Cloaking technology is a form of stealth used most commonly by races such as the Klingons and Romulans for their starships. Similar technology can also be used on individuals, notably the Jem'Hadar. Upon leaving cloak, ships gain a brief "ambush" bonus to their damage for a few seconds.
Use by factions
While cloaking technology is found on nearly all Klingon Defense Force and Romulan Republic ships, the Federation uses it sparingly; only a handful of Starfleet ships are capable of using a cloaking device at all, and fewer still with cloaking capabilities built-in. Other NPC factions which use cloaks include the Romulan Star Empire, Reman Resistance, Voth and Borg Collective (alternate timeline only).
Types of cloaking device
There are several different types of cloak abilities usable on starships to conceal you from the enemy. The standard cloaking device is found on many Klingon starships and serves as the baseline from which all others are compared: disabling weapons and shields, draining shield power, increasing defense, boosting your Stealth rating after a moment based on your Auxiliary Power level, and giving a bonus damage boost after decloaking. These standard cloaks cannot be used when the ship is engaged in combat (Red Alert), but allow you to get the drop on the enemy at will with a damage bonus.
Klingon Battlecruisers and Raptors (see below) feature the standard cloaking device, but they are not the only power to use them. Federation and Cardassian Intelligence vessels use the same cloaking technology--the Cardassian one looking visually different--as well as some other starships of other factions (see below). Some Federation starships may also equip the Cloaking Device universal console to gain the ability to cloak, while Section 31 starships have the ability innately as well (see below).
The Battle Cloak is a variant of the standard cloak that allows you to cloak during battle, and increase your speed and turn rate once cloaked to allow for more potent ambush tactics. However, triggering the cloak in combat means dropping your shields while under fire, which makes your ship vulnerable. An improved variant is the Enhanced Battle Cloak which additionally allows the firing of torpedoes and deployment of mines while under cloak, though your ship becomes temporarily targetable while doing so. When under Enhanced Battle Cloak, the bonus damage applies for the entire duration of the cloak, not just the ambush period after decloaking.
Romulan Republic starships use their own variants of the Cloak, Battle Cloak and Enhanced Battle Cloak, which have their power signature affected by the starship's singularity core charge level (see see below).
Further variations on the various cloaking devices are detailed below.
Raider Flanking
Cloaks available on starships featuring the innate ability Raider Flanking gain 10% increased Bonus Damage from cloak ambush, resulting in +25% Bonus Damage without other modifiers. This affects all innate cloaking abilities and [Console - Universal - Cloaking Device].
Innate cloaking abilities
Standard cloak
- Cloak - the standard cloaking device described above
- –5 Current Shield Power per sec
- +50 Defense Rating
- After 3 sec, +4,987 Stealth
- After Decloaking, +15% Bonus Damage for 5 sec
- Cloak of T'Kuvma - a visual variant of the standard cloaking device, found exclusively on the Sarcophagus-class Dreadnought Carrier
- –5 Current Shield Power per sec
- +50 Defense Rating
- After 3 sec, +__ Stealth
- After Decloaking, +15% Bonus Damage for a brief duration.
- Romulan Cloak - found on some Romulan Republic small craft (see below)
- –5 Current Shield Power per sec
- +50 Defense Rating
- After 3 sec, +__ Stealth
- After Decloaking, +15% Bonus Damage for a brief duration
- Dark Mode - a visual variant of the standard cloaking device, found exclusively on prime-timeline Section 31 starships (see below)
- After 3 sec, +5,141.3 Stealth
- -5 Current Shield Power per sec
- +50 Defense Rating
- After exiting Dark Mode, +15% Bonus Damage for 5 sec
Battle Cloak
- Romulan Battle Cloak - found on most Romulan Warbirds (see below)
- –5 Current Shield Power per sec
- +50 Defense Rating
- +3 Flight Speed
- After 3 sec, +11.8 Flight Turn Rate
- After 3 sec, +__ Stealth
- After Decloaking, +15% Bonus Damage for a brief duration
- Scimitar Battle Cloak - found on the Romulan Dreadnought Warbirds and enhanced by the Advanced Scimitar Systems Set (see below)
- –5 Current Shield Power per sec (negated w/ Singularity Distributor Unit)
- +50 Defense Rating
- +3 Flight Speed
- +10 Flight Turn Rate
- After 3 sec, +__ Stealth
- After Decloaking, +15% Damage Bonus for 15 sec
- Dark Mode (Combat Variant) - a visual variant of a standard battle cloaking device, found exclusively on prime-timeline Section 31 starships (see below)
- 5 Current Shield Power per sec
- +3 Flight Speed
- +50 Defense Rating
- After 3 sec, +10 Flight Turn Rate
- After 3 sec, +4,975 Stealth (at Auxiliary Power 50)
- After exiting Dark Mode, +15% Bonus Damage for a brief duration
Enhanced Battle Cloak
- Romulan Enhanced Battle Cloak - found on some specific Romulan Warbirds (see below)
- –5 Current Shield Power per sec
- +50 Defense Rating
- +1.5 Flight Speed
- +5 Flight Turn Rate
- +15% Bonus All Damage
- Energy Weapons Offline
- After 3 sec, +__ Stealth
- After Decloaking, +15% Bonus Damage for 5 sec
- Alliance Enhanced Battle Cloak - found on the Khitomer Alliance Temer-class Raider.
- –5 Current Shield Power per sec
- +1.5 Flight Speed
- +50 Defense Rating
- +15% Bonus All Damage
- After Decloaking, +15% Bonus Damage for 5 sec
- Energy Weapons Offline
- After 3 sec, +5 Flight Turn Rate
- After 3 sec, +4,939 Stealth
Equipment cloaking abilities
- Incremental Phase Shift - from [Console - Universal - Incremental Phase Cloaking Device], usable on any Starfleet Assault Cruiser
- Foes: Taunts up to 5 foes within 5km for 15 sec
- Self: Immunity to All Energy Damage for 10 seconds
- Self: -50% All Energy Damage for 10 seconds
- After 10 seconds:
- Self: +4,805 Stealth for 5 seconds
- Self: Cannot be targeted for 5 seconds
- Self: No collision for 5 seconds
- Self: Cannot launch hangar ships for 5 seconds
- Self: Weapons Offline for 5 seconds
- Self: Immunity to All Damage for 5 seconds
- Voth Cloak - Voth Cloak Technologies 2-piece set bonus, limited to Voth starships
- –5 Current Shield Power per second
- +75 All Damage Resistance Rating
- +50 Defense Rating
- After Decloaking, +15% Bonus Damage for a brief duration
- After 3 sec, +____ Stealth
- Voth Battle Cloak - Voth Cloak Technologies 3-piece set bonus, limited to Voth starships
- –5 Current Shield Power per second
- +75 All Damage Resistance Rating
- +3 Flight Speed
- +50 Defense Rating
- After Decloaking, +15% Bonus Damage for a brief duration
- After 3 sec, +____ Stealth
- Voth Phase Decoy - from [Console - Universal - Voth Phase Decoy], which may be used on any starship
- Stealth, Spawns Decoy
- Cloaks you for up to 20 sec
- (May be deactivated at any time after 5 sec)
- While Cloaked:
- -+4.975 Stealth
- -Shields Offline
- A Voth Phase Duplicate draws aggro
- When Duplicate dies, to all fores within 10 Km
- -Disables Engines for 6 sec
- -1,500 Electrical Damage (Decreases with distance from Duplicate) per sec for 10 sec
- -2 min recharge
Bridge officer cloak abilities
- Intelligence Team is an Intel bridge officer ability that allows you to cloak yourself or an ally for a short time, canceling target locks. Intel Team is not considered a "Cloak" for the purposes of traits that trigger upon cloaking or decloaking. Starships with Intelligence seating may use this ability.
- Mask Energy Signature is a Science bridge officer ability that allows any starship to apply a cloak-like effect to itself.
Starships with cloaking devices
Romulan starships
A Romulan Scimitar firing whilst cloaked
The Romulans have been one of the longest continual users of cloaking technology and believe most other powers stole the technology from them. ( “Butterfly”) All Romulan Warbirds are equipped with either a Romulan Cloak or a Romulan Battle Cloak which are more advanced than their standard counterparts. A handful of ships are alternatively equipped with a Romulan Enhanced Battle Cloak.
The Romulan console [Console - Universal - Cloaked Barrage] from the Scimitar Dreadnought Warbird (& usable on any Scimitar) enables the ship to fire all weapons while cloaked for a short period.
The only Romulan faction ships without any sort of cloaking device are the following:
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Klingon starships
While the Klingon Empire had a type of cloaking device before the Federation discovered the Romulans had developed a device, cloaking devices did not become standard for the Klingon Defense Force until later. The vast majority of Klingon starships are equipped with either a basic Cloak, or a Battle Cloak. Ships such as the Vo'Quv Carrier are a very rare exception for the KDF.
In general, Klingon Battlecruisers, Raptors and Support Vessels have a standard cloak, while Destroyers and Raiders have a Battle cloak, though there are many exceptions. Starships made by other members of the Klingon Empire, such as those of Ferasan, Gorn, Lethean, Nausicaan and Orion design, do not possess cloaking devices.
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Federation starships
Cloaked Federation Galaxy Dreadnought
The Treaty of Algeron, signed in 2311 by the Romulan Star Empire and the United Federation of Planets, prohibited Federation cloaking devices. This agreement has been a source of controversy in Starfleet, where some officers believed it severely limited tactical options and put the Federation at a disadvantage. Although the Federation initially agreed to follow the treaty after the destruction of the Romulan homeworld, in early 2409 Starfleet was authorized to develop and implement cloaking technology on selected ships.
[Console - Universal - Cloaking Device] is a universal starship console that grants the basic Cloak ability. It is available from the Galaxy Dreadnought Cruiser and the Tactical Escort Retrofit, but can also be equipped on the Aquarius Light Escort and Avenger Battlecruiser and their variants. Adding the consoles from the two other Tactical Escort ships gives a three set bonus from Stealth Fighter Set which turns it into a Battle Cloak, but this is only possible for Tier 5 or higher starships.
A Battle Cloak is also available from the Starfleet Assault Cruiser Technology Set 3 set bonus, available to the Intel Assault Cruiser. One of the three consoles of that set, [Console - Universal - Incremental Phase Cloaking Device], functions as a primitive cloaking device but with very different functionality to the normal devices mentioned above. 32nd century starships have an enhanced variant of the Battle Cloak that activates faster.
While not a traditional cloaking device, the Section 31 Dark Mode provides a stealth bonus and invisibility near-equivalent to a basic cloaking device, and provides a similar damage boost at termination of the mode.
By the 32nd century, the Federation has begun using cloaking devices regularly and most of their ships are equipped with an innate Federation Battle Cloak (32c.).
Tier 6 with Stealth Fighter Set 3-piece set bonus:
Tier 6 with Starfleet Assault Cruiser Technology Set 3-piece set bonus:
Cross-faction starships
Quantum Singularity Manipulation
Quantum Singularity Manipulation is a form of cloaking available as an active reputation trait from the Romulan Reputation. It cloaks the player's ship, regardless of the ship or player faction, and allows the ship to continue firing without breaking the cloak.
Aiding cloak tactics
The efficiency of cloak's stealth is linked to the player's Starship Stealth and their ship's auxiliary power level. However, there are a number of other factors that can aid cloaking tactics;
Traits
Duty officers
Quality
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Ship duty effect
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Doffs
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R VR
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Increases Auxiliary power by 15 while using Cloak, Mask Energy Signature or Phase Shift, which will in turn improve your ship's stealth effectiveness. +25 Auxiliary Power while Cloaked
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Un R VR
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Allows any accumulated Singularity Charge to decay at a slower rate while under the effects of any Cloaking Device. Reduces decay of Singularity Charge by 15/20/25% while under Cloak
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Penetration of cloaks
An Emission-Seeking Torpedo heading towards a cloaked ship
Your Perception and certain abilities can help you penetrate an enemy's cloak. The value of these abilities are primarily in PvP. In many PvE queues and missions an NPC cloaks for plot reasons and cannot be detected. Of note, abilities include;
Cloaked mines
Mines can sometimes be cloaked until activated. Examples of these include the those from the Tractor Beam Mine Launcher and the Subspace Anesthezine Mine.
Personal cloaks
Personal cloaking goes under a variety of names but is most frequently seen among NPCs as the Jem'Hadar Shroud. As a player ability is also termed a Stealth Module.
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