The U.S.S. Excelsior is an Epic, grade 5 Independent battleship in Star Trek Fleet Command, and it is a specialist. Nearly everything it does points at one target: V’ger Fighters. Its abilities pile Isolytic damage and Apex Barrier onto that matchup and switch off the Fighter’s super weapon, so it works as a purpose-built counter rather than a general warship. You unlock the build at Shipyard level 51. If you are running V’ger content it earns its slot; if you are not, it sits idle.
For crew, fill the bridge for Isolytic damage against hostiles, and keep Tal off it if you own the Enterprise-B refit. The crew section below names a pairing whose abilities work together against V’ger Fighters.
How to get the U.S.S. Excelsior
The Excelsior is a built ship. You need 200 blueprints and a Shipyard at level 51 before you can start construction. The build cost is steep, in line with a grade 5 Epic hull:
- 18,686,936,500,000 Tritanium
- 5,051,360,000 Dilithium
- 3,227,900 5★ Common Refined Ore
- 1,815,700 5★ Common Refined Crystal
Build time runs 122 days 23 hours at base, before any construction-speed research or boosts. Blueprint sources for the Excelsior rotate, so plan on gathering them through whatever channel the game is currently running it in rather than assuming a fixed store.
After the build, the Excelsior runs on its own loop. U.S.S. Excelsior Parts, which upgrade its components, come from the Challenge Refinery. Its higher tiers also need Transwarp Cores, which you can claim from Operations 61 (Tier 5), 66 (Tier 7), 71 (Tier 10) and 76 (Tier 13). U.S.S. Excelsior Experimental Research unlocks and upgrades the ship’s research in the Starships tree and comes from the U.S.S. Excelsior Strongbox in the Challenge Refinery, the store or special events.
U.S.S. Excelsior ability
The Excelsior carries two always-active ship abilities, and both are written specifically for the V’ger fight.
Pattern Delta increases the ship’s Isolytic damage against V’ger Fighters. It scales with ship level, from 500,000% at level 1 up to 1,200,000% at level 75. Isolytic is the damage type the V’ger arc leans on, so this is the ability that lets the Excelsior cut through a Fighter’s defenses.
Modulated Shield Harmonics raises the ship’s Apex Barrier against V’ger Fighters, from 500,000,000 at level 1 to 1,200,000,000 at level 75. It also disables the V’ger Fighter’s super weapon, the attack that otherwise interferes with your other ships’ weapon systems. Between the two abilities, the Excelsior survives the Fighter and stops it from crippling the rest of your fleet.
| Ship level | Pattern Delta (Isolytic damage vs V’ger Fighters) | Modulated Shield Harmonics (Apex Barrier vs V’ger Fighters) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 500,000% | 500,000,000 |
| 10 | 550,000% | 550,000,000 |
| 25 | 700,000% | 700,000,000 |
| 40 | 850,000% | 850,000,000 |
| 75 | 1,200,000% | 1,200,000,000 |
Because both abilities are always on, there is nothing to trigger. They apply the moment the Excelsior is in the fight.
U.S.S. Excelsior active ability
Separate from the always-on abilities, the Excelsior has two player-triggered actives. Each runs on a cooldown that shortens as the ship tiers up.
Decloaking Deflector uses the ship’s deflector array to reveal a hidden V’ger Fighter, forcing it to surface and attack you. You use it to pull a cloaked Fighter into a fight you control instead of waiting for it to come to you.
Enhance coordinates with your other deployed ships across the galaxy and grants them an Enhanced status. The effect grows as you unlock and upgrade Excelsior Research, so it is worth firing on a schedule once your research is moving. Treat it as a fleet-wide boost you activate rather than a combat move for the Excelsior itself.
Each Enhance activation uses U.S.S. Excelsior Energy Containment, which comes from the Challenge Refinery and drops from V’ger Fighters. The research that strengthens Enhanced covers a wide spread of content: Isolytic damage and Isolytic defense against V’ger hostiles, Apex Shred against hostiles and Armadas, Apex Barrier against hostiles (not Armadas), and Apex Shred, Apex Barrier and critical damage reduction against players away from stations. Every one of those applies to your deployed ships while Enhanced is on them, which is why the Excelsior still pays off on days you are not fighting V’ger.
Where the Excelsior fights: V’ger Fighters
V’ger Fighters are Explorer hostiles from level 51 to 80. Decloaking Deflector reveals them in V’ger systems, and each kill drops 20 U.S.S. Excelsior Energy Containment plus Broken Explorer Parts (5-star at levels 51-60, 6-star at 61-70, 7-star at 71-80). Defeating revealed Fighters also earns V’ger Antennas, which you exchange in the Challenge Refinery. Two research nodes let V’ger Daily Challenges and V’ger Assault Daily Challenges count Excelsior attacks on V’ger Fighters as well as attacks on V’ger Replicants.
Stats and tiers
Base values below are from the current game version; research, buffs, and officers raise them in play. The three rows are anchor tiers across the ship’s growth to tier 15.
| Tier | Warp (speed / range) | Impulse | Cargo (protected) | Shield HP | Hull HP | Health (displayed) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11.5 / 200 | 90 | 90,000 (5,000) | 1,000,000 | 1,200,000 | 1,100,000 |
| 8 | 12.2 / 300 | 90 | 125,000 (8,500) | 8,000,000 | 9,600,000 | 8,800,000 |
| 15 | 12.9 / 1,100 | 90 | 160,000 (12,000) | 60,000,000 | 72,000,000 | 66,000,000 |
Warp range jumps hard at the top tier, so a fully built Excelsior can reach deep systems that a lower-tier ship cannot. Impulse stays flat at 90 across every tier.
Weapons and firing pattern
Warm-up is the round a weapon first fires; cool-down is the number of rounds between shots after that. At max tier the Excelsior runs four weapons in the same damage band, split between two kinetic launchers and two energy banks.
| Weapon | Type | Shots | Warm-up | Cool-down | Damage | Crit chance | Crit damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weapon 1 | Kinetic | 2 | 1 | 2 | 608,000–729,600 | 10% | 150% |
| Weapon 2 | Kinetic | 2 | 1 | 2 | 608,000–729,600 | 10% | 150% |
| Weapon 3 | Energy | 3 | 1 | 1 | 608,000–729,600 | 10% | 150% |
| Weapon 4 | Energy | 3 | 1 | 1 | 608,000–729,600 | 10% | 150% |
The two energy banks fire more shots and reload a round faster than the kinetic launchers, so most of the Excelsior’s steady damage comes from them, with the kinetic launchers adding heavier, slower hits.
Crew slots and officer bonus
The Excelsior opens its first officer slot at ship level 5 and works up to seven slots by level 55.
| Ship level | Officer slots |
|---|---|
| 5 | 1 |
| 10 | 2 |
| 20 | 3 |
| 30 | 4 |
| 40 | 5 |
| 45 | 6 |
| 55 | 7 |
On top of the slots, the ship adds a bonus to your officers’ stats that climbs as the ship grows. Attack, defense, and health use the same ladder, so one column covers all three.
| Amount | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 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% |
U.S.S. Excelsior refit
| Refit | What it does |
|---|---|
| U.S.S. Enterprise-B | Increases Challenge Credit and Rare Prototype Tech Protomatter rewards in the U.S.S. Excelsior Strongbox from the Challenge Refinery by 25%. Also increases Apex Barrier by 500 when enhanced by the Excelsior’s ability, if Tal is not on the bridge in battle. Costs 120 U.S.S. Enterprise-B Shards. |
The refit fits the ship’s canon: the Enterprise-B was an Excelsior-class ship. Most of its value is economic, since a richer Strongbox means more research material and more Challenge Refinery currency for each run.
Crew for the U.S.S. Excelsior
The Excelsior is a battleship, so its bridge wants officers that push weapon damage, critical hits, and shield mitigation, the levers that decide a stand-up fight. Its own abilities are tuned for V’ger Fighters, so a crew that raises kinetic and energy weapon output and keeps your shields up gets the most out of it in that content.
One bridge pairing fits the V’ger fight on the strength of the officers’ own abilities. TMP Nyota Uhura has a chance at round start to apply Hull Breach for 2 rounds against non-Armada hostiles, and V’ger Ilia raises Isolytic Cascade damage for 5 rounds against non-Armada hostiles that have any state applied. Uhura supplies the state that switches Ilia on, and Ilia’s bonus is Isolytic, the same damage type Pattern Delta boosts. Neither officer has a captain’s maneuver, so the captain seat is yours to fill. If you run the Enterprise-B refit, leave Tal off the bridge, or its Apex Barrier bonus does not apply.
Rather than name a crew that will be stale by the time you read this, check the current Officer Tier List for the picks that fit a combat battleship right now. The best crews shift with the meta and with which officers you have leveled.
The U.S.S. Excelsior in Star Trek
The Excelsior first appeared as NX-2000, the prototype nicknamed “The Great Experiment,” built around an experimental transwarp drive under Captain Styles in The Search for Spock. Montgomery Scott sabotaged its transwarp system to stop it chasing the stolen Enterprise. After a rework it returned as NCC-2000 under Captain Hikaru Sulu, and in The Undiscovered Country it broke off a survey of the Beta Quadrant to help expose the conspiracy against Federation and Klingon peace, arriving to back Kirk against General Chang. The Excelsior-class later became the template for the Enterprise-B.
Is the U.S.S. Excelsior worth it?
For its grade band, the Excelsior is a tool, not a daily driver. If you are pushing V’ger Fighters, its Isolytic and Apex Barrier abilities plus the super-weapon shutdown make it the right hull for that job, and the Enhance active gives your wider fleet something back too. If you are not touching V’ger content, a generalist grade 5 battleship will serve you better day to day. Chase it when the V’ger fight is on your roadmap.
