Star Trek Online Energy Credits: Earn More, Spend Smart

How to Earn Energy Credits

Running out of Star Trek Online energy credits can put your next weapon or duty officer purchase on hold. Earn EC through missions, loot sales, assignments, and the Exchange to keep your equipment budget moving. Start with activities you already enjoy, then add a dedicated farming method when you have a specific purchase in mind.

EC pays for weapons, shields, deflectors, certain ships available as you advance in rank, and items traded between players. Choose how you want to earn it:

• Through regular gameplay: Star Trek Online is free to play, and completing missions and selling unwanted equipment provide EC without a real-money purchase.
• Through dedicated runs: Tour the Galaxy awards credits for visiting destinations, while combat patrols provide loot you can sell.
• Through the Exchange: Sell desirable equipment, crafting products, and training manuals to other players.

Keep vendor sales and Exchange sales separate in your inventory decisions. Ordinary equipment can become immediate spending money at an NPC vendor; desirable tradeable items deserve a price check before you sell them.

Official page: Star Trek Online (playstartrekonline.com)

Run Tour the Galaxy for Destination Rewards

Tour the Galaxy pays 25,000 EC per destination visited. Once the mission starts, a countdown begins and destinations appear on the map. Your job is to reach as many as possible before time runs out.

Image: Steam / Cryptic Studios

To prepare for a run:

1. Position your ship in Beta Quadrant sector space before accepting the mission.
2. Open the map and identify the highlighted destinations.
3. Follow a route that keeps you moving between nearby systems.
4. Use your available sector travel tools to cover more distance during the countdown.

Sector speed and slipstream capability matter here. A Miracle Worker Cruiser equipped with Dominion warp engines is one setup used for its travel speed and extended slipstream. Practice your route before spending heavily on a dedicated travel setup.

The mission can be repeated once every 20 hours per character. If you play multiple captains, each can run it on their own schedule. Build your income expectations around the destinations you actually reach.

Turn Patrol Loot Into Vendor Income

Combat patrols offer another route to EC, especially when your ship can clear repeated enemy waves quickly. Timed encounters that keep bringing in reinforcements give you more opportunities to collect equipment drops.

Image: Steam / Cryptic Studios

Patrol locations to try include:

• Kern
• Kinjer
• Imaga
• Terrh
• Briar Patch

Rescue And Search is another loot-farming option. Choose an encounter your build handles comfortably, collect the drops, and leave room in your inventory before starting another run.

Compare Vendor Payouts Before Selling

Where you dispose of unwanted equipment affects how much EC you receive.

Sale method	Payout relative to the item's tooltip EC value
Replicator recycling	40%
Bartenders and ship equipment vendors offering the higher rate	50%

Check the vendor's sale offer before unloading your inventory. Sell unwanted loot-drop items to a vendor offering 50% to get more EC than replicator recycling pays.

Before selling, separate items you want to equip, items worth checking on the Exchange, and ordinary vendor loot. Rarity alone does not tell you whether another player will pay a useful premium.

Collect Endeavor Rewards and Run Assignments

You do not have to spend every session repeating combat encounters. Endeavors, Duty Officer assignments, and Admiralty give you other ways to build your balance.

Image: Steam / Cryptic Studios

Endeavors

Endeavor reward boxes can contain EC, alongside the system's character bonuses. Credit rewards are random, so avoid budgeting a fixed payout from every box.

Complete objectives that overlap with your planned activities. If you already intend to run combat content, check your Endeavors before choosing where to go.

Duty Officer Assignments

Duty Officer assignments can produce EC or items to sell. Klingon and Klingon-allied characters can also obtain Contraband through assignments and list it on the Exchange.

Check Contraband prices before deciding how much to sell. Compare the price per unit across listings rather than judging a stack by its total price.

Admiralty

Admiralty assignments offer EC rewards, and critical results can improve returns on assignments that award credits. Review the reward details when selecting assignments, including those in the Ferengi campaign.

Queue assignments before returning to your missions or event progress. This lets you work on another income source without adding another combat run to your session.

Sell Bridge Officer Training Manuals

Bridge officer candidates can contain abilities that are worth more as training manuals than the candidate's purchase price. This creates an Exchange opportunity with a smaller starting investment than buying expensive ships for resale.

Search for very rare candidates and inspect their abilities. Examples worth comparing against current manual listings include:

• Torpedo Spread 3
• Beam Overload 3
• Reverse Shield Polarity 3
• Cannon Scatter Volley 3

Use this process before buying:

1. Find a candidate with an ability you can convert into a manual.
2. Search the Exchange for that exact training manual.
3. Compare its competing listings with the candidate's cost.
4. Buy only when the price difference leaves enough room for a worthwhile sale.
5. Open your bridge officer recruitment interface and select the option to create the desired manual.
6. List the manual at a price based on its current competition.

Converting the candidate dismisses that officer. Inspect the candidate before committing, especially if you might want to recruit them instead.

Not every impressive-sounding ability makes a profitable manual. Some manuals face competition from R&D crafting, and some have little demand. Start with a small purchase and see whether the resulting manual sells before tying up more EC.

An Exchange listing is an asking price. Count your profit when the item sells.

Craft Equipment and Consumables for the Exchange

Crafting offers several types of products to sell, but profitability depends on material costs, modifiers, and demand.

Equipment categories to investigate include:

• Isomags
• Exotic Particle Amplifiers
• Particle emission plasma torpedoes
• Wide arc cannons
• Conductive RCS consoles with desirable modifiers
• Exotic Particle Field Exciter consoles with desirable modifiers
• Weapons with CrtD, Dmg, or [Pen] modifiers

Compare exact items. A console with a different modifier or a weapon with a different damage type can face a very different market.

Some Mark II crafted equipment has demand, so check prices before investing in upgrades. Adding Dilithium and upgrade resources increases what you need to recover from the eventual sale.

Include Materials in Your Costs

A recipe without a direct EC charge still consumes resources. Count materials you buy, and consider what materials you already own could sell for. Some recipes also require specific reusable Duty Officers.

Before starting a batch:

1. Check listings for the exact item and modifier you intend to sell.
2. Calculate your material purchases.
3. Include any planned upgrading or reengineering costs.
4. Craft a small batch and watch how it sells before expanding.

Advanced batteries and Exotic Particle Flood consumables are additional products to investigate. Compare them separately from expensive equipment so you can judge the investment each requires.

Check EC Caps and Transfer Options

Your balance limit matters before you collect a large amount of credits or arrange an expensive sale.

Platform and account setup	EC cap
PC without the increased cap	15 million
PC with the increased cap	2 billion
Xbox and PlayStation	2 billion

On PC, the 500 Zen EC cap unlock raises the limit to 2 billion across the account's characters. Check your account's existing unlocks before purchasing it.

EC cannot be attached to in-game mail. Available transfer methods include:

• Direct trade between players
• Fleet bank transfers
• Account bank transfers between your own characters

For expensive Exchange purchases, compare identical items and check stack quantities carefully. Keep enough credits available for your planned equipment purchases before investing in resale stock; a ship bought for flipping can leave a large amount of your balance tied up while you wait for a buyer.