What is merit? How can I find it? What is it used for? At the start of the Star Trek Online (STO) open beta I caught myself asking those questions and many more about the merit system. Here I will help clear up some of the confusion you may have with the STO merit system. By the end of my article I would like you to have a better understanding where you can get merit, how it is used, and what you should spend it on.

After you accomplish the tutorial (newb zone) you will warp to your first space station and start your career in Star fleet. Once you speak with the admiral you will be asked to find Commander Suluu, who is in the admiral’s office, just at the other desk. Commander Sulu and the Admiral will give you a variety of missions to accomplish.

Every Episode or mission in the game yields Merit. After you complete a mission you simply click the button left of your mini map to Hail Starfleet and complete your mission. You can hail Starfleet at any time. I recommend once you have completed your mission you do not choose the option to either beam back to your ship or leave the sector but instead turn in your mission. This way you can take your time and you can easily move to the next mission.

Another way to get merit is from completing the encounter missions (enemy contacts or distress hails) in Sector space. These are simply space battle instances which other players can join at any time. These are relatively quick and easy but don’t provide as much merit as the episodes do. However, they also provide skill points for you and your bridge officers.

Remember that once you enter an encounter mission don’t forget to click the hail button on the left hand of your screen. This button should say something like “Hail Gorn Captain” or “Hail Klingon.” Once you do this you should get some merit and skill points as you competed the mission.

You can spend merit by buying bridge officers, teaching your bridge officers new skills, and promoting them to the next rank. After you turn level 11 you will be granted access to your new class vessel. Here you can choose what type of vessel you want to use.

After you get your new vessel you will have a new console slot on your ship to advance your bridge officer. This slot is only available to the rank of said officer. So, if you have a slot for a tactical lieutenant commander but only have ensign crew members you will need to promote the necessary crew member to lieutenant commander. You will need assign the crew member to the console via the assignments tab on your skill over view screen.

Once you have promoted your officer you will want to see what skills this crew member will use. It is best to see if the new skill is something you would want to use or choose a better one to fit your play style. If you later wanted to change the shill you will lose all skill points invested in the said skill. So, for example, if your tactical bridge officer has High Yield Torpedo I and you find after putting in points you want to change the shill you will lose all points invested into the “High Yield Torpedo I” skill. I focused my skills and officers skills to manly space combat as this was the most appealing and polished part of the game.

I found myself not spending a lot of merit early on in the game. later on in the game you will need a lot of merit to advance or “Promote” your bridge officers to the next rank. I didn’t play around with the bridge officers skills and had a good understanding of what I wanted to invest in. Knowing what type of skill I needed to make the best out of my play style was a big part of my success. With the help of this guide I quickly masted the art of combat and skill progression.

In conclusion, having merit is something you wont need a lot of for some time and the game does a good job of providing it to you. However if you want to “Play around” with your bridge officers by swapping out new skills you will quickly run out of merit. If you want to know more about the ways to maximize your play time with Star Trek: Online I recommend the full suite of STO Guides from Killer Guides. Not only will you learn about merit, but you also will find many other helpful tips.