The U.S.S. Socrates is a grade 7 Uncommon Interceptor for the Federation, built for late-game combat inside the Veil. Its two always-on abilities raise Isolytic damage against enemies in the Veil and pile on Isolytic defense against hostiles, so it works as a Veil hunter and a tough hostile grinder. You build it at Shipyard level 73. For players deep enough to reach G7, it is a focused specialist worth the shards.
How to get the U.S.S. Socrates
The Socrates needs 150 blueprints, and your Shipyard has to reach level 73 before you can start the build. Construction then costs 27,000 Σ-Dilithium, 2,600,000 Σ-Tritanium, 700 units of 7★ Common Refined Gas, and 2,800 units of 7★ Common Refined Crystal. Base build time is 150 days, which your construction speedups and research will cut down in practice. The game data does not name where the blueprints come from, so this guide will not guess a source; watch wherever the ship is currently offered and bank the build resources ahead of time so the shipyard is not your bottleneck.
U.S.S. Socrates ability
The Socrates carries two ship abilities, and both are always active once the ship is built. The first, Through the Veil, increases Isolytic Damage by 150% at level 1, scaling up to 300% at level 75, against all opponents in the Veil (it does not apply to Stations). The second, Isolytic Ward, increases Isolytic Defense by 500% at level 1, scaling up to 2,000% at level 75, against non-armada Hostiles. Together they point the ship squarely at Veil-era content: you hit harder with Isolytic damage where the Veil applies, and you soak far more Isolytic damage when you are grinding hostiles. Because both scale with ship level, the Socrates gets noticeably stronger the more you level it, so keep it fed with ship XP if this is your Veil workhorse.
U.S.S. Socrates active ability
On top of the always-on abilities, the Socrates has two player-triggered actives, both unlocked through refits (see the refits section below). Ship Cloaking hides your ship until the cloak’s duration runs out or you enter combat, begin mining, or dock at a station. Field Repairs, used out of combat while undocked, instantly repairs 25% of your ship’s hull health. You choose when to fire these, and like all ship actives their cooldown shortens as the ship tiers up. In practice, the cloak buys you positioning and concealment before a fight, while Field Repairs saves you a trip to dock when you are grinding far from home.
Stats and tiers
Base values from the current game data; research, buffs, and officers raise them in play. Three anchor tiers below show how the hull grows from tier 1 to the tier 15 cap.
| Tier | Warp (speed / range) | Impulse | Cargo (protected) | Shield HP | Hull HP | Health (displayed) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 10.4 / 2,440 | 90 | 49,000 (2,450) | 697,903,474 | 697,903,474 | 697,903,474 |
| Tier 8 | 11.1 / 2,980 | 94 | 68,000 (3,400) | 1,184,907,465 | 1,184,907,465 | 1,184,907,465 |
| Tier 15 | 11.8 / 3,670 | 100 | 96,100 (4,805) | 2,167,994,382 | 2,167,994,382 | 2,167,994,382 |
Weapons and firing pattern
Warm-up is the combat round a weapon first fires; cool-down is how many rounds pass between shots after that. The Socrates runs four weapons, three Kinetic and one Energy, all with identical damage at the tier 15 cap. Two of the Kinetic guns come online a round earlier (warm-up 1), so the ship front-loads a little Kinetic pressure before the rest of the battery opens up. That Kinetic lean matters against targets that carry more Kinetic than Energy mitigation, and this base weapon damage is what the Gold refit multiplies when you fight inside the Veil.
| Weapon | Type | Shots | Warm-up | Cool-down | Damage | Crit chance | Crit damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weapon 1 | Kinetic | 2 | 2 | 2 | 51,196,725–63,995,906 | 10% | 150% |
| Weapon 2 | Energy | 2 | 2 | 2 | 51,196,725–63,995,906 | 10% | 150% |
| Weapon 3 | Kinetic | 2 | 1 | 2 | 51,196,725–63,995,906 | 10% | 150% |
| Weapon 4 | Kinetic | 2 | 1 | 2 | 51,196,725–63,995,906 | 10% | 150% |
Crew slots and officer bonus
The Socrates opens officer slots as it levels, reaching a full seven-officer bridge at ship level 70.
| Ship level | Officer slots |
|---|---|
| 5 | 1 |
| 10 | 2 |
| 20 | 3 |
| 35 | 4 |
| 45 | 5 |
| 55 | 6 |
| 70 | 7 |
The ship also grants a bonus to your officers’ stats that climbs a ladder as the ship progresses. On the Socrates the attack, defense, and health bonuses are identical at every step, so the single ladder below applies to all three.
| Amount | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 320,000 | 1,400% |
| 640,000 | 2,800% |
| 1,040,000 | 4,200% |
| 1,440,000 | 5,600% |
| 1,920,000 | 7,000% |
| 2,560,000 | 8,400% |
| 3,520,000 | 9,800% |
| 4,800,000 | 11,200% |
| 6,400,000 | 12,600% |
| 9,600,000 | 14,000% |
U.S.S. Socrates refits
Refits unlock the ship’s actives and layer on extra combat bonuses. Numbers below are stated as the in-game refit descriptions give them.
| Refit | What it does |
|---|---|
| Field Repairs | Unlocks the Field Repairs active ability, which repairs 25% of the ship’s hull health out of combat while undocked. Costs 120 shards to unlock. |
| U.S.S. Socrates Gold | Increases the ship’s base Weapon Damage by 3,000% while in the Veil. |
| U.S.S. Socrates Simulacrum | At the start of combat, adds 500 Critical Mitigation against players and 55,000 against Academy Training Drones. Critical Mitigation reduces true critical damage from all sources, with every 500 points raising the critical damage you can take by 1%. Costs 120 shards to unlock. |
| U.S.S. Socrates Cloaking | Unlocks the Cloaking ability, which increases weapon damage by 850%, grants invisibility, and carries a 66% base chance to hide your name and alliance data from enemy Battle Reports. |
Crew for the U.S.S. Socrates
Interceptors sit at the top of the hull triangle against Explorers, and the Socrates is a combat interceptor first, so the guiding principle is a bridge that pushes weapon damage and crit while leaning into the Isolytic and Veil bonuses the ship already provides. Because the abilities scale on their own, your officers do the rest of the lifting on raw damage and survivability. For hostile grinding you want mitigation and damage; for the cloak-and-strike PvP role you want burst on the opening rounds, when the two early Kinetic guns fire. A captain who rewards critical hits pairs well with the ship’s crit-heavy weapons, and defensive officers help you hold the line while the Isolytic Ward bonus does its work. Crews shift with each update, so check our Officer Tier List for the current best picks rather than locking into one setup.
The U.S.S. Socrates in Star Trek
The Socrates is a game-original Federation design with no screen appearance in the shows or films, so its story lives in the game itself. It takes its name from the human philosopher Socrates, whose work shaped moral and ethical thought for centuries. In the game’s telling, the ship is tied to the Forsaken, who note the irony that Socrates was mocked and criticized in his own lifetime before his ideas endured. The vessel is presented as a compact, hard-hitting Federation interceptor, positioned as one of the faction’s strongest ships of its class rather than a recreation of any canon starship.
Is the U.S.S. Socrates worth it?
For its grade band, the Socrates is a specialist rather than an all-rounder. Its value is highest for players already in G7 territory who spend time in the Veil and grind hostiles, where the Isolytic damage and defense abilities pay off directly. The cloak refit adds real PvP utility, and Field Repairs keeps you out longer between docks. If you are not yet at Shipyard level 73, it is a goal to build toward, not an early buy.