Ship weapon

There are three different forms of starship weapons: Energy Beam Weapons (which primarily damage a starship's shields), Kinetic Weapons (which primarily damage a starship's hull) and Energy Cannon Weapons (which do less damage to starship's hulls and shields, but is equally effective against both). Energy Beam, Kinetic, and Energy Cannon weapons all have different damage subtypes — for example, Phaser and Plasma are two types of Energy Weapons.

Different ships will have different resistances to each damage subtype depending on hull plating and engineering modules equipped, if any.

Note: see also Shuttle Weapons.

See the "Ship Component Navigation Box" at the bottom of this page for specific ship weapon types and damage types.

Firing Arcs

Animation showing the firing arcs of various forward weapons

A weapon's firing arc is the angle of view, measured in degrees (°), inside which an enemy ship must be located. Targets outside of this arc cannot be fired upon by the weapon; you must turn so that the target is within the firing arc in order to fire. (Note that the firing arc for aft-mounted weapons is measured from the rear center, as opposed to the front center for fore weapons.)

You can preview a weapon's firing arc by holding the mouse cursor over that weapon's icon on your action bar. The firing arc only represents the angle at which the weapon can fire; it does not represent its range.

The following table shows the firing arcs of each weapon type in Star Trek Online:

Weapon firing arcs

45°	90°	180°	250°	360°	No Arc
Dual Cannons Dual Heavy Cannons	Torpedo Launcher Mobile Device Launcher Dual Beam Bank	Cannon Missile	Beam Array	Turret	Device Launcher Mine Launcher

Broadside

Shows the region of overlap with beam arrays fore and aft

A vessel that equips Beam Arrays both fore and aft is most effective when firing from the Broadside i.e. either the port or starboard side of the ship. This is because the 250 degree firing arc of beam array weapons means that there is region where the forward and aft firing arcs overlap. As such, a ship can fire both fore and aft weapons at a target within that overlap region. As the ship is effectively moving sideways relative to the 70 degree overlap region on either side of the ship, it is easier to keep a target within the optimal broadside firing arc.

Cruisers are best suited to firing from the broadside, as they lack the maneuverability to use weapons with a narrower firing arc. Cruisers also have more weapon slots than other types of vessel at the same tier, and so can potentially deal more damage from the broadside. In a tier 5 Cruiser it is possible to fire eight beam arrays in a single shot to devastating effect, though this causes an enormous power drain.

Damage types and bonuses

See the damage types article for more information.

List of weapons

Energy weapons

• Phaser: 2.5% chance to disable a random subsystem
• Disruptor: 2.5% chance to lower the targets damage resistance by 10% for 15 sec
• Plasma: 2.5% chance to apply a non-stacking damage-over-time debuff
• Polaron: 2.5% chance to reduce all enemy subsystem power levels by 25
• Tetryon: 2.5% chance to deal additional shield damage
• Antiproton: +20% critical severity

Kinetic weapons

• Photon: 50% chance -20 Able crew
• Quantum:10% chance -10 Alive crew
• Plasma: Chance to apply Fire damage to hull for 10 sec
• Transphasic: Increased shield penetration
• Chroniton: -100% Flight Speed and Turn Rate for 10 sec
• Tricobalt: Disables targets for 2 sec
• Hargh'peng: Applies Radiation damage to hull for 15 sec

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Starship Energy Weapons [edit]
Energy Type		Beam		Cannon
		Array	Dual Bank	Turret	Single	Dual	Dual Heavy	Quad	Wing
Standard	Phaser (inc. Retrofit)	-
	Disruptor
	Plasma
	Tetryon
	Polaron
	Antiproton (inc. Chroniton)		-
Hybrid	Plasma-Disruptor
	Polarized Tetryon
	Spiral Wave Disruptor
	Dominion Polaron
	Phased Tetryon
	Polarized Disruptor
	Romulan Plasma	-
	Phased Polaron
Other	Kinetic Cutting Beam

Starship Projectile Weapons [edit]
Projectile Type		Torpedo	Mine	Cluster Torpedo	Missile
Standard	Photon
	Quantum	-
	Plasma	- -
	Chroniton	-
	Transphasic	-
	Tricobalt
Other	Hargh'peng
	Thermionic
	Tractor Beam
	Ferengi

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