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A brief guide to getting the most out of Hangar Pets

April 26, 2020 Guides | 69

Hangar pets are often overlooked being seen as a bonus launch and forget secondary or even tertiary damage source. On some ships and with the right combinations hangar pets can add a reasonable amount to your overall DPS. Pushed far enough it is possible to get over 100k DPS from pets alone, although that could be argued to be suboptimal as you will be sacrificing other better areas which overall would give you more DPS.

To get the most out of pets one of the first choices is the skill tree. There isn’t much to talk about here you will want

Coordination Protocols: +20% Hull Capacity and Shield Capacity for Hangar pets.
Defensive Coordination: +20% Defence and Damage Resistance Rating for Hangar pets.
Offensive Coordination: +20% Accuracy and Base Damage for Hangar pets.
5 points in Engineering track: Hangar Health : Hangar pets have an additional 10% Maximum Hull Capacity
5 points in Tactical track: Hangar Weaponry : Hangar pets deal an additional 10% Damage from all sources.

My preferred way although it costs a lot more, is to get the Scrambled Fighter Starship & Superior Area Denial Traits with x3 Flight Deck Officers that lower Hangar Bays recharge by 4 seconds. Combine this on a Carrier with Quick Deployment Starship Mastery for an extra 20% and high Aux power if you can spare it to knock more time off. Now set the Hangar Bays to Auto launch. Depending on the pet used this can lower the bay recharge down to as little as 1 second ( Lost Souls of Gre’thor ) Most fighters bay recharge can be lowered down to 4 or 5 seconds if you have two bays and enough Aux Power.

This method has a number of advantages; you are not limited to Escort Mode, the hangar pets are self-healing by 50% hull every few seconds, there is a 5 second damage immune for pets with a 15 second lockout.

Running at approx 110 Aux with Lost Souls of Gre’thor the fastest launch speeds pets, will gain a 125% damage bonus. 95% better then the Escort Doff method. With the slower launch fighters like Jem’Hadar fighters or Scorpion’s you can still get 2 stacks (*) for a 50% damage bonus.

The above method with Frigate pets makes them surprising tough tanks. They tend to survive most fights and due to surviving reach and stay at rank 5 further boosting damage.

(*) I have not worked out the minimum aux you can get away with and the minimum depends on the hangar pet base recharge. I did try 155 Aux which wasn’t enough to get the recharge fast enough for 3 stacks with Scramble Fighters.

As of December 2020 Advanced and Elite Lost Souls have been fixed and now do much better DPS then rare Lost Souls with Elite beating Advanced. Older guides and players who missed the patch notes will say stick to basic Lost Souls. That is now incorrect. Elite Lost Souls are better.

Furthermore I am no longer seeing superior DPS for Stalker Squadrons. Not sure if this is from the same balance patch that fixed Elite Lost Souls or if its related to the infamous invalid skills reset bugs of 2020. So while older versions of this guide mentioned Stalkers are the most powerful hangar pet Feds have access to when using Superior Area Denial , this is no longer correct. In my most recent batch of testing Scorpion, Stalker and Jem’Hadar Squadrons all performed very close to each other. Scorpions now come out on top by a small amount, followed by Stalkers and only a small amount behind are Jem’Hadar Squadrons.

Since the pet changes in December 2020 I am now seeing Elite Scorpions Squadrons doing more DPS in my builds then rare Scorpions Squadrons. Rare Scorpions are doing more Pulse Canons DPS but in the runs I did the loss in canon DPS is made up by the extra DPS from the Plasma Torpedoes. All my runs had strong Gravity Wells which might be causing the torpedoes to splash damage multiple targets. Elites being better might be situational and needs more testing.

Trait Choices

The next damage boost is partly down to your pet choice and partly down to personal preference and ship build. Personally I like Option 1 best due to me not not focusing on energy weapons. If you use energy weapons Option 2 is better.

Update: 27 Sep 2020: For clarity while I have a preference for Beam Overload and the corresponding traits in approx 95% of cases Scrabbled Fighters and Superior Area of Denial (SAD) gives far better performance. If you are looking to max DPS pick Superior Area of Denial. If you want to max out Superior Area of Denial use Scatter Volley and Fire at Will with a 5 second delay between the two. Doing this you can have a 100% uptime on Superior Area of Denial.

Update 13 th December – My current Universal Carrier build focused on hangar pets over ship weapons. Due to recent exchange prices I am swapping traits around a little from older version of this guide. Some of these options will boost Hangar pets at the cost of losing total DPS. This is for a themed carrier build.

Bridge Officer Powers: (Rank doesn’t matter) Tactical Team + FaW + Scatter Volley+ Engineering Team + Photonic Officer + EptW + Gravity Well(*) and Science Team. The 3 team skills are only needed if you have the Obedience is Victory trait. Pets: For feds x2 Blue Scorpion Fighter Squadrons. With the above setup Pet DPS should can go over 100k even 150k DPS. For KDF Rare To’Duj Squadrons. (KDF wont be able to access many of the items above)

*Don’t worry if your carrier cannot fit Gravity well it isn’t essential. I only use it to help boost Hangar Pet DPS when SAD is triggered into a group. * In the past I recommended Dominion Coordination for ease of use but no longer as carriers have got more popular the exchange prices have at the time of writing shot though the roof. Beam Overload pet builds are easier to use as you do not have to watch your activations timings to max out DPS. With SAD if you keep between a 5 and 10 second delay between activating FaW and Scatter Volley and have some bridge Officer cooldowns reduction. Then you can keep SAD running at a 100% uptime which more then makes up for the 33% damage lost from losing Dominion Coordination. Its a little more tricky to get the timings right, but it will give better performance. * The 3 part Iconian Resistance set has 5% chance to give team and pets 10% energy weapon damage when using energy weapons. The 4 part set gives the team and pets 33% all damage with a 2 min cooldown. It is possible to fit the Ancient Obelisk Technology Set with the 3 part Iconian Resistance set. This gives a smaller damage boost 13.3% to pets but you can keep the damage boost active for longer. Alternatively if you prefer less pet DPS and more tanky pets look at the mixing in 1 or 3 parts of the Lukari Restoration Initiative Regenerative Shield Array set. If you do not want to spend lobi on the Obelisk set look at a 3 part Iconian set and Tilly’s shield.

Based on my recent testing as of Dec 2020 Elite Scorpions Squadrons are coming out as top DPS for Feds. Top for KDF are Rare To’Duj Squadrons. Main testing done in Stranded in Space against 2 ships only. Followed by a HSA and ISA run. With the above build all Squadrons are massively beating previous top hangar pets like Droneships or Lost Souls. To’Duj Squadrons are standing out far above the other Squadrons in performance. Its possible to push 100k for two hangar bays and even break past 300k and 400k dps with the right group.

(*) As of December 2020 Elite Scorpions squadrons, Elite Stalkers squadrons along with Elite Lost Souls do not suffer from the large DPS drop that many other Elite pets have. Elite Jem’Hardar squadrons do apear to still suffer from the DPS drop making them worse then the basic rare blue versions. With Stalkers I am having a little trouble working out which is best due to all 3 versions getting such close DPS numbers.

StarshipTrait set option 1: Scrabbled Fighters + Dominion Coordination + Coordinated Assault Due to Coordinated Assault every time we Beam Overload or Rapid Fire the hangar pets gain Rapid Fire 1 and Beam Overload 1, followed by Dominion Coordination giving hangar pets within 10km a further 33% damage boost. You don’t need an energy weapon fitted. An Ensign Beam Overload on a Torpedo or Minelayer boat works fine.

In the case of Lost Souls they cannot make use of Rapid or Overlord so skip Coordinated Assault. Dominion Coordination though stacks with Scrambled Fighters for a total of 155% damage boost to Lost Souls.

For a long time I ran this trait set on a Jem’Hadar Dreadnought Carrier with Attack Ships which gain both Rapid fire and Beam Overload.

Starship Trait set option 2: Scrabbled Fighters + Superior Area Denial Option 2 works well with energy builds as Superior Area Denial trait supports your main weapons better. This grants Fire At Will 1 and Scatter Volley 1 to hangar pets when you activate Fire at Will or Scatter Volley along with giving your main ships energy weapons a none stacking with itself -30% damage resistance. As before you don’t need an energy weapon fitted to trigger this trait and due to global cooldown it works out better to fit FaW alongside Scatter Volley so you can keep SAD running 100% of the time. Double Scatter Volley or Double FaW will run into global cooldown problems.

StarshipTrait set option 3: Scrabbled Fighters + Fiery Entrance + your preferred Traits. This works best on Exotic builds as the Fire nova damage is boosted by Exotic. It works even better with Lost Souls and max hangar recharge builds. Every time you use Narrow Sensor Bands or Launch a Hangar pet your ship fires a short range ring of fire around your ship. With max hangar bay recharge the Lost Souls will cause a ring of fire around about twice every second. That’s approx 20 attacks over 10 seconds with hits multiplied by the amount of ship in range. If you stack into into Exotic and fly point blank range into a Gravity Well the Fire Nova damage can multiply up fast in big groups. It’s a bit of a specialty build but if you fancy something different it works.

StarshipTrait set option 4: Fleet Support + Superior Command Frequency + It’s Another Enterprise + Captain Recharge Traits ( Relaunch and Repair , All Hands on Deck , Intelligence Agent Attaché ) is surprisingly effective. If you are going for max DPS it might not be the best choice over traits that boost your main weapons. If you want a Carrier theme build I have managed to get an 3 battleships and 3 Frigates out at once doing a surprising amount of DPS and they last a long time. Depending on ISE run I get around 20k to 30k extra DPS from these pets. (Update: With Advanced Rapid Support a Personal Space trait this combo allows 4 battleships and 3 Frigates)

Please note before you buy all these traits. I have not done testing on the optimal level of recharge. You do not need all 3 recharge traits. If anyone has tested please leave comments in chat below.

Further expanding on this Obedience is Victory . This is only worth it for full Carrier Themes. The only time I use this is when trying to maximise my pet DPS at the cost of losing total DPS. The attack ship is very fragile but if we managed to keep it alive, it gets me around 4k DPS to 8k DPS. In a perfect run the traits in this section have given me a total of 40k DPS extra. I only really run this combo when trying to see just how far pet DPS can be pushed at the expense of losing total DPS.

Optional Traits:

Starship trait: Relaunch and Repair : The 5% recharge on captain abilities is effectively 10% every 5 seconds with double bays on a fast bay recharge. Works well with Relocate Mines and other powers. The 25% health Regen to self and hangar pets is not that useful.

Starship trait: Voth Carrier Synergies . When running fast hangar recharge with Scrambled Fighters this is unlikely to be needed but if you really want hard to kill pets add it in. Engineering ability’s grant you 10% hull healing to yourselves for 15 second. All pets gain an Immunity Shield for 15 seconds.

Lastly Tactical Boff ability give 10% all damage to yourself for 15seconds and Enable Aceton mode on all pets for 15seconds.

Starship trait: Hivebearer : When launching a hangar pet or when hangar pet dies: Spawns a Hur’q Swarmer for 30 seconds (max 8 Swarmers at a time). Worth considering only as a NPC distraction as I have not had the best performance out of them and if your hangar bay recharge it too fast they will bug out. With Lost Souls on a max Hangar Bay recharge build the Swarmer’s will do zero damage due to respawning to fast. If your recharge is over 5 seconds these should work. Note: Even on slower recharge bays the DPS I have recorded from these is tiny. They are only good as a distraction for NPC’s to kill. The same goes for Hive Defenses which is in personal traits.

Starship Trait: Target That Explosion Fun but not really that effective from a DPS point of view. Up to 5 nearby allies launch a torpedo at the target when you use any Torpedo or Command bridge officer ability.

P ersonal Trait: Wing Commander makes the pets level up faster taking half the normal time to reach rank 5. Without this boost pets need to be in combat for 5 minutes to hit rank 5. The rank bonus depends on the type of pet.

Personal Trait: Holographic Mirage Decoys Not really essential as pets are already tough enough with Scrambled Fighters. But if do not yet have that trait or like me you use mines this has a nice bonus of helping keep hangar pets alive a little.

Console – Universal – Swarmer Matrix : +30% Turn Speed, Flight Speed, and Damage for your Hangar Pets and Targetable Torpedoes.
Enhanced Carrier Synergy (3-piece set bonus from the Ancient Obelisk Technology Set ): Activating any Emergency Power ability causes Hangar Pets to activate a weaker version of the same power.

Ship Equipment

Tilly’s Review-Pending Modified Shield This allows your main ship weapons to debuff the enemy shields based on your shield power. At 125 shield power your pets will hit shields 20% harder.
Lukari Restoration Initiative Regenerative Shield Array Allies shields within 2.5km are healed passively every 6 shields. If you have the 3 part set the range is extended to 5km

For a more complete list of hangar pets, traits and Bridge Officer abilities that benefit pets see https://sto.gamepedia.com/Hangar_pet

There are a number of universal consoles that summon pets. Personally I wouldn’t use most of these unless building towards a full carrier theme over performance.

Notes: None of the damage numbers above factor in damage boosts for hangar pets ranking up in combat. A fully ranked up Lost Soul with max stacks of Scrambled Fighters and Coordinated Assault would hit 165% damage boost. You could add Dampen Energy Signatures starship trait for a further 5% if your really want to maximise pet damage over max DPS.

Update: 27th Sep 2020 A lot of people have asked what is the best pet. This is a difficult question as the best pet changes based on content being played, powers being used, traits fitted and ship being used.

DPS Comparison of various hangar pets including Squads VS Singles This is not a compete list just what I personally use and consider top tier pets. Drone Ships, Lost Souls, All Squadrons, all 3 Xindi pets. On the Fed side if you have access to the SAD trait the best generic fits on all ships DPS pets you can fit are Scorpions Squadrons. If you do not have SAD trait then I would go for the Mirror Shuttle or Aeon Time ship unless you have access to a Romulan Carrier which is best with Droneships.

69 comments to A brief guide to getting the most out of Hangar Pets

I’ve been trying to get a good pet build off the ground for a few weeks now. So Happy to see this. It lets me know I’m heading in the right direction.

Currently, I’m hitting up option 1 as it’s just easier to break into pets that way.

However, I’m really loving option three for the constant fire novas… But I’m worried that the game will bug out (it’s STO after all). But an exotic torp with some built in tank stats would really be fun that way.

Actually at least one starship trait is missing from the wiki entry: Super Charged Weapons. While it does not provide your bonus to the pets, the pets can trigger the ability on their own.

thats interesting but most likely a bug i guess ^^

It’s not a bug, it’s a feature 😉 Nobody tell Cryptic :O

Doesn’t seem to be the case for me. I do not gain Super-Charged Weapons stacks when my Kelvin drones fire off their torps, be it single or spread.

i guess he mean that the pets get the stacks when they fire their torpedos. but havent checked that myself so far

That is exactly the case, I’ve changed the comment, let me know if it’s clear now.

actually it works as “intended” super charged weapons is treggered on the pet as buff if pet fires a torp, so far so good, but if a pet fires a destructeble torp (HY on scorps) then this HY torp counts as if the player fired it and the super charged weapon buff is applied to player.

Edit: The pets trigger the ability with their torpedoes on themselves

What are the best ships for pets?

Carriers with Quick Deployment (mastery) and ofc. 2 hangars. The Jem’Hadar Vanguard Carrrier also has 2 wingmen.

Pressure craptic for a Miracle-Worker Vanguard Flight-Deck Cruiser with 2 Hangars! They could just copy/paste the Cardassian Intel-Flight deck cruiser and make the Vanguard a Miracle Worker. For THAT i would pay loads of ZEN instead of this legendary fake sales we get lately. And as a Bonus: Vanguard Temporal Multi-Mission Science Vessel 🙂

Update: I did some testing with commonly available pets on FED side: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RyRHWz54Yta9ZJ5lPxGWpSszG-666ew4lYCzXzXotmo/edit?usp=sharing

Summary: Lost souls are amazing…

yea lost souls are awesome

Wait, they are not trash I always thought and heard they are? They will not fit Fleet Jupiter, don’t they?

no you cant use them on the jupiter, just the ferang

the elite souls are (allegedly) worse than rare or advanced. best to test them out yourself.

Yup, they are indeed worse: https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/gky9y2/psa_elite_lost_souls_of_grethor_performs_worse/

Thanks for the test data!

So I got a question regarding Suppression Barrage.

When it initially came out ( https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9052953-command-bridge-officers ), the ability read: Enhance your weapons to pass a debilitating effect on to any foe you fire upon. Enemies that are Suppressed will have their Movement and Damage reduced, while also becoming incapable of targeting any Torpedoes, Mines or Fighters that are allied with the user of Suppression Barrage.

But now it seems that last part, my favorite part, is gone (in game and in most instances of the wiki). Did they nerf that or is it a hidden buff now?

If it still works, then it would definitely be worth mentioning as a budget way to protect your ships. Here’s hoping they completely redo Command into a pet-centric specialty.

I’m running Briostrys, and I wish to say that Elite Xindi-Insectoid Castroi Fighters are just amazing with 3pc Xinde set. I’m running nearly 100k pet dps. The most disappointment here is that Coordinated Protocols are not affecting most pets T_T

The Briostrys is my favorite Carrier although I favor the Aquatic Frigates. All 3 Xindi pets seem very good. How are you getting near 100k out of them? I tend to get 35k ish, 50k at a push. I have x3 Xindi Consoles, Swarmer Matrix, Elite Pets, Scrabbled Fighters, Wing Commander and Superior Area Denial for damage. With Hanger Recharge doffs.

WHAT ABOUT ROM ELITE DRONE SHIPS? they have BFW 3; if i use Superior area denial, do they get BFW 1 additionally or is their Bfw 3 downgraded to BFW 1 ?

droneships already have 2 fire modes (bo+faw) so they dont gain much at all from superior area denial

Can you have three points in Coordination protocols with only 23 or 24 points in tac and give up focus frenzy to put points else where?

i would not suggest giving up focused frenzy, because it work for your pets too. all you need is a big target to put it on (Gate, taccube, other dreads) and get the party started 😉

Useful console for pets and hull based builds:

https://sto.gamepedia.com/Console_-_Universal_-_Reiterative_Structural_Capacitor

There is no reason whatsoever outside some very specific niche instances where throwing away a console slot for anything defensive is worthwhile. Console slots should almost always be reserved for items that boost the overall offensive capabilities of a ship/build. As STO stands now, things die far too fast, if not instantly, for “defense” to even be remotely considered.

Are Elite Type 10 shuttles decent?

They are pretty bad.

Is there a specialty tree that is favorable for pets?

The common 27 tac tree will do.

Is it possible that the Flight Officers are bugged? I test it on an old Char (2 Doffs -4 sec.)function as intended -8 sec. on cool down. Removed the Doff and put it back, no longer -8, more around -2 sec. New Char Pets without Doffs 20sec. I put 3 Doffs (-4,-4,-3 sec.) on it and it changed to 15 sec. I tried: changed the Zone, put pets out and in, claimed the ship new with active Doff.

Is someone so helpful and can verify it?

Ok strange, with auto spawn on it function correct…

i think it’s seems like 40 sec cdr from base minus (-4,-4,-3 sec from doffs) and get 29 sec then from trait u got half of 29 sec… so about 14-15 sec. doff work with base cdr… i have same. when u have 20 sec from pets with base 40 sec cdr your doffs gives lowest effectiveness

Ok, who know how Trait:Relaunch And Repair (from Support Carriers) work? -5% Recharge Time on Captain abilities at launch… so with 10 sec on cdr of 2 hangars I get 100% recharge over 100 sec. it’s means i got half of cdr from cap abilities? right?

Yeah, 100% CDR in Cryptic math is half the normal cooldown.

Hol’ up, Elite Scorpion Squadron Fighters now perform well under SAD despite losing their pulse cannon?

Elite Scorpions do perform very well under SAD but the article is unclear. I will amend it later. Basic Scorpions Squads perform better then Elite Scorpions Squads. Elite Stalkers do not suffer from the downgrade in DPS that other Elite pets have.

Ah, that makes more sense.

And good to know about the Elite Stalkers.

Question. Does the gamma space set work on hanger pets?

how rank system of hangar pets work? wiki say *+2/4/6/8/10% (depending on the rank) Damage Bonus*… so at level 5 pets get +30% damage bonus or just 10%?

just 10% as far as i know

A friend asked me to test the squadron pets before buying the pack so I did. They seem to be far weaker than regular pets. Is there some mechanic that makes them better when traits etc. are used (I tested on a 2 hangar ship without any special traits for pets)? I tested both normal + elite versions of the squadrons and scorpions lost out to peregrine fighters by quite a bit and to’duj squadrons lost out to to’duj fighters by a lot. Am I missing something about squadrons?

Never mind. It’s SAD. It reacts rather interestingly with squadrons it seems. Completely different numbers with it. That doesn’t look intended somehow 😉

Where can i find your build at STO Academy? still have some questions.

None of my Carrier builds are on STO Academy. Feel free to leave a question here or contact me directly.

Tomorrow I will be finishing some testing and updating the build guide section. It is looking like the Iconian 3 part set will be a noticeable boost for Carrier pets. Also spotted a few minor improvements to make to the guide.

then I want to ask. I can’t reach 1 sec cd launch, it’s close (about 2-2.5 sec) but I need lower… what stats you use? I have 100-125 aux and 3x doffs on cdr

Aprox 110 Aux with x3 Very Rare Doffs should max out recharge bays with the faster pets.

Hey was wondering, does the starship trait, parting gift, work with hanger pets that have a tractor beams? I run the elite mirror shuttles on my science build to help hold them.

Parting Gift does not work with hangar pets. Oddly Vent Metreon Laced Plasma does work with Wingman.

How do the Tactical Flyers compare to Scorpion Squadrons? Cant find much data on them

SAD got nerfed 🙁

Squadrons still do 50k per hangar. 🙂

Has anyone done a build based on this for the Jem’Hadar Vanguard Carrier? And if so, can they link to it?

Should I upgrade my lost souls to elite or advance in 2021?

nevermind 😀

Do you know if the Andorian Wing Cannon Platforms are considered pets as far as buffs like Tac Coordination Protocols goes?

Its now 2022, is there an update to this? How about a build guide? I am on PS4, so the pets dont get escort or intercept modes, they just are, which F’s up the Flight DoFF so any advice and suggestions there would be good. Also, I switched from the Fek’hiri to the Jem’Hadar Vanguard. I can get out about 30 pets with consoles and such. But not sure if it is on par with what it should be.

best pet for Space: Independent Wingmate ? thx

The main issue with a pet-focused build is the inherent issue with pets. Regardless how much buffed, they don’t do enough damage to justify completely gimping an entire build to focus on them.

Last time I checked a fully pet-focused build with the To’duj Squadron (arguably the highest DPS pet with SAD) is around 50k DPS for the pets own DPS. 50k DPS was fantastic… like 8 years ago. Whereas say a Tzenkethi Tzen-Tar Dread for example can output easy 500k DPS on its own before pets. Why would you take a large portion of your main damage output just to boost the largely insignificant pet damage? Hangar pets should compliment your DPS, not be the focusing factor.

If you have a ship with hangar(s), just run a high DPS pet with Superior Area Denial (SAD) trait and Swarmer Matrix universal and call it a day.

Would Morphogenic Armaments be a good substitute for Enhanced Carrier Synergy assuming you have the SAD trait?

I figure that the morph 3pc + sad triggered by faw/csv would make them a decent combination instead of eptw + synergy

Hi Pottsey! Was pointed here by an archived Reddit thread. I’m a console captain, so Escort Mode and the like are not available to me, while autolaunching is de rigueur.

Are there any modifications to the info here you’d recommend I take due to the differences in how pets are interactable on console vs PC? Anything else here that’s changed over the years with various patches and added pets/ships?

While I follow most of the above guide, here are some things I added. Hit 147k dps in Infected Space. Need to work on piloting more since I’m coming back after 6 months.

Hydra’s Console Harmonic Yield Distribution via Radial Aperture (30% speed/turn/dmg to pets)

Hydra’s Trait Strike Group Command Authority (Fighter: +30% Bonus Damage, not sure if Jem carriers with wingmen bump that to 40%)

147k for the hangers I forgot to specify.

Is this build still any good?

Starship Traits

Space personal traits, space duty officers, hangar pets.

There may have been many attempts over the years to rank hangar pets. Unfortunately, they’ve been plagued by the data sets being small and there’s little/no commonality in test setups between the various tests. It’s time to fix those problems, at least as much as we can.

Our ranking is an aggregate from a wide variety of crowdsourced hangar pet tests. Since we’re pulling ALL of the publicly-available data that’s still relevant (post-Superior Area Denial nerf, post hangar-AI update in May 2019), we have a larger data set which should help reduce random error and small sample size. Compared to previous rankings that had 20-40 data sets, our compilation has over 200. That said, there are still hundreds of hangar pets that we do not have rankings for–there are simply too many and they are too expensive for us to evaluate all of them, even with help from the community. What data is available, we’ve included.

Since not everyone uses the same test, we’ve done one other thing: we’ve calibrated the ranking. Every data set incorporated here uses at least 1 pet in common: Normal Peregrine fighters. We took the results for Normal Peregrine fighters and averaged them. Then, we took each data set and divided its results for Normal Peregrines by this average value. We then took into consideration some other calibration factors:

Was the test conducted with just pets fighting or with the player ship fighting alongside? Empirical testing has shown an average of 30% increase in DPS for the player ship fighting, debuffing, and tanking for the pets.

How many bays were involved? (1 or 2)

How many runs of the test were performed for that pet? More runs lead to greater confidence in the data and thus more weighting for that test.

We used that information to give two things: an average calibrated DPS per bay based on all of the data sets as well as a ranking that simply takes the average DPS per bay and divides it by the average Normal Peregrine DPS for that setup. When we talk about hangar pet rankings, it’s important to consider that the level of build investment in the hangar varies substantially. With that said, here are the four broad categories that we consider:

Extra/Afterthought hangar : you have a hangar but are not building around it. We call this “ Base ”

Carrier setup: This is stuff like Flight Deck Officers, Wing Commander, high aux, possibly a Swarmer Matrix but NOT either of the two following traits. This setup will broadly cover builds that are invested in hangar DPS but are not shelling out for premium traits. We call this “Carrier”

Superior Area Denial : Carrier + Superior Area Denial

Coordinated Assault : Carrier + Coordinated Assault

Certain pets will perform differently depending on those key variables. There are many other smaller variables, but we believe these are the main divergent setups that will broadly influence rankings. We have data sets, calibrated DPS/bay, and rankings for pets across each of these four setups. We also color-coded pets that are shiplocked to distinguish them from those that can be freely slotted. The full table below has the numerical ranks for each one as well as how to acquire them, miscellaneous notes, and whether the pets have supportive abilities like Focused Assault or Attack Pattern Beta? Players building more supportive builds will want to review that sheet below the 4 charts. Likewise, captains building around pets and wanting to use the Super Charged Weapons trait will want to look and see if their pet is torpless in the table. If a pet isn't in the chart, we have no data for it for that build type.

STO BETTER would like to extend a very special thanks to all of our contributors on the STObuilds subreddit who helped collect hundreds of data points on hangar pets to provide the most comprehensive hangar pet evaluation in existence thus far: AboriakTheFickle, Cryhavok101, DilaZirk, jonfon74, Pottsey-X5, and thisvideoiswrong.

See the changelog tab in the spreadsheet for the revision date. IF YOU ARE ON MOBILE, PLEASE OPEN THE CHART IN A NEW TAB IN ORDER TO READ IT!

1) Kit modules are the most important part of a ground build, but there are also hundreds of them. We have evaluated several dozen we've used or have seen others put to good use in our armada. Not all kit modules have been evaluated, and melee builds are not considered. This is unlikely to ever change. Our coverage of defensive kit modules is light because no more than 1-2 should be slotted. There are few enough useful ground doffs that you can find ratings for them on our Ground Basics guide.

2) Ground personal traits are generally ranked by offensive value. Defensive personal traits are generally not needed on the ground and should only be slotted when useful offensive traits are not available.

3 ) T raits and kit modules are sorted by tier (S > A > B > C), but they are NOT sorted within the tier. That's a little too build-dependent.

4 ) If a trait or kit module is situationally in two different tiers, we listed it at the highest and put a note on there. Traits /doffs definitely have nuance and dependencies so please read all the notes before potentially making an expensive purchase and decide if it works for you.

5 ) If you are really after chasing the deeps on Bug Hunt/Trans-Dimensional Tactics, or high levels on Arena of Sompek, this list will not help much. It's geared for general Elite play.

6 ) No PvP considerations were made in the making of this list.

7 ) We're not reviewing all the modules or traits . That ends up being a lot of work for little reward. Just the ones we think are good and can speak to knowledgably .

8 ) Don't forget to have fun! Some of modules aren't very strong in terms of damage or healing, but if it's fun for you and you're still feeling successful in the game, don't let a tier list get in your way!

Kit Modules

Ground personal traits.

Guide: Suggested trait builds

VisualEditor

Certain traits are more useful for one particular role, such as tanking , healing , and damage . Below is a list of what various editors of this article have found to be the best trait builds for players of various roles.

Traits are now selected for you in-game but you still have a option to mix things up

1.2 Tanking
1.3 Healing
2.2 Tanking
2.3 Healing
3.2 Tanking
3.3 Healing
3.4 Ship Power
3.5 Liberated Borg

Federation Trait Builds [ | ]

Damage [ | ].

Optimal race selection: Human

Ground Traits:

Teamwork : 5% increase in exploit damage (required).
Lucky : Improved ground critical hit chance and expose chance.

Space Traits:

Leadership : Increased space repair rate (required).
Accurate : Improved accuracy of space weapons.

Tanking [ | ]

Optimal race selection: Andorian

Acute Senses : Increased stealth detection (required).
Aggressive : Increased ground threat generation.
Elusive : Decreased likelihood of enemy scoring direct hit on your ship.
Techie : Increased repair and recovery rate.

Healing [ | ]

Optimal race selection: Betazoid

Empathic : Increased team regeneration, reduced threat (required).
Telepathic : Increased perception (required).
Creative : Improve healing and damage of your kit.
Astrophysicist : Improved starship operations training.

Klingon Empire Trait Builds [ | ]

Optimal race selection: Nausicaan

Physical Strength : Improved melee damage (required).
Pirate : Improved exploit damage (required).
Warp Theorist : Improved ship power levels.

Optimal race selection: Klingon

Honorable : Increased ground damage resistance and threat (required).
Warrior : Increased ground damage (required).
Techie : Increased repair rate.

Optimal race selection: Orion (female)

Seductive : Improved resistance to confuse and placate; decreased threat (required).
Creative : Improve ground healing and damage.

Custom Race Trait Builds [ | ]

Players choosing the Custom Alien race and planning to compete in PvP/PvE may find picking 4 space or 4 ground traits useful if they plan on doing mostly only one type of mission (Mostly Space or Mostly ground)

Lucky : Increases your chances of scoring a critical hit and expose.
Soldier : Increases your base damage and critical hit damage.
Accurate : Increases the accuracy of your weapons.
Efficient Captain : Increases the efficiency of various weapons and devices including ship power levels.
Aggressive : Increases threat generation and damage dealt.
Peak Health : Increases maximum health and adds some resistance to toxic damage.
Elusive : Makes your ship less likely to be hit.
Techie : Increases ship repair and recharge rate.
Creative : Improves the healing and damage powers of your kit.
Astrophysicist : Increases your operations stat.
Warp Theorist : Improves your warp core stat, which in turn increases your ship's power levels.

Ship Power [ | ]

Plus two additional powers.

Liberated Borg [ | ]

Borg Nanites : Large Increase to regeneration Hit points and shield. (required)
Efficient Captain : Increases the efficiency of various weapons and devices including ship power levels. (required,)
2 Playable starship
3 List of canon starships

Star Trek Online Review: Space Combat and Story Shine while Instancing and Ground Combat Fail to Impress

Star Trek Online is the latest big-name MMO to compete for your monthly gaming dollar. Launched with incredible fanfare, including an unprecedented number of pre-order incentives and several special editions , the game’s instant popularity has resulted in a mad scramble to increase server capacity over at Cryptic.

Does STO live up to the hype? Our full review breaks down all the pros and cons.

The Story of Star Trek Online

STO takes place approximately 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. Players exist in the Prime universe, rather than the alternate timeline introduced in Abrams’ 2009 movie. Romulus has been destroyed, the Federation is once again at war with the Klingon Empire, and a resurrected Data is captain of the Enterprise-E .

The Federation faces multiple threats aside from renewed hostilities with the Klingons. The Borg have continued their advance into the alpha quadrant, Empress Sela (the half-Romulan daughter of Tasha Yar) leads what’s left of the Romulan Empire, and the shapeshifting Undine have been discovered meddling in galactic politics.

Most of the characters fans of the series know and love are gone, but their descendants and influence are visible throughout the galaxy. I’ve battled alongside the U.S.S. Kirk and McCoy, received missions from the grandson of Hikaru Sulu, and fended off Klingon ground forces alongside Miral Paris.

I was skeptical at first of the choice to resurrect the Klingon conflict, but I came to see how it evolved organically following the destruction of Romulus and the developers have done a great job of making it a plausible way of introducing a second faction.

A Game for Star Trek Fans

For fans of the various Star Trek film and TV series, Star Trek Online is a virtual love letter. The developers at Cryptic are either huge Trekkies or they did some very serious research into the universe’s history before they made the game. Practically every class of ship ever seen or mentioned in the series appears in the game.

Numerous nods to the lore exist in the game, even tiny references only recognizable to the most rabid of Star Trek fans. Many people may recognize something as high-profile as the Briar Patch and the Riker Maneuver from Star Trek: Insurrection, but how many people remember the beverage Tranya from the Original Series episode “The Corbomite Maneuver?”

Players can do battle with The Next Generation’s infamous Crystalline Entity, investigate Gorgons from the TOS episode “And the Children Shall Lead,” and visit the Klingon prison planet of Rura Penthe.

Space Combat (5 out of 5)

Yes, story is great and treating and existing property like Star Trek properly is important, but none of that matters if the game isn’t fun as well. The combat in STO isn’t wholly original, but it has enough fun aspects to make the game enjoyable, for the most part.

Space combat is truly the highlight of the game. Battles are a constant strategic fight for positioning, keeping your strongest shields toward your adversary while simultaneously aiming your weapons at his weakest is an enjoyable challenge in most cases (fans of the Star Fleet Command series or Star Trek: Legacy will feel right at home here). Ships are upgradable with different categories of loot (weapons, science consoles, engines, shields, etc…), giving the game that addictive, constantly searching for upgrades quality that keeps people coming back to games like Borderlands and WoW.

Working your way through the various ship classes is also an excellent motivation to keep leveling. Every 10 levels, players get access to a whole new tier of ships, and have their choice between three types (Science, Escort, and Cruiser), each with a unique combat role to fulfill. Some ships are instantly recognizable (Galaxy-Class Cruisers, for example), while others are new designs created specifically for the game.

Page two has more, including ground combat, instancing, and our final verdict on the game.

Ground Combat (2 out of 5)

Ground combat is far less compelling, unfortunately. You’re fairly limited, having only a few special abilities to use yourself and one each for the members of your away team. Most fights are not terribly difficult, especially when you have four officers at your side, and while there are tactics to liven things up (get behind an enemy for a flanking bonus, for example), ground combat is generally pretty flat. Fortunately, it’s only about 20% of the game.

I realize that combat is something that is necessary in an MMO, regardless of the source material, but I still find it ironic that I killed more Klingons and Gorn in the first ten levels than have died in fifty years of Star Trek movies and TV series.

You’ll spend most of your time leveling up your space combat skills and buying upgrades for your ship both because the space combat is so much more fun, and because you end up fighting in space far more often.

It’s no secret that Cryptic is a fan of instancing in their games. There is no large overworld where you are likely to run into all kinds of new friends. All missions are in instanced encounters, so while you don’t have to worry about randoms coming along and killing your quest mobs, you also don’t have the advantage of being bailed out of a particularly tough fight by a benevolent high-level passerby.

The “open team” system is an awesome aspect, players on the same mission automatically enter your zone and team with you if you so desire, but the prevalence of instanced encounters still makes for a lonely experience compared to other MMOs. For some, this is an overwhelmingly positive thing. For others, it’s a deal breaker.

There are weird inconsistencies in the instancing code that I’m hoping will change sometime soon. Instead of lumping everyone into a single zone for fleet actions, for example, it instead chooses to shuffle people off into separate zones, leaving barely enough people in each to complete the mission. It would make more sense (and be more enjoyable) to fill one before opening another.

Customization (5 out of 5)

Customization has always been a hallmark of Cryptic’s games, and STO is no exception. From the beginning, you are given a huge number of options when creating your character . You can customize a member of an existing race or create your own entirely new alien species with the game’s insanely diverse creature creator .

Once you’re playing, you can customize each ship to your liking, choosing from a small pool of options specific to your class of ship. You can change the name of your ship, give it a new designation, change the design of the windows, and even alter the material from which it is made. Nacelles, saucers, and hulls can be swapped out, allowing each captain to create a unique vessel that still conforms to the conventions of the Star Trek universe.

The Bottom Line (4 out of 5)

Star Trek Online is game made by Star Trek fans for Star Trek fans. If you have always dreamed of boldly going where no one has gone before, you will find a lot to love in this game. It’s not perfect, space combat shines while ground combat stumbles and instancing creates some unique challenges for social players, but there is a lot to love in this game.

It’s no where near as complex as other space MMOs like Eve Online, but for a more casual player who is just looking to spend some time exploring, fighting, and customizing their ship, Star Trek Online has a lot to offer.

This post is part of the series: Star Trek Online Reviews

A collection of reviews for various editions of Star Trek Online.

Star Trek Online - Preview
Star Trek Online Review
First Impressions: Star Trek Online
Star Trek Online Digital Deluxe Edition
5 Ways to Improve Star Trek Online: A Trekkie’s Wish List
Star Trek Online Special Collector’s Edition Contents

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Star Trek Online – Xbox Series X|S Review

Star Trek has had quite the resurrection over the last few years. From Discovery to Picard and even animated shows in between, the new Star Trek Universe that is being built is slowly becoming something quite special.

As a kid I watched the adventures of Captain Jean Luc Picard on Star Trek The Next Generation. I was never the biggest fan of the show, something didn’t quite resonate with me. Perhaps it was the neat bow tied at the end of most episodes, or maybe it was the whole uniformity of the universe that didn’t sit well. Either way, Star Trek was never one of my favourites.

Later when Captain Janeway journeyed to the far reaches of space with Voyager, I started to get into things a bit more. The charismatic Ben Sisko and his giant space station never clicked with me either, I had no idea what it was about a sci fi series (my favourite genre) that I couldn’t adjust to. A little franchise called Star Wars may be to blame; Luke Skywalker and his adventures across the galaxy just sang to me. Now, I hear ya, stereotypical geek talk of Trek Vs Wars, but bear with me.

In 2009 a reboot/alternate reality version of the original Star Trek was unleashed to the world. And I loved it.

Finally I had figured out what was wrong and it allowed me to divide Star Trek into two separate eras – Film Grain Trek and Shiny Lens Flare Trek. This may come across as blasphemy to Trekkies but the shiny Star Trek finally made me fully appreciate the franchise. Silver and gleaming white hallways combined with sleek retro-future looking computer consoles slotted everything in place for me. This look was continued with Star Trek Discovery (another divisive show) and I absolutely loved it. This was a Star Trek I could buy into.

Now while I have gone back and rewatched the Kelvin Trilogy as I was preparing this review, I was also drawn back to another series that again divided fans – Enterprise. Taking things back before Captain Kirk was in diapers really worked for me, and while Captain Archer may have been part of my Film Grain era, I really enjoyed the episodes I watched. Anyway, that’s plenty of groundwork laid down, let’s get down to the main event.

Star Trek Online is a MMORPG that has just celebrated its 13th anniversary. Debuting on PC in 2010, the game made its way over to Xbox on 2016. I initially fired up the game way back when it launched for Xbox and thought it was decent, but short on campaigns. The loading was abysmal and systems were very complicated. Has any of this changed for the recent Xbox Series X|S update? Let’s see.

Right off the bat, there are way more starting points than before. We now get the option of six starting points for our new character, each with a different race or time period to select. Most importantly for me, they have added in the Discovery era. Hopping right in I found the story engaging (pun intended) and the missions short and punchy, not often common for a MMO game. I finished the discovery campaign in a few hours and was sad to see it go. That’s when I knew Star Trek Online had its hooks in me.

For those who have never played Star Trek Online, the game is very welcoming to newcomers. 90% of the content can be played solo, only really requiring groups at the latter stages of the endgame and for PVP. Playing very much like Mass Effect Lite, Star Trek leans heavier into RPG than it does MMO at the start. I would say this is an absolutely great starter MMORPG for those unfamiliar with the genre.

Gameplay, as I said, is very much like the Mass Effect series , conversing with characters from across the Star Trek Universe (many voiced by original actors) to shoot outs planet side. Combat doesn’t have as much of a chunky feel to it and can feel a tad too light and flimsy at points. Taking the battle to the stars, ship combat is an absolute highlight, balancing systems and learning ship positioning. All in, the package (for a free to play title) is well rounded and enjoyable.

So, we need to address the actual upgrade… and I say that lightly. Frame rate is improved across the board, and that means running around Starfleet has never been smoother. Sadly this optimisation is the only true next gen upgrade, and it doesn’t hold a stable 60fps. Graphics may have had a bit of a spit shine but scream more original Mass Effect 1 than the Legendary Edition Remaster . Menus are still laggy for whatever baffling reason, and a lot of patience is required in trying to even apply a new uniform to the crew.

Disappointing upgrade aside, Star Trek Online is still a very easily recommendable title, especially at the whopping cost of free, and no forced microtransactions, as those are mostly cosmetic. Sure, the odd ship may be more powerful than the ones earned or given in-game, there is nothing more significant than a point or two. The various storylines are going to be devoured by Star Trek fans as the cameo appearances and authentic voice acting really put the cherry on top.

An all round fun experience that sadly hasn’t been given the Series X|S boost it deserves, a Shiny Lens Flare look is what would really go down a treat in Star Trek Online. For me, the starships should glisten and the shine in every aspect should be forefront, and sadly the graphics did not receive a huge boost like this. The lack of features brought by the Xbox Series X|S upgrade does not detract from the fun available in Star Trek Online, but you’ll need to look past the 2007 graphical style.

I’ll finish with a direct quote from our review coverage back at Star Trek Online’s Xbox launch in 2016 , as it still remains true to this day.

“ At the end of the day Star Trek Online is a great game. Okay, the ground combat is definitely rough around the edges as well as occasionally annoying with its targeting system. And yes, I did encounter a few bugs that were extremely frustrating, and the visuals will never blow you away. However, it still doesn’t detract from the quality of the experience being offered here. Space combat can be great fun, as well as seeing and hearing about all of the iconic places, characters and sounds from years of Star Trek, and for free, there’s no reason to not jump in.

What are you waiting for captains? Engage!”

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Trait: Superior Area Denial - Official Star Trek Online Wiki
Superior Area Denial is an in-game Starship Trait.This trait gives bonuses in Space if slotted into an Active Starship Trait slot. Activating Beams: Fire at Will or Cannons: Scatter Volley causes your weapons to debuff foe's armor resistance for a short duration, as well as activating Fire at...
Quick Notes on SAD : r/sto - Reddit
SAD provides a very sizable boost to the DPS of certain pets, most notably (and egregiously), the standard rare (blue) To'Duj fighter squadrons, as you can see here, by testing from u/dilaZirk. The test was done post the March 14th 2021 nerf to SAD.
Is it worth getting a carrier if you don't have SAD? : r/sto
If you want a Connie, get a Connie, but if you want a carrier that's actually effective, consider getting the Acheron. And I don't have SAD as one of the traits! Flight deck carriers aren't as pet centric as other carriers, so you don't really need SAD to use it to its full potential.
DPS performance test of all the hangar pets I have access to ...
For tests using SAD, it replaces Super Charged Weapons on my tank builds. For tests using SAD, Attack Pattern Beta 1 would then be unslotted so as to not double stack on -30 DRR debuffs which might affect pet DPS results.
DPS League
If you have a ship with hangar(s), just run a high DPS pet with Superior Area Denial (SAD) trait and Swarmer Matrix universal and call it a day.
STO BETTER - Tier Lists
1) There's a ton of choices. 2) Many of them are expensive. 3) There's a lot that aren't good. Because of that, we thought we'd try our hands at rating the top candidates for each one from the perspective of an endgame player looking to crush it on Elite (and not just the parsing maps).
Guide: Suggested trait builds - Official Star Trek Online Wiki
Certain traits are more useful for one particular role, such as tanking, healing, and damage. Below is a list of what various editors of this article have found to be the best trait builds for players of various roles. Traits are now selected for you in-game but you still have a option to mix...
Star Trek Online Review: Space Combat and Story Shine while ...
Our full review of Star Trek online covers all the game's positive and negative aspects. While STO is a great game for Star Trek fans, with lore seeping from every pore, the ground combat and Cryptic's insistence on instanced zones tarnish an otherwise impressive game.
Sad days :: Star Trek Online General Discussions
Sad days Ive been playing this game for like 3 years know. When my dad got me a new laptop for christmas i forgot my thingy to play it and cryptic is being really mean..
Star Trek Online - Xbox Series X|S Review | TheXboxHub
An all round fun experience that sadly hasn’t been given the Series X|S boost it deserves, a Shiny Lens Flare look is what would really go down a treat in Star Trek Online.

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