Season Eight: The Sphere was released on November 12, 2013. It is end-game focused, and saw the addition of a new hostile alien faction (the Voth), the new Solanae Dyson Sphere "space adventure zone", a new fleet holding (the Spire), a new reputation faction and new ships.
Season 8[ | ]
Preparation[ | ]
- Stand-alone Feature Episode: Sphere of Influence featuring Michael Dorn as Worf - available from October 31, 2013, as a lead-up to the actual release of Season Eight
- Time-limited reward: Obelisk Carrier
- New PvE Queue mission “Elachi Alert”
New Enemy Faction: The Voth[ | ]
The Voth are a new, powerful, hostile alien faction.
Systems[ | ]
- New Reputation faction: Dyson Joint Command for Solanae Dyson Sphere
- New Fleet holding: Fleet Spire on Solanae Dyson Sphere
Playable Ships[ | ]
- Fleet Shipyard
- Lobi Crystal Consortium
- Voth Lock Box
Locations and Missions[ | ]
- New Solanae Dyson Sphere Space Adventure Zone
- Adventure Zone uses persistent territory control. Players fight to reclaim areas from the Voth.
- PvE Queue missions “Storming the Spire” and “The Breach”.
Missions[ | ]
- “Allied Zone (Daily)” - 50 , 960
- “Contested Zone (Daily)” - 50 , 960
- “Secure Voth Points” - 50 , 960
- “Call in Reinforcements at Captured Points” - 25 , 480
- “Acquire Battlezone Command Credits” - 10 , 240
- “Defeat Voth in the Battlezone” - 0-60 , 0-960
- “Unexpected Friend” - Tier 1 mission
- “Unlikely Neighbors” - Tier 2 mission
- “Unsafe Practices” - Tier 3 mission
- “Unsavory Actions” - Tier 4 mission
- “Unsaid Thanks” - Tier 5 mission
Federation Tutorial Revamp[ | ]
Revamp of the Federation tutorial, including a new federation ship interior.
Accolades[ | ]
- Exploration Accolades
- Bumpin' - Bounce Off the Lower Atmosphere in the Sphere
- The Four Towers - Aid joint forces in taking command of the control towers in the contested zone.
- General Accolades
- Dyson Joint Command (Tier 1)
- Dyson Joint Command (Tier 2)
- Dyson Joint Command (Tier 3)
- Dyson Joint Command (Tier 4)
- Dyson Joint Command (Tier 5)
- Inspired - Fly Through Central Spire in All Three Sphere Zones
- Need for Device Speed - You increased the speed of the device at a generator point in the battlezone.
- Welcome to the Dyson Sphere
- Kill Accolades
- Doctrinal Differences - Defeat 20 Voth ships
- Apocryphal Doctrine - Defeat 100 Voth ships
- Heretical Doctrine - Defeat 200 Voth ships
- Dino Hunter - Defeat 100 Voth
- Dino Demolisher - Defeat 500 Voth
- Extinction Event - Defeat 1000 Voth
- Dinosaur Halted - You defeated one of the mini-bosses in the park area.
- Mechanized Menace - You defeated one of the mini-bosses in the city area.
- Conquered the Commander - You defeated one of the mini-bosses in the hybrid area.
- More Mini Than Boss - You defeated one Voth mini-boss in each of the areas of the Dyson Sphere Battlezone.
- Very Clever - You defeated the Voth's T-Rex in each part of the battlezone.
- Explorer of the Battlezone - You travelled to all of the contested points in the Dyson Sphere Battlezone.
- Swarmed the Swarmer - You defeated five of the Dyson Sphere's automated defenders.
- Downed the Rex - You defeated one of the Voth's most dangerous weapons - a T-Rex.
- Wants to Hunt - You defeated enough Voth to earn the "gold" reward in a mission in the battlezone.
- Unusual Opponent - You defeated an Aehallh worm in the Dyson Sphere. How did it get all the way out here?
- Lore Accolades
- Voth Cultural Expert - You recovered all seven datapads regarding the Voth in the battlezone.
- Testing the Limits - You discovered the area classified as the "city" by allied forces was used for psychological experiments. The intent was to create a weapon to use against enemies of the Dyson Sphere. (Note: This accolade is gained by using the 6 (3 city, 1 outskirts, 2 park) consoles throughout the battlezone; one is near the entrance of each zone)
- Searched for the Truth - The area classified as a "park" by the allied forces has many things that make it seem more than a simple park. You investigated some consoles and discovered the previous inhabitants were using the area to conduct experiments on various creatures.
Test Weekend[ | ]
Unlike previous Seasons, Season Eight did not have a publicly announced test weekend, though players could still try out the new content on the Tribble test server during the month of October and early November 2013. Furthermore, a Solanae Tribble was made available for all players with the release of Season 8.
Giveaway[ | ]
The B'Rotlh Bird-of-Prey was given out for free on December 12 to celebrate Michael Dorn's return as Worf.
Season 8.5[ | ]
On January 30, 2014, Cryptic, for the first time, released a major mid-Season update called "Season 8.5." It was rolled out together with the 4 Years Anniversary Event.
- New mission: “A Step Between Stars” (featuring Tim Russ)
- New ships: Faction-specific Dyson Science Destroyers: Solanae Class, Nov Class, Aves Class
- New Lockbox: [Hirogen Lock Box]
- Revamped content: Entire Klingon War-arc for Federation players was revamped ( “War is Good for Business” was removed)
- New systems: Quick equip & ship loadout functions