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Out of all the things that differentiate your character from every other, Bridge Officer abilities are probably the most important ones. The types of weapons you use, ship you have and skills you picked are very important, but having the right abilities which you can use in combat is invaluable.
There are dozens of different abilities you can choose and no doubt all are useful. But since you can have only so few of them, it’s recommended to use the ones best suited for a variety of situations you will find yourself in, and not just the ones which will be used rarely. The best abilities are the ones giving you more survivability and damage, and aren’t specific for PvP or PvE encounters, therefore try to pick those. Fortunately for you I tested quite a few and while I certainly don’t know if you’ll like my setup, I can try to give you some pointers so you can see what works for me.
The following list of abilities can also be found on sto-intel wiki!
Tactical Bridge Officer Abilities
| Cannon: Rapid Fire | Lieutenant | Cannons | Improves your next cannon attack. Quickly fires numerous bolts. Each bolt does less damage than a normal cannon bolt. |
| Cannon: Scatter Volley | Lieutenant | Cannons | Improves your next cannon attack. Fires a cone of area effect cannon spray centered on your target. (Currently shows as Cannon: Rapid Fire with a different icon at the officer trainers.) |
| Tactical Team | Ensign | Crew | Deploys a security crew and grants a tactical buff for your own ship or an ally. Also removes crew and tactical debuffs. |
| Torpedo: High Yield | Ensign | Torpedoes | Improves your next torpedo attack. Photon, Quantum, Transphasic and Chroniton torpedo launchers fire a salvo of torpedoes. Plasma launchers fire a single, slow moving and destructible heavy torpedo that does massive damage. |
| Torpedo: Spread | Ensign | Torpedoes | Improves your next torpedo attack. Launches multiple projectiles in a spread pattern that damages all targets in a large area around the target. |
| Attack Pattern Beta | Lieutenant | Maneuvers | Reduces the target’s damage resistance every time it receives an attack from you or your allies. |
| Attack Pattern Delta | Lieutenant | Maneuvers | Targets an allied ship. Any ship that attacks your ally will receive a stacking damage resistance debuff. |
| Attack Pattern Omega | Lieutenant Commander | Maneuvers | Buffs damage and turn rate while making you immune to holds, roots, and slows. Can be used while held. |
| Beam: Fire at Will | Ensign | Beams | Fire at Will improves your next beam array attack. The Bridge Officer fires your beam weapons at multiple targets of their choice. |
| Beam: Overload | Ensign | Beams | Overload improves your next beam array attack. Overloading your beam weapon delivers an extremely powerful blast, but drains weapon power and briefly takes your beam weapons offline. Only the energy type you overload will go offline – so if you overload your Phasers, all Phasers will go offline and not your Plasma weaoons. |
| Dispersal Pattern Alpha | Lieutenant | Mines | Improves your next mine attack. Lays a series of mine clusters behind your ship |
| Dispersal Pattern Beta | Lieutenant | Mines | Improves your next mine attack. Lays a wide net of mines behind your ship. |
| Beam: Target Auxiliary Subsystems | Lieutenant | Target Subsystems | Improves your next next beam array attack. Instructs your officer to target enemy auxiliary systems. This attack deals normal damage, but also drains the target’s auxiliary power and has a chance to take target’s auxiliary subsystems offline. |
| Beam: Target Engines Subsystems | Lieutenant | Target Subsystems | Improves your next next beam array attack. Instructs your officer to target enemy engines. This attack deals normal damage, but also drains the target’s engine power and has a chance to take target’s engines offline. |
| Beam: Target Shields Subsystems | Lieutenant | Target Subsystems | Improves your next next beam array attack. Instructs your officer to target enemy shields. This attack deals normal damage, but also drains the target’s shield power and has a chance to take target’s shields offline. |
| Beam: Target Weapons Subsystems | Lieutenant | Target Subsystems | Improves your next next beam array attack. Instructs your officer to target weapons. This attack deals normal damage, but also drains the target’s weapon power and has a chance to take target’s weapons offline. |
Science Bridge Officer Abilities
| Energy Siphon | Lieutenant | Deflector Dish | Draws power from the target. This reduces the target’s power settings to all systems and increases your power settings. |
| Mask Energy Signature | Ensign | Sensor Array | Shields the energy output of your starship making it more difficult for enemies to detect you. |
| Science Team | Ensign | Crew | Repairs shield damage and grants a science buff for your own ship or an ally. Also removes science debuffs. |
| Tractor Beam | Ensign | Tractor | Slows the target ship, thereby making it an easier target for weapons. Targets held in a tractor beam cannot cloak. Increase in effectiveness based on current auxiliary power level. |
| Tykon’s Rift | Lieutenant | Deflector Dish | Creates a spatial anomaly at the target’s location that drains power from all nearby hostile ships and causes minor damage. |
| Viral Matrix | Lieutenant Commander | Sensor Probes | Launches a probe that flies to the target and then shuts down its systems, effectively holding it in place. The target is highly resistant to holds for a short duration after this effect expires. |
| Charged Particle Burst | Lieutenant | Sensor Array | Temporary disables the cloaking devices of nearby hostiles ships and damages their shields. |
| Gravity Well | Lieutenant Commander | Deflector Dish | Creates a spatial anomaly at the target’s location that draws enemies to its center and gradually crushes their ships, inflicting kinetic damage. Shields drastically reduce the effects of kinetic damage. |
| Feedback Pulse | Lieutenant | Deflector Field | Harnesses the energy of beam weapon attacks directed against you. Each time you are hit, a damaging pulse is directed at the attacking ship. |
| Hazard Emitters | Ensign | Hazard | Periodically cleanse the ship of any fire or radiation hazards. also has a heal over time |
| Jam Sensors | Ensign | Sensor Array | Prevents the enemy from targeting you. |
| Photonic Shock Wave | Lieutenant Commander | Emitter | Releases a massive blast around your ship, knocking back enemy ships and inflicting kinetic damage. Shields drastically reduce the effects of kinetic damage. |
| Photonic Officer | Lieutenant | Emitter | Reduces the recharge time of bridge officer powers. |
| Polarize Hull | Ensign | Hazard | Provides damage resistance against energy weapons, breaks any current tractor beams, and protects against additional tractor beams. |
| Scramble Sensors | Lieutenant | Sensor Probes | Fires a probe at the target that bursts into a particle field, confusing the affected enemies into targeting each other. (Currently shows as Jam Targeting Sensors at the trainers.) |
| Tachyon Beam | Ensign | Deflector Dish | Drains the targets shields. Increases in effectiveness based on current aux power level |
| Tractor Beam Repulsors | Lieutenant | Tractor | Push up to 3 enemies (dead or alive) away from your starship |
| Transfer Shield Strength | Ensign | Deflector Field | Uses power reserves to bolster an ally’s shields, increasing their current strength and making them more resistant to damage for a short duration. Increases in effectiveness based on current auxiliary power level. |
| Photonic Fleet | Rumored to mess with enemy radar to show a fleet on enemies. |
Engineering Bridge Officer Abilities
| Aceton Field | Lieutenant Commander | Weapon Modifications | Reduces the damage dealt by the target’s energy weapons, and also makes the target take radiation damage when using energy weapons. |
| Antimatter Spread | |||
| Aux. Power to Battery | Lieutenant | Auxiliary Power | Converts your aux power into an emergency battery to be used later. When activated, the emergency battery creates a short duration increase in all power levels. |
| Directed Energy Modulation | Lieutenant | Weapon Modifications | Cycles the frequency of your energy weapons resulting in increased shield penetration. |
| Emergency Power to Auxiliary | Ensign | Batteries | Directs emergency battery power to the auxiliary systems for a short duration |
| Metaphasic Shields | |||
| Aux. Power to Dampeners | Lieutenant | Auxiliary Power | Redirects auxiliary power to provide significant kinetic damage resistance. |
| Aux. Power to Structural | Lieutenant | Auxiliary Power | Utilizes auxiliary power to restore damage to the hull and provide it with damage resistance over the duration. Increases in effectiveness based on current auxiliary power level. |
| Boarding Party | Lieutenant | Crew | Launches up to three assault shuttles at the target. If they arrive safely, they will cause damage to the ship’s crew and subsystems. Each shuttle launched removes 20 crew from your ship who attempt to beam back upon completing the mission. |
| Eject Warp Plasma | Lieutenant Commander | Warp Core | Creates a plasma area of effect field behind the starship. Ships passing into the field are slowed and receive a plasma fire damage over time effect. |
| Emergency Power to Engines | Ensign | Batteries | Directs emergency battery power to the impulse engines for a short duration |
| Emergency Power to Weapons | Ensign | Batteries | Directs emergency battery power to the weapons systems for a short duration |
| Emergency Power to Shields | Ensign | Batteries | Emergency Power to Shields directs emergency battery power to the shields for a short duration |
| Engineering Team | Ensign | Crew | Greatly accelerates hull repair rate over a short duration for your own ship or an ally. Also has a chance to repair subsystems. |
| Extend Shields | Lieutenant | Shields | Regenerates the shields of nearby allies and improves their damage resistance. |
| Reverse Shield Polarity | Lieutenant | Shields | Converts incoming energy weapon damage into additional shields |
Recommended Abilities
Tactical Officer
- Torpedo: High Yield – torpedoes are found on every ship in the universe, and this ability will make sure they hit even harder. Definitely one of my favorite skills.
- Attack Pattern Omega – this abiilty will buff you with an increased turn rate, useful for any kind of ship for sure. Additionally, you will be immune slows and snares.
- Beam: Target Shields Subsystems – when activated, your next beam attack will drain a small amount of your targets shields and sometimes disable them for a short duration as well. You could alternatively take Target Weapons Subsystems, which does the same only for weapon subsystems.
- Cannon: Rapid Fire – when activated, your cannons will start blasting your target more frequently resulting in a much higher damage output. If you’re captaining an Escort ship this is a must have.
There aren’t many other highly recommended abilities for tactical officers, but if you need more Tactical Team and Beam Overload are good choices.
Engineering Officer
- Emergency Power to Weapons/Shields – take whichever you prefer. Being a tactical officer and having (almost) enough DPS I prefer more power in shields but it’s up to you. If you put enough skills in these abilities the cooldown is as long as the buff lasts, meaning you can have it active all the time.
- Reverse Shield Polarity – one of the best abilities you can have if you ask me. While it’s active any energy weapon damage you receive will heal your shields — for the duration you’re almost invincible.
- Engineering Team – repairs your hull and provides a chance to repair damaged ships subsystems.
There aren’t any other engineering BO abilities which I think are as useful as these above.
Science Officer
- Polarize Hull – my favorite science ability. While active, you are immune to Tractor Beams, but the best part is the high damage reduction it provides. Considering the cooldown is only half a minute and it lasts 15 seconds, you can fire it up all the time.
- Jam Sensors – by activating this ability enemies won’t be able to target you for the duration. What else is there to say.
- Science Team – Science Team provides a quick heal to your shields and a damage resistance buff. Additionally, it has a chance to remove science debuffs on you (such as aforementioned Jam Sensors).
- Tractor Beam – some players like it, some don’t. As I already mentioned I usually run with an escort ship and being able to hold my opponents in place is invaluable for maximizing DPS.
Viral Matrix, Feedback Pulse and Scramble Sensors are supposedly very good as well, but I have yet to try it personally. The four abilities above are more than good enough for me.
If you want to find out more detailed info about skills to figure out how to best distribute them be sure to read the basic skills info and after that this excellent skills guide. If you didn’t know where to start with BO abilities, I hope this article helps. Now go distribute those skills where it counts!
