What do you recommend new players save/spend ZEN for?

cirondel · January 2013

Hello all. I was searching for some recommendations and opinions from seasoned players for an answer to my inquiry, but so far have come up short. Please post any links on this thread with any answers that have already been submitted in the past, or submit your own feedback to help myself and others out. Help me out with my search.

"What are the most important things new players should spend their ZEN on?"

Rank in order if possible your top three to five picks.

Personally I have been playing for about two months, and haven't made any c-store purchases yet. I am interested in being able to earn more dilithium, making foundry missions, helping my fleet grow, and of course outfitting a ship to be better in PvP battles but I'm in no hurry. I also really enjoy working the exchange to squeeze out the best profits, and improving/expanding my doffs. I also have my klingon alternate character at level 20 which I haven't played much, as I'm waiting for the double experience event coming up before I start building him up.

So what are you recommendations?
More character slots?
More inventory?
More bank slots?
More doff slots?
Save up for a ship?
Save for something else?
Convert it all to dilithium?

What is most important and why? I would really like to pick good options for the ZEN I've earned to help me get the right jumpstart for long-term success and enjoyment of the parts of the game I enjoy.

haravikk · January 2013

I'm currently saving up for a respec token, as I made various mistakes early on the game when choosing my skills, and didn't improve things much with the free respec that was handed out a while ago. New players should read up about skills and what they do before dumping points into them, as some are more useful than others, and many require you be building your ship to work with those skills to get the most out of them. For example anyone that wants to deal damage in space should take six ranks in accuracy and in weapons bonuses at the very least, even though they're "tactical" skills if you don't deal damage it doesn't really matter how good your warp-core is. That said, the last thing a new player is going to want to do is sit and read up on how everything works; the storyline missions are all pretty easy so it doesn't really matter what you do, but in late game content skills make a big difference.

On a related note, but players also need to read up on what the different traits do; this is something else I made a mistake on. I'm not actually sure if the respec token lets you change your traits as well? I'm hoping so but I sorely need to fix my skills and reputation abilities anyway so it's an important purchase.

lindaleff · January 2013

1. Have you already created your character? If not, then do yourself a favour, and buy Playable Caitian. Then buy Playable Ferasan. You will be glad you did.

2. For the Feddy side, buy the Mercenary Set. That is currently the combat suit that my Feedy wears, in brown and black, and it really does looks great. It is a must have.

3. I would suggest bridge officer slots. It may not be entirely needed, but I myself like having a bridge crew for space, and a separate squad for away teams.

4. Buy the Borg Engineer, because she has the Efficient trait. You will be glad you did. If you have a separate bridge crew and away team squad, put her in you bridge crew.

5. For a cat player, you can have some additional fun by getting at least 2 cat bridge officers, Tactical and Engineer preferably. It is not needed, but it is great fun!

6. Some of the ships have special consoles that can only be gotten from those ships. Check the description, and then have a read on the Wiki to find the ones you might want. In addition, some ships have abilities unique to them, such as Saucer Separation, or a Spinal Lance.

7. Some of the Tier 5 ships are worth at least looking into, such as the Odyssey, Vesta, or Bortasqu sets, or the Fleet ships. I myself am quite proud of my Fleet Negh'Var.

So there is my list of things to think about. Good luck. /end rambling.

twg042370 · January 2013

cirondel wrote: »

What is most important and why?

Do;

-Two more character slots to fill with KDF contraband/ commodity farmers to feed your Fed.

Don't;

-Anything with a single character unlock. That includes rename or retrain tokens and Bridge officers. Unless you start throwing money at character slots you will eventually be deleting that toon for the spot and the item will be lost.
-More bag or bank space. Good ship gear can sit on your old ships and everything else can go to the Ferengi.

Maybe;

-Shared account bank.
-EC level increase if you feel you're going to be the winner of the exchange.
-Doff packs if you don't want to spend the dilithium on grinding them up.
-Any costume pack that floats your boat.
-Any ship that has a good special item like a console. Otherwise avoid.
-Lockbox keys to sell on the exchange.
-Playable species. Joined Trill has a bonus to making your ship go good, but you won't lose out for not using one.

tsurutafan01 · January 2013

I put a TL;DR version for the 98% of you with attention deficit disorder down at the bottom. You're welcome.

I am a silver player, not gold, so anything I get is through Dil/exchange.

- At least once purchase Account Bank. Very useful for if you pick up things like, say, a mirror universe ship pack that is wrong for your current class but you'd like to keep it (some of the science ones are quite affordable on the exchange and I've banked one for a future possible character). Or lockbox storage if you're into that sort of kinky thing. I'm not sure if more than a one-time purchase is really worthwhile, but I would say once certainly is. I am pretty sure this is the only valid way to move Bound To Account items between your characters.

- The EC cap upgrade is account wide but you don't need it *right away*. You can also store EC in the account bank which is why you should get that first. You're not going to work up to like 300 000 000 to buy a Jem Hadar Attack Ship before you have the Zen for the account bank/EC cap unlocks anyway, so don't worry about it. But it is something I see as a worthwhile long term purchase.

- I think Joined Trill is pretty clearly the best option if you want to do a KDF science officer (and a good SCI class in general), but beyond that for any purchase of a race I'd say "it's as valuable as it seems to YOU". If being a Cat really appeals to you, or you want to be a Klingon in starfleet... don't hesitate. Purchases that you're sure you will have fun with rarely bring regret.

- Costumes are all "as valuable as they feel to you". I have purchased one of the bundles during the recent sale which knocked back something I was otherwise prioritizing, and felt it was fully worthwhile. As long as you're sure you want it... sure why not? Same with the purchasable pets, I suppose, though those don't float my boat. I plan to get some more stuff later, post-ship. Would also say I'd love go get some KDF stuff. If there was any.

- Aiming for a ship that makes sense for your class is fine as a long term goal but because of the price especailly if you're grinding it through Dilithium/exchange, I'd get all the *other* stuff done first. A purchasable ship is a late-game thing anyway, you don't really need a super ship until then. Personally I'm saving for the Odyssey bundle now... going to take probably until around when season 9 launches I would bet.

- I actually think Fleet Ship Modules are better sought on the exchange. Sure like ~4.75 million EC is a lot but so is 2000 Zen for 4. Depends how good you are at EC farming I suppose. Of course, if you're *not* planning on buying a ship that doesn't require Modules, its not radically different to just buy the modules. Just be sure either way you really want what you're getting, I'd say.

- I guess it sort of goes without saying but don't pay for extra character slots you're not sure you're going to use. To me it seems like you should *either* get extra character slots *or* stuff to boost a single character (like DOFF slots, or a special BOFF if you really want one), but it doesn't make much sense to do both.

THE TL;DR VERSION

So I guess if I had to prioritize:
- A specialty character race, if wanted. Have fun.
- A speciality costume, if wanted. Have fun.
- A ship (or fleet modules for a ship) you plan to use late-game. Have fun and win.
- Account bank and probably EC upgrade, since these are permanent and account-wide.
- Either more character slots, or stuff that really boosts one character, but not both. Depends on long term goals.

hippiejon · January 2013

ZEN :
First 500 should spend on getting rid of the EC Cap of 10 million.
Seriously. EC is VERY VERY easy to make in this game and once you figure that out , you will hit that 10 million cap in a couple of days.

Then ... More bank , more inventory, and save em for respecs.

Sure other races (Caitian , Trill , Ferasan) are awesome, if that's your thing.
Sure costumes are awesome.
Sure the new ship at LCdr is awesome.

But the truth is that everything in the Z Store is mostly cosmetic upgrades EXCEPT for things like Inventory space, etc. which are all Account unlocks.

get other stuff as to what appeals to you, but start with the things that make the game easier to play. Remove the EC Limit, get more Inventory, get more Bank.

That's where I would start.

tsurutafan01 · January 2013

I should also point out my character bank has more space than most because I realized pretty quickly that crafting is stupid and pointless so I just dump all those common crafting materials right out an airlock (well, into my fleet's bank actually). And I tend to sell the rare particles on the exchange.

That leaves me plenty of space for contraband, tulaberries, and other serious business.

hippiejon · January 2013

lindaleff wrote: »

4. Buy the Borg Engineer, because she has the Efficient trait. You will be glad you did. If you have a separate bridge crew and away team squad, put her in you bridge crew.

Spend 7 dollars at Amazon for the collectors edition and get the Boff account wide and a red matter capacitor account wide.

DO NOT SPEND YOUR ZEN on this.
Single character unlocks are bad mmmmkay.

cirondel · January 2013

hippiejon wrote: »

Spend 7 dollars at Amazon for the collectors edition and get the Boff account wide and a red matter capacitor account wide.

DO NOT SPEND YOUR ZEN on this.
Single character unlocks are bad mmmmkay.

Good catch hippiejon! Also I am a silver account player, and I am wondering is it easy to bind the collectors edition goodies I could purchase off Amazon into my current installation/account?

Thanks, I really like reading all these comments and tips.

I think I'm definitely going to buy the EC upgrade, and some extra character slots once I finish leveling my KDF to endgame. Then I'll be able to create a better fed character with appropriate traits and skills for end game without having to waste ZEN on a respec token. At that point I might as well use my current fed character as extra inventory/bank space, and get an account bank. Meanwhile, I can save my ZEN for a ship I really want for my build, and maybe I'll increase my inventory and bank slots once I feel like my time per character has saturated After 4 characters, I'm guessing that will be more than enough for my tastes.

Thanks everyone for helping me to develop and early game plan for success.

Keep the tips coming. Nothing worse than wasting ZEN on something with temporary thrills when you could have benefited more overall from a better long term plan.

lindaleff · January 2013

hippiejon wrote: »

Spend 7 dollars at Amazon for the collectors edition and get the Boff account wide and a red matter capacitor account wide.

Sounds like a good idea, especially since Amazon sells worldwide, so I can get the Euro version. Aside from the Borg and the Capacitor, are there any other benefits to buying a retail version? Like a month or two of Lifetime benefits?

tsurutafan01 wrote: »

- I think Joined Trill is pretty clearly the best option if you want to do a KDF science officer (and a good SCI class in general).

For Science, this is indeed a great choice, almost to the point of saying it is the best choice actually.

When I said before about unlocking Playable Caitian or Ferasan, I forgot to mention that this is much better for Tactical, almost a perfect match. Of course, My Ferasan is an Engineer, and he is quite effective in ground STFs.

What do you recommend new players save/spend ZEN for?

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