The Orion Syndicate is Star Trek Fleet Command’s criminal network, and in gameplay terms it is the odd one out among the factions. It has no reputation ladder, no faction locks and no standing you can lose. What it has instead is a personal progression track, the Syndicate, which unlocks at level 10. Once it does, the Syndicate icon appears in the top left of your screen, and that is where the Syndicate menu lives.
The track runs 65 levels. You bank Syndicate XP, your Syndicate level climbs, and each level adds permanent account-wide rewards: stat buffs, daily goal multipliers, officer shards and extra officer presets. Reaching level 65 takes 280,550,000 Syndicate XP in total.
Who the Orions are
In the game’s own telling, the Orion Syndicate is the broker sitting between Independents and passing traders at the centre of Independent space. Their organised crime operation is treated as something Starfleet cannot control, which has let the Orions become the dominant power in the neutral pockets between the three galactic superpowers. Their neighbouring rivals, the Nausicaans and Rigelians, are not pleased about it.
That position explains where you meet them. Orion ships turn up in neutral space rather than inside Federation, Klingon or Romulan territory, and they answer to nobody you can negotiate with.
Why the Syndicate is not a normal faction
Federation, Klingon and Romulan reputation moves up and down depending on who you shoot, and dropping too low gets your ships attacked in their space. None of that applies here.
Syndicate progress belongs to your account rather than to a diplomatic relationship. The benefits stay with you regardless of which alliance you fly with or which factions you have angered, and nothing you do can take a Syndicate level back. That makes it closer to a research tree than to the faction reputation system, even though the game files it under factions.
Syndicate XP needed per level
These are the cumulative Syndicate XP totals for milestone levels and what each of those levels hands out. Level 2 needs only 2,500 XP, level 10 needs 67,000, and the curve steepens sharply after level 45: level 46 alone needs 2.3 million more XP than level 45.
| Syndicate level | Syndicate XP needed | Rewards at that level |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 2,500 | +10 Ghrush Shards; +10% Resource Production; +10% Resource Protection |
| 5 | 17,000 | Unlock Frame – Syndicate I; +2% Gas Mining; +2% Ore Mining; +2% Crystal Mining; Bonus Daily Goal Rewards – 1.5x Resources; +15 Ghrush Shards and +1 Daily Ghrush Shard |
| 10 | 67,000 | +25 Ghrush Shards; +3% Gas Mining; +3% Ore Mining; +3% Crystal Mining; Bonus Daily Goal Rewards – 1.5x Frequency Modulators |
| 15 | 173,000 | +50 Ghrush Shards; +1 Officer Preset; +2% Officer Attack; +2% Officer Defense; +2% Officer Health; Bonus Daily Goal Rewards – 1.25x Faction |
| 20 | 460,000 | +100 Ghrush Shards; +1 Officer Preset; +2% Faction Reputation; +2% Ship XP; +3% Repair Cost Efficiency; Bonus Daily Goal Rewards – 1.5x Faction |
| 25 | 1,200,000 | +150 Ghrush Shards; +1 Officer Preset; +6% Damage; +6% HHP and +10% SHP; Bonus Daily Goal Rewards – 1.75x Faction; +1 Multi-purpose Exocomp; Unlock Frame – Syndicate V |
| 30 | 2,645,000 | +110 Mavery Shards; +6% Repair Cost Efficiency and +10% Scrapping Speed; +5% Damage to Stations; Bonus Daily Goal Rewards – 2x Faction; +1 Officer Preset; Unlock Frame – Syndicate VI |
| 35 | 4,750,000 | +270 Mavery Shards; Unlock Avatar – Syndicate I; +10% Piercing and +20% Mitigation; +10% Repair Cost Efficiency; Bonus Daily Goal Rewards – 2.25x Faction |
| 40 | 7,430,000 | +1 Fleet Commander slot; +10% Officer Attack; +10% Officer Defense; +10% Officer Health; Bonus Loyalty Chest Rewards – Crystal, Gas and Ore; +6,560 Protomatter; +2,280 Tier-Up Catalysts; +40 Reactors; +550 Trial Bells |
| 45 | 11,000,000 | Unlock Avatar – Undercover Pirate Tendi; +10% Cargo Capacity; +10% Repair Cost Efficiency; +25% Warp Speed; Bonus Daily Goal Rewards – 16x Resources; +6,740 Protomatter; +2,360 Tier-Up Catalysts; +40 Reactors; +550 Trial Bells |
| 50 | 22,960,000 | +150 Phellun Shards; +15% Officer Attack; +15% Officer Defense; +15% Officer Health |
| 55 | 39,050,000 | Unlock Avatar – Syndicate II; +1000 Phellun Shards (Rank 5 guaranteed); +2% Isolytic Damage; +2% Isolytic Defense; +10% Weapon Damage |
| 60 | 145,550,000 | +220 SNW T’Pring Shards; +250 Apex Barrier in PvP; +20 Apex Barrier in PvE (Does not affect Armadas); Bonus Daily Goal Rewards – 2x Resources |
| 65 | 280,550,000 | +1050 SNW T’Pring Shards (Rank 5 guaranteed); Unlock Fleet Commander Seat; Unlock Avatar – SNW T’Pring; +4% Isolytic Damage; +4% Isolytic Defense; +20% Weapon Damage |
The full 65-level table, with every level’s rewards and the Emerald Chain alliance track that sits alongside it, is on the Syndicate and Emerald Chain page.
What affiliating with the Syndicate gives you
The rewards fall into a few groups, and they compound the longer you play.
- Officer shards. Early levels hand out Ghrush shards, with a full unlock at level 7, and later levels move on to Mavery, Phellun and SNW T’Pring shards.
- Permanent stat buffs that apply account-wide, including piercing, mitigation, officer stats, hull and shield health and warp speed.
- Daily goal multipliers on resources and faction reputation. This is the one that quietly matters most, because it scales everything you already do each day.
- Officer presets and, later, fleet commander slots.
The faction reputation bonus deserves a mention of its own. Levels 20, 22 and 24 add +2%, +3% and +5% Faction Reputation, and levels 38, 39, 41 and 43 add further Federation, Romulan and Klingon faction points. If you are grinding toward a faction lock, a higher Syndicate level makes every kill count for more.
Officer presets from the Syndicate
Extra officer presets, the saved crew setups you swap between ships, come from the Syndicate. 24 Syndicate levels each add one: 4, 9, 12, 15, 17, 20, 22, 25, 27, 30, 32, 34, 38, 42, 47, 49, 51, 53, 54, 57, 59, 61, 63 and 64. Level 59 also adds a fleet preset, and levels 40 and 65 add fleet commander slots.
If you run several fleets and keep re-seating the same officers, the presets alone are a reason to keep your Syndicate level moving.
Orion hostiles
Orion ships show up as hostiles across neutral space. They are ordinary grinding targets rather than anything Syndicate-specific, and killing them does not change your Syndicate level.
| Hostile | Levels | Hull | Systems | Cargo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orion Slaver | 5 to 52 (10 levels) | Explorer, Interceptor | 61 | 4★ Broken Interceptor Parts, 5★ Broken Explorer Parts, Parsteel |
| Orion Traitor | 9 to 16 (8 levels) | Explorer | 56 | Tritanium |
| Orion Marauder | 25, 26, 27, 40, 41, 42 | Battleship, Explorer, Interceptor | 3 | 4★ Broken Battleship Parts, 4★ Broken Explorer Parts, 4★ Broken Interceptor Parts, Tritanium |
| Lost Orion Slaver | 25 to 58 (12 levels) | Explorer | 85 | 4★ Broken Explorer Parts, Tritanium |
| Orion Syndicate Thug | 38 | Battleship, Explorer, Interceptor | 1 | Dilithium, Parsteel, Tritanium |
The Orion Traitor is the one you will meet in Orion itself, a level 12 neutral system at warp 8. The Orion Syndicate Thug appears as a level 38 target in a single system, Veridian, and the Orion Marauder is limited to three systems including Alnilam. The Orion Slaver and Lost Orion Slaver are the widespread ones, found across dozens of systems.
Orion ships and technology
The Orion Corvette is the Syndicate battleship, and the mission The Orion Corvette is where its story starts.
Three pieces of Syndicate technology also appear in the Forbidden and Chaos Tech lines:
Is it worth engaging with?
Yes, and there is no real argument against it, because there is no downside. The Syndicate costs you nothing in standing with anyone else, cannot be lost, and its multipliers apply to activity you are doing anyway.
The honest caveat is pace. Syndicate levels come slowly, and the early ones give little on their own. Treat it as something that builds in the background rather than a track you grind directly, and check the level table before spending anything to speed it up.
Where to go next
The factions page indexes every faction in the game and which of them have stores and reputation you can build. For the factions where standing actually moves, see Federation, Klingon and Romulan.
