Overview
In the game subsystems for a starship are split into four sections: Weapons, Engines, Shields and Auxiliary. These subsystems share an overall basic amount of 200 subsystem power that all starships have, and increasing the power level of one subsystem will reduce it in another. Players are able to use presets to quickly reconfigure the ships power levels to focus on specific areas or balance power between more than one subsystem, even whilst in combat.
The highest a player can manually set any of their subsystems is 100. The lowest a player can set these systems is 15. The exception to this rule is running at Full Impulse which will lower all systems except engines to 5.
Subsystems, power and abilities
Weapons
The Weapons subsystem affects the potency of your starship's energy weapons. Increasing or decreasing power into this subsystem will have either a positive or negative effect on the damage modifier of the energy weapon. This subsystem does not affect Torpedo Launchers or Mine Launchers.
If a player has 100 power in this subsystem it will allow each of your ships energy weapons to cause 100% of their innate damage. It then scales with the following formula:
Multiplier = ([Weapon Power]+100)/200
Equivalently:
Multiplier = 0.5 + [Weapon Power]*0.005
Thus, every additional point of power applied to this subsystem will increase overall damage of each weapon by 0.5%; an increase of 10 points will increase the multiplier by 5%, and so forth. Likewise, every point below 100 will lower damage by the same amount.
The weapons subsystem power level is normally capped at 125 power. This cap can be increased by certain items and abilities, such as Enhanced Induction Coils. Any extra power in this subsystem beyond this cap will not increase damage, but it does act as a power loss buffer.
| Weapon Power | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| ... | ... |
| 60 | 80% |
| 70 | 85% |
| 80 | 90% |
| 90 | 95% |
| 100 | 100% |
| 110 | 105% |
| 120 | 110% |
| 130 | 115% |
| 140 | 120% |
| ... | ... |
Shields
The Shields subsystem controls how effective your Ship Shields are at regenerating, as well as how much damage is negated by your shields. It does not affect how much shield strength your shield facings have.
- Shield Regeneration: For every point of power in the shield subsystem, your shields will regenerated 2% of the regeneration rate stated on your shield array tooltip. Thus, 50 power into this system represents 100% of this shield regeneration value. See the Shield Regeneration skill for more ways to increase this value.
- Shield Hardness: For every point of power in the shield subsystem, your shields will negate 0.2% of the damage they take. Thus, 50 power into this system represents 10% damage negation. See the Shield Hardness skill for more ways to increase this value.
Engines
Power into the Engines subsystem will modify your starship's speed. Having 50 power in this subsystem will allow the ship to move at its base speed. Every extra point of power applied to this subsystem adds an additional 2% speed. As an example, running 100 power into engines will increase your base speed by 100%. For every point of power below 50, your base speed will be reduced by 2%. Increasing your starship's speed will also increase your starship's defense rating.
Additional power to engines does not affect warp travel; it is strictly impulse engine power.
Auxiliary
The Auxiliary subsystem affects Science Space bridge officer abilities as well as your starships cloak detection (also known as Perception) and if applicable, the potency of your cloaking system.
Every point of power above 50 into the Auxiliary systems will increase your Perception stat by 2% and increase the potency of Science abilities by 2%. Every point of power under 50 in the Auxiliary subsystem will do the reverse and drop the modifier of abilities, perception and cloak effectiveness by 0.6% and 2% respectively.
In addition, Engineering abilities that use the Auxiliary subsystem, such as Auxiliary to Structural, are affected by the power level in the Auxiliary subsystem.
Abilities affected
- Science Abilities found in:
Efficiency and performance skills
The skill tables for each profession of player houses multiple skills that can improve both the efficiency and performance of your ship power levels in all subsystems. There is also an 
Trait: Efficient Captain trait will do the same as the efficiency skills but on a weaker level.
Performance skills give a direct increase to the ship subsystem power levels. Unfortunately the mathematical calculations for performance skills are not known, however they provide additional power for every rank of the skill. Such as having Defensive Subsystem Tuning and [Shield Subsystem Performance],would yield +8 more power to the Shields subsystem.
Efficiency works by increasing your subsystems power based on how much power is already in that subsystem. If a player has the efficiency skill for engines and decided the run the engines at a flat 25 power, the efficiency trait and skills would boost this. Efficiency provides a much larger bonus to power when the subsystem is run at a low power level. See the following table:
| Engines | WCE | OST | ESP | All Three |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 32 | 34 | 34 | 50 |
| 40 | 44 | 46 | 49 | 59 |
| 55 | 57 | 59 | 64 | 70 |
| 70 | 71 | 71 | 79 | 80 |
This table, which uses the engine subsystem as an example, demonstrates the effectiveness of Warp Core Efficiency, Offensive Subsystem Tuning, and the Engine Performance skills at various power levels.
Power customization
Console
Players are able to cycle between four power presets by pressing the Right button on the D-Pad:
- 100 Weapons, 50 Shields, 25 Engines, 25 Auxiliary
- 50 Weapons, 100 Shields, 25 Engines, 25 Auxiliary
- 50 Weapons, 25 shields, 100 Engines, 25 Auxiliary
- 50 Weapons, 25 Shields, 25 Engines, 100 Auxiliary
PC
Players are able to manually alter these presets if they wish using the power section of the GUI (graphical user interface) and switching the view mode to "3". In this view mode, players can move the sliders up and down to change power levels. The additional green bar present at the top of the some of the subsystems is the bonus power granted to that subsystem through the Efficient trait, performance skills and efficiency skills.
To lock a preset so it cannot be moved when changing other subsystems power, click the small lock button at the top of the bar. To save the preset, click the save button, and to restore defaults click the restore button.
Full impulse
When a player enters into full impulse mode (default key: Shift + R) your starship automatically routes all available power to your engines and drastically reduces power to the rest of your subsystems.
- Weapons: 5
- Shields: 5
- Engines: 100
- Auxiliary: 5
Full Impulse also receives a bonus modifier to speed, and running engines at 100% power without full impulse active will still be slower than if the player was at full impulse. The speed at which the power is rerouted, and therefore the quicker it takes you to reach the maximum speed you can attain at full impulse, is affected by your EPS which is explained below in the Regeneration and EPS section of the article.
It is highly recommended that players do not use full impulse to enter combat due to how drastically it reduces your Weapons and Shields subsystems. If a player enters combat at full impulse they will only be causing 10% of their energy weapons base damage (excluding Mine and Torpedo Launchers) and will have little or no shield regeneration.
Until power is rerouted the players damage caused at 10% of their original value will be negligible and all enemy ships shields and hull will be able to out-repair the damage caused by the player. There is a small delay before subsystem power is rerouted back to the original values the player had them set to before entering full impulse. This delay does not appear to be affected by EPS consoles.
This effect can be negated by the Simplified Plumbing skill in the Miracle Worker specialization tree.
Regeneration and EPS
The rate at which power is transferred between the subsystems is defined by the EPS (Electro Plasma System). Players are able to use an " EPS Flow Regulator 
" Engineering console to increase the rate at which the power is transferred between subsystems and how fast it is regenerated once spent. Engineering Captains can also use their career specific 
EPS Power Transfer ability to increase the power transfer rates for a short period.
This only affects power being transferred from one subsystem to another, and will not recharge weapon power lost to weapon drain faster than normal.