The Vindicator is an Independent grade 4 Epic Battleship that unlocks at Shipyard level 40. It is built for one job: soaking Armada fire and hitting back harder for having taken it. Its ship ability turns every hit it absorbs from an Armada into more weapon damage, and its in-game story has it deliberately pulling enemy fire onto itself. If you run Armadas, it earns its slot. If you do not, its best trick sits idle.
The build takes 200 blueprints. The best crew keys off the same trigger as the ship, and the Vindicator Refinery feeds its tier-ups and its own officer pool; both are covered below.
How to get the Vindicator
Building the Vindicator needs 200 blueprints and a Shipyard at level 40. Once you can start the build, the cost is 16,256,500,000 Tritanium, 7,800,000 Dilithium, and 39,400 pieces of 4★ Common Refined Ore, with a build time of 87 days 14 hours. One steady blueprint route runs through research: the Ship Commission: Vindicator node in the Ascension research tree rewards Vindicator blueprints. To research it you need a Vindicator Commission Approval, which you get by researching the U.S.S. Newton, Korinar or Pilum Commission. Because the build time runs close to three months, most players fold it into a longer plan rather than rushing it.
| Requirement | The Vindicator |
|---|---|
| Blueprints | 200 |
| Building | Shipyard level 40 |
| Build cost | 16,256,500,000 Tritanium, 7,800,000 Dilithium, 39,400 4★ Common Refined Ore |
| Build time | 87d 14h |
| Max tier / level | Tier 18 / level 90 |
The Vindicator ability
The Vindicator’s ship ability is Unfettered Revenge. Each time an Armada hits the ship, it gains a weapon damage boost for the next 5 rounds, and those boosts stack on top of each other. Weapons that fire multiple shots trigger the ability only once per attack. At ship level 1 the boost is 5%, and it climbs with the ship to 750% at level 90. The higher the ship’s level, the more each stack is worth, so a well-leveled Vindicator can build a punishing damage bonus over a long Armada fight. Ship abilities are always on, so there is nothing to activate. The practical read is simple: put the Vindicator where it will get hit by Armada fire, survive the early rounds, and let the stacked damage swing the fight. That matches the ship’s whole design, which leans on drawing enemy fire and feeding on the damage it takes.
| Ship level | Unfettered Revenge per Armada hit |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5% |
| 10 | 50% |
| 25 | 125% |
| 40 | 250% |
| 45 | 300% |
| 90 | 750% |
The Vindicator active ability
The Vindicator also has an activatable ability, Taunt, which you trigger yourself rather than leaving on. When you use it, opponent Armadas are forced to target the Vindicator for 20 rounds from the start of combat. Taunt runs on a cooldown that gets shorter as you tier the ship up, and at tier 18 the cooldown reaches zero while the taunt lasts its longest. At tier 18 a single activation lasts 61 minutes 30 seconds. This is the setup move for the whole ship. Pull the Armada’s fire onto the Vindicator, then let its survivability and stacking Unfettered Revenge do the work while the rest of your fleet stays clear.
Taunt is not a formality: most of the Vindicator’s research only works while it is active. The ship’s Starships-tree nodes raise its base damage against Armadas (with separate nodes for Federation, Klingon, Romulan and Solo Armadas), its shield mitigation against Armadas, and its shield HP every round against Armadas, all while Taunt is running. Vindicator Ultimate Plating adds Isolytic Defense against grade 6 Solo Armadas under Taunt. Other nodes raise its base shield HP, warp range and hazard resistance at all times. Interdimensional Data is the material that upgrades this research, and the Starships research guide covers the tree.
Stats and tiers
These are base values in the current game version. Research, buffs, and officers raise them in play.
| Tier | Warp (speed / range) | Impulse | Cargo (protected) | Shield HP | Hull HP | Health (displayed) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 4.66 / 110 | 110 | 400,000 (24,000) | 477,410 | 360,080 | 418,745 |
| Tier 9 | 7.25 / 340 | 110 | 1,960,000 (136,000) | 2,342,855 | 1,741,496 | 2,042,175 |
| Tier 18 | 9.5 / 1,750 | 110 | 10,130,000 (1,198,000) | 37,432,772 | 33,535,035 | 35,483,903 |
The climb between tiers is steep. At tier 18 the Vindicator carries tens of millions of shield and hull health, which is what lets it stand in front of an Armada long enough for its ability to pay off. Warp range also jumps from 110 at tier 1 to 1,750 at tier 18, so a maxed hull reaches most of the map in one go.
Weapons and firing pattern
Warm-up is the round a weapon first fires, and cool-down is how many rounds pass between shots after that. These are the weapon values at the top tier, tier 18.
| Weapon | Type | Shots | Warm-up | Cool-down | Damage | Crit chance | Crit damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weapon 1 | Energy | 2 | 1 | 1 | 211,563–261,503 | 10% | 150% |
| Weapon 2 | Energy | 2 | 1 | 1 | 211,563–261,503 | 10% | 150% |
| Weapon 3 | Kinetic | 2 | 1 | 2 | 934,369–1,168,907 | 10% | 150% |
| Weapon 4 | Kinetic | 2 | 1 | 2 | 934,369–1,168,907 | 10% | 150% |
The two kinetic weapons hit far harder per shot than the energy pair, though they fire less often. That heavy kinetic damage is what Unfettered Revenge scales up as an Armada fight drags on.
Crew slots and officer bonus
The Vindicator opens officer slots as it levels up.
| Ship level | Officer slots |
|---|---|
| 5 | 1 |
| 10 | 2 |
| 20 | 3 |
| 35 | 4 |
| 50 | 5 |
| 65 | 6 |
| 85 | 7 |
The ship also boosts the officers you put on it, raising their attack, defense, and health. Those three bonuses are identical at every step and grow as you invest more into the ship. The ladder below shows the amount needed for each bonus.
| Amount | Bonus (attack, defense, health) |
|---|---|
| 1,500 | 50% |
| 3,000 | 100% |
| 4,875 | 150% |
| 6,750 | 200% |
| 9,000 | 250% |
| 12,000 | 300% |
| 16,500 | 350% |
| 22,500 | 400% |
| 30,000 | 450% |
| 45,000 | 500% |
Crew for the Vindicator
Because the Vindicator earns its damage by getting hit and surviving, crew it like a tank that wants the fight to last. A bridge that raises hull and shield health, reduces incoming damage, or lifts weapon damage suits it well, since more survivability means more rounds of stacked Unfettered Revenge. For Armada runs specifically, officers that help against Armada targets pull double duty. Crew picks move with the meta, so check the Officer Tier List for current recommendations before you commit shards.
Two officers are tied to this ship. The Guerilla refit adds them to the Vindicator Refinery’s officer pool, and both trigger on the same event as Unfettered Revenge. Byr Ch’Kelrer‘s bridge ability, Excessive Measures, raises Critical Damage for 4 rounds when an Armada or hostile hits your ship. Masriad Vael‘s below-decks ability, The Winning Gambit, raises Critical Hit chance for 4 rounds on the same trigger. Neither one has a captain’s maneuver, so seat Byr Ch’Kelrer on the bridge, put Masriad Vael below decks, and choose the captain from the tier list.
Vindicator refinery and refit
The Vindicator has its own refinery. Spacework Circuits are the input: you get more from the store or from the Vindicator Weekly Event, which runs for 24 hours on Thursdays. The refinery also supplies Aether Cores, which upgrade the ship’s components: Aether Core Tier 7 becomes available there at Operations 51, and Aether Core Tier 13 at Operations 61. Vindicator Officer Recruit Tokens claim officers from it, and a Fleet Commander Particle unlocks Prime Vindicator FC Acquisition, which increases Fleet Commander Acquisition rewards in the refinery by 100% of base. The ship’s components are upgraded with The Vindicator Parts.
| Refit | What it does |
|---|---|
| Guerilla | Adds officers Masriad Vael and Byr Ch’Kelrer to the Vindicator Officer Acquisition and increases the number of rolls by +1. Costs 120 Guerilla Shards to unlock. |
The Vindicator in Star Trek
The Vindicator is a game-original ship, not a vessel from any Star Trek series or film, so it has no screen history to draw on. Its background lives entirely in the game. It is an Independent battleship fitted with a new, patented technology that uses extra-dimensional interference to overload enemy sensors and make itself the primary target. It then harvests energy from the barrage that follows to power up its own weapons. The design goal reads plainly from that story: a ship meant to take punishment and give it back with interest.
Is the Vindicator worth it?
For a grade 4 Epic, the Vindicator has a clear niche rather than being a general-purpose battleship. If you run Armadas, its ability and tanky stat line make it a strong pick, and it stays useful for as long as Armada content is part of your routine. If you rarely touch Armadas, its signature ability never gets to work and a more flexible ship serves you better. Chase it when Armada damage and survivability are where you spend your time.
