Good day, Joe and STOers! Since the Legendary Battlecruiser Bundle has been live for about 3 weeks on PC and is launching today on Consoles (PlayStation and XBox platforms), and since it was abruptly announced and I had no time to do it on PC’s release, I figured I’d take some time to do a proper Value Series post on this Legendary Bundle. This may not be too terribly long, but I’m hoping it’s as informative nonetheless.

A few notes before I continue:

  1. Legendary Ships are technically different than their original counterparts. For example, even if people say, “You’re getting an account-unlocked Inquiry Battlecruiser,”…well…yes and no. The Inquiry and the Legendary Avenger have similar setups and stats, but there are changes that may make this not effectively the Inquiry you were wanting.
  2. Legendaries will come with skins, consoles, gear, and traits of all previous versions of their line. Nothing released after this Bundle but still in the family will be retroactively applied.
    * Example: The Legendary Temporal Flight Deck Carrier doesn’t gain automatic access to visual parts from the Mirror Warship, and you don’t get automatic access to its Console and Trait. The Legendary was released February 13th, 2020, while the Mirror Warship was released 7 months later on October 6th, 2020. It can use those visual pieces, the Console, and/or the Trait, but you need a Mirror Warship on the same character that’s using the Legendary version (and/or Promo-level Miracle Worker version) to do so.
  3. Exchange-based prices provided are from the PC market and are accurate from both September 28th, 2023, and October 15th, 2023 (I wanted to do both so there was both a pre-release and current pricing comparison).
  4. Only you can determine if this Bundle is worth it to you or not. All I’m doing is providing a numerical comparison to help you reach a cost-based conclusion. If you wanted nothing from here, then you’re out nothing to not get it. If you’d wanted everything, I don’t think you really need this and will get it when the next major sale happens. If you’re in-between, that’s where this come more in handy.
  5. Just because this ship is seeing a Legendary release doesn’t mean they won’t release the original Inquiry into Mudd’s Market. The Mudd’s Cruiserweight Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle has previous versions of the Promo T’Liss (Legendary Romulan Captain Bundle), TOS-era Constitution (10th Anniversary’s Legendary Starships Bundle), and D7 Battlecruiser (Legendary Klingon Defense Force Captain Bundle), with the Lobi Store’s Walker-class (Legendary Discovery-Federation Captain Bundle) mixed in.

Now, having said all that, let’s look at the prices!

MAJOR LINE #1: AVENGER/ARBITER/INQUIRY

Let’s start with the headline ship of this Bundle (or rather, what I imagine is most people’s headline): the Inquiry class finally makes it to the C-Store where I’d wished it were the whole time! 🙂

Previous Claims to Fame:
1) The Inquiry (T6 Promo variant) at least was (may still be?) one of the best Beam: Overload platforms as a 5/3 ship. With 4 Tactical Consoles default + 1 Universal Console slot default (being a Miracle Worker ship) + 1 Universal Console slot from a T6-X upgrade, this gives you up to 6 Tactical consoles for Vulnerability Locators and/or Exploiters and Lorca’s Custom Fire Controls. (Current T6-X2 upgrading gives you up to 7.).
2) With the addition of Isomagnetic Plasma Distribution Manifold (“Isomags”) in the meta, this ship reclaimed some of that fame by having 8 console slots’ worth of Isomags available (5 Engineering + 1 Universal + 1 T6-X + 1 T6-X2 slots = 8).
3) The Arbiter (T6 C-Store variant) specifically has a meta Energy Weapons-based Starship Trait: Emergency Weapon Cycle. It improves weapon haste (you can fire your Energy Weapons more frequently) and reduces your Weapon Power use (effectively increasing damage dealt, as damage rises and falls with Energy Weapon levels). Remember, you get this Trait unlockable with the Legendary Avenger, so if you don’t yet have an Arbiter (T6 C-Store variant), that may factor into your purchasing decision.

Current Claim to Fame: Probably still Beam: Overload, but now if your console style of choice is Vulnerability Locators and/or Exploiters, the Legendary Avenger swaps an Engineering console slot from the Inquiry for a Tactical console slot. You’re likely still better off with Isomags even at a loss of 1 Console slot, you just won’t be as optimal as you would have been on the Inquiry’s 8 potential console slots.

Costs for Everything Included among the Avenger line: Now let’s get to the heart of why you’re here…the costs of things!

One nice thing about Legendary bundles is that they come with every previous Console, Trait, and Skin from the ships of its class. If you’re a veteran player, you likely have all (or almost all) those anyway, so the value more comes from any previous Lock Box/Lobi/Promo ships’ equipment and Traits (and perhaps a ship setup close to what the single-character version would have been) becoming account-wide unlocked. If you’re a newer player, it negates needing a lot of unnecessary lower-level (and perhaps outdated T6) ships just to have a full set of Consoles (which, on much older ships, may include a Set bonus for having 3+ specific consoles/pieces of equipment on the ship).

For the Inquiry, we have the following ships’ visuals, traits (if available), and equipment available:

  • Avenger Battlecruiser (T5)
  • Arbiter Battlecruiser (T6)
  • Inquiry Battlecruiser (T6)

So for valuation purposes, you need to look at 1 Tier 5 Z-Store ship, 1 Tier 6 Z-Store ship, and 1 Tier 6 Promo-level ship.

The Z-Store ships are easy since they have a fixed value.

I won’t touch the Fleet Avenger Tier 5 and Tier 6, as you could use the Fleet Ship Modules you can buy from the Reputation system (limit 1 per Reputation) to get the Fleet skin for free (though that’s once per character, but it’s effectively free all the same).

It’s the Promo ship that’s difficult, since it relies on its own market valuation as well as the market values of Keys and/or various Promotional boxes to derive an equivalent Zen value. I used the day-of prices of Keys, R&D Promo Boxes, Delta Alliance Promo Boxes, and the Inquiry reward box to arrive at the numbers below:

I’m kind of surprised there wasn’t much change in a half-month’s time. The Inquiry got ~175 Zen more expensive at the best case and 625 Zen more expensive in the worse case. So generally speaking, you’re looking at a best case of ~6,500 Zen and a worst case of ~13,000-14,000 Zen to get an Inquiry.

So, we now have a total for the Arbiter/Avenger/Inquiry lineup:

If you’d wanted the whole Avenger/Arbiter/Inquiry line, you’d be spending around 10,535 – 19,250 Zen, wihch in cash would be ~$100 – $180. Two of these ships are account-wide unlocks, but let’s be honest: if you’re buying both the Tier 5 and Tier 6 version, you’ll just use the Tier 6 for actual combat while the Tier 5 is effectively just used for the Console, ship visual, and Admiralty card.

The real question mark for players likely comes with the Inquiry. But considering the ship on its own goes for ~$70 in Zen Charge (under the best circumstances) for a single character while this Bundle will go to ~$80 in Zen Charges when there’s a Bundles or Legendaries sale (7,800 Zen with the 35% off discount), you’re really just paying ~$10 more for an account-wide unlock of what’s mostly the Inquiry…and that doesn’t even look at the Avenger/Arbiter carry-overs.

*gets handed a note off-screen…which you can’t see anyway*

What’s this? There’s another ship with multiple Z-Store versions available?

And it’s Klingon!?

…and they did what to its Consoles!?

Well, then, let’s hit the 2nd ship!

MAJOR LINE #2: Bortasqu’ (T5) and Martok/Kahless/Gorkon (T6) Bortagsqu’-type Flagships

This ship choice is another headline in its own way. It’s the final set of Flagships to get a Legendary version (Legendary Command Dreadnought Cruiser from the 10th Anniversary Bundle for the Odyssey line; Legendary Scimitar Intel Dreadnought Warbird from the Legendary Romulan Warbird Bundle).

Previous Claims to Fame: Essentially the Klingon equivalent to the Odyssey, its setup was more tactically focused than the Odyssey. This was before Cross-Faction Flying for both Tier 5 and Tier 6, so if you wanted something like the Odyssey for a KDF character, you needed a ship(s) in the Bortasqu’ line.

Current Claims to Fame: I’m unaware of a specific reason for the Legendary Bortasqu’ Command Cruiser. It seems a capable Command-spec Cruiser for a Torpedo build, especially after the advent of Maelstrom Quantum Torpedoes (ironically, from another Legendary Bundle: the Legendary First Strike Bundle, though Jonathan Herlache [Senior Systems Designer] has implied an intention to make more Maelstroms available in different ways). The Starship Trait “Thirst for Battle” may be fine for Cannon-based or mixed armament-style builds. Finally, it has an Enhanced Battle Cloak, the first such type I can remember going to a Battlecruiser (but I could be wrong there).

But the main reason for its current Claim to Fame isn’t somethin specific to the Bortaqu’ line but because of the Legendary coming out.

With the release of the Legendary Bortasqu’, the Systems team felt it was appropriate to remove the ship class restrictions on all 6 of its Consoles. This includes the Odyssey/Bortasqu’/Scimitar’s shared Tier 6 “Flagship Systems” console line! This set is the Flagship Tactical Computer, Dampening Wave Emitter, and Adaptive Emergency Systems consoles (and if you have the Timeline Stabilizer from the Krenim Science Vessel, the 4-piece enhancements are now available to any ship that runs all 4 of these Consoles).

To be clear, you do not need the Legendary Bortasqu’ to have these Consoles unbound of the Flagships. This does mean there’s a question of new value from this Legendary Bortasqu’ as it shares 3 Consoles with 2 other Legendaries (and/or up to three other Tier 6 Flagship sets) you may already have.

Costs for Everything Included among the Bortasqu’ line: Similar to the Legendary Avenger line, we’ll look at the value of the Bortasqu’ variants.

The Bortasqu’ family comprises 6 previous ships, all in the Z-Store and available in discounted Bundles.

(There’s no link to the Bundles. Bundles back then simply offered you a “Buy 2, Get 1 Free” or “Buy 4, Get 5 Free” style discount on buying Faction-specific Ship Bundles or full 9-ship Bundles [3 ships per faction for 3 factions].)

So the Bortasqu’ line is super easy on valuation since they have set Z-Store values!

  • Individual Ship Prices
  • Bundle Prices

For just the Bortasqu’ family, if you had none of its ships, you’d be out ~$80 in Zen (at the cheapest) to grab the previous versions. Consider that, at 35% off, this Bundle costs 7,800 Zen vs. the 7,150 Zen of just the Bortasqu’ lines of ships. You’re out the same amount of cash whether you go Legendary or Bortasqu’ specifically, you just keep less of your Zen on the Legendary Bundle in exchange for a 2nd ship (the Legendary Avenger).

Now granted, for 7,150 Zen, you’d be getting 6 ships (so 6 Admiralty cards: 3 at T5 and 3 at T6) rather than 7,800 Zen for just 2, but let’s be real again: The T5s would only be used for equipment and visuals, while you’ll likely just settle on one version of the Tier 6 Bortasqu’s and equip a number of that family’s Consoles onto it. So you ultimately end up with…6 Consoles, 6 ships’ skins, and 1 flyable version, the same as this single new Legendary ship (the biggest downside then is effectively losing 7 Admiralty ships: 9 total from the Bortasqu’/Avenger lines vs. 2 in the Legendary Bundle).

THE TOTAL OF THE SHIPS YOU’D NO LONGER NEED

So let’s take a look at the aggregate: what would happen if I put all the Bortasqu’ and Avenger variants’ prices into one place?

Now we’re looking at a huge savings! Buying this Bundle at even 12,000 Zen (not recommended, but you do you) gets you over 17,000 Zen worth of Consoles, ship visuals, and on 4 of these ships their Starship Traits (plus the add-ins/”fluff”, but that’ll come up shortly).

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

The picture is never as simple as it seems, eh? What else should you factor into your decision?

  1. Two New Ships

This all ignores that you’re getting 2 new ships, 2 new Starship Traits (account-wide unlocked once earned, so you can be once-and-done if you hate the ship(s)), and 2 new ship visuals (1 each). It’s effectively the trade-off of 1 new Console each for 3 or 6 previous Consoles each. So you could add 2,000-2,500 Zen per ship to the total value (a new Console has to be worth something, and I feel that’s the chunk of the value of a new ship), so perhaps add up to 4,000-5,000 Zen in additional value or to start your valuation if you’re a longer-term player.

2. The “Fluff”/Add-Ins

Legendary Bundles tend to have more items than just the ships. Here, we have:

  • One T6 Z-Store Ship Coupon Box (tradeable/sellable to other players as long as you don’t open the box).
  • Two ship slots.
  • Three Experimental Ship Upgrade Tokens (“T6-X Tokens”).
    • NOTE: This was likely put together before the announcement of T6-X2. Having 3 T6-X Tokens allows the Legendary Avenger, Legendary Bortasqu’, and whatever ship you get from the T6 Coupon (if you keep it and use it) to get to the first level, T6-X, or you could take 1 ships up to T6-X2.
  • Four R&D Promo Packs (which include the chance to drop Advanced Console materials).
  • Prior’s World Defense Satellite .
  • Targ of Grethor combat pet.
  • Kor Uniform (Klingon characters).
    • NOTE: This is the only place you can get the Kor Uniform if you didn’t claim it from the 11th Anniversary. The valuation below treats it as a standard Uniform.
  • Two Ultimate Tech Upgrades.
    • NOTE: One of these would have come from the Prior’s World Defense Satellite as they’re unlocking it in the “Space Items” tab of Mudd’s Market. The first purchase of a Mudd’s Market non-ship items tends to come with an Ultimate Tech Upgrade anyway, so it’s more 1 expected Ultimate Tech Upgrade and 1 extra.

Most of these have a Zen value, and we can derive the 1 or 2 that don’t, so let’s see what we can add to the value of this Bundle:

The extra things add in a total of 6,330 Zen at the lowest end of valuations (30% off Z-Store, T6 Coupons being sold for 4,500 per 3 Coupons [happened 3 times total, but it’s possible it happens again], and the Prior’s World Satellite going to 75% off in Mudd’s Market).

“But I already have some of these things!”, to which I’d say grab a calculator and start subtracting the things you already have or possibly that you didn’t even want (because for you, those effectively aren’t value-added if you never wanted and/or already had some things). I can’t accommodate every possible combination of what people do and don’t value. You’ve gotta do some of this work for your unique situation. 😉

THE OVERALL VALUE PICTURE

The “Never Had Anything” Value

So, now that all the categories are out of the way, let’s see what we have for the full valuation of this Bundle if you had none of the previous ships and either had none of the items above or you’d wanted some of the one-time claims to sell (like the Coupon Box or the R&D Promo Packs).

This is quite the Bundle based on the value of ships you’d no longer need and the extras! If you’re a relatively newer player and had absolutely nothing, you’d be spending 7,800 – 12,000 Zen to skip over 17,000 Zen of ships and get over 6,000 Zen’s worth of a mix of one-time use and account-wide unlock items.

“But I’m a longer-term player and have everything/most everything. What about me?” Okay…I’ll do this one combination. Aren’t I a nice guy? 🙂 (…some of you don’t need to answer that honestly. :p ). I’ll keep the Inquiry in, as that’s a per-character thing, so the only way you have the Inquiry “account-unlocked” before this is if you only have 1 character.

The “I Already Have Most of These Things” Value

For this scenario, then, I’m looking at the other extreme: the long-term player who’s likely done the Event that gave the Prior’s World Satellite for free account-wide use; the player who claimed the Kor Uniform at the 11th Anniversary; and who’s picked up the whole Bortasqu’ and Avenger/Arbiter Z-Store lines. I kept the Targ of Grethor in since it’s a separate Z-Store purchase (whether by the individual listing or from the 11th Anniversary Bundle), so unless a player has the Nanopulse War Targ from an older Event, they may or may not have the Targ of Grethor.

Assuming you’d wanted an Inquiry, and counting the other items you get (maybe except 364-500 Zen if you already have/didn’t want the Targ of Grethor), you’re looking at a minimum value of 10,705 Zen on a 12,000 Zen Bundle. This would be an overpay of 1,295 Zen. We might could bump that value another 2,000-2,500 depending on how you value a new Boartasqu’ (I’m considering part of the Inquiry’s value as the “new ship” value), so you could look at this as 12,705 – 13,205 Zen (~$120-$130) in value on 12,000 Zen ($110). For the longer-term player buying at full price, you still get a price break, but just barely.

However, I don’t normally advocate buying at full price. We see discounts frequently enough through each year that paying full price is, in my opinion, irrational at best (short of needing something ASAP). Then we’re looking at cases of buying the Bundle for 7,800 – 9,600 Zen ($80-$100), which would be a savings of 1,105 – 2,905 Zen ($20-$30).

VALUE CONCLUSION

Is this Legendary Bundle worth its 7,800 – 12,000 Zen price tag? Well…I think it depends.

The Legendary Arbiter is likely the draw of the Bundle. Just that 1 ship replacing the desire for an Inquiry, plus the resellable add-ons, plus the Prior’s World Defense Satellite, I feel add enough value to make this worth the purchase at 7,800 Zen and perhaps even at 8,400 Zen (the 30% off price). However, depending on how you feel about the Bortasqu’, that value could jump up a bit more and make this well worth the purchase price (or conversely, you may not see enough value to warrant buying this Bundle).

If you have few or none of the ship families represented here, just for the reason that buying all those other ships would still boil down to just putting a bunch of Consoles and 1 visual on 1 ship of the entire line (and perhaps grinding out the Starship Traits only on the other T6 versions), I’d say this Bundle even at 12,000 Zen replaces nearly 18,000 Zen worth of (mostly) outdated ships, and there’s still potentially over 6,000 Zen of extras you can use/sell depending on what you have or were wanting or could get value out of even if you weren’t specifically wanting them. The only downside is being down 7 Admiralty cards (9 for all previous ships vs. 2 for the Legendaries), but I feel the combat enhancements far outweigh the Admiralty convenience loss.

Let’s take it at its very simplistic: 2 ships + 1 Z-Store Coupon you can either keep to use in the Z-Store OR can trade for ~350-400 million EC (last I knew, though it’s been a while and could be a little lower). Taking this as 2 ships puts it at a per-ship price of 3,900 – 6,000 Zen ($40-$60); as a 3-ship Bundle, the per-ship price becomes 2,600 – 4,000 Zen ($30 – $40). If this is how you value a Bundle, maybe having a price range close to or under 3,000 Zen/$30 per ship helps you decide.

Regardless of how you’d cut it on value, I feel you’re looking at a best case of 7,800 Zen ($80) for the lowest Bundle price in Zen for a replacement & add-in value of a minimum 10,705 Zen, saving nearly 3,000 Zen compared to individual purchases.

“But I value the ships as just new ships with no new consoles.”

Okay, so I’d say value each ship at 2,000-2,500 Zen. That’s 4,000-5,000 Zen in value. Under this valuation, sure, you’d be overpaying by 2,800 – 3,800 Zen. I just think it’d be disingenuous to ignore the T6 Z-Store Coupon, the 3 T6-X tokens, and for your EC needs the 4 R&D Promo Boxes.

The Founders Call

That’s all for this Value Series post! My next update will be how things are going with my Free to Play account (you can view AllThingsTrek47’s 4th update here, congrats to him on his progress!), including what’s likely the most meaningful Z-Store purchase I’ll make until the 10th Anniversary Bundle.

If you like what you’re reading, consider giving to my Ko-Fi page. I’m using funds there to pay for Event Buyouts of Event Campaign Events for my main, 11-year-old account so I can focus more time on the Free to Play account. Even $5 gets me I think 2 days of progress, so consider helping me literally buy time for my experiment.

Until next time, enjoy Star Trek Online!

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