Good day and welcome to Joe and STO! PC finally got the Legendary Bundles sale (and Legendary Starship Bundle relist) that Consoles got last week!
…
Except it’s not the deal they got.
While Consoles (PS4/PS5 and XBox One/XBox Series X|S) got a 50% Legendary Bundles sale, PC gets a 35% sale. But Consoles didn’t have a Zen Discount; PC has 20% Zen Charge Bonus at the $20 (2,400 Zen total) and $50 (6,300 Zen total) levels while Epic Games Store has a 20% off sale on 2,000 Zen ($15) and 5,300 Zen ($40).
To both platforms’ benefit, the 10-ship 10th Anniversary Legendary Starships Bundles (the standard 10-ship version and its Premium version…never get it unless you’re just crazy for Lockbox-style boxes) were relisted during the sale, so console players got to buy it at 15,000 Zen while PC has to pay 19,500 Zen.
However, I think you’ll find they aren’t that different.
PRIMARY DIFFERENCE: ZEN DISCOUNT/CHARGE BONUS
Let’s get to the reason why there’s a difference: the Zen Charge Bonus (or Discount on Epic Games Store). When PS4 got the sale, they didn’t have a discount on Zen purchases. On PC, there’s 20% off/bonus charge to the $20 and $50 tiers of Zen purchases.
Let’s do a simple example: A 6,000 Zen item is discounted by half on Consoles but 35% with a Zen Sale/Bonus active on PC.
- CONSOLE: 6,000 Zen cut in half is 3,000 Zen. A $20 charge gets you $20, so you’d need $30 instead of $60 to buy the item that was originally 6,000 Zen.
- PC: 6,000 Zen cut by 35% is 3,900 Zen. With 20% bonus Zen, you’d need $40 via Arc (2 $20s = 4,800 Zen) OR $30 if you can grind 500 Zen ($20 + $10 = 2,400 + 1,000 = 3,400 Zen). If you go with the Epic Games Store discount, you’ll pay $30 (2 $20s = 2 $15s = 4,000 Zen) or more if tax is charged (it is for me, so for me it’s closer to $33).
So in this one case, it’s not really clear who got the better deal. If you’re strictly free-to-play and had built up 3,000 Zen, you could get that 6,000 Zen item if it’s cut in half but not at 35%. However, PC and Console are close to the same price with a maximum difference of $10.
With that example out of the way (which may show up again, but “I don’t know for sure”…), let’s look at the various Bundle types, their relative Zen pricing, and their actual costs.
LEGENDARY DISCOVERY CAPTAIN AND LEGENDARY ROMULAN CAPTAIN BUNDLES
These are really the same kind of Bundle but themed differently. Both contain a Tier 6 Legendary version of a ship you’d normally have to get from a Lockbox, Promo ship choice pack (T’liss), or the Lobi store (Walker). Both ships come with the previous versions’ Mastery Level 5 Starship Trait(s), console(s), and skins (some updated on the T’liss), along with one new Mastery Level 6 account-unlock Starship Trait and one new skin for each ship. Each bundle also comes with a Level 65 character boost, complete with full sets of Mk XIV Very Rare gear to fill out your character, ship, and up to 4 BOFF slots for a character of that faction.
I did a run of Infected: The Conduit on Normal in a fresh-off-a-boost Level 65 character using the Legendary Walker and only the equipment from the ship. No traits were slotted, no power levels configured beyond the base amounts, nothing like that. It still did around 10k DPS, enough to start looking at doing Advanced-level content if you can run episodes for better gear and/or start grabbing better weapons, traits, etc., from the Exchange.
All that to say, if you wanted to buy into one or both of these Bundles, it’s not a waste and will get you doing Normal TFOs just on the back of the default equipment, with Advanced just taking some time to add traits, do Reputations, start earning perk points, etc.
But we’re not here to review the Bundles. We’re trying to see how much they cost in real money across the two different sales!…or are they different? Let’s take a look!
| LEGENDARY WALKER/T’LISS BUNDLES | |||
| Consoles | PC – Arc | PC – Epic | |
| Zen Price | 6,000 | 7,800 | 7,800 |
| Zen from Charges | 6,300 | 8,700 | 8,300 |
| Real Cost | $60.00 | $70.00 | $65.00 |
Note the only reason for “PC – Arc” and “PC – Epic” is because Arc gives a Zen Charge Bonus (meaning you still spend $20 or $50 but you get more Zen than you normally would have) while Epic Games Store has a 20% discount on Zen Bundles ($20 and $50 bundles still give 2,000 and 5,300 Zen like normal, but they’re discounted to $15 and $40, respectively). These are not different game platforms but different storefronts that launch the same game launcher and put you into the same game.
Also be aware that Epic Games Store may charge tax on your Zen purchases, so $65 up above may be closer to ~$71.50 in some areas.
And now, for the comparison!
Consoles got the best Zen price at 6,000 Zen vs. PC’s 7,800 Zen, a difference of 1,800 Zen or a dollar equivalent of $18. If you’re F2P or grinding Dilithium to get some Zen to reduce the cost, that hurts a lot more on PC, especially as it takes more Dilithium to get a single Zen there.
However, most players won’t grind up 7,800 Zen worth of Dilithium. They’ll most likely pay cash to get Zen for most, if not all, of the purchase price. Neither platform has a nice 6,000 Zen cutoff, so we’ll have to “overspend” to get the Zen we need (though we’ll have some leftover in all cases).
Console players still got the better deal at a $60 purchase price ($50 + $10 = 5,300 + 1,000 = 6,300 Zen). However, PC’s not far behind. If Epic doesn’t charge you sales tax, either of these Legendary Captain Bundles will run only $5 more at $65 ($50 discounted + $20 discounted + $10 = $40 + $15 + $10 = 5,300 + 2,000 + 1,000 = 8,300 Zen). The worst case if Epic doesn’t charge tax is charging via Arc at $70 ($50 + $20 = 6,300 + 2,400 = 8,700 Zen), but you get to keep 900 Zen after purchase buying on Arc vs. Epic’s 500 overage.
With the Legendary Captain bundles out of the way, let’s look at the Mirror Bundle…which interestingly isn’t a Legendary Bundle per-se but has a Legendary starship in it, so it counts.
MIRROR UNIVERSE BUNDLE
This section will be shorter, I swear! Let’s start with the table:
| MIRROR UNIVERSE (LEGENDARY GAL-X) BUNDLE | ||||
| Consoles | PC – Arc | PC – Epic | ||
| Zen Price | 3,000 | 3,900 | 3,900 | |
| Zen from Charges | 3,000 | 4,800 | 4,000 | |
| Real Cost | $30.00 | $40.00 | $30.00 | *Tax may be included on Epic purchases, assume upwards of 10% |
Here we see that Consoles got the Mirror Bundle for exactly half cost; it would have taken $60 in purchases (6,300 Zen) but only took $30 when it was on sale.
Interestingly, buying Zen via Epic essentially puts the Bundle at half price on PC, as well! For $30, you get 4,000 Zen (2 $20s with discount = 2 $15s = 2 * 2,000 = 4,000 Zen). You could buy the Mirror Bundle and have 100 Zen left over for the same price Console spent and had to do it on exact change.
Arc is the loser here in terms of cash spent. Unless you can convert enough Dilithium to get 500 Zen ($20 + $10 = 2,400 + 1,000 = 3,400 Zen), you’ll need $40 to get the Zen for this Bundle. However, I’d argue if you essentially put $30 of that on the ship, that puts $10 of it on all the extras…and some are Lobi uniforms and old events whose Buyouts would now cost 2,000 Zen ($20) individually. While nothing here is really overpowered, it’s a great themed Bundle, and some of the fun in STO is about playing as something you normally wouldn’t. 😉
Now prepare the drumroll for the last (but certainly not least) Legendary Bundle…the original (non-“Premium”)!
LEGENDARY STARSHIPS BUNDLE (Standard…don’t do Premium unless you just really like opening Promo Boxes and really want the guaranteed Epic Phoenix Prize Token)
For this, I did a tweet thread, so to save time I’ll embed below:
So to recap, we have the following monetary prices:
- Consoles: $140
- PC – Arc: $150 – $160 (depending on Dil-to-Zen conversion)
- PC – Epic: $150 – $165+ (depending on tax and Dil-to-Zen conversion)
Consoles win out again, but still only by ~$10-$20.
You’re looking at 10 ships for $150 (give or take), and a ton of them are Enterprise variants (all but the B, C, and J) with a Crossfield that can otherwise only be obtained from Lockbox or Promo chance boxes. I’d say $150 for variants of those hard-to-obtain ships (which most of the time you won’t notice any lack of punch in them) and account-unlocked is not a bad deal in the slightest.
Expensive, but not bad.
TL;DR: WHO WINS THE DEAL WARS
We have 4 Legendary Bundles, but we have 3 types. I’ll count the Legendary Romulan and Legendary Discovery captain bundles as a single bundle type. Doing that, we have:
- Legendary Captain Bundles (Romulan + Discovery)
- 1st Place: Consoles – $60
- 2nd Place: PC – Epic (no tax) – $65
- 3rd Place: PC – Arc – $70
- Mirror Bundle (Legendary Gal-X Dreadnought)
- TIE 1st Place: Consoles – $30
- TIE 1st Place: PC – Epic (no tax) – $30
- Honorable Mention: Epic (10% tax) – $33
- 3rd Place: PC – Arc – $40
- Legendary Starship Bundle (Standard Version)
- 1st Place: Consoles – $140
- 2nd Place: PC – Arc – $150 – $160
- 3rd Place: PC – Epic – $150 – $165+ (depending on tax)
If we give 3 points for 1st, 2 for 2nd, and 1 for 3rd (and half for honorable mention), we have:
- CONSOLE: 9 Points
- PC – Epic: 5.5 Points
- PC – Arc: 4 Points
So there we have it, conclusive proof that Consoles did indeed get the better deal at 50% off versus PC’s 35% off plus 20% Zen Charge Bonus/Discount on $20 and $50 bundles. DONE!
…
Or are we? You see, since the amounts were (mostly) uneven, one method had to win out. But by how much did Consoles win out?
Consoles’ wins by Bundle type, dollar amount:
- Legendary Captain Bundles: $5-$10
- Mirror Bundle: $0-$10
- Legendary Starship Bundle (Standard): $10 – $25
The variance was fairly wide, from right on the nose (Epic on the Mirror Bundle) to a $25 difference (Epic with 10% tax added). However, the most common difference was $10.
So did Console win out? Yes.
Did it win out by much? No.
As far as I’m concerned, these are close enough to be essentially the same sale.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
That’s the last post of the year for me. I’ll be back to my normal job soon, so updates may be few and far between here. I’ll still be around! My Twitter will easily be active concerning STO, just don’t expect super detailed posts here much more frequently than maybe once or twice a month. That’s a pace I’m comfortable with and I hope you are, too.
Until 2021, have a wonderful New Year!
Joe and STO 