The Chronophage is a Rare Chaos Tech in Star Trek Fleet Command, and it only wakes up when you are losing. In player combat, if your ship starts a round below 40% hull, it boosts your Shots for that round, patches your Shield, and cuts the enemy’s Isolytic defense. It is a comeback tool for PvP, not a hostile or mining piece, and it rewards ships that live in the danger zone.
What the Chronophage does
Every one of the Chronophage’s buffs shares the same trigger: against another player, on the round start, when your ship is below 40% hull health, the effect fires for a single round. The headline buff increases your Shots, so a ship on the ropes suddenly fires far more often for one round. Two more buffs ride the same trigger, a shield repair that buys you survivability and a cut to the opponent’s Isolytic defense that lets your own damage land harder.
| Buff | Unlocks at tier | Unlock value | Max value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Increases your Shots for 1 round | 1 | 100% | 300% |
| Repairs your Shield for 1 round | 1 | 1% | 35% |
| Decreases the opponent’s Isolytic defense for 1 round | 2 | 2.5% | 30% |
Values are current as of the latest game data and scale with the item’s level between those endpoints. Because the whole package only triggers below 40% hull, the Chronophage does nothing while you are winning cleanly and everything when a fight turns against you.
How to get the Chronophage
Chaos Tech runs on its own economy, all of it routed through the Continuum refinery. You open a Chaos Tech slot on a ship, or pull a piece back off, with Chaos Tech Fusion Rods, earned in the Continuum refinery or bought from the store. The artifact materials come from Chaos Tech Fragments, which you exchange into Chaos Tech materials in the refinery after you collect excess Chaos Tech shards. Steady Chaos Tech income is the real gate here, not any single purchase.
Upgrading the Chronophage
Tiers and levels do two different jobs. Tiering up spends Chaos Tech Tier-Up Catalyst, raises the level cap from 5 at tier 1 to 60 at tier 12, and unlocks the Isolytic defense cut once you reach tier 2. Levels then spend Chaos Tech Reactor and Chaosmatter to push every buff value toward its maximum.
| Tier | Level cap | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 5 | Starting tier (no cost) |
| Tier 7 | 35 | 9,200 Chaos Tech Tier-Up Catalyst |
| Tier 12 | 60 | 10,300 Chaos Tech Tier-Up Catalyst |
Reaching max tier costs 92,900 Chaos Tech Tier-Up Catalyst in total. Taking it from level 2 to level 60 costs 59,825 Chaos Tech Reactor and 139,900 Chaosmatter. You gather both level-up resources by defeating Assimilated El-Aurian hostiles and exchanging their loot in the Continuum refinery, or from the store.
Best ships and uses for the Chronophage
The Chronophage belongs on a PvP ship, and specifically one you expect to take punishment. Its trigger only reads your own hull, so it suits a durable battleship or a tanky brawler that spends real time under 40% health rather than a glass cannon that either wins fast or explodes. The shield repair and the extra Shots reward ships built to grind out long fights, and the Isolytic defense cut pairs well with a crew that leans on Isolytic damage. It has no effect against hostiles, in armadas, or while mining, so keep it for your player-versus-player loadout.
The Chronophage in Star Trek
The Chronophage is a game concept rather than a device from the screen. In-game lore calls the Chronophages “time bugs,” a creation of the Krenim, the temporal-weapon builders Voyager tangled with in the two-part “Year of Hell.” The Krenim on the show erased whole species from history with a timeship rather than any single bug, so the time bug itself is the game’s own invention. The story it tells fits their reputation: a single bite disrupts a victim’s flow through the timestream and freezes them in place, instantly and for good. It is a fitting name for a piece that stalls an opponent at the worst possible moment.
Is the Chronophage worth it?
The Chronophage is a specialist. If you play a lot of PvP with a durable ship and you already run Chaos Tech, it is a strong comeback piece that turns your weakest rounds into your most dangerous ones. If you rarely fight other players, or your ships win before they ever drop below 40% hull, your Chaos Tech materials are better spent elsewhere. For a committed PvP player, push it up in tiers for the Isolytic cut and level it as materials allow.