Who Dixon Hill is in Star Trek Fleet Command
Dixon Hill is a rare Science officer in the Holodeck group, aligned with the Federation. He is built around one job: mining. His below-decks ability speeds up how fast your ship pulls resources, and his bridge ability protects a parked miner when another player tries to knock you off a node.
He comes with a catch that surprises new players. His captain seat does nothing. The On a Case captain maneuver gives no bonus at all, so Dixon Hill belongs on the bridge or below decks, never in the captain’s chair.
That makes him a focused economy pick rather than a combat centerpiece. If you spend a lot of time mining and occasionally get jumped while doing it, he earns his slot.
Star Trek background
Dixon Hill is a fictional 1940s private detective, the lead of a series of pulp novels later adapted into films and holonovels. In Star Trek lore he was a childhood hero of Jean-Luc Picard, who programmed a holodeck version of the character and played him after the Enterprise-D holodecks were upgraded in 2364.
The program drops the user into San Francisco, 1941, as a hard-boiled investigator working a city full of gangsters. Picard appears as Hill in the TNG episodes “The Big Goodbye,” “Manhunt,” and “Clues,” and again in the film Star Trek: First Contact. The writers first called him Dixon Steele and modeled him on the Humphrey Bogart detective from “In a Lonely Place” before settling on the name fans know now.
That holodeck origin is why his card and flavor text read like a noir movie instead of a starship officer. He talks about cleaning up the dirty streets of 1941, not commanding a bridge.
Role in STFC
Dixon Hill is an economy and mining officer. Everything useful he does points at gathering resources faster or surviving an attack while you gather them. He is not a hostile grinder, an armada officer, or a station defender.
His value splits across two slots. Below decks, he raises your mining speed. On the bridge, he runs a defensive ability that only triggers while you are sitting on a mining node. Because his captain seat is empty, you pair him with a real captain and use Dixon Hill for the support effect.
Captain ability and officer abilities
Captain maneuver: On a Case
This one is simple. On a Case provides no benefit. Setting Dixon Hill as captain gives your ship nothing, so always captain someone else and slot Dixon Hill into a different seat.
Officer ability: The Dixon Deflection
While defending a mining node, Dixon Hill lowers the attacker’s Shield Mitigation a little each round, and the effect stacks as the fight goes on. Shield Mitigation is the stat that reduces incoming damage to shields, so chipping it away means your shots land harder the longer you hold out. The bonus grows as you promote him. Current as of the latest game data, the per-round reduction by rank is:
| Rank | Shield Mitigation reduction per round |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5% |
| 2 | 7% |
| 3 | 10% |
| 4 | 15% |
| 5 | 20% |
The catch is in the wording: it only works while defending a mining node. If you are attacking, hunting hostiles, or fighting anywhere other than a node you are mining, the ability sits idle.
Below-decks ability: Digging the Dirt
Assigned to a below-decks slot, Dixon Hill increases your ship’s base mining speed. It starts at 30% at rank 1 and scales with promotion up to 120% at rank 5. Below-decks abilities run in the background without taking a bridge seat, so this is the cleanest way to use him on a dedicated mining ship while stronger officers handle the bridge.
Where Dixon Hill shines
Three situations make him worth fielding:
- On a dedicated mining ship below decks, where the mining speed boost shortens every gas, ore, and crystal run.
- On the bridge of a miner in contested space, where other players raid occupied nodes. The Dixon Deflection stacks each round, so the longer an attacker stays on you, the worse their shields perform.
- For early and mid-game players building an economy crew who want faster resource income without spending on premium officers.
He is a poor fit anywhere combat happens away from a node. In armadas, hostile grinding, or open PvP, his bridge ability does nothing and his dead captain seat is a liability.
How to get Dixon Hill
Dixon Hill is collected through shards like any other officer, and you rank him up by gathering enough to promote through five ranks. The shard cost climbs at each rank, for a total of 588 shards from recruit to maximum rank.
| Rank | Shards to promote |
|---|---|
| 1 (Ensign) | 38 |
| 2 (Lt. JG) | 55 |
| 3 (Lieutenant) | 115 |
| 4 (Lt. Commander) | 155 |
| 5 (Commander) | 225 |
Shard sources rotate, so check the current store and event rotations in your game to see where he is available right now.
Traits
Dixon Hill has two character traits, and both match his economy role. You unlock Resourceful first; completing it opens up Miner. Each level costs officer XP to train, and the Miner trait gets heavy at the top, with its final level costing 8,850 XP.
| Trait | XP per level |
|---|---|
| Resourceful (3 levels) | 1,500 / 2,700 / 3,800 |
| Miner (4 levels) | 7,650 / 6,000 / 7,000 / 8,850 |
Synergies
Dixon Hill is unusual here. His class synergy bonus reads 0% for Command, Engineering, and Science, so he does not hand out the class buff most officers provide when crewed together. His one listed synergy officer is Reginald Barclay, also at 0%.
In plain terms, he is a standalone economy pick rather than a piece you build a synergy crew around. Pair him with whatever captain and bridge officer your mining ship already uses, and treat Dixon Hill as the mining-speed or node-defense add-on rather than the heart of the crew.
Frequently asked questions
Is Dixon Hill any good in STFC?
For mining, yes, in a narrow way. His below-decks mining speed boost helps on any dedicated miner, and his node-defense ability matters in contested space. Outside of mining he offers almost nothing, and his captain seat is dead, so judge him as an economy officer only.
Should I ever use Dixon Hill as captain?
No. The On a Case captain maneuver provides no benefit. Always captain a different officer and place Dixon Hill on the bridge or below decks.
What does The Dixon Deflection actually do?
While you are defending a mining node, it reduces the attacker’s Shield Mitigation each round and stacks over time, scaling from 5% at rank 1 to 20% at rank 5. It only works during node defense.
Where do you get Dixon Hill shards?
Shard availability rotates between store offers and events. Check the current store and event rotations in your game for where he is offered now.
Is Dixon Hill worth ranking up?
If you mine often, the climb to rank 5 raises his mining speed boost to 120% and his deflection to 20%, which makes the 588-shard total worthwhile. If you rarely mine, spend your resources elsewhere.
Bottom line
Dixon Hill is a specialist. He rewards players who spend real time mining and want either faster runs or a fighting chance when raided on a node. Anyone chasing combat power or a strong captain should look past him, because his strengths begin and end at the mining node.
