Good evening, Joe and STOers! Today, I want to look at the value of the Mudd’s “Outta this Wormhole” Choice Pack options.
As a refresher, my previous post looked at what the options were and how helpful the ships could be to your performance if you were to select any of them.
METHOD
When I do a valuation series, I generally do the following things for each item in the Choice Pack (or Bundle):
- I get the lowest price available for a specific item(s). This time, I also went with the 3rd lowest as there’s a chance the lowest price would be gone by the time I post this.
- For slight brevity (and for my own sanity), I won’t cover the DS9 BOFFs by Exchange pricing; Kira is still a 2018 convention exclusive while Bashir was from both the 2018 conventions and last year’s free bundle done as a salute to medical workers. Garak is another convention exclusive, but the only way he’s available is through a limited time Lobi bundle that’s on the Exchange but with only 3 copies listed and no fresh resupply in sight. I feel that all puts their subjective values quite high, despite the EC values of any of the other BOFFs in the Bundle.
- I get the lowest price available for both Master Keys and, in general, Promotional Boxes (e.g.: “Research & Development” or “Gamma Quadrant Duty Officers” are both considered the same Promotional Boxes as they can both open to 10 Lobi or a Promotional Ship Choice Box).
- I take the EC price of an item and divide by the Master Key price and, separately, the Promo Box price to get the number of Keys or Promo Boxes you’d need to sell to get that much EC.
- Once I have the number of Master Keys and Promo Boxes, I see how many Bundles (10 Keys or 4 Promo Boxes) and singles (1 Key or 1 Promo Box) of either one you’d need to buy.
- I turn those amounts into Zen values at full price, 20% off, 25% off, and 30% off to account for hitting sales at just the right times.
- I look at the absolute highest Zen price and convert that into US Dollars using the standard Zen Charge Bonus amounts for purchases of $50 and higher bundles of Zen from the Arc Games interface. I do the same for the absolute lowest Zen price.
My hope is to show if a Choice Pack or Bundle has enough value to consider paying straight out cash no matter how much Cryptic charges for the Choice Pack/Bundle.
Why?
We know Cryptic wants you to buy Choice Packs as a way to get account-unlocked Lockbox, Lobi, and/or Promo ships. It’s a high up-front cost no matter how much Cryptic charges for it. What I want to do is put some more information into your hands so you can determine if the price Cryptic is charging is worth it for your needs.
OBJECTIVE VALUE BREAKDOWN
In this section, I’ll break down the dollar value of each option found in the Choice Pack. This doesn’t look at if the ships are worth the inclusion, just their price points as of the afternoon of March 16th.
SHIPS
Let’s analyze the costs of each ship in this Choice Pack. This section won’t be an opinion on whether a ship is worth getting or not but rather the cost of obtaining a ship(s) if you wanted to do so for a single character.
| 1) Jem’Hadar Strike Ship | Low | 3rd Lowest | ||
| EC Price: | 1,400,000,000 | 1,500,000,000 | ||
| # of Keys | 149 | 160 | ||
| 10-Key Bundles | 15 | 16 | ||
| 1-Key Pickups | 0 | 0 | WORST CASE: | In Zen: |
| TOTAL ZEN: | 16,875 | 18,000 | $170.00 | 18,300 |
| At 20% Off: | 13,500 | 14,400 | ||
| At 25% Off: | 12,656 | 13,500 | ||
| At 30% Off: | 11,813 | 12,600 | ||
| # of Promo Boxes | 60 | 64 | ||
| 4-Box Bundles | 15 | 16 | ||
| 1-Box Pickups | 0 | 0 | ||
| TOTAL ZEN: | 15,000 | 16,000 | ||
| At 20% Off: | 12,000 | 12,800 | ||
| At 25% Off: | 11,250 | 12,000 | BEST CASE: | In Zen: |
| At 30% Off: | 10,500 | 11,200 | $100.00 | 11,000 |
If you wanted a Jem’Hadar Strike Ship for just one character, you’re looking at a worst-case scenario of $170 and a best case of $100, with values in between both but usually in the 11,000 – 12,500 Zen range (very roughly $100 – $120).
| 2) Maquis Raider | Low | 3rd Lowest | ||
| EC Price: | 230,000,000 | 232,500,000 | ||
| # of Keys | 24 | 25 | ||
| 10-Key Bundles | 2 | 2 | ||
| 1-Key Pickups | 4 | 5 | WORST CASE: | In Zen: |
| TOTAL ZEN: | 2,750 | 2,875 | $30.00 | 3,000 |
| At 20% Off: | 2,200 | 2,300 | ||
| At 25% Off: | 2,063 | 2,156 | ||
| At 30% Off: | 1,925 | 2,013 | ||
| # of Promo Boxes | 10 | 10 | ||
| 4-Box Bundles | 2 | 2 | ||
| 1-Box Pickups | 2 | 2 | ||
| TOTAL ZEN: | 2,600 | 2,600 | ||
| At 20% Off: | 2,080 | 2,080 | ||
| At 25% Off: | 1,950 | 1,950 | BEST CASE: | In Zen: |
| At 30% Off: | 1,820 | 1,820 | $20.00 | 2,000 |
Being a Lobi ship, we see the per-character purchase amount to be about $30 in the worst case (with some Zen left over) and $20 in the best case. It’s not an expensive ship itself, but if you’re making a Science-based build it’s one you usually need if you’re aiming for the higher end of DPS output.
| 3) Ferengi Quark Marauder | Low | 3rd Lowest | ||
| EC Price: | 1,250,000,000 | 1,320,000,000 | ||
| # of Keys | 133 | 140 | ||
| 10-Key Bundles | 13 | 14 | ||
| 1-Key Pickups | 3 | 0 | WORST CASE: | In Zen: |
| TOTAL ZEN: | 15,000 | 15,750 | $150.00 | 16,300 |
| At 20% Off: | 12,000 | 12,600 | ||
| At 25% Off: | 11,250 | 11,813 | ||
| At 30% Off: | 10,500 | 11,025 | ||
| # of Promo Boxes | 53 | 56 | ||
| 4-Box Bundles | 13 | 14 | ||
| 1-Box Pickups | 1 | 0 | ||
| TOTAL ZEN: | 13,550 | 14,000 | ||
| At 20% Off: | 10,840 | 11,200 | ||
| At 25% Off: | 10,163 | 10,500 | BEST CASE: | In Zen: |
| At 30% Off: | 9,485 | 9,800 | $100.00 | 11,000 |
Here’s the surprise of the bunch! The lowest value I saw was 1.2 BILLION Energy Credits! The 3rd lowest value was actually the highest at 1.32 billion Energy Credits. As I have to use those values (because that’s what it was readily available for without having to go to chat channels asking, anyway). Based on that, a Quark Marauder is about as expensive as a Jem’Hadar Strike Ship at $150 in the worst case and $100 in the best case.
…
But I got a bit of a tip on Twitter that the Quark was available for half this amount a couple weeks ago. This implies to me the “value” is based only on scarcity and not on high demand. Because of that, I’m doing a 2nd valuation at half the cost:
| 3b) Ferengi Quark Marauder – Half Price | Low | 3rd Lowest | ||
| EC Price: | 625,000,000 | 660,000,000 | ||
| # of Keys | 66 | 70 | ||
| 10-Key Bundles | 6 | 7 | ||
| 1-Key Pickups | 6 | 0 | WORST CASE: | In Zen: |
| TOTAL ZEN: | 7,500 | 7,875 | $80.00 | 8,300 |
| At 20% Off: | 6,000 | 6,300 | ||
| At 25% Off: | 5,625 | 5,906 | ||
| At 30% Off: | 5,250 | 5,513 | ||
| # of Promo Boxes | 27 | 28 | ||
| 4-Box Bundles | 6 | 7 | ||
| 1-Box Pickups | 3 | 0 | ||
| TOTAL ZEN: | 6,900 | 7,021 | ||
| At 20% Off: | 5,520 | 5,617 | ||
| At 25% Off: | 5,175 | 5,266 | BEST CASE: | In Zen: |
| At 30% Off: | 4,830 | 4,915 | $50.00 | 5,300 |
This valuation seems to be more correct based on what I was seeing for what some players would prefer to get from this Choice Pack (HINT: It’s not the Quark!). In this scenario, the Quark’s worst-case scenario is $80 while the best is $50.
EXPERIMENTAL SHIP UPGRADES [AKA “T6-X Upgrades”] (x9)
At full price, 9 Experimental Ship Upgrades go for 6,000 Zen, meaning $60 USD.
- 20% off: 4,800 Zen ($50)
- 25% off: 4,500 Zen ($50)
- 30% off: 4,200 Zen ($50 OR $40 with 200 Zen converted from Dilithium)
300 LOBI
By Promo Packs, this would take 30 Promo Packs. That’s 7 4-packs and 2 singles. That’s:
- Full Price: 7,600 Zen ($80)
- 20% off: 6,080 Zen ($60)
- 25% off: 5,700 Zen ($60)
- 30% off: 5,320 Zen (Let’s be honest, you’ll sell enough Dil to get 20 Zen, so we’ll call this $50)
By Master Keys, at a minimum 4 Lobi each, this will take 75 Keys at most. That’s 7 10-packs and 5 singles. That’s:
- Full Price: 8,500 Zen ($90)
- 20% off: 6,800 Zen ($70)
- 25% off: 6,375 Zen ($70, or $60 if you get 75 of your Zen from selling Dilithium for Zen)
- 30% off: 5,950 ($60)
10x ULTIMATE TECH UPGRADES
Seeing as how the newest model of Galactic Red Alert forces a 1,500 Zen ($15) Buyout if you did none of the Red Alerts, and that most other cost-reasonable ways to get it will be around 2,000 Zen ($20), I’ll value these at 15,000 Zen ($150) at best and 20,000 Zen ($200) at worst.
DS9 BOFFs
We have a precedent for collective BOFF pricing: The Original Series BOFFs, a convention-exclusive set of 7 TOS characters. In Mudd’s Market at 75% off, these are 2,500 Zen ($30 with 500 Zen left over) or about 357 Zen each. Account-unlocked Bridge Officers from the C-Store are 500 Zen each, so with 75% off that’s a slight bargain.
Looking at the DS9 BOFFs, we get 3 convention-exclusive BOFFS (though 1 was available through a limited time Lobi bundle) and 8 Lockbox-based BOFFs.
Using the TOS BOFFs as our guide, these 8 should cost about 2,857 Zen. If we use standard C-Store pricing as our guide, the price shoots up to 4,000 Zen.
PS: CounterYolo found that all the DS9 BOFFs are truly account-wide unlocks, including for Klingon characters (Which wasn’t the case for Kira, Bashir, and Garak previously).
HOW DO YOU MAKE 14,750 ZEN WORTH OF VALUE?
With 14,750 Zen being equivalent to $140 (11,000 + 2,000 + 2,000, or $100 + $20 + $20), we need to see what would make $140 worth of value. I’ll use the best-case scenarios on the ships (assuming you can time Key and Promo Box purchases to their lowest available discount and then sell at a high point) and regular Zen Store value on everything else (as widespread sales aren’t guaranteed until usually Summer, Black Friday, Christmas, and/or the New Year).
A few options exist given those parameters:
- Jem’Hadar Strike Ship ($100) + Maquis Raider ($20) + 9x Experimental Ship Upgrades ($60) = $180
- Maquis Raider ($20) + 9x Experimental Ship Upgrades ($60) + 10x Ultimate Tech Upgrades ($200) = $270
- 900 Lobi (Choose “300 Lobi” three times) = $240 on Promo Boxes or $270 by Master Keys.
- Jem’Hadar Strike Ship ($100) + Maquis Raider ($20) + Quark Marauder at half my observed price ($50) = $170
- Jem’Hadar Strike Ship ($100) + Maquis Raider ($20) + Quark Marauder at my full observed price ($100) = $220
In a few scenarios, we make it to at least 29,500 Zen (~$270), the full price of this Choice Pack. That’s:
- One ship (in the above case, the Raider) + 9x Experimental Upgrades + 10x Ultimate Tech Upgrades.
- Jem’Hadar Strike Ship ($100) + one other ship (Raider, $20 minimum) + 10x Ultimate Tech Upgrades ($200) = $320.
- 900 Lobi using only Master Keys (Promotional Boxes aren’t around forever) at full C-Store price.
- 30x Ultimate Tech Upgrades (you value your Phoenix and other Upgrades at $260, I’m not one to argue.) = $600
Not even the 3-ship bundle is worth $270 at full price!
…
Well, not if you were only getting one copy of each ship.
The Alt-Aholic
You may know the kind of player. Too many other characters (“alts”) to count and they could all use some tender loving care to get back to fighting form. Let’s take a case of someone who’s got a Federation, a Romulan, and a Klingon character who all need the Jem’Hadar Strike Ship’s starship trait. We now see a value proposition more like this:
- 3x Jem’Hadar Strike Ships ($300) + …well, anything at this point, because even that is over the full 29,500 Zen price tag.
Note that I’m not advocating spending $270 once this goes to full price…unless you know you’ll need multiples of the ships in this or just really want 30 Ultimate Tech Upgrades or the DS9 BOFFs. The point of this mini-section is to say if you have multiple characters for which an account-wide reclaim will be helpful, treat their values as if you’re buying them multiple times.
Let’s say you have two cannon-based characters and two Science-based characters. You want only the ships of this Choice Pack. You could value this as:
- Jem’Hadar Strike Ship ($200 [2 x $100]) + Maquis Raider ($40 [2 x $20]) + Quark Marauder ($50) = $270
ONLY YOU CAN DETERMINE YOUR VALUE (IN THIS PURCHASE)
Is this Choice Pack worth either 14,750 Zen ($140) or 29,500 ($270)? The only way I don’t see $140 is if you go with the Maquis Raider ($20), the 9x Ultimate Tech Upgrades ($60), and the DS9 BOFFs ($40, and that’s being generous with normal BOFF C-Store pricing). If you include the Jem’Hadar Strike Ship in any scenario, you’ll hit $140+ no matter what.
As for 29,500, that’s trickier. I think you’d need to make use of the Jem’Hadar Strike Ship on multiple characters or really need Ultimate Tech Upgrades badly to get close to $270.
Overall, though, this is why I do blog posts like this: To give you the value information so you can decide what your best purchase decision is, even if that’s to not buy it ($140’s a lot, not gonna lie!).
GET OUTTA THIS WORMHOLE!
What are you waiting for? GO! Enjoy some STO! Why are you still sitting here reading the mad ramblings of a random player? Sheesh… 🙂
In all seriousness, have a wonderful weekend and enjoy STO!
All pictures come from the in-game C-Store listing for this bundle.
Joe and STO 