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Ship or Zen sales?
gwyrdallon
Member Posts: 32 Arc User
in The Academy
So I'm a relatively new player who has decided that I like this game enough to actually spend money on it, but as I'm on a budget I'd like to not break the bank when buying some T6 ships. So, does this game ever offer discounts on Cstore Ships or Zen purchases?
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There was ship sale fairly recently so not sure when the next will be, probably not for a good few months at least. Meantime if you can, get onto the tribble test server and try out ships to see what you enjoy flying which will save you from a potential bad purchase.
Also the ship bundles are a cheaper way of getting ships, these also go on sale but again you missed the recent one so may have to wait a bit.
IF you can afford it there is a lifetime sub sale at the moment which includes 500 zen a month as one of the perks so with patience you'll be able to obtain store ships if you save that up and maybe do some dilithium converting to help fill the gap. It is a fair chunk of cash though so very much a considered purchase.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/198CuRGUsUGClGIWCV0JwXA8gkiO3cDT237Sz_XH1mmg/edit#gid=0
How to get better ships:
1 Cstore, obviously cheap zen then cheap ship is the best.
2 Freebies in-game, this require you to do a mini game x number of times, for example the currently running summer event requires you do a little jet pack flying on 25 different days to collect a token, there is not enough time to start this summer's event and finish it this year.
ONLY CSTORE AND FREEBIES ARE ACCOUNT UNLOCK, THE OPTIONS BELOW UNLOCK FOR ONE CHARACTER ONLY.
3 Buy keys, open lock boxes and hope for a grand prize - don't do this unless prepared to throw money at the game.
3a Promo R&D packs are like lockboxes on steroids - really, really don't do this unless you've got more money than you know what to do with
3b Open lockboxes and R&D boxes and collect lobi, buy fancy ships that are lobi only - agan this is waaay expensive.
4 Buy ship on exchange for millions of ec:
4a Cheaper ships, these are lockbox consolation prizes and many are cross-faction so anyone can fly any ship, things like Arehbes. This class of ships aren't great but come relatively cheap.
4b Buy lockbox T6 grand prize ships, these will cost 120 million and upwards.
4c Buy lobi ships, currently T6 lobi ships start at about 250m
4d Buy R&D promo pack ship on exchange, this will cost north of a billion. Only do this if you absolutely have to have that special dream ship, IMO this would be a nutty thing for a new player to do.
5 If in a fleet, and you have: fleet ship modules, permission to buy from fleet stores, any necessary dilithium, then go to ship requisition and buy ship. Downside here is that its a single character unlock and you won't get a starship trait, and accumulating starship traits is a crucial part of making better builds.
6 Get some nice person or other promo to gift you a box that contains a ship. There have been promos that do this, but its not something you could rely on in terms of when or ship choice.
*Considering regarding Zen*
Zen can be obtained from
* $. There are occasional sales where you get more Zen per $ spent.
* Dilithium. The Dilithium Exchange can be used to convert between Dilithium and Zen. The rate here is usually close to 300:1
* Using the Arc Launcher. The Arc Launcher has quests (usually "Play Game X" which merely requires that you dl enough of the game to run its launcher) that award Arc Points which can be redeemed for Zen.
* Have a Subscription or LTS. These award 500 Zen per month of play.
Zen is important for buying ships from the C-Store - and (indirectly) from the Fleet store. There are, again, specials several times a year where you can pay less 20-30% Zen for a Ship, so having waited to pay less $ per Zen, you will want to wait for a special on the C-Store ship or ship fleet module you want.
Zen ship unlocks are typically account wide - and you can dismiss the ship and rebuy it for free which is handy.
*Considerations re Lobi*
Lobi are obtained by opening Lockboxes. In the distant past there were some event missions that awarded Lobi but I don't expect those to ever return. Lockboxes can be obtained by playing the game as they are random drops, and can be bought and sold on the Exchange for EC.
Each Lockbox that is opened yields a random number of Lobi, over time this appears to average out at about 5.
Also, to open a Lockbox a Master Key is required.
Lobi ships are not bound and can be sold on the exchange, which leads to the next point:
You (almost) never want to buy Lobi ships for Lobi. Due to the nature of supply and demand there are always Lobi ships available on the Exchange on in the Trade channel.
*Considerations regarding Master Keys*
Master Keys are absolutely required to open lockboxes, Master Keys are sourced from the C Store for Zen. Again there are specials in the C-Store: You ONLY want to spend Zen to buy Master Keys when there is a "Keyring Bundle Sale", which is a 15% off the normal price Sale PLUS you get an Ultimate Tech Upgrade per pack of 20 keys purchased.
Because Master Keys are purchased for Zen, but can be traded on the Exchange, they allow us to determine an exchange rate between EC and Zen, and because Master Keys also open lockboxes each Master Key is implicitly worth ~5Lobi.
i.e. if you are looking to buy a Ship for Lobi and can see the ship on the exchange for some number of EC you can easily compute the number of Master Keys you'd need to open lockboxes with to get that much lobi, vs how many Master Keys you'd have to sell on the exchange to get the required EC. Its typically always a lot cheaper to sell the Keys for EC and buy the ship that way.
*Considerations regarding Lockboxes*
Lockboxes (as above) are opened with Master Keys and have (as I understand it) two items inside: The first item is a random draw from a pool of mostly trash Very Rare items such as kits, and gear, but also includes a small chance at T5 T5-U or even some T6 ships. These ships are not bound and can be purchased on the exchange for EC.
The 2nd draw is usually a small quantity of Lobi, and current analysis suggests you get close to 4 or 5 lobi on average. However, there is a 1 in 200 chance (the accuracy of this is not really known but its close to that) of getting a premium T6 ship: This ship normall sells for more than a billion EC so you can normally buy it for a number of Master Keys on the trade channels as no player can actually have an EC balance of more than 1billion, and many can't even have that.
Now, if you are willing to open thousands of lockboxes, you will average about 1 premium T6 ship per 200 boxes opened plus all ~800 lobbi, all the VR trash and a couple of other unbound ships you can sell for EC. However, opening 200 boxes does not at all guarantee you get the premium T6 ship, in fact you only have a ~1/3 chance of not getting a T6 ship per 200 boxes opened (but a 2/3 chance of getting at least 1, with a small chance of more.
If you are on a Budget you do not want to spend Master Keys to open boxes as there are already players who are not on a budget who are doing this - getting an excess of items they don't want, and hence sell on the Exchange for far less EC than the Master Keys required to get that one item actually cost.
To summarize:
* Zen / C Store ships - and fleet ship modules - must be purchased for Zen, are account wide unlocks that benefit all your toons and can be re-purchased. Zen can be obtained using $, dilithium, or the Arc Launcher.
* Lobi ships can be purchased for EC from the exchange. If you instead consider buying the ships for Lobi, instead buy Master Keys and sell them for EC. Lobi ships are not account wide and, typically, cannot be reclaimed if sold.
* Lockbox Ships can be purchased for EC from the exchange. The top tier T6 ship has a close to 1 in 200 drop rate, which means that you have a 1/3 chance of not getting the ship for each 200 Master Keys you use. These ships - both the "common" drops and the T6 are not account wide, and also cannot be reclaimed if dismissed.
* Event ships require some time and skill during an event. They unlock for each character on an account and can be repurchased if dismissed.
Hoping for again as I have some spare cash to spend :-)
Or at least set yourself a limit of 10 per box and not expect a ship.
Likewise with lobi ships. They cost 900 each normally and as you only get 2-3 lobi per lockbox you'd have to spend a ton of cash to get a single ship for a single character. They may be fancy but they aren't needed.
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I have several RL friends with cash to spare and time to play - a sale would get them spending and playing.
A new character will probably want 100-250k dil spending on it's gear: 90k for rep system deflector, shields and engine; fleet tac consoles; zero point console; assimilated console and cutting beam; maybe fleet sci console; possibly some ground gear; perhaps additional rep gear; then upgrading selected items to mk 14 - weapons and shields ground and space, ground armour and space engine at a minimum.
For the account ec cap unlock, and if multiple chracaters are to be played the account bank unlocked is very handy.
FYI, this is not accurate... EC limits were raised to 2 billion per character and the maximum sale price ceiling was raised to 1.5 billion EC on the exchange a couple of months ago.
There is usually some kind of sale each month although there are occasional dry spells. They've also done a black Friday type of thing in November the last couple of years.
If you are a big spender you can get 28000 Zen for $200. 40% bonus.
Then add on the 20% off a ship and the price gets reasonable.
3000Z ship for 2400Z, so you actually spent $17.14 for that ship.
And if you buy a 3-ship bundle the price is usually 2/3 so those work out to be $11.43.
A lot better than $30 per ship if bought w/o any sales going on.
beat me to it... There is a great value to be had right now. Sadly I spent a fortune just two weeks ago but decided drop another hundred because of the exceptional value going on. The bonus zen, the sale and the bundle discount really add up to say the least...
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Original Cryptic Forum Name: Spartan (member #124)
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