The U.S.S. Athena is an Academy-class Explorer, a grade 6 Epic ship in the neutral (Independent) faction. It is a specialist. Almost everything it does keys off two jobs: hunting Venari Ral pirates and backing your team in Wave Defense. You unlock the build at Shipyard level 61, and it runs up to tier 15 and level 75. If you play late-game Academy content, the Athena earns its slot. If you don’t, it will mostly sit in dock.
How to get the U.S.S. Athena
The Athena is a built ship. You need 200 blueprints and a Shipyard at level 61 before you can start construction.
The build cost is 315 Σ-Dilithium, 173,000 Σ-Tritanium, 20,790 6★ Common Refined Gas, and 11,700 6★ Common Refined Ore. Construction takes about 3 days and 22 hours. The game data lists the blueprint requirement but not where the blueprints come from, so check the current in-game events and stores to see how they are being handed out.
U.S.S. Athena ability
The Athena’s headline passive is Athena’s Fury, which raises its weapon damage against Venari Ral hostiles. Ship abilities are always active, so this applies automatically whenever the Athena fights that faction. At ship level 1 the bonus is 8,500,000%, and it climbs to 2,000,000,000% by level 75. Those numbers look wild out of context, but they only apply against Venari Ral, which is the whole point. The Athena is a hard counter to one enemy, not a general damage dealer.
Four more passives back it up, all keyed to the same fight. Athena’s Revenge raises Critical Mitigation against Venari Ral, from 140,000 at level 1 to 2,000,000 at level 75. Athena’s Valor adds 10,000,000 Apex Barrier against Venari Ral. Athena’s Wrath adds 15,000,000 Apex Barrier against Academy Drones in Wave Defense. Athena’s Solace makes the ship immune to the Venari Ral’s Programmable Matter ability, which is what lets it stand in against them where other ships fold.
U.S.S. Athena active ability
The Athena also carries two abilities you trigger yourself, both built around Wave Defense. Unlike the always-on passives above, these run on a cooldown that the ship’s research shortens as you invest in it.
Amplify raises Apex Barrier and applies an Amplified state to every player ship in the system during Wave Defense for 30 seconds. While Amplified is up, each Simulation Hack research node you have finished in the Starship tree adds its own Wave Defense bonus, covering Critical Damage, Isolytic Damage, Hull Repair, Apex Shred, and Apex Barrier. In practice, Amplify is a team buff: the more of that research you have done, the more it hands everyone in the fight.
Regenerate restores a share of the Athena’s own maximum hull health, starting at 25% and scaling with the Regeneration Boost research node. It is a survival button for the ship itself during a long defense.
Stats and tiers
Base values from the current game data; research, buffs and officers raise them in play. The Athena runs 15 tiers, and here are three anchor points along the way.
| Tier | Warp (speed / range) | Impulse | Cargo (protected) | Shield HP | Hull HP | Health (displayed) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7.2 / 900 | 100 | 110,000 (5,500) | 21,092 | 20,463 | 20,778 |
| 8 | 10.2 / 1,280 | 100 | 148,000 (7,400) | 508,838 | 443,968 | 476,403 |
| 15 | 12.1 / 2,700 | 100 | 1,050,000 (52,500) | 65,612,123 | 59,647,385 | 62,629,754 |
Weapons and firing pattern
Warm-up is the combat round a weapon first fires; cool-down is how many rounds it waits between shots after that. These are the Athena’s weapons at max tier 15.
| Weapon | Type | Shots | Warm-up | Cool-down | Damage | Crit chance | Crit damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Energy | 2 | 1 | 1 | 10,225–11,362 | 10% | 150% |
| 2 | Energy | 1 | 1 | 2 | 61,337–68,155 | 10% | 150% |
| 3 | Kinetic | 1 | 2 | 2 | 61,337–68,155 | 10% | 150% |
Athena’s Fury applies to weapon damage across the board, so it lifts all three of these against Venari Ral rather than favoring one.
Crew slots and officer bonus
The Athena opens officer seats as it levels up.
| Ship level | Officer slots |
|---|---|
| 5 | 1 |
| 10 | 2 |
| 20 | 3 |
| 35 | 4 |
| 55 | 5 |
| 65 | 6 |
| 70 | 7 |
The ship also boosts the officers you seat on it. The bonus is the same for their attack, defense and health, and it steps up a ladder as the ship’s total officer stat contribution grows.
| Amount | Bonus (attack / defense / health) |
|---|---|
| 56,000 | 650% |
| 112,000 | 1,300% |
| 182,000 | 1,950% |
| 252,000 | 2,600% |
| 336,000 | 3,250% |
| 448,000 | 3,900% |
| 616,000 | 4,550% |
| 840,000 | 5,200% |
| 1,120,000 | 5,850% |
| 1,680,000 | 6,500% |
U.S.S. Athena refits
The Athena has two refits, each unlocked with 120 shards.
| Refit | What it does |
|---|---|
| Programmable Matter | Increases the Athena’s Isolytic Damage against Venari Ral hostiles by 25% at the start of combat, and adds an extra pull of Athena Parts and Data Modules in the Academy Refinery. |
| Venari Ral Infiltrator | Increases the Athena’s Impulse Speed by 20. |
Crew for the U.S.S. Athena
Because the Athena is a Venari Ral and Wave Defense ship, its crew should follow that role rather than a generic damage build. In the Venari Ral fight, the ship’s own abilities already handle the damage multiplier, so your officers are there to keep it alive and to lean into Apex Barrier and mitigation. In Wave Defense, officers that add survivability and support the team pay off more than raw attack. Crews shift with the meta, so use the current picks on our Officer Tier List to fill the seats.
The U.S.S. Athena in Star Trek
The Athena is a game-original design, so it has no screen appearance to draw on. Its story lives inside Star Trek Fleet Command. In the game’s telling, the Academy-class Athena is a mobile campus and diplomatic ship from the 32nd century, the era after the Burn. Under Chancellor Nahla Ake it fought the Furies and the Venari Ral pirates, then was pulled into the past, leaving the ship’s Doctor and a group of cadets to hold off the Venari Ral and their leader, Deidamia. The ship you build is a reconstruction from the original Athena’s blueprints, kept in service to keep those pirates in check.
Is the U.S.S. Athena worth it?
For a grade 6 ship, the Athena is narrow by design. It is close to essential if you fight Venari Ral or run Wave Defense at Operations 61 and up, where its counters and team buff do work no general ship can match. Outside those two settings it has little to offer, since its whole kit points at specific enemies. Chase it if you are deep into Academy content, and hold off if you are not there yet.