If you lined up and infinite number of Borg cubes in a straight line, how many of them would a single shot of the Death Star destroy before they could adapt? 🤔

I heard an answer to this on a podcast once,

The deathstar could easily one shot a cube, but they would never be able to do it again, because the borg adapt

This came up a few months ago, and I wasted most of a day figuring it out. Here's a compilation of what I said at the time:

The Borg's main advantage is its ability to counter energy weapons. They do this with the Adaptive Shield Matrix:

All phasers are generated on a particular subspace phase compression pulse frequency, whilst torpedo warheads all possess their own shielding which also possesses its own subspace phase compression pulse frequency. Adaptive Shielding works by remodulating the shields to the identical subspace compression pulse frequency of torpedos and phasers...

So, it seems like the Borg's sheilds adapt to the subspace pulse frequencies of phasers and torpedos. Phasers are a type particle weapon that Gene Roddenberry made up when he realized lasers didn't work the way he thought they did, and they don't really have much basis in the real world like lasers or plasma weapons do. The problem is that 99% of the weapons in Star Wars are plasma weapons, except for the Death Star cannon, which is a laser.

Since the Adaptive Shield Matrix specifically works by adapting to subspace frequencies, there's really no reason to think that their shields would have a distinct advantage over lasers or plasma bolts the way they do phasers. Star Fleet seems to agree, as they theorized plasma phasers would be effective weapons against the Borg in Best of Both Worlds. Picard was also able to easily kill several Borg with hard-light bullets in First Contact, further demonstrating their inability to counter non-phaser weapons.

It also doesn't seem like the Borg have an innate ability to adapt to enemy weapons. Aside from only countering phaser weapons, the rotating-frequency strategy was pretty effective throughout TNG and First Contact. It seems more like that Adaptive Shield Matrix was just a piece of technology they assimilated rather than an intrinsic ability to counter attacks.

So, if the Borg shields don't nullify the Death Star's weapons like they do Star Trek weapons, and they don't have a special ability to counter enemy attacks, this just comes down firepower. The superlaser should be able to destroy any Borg cube multiple times, and even without the superlaser, they're massively outgunned. This is 3000 meter ship against a 75 mile wide battle station. Even if the 10,000 turbolaser, 2,500 laser cannons, 2,500 ion cannons can't overpower them (and by the way, it sounds like those, "lasers," are actually plasma weapons according to wookiepedia, because of course Star Wars can't be consistent), and the 768 tractor beam projectors can't immobilize the cube, the 7,000 individual tie fighters would probably overwhelm the it. Hell, if the Death Star is faster, they could probably just smash into them and still survive the damage.

I think the Death Star has this by a mile. I hate to admit it, but I don't see a win condition for the Borg here.

The Culture.

WE WILL ADD YOUR BIOLOGICAL UNIQUENESS TO OUR… WAIT, YOU'RE ALL IDENTICAL? WTAF??

Are we just not going to talk about the fact that the cube is made of Legos?

Death Star might win the battle, but the Borg win the war

Deathstar takes first blood very easily, but that would never work twice.

The first cube is obviously dead. But the Borg will send a decent amount of cubes next time, and even if the shields on the death star can block beaming will have them down and drones on board before every cube is gone.

After that the Borg have a super sphere.

They are in space and the cube can approach from the opposite side of the main weapon. The death star would take a long time to rotate the main weapon at the cube and it can keep moving out of the way.

Cube wins.

Simple. The cube gets one shotted. The Borg Collective, which is linked across subspace, will notice a Cube suddenly going dark. They will send two spheres. The first gets one shotted, as the Death Star is simply too powerful to block its main weapon with adaptium shields. The second sphere beams over drones. The Death Star is assimilated. Resistance is futile. The Borg now have assimilated the technology of a planet killer weapon. Not that it matters. The Borg have the technology to wipe out entire star systems in one go. They choose not to, as that would go against the Identify, Adapt, Assimilate mindset. You can't ascend other species into the Collective if you vaporise them all.

The Borg cube would find the inherent flaw in the Death Star and exploit it. Borg cubes can't be destroyed easily just through weapons fire because they're self-repairing and have adaptive shielding.

Well the Empire lacks any OSHA standards so they’d totally miss the change in environmental conditions as the Borg slowly assimilates the station…

Just like first contact. The cube gets one shot, but it only takes one Borg landing on the death star for the station to slowly fall.

Depends on who won the initiative roll.

Who ever lands the first shot. I never believed that adaptable Borg shields couldn't be overwhelmed with enough energy. They just need a big enough wack every time. Eventually, the Borg ship's energy will be depleted.

The Death Star has enough energy to vaporize an entire planet. The only action the Borg has would be to overwhelm the firing rate and land drones to take it over.

Considering since Rouge One, we know the Death Star can fire lower energy blasts, presumably at a higher rate, who knows what rate the DS can take out Borg ships.

Given that Storm Trooper rifles are the most basic-ass laser weapons imaginable and don't even consistently kill a person wearing physical armour, let alone a shield, this battle is over basically the minute the Borg beam over to the Death Star. The cube will be destroyed by the main D.S. gun, but it takes so long to aim and charge that half the station would already be assimilated - or at very least full of laser-immune Borg.

Additional thought: 70%-ish of a Borg cube needs to be destroyed before its distributed system collapses. If the D.S. main gun is too powerful it may just shoot straight through and leave the Cube with enough intact to keep going at least one more shot.

Depends how fast the Death Star can traverse. It's built for attacking stationary targets.