Update 94 (Cause & Effect): what changed, and what still matters
This guide covers Update 94 ("Cause & Effect") and its 94.1 follow-up, and it is for Commanders from Operations (Ops) level 20 upward who want to know which of the changes are still in the game today and which were one-off. Some of it is a lasting change you will use every week (Bulk Research, the login streak rework, the new artifacts); some of it belonged to a Battle Pass that ended, and those parts are written in the past tense. Many items assume Ops 51 or 61, and each section says which. Update 95 followed and changed a few things again, so the Update 95 guide is the next stop after this one.
Bulk Research is the biggest lasting change. You can now select a research node deep in a tree even if the nodes before it are not done, and the game queues the missing prerequisites and researches them together, so you no longer click through each step. It has limits. Normal requirements still apply before research can start: building levels, owning the right ships and faction reputation. And any prerequisite that uses a different timer type from the node you selected cannot be included, so you must finish that one separately. Update 94.1 added a tidier requirements list that sorts items by type instead of mixing them, and fixed power not updating correctly after a Bulk Research.
The Cause & Effect Battle Pass replaced fixed rewards with Choice Tokens, which you exchange for the item you want. The kinds were Artifact tokens (Ops 51+), Starship tokens for blueprints and upgrade parts (Ops 20+), and Supply tokens (Ops 40+) that included a new kind of FKR ship part token for choosing Uncommon and Rare parts. FKR is shorthand for Federation, Klingon and Romulan. The Update 94 tokens could not carry over and expired at the end of the exchange on September 10, and the ship list from that exchange is no longer current. The pass also returned to 20 milestones, with a Free-track Rare officer (WOK Leonard McCoy) and Elite-track Epic officer choices of Winn Adami, WOK Carol Marcus or The Doctor, depending on Ops level. Update 95 brought back the Starship and Supply exchanges with new token names, so see the Update 95 guide for what is current. Alliance Tournaments were skipped during the Update 94 arc.
Six Rare and Epic artifacts arrived for Ops 51+ and 61+, and all of them now use a front-loaded curve: levels 1 to 4 deliver 60% of the maximum benefit of a 12-level artifact, and the remaining eight levels add the other 40%. At Ops 51+: Benny Russell's Typewriter (up to +150% Solo Outpost Credits), Picard's Earl Grey Tea Cup (up to +300% Isolytic damage against Outposts and Outpost Retaliation hostiles), Kirk's Spectacles (up to +7,500 Apex Barrier, a defensive stat, against the same targets) and Archer's Polo Ball (up to +150% Isolytic defense against V'Ger hostiles). At Ops 61+: Janeway's Antigen Bomb (up to +125% loot from Origin Sector hostiles; an earlier Scopely post called it a Device, but the patch notes and the in-game research data say Bomb) and Trelane's Medals (up to +400,000 Critical Mitigation against Academy Training and Combat drones, including in Duo Wave Defense). Our Isolytic and Artifact guide explains the damage type. Since Update 95 these artifacts can be had only through Store offers, because the Artifact Exchange did not return.
Toryn is an Epic Independent officer whose Officer Ability, Tritanium Reaver, changes the Ra'Ul Reaver's Sigma Feast raid. By default the Reaver takes Σ-Parsteel, Σ-Tritanium and Σ-Dilithium from an enemy Station in a 10:2:1 ratio (roughly 77%, 15% and 8%). Each Toryn rank shifts the mix toward Σ-Tritanium without raising the total taken, ending at 10:22:1 (about 30%, 67% and 3%) at Rank 5. If Tritanium is the Sigma resource you need, he is worth a look; if you need Parsteel or Dilithium, he works against you. His Below Deck ability adds Critical Damage mitigation against players. See our Ra'Ul Reaver guide for the raid itself.
Trelane is an Epic officer built for Wave Defense, the wave-based combat mode. His Captain's Maneuver adds 10% base Shield Mitigation at combat start during Wave Defense, and his Officer Ability raises base Apex Barrier there at every rank, so he is a niche pick unless you play Wave Defense seriously. Separately, Neelix and Harry Kim swapped abilities to match their roles in Star Trek: Voyager: Neelix became a Morale officer and Harry Kim a Burning officer. Ranks carry over, so a Rank 3 Neelix is now a Rank 3 Harry Kim in the Burning role, and nobody loses progress.
Update 94.1 reworked the 7-day login streak after players complained that one missed day cost them Bulk Claim. Bulk Claim is now open to every Commander at Ops 25 and above with no streak needed. Completing a 7-day streak earns a 24-hour Exocomp (a temporary booster) that raises warp speed, building speed and research speed, and each further day you keep the streak going grants another one, activating when you log in. Miss a day and the Exocomps stop until you complete a fresh 7-day streak. Our Exocomps guide explains how to stack them with other boosts.
Galactic Anomalies are tiered temporary modifiers that apply to certain systems and rotate on a schedule. Update 94 aimed them at Outpost and Academy space: three Outpost types (Critical Moment, Rich Target Environment and Thrill of Battle) that rotated daily across Borg, Node and Cardassian Outposts, two Academy types (Graduation Exams and Pirate Invasion) that were active for 20 minutes of each half hour, and a Defense of Wisdom anomaly that boosted the U.S.S. Athena in Duo Wave Defense. Each had four tiers. The published calendar ended on September 14, so check your in-game view for what is live now. Our Galactic Anomalies guide covers how they work.
Three Prime Research nodes were added; Prime nodes are late-game research bought with Prime Particles, which can be purchased directly. In the Combat tree, a G6+ node (FKR and the U.S.S. Vengeance) raises Critical Mitigation against player Stations for the first two combat rounds by 2,000 per level up to 10,000, and a G7 version adds 4,000 per level up to 20,000, so G7 FKR ships can reach 30,000 combined. In the Starship tree, a one-level node cuts the cooldown of the U.S.S. Athena's Regenerate ability by 50%. Update 94.1 also added a second way to get Athena Blueprints: owners can trade Athena Data Modules at the Academy Refinery.
Use Bulk Research whenever you queue a deep research node, and check the timer type of any prerequisite it skips. If you are Ops 51 or higher, start the six artifacts by getting each to level 4, because that captures most of the value, and buy the rest only when you have the Store budget. If you raid with the Ra'Ul Reaver, consider Toryn only when Tritanium is your bottleneck. Log in every day if you are Ops 25+, because the streak now gives a 24-hour Exocomp, not just Bulk Claim. Treat the Update 94 Battle Pass tokens, the Alliance Tournaments skip and the anomaly calendar as history, and read the Update 95 guide for the current Battle Pass.