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Captain and bridge officer

A Federation player character and four of her bridge officers as they are shown on the character selection screen.

A Bridge Officer (or "BOff") in Star Trek Online is a commissioned member of the player's bridge crew. A Captain may maintain up to 54 Bridge Officers, which are listed on the left of the Character Status window (default key U).

While merely serving as pools for abilities in space combat, up to four BOffs can fully join a player's away team in ground combat, offering both, abilities as well as firepower.

Gender, career path, race

Like with player characters, the gender of a Bridge officer is purely cosmetic and has no gameplay effect (except for Orions). The career path of a BOff (Tactical, Engineering, Science; plus an optional specialization) determines which pool of abilities he/she has access to and which ship station he/she can occupy. The race of a BOff can have an impact on the Bridge Officer traits.

Traits

Tellarite BOff trait window

Trait menu of a Common Tellarite BOff

Bridge Officers have four traits which cannot be changed. Like player character traits, most of these grant benefits for the individual officer in ground combat, while few also buff the entire away team or give a bonus in space combat. Most BOff races have between one and up to four required traits, i.e., traits a specific race will always have.

In contrast to player character traits, Bridge Officer traits come in three different potencies, which are determined by the BOff's rarity:

Rarity Traits
Common 2x Basic
2x Standard
Uncommon 1x Basic
3x Standard
Rare 1x Basic
2x Standard
1x Superior
Very Rare 2x Standard
2x Superior

While "Basic" traits grant 50% of a bonus, the "Standard" and "Superior" potencies grant 100% and 150%, respectively.

Promotions and abilities

See also: Bridge officer and kit abilities

Like the player character, Bridge Officers have ranks. A Bridge Officer's rank determines her/his number of abilities (sometimes referred to as "Bridge Officer skills") in ground and space combat. A player can promote a BOff up to one rank below his/her own (up to (Sub-)Commander). A promotion also costs a small amount of expertise Expertise icon:

  • 1 ability - Faction FederationEnsign / Faction KlingonWarrior / Faction Romulan RepublicCitizen - 1,100 Expertise icon Blue Arrow (Right)
  • 2 abilities - Faction FedRomKDFLieutenant - 2,300 Expertise icon Blue Arrow (Right)
  • 3 abilities - Faction BothLieutenant Commander / Faction Romulan RepublicCenturion - 3,600 Expertise icon Blue Arrow (Right)
  • 4 abilities - Faction BothCommander / Faction Romulan RepublicSubcommander

Note that some very rare special bridge officers will always display a Starfleet/KDF rank, even for Romulan Republic players, who might thus have a BOff with the rank "Commander" (= Subcommander).

Bridge Officers are promoted by clicking the Career Options button at the bottom of an officer's status page and selecting the "Promote" option; a dialogue box will be opened with details of the promotion.

Training

See additional article: List of Training Manuals craftable by captain
Training overview

The Bridge Officer skills and abilities menu

Bridge Officers can be trained in new skills, i.e., their pool of available clickable abilities can be increased. Training an officer requires a Training Manual (consumed in the process) for the desired ability and costs expertise Expertise icon (amount increases with the number of abilities the BOff already possesses). While only having access to four abilities in space/ground combat at once, a Bridge Officer can be trained in (i.e., add to his selection pool) all abilities existing for his/her career path, if the player acquires all the required Training Manuals.

Specializations

Bridge Officers can be trained in a specialization by using a special type of Training Manual called a "Specialization Qualification". The ability to craft these manuals is unlocked once a player character has spent 10 points in a given specialization.

One specialization may be active per Bridge Officer at once. An active specialization gives access to four specific ground, and four specific space abilities, which may then be slotted for that particular BOff. Using specialization-specific space abilities requires a playable starship with the respective station slot.

Using bridge officers

Status Window Stations

The "Stations" tab of the Status Window

Choose your away team

The prompt to select members of the Away Team before beaming down

Space

For space combat, bridge officers can be assigned to specific stations (i.e., seats) on the player's ship. In most cases, each bridge station requires a specific career and rank. Only Bridge Officers of the correct career can be assigned to a career-specific bridge station; "universal stations" can be occupied by any of the three career paths, but not in combination with a specialization. Bridge officers will only be able to use the number of abilities corresponding to the rank of the station, even if they hold a higher rank.

Ground

See main article: Away team

Customization

Players can customize a Bridge Officer's appearance by visiting a Tailor. Bridge Officers can be renamed at any time through your character window. Some Special Bridge Officers cannot be customized or renamed.

Acquisition

Candidates

Elisa Flores

[Elisa Flores], the first bridge officer for Federation players

K'Gan

[K'Gan], the first bridge officer for Klingon Empire players

Tovan Khev

[Tovan Khev], the first bridge officer for Romulan Republic players

Tarsi

[Tarsi], the first bridge officer for 23rd Century Starfleet players

Bridge Officer Candidates are primarily available from a requisition officer, such as Elsa Mora at Earth Spacedock, V'Qlar in First City, or Teelis on the Romulan Flotilla. New candidates may be purchased using Dilithium, and once acquired, are available to to be commissioned. A player may maintain no more than fifteen (15) uncommissioned candidates.

Faction-specific bridge officer candidates are also rewarded for some tutorial and early storyline missions and later obtained periodically as the player levels up (every 10 levels after level 15). Additionally, some unique, very rare cross-faction candidates are also rewarded from specific higher-level missions in the game.

Bridge Officer Candidates serve two purposes: they can either become a full member of the player's bridge crew, or they can be "converted" into a Training Manual of an ability they possessed, which can then be used to teach another BOff this ability.

Exchange

Via mail

  • Candidates can be sent through the mail to other characters (on a players account) or other players. This can only be done at a mail console that allows adding items to a message.
    • Go to a mail terminal
    • Compose a new message
    • Open the Character Status window
      • Switch to the Stations tab and open the Candidates window
    • Drag the candidate to an open item slot in the mail window

Assignments rewarding Bridge Officers

See also: Assignments rewarding bridge officers

There are also Recruitment duty officer assignments which reward Bridge Officers of various races, (excluding C-Store or special officers) such as Ferengi, Alien, Trill, Saurian, Bolian, Klingon, Gorn, Andorian, Human, Orion, Lethean... etc.
Note: Some assignments are faction specific and may require higher Commendation ranks.

Special Bridge Officers

See also: Special bridge officer

There are a number of unique Bridge Officers which are obtained through other means, such as C-Store purchase or mission rewards.

Commissioning Officers

When a Bridge Officer Candidate becomes part of your crew, they are Commissioned Officers. You must have an empty Bridge Officer slots to commission an officer. Additional slots are earned as the player increases in rank, and additional slots can also be purchased in the C-Store.

Bridge Officer Candidates are commissioned by right-clicking on the candidate and selecting "Commission."

At the time of commissioning, the player will obtain a one-time opportunity to edit the officer's name, and to change their clothing and appearance without visiting a tailor.

Once a candidate is commissioned, players can promote them to a higher rank. Players can only promote an officer to a rank below themselves; therefore, Bridge Officers cannot be promoted until the player reaches the rank of Lieutenant Commander, however Bridge Officers cannot currently be promoted above the Federation rank of Commander, or the equivalent in the KDF or Romulan Republic.

External links

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