Cover image slightly modified from the announcement blog on the official STO website, linked not far below this.

Hello, all, and welcome back to Joe and STO! I hope you at least found the T5-U retrospective informative (not much you can do about entertaining at the text level…right?). It forms the basis for our look at the next new thing coming out today, the Experimental Upgrade!

THE SO-NOT-TIER-7: TIER 6 EXPERIMENTAL!

It’s been almost 6 years since T6s were introduced.

We’ve gone from a paltry 9 total T6 ships to every Federation ship that’s had a staring role in a TV show or movie having a T6 version (oh yes, even all versions of the Enterprise). A number of Klingon ships have gotten T6 updates (including the Vo’Quv just within the past couple months). Many Discovery-era ships have even come out! Cardassian, Tholian, Borg…we’ve had almost all and still aren’t done!

We’ve not had a major update to starships in general since then (though I’d argue Miracle Worker ships and Legendary ships are the closest we’ve gotten to a new ship Tier level).

That drought is over.

Basic Rundown

Eight days shy of 6 years exact, we have our next major step up in general starship performance: Experimental Upgrades!

For each T5-U or T6 ship on which you use an Experimental Upgrade, that ship will get the following (with a free upgrade option unlocking for that ship across the rest of the account):

  • 1 Universal Console slot (not meaning “just for Universal Consoles,” but meaning you can slot any type of Console in that slot).
  • 1 Device Slot
  • Access to an additional Starship Mastery Trait slot (active while that ship is active, deactivated on any ships that don’t have an Experimental Upgrade applied).

These are pretty big additions!

Starship Eligibility

Unlike T5-U upgrade tokens, this is an easy list: ALL T5-U AND T6 SHIPS CAN USE AN EXPERIMENTAL UPGRADE! The only real restriction, then, is what can’t upgrade to T5-U, and those are mostly Dilithium-only or Fleet Credit-only T5 ships (plus a smattering of specific exemptions).

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

So we had the T5-U upgrade token, and we have the upcoming “T6-X” upgrade token. How do they compare?

Similarities:

  • +1 console slot
  • In a small way, extra Starship Mastery help for that ship’s build (via the 1 extra Starship Trait slot available to the ship(s) that have an Experimental Upgrade used on it/them).
  • Sellable on the Exchange or Tradeable with other players (I’d assume that’s “unless one is earned or given to you”).

Differences:

  • T5-U
    • Adds a Starship Mastery package (T1-T4).
    • Adds a specific type of Console slot.
    • Adds extra Hull up to Level 60.
    • Freely-upgradeable Fleet version if the non-Fleet version was upgraded.
    • (I’ve never seen it, but) Upgrade-based Hull Material (purely cosmetic).
    • Some ships were freely upgradeable, including Lockbox/Lobi/Event T5 ships.
    • 700 Zen for a “Starship Upgrade Requisition“, or 2,000 Zen for a set of 4 (making them 500 Zen each).

vs.

  • T6-X
    • Adds a Starship Trait slot (no extra Mastery package).
    • Adds a Universal Console slot (can be any Console type you need).
    • Adds a Device Slot.
    • Does not have any free upgrades, aside from the normal “same ship across the account” mechanic that existed with T5-U.
    • 1,000 Zen per “Experimental Upgrade”, or 2,000 Zen for a set of 3 (making them ~667 Zen each).
      • For the first week they’re out, a 20% sale will put these at 800 Zen per Upgrade or 1,600 for a set of 3.

You’ve noticed one of the changes is the cost of the upgrade. Let’s look at some potential costs associated with upgrading ships.

COSTS

As stated above, the “T6-X” style upgrade is 1,000 Zen per ship, or essentially Buy-2-Get-1-Free in a bundle of 3 to put the per-ship cost at ~667 Zen.

Let’s look at what it would take to get and upgrade a T5 ship to what I’ll call “T5-U-X”, then taking a T6 to “T6-X.” All prices will assume normal Zen price outside of ship bundles; Your Mileage May Vary with sales and other price reductions or giveaways.

T5 –> T5-U –> T5-U-X

  • Tier 5 ship (that can be upgraded): free if Fleet; 2,000 – 2,500 Zen if C-Store
  • Starship Upgrade Requisition: 500 – 700 Zen
  • Experimental Upgrade: 667 – 1,000 Zen
  • MINIMUM COSTS: 1,167 Zen
    • NOTE: Certain ships, like most Lockbox/Lobi Tier 5 ships and older Tier 5 Event ships, are generally freely upgradeable to T5-U. Most of those are gone or difficult to get, though.
  • MAXIMUM COSTS: 3,167 – 4,200 Zen, depending on the cost of your T5 ship.

T6 –> T6-X

  • Tier 6 ship: free if Giveaway or Fleet; 3,000 Zen if regular C-Store
  • Experimental Upgrade: 667 – 1,000 Zen
  • MINIMUM COST: 667 Zen
  • MAXIMUM COST: 4,000 Zen

So there you have it! A T5 ship that’s upgradeable could go from T5 to “T5-U-X,” which is practically Tier 6 except for a Starship Trait of its own and 1 total Bridge Officer ability, for just under 1,200 Zen. If you ground out a T6 ship like the Alliance Battlecruiser, you can effectively have a ship that’s strictly better than a C-Store non-Legendary base T6 (BOFF seating notwithstanding) for up to 1,000 Zen in real costs.

That’s…not too bad, really. Of course, if you’re going the T5 –> T5-U-X route, you won’t do the maximum potential damage or have the absolute best survivability, but if you can find some budget builds and add stuff to the slots the Upgrades give you, you’ll be performing near what a base T6 could do.

Wait a Minute…I Missed Something…Oh, Yeah! FREE!

Did I miss that? Whoops!

These things can be available for free!

  • For about a month from launch today, you’ll be able to claim 1 free Experimental Upgrade per account via the Space Items section of the C-Store.
  • During special Phoenix Prize Box events, the Ultra Rare level of the Phoenix Prize Store will allow you to trade in 1 Ultra Rare ticket for 2 Experimental Upgrades. Since you spend Dilithium to get Phoenix Prize Boxes, if you happen upon an Ultra Rare token, these are free upgrades!
  • There may exist a possibility to earn an Experimental Upgrade (though no known way is given yet, if it happens).

So that Alliance Battlecruiser you earned for this year’s Anniversary? Congrats! You have a free T6-X now! Just be sure you claim that Experimental Upgrade before November 5th.

As a Cost Saving Tool

This idea came from DocLightning on TimberWolf‘s Discord server:

If you didn’t know, the K’t’inga is a D7 variant for KDF players. However, without going into Lockboxes and Promo ships, it’s the only version of the D7 easily available to players via 200,000 Fleet Credits or as a Fleet variant for 20,000 Fleet Credits and 4 Fleet Ship Modules.

We want the Fleet variant here as it can upgrade to T5-U, which is what we need for the Experimental Upgrade to work.

“WHOAH, WHOAH, WHOAH! Won’t this be cheaper and easier if you just buy a Tier 6 D7 off the Exchange?”

I mean, it could be. I wouldn’t need to be in a fleet. But let’s look at the lowest prices (estimated) for a T6 proper D7:

  • Kelvin Timeline D7: 735,000,000 EC
  • Temporal D7: 1,300,000,000 EC
  • D7 Miracle Worker Flight Deck Carrier: 1,299,000,000 – 1,388,000,000 EC

Now let’s look at what you need to do to get a T5 Fleet K’t’inga:

  • Join a Fleet.
  • Have a rank high enough to buy from their Shipyard (just need a Tier 1 Shipyard).
  • 20,000 Fleet Credits (call this 20,000 Dilithium without Fleet Credit Boosts).
  • 4 Fleet Ship Modules (that’s 4 Reputations leveled to Tier 6 and their FSM project done).
  • The fleet in question needs to have 1 provision for a Starship (shouldn’t take too much to get).

To get to the prices the Exchange commands, you’ll probably need to buy Keys or Promo Boxes with real cash and sell them on the Exchange at some point. With the Fleet K’t’inga, you needn’t spend a dime until you go for the T5-U Upgrade, and even then that’s somewhat manageable on Dilithium.

So here we go, the Zen cost to get from a T5 Fleet K’t’inga to a T5-U-X!

  • Ship: 0 Zen
  • Starship Upgrade Requisition (for T5-U): 700 Zen
  • Experimental Upgrade (to go T5-U-X): Free (until November 5th) or 1,000 Zen
  • MINIMUM ZEN COST: 700 Zen
  • MAXIMUM ZEN COST: 1,700 Zen

How does that compare in EC? To do this in Master Keys (as there’s no Promo box to sell right now):

  • MINIMUM: 700 Zen is the same as 5 Keys with 75 Zen left over. A Key should sell easily at 7,500,000 EC currently. That equates then to 37,500,000 EC from Keys plus an equivalent of 4,500,000 from the leftover Zen for an EC equivalent price of 42,000,000 EC.
  • MAXIMUM: 1,700 Zen is the same as 14 Keys with 75 Zen left. That’s 109,500,000 EC, or roughly 15% of the cost of the cheapest proper T6 D7, or not even 10% of a Prime Timeline D7.

Honestly, we could have done a lot worse. For 37.5-109.5 million EC, you now have a T5-U-X D7 where the major differences are lacking 1 Bridge Officer ability and a Starship Trait.

“You can do better!”

Okay…FINE! According to DocLightning, the “Starship Upgrade Requisition” tokens (for the T5-U upgrade) are worth about 17-20 million EC each.

If you can bear doing practically all the Endeavors over the course of about 1.5-2 months (usually, the EC total of all the reward boxes’ rewards after a week is around 3-5 million EC), and assuming there are no price fluctuations, and you claim your free “Experimental Upgrade” token (to go to “T5-U-X”) before November 5th, you could come out of all this for…well, only about 20,000,000 EC for what’s basically an endgame-capable “D7” in the form of a fully upgraded Fleet K’t’inga.

THE DANGER OF OVERSPENDING

The cost-to-benefit ratio seems kinda nice, I won’t lie. We get a few different but still helpful bonuses compared to the original version for only 300 Zen more.

Beware the danger of, “Gottahaveitallitis” (“GOTTA-have-it-itis”). That is, you feel you have to now upgrade ALL your T5-Us and T6s because they’re less than perfect if they’re not.

Let @radioactivitii tell you their perspective, then I’ll chime in after you read their embeded tweets (used with permission and clear intent):

So there’s one point I really want to hit on:

  • “If you bought the Legendary Bundle that would’ve cost between $200 and $300. You now need an extra $70 of Zen to bring those ships up to the “best” versions of themselves.”

I disagree with this point and I feel it’s a perfect example of falling into, “Gottahaveititis.”

Is it true your Legendaries are no longer at the very top of the heap on performance? Yes. Were they ever? It’s been debatable, especially depending on the ship(s) in question.

Do they need to be at the top? Absolutely not! Really, none of your ships do! Elite level is optional, and by then you may not care about costs as much.

Also, look at the price. It’s $10 for 1 Experimental Upgrade or $20 for 3. That’s a lot when you start looking at all your T5-U and T6 ships! As radioactivitii pointed out, that’s around $70 (not counting Zen Charge Bonuses) to get all your Legendaries to “T6-X.” That’s 2 C-Store T6 ships!

So…don’t get them all to T6-X.

How many ships do you use across multiple characters? How many are your pet DPS/Tank/Science ships? Favorite RP-based build? Focus on those first, and only spend as money becomes available.

I’ll also go this far…if you open an Ultra Rare or Epic Phoenix Token and don’t need/want any ships in those tiers, don’t go straight to Phoenix Upgrades. Save yourself real cash by downgrading the Epic to 2 Ultra Rare tokens and claiming the Experimental Upgrades there while that event is ongoing. (Though never spend more than you’re comfortable with spending. Ultra Rares and Epics have an extremely low drop chance.)

FINAL X-PLANATION

These new Experimental Upgrades are well worth the $10 per ship Cryptic is asking. We get 1 free one as long as it’s claimed before November 5th, and we can get free ones via the Phoenix Prize Box’s Ultra Rare Prize Tokens.

The benefits are helpful: an extra Console slot for that one Console you generally have to cut because there’s not enough room or you don’t have enough of that type of slot; an extra Starship Trait so you can re-slot that one you had to drop because it wasn’t good enough; and a Device Slot that may help your offense by having more of a type of Battery available for use (compared to risking running out mid-battle).

However, beware the need to have it all at the highest levels. That $10 here and $10 there and $20 over yonder has now just kept you from getting a T6 ship from the C-Store. Do that enough, and you’re looking at losing the ability to fly many ships just to bring all your current ones up to the new high level. Choose the ones you fly the most, give them the token, then if you end up swapping ships or come up on a new favorite, get it an Experimental Upgrade. But do all of that only if your budget says it’s okay to do it. Never overspend just to be at the very top of the leaderboards.

X-AUSTED WRITER

That’s all for today. Two blog entries in a row…you probably won’t hear from me the rest of the week, but we’ll see! Enjoy your upgraded ship(s), and I’ll catch back up when I can. 🙂

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