(Lead image from the blog post announcing the Bundle, linked below.)
Hello, all, and welcome back to Joe and STO! This past week, Cryptic launched the “Mudd’s Awesome Mix Tape” Choice Pack and MEGA Bundle. With it came the return of the 4-ship paradigm (Get it back to 3, please!), so you can’t just go, “*ship, ship, and ship* and I’m done.”
Isn’t it fortunate for you that I do some value takes to help you decide what’s worth taking?
…
Well, who needed your opinion, anyway? 😛
Nah, seriously, some Choice Packs have had value that’s super easy to find, and other Choice Packs have left us scratching our heads. Most, though, tend to follow a logic of, “If you wanted 2 ships, grab those 2 ships and then pick whatever else you want,” or, “Just go for the 3 ships/3 of the 4 ships.”
Will the Mix Tape Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle be worth the 14,750 Zen for 3 choices? Could it possibly be worth the 30,000 Zen for all 8 options? Let’s take a look.
CAVEATS/CONDITIONS/WARNINGS
Before I start, though, a few things I want to address:
- If you like certain ship(s) and want them as an account-wide unlock, to you the value will come from repetitive uses of the ship(s) you choose. For example, an old Lobi Store ship valued at 1,500 Zen for a single purchase but used on 10 characters would yield an effective value of 15,000 Zen, making up the 50% discount price of the Choice Pack.
- If you like a ship(s) here for any reason, that’s great! Do you think the Vonph Dreadnought Carrier has a great look to it (tall and imposing)? Go for it! You have the other 2 Tholian T6 ships and the Iktomi would fill out the set? Grab it! At this stage, valuation may not matter as much as accessibility across your account.
- If you don’t like a ship(s) for any reasons, that’s great!…wait, what? Yeah, everyone likes and dislikes their own things. I’ll spoil this a bit: if you’re more a “heavy DPS meta”-style player, there’s practically nothing here for you. You likely will skip over this Bundle entirely. That’s fine! Just don’t ruin anyone else’s fun. These ships are perfectly fine for Normal and Advanced, and with some work they can pull their weight in Elite content (though don’t expect any record-breaking runs from them). They may not be optimal, but just because they’re not meta doesn’t mean they’re trash.
- Values are given from low-end Exchange prices taken from October 20th, 2023 on the PC platform. Market values change all the time, and Console platforms (PlayStation and XBox) will have different market conditions and populations affecting prices for them. This is but a snapshot of how the market looked on PC the day the announcement blog went up.
- Zen-equivalent values are based on conversions from EC into a number of either Master Keys or certain “Promotion!” boxes to re-sell on the Exchange, then into an amount of Zen it would take to buy those Keys/boxes at certain Z-Store discount amounts. These don’t take into account Zen Charge Bonuses/Zen Discounts.
- I don’t have time to do a separate visuals-based post. I’ll still do some quick historical data, but that’s about it for extras. No visual-based video, and I’m stealing pics from STOWiki.net or the ArcGames site’s blogs to save some time (and reward boxes on Tribble).
And now, let’s look at the meat-and-potatoes of this blog: the values!
THE SHIPS
1. Freedom-class Exploration Frigate (T6)
Image from the original announcement blog.
Original Release Method: Special Requisition Choice Pack – Tier 6 Promotional Ship Choice Pack
Original Release Date: October 10, 2019
Gap from Release to Account-Wide Availability: 4 Years, 0 Months, 2 Weeks, 4 Days
Claim(s) to Fame: One of only 2 Frigates in its time, it was the first to have a 5/3 weapons setup and 5 Tactical Consoles (for Vulnerability Locators/Exploiters and Lorca’s Custom Fire Controls). This setup and perhaps its Console were preferable for PvP.
The Franklin still shows some worth on the Exchange. Considering Promo-level ships tend to go for 1.5 billion EC or more, to find any Franklins below that on the player Exchange should show how its popularity has declined.
As for the actual costs of this ship, we see a range of $70 – $130, depending on how you plan on affording it. $70 is about half the 14,750 cost, while the $130 valuation would almost make the value on this Choice Pack on its own.
Interestingly, this is the last of the Kelvin Timeline ships in the game to be made available as an account-wide unlock (not counting the Romulan “Tal’Shiar Adapted” ships; though they’re based on the Narada‘s design, they are not directly from the Kelvin Timeline movies). The other ships are available via the “Into Darkness and Beyond” Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle (and the 10th Anniversary Legendary Bundle if you count the Enterprise’s Refit skin from Star Trek: Beyond), though it’d take either 2 purchases of that Choice Pack or 1 MEGA Bundle to get everything account-wide unlocked (4 ship choices but only 3 Choice Pack selections at a time).
Here’s a video from JeSter reviewing the Franklin a bit over 2 years ago.
2. Herald Vonph Dreadnought Carrier (T6)
Image from STOWiki.net (linked above in the name of the ship), whose image comes from the original announcement blog post.
Original Release Method: Herald Lock Box
Original Release Date: October 27, 2015
Gap from Release to Account-Wide Availability: …8 years to the day…weird!
Claim(s) to Fame: Uh…intimidating large Iconian ships that had floaty bits before 32nd Century starships had floaty bits? Oh, and unique hangar pets.
I continue seeing this ship in-game, though I can’t think of why except for its appearance and hangar pets. We don’t have many Iconian ships, and the Quas and Baltim Raider don’t really have any “Oomph” to them to make them feel interesting. I’m assuming, then, is that it’s like the Enterprise-J in that regard: you see it, you know you’ve got a large-and-in-charge support ship in that fight.
This ship has had a tumultuous price life. When the Infinity Lock Box was first introduced, it and one other ship made up what I’ll call the, “GRAND Grand Prize.” Most Tier 6 ships were in the traditional Tier 6 ship choice pack, but 2 were “Ultra Rare T6” ships. This was one of them. That changed in early 2018 when they merged the “Ultra Rare” ships into the standard Tier 6 choice box.
There may be some price history in play (people remember the rarity of the ship and the price it could fetch, so the price won’t stray too far from that but won’t be as cheap as it ever was, either), or perhaps it is actually popular but only when there’s some downtime in analyzing changes in the meta. Either way, this ship commands a price equivalent of $80 – $140, again about half the cost or effectively all of it in just 1 ship.
This is the 2nd of 3 Iconian ships to become available as an account-wide unlock. The Quas became available from the “Mudd’s Carried Away” Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle“; the Baltim has yet to be available as an account-wide unlock in any way.
Let’s welcome back Augmented Dictator Games (AKA “Auggie”) by using one of his videos to show off the Vonph, shall we? This video was uploaded just a tad over 5 years ago, so keep in mind we’ve had considerable changes come along that should make this perform a tad better than he had it then.
3. Tzenkethi Shuk-Din Escort (T6)
Image from STOWiki.net (linked above), whose image comes from the ship’s stats blog.
Original Release Method: Tzenkethi Lock Box
Original Release Date: October 3, 2017
Gap from Release to Account-Wide Availability: 6 years, 0 Months, 3 Weeks, 4 Days
Claim(s) to Fame: The Protomatter-Laced Sheller Experimental Weapon was among the meta Experimental Weapon choices, either at the top or a close 2nd (behind the Risian corvette‘s Soliton Wave Impeller) for ships (mostly Escorts) that could take on an Experimental Weapon.
The Tzenkethi Shuk-Din is almost among the most affordable Lock Box ships, available from a code given on purchase of a Modiphius “Star Trek Adventures: Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook” PDF. I don’t have this listed as a “best-case” price because the promo could go away at any time (and quite frankly, I thought it had).
Because of that book, the Shuk-Din goes for what a T6 Lock Box ship used to go for “back in the day,” around 500 million EC. This is a ~$30-$50 value the way I have Key and Box Zen-equivalent pricings calculated.
Interestingly, this is the only ship without at least one counterpart in another Mudd’s Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle.
I’ll give Auggie another shout-out here for a Shuk-Din build. This was done about 3 years ago. It doesn’t seem to be a meta build, but it’s thematic and did over 200k DPS at the time. Perhaps some more recent advancements can help push that a bit higher?
Image taken from the ship’s stats blog post.
Original Release Method: Lobi Store for 900 Lobi
Original Release Date: April 11, 2019
Gap from Release to Account-Wide Availability: 4 Years, 6 Months, 2 Weeks, 3 Days
Claim(s) to Fame: The Iktomi’s “Improved Photonic Officer” trait was a meta Bridge Officer cooldown trait that gives a decent damage bonus to EPG-based powers. While the cooldown part has been outdated (mostly due to the Personal Space Trait “The Boimler Effect,” also from the Lobi store), it’s still usable for the EPG-based Bonus Damage buff. Also, you now get to trap enemies in a Tholian Web. MWA-HA-HA!! Payback!!!
Our Lobi Ship offering for this Choice Pack is one where your valuation may depend on how often you’ll use this ship across your account. Generally, Lobi ships go in the $15-$40 range (depending on demand, Lobi Store sales, etc.), so any Lobi ship that shows up in these Choice Packs/MEGA Bundles can’t be fully evaluated on a one-time-purchase basis. Like the Vengeance in the “Into Darkness and Beyond” Choice Pack, you may find you’d wanted multiples for your alternate characters. If so, consider multiplying the prices below by however many characters would use this ship for any reason.
Going for ~$20-$30, this isn’t an impressive price for a $140 Bundle. However, let’s say 5 characters would use the Iktomi (for any reason: the Trait, the Gear, a Tholian-themed character?). That $20 – $30 now becomes closer to $100 – $150 (not taking into account that the Zen-equivalent pricing may knock ~$10-$15 off that), which would come a lot closer to justifying this ship as a choice.
Of note, this is the final Tier 6 Tholian ship to become available as an account-wide unlock: the Jorogumo from “Mudd’s Carried Away” Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle, and the Tarantula from “Mudd’s Choice Pack of Dread!” (which didn’t offer a MEGA Bundle). If you like completing collections, the value on the Iktomi may not matter.
I don’t see DPS builds for the Iktomi, so I’ll provide some education that uses the Iktomi.
Here, TilorFire27 with the “STOBetter” team goes over an EPG build from early last year. STOBetter helps players put together better builds of all types through explanations of the gear, traits, and mechanics of the game.
Also, here’s 1800BrokenSoul talking about the Iktomi’s Starship Trait and its relevance from about 3 years ago (so keep in mind that some information may be outdated by now but likely because better options exist, not that anything directly got weaker in that span of time).
THE OTHER ITEMS
For this section, I’m lumping all the extra items together. Yes, this is a time thing, otherwise I’d have no problem breaking down everything individually.
Why did I go with the valuations I did?
- The worst-case Zen pricing assumes you need to buy the items immediately, unbound (where able), and can’t/won’t wait for a sale.
- The only exception to Point 1 would be the T6 ship coupons; on those, I’m instead assuming you know the ship(s) you want and would rather just buy them outright than wait for coupons to go back on sale.
- I have 0 value on the Ultimate Tech Upgrades for this section only because they’re more a convenience, a luxury, than they are a necessity.
- The low-end price on “T6-X” upgrade tokens was taken from the video posted below, where Spencer (AKA “CasualSAB“) has a link to a spreadsheet format you can use to calculate how much Zen you’d likely need to get a certain number of T6-X upgrade tokens.
However, because this involves gambling (the calculator only gives an expected amount of Phoenix Prize Packs. Nothing involving RNG is guaranteed), I’m opening a 3rd category of cost, the Realistic Scenario, which assumes that a player would be willing to wait for a sale and that, while it won’t be the absolute best pricing, it’s what’s normally expected to be available throughout parts of the year.
What Makes Up the Cost of This Bundle?
That’s a great question! Let’s look at all the items in one place, shall we?
If you’re going for a Choice Pack, we need to get 14,750 Zen of value out of any 3 choices. That means we need an average of ~4,917 Zen per item or higher to make this purchase worthwhile.
Right now, only two items can meet or beat that individually:
* Freedom-class Exploration Frigate,
* Herald Vonph Dreadnought Carrier.
Let’s start with the Vonph, since that’s the most expensive ship/item in the list.
That knocks over half the value out, meaning our final 2 selections need to average ~3,368 Zen each. That now opens up the 50x Master Keys.
Let’s say we did took the Master Keys as our 2nd option.
The final item would have to come to 2,516 Zen or more to make back the 14,750 Zen price tag. That includes the following:
* the Franklin,
* another 50x Master Keys, or
* 2x T6 Z-Store Ship Coupons.
That’s not a lot of choice, quite frankly. If you wanted 3 T6 ships, you could have gone to the C-Store and gotten 3 ships (and likely arguably better Hangar-based ships than the Vonph) for $90 on a bad day or $45 if you can buy T6 coupons this year (if they re-list that 3-pack Bundle).
But usually, you’re here for the Lock Box/Lobi/Promo account-unlocked ships. So let’s re-set and pick the Vonph and Freedom as our first 2 items.
This should be no surprise if you’re good at estimating and mental math. The Vonph and Freedom come in at 1over 15,000 Zen of value. This means with the Vonph and Freedom as 2 of your choices, any 3rd choice is fine for value.
Is This a MEGA Deal?
The next question will be, “Is this worth 29,500 Zen/$270?”
Wait no more!
If we go with the absolutely best-case pricings on everything, we see a cash price of $250 and a Zen price of 27,193 Zen. Based on those numbers, this MEGA Bundle is definitely not worth its asking price.
HOWEVER…remember I said the Phoenix Prize Pack path was pretty much RNG-based? You could get more than 9 T6-X upgrades on the expected 181 packs…or you could get far less, or you could end up at the average. If you’d rather not gamble, you’ll likely wait until those 3-packs are 1,500 Zen each. If we go with that valuation, then…
Now we’re looking at a 30,244 Zen valuation on a 29,500 Zen price tag, although that’s an equivalent amount of cash straight out. In this case, perhaps it’s worth going “MEGA”.
Personal Opinion: What does the average Joe and STO think?
This is definitely a “collectors-only” Bundle, with perhaps the only saving graces being the Franklin (if either its Console and/or Trait are worth using still) and the Iktomi (Improved Photonic Officer). Otherwise, I’ve described this to one player as, “The Meta of the Past Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle.” A number of items and the Franklin platform would have been fantastic to have back in their heyday.
But we’re far from the wreckage of those ships that once were utterly destroyed by the likes of the Vonph, Franklin, Iktomi, and Shuk-Din (or their gear/traits). Most of the platforms, gear, and traits have been power-crept by items released in the past 3 years (the Bozeman Intel Heavy Frigate, for example, is mostly a strictly-better ship platform than the Franklin; and the Gorn Hunter Pilot Raider‘s “Plasma Incendiary Bombard” Experimental Weapon now beats the Protomatter-Laced Sheller and Soliton Wave Impeller for the top spot among Experimental Weapons in space combat scenarios where enemies have huge health pools [though that may be on a mostly-Plasma build, but this Gorn ship has basically everything you’d need to start a higher-end Plasma build, anyway] ).
Would I buy this? Yes, but only because I’d wanted some of the ships prior to this but not for meta considerations.
For me, the choices would be:
* Franklin – wanted one since it was released, but wasn’t paying those prices for a single-character ship).
* Vonph – same
* Iktomi – The starship trait is a highly hyped trait, and I have the Tarantula, so if I want the Carried Away pack, I’ll be more likely to go with the Jorogumo.
However, I don’t think there’s an issue with choosing 6 T6 Z-Store Coupons (remember, they’re Bound to Account, so these would be for your own use). 14,750 for 6 Z-Store ships comes to ~2,458 Zen per ship. That doesn’t quite match a 20% ship sale (2,400 Zen each), but it’s close enough that, if you’re newer and are behind on account-unlocked Z-Store ships, you may want to consider buying the Choice Pack.
Also consider, as we head toward the United States’ Thanksgiving holiday, we’ll likely see a Black Friday Zen Charge Bonus (likely 20% extra Zen through Arc or a 20% discount on Zen outside of Arc). You can get 14,750 Zen for ~$112-$120, making 6 Z-Store ships through here be ~$18.67 – $20 each. Or, you could lower your cash-equivalent threshold: ~$112-$120 would mean you’d need ~$37.33-$40 worth of cash value per item, opening up the T6 Z-Store Coupons and Tzenkethi Shuk-Din Escort as possible choices among your 3-item Choice Pack selections. Look for that potential Zen Charge Bonus/Discount the week of November 20th, 2023. Even if this Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle doesn’t run on sale that week, I’d almost guarantee we’ll see it by the end of the year or in early January 2024.
The slightly-less Casual(SAB) Perspective
If you want a bit more info on the ships and another perspective about the value of the ships and items in this Bundle, check out Spencer’s rundown below. While I like my opinion because why wouldn’t I (…yeah, yeah, okay, that’s a bit narcissistic), I think multiple perspectives can be helpful in looking at more of the angles of a decision point.
THE VALUE…IS YOURS!
I’m sorry, I was a bit nostalgic for Captain Planet for a minute there.
That’s all I’ll cover for this week. Next week, I hope to have my Free-to-Play progress post up (or at least, mostly started), then I’ll focus on finishing the 13th Anniversary Bundle reviews…finally!
Until next time, take care, and continue enjoying Star Trek Online.
Joe and STO 