Hello, Joe and STOers! Sorry for the long break. Life got busier than I anticipated, so something had to get cut and it was the blog. Free time has come, though, so I’m able to devote a bit more time to writing. Yay!
Coming this Thursday is the next Mudd’s Market choice pack, the “Into Darkness and Beyond” Choice Pack. Like I did with Mudd’s “Outta This Wormhole” Choice Pack, I’ll do a 2-part series for this Choice Pack:
- Part 1: The choices you have, including videos of visuals relating to the ship’s abilities and a higher-end DPS (100k+) video.
- Part 2: The financial value of the contents if you were looking to see if the contents are worth your money/Zen.
Today is Part 1, a look at the contents themselves. If nothing else, you can perhaps enjoy some in-game visuals of the ships in question. If you’d been questioning if you’d even want anything from this Choice Pack, perhaps having videos and links to information for the at least the ships will help you decide if any/all choices are right for you.
I. Kelvin Pack 1
This section has the first set of Kelvin Timeline ships STO ever saw. Back when the Federation, KDF, and Romulan factions were completely separate (no overlap in ship choice at Tiers 5 and 6 if they were obvious Fed, KDF, or Romulan designs), if a ship(s) being released were meant for a single faction, there’d usually be a single ship for each faction so all players could get something useful to them from a ship release. In the first set of ships released with the original Kelvin Timeline Lockbox, all 3 factions got unique ships: Federation players got a Command-based Cruiser, KDF got a Pilot Bird-of-Prey, and Romulans got a dedicated Intel-based Carrier (which may have been the first Carrier of the Romulan kind, but I’m not sure).
I’ll give some of the basic information that’s common to all 3, then go into their individual strengths.
ORIGINAL METHOD OF ACQUISITION: Kelvin Timeline Lock Box
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE (PC): July 6th, 2016
TIME BETWEEN LOCKBOX EXCLUSIVITY AND C-STORE AVAILABILITY: 4 years, 11 months, 4 days
NOTE: These 3 ships and the Vengeance (listed later) each have a console that’s part of a 4-piece console set. If you want the full set account-unlocked, 2 of your picks are effectively made for you: Kelvin Pack 1 and the Vengeance.
A. “Kelvin Connie”/Kelvin Timeline Heavy Command Cruiser (T6) (AKA “Kelvin Constitution,” AKA “Konnie”)
This was the first T6 Constitution-class ship of any kind in STO, beating the Temporal Light Cruiser (the TOS- and TMP-era versions of the Constitution class) by about a month and a half. It was also the first ship ZEFilms convinced me to buy just on its looks when he featured it in a Fresh Out of Spacedock video. (Up to that point, I didn’t hate the look but I was one of those “Prime Timeline Connie or bust” types.)
CLAIM TO FAME: Auxiliary Ejection Assembly is a staple (basically mandatory) console in Science-based builds.
Here’s AdiiSTO‘s review back in July 2016 of the ship, including showing off the Kelvin Timeline Enterprise bridge along with visuals of the then-new Kelvin Timeline Phasers and the Auxiliary Ejection Systems console’s activatable ability:
We see in Augmented Dictator Games‘ (“Auggie’s”) most recent all-Science update that he still uses the Auxiliary Ejection Assembly (screenshot below, click the link for the video):
There may have been a visual update to the Kelvin Timeline Constitution model since Zef and Adii’s videos, but if there was it was to a higher quality than is in those videos.
A slight cautionary tale here…if you have the 10th Anniversary Legendary Bundle, you have the skin, console, and trait for this ship. The only reasons you’d want to select Kelvin Pack 1 would be 1) to get this specific ship setup for the Kelvin Connie for a new ship build, and/or 2) to get the D4x and/or T’Laru Carrier.
Also a slight cautionary tale for those who don’t have the 10th Anniversary Legendary Bundle…you don’t get the Refit skin (from the ending of Star Trek: Beyond). That’s a Legendary-exclusive skin. However, anyone using this specific ship while also owning the 10th Anniversary Legendary Bundle can indeed use the Refit skin for the Kelvin Timeline Heavy Command Cruiser.
B. Kelvin Timeline D4x Pilot Bird-of-Prey (T6)
The Kelvin Timeline D4x Pilot Bird-of-Prey was among the first Pilot ships (introduced a tad over a year earlier). This one was unique in that it had custom animations for its Pilot Maneuvers abilities; whereas the original ships “simply” dashed, slowed down, or barrel-rolled, the D4x’s wings would move depending on what maneuver you activated.
CLAIM TO FAME: Probably the 5 forward weapons mixed with the 5 Tactical Console slots. I don’t remember this being a meta ship for any reason (but it’s fun to fly!).
Here’s AdiiSTO again with his 2016 review of the ship, including looks at the Pilot Maneuvers, the Kelvin Timeline interpretation of a Klingon bridge, and a demonstration of the Proton Charge Launcher console.
And here’s WintersGaming with a budget build from a tad over a year ago:
And finally, if none of that convinces you the D4x can put out decent DPS, here’s Auggie with a 600k+ build from about a month and a half ago:
C. Kelvin Timeline T’Laru Intel Carrier Warbird (T6)
If Federation players are the most common type of player and Klingons are the 2nd most common, Romulans come in last by process of elimination. As such, I don’t recall seeing many T’Laru Carriers, even when the ship was new. I also don’t recall any piece of it being so sought after that you had to have the ship, even the unique hangar pet it comes with. But since this is part of a 3-pack for the Choice Pack and now Cross-Faction, there’s no harm in taking one for a spin if you choose Kelvin #1 as one of your three choices.
CLAIMS TO FAME (personal opinion): Interesting take on what a Romulan ship would look like in the Kelvin Timeline; Mining Drill Laser Emitter at one time was a nice sustained damage console (though not a meta choice) (NOTE: This was during a time where cross-faction reward boxes with consoles and traits were a thing since these ships were hard-locked into the factions).
AdiiSTO has his original review from the original release in 2016, showing off the ship’s looks, unique bridge, and base combat capabilities with just the equipped weapons, Mining Drill Laser Emitter console, and the unique Kelvin Timeline Scorpion Fighter hangar pets (scroll down the list just a few hangar pets down for Romulans):
Auggie’s here yet again with a DPS build revolving around the T’Laru. If you’re concerned with making anywhere near decent DPS (100k+), I think this video can set your fears at ease:
II. Kelvin Pack 2
The Kelvin Divergence Lock Box re-introduced the original 3 Kelvin Timeline ships and added 2 more…kinda. Ship development at this point went from making unique ships for each faction to (over-simplistic explanation) copy-and-pasting one design onto 2-4 skins and changing a few stats due to, for example, the Klingon version having a Cloak/Battle Cloak. Part of the reason for this, I imagine, was to give players on either Federation or Klingon characters the ability to basically fly same ship no matter which faction the character was; by this time, Romulans could use the ships of their allied faction but we didn’t yet have Cross-Faction Flying (so KDF ships were still solely KDF, for example).
ORIGINAL METHOD OF ACQUISITION: Kelvin Divergence Lock Box
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE (PC): September 10, 2019
TIME BETWEEN LOCKBOX EXCLUSIVITY AND C-STORE AVAILABILITY: 1 year, 8 months
A. USS Kelvin/Kelvin Timeline Einstein Heavy Destroyer [T6]
B. Kelvin Timeline D7 Heavy Destroyer
I’m going to cover both of these in the same section as, according to the stats on STOWiki, they’re the exact same ship (down to the console and Starship Trait) except for the addition of the Battle Cloak on the KDF ship. I don’t recall either of these getting much prominence for anything other than potentially a Torpedo build (thanks to having the minimum Lieutenant Commander-level Command seat), and even then the choice would have to be the D7 since it has a Battle Cloak built in. Unlike the other 3 Kelvin Timeline ships seen in the Kelvin #1 bundle, these ships weren’t “full spec,” meaning they didn’t have an innate ability based on a single specialization (since the highest spec seat isn’t Commander).
CLAIM TO FAME (here in Mudd’s Bundle): Another D7 account-wide unlock, though not a “Prime Timeline” D7.
That doesn’t mean the ships are bad. Auggie did over 500k in a D7 Heavy Destroyer with a Ba’ul Dual Cannon-based build about 10 months ago:
If you just want visuals of the ship, their unique Experimental Weapon, and their Console, check out Captain Geronimo’s review of the Einstein-class counterpart:
III. USS Vengeance/Kelvin Timeline Intel Dreadnought Cruiser [T6]
ORIGINAL METHOD OF ACQUISITION: Lobi Ship (900 Lobi) tied to the release of the Kelvin Timeline Lock Box
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE (PC): July 6th, 2016
TIME BETWEEN LOCKBOX EXCLUSIVITY AND C-STORE AVAILABILITY: 4 years, 11 months, 4 days
CLAIMS TO FAME: The Vengeance was at one time the main powerhouse of STO.
- Tough ship.
- Decent console.
- One-time great Starship Trait.
- Amazing Elite-level Hangar Pets (exclusively used by this ship).
To be honest, this was probably the best ~$30-$50 you could spend (to get Master Keys to sell on the Exchange so you could buy this from the Exchange) on a single-character starship….no joke. I think I got 2-3 of them on various characters just because it’s that stout a ship, and a recently-returning fleetmate picked one up (before the announcement of this Choice Pack).
Introduced with the original 3 Kelvin Timeline ships, this has been a mainstay popular ship in STO ever since it was introduced.
If you’re themed toward Section 31 ships, this is the Kelvin Timeline’s Section 31 Dreadnought. It was built in secret and only revealed when Admiral Marcus had to chase down the Enterprise to stop them from revealing his plan to use and then kill Khan and his followers.
Ship Review (including Console, Trait, and Hangar Pets) from GaussSTO:
And a more build-oriented review from MCStu on whether you can realistically still use the Vengeance today as a decent DPS platform:
As an extra note, there is an extra skin for the “Konnie” if you have both it and the Vengeance on the same character, so if you want a “Section 31 Enterprise,” there may be your way to do it.
IV. “The Jellyfish”/Vulcan Experimental Science Vessel [T6]
While technically a Prime Timeline starship, it’s the ship that created the wormhole that threw Spock and Nero back into the 23rd century, causing a new chain of events to happen starting with the attack on and destruction of the USS Kelvin by Nero and the Narada. Because we’ve never seen or heard CBS acknowledge the Jellyfish in Picard or now Discovery, we instead associate it with the Kelvin Timeline (even though a prequel comic, which to the best of my knowledge isn’t canon, establishes it was built in post-Nemesis times).
ORIGINAL METHOD OF ACQUISITION: Special Requisition Choice Pack – Tier 6 Promotional Ship Choice Pack
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE (PC): December 3rd, 2019
TIME BETWEEN LOCKBOX EXCLUSIVITY AND C-STORE AVAILABILITY: 1 year, 6 months, 7 days
I don’t recall a meta build for this ship, to be quite honest. It was the 2nd promo ship released after the Discovery-era Constitution and D7 with relatively lackluster stats and a relatively weak set of console and trait. It does come with a Red Matter Capacitor device, so if you’ve never had one account-unlocked before this will be the best way to get it (since you get a ship attached to it. 😉 ).
CLAIM TO FAME: Nice animation on the rear “tentatcles”, is essentially a Science Raider (4/2 weapons setup, Secondary Deflector, Sensor Analysis, Raider Flanking).
Here’s a video from Captain Geronimo talking about the stats of the Jellyfish and visual demonstrations of the Quad Micro-Photon Torpedo Launcher and Eject Red Matter console:
And here’s Auggie with a run from late 2019 showing the in-combat performance of the ship (though it doesn’t use the Starship Trait or special torpedo):
As a little bonus, as I don’t see the stats for the Quad Micro-Photon Torpedo Launcher anywhere easily accessible, I’ll put a screenshot of that here (pic taken from the Tribble test server):
V. Other Items
Of course, Mudd’s Choice Packs wouldn’t be complete without having stuff other than ships to choose from. I’ll quickly run down what other options you have just in case you’re not feeling one or more of the above ships:
A. Experimental Ship Upgrades (x9)
These are what allow a T5-U or T6 ship to go to T5-X or T6-X with an extra console slot, device slot, . Sets of 3 of these are 2,000 Zen (1,600 Zen during a 20% off sale). This is basically 3 sets of those, so depending on if you put value at traditional sales pricing or regular C-Store pricing this is somewhere between 4,800-6,000 Zen worth of value on its own.
Keep in mind that we get a few free each year, so unless you have a ton of ships that need the T6-X treatment, you may consider a few of these to have an effective Zen value of 0.
B. 100% Off C-Store T6 Ship Coupon (x2)
If you don’t like the Kelvin Timeline Destroyers and don’t want the Vengeance, this is your next best option. This is basically 2 of mostly any C-Store T6 ships of your choice, but it’s gotta be ships from the C-Store “Ships” tab (not Mudd’s Market, not Bundles).
I’m unsure if these open to the player-tradeable versions or not. If so, these go for about the price of a Lobi ship (250 – 300 million EC each). If they’re the account-wide version, they may preclude you from getting ships from the “New Items” tab of the C-Store. I’m still not 100% sure how coupons from these bundles work.
If you use them “as intended” (to get 2 C-Store T6 ships of your choice), that’s anywhere from 2,400 – 3,000 Zen each (most usual sale is 20% off), so this is roughly 4,800 – 6,000 Zen of value itself.
C. Epic Phoenix Token (x1)
Though I’m not usually a fan of getting per-character items from such an expensive pack, I also can’t ignore that some ships or items are considered “must-haves” (like D.O.M.I.N.O on the Bajoran Interceptor or the Protomatter Field Projector from the Lukari Ho’Kuun Science Vessel). If Phoenix Boxes have anywhere close to the same average pull ratios for Epic Prize Tokens as Lockboxes and Promo Boxes do for their “Grand Prize” ships, it would take about 400,000 – 800,000 Dilithium to get a single ship. In equivalent Zen value using a 490:1 ratio, that’s ~817-1,633 Zen, or $8.17 – $16.33. That may seem low, but also consider you’re not guaranteed to get an Epic in any number of boxes (it could take 1 box, 100 boxes, or 1,000,000 boxes), so ensuring an Epic Token may be your best outcome.
D. Master Key (x50)
This is basically 5 sets of 10x Master Keys. Normally going for 1,125 Zen, during the most common sale (20% off) that’s closer to 900 Zen. The total value here is between 4,500 – 5,625 Zen per 50-Key set.
If you picked this option 3 times, you’d have around 13,500 – 16,875 Zen of value. Basing your value of the Keys on the 20% discount, though, you’d be paying 14,750 Zen (during the introductory sale) for 13,500 Zen in Keys, a bad deal. Also, if these are Bound to Account, you’d only be able to use them to open Lockboxes, so you could also look at this as guaranteeing 200-250 Lobi minimum per 50 Keys.
THE SAME MUDD, NO MATTER THE TIMELINE
No matter which Timeline we look at, we have to approach Mudd deals the same way: ask questions, know the worth of what’s being offered, and check the fine print. I hope this part, to some degree, answered some questions and helped you “check the fine print” by seeing what all’s being offered. Before the week’s out, I hope to also answer if this Bundle is worth it to you (or at least, help you make that decision for what you’re wanting from it from a financial perspective).
Joe and STO 