star trek online species traits

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Massively's Guide to the Character Traits of Star Trek Online

Star Trek Online offers several levels of character customization beyond the visual aspects, and that first level the player is introduced to is character traits. You select these traits when creating your character, and the choices are numerous. In Massively's guide to the character traits of Star Trek Online , we'll look at the different classes of traits and suggest some builds to get you started. Please remember a few things when reading this guide. First, the information was all obtained in the late closed beta -- so it could have changed without notice at release. If that's the case we'll update the guide as soon as we know about the changes, but double check everything and don't click blindly. Secondly, the traits are only a recommendation and should be adapted to your personal play style. If you're one of those players who always needs that extra bit of health, get the Peak Health trait no matter what role you're going to play. Finally, there is currently no way to retrain your traits (or skills), so be sure to select them carefully. Character Traits Guide Table of Contents

How Traits Work

Species Traits

Klingon Empire

Space Traits

Ground traits, suggested trait builds.

Suggested Species and Trait Builds

Traits define the basic attributes, and in some cases, a special action that your character possesses. Traits influence the overall strengths of your character and are central in adapting your character to your play style. As of this writing, once you select your traits at character creation, you cannot revise them later on. Each character is allowed a total of four traits. Each defined species comes with between one and three predetermined traits, allowing you to fill in the rest to your liking. However, defined species also have limited trait choices to select in their customization. For instances, Humans don't make good tanks -- and cannot get the Elusive ability necessary for space tanking. Custom species allow you to select all four traits to your liking. It's important to think about the role you want to play in the game prior to selecting your species and traits combination. Some species lend themselves to specific roles better than others. As an example, the Betazoids lend themselves well to filling a healing / support role with their trait Empathic, which reduces threat and increases the regeneration rate of team members. Note too that while the general space and ground traits are available to both Federation and Klingon characters (sans specific species restrictions), some individual species traits are unique. Take the Klingon trait Honorable, which increases threat generation by 10% and gives a damage resistance of 5%. That's an exceptionally powerful tanking trait, and it does not have any counterpart in any Federation species.

Federation Species Traits

Human Leadership: +15% repair rate Teamwork: +5% exploit damage

Andorian Acute Senses: +20% stealth sight, +10% exploit damage

Bajoran Creative: +5% damage and healing with kits Spiritual: +10% heals received and +10% regeneration

Benzite Natural Armor: Resist energy and physical damage Natural Immunities: Radition and toxic damage resitance

Betazoid Empathic: Reduced threat generation, increased team regeneraiton Telepathic: Increases perception, exposure duration, and chance

Bolian Corrosive Blood: +20% toxic resistance, deals toxic damage when Bitten

Saurian Circulatory Redundancies: Toxic, fire, and plasma DoT damage resistance Acute Senses: +20% stealth sight, +10% exploit damage

Trill Hyper Metabolism: Health regeneration, radiation, and toxic resistance

Vulcan Logical: +30% psionic, confuse and placate resistance Physical Strength: +10% melee damage

Borg -- Only available to lifetime subscribers Borg Nanites: +10% ground health and shield regeneration Efficient: +5 starship engine efficiency. +5 starship energy weapon efficiency. +5 starship auxiliary systems efficiency

Klingon Empire Species Traits

Klingon Honorable: +5% damage resistance, +10% threat generation

Gorn Cold-Blooded: 25% fire resistane, +10% plasma DoT resistance Reptilian Strength: +17.5% melee damage and knockback Resilient: +5% physical and energy resistance

Lethean Rapture: Target and Psionic DoT Telepathic: Increases perception, exposure duration, and chance

Nausicaan Physical Strength: +10% melee damage Pirate: +20% stealth, +30% exploit damage

Orion Seductive: Resist confuse, placate, reduced threat generaiton

Elusive: Reduces the chance for enemy ships to hit you with their weapons. +0.1 defense.

Accurate: Increases the accuracy of space weapons. +0.1 accuracy

Support / Multispec

Efficient: Provides a bonus to your efficiency stats, improving the effectiveness of many of your power management abilities. +5 starship shield efficiency. +5 starship engine efficiency. +5 starship energy weapon efficiency. +5 starship auxiliary systems efficiency.

Astrophysicist: Improves your operations stat, which enhances ship deflector, emitter and sensors abilities. +10 starship operations training.

Techie: Improves your engineering stat, which increases the effectiveness of maintenance, repair and performance powers. +10 starship engineering training.

Warp Theorist: Improves your warp core stat, which increases the power levels of your ship.

Aggressive: Improves the damage you deal and makes enemies more likely to attack you over other targets. +5% all damage bonus strength. +5% threat generation.

Peak Health: Improves maximum health and toxic resistance. +10% toxic damage resistance. +10% maximum hit points.

Damage Resistance Traits

Cold Blooded: Provides moderate resistance to fire damage and some resistance to plasma fire damage over time effects. +10 Plasma Damage resistance (only affects certain things). +25% fire damage resistance.

Mental Discipline: Provides innate resistance to the effects of psionic attacks as well as confuse and placate. +15% psionic damage resistance. +20% confuse resistance. +20% placate resistance.

Natural Immunities: Provides innate resistance to the effects of radiation and toxins. +33% radiation damage resistance. +33% toxic damage resistance.

Resilient: Provides innate resistance to physical and energy damage. +5% physical damage resistance. +5% all energy damage resistance.

Stubborn: Improves resistance against placate and abilities that reduce your movement speed or prevent you from acting. +40% run speed resistance. +20% hold resistance. +50% placate resistance.

Sturdy: Provides innate resistance to the physical damage and knockback attacks. +10% physical damage resistance. +10% kinetic damage resistance. +10% knockback resistance.

Sure Footed: Improves resistance against powers that knock you back or root you in place. +40% root reistance. +12% knockback resistance.

Acute Senses: Makes it significantly easier to detect stealthed opponents and increases your exploit damage by 10%. +20% stealth sight.

Covert: Increases the effectiveness of your stealth abilities and boosts exploit damage by 20% while stealthed. +10% aggression stealth strength. +10% perception stealth strength.

Lucky: Increases critical hit chance and expose chance. Does not stack with other expose chance buffs. +3% critical chance.

Physical Strength: Improves the damage of melee attacks. +10% physical damage bonus strength.

Soldier: Increases the damage and critical hit damage of your ranged weapons. +5% all energy damage bonus strength. +10 critical severity.

Telekinesis: Activatable ground trait. Knocks the target back with telekinetic force. 22.86 meter range, 0.75 sec activate, 1 min recharge, 15 physical damage, Knocks back the target 30 feet.

Telepathic: Improves the chance of exposing a target as well as the duration of the expose. Makes it easier to detect stealthed opponents. Does not stack with other expose chance buffs. +20% stealthsight.

Fury: Gradually increases your damage once your health drops below half, making you deal more damage the closer you come to death. Andorian only.

Teamwork: Improves the exploit damage done by you and your allies by 5%. Bolian, Humans only.

Limited Telepathy: Improves the duration of exposes and makes it significantly easier to detect stealthed opponents. Trill, Vulcan only.

Mind Meld: Applies a short duration hold and a longer duration confuse to the target. Vulcan only.

Nerve Pinch: Precise pinch on the target's neck. Prevents the target from taking action for the duration. Vulcan only.

Bite: Deals moderate melee damage and poisons the target. Gorn only.

Seduce: Confuse the target and trick them to attack their allies. Orion only.

Creative: Improves the damage and healing of your kit powers. +5% all damage bonus strength. +5% hit points bonus strength.

For custom species, you are allowed to select a total of four traits that will define your character. While it's possible to entirely stack traits in either space or ground combat, it's not advisable. Missions and other encounters almost always have both space and ground combat elements in them, and it's vital that a character is able to be effective in both situations. In this regard, we've decided to go with a 2-to-2 ratio for the following recommended trait specs: two ground combat traits combined with two space combat traits. Tanking

Elusive Space trait. Will make your ship less likely to be hit.

Techie Space trait. Will increase the rate at which your ship is repaired and recharges.

Aggressive Ground trait. Increases threat and damage dealt.

Peak Health Increases maximum health and provides some toxic damage resistance.

Accurate Space trait. Increases the accuracy of your weapons.

Efficient Space trait. Increases the efficiency of your energy weapons, amongst other things.

Lucky Ground trait. Increases critical hit chance and expose chance.

Soldier Ground trait. Increases base damage and critical hit damage.

Astrophysicist Space trait. Space trait. Increase the operations stat.

Warp Theorist Space trait. Improves your warp core stat, which increases the power levels of your ship.

Creative Ground trait. Improves the damage and healing powers of your kit.

Peak Health Ground trait. Increases maximum health, which never hurts to have in a support role.

Balanced Tanking / Support

Balanced Tanking / Damage

Balanced Damage / Support

Suggested Species and Trait Builds -- Federation

Tanking Suggested Race: Andorian Predetermined Trait: Acute Senses (Increased stealth detection) Suggested Traits: Elusive (Increased ship defense), Aggressive (Increased ground threat), Techie (Increased repair rate). Damage Suggested Race: Human Predetermined Trait: Teamwork (5% increase in exploit damage), Leadership (Increased space repair rate) Suggested Traits: Accurate (Improved accuracy of space weapons), Lucky (Improved ground critical hit chance and expose chance). Support / Healing Suggested Race: Betazoid Predetermined Trait: Empathic (Increased team regeneration, reduced threat), Telepathic (Increased perception) Suggested Traits: Creative (Improve healing and damage of your kit) and Astrophysicist (Improved starship operations training)

Suggested Species and Trait Builds -- Klingon Empire

Tanking Suggested Race: Klingon Predetermined Trait: Honorable (Increased ground damage resistance and threat), Warrior (Increased ground damage) Suggested Traits: Accurate (Improved accuracy of space weapons), Techie (Increased repair rate). Damage Suggested Race: Nausicaan Predetermined Trait: Physical Strength (Improved melee damage), Pirate (Improved exploit damage) Suggested Traits: Accurate (Improved accuracy of space weapons), Warp Theorist (Improved ship power levels) Support / Healing Suggested Race: Orion Predetermined Trait: Seductive (Improved resistance to confuse and placate, decreased threat) Suggested Traits: Creative (Improve ground healing and damage), Astrophysicist (Improved starship operations training), Warp Theorist (Improved ship power levels)

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Star Trek Online Character Creation Guide: Species, Traits, Character and Uniform Customization

Like all of Cryptic’s games, Star Trek Online is chock full of options for character creation and customization. While this multitude of choices can allow experienced players to create incredibly unique characters, it can be a little daunting for those who are just venturing into the world of STO. Fortunately, you’ve found our guide.

We’ll walk you through the process of setting up your first character, including choosing a species and a specialization, as well as choosing attributes and customizing your character’s appearance.

Whether you’re going to work towards peace in the galaxy as a member of the Federation or seek out conquest through armed conflict as a member of the Klingon Empire, our guide has got your covered.

First thing’s first, fire up Star Trek Online, input your account name and password, and hit the enter key.

The game may need to download and install some updates, and when it’s finished the “Cancel” button at the bottom of the updater will change to an “Engage” button. Press it to progress to the Character Selection Screen.

Create your Character

If this is your first time logging into STO, you’ll have but a single option on this screen, “New Federation Character.” Select it, then hit the button in the bottom right to continue to the “Choose your Career” screen.

You will have three options: Engineering Officer, Science Officer, or Tactical Officer. Your choice here affects the type of abilities your main character can learn and utilize both in space and on the ground. Don’t sweat the choice too much, though, as you can always recruit bridge officers to make up for any gaps in your own training. Pick the specialization that most appeals to you and press the “Next” button in the bottom right corner to continue.

Next up is the “Choose your Species and Gender” screen. If you’re unsure which species to choose, be sure to check out our Guide to Star Trek Online Federation Species and our Guide to Star Trek Online Klingon Empire Species for some great advice and a full listing of the traits of each species.

Make your species and gender choice, paying special attention to the bonus traits of your chosen species, and press the “Next” button once again to continue.

Choose your Traits

The next screen is the “Choose your Traits” screen. Depending on your choice of species, you will be able to pick from one to three additional traits for your character. Try and pick traits that will accentuate your personal playing style. If you’re making a character that will typically attack enemies head on, then a trait like “Covert,” which grants a bonus to stealth, may not be the most useful for you.

Click on the check boxes next to your chosen traits, then press the “Next” button to continue.

Check out page two for more on customizing your character’s appearance and uniform, and tips for naming your very first vessel.

Customize your Character’s Appearance

Now it’s time to dig through Cryptic’s immense library of character customization options. Some races have more options than others, but all have enough possibilities to ensure that you can create a truly distinct character. The options in the basic editor are fairly limited, but if you press the “Advanced” button in the bottom right, you can access a large number of customization options, including tattoos, scars, and scale sliders to alter the size and shape of your character’s head to fit your desire.

As you add facial hair and accessories, or customize the shape of your character’s head, keep in mind that you can use the “+” and “-” buttons and the sideways arrows near your character to get a look at him or her from all angles.

Once you’ve got the head styled to your liking, press the “Next” button once again to continue.

The “Customize your Body” screen is next. Like the previous screen, the basic editor is fairly limited, so press the “Advanced” button if you want to truly make your character your own.

You can manipulate the scaling and stance options to create an approximation of your own stature, or push them all the way to the right to create a freakishly huge abomination, completely up to you. Keep in mind that it will cost you credits to make changes to your character later on, though, so try and make something you can live with.

Uniform Customization

Once you’ve gotten your character looking presentable, you can press the “Next” button to progress to uniform customization. The options here are quite varied as well, ensuring that Starfleet and Klingon uniforms are anything but. As with the Character Customization options, advanced mode is the only way to go here.

You can customize uniform patterns, colors and insignia here. It’s possible to create some approximations of past Star Trek series’ uniforms with the diverse options in the editor, but why would you want to when you can create something completely new.

As with the character editor, make sure you get a set up you like here, as it will cost you money later on to change it.

Choose your Story

The “ Choose your Story ” screen is the final stop on your character creation journey. Enter a nickname for your character, this will be displayed along with your ship in space, and show up as your character name on the ground. You will also be asked to enter a name for your starship. Once again, make sure it’s something you can live with it, as altering it later is not free. Try and come up with something in keeping with the Star Trek mythos, if possible. Past ship names have included famous authors and scientists, mythological figures, and location names. A name like “U.S.S. Bong Ripper” may seem like a good idea now, but it probably won’t be met with much love from a community familiar with the history of Star Trek.

The full name of your character and bio are optional items that can be changed at any time or input later on, so don’t sweat them too much at this point.

Fill out all the info you can, and then hit the “Submit Application” button to create your character.

After a brief loading period, you will find yourself in the observation lounge of your ship, ready to begin the tutorial. Congratulations, you’ve just joined the Federation or the Klingon Empire.

Good luck, and enjoy your time exploring the final frontier.

This post is part of the series: Star Trek Online Guide to Character Creation

Our complete guide to character creation in Star Trek Online covers the traits and bonuses of all the races, both Klingon and Federation, as well as providing you with step by step instructions to creating the best possible STO character.

• Guide to Character Creation in Star Trek Online
• Guide to Federation Species in Star Trek Online
• Guide to Klingon Empire Species in Star Trek Online
• Star Trek Online Tutorial Walkthrough

Personal traits/Race-specific Personal traits

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Race-specific Personal traits (not to be confused with the unchangeable, innate species trait ) are optionally selectable Personal traits whose availability is determined by the player race . Races available to more than one faction, such as Alien or Liberated Borg, have the same trait choices available regardless of faction.

Note that, although it is available for all Federation and Romulan Republic characters, the trait Elusive is not available for Gorn captains of the Klingon Empire , and therefore listed as a race-specific trait.

Federation races [ | ]

• ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Andorian, Ferengi and Saurian captains have the effects of Acute Senses built into their species trait.
• ↑ Bajoran captains have an altered version of Creative built into their species traits.
• ↑ Betazoid captains have the effects of Telepathic built into their species traits.
• ↑ Ferengi captains have the effects of Natural Immunities built into their species traits.
• ↑ Human captains have the effects of Teamwork built into their species traits.
• ↑ Klingon captains have an improved version of Soldier built into their species trait.
• ↑ Liberated Borg captains have the effects of Efficient Captain built into their species trait.
• ↑ Saurian captains have the effects of Cold Blooded built into their species trait.
• ↑ Non-Joined Trill captains can select Superior Covert , which is exclusive to them.
• ↑ Trill captains have the effects of Natural Immunities built into their species trait.
• ↑ Vulcan captains have an altered version of Mental Discipline built into their species traits.
• ↑ Vulcan captains have an altered version of Physical Strength built into their species traits.

Klingon Defence Forces races [ | ]

Alien captains have access to every trait except the species-exclusive Bite , Borg Neural Blast , and Pounce .

• ↑ Gorn captains have the effects of Cold Blooded built into their species trait.
• ↑ Gorn captains have an enhanced version of Physical Strength built into their species trait.
• ↑ Gorn captains have the effects of Resilient built into their species traits.
• ↑ Lethean captains have the effects of Telepathic built into their species trait.
• ↑ 7.0 7.1 Nausicaan and male Orion captains have the effects of Physical Strength built into their species traits.

Romulan Republic races [ | ]

All RRF races have Acute Senses , Elusive , Peak Health , Physical Strength , and Resilient among their trait choices (or built into their species trait). Alien captains have access to every trait except Mind Drain , Borg Neural Blast , Infiltrator , Plasma Weapon Specialist , Romulan Operative , and Singularity Specialist .

• ↑ Reman captains have the effects of Acute Senses built into their species trait.
• ↑ Reman captains have the effects of Resilient built into their species trait.
• ↑ Reman captains have the effects of Telepathic built into their species trait.
• ↑ Romulan captains have the effects of Physical Strength built into their species trait.
• ↑ Romulan captains have a weaker version of Infiltrator (sans the Defense bonus) built into their species trait.
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• Star Trek Online Best Race - What To Choose

Star Trek Online has 45 species that can be chosen by players, but which is the best in the game? We’ll be going over the top 5 in our article here! Like most things in the game, the best races are not absolutely critical in order to complete content, and it is perfectly viable to play anything you want because you like the species! So let’s boldly go and start with Number 5!

5.  Human (Best for Tanking)

A classic but pretty handy to have around!

At Number 5 we have the Humans! Eternally the general, average, generic species in pretty much every game, humans in Star Trek Online have a very straight-forward but useful ability. In Space Combat, they give you a 30% bonus to subsystem repair and hull regeneration rate, and in Ground Combat, they give a 5% team exploit damage bonus.

What makes them useful is their subsystem repair and hull regeneration bonuses, since those are fairly difficult to stack without using expensive traits or skills. By combining it with some of the cheaper options out there (like using human bridge officers who also have the trait), you can get a reasonably high hull regeneration bonus.

Subsystem repair is also very handy in PVP or against enemies who use a lot of disables, since it reduces the time for those subsystems to come back online. The ground bonus, however, is pretty much worthless, making humans pretty average at

That said, they make excellent tank captains, and when combined with engineers, they can endure tremendous amounts of punishment in space combat.

Human details:

Humans are a race originating from the planet Earth in the Sol System. They were one of the founding races thatcreated the United Federation of Planets, along with Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites. In Star Trek Online they are a playable race belonging to the Federation faction.

Species trait : Humans are inspirational leaders and work exceptionally well with others. Their Leadership inspires their comrades to work harder and faster than they otherwise could, and their Teamwork allows them to exploit combat opportunities created by teammates to great effect.

In Space: Increases Subsystem Repair and Hull Regen Rate in Space (30% in combat, 60% out of combat)

On Ground: Increases team exploit damage on Ground

What Humans Excel In:

• Very powerful hull regeneration bonus for Space Combat that makes them a natural pick for tanking roles. 
• Subsystem repair makes them very resilient to disable attacks which is good both for PVP and general content. 
• Can take full advantage of Human bridge officers who also come with the trait to get up to 100% bonus hull regeneration and subsystem repair!

Pick Humans if... 

• You like playing as a Human being in other games!
• You enjoy a tanking-centered role (though this is still useful even for DPS ships, so don’t feel limited).
• You want to be able to PVP and PVE equally well. 

4. Liberated Borg Human (Best for Support)

Note: does not come with your own drone army.

Liberated Borg were an option that was frequently requested in the early days of Star Trek Online, and when it was finally given, it proved to be quite powerful in that time period. While its power has diminished due to the presence of other competing traits and abilities, it’s still very good for people who have access to it. 

A quick note on the Borg is that they are only available to people with a Lifetime Subscription to Star Trek Online. I hesitated to include them due to this, but they’re good enough that I felt it would be unwise to dismiss them as an option for players with more discretionary spending ability. 

The Liberated Borg comes with a Space Combat bonus of +30 to Warp Core Efficiency, meaning that you get additional power levels naturally by simply having this as your captain. The old days had power being extremely difficult to come by, whereas in the modern age, power levels are easier to max out. It’s still something you want to do, and given that maxing it out can be costly in game currency, this can be a useful option to bridgethe gap. 

The ground bonuses it comes with is also very useful, giving you both health and shield regeneration increases. In a few ways, the Liberated Borg strikes a better balance at Space and Ground than Humans. 

Unfortunately, you can’t quite recreate Seven of Nine in the sense of having a mostly normal-looking character. If you’re a fan of the implants and the pasty skin, this is your pick!

Liberated Borg details:

Liberated Borg (also known as xBs) are former Borg drones who have been freed from the Collective. Their original race, prior to assimilation, may have varied by species but they are unified through the experience of being absorbed into the Borg, complete with mental and physical scars from the trauma.

Species trait: You are a former Borg drone, now freed from your connection to the Collective. You retain the rigid efficiency and internal metabolism of a Borg drone, giving your systems extra efficiency in space and your body extra regeneration and resilience on the ground.

In Space : +30 Starship Warp Core Efficiency

On Ground: +10% Health Regeneration/+6% Shield Regeneration

What Liberated Borg Excels In: 

• An excellent pick for any captain who wants that added power bonus, but especially good for Science captains who need the juice for their abilities. 
• Tanky in Ground Combat with a large degree of innate durability. 
• Customization options combine well with any of the unlocked costumes. 

Pick Liberated Borg if... 

• You loved Seven of Nine as a character and want to follow in her footsteps!
• Enjoy playing a more support oriented role or a “caster” class via the Science captain career. 
• Want a tanky set of traits for Ground Combat - Resistance is Futile.

3. Jem’Hadar Vanguard (Best for DPS)

Victory is dependent upon skill of the player!

The mighty Jem’Hadar Vanguard is an upgrade over the basic Jem’Hadar that Dominion players can access thanks to the Victory is Life! Expansion. With the upgraded version, you get a solid bonus to weapons damage, critical hit chance, and critical hit severity, while ground traits remain the same.

What makes this so good is the bonus weapon damage as a space trait! Bonus damage works by more or less bypassing the diminishing returns of “increased weapons damage”, ensuring that a 20% bonus is an actual 20% bonus, not 2% because of previous stacking effects.

Having this on a captain means that right out of the gate, you’re doing more damage than the average player!

The ground trait is useful by giving you the Shroud (cloak) ability as well as identical bonuses as the space trait. This makes the Vanguard the best at DPS for the Dominion and most factions.

Jem’Hadar Vanguard details:

The Jem'Hadar Vanguard are a version of Jem'Hadar specially bred on the orders of Odo. They are a premium race requiring purchase in the Zen Store for 600Zen small icon.png or as part of the Gamma Vanguard Starter Pack or Gamma Vanguard Pack. Like normal Jem'Hadar, Jem'Hadar Vanguard characters start at level 60.

Species traits : Jem'Hadar: soldiers were designed purely for combat, and are highly capable combatants in a multitude of environments. Their intense combat training has made them incredibly effective at defeating their opponents through superior offensive capabilities.

Ground: Bonus Damage for Ranged Weapons and Melee attacks, Critical Chance and Critical Severity.

Space: Bonus Damage, Critical Chance and Critical Severity.

Shroud: Allows you to briefly cloak and increase the damage of your next attack. The stealth and damage bonus expire when you attack, or when the duration time runs out.

What Jem’Hadar Vanguard Excels In: 

• Among the best DPS species in the game, with identical bonuses in space and on ground. 
• Has the Shroud ability, letting you naturally cloak without having to use a kit module when on ground. 
• DPS bonus is the best bonus to have, as it bypasses diminishing returns.

Pick Jem’hadar Vanguard if... 

• You enjoyed the Dominion in DS9 and liked Odo as a character!
• You want to play a DPS captain that has solid skills on both ground and in space. 
• Like the idea of having a character with a built in cloaking device in ground combat.

2. Joined Trill (Best For Support/DPS)

Alas, no inner voice of wisdom to guide you on your path.

Trill joined together conjure up images of Jazdia and Ezri Dax—beings with symbionts and the science to back it up.The Joined Trill in Star Trek Online certainly brings it to the forefront, with fantastic bonuses both in space and on the ground!

They get a series of major bonuses for the following: energy weapon training; projectile weapon training; shield restoration; hull restoration; damage control; exotic particle generator; control expertise; and drain expertise. As you can see, it’s a huge spread with a focus on the more science-oriented abilities.

They also get a bonus in ground combat! Health regeneration, radiation damage resistance, and toxic damage resistance are all increased, which is useful against certain types of ground enemies.

This makes them actually better, overall, than the Liberated Borg species, as their bonus skill points are spread across a large number of always-useful abilities. Trill are fantastic Science captains, easily able to use the full spectrum of bonuses to maximize their support or DPS.

Joined Trill details:

Joined Trill are symbiotic lifeforms and are native to their home world Trill. Trill is a playable race in Star Trek Online for the Federation and Klingon Empire once unlocked in the Zen Store. The Trill 'host' is very similar to a Human except for their spots, which are mostly seen on the sides of their heads. These spots run from their heads down their shoulders and carry on down their torso and legs to their feet.

Species trait : Joined Trill have access to the skills and memories of all of the previous hosts of the joined symbiote. The memories of your symbiote improve your abilities in a wide range of starship skills. Trill have naturally fast metabolisms which also increase regeneration, as well as providing resistance to Radiation and Toxic Damage.

On Ground: Hyper Metabolism. Bonus Regeneration, Bonus Radiation and Toxic Damage Resist.

            +10% Health regeneration

            +24.6% Radiation damage resistance

            +24.6% Toxic damage resistance

In Space: Joined Symbiote. Bonus Skill points.

            +3 Energy Weapon Training

            +3 Projectile Weapon Training

            +3 Shield Restoration

            +3 Hull Restoration

            +3 Hull Regeneration

            +7 Exotic Particle Generator

            +9 Control Expertise

            +9 Drain Expertise

What Joined Trill Excels In: 

• High spread of skill bonuses that are useful for any career choice. 
• Excellent bonus to science powers, making this a great choice for people looking to go into Space Magic builds!
• Ground Combat bonuses are useful with the high regeneration trait letting them act as an off-tank.

Pick Joined Trill if... 

• You loved the characters of Jazdia and Ezri Dax.
• You want a character that has a solid spread of utility options.
• You want to be able to use a Joined Trill as a KDF or Federation player.

1. Romulan Republic Alien (Best For Everything)

For when you want MAXIMUM creative options!

Aliens in Star Trek Online take a unique position. Unlike everyone else, they do not have a fixed set of traits and instead are able to select from a broad list of traits that are generally available to most factions. However, depending on the faction you create your alien with, the trait list is different.

So why the Romulans? Because the Romulans give you access to Romulan Operatives, which gives you increased critical strike chance and severity, and reduces the time required for recloaking.

What makes this so good? Well, besides bonus damage, critical strike chance is the most important DPS stacking stat in the entire game. Romulan Operatives, specifically the bridge officer variant, have long been used to increase this stat past the necessary 50% mark in order to reach the higher end of DPS metrics.

Starting with a Romulan Alien captain that has this built, it gets you going on that race earlier than you normally would, which is very handy. The extra slot option also lets you switch up how you build your character, so you can adapt them to tank, DPS, or heal.

All in all, it’s the best species in Star Trek Online by a large margin.

Romulan Republic Alien details:

The term Alien is used in Star Trek Online to globally define the customizable species for Starfleet, DSC Starfleet, the KDF and the Romulan Republic. These species are playable, but due to how involved the character creator is it is unlikely two people will create identical aliens unless they share their settings. Some players may be familiar with calling them Klingon Aliengens or Unknowns due to these being their previously used names during the game's beta stages.

Species trait: Your created species has enhanced flexibility in trait selection. You do not have any required traits;instead, you gain one additional choice of traits.

+2 Additional Personal Trait Slots (1 for ground, 1 for space)

What Romulan Republic Alien Excels In:

• Aliens are both the most versatile species in the game and the most powerful, thanks to the bonuses they get under the Romulan faction. 
• They can select extremely powerful traits to maximize DPS that other species (outside of Romulans themselves) are unable to access.
• Aliens can switch out their traits at any point, letting you swiftly rebuild your character to suit literally any task in the game!

Pick Romulan Republic Alien if…

• You want to have access to a huge variety of options in the character creator!
• You enjoy creating new builds and want something with added flexibility. 
• You like having access off the bat to the Romulan Warbirds, a powerful ship type with built-in cloaks (see my top 15 STO ships article!)
• You like one of the other races but want access to the best traits you can get. The character creator lets you get almost exactly the same visual results as any species in the game, with a handful of exceptions. This means you can make a “human” that has all of the Alien’s traits!

 And there we have it, folks! The best races to choose in Star Trek Online? I hope you enjoyed it, and remember that in Star Trek Online it isn’t critical to have the best of the best races. You can make any building work with any species. Just have fun!

See you on the other side, Captains!

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A Species (or Race ) in Star Trek Online appear in Star Trek Online in various guises, namely;

• Player species : The player is able to create a character in this species. Note further species can be approximated through via the "Alien species", but this is not registered as a particular species and does not benefit from species-specific traits.
• Bridge Officer : The player can recruit bridge officers of that species, many of whom have access to specific traits.
• Duty Officer : The player may recruit duty officers of that species. They are not seen as a ground NPC but are listed as members of the player's crew.
• Non-Player Character : The species is seen in-game with ground NPC, but cannot be recruited by the player in any form.

Note that access to certain bridge officers are gated; DSC and TOS captains cannot access 25th century species until they arrive in 2409. Likewise, Romulan and Dominion characters must choose their ally before accessing certain officers. Other bridge officers are limited in number, for example, Federation-allied captains can only access a single Naussican as part of the Diplomacy commendation.

• 1.1 Artificial
• 2.1 Cosmozoan
• 2.2 Non-coporeal
• 2.3 Wildlife
• 3 Mentioned only
• 4 Cryptic-created

Humanoids are species which are generally intelligent, bilaterally symmetrical, bipedal lifeform. While there are various sub-categories (i.e Vulcanoid, Arboreal, Reptilian and so on), for the purposes of this list it includes any corporeal life broadly using the standard humanoid wire-frame. As a result, providing the game's lore allows, most of these species are accessible as either playable captains or bridge officers. Many others can be created via the alien generator.

Artificial life is a technological creation that has achieved consciousness and intelligence. While their exact status, both philosophically and legally, may be disputed, these beings are usually identified and treated as sentient by those who are familiar with them. These forms of life usually present as humanoid, often as they are created by humanoids in their own image, but they are not bound to that shape.

Non-Humanoid

Life comes in a large variety of forms, from sea creatures to shapeshifters. Some, such as the Tholians, require unique environmental conditions so survive without EV suits. These species are unlikely to ever be playable captains or bridge officers due to the unique animations needed for them (or the powers inherent in their species) but do appear as NPCs.

Cosmozoans are species who live in and traverse open space, rather than being bound to the atmosphere of a planet. These include the Crystalline Entity and Gekli . Due to their radically unique physiology and the failure thus far to establish meaningful communication, their intelligence is difficult to assess.

Non-coporeal

Non-coporeal beings are those who do not exist as ordinary matter. They often appear as a form of energy, such as the Devidians and Pahvans but for others, such as the Prophets , Pah-wraiths and the Q , any visible form is usually created exclusively for communication with carbon-based life. The latter group tend to possess a great deal of power over the physical world and space-time itself to the extent that they can be, or are, viewed by less powerful species as gods.

Beyond most humanoid species, and others with whom communication is relatively easy, there are a large number of other forms of life (termed as the in-game faction Wildlife ). Most of these encountered by the player, such as Sehlats and Aehallh Worms , are not considered to be intelligent. Others, such as the Horta or Tardigrade , are more difficult to assess. The Bluegill , while appearing intelligent, is an artificial parasite and thus its intelligence is innate or derived from its creator. These species often appear as NPCs and as combat or non-combat pets. The jahSepp are fully sentient, although are fungi rather than animals or insects as most other sentient, non-humanoid beings are.

Mentioned only

Some species do not appear in game, but are referenced either in dialogue, via items or otherwise written down in game. These include the Dopterian , Etanian , Kobliad , Numiri , Quarren , Tamarian , Tarkalean , Tazani , and the Tkon .

Cryptic-created

While most species in Star Trek Online are canon , there are a few that are original creations by Cryptic, most notably the Deferi and the Lukari who fulfil leading roles in story arcs and reoccur throughout the game.

In addition, species such as the Tzenkethi and Fek'Ihri are drawn from references and events in episodes but were never seen on screen. As a result, their appearance, and much of their background, is defined by Cryptic.

Early on in the game's history, many more species appeared in exploration clusters, minor patrols and as background characters. Most of these, such as the Aelasans , Dalankrit , Dia'fene , Hylasa , Mokia , and Xaraxian no longer appear in the game as their content has been removed.

Xenexians fall in between as, while not a canon species, they are not created by Cryptic but rather originate from novels. de:Rasse

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Star Trek's Starfleet Now Includes Infamously Traitorous Species

Posted: April 8, 2024 | Last updated: April 8, 2024

Star Trek’s Starfleet Now Includes Infamously Traitorous Species

At the end of Star Trek: Discovery’s second season, the title ship and her crew ended up in the far-flung future, instantly traveling from the 23rd century all the way to the 32nd century. For franchise lore nerds, the time jump was exciting because it helped us to learn that not only were Starfleet and the Federation still around in the future but that these organizations had members from some very surprising planets. For example, the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery’s fifth season revealed (via my new favorite character, Captain Rayner) that the Kellerun, a traitorous species last seen in Deep Space Nine, now have a member in Starfleet.

The Kellerun In Deep Space Nine

Before this season of Discovery kicked off, Star Trek fans had only seen the Kellerun in the Deep Space Nine episode “Armageddon Game.” In that ep, Dr. Bashir and Miles O’Brien were helping these aliens as well as their former enemies the T’Lani to accomplish what seemed to be a mutual goal: dismantling the Harvesters, nasty biological weapons. However, ambassadors from both races end up betraying the Starfleet officers and try to kill them as a way of ensuring that nobody will ever know how to recreate Harvester tech.

The Kellerun Have Been Absent For A While

Since that Star Trek episode (a fairly memorable one, especially by the standards of early Deep Space Nine), we haven’t heard from either the Kellerun or the T’Lani again (and no, seeing T’lani symbol on some cargo containers in the DS9 episode “Profit and Loss” doesn’t count). It seemed like these were races that Star Trek had more or less forgotten about, but the Kellerun popped up again in Discovery recently. The prickly Captain Rayner is a member of the Kellerun, and that alone tells us some very surprising things about Starfleet in the 32nd century.

We Thought The Kellerun Were Bad Guys

When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine first introduced us to the Kellerun, they weren’t members of the Federation and (to the best of our knowledge) didn’t have any members serving in Starfleet. After the attempted murder of Bashir and O’Brien, their membership in either the Federation or Starfleet seemed less likely than ever. They may very well have been labeled an enemy race, something that would normally preclude easy admission into Starfleet (just ask poor half-Romulan Simon Tarses, who seemed on the verge of losing his Starfleet career when his Romulan ancestry became public in the TNG episode “The Drumhead”).

In The 32nd Century, The Federation Is Still Tolerant

Thanks to the appearance of Captain Rayner in the opening episodes of Star Trek: Discovery’s fifth season, we now know that Starfleet includes at least one Kellerun member. That alone nicely echoes the ongoing franchise themes of turning former enemies into current allies. It may not have been as historically significant to the franchise, but seeing Rayner serving in Starfleet was the equivalent of seeing Worf (a member of the former enemy race, the Klingons) serving in Starfleet at the beginning of The Next Generation.

We Don’t Know Yet If The Kellerun Are Federation Members

However, Star Trek fans shouldn’t necessarily look at Rayner’s presence as an indication that the Kellerun as a whole are now part of the Federation in the 32nd century. For example, in Deep Space Nine, Nog was able to become a member of Starfleet despite Ferenginar not being part of the Federation–he just needed the endorsement of a command-level officer (in this case, Sisko). Similarly, the Kelpians weren’t members of the Federation when Saru joined Starfleet, but Lieutenant Philippa Georgiou (with the blessing of Starfleet) recruited him into the service.

In other words, it was cool for Star Trek: Discovery to bring the Kellerun back, and Captain Rayner is a cool character, but we’re hoping the rest of this season will help us learn more about what this species has been up to in the 32nd century. I’d be particularly pleased if we got some kind of update on the ancient Harvester technology, even if it’s just a throwaway line. In the meantime, we can hopefully look forward to this season of Discovery giving us even more throwback characters and references to the golden age of Star Trek. 

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