Who Mirror Data is, in one paragraph
Mirror Data is a Rare Engineering officer from the Mirror Universe synergy group in Star Trek Fleet Command. He arrived alongside Mirror Picard as part of the Mirror Universe rollout, and he was built to do two jobs at once: hand out the Assimilate state the rest of the Mirror crew needs, and sit in the captain’s chair as a hard counter to Interceptor opponents in PvP.
If you crew Mirror Universe PvP, he is almost always on the bridge. He is the reason Mirror Picard’s Apex Barrier actually fires, and his own captain ability turns your ship into a meat wall against Interceptors when paired with the rest of the group.
Star Trek background
Mirror Data is the Terran Empire counterpart to the Lt. Commander Data most players know. He is a Soong-type android, built by Dr. Noonien Soong, but in the Mirror Universe his original role was a mining automaton rather than a Starfleet officer. The version that appears in STFC is closer to the I.S.S. Stargazer character from the Mirror Broken comic continuity than to anything on television.
In that story, Captain Jean-Luc Picard runs a cover operation to free Data from his mining duties and brings him aboard the I.S.S. Stargazer as science officer. A Stargazer mission turns up a cache of Borg components on Coridan IX. Data uses them to augment his own architecture, which becomes the canon hook for his STFC captain ability name, Self-Improvement.
The in-game flavor text adds one more beat. After Empress Kira Nerys banishes the I.S.S. Enterprise-D through an interphasic rift, Mirror Data ends up stranded in a strange new dimension and decides he is more interested in continuing his self-augmentation than in finding his way home. That mix of ruthless self-interest and android logic is the character STFC is selling.
Role in STFC
Mirror Data is a PvP officer first and last. He is not a hostile killer, an armada officer, or a mining helper. The kit only does anything against player ships.
On most crews he runs as the bridge officer rather than the captain. His officer ability supplies the Assimilate debuff that the rest of the Mirror Universe captains, Picard, Troi, and Ezri, need to activate their Apex Barriers. Without him on the bridge, Mirror Picard’s defense is mostly dead weight.
When you do put him in the captain’s chair, he changes from a debuff battery into a dedicated Interceptor counter. His captain ability gives you a flat Apex Barrier any time you fight an Interceptor player. With the full Mirror Universe synergy group behind him, that barrier can grow into one of the strongest single-class defenses in PvP.
Captain ability: Self-Improvement
Self-Improvement triggers when combat starts against an Interceptor player. It adds a flat Apex Barrier to your ship for the duration of combat. As of the latest data, the rank 1 value is 7,500 Apex Barrier.
The barrier value at later ranks scales with promotions and with the synergy buffs the rest of the Mirror Universe group provides, rather than reading cleanly off a per-rank table. The number you actually fight with depends on which Mirror officers are sitting behind him.
Two things to remember about Apex Barrier in general. First, every 100 points of Apex Barrier raises the damage your ship can absorb by about 1%, and it applies as true mitigation after every other defensive bonus. Second, the captain ability does not fire if Tal is also on the bridge, which is an unusual interaction worth checking before you build the crew.
Officer ability: Reflections
Reflections is what most Mirror Data builds are about. At the start of each combat round against a player ship, he has a chance to apply Assimilate for two rounds. The probability climbs with promotions: roughly half the time at rank 1 and a guaranteed apply by rank 5, as of the latest data.
Per-rank chance to apply Assimilate:
| Rank | Chance to apply Assimilate |
|---|---|
| 1 | 45% |
| 2 | 55% |
| 3 | 65% |
| 4 | 80% |
| 5 | 100% |
Assimilate is more than a flavor tag. While a ship is Assimilated, its officer abilities run at reduced effectiveness, so you are cutting your opponent’s bridge crew while you are activating your own Mirror Universe defenses.
Where Mirror Data shines
The clearest job is Mirror Picard support. Mirror Picard is the captain who weaponizes the Assimilate state into a big Apex Barrier and stacked isolytic offense. Without Mirror Data on the bridge to set Assimilate, that whole engine never starts. If you run any Mirror Picard PvP crew, Data sits next to him.
The second job is anti-Interceptor PvP. With Mirror Data captain and the rest of the Mirror Universe synergy group on the bridge, the captain Apex Barrier scales up into roughly the 45,000 range. That is enough to sit on an Interceptor matchup that would otherwise burn through your hit points quickly.
He also rounds out the wider Apex Barrier triangle. Mirror Troi is the anti-Explorer captain and Mirror Ezri is the anti-Battleship captain. Both still need Assimilate from someone, and Mirror Data is the cleanest source, so he ends up on those crews even when he is not the captain.
How to get Mirror Data
Mirror Data was introduced with the Mirror Universe Galaxy Expansion. Shards typically rotate through events, faction stores, and Mirror Universe content tied to that expansion. Liquid Trellium-D is the resource you use to promote and rank up Mirror Universe officers once you have him.
Check the current event and store rotations for active Mirror Universe content before you grind hard for shards, since availability shifts from update to update.
Synergies
Mirror Data belongs to the Mirror Universe synergy group. The current synergy officer list is Mirror Picard, Mirror Kira, Mirror Ezri, Mirror Troi, Mirror Uhura, and Quasi. Each of those officers boosts his captain ability when they sit behind him, and several of them also boost his officer ability when he is supporting their captain.
For PvP, the high-value pairings are:
- Mirror Picard / Mirror Data / Mirror Kira: general PvP, stacked isolytic offense, big Apex Barrier, plus Kira’s ramping shot count.
- Mirror Picard / Mirror Data / HG Worf: trades the third Mirror officer for a heavy critical-hit push behind Picard’s isolytic damage.
- Mirror Picard / Mirror Data / Phlox: stacks Phlox’s critical-hit negation under Picard’s barrier, very strong defensive crew.
- Mirror Picard / Mirror Data / Trip Tucker: Trip weakens incoming critical damage, layered over the Apex Barrier.
- Mirror Picard / Mirror Data / Carol Freeman: leans into isolytic offense; Carol’s cascade triggers on Assimilate alongside Picard’s barrier.
- Mirror Data / Mirror Troi or Mirror Ezri / Mirror Kira: Mirror Data captain for the Interceptor counter, paired with one of the other Apex Barrier captains’ crew buffs and Kira’s ramp.
His base class is Engineering, so an Engineering-heavy bridge benefits him on top of the Mirror Universe officer synergy.
Shard cost and ranking up
Promoting Mirror Data through all five ranks costs 588 shards total from recruitment through rank 5. The per-rank shard cost is 38 to reach rank 1, then 55, 115, 155, and 225 to reach each subsequent rank. The largest jumps land on the way to rank 4 and rank 5, where his Reflections ability hits the 80% and 100% Assimilate-apply tiers.
If you can only commit to one milestone, rank 5 is the one that matters. The jump from 80% to 100% on Reflections is what turns Mirror Picard from a sometimes-defense into a guaranteed first-round Apex Barrier.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mirror Data any good?
In PvP, yes. He is the linchpin officer for the entire Mirror Universe synergy group, which is why he tends to show up on every Mirror PvP crew variation rather than being optional. Outside PvP, his kit does nothing.
Where do you get Mirror Data shards?
Through Mirror Universe content tied to the expansion: events, store rotations, and occasional Mirror Universe themed offers. The exact shard source rotates, so check what is active in the events tab and the relevant faction or Mirror Universe stores before you start farming.
What ship is Mirror Data best on?
The kit cares about player matchups, not a specific ship. Put him on whatever ship the captain’s class synergy and your target want. With Mirror Picard captain, he goes on whatever Picard wants; with Mirror Data captain, he goes on a ship you want to fly into Interceptor fights.
Is he worth promoting all the way to rank 5?
If you intend to run Mirror Universe PvP, yes. Rank 5 takes Reflections from a coin flip on round 1 to a guaranteed Assimilate, which is the whole point of the officer. If you do not plan to PvP with the Mirror group, you can stop earlier or skip him.
Does his captain ability work in PvE?
Self-Improvement only triggers against an Interceptor player, so PvE hostiles do not set it off. The same is true of Reflections, which requires a player target. He is, in practice, a PvP-only officer.
Bottom line
Mirror Data is the officer who unlocks the Mirror Universe PvP package. If you are building toward that group, get him to rank 5 and treat him as a permanent fixture on the bridge. If your PvP focus is elsewhere, he sits on the shelf until a Mirror Universe event makes him cheap to pull.