Hello, all, and welcome back to Joe and STO!
If you’re planning on following me on my 3rd account’s journey to eventually buying the 10th Anniversary Bundle, you’ll want to know about giveaways that happen every so often, especially when they’re unexpected.
Why?
shouts from the back “BECAUSE FREE IS FREE!”
Okay…case made there, but aside from that.
…
STO giveaways tend to be fairly helpful for those on budgets, or in our case a Free to Play (“F2P”) budget where we’re not spending unless it’s for charity.
And today didn’t disappoint.
Z-Store Promotions Tab
When you go to the Z-Store, you notice there’s a “Promotions” tab, but usually there’s only one thing there: Worf’s Sash and hair style from Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1.
But when Cryptic decides to do any Giveaways, either by code redemption or directly in-game (Anniversaries usually being direct Z-Store discounts of 100% off if the giveaway item is already available there), it’ll be here.
A while ago, to celebrate a story mission release, Cryptic offered codes on various websites for a Tholian non-combat pet, a Tholian Crystalline Sword, and an Elite Services Starter Pack. (There were 8 left at that link, last I looked, so it may be gone by the time you get there. There were nearly 150 there when I claimed mine for this account.)
Items like that go to the “Promotions” tab.
Today, Cryptic added an Experimental Ship Upgrade Token (“T6-X Token”), which will upgrade any T5-U ship to T5-X OR T6 ship to T6-X. In both instances, the ship in question gains a Universal Console slot (not just for Universal Consoles; you can slot any type of Console in these style of slot), a Device Slot, and a usable extra Starship Trait slot, all for that ship in particular and any more versions of it you obtain on your account.
I won’t be using it on the Jem’Hadar Escort. Although it qualifies as it’s a T5-U ship, you’d really want the maximum benefit on something that can use it more effectively: a T6 ship where you’re gaining some of those benefits anyway just from being 1 ship tier higher, so it’s more like you’re doubling your benefit compared to the Jem’Hadar Escort.
When You Might Want to Use the T6-X Upgrade
For 3 of the past 4 years, we’ve gotten a Tier 6 ship for the Fall story update (Elachi Qulash Frigate in September 2019; Mirror Gagarin Warship in September 2021; Terran Somerville Scout Vessel in September 2022). IF* that pattern holds, we’ll have a free T6 starship for the next event, which should be a story update in September. I’d hold onto this “T6-X Upgrade” until then.
* So far, the only exception to this rule in the past 4 years was 2020, where the Widening Gyre event awarded the Imperial Rift space set.
Grind On!
It’s back to the “grind” for me. I hope you found this information useful as a newer player to STO!
Joe and STO 