THIRD ACCOUNT, WHO DIS? Starting a New Star Trek Online Account in 2023

(Preview pic taken from the announcement blog post about the Protostar-inspired Space Set event reward).

Good day, Joe and STOers! When I first started this blog, I started a 2^nd PC account to see how quickly a brand new, Free-to-Play (“F2P”) player could get one of the better value Bundles in the game: the Jem’Hadar Vanguard Pack. 

 
Another of the reasons I started the alt account was to show that you could be at least an Advanced Difficulty-capable player with a bit of a meta focus with just time and patience and a decent Dilithium farming strategy for the on-the-go player who doesn’t have much time to camp V-Rexes in the Dyson Sphere Ground Battlezone or running an untold number of Random TFOs for Marks and Dilithium. I feel I was successful; there’s even a fully F2P USS Defiant build series that’s plenty capable of Advanced-difficulty numbers. 

And then the great Exchange Fail of 2022 happened. For nearly a year, we had desired-Zen backlogs so long that at one point, it took over 1 month from posting an offer to getting your Zen. That was a nightmare. It essentially meant if you wanted something during a sale, you needed to shell out the cash or wait for the next run (or two) of that sale down the road. 
 
Then Cryptic fixed one of the Dilithium farming exploits in December 2022, and we’ve been on a rebound back toward either instantly available Zen or backlogs as long as just over 1 day I’ve seen and maybe 2-3 days a couple times. 

With the upcoming Protostar-inspired space set Event, and figuring Gamma Recruit is about 1-2 months away, I’m starting a new account but with a different end goal. 

THE INTENT 

Why am I doing a 3^rd account? No, it’s not because I’m an altaholic who needs more spaces even if it means starting from scratch again! 

No, it’s because the original series that started this blog is effectively outdated by now. Game mechanics change, prices rise and fall, previously non-meta items and traits become meta and vice-versa, and all that other jazz that happens to games over time. 

I want to show it’s not impossible to be a F2P player and get what you want if you’re willing to put up with the grind and the time it’ll take to build up your account to maximize near-passive Dilithium income. 

NEAR-PASSIVE DILITHIUM INCOME? 

Yep. I think you’d be amazed just how much Dilithium I get from (in no particular order): 
* Turning in Reputation Marks for Dilithium, 

* Completing certain in-game milestones (mostly from Admiralty), 

* Doing Reputation leveling, 

* Recruit rewards (this is the most active to get built up, but it’s the most passive once all 4 Recruit types are fully made and you’re going through alternate characters), 

* And more to be discussed in this blog series! 

But it’s not near-passive to get all this built up! You’ll need to play through the game quite a bit to hit the point where you’re comfortable enough with income methods and builds that we’re not feeling like it’s a grind. 

OKAY, WHAT ARE WE DOING? 

Well, you don’t have to do a single thing! It’s all on me! But if you’re a newer player or were thinking of getting started, I’d hope you’d follow along with me as I devote what time I can into a fresh account and how I’ll go about my ultimate goal. 

THE ULTIMATE GOAL 

Let’s start at the end, shall we? 

I’ve gone on and on about how much value I feel the 10^th Anniversary Legendary Starships Bundle (“10th Anniversary Bundle”) brings to players. I feel it’s one of the best cost-to-ships ratios in the game, and you get a plethora of either meta, near-meta, or just plain fun shps, traits, consoles, and space weapons* to live out most of your Star Trek fantasies! 

• NOTE: Aside from the Legendary Constitution Temporal Flight Deck Carrier, none of the weapons equipped on these ships are upgradeable. They’ll eventually lock into being Mk X Common equivalents, I believe. At Normal difficulty, that’s fine. I would not recommend going into Advanced-level content or above with these non-upgradeable weapons equipped. 

So that’s our end goal: Get enough Zen to purchase the 10^th Anniversary Bundle! 

Now, that has a full price of 30,000 Zen (which works out to 3,000 Zen per ship, the traditional Z-Store price for Tier 6 ships), but it’s almost never listed at that price. It’s usually listed at 19,500 Zen. 

*gets blank stares, as if new players know how much that is* 

My apologies…an aside… 

Zen Prices Compared to United States Dollars (“USD”) 

Zen is the in-game premium currency. Long story short and with some exceptions like sales, you can view 1 Zen to be equal to $.01 USD (1 Cent), or equally, 100 Zen = $1.00 USD. So, then, you’d take any Zen price and divide by 100 to get the cash-equivalent price. For example, a 3,000 Zen ship would cost 3,000/100 = $30.00 USD. 

My ultimate goal, then, is to grind out ~$195 worth of Zen to buy the 10^th Anniversary Bundle (non-Premium; that version adds mostly Lock Box-style items that, in my opinion, don’t add enough value to spend another ~$97.50 USD equivalent on). 

But it’s not really $195. It’ll be more like ~$215 worth. 

The Intermediate Goals

You see, if we’re going to be grinding, we’ll need a bit more than what we get from the leveling experience. 

• Energy Credit (“EC”) Cap: 500 Zen (ideally when on sale for at least 20% off, so 400 Zen) 

• Not much great stuff is available to me on the Exchange at or below 15 million EC, and with some of my grinding methods, we might hit that cap and run into issues. 

• Gamma Vanguard Starter Pack: 2,000 Zen (ideally on 35% sale, so 1,300 Zen) 

So I’m figuring I’ll go for the Gamma Vanguard Starter Pack first (T6 ship with NPC combat pets for an easier starting experience, Jem’Hadar Vanguard character and BOFFs for easier early-game play styles), then the EC Cap, then the long haul toward the 10^th Anniversary Bundle. 

Also, not all the EC and Dilithium will go straight to grinding out Zen. There’s the Admiralty system that requires a number of ships to get through well; Phoenix Prize Packs for both character-specific and account-unlocked gear to make leveling and pre-Reputation Completion easier; gear and traits from the Exchange to help starship combat until better options become available; etc. 
 
In fact, you can see how I’ll generally go about this from my first “update” on a similar project nearly 4 years ago. 
 
Rules

Every challenge needs its rules, so here are mine: 

1. Reselling sellable loot is fair game. 

2. I can’t transfer EC or sellable items from another account into this one. It’ll have to stand on its own. 

3. There will be no cash purchases except if a charity event comes up with a guaranteed distribution for under $20. (For example, this charity event where 2 T6 ships were being sold for $10.) 

4. No gifts from players are allowed. 

5. Any giveaways claimable by just entering a code distributed on a website are fair game. These rarely include a ship nowadays, but the Elite Services Starter Packs are extremely helpful for characters doing Admiralty or gathering loot to vendor for decent EC gains. 

6. Anything else doable in-game is allowable. 

Time Frame 

I don’t really have a time frame for this. The last project took 44 days to get the Gamma Vanguard Starter Pack, and then I cheated a bit with an Account Bank purchase (which is no longer necessary as all accounts have at least a few slots free), got a ship off a raffle, and a charity event was selling a 2-ship Bundle for $10. 

That was 1,500 Zen to obtain. Assuming I could keep up that pace (after single-character build-ups for better grinding), that would mean 19,500 Zen would take ~444 days to do. But that’s if I only go for the 10^th Anniversary Bundle. 

If I assume I can get the EC Cap increase for 400 Zen, the Gamma Vanguard Starter Pack for 1,300 Zen, and then we add in the 10^th Anniversary Bundle at 19,500 Zen, we come to a total of 21,200 Zen, taking ~512 days, or 18 months and 10 days (using 1 month = 4 weeks = 28 days). 

But life changes after 4 years. Real-life priorities change, hobbies either pick up or trail off, etc. I doubt I’ll get to the Starter inside of 44 days this time. 
 
SOOO…let’s say 24 months (2 years)? While there wouldn’t be daily updates, I can keep weekly logs and post once every ~7-8 days once I’m going at a decent clip. 

Why Now In Particular? 

So that’s a fair question. Why am I starting when there’s no Recruit event up? 

Simple…the Protostar Experimental Technologies Space Set (you’ll need to scroll down to the rewards). 

The hardest part of using alternate characters (“alts”) is they have to build up their equipment using loot drops or purchases on the player Exchange. This can get tiresome quickly as you’re not at any level long enough for gear of your level to continue being effective. 

Items rewarded through Events (and most via Episode rewards) fix a lot of that headache, either being reclaimable for higher levels of effectiveness or having free Upgrades pre-loaded until they hit Mark 12 (“Mk XII”) at Level 50. Some items will increase in effectiveness as you level, usually denoted by an “Infinity” symbol where the Mk Level is listed. 

The Protostar-themed set awarded for the “No-Win Scenario” Event provides us with a Space Shield, Warp Core (and Singularity Core for those using Romulan ships), and a Phaser-based Omni-Directional Beam Array. The Warp Core and Phaser Omni are the big takeaways here; the Warp Core (or Singularity Core) sets your maximum Sector Space speed (in case Transwarp isn’t available for some reason), while the Omni has a full-circle 360-degree firing arc (meaning no matter how you turn your ship, that Beam Array will always fire as long as your weapons aren’t disabled for some reason, and early-level ships turn slooooowwwwwwly). 

Plus, we have 1 more “Recruit” event left: Gamma Recruit. (I could do a post specifically about Recruits later, but the TL;DR is they have extra objectives that normal characters don’t have, and those tend to unlock helpful items for the Recruit and account-wide bonuses for everyone else). I’d like to get at least 1 character to max level and doing its grind before that Recruit event starts, expected in a month or two at latest. 

WHAT ABOUT THE 13^TH ANNIVERSARY REVIEWS? 

I have two of those left (Styx Terran Dreadnought Cruiser and Mirror Crossfield Science Destroyer), and they’ll continue. Since we’re looking at a 2-year need on the 3^rd account, that account won’t take full priority until the 13^th Anniversary ships are done. 

HOW ABOUT YOUR ACCOUNT THAT STARTED THIS BLOG? 
It’ll do the Events, but it won’t be doing extra Event days for Dilithium (unless the Event we’re doing can be done extremely quickly, but that’s usually now just the Red Alert events), and it won’t be buying anything else for a long while. It’ll enter semi-retirement. It’s done its job, but it’s outgrown its original intent. I may pick it back up after the 3^rd account is done, but the 2^nd account will only do the Events for their primary prizes and sit dormant otherwise for the entirety of this series. 

WILL YOU KEEP THE 3^RD ACCOUNT AROUND AFTER THE GOAL IS MET? 

No. I’m doing this to let players know it’s possible to get the 10^th Anniversary Bundle as a F2P player, not so I can personally start a fresh account. 

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH THE 19,500 ZEN AFTER YOU HAVE IT ALL COLLECTED? 

The intent of this series is to show you can get the 19,500 Zen needed to get the 10^th Anniversary Bundle (after a couple detours). But as this account will only exist for that reason, it won’t buy it there (I have it on my main PC, alt PC, and PlayStation accounts, so it’s not that it’s not worth the purchase). 

I’ll be sure to show I have the 19,500 Zen before spending it and do a wrap-up post, but since I’m not intending on keeping the account active, what I’ll likely do is buy a ton of Promo Packs once the next sale for those goes live after I hit 19,500 Zen. I’ll then send them to my main PC account, sell them a few at a time, and likely buy 1 or 2 Lock Box ships to shore up some collection needs there. 

IS THERE ANY WAY WE CAN HELP? 

If you want to, sure! I won’t turn down help. 

If I want to really focus on this 3^rd account and the remainder of the 13^th Anniversary Bundle, I can’t do much on my other accounts. That means I’d have to do the bare minimum on my main account (final 13^th Anniversary reviews notwithstanding) and alt account, but I’d rather focus on this project. The best way I could do that is if I’m not worrying about Event progress on those accounts. 

To buy out every Event, that’d be 2,500 Zen x 5 “Event Campaign” Events + 1,000 Lobi x 2 Seasonal Events that require Lobi + ~3-4 month-long events x 6,000 Zen each = 12,500 Zen + 2,000 Lobi + 24,000 Zen = 36,500 Zen + 2,000 Lobi…per account. 

My alt account was made just for this blog. If it eventually has to go into full-blown retirement for the duration of this project, that’s fine. 

It’s my main PC account I’m “worried” about. 

If you really want to help me focus, I’m asking for you to help me Buyout a chunk, if not all, of the 5 “Event Campaign” Events that happen each year, for a possible total of 12,500 Zen needed each year (if I could time it to a 20% Zen Charge Bonus, that’d be a ~$100 need, so a ~$135 “need” due to fees and taxes described below). 

I’m linking to the site I used to crowdfund for the 13^th Anniversary Bundle to maybe get some Event Buyouts gathered up. Go to my Ko-Fi page and consider spending $5-$10 to help me with Buyouts for the main account. 

I will warn that, due to PayPal fees and expected taxes totaling close to 30%, a $25 Buyout would require I ask for ~$40 (1x $20 Zen package + 1x $10 Zen package + ~30% total sales tax, income tax, and PayPal fees percent = ~$39.60 needed per Event if I can’t get Zen during a Zen Charge Bonus period). 

But again, any amount would help; even a total of $13 in donation(s) per Event would knock out 5 days of that Event (~800 Zen to Buyout at that point, so would need ~$10 for Zen + 30% for taxes/fees). 
 
I’ll likely set up goals along the way. For the first event starting tomorrow, you’ll see the goal on my Ko-Fi go up $13. If that fills, another $13 gets added, then another $14 to see if I can get the whole Event bought out. Then the cycle will restart with the next 3-week Event. 

You’d need ALL the Events, though, wouldn’t you?

A couple reasons exist for not pushing for all/nearly all the Events. For one, I’m already asking for a LOT, so I’m trying to keep the goals relatively small. For the other, at least 2 of these would be Lobi-based Buyouts on Events that take me no more than 5 minutes per run from boot-up to log-in to running the Event to switching to the next account. The 3- and 4-week Events are the ones that take a while and would be in “need” of financial aid. But I’ll only ask for help on the 3-week Events. 

UHH…THAT’S QUITE A BIT. CAN YOU TL;DR THIS? 

Sure! I tend to write as if I’m speaking, so what wouldn’t take long on audio takes a while to type and read. 

The TL;DR: 

1. I’m revitalizing my “The New Player And…” series by creating a 3^rd PC account and starting from scratch. 

2. While it’ll have an ultimate goal of grinding the Zen for the 10^th Anniversary Bundle with no cash spending, it’ll take time to build up to a point where I feel I can mostly passively earn most of the Dilithium I need. 

3. I’m looking at a nearly 2-year journey for this if timing from the original attempt at this series is any indication. 

4. To help me focus more on this 3^rd account, I’m asking for donations to my Ko-Fi page to help with Buyouts for Events on my main account. While I’d like to do full Buyouts, I’d be grateful for any amounts that would let me buy Zen to do 1-5 days’ worth of Buyouts on $10 of Zen (requiring ~$13 in donations). Expect to see that 5-6 times a year (as I think we have 3-4 Galactic Red Alerts and 4 Seasonal/Story updates per year). 

THE SOONER THE BETTER 

I’ll start this 3^rd account today to get a slight head start on the leveling needed to do the No-Win Scenario event. I believe I need to be Level 50, but that could be wrong. We’ll see once I hit that part of the game! 
EDIT: Here’s my 3rd PC account! It’ll be interesting to see what all I can or can’t do as there have been a few tweaks to when exactly certain systems open up for Jem’Hadar characters (since they start at Level 60 already, so you have to do at least a few missions to get certain things like Events, Admiralty and Recruit account-wide reclaims to open up.)

Look for an update before the weekend so you can see the kind of progress I’m making. If you’re a new player, you’ve joined at just the right time as far as any guides are concerned. 🙂

Until that update, keep on enjoying Star Trek Online!