Hello, Joe and STOers! Last week, we got the Mudd’s Forged Alliance Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle into the Z-Store. It takes the previous 3 Anniversary ships (2020 -2022) and puts them into a single bundle, allowing you to select the ones you didn’t have and fill the rest with other (potentially) useful items, or to grab all 3 and be done with it…or spend the 26,250 Zen (on sale!) MEGA Bundle and just get everything in one go.

While I don’t have a ton of time to do screenshots, histories, etc., I will take some time to provide some numbers and suggest whether this is or isn’t a good deal.

If you’ve read my Twitter feed, you already know how I feel about this, but I wanted to back it up with numbers for those who either aren’t there or want a more detailed break-down.

THE SHIPS

The Forged Alliance Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle only has 3 ship choices this time around, as we only had 3 Khitomer Alliance ships:

As usual, these are account-wide unlocks and will be available via the Mudd’s Market “Ships” tab for reclaim.

THE OTHER ITEMS

Like other Choice Packs/MEGA Bundles, there’s an assortment of non-ship items you can choose from if you don’t care for or already have at least one of the ships above.

NOTE: All items below are a one-time claim per Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle purchase, and all are Bound to Account.

You could choose between:

@ At one point, T6 Ship Coupons obtained via Mudd’s Choice Packs/MEGA Bundles tended to not include ships from the “New Items” tab of the Z-Store, similar to those granted from Event Campaigns. Could someone please let me know in the Comments if this has changed at some point? Proof would be appreciated.

And now, onto the reason you likely came here…the cash perspective!

THE VALUES

For the calculations here, I did a variety of valuations:

  1. Full Price (everything). This is either the Buyout price for the ships, or the full Z-Store value of the other items (where available).
  2. Single-Ship Listings under Previous Precedent (Ships only): Until this Choice Pack, various Event Ships that were initially released in 2019 onward would make their way to Mudd’s Market at a full price of 17,000 Zen but down to 4,750 Zen on a 75% discount (remember, folks, never buy in Mudd’s Market at full price!). This sets my 2nd pricing standard, the assumption that they could have been released separately either instead of in the Choice Pack or in addition to a Choice Pack offering.
  3. T6 Z-Store Ship Pricing (Ships only): Event Ships are meant to be maybe a bit under Z-Store ship power level (most Z-Store ships have I think 1 more Console Slot and, lately, a number of Z-Store ships have a built-in Specialization mechanic and Commander-level Specialization seat). I’m giving the Khitomer ships the benefit of the doubt and putting a 3,000 Zen full-price valuation each as one of the valuation opinions.
  4. 20% Discount (all but Z-Store Coupons): While some categories get larger discounts, everything tends to get a regular 20% discount throughout the year.
  5. Z-Store Coupon special sale: At least twice, we’ve seen Cryptic post a pack of 3 T6 Z-Store Ship Coupon boxes for 4,500 Zen. Since they did it this past year, I’m going to assume they’ll do this semi-regularly going forward.

Now, let’s look at the ships on their own.

THE VALUES: THE SHIPS

As we see here, the only opinion on valuations that justifies the Khitomer Alliance ships on their own is if you compare the Bundle price to the original Buyouts, which for the Anniversary are 6,000 Zen each. Since these are never available as standard Z-Store ships, 3,000 Zen each and 2,400 Zen each don’t really matter; those are more power-level-based valuation opinions.

But we do have two sets of values that matter:

–> Buyouts: As stated above, these were all available for 6,000 Zen each at 0 progress during each Anniversary Event.

So if we go with Buyouts being the primary valuation option, the Mudd’s Choice Pack does make financial sense if you missed out on all 3 ships. You’re looking at an 18,000 Zen valuation compared to a 14,750 Zen asking price, a ~18% savings. Not bad!…not great, but not bad!

–> Single Listings, 75% Off: Before this Choice Pack and since Mudd’s Market started, Event Ships first went to Mudd’s Market rather than the Phoenix Prize Pack (one has since been de-listed from Mudd’s Market into the Phoenix Prize Pack, but it didn’t start in Phoenix). They’d go in at 17,000 Zen full price, but since you’re not meant to buy at that price, the effective price is at a 75% discount at 4,250 Zen. That’s cheaper than the Buyouts would have been, so if you didn’t mind a 1,250 Zen mark-up on a ship that’s technically lower in power than a standard Z-Store T6 ship, that’s not too bad an increase in price while still saving compared to an outright Buyout of 6,000 Zen (Anniversary and Fall) or 1,000 Lobi (Summer and Winter Events).

So if we go with the previous precedent of 4,750 Zen per ship individually, we see a total 3-ship price of 12,750 Zen. Put into a Mudd’s Choice Pack at 14,750 Zen, that’s exactly a 2,000 Zen (~15.69%) increase.

I wonder if they figure someone will do the math and go, “Oh, only 2,000 Zen more? Awww, just go ahead and get it”? … That won’t be me, unfortunately. I go by the numbers, and the only mental justification to go with the financial justification to get this Choice Pack is to go, “Well, if I had done the Buyouts, I’d have paid 18,000 Zen total over 3 years, so I’ll do 14,750 Zen now.”

That reaches into a problem I have, and I’ll address that later. For now, let’s hit the other items!

THE VALUES: THE OTHER ITEMS

So judging by this, if you wanted to get almost any 3-item mix of the other items in the Choice Pack, you’d have justification at full price for everything but the Ultimate Tech Upgrades (and that would depend on how you value those Upgrades).

At discounted prices, including the 3-pack of T6 Coupons using their 3-for-4,500 Zen price from this past holiday season, there’s no mix of options among these Items that can be done 3 times that will justify buying the Choice Pack over waiting for a sale in the Z-Store proper.

THE POSSIBLE COMBOS TO MAKE 14,750 ZEN

So, on average, to make the Choice Pack worth buying, the items you pick need to average to ~4,917 Zen each. This is easy with Lock Box ships or Promo ships since they’ll usually nearly triple the Zen-equivalent price at full-price valuation amounts or be high enough on the low end to allow a 2-ship selection option, allowing you to pick one of the “Other Items” if you don’t need 1 ship (or possibly 2 ships, depending on the value of the ships you’re choosing).

Here, though, the ships in this pack could have been listed at a fixed price. That price could either be 6,000 Zen (Buyout price assuming 0% progress), which will beat our needed average, or 4,750 Zen (75% discount single-ship listing price as a traditional listing in Mudd’s Market), which won’t make our average.

The same ends up being true for the other items, as well. The Coupons, Master Keys, and T6-X tokens can beat our needed average…if we value them at full price.

Under a full-price, full-Buyout perspective, you can make the 14,750 Zen in value with any combination of Ships, 2x Coupons, 50x Master Keys, and/or 9x T6-X Upgrades.

BUT…but…if we look at the discounted prices, we hit a snag. Under a discount-only valuation philosophy, there are zero items that come out to the 4,917 Zen average we’d need to make it back to 14,750 Zen. If you value items at discounted prices, this will look horrible. There then is no justification on why you’d spend 14,750 Zen here instead of buying 5 Z-Store ships for 15,000 Zen at full price or picking another Mudd’s Choice Pack to get some account-unlocked Lock Box/Lobi/Promo ships that would have run you near that amount just for a single ship otherwise.

THE MEGA BUNDLE: CAN WE MAKE 26,250 ZEN?

Yes, you read that right. The MEGA Bundle for this selection of ships and items is discounted slightly (from 30,000 Zen at the 50% discount) due to only having 7 items in it instead of 8 (thanks to Spencer/CasualSAB for bringing that up in a recent video).

So can we make back that 26,250 Zen?

WELLLLLL…Yes and no.

Just like the Choice Pack, the only real way you figure you’re saving money is if you value at least the other items at full pricee. If you put discounts on everything, you’re overpaying, and usually by a lot. I don’t think you’d like to be overpaying by over 33% if you can help it!

But again, this comes back to, “How do you view the price on everything?” If you look at full price because, “That’s what it’s selling for when not on sale,” then yeah, both the Choice Pack and MEGA Bundle will be savings compared to what you expected/would have paid. But if you view everything from a minimum 20% discount because, “That’s the only time I buy is when things are on sale,” you’re in for some bad spending here if you do buy this.

The Problems with This Choice Pack

So, I mentioned there were at least a couple problems with this Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle, so let’s get going on those.

  1. Slightly hinted at, the way these Event Ships in particular are being offered, it’s an all-or-nothing price. You can’t “a la carte” your ship choices like you could with every other Event Ship dating back to 2019. If you want the Temer, you’re paying 14,750 Zen. The Khitomer only? 14,750 Zen. Got the Khitomer but need the Temer and Jarok? 14,750 Zen. You’re now forced to pay 10,000 more Zen than you were previously hoping to spend just to get one of these ships. Yeah, depending on your valuation standpoint, perhaps 1 Anniversary Ship + 4x Z-Store ships is kind of okay for 14,750 (full price using only regular T6 Z-Store pricing would have been 15,000, so a slight savings!), but you’re only talking a $2.50 equivalence in savings.
  2. As Spencer points out in the video below (I can’t separate this list and make it look good, sorry!)…these ships are already outdated by three separate 3,000-Zen competitors that just released last month.
  3. Even those competitors come in a bundle that’s ~$15 cheaper (13,175 Zen @ 25% off vs. 14,750 @ 50% off) and has 1 extra Z-Store ship and comes with 2 Lock Box (Styx)/Promo (Mirror Crossfield) ships account-wide unlocked AND has a C-Store Coupon BOX that you could sell in private trades, give to a friend, or use for yourself!

I tried to get this time-coded to where he talks about the ship comparisons for Point #2 above.

Overall Final Impression

Okay, so here’s where I “Cryptic shill” you into getting this Choice Pack…except that won’t happen here.

There’s only 2 reasons most of you would likely get this Bundle: to have the Khitomer Alliance ships available for a themed character; or to make up for missing 1-3 of these Events.

That’s it. There’s almost nothing on these ships that you have to have from a meta standpoint. If you were able to get these for free during the 2020-2022 Anniversary Events, they likely have some nice filler Consoles, Traits, and other gear.

Notice I said, “almost nothing.” The Jarok’s Hangar Pets are, best I understand, either meta or near-meta Hangar Pets. They debuff enemies and only use Energy Weapons, a perfect combination for you to support Torpedo/Kinetic build runners in Elite TFOs. If you must have those Hangar Pets, and if you’re relied upon to be among the best in your group, you may value that status and being on top of the meta more than the actual value of the ships.

If you’re missing 1 or 2 ships, this is a tough call. Performance-wise, there’s nothing you need outside the Jarok, and that would again only be for the hangar pets.

You have to make your call, but if I personally had missed those 3 ships, and I came up on Spencer’s video showing that current Z-Store ships outperform those just on paper…I’d just have to sigh and wish I had done those Events. I would not buy this Bundle if I had to budget my spending in STO extremely carefully. (Full disclosure: I have all these ships from their respective Anniversary Events. If I had to pick 1 ship to get if they were listed separately, I’d go with the Jarok.)

You may feel differently. Buying 150x Master Keys for a discount over full-price Z-Store listings? Go at it. Really like the looks of these ships and don’t care about min/max’ing your performance and you have the budget to afford it? Go for it!

Don’t waste your Dilithium to get Zen for this. That’s a lot of Dilithium grinding, so you’d likely want to get a lot of ship bang for your buck (*COUGH* Mudd’s Into Darkness and Beyond has upwards of 6 Lock Box/Promo ships available account-wide unlocked [depending on how you count the Kelvin and D7 Destroyers], and the original 3 of them form a Console Set! *COUGH*).

Don’t buy this if your only measure of, “should I get this,” is, “will it help my overall DPS.” You have better options, one of which just released at the end of last year. Yes, the “Fighter Pilot” Choice Pack is one I’d recommend just for 1 ship, the Deimos, due to its Immolating Phaser Lance console. As much as you’ll reclaim that, you’ll get your value out of just 2 or 3 claims on other characters that would have otherwise needed their own single-character, single-use Deimos.

HYRDA(tion) IS NECESSARY!

Now that this valuation post is done (I wanted to get it out while there was still some time on the initial sale offering), I’ll shift my attention to finally getting the Terran Hydra outfitted and ready for testing for the next part of the 13th Anniversary Bundle review series.

Until then, take care and continue enjoying STO!

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  1. Pingback: Mudd’s a Light(Cruiser)weight: Financial Value of the Mudd’s Cruiserweight Bundle! – Joe and STO

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