Picard's Inquiry class comes to Star Trek Online

Star Trek Online's latest ship has joined the game: From Picard, comes the Inquiry class, as seen in the fleet commanded by Riker in the final episode of season one.

The ship's design is very similar to STO's existing Avenger class, and so has been included in that family of ship variants in the game. Here's how STO describe it's in-universe position:

Initially coming to fame in 2399, with the actions of the USS Zheng He over the planet Coppelius, the Inquiry Class was Starfleet’s most powerful ship for many years. The initial designs and technical breakthroughs of the ship were later used as the starting point for the Avenger-class project. Engineers at Utopia Planetia felt the time was right for another update to the Avenger line, and decided to return to the classic form, and name, of the Inquiry class.

The modern Inquiry Battlecruiser, like other ships of its lineage, are aggressive ships, designed to charge into head-on confrontations and come out unscathed. To further these goals, it comes equipped with a Variable Assault Deflector Array to ensure that it can come out swinging and shrug off any retaliation. This is further tied into its Cruiser Commands, to ensure that its team is as prepared as possible to follow it in its charge. Its sturdy construction and forward-facing weapons mountings round out the package, make it an intimidating sight to be staring down at. Those on the business end of an Inquiry often find their goals rapidly aligning with the Federation’s peaceful ideals.

The ship features an innate trait, Weapons Hot, Deflectors to Full:

While this trait is slotted, whenever you activate Emergency Power to Shields, you will gain a boost to Weapon Haste that scales with your Shield Power and a temporary Secondary Shielding that lasts for several seconds.

And it comes with a console ability, the Variable Assault Deflector Array. Here's how STO describe it:

The Variable Assault Deflector Array, or V.A.D.A., routes a massive blast of Phaser energy directly out the ship’s main deflector dish, causing significant damage to anything in front of it. For several seconds afterwards, the forward shield facing is significantly strengthened, repairing rapidly from any damage that comes towards it. Additionally, innovations based on the Cruiser Commands present on the ship allow activation of this Deflector blast to amplify the effects of your Cruiser Command on yourself and your teammates, granting boosts based on which command is active. The Weapons System Efficiency command grants a boost to Weapons Power, the Shield Frequency Modulation command grants a boost to maximum shield strength and shield regeneration, and the Strategic Maneuvering command grants resistance to movement-impairing effects.

Additionally when combined with consoles from either the Avenger class, or the other variant of the class, the Arbiter class, a ship gets bonus abilities:

With any two consoles equipped, your ship has increased Weapon Damage and Flight Turn Rate. With all three consoles equipped, in addition to the previous bonuses, you now gain a Flight Speed and Maximum Hull Capacity.

To get hold of the ship you'll have to get yourself a Research and Development Pack or Duty Officer Pack, then you will either get 10 Lobi Crystals or a a choice of several Tier 6 ships, which includes the Inquiry class.

For full stats of the ship, and details of how to get it, check out STO's announcement.


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