Guide: Tribble Breeding

From Star Trek Online Wiki

Click the image above to enlarge our brand new Tribble Breeding flow chart!

Tribble Breeding can be a fun and interesting part of Star Trek Online gameplay. There are as many as 25 different sub-species of Tribbles: some of them provide a quick heal and are pretty common to find, while others are more rare and give various types of buffs to the player (or any Bridge Officer who has them equipped) when used.

Warning: Any Tribbles that consume a +56% food item will breed Tier 1 Tribbles and possibly ruin your breeding process if not caught immediately.

Food

In order to breed, Tribbles must be fed; in other words, food or drink must be placed in the same area as them. Tribbles can be bred in the player inventory, while equipped on the player or a Bridge Officer, or even in your personal bank. They do not, however, breed in the fleet bank.

Tribbles breed every hour, on the hour, after you've started playing the game.

There are three levels of food and drink: +56%, +64%, and +72% food. The higher the HP boost a food/drink provides to the player, the more rare it is in-game, and the more it is needed for higher-level breeding.

To breed higher level Tribbles (Tier 4+), lower level Tribbles must be fed specific food items. For details on which food items are required to breed a Tribble, click on that Tribble below or check the Tribble Breeding Table.

Sub-Species Tiers

There are eight levels of Tribbles in the game — nine if you include the Best Buy pre-order Tribble with all 3 possible buffs at once. While all non-preorder Tribbles can have two buffs, one buff, or no buffs (simple heal), some provide more powerful buffs than others.

For example, if a Tier 6 or 7 Tribble consumed a food item that gives a boost below +72%, a Tier 1 Tribble will replace that food item. Hence, breeding should be done in steps, with all Tier 1 Tribbles being removed before breeding Tier 2 to Tier 3, and so forth.

A Tribble can only breed other Tribbles at the same or next level as itself with the right food. With the wrong food, a Tier 1 Tribble will result. Below is a list of the levels of Tribble sub-species players will encounter.

For more information on exactly which food or drink to feed a certain sub-species to get which offspring, click on each sub-species' picture.

Tier 1: Self-Heal, Looted

Tier 1 Tribbles can be found in enemy loot (Klingons, allies and enemy crates) and only provide a simple self-heal.

Tier 1 Tribbles can be fed any level of food or drink to breed Tier 1 or 2 Tribbles.

Tier 2: Self-Heal, Bred

Tier 2 Tribbles are not found in loot, but are instead bred by feeding any food to a Tier 1 Tribble.

Tier 2 Tribbles must be fed +64% or +72% food items in order to breed a Tuffli Tribble.

Tier 3: Self-Heal Gateway

The Tier 3 Tribble, Tuffli, is considered a gateway sub-species in that, while being a simple self-heal Tribble, it has the chance of breeding a Tier 4 Tribble with buffing powers.

The Tuffli Tribble can breed a Jasperson, McCarry, Henry or Nix Tribble.

Tier 4: Single, Low-Level Buff

Tier 4 Tribbles provide a single, one-hour buff to players, but at a lower-level boost. These Tribbles are divided into two sub-categories, each of which breeds a corresponding Tier 5 sub-category.

The Henry and Jasperson sub-species can breed Cavallaro and DeAngelo Tier 5 Tribbles, while the McCarry and Nix sub-species can breed Howe and Stacy Tier 5 Tribbles.

Tier 5: Single, Medium-Low Level Buff

Tier 5 Tribbles provide a single, one-hour buff to players at a medium-low level boost. These Tribbles are divided into two sub-categories, each of which is bred from a corresponding Tier 4 sub-category and can breed into a particular Tier 6 Tribble.

The Cavallaro and DeAngelo sub-species can both breed the Mattson sub-species, which offers each of the two sub-species' buffs at a lower boost level. Similarly, the Howe and Stacy sub-species are able to each breed the Ricossa, which also has both of the buffs from each of the parent sub-species.

Tier 6: Double, Medium-Level Buff

Tier 6 Tribbles offer two one-hour buffs at a medium level boost: a Damage buff, plus either a Health Regeneration buff (Mattson) or a Damage Resistance buff (Ricossa). Tier 6 Tribbles can breed Tier 7 Tribbles with a medium-high level single buff, one of which must be provided by the Tier 6 parent.

Specifically, the Mattson sub-species (which offers a Damage and Regen buff) can breed the Velasquez (Damage buff) and Highison (Regen buff) sub-species. Similarly, the Ricossa (Damage and Resistance) can breed the Griffis (Resistance) and Daxter (Damage) sub-species.

Tier 7: Single, Medium-High Level Buff

Tier 7 Tribbles offer a single, one-hour buff at a medium-high level (the second-highest level available). Each Tier 7 Tribble specifically breeds a corresponding Tier 8 Tribble with the same buff.