In part one of our beginners guide to Star Trek Online we talked about the three different career choices.
Now that you know what path you are going to follow, it’s time to decide what species you will be, and your character traits.
There are a total of fourteen species in STO – nine for the Federation, and five for Klingon, and players with a lifetime subscription also have access to the exclusive Borg race.
In addition to the pre-set species, you can also create your own custom alien race, customising as much as you like with free selection of traits and looks.
Species choice is more than just cosmetic, however, as each species has their own individual traits, and it is these traits that can make or break your character.
Traits provide boosts and bonuses to certain attributes, such as increased resistance to toxic damage, or allow special actions like increasing your damage output as your health drops lower.
As these species-specific traits are quite specialised, rather than a skill you would use on the odd occasion, your choices are very important, and unfortunately makes some species a poor choice for certain careers. Humans and Betazoids, for example, would not make good tanks.
You are permitted four traits for your character. The pre-defined species come with between one and three set traits, with the remaining ones to be chosen by you.
At the moment there is no way to reset your trait choice, or make any changes, so choose wisely.
So, let’s take a look at the species and racial traits for the Federation.
Please note, that at the time of publication these were taken from Open Beta, so are subject to change.
- Human
Leadership: 15% Repair rate.
Teamwork: 5% Team exploit damage.
- Andorian
Acute Senses: 20% Stealth sight and 10% exploit damage.
- Bajoran
Creative: 5% Damage and healing with kits.
Spiritual: 10% Heals received and 10% regeneration.
- Benzite
Natural Armour: Resist energy and physical damage.
Natural Immunities: Radiation and toxic damage resistance.
- Betazoid
Empathic: Reduces threat generation and increases team regeneration.
Telepathic: Increases perception, exposure duration and chance.
- Bolian
Corrosive Blood: 20% Toxic resistance, and deals toxic damage when bitten.
- Saurian
Circulatory Redundancies: Toxic, fire and plasma DoT damage redundancies.
Acute Senses: 20% Stealth sight and 10% exploit damage.
- Trill
Hyper Metabolism: Health regeneration, radiation and toxic resistance.
- Vulcan
Logical: 30% Psionic, confuse and placate resistance.
Physical Strength: 10% Melee damage.
- Borg
Borg Nanites: 10% ground health and shield regeneration.
Efficient: 5 starship engine, weapon and auxiliary systems efficiency.
When you start out, these are the options available to you as a member of the Federation. Once you reach level 6, you will unlock access to the Klingon Empire, which have the following traits.
- Klingon
Honourable: 5% damage resistance and 10% threat generation.
- Gorn
Cold-Blooded: 25% Fire resistance and 10% plasma DoT resistance.
Reptilian Strength: 17.5% melee damage and knockback resistance.
Resilient: 5% Physical and energy resistance.
- Lethean
Rapture: Target and Psionic DoT.
Telepathic: Increases perception, exposure duration and chance.
- Nausicaan
Physical Strength: 10% melee damage.
Pirate: 20% stealth and 30% exploit damage.
- Orion
Seductive: Resist confuse and placate, and reduces threat generation.
As you can see, some of these traits make quite a considerable difference, and are very important when creating your character.
If the ‘Alien’ species option isn’t appealing to you, and you prefer the preset races, then we have a few suggestions for you below.
The Klingons seem the ideal choice for an Engineering Officer/Tank with their increased damage, and threat generation, and are able to choose three custom traits.
For a Science Officer/healer you are probably best looking at the Betazoid species as their Empathic trait reduces threat generation and increases team regeneration.
For all out damage your best bet seems to be the Nausicaans due to the increased damage output they have from both racial traits.
Of course, once you have selected your species you then need to choose your remaining traits, allowing you to refine your character with precise boosts to your required skills.
A mixture of both space and ground traits should be chosen as many missions contain both types of gameplay, and for effective progress you need to be strong in all areas. Take a look at the
screenshots to the right for a few examples of the custom traits available.
By now you should have a firm grasp of the trait system and be able to effectively plan out your character before moving on to the cosmetic customisation, something I’m sure you’re capable of handling without a guide.
Part three of the Gamerzines beginners guide to Star Trek Online takes a walkthrough of your first mission.
Tags: MMO, Star Trek Online
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