Syndicate, Forbidden Tech, and Chaos Tech: your ship's equipment ladder
- Four steps on one equipment ladder: Syndicate (account-wide), the Court of Q (Ops 19), Forbidden Tech (Ops 19, any ship Tier 2 or higher) and the Aggregation Refinery (Ops 45).
- Start at the Court of Q. The Protomatter from Q's Trials is what upgrades Forbidden Tech.
- Syndicate stat buffs add up across levels (+10% then +15% gives +25%). Daily Goal reward multipliers replace each other (1.5x then 2.5x leaves you at 2.5x, not 4x).
- Chaos Tech upgrades never fail. Forbidden Tech upgrades can fail.
Syndicate is a permanent account track. It is not tied to one ship or officer. Leveling it up earns stacking stat buffs (warp speed, combat power, mining and more), Officer Preset unlocks, better Daily Goal payouts, the officer Ghrush, up to 5 cosmetic frames, and one extra Exocomp slot at max level. Buffs stack across levels: +10% warp speed at one level plus +15% at a later level gives +25%. Daily Goal reward multipliers replace each other: moving from 1.5x to 2.5x means 2.5x in total, not 4x. Syndicate XP comes from in-app purchases, Special Events, Battle Pass rewards and a free daily claim. The free claim is on the Syndicate screen, top left next to your Latinum.
The Court of Q opens at Ops 19. Build it with Court of Q Keys from your Gifts section. It leads to Q's Trials: timed fights against one unique hostile. You start a Trial with a Trial Bell. Bells come from daily gifts, events and offers. The hostile resets its Shield and Hull Health between attempts, so you can retry while the timer runs. If the timer runs out, the Trial fails and you need another Bell. Trials get harder and pay more as your Trial Rank rises. A higher Court of Q level gives more bonus Protomatter per Trial and unlocks more Trials. Protomatter is what upgrades Forbidden Tech.
Forbidden Tech is ship equipment. It works from Ops 19 on any ship of Tier 2 or higher. Q's Trials are the main way to get and upgrade it. To unlock a ship's Forbidden Tech slot you need Fusion Rods. You get Fusion Rods by exchanging Forbidden Tech Credits at the Refinery. The cost depends on the ship's grade.
FULL DETAIL — 3 MORE SECTIONS
Removing or swapping a piece costs Fusion Rods. The cost depends on the Tech's rarity. Moving a piece from one ship to another costs double, because the fee is charged for both pieces that are removed. You manage everything on the Forbidden Tech inventory screen. A Level-Up needs Protomatter and Reactors. A Tier-Up needs Catalysts and Reactors. Upgrades can fail, and the materials are used even then. Your Assessment Rank, your highest Trial Rank, raises the success chance. After a failed upgrade, Q's Benevolence raises the chance for the next try on that same piece. It resets to 0% after a success.
Chaos Tech is a second equipment slot next to Forbidden Tech. Its abilities are more focused and niche, and it gives power right away. Its main difference is reliability: Chaos Tech upgrades always succeed. You unlock a ship's Chaos Tech slot with Chaos Tech Fusion Rods. Defeat Assimilated Caryn-class, Prohibitor-class and Frohmun-class hostiles in Amargosa and similar advanced systems. They drop Chaos Modules. You refine those into the other Chaos Tech materials: Tier-Up Catalysts, Chaosmatter and Reactors. Example: the Epic Q Cannon cuts an opponent's weapon damage each time they land a critical hit (stacking), lowers their critical hit damage, and adds 1500% base weapon damage against players.
The Aggregation Refinery is a third step on this ladder. It unlocks through Recon Locus levels. Level 1 (Ops 45) opens Forbidden Tech materials and upgrades. Level 51 adds Prototype Tech (starting with the Orion Syndicate Bomb) and Rare materials. Level 61 adds Epic materials, PvP Prototype Tech (Romulan Mines, Counterplay Device, Self-Replicating Mines) and the Harvester mining Prototype Tech. Level 67 adds Epic Prototype Tech Tier-Up Catalysts. Prototype Tech is the most powerful type of Forbidden Tech so far. It uses the same slot and the same Fusion Rods to swap. It upgrades fully through the Aggregation loop, with no Q's Trials needed. Hyperthermic Decay Hostiles feed that loop. They belong to the Aggregation faction and scale from Common at G4 to Epic at high G6. Each rarity step adds more combat buffs.