I have 2 questions and was hoping someone besides myself who's versed in probability mathematics/economics/game theory/etc. might be able to do the legwork I need for the answer. I'm busy right now but I began considering it yesterday and wanted to get it down before I forget about it.
1) Setting aside acquisition costs, there is no benefit to utilizing Improved or Basic Tech Upgrades over Superior. There IS a non-negligible increase in dilithium cost for using Experimental TU's over Superiors. Based on probability, what is the most dilithium-conservative route to upgrading a Mk XIV very rare piece of equipment in rarity, is there a specific quantity or instant in applying tech upgrades at which point it is no longer economically feasible to apply Experimental TU's over Superior TU's, and if so, what is that point?
2) Follow up on 1 -- Temporal Operatives get an account-wide reputation reward that makes all crafted reputation items Mk XIII UR out the gate. On characters that already have Mk XIV VR gear, (and following up on the analysis in 1) is it more economically feasible to pursue rarity upgrades on this VR gear, or to craft entirely new sets of Mk XIII UR gear?
Thanks in advance.
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Basically once an item is at around MK VII, it's stupid to try and upgrade for rarity because you need to spend tens of thousands of dilithium and the amount get's higher as the mark goes up. It's best to upgrade rarity at lower levels like MK II, since you can spend only 1800 dil and get at least 5 levels (aka 5 chances to upgrade) out of that small amount of dilithium.
2. It's generally cheaper to buy new Mk XIII ultra rare gear and upgrade to XIV over upgrading existing mk XIV very rare gear.
1) - Superior Experimental Kits - These can be crafted / purchased from the exchange; they generally cost 400k - 500k EC each. These give 12,800 tech points (similar to Superior Kits), but it gives you 2x the chance of a quality increase. This costs 1,885 Dil vs. 1,075 Dil for Superior Kits.
2) - Omega Tech Upgrades - These can be crafted and the mats for these kits originates from the "Omega Stablization" mini-game that is part of the Anniversary Event which lasts for roughly 4 weeks starting in February. You basically collect lots of Omega Particles (3 different colors) that go through a multi-stage crafting process to eventually get Omega Fragments. It takes 3 Omega Fragments to craft a single Omega Upgrade Kit; these kits are bound to account once crafted. Omega Fragments can be purchased from the Exchange for roughly 1m - 1.2m EC each. Omega Tech Upgrades give you 4x the tech points compared to Superior Kits; or 51,200 tech points. They also give you 4x the chance of a quality increase. There are absolutely no Dil cost for using this upgrade. Therefore, this is the most Dil efficient way to improve gear.
Either way, you want to slot in a quality accelerator to further boost the chance to increase quality. These come in 2 flavors 1.5x quality boost (search for "1.5x q" on the Exchange) and 2x quality boost (search for "2x q"); the general price range is 325k - 350k EC and 1.8m - 2.2m EC; respectively.
Note with regards to the Omega Upgrade Kits; it takes 81 Omega Particles (27 of each color) to eventually craft the 3 Omega Fragments to then craft a single Omega Upgrade Kit.
#2 - The account wide Temporal Reputation reward only applies to reputation projects that will eventually give you a ground or space rep gear. It does not apply to any of the gear purchased from the reputation store. Just the projects that rewards gear will be ultra rare Mk XIII.
When gear of any sort reach Mk XIV, that is when it can become the most expensive to upgrade the quality. Rep gear requires the most tech points to fill before you can click the upgrade button. As a result unless you are extremely luck two times in a row with the same gear, it will cost you far less to re-run the projects again to get ultra rare Mk XIII gear, and then upgrade them up epic Mk XIV.
Deflector Arrays, Impulse Engines, Warp Cores and Shield Arrays requires the most tech points of any gear before the upgrade button can be clicked. So take that into consideration.