has great synergy with Cutting Tractor Beam console, which boosts damage of some console attacks (but not Temporal Vortex, Neutronic Eddy Generator, or Entangled Quantum Bombardment) after using activatable consoles (especially DPRM) in a universal console focused build. Your mileage will still vary.
Intelligence Agent Attaché (lockbox) reduces captain ability cooldown when landing a weapons critical strike. Your weapons rate of fire wouldn’t be very fast so it won’t be as effective in this build as it would in a cannons escort, but it would still be helpful as a replacement for All Hands On Deck. Addendum: Remember to re-engineer your weakling energy weapons to CrtH to maximize the effectiveness of this trait. The longer cooldown captain abilities will easily reach global cooldown but the shorter ones, like Sensor Scan, can always be shortened further with more CrtH.
Inspirational Leader (lockbox) has a 10% chance of a small buff to most of your skills when activating boff abilities. Your rate of activation will be prodigious but the buff is subtle.
Into the Breach (lockbox) debuffs enemy damage resistance when you destroy nearby enemy vessels. Depending on the circumstances this could mildly debuff a lot of enemies all at once.
A Good Day to Die (lockbox, tactical captains only) allows you to activate Go Down Fighting without the need for your hull to be less than 50%. Very good damage boost for tactical captains, especially with reduced captain ability cooldowns.
Resonating Payload Modification (lockbox) debuffs the physical and kinetic damage resistance of the target of your torpedo attacks by a small amount but stacks up to 5 times. This can be moderately useful for a more torpedo focussed build in matches with enemies that can survive for more than a few seconds.
Duelist’s Fervor (lockbox) gives a small bonus to all damage when you or your teammates make a kill. Stacks up to 3 times so in the right situations can be quite good.
Terran Targeting Systems (lockbox) gives a large boost to critical severity at the expense of impulse speed when you yourself are critically hit.
Adaptive Offense (lockbox) provides bonuses to critical hit and critical damage in a convoluted scheme but the effect in total is decent.
Romulan Operative (free for Romulans) is of course a nice little critical hit bonus.
Fleet Coordinator (free) gives a bonus to damage for team size. Naturally this would be for team play only.
Reputation Traits:
There are 4 reputation traits that are a given in this build then one more slot that lacks a true standout ability and can therefore be tailored given the needs of the mission. The 4 essential traits are:
Advanced Targeting Systems which adds bonus to critical severity
Precision which adds bonus to critical hit
Auxiliary Power Configuration – Offense which adds bonus all damage based on auxiliary power level
Particle Generator Amplifier which adds bonus exotic damage
And now the more situational traits that have some “buts” attached:
Tyler’s Duality (if you have a lot of hull HP) adds bonus critical hit based on hull, for science ships this will usually not be that high BUT there are some exceptions.
Torpedo Pre-fire Sequence (if you use a lot of torpedoes) adds bonus torpedo damage BUT does not improve the AoE hazard damage of Particle Emission Plasma Torpedo and Gravimetric Torpedo.
Enhanced Sensors, increases drain and control effectiveness when activating captain abilities BUT it does not increase the size of your Gravity Well so it’s only slightly useful.
Saru’s Grace, by the description should be quite effective, adding damage and speed when controlling enemies, BUT it is not procced by Gravity Well, Very Cold In Space, Ionic Turbulence, Timeline Collapse, and Chronometric Inversion Field so is therefore essentially worthless here.
If all else fails, any of the bigger healing traits (Auxiliary Power Configuration – Defense immediately comes to mind) would be useful as a good science ship build would generally be lacking in healing boff abilities and equipment. I’d default to Tyler’s Duality unless you had something specific to the way your ship was built that could make use of one of the other ones.
Duty Officers:
There are some very, very expensive lockbox doffs that make these science ship builds extremely powerful. You might not be able to afford them right away; some cost more than a Lobi ship.
31 of 47 (security officer): science boff abilities have a 15% chance to increase DoT damage by 50% for 30 seconds, temporal boff abilities have a 30% chance to increase exotic damage by 25% for 30 seconds.
32 of 47 (security officer): science boff abilities have a 15% chance to increase CrtD by 20% for 30 seconds, intelligence boff abilities have a 30% chance to increase exotic damage by 25% for 30 seconds.
26 of 47 (security officer): tactical boff abilities have a 15% chance to increase DoT damage by 50% for 30 seconds, temporal boff abilities have a 30% chance to increase critical chance by 2.5% for 30 seconds.
As you can see, based on which specialization your ship has, you can spend a lot of ec to greatly improve your hitting power. If you have certain ships with a lot of science and both temporal and intelligence you can spend even more to use two, or a lot of tactical, science, and temporal to use two.
Other good doffs include:
Projectile weapons officers, since more torpedoes are always better,
Gravimetric scientist for aftershock gravity wells,
K13 Research Lab or Fabrication Engineers for small buffs to most skills when activating ensign (or lieutenant if your boff arrangement allows for it) boff abilties,
Technician with chance of bonus to exotic damage when activating EPtA if you’re using EPtA.
Ships:
Now we get to the fun and expensive part: which ship will you be flying? As stated at the beginning, what we’re looking for is a science vessel (or scout ship or dreadnought) with a lot of science, very little engineering, just enough tactical, and some temporal and/or intelligence boff abilities. Full temporal specialization is preferred because of the excellent Support Configuration, which gives a large bonus to exotic damage and control skill at the expense of energy weapon damage, a penalty which is largely irrelevant here. Here I will discuss some noteworthy science ships worth your consideration (or that I find interesting). I’m not going to tell you what you should do, if you would like to fly one of the science ships not listed below you certainly can. I will omit any that have a boff arrangement that requires more than 2 engineering abilities to be used as I think that the opportunity cost associated with them makes for a poor damage dealing science ship. Even 2 engineering abilities is somewhat of a wasted slot on something that isn’t contributing a large explosion. I never thought I’d ever see the day where I felt that a single engineering lieutenant slot was too much engineering but here we are.
Verne/Qul’poH/Sui’Mor Temporal Science Vessels are the ships most recommended by the DPS League and it’s easy to see why. Escort speed allows use of the Gamma engine with plenty of mobility to spare, they are full temporal ships with Molecular Deconstruction and the ability to slot many temporal boff abilities. The boff seating is largely universal, with only one required engineering ensign and either 2 or 3 tactical slots. It also comes with the excellent Enhanced Tipler Cylinder console. The Federation, Klingon, and Romulan versions are all functionally identical.
Sphere Builder Edoulg is a great choice and as a Lobi store ship it is a real bargain. The Edoulg is full temporal, has a great boff arrangement with space for several temporal abilities and even a lieutenant engineering/intel. In fact, it’s currently the only science ship that can slot every one of the SIA anomaly abilities at the same time. Not only that, it also has a 4/2 weapon configuration (which is less useful in a science ship than in other styles of ships) and a hangar bay. The only real downside of this ship is its very slow speed and poor maneuverability for a science ship necessitating the use of the Prevailing engine. It may not be the best science ship (and I’m not convinced that it isn’t) but it’s right up there and far cheaper than any of the possibly only slightly better options. I honestly don’t know why it’s not more popular. Maybe because it’s not from the show and also ugly.
For all the fans of Discovery, there are several Crossfield variants. The best is probably the Mirror Crossfield Science Destroyer. It boasts an almost identical boff arrangement to the Edoulg (it gets pilot instead of intel so it’s not nearly as flexible), a 4/3 weapon configuration, good enough speed and maneuverability to use the Gamma engine, a tactical mode that you probably won’t use much if at all (maybe for a big mine dispersal at the beginning of a match) and, like all the Crossfields, is the hero ship from its own show and looks awesome. The downside is that it’s a Promo ship and costs a ridiculous amount (and no Molecular Deconstruction). Also a ridiculous amount is the Legendary Glenn, which is essentially the Edoulg minus the hangar bay and the ability to slot Ionic Turbulence, instead having to use an engineering lieutenant slot. It comes with a starship trait that provides a neat boost to gravity well which is nice but certainly not worth the cost on its own. The basic Crossfield is the least of the three variants, both in ability and cost. Its boff arrangement is very similar to the mirror version but lacks the ability to slot the temporal boff ability Timeline Collapse, which is a shame, but at least it gets Ionic Turbulence. It is also slightly more sluggish and requires the Prevailing engine. However, as a lockbox ship it is far more affordable than the other two options if you must have a Discovery.
We’re a few months from unlocking this in our fleet, but the Dranuur Scout Ship is also fairly highly rated. Once the tier V colony is completed, it is very cheap to purchase and features raider flanking and speed, a fully universal boff arrangement with temporal seating that enables it to slot all SIA anomalies with the exception of Ionic Turbulence while having the most science abilities possible, and a Starship Mastery tree that includes a bonus to critical severity. The downside is significantly less toughness but that’s less of a concern with Continuity from the Temporal Operative specialization tree.
If you don’t mind it being very sluggish, the Damar Intel Science Dreadnought is an interesting option, with a pretty nice boff arrangement, full intelligence specialization with active sensor arrays and a cloaking device (neither of those are all that useful here), a 4/3 weapon configuration, and a hangar bay. It of course would require the Prevailing engine to turn at all. The Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer is essentially a super fast, squishy version of this ship without the hangar bay.
Some cheaper options can be had from the fleet shipyards. Probably the best of these is the Fleet Nautilus, which is the modern version of the classic Daedalus. This ship is escort fast, full temporal, with a lieutenant engineering/temporal along with commander science/temporal, and 4 tactical slots. It has perhaps a little bit more tactical than most players would want but certainly not more than can be used well (picture FAW1, CSV1, KLW3, and TT1 for a Morphogenic set user or KLW1, APB1, TS3, and TT1 for conventional). Other popular fleet ships include the Fleet Intrepid for all you Voyager fans, which features a lot of basic science boff slots but doesn’t do anything interesting, and the Fleet Magellan (Nebula) which has a slightly better boff arrangement but is slower. Klingons and Romulans also have their own version of the Magellan which are slightly better because of cloaking device (though the Romulan version is a little lacking for power).
Thinking outside the box, there are several full carriers which, despite the lack of secondary deflector slot which would somewhat limit its science damage potential, are otherwise set up very well for science exotic damage-based builds. The Jem’Hadar Vanguard Carrier (that’s the original one, not the newer one) has an excellent boff arrangement for intel, a 4/2 weapon configuration, 5 science consoles, lots of toughness, Jem’Hadar Vanguard Wingmen, and 2 hangar bays with the potent Jem’Hadar Vanguard Gunboats. It is moderately sluggish and the carrier mastery path lacks the bonus damage to exotic damage abilities of a true science vessel but if you want to show up to the fight with as large a posse as possible, it’s the “science” ship for you.
T’laru Intel Carrier Warbird has an even better boff arrangement, sneaking a lieutenant temporal slot and full intelligence specialization with Romulan battle cloak. As a Romulan singularity based ship it does tend to lack power and it only has 4 science consoles so it would have to rely more on universal consoles.
Even more outside the box (and I might be reaching here but I want to present interesting options) is the Sphere Builder Denuos Dreadnought Carrier. While its boff arrangement isn’t quite as good, lacking the science commander slot and therefore GW3 (GW1 has a maximum radius of 8km instead of 12km), it is a full temporal ship with a commander tactical/temporal and Molecular Reconstruction and a 4/3 weapon configuration. With only 4 science console slots it would have to rely more on universal consoles as well. This would only be a ship choice for the more “adventurous” captains.
And finally in my outside the box segment, the Ouroboros Temporal Raider, while lacking a secondary deflector and an ensign boff slot, is a full temporal ship with all universal boff seating, blazing speed, an experimental weapon, and battle cloak. It is probably your ship of choice if you wish to attempt a tactical cannon science ship build followed by the Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer, with the Damar Intel Science Dreadnought being a surprise option here as well.
This is all very expensive and I once I’ve purchased all the necessities I can’t afford the ship I want to use/I’m waiting for our fleet to unlock the Dranuur scout ship! What ship should I use while I wait to obtain my final ship? You likely already have several free choices:
You’re probably thinking “well, I paid a lot of Lobi crystals to get the Tholian Iktomi and it’s a T6 Lobi store science ship, I should use that!” and that would be wrong. The Iktomi, with its sluggish speed, focus on engineering, no temporal or intel seating, and either not enough tactical or not enough science boff slots, is a contender for the worst T6 science ship (probably only beating out the Dauntless).
What about the Somerville/Batlh? It is faster and has full intel specialization. But the version you buy to get the starship trait isn’t a fleet level T6 so it’s lacking a console and some toughness, and it still has too much of an engineering focus. I wouldn’t recommend upgrading to the fleet version either. Granted it’s not a whole lot of cost to make the upgrade, but there are better options that you likely already have.
If you’ve been playing the game for a long time and doing the seasonal events, you’ve probably already accumulated a wide range of free science vessels. The very first of these giveaway science vessels was the subject of a very old blog post that is long obsolete, but it’s still a decent ship: the Krenim Science Vessel. While sluggish and lacking a science lt cdr, it has intel seating and a generally good layout. More recently, the Lukari Ho’kuun is fast enough to use the Gamma engine and has a lt cdr engineering/intel, which is excellent. This summer we could all get the Risian Weather Control Vessel, and it has a moderately potent starship trait to boot. It’s escort fast and has pilot seating, which doesn’t have synergy for a science ship, but has a decent boff arrangement otherwise. However, none of these are my choice for best free science vessel:
My recommendation is the Vulcan T’Pau Scout Ship. This ship has raider flanking and speed, a fully universal boff arrangement, and intel seating. All it lacks is toughness, but using Temporal primary specialization makes this less of an issue. It will make a great placeholder ship until you can get your dream ship (side note: the event that rewarded this ship was during my 1-year hiatus so I don’t actually have it).
Now we will put this all together in a powerful build typical of the type:
Science captain in the Sphere Builder Edoulg Science Vessel focusing on torpedo and particle generator based attack abilities and utilizing the Improved Photonic Officer and Spore Infused Anomalies traits. This build can also work very well as a tactical captain, but not as an engineer. Alien captains get the most possible space traits so they would be preferred (Jem’Hadar Vanguard notwithstanding). The Edoulg is a contender for best science vessel and is the only one that can slot all of the anomalies that are triggered by Spore Infused Anomies. As a Lobi store ship, is relatively attainable at less than 300 million ec and available to captains of all factions.
Weapons:
Fore:
Particle Emission Plasma Torpedo
Gravimetric Photon Torpedo Launcher
Morphogenic Polaron Energy Torpedo Launcher
Disruptor Wide Angle Dual Heavy Beam Bank
Aft:
Morphogenic Polaron Energy Weapon
Dyson Proton Weapon
Equipment:
Deflector: Fleet Intervention re-engineered for as much Crtl and EPG as possible
Secondary Deflector: Conventional, as much Crtl and EPG as possible
Engine: Prevailing Innervated
Warp Core: Temporal Defense
Shields: Temporal Defense
Engineering Consoles: Constriction Anchor, Delphic Tear Generator
Science Consoles: Exotic Particle Field Exciter [prtg or ctrl], Temporal Disentanglement Suite, Exotic Particle Focuser [+gravgen][prtg] x3
Tactical Consoles: Morphogenic Matrix Controller, Lorca’s Custom Fire Controls, Temporal Vortex Probe
Devices: exotic particle flood, Kobayashi Maru transponder, subspace field modulator
I don’t like having a non-firing weapon in the back. Is that really necessary? Normally I also hate having a non-firing rear weapon even if the set bonus is good. But here your energy weapons are so irrelevant to the build that it doesn’t matter that the Dyson proton weapon isn’t firing at all, the set bonus to critical hit rate and photon damage is far, far more useful than a firing rear turret could possibly be. In fact, on most typical science ships with a 3/3 weapon configuration, even the Morphogenic torpedo would be slotted in the back.
Is this combination the best that there is? Are there any alternatives? Best would have the Plasma Storm Generator but this is how I would do it as I’m not willing to buy a Lobi store ship for a console. In certain builds, especially those using the Unconventional Systems space trait, more consoles with powerful activatable attacks would be helpful in place of the Chronometric Capacitor or more Exotic Particle Focusers. If you need to be faster for DPS runs, subspace field modulator can be replaced with deuterium surplus (mission “Defense Contract” in the Alhena system, crafting afterward).
Boff setup:
Boffs are what really make a science build a science build. Assuming you’re a Federation captain, the tactical boff should be superior Romulan operative from the fleet embassy, the engineer should be your one Kentari from the fleet Colony, and the three science officers should be Hierarchy (“Alliances”), Nausicaan (CXP reward), and K13 Human (holographic Bashir from the Medical giveaway is another option). Klingons can get easier access to as many Nausicaans as they want. If you’ve bought the Gamma Vanguard pack then Jem’Hadar Vanguard boffs would be better than all but the Romulan, Kentari, and maybe the Hierarchy. Romulans would of course use all Superior Romulan Operatives.
Lt Cdr Tac: FAW1, CSV1, KLW3
Lt Eng/Intel: EPTS1, IT1
Cdr Sci/Temp: VCIS1, CIF1, TC1, GW3
Lt Cdr Sci: SV1, PO1, DRB2
Ensign Sci: HE1
Why? We’re focussing on abilities that will work with Spore Infused Anomalies, cause exotic damage, and boost criticals and hitting power. There’s a token amount of healing.
What if I wanted even more damage output? There are only 2 abilities here that aren’t causing damage. Actually, only 1 because HE1 is still proccing SIA. But it can be improved if more damage is the goal. Without thinking too hard, replacing HE1 with ST1 retains one heal while doubling the rate of SIA proccing from that boff slot. Probably the easiest swap for noticeably more firepower is to replace HE1 with Structural Analysis 1. This lockbox ability applies a damage resistance debuff to an opponent then spreads to others over time. It’s not that powerful and is really only great against enemies that last a little while before exploding but it procs the inhibiting secondary deflector as well so will cause some extra damage. The other very popular one is Delayed Overload Cascade, which causes significant kinetic damage to all those enemies stuck in your anomalies. The one downside is that it also punts the enemies a far distance when it does this, thereby throwing them out of harms way (at least until your GW pulls them back in) so it requires some practice and timing to use well. Both of these abilities are found in lockboxes. The last switch for more damage is to replace EPTS1 with EPTA1, which gives a small buff to EPG and Control skills and boosts auxiliary power. This configuration is only recommended in DPS runs with good teammates because you will have no healing at all. If you had an extra science lieutenant (as in the fleet Intrepid) you could also use Charged Particle Burst as an additional way to proc your Deteriorating Secondary Deflector.
What happened to Tyken’s Rift? That’s also an SIA approved anomaly. Yes, it is. It shares a cooldown with GW though the cooldown is short enough that you can use both without getting in the way of your GW activation. It is certainly still useable here if you wanted to do so. In a ship without the multiple specialist seats (such as the fleet Intrepid) it would probably find its way into the rotation. You would have to set up your keybinds so that Tyken’s Rift wasn’t on the same button as the rest of the anomalies so that you could activate it when appropriate but hold it back when you didn’t want to delay your next GW.
Addendum: What if I’m using an Intel based ship rather than a Temporal based ship? Along with Ionic Turbulence, make sure you slot Override Subsystem Safeties as this noticeably improves just about every ability you have as a science ship, especially as a science captain. It can be a bit finicky, is best used at appropriate times rather than being spammed, can be dangerous if it takes a vital system offline at an unfortunate time, and occasionally fails to activate, but in general it’s worth it.
Doffs:
3x Projectile weapon officer – to increase torpedo rate of fire
Security Officer 31 of 47 – bonus DoT and exotic damage with science and temporal boffs
Security Officer 32 of 47 – bonus critical severity and exotic damage with science and intelligence boffs
Gravimetric scientist – aftershock gravity wells
What other options are there/I’m too poor for the Borg doffs? K13 Fabrication Engineer and Research Lab Scientist are both fairly good, as is the Technician with a chance of increased exotic damage with EPTA if you’re using EPTA.
Power settings:
The one key to this build is to get your auxiliary power all the way up to 135.
Wait, did you say “135”? Yes, because Support Configuration in a full temporal ship grants a maximum auxiliary power of 135. You will likely not be able to get your auxiliary power up that high without making some otherwise suboptimal equipment choices (or use Electrified Anomalies), but a few points over 130 will be fine. If you use EPTA you’ll take that into account as well. You have some options for the rest of your power levels. I tend to try to fine tune my power levels to gain as many Amps from my warp core as possible. If I can’t get 4 and am only getting 3, in this build putting the remainder into energy weapon power would probably not be a significant source of extra damage. With how little healing is here, shields power might be worthwhile, or engines for increased mobility.
Specializations:
Primary: Temporal (good synergy with exotic damage and anomalies, Continuity makes up for lack of healing boff abilities)
Secondary: Strategist (has bonuses to criticals)
Starship Traits:
Spore Infused Anomalies
Improved Photonic Officer
Improved Gravity Well
Entwined Tactical Matrices
Electrified Anomalies
Space Traits:
Enlightened
Particle Manipulator
Conservation of Energy
Intelligence Agent Attache
Inspirational Leader
Fragment of AI Tech
Duelist’s Fervor
Terran Targeting Systems
Adaptive Offense
Fleet Coordinator (team play)/Superior Astrophysicist (solo play)/Unconventional Systems (bought the Maquis Raider or are using a lot of other activatable consoles)
Space Reputation Traits:
Auxiliary Power Configuration – Offense – you have 130 or more auxiliary power. Use it to your advantage.
Advanced Targeting Systems – bonus critical severity
Precision – bonus critical chance
Particle Generator Amplifier – bonus exotic damage
Tyler’s Duality – bonus critical chance (Edoulg is one of the few science ships with a decent number of HP)
Skills
Skills for a partigen sci are for the most part fairly obvious. You want all the associated exotic particle generator skill and control expertise skill with control amplification. If you have a drain ability or two (such as Charged Particle Burst), you may be tempted to take drain infection however this will contribute a very minor amount of damage so can be ignored. A moderate number of tactical skills are also helpful, mostly projectile and critical related. As several of the tactical boff abilities have a quicker cooldown, 2 ranks of tactical readiness are also necessary. Coordination protocols and offensive coordination are typically useful for slightly buffing your summons and teammates, especially if you have a hangar. I like to use a significant amount of engineering power level skills to help me get Amps and maximize auxiliary power, but your mileage may vary on that. As there are options for very few heals in this build, some of the passive toughness skills from engineering and science trees can be helpful.
Combat Style:
The first thing you want to activate in combat are your buffs. If you can, activate Photonic Officer well in advance so you have the EPG buff already active by the time you enter combat but Photonic Officer itself is almost ready to be activated again. If you are using Morphogenic set you can get FAW and CSV cycling well ahead of time too to build up the critical bonuses. Once you enter combat, if you use Ceaseless Momentum get your torpedoes firing first to further buff your Gravity Well and Subspace Vortex. The activation order for your boff abilities is important and it can help to nest the order of your keybinds to make sure the right abilities are activated in the right order. You want to start with the temporal anomalies, that is Chronometric Inversion Field followed by Timeline Collapse (entropy builder first, followed by entropy consumer not that that ends up being too much of a factor) since they are anomalies but do not cause Spore Infused Anomalies to proc when activated. Follow this with your science and intelligence anomalies that have a debuff component, that is Gravity Well (since it activates control amplification) and Ionic Turbulence, which will proc Spore Infused Anomalies on the previous temporal anomalies. End with your other science anomalies, Very Cold In Space and Subspace Vortex. Once your anomalies are all in place you can finish with your remaining science abilities, Destabilizing Resonance Beam, Hazard Emitters, and hopefully a fresh Photonic Officer.
If the enemies being faced are not very tough, it can be a good idea to hold some attacks in reserve for later. No sense creating a multiple-boss-killing collection of anomalies when all you’re facing is a handful of frigates. This is especially important in missions where you will be moving a lot and have to create new anomalies wherever you go as opposed to static missions where enemies warp in to your pre-prepared position.
Since Subspace Vortex has a secondary activation mode, that is a teleport to the vortex’s location and the dissipation of the vortex, having this ability on the same keybind as the rest of your anomalies is not recommended. I personally have one keybind for all my anomalies which I can activate at the beginning of the battle and a second one that has all of my anomalies without Subspace Vortex for all other times.
Another keybind I use is for all of my non-attack science abilities to be used for proccing SIA when appropriate. These are usually heals so in this case I have them separated from my engineering heals but also includes PO.
I won’t include my full keybinds here since by now you should all know how to do them and customize your own based on your own preferences.