The Section 31 Scout is a Federation faction hostile in Star Trek Fleet Command, spawning at levels 52, 54, 56, and 58 in Federation space at warp ranges from 230 to 440. It only appears as an Interceptor, so an Explorer is the ship to bring. Kills drop 5★ Broken Interceptor Parts and award Romulan and Klingon reputation, at the cost of your Federation standing.
How to beat the Section 31 Scout
The Section 31 Scout spawns only as an Interceptor, so the counter is simple: bring an Explorer, which gets a natural damage and mitigation edge against Interceptors. That answer holds across all four of its levels, with nothing to swap between them. The even-level spacing matters for targeting: there is no level 53, 55, or 57 version, so pick the highest even level your Explorer handles comfortably.
It fights back with a defensive trick. Its ship ability, Plausible Deniability, recovers a share of its total shield HP for each of the first five rounds of combat, and it scales with level: 10% at level 52, 15% at 54 and 56, and 20% at 58. Shield damage you deal early keeps healing back, so expect your real progress to come after that regeneration window closes. Sustained damage beats an opening burst here.
For crew, run a captain that boosts weapon damage against hostiles, backed by officers that add damage or mitigation. At levels 52 and up you are past cadet crews. Check the Officer Tier List for current picks, and treat any named combo as a starting point, since crews shift with the meta.
Where to find the Section 31 Scout
The Section 31 Scout keeps a small footprint: one Federation system per level, climbing from warp 230 at level 52 to warp 440 at level 58. Each hunt is a single-system camp rather than a roaming patrol route, so park in the right system and let the spawns come to you.
| Level | Warp | Systems |
|---|---|---|
| 52 | 230 | Agataylor |
| 54 | 285 | Bairbre |
| 56 | 355 | Areal |
| 58 | 440 | X6-094 |
Rewards and what it drops
Kills pay out in ship parts and faction reputation. The parts are 5★ Broken Interceptor Parts, in amounts that climb with level. The reputation side is a trade: each kill adds Romulan points and Klingon points while cutting your Federation standing, the standard pattern for faction hostiles. Farm it when you are pushing Romulan or Klingon reputation and your faction plan can absorb the Federation hit. Ship XP scales from 3,300 per kill at level 52 to 8,944 at level 58.
A note on that trade for newer players: most mid-game faction strategies pick a side, and hunting another faction’s ships is how you fund the reputation you want. If you are running a Federation-first plan, this is the wrong target; hunt in Romulan or Klingon space instead and let their patrols pay your Federation bill. If Federation reputation is the one you have chosen to sacrifice, the Section 31 Scout pays twice per kill, with the Romulan gain roughly double the Klingon gain.
| Drop | What it is |
|---|---|
| 5★ Broken Interceptor Parts | Rare parts for high-level ship building and upgrades; 169–1,101 per kill |
| Federation Points | Negative reputation; kills lower your Federation standing, by up to roughly 331,200 at the top end |
| Romulan Points | Positive Romulan reputation; 53,520–176,640 per kill |
| Klingon Points | Positive Klingon reputation; 26,760–88,320 per kill |
Section 31 Scout stats
Stats climb steeply with level; the rows below anchor the bottom, middle and top of the range.
| Level | Total strength | Hull HP | Shield HP | Attack | Defense | Ship XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52 | 23,054,993 | 11,711,889 | 12,883,079 | 5,728,239 | 5,029,270 | 3,300 |
| 56 | 127,141,982 | 66,337,608 | 72,971,376 | 32,445,465 | 25,042,025 | 7,070 |
| 58 | 211,843,307 | 112,522,353 | 123,774,601 | 55,034,245 | 38,660,585 | 8,944 |
Section 31 in Star Trek
Section 31 is Starfleet’s deniable black-ops branch, named for a clause in the original Starfleet Charter that permits extraordinary measures in times of extreme threat. It surfaced in Deep Space Nine, where operative Luther Sloan tried to recruit Dr. Bashir and the organization engineered the disease that nearly wiped out the Founders. It also appears in Star Trek: Discovery as a uniformed intelligence agency gone badly wrong, and its methods drive the plot of Star Trek Into Darkness. An organization built on secrecy makes a fitting namesake for a scout ship you are hunting down in Federation space.
Is the Section 31 Scout worth grinding?
Yes, in the mid-50s window. It concentrates 5★ Broken Interceptor Parts and a clean Romulan-plus-Klingon reputation gain into four predictable systems, and the one-system-per-level layout makes it an easy camp target. The Federation penalty is the real cost, so grind it only when that fits your faction plan. Match your warp to the level you can beat, bring the Explorer, and settle in.