Star Trek Online: Playing the Story Arcs in Order
Over the course of its eleven year lifespan, Star Trek Online has evolved from a rushed, incomplete MMO to a far more coherent product. Cryptic have done much over the years to revise the game and make it a more linear experience. However, these changes have not been without consequence. One of which is that the central storylines are now somewhat confused. This is because several missions have been removed from the game and several story arcs have been consolidated. Cryptic have stated that some of these missing missions will be remastered and returned at some point, although as time passes, this becomes less likely. Others which served as wrappers to story arcs have been replaced by alternative content produced in later revisions. The net result is that new players may find the various stories somewhat difficult to follow due to gaps in the plot or content being offered in the wrong order. That is not a good thing for a game founded on an intellectual property driven by complex, interconnected stories and themes.
There are six playable factions available in STO. Klingon Defence Force, Discovery era Starfleet, Dominion, TOS era Starfleet, Romulan Republic and Starfleet. All have an initial story arc that is unique to that particular faction. Once this is complete the following missions are then universal to all. Because the greatest proportion of players in the game are 25th century Starfleet aligned, I will focus upon the changes and current state of the missions that are available to this faction. Upon creating a Starfleet character, a new player must complete the initial game tutorial which is a story arc containing a chain of five missions. Upon completion, further missions are available via the mission journal, under the “episodes” tab. Missions scale to the player's current level. Missions do not have to be played in order, however for the sake of this blog post the assumption is that the new player wishes to follow the story.
As a 25th century Starfleet aligned player, after the tutorial the first major mission chain is the Klingon War. This has been redeveloped several times over the years and some content has been removed, pending a remaster. I shall write specifically about these missing episodes in a future blog post. In its present state the Klingon War is now shorter and more succinct but lacks a suitable climax for it’s main protagonist Admiral B’vat. Furthermore, a smaller mission chain within the Klingon War has been moved from the main episode menu and placed under the “available” tab. Cryptic decided at the beginning of season 15 (October 2018) to downgrade several mission chains to “side content”. A poor choice as these stories are far from trivial. Hence for story continuity I would advise the new player to proceed with the Spectres storyline immediately after completing the Klingon War. The game prompts players to do this by highlighting the side content missions under the banner of The Galaxy at Large.
The next major mission chain that features under the “episodes” tab in the mission journal is Romulan Mystery. This arc focuses on the collapse of the Romulan Star Empire after the Hobus disaster and the fledgling breakaway Romulan Republic. There is an interesting prequel storyline called Wasteland (sadly designated as “side content”) that again can be found under the “available” tab within the mission journal. This takes the player to Nimbus III, the so-called planet of galactic peace. This six mission chain introduces several important characters such as the Reman leader Obisek and head of the Tal Shiar, Colonel Hakeev. It also provides a useful mission reward; Nimbus Pirate Distress Call. This is a unique reusable Ship Device, which summons three support vessels: a Tuffli-class freighter, a Breen Chel Grett-class Cruiser and an Orion Corsair-class Flight Deck Carrier for a short period of time. NB. If you play STO as a Romulan, the Wasteland story is incorporated into the main Romulan Mystery arc, thus validating the point that this is not trivial content and shouldn’t be designated “side content”.
After the Romulan Mystery, the next mission chain focuses on the True Way; a group of Cardassian extremists that don’t agree with the peace treaty that the Cardassian Union signed with the Federation after the Dominion war. The Cardassian Struggle explores several interesting ideas, such as residual Jem’Hadar forces in the Alpha Quadrant and a splinter link of Changelings. Immediately after the Cardassian Struggle story arc, again the player who is interested in continuity should return to the so-called “side content” missions and play through the Lost Dominion. The story addresses the issue of a Dominion fleet that was temporarily diverted in time by the Prophets, when they used the Bajoran Wormhole during the Dominion war. The returning Jem’Hadar fleet is unaware that the war is over and still determined to carry out their mission and capture Deep Space Nine.
The next story in chronological order after Lost Dominion, is Cold War which again has been relegated to “side content” status. This features the Breen and their ongoing harassment of a minor warp capable race called the Deferi who seek help from the Federation. It soon becomes apparent that Preserver relics located on the Deferi homeworld are of interest to the Breen forces. This is an enjoyable story arc with a different adversary and a plot device that calls back to the Star Trek TOS era. The mission rewards offers a space set of Breen themed equipment that all do cold damage. At one point players could gain a Breen Tactical Bridge Officer by completing the episode “Cold Storage”. Sadly that option has now been removed from the game and the Breen Tactical Bridge Officer is now only available as a store item as part of a rather expensive bundle.
After completing the Cold War arc, players can continue to work through all the remaining content in the order it is presented in the “episodes” tab of the Mission Journal. A new player that plays through all content listed above with a 25th century Federation character will experience the most coherent narrative that is available at present. However, to truly learn all nuances of the overarching Iconian plot which was the mainstay of all STO content up to late 2015, you need to play through the unique story content that is available for each faction. There are elements of this story that can only be found in the Romulan and Klingon arcs. An important quality of life tip I’d recommend to anyone playing from scratch is to go into the game’s settings and disabled “auto hail” so you do not get continuously bombarded with mission bestowal prompts. Like many MMOs, STO has changed throughout its lifespan and the storylines do have continuity and chronological errors. If you bear this in mind it will ease some of the anomalies as and when they are encountered.
