Torpedo builds, often called kinetic or projectile builds, have a reputation as the highest damage option in Star Trek Online. The community guides describe very high ceilings in Elite content when the right torpedoes are properly buffed. They also describe real weaknesses, and a torpedo boat built without understanding them will underperform an ordinary energy build. This guide covers how projectile damage works and what a torpedo build needs, using the rules as they stand in Season 37 (September 2026).
Torpedoes and mines deal kinetic damage, and two things follow from that.
First, kinetic damage is heavily reduced by shields. The STO BETTER projectile guide puts the reduction at roughly 75% against a shielded target, which is why torpedo builds do their best work once shields are down or on targets that hit hull directly. A small number of torpedoes are exceptions that deal similar damage to hull and shields.
Second, torpedoes are slow. They travel to the target, they are launched one at a time, and each launcher has a long reload, typically 6 to 12 seconds according to the community guides. Against a few tough enemies that stay alive long enough for every torpedo to land, this works well. Against swarms of small, fast enemies that die before your torpedoes arrive, it works badly, and energy builds have the advantage. The same guides note that torpedo builds tend to shine more on harder difficulties, since enemies survive long enough to be hit.
One more fact is easy to miss. Weapon power affects energy weapons only. It has no effect on torpedo launchers or mines, so a torpedo boat gets its damage from elsewhere.
Two tactical abilities shape how torpedoes fire:
Both have a 30 second base cooldown, a 15 second minimum, and a shared 15 second category cooldown, so you cannot chain them freely. That is where Concentrate Firepower comes in.
Concentrate Firepower is a Command ability that marks a target for 20 seconds. While it is marked, torpedoes that hit it deal extra kinetic damage with 100% shield penetration, and impacts periodically hand you a free Torpedoes: High Yield I and reset your torpedo cooldowns. The higher the rank, the stronger both effects.
| Rank | Seat needed | Extra kinetic damage | Free High Yield and reset |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Ensign | 10% | once per 6 seconds |
| II | Lieutenant | 15% | once per 4 seconds |
| III | Lt. Commander | 20% | once per 2 seconds |
This is why the community guides make one requirement non negotiable: a ship with Command specialization seating at Lieutenant Commander or better, without giving up a Lieutenant Commander Tactical seat. Not many hulls qualify, and the guides list mostly Command ships among the recommended options.
Vulnerability Locators that match your torpedo type are the backbone of the tactical console slots, alongside Lorca's Custom Fire Controls. The STO BETTER projectile guide also points to reputation consoles for specific torpedo types, such as the Proton Particle Stabilizer for photon builds and the Covert Munition Deployment Console for quantum builds, and to the Omega Kinetic Shearing reputation trait. Torpedo choice matters too: the same guide lists Delphic Distortion, Neutronic, Quantum Phase, and Dark Matter quantum torpedoes, among others, as strong options, and recommends avoiding Transphasic, Chroniton, and Tricobalt torpedoes on a kinetic build.
The Doolittle build published by the STO BETTER community uses a Fleet Engle Strike Wing Escort with an all quantum torpedo loadout: Delphic Distortion, Neutronic, Quantum Phase, Dark Matter Laced, and Advanced Radiant torpedoes. It runs Concentrate Firepower alongside the Subspatial Warheads, Entwined Tactical Matrices, and Ceaseless Momentum traits. Its author reports more than 1,000,000 DPS on coordinated team runs and argues that torpedo boats do not need the most popular torpedo to do very well. That figure is the author's own and depends on the team and the map.
Skip a torpedo build if the content you play is mostly large groups of weak, fast enemies, or if you cannot get a hull with the right seating. An energy build is easier to fly and more forgiving there. If you want to compare the two, plan both in the Build Planner and record a run of each, as described in the tutorial on the /CombatLog command. For the energy side of that comparison, read The Anatomy of a Meta Energy Build, and for keeping High Yield and Spread cycling, see Cooldown Reduction Mechanics.