The U.S.S. Hydra is a grade 4 Rare Federation survey ship built for one job: pulling gas out of the ground faster. Its Gas Mining Laser raises your gas mining rate as the ship levels, and it carries a large protected cargo hold to keep your haul safe if you get hit. You unlock the build at Shipyard level 41. If you farm gas at any real scale, the Hydra earns its slot.
How to get the U.S.S. Hydra
The Hydra is a built ship. You need 150 blueprints, a Shipyard at level 41, and a prerequisite ship research before construction opens. The build cost from the current game Daten is:
- 6,000 4★ Gemeinsame Raffiniertes Gas
- 17,500,000 Tritanium
- 1,400,000 Dilithium
- 2,100 4★ Common Refined Ore
Build time runs about 85 days at base, before any construction-speed bonuses. Where the blueprints show up rotates with in-game offers and events, so check your current stores rather than counting on a fixed source.
U.S.S. Hydra ability
The Hydra’s ship ability is Gas Mining Laser, and it is always active. It increases your gas mining rate by 120% at ship level 1, climbing to 500% at level 60. That is a straight multiplier on how fast the ship strips a gas node, so every level you add pays off in raw throughput. On a dedicated gas ship, this is the whole point: you park it, and it clears nodes far quicker than a general-purpose miner.
U.S.S. Hydra active ability
The Hydra also has a player-triggered ability called Automated Defenses. When it is active, the ship gains combat effectiveness while attached to a mining node, which makes it harder for a raider to grab an easy kill on your parked miner. You turn it on yourself, and it runs on a cooldown that shortens as the ship tiers up. Use it when you are mining in contested space or expect a hit; leave it off when you are safely inside your own territory.
Stats and tiers
These are base values from the current game data. Research, buffs, and officer bonuses raise them in play.
| Ebene | Warp (speed / range) | Impulse | Cargo (protected) | Shield HP | Hull HP | Health (displayed) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 / 75 | 68 | 800,000 (8,200) | 12,970 | 23,700 | 18,335 |
| 6 | 3.8 / 125 | 68 | 1,140,000 (16,500) | 39,580 | 72,330 | 55,955 |
| 12 | 4.8 / 230 | 68 | 1,750,000 (45,000) | 150,990 | 275,900 | 213,445 |
The protected cargo figure matters most here. At max tier the Hydra shields 45,000 units of your haul from being stolen, which softens the loss if someone destroys it mid-run.
Weapons and firing pattern
Warm-up is the round a weapon first fires; cool-down is how many rounds pass between shots after that. The Hydra is a miner, not a warship, so it carries a single weapon. Values shown are at max tier 12.
| Waffe | Typ | Shots | Warm-up | Cool-down | Damage | Crit chance | Crit damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waffe 1 | Energie | 1 | 1 | 1 | 33,004–40,338 | 10% | 150% |
Do not plan to win fights with this. The weapon exists so the Hydra can defend itself a little, not so it can hunt.
Crew slots and officer bonus
The Hydra opens officer slots as it levels:
| Ship level | Officer slots |
|---|---|
| 5 | 1 |
| 10 | 2 |
| 20 | 3 |
| 35 | 4 |
| 55 | 5 |
The ship also boosts your Offiziere‘ stats as it progresses. Attack, defense, and health all get the same bonus, stepping up the ladder below.
| Officer stat total | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 600 | 35% |
| 1,200 | 70% |
| 1,950 | 105% |
| 2,700 | 140% |
| 3,600 | 175% |
| 4,800 | 210% |
| 6,600 | 245% |
| 9,000 | 280% |
| 12,000 | 315% |
| 18,000 | 350% |
U.S.S. Hydra refits
The Hydra has two refits you unlock with ship shards:
| Nachrüstung | What it does |
|---|---|
| U.S.S. Hydra Refit | Standard ship refit for the Hydra. Costs 80 shards to unlock. |
| Hydra Auto Defense | Unlocks the Automated Defenses ability. With it active, the survey ship gains a large jump in combat power against players while attached to a mining node. Costs 120 shards to unlock. |
The Hydra also has a skin refit that adds an ore mining bonus, so with the skin on you can point it at ore nodes as well as gas and still pull a bonus rate.
Crew for the U.S.S. Hydra
Crew a survey ship for what mining ships actually need: officers that raise your mining rate, officers that protect cargo, and, in rough space, officers that help the ship survive a hit while parked. The captain slot should carry your best mining-rate or protected-cargo boost, with the two bridge seats backing up the same job. You are optimizing throughput and safety, not combat.
Because the best mining officers shift as new ones release, check the current officer tier list for live picks. Crews change with the meta, so treat any single recommendation as a starting point rather than a fixed answer.
The U.S.S. Hydra in Star Trek
The Hydra is a game-original design, not a ship from any Star Trek series or film, so its story comes from Star Trek Fleet Befehl itself. In game lore it is the Federation’s answer to Klingon raids on their mining Operationen. The ship is built from three conjoined saucer sections that can separate on a moment’s notice. Only the rearmost saucer has full nacelles, but the other two carry small, near-silent impulse engines so each section can slip away on its own if the ship is attacked. The name fits the trick: so long as one section survives, the Hydra keeps going.
Is the U.S.S. Hydra worth it?
For a grade 4 miner, the Hydra is a strong pick if gas is your bottleneck, since the Gas Mining Laser and its large protected hold do exactly what a farming ship should. It is not a combat ship and never will be, so judge it purely as a gas engine. The data marks it scrappable from Operations level 53, so once you outgrow it you can feed it back for parts. Chase it if you mine gas heavily; skip it if you already have a higher-grade miner covering that resource.