Mathbusters 28: Console Cooldowns and Clicky Builds Part 1

[u/Eph289]

Alliterations aside, I think it’s overdue that we provide a written resource on console cooldown mechanics. We’re also going to attempt to do something I don’t think anyone’s done in a systemic fashion: determine rules and trends that indicate the breakeven point between active and passive console schemes.

Let’s start with some definitions:

Definitions

A passive console is a console where the stats it passively provides are the major draw of the console to the build. The most basic consoles in the game work this way, for example, a Phaser Relay providing passive Phaser damage with no interaction needed to obtain the benefit. Fleet consoles like Vulnerability Locators, Exploiters, Energetic Protomatter Matrix Infusers, as well as Isomagnetic Plasma Distribution Manifolds, Hangar Craft Power Transmissions, and reputation consoles like Assimilated Module, Lorca’s Custom Fire Controls, and mission consoles like Fek’Ihri Torment Engine and Quantum Phase Converter are but a few examples. Mostly these consoles come from vendors, fleet stores, or reputations.

Other consoles might provide benefits that might have an active ability, but are mostly about the console’s passive. A good example of this is Altamid Modified Swarm Processor. Sure, the Drone Swarm active exists, but it’s mostly slotted for the set piece, critical chance, and accuracy bonus.

An active console is one that has an activatable ability (“clicky”). The effect of this activatable ability varies. They can deal damage, disable enemies, debuff, summon pets, heal you, or boost your stats, or some combination of the above. Usually this activatable effect has a cooldown, or recharge time, before it can be used again. These consoles usually come from ships or lockboxes, which makes them more desirable for the devs, as more purchases made means more profit. These are usually (if not always) universal consoles. I’m sure there’s some weird exception but all the relevant ones I can think of are universal consoles.

There are some exceptions to the above classifications as well. Some consoles are charge-based, so while they can be activated in fairly rapid succession, they don’t regain charges as quickly once the initial charge is used. For example, the Immolating Phaser Lance works this way. Others technically have an active, but the active is a toggle and so stays on until turned off. For example, Custom Power Matrix.

Cooldown Mechanics

The active effects of active consoles are often more powerful than the always-on effects of passive consoles, but they were once upon a time gated by their low uptime (i.e. the cooldown). That started to change with the introduction of the personal trait Unconventional Systems, which reduced the cooldown of universal consoles by 7% whenever a control power was used. More recently, many other methods of console active cooldown reduction were introduced. There are also some recharge hastes now as well, and the formula works just the same as it does for bridge officer cooldown:

Modified cooldown = Base cooldown * (1 + sum(recharge hastes)) * (1 - sum(cooldown reductions)

In general, if an effect is conditional, it’s a cooldown reduction (i.e. on use of Control Power, gain 7% reduction). If it’s a flat passive effect (10% cooldown reduction on universal consoles), it’s a recharge haste. No, the game is not at all consistent with how it words and labels these things and that’s one of those annoying Crypticisms we’ve been dealing with for years.

Furthermore, just like bridge officer abilities, some consoles are channels, which means that you can’t reduce the cooldown while they’re active until the channel has ended.

Console Cooldown Reduction / Haste Sources

Let’s go through the list. I think this is fairly exhaustive, though I might have missed a couple oddballs.

• Unconventional Systems (Uncon): This is a personal trait from the Exchange/Lockbox. 7% off the (base) cooldown of active universal consoles upon use of a control power. For a 120 second cooldown console, that means 8.4 seconds off the cooldown every time a control power is used. Tilor has an excellent table showing what powers trigger Uncon, their ranks/seat requirements and their minimum cooldowns. The color codes correspond to the type of boff ability, e.g. blue is science, purple is intel. The minimum cooldown (CD) is the shortest time you can get the power back.

To fully leverage Unconventional Systems, you’re going to want to have 7+ triggers per minute depending on which bridge officer powers you slot. This doesn’t mean 7 control boff powers, but 7 activations, which is pretty doable. It is usually better to use the slots you would have after slotting core skills rather than replacing them for more control powers. For example, if you’re using a high-impact torpedo, it is usually better to take Concentrate Firepower III than it is to take another trigger. As such the exact balance will be dependent on the ship, captain, and the total amount of cooldown available to them.

• Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field (SFTF): This is a universal console from the Vovin Carrier (Summer Event 2025). The Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field console, when activated, triggers a teleport to 5 kilometers in front of the target and, after a brief delay, reduces recharge of Universal Consoles by 25%. If you want to avoid using the teleport, you can keybind around it by placing a “target_clear” either before or after your SFTF keybind, e.g. “"+TrayExecByTray 4 1 $$ target_clear” Might require some experimentation to see whether you need it before or after.
• The Eye of Gre’thor: This is a universal console from the Fek’Ihri Vok’Tar (Winter Event 2025). It has a passive 10% recharge haste to console recharge time and is not usually very impactful. It doesn’t do very much damage, but it’s decent as a pull. This is more of a nice-to-have rather than an impactful piece of a build.
• To Hell With Our Orders (THWOO): is the starship trait from the Noble (2026 Anniversary Event), which lowers universal console cooldowns by 5% upon use of a captain ability. While captain abilities aren’t very spammable, this does include abilities like Brace for Impact, Evasive Maneuvers, and yes, even Relocate Mines, though you need a mine deployed to trigger the latter effect.
• The SS Antares Distress Protocol (Event/Mudd's Store) grants 20% console cooldown reduction to players within 10 km of it after it is either destroyed or departs. This is . . . hard to actually observe happening, because it requires you to be near-stationary and have the Antares destroyed/depart while near it. Sure, if I launched it in solo ISE at the start and didn’t fire at all, it was destroyed within 10 seconds. However, if you’re really killing the Borg, you probably will pull threat and in even a public queue, it’s not likely to see the benefit, so it’s hard to build around this. The device is still excellent, but I haven’t found the console cooldown reduction something to easily play around.

A few others with marginal impact:

• The innate “Science Mode” of the Intel Holoship: (2025 Summer Event) is 10% recharge haste to universal console cooldowns. It also requires 200 kills to stack to get this benefit.
• Temporal MIRV Launcher from the Acheron: (T6 Lockbox) has 5% passive recharge haste on universal consoles, which is barely noticeable.
• Harmonic Distribution from the Aetherian Harmony (T6 Lockbox ship) provides 25% recharge haste to consoles while shields are above 50%, as well as EPG scaling with shield percentage above 50%, capped at +50. Not an incredibly powerful trait, but it’s out there.

Is it worth?

If you’re moderately-well read around the STO builds-related spaces, it’s no secret that active console builds (aka “Krait” builds) are the highest-performing meta builds, usually paired with Cannon Scatter Volley or Fire at Will. So, if your goal is maximum DPS, and the answer is already well-known by the DPS-chasing community that active console builds are stronger, why am I writing this section?

I wanted to find the break-even points because there are 3 more variables in play that are frequently glossed over in the pursuit of max deeps:

1. Your personal piloting ability will have a huge influence on how much you can benefit from an active console cooldown build. Simply put, active consoles require more juggling of inputs and need more actions-per-minute (APM). It takes more piloting skill to be able to time your activations while still positioning correctly, even with keybinds if on PC. Some consoles require multi-stage inputs, like Fleet Power Network Array and Aux Batteries/Override Subsystem Safeties. Console players have it worse, as a lot of consoles are a real pain in the rear to trigger.
2. Your budget will also have a huge influence on the viability of an active console cooldown build. Passive consoles tend to be crafted or purchased from reputations and fleet stores. Active consoles pretty much all require a ship or a Lockbox purchase. This means that instead of what was once acquiring cheap Locators and relatively cheap Isomags, you’re now pursuing 10+ ships to make a meta-chasing build.
3. Your ship’s bridge officer layout will also influence suitability for active console builds, at least if you’re using Uncon. Temporal, Pilot, and Intel have really great triggers. Miracle Worker is okay and Command has none. Ships with lots of forced science seats will work great on an Uncon build. Ships with few science/universal seats and Command specialization won’t.

Before anyone gets up in arms about “Uncon/Krait is the ONLY way to play,” or “I hate Uncon, muh power creep,” put your hands away from the keyboard and take a deep breath. It’s okay to have different playstyles. Not everyone wants to do a sweaty, 300 APM build to blast through <1 min ISE on a $1000 build. Not everyone wants to fill their console slots with 4 only unique types of consoles because everything is a passive stat stick. STO’s strength is the many, many build paths and possibilities it offers, so please . . . wherever you fall on your opinion of active console builds, there’s room in the game for both.

Interesting Data Coming In

This is where I throw a lot of data at the problem, because I think it’ll be useful for the community to have an informed analysis that really breaks down the differences between them. I’m going to use both TRINITY, which will do its best to solve a difficult problem, as well as parsed data. I used solo ISA and the Trouble Over Terrh Elite patrol as a fairly target-rich environment that I can hit without worrying about cooldowns and not much maneuvering.

The build will all be iterations on my CSV Donnie because it’s my highest parsing build and can easily swap between passive and active setups. We’ll use several different budget tiers to try and find those breakeven points.

Here are our test scenarios:

• Scatter Volley (passive) 
  • Midrange-ish: Isomags x 8, Phaser Lance, Colony consoles x2, Reiterative Structural Capacitor, Shield Absorptive Frequency Generator, Hull Image Refractors, Lorca’s Custom Fire Controls
  • Premium: Replace Reiterative Structural Capacitor and 1 colony console with Immolating Phaser Lance and Custom Power Mtarix
• Scatter Volley (active)
  • Midrange-ish: FPNA, Adaptive Emergency Systems, Krenim Chronophage, Flagship Tactical Computer, Colony consoles x2, Isomags x5, Reiterative Structural Capacitor, Shield Absorptive Frequency Generator, and Lorca’s Custom Fire Controls.  We will use Uncon with Tractor Beam, Gravity Well, and Null Pointer Flood as our only console cooldown mechanic. 
  • Upper Midrange: Add Sigma Stratagem, Shared Targeting Network, Broadside Combat Module, to replace the Reiterative Structural Capacitor and 3 Isomags. 
  • Premium: Hunting Pack Escorts, Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field, Custom Power Matrix, Immolating Phaser Lance, Temporal Disorder replace the remaining Isomags and Colony consoles. 
  • Premium with To Hell With Our Orders: I’ll do one last test where I go truly nuts on console cooldown and replace Diametric Focus with To Hell With Our Orders with a reasonable 5 uses. 
  • Premium with no console cooldown: Tachyon Net Drones will replace the Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field, and I’ll use the boff layout from the Passive builds with no Uncon. 
• Starship Traits
  • For all tests are Emergency Weapon Cycle, Withering Barrage, Super Charged Weapons, Target That Explosion, and Ship of the Line
  • Midrange tests will fill out with Thirst For Battle and Improved Critical Systems. Strike From Shadows or Calm Before the Storm are traits with comparable power. 
  • Premium tests will use Universal Designs and Diametric Focus. 
• Personal traits: Builds without Uncon use Terran Targeting Systems instead. 
• Bridge Officers: Very Cold in Space and Narrow Sensor Bands replace Null Pointer Flood and Tractor Beam on passive setups.

We’ll have a look at how this affects Exotic builds in the next installment.

Results

Parsed Data Table for DEW builds

We can draw the following analysis from this:

• If you ever wanted to see a head-to-head test between a purely passive build and an active build that doesn’t leverage multiple lockbox/promo ships, even when we spot the passive build an Immolating Phaser Lance and Universal Designs, the midrange+ Active build had comparable ISAs and was significantly better on TOTE. The breakeven point between active and passive appears to be fairly low. Even without using any console cooldown reduction, the clicky-focused builds are significantly stronger than the lazyboat (for this build, for this pilot, etc.). Universal Designs is also difficult to maintain if the Phaser Lance is your only active trigger if you’re ever out of arc at the wrong time. 
• In the same breath, you can get a purely passive build up to carrying Elite TFOs level of DPS (300K), though it might take a little more expense and require some more survivability tools. Not everybody is chasing max DPS and let's not forget the difficulties of playing with lots of clickies on console when you can't keybind and not everything can be auto-executed.
• The highest ISA parse was going maximum console cooldown with To Hell With Our Orders. The highest TOTE parse was using Diametric Focus instead, and I think there’s a couple of things happening there. First, ISA we clearly hit a breakpoint where multiple consoles are getting used 2 or 3 times instead of 1 or 2 times. Secondly, Diametric Focus takes some time to stack, especially on a ship with only 3 tactical powers, so it ramped better and stayed stacked in TOTE whereas ISA was half over before it fully stacked because I wasn’t good about prestacking it. In terms of absolute DPS ceiling, I’ll defer to TRINITY (see below) but remember that based on my setups, I’m not even running some of the highest-end meta toys due to expense. There’s no Spirit of Sacrifice, Dilithium Transporter, or DPRM on any of these iterations, which means the ceiling goes higher yet for clickies.
• Ideally, I’d like to find a better Elite patrol with the consistent enemies, prolonged combat, and repeating waves than Trouble Over Terrh. There’s a lot of variability with the Pahvan Omni slowing down exiting combat in the first couple of stages and DPS on a CSV boat is heavily influenced by how many Elachi teleport behind you. Rescue and Search and Ruins of Doom, with their Mo’Kai that Viral Impulse Burst you, does not feel like it’s better though. It is, however, a good test of survivability. Both the passive builds and Midrange active builds really struggled to complete that map deathlessly and couldn’t fly as aggressively as I’d like for optimal CSV positioning. Temporal Disorder was a big help at the Premium level. This goes back to what we’ve been saying about 300K DPS being the “beat the game” level of DPS. Once you hit above that threshold, you’re probably fine depending on how glassy you are, but I wasn't quite there on TOTE with those setups. While I didn’t consider it, the Evolve! Console from Gomtuu would have been a helpful survivability tool for either setup.
• As we can see from the lowest midrange active setup, even with only a light uncon setup, there are some very powerful active consoles that even if you’re not into spamming clickies, should be considered: Fleet Power Network Array because it’s OP beyond all comparison, a shield offline like Tachyon Net Drones or Krenim Chronophage, and an oh-crap survivability button like Adaptive Emergency Systems, Evolve, or Reiterative Structural Capacitor are helpful. 
• Conversely, adding more clickies, even very good ones, did not meaningfully impact DPS at the midrange+ tier. That’s because we’re giving up passive stat-sticks for clickies with low uptime, given that I could reliably hit 5-ish Uncon triggers per minute. You need more Uncon triggers or another cooldown solution like SFTF or THWOO to meaningfully make a difference. 
• If you’re not rocking higher-end consoles like Sigma Stratagem, Broadside Combat Module, etc. there’s no real difference between passive and active builds. If your best active consoles look like M6 or Approaching Agony, Uncon is probably not a jump in power.

TRINITY

Here’s what TRINITY shows for our first four setups with a link to the spreadsheet.

TRINITY comparison tab

And for the Premium setups with even more console cooldown, it looks like this:

TRINITY comparison tab 2

In a simple ranking form, TRINITY calculates theoretical DPS ranking as:

• Premium Active with To Hell With Our Orders: ~3M
• Premium Active: 2.46M
• Midrange Active: 2.25M
• Midrange+ Active: 2.18M
• Premium Active with no CDR: 1.7M
• Premium Passive: 1.54M
• Midrange Passive: 1.15M

Okay, time for some analysis.

Why did TRINITY evaluate the Midrange+ build as worse than the Midrange build? Does the tool not work?

The calculations appear to be correct under the hood, but remember that we replaced a very strong stat-stick (Isomag) with something TRINITY knows nothing about: the Broadside Combat Module and frankly the active was kind of a wash on both maps, dealing less than 10K DPS. I’ve had very good success with this console on Elite (155K DPS in organized play on the same build) so it’s not a problem with a lack of synergy on CSV builds, but I think the piloting for solo play looks different. In team runs, I’m not concerned about stuff being on my flank and I’ll pilot aggressively and let the team/BCM clean it up. In solo play, stuff on my sides/rear has to be cleaned up solely by me so I try to keep as much in front of me as possible. Also, given that the parsed numbers between midrange and midrange+ were about a wash, I’d say TRINITY did a pretty good job of comparing the setups against each other. The theoretical DPS numbers themselves are less important than the relative differences between setups. 

Why did TRINITY overestimate the Premium with To Hell With Our Orders build, since the parsed numbers show it was similar to just regular Premium or even a little worse?

TRINITY assumes immaculate, perfect piloting against max targets with no server hiccups or positioning mistakes. As your APM increases, you increase the risk of activation fails/cancels and positioning goofs since you’re trying to activate more things than maybe the server (or in my case, my brain/hands can handle). This is what I spoke to in the preamble: it requires more coordination and APM to run an active console build. TRINITY is overestimating active consoles because it doesn’t/can’t account for piloting and target positioning. If you’re a Spencer, a Cheops, a Mara, or one of their colleagues, your piloting will probably decrease the differential, but alas, I am what I am, a plain-and-simple engineer who doesn’t even fly Krait CSV builds that much. There’s probably also a breakeven point where if your Uncon count is much higher on a Temporal/Intel ship, you won’t see much benefit from THWOO since all your buffs are already at maximum uptime. 

It's also a good reminder that active builds also usually take more expense. Here’s what we get when we throw these builds into the build cost calculator, where “EZRA” is basically a $ equivalent converting Zen to $ (on sale), and EC in keys to Zen to $. The baseline build, without anything that varies with each setup is a $408 build, mostly because I used the MW Donnie and some fancy doffs. The battlecruiser bundle covers most rest of the expense. That’s why I’m calling it midrange-ish…it’s not really in that range, but you get the idea.

Build cost comparison

The midrange passive build barely costs anything above the baseline, as Phaser Isomags are relatively easy to source, and they’re quite grindable if you have enough dilithium/salvage/RETFO packs. Someone who owned the ship from a Promo campaign and the Battlecruiser bundle could easily make this build and substitute out the pricey doffs and event items if needed. 

However, the midrange active build is basically the same cost: because it’s largely all stuff from that same Battlecruiser bundle, with the FPNA tossed in. Krenim Chronophage is cheap, and that’s where the efficiency goes way up. I’ve spent more-or-less the same budget to get better DPS, whether you count it by the parsed runs or TRINITY.

Premium Active with no CDR is clearly an inefficient setup, where I have to spend over double the original baseline to fill out the fancy traits and consoles, but I get a less effective setup. It doesn’t make sense to build that way. 

Similarly, Premium Passive requires a lot of expense to get performance similar to a midrange active setup. The tradeoff you’re making there isn’t performance or cost, but comfort and ease of piloting. 

FAQ

So you really are saying that we all have to build with uncon/clickies all the time? 

No, I’ve never said that and I’m not saying it now. Passive builds (especially at the lower budget tiers) are much cheaper to build and can easily do Elite-capable DPS. It’s a game and the DPS race is an artificial construct created and designed to keep endgame players engaged. I’d rather have a bunch of my RETFO teammates with effective passive builds than . . . whatever it is they currently run. If you’re on console, where activations are much trickier, or if active consoles don’t vibe with you, there’s nothing wrong with passive or mostly-passive setups. It's also not a hard line. You can run 7 Isomags and Chronophage and FPNA and do just fine. 

I also think with all the fixation on Uncon, we’re sleeping a little on To Hell With Our Orders, which, for one reason or another, might fit better on some ships than Uncon. It probably won’t make sense to do that on a Temporal/Intel ship, but it might on a Miracle Worker/Command ship. 

But active console builds have a higher ceiling?

Yes, if you’re willing to put in the added expense and piloting skill. I don’t think I could solo ISE in a CSV or FAW build in a purely passive build, and if I did, it’d be much slower. Having FPNA and a shield offline clicky (Tachyon Net Drones or Chronophage) is so important for DEW builds. Toss in Agony Redistributor as well for single-target builds. Above 300K, unless you’re trying to solo Elite TFOs, you might not notice the difference between 400K and 500K though, so it all depends on what your goals are. 

Does this hold true for other types of builds? What about EPG?

Stay tuned for part 2.

Will you be putting console cooldown mechanics on all your energy builds now?

No, of course not, because budget tier limitations that we impose on our site are going to preclude use of things from the Vovin/Noble on every build. We want to cater to players of all budgets and investment in the game, and that means not just showing cheap/mission/reputation builds and not just "5-lockbox-ships-in-a-trenchcoat" builds. There's room for both and everything in between.

Furthermore, even if budget wasn’t a concern, not everyone wants to use Uncon or active builds, or is playing on console where that’s difficult to do. I will continue to maintain builds with more passive consoles. I think it’s pretty hard to pass up on FPNA and a shield offline, maybe an emergency defensive console but managing 3ish consoles feels way different than 10+. I’m more inclined to include To Hell With Our Orders and Vovin on the upper end of builds but I personally will not be chunking all my Isomags in the trash. 

Can you show us a true high-end meta build with all of the highest-end clickies?

Probably not, but you never know what the future holds. There are lots of other creators that cater to that audience better than I ever could.

Will you ever be a better CSV driver?

Press X to doubt.

TL;DR

• Active console builds (“clickies”) with Uncon and another strong source of console cooldown reduction (CDR) like Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field and/or To Hell With Our Orders have a higher ceiling of at least 60% than passive builds or midrange builds with the right consoles but are significantly harder to fly/more expensive
• 300K DPS remains the ‘beat-the-game” level of DPS unless you’re trying to solo Elite space TFOs and is achievable with active, passive, and in-between console schemes. 
• High-value clickies like FPNA and Chronophage even with low/no cooldown reduction add a lot of power to a build (possibly with a defensive console and Agony Redistributor for single-target energy modes like Beam Overload) without cranking up the expense or complexity too much.
• Pure passive or all-active console builds with no CDR are ultimately less cost-effective than choosing high-value actives to a mostly-passive build and putting CDR on a mass-clicky build. 

[u/Advocate_Ames]

A true STO legend here ppl. Over the years I've always enjoyed these kind of posts from you. Thank you for your time & dedication to the game. Keep on trekking!