The CasualSAB approach to

building a Torp Boat

My Bias and PoV

• As a min-max player, I largely focus on the record setting environments. Seeing how fast a map can be completed or seeing how high of a DPS number can be achieved.
• However, that bias should not impact this guide.
• The information presented here should carry over to a variety of performance levels as the core fundamentals remain the same.

If anything in this guide confuses you

1. Leave a comment below and ask. I will respond when I can.

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or

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2. Join the STO Builds Discord for build help with torps or any other build.

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https://discord.gg/stobuilds

Topics in this video

1. Why would you want to use torps? Are there any negatives?
2. What a ship needs to be a good torp boat.
3. Bridge Officer Abilities – What you need and what to prioritize
4. Cooldown Reduction Methods
5. Duty Officers
6. Gear Selection
7. Specs / Skill Tree / Traits
8. Other Important Notes
9. What are some good Torp ships?
10. Example builds based on the information in this video

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Why would you want to use Torps?

• Insanely good DPS potential against targets with lots of hit-points or a group of targets that are grouped up via Gravity Well.

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• You play Elite difficulty content

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• You want to Solo Elite Content

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• You want to compete at a higher level on the DPS leaderboards.

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• You want to try something other than Beams / Cannons

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The Negatives of Torp Boats

• Often are not the best DPS option for Normal or Advanced level content.
• Energy weapons can typically beat out Torps at a lower difficulty level due to torp travel time and other issues we’ll discuss.

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• Performance heavily reliant on “Concentrate Firepower”

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Command: Concentrate Firepower (CF)

• Concentrate Firepower 3 is a core ability for Torp Boats. Used to provide a massive amount of High Yields

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• Rank 1 and 2 are to be avoided as lower ranks overwrite higher ranks, which can screw you or a torp teammate over.
• CF 1 will give one torp every 6s
• CF 2 will give one torp every 4s

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• Pets or other torp users in a map can steal these CF high yield procs from you. Is why it’s important to not use pets or spawn in abilities that have torps.
• Your High-Yields are always going to do massively more than the HY they would fire off.

Concentrate Firepower (CF) vs No CF

Concentrate Firepower is a core part of Torp Boats that I’ll cover more later in this guide.

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Mark on target that grants a High Yield to one Damage Dealer up to once every 2s if they have a Torp equipped.

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Only one person / entity will get the proc every 2s.

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What does a ship need to be good for torps?

At a minimum you need a ship that has:

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1. 4 Fore weapon slots and 2+ Aft weapon slots

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• A Lt Commander or Commander Command seat

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• At least a Lt Commander Tac seat

(that ideally isn’t the Command seat)

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Eng Bridge Officer Seating Priority (Pg 1)

Emergency Power to Engines 1 (EPtE1) is the only Engineering ability a torp boat needs. Speed boost + Triggers Emergency Conn Hologram Duty Officer.

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If your ship has more than an Ensign Engineer seat, then you want…

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1. The Engineer seating to also be a Specialization seat
• Ideally it would be a Command, Temporal, or Intel seat

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(continued on next page)

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Eng Bridge Officer Seating Priority (Pg2)

B) If you have a Lt or LtC Eng seat with no Spec on it, then you need to use the following Unconventional Systems triggers.

1. Lt Eng Slot would be “Emit Unstable Warp Bubble 1” from “Broken Circle”.

2. LtC Eng Slot would be “Eject Warp Plasma 1”

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C) If you have a secondary Ensign/LT seat, look at debuff abilities like

“Structural Integrity Collapse” or “Let it Go”

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D) Auxiliary to Structural Integrity Field can also be used as a trigger for Boimlers

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E) Do NOT use Auxiliary to Battery (will go over this more in a few minutes)

Science Bridge Officer Seating Priority

Science abilities are most often used as triggers for Unconventional Systems

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In order of value / importance:

> > > =

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1. Tractor Beam 1 (also required to trigger “Rapid-Emitting Armaments”
2. Jam Sensors (in Ensign or LT seat)
3. Scramble Sensors (in LT seat)
4. Photonic Shockwave (in LTC seat)
5. Gravity Well (in LTC or Cmdr Seat)

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Tactical Bridge Officer Seating Priority

1. High Yield (highest rank possible)

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• Cannon Scatter Volley 1 and Fire at Will 1 used to trigger the “Entwined Tactical Matrices” starship trait to give you Torp Spread 1

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• Kemocite-Laced Weaponry

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• Mines: Dispersal Pattern Beta (Highest rank you can fit after slotting the above)

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• If you still have room, Attack Pattern Beta is a good choice.

Command: Call Emergency Artillery (CEA)

• Buffed in March 2021, is why Command ships are the top performers at the min-max levels.

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• Massive damage to groups of targets that are clumped together.

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• Performance is heavily reliant on having control in your run to group up targets.

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• Some disagree with the value of this ability. I have good performance from it. But do keep in mind that I am always playing in organized groups where there is always control.

Command Abilities

• CF3 should almost always be your LtC Command ability
• Only exception is when you’re in a supported run on a ship that only has a LtC Command seat. You can slow CEA1 there instead and get CF3 from your teammates using it on targets.
• CEA3 should always be your Cmdr Command ability on a Torp boat
• If you have no control in your runs, then you could run a Mines: Beta 3 or AP: Beta 3 if Cmdr Command seat is also a Tac.

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• Overwhelm Emitters and Rally Point Marker can be used in the Ensign and LT command seats. But they aren’t worth using over Tac/Eng/Sci abilities you could run there instead.

Intel Abilities

• Viral Impulse Burst and EMP Probe are both good Unconventional Systems triggers.

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• Intel Team can be used for Solo run builds with the “Exitus Acta Probat” trait.

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• Kinetic Magnet is an extremely bad ability, stops working after the target takes 20-40k Damage. A single mine or torp will often be hitting for several hundred thousand damage….

Temporal Abilities

• Recursive Shearing (highest rank possible) can perform extremely well DPS wise.

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• Heisenberg Amplifier, Chronometric Inversion Field, and Timeline Collapse are all good Unconventional Systems triggers.

Miracle Worker Abilities

• Mixed Armaments Synergy is the only MW ability most will use for Torps.
• Rank 1/2/3: +30% / +40% / +50% Bonus All Damage

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• Torpedoes: Nanite Repair Payload is a heal ability, not for DPS. Not worth it.

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• Deploy Gravitic Induction Platform might be useful, but not many ships that have both Cmd and MW, so I haven’t tested it.

Pilot Abilities

Cooldown Reduction (CDR) Methods

• Aux2Bat is a no go for a high-end torp boat due to the “Phased-Space Membrane” console which requires high aux-power.
• Photonic Officer is fine.
• “The Boimler Effect” is the best choice for CDR.
• Liberated Borg Deflector Officers are popular alongside Boimlers.
• Teammates running “Unified Engineering” from the Buran can also help.
• In record runs, Boimlers and 2-3 teammates using Unified Engineering is the only CDR method used in those runs. (DPS player not running Unified, just the tank + supports)

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Duty Officers

• Emergency Conn Hologram – Reset Evasive Maneuvers CD when you use EPtEngines

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• Projectile CrtH and CrtD (Rare or VR is fine)

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• Projectile Weapons Officer (PWO) for Mine Recharge is good for builds with 3+ mines.
• PWO for “chance to increase Kinetic Damage from Torps” is a good choice if you don’t need the mines Doff.

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• 23 of 47 and 27 of 47 both provide useful boosts for Crit
• 33, 38, and 43 of 47 all are useful for CDR.

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Borg Doffs

Running more than one of each specific Borg Doff only increases chance to proc. The actual procs do not stack.

• 23 of 47

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• 27 of 47

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• 38 of 47
• 33 – Eng Variant
• 43 – Sci Variant

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What Doffs I usually run

Gear Choices

Fore Weapons: In the order they should be slotted

Slot 1: Enhanced Bio-Molecular Photon Torpedo Launcher Mk XV [CrtD/Dm] [Dmg]x4

(From Tier 2 of 8472 Counter-Command Rep)

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Slot 2: Delphic Distortion Torpedo Mk XV [Ac/Dm] [CrtH] [Dmg]x3

(From Lobi Store, yes, you need it)

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Slot 3: Neutronic Torpedo Launcher Mk XV [CrtD/Dm] [Dmg]x4

(From Tier 2 of Delta Alliance Rep)

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Slot 4: Dark Matter Quantum Torpedo Launcher Mk XV [CrtD/Dm] [Dmg]x4

(From Tier 2 of Discovery Rep)

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Slot 5: Delphic Dual Beam Bank

(From Lobi, used for 2pc set bonus on ships with 5 forward weapons)

Enhanced Bio-Molecular Photon (EBM)

• Used under high-yield to deal massive damage to a group of targets that are grouped around a single target.
• Has a large 2.5km AoE effect under High Yield that hits up to 10 targets

Delphic Distortion Quantum Torp

• Used under high-yield when you want to do a ton of damage to a single target.
• Comparing the Delphic at the left to the EBM at the right, you can see how Delphic does more damage to a single target.
• Delphic hits for a total of 86,734.8 dmg vs EBM’s 53,803.3 vs a single target

Neutronic Quantum Torp

• Used with Torp spread.

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Dark Matter Quantum

• Secondary Spread Torp after Neut
• Decent damage and debuff, biggest perk of it is the 2pc.

5^th Fore Weapon

Delphic DBB is the preferred choice for the 2pc Crit Bonuses it provides.

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Budget Alternative is the Wide-Angle DBB from Disco Rep. That Disco 3pc passively shoots out torps, but they do very little damage.

Deflector / Engine / Core / Shield (DECS)

Aft Weapons: In the order they should be slotted

• Dmg very important to stack on mines. They have access to unique [Dm/Dm] epic mod. A mine with [Dm/Dm][Dmg]x4 gets a 26.46% final damage boost.
• 1.03 x 1.03 x 1.03 x 1.03 x 1.06 x 1.06 = 1.2646 or 26.46%

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• Thoron Infused Quantum Mine Launcher Mk XV [Dm/Dm] [Dmg]x4
• (From Delta Reputation Store, unlocked at Tier 4)

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• Black Ops Mine Launcher Mk XV [Dm/Dm] [Dmg]x4
• (From an old Event, currently available in Mudds)

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• Elite Fleet Dranuur Tricobalt Mine Launcher Mk XV [Dm/Dm] [Proc] [Radius]x3
• From Fleet Dranuur (Colony World)
• Radius is very potent on this mine. But be careful, it can kill you!

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• Tetryon Mine Launcher Mk XV [Dm/Dm] [Dmg]x4
• (From story mission “Warriors of the Empire“)

A note for Mines

• Each type of mine has a cap on how many can be out at a time (Quantum, Photon, Plasma, etc)

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• So, if you have 3-4 Thoron Mine Launchers on (all quantum based), you would hit the cap quite quick and they would start blowing up.

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• That’s why these builds are using 2 Quantum and 2 Photon based mines. This will allow you to have more total mines out at any given time.

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• However, too many mines (and hangar pets) out can hit the entity cap of maps and cause enemies to despawn.

Experimental Weapons

The two best choices are:

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1. Soliton Wave Impellor

(From Risian Corvette, can get in Mudds)

Performance scales with Engine Power

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• Experimental Protomatter-Laced Sheller

(From Tzenkethi Shuk-Din, LB ship)

This is what I typically use as I don’t want to dump a ton into engine power.

Shuk-din Code

• While the Shuk-Din is a LB ship, it is one that Cryptic has given out codes for with some promotions.

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• For $16, you can get a code for it with the “Star Trek Adventures: Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook”
• If you use Honey, might be a code to save a buck or two
• This code will let you get the ship for a single character
• The license key on the download page is the code you’ll enter on the Arc redeem page.

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• Link in Description, just know that supplies are limited, so this may not work much longer.
• Both Gauss STO and myself have used this in the past 2 months, so hopefully is still active. Is an older promotion.

Devices

• Deuterium Surplus (“Evasive Maneuvers in a can”)

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• Battery - Kinetic Amplifier (From Projectiles Crafting)

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• Large Aux Battery (Often used for “Phased-Space Membrane”)

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• Temporal Negotiator (once per 5m CDR method if Boimlers fails to trigger)

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• Kobayashi Maru Transponder (Called in for the buffs it can provide you and team)

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• Prototype Ablative Jevonite Hardpoints (+100 Hull Skill for 15 minutes, can be activated from inventory)

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• Hur’q Swarmers

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Tac Consoles

Phased Space Membrane

The Essential Uni Consoles

• Console - Universal - Ferrofluid Hydraulic Assembly Mk XV
• (T1 Terran Rep)
• Reduces CD between firing torps

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• Console - Universal - Ordnance Accelerator Mk XV
• (T1 Gamma Rep)
• Reduces CD between firing Mines
• Decent Mines and Projectile Dmg boosts

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Nice to Slot Consoles

• Tricobalt Tear Launcher (From T6 Steamrunner)
• Decent passives and the clicky does a good bit of damage vs grouped targets.
• Swarmer Matrix (Infinity LB Console Pack, very cheap on Exchange)
• Does ok damage, but really good passives, especially if you have pets
• DPRM
• You all know what this does. I’m not using it because of the type of runs I’m doing where I don’t need the survivability. You would still want to slot this going into pugs or channel runs.
• In a high-end environment on Torp boats, you’d be hitting it at same time as Phased-Space Membrane, which is already heavily saturating your bonus damage.
• Phased Space Membrane is giving up to +400% Cat 2, DPRM only gives +40%.

Other Consoles to Consider

• Immolating Phaser Lance (From T6 LB Deimos)
• Used alongside “Universal Designs”
• Very expensive combo, will cover when I get to traits.

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• Point-Defense Bombardment Warhead (From NX)
• Ok damage and good passives.

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• Any +Crit consoles you have.
• Things like the Bioneural Infusion Circuits or Altamid.

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• Any other +Projectile boosting consoles you have.

Hangar Pets

• Best in Slot: Elite Mirror Universe Shuttlecraft
• From owning a Styx or Mirror Strike Wing Escort

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Best pets for a Torp Boat w & w/o SAD

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(Source: /u/DilaZirK on Reddit, link in Description)

Specializations

• Intel Primary for the Tier 3 Flanking bonuses

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• Temporal Ops Secondary for the T1 Entropic Rider proc.

Skill Tree

Larger Picture linked in Description.

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My choices for the bottom selections are indicated by the red arrows

Personal Traits

Starship Traits

These are all traits you would really want to have on a Torp Build.

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These are the first 4 I would be slotting.

Starship Traits (Continued)

I would be picking from these for the last 2 slots.

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After these, if you need alternatives, just go for any +Crit or +Damage traits you have that would buff projectiles.

Reputation Traits

Active Space Rep

Some Important Notes (1/2)�Auto vs Manual Fire

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You can auto-fire torps, but for maximum performance, manual fire is required.

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Manual fire is needed at a higher level so you can control which torp is being fired under High Yield. And to make sure you’re firing out the correct torps under Spread.

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I have a video going over manual fire here: https://youtu.be/KlJ4XHpFXT4

Some Important Notes (2/2) �Power Levels

Weapons power does not impact Projectiles!

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Max Aux Power For Phased Space Membrane

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Dump rest into Shields in most cases.

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If you run the Soliton Experimental Weapon, then dump rest into Engines.

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Some Good Torp Ships

Promo:

• Courage Command Science Destroyer (*)
• Section 31 Command Heavy BC
• Janeway Command Science Vessel
• Tzen-Tar

LB:

• United Earth Defense Vessel (*)
• Dhailkhina Command Strike Wing Warbird (*)
• Styx Terran Dreadnought Cruiser
• Rampart

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(*) These ships have had runs over 2m DPS in high-end supported runs.

Legendary:

• Vor’Cha
• Odyssey
• Scimitar
• Glenn

Fleet / C-Store

• Fleet Malachowski
• Steamrunner
• T6 Scimitars
• Titan

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United Earth Defense Vessel – Current Record Build

Tenore’s Courage – First Over 2m Build

Fleet Malachowski

Dhailkhina Command Strike Wing Warbird

Section 31 Command Heavy BC

Voth Rampart (The Map Despawner)

Steamrunner

The End

If you have any questions or want to see more Torp Builds, join the STO Builds Discord!

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https://discord.gg/stobuilds