What [PRO] Self-Replicating Mines does
The piece carries four buffs, and every one of them applies to a Battleship fighting other players. The Apex Barrier buff is active from tier 1 and does the early work by adding a thick barrier layer that enemy fire has to burn through before it reaches your shields. The other three buffs switch on as you tier the piece up.
| Buff | Unlocks at tier | Unlock value | Max value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Increases Battleship Apex Barrier against players | 1 | 500 | 40,000 |
| Increases Battleship Apex Shred against players | 3 | 3% | 50% |
| Decreases opponent’s Shield Mitigation each round on a Battleship (cumulative) | 6 | 1% | 25% |
| Increases Battleship Isolytic Damage against players | 8 | 20% | 250% |
Values are current as of the latest game data and scale with the item’s level between unlock and max. The tier 1 barrier buff does not apply when Tal is assigned to the bridge, so plan your crew around that. Together the four buffs make your Battleship harder to crack while stripping defenses off the ship you are shooting at.
How to get [PRO] Self-Replicating Mines
You unlock Forbidden Tech through the Forbidden Tech refinery. As an Epic piece, it needs Epic Forbidden Fragments, which come from Q’s Trials and special rewards. You also need Fusion Rods, which open the Forbidden Tech slots on your ships and let you pull a piece back off a ship later. Both are refinery and store currencies rather than something you buy outright, so unlocking it is a slow build rather than a single purchase.
Upgrading [PRO] Self-Replicating Mines
There are two upgrade paths. Tiering up raises the level cap and switches on the later buffs at tiers 3, 6, and 8. Leveling up scales each buff toward its maximum. Upgrades are attempts rather than guaranteed buys: they draw on Reactors, and Probability Devices raise the odds of a successful attempt.
| Ebene | Level cap | Kosten |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Starting tier |
| 7 | 35 | 4,000 Rare Prototype Tech Tier-Up Catalyst |
| 12 | 60 | 4,125 Epic Prototype Tech Tier-Up Catalyst |
Reaching tier 12 costs 24,800 Rare and 9,075 Epic Prototype Tech Tier-Up Catalyst in total. Taking it from level 2 to the level 60 cap costs another 368,000 Rare and 815,050 Epic Prototype Tech Protomatter. The tier 3 and tier 6 unlocks are the milestones worth pushing for first, since each one adds a new buff rather than a bigger number on an old one.
Best ships and uses for [PRO] Self-Replicating Mines
Slot this on the Battleship you take into PvP. Every buff reads either “on a Battleship” or “against players,” so it does nothing on a miner, on an armada crew, or against hostiles. The Apex Barrier and Apex Shred buffs matter most in the Apex shielding of high-level player combat, where winning the barrier trade often decides the fight. The round-by-round Shield Mitigation drop rewards longer fights, so it pairs well with a durable Battleship that can trade blows instead of ending the fight in one salvo.
[PRO] Self-Replicating Mines in Star Trek
Self-Replicating Mines come from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Facing a Dominion invasion, Miles O’Brien, Jadzia Dax, and Rom designed a minefield to seal the Bajoran wormhole and cut off enemy reinforcements. The mines were small enough to hide from sensors, and each one could replicate a neighbor the moment it detonated or was destroyed, so the field repaired itself faster than the Dominion could clear it. That self-healing net held the line early in the Dominion War. The game’s Prototype version turns the idea of an impassable, self-restoring barrier into a Battleship defense.
Is [PRO] Self-Replicating Mines worth it?
For a Battleship-focused PvP player, yes. It is an Epic piece that both hardens your own ship and tears down the enemy’s defenses, and the effects stack the longer a fight runs. If you mainly mine, grind hostiles, or run armadas, spend your Fragments elsewhere first. Push it to tier 6 for the Shield Mitigation drop, then keep leveling as materials allow.