Ships from promo R&D packs are estimated to have a about 1% chance to reward to the ship based on opening promo R&D packs on the Tribble test server. Opening lock boxes on the Tribble test server have shown that in the long term the chance to get the lock box ship is about 0.4% - 0.5% chance, or basically less than half the chance to win a ship from the promo R&D packs.
Ships from promo R&D packs, lock boxes and ships purchased from the Lobi Store using Lobi Crystals are all bound to character once the ship is unpacked. Ships purchased from the C-Store are account unlocked therefore the same C-Store can be used my all of your captains as long as they are of the appropriate faction.
is it better to get keys for lock boxes or a new ship using zen?
a ship is a ship, but 10 keys can be anything right?
10 keys opening lockboxes will likely be 40-50 Lobi and a pile of stuff that would be lucky to sell for the price of one key all together.
I opened 67 of the Kelvin boxes not expecting to get a ship, and, well, I didn't get a ship. Only open lockboxes if you need bind on pickup Lobi gear for your build. Even my average Lobi out of it was crud, a mere 4.5 Lobi/box average.
Take care of one important fact: Lockbox and RD promotion ships are single items - you can unpack them on one character and fly them, you can sell them (as long as they are not unpacked), once dismissed they are destroyed - you need to buy new one if you want another one, you can buy/sell them on exchange;
Zen store ships are account unlock - you buy it once, then any other toon on account that can use it can get it for free, you can dismiss it and get a new one (the same one - but still for free), you just can not sell it to others...
So if you plan to have many alt toons, the Zen store ships may be a better option.
While KDF and Romulans allied with KDF are better Dilithium farmers than Federation, personally i strongly recommend keeping at least one toon of each faction (meaning Federation/KDF/Romulan Republic)- and leveling them up to level 50 or 60.
The game has giveaways 2 or more times a year and they include free Zen shop ships... but to get the ships you need to claim them by toon, that can claim them - that means correct faction and level to get the ships, when they are given.
The giveaways are announced on STO news page, so there is small chance to overlook them... and they include (sometimes) T5 ships with really usefull gear (and some of that gear can be shifted to other ships once claimed with original ships - like Point Defence Console, Bioneural Warhead Torpedo, Quad Cannons, Plasmonic Leach Console, Repair Platform Console... and others).
If you're looking to acquire your first T6 ship then C-Store is probably your best bet.
You're probably on your first charcter, you'll likely end up making more. The C-Store ship can be re-claimed by any character you have of that faction. If you end up making 3 Federation Captains, they can all have a copy of that ship. The Lock Box ship on the other hand is character only. If a C-Store ship is dismissed you can simply re-claim it, the Lobi ship is gone forever.
10 Keys is going to get you about 50M EC, that's not going to get you anything great from the exchange, not even close. If you're a Fed character looking for a good T6 ship, you can pick up a few good ones around the 120M-180M Mark, but the 'good' stuff is 300M+.
What you need to remember, is that it depends entirely on your preference. I cannot stress this enough but.. there is no difference in power between C-Store and Lobi Ships. Anyone telling you that you have to get a Lobi ship to be 'good' is someone you should not listen to. Yes, there are great Lobi ships like the Vengeance, the Krenim Imperium Warship, Annorax, and quite a few others. Those are GREAT ships, but the C-Store also offers great ships like the T6 Battlecruisers (Arbiter, Morigu, Kurak), the T6 Flagships, The Pilot Ships, etc.
I would advise you just go with the ship that you like that fits your play style, don't think of one as being 'better' then the other. For the most part though, C-Store ships are more easily accessible and make the best choice for your first ship purchase. If you have questions on a particular ship, please feel free to post it.
Keys provide you with more reward options, but a ship is more fundamental for game purposes. I guess it comes down to your own desire in the ship(s) you wish to fly. If you can get by with a ship from the store, then do that. One thing I will say, if you have your eye on a lock box (or lobi) ship, just buy keys and sell them on the exchange, then wait until you have enough money to buy the ship from the exchange. Do not waste your money on opening boxes; it's really not worth it.
One thing to remember with the exchange ships is that expensive doesn't nessessarily mean better. Those lobi ships are around 300mil each because they cost a lot to acquire, and lobi costs don't vary much so the cost stays constant. But they are not exactly better or worse than any of the lockbox ships going for around 100mil + less than that. Those are cheaper because they are more common.
Watch the market if you like a ship, there's huge variation in prices over just a week long period. I bought a Tarantula not long ago for 120mil; the day before they were selling for 135mil and by the end of the week they were 140mil. That's in the space of 3-4 days. Same with my Wells class, got it for 89mil only a month ago, just look at the prices now.
5/3 weapons layout so you have much flexibility to build options. Intel Hybrid boff station for OSS3. Solid maneuverability. The ship trait is one of the best in game for high performing players. This means that even if you don’t end up using this ship permanently you have nothing wasted.
And remember: All Zen-store ships are account unlocks so if u make additional toons at some point they won’t have to worry about a ship. When I was new in STO I did not bother with Lock Box stuff for over a year or two.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
5/3 weapons layout so you have much flexibility to build options. Intel Hybrid boff station for OSS3. Solid maneuverability. The ship trait is one of the best in game for high performing players. This means that even if you don’t end up using this ship permanently you have nothing wasted.
And remember: All Zen-store ships are account unlocks so if u make additional toons at some point they won’t have to worry about a ship. When I was new in STO I did not bother with Lock Box stuff for over a year or two.
I second this.
The Arbiter is a great choice. You can fly it as an Escort/Destroyer or as a Cruiser and it excels in all roles.
In my opinion, it's the best Fed ship in the C-Store, it's fantastic.
Buy the Flagship pack and the FactionBattlecruiser packs first. These come with crucial starship traits and I regret never buying the supermassive pack.
"Last Engage! Magical Girl Origami-san" is in print! Now with three times more rainbows.
5/3 weapons layout so you have much flexibility to build options. Intel Hybrid boff station for OSS3. Solid maneuverability. The ship trait is one of the best in game for high performing players. This means that even if you don’t end up using this ship permanently you have nothing wasted.
And remember: All Zen-store ships are account unlocks so if u make additional toons at some point they won’t have to worry about a ship. When I was new in STO I did not bother with Lock Box stuff for over a year or two.
I second this.
The Arbiter is a great choice. You can fly it as an Escort/Destroyer or as a Cruiser and it excels in all roles.
In my opinion, it's the best Fed ship in the C-Store, it's fantastic.
Agree on that, i have the 3 set, great ships.. highly recomended!
For a new player the cross-faction battlecruiser bundle is perfect. The Arbiter is a great cruiser and players really should create a Romulan and KDF captain too so they can play through the faction story episodes.
Its a 3 set? T5 Avenger, T6 Arbiter, and what else?
He's talking about the T6 Battlecruiser bundle comprised of the Fed Arbiter, KDF Kurak, and Rom Morrigu. The Fed and KDF consoles don't have a 3 piece console set, but Rom does.
Just one moree thing to look at. Most, but definitely not all, T6 zen ships have an even better fleet version. And if you have the zen ship, the fleet version only costs one ship module. So, if you make sure the Zen ship you get has a fleet version, you can "upgrade" to the fleet version later relatively cheaply.
Just make sure you use the zen ship enough to get the trait from it first before dumping it for the fleet ship.
^ don't worry about that though. If a T6 C-Store ship has 10 consoles there should also be a fleet version. But I believe all the ones without a fleet version are already "fleet level" with 11 consoles and the improved hull, just like all T6 lock box, lobi and event ships are. So pick whatever ship(s) you like, then if they are 10 console then later get the fleet upgrade.
The main point is never start by getting the fleet version by itself for 4 modules. Get the regular version first for the account-wide unlock, mastery trait, console. Then get the fleet version for 1 module.
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If your goal is a ship and you don't care about getting the fancy shiny one, then just go for C-store.
Ships from promo R&D packs, lock boxes and ships purchased from the Lobi Store using Lobi Crystals are all bound to character once the ship is unpacked. Ships purchased from the C-Store are account unlocked therefore the same C-Store can be used my all of your captains as long as they are of the appropriate faction.
10 keys opening lockboxes will likely be 40-50 Lobi and a pile of stuff that would be lucky to sell for the price of one key all together.
I opened 67 of the Kelvin boxes not expecting to get a ship, and, well, I didn't get a ship. Only open lockboxes if you need bind on pickup Lobi gear for your build. Even my average Lobi out of it was crud, a mere 4.5 Lobi/box average.
A ship's a ship. But a lockbox could be anything, it could even be a ship!
Zen store ships are account unlock - you buy it once, then any other toon on account that can use it can get it for free, you can dismiss it and get a new one (the same one - but still for free), you just can not sell it to others...
So if you plan to have many alt toons, the Zen store ships may be a better option.
The game has giveaways 2 or more times a year and they include free Zen shop ships... but to get the ships you need to claim them by toon, that can claim them - that means correct faction and level to get the ships, when they are given.
The giveaways are announced on STO news page, so there is small chance to overlook them... and they include (sometimes) T5 ships with really usefull gear (and some of that gear can be shifted to other ships once claimed with original ships - like Point Defence Console, Bioneural Warhead Torpedo, Quad Cannons, Plasmonic Leach Console, Repair Platform Console... and others).
You're probably on your first charcter, you'll likely end up making more. The C-Store ship can be re-claimed by any character you have of that faction. If you end up making 3 Federation Captains, they can all have a copy of that ship. The Lock Box ship on the other hand is character only. If a C-Store ship is dismissed you can simply re-claim it, the Lobi ship is gone forever.
10 Keys is going to get you about 50M EC, that's not going to get you anything great from the exchange, not even close. If you're a Fed character looking for a good T6 ship, you can pick up a few good ones around the 120M-180M Mark, but the 'good' stuff is 300M+.
What you need to remember, is that it depends entirely on your preference. I cannot stress this enough but.. there is no difference in power between C-Store and Lobi Ships. Anyone telling you that you have to get a Lobi ship to be 'good' is someone you should not listen to. Yes, there are great Lobi ships like the Vengeance, the Krenim Imperium Warship, Annorax, and quite a few others. Those are GREAT ships, but the C-Store also offers great ships like the T6 Battlecruisers (Arbiter, Morigu, Kurak), the T6 Flagships, The Pilot Ships, etc.
I would advise you just go with the ship that you like that fits your play style, don't think of one as being 'better' then the other. For the most part though, C-Store ships are more easily accessible and make the best choice for your first ship purchase. If you have questions on a particular ship, please feel free to post it.
Those lobi ships are around 300mil each because they cost a lot to acquire, and lobi costs don't vary much so the cost stays constant. But they are not exactly better or worse than any of the lockbox ships going for around 100mil + less than that. Those are cheaper because they are more common.
Watch the market if you like a ship, there's huge variation in prices over just a week long period. I bought a Tarantula not long ago for 120mil; the day before they were selling for 135mil and by the end of the week they were 140mil. That's in the space of 3-4 days.
Same with my Wells class, got it for 89mil only a month ago, just look at the prices now.
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Arbiter_Battlecruiser
5/3 weapons layout so you have much flexibility to build options. Intel Hybrid boff station for OSS3. Solid maneuverability. The ship trait is one of the best in game for high performing players. This means that even if you don’t end up using this ship permanently you have nothing wasted.
And remember: All Zen-store ships are account unlocks so if u make additional toons at some point they won’t have to worry about a ship. When I was new in STO I did not bother with Lock Box stuff for over a year or two.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
I second this.
The Arbiter is a great choice. You can fly it as an Escort/Destroyer or as a Cruiser and it excels in all roles.
In my opinion, it's the best Fed ship in the C-Store, it's fantastic.
"Last Engage! Magical Girl Origami-san" is in print! Now with three times more rainbows.
Support the "Armored Unicorn" vehicle initiative today!
Thanks for Harajuku. Now let's get a real "Magical Girl" costume!
Agree on that, i have the 3 set, great ships.. highly recomended!
He's talking about the T6 Battlecruiser bundle comprised of the Fed Arbiter, KDF Kurak, and Rom Morrigu. The Fed and KDF consoles don't have a 3 piece console set, but Rom does.
Just make sure you use the zen ship enough to get the trait from it first before dumping it for the fleet ship.
The main point is never start by getting the fleet version by itself for 4 modules. Get the regular version first for the account-wide unlock, mastery trait, console. Then get the fleet version for 1 module.