Sun, Sea, and Starships
This year hasn’t been especially conducive to tourism, to say the least, but no amount of international travel restrictions can stop you from logging into Star Trek Online‘s 25th-century timeline this August. The Cryptic Studios-developed free-to-play MMO is kicking off its yearly summer celebration event on August 4, 2020, and any players who start a character and complete the initial tutorial will be welcome on the shores of Risa, the classic “pleasure planet” of Star Trek Lore.
As with other summer events, players can partake of a variety of summer activities, including jetpack tours, hoverboard races, sand castle builds, and dance contests. They can even go on a scavenger hunt for Risian horga’hn statues, though sadly no jamaharon is on offer (unless you know the right chat channels to join, I suppose). Participating a little bit each day will earn progress towards the event’s grand prize: A premium playable starship.
This year’s ship is the Risian Weather Control Vessel, a specialized science vessel designed to help tame nothing less than an entire planet’s weather, the better provide a pleasant experience for hordes of tourists. A ship that powerful is also pretty decent in a space battle, which is what most Star Trek Online players will end up using their ships for, anyway. The Weather Control Vessel is equipped with the ability to summon “neutronic eddies” which look suspiciously like space tornadoes, and when leveled up, its unlockable perks can cause a player’s summoned anomalies (like gravity wells and spatial rifts) to fire powerful bolts of lightning in addition to their normal effects.
Besides the ship other limited-time goodies can be purchased with the special “Lohlunat Favor” currency earned in the event zone. The new items include baseball uniform options, band t-shirts (promoting planet Qo’noS’ hottest Klingon death metal acts), cosmetic vanity shields, ground combat kit modules with special powers, pet Tribbles, and other assorted gear pieces.
Check out this promo clip for the Risian resort location (circa 2019’s event) from Youtuber ZEFilms:
Star Trek Online is available now via Steam and Perfect World’s Arc launcher, and its summer celebration event will run from August 4, 2020 until September 3, 2020.
