USS Athena: the Venari Ral specialist and Academy support ship
- The USS Athena is a G6 Epic Explorer for Ops 61 and higher.
- Tier 4 lets you start Duo Wave Defense daily instead of every 7 days.
- Amplify and Regenerate get stronger through the Athena research tree.
It stays useful up to Ops 80. It fights Venari Ral (VENRA) hostiles and Academy Drones. It supports your own or an ally's ships with an Active Ability. It also unlocks Academy progression and more Duo Wave Defense runs.
Athena's Fury adds 11,000,000% Weapon Damage against Venari Ral. Athena's Revenge adds 310,000 Critical Mitigation against them. Athena's Valor adds 10,000,000 Apex Barrier against them. Athena's Solace makes the ship immune to the Programmable Matter ability of Venari Ral hostiles. Athena's Wrath adds 15,000,000 Apex Barrier in Wave Defense against Academy Drones. None of these apply against other enemies.
Amplify increases Apex Barrier and gives Wave Defense bonuses to your ships or an ally's. It improves with each Simulation Hack node you finish in the Athena's Starships Research Tree. Regenerate heals up to 25% of the Athena's max Hull Health. It scales with the Regeneration Boost node. The tree also boosts combat, Officer cost efficiency and refinery bundles.
Without the Athena, you can start Duo Wave Defense once every 7 days. At Tier 1 you can start it every 2 days. At Tier 4 you can start it daily. Research also brings more Research Dust, longer Amplify duration, and shorter Amplify cooldowns (Tier 3 and Tier 8). Remote Campus Refinery bonuses unlock through research: +50% at Tier 2 and +100% at Tier 6.
Tiers give +1 roll on Sigma Resource Refineries and extra 2x and 3x rolls on the G6 and G7 Material Refineries. The Engineering Credits to Simulation Codes refinery improves. Tier-up rewards include Resources, Materials, Simulation Codes and Player Titles: Nice Aft at Tier 1, Commandante at Tier 6 and Venari Ral Nemesis at Tier 9. The ship is also the key to much more Science and Command Credits.
The usual causes are a low ship tier, an incomplete Athena research tree, or underdeveloped Academy progression. The ship scales through upgrades and research.