The Academy Training Drone is an Academy-faction combat target that roams faction space from level 61 to 80, spawning as a Battleship, Explorer, Interceptor, or Survey hull. You find it across systems from Itraneia out to Yirohef, with warp needs that climb from 900 to 6,000. It drops 6-star and 7-star Training Merits. To beat it, bring the ship class that counters the hull variant in front of you.
How to beat the Academy Training Drone
In Star Trek Fleet Command, ship classes counter each other in a loop. Interceptors beat Battleships, Battleships beat Explorers, and Explorers beat Interceptors. Survey ships barely fight, so the Survey version of this drone is the softest kill of the four.
Because the Academy Training Drone appears as all four hull types, match your ship to the variant you are facing:
- Battleship drone: bring an Interceptor.
- Explorer drone: bring a Battleship.
- Interceptor drone: bring an Explorer.
- Survey drone: almost any warship clears it quickly.
Check the hull icon before you engage so you commit the right ship. Sending an Explorer at the Battleship drone, for example, puts you on the wrong side of the triangle and turns an easy kill into a repair bill. When you want low-risk farming, hunt the Survey variant, since it returns little fire and clears fast on almost any combat ship.
For crew, put a captain that boosts weapon damage against hostiles in the captain seat, then fill the other two seats with officers that add damage or soften incoming hits. At levels 61 and up a cadet crew no longer keeps pace, so check the current picks on the Officer Tier List. Crews shift with the meta, so treat any list as a starting point rather than a fixed answer. Whatever crew you run, mind your hull health between fights at these levels, because a bad matchup can cost real repair time.
Where to find the Academy Training Drone
The Academy Training Drone clusters by level. The lower versions, levels 61 to 72, sit in closer systems with warp needs from 900 to 1,600. From level 73 up it moves into deeper space, where the warp requirement jumps from 2,100 to 6,000. That jump matters: a ship that reaches the level 72 systems will not make the deep-space rooms without more warp range, so plan your tier around the ship you actually fly. Match your warp range to the level you want before you set out. The table below covers every level you can hunt, from 61 to 80.
| Ebene | Warp | Systeme |
|---|---|---|
| 61 | 900 | Itraneia |
| 62 | 1000 | Tegawa |
| 63 | 1100 | Nupuqep |
| 64 | 1200 | Zhroix |
| 65 | 1250 | Thalamph |
| 66 | 1300 | Dreitr |
| 67 | 1400 | Aewia |
| 68 | 1500 | Heratcha |
| 69 | 1550 | Sonum |
| 70 | 1550 | Caphonus |
| 71 | 1550 | Phemeon |
| 72 | 1600 | Miyoad |
| 73 | 2100 | Byrii |
| 74 | 3000 | Rignala |
| 75 | 3500 | Diyeoie |
| 76 | 4000 | N’Dvoh |
| 77 | 4500 | Xeaij |
| 78 | 5000 | Fazox |
| 79 | 5500 | Ekokaron |
| 80 | 6000 | Yirohef |
Rewards and what it drops
The Academy Training Drone pays out Training Merits. The lower levels drop 6-star Training Merits; the higher levels switch to 7-star Training Merits. These merits feed training tracks, so the drone is a steady source if you are working through that content. Ship XP scales with level too, climbing from about 17,600 at level 61 to roughly 118,500 at level 80, so higher kills level your ship faster.
| Ablegen | What it is |
|---|---|
| 6-star Training Merits | A training resource used to advance training tracks, dropped at levels 61 to 70. |
| 7-star Training Merits | The higher tier of the same training resource, dropped at levels 71 to 80. |
Academy Training Drone stats
Stats vary by hull variant and climb steeply with level. The anchors below use the Explorer variant at the low, middle, and top of the range, so they show the curve rather than the exact numbers on every hull. Read them as a sense of scale: total strength runs into the billions at level 61 and past 240 trillion by level 80, so your own ship power needs to keep up before you climb tiers.
| Ebene | Total strength | Hull HP | Shield HP | Angriff | Verteidigung | Ship XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 61 | 3,594,377,377 | 4,657,064,356 | 1,164,266,089 | 455,442,549 | 228,269,605 | 17,600 |
| 71 | 1,255,327,616,796 | 1,914,019,353,316 | 478,504,838,329 | 58,074,459,339 | 991,061,635 | 57,000 |
| 80 | 243,507,179,770,683 | 318,956,794,946,214 | 79,739,198,736,553 | 43,669,080,526,199 | 490,102,403,100 | 118,500 |
The Academy in Star Trek
Starfleet Academy is the training institution in San Francisco on Earth, where cadets study and drill before earning a commission. Its programs lean heavily on simulation, the best known being the Kobayashi Maru, a no-win scenario built to test character under pressure rather than to be won. Practice targets and simulated combat fit that tradition: controlled opponents that let officers rehearse tactics without real danger. The Academy Training Drone borrows the same idea inside the game, a high-level practice target that still pays out real resources when you destroy it.
Is the Academy Training Drone worth grinding?
The Academy Training Drone earns a spot in your rotation if you need Training Merits at high levels, and the Survey variant offers an easy kill for steady ship XP. The stat walls are heavy, so it suits established players more than newer ones. Practical tip: match your warp range to the level you want, then pick the hull variant your ship counters before you commit to the fight.