The Monbosh battleship is a vessel appropriated from a subspace-dwelling species known as the elachi (featured in Star Trek Online’s Legacy of Romulus update) that well-reflects the alien origin of the spacecraft. The ship looks nothing like anything else fielded in the game so far or in the TV series, displaying a very vertical profile with flanges that splay out from a central core like a starfish–it’s somewhat similar to the Nausicaan Scourge dreadnought in orientation but largely there the similarity ends. Green, hexagonal panels, slight flicker across the hull, the Monbosh is a fridge-horror of a ship and it also has a very nice unique bridge.
Star Trek Online is no slouch when it comes to battleships. In STO terms, most battleships are heavily armed cruisers that sacrifice a little bit of armor for extra maneuverability and higher power levels. In the case of the elachi technology, this means a ship with a solid profile and a 4-4 weapon layout and the capability to mount dual-heavy cannons. While the Monbosh doesn’t quite have the turn rate to merit dual-heavy cannons it does have the energy systems necessary to support them and with enough engine skills to make it more nimble it can be devastating with these weapons. The result is a nimble cruiser that can be outfitted to load cannons for heavy firepower or kit out with beams for the standard-cruiser-experience.
In this case: battleship means highly customizable death-ship for the discerning captain who wants to fly the spiritual-cousin to the spacecraft from Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers.
The battleship is a lobi store item costing 800 lobi crystals–this means it’s not available in the C-Store for the freemium currency of ZEN. Instead players must earn enough to buy it by opening lock boxes using Master Keys. As previously noted in the Virtual Item Spotlight this can be an expensive notion so the casual player might be looking at $90 to $250 to buy one of these suckers. Of course, they can also be bought from other players in the Exchange for around 80 to 100 million energy credits (currently.)
As for its specific specs:
Hull Strength: 39,000
Shield Modifier: 1.2
Crew: 2,000
Weapons: 4 Fore, 4 Aft; and can equip dual cannons
Device Slots: 4
Bridge Officer Stations: 1 Lieutenant Commander Tactical, 1 Commander Engineering, 1
Ensign Science, 2 Lieutenant Universal
Console Modifications: 4 Tactical, 4 Engineering, 2 Science
Base Turn Rate: 10 degrees per second
Impulse Modifier: 0.15
+10 Weapons Subsystems
+10 Engine Subsystems
Can Load Cannons
Console – Universal – Subspace Transceiver
This battleship is no slouch and with a Lieutenant Universal it can be modified to take on a large number of roles. With extra tactical it can be made into a monstrous DPS boat capable of high burst and moderate sustained damage; slotting an engineer can give it the power levels to be a juggernaut of sustained damage or extreme survivability with good hull and the 1.2 shield modifier to match; and using science can allow it to alternate between hitting hard and providing crowd-control and field support.
Aside from these interesting features, other things that make the Monbosh an interesting ship include synergies with other special consoles in the game. In specific, the battleship comes with a universal console called the “Subspace Transceiver.” This console gives the ship the ability to launch two support ships from subspace a support ship and a control ship. The support ship flies around reinforcing hull and shields of the battleship and allies; whereas the control ship uses sensor jamming and viral matrix on enemies.
When coupled with a universal console from the S’golth escort–the “Crescent Wave Cannon”–the ship can fire a deadly single-blast Elachi crescent shot without losing its forward shields.
Captains looking for the full Elachi effect are in luck as the lobi store contains a full kit belonging to the “Silent Enemy” set. A torpedo called a “Subspace Torpedo” that comes with a disable, a heavy single crescent cannon for the epic look of those Elachi guns, and even an organic-subspace console that increases hull regen. Hooking all three up increases disruptor damage (the mainstay of Elachi weaponry) as well as adds an awesome effect: bolts of energy swirling around the ship that blast enemies foolish enough to fire on a Monbosh.
Of course, the full set will cost 600 lobi crystals and that means opening up a large number of lock boxes, which cost ZEN (the freemium currency.) To reach 600 lobi the average customer can expect to spend between $60 and $168–or just spend a lot of time trading EC on the Exchange for master keys from people who did spend the money.
Captains going for the full-Elachi-experience should load up on Elachi crescent cannons (found in the Elachi Lockbox and the Exchange) as they fire salvos of the Elachi signature weapon. Of course, Elachi weapons also come with a shield-ignoring effect.
