Who is Jack Ransom in STFC?
Jack Ransom is the brash, overconfident first officer of the U.S.S. Cerritos from Star Trek: Lower Decks, and in Star Trek Fleet Command he shows up as an epic Federation Science officer in the Explorer Strike Team group. His tag line in the game is the same one he uses on the show: setting his fists to stun.
If you crew him, you are crewing him for a single, narrow purpose. He buffs Isolytic Cascade damage on Explorers in player-versus-player combat, and that is the whole pitch. He is not a captain, he is not a station defender, and he is not a hostile grinder. He has one job and you put him in the officer slot to do it.
That makes him a niche pick rather than a general-purpose crew member. If your account is already running Isolytic Cascade weapons on an Explorer and you fight other players, he is worth a serious look. If you are early-game and still chasing day-one progression, you can safely skip him for now.
Star Trek background
Commander Jack Ransom is the first officer of the U.S.S. Cerritos under Captain Carol Freeman in Star Trek: Lower Decks. He is voiced by Jerry O’Connell, and the writers built him as a parody of the swaggering Riker-style first officer: heavy on the chest-puff, fond of double-fist punches, and famous for what he calls his classic Jack Ransom peace brokering.
Counselor Deanna Troi reads him pretty cleanly in one episode, telling him he uses exaggerated confidence to mask an ocean of insecurity. The show keeps coming back to that idea. Ransom leads away missions that look like a walk in the park and then turn into disasters. He survives sentient tar and Galardonian rage-virus insects, always loudly.
His signature line, and the one STFC pulls into the officer ability name, comes from a Pakled boarding scene in the episode No Small Parts: “Setting my fists to stun, and my kicks to kill.” That is the whole personality in one sentence.
Role in STFC
In Star Trek Fleet Command, Jack Ransom is an Epic Federation officer in the Science class. The in-game flavor text places him with the Explorer Strike Team, which fits the ability text: he only activates on an Explorer, and only when the ship has Morale. Morale is a state Explorers gain after winning a fight, so Ransom is built around already winning and then pressing the advantage.
The Isolytic Cascade tag is the most important part of his identity. Isolytic Cascade is a late-game damage system that multiplies your total damage output, including Isolytic Damage itself, plus research and other bonuses. Ransom does not introduce Isolytic Cascade to a crew that lacks it. He scales up the damage of a crew that is already built around it. Treat him as an amplifier, not a starter.
Because the buff is limited to one round and triggers only against player targets, Ransom is a PvP officer first and last. He does nothing useful against hostiles, armadas, or stations. If your fights are mostly NPC content, he sits on the shelf.
Captain ability: Loyal to a Fault
Ransom’s captain ability is called Loyal to a Fault, and the in-game description is honest about what it does: nothing. Equipping Jack Ransom as the captain of a ship provides no benefit. The rank-1 value is 0 percent, and the per-rank progression is flat zero all the way up. There is no hidden upside at higher promotions.
The takeaway is simple: do not put Jack Ransom in the captain seat. Every other captain you own beats him there, because every other captain has an ability and he does not. He is an officer-slot character only.
Officer ability: Setting My Fists to Stun
Setting My Fists to Stun is where Ransom earns his shards. On an Explorer with Morale, at the start of a round, he increases your Isolytic Cascade damage for 1 round when the target is another player. The buff scales with rank-up.
As of the latest data, the rank-5 version of the ability lands a 130 percent increase to Isolytic Cascade damage for that one round, with lower percentages at lower ranks. Because Isolytic Cascade is a multiplier on top of your other damage modifiers, a buff this large can be the difference between cracking a target hull and stalling out, especially on the opening exchange when both sides usually still have shields up.
Two things are worth keeping in mind. First, the ability fires once per round, not constantly, so the rest of your crew still needs to do the heavy lifting between activations. Second, it does nothing against hostiles, armadas, or stations, which means a Ransom officer slot is dead weight in non-PvP content. Swap him out before you run armadas.
Where Jack Ransom shines
The clearest use case is a PvP Explorer crew built around Isolytic Cascade. If you already field a captain who buffs Isolytic Cascade or Isolytic Damage, Ransom slots in as a multiplier and gives that crew an opening-round damage spike against other players. He fits naturally into late-game PvP rotations where Explorers are doing the brawling.
He can also help in mirror matches against other Isolytic-focused Explorer crews, where the first crew to land a clean high-damage round usually dictates the rest of the fight. If both sides are evenly matched on shields and hulls, the side with Ransom on the bench has an extra one-round push to lean on.
Outside of those situations he loses most of his value. There is no reason to crew him for hostile grinding, armadas, station defense, or mining. If your Explorer is mostly farming NPCs, leave him in the barracks.
How to get Jack Ransom shards
The total shard cost from recruitment through max rank is 1,500: 100 at rank 1, 100 at rank 2, 200 at rank 3, 300 at rank 4, and 800 to push from rank 4 to rank 5. The rank 5 push is by far the heaviest, which is typical for Lower Decks crew.
STFC rotates shard sources for Lower Decks officers between event stores, faction-flagged offers, and recruit pulls, and the rotation changes from one arc to the next. Rather than chase a stale list, check the current event and faction store availability in-game before you commit resources. If you are short on shards and Ransom is not actively offered, do not burn currencies trying to force it.
Synergies
Jack Ransom sits in synergy group 34 with Weyoun, Ikat’ika, and Pon. Class-synergy bonuses on this group all read as 0 percent because synergy bonuses are tied to the captain’s ability, and Jack Ransom has no captain ability. If you put Ransom in the captain seat, his group-mates gain nothing from sitting on the bridge with him. Run a different group-34 captain (or a different captain entirely) and use Ransom as an officer.
Functionally, the crews you want him on are not built around his synergy group at all. They are built around Isolytic Cascade damage on an Explorer with Morale. Pair him with a captain who buffs damage, Morale, or Isolytic systems on Explorers, and a third officer that complements that captain. The specific captain choice depends on what you have unlocked.
Frequently asked questions
Is Jack Ransom any good?
He is good in a narrow lane: PvP Explorer crews that already run Isolytic Cascade. Outside that lane, he does nothing useful. If you do not have an Isolytic-focused Explorer build, he sits on the bench.
Can I use Jack Ransom as captain?
No. His captain ability Loyal to a Fault is a placeholder that provides no benefit. The values are 0 percent at every rank. Put any other captain in that seat and you are better off.
Does his ability work on hostiles or armadas?
No. Setting My Fists to Stun specifies that the target must be a player. It does not fire against hostiles, armadas, or station structures, so swap him out for content that is not PvP.
What ship is Jack Ransom best on?
Any Explorer that can hold Morale through the opening round and that you are already building around Isolytic Cascade damage. The ability does not care which Explorer hull, only that it is an Explorer and that it has Morale when the ability checks.
Is he worth pushing to rank 5?
Only if you actively run a PvP Isolytic Cascade Explorer crew and want the biggest one-round damage spike that crew can land. The jump from rank 4 to rank 5 costs 800 shards on its own, which is more than the entire rank-1 through rank-4 push combined. Make sure the rest of that crew is at rank 5, or close to it, before you spend the shards.
Closing
Jack Ransom is a specialist. If you fight other players in an Explorer built around Isolytic Cascade, he is a sharp one-round damage spike that earns his slot. If you do not, he is the rare epic officer who is safe to skip until your PvP setup catches up to him.