star trek online best ship 2022

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[Top 15] Star Trek Online Best Ships (From Early Till Late Game)

With an eye towards value and power, this list will give you all you need to know to hit the late game in Star Trek Online! Thanks to changes made to the game, you can stay with the same ship after the tutorial all the way to the end game so you can fly your favorite ship from day one! This list has been made with a broad audience in mind, from newbie to grizzled veteran, so everyone can learn something new! The top 15 ships in Star Trek Online also include ships that will let you pilot the same starships as Captain Picard, Captain Sisko, and Captain Janeway so let’s make it so.

15. Romulan Legacy Elite Starter Pack - T6 Malem-Class Light Warbird

Relive the Balance of Terror!

How to get the Malem Class: (Only available for Romulan characters) 2,000 Zen ($20.00) in the C-Store

Number 15 on our list is actually one of the Elite Starter Packs, which gives you access to a unique bridge officer, a uniform, and a discounted T6 starship! This option is best for those inclined towards pointy ears and cloak and dagger, as it’s affordable, gives you a great torpedo ship, and a borg bridge officer.

Thanks to the Singularity warp core mechanics, which give you five additional powers to use and an experimental weapon slot, the Malem is very good as a torpedo ship. Thanks to the power of reputation-based torpedoes such as the Neutronic and Biomolecular, you can quickly build an affordable ship that can handle any content. 

Battlecloak allows you to enter and exit combat at will, which is powerful for players who are looking to maximize their ambush bonuses! Despite recent nerfs, covert operative bridge officer traits still stack their bonuses high enough to get this ship on the top 15 list. Torpedoes themselves are easier to get into now as well, making it a good starter ship.

Are you a fan of the Balance of Terror from The Original Series? Then this ship is for you! The Malem comes with the classic skin line for free, so the Malem is an excellent entry point for Romulan characters. Thanks to the changes to the game, the ship will level up with you, unlocking additional weapon and console slots as well as increasing the hull amount. Another bonus is that anyone can use Romulan ships, no matter the faction, so if you like the look or like the sound of zipping around the battlefield, this is the ship for you!

• Level 65: Hull 40500 (scaling)
• 4 fore and 3 aft weapon slots plus 1 experimental weapon slot
• Shield Modifier 0.9
• Hull Modifier 0.9
• Turn Rate 18
• 3 Tactical, 3 Engineering, 4 Science console slots
• Unique Console: Warhead Module Plasma (part of the Stealth Fighter Set)
• Commander Tactical, Ensign Tactical, Lieutenant Engineering, Lt. Commander Science, Lt. Commander Universal-Pilot

What makes the T6 Malem great

• Low-cost entry-level ship that progresses with you! At only $20 for the starter pack, it’s effectively a $10 sale for a normal T6 ship.
• Romulan ships have Singularity Warp Cores. These warp cores give you five distinct powers which augment the ship’s abilities.
• Battle Cloak lets you move in and out of combat easily. Are you taking more hits than you can handle? Pull out the old Romulan “run away!” and cloak up! It can also be used to give you powerful ambush bonuses when built for.
• Pilot specialized seating. It isn’t a fully specialized ship, like others on this list, but for an entry-level ship it does the job well enough. Pilot seating gives you added flexibility, with great bridge officer powers like Attack Pattern Lambda which gives you a chance to confuse enemies!
• Cross-faction, meaning anyone can use it from any of the factions.
• An easy way to get a powerful starship trait that works well with any other cannon build.

How To Get the T6 Malem

• The easiest method by far is to purchase the Romulan Legacy Starter Pack for $20.00.
• If you don’t want the other goodies and don’t mind spending another $10.00, you can buy the Malem directly from the C-Store for $30.00.

14. Klingon Defense Force Elite Starter Pack - Kor-Class Bird of Prey

Fight on, Dahar Master!

How to get the Kor Class: (Only available for KDF characters) 2,000 Zen ($20.00) in the C-Store

Number 14 on our list is another one of the Elite Starter Packs, which gives you access to a unique borg bridge officer, a uniform, and a discounted T6 starship! Like the Romulan Starter Pack, this is another great option for those who prefer to raise the d’k tahg in victory!

The Kor, unlike its Romulan counterpart, comes with a standard set of equipment, so no fancy powers. But what sets this ship apart is the much more flexible universal seating. Like all Birds of Prey in Star Trek Online, the Kor has full universal bridge officer seats. This means that you can slot in any power that you want, from a torpedo build to cannons to even turning it into a mini-tank.

The Kor comes equipped with the Withering Barrage starship trait, which extends the duration of Cannon: Scatter Volley. This is a key trait for those who use cannons, as it is one of the few ways to actually keep the buff going. It also comes with raider flanking, meaning that if you attack the enemy from behind, you’ll do bonus damage. In addition to all these goodies, it also has an Enhanced Battle Cloak, giving you the same bonuses that the Romulan Malem has.

Its universal console is the Warhead Module-Quantum, which functions very similarly to the Romulan console. It’s part of the Stealth Fighter Set, which is an average set in terms of usefulness and also comes with the Induction Coils, which greatly increase your ship's power settings for 15 seconds.

Pretty handy, right?

If you want to follow in the footsteps of the Dahar Master himself and face an armada of Jem’hadar, then this is the bird of prey you definitely need to check out!

• Level 65: Hull 37125(scaling)
• 4 fore and 2 aft weapon slots plus 1 experimental weapon slot
• Shield Modifier 0.825
• Hull Modifier 0.8
• Turn Rate 23
• 4 Tactical, 3 Engineering, 3 Science console slots
• Unique Console: Warhead Module Quantum
• Commander Universal, Lt. Commander Universal, Lt. Commander Universal-Pilot, Lieutenant Universal

What makes the T6 Kor great

• Cheap entry level ship that levels with you! At only $20 for the starter pack, it’s effectively a $10 sale for a normal T6 ship.
• The Kor has extreme flexibility for a ship, letting you essentially make any build you want.
• It has access to a ton of four skins for free upon purchase of this pack, giving you a lot of costume options to customize your ship.

How To Get the T6 Kor

• The easiest method by far is to purchase the Klingon Defense Force Starter Pack for $20.00.
• If you don’t want the other goodies and don’t mind spending another $10.00, you can buy the Kor directly from the C-Store for $30.00.

13. Federation Elite Starter Pack - T6 Reliant-Class Advanced Light Cruiser

Beware of any nearby Mutura Nebula!

How to get the Reliant Class: (Only available for Starfleet characters) 2,000 Zen ($20.00) in the C-Store

Number 13 on our list is yet another one of the Elite Starter Packs, which gives you access to a unique borg bridge officer, a uniform, and a discounted T6 starship! Like the first two, this is another great option for those who prefer to boldly go where no one has gone before!

Unlike the Malem and the Kor, the Reliant is a cruiser, which makes it significantly more durable than either of the raiders. Based on the venerable Miranda frame, the Reliant acts as an excellent entry-level ship for new players who want to get into tanking, or old players looking for something classic-looking. A great bonus for this ship is the sheer number of customization options. Nine total, by far the most in the entire game. Players have made versions through customization that look like whole new starship classes themselves.

Its starship trait is Evasion Specialist, which is unfortunately nowhere near as valuable as Withering Barrage, as shields are generally seen as being not worth the effort. When a Borg Sphere is slapping drain shields on you, there’s not a whole lot that this trait can do for you.

That said, it is still very durable, has reasonable flexibility, and can run a typical Aux2Bat build—a method of cooldown reduction that works best on ships with a lot of engineering bridge officer positions. The addition of all the cruiser commands, such as Weapon System Efficiency and Attract Fire, gives it further benefits here.

The console it comes with, Potential Energy Entanglement, is a reasonable choice for those just starting out with tanking. It has a clickable power which reduces enemy damage output by 80% in a cone in front of you while also increasing your flight speed and turn rate for 20 seconds.

Plus, who doesn’t want to reenact The Battle of the Mutara Nebula?

Whether it be giving Khan his second chance at revenge or creating a unique design with all the many quality parts, the Reliant is as reliable as its name suggests for either new or veteran players.

• Level 65: Hull 51750 (scaling)
• 4 fore and 4 aft weapon slots
• Shield Modifier 1.1
• Hull Modifier 1.1
• Turn Rate 11
• 3 Tactical, 4 Engineering, 3 Science console slots
• Unique Console: Potential Energy Entanglement
• Lt. Commander Tactical, Commander Engineering, Ensign Engineering, Lieutenant Science, Lt. Commander Universal-Pilot

What makes the T6 Reliant great

• The Reliant is an excellent starter tank for the price tag, giving you durability, speed, and decent firepower. 
• Pilot specialized seating.  Unlike the Kor and Malem, the Reliant struggles to take full advantage of it due to the tanking nature of the ship.
• It has access to six skins for free upon purchase of this pack, giving you a lot of costume options to customize your ship. With all the ships, it has a total of nine unique skins to customize with!

How To Get the T6 Reliant

• The easiest method by far is to purchase the Federation Elite Starter Pack for $20.00.
• If you don’t want the other goodies and don’t mind spending another $10.00, you can buy the Reliant directly from the C-Store for $30.00.

12. Vanguard Support Carrier

Victory comes with lots of fighter support!

How to get the Vanguard Support Carrier: 3,000 Zen ($30.00) in the C-Store

Number 12 is finally something that isn’t a Starter Pack! The Vanguard Carrier is part of the Support Carrier bundle, which includes a direct duplicate for each of the factions. The Federation, Klingon and Romulan Support Carriers have the same stats and come with their own versions of the unique support pets. These ships are fantastic for players who want that “fleet command” style of play, where they deploy an armada of ships to attack enemies or repair allies.

Carriers hold a unique position in Star Trek Online where the ship itself is not the center of combat power. Rather, the pets do the lion's share of the damage. The pets that come with the Vanguard are reasonable entry levels for Carrier gameplay, being the Jem’Hadar Support Frigates and the Jem’Hadar Fighter Squadron. The key things here are the squadron level pets, as these do higher damage than their single fighter counterparts. The Support Frigates will use Transfer Shield Strength 1 (or higher, depending on the rarity of the pets) on you, giving you added defensive buffs. What sets the Vanguard apart from the other Support Carriers, however, is the Wingmen.

All Jem’Hadar Vanguard starships in Star Trek Online come with a pair of Jem’Hadar Wingmen. These two ships each have three clickable abilities: the Polaron Strafing Maneuver (damage), the Structural Reinforcement Maneuver (hull healing), and the Divergent Shielding Maneuver (shield healing). This gives you a built-in ship feature that none of the other carriers can compete against, making the Vanguard the best choice.

The starship trait is Relaunch and Repair, which gives you a reduction on captain ability cooldowns and 25% health regeneration to self and pets in space every time you launch a carrier pet. This only applies to launched pets, so clickable console pets don’t count. For a “free” trait, this isn’t terrible, but it isn’t amazing either. 

Equipped with a Command specialization Lt. Commander slot, the Carrier can function as a really incredible torpedo platform when combined with the pets. If using squadrons in both hangars and the Wingmen offensively, you can direct a withering amount of firepower at a target or entire area of space if you have the right traits and powers equipped. Some players have managed to get so much damage squeezed onto these ships that they effectively delete Borg Cubes.

The console it comes with, High-Energy Communications Network, is a buff/debuff console centered around pets. It is okay, but is better replaced by far superior consoles like D.O.M.I.N.O. (from the Bajoran Interceptor) and others.

Victory is life! ...especially when you’ve got an entire fleet at your back!

• Level 65: Hull 56250 (scaling)
• 3 fore and 3 aft weapon slots
• Shield Modifier 1.25
• Hull Modifier 1.3
• Turn Rate 5
• Unique Console: High-Energy Communications Network
• 2 Hangar Bays
• Lt. Commander Tactical, Lt. Commander Engineering, Commander Science, Lt. Commander Universal-Command

What makes the T6 Vanguard Support Carrier great

• Best Support Carrier in the group, with a strong Wingmen feature that increases damage and healing.
• Ship that is extremely durable and excels at centering fleet formations during Task Force Operations.
• When pushed to its limits, it can produce huge damage through its pets. 
• Can function as a Science Carrier, giving you options like Gravity Well or DoT damage builds to augment the pet firepower.

How To Get the T6 Vanguard Support Carrier

• The easiest method is to purchase it directly for $30.00 in the C-Store.
• If you like the Carriers and want the rest to complete the faction set, there is the Cross Faction Support Carrier Bundle for 10,000 Zen($100.00). 

11. Multi-Mission Reconnaissance Vessel

For when the Vesta gets the Besta love.

How to get the Multi-Mission Reconnaissance Explorer: 3,000 Zen ($30.00) in the C-Store

Number 11 is similar to the Carriers in the sense that all of the factions have identical setups, with the exception of the Romulan version that has a battle cloak. The Recon Explorer remains the best ship for entry-level science builds, thanks to its powerful bridge officer seating and the ever-important Temporal specialization.

Temporal specialization is the best spec for builds that rely on DoTs, as it has complimentary bonuses thanks to the passives and secondary deflector. While the Recon Explorer doesn’t have a fully committed Temporal specialization, it’s enough to make the ship worthy of this list.

Science ships like the Recon Explorer don’t rely on their weapons like most ships do, and instead use bridge officer powers to do massive area damage to targets. A well-equipped science ship is capable of obliterating an entire map of enemies with the push of a button. Most of these techniques involve a power called "Gravity Well" which pulls targets in, then couples that with Temporal specialization powers like Channeled Deconstruction and Entropic Cascade.

Like all science ships, it possesses Subsystem Targeting, which is a nice little bonus alongside Sensor Analysis and a Hangar Bay. The thing that makes the Recon Explorer worthy of the list is the tactical bridge officer slots, giving it the ability to run a science-torpedo build. These types of builds are absolutely devastating, throwing out gravity wells and torpedo spreads.

The starship trait is Heavy Tachyon Mine which will deploy a Heavy Mine that does heavy shield penetrating damage and leaves a temporary trail of shield damaging radiation. As starship traits go, it’s not remotely viable for the late game, but can be fun in the early game. 

The console it comes with, the Radiation Bombardment Matrix, is a buff/debuff console that reduces damage resistance and flight speed. It isn’t useful for science builds, as it doesn’t give the same level of bonuses or utility as other consoles, like the Plasma Storm console.

For anyone who happens to enjoy the Star Trek: Destiny novels, the Recon Explorer line of ships does come with the Vesta costumes, letting you customize the vessel to look like the U.S.S. Aventine. It does cost additional money, however, to unlock the skin as it is not free.

• Level 65: Hull 42750 (scaling)
• Shield Modifier 0.95
• Hull Modifier 1.4
• Turn Rate 12
• 4 Tactical, 2 Engineering, 5 Science console slots
• Unique Console: Radiation Bombardment Launcher
• Secondary Deflector
• 1 Hangar Bay
• Lt. Commander Tactical, Lieutenant Engineering, Commander Science, Lt. Commander Universal-Temporal Operative, Ensign Universal

What makes the T6 Multi-Mission Reconnaissance Explorer great

• A tough science ship with a high turn rate and tactical focus.This lets you build a science-torpedo ship, which is one of the most powerful in the game.
• Affordable entry-level ship while still being effective in the late game. Can compete with higher-cost ships.
• One of the most customizable ships, competing against the likes of the Reliant.

 How To Get the T6 Multi-Mission Reconnaissance Explorer

• If you like the Recon Explorer and want the rest to complete the faction set, there is the Cross Faction Multi-Mission Explorers Bundle for 12,000 Zen ($120.00) or the T6 Starfleet Multi-Mission Explorers Bundle for 6,000 Zen ($60.00).

10. Narendra Support Cruiser

The Probertise that could have been.

How to get the Narendra Support Cruiser: 3,000 Zen ($30.00) in the C-Store

Number 10 is our first full-specialization ship on the list, and our first traditional cruiser! Unlike the Reliant, which is a small and zippy ship, the Support Cruiser fits the lumbering behemoth vibe. The Support Cruiser is also available for the KDF, though it does not come in Dominion or Romulan flavors.

The Support Cruiser is unique in being the only of the Cruiser class ships with full Temporal seating. This means it gets the powers typically reserved for temporal science ships, such as Offensive Coordination (a speed buff), Defensive Coordination (a healing buff), and a Support Configuration (exotic damage buff). 

This means that you can actually turn the Narendra into a respectable science platform. Between the built-in Commander/Temporal-Operative seating and the Lt. Commander Science, you can double up on Gravity Wells, Entropic Cascades, and torpedoes. The weakness of the ship when built this way is that it lacks the necessary Lt. Commander Tactical bridge officer to maximize this power.

Unlike science ships, the Narendra comes with full cruiser commands.

The starship trait is "History Will Remember," which is finally a trait that’s generally always worth slotting until you’re able to afford the lock box or premium ships. This starship trait gives you a scaling buff depending on enemies defeated, which increases your resilience. It grants 30% All Damage, 30% Hull Regen, 30% Maximum Hull, and 30% Threat Generation (when the threatening stance is active) at maximum stacks.

This is a powerful trait that has a lot of utility for any ship on this list.

The console it comes with, Temporal Trajectory Shifter, is a single target console that "steals" time, increasing Firing Speed by 50%, Ability Cooldown by 20%, and Defense Rating by 50 while stealing 33.3% Firing Speed, 1% Ability Cooldown per second, and -50 Defense Rating from the target.

The Narendra is based on Andrew Probert's original concept sketches for the U.S.S. Enterprise D, eventually being turned into the Ambassador class. All fans of this classic design will have to pick this ship up!

• Level 65: Hull 60750(scaling)
• Shield Modifier 1.0
• Hull Modifier 1.35
• Turn Rate 7
• Unique Console: Borrowed Time
• Molecular Deconstruction Beam
• Lieutenant Tactical, Ensign Tactical, Commander Engineering/Temporal-Operative, Lt. Commander Science, and Lt. Commander Universal

What makes the T6 Narendra Support Cruiser great

• A unique cruiser that combines tankiness and science powers.
• The high hull modifier combined with the starship trait makes it one of the tankier starships on this list.
• Full Temporal specialization adds additional options when in combat when used together with Cruiser Commands.

How To Get the T6 Narendra Support Cruiser

• If you like the Narendra and want the KDF version as well, the Cross Faction Support Cruiser Bundle for 4,000 Zen/$40.00 is available.

9. Arbiter Battlecruiser

The Defiant: now in nacelle form!

How to get the Arbiter Battlecruiser: 3,000 Zen ($30.00) in the C-Store

Number 9 is a classic in Star Trek Online. The Arbiter (and the Avenger before it) have long been the #1 pick for most people when it comes to recommending a ship for newer players. Being one of the very few Federation starships that can equip a cloaking device console and a battlecruiser makes it ideal in a DPS-heavy environment! There is a KDF variant in the Mogh that comes with a cloaking device.

The Arbiter pulls from the older days of Star Trek Online when "battlecruisers" were Klingon only, giving them high-hitting and high-durability ships compared to Starfleet's usually "just durable". Nowadays, it’s obsolete next to the other ships on this list, but it still gets a top 15 spot due to a few factors.

Battlecruisers come with most of the normal Cruiser Commands, with the exception of Attract Fire. As these are not designed as tanks, they do not get the tanking bonus ability of a typical cruiser. Instead, the Arbiter can do what only escorts used to be able to! It can equip dual heavy cannons. Thanks to this, and the five forward weapon slots (another thing that used to be unique), the Arbiter is capable of dishing out high levels of DPS, even to this day.

With the Intelligence specialization, the Arbiter is able to fit the coveted Override Subsystem Safety bridge officer power, giving the ship a tremendous boost to power levels, which in turn increases its firepower.

The starship trait is the Emergency Weapon Cycle, also known as the most common starship trait in the game. It’s used on every energy weapon build and even on most tank builds simply because it’s so good. The trait increases the Firing Cycle Haste by 20% and reduces Weapon Power Cost by 50% for 30 seconds every time you use Emergency Power to Weapons, which a majority of non-science builds have.

For a first-time ship buyer, you can’t go wrong with the Arbiter.

The console it comes with, Ablative Hazard Shielding, passively increases your Shield Resistance and Shield Regeneration. The activable gives your ship Secondary Shields, which act similar to Temp HP. It then gives you another shield when the Ablative Hazard Shielding buff ends. It’s useful against non-Borg or other enemies that don’t have shield-stripping powers.

Among the first of the Cryptic-made designs in the new T6 lineup, this is a classic ship that includes the Avenger skin for free on purchase!

• Level 65: Hull 56250(scaling)
• 5 fore and 3 aft weapon slots
• Hull Modifier 1.25
• Turn Rate 9
• 4 Tactical, 5 Engineering, 1 Science console slots
• Unique Console: Ablative Hazard Shielding
• Can Equip Dual Heavy Cannons
• Can Equip Cloaking Device Console
• Lt. Commander Tactical-Intelligence, Ensign Tactical, Commander Engineering, Lieutenant Science, Lt. Commander Universal

What makes the T6 Arbiter Battlecruiser great

• It has the perfect weapon setup of 5 forward and 3 aft weapon slots, ideal for maximal energy weapon damage.
• One of the best starship traits in the game for direct energy weapon builds.
• It is naturally tanky for a battlecruiser, letting you throw more energy into doing damage instead of survival.
• It's an excellent newbie ship that’s easy to learn and modify to suit your needs.

How To Get the T6 Arbiter Battlecruiser

• If you like the Arbiter and want the KDF version as well, the Cross Faction Battlecruiser Bundle for 6,000 Zen/$60.00 is available.

8. Alita Heavy Strike Wing Escort

For when the normal Akira just isn't enough.

How to get the Alita Class Heavy Strike Wing Escort: 3,000 Zen ($30.00) in the C-Store

Number 8 is the venerable Alita Class, which has recently been changed into what’s called a "Strike Wing Escort". This means it has a hangar bay in addition to the normal weapons loadout and abilities of the Escort subclass of ships.

It might seem odd to place this ship above the Arbiter, but I’ll explain my reasoning here. The Alita is similar in many ways to its offensive profile, though it comes with the Experimental Weapon Slot and the Hangar Bay, giving it just a bit more flexibility in terms of what it can do. Anyone who has played the game will probably be thinking, "Well, not that much!" 

Aha, but then, we have Superior Area Denial. For those who don’t know, this starship trait is an extremely powerful buff to fighters that gives them Cannon Rapid Fire and Beam: Fire at Will and reduces their damage resistance rating by -30, which is the same as slapping Attack Pattern: Beta 1 on them. This means that if you equip a fighter squadron on the Alita and have this trait, you could be seeing as much as a 15% DPS increase just from that Hangar Bay alone!

This isn’t newbie-friendly, however, as the trait is difficult to get. However, that doesn’t mean that you have to have the traits to make this ship good! Instead, you can easily focus on pure energy weapon damage and get great results, comparable to ships later on in this list.

Strike Wing Escorts are relatively new to Star Trek Online and aren’t nearly as popular as their Flight Deck Cruiser big brothers.

With the Pilot specialization, the Alita is able to equip things like Attack Pattern: Lamba, however because of the seating being shared with engineering, people tend to not use the Pilot skills in favor of the needed engineering bridge officer slots. 

The starship trait is Coordinated Assault, which is the opposite of Superior Area Denial. Your pets' Beam: Overload and Cannon: Rapid Fire abilities deal a lot of single-target damage. It isn’t as good as Superior Area Denial, since Star Trek Online isn’t structured around huge boss battles, but it’s still useful for Carriers or people who use pets.

The console it comes with, Destabilized Tachyon Emitters, is unfortunately terrible and should be replaced by any number of better consoles like the Assimilated Module or similar.

Star Trek: First Contact debuted the original Akira class, which has long been a fan favorite, and now thanks to the Alita, players can enjoy the ship with all the power and grace of the original movie.

• Level 65: Hull 48000(scaling)
• 4 fore and 3 aft weapon slots
• Shield Modifier 1.06
• Turn Rate 15
• 5 Tactical, 3 Engineering, 2 Science console slots
• Unique Console: Destabilized Tachyon Burst
• Commander Tactical, Lieutenant Tactical, Lt. Commander Engineering-Pilot, Lieutenant Science, Lieutenant Universal

  What makes the T6 Alita Heavy Strike Wing Escort great

• Heavy firepower, with some builds pushing past half a million DPS.
• It comes with an excellent Carrier trait that is useful for single target damage.
• Some flexibility with the bridge officer seating lets you switch up builds.
• This ship has six skins available, giving it many customization options for players.

How To Get the T6 Alita Heavy Strike Wing Escort

• If you like the skins and want all the versions as well, the Akira Bundle for 6,000 Zen/$60.00 is available.

7. Terran Cygnus Battlecruiser

Big D has been upgraded, Terran style!

How to get the Terran Cygnus-Class Battlecruiser: 3,000 Zen ($30.00) in the C-Store

Number 7 is the Terran version of the Galaxy Class, the Cygnus. The Cygnus is a far better version than the Andromeda. The Cygnus fits the general profile of top-end Star Trek Online ships—it has a lot of forward guns; it has full specialization seating; and it has bridge officer flexibility. It isn’t quite enough to get it into the top 5, though, and I’ll explain why.

The Cygnus has the unique position of being the only full-time temporal specialization battlecruiser with five forward weapon slots. The other available option, the Paladin, only has four, making it a worse version of the Cygnus. The Cynus also has huge hull values, making it far easier to tank with.

This unusual arrangement is usually glossed over by players since the Cygnus doesn’t have the full Commander science bridge officer seating that would be needed to turn it into a science damage boat. Instead, most players use the Commander engineering bridge officer seat for all their engineering powers and turn the Lt. Commander Universal into another tactical item or into science.

Still, the added feature benefits of being a full temporal specialization ship are quite handy, sharing the same benefits as the Narendra. It lacks the same capacity to function as a "light" science ship due to the limitations of its seating, but it makes up for that more than enough by having sheer firepower through traditional means.

With the five front weapons, it can output the same damage as the Arbiter while being significantly tankier and having the bonus features of the Temporal specialization and the Lieutenant Tactical Command, which gives you access to Concentrate Firepower II. By using this power, and switching your Lt. Commander Universal to Science for a Gravity Well, you can pump out a huge amount of torpedo damage onto a target group of helpless enemies.

Or you can go the traditional directed energy weapon route and let the beams do the lion's share of damage!

With the full Temporal specialization and split Command specialization, you have a lot of options for what you want to do with this ship. The Temporal and Command abilities can be used for tanking or DPS; the choice is yours!

The starship trait is Controlled Aggression, which really wants to make this ship use science powers as it buffs Control Expertise every time you use a Temporal Operative power or a Universal Console clickable. The buff is pretty good too, as it scales based on the control expertise you already have. However, I wouldn’t necessarily put it on the Cygnus, unless I really wanted to try out a science build using the Galaxy skin for flavor.

It’s better suited for a pure science ship, as we’ll see later in the list.

The console it comes with, Destabilized Dimensional Rip, is a weird one! It gives phaser, radiation, and exotic particle generator buffs, which seems to want to encourage a hybrid directed energy/science power build. The clickable creates a rift in front of you that "banishes" enemies and causes radiation damage while the rift itself expands, swallowing up more enemies. The clickable is pretty handy if you are tanking and things are getting spicy.

The Cygnus comes with all of the Galaxy Class skins, letting you fly around in Jean Luc Picard’s Enterprise D, but for those adventurous of spirit, it also has additional costumes that can be used to customize your ship!

• Level 65: Hull 68625(scaling)
• Shield Modifier 1.525
• Turn Rate 6
• 3 Tactical, 5 Engineering, 3 Science console slots
• Unique Console: Destabilized Dimensional Rift
• Lieutenant Tactical-Command, Lieutenant Tactical, Commander Engineering-Temporal Operative, Lieutenant Science, Lt. Commander Universal

What makes the T6 Cygnus Battlecruiser great

• Flexible firepower options, ranging from directed energy weapons to torpedos to some science (if building that way).
• This is a highly durable tanking ship, able to sit there and soak up a ton of damage.
• Full specialization means it can take advantage of the Temporal Operative features, adding even more flexibility.
• Universal seating means you can go for more damage or more tanking or more science, depending on your needs.

How To Get the T6 Cygnus Battlecruiser Battlecruiser

• If you like the Terran line of ships, there is a bundle available, the 12th Anniversary Terran Bundle, for 17,500 Zen ($175.00).

6. Suliban Flight Deck Assault Carrier

Enterprise has a thing or two to say about how annoying these can be!

How to get the Suliban Flight Deck Assault Carrier: 3,000 Zen ($30.00) in the C-Store

Number 6 is finally here, and what do we have? The Suliban Assault Carrier! The Sublian FDAC (what a mouthful) is probably the best entry for anyone looking to get into the higher firepower carriers. Outside of gamble box ships, the Suliban is the most effective at the role. Between the 5 forward and 3 aft weapon layouts and the 2 hangar bays, the ship also has a Battle Cloak, giving you basically the best of all worlds in a single package.

The only thing that could make this ship even better, pushing it into the top 3, would be if it had full specialization seating. Alas, we do not obtain perfection with this ship and instead have to settle for "really dang good." Still, it does come with unique pets that do a fair amount of damage.

FDAC type ships are hyper-geared towards energy weapon builds or torpedo builds, and this is because they have a Commander bridge officer seating in their Lt. Commander Tactical slot. This gives them Concentrate Firepower III, massively increasing torpedo damage potential. However, you don’t have to do this and can instead slap dual beam banks on it and beat the Arbiter, Cygnus, and Alita in damage thanks to the presence of two Hangar Bays.

If you remember from our Number 12 spot, the Vanguard Carrier, squadrons make a huge difference in damage, so if you can get those on this ship, you’ll be able to handily destroy anything you come across. An added bonus is having a Battle Cloak, which gives you ambush bonuses when you decloak on targets. Combine it with pets and a big alpha strike, and you’ll tear through anything unfortunate enough to look at you funny.

This class of ship is widely considered among the best outside of specialized science builds, as it can do insanely huge DPS and tank heavy hits at the same time. With the Universal bridge officer seating, you can increase your tankiness or throw it all into offense, really amplifying just what you can do with this. It also comes with two cruiser commands, the Shield Frequency Modulation and the Attract Fire command.

The starship trait is the Majority-Minority, which buffs you based on the number of allies versus enemies that are around you. The trait puts a damper on the otherwise incredible stuff this ship brings you, as it's fairly terrible and should be replaced with better traits like the Arbiter’s.

The console it comes with, the Universal-I.F.F. Manipulator, gives you a 10% critical severity bonus to weapons and a 50% bonus reduction to engineering bridge officer cooldowns. The clickable is an AOE conflation combined with a targeted "force retarget". Basically, it will make your targeted enemy fire on its friends, which then causes it to taunt all its nearby friends for six seconds. As far as tanking stuff goes, this is a hard pass.

The Suliban FDAC only has one skin, but if you’re a fan of Archer’s adventures in Star Trek: Enterprise, this will surely bring back memories of the long road!

• Level 65: Hull 58500(scaling)
• Shield Modifier 1.3
• Hull Modifier 1.0
• 3 Tactical, 5 Engineering, 2 Science console slots
• Unique Console: I.F.F. Manipulator
• Romulan Battle Cloak
• Lt. Commander Tactical-Command, Lieutenant Tactical, Commander Engineering, Ensign Science, Lt. Commander Universal

What makes the T6 Suliban Flight Deck Assault Carrier great

• They are among the best ships in the game in terms of Flight Deck Carriers outside of the gamble box ships.
• You have a battle cloak, five forward weapon slots, and two hangar slots for pets, giving you excellent forward firepower.
• It lends itself well to torpedo builds or dual beam builds thanks to Concentrate Firepower 3 being available.
• It has a Lt. Commander universal bridge officer slot, giving you more flexibility. 

How To Get the T6 Suliban Flight Deck Assault Carrier

• If you like the FDAC line of ships, there is a bundle available, the Cross Faction Flight Deck Assault Carrier Bundle for 6,000 Zen/$60.00.

5. Titan Science Destroyer

It's another Enterprise!!

How to get the Titan Science Destroyer: 3,000 Zen ($30.00) in the C-Store

Finally, the top 5! And who better than Another Enterprise to take fifth place?The Titan represents the only non-gamble-box T6 Science Destroyer available to players. Science Destroyers have a special feature that lets them switch between two different attack modes: Tactical Mode and Science Mode.

The Tactical Mode switches the ship from a typical science vessel into a Destroyer class starship, giving it a Commander tactical and experimental weapon, +2 turn rate, 10% speed, and 10 interia. This makes it a very effective destroyer type ship with excellent control powers through the Lt. Commander Science and Lt. Commander Universal.

While in Science Mode, the ship switches to a Commander Science Bridge officer, who grants it Secondary Deflectors and the standard Sensor Analysis and Subsystem Targeting. This disables the experimental weapon, however, so keep that in mind. Science mode is your standard "space magic" end-game science vessel that can throw out high DPS through Gravity Wells combined with other temporal powers granted by the Lt. Commander Universal-Temporal Operative seat.

The ship has a 4 forward and 3 aft weapon layout, which is unusual for a science vessel. Even in Science Mode, it still retains the 4 forward weapons, making it extremely effective as a science-torpedo build. In fact, barring the later Trailblazer, which is a recent addition to the game, the Titan is the best science torpedo boat out there that isn't a gamble box.

It is only because of the Trailblazers' full specialization seating that the Titan doesn’t make it higher on the list of science ships.

The starship trait is It’s Another Enterprise! When you activate a Fleet Support ability, it will summon the faction's flagship onto the battlefield for 90 seconds. On face value, this sounds terrible. However, if you are trying to build an "Armada" type carrier, this trait is hilariously effective, giving you an added 30k DPS on average.

The console it comes with, Opening Salvo, is an excellent clickable console that does different things depending on what mode you use. In Science Mode, the torpedoes will knock subsystems offline for X number of seconds, with X depending on your control expertise. In Tactical Mode, it fires off a continuing spread of photon torpedoes, which don’t do a lot of damage if the targets have shields, but they can work well together with shield draining or control abilities.

Fans of the Star Trek: Titan novels know this is a must-have and anyone who enjoys the Lower Decks will jump for joy like Boimler at the sight of this beauty warping into the battlefield!

• Level 65: Hull 49500(scaling)
• Shield Modifier 1.325
• Turn Rate 13
• 4 Tactical, 2 Engineering, 4 Science console slots
• Unique Console: Opening Salvo
• Experimental Weapon
• Tactical Mode and Science Mode
• Lt. Commander Tactical, Ensign Tactical, Lieutenant Engineering, Commander Science (Commander Tactical when in Tactical Mode), Lt. Commander Universal-Temporal Operative

What makes the T6 Titan Science Destroyer great

• It is unique among the ships on this list for its ability to switch between Destroyer and Science vessel roles. That added flexibility means you can easily adapt the ship to any mission profile.
• Excellent forward firepower when in Destroyer mode, comparable to the Arbiter with the Experimental Weapon slot (and depending on what Experimental Weapon you use).
• A console is useful when combined with torpedoes to mass disable enemy ships caught in a Gravity Well.
• It comes with multiple skins that you can use to customize your ship even further.

How To Get the T6 Titan Science Destroyer

4. Clarke Multi Mission Command Cruiser

Compact, has a hangar, full command ship status, what more could a dad ask for?

How to get the Clarke Multi-Mission Command Cruiser: 3,000 Zen ($30.00) in the C-Store

At number four, we have the Clarke Multi-Mission Command Cruiser! Bringing it all the way back to our earlier list, this ship is from the same family of craft as the Reliant. However, it is far superior to its earlier brother in that it is a full-specializing ship, has better overall stats, better bridge officer seating, and a hangar bay.

The Clarke takes everything that the Reliant does and simply makes it way better. It’s the first of the new type of Multi-Mission Command Cruisers and serves a new role as a fleet anchor during task force operations. It comes with a Lt. Commander Universal station in addition to the Commander Engineering-Command specialization, letting you throw out the potent command abilities.

The Command specialization gives you a building buff that, once at 100%, will let you activate one of three powerful group-wide buffs. These are Turn the Tide (a huge damage resistance and regeneration buff), Against All Odds (a huge damage and weapon power cost reduction bonus), and Battle Preparation (instant recharge of all bridge officer powers). This gauge charges every time someone on your team uses an ability.

Despite being such a tiny ship (it’s just a little bigger than the Defiant), it has good punch and team utility. With the Hangar Bay and the balanced cruiser loadout, it can handle all task force operations in the game. The new Multi-Mission Cruisers do not come with all the typical cruiser commands, but they do come with the crucial Weapon System Efficiency command for energy DPS builds, which will reduce your power draw when firing weapons.

The starship trait, Greater Than The Sum, works off of command bridge officer abilities and Emergency Power to Auxiliary to grant yourself and nearby allies scaling +2-20 power levels and restores scaling maximum hull and maximum shields. Not terrible, but better suited for a supporting role, which this ship does well at.

The console it comes with, Genesis Seed, is unusual for a Cruiser. It increases Drain Expertise and Radiation Damage, neither of which is something a cruiser will typically use (barring perhaps the Cygnus and Nerandra). The clickable is alright; it does scaling damage to up to 10 enemies and explodes after 30 seconds. Useless for anyone who isn’t using a Control build.

If you enjoyed the Reliant or any of the Miranda variants and wanted to take it to the next level, this is the ship for you!

• Turn Rate 9.5
• Unique Console: Genesis Seed
• Lieutenant Tactical, Commander Engineering-Command, Ensign Engineering, Lt. Commander Science, Lt. Commander Universal

What makes the T6 Clarke Multi-Mission Command Cruiser great

• The latest and greatest in new classes of ships, it’s a command specialization cruiser with a hangar bay! This makes it outright better than any of the normal command specialization cruisers in a DPS role.
• Lt. Commander Universal gives you added flexibility in how you set up your ship, though most will double up on the tactical station to maximize firepower.
• The ship comes with the same skin selection as the Reliant, letting you customize the vessel to your heart's content with 9 total skins.

How To Get the T6 Clarke Multi-Mission Command Cruiser

• It also comes in the New Genesis Bundle for 7,500 zen/$75.00.

3. Gagarin Miracle Worker Battlecruiser

The OG "yes, buy this."

How to get the Gagarin Miracle Worker Battlecruiser: 3,000 Zen ($30.00) in the C-Store

At Number 3, we have the arguable replacement for the venerable Arbiter as the "go-to newbie ship". The Gagarin It has the coveted 5 forward and 3 aft weapon layout, the even more coveted full specialization Miracle Worker bridge officer seating, and a universal console slot which will let you put any console there.

The Gagarin has been out for some time now, and many players have turned it into a beast of a ship that still retains a high level of DPS and durability. It has also been able to keep up with later releases of dual specialization ships or even some of the gamble box ships.

The Miracle Worker specialization gives the ship access to Innovation Effects: Instinctive Rerouting (Bonus to All Subsystem Power), Containment Layering (Temporary Hull based on Max Hull), Heisenberg Decoupling (Secondary Shields based on Max Shields), Plasma Conduit Purge (Self-Targeted AOE Plasma Damage-over-Time), Ingenious Solutions (Bonus to Recharge Speeds for Bridge Officer and Captain Abilities), Barclay Maneuver (Photonic

As you can see, these are excellent little bonuses, and the best part is that you can activate them at will so long as you input the right combination of bridge officer abilities. The combo works like this: Tactical, Engineering, or Science will pop up in a three-icon sequence. Just use the powers in the sequence provided to activate the innovation that the RNG has given you!

All Miracle Worker ships are amazing for energy weapon builds, as the native Miracle Worker bridge officer powers dramatically boost the damage output of beams and cannons. Powers like Narrow Sensor Bands, Energy Weapons: Exceeded Rated Limits, and Mixed Armaments Synergy can give you monstrous DPS very quickly. Timing it right can result in powerful burst cycles capable of obliterating anything in your path.

As a battlecruiser, it can equip a cloaking device console, which can be interesting if you’re trying to sneak around. It also comes with Weapon System Efficiency (we like this one), Shield Frequency Modulation, and Strategic Maneuvering.

The starship trait, Entwined Tactical Matrices, is one of the better traits out there for ships that have limited tactical bridge officer slots. It applies to Fire at Will 1 and Scattery Volley 1 when you use a Torpedo Spread. However, when you use Fire at Will 1 or Scatter Volley 1, it will apply Torpedo Spread 1 instead. So, by using any one of those powers, you get the effect of two. Handy huh?

The console it comes with, the Refracting Energy Shunt, gives you passive power transfer levels (good) and engineering readiness (also good). Its actual clickable ability, however, is underwhelming at best, providing a narrow arc-scale proton damage attack that will at best chip the paint on the enemy ship.

Based on the Discovery ship of the same name, the Gagarin comes with the original Shepard class skin, letting you relive those final moments of the namesake ship and change history!

• Hull Modifier 0.95
• Turn Rate 7.5
• 3 Tactical, 5 Engineering, 2 Science, 1 Universal console slots
• Unique Console: Refracting Energy Shunt
• Innovation Effects
• Cyclical Quantum Slipstream Drive (faster Sector Space travel)
• Lt. Commander Tactical, Lieutenant Tactical-Miracle Worker, Commander Engineering-Miracle Worker, Ensign Science, Lt. Commander Universal

What makes the T6 Gagarin Miracle Worker Battlecruiser great

• A highly affordable ship that can reach top-end DPS with pretty minimal effort. Despite the nerfs to Miracle Worker, it still stands as the best specialization to have.
• A truly excellent directed energy weapons platform, you would be hard pressed to find anything wrong with this ship.
• The Universal console slot gives you added options compared to regular starships.
• Innovation mechanics can be very powerful if you know how to use them.

How To Get the T6 Gagarin Miracle Worker Battlecruiser

• It also comes in the Discovery Operations Pack for 12,000 zen ($120.00).

2. Terran Trailblazer Science Warship

The new "yes, buy this." Now with more guns!

How to get the Terran Trailblazer Science Warship: 3,000 Zen ($30.00) in the C-Store

Here we are! Star Trek Online's top two ships!It was a close call between them, and really, depending on how you play the game, #1 and #2 can be easily switched out for you. For the average player, though, I’m sticking with this decision to put the Trailblazer as our Number 2 winner. This thing is nasty-it comes with 4 forward weapons, 3 aft weapons, a secondary deflector, full command specialization, and a built-in Agony Phaser Lance!

It’s basically the Galaxy-X in science ship form! The only thing it’s missing is a hangar bay, at which point it would be entirely interchangeable with our #1, the Lexington, for any role. As it is, this ship is hilariously overtuned. The ship even comes with split specialization in the form of both Miracle Worker and Command Specialization, though its Miracle Worker only makes it up to Lt. rather than something beefier like Lt. Commander.

Still, it’s hard to look at this thing and not want to run away in terror at the potential of it. Which is the point, given it's a Terran ship!

With the now familiar Lt. Commander Universal, you can turn this thing into a dedicated sci-torp build, a regular torpedo build, a directed energy weapon build, a pure science build, or even a hybrid directed energy weapon-science build! Compared to the rest of the ships on this list, it easily surpasses the vast majority given all these options.

The full command specialization gives us the regular goodies you’d expect to see from ships like the Clarke while also letting you squeeze in Narrow Sensor Bands and Mixed Armaments Synergy thanks to the Lieutenant Miracle Worker. On top of that, if you build with phaser damage in mind, you can turn the Phaser Lance into a nice built-in burst damage option. This thing can do it all!

It can even cloak, thanks to changes to the Cloaking Device Console. So we have a souped up Terran version of Voyager that can blow up the bad guys in a dozen different ways, cloak, and scream across the battlefield at crazy speeds. Yep, sounds Terran alright.

The starship trait, Weaponized Exotic Particles, gives you a bonus to your Exotic Particle Generators when you use any of the firing buffs, such as Fire at Will, Torpedo Spread, or Mine Dispersal. This isn’t actually a bad trait for this particular ship, as it is so incredibly flexible.

The console it comes with, Decentralized Immunity, increases critical severity by 12%, shield capacity by 15%, and its clickable summons an "Immunity Drone." This drone makes you totally immune to all damage for up to ten seconds, though it can be destroyed by enemy fire. This is an amazing tanking console since a majority of the NPCs don’t target pets very well. I highly suggest using this if you tank at all.

The Voyager episode "Living Witness" gave us our first taste of Warship Voyager. The Terrans, however, are the ones to perfect it. If you want a beast of a ship that can rip through anything and everything that Star Trek Online throws at you, this is the pinnacle outside of gamble box ships, and even then, it’s comparable.

• Level 65: Hull 51750(scaling)
• Hull Modifier 1.15
• Unique Console: Decentralized Immunity
• Inspiration Mechanic
• Agony Phaser Lance
• Sensor Analysis
• Subsystem Targeting
• Lt. Commander Tactical, Lieutenant Tactical-Miracle Worker, Ensign Engineering, Commander Science-Command, Lt. Commander Universal

What makes the T6 Trailblazer great

• There is a ridiculous amount of firepower that can be gained through energy weapons, torpedos, science abilities, or a combination of these.
• A built-in Agony Phaser Lance (a miniature Galaxy-X!) combined with Sensor Analysis and Subsystem Targeting.
• An Inspiration Mechanic that gives you all the benefits of a cruiser, while being a science ship.
• Ideal destroyer weapon layout, despite not being a destroyer.
• Almost cruiser-level hull values with very high shield values.
• Excellent tactical and science console layout.
• Amazing console for tanking.

How To Get the T6 Trailblazer

• It also comes in the 12th Anniversary Terran Bundle for 17,500 zen/$175.00.

1. Terran Lexington Dreadnought Cruiser

For all your flagship needs; now comes with Nebula mission pod and phaser lance! Deathgliders not included.

How to get the Terran Lexington Dreadnought Cruiser: 3,000 Zen ($30.00) in the C-Store

And finally, at long last, we have our big winner: the Terran Lexington Dreadnought Cruiser. This will probably be a bit of a controversial choice over the Trailblazer, but I chose it because there tends to be more players flying around in cruisers compared to science ships, and as a "newbie" ship, it’s pretty much impossible to get this thing wrong. The only thing that sucks about this ship is the 4 forward and 4 aft weapon layout.

If it had 5/3, it would literally be perfect. However, we’ll deal with the near-perfection of the cruiser class instead! Coming in with a built-in Agony Phaser Lance, Hangar Bay, Cruiser Commands, and full Miracle Worker specialization, this ship takes the Gagarin and amps it up to 11. Despite the 4/4 layout, it still does monstrous damage with some extremely high parses that I’ve seen in this exact ship.

Not even the legendary, everyday Terran version!If that doesn’t say "most impressive," I don’t know what does!

In addition, it has a split specialization with Intelligence, giving you access to Override Subsystem Safeties II, which is incredibly powerful when combined with Miracle Worker bridge officer powers. Throw in Narrow Sensor Bands and the rest and you’ve got a burst cycle very few things can survive for long.

Much of what makes the Gagarin so good applies to the Lexington, but with the added bonus of the Hangar Bay and Phaser Lance. While neither is particularly noteworthy, they are additional DPS sources and count in my assessment of the Number 1 spot. To add insult to injury, the vastly larger Lexington is actually 0.5 times faster at turning than the Gagarin, tossing a little bit of straw to break the camel's back in terms of just how good this thing is.

Not to beat a dead horse, but this is just a flat out better Galaxy-X. For those wondering why I didn’t include the Legendary Galaxy-X on this list, this ship is why. It’s better priced, has better stats, and has the far superior Miracle Worker full specialization. It’s just better. Sorry, Gal-X fans.

In typical Terran fashion, they took a concept and just added more guns to it until they ran out of room.

As before, it has a Lt. Commander Universal to just throw down in any direction you need to while also packing a Lt. Commander Tactical. It's not even a split station, it’s a pure full tactical, which is great for a ship like this. Unlike the Trailblazer, you can’t quite omni-everything in it, but it’s still an excellent ship in every respect. The only difference between this ship and the Trailblazer is purely in its role.

This was designed as an energy weapon cruiser, whereas the Trailblazer was built as an energy weapon/torpedo science ship. It can’t squeeze on a good torpedo build, but that’s alright. It more than makes up for it in withering damage output.

The starship trait, Dimensional Modulation, gives you +3–30% bonus weapon damage for 10 seconds whenever you use a Miracle Worker bridge officer power or Directed Energy Modulation that scales with nearby foes. This is insanely good when you are outnumbered! While the conditions cannot be controlled (making it suboptimal in situations where you are not outnumbered), it is still extremely powerful when combined with all of the other ships' abilities.

The console it comes with, Multi-Directional Artillery Barrage, is perhaps the only other possible disappointment. While the 20% bonus to projectile damage and 7.5% bonus to healing capacity are alright, the torpedoes themselves do minuscule damage. Even the 25% bonus damage doesn’t justify slotting it with a two-minute recharge. Unless you are doing a theme build or attempting something whacky with bonus damage values, I would not slot this.

Star Trek Online’s flagship class in the Odyssey line has an outstanding ship that easily eclipses the majority of the ships on this list. The Lexington is the current pinnacle of non-promo cruisers, with a little bit of everything and a whole lotta phasers ready to vaporize. It’s all the more fitting for those who wish to replay some of Star Trek Online’s history, living in the moments of the Enterprise F when it first came to us in the Mission: The Odyssey Class at the helm of a truly mighty vessel.

• Level 65: Hull 61875(scaling)
• Shield Modifier 1.15
• Hull Modifier 1.375
• Turn Rate 8
• 4 Tactical, 5 Engineering, 2 Science, 1 Universal console slots
• Unique Console: Multi-Directional Artillery Barrage
• Innovation Mechanic
• Quantum Slipstream Drive (faster Sector Travel)
• Lt. Commander Tactical, Lieutenant Tactical-Intelligence, Commander Engineering-Miracle Worker, Ensign Science, Lt. Commander Universal

What makes the T6 Terran Lexington Dreadnought Cruiser great

• Like the Trailblazer, ridiculous amounts of firepower can be gained through energy weapons.
• Agony Phaser Lance (a miniature Galaxy-X!) and a Hangar Bay were built in.
• You use the Innovation Mechanic that gives you bonuses based on the powers you use.
• It has huge natural hull values, making it among the tankiest in the game for its price tag.
• Excellent tactical layout, with full capacity to take advantage of its Miracle Worker and Intelligence Bridge Officer abilities.

How To Get the T6 Terran Lexington Dreadnought Cruiser

And there we have it! These are the top 15 best ships for players in Star Trek Online! This represents a budget-friendly list, so players don’t have to worry about trying to gamble to get one of those impossibly difficult uber-end-game ships. You can pilot any of the classic vessels from the shows to great effect! One of the wonderful things about Star Trek Online is that you can make any ship work; it just takes a bit of elbow grease.

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Star Trek Online: Starship Acquisition Guide 2022

Guide to all methods of acquiring new starships (both free and with cost).

Starship Acquisition Guide

————————————-

This is a guide to all the different ways to obtain (and/or upgrade) a ship in Star Trek Online.

Throughout this guide, ‘Captain’ is used to refer to your player character.

After claiming the ships listed below, they will either be found in your Captain’s active ships roster, or as an item in your Captain’s inventory (which, when used, will produce a ship in your Captain’s active ships roster). Your Captain will then need to visit a Starship Selection Officer (located near most Shipyards; there is also one located, independently of a Shipyard, at the Fleet Colony) in order to select it as their current ship, if that is desired.

If your Captain’s active ships roster is full, they can gain additional slots by levelling up, or by purchasing slots from the Zen store. You can also free up existing slots by visiting a Starship Selection Officer and either moving inactive ships to the Drydock, or dismissing/discharging inactive ships. Note that some ships (see below) cannot be reclaimed for free after being dismissed/discharged, so be careful!

When you unlock the Admiralty system at Level 52, your Captain’s will be rewarded a durable ‘Admiralty card’ for every ship currently in their active ships roster, and will gain one anytime that they claim a new ship after that (or return it to active ships roster from Drydock). These Admiralty cards can be quite valuable in generating experience, dilithium, and other resources. Due to this, it is advised that you DO NOT dismiss/discharge any ships before reaching Level 52.

The ship that your Captain is currently flying may not be moved to Drydock or dismissed/discharged.

Special note for Starfleet ships: class names (Galaxy-class, Intrepid-class, etc) are not included in the Shipyard main interface or in the active ship roster, but are shown elsewhere. They are included here for player reference and clarity.

Cross-Faction Flying (NEW feature – 11th Anniversary / 2021)

– EXCEPTION: The four Jem’Hadar Vanguard ships included in the Gamma pack (Vanguard Heavy Raider, Vanguard Warship, Vanguard Carrier, and Vanguard Dreadnought Cruiser), must be unlocked via their own Tier 6 Mastery mechanic.

If you do NOT have “Cross-Faction Flying” unlocked, you can still access many ships outside of your own faction, as all Romulan ships, newer Dominion ships (excluding the four previously mentioned), and most non-Zen ships are factionless.

The FREE sections of this guide are unaffected by “Cross-Faction Flying” (except the Recruitment Event Reward Ship section.)

This upgrade often requires a separately purchaseable “Starship Upgrade Requisition”, but once applied, these are considered an ‘Account Unlock’ for that ship type. In some cases, the upgrade is already free with purchase of the ship.

These tokens must be applied while visiting a Starship Selection Officer, usually found near each Shipyard. (There is also one located, independently of a Shipyard, at the Fleet Colony.)

This upgrade adds some, but not all, of the additional benefits given to Tier 6 ships: level-scaling ship hull points, an additional Console slot, and four levels of Starship Mastery benefits.

——————

Tier 5-U and Tier 6 ships can be upgraded to “Experimental” (T5-UX and T6-X).

This upgrade often requires a separately purchaseable “Experimental Starship Upgrade Token”, but once applied, these are considered an ‘Account Unlock’ for that ship type.

This upgrade adds a Universal Console slot, an additional Device slot, and an additional Starship Trait slot.

FREE: Starter Ships

The type of ship your Captain will receive is determined by your Captain’s faction, as follows:

2409 Starfleet – Miranda-class Light Cruiser 23c Starfleet – Pioneer-class Utility Cruiser Discovery Starfleet – Malachowski-class Light Cruiser Romulan – T’liss Light Warbird Klingon – B’rel Bird-of-Prey Dominion – Jem’Hadar Escort (T-5U)

Your Captain will also be provided with a faction-appropriate shuttlecraft, for use in the small number of missions that require their use. (23c Starfleet Captains can also claim a Class F shuttle for free; this must be done manually and is ONLY available while still in the 23c storyline.)

FREE: Level-Up Reward Ships (Levels 10-40)

It should be noted that, previously, the Romulan and Klingon selections were also tied to completion of certain storyline episodes. I’m not sure if this is still the case, but if you do not receive the “Promotion” mission popups at the proper time, this may be the reason.

Level 10 – Choice of certain Tier 2 ships. Level 20 – Choice of certain Tier 3 ships. Level 30 – Choice of certain Tier 4 ships. Level 40 – Choice of certain Tier 5 ships.

The available ships are also determined by your Captain’s faction. Captains do NOT have the option of claiming allied/other faction ships. 23c and Discovery Starfleet Captains, share the standard Starfleet selections. The available choices are as follows:

Tier 2: Starfleet – Constitution-class (refit) Cruiser, Saber-class Escort, Nova-class Science Vessel Romulan – Dhelan Warbird Klingon – QulDun Bird-of-Prey, K’tanco Battlecruiser, Somraw Raptor

(Note that the Starfleet Cruiser is the ‘refit’ version of the original ‘Enterprise’ as seen in the first three theatrical films, and as the ‘Enterprise-A’ in films 4-6.)

Tier 3: Starfleet – Cheyenne-class Heavy Cruiser, Akira-class Heavy Escort, Olympic-class Research Science Vessel Romulan – Mogai Heavy Warbird Klingon – Norgh Bird-of-Prey, K’t’inga Battlecruiser, Qorgh Raptor

Tier 4: Starfleet – Galaxy-class Exploration Cruiser, Defiant-class Tactical Escort, Intrepid-class Long Range Science Vessel Romulan – Ar’kif Tactical Warbird, D’deridex Warbird Battlecruiser Klingon – Ki’tang Bird-of-Prey, Vor’cha Battlecruiser, Pach Raptor

(Note that most Tier 4 choices are screen-canon ships from the ‘The Next Generation’ / early ‘Deep Space Nine’ era. The Starfleet Exploration Cruiser is the ‘Enterprise-D’ and the Starfleet LRSV is ‘Voyager’.)

Tier 5: Starfleet – Sovereign-class Assault Cruiser, Sentinel-class Star Cruiser, Prometheus-class Advanced Escort, Dervish-class Patrol Escort, Destiny-class Deep Space Science Vessel, Luna-class Reconnaissance Science Vessel Romulan – Ha’feh Assault Warbird, Ha’apax Advanced Warbird, Ha’nom Guardian Warbird Klingon – Hegh’ta Heavy Bird-of-Prey, Negh’Var Heavy Battlecruiser, Vor’cha Battlecruiser Retrofit, Qin Heavy Raptor, Vo’Quv Carrier

(Note that some Tier 5 choices are screen-canon ships from the late ‘Deep Space Nine’ / ‘Voyager’ era; the Starfleet Assault Cruiser is the ‘Enterprise-E’ as first seen in the film ‘First Contact’.)

FREE: Episode Reward Ship (“Temporal Ambassador”)

Starfleet – Ambassador-class Support Cruiser (‘Enterprise-C’) Klingon – Kamarag Battlecruiser

FREE: Level-Up Reward Ship (Level 61)

These specific Tier 5 ships are offered at Level 61:

Starfleet – Galaxy-class Exploration Cruiser Retrofit, Defiant-class Tactical Escort Retrofit, Intrepid-class Long Range Science Vessel Retrofit Romulan – T’varo Light Warbird Retrofit, Dhelan Warbird Retrofit, Mogai Heavy Warbird Retrofit, D’deridex Warbird Battlecruiser Retrofit Klingon – B’Rel Bird-of-Prey Retrofit, Kar’Fi Battle Carrier, Orion Marauder Flight Deck Carrier

Romulan and Dominion Captains may also choose from the ships offered to their allied faction.

These ships are otherwise Zen-purchaseable ships (see below). It should be noted that, when purchased by this method, these ships are a single purchase only, not an account unlock, and are not reclaimable.

FREE: Level-Up Reward Ship (Special Note for Lifetime Subscribers)

Free: seasonal event ships.

These events have generally run 28 to 49 days, and required 20 to 30 progress (available once every 20 hours) to unlock the ship reward.

These ships are now generally Tier 6 ships, but prior to October 2014 (Delta Rising expansion) Event Ships were Tier 5 ships.

In most years, three ‘Seasonal Events’ rewarding ships are offered: Anniversary Event (February) Summer Event (usually July-August, but sometimes a bit earlier or later) Winter Event (December-January)

A one-time special Mycelial Event (which also rewarded a ship) was offered in Fall 2019, and a similar Mirror Universe event in September 2021.

Players who previously earned an Event Ship can reclaim them at any time, through the Event Reputation Store. (Captains must be Level 50 or higher in order to reclaim the older Tier 5 Event Ships. Tier 6 Event Ships may be claimed at any level, but some equipment slots and some Bridge Officer ability slots will be temporarily locked out until the Captain reaches level 40.)

FREE: Recruitment Event Reward Ship

If you have unlocked this reward with your Klingon Recruit character, the ship may be claimed from the Temporal Agent NPC at your faction’s home base.

“Cross-Faction Flying” may be required for Federation (or allied) characters in order to fly this ship.

Lifetime Subscription (“Veteran”) Ships

These ships are also available, after a significant delay, to players with an active Monthly Subscription. However, new Monthly Subscriptions are no longer available.

Starfleet Captains will receive access to the Captain’s Yacht, Tier 5 Chimera-class Heavy Destroyer, and Tier 6 Manticore-class Heavy Destroyer.

Romulan Captains will receive access to the Commander’s Gig, Tier 5 Daeinos Warbird Destroyer, and Tier 6 Dinaes Warbird Destroyer.

Klingon Captains will receive access to the DujHod General’s Chariot, Tier 5 Peghqu’ Heavy Destroyer, and Tier 6 Duvqu’ Heavy Destroyer.

Dominion Captains will receive access to only one unique ship, the Tier 6 Jem’Hadar Vanguard Heavy Destroyer.

Captains of any faction, with the “Cross-Faction Flying” unlock, can access all of the listed ships.

Purchaseable Ships (Dilithium)

Tier 2 ships require a minimum level of 10. Tier 3 ships require a minimum level of 20. Tier 4 ships (with one exception) require a minimum level of 30.

There are additional ships available at a higher dilithium price at Tiers 1-4.

– These ships were previously Zen-purchaseable ships (see below); if purchased during that period, they remain available as account-unlocks, as with other Zen purchase ships.

– The Tier 1 “Constitution Cruiser” (sometimes labeled as “TOS Enterprise”) is popular with newer players, both for nostalgia reasons (this is the Enterprise from the 1960s TV series), and because it comes with two special infinity-mark ‘Retrofit Phaser Banks’ (blue quality). Infinity-mark weapons will auto-adjust their stats to the equivalent of an appropriate mark for your Captain’s level, until they reach level 50, at which point the weapon’s stats will freeze at the equivalent of Mark 11. If you load them into the Upgrade Item screen once the Captain is at level 50+, they will be autoconverted to Mark 12 and are then further upgradable. These Retrofit Phaser Banks can be equipped on any ship. (They also have 1960s style artwork and sound effects. Retrofit Phaser Banks can also be acquired as episode rewards for “Everything Old Is New”, but if sourced from the episode, are not infinity-mark.)

* NOTE – the Tier 1 Constitution Cruiser can still be purchased for Zen as part of a bundle.

– Romulan and Dominion Captains can also access most (not all) dilithium ships of their allied faction.

– Romulan dilithium ships are available to everyone, regardless of faction.

– Captains below level 30 may claim the Starfleet Walker-class Prototype Light Exploration Cruiser (Tier 4), but some equipment slots and some Bridge Officer ability slots will be temporarily locked out until the captain reaches level 30.

Purchaseable Ships (Zen)

Some notes, however:

– Zen purchase ships are considered ‘Account Unlocks’, meaning that once purchased, they can be reclaimed for free, even on other Captains, as long as the claiming Captain is of a proper level and faction. (To reclaim, visit any Shipyard.) As such, you need not ‘save’ them in your Captain’s Drydock for later reclamation.

– Tier 5 ships require a minimum level of either 40 or 50 (depending on the particular ship).

– Captains below level 40 may claim Tier 6 ships, but some equipment slots and some Bridge Officer ability slots will be temporarily locked out until the captain reaches level 40.

– Tier 5 ships are priced at either 2000 Zen or 2500 Zen; Tier 6 ships are priced at 3000 Zen.

– Tier 6 ships offer a fifth level of Starship Mastery, which allows the Captain to earn a Starship Trait. Once earned, these traits may be used while flying any ship.

– Romulan and Dominion Captains can also access most (not all) Zen ships of their allied faction.

– Romulan Zen store ships are available to captains of all factions.

– The Temporal Raider, Temporal Multi-Mission Science Vessel, Temporal Dreadnought Cruiser, the Jem’Hadar Vanguard Temporal Warship, the Cardassian Intel Escort, Cardassian Intel Flight Deck Carrier, Cardassian Intel Science Dreadnought, and all of the Tier 5 ships included in the ‘Gamma Vanguard’ pack (Cardassian Galor Cruiser, Jem’Hadar Dreadnought Carrier, Jem’Hadar Heavy Escort Carrier), are available to Captains of all factions.

– Starfleet, Romulan, and Klingon Captains can also access the Dominion’s Vanguard Heavy Raider, Vanguard Warship, Vanguard Carrier, and Vanguard Dreadnought Cruiser ONLY AFTER the player has unlocked these by achieving their (unique) sixth level Starship Mastery on them with a Dominion Captain.

– There are quite frequently sales on Zen ships. 20% off sales tend to happen once every two to three months, and a steeper discount is often available on “Black Friday” and sometimes on other US holiday weekends. If you also buy your Zen when it’s on sale, you can buy ships for something close to half of the standard cash-to-Zen equivalency. During ship sales, a free Starship Upgrade Token is often included with the purchase of any Tier 5 ship that requires one.

– Many Zen ships are also offered in bundles, which can offer a very large discount, and in some cases include non-ship items as well. In some cases, the bundle prices can be as little as half of the value of the ships if purchased individually.

– The Tier 5 Galor-class Cruiser (not sold separately; included with the 3-pack Cardassian Tier 6 ship bundle or the Gamma Vanguard expansion bundle) comes with four free infinity-mark ‘Spiral Wave Disruptor Beam Arrays’ (purple quality), ONLY the first time that it is claimed by each Captain.

– Several other ships also come with special infinity-mark weapons. Infinity-mark weapons will auto-adjust their stats to the equivalent of an appropriate mark for your Captain’s level, until they reach level 50, at which point the weapon’s stats will freeze at the equivalent of Mark 11. In such cases as these weapons are NOT white (common) quality, If you load them into the Upgrade Item screen once the Captain is at level 50+, they will be autoconverted to Mark 12 and are then further upgradable. Some (not all) of these can be equipped on other ships in addition to the one they come with. (Note: there are also some instances of infinity-mark ground combat items, which are NOT white (common) quality; these also autoconvert, but some autoconvert to other mark levels.)

– In some cases, when claiming these ships, they will be delivered to your Captain’s inventory in a Bound to Character box, and can be moved to your Captain’s active ships roster by using the box. In other cases, they will be automatically unpacked into your Captain’s active ships roster. Boxed ships may be stored in your Captain’s personal Bank.

– Players wishing to access these ships (and other Zen store items) without using real-world cash, may do so by purchasing secondhand Zen with refined dilithium. See the “Exchange” button in the dilithium section of your Captain’s inventory Assets tab.

– “Legendary” T6 ships also exist. These have, to date, only been sold in bundles, but are otherwise treated as Zen store ships. Each Legendary ship purchase includes all of the pre-existing skins, all of the consoles, and any non-white/common weapons available on the variants of its ship type released prior to the Legendary release. They also award (at Tier 5 Starship Mastery) all Starship Traits awarded by the previous variants, and (at Tier 6 Starship Mastery) a brand-new, account-wide Starship Trait as well.

Purchaseable Ships (Phoenix Tokens)

Tier 6 ships are listed in the “Epic” tab and require an Epic token.

Tier 5 ships are listed in the “Ultra Rare” tab and require an Ultra Rare token.

These Tokens are randomly rewarded from opening Phoenix Prize Packs, and are the two rarest forms of Tokens (out of five) rewarded from these Prize Packs. Phoenix Prize Packs and Tokens are Bound to Account, so may not be transferred or sold to other players, but may be stored in your Captain’s personal Bank or Account Bank.

Phoenix Prize Packs may be bought in the Dilithium Store, for 4500 dilithium per pack, or 40,000 dilithium for a bundle of ten, with no purchase limit. These do not require a key to open.

This method is intended to make these ships available to newer players who missed the ships’ original events.

It should be noted that, when purchased by this method, these ships are a single purchase only, not an account unlock, and are not reclaimable.

Purchaseable Ships (Fleet Credits / Ship Modules)

While there are Shipyard facilities located at some of the Fleet bases (notably the Starbase’s Tactical level and the Spire), access to Fleet ships is also available at public-location Shipyard facilities.

Some notes:

– Your Fleet’s current quantity of Military Fleet Ship Provisions is visible in two places: in your Fleet’s starbase tab, under the provisions view, or in the cost section of the Shipyard interface. These can be generated by certain red starbase development projects. One Military Fleet Ship Provision is consumed by each Fleet ship purchase.

– Fleet ships are considered a separate ship-type from their non-Fleet equivalent. As such, unlocks described in the “Upgrading” section of this guide will not carry over.

– Fleet ships, when compared to their non-Fleet equivalent ship, have 10% higher shield and hull multipliers and an extra console slot. In a very few cases, they may also have a different Bridge Officer layout. Fleet ships also reward a separate durable Admiralty card from their non-Fleet equivalent ship.

– Fleet ships do NOT include any special weapons or consoles which come included on their non-Fleet equivalent ship, but can use them.

– Tier 6 Fleet ships do NOT offer a fifth level of Starship Mastery, so cannot be used to earn Starship Traits.

– Ships which are sold for Zen in a three-variant pack designated by profession, are already of Fleet quality (the additional console slot is used to differentiate them), so therefore, Fleet versions of these ships are not available.

– Fleet Ship Modules are required for most Fleet ships. These are available from the Zen store and from the Exchange. You may also earn a limited number of these (which, unlike the Zen store ones, will be Bound to Character) through the Reputation system.

– The available selection of Fleet ships depends on your Fleet’s development level. Although many Fleet NPC vendors will allow your Captain to bypass their own Fleet’s development level restrictions, by shopping while visiting another fleet’s bases as a guest (in these cases, the host fleet’s development level is used to determine vendor item accessibility), this DOES NOT work for ship purchases.

—————— Fleet variants of Zen ships ——————

Many Fleet ships are improved variants of Tier 5 and Tier 6 Zen-purchasable ships. These ships may be purchased with a combination of Fleet Credits and Fleet Ship Modules.

If you have purchased the equivalent Zen ship (see above), at the same tier, the Shipyard will apply a massive discount to the number of Fleet Ship Modules required (generally reducing it to one module). You do NOT need to currently have the Zen ship in your inventory to receive this discount.

—————— Fleet variants of Event and Veteran ships ——————

Fleet variants of the Veteran Starships and the Risian Corvette (2019 Summer Event) ship are available. The method of purchase is the same as the variants of Zen ships.

However, since it is not possible to purchase these ships without previously unlocking their non-Fleet equivalent, the Fleet Ship Module discount always applies.

It should be noted that, unlike other Fleet variants, the Fleet Risian Corvette has a markedly different Bridge Officer configuration and adds pilot maneuvers, but does NOT gain an additional console slot.

—————— Fleet variants of other ships ——————

Some Fleet ships are variants of ships not available in the Zen store at the same tier. Some of these are still sold for a combination of Fleet Credits and Fleet Ship Modules, while others have a cost solely in Fleet Credits.

Purchaseable Ships (Energy Credits)

Other ships (special access and player-to-player purchasing).

Keep in mind that the Exchange is a player-to-player consignment (resale) shop. Availability and price is therefore affected by supply and demand economics.

It may also be possible to purchase these ships from other players directly (without using the Exchange).

MOST “Special Requisition” ships are “factionless” (meaning that they can be used by any captain) and represent “minor” or “alien” races. In some cases, however, they represent major-faction ships, and sometimes the “Special Requisition” will either be limited to being opened by the appropriate faction, OR will produce an alternate ship if opened by a different faction.

Unbound “Special Requisition” packs may also be stored in your Captain’s personal Bank, Account Bank, or Fleet Bank. Unbound “Special Requisition” packs may also placed in the Mail system as an attachment, or traded to another Captain directly by use of the Trade interface.

Please note that once the “Special Requisition” is opened (and grants the actual ship), the resulting ship is completely non-transferrable and non-resellable.

—————— Lock Box Ships ——————

Many ships are available as the “big prize” item from Lock Boxes. A new ship (or multiple ships) will be introduced with each new Lock Box, and are delivered as a “Special Requisition Pack” bearing the name of the enclosed ship, or a “Special Requisition Choice Pack” from which multiple ships can be selected. New Lock Boxes are introduced about three to four times per year.

Older ships may also be found in the Infinity Lock Box (which combines the items available through Lockboxes which have been retired for a significant time) by winning an “Infinity Prize Pack – T6 Ship” or “Infinity Prize Pack – T5 Ship”. These Prize Packs are non-transferrable, but may be used to select a “Special Requisition” pack, which is transferrable, from a list of eligible ships.

It should be noted that the chance of receiving a “Special Requisition” pack from a Lock Box is individually randomized and is quite low (while precise odds have never been officially released, most large-sample testers have reported results of 0.2% to 0.8%), and that opening Lock Boxes requires Keys (which are a Zen purchaseable item, though they may also be resold/bought on the Exchange).

If you are on a budget, or prefer to avoid the risk inherent in randomness, it is advised that you purchase a “Special Requisition” pack for the desired ship directly from the Exchange, rather than trying to generate it by opening Lock Boxes.

—————— Promotional Pack Ships ——————

During special Research & Development or Duty Officer events, a promotional version of the appropriate Zen store purchaseable packs becomes available. Opening these Promotional packs grants a chance to win a “Special Requisition Choice Pack – Tier 6 Promotional Ship Choice Pack”. These “Special Requisition Choice” packs are non-transferrable, but may be exchanged for the player’s choice of a list of specific “Special Requisition” packs, which ARE transferrable.

It should be noted that the chance of receiving a “Special Requisition” pack from a Promotional Pack is individually randomized and quite low (although precise odds have never been officially released).

If you are on a budget, or prefer to avoid the risk inherent in randomness, it is advised that you purchase a “Special Requisition” pack for the desired ship directly from the Exchange, rather than trying to generate it by opening Promotional packs.

—————— Lobi Crystal Ships ——————

When opening Lock Boxes, Promotional Research & Development Packs, and Promotional Duty Officer Packs, if you do not receive a ship pack, you will instead be rewarded with an amount of Lobi Crystals.

Lock Boxes generate a variable number of Lobi Crystals averaging between 4 and 5 Lobi Crystals per box. Promotional Packs generate 10 Lobi Crystals per pack.

There have also been special (calendar) events that have allowed players to earn or purchase Lobi Crystals for a limited time and/or in limited quantity.

Lobi Crystals are Bound to Account, so can be transferred to the owner’s other characters via Account Bank, but are non-transferrable to other players (including via the Exchange). However, they can be exchanged for a wide variety of specialty items via the Lobi Crystal Store. While most Lobi Crystal Store items are Bound to Character, ships are an exception to the rule, and are delivered in an unbound “Special Requisition” pack.

Generally, one or more new ships will be added to the Lobi Crystal store whenever a new Lock Box is released.

Purchaseable Ships (Mudd’s Market)

When purchased from “Mudd’s Market”, these ships are treated as if they are Zen-purchased ships (therefore being account-unlock and reclaimable), even if their other availability is single-purchase only.

Event Campaign Rewards

The rewards for the past Event Campaigns have included ships listed in the ‘Special Access’ portion of this guide, large sums of Lobi Crystals, and/or Zen ship coupons.

The Event Campaign reward itself is a single-character claim only.

However, the Zen ship coupons can be used to purchase a Zen ship, which is then an account unlock, so if you wish an account-wide option, this is it.

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Best Of Lists

There are hundreds of ships to explore and pilot in Star Trek Online. Each have their own purpose and function. It can be hard to make up your mind about what kind of starship captain you are, but our list below should help you determine what Star Trek Online’s best ships are.

NX Class Escort Refit

This is a smaller vessel, but don’t let its size fool you. When the Refit hits maximum level, its hull strength is well beyond what you would imagine for a ship of its size. Not only that, but it has an incredible turn rate. Its defensive capabilities along with its incredible Point Defense Bombardment Warhead console make this a great ship for fast excursions and quick escapes.

Kelvin Timeline Intel Dreadnought

Based on the secretly built ship from the second reboot movie, this Federation Dreadnought might be the most powerful starship in the entire game. It has unique weapons not available on any other ship, and they are unbelievably devastating. Additionally, it has the potential of reaching a massive 70k HP without the addition of add-ons and upgrades. If you want to wage a one ship war, this is the vessel to do it in.

Sarcophagus Dreadnought Carrier

It’s one of the rarer ships in the game to acquire, but with good cause. Its massive HP potential, the Cloak of T’Kuvma, support for House of Mo’Kai Raiders, and two hanger bays makes this Klingon ship a powerhouse. The Sarcophagus Carrier is only available through the Discovery Lock Box, or if you get lucky and find one on the Exchange.

Odyssey Science Cruiser

Most of the vessels on this list are designed to wage war, but the Odyssey Science Cruiser was built for a different purpose. Fans of Star Trek will recognize this ship as a Sovereign class vessel, the same type as the Enterprise E. That will give you an idea of what it’s capable of. If you find yourself exploring highly contested regions of space, the Odyssey Science Cruiser is ideal. Because while this ship is focused on exploration, it can still hold its own in battle.

D’Khellra Warbird Battlecruiser

Though these ships turn like an aircraft carrier stuck in ice, the Warbird Battlecruiser more than makes up for it with the ability to convert damage done to enemies into increased resistance for your own vessel. It accomplishes this incredible feat because of the ship’s onboard Molecular Cohesion Nullifier Field. You can purchase the D’Kellra Warbird Battlecruiser in the Zen store for 3,000 Zen. It is definitely a good investment.

Any one of the five vessels from this list could easily claim the title of being one of Star Trek Online’s best ships. Whether you grind your way to owning one, or spend real world cash, these are starships worth your investment. Make sure to check out our other guides about Star Trek Online as well!

In a previous life, Eric was a video game developer. He helped create many games over the course of more than a decade. These days you can find him huddled in front of his laptop, consuming far more caffeine than is healthy, writing whatever it is someone needs him to write. And he couldn't be happier!

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Playable ships by release date

• VisualEditor
• View history

This is a historical list (sorted by descending) of all Star Trek Online ship releases.

• 1.1 January
• 2.1 December
• 2.2 November
• 2.3 October
• 2.4 September
• 2.11 February
• 2.12 January
• 3.1 December
• 3.2 November
• 3.3 October
• 3.4 September
• 3.11 February
• 3.12 January
• 4.1 December
• 4.2 November
• 4.3 October
• 4.4 September
• 4.11 February
• 4.12 January
• 5.1 December
• 5.2 November
• 5.3 October
• 5.4 September
• 5.11 February
• 5.12 January
• 6.1 December
• 6.2 November
• 6.3 October
• 6.4 September
• 6.11 February
• 6.12 January
• 7.1 December
• 7.2 November
• 7.3 October
• 7.4 September
• 7.11 February
• 7.12 January
• 8.1 December
• 8.2 November
• 8.3 October
• 8.4 September
• 8.11 February
• 8.12 January
• 9.1 December
• 9.2 November
• 9.3 October
• 9.4 September
• 9.11 February
• 9.12 January
• 10.1 December
• 10.2 November
• 10.3 October
• 10.4 September
• 10.5 August
• 10.10 March
• 10.11 February
• 10.12 January
• 11.1 December
• 11.2 November
• 11.3 October
• 11.4 September
• 11.5 August
• 11.10 March
• 11.11 February
• 11.12 January
• 12.1 December
• 12.2 November
• 12.3 October
• 12.4 September
• 12.5 August
• 12.10 March
• 12.11 February
• 12.12 January
• 13.1 December
• 13.2 November
• 13.3 October
• 13.4 September
• 13.5 August
• 13.10 March
• 13.11 February
• 13.12 January
• 14.1 December
• 14.2 November
• 14.3 October
• 14.4 September
• 14.5 August
• 14.10 March
• 14.11 February

January [ | ]

Season launch: Season Twenty-eight: Refractions (released January 24, 2023)

December [ | ]

November [ | ]

October [ | ], september [ | ].

Season launch: Season Twenty-seven: Ascension (released September 13, 2022)

August [ | ]

Season launch: Season Twenty-six: Stormfall (released May 10, 2022)

April [ | ]

March [ | ]

February [ | ].

Season launch: Season Twenty-five: Shadow's Advance (released January 25, 2022)

• Season launch: Season Twenty-four: Reflections (released September 14, 2021)

New starship type: Multi-Mission Cruiser

• Season launch: Season Twenty-three: House United (released May 25, 2021)

Season launch: Season Twenty-two: House Reborn (released January 26, 2021)

New feature: Cross Faction Flying

Season launch: Season Twenty-one: House Shattered (released October 6, 2020)

• No ships released in July 2020

Season launch: Season Twenty: House Divided (released June 30, 2020)

Aside from the Trade Freighters from the "No Win Scenarios" event, all other ships released in June 2020 are Tier 6

New starship type: Legendary starship

Season launch: Season Nineteen: Legacy (released January 28, 2020)

Season launch: Season Eighteen: Awakening (released September 10, 2019)

New feature: All Romulan ships are Cross-Faction starships (August 25, 2019)

Season launch: Season Seventeen: Rise of Discovery (released May 14, 2019)

New feature: All Tier 6 starships are level-scaling starships

Season launch: Season Sixteen: Mirror of Discovery (released January 23, 2019)

• First level-scaling Tier 6 ship
• No ships released November 2018

Season launch: Season Fifteen: Age of Discovery (released October 9, 2018)

New starship type: Level-scaling starships

The following ships were already present in-game, but they became available once more with the Gamma Vanguard Pack as account-wide unlocks.

• No ships released May 2018
• No ships released March 2018

Season launch: Season Four: Crossfire (released July 7, 2011)

• No ships released July 2011

• No ships released January 2011

New starship type: Destroyer

Season launch: Season Three: Genesis (released December 9, 2010)

• No ships released in September 2010

Season launch: Season Two: Ancient Enemies (released July 27, 2010) New starship type: Retrofit starships

New starship type: Dreadnought Cruiser

• No ships released in May 2010
• No ships released in April 2010

Season launch: Season One: Common Ground (released March 24, 2010)

Game launch (All ships present at release on February 2, 2010)

• 2 Playable starship
• 3 Delta Recruitment

Back To Home

Welcome to our build section! We have a wide variety of builds across any number of classes, build types, and budgets. Each of our authors has contributed their best builds in their own unique style! Our builds are established, tested, and proven to be Elite-capable across a variety of build archetypes. The table below is sortable and searchable for fields like class, DPS, author, and build type to assist with navigation.

Additionally, we have other areas worth exploring, which details the basics of ship building, ship build types, and even ground builds!

Ship Build Types Explained

Ground Builds

Build Chart

Quick build glossary.

You can find a full definition on our build types page. 

Energy Builds

Energy builds use beams, cannons, or a mix of the two for their primary DPS sources. Sometimes they include a single torpedo. These builds are subdivided based on the primary firing mode and energy flavor (e.g. Phaser):

Beam Overload (BO) is a single target beam firing mode

Cannon Rapid Fire (CRF) is a single target cannon firing mode

Cannon Scatter Volley (CSV) is an AOE cannon firing mode

Exceed Rated Limits (ERL) is a single target firing mode that applies to all energy weapons and causes very fast attacks

FAW or Fire at At Will (FAW) is an AOE beam mode

Surgical Strikes (SS) is a single firing mode that applies to all energy weapons and does more damage with greater critical chance but attacks slower

Reroute Reserves to Weapons (RRW) is a single target firing mode that applies to all energy weapons and causes very fast attacks at the cost of engine power

Exotic Builds

Exotic builds primarily focus on weapons, abilities, traits, and consoles that scale with the Exotic Particle Generator skill.

Exotic or EPG builds use exotic-scaling torpedoes alongside their other exotic abilities for their primary damage source. This is the main variety of exotic builds.

DEWSci builds mix energy weapons and exotic abilities for more sustained DPS

TorpSci builds mix kinetic torpedoes and concepts with exotic abilities 

Projectile Builds

Projectile builds focus on damage dealt directly by torpedoes and mines

Mixed builds use a variety of projectile flavors like photon and quantum. This is the main variety of projectile builds

There are builds that focus specifically on a single subtype like Photon or Quantum . These are a small subset.

Minelayers are extremely niche. While most mainline mixed builds will incorporate mines, using them for primary DPS requires some shifts in focus and build.

Carrier Builds

Carrier builds are focused on amplifying and boosting hangar pet damage. Some capability should still be retained from the launching craft, but the emphasis is on boosting the pets.

Support Builds

Support builds are AOE energy / DEWSci builds that are built to debuff enemies and amplify their allies into dealing as much as damage as possible. They are not needed for general play and are mostly used to help others set DPS records. We subdivide these into Anchor Supports more focused on control and having Gravity Well III and Spotter Supports that emphasize having a Commander Tactical Seat for Attack Pattern Beta III along with more debuffs.

Tank Builds

Tank builds are Fire at Will builds that additionally emphasize drawing enemy attacks onto themselves away from their team and thus additional survivability as well

Heavy Tanks attempt to draw as much fire as possible while also surviving and dealing as much damage as possible. 

Support Tanks are also built to draw fire and survive, but also devote considerable build space to adding consoles and traits that will debuff enemies and amplify the capabilities of the rest of the team.

Detailed Build Table

This table reflects scores on the Infected: Space Elite (ISE) or Hive Onslaught Elite (HSE) maps for the following performance metrics:

All builds but especially damage builds are evaluated for damage-per-second (DPS). We list the record maximum DPS

Tanks are evaluated for the percentage of total enemy attacks they draw for the team (% atks)

Supports are evaluated for the team's highest debuff percentage (% DB) as well as the number of team personal best records that were achieved alongside that build (PBA). 

You can find more detailed performance metrics on the individual build pages, including on other maps.

Builds by Jay

Builds by EPH

Builds by Tilor

Star Trek Online

Originally posted by cap-boulanger : The Narendra Support Cruiser is also good (along with those previously mentioned) due to their traits being very useful. HOWEVER if you reasoning is "my T5 ships where never quite good at dealing with the later missions and such and thats why i stopped playing"... T6 ships are not THAT much better than T5s. T5s should be able to handle things... if you have a good build. I would suggest looking at some guides or something, as I suspect the real issue is that your build had/has definite flaws.

Originally posted by cap-boulanger : Try this one (I just posted it here a few days ago).... https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2735967242

Originally posted by Vulpis : Blah. just don't make the mistake I did, and pick something that turns out to be a Fleet-only ship, when you have no intentions of joining a Fleet (the Buran, to be specific..I should have gotten the upgraded Reliant, instead. :-/)

Originally posted by nemo : It really depends on what you want to play. You said Escorts and Cruisers, total opposite ends of the spectrum. My main is a tac and all I've ever really flown are escorts. It's chaos flying a good escort in this game, I love it. I got the Da Vinci T6 for free, and I regret it immensely. But then I grabbed the "Magee Pilot Escort"(fleet ship), which is a slightly better version of the Shran Pilot Escort t6. It's "gimmick" is really cool, the Da Vinci's gimmick is meh. The Shran and the Magee have a "boost meter" that takes a few seconds to fill, then you can jump forwards, backwards, or to each side. It is the most mobile ship in the game. It feels like the last ship I will ever need. I didn't get the Cstore Shran one tho, so I didn't get the console or the starship trait. I have no idea if either would be worth it. That's my two cents, I fly escorts. Also the Magee/Shran seems to have the best turn rate available on a traditional Federation looking ship, at 21.

Originally posted by cap-boulanger : Originally posted by nemo : It really depends on what you want to play. You said Escorts and Cruisers, total opposite ends of the spectrum. My main is a tac and all I've ever really flown are escorts. It's chaos flying a good escort in this game, I love it. I got the Da Vinci T6 for free, and I regret it immensely. But then I grabbed the "Magee Pilot Escort"(fleet ship), which is a slightly better version of the Shran Pilot Escort t6. It's "gimmick" is really cool, the Da Vinci's gimmick is meh. The Shran and the Magee have a "boost meter" that takes a few seconds to fill, then you can jump forwards, backwards, or to each side. It is the most mobile ship in the game. It feels like the last ship I will ever need. I didn't get the Cstore Shran one tho, so I didn't get the console or the starship trait. I have no idea if either would be worth it. That's my two cents, I fly escorts. Also the Magee/Shran seems to have the best turn rate available on a traditional Federation looking ship, at 21.

Originally posted by Citrine Piazzolla : how is the arbiter class doing for you then? because im curious as to whether i should get that, the Jupiter class or the Narendra.

Originally posted by cap-boulanger : Originally posted by Vulpis : Blah. just don't make the mistake I did, and pick something that turns out to be a Fleet-only ship, when you have no intentions of joining a Fleet (the Buran, to be specific..I should have gotten the upgraded Reliant, instead. :-/)

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8 Coolest Starships From Star Trek: The Next Generation

• The Galor-class cruiser introduced the brutal might of the Cardassian Union, setting itself apart with a fish-like design.
• The USS Pasteur, a hospital ship with a spherical hull, met a tragic end in a Klingon attack after being specialized for medical aid.
• The Borg cube, with its unique design, proved to be a terrifying opponent by easily defeating the Enterprise-D and annihilating Starfleet vessels.

Following the success of the Star Trek movies of the 1980s, the franchise returned to the small screen with The Next Generation , a sequel series set a century after the exploits of Captain Kirk. Under the command of the stoic Captain Jean-Luc Picard , the Enterprise -D continued Starfleet's mission to explore the galaxy, discovering a wide range of civilizations, scientific mysteries, and deadly new threats along the way.

Star Trek: The Next Generation's 'Skin of Evil' Explained

While The Next Generation favored philosophy and moral dilemmas over melodrama and technobabble, the series still delivered when it came to fascinating technology and innovative vessels. From the Enterprise -D itself to the rarely seen D'kora- class Ferengi Maurader, the show's seven seasons featured a bounty of notable starships.

Galor-class Cruiser

First appearance: "the wounded" (season 4, episode 12).

As well as being a showcase for tortured everyman Miles O'Brien , "The Wounded" introduces both the Cardassians and their iconic Galor -class cruisers. The fish-like shaping of the Galor -class (a design choice replicated in later Cardassian vessels) sets the starships of the Cardassian Union apart from other alien civilizations. However, despite its naturalistic appearance, the cruiser is a capable warship that serves as the backbone of the Cardassian military.

Indeed, while the Galor -class is less well known in popular culture than many ships from The Next Generation , it came to symbolize the brutal might of the Cardassian Union within both the series itself and in Deep Space Nine . The Cardassian cruiser may be something of a hidden gem, but it nonetheless deserves to be remembered as one of Star Trek 's coolest starships.

USS Pasteur

First appearance: "all good things..." (season 7, episodes 25 & 26).

Starfleet is no stranger to specialized starships: the USS Defiant seen in Deep Space Nine is a dedicated warship, while the USS Voyager , despite its heavy armament, is ostensibly a science vessel. Yet few Starfleet vessels are as practically focused as the USS Pasteur , an Olympic -class hospital ship under the command of Captain Beverly Crusher. In the alternate timeline glimpsed by Picard in "All Good Things", the Pasteur is assigned to help those suffering from Terrelian plague on Romulus.

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The Pasteur represents a radical departure from conventional Starfleet design doctrine , as the vessel's primary hull is spherical rather than saucer-shaped. This additional internal space no doubt provides additional room for laboratories, wards, and surgical theaters. Unfortunately, the Pastuer 's fate shows that no good deed goes unpunished, as it destroyed in a Klingon attack.

Ferengi Marauder

First appearance: "the last outpost" (season 1, episode 5).

"The Last Outpost" sees the Enterprise -D come face to face with a D'kora -class Ferengi Marauder. This multi-function vessel is capable of operating not only as a cargo ship (as per the Ferengi's mercantile ideology ) but also as a fearsome warship. Indeed, during the Enterprise- D's first encounter with a Ferengi Marauder, the alien vessel was able to greatly weaken the Galaxy -class starship's deflector shields using a powerful electromagnetic pulse.

The imposing D'kora -class would make several more appearances in The Next Generation and even cameoed in Voyager , albeit as a CGI recreation of the original model. Despite the prominence of the Ferengi in Deep Space Nine , this cruiser is absent from the groundbreaking series, perhaps suggesting that the Ferengi Alliance could only afford to field a few of these versatile vessels.

USS Jenolan

First appearance: "relics" (season 6, episode 4).

While attempting to respond to a distress signal from the USS Jenolan in "Relics", the Enterprise -D discovers the Sydney -class starship crash-landed on the surface of a massive Dyson sphere. Picard and his crew are 75 years late to the scene of the accident, but they are able to recover a survivor: Montgomery Scott of Captain Kirk's Enterprise , who has preserved himself in the starship's transporter pattern buffer.

However, there is more to the Jenolan than its celebrity captain. In terms of appearance, it is a deviation from the norm when it comes to Starfleet vessels, as it lacks a saucer section. That the Jenolan bears a passing resemblance to the Danube -class runabouts seen in Deep Space Nine should come as no surprise, as these auxiliary vessels were heavily influenced by the design of the Sydney -class transport.

Romulan Warbird

First appearance: "the neutral zone" (season 1, episode 26).

The D'deridex -class Romulan warbird makes its debut in the closing minutes of The Next Generation 's "The Neutral Zone". The Romulans aboard the mighty starship tell Picard and his crew that they mean business, and the sleek yet powerful design of their vessel only underlines their message. The D'deridex -class would go on to make many more appearances across the franchise, making it one of Star Trek 's most iconic villain ships.

Star Trek: Best Starships To Work On

One advantage of the Romulan warbird over its rivals is the fact that it is equipped with a cloaking device. This stealth technology, coupled with the D'deridex 's considerable firepower, makes it a dangerous threat in any military confrontation. As such, it makes sense that the starship is often deployed in intense military situations, such as during standoffs against the Enteprise -D and throughout Deep Space Nine 's Dominion War .

USS Enterprise-C

First appearance: "yesterday's enterprise" (season 3, episode 15).

Although various iterations of the Starship Enterprise play key roles throughout the Star Trek franchise, not every starship to bear the name is as prolific as The Next Generation 's Enterprise -D. Indeed, the Excelsior -class Enterprise -B makes only a brief cameo in 1994's Star Trek: Generations , while its successor, the Enterprise -C, only appears in the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise". However, despite its lack of screen-time, the Enterprise -C is involved in one of the most pivotal events in Federation history: the Battle of Narenda III.

The Ambassador -class vessel is destroyed protecting a Klingon colony from a Romulan sneak attack, impressing the Klingons and laying the groundwork for the Treaty of Alliance between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. While the Enterprise -C may resemble an awkward merging of Original Series and Next Generation aesthetics, its contribution to Federation history cannot be understated.

First Appearance: "Q Who" (Season 2, Episode 16)

The Borg are one of science fiction's most memorable villains, due in part to their relentless and single-minded push to assimilate other species. Yet much of the Borg's enduring appeal can be attributed to the excellent visual design of the Borg cube. Envisaged by writer Maurice Hurley and realized by designer Richard James, the iconic vessel is based on an architectural language that is entirely distinct from other Star Trek ships.

Star Trek: How Do Borg Nanoprobes Work?

However, the Borg cube is more than just an unusual design: it is also a terrifying opponent. The initial Borg cube seen in "Q Who" easily bests the Enterprise -D, while another cube annihilates a large flotilla of Starfleet vessels at the cataclysmic Battle of Wolf 359 in "The Best of Both Worlds". The Borg cube may look simple, but it has plenty of tricks up its sleeve.

USS Enterprise-D

First appearance: "encounter at farpoint" (season 1, episodes 1 & 2).

No discussion of The Next Generation can be complete without referring to the USS Enteprise -D, the starship that is as integral to the series as any of the show's characters. While earlier iterations of Star Trek toyed with the concept of the Enterprise as a living space as well as an exploratory vessel, The Next Generation fully embraces the idea with the Galaxy -class starship. Boasting schools, families, and a sizable civilian contingent, the ship is perhaps the best example of Gene Roddenberry's utopian future in practice—even if taking children on frequent military missions doesn't make a whole lot of sense .

As the hero ship of The Next Generation , the Enterprise -D plays a central role in shaping the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, whether through its amazing discoveries of a shared link between many of the galaxy's civilizations or its repeated battles against the Borg Collective. When it comes to Next Generation starships, the Enterprise -D is second to none.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Release Date September 28, 1987

Genres Sci-Fi

Creator Gene Roddenberry

Number of Episodes 178

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Star Trek Discovery’s Wilson Cruz Keeps Making Television History

For three decades, wilson cruz has been combining acting with activism to ensure that the next generation thrives..

By Randy Shulman on April 15, 2024 @RandyShulman

“I love that you think I have more than one home,” laughs Wilson Cruz, settling in at his New York apartment for what will ultimately become a wide-ranging, two-hour Zoom interview. “I am a journeyman actor who has been cobbling together a career for 30 years. That’s what I am.”

Truth is, Wilson Cruz is much more than that. This is the third time Cruz has been featured on a Metro Weekly cover , and he ensures that a conversation with him feels familiar, like time spent with a best friend. Talking with him is also somewhat of a unique event — spirited, unbridled, utterly free of artifice. He is warm. He is welcoming. He is wise.

Cruz would undoubtedly blush at the thought. But it’s true. He is an LGBTQ icon. He is an LGBTQ activist. As an out LGBTQ actor — one of the first — he has amassed a wealth of credits in roles that frequently elevate and celebrate our community.

He’s guest-starred in shows from Grey’s Anatomy to The West Wing and played recurring roles in Noah’s Arc and 13 Reasons Why . Movie credits include 1996’s Johns , 2003’s Party Monster , and the forthcoming Netflix rom-com Mother of the Bride , starring Brooke Shields and Benjamin Bratt.

His profile hit warp drive in recent years thanks to an essential role on Star Trek Discovery , the fifth and final season of which is about to launch on the Paramount+ streaming network. Cruz plays the U.S.S. Discovery’s doctor, Hugh Culber, husband to Paul Stamets, the ship’s brilliant engineer and inventor of its revolutionary “spore drive,” portrayed by fellow out gay actor and longtime friend, Anthony Rapp .

Their characters — not to mention their relationship — is groundbreaking for a Star Trek series, which for much of its decades-long history has avoided LGBTQ content of any kind. Discovery changed all that, not just with Culber and Stamets , but in introducing a nonbinary character, Adira Tal, beautifully personified by Blu del Bario beginning in season three.

The show doesn’t diverge so much from Star Trek’s doctrine as it does expand on it, as a good portion of its action is ultimately set 900 years in the future, truly where no human being has ever gone before. The 50-year-old Cruz is visibly bereft that Discovery has come to an end, but he looks at the series as a milestone for both his career and the greater Star Trek universe.

Cruz first made television history in 1994, in the one-season wonder My So-Called Life . He played Rickie Vasquez, the show’s gay teenage character who was coming to grips with his sexuality. Cruz was the first openly gay actor to play an openly gay character on TV, a distinction he wears with pride.

From there, he launched a parallel career in activism and has worked intimately with organizations from The National LGBTQ Task Force and GLAAD to GLSEN, which advocates for LGBTQ visibility and safety in schools. In 2023, he was appointed GLSEN’s board chair.

“What GLSEN does to support young people and students is important,” he says of the organization, which will hold its annual gala in New York on April 29. “They empower young people to become their best version of themselves, to live up to their potential so that they can become great citizens and then become great supporters of young people after them.”

Cruz is outspoken about politics, and it’s not uncommon to see him taking up the fight — with “bark,” as he puts it — on social media. “My father wants me to run for office,” he says. “But that’s not going to happen. I’ve said way too many things online that will come back and bite me in the ass.”

Cruz is worried about our nation’s future and is adamant that people turn up and vote in this election.

“I know that every four years someone says, ‘This is the most important election of our lifetimes,'” he says. “But I hate to tell you that last time was absolutely one of the most important elections in our lifetimes, and this one absolutely is. Because if we get this wrong, there’s no guarantee that we ever get to vote again. And that’s just a fact. [Donald Trump] literally said that he would be a dictator on day one. And if you think that it only meant for one day, you’ve clearly never seen a dictator in your life.”

To those who despise Trump but would prefer to abstain rather than cast a vote for Biden, Cruz is direct.

“Voting is not about falling in love,” he says. “Voting is, whether we like it or not in this country, a binary choice. And our job as citizens is to support the candidate whose priorities and values align as closely with ours as possible.

“Look, I’m not asking anybody to fall in love with Joe Biden. I’m asking them to do what’s best for them. Do what’s best for the people in your life,” he continues. “Who is going to make your life better? Who is going to make the life of the people you love better, and who’s going to make it worse? It’s really night and day. And if you choose not to vote, you might as well vote for the person who is working against you.”

During our conversation, Cruz notes he has some other projects on the horizon but can’t yet reveal them. In the meantime, he is quietly mourning the end of Discovery with the rest of us, somehow assured that in the Star Trek universe, there is frequently no such thing as finality.

“My phone number and email are exactly the same,” he smiles broadly and brightly. “They know where to find me. I am always ready to put on that white uniform.”

METRO WEEKLY: I was looking over your IMDB, and early on, like so many actors, you did a lot of guest stints on popular TV shows. You were even in Grey’s Anatomy .

WILSON CRUZ : You want to know something? In Hollywood, people are always like, “We should work together one day.” People say that to me all the time, and I go, “Mm-hmm,” because it’s well-intentioned, and I’m sure they mean it in some way, but Shonda Rhimes is the only person who said we were going to work together one day and actually follow through.

She wrote this amazing episode — it was right during the conversation around marriage equality, and my role revolved around the difference between domestic partnerships and actual marriage. It was a really great experience.

MW: You were also on The West Wing .

WILSON: I knew you were going to say that. It’s one of my favorite gigs. Can I tell you why?

MW: Please.

WILSON: I did two episodes, but the main episode I was in was called “Access,” I believe, and it revolved around a faux documentary episode around C.J., played by Allison Janney. We got to see C.J.’s life behind the scenes. I played Jack Sosa, who was assistant press secretary for domestic affairs.

It was the only episode of the entire series that they ever allowed improvisation. Usually, it’s precise, but because it was this documentary episode, they wanted it to feel loose and real. Alex Graves, who was the director on the episode, was like, “I’m going to bring you all in each one at a time, and we’re just going to do these interviews and you just answer my questions in character.”

We did this whole improvisation and I answered his questions. The character I played wasn’t necessarily gay, but in that interview, I chose to make him a gay character because we hadn’t seen a gay character on The West Wing — at least not on staff. I had created this whole backstory about how I got into the White House and how I had challenged the White House on some of their LGBTQ stances. He said, “Cut” and was like, “I cannot believe what I just heard.” And the entire thing is in the episode.

MW: You were ready for the White House.

WILSON: That is my job, honey. That is my job.

MW: More recently, your job has been on Star Trek Discovery . Your character, Dr. Hugh Culber, has gone through the wringer on the show. He dies in the first season — that’s not a spoiler anymore — and then comes back to life. But he’s different and has to realign himself. When they first killed Hugh off, did they let you know that you were coming back?

WILSON: I didn’t know right away. In the first season, I was not a series regular, I was a recurring character. I also had another gig at the time, 13 Reasons Why . Star Trek shot in Toronto and 13 Reasons Why shot in Northern California. I was shooting both at the same time. They called me on my first day of shooting the second season of 13 Reasons Why . I had just gone through makeup, my phone rings, and I see it’s [showrunner] Aaron Harberts. I was like, “Maybe he’s calling to wish me luck on my first day.” He was not. He was calling to tell me that my character on Discovery was going to be killed.

I lost it. I couldn’t even fake it. I tried really hard to keep it together and be professional, but I literally lost it because the character of Hugh had already meant so much to me, and I got to work with my friend Anthony [Rapp] . I had bonded with this cast. I had to shake it off because it was my first day at work on 13 Reasons Why . They had to put my makeup back on because I had ruined it.

Two episodes before we shot Hugh’s death [scene], they called me in. They were kind of cagey about it. They said, “Listen, this is Star Trek. Nobody really dies.” I was like, “Oh, what does that mean?” It became very clear that they were going to find a way to bring Hugh back in some form. I didn’t know in what way. Also, I didn’t know if that meant just for the season or going forward.

It became really clear that this character had become a fan favorite, and we wanted to get ahead of the “Bury Your Gays” trope, this trope that continues to be repeated over and over on television and in films where LGBTQ characters are killed off so flippantly.

In between the first and the second season, there was a lot of conversation about how Hugh was going to come back, and I had some input. I’m not taking ownership over it, but they told me what they wanted to do, and I, as an actor, had to find a way into that. If death doesn’t change you, I don’t know what does, right?

If you’re faced with that kind of life-altering, traumatizing experience, you have to question everything. I think you become awed by life and you want to make the most of it. If you think even for an instant that the relationship you’re in isn’t necessarily the one you want to be in, then you start to question whether you want to be in it — or is there a way to change it so that you can be more satisfied within it?

That moment in which he decides to stay on the ship [at the end of season two] is a revolutionary moment for him. He decides he wants to stay because he understands how much Paul means to him, and he’s willing to sacrifice everything to go to this new future, which also gives him a clean slate and an opportunity to reinvent himself within his relationship.

MW: He inevitably serves as an emotional anchor for the crew, especially after the jump in time.

WILSON: And who better than someone who’s been through something even more traumatizing than having to jump into the future? Not only has he jumped into the future, but this is somebody who faced death and came back from it. He sees very quickly in that third season that he is necessary, that these people do need him, and he steps up. That’s what Star Trek , really since its inception, has been about. It’s about how each of us step up and live up to our potential in order to become a part of a team that creates the kind of culture — on our ship, or in our country, if you want to extrapolate it that far — that we all deserve to live in.

MW: In every Star Trek series, the doctor has been an integral and interesting character, starting all the way back with Dr. McCoy from the original series. It’s one of the most important characters within the Star Trek universe. How does it feel to know that you are part of this rare and privileged lineage?

WILSON: Well, now that it’s over, I can say that it was pretty heady. I understood the responsibility. I understood how, for decades, young people would be inspired to become medical professionals because of the doctors that they saw on Star Trek . Like Gates [McFadden, who played Dr. Beverly Crusher on Next Generation ] told me in the very first season, “People are going to want to become a doctor because of you.” I was like, “I don’t know about all that,” but lo and behold, it’s true.

I came to it with great reverence. Me, being who I am, I felt a lot of pressure. I felt some anxiety about it, but that’s just my process, and it allows me to really challenge myself to meet the moment. I wanted Hugh to be flawed in his own way and not perfect, someone who was vulnerable, someone you could see processing.

That’s why, in season four, we see him literally have an anxiety attack on camera. It was important for me because he’s been so busy trying to take care of everybody else — and that’s what doctors do, right? All day, they’re taking care of people, emergencies, people dying, taking care of their staff. At very few moments are they allowed to deal with their own anxieties, their own issues.

I thought it was really brave of them to write a scene where he admits how debilitating the pressure of keeping everybody alive can be at a time when the entire universe, once again, was being threatened, and how that affected him personally. I really wanted him to be three-dimensional in that way. He was not a superhero. He was a human person dealing with superhuman issues and doing the best he could in the moment. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a cost to it.

MW: You dodged a bullet that they didn’t make you an alien and wear a ton of prosthetic makeup like what Doug Jones wears for Saru.

WILSON: [ Laughs. ] Well, darling, I have to tell you what they did make me wear created enough anxiety as it is. I mean, what is more anxiety-inducing than white spandex? Please explain that to me. One false move and I’m the Michelin Man in space. Nobody wants to see that. By the way, the costume seemed to get tighter and tighter as the seasons progressed. I was challenged to continue to look good in it.

MW: I think we needed you shirtless in the show.

WILSON: [ Laughs .] My shirtless scene ended up on the cutting room floor. In season two, I was shirtless in a mirror, having a moment after I came back to life, and it didn’t make it into the cut because apparently it was…

MW: Not ready for prime time?

WILSON: It was distracting, apparently. That’s all they were saying.

MW: Discovery marked an unprecedented moment for the franchise. Not only did we get a gay couple but also a lesbian character and trans and nonbinary actors playing trans and nonbinary roles. The series really embraced and fulfilled the promise of Star Trek , don’t you think?

WILSON: Yeah, I do. I think that even Gene Roddenberry couldn’t visualize, even during his time, just how much diversity needed to be in Star Trek , but I know that his wish was that we would have infinite combinations. Infinite diversity and infinite combinations. What breaks my heart, if I’m going to be honest, is that it took this long for us to have a gay couple — a gay character — as part of the main cast.

What I do love is that this production, specifically, decided to go all-in because we understood that it was an opportunity with this specific cast to go there. We had the kind of actors and writers and support from the network and from the production company to have these conversations and how we could do them in a way that spoke to the issue, but was also part of the plot without it being forced.

I think, in the end, it became about the relationships. That’s why I think [Paul and Hugh] created this chosen family with Adira [Blu del Barrio] and Gray [Ian Alexander]. That’s what we do as an LGBTQ community — that’s what we’ve always done. An older generation sees the needs of the younger generation, and we fight for more inclusivity and push the needle even further in terms of acceptance and the gaining of rights needed for our community.

For me, it was the generation that was living with and fighting AIDS. I joined that fight and used that fight for more visibility. Now, as an elder, I’m looking at this new generation and am saying, “What do you want? What do you need? What kind of world do you want to create?” They want to expand the conversation in terms of gender, and I couldn’t be more for that.

So that was an easy thing for me to fight for. And so on the ship, the analogy is here’s this young nonbinary person who Paul and Hugh kind of see themselves in and feel protective of. It would be a natural instinct to take them under our wing and protect them, allow them to fulfill their potential, and for us to support them in any way that they needed.

And it happened behind the scenes too. Anthony and I saw ourselves in Blu. Anthony and I are two actors who started as kids, came out very early in our careers, and here was Blu, fresh out of college transitioning as they joined the cast, didn’t even know they were going to transition — they just knew that they were nonbinary, but didn’t know that they were going to go through this transitioning process, but felt such support that they could. So it was easy to extrapolate that to the series.

And it fits so comfortably in the purpose I feel of what Star Trek is, which is to see all of us endeavoring to fulfill our potential so that we could be an effective part of a crew that is charged with saving the universe. Because the only way that works, the only way this crew works, the only way our country works, the only way we get to save the universe or save our country, is if we all dig in and commit ourselves to that mission. And the only way you can commit yourself to the mission is if you fulfill your potential and you’re the best version of yourself.

So how do you do that? You do that by supporting each other, by challenging each other to be better, by congratulating and celebrating people when they achieve, by supporting them and giving them the support they need when they fail so that they can do better next time. That’s what we should be doing as a country. And I think that’s what Star Trek Discovery models for people.

MW: I’ve seen the first four episodes of this season so far and while we can’t discuss them here, I think it’s okay to say that I’m really liking the trajectory of this season so far.

WILSON: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m not thrilled that this is our last season, but if we were going to go out, this was a great season to go out on. It’s a high note for us. Everything really came together beautifully and it looks unreal. I mean, the special effects of this season are spectacular.

MW: So can you tell us if we’re going to be happy with the way it all ends?

WILSON: I believe you will be, yes. I believe you will be. I was very moved.

MW: Well, you’re now part of its canon, its lore. The fans will forever adore you. What are the fans like? Are they overwhelming?

WILSON: I will say that being a part of My So-Called Life kind of prepared me in a way for diehard fans. You have to remember My So-Called Life was one of the first enormous letter-writing campaigns. This was before the internet. People actually put pen to paper, and apparently, hundreds of thousands of letters made their way to ABC.

But the Star Trek fan base is another story altogether, and I don’t even know how to speak to it because it can be incredibly heart-rending — the things that people share in person at these cons or even online about how the characters move them and help them to be seen in ways that they hadn’t felt before.

It’s incredibly satisfying and really moving, especially around people who’ve said that they’ve been watching since the original, who were LGBTQ people who had longed for that kind of representation and never thought it was going to happen. And it took 52 years. And for them, and for me, that was way too long. But I’m glad it got to be me.

The joy that so many of them felt in seeing our community as a part of the Star Trek universe that is really moving. There is an element of the Star Trek fan base that has some gate-keeping tendencies where if it doesn’t feel like the original, it’s not for them. But like I’ve been saying since the beginning, we never intended our show to be for everybody. That’s why there are so many different series. There’s something for everyone. You have us. You have Strange New Worlds , you have Lower Decks . Soon, you’ll have Starfleet Academy . I mean, there’s something for everyone in this universe. But some fans have not been so kind.

MW: In what way?

WILSON: Well, there have been some homophobic, transphobic things that have been said to us and to me directly.

MW: That seems unfathomable to me. I find it difficult to believe that you can be a fan of Star Trek and be a bigot.

WILSON: You would think so. That’s confusing to us as well. Maybe they’re social media trolls, I don’t know. But I think the fact that our show was so different challenged a lot of people, and some of them lashed out. I’m not going to say that I always went high when they went low, but that’s just me. Sometimes I feel like I have to bark back. I think that’s just the activist in me.

MW: I’ve watched you bark back.

WILSON: That’s the ACT UP in me.

MW: Do you get hurt by their comments?

WILSON: I could sit here and say it doesn’t hurt me, but it hurts in the sense that we put so much of ourselves into this show. I know I do. I put so much care and so much thought and so much of myself and my experience and the experience of people I love into this character, into these relationships, that to be attacked feels personal. It is hard for me to separate it. So yes, it can be hurtful.

Now, can I compartmentalize it and stick it in a drawer and let it go afterwards? Yes. But in the moment and reading it, yeah, I get affected by it. But I also remind myself that this is one person. And there are a hundred people who love the show for that one person who felt it necessary to act out in some way. So I remind myself of that. Also, if you’re ruffling feathers, then you’re doing something right.

MW: Are you going to miss working with Anthony?

WILSON: [ Gets emotional. ] Oh, my God. Working with Anthony Rapp has been one of the most satisfying professional experiences of my life. I’ve learned so much from him. I can be really hard on myself. I can overthink things. I come in looking for the problem in order to solve it. And Anthony comes in very zen — that’s who he is. He’s very centered, and he calms me down in a way, puts me at ease in a way that really makes our scenes really natural and easy. And we’ve had some really tough stuff to play and some really beautiful stuff to play and intimate stuff that can be tricky. And I don’t know that I could have done it as well with anybody else, because we have known each other for 27 years now.

I’ve said this before. We truly created this relationship out of the very real love and respect that we have for each other. We didn’t map it out. We just said, I love you. You love me. The basis for every great relationship is friendship and let’s go from there. And that’s what we did. And we took each moment as it came. It was really beautiful.

He taught me as an actor that it’s wonderful to be prepared, and it’s incredible to do all of that work, but that when you come to the set, it’s really about the relationship between you and that person in the room with you and what happens in the moment. He taught me how to trust myself a lot more. I’m a different actor after having worked with him. I’m a more confident actor because of him.

MW: I’ve been watching a lot of LGBTQ content on television recently and have noticed a passion and genuineness to how we are being portrayed in relationships. We seem to have evolved to a new level.

WILSON: I want to remind you that [ My So-Called Life ‘s] Rickie Vasquez never got to kiss anybody. He longed for that. That was also part of the character — he was this kind of removed person and he was still finding himself, and he was still figuring, he was on the journey of self-acceptance. And so you’re not really kissing people, I guess at that point, if you’re not even willing to admit what it is that you want. But I always wonder what would’ve happened if that series had progressed.

You look at Euphoria , those characters. I like to think of Rickie Vasquez as their much older daddy who kind of paved the way. We had to have a Rickie Vasquez who reached into people’s hearts. Before we got to the sex, we had to get to people’s hearts. And I think Rickie really reached into people and allowed them to see his humanity. For a generation of young people, he really defined who a gay person was. For many of those young people, he was the first gay person of their age that they really could point to alongside [ The Real World ‘s] Pedro Zamora. So we had Rickie Vasquez and Pedro Zamora who humanized this issue.

I remember being in school and being teased for being gay, but the way they teased me was to say that I had AIDS. You know what I mean? That’s what we were dealing with at the time. So I think Rickie laid a path with his heart — big heart — and allowed these new characters to come in and expand on the experience of LGBTQ youth. And what we’re seeing now is revolutionary, and it’s why this generation can expand the conversation now to gender and to trans people, because that is the next conversation. That is how we finally see an inclusive culture, an inclusive country, if we’re willing to do that work.

So much has to be done through politics, through passing laws and bills, but no law can change someone’s mind, right? You have to change hearts and minds in order for legislation to be effective, for people to buy into it. And I think culture, television, film, storytelling does that for people, for us. And then the legislation follows.

So what’s happening right now is that we are having a cultural conversation about young people and gender, and it’s a conversation that I see on a daily basis with my work at GLSEN, right? The way that our schools are dealing with the controversy, so to speak, and the relationship with parents and school boards and teachers and curriculum. But these young people are literally changing the world. They’re changing the way we see ourselves because they see themselves so fully. And they want us to see them as well.

MW: My sense of you is that you are such an empathetic, caring person that it almost feels natural that you would try to help and move the community forward, Wilson. You seem like that kind of person.

WILSON: I appreciate you saying that. I hope so. I hope that I am an empathetic person. I don’t know how to do my work either way. I don’t know how to do either of those jobs without a sense of empathy. I think it’s required. But also, I have to pay it back, right? When I think about everything that was done to clear a safer path for me, for my generation. I was born in 1973, the year that we were taken out of the DSM. We were removed from the list of diseases.

I’m not ignorant to the fact that my life was so much easier than Frank Kameny’s, for instance. You watch Fellow Travelers and you are reminded of how difficult it was to navigate the world as a queer person with no rights. And what keeps me up at night is that people think that those rights are guaranteed, and we could very easily be seeing a future after November where those rights are being stripped. We have a Supreme Court that has literally said they are willing to do it. So I think all of our jobs right now is to be awake to that fact.

MW: Are you married now? I don’t remember.

WILSON: I have been single for 13 years.

MW: How are you single? I don’t get that.

WILSON: My therapist and I talk about it all the time. I haven’t figured it out either.

MW: Do you date?

WILSON: I would love to actually. I am open to meeting someone, but I have a pretty great life. I’ve had some relationships that have not been great, and so I’ve been gun shy. I think that’s part of it lately. So I’m careful about who I invite into my life. I’m holding out for a hero, as they say.

MW: Well, that’s a perfect segue into Mother of the Bride. I really enjoyed seeing Brooke Shields. I grew up at a time when Brooke Shields to me was The Blue Lagoon . And this movie, I think, was very sly about that — there is a moment at Lover’s Cove that feels right out of The Blue Lagoon . It’s a little visual throwback.

WILSON: [ Laughs .] Totally! I didn’t even think about that. I didn’t even make that connection. But you’re absolutely right.

For me, Brooke Shields was Calvin Klein jeans. All I ever wanted — and could not afford — was a pair of Calvin Klein jeans. I’ve told her, I was like, obsessed with her as a teenager. I loved me some Brooke Shields. So meeting her was crazy, and I met her on my very first day in Thailand. I arrived in the middle of the night, and they were all having a dinner. I was like, “Benjamin Bratt and Brooke Shields,” and my head kind of exploded.

She could not have been more generous, more lovely to work with. She was a producer on this. This is her baby. She was the hardest working person on this movie. And she was so much fun to be around.

We were in Thailand, and I have to tell you, it was hot as hell. It was right before the monsoon season. Most of the movie is shot outdoors. So it would start pouring and we’d have to run, cover everything, and then just sit there and wait for it to pass before we could start up again. People would be fanning you at all times because they didn’t want the clothes to look sweaty. I mean, it was hot . And not just regular hot. It was humid. It was like humid-hot. But it was beautiful. It wasn’t a rough gig. I mean, we shot at two resorts. I got a massage almost every other day.

MW: I love the fact that there’s a gay couple in this and no big deal made over it. It’s part of their friendship group.

WILSON: There’s no big [coming-out] conversation between Benjamin Bratt, whose brother I play. There’s not like a sit-down where we have a heart-to-heart. There’s none of that. I think we had a very sibling energy about us. We still do. I love him. He was the main reason why I wanted to do this movie. I’ve been such a Benjamin Bratt fan for so long, and I was like, “Oh, I get to be his brother. Are you fucking kidding me?” And he’s exactly as charming as you expect him to be. He just oozes charm. He’s so debonair. And he looks amazing. He looks amazing. I mean, it’s crazy. MW: I enjoyed seeing Michael McDonald too, although I’ll say that if I was on a set with Michael McDonald, I’d be constantly say, “Do Stuart, do Stuart, do Stuart!”

WILSON: But you know what? You didn’t have to because he’s one of the most natural improvisers in the world. He will go off on a tangent, and I mean literally you’re just like eating popcorn watching. His imagination is insane. We laughed. We just laughed the entire time. He was hilarious.

MW: Thailand just — we have an article up today — made the first steps to approving same-sex marriage.

WILSON: Oh, yes, I saw that. When you’re there, you can see how incredibly accepting it is. We went to a few drag shows there. It’s just part of the world and the culture. I mean, it’s interesting because you can see that there is a fluidity to gender there, and it’s not like they’re having a conversation. It’s just cultural. I think it’s been a part of who they have always been, that there has been an acceptance of a fluidity of gender, and it’s really beautiful. There’s no gawking or anything like this. It’s just the way it is.

MW: I couldn’t help but notice, but most of the time your shirt is off or open. Was that yours or the director’s decision?

WILSON: [ Laughs .] I don’t know that there was ever a question about whether or not it was going to have to be open or not. The girls had to breathe.

MW: You play a lot of gay roles. Do you get tired of being cast as the gay man? I hope that’s not an offensive question.

WILSON: No, I’m not offended. I do play people who happen to be gay most of the time. But I am about to do a movie in the summer where I’m not playing a person who happens to be gay. I’m playing a real life person who happens to be straight and a police officer.

I only have so much say as to what I’m allowed to do in this industry unless I write it and produce it myself, which I haven’t done yet. So the roles that come to me are the roles that come to me. I try to diversify them in my own way and make them singular and precise. They’re all different to me in my head.

But I play people. Now, do I see my work as an artist as political? Yes. I use my work, my characters, to say something about our community most of the time. So it’s why I chose to make my character on The West Wing gay when I didn’t have to. It’s an opportunity for us to be visible. I see my work as a way of having a conversation with the American public about who we are. Because the truth is, most of the time that we see a gay person or a queer person on TV, it’s still usually a gay white man.

So I get to help people understand that we’re more than that. Here’s what I’m going to say. The fact that most of my characters have been gay has been the least interesting thing about all of them. I think the fact that Hugh is gay is literally the least interesting thing about him. He is gay and he’s in love, but he could have been in love with a straight woman and he would’ve been exactly the same person, for me anyway.

The fact that Rickie Vasquez was gay is also the least interesting thing about him. For me, that was a journey of self-acceptance. He just happened to be a gay boy who is learning to accept himself, but young people, of all different stripes, are on that same journey.

I think when creators and producers or writers are looking for actors to play certain roles, and one of them happens to be gay, I end up on a list, and they bring me in and see if what I bring to it is right for them or not, and I’m okay with that. I’m also on the list when they’re looking for a Latino, and I think sometimes they’re like, “Oh, Wilson, that’s interesting.” I also know for a fact that sometimes there’ll be a character where they’re looking for a woman of color or something and they’ll put me on the list and go, “Oh, that might be a different way to go.” You know what I mean? I give people options.

So my job is not necessarily to play a character, it’s to play a human. And if they happen to be gay, that’s just one of the hundreds of things that I consider when I develop the character.

MW: I want to end by coming back to Star Trek . What farewell would you like to say to the fans of Discovery ?

WILSON: I’m just grateful, right? I’m grateful that they went on this ridiculous ride with us. I’m grateful that they supported me through this ridiculously epic journey that this character went through and took the leaps of the imagination that it required.

I’m grateful to those fans out there who fought for this relationship, who defended it vocally online and offline. I’m grateful to all those people who came to me at the conventions and greeted me with hugs when it wasn’t COVID time.

I’m grateful to these fans who saw themselves in this character of Hugh, who opened themselves up to being vulnerable because he modeled that for them. I’m grateful to these families, these parents who used Discovery and this relationship and these characters to have a conversation with their own kids about their gender or their different family.

I’m just really grateful for the entire experience, and the fans are an enormous part of that. I’m just grateful.

New episodes of Star Trek Discovery, Season 5, debut weekly on Paramount+. Seasons 1-4 are streaming in their entirety. Visit www.paramountplus.com .

Mother of the Bride will premiere on Netflix on May 9. Visit www.netflix.com .

The GLSEN Respect Awards Gala, hosted by Peppermint, will be held on Monday, April 29, at Gotham Hall, 1356 Broadway, in New York City. Visit www.respect.glsen.org .

Michael Shayan on Magic, Moritz, and Motherly Love

Michael shayan pays tribute to his larger-than-life iranian-jewish mother in "avaaz" at the olney theatre center..

By André Hereford on March 27, 2024 @here4andre

READ THIS STORY IN THE MAGAZINE

Michael Shayan isn't himself the first time we meet, right before a performance of his solo show Avaaz at the Olney Theatre Center. Garbed in a gorgeous golden caftan, Shayan is, in that moment, wafting through the audience as Roya, Queen of Gays.

"The pre-show is so fun because I go around in character as my mother," Shayan says when we finally meet for a video chat about the one-person show, in which he portrays his larger-than-life Iranian-Jewish mom, Roya.

For the audience, that portrayal, in all its loving and scrutinizing detail, begins with the pre-show greeting. "I'm her, and I'm welcoming you into my home for this party," Shayan says. "That element has always been part of the show because I want it to feel like you're really being welcomed into a party. I want the play to feel like a party."

California’s Huntington Beach Bans Pride Flags

Voters in huntington beach, california, approved an ordinance banning the lgbtq pride flag from flying on city property..

By John Riley on March 12, 2024 @JRileyMW

Voters in Huntington Beach, California, a Los Angeles exurb in Orange County, approved a measure last week to ban the Pride flag and any other non-governmental banners on city property. The move is part of a larger right-wing push against LGBTQ visibility. 

While only 31% of registered voters showed up at the polls in this year's presidential primary, the primary ballot also featured Measure B, which sought to limit the types of flags displayed on government property. Nearly 58% of those voters endorsed the measure, according to county election results. 

Moving forward, any flag representing a political or social cause, such as breast cancer awareness, a specific religion, or a specific community -- such as the LGBTQ community -- will not be permitted to fly on city-owned flagpoles.

“Star Trek” is All the Religion I Need

Star trek offers so much of what people turn to religion for -- hope, morality plays, aspirational visions of paradise..

By Will O'Bryan on April 14, 2024

READ THIS COLUMN IN THE MAGAZINE

It's a little late, but still seasonal. Happy First Contact Day! This Star Trek  holiday, April 5, commemorates the fictional arrival of extraterrestrial aliens in 2063. I may have enjoyed a really lovely Easter brunch this year, amid Holi and Ramadan/Eid al-Fitr, and Passover barely more than a week away, but I'm no Christian, nor any of the other recognized options.

My fantastical faith, however, has many of the traditional trappings. You want a savior to be tested in the desert? As third officer on a Pan Am flight from Karachi to Istanbul in 1947, Gene Roddenberry, who later created  Star Trek , was the ranking officer to survive that ill-fated flight's crash landing in the Syrian desert.

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