Mudd’s Secret Value Intel: Value Series for Mudd’s “Secret Intel” Choice Pack

Good day, Joe and STOers! Just a couple days ago, I showed off others’ videos on the ships found in the upcoming Mudd’s “Secret Intel” Choice Pack. Today is the second part where we look over the value of the ships and items in the Choice Pack (or if you’re so richly inclined, the MEGA Bundle version). This will have a ton of boring math, but considering we’re looking at $140-$270 USD (pre-tax), I’d like to think you’d want to do your due diligence and be sure you’re not spending money you don’t need to for your personal build choices.

A few caveats before we start:

1. I checked ship values twice: once on December 16th, another on December 19th.
2. On both occasions, I went with the lowest possible value on the Exchange at the time I checked those prices.
3. Other items were only checked once, including the value of Keys and “Promotion!”-style Packs.
4. All cash prices are in US Dollars and represent the minimum you’d need to spend per item and for everything all together considering all standard Zen Charge Bonuses (+300 Zen at $50; +1,000 Zen at $100; +3,000 Zen at $200). If there are better Zen Charge Bonuses, re-calculate the cash you’d need based on the Zen totals I provide for the separate items and MEGA Bundle.
5. Since all Energy Credit (EC)-based prices are based on a player-driven EC Exchange, prices are subject to change at any moment for any reason, either slightly or sharply. These are snapshots in time that should cover any pre-Choice Pack listing you were considering.

With those preambles out of the way, let’s look at the boring part: the math!

INDIVIDUAL CHOICES

THE SHIPS

Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer

Let’s start with one of the ships that tends to go overlooked. I don’t know of any meta builds that use this ship as a platform, and the only main use I know of for the Starship Trait is for making solo runs easier to do (thanks to a practically permanent Stealth/”Cloak” combo with Fresh from R&R and two different ranks of Intelligence Team).

This seems to be about in line with most Lockbox ships lately, around $100. Promo boxes have started taking back the EC efficiency mantle from Keys, but you see only about a 350 Zen difference between using at the best-case scenarios 44 Promo Boxes versus 102 Master Keys.

My valuations tend to go with the lowest end of value so we can see at the cheapest what these ships would cost in the best scenario, so here we’ll say the Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer is worth 7,700 Zen.

Son’a Intel Battlecruiser

This ship is never known for its platform but is ubiquitous for its Subspatial Warheads trait (like you can see way ahead of the ship where the beam weapons are firing).

At lower EC values, Promo Boxes aren’t as efficient as Master Keys. I should have done 3,625 Zen as the worst-case scenario, which would be $40 of Zen. It’s only a $10 difference to the proper best-case scenario.

This is a Lobi ship, so there are usually more of them available, lowering the price compared to a Lockbox ship. We’ll value the Son’a Intel Battlecruiser at 2,363 Zen or $30 cash for the Keys you’d need to sell for a single copy of it.

Na’Qjej Intel Battlecruiser

Image taken on the Tribble test server. As a mostly Federation player, I’d always used trait boxes to get Ceaseless Momentum.

While it’s important to note there were no specific listings for the Na’Qjej, it’s also important to note it’s available via the “Section 31 Lockbox Ship Pack,” which offers the choice between the Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer and the Na’Qjej Intel Battlecruiser.

Because of that, I did not include the Ship Pack in the Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer pricing so these prices could essentially be considered Na’Qjejs for value purposes.

I’m kind of surprised the Na’Qjej hasn’t taken off quite yet! I mean, it could have and a Na’Qjej individually is over 1.5 billion EC, but these choice packs being available for about the price of the Section 31 ship is a tad crazy (I don’t believe in either case was the Ship Pack cheaper than the Section 31 ship on its own).

If you’re buying Keys when they’re not on sale, this will cost you 11,750 Zen for $110. Considering I’m giving an extremely generous assumption that you’d buy Keys or Promo boxes at the lowest value and sell at the highest, this could have a potential best value of 7,910 Zen for $80.

Elachi Sheshar Intel Dreadnought

If that pic looks familiar, it should. It’s from the Command Sheshar pic I used in the Command Choice Pack value post since, well, only a specialization seat difference separates the Intel version from the Command version.

Since the Sheshar isn’t available on the Exchange and there are no known selling points on private channels (that I’m aware of, anyway), I’ll assume it would sell for a minimum of 1,500,000,000, the highest listable price for items on the Exchange.

Remember, this is theoretical value since there are no recorded sales and no listings on the Exchange. This comes in fairly cheap for a Promo ship at $150 at the highest end of the spectrum. We’ll go with the benefit of the doubt of the best price under the best circumstances, 10,500 Zen for $100.

THE OTHER ITEMS

A couple caveats in this section before we take our valuation look:

1. Experimental Ship Upgrade Tokens were valued using the Exchange, taking the lesser of the C-Store price for 9 Tokens or the EC-based Exchange pricing for an equivalent amount of Zen for the EC to buy those tokens.
2. Master Keys are purely priced at their C-Store off-sale price in bundles of 10.
3. The Epic Phoenix Prize Token is priced at a 0.5% drop rate (I’m not sure if 1% had been confirmed, but for some reason 0.5% is sticking with me), getting the total Dilithium for 200 boxes (.05% = 1-in-200 chance, so we’d expect 1 token every 200 boxes), then converting what that would equal in Zen at a 500:1 conversion rate.

WARNING! WARNING! In the past, items in this section have been Bound to Account. Do not expect these items to be sellable on the Exchange or be tradeable to other players unless stated and proven otherwise upon release.

Experimental Ship Upgrade Tokens (x9)

These are normally available in the C-Store for 2,000 Zen per 3 tokens. They’re also on the Exchange for 73,500,000 EC each. I compared the best and worst cases from the Exchange (top) versus the C-Store (bottom).

I tend to go with the lowest possible values when there seems to be a conflict. While you could earn EC for Experimental Ship Upgrades and you could buy single ones for about half what a single upgrade is, we have to consider that the Mudd Choice Pack option gives 9, not “up to 9.” Therefore, I need to compare buying 9 on the Exchange with buying 9 in the C-Store.

On the Exchange, 9 tokens can run anywhere from 5,670 Zen to 7,875 Zen in equivalent Zen value for the Keys or Promotion boxes you’d need buy and re-sell on the Exchange (based on what discount at which you can buy Keys/boxes and resell at the current 10,800,000 EC price).

In the C-Store, this can range from 4,200 Zen to 6,000 Zen. It’s obvious here that, for a set of 9 T6-X tokens, it’s cheaper to buy them from the C-Store.

We’ll set the Experimental Ship Upgrades as being 4,200 Zen at the best case and 6,000 Zen at the worst. That’s $50 or $60, respectively.

Master Keys (x50)

There’s no point in doing an EC-to-Zen conversion since we’re using Keys’ EC prices to get equivalent Zen prices.

Because of that, the best-case and worst-case scenarios are easy to calculate.

The full price of 50 Master Keys is 5 of the 10-Key packs for 5,625 Zen. The best case would be a (admittedly rare) 30% discount, roughly 3,938 (Because 1,125 doesn’t multiply well with most of Cryptic’s discounts, this is an estimate, give or take a few Zen). This puts the cash values at $40 at the best case and $60 at the best case.

Epic Phoenix Prize Token (x1)

As stated above, I’m assuming a 0.5% chance to get an Epic token, meaning we’d expect one in every 200 boxes (without known pity timers, could be you get one on your first box or it could take you 500 boxes). Also, with the Dilithium Exchange capped at 500:1, it’s easier to calculate what 200 boxes is worth in Zen.

If we assume you would get an Epic token in 200 boxes, it’d take 800,000 Dilithium, currently equivalent to 1,600 Zen, taking $20 to obtain.

Ultimate Tech Upgrades (x10)

There’s a bit of back-and-forth here on whether these are worth anything.

• One point of view says you can Epic all your gear eventually with enough patience and Dilithium, and you can get Phoenix Upgrades combined with events and other R&D boosters to Epic everything out for free.
• Since Galactic Red Alerts always give out 1x Ultimate Tech Upgrade, we could say their value is $0 or $10-$15, depending on the Galactic Red Alert version we get.
• Key Ring Bundles sell for around $20 (roughly, not an exact price), and when Mudd’s Market items are 75% off we see old Event items being sold with 1 Ultimate Tech Upgrade for $20 each.

I’m going with the $10-$20 level per Ultimate Tech Upgrade. While we can earn Ultimate Tech Upgrades, we tend to only get about 2-3 unrestricted freebies and maybe 3 restricted Ultimates per year. You can’t count on using all-free Ultimates to fully Epic out your ship.

At $10 per Ultimate Tech Upgrade, they’d be worth $100. At $20 per Ultimate Tech Upgrade, they’d be $200. Once we do the MEGA valuation, if you feel these are worth $0, the math is simple: knock off $100 for the lower-end valuation estimate and $190 off the top-end estimate.

The MEGA Value(ation)

Of course, Cryptic…*ahem*…I mean, Mudd…can’t let you go without offering to let you buy everything all at once. For 60,000 Zen ($530) at full price or 30,000 Zen ($270 with 300 Zen remaining) at half price, you can get all 8 items (including the 4 account-unlocked Lockbox/Lobi ships) one time over (ships will of course unlock for the account).

BEWARE, if you want this option you MUST buy the MEGA Bundle first. If you purchase a Choice Pack first, the option to buy the MEGA Bundle will go away.

If you’re looking to buy the MEGA Bundle at the half-price 30,000 Zen (cash cost of $270), you’re getting a ~37% discount on buying everything once over compared to the lowest possible individual values. That’s not really bad, assuming you wanted/needed everything on this list. At the worst-case numbers, it becomes a ~60% savings.

It’s at the full price of 60,000 Zen ($530 cash cost) that we have issues. Using the best-case pricing, we’re $100 shy of making back the entire Choice Pack’s value. At the worst-case values, we get a ~22% discount with one caveat: if you value the Ultimate Tech Upgrades as being under $40 of value, you don’t get enough out of the MEGA Bundle to make purchasing it worth it even under the highest prices on everything.

The suggestion, then, is this:

• If you want everything in this Bundle and were willing to pay for it all anyway, go ahead and get the MEGA Bundle while it’s 50% off (or more if a deeper discount ever comes around).
• Considering the full-price comparison is only worth it under the highest possible prices, and only if you value the Ultimate Tech Upgrades at 2,000 Zen each, I’d recommend not buying the MEGA Bundle at full price.

HOW TO MAKE THE VALUE FOR CHOICE PACK SELECTIONS

Let’s say your tastes are a bit more selective (you don’t want everything). You have $140 (plus tax) to spend at the 50% off time, or you may “have to” go $270 (plus tax) once it goes full price. How can we make up that $140 in value? Just in case I get the people who put Ultimate Tech Upgrades at $0, I’ll look at the other available options. i’ll also use the highly optimistic best-case pricing just so we’re looking at the absolute cheapest option that could happen.

Just Ships

Let’s take the 3 meta ships, which happen to be the 3 lowest prices of the 4 ships available.

• Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer: 7,700 Zen
• Son’a Intel Battlecruiser: 2,363 Zen
• Na’Qjej Intel Battlecruiser: 7,910 Zen

Combined, this is 17,973 Zen in value coming at you for 14,750 Zen. In real cash terms, it’s $170 worth of Zen charging just to get one of each ship compared to $140 of Zen to have all 3 of these account-unlocked.

Since the Elachi ship is well over 2,363 Zen, logically we can surmise that any 3-ship choice will result in a positive value on your Choice Pack selections.

This doesn’t count the Epic Prize Token as that doesn’t necessarily need to be used on a ship (you can downgrade any rarity of Prize Token to 2 of the token rarity below it). If you did, to still maintain positive value you’d need to swap the Son’a ship with the Epic Phoenix Token (3,223 Zen difference as-is, so swapping the Son’a ship for the Epic Token would only lose 763 Zen of value).

If you had to buy after the introductory price, though, you can’t make it back on just the ships at the lowest end of my valuations. Even with the Sheshar swapped in for the Son’a ship, we’d have:

• Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer: 7,700 Zen
• Elachi Sheshar Intel Dreadnought: 10,500 Zen
• Na’Qjej Intel Battlecruiser: 7,910 Zen

Total, that’s 26,110 Zen of value compared to a going price of 29,500. The 26,110 comes to $240 needed compared to the 29,500’s $270, a $30 premium. If you use each ship only once, it’s not worth picking up even at full price.

HOWEVER…consider how many times you’ll use these ships across your account. If you’d use the Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer just twice, that’s 15,400 of value since that’s 7,700 Zen you’re not having to pay out twice (essentially, just the one time to account-unlock it via Mudd’s).

Let’s go with our 3 meta ships again, but let’s say we use each on two characters:

• Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer (x2 uses): 15,400 Zen
• Son’a Intel Battlecruiser (x2 uses): 4,726 Zen
• Na’Qjej Intel Battlecruiser (x2 uses): 15,820 Zen

We’re now at 35,946 Zen of use (considering you’d have needed each ship twice over) with a 29,500 Zen spend. You would have needed $320 and “only” paid $270, saving $50.

What’s the TL;DR on this section?

• At 14,750, it’s worth getting just 3 ships, and it doesn’t matter which 3.
• At 29,500, this is only worth it if you know you’re going to use your ship picks on more than one character.

Just the Extras

Let’s say you’re not interested in the ships. How can we make 14,750 or 29,500 Zen’s worth of value?

The three cheapest options just won’t cut it. The Epic Prize Token, the Experimental Ship Upgrades, and the Master Keys at best come to 9,738 Zen. If this pack ever were to go on sale at 75% off (it’s happened only once), bringing the price to 7,375 Zen, then these would easily still make up the value. At the more traditional 50% off, we can’t make 14,750.

Let’s try for the 3 highest, then.

• Ultimate Tech Upgrades (x10): 10,000 Zen
• Experimental Ship Upgrade Tokens (x9): 4,200 Zen
• Master Keys (x50): 3,938 Zen

This brings us to a total of 18,138, but this also assumes you value the Ultimate Tech Upgrades at their ~$10 buyout price from the shorter Galactic Red Alert runs. If you value those Upgrades much lower, we can’t make even make 14,750 Zen, much less the 29,500 Zen full price, as easily or even at all off just the extras of the Choice Pack.

The TL;DR on this part?

• At 14,750, going extras-only is only worth it if you value the Ultimate Tech Upgrades at 10,000 Zen.
• At 29,500, no mixture of non-ship items will make this worth a purchase.
• If we ever get a 7,375 price, any 3 non-ship options would technically be worth the asking price.

ONLY YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANT AND HOW YOU VALUE

I can’t cover every potential choice matrix and every valuation bias, so ultimately the choice on how you value everything is up to you. If you value ships more like a 3-ship C-Store pack at 6,000 Zen, for example, this will never be worth the asking price and it’s an easy skip. Or maybe you agree with me on valuations but just don’t enjoy Intel ships and/or torpedo builds, so your choice is to skip this Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle. Maybe it’s just too expensive, even if you feel this pack is worth more than its weight in digital gold.

That’s all well and good! You make the choices you need or want to make based on your financial situation/priorities and how you like to have fun in STO.

In my opinion, if you want higher-end torpedo builds on a wider range of characters, or if you want to continue a themed set from a previous Choice Pack (Section 31 has had 2 ships in Choice Packs while Elachi has had one[two if you count the Command Sheshar in the previous pack] and Son’a has had one), and if you have the freed-up cash and/or Zen to do it, grab it.

I do hope this helps anyone who was on the fence about spending money on this pack.

As hinted in my visual preview post, although this will replace the “Mudd is in Command” Choice Pack, it won’t be gone long, so keep an eye for possibly deeper discounts (though I fully expect all Choice Packs to be relisted at 50% off or for this pack to be 50% while the others see a larger discount). My advice would be to hold out as long as you can before the Thursday, January 5th discount deadline. If you notice any larger Zen Charge Bonuses or a larger discount, don’t hesitate and grab what you have the free cash and/or Zen to grab. Don’t hope for an even larger discount, just take whatever possibly deeper discount and/or Zen Charge Bonus you can get that pops up in the two-week initial discount period.

That’s all for me. It’s Christmas, and I fully intend to enjoy the time off! I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and/or other Happy Holidays during this season!