Good day, Joe and STOers! I hope you’ve all been well and enjoying some time off if it’s Spring Break or just enjoying life in general.
As we have a new Mudd Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t do some kind of Value Series post about it. And this one’s a doozy.
3 ships?
4 ships?
…
No. Try SEVEN (sometimes very similar but also feel very different) ships!
Yes, this Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle hands out ships like candy! … Well, very expensive candy, but you get the idea.
This show-off post will appear long because there will be two 3-ship sections (23rd Century Dreadnoughts and 26th Century Heavy Dreadnoughts) along with the Merian on its own, plus the “fluff” options in case you didn’t want one of the ship-based options.
As usual, I’ll try to include historical information like the original release method, how long it took to go account-wide, and for what the ship(s) are or were known.
I’ll share two videos where I can: a video of each ship in action for a brief period to show off the default gear and ship console, and if one exists, a video showing the DPS potential of the ship (even if it’s years old. Aside from a few Consoles and Traits, most builds should be able to perform at or near the level at which it was recorded, if not moreso now.)
With that, let’s get going into what you’re here to see: SHIPS!
THE SHIPS
Before I start, a couple of notes:
1: All ships are Tier 6. This likely doesn’t need to be said, but just in case.
2: The 23rd Century Dreadnoughts and 26th Century Heavy Dreadnoughts are 3-for-1 options. Picking the 23rd Century Dreadnoughts allows the use of all 3 of them across the entire account, while the 26th Century Dreadnoughts allows the use of all 3 of those across the entire account. If you have questions on how multi-ship choices work, check out this blog post I did shortly after release.
1) 23rd Century Dreadnoughts
SHIPS:
(Atlas) Prototype Dreadnought Cruiser
ORIGINAL RELEASE METHOD: Undiscovered Lock Box – Grand Prize
* Originally, the rewarded ship depended on which Faction the character who opened the box was. Because of this, Cryptic put out Cross-Faction Console, Trait, and/or Equipment packs for each Faction’s 2 unavailable ships as part of the Lock Box’s prize list (and sometimes available in the Lobi Store). When Cross-Faction Flying was introduced a bit over 3 years ago, players could choose which ship of the 3 ships they wanted, but that came at the expense of those Cross-Faction Console, Trait, and Equipment boxes no longer dropping for the other factions or being available in the Lobi Store.
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: January 26th, 2017
ACCOUNT-WIDE RELEASE DATE: March 28th, 2024
Time Before Account-Wide Availability: 7 Years, 2 Months, 2 Days
* These ships become the 2nd oldest Lock Box-available ships to be released to a Mudd “Bundle” (as of the time of their re-release). The oldest currently is the Herald Vonph Dreadnought Carrier at 7 Years, 11 Months, 29 Days (or, just a few days shy of 8 full years).
CLAIMS TO FAME:
- Atlas’ Dynamic Power Redistributor Module (“DPRM”) console is still a meta choice for most builds.
- The 2-piece set bonus for these 3 ships’ consoles and the NX Escort Refit’s Point Defense Bombardment Warhead made for a relatively affordable Phaser, Disruptor, and Plasma damage boost. This mainly was true when Romulans and Klingons could get the DPRM console as a Cross-Faction Console box and the NX’s console was available in the Lobi Store, so they’d get a meta console and a bit of a damage boost to most of the energy types they’d use on a fraction of what it took Federation players to do the same (as they’d have needed the actual Atlas and NX Escort Refit ships to do the same combo).
- The Thrai can use Romulan Drone hangar pets (that either come with or are purchasable by owning any of the Scimitar ship variants).
- As best as I know, all 3 ships are STO-original designs.
Yeaaahhh…this is pretty much, “Mudd’s DPRM Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle,” let’s be honest. ha ha! How can you turn down:
* +17.8% Directed Energy Weapon Damage (so it benefits any build type that uses weapons that aren’t Kinetic- and/or Torpedo/Mine-based).
* Clickable temporary 40% Cat2 damage boost,
* And a 2-piece set that can give your Phaser, Disruptor, or Plasma builds an automatic 33% jump in Cat1 damage?
(For the difference between Cat1 and Cat2 damage boosts [and why Cat2 is preferred], check out this video from MCStu.)
Will this Console/set change the game for you? No. But will it all add up to make you feel like you got a boost to your damage output? If you’re still in relatively low DPS numbers (sub-100k?), yes.
Aside from that, these ships don’t really get a lot of love. There were better options then and much better options now for platforms that can utilize at least 1 Hangar Bay. For ~$100+ on their own, you pretty much went for just the Atlas and just for the DPRM, but as a 3-ship option for ~$50 per option? Maybe we can see a resurgence in the use of the Atlas/D9/Thrai, even just as fun STO-original ships in Advanced-level content.
VIDEOS
First, I’ll show you the ships as they are, without modifications. Unknowingly, this included no skill points set up! So, except for Personal Space Traits, 1-2 Endeavor Perk Points, and maybe some Reputation traits, this is a set of runs on Tribble (though brief!) with practically no enhancements from other sources.
Some of you don’t want to see that, though! You want to see what these ships can do in a more traditional, performance-based setting!
Here’s Augmented Dictator Games (“Auggie”) with a 249k run using an Atlas in an Infected: The Conduit on Elite (“ISE”) just over 3 years ago. I’d bet this ship could do better than that nowadays.
Then, there’s 1800BrokenSoul with a D9 pulling 119k DPS in what may be an ISA but might could be an ISE. I’m thinking ISA because the DPS numbers feel low for an ISE run. This is also from a bit over 3 years ago.
And lastly, let’s hit the Wayback Machine to February of 2017, as the ship was relatively new, and see a 138k ISA run with Auggie. (Currently, pulling over 100k in the Advanced version of Infected: The Conduit means you could try the Elite version and at least mostly pull your weight. Plus, power creep in the past 7 years means these numbers should be relatively easy on better equipment.)
2) 26th Century Heavy Dreadnoughts
SHIPS:
(Universe-class) Temporal Heavy Dreadnought Cruiser
Durgath Temporal Heavy Dreadnought Battlecruiser
Valkis Temporal Heavy Dreadnought Warbird
ORIGINAL RELEASE METHOD: R&D/DOFF Promo Ship choice pack – Grand Prize
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: January 26th, 2017
ACCOUNT-WIDE RELEASE DATE: March 28th, 2024
Time Before Account-Wide Availability: 7 Years, 0 Months, 19 Days
* This makes these ships the oldest Promo-level ships to see a Mudd’s “Bundle” release. The previous record was the Elachi Sheshar Intel Dreadnought Cruiser, going account-wide after 7 Years, 0 Months, 11 Days.
CLAIMS TO FAME:
- Among the largest ships in the game. (If anyone would like to comment, what’s the largest Starship in-game currently [as of April, 2024]?)
- Players attempt TFOs whose maps have seemingly small access points in a 5-Universe-Class run to see if they can get through the map.
- The Valkis can use the Romulan Drone hangar pets.
These aren’t among the most highly competitive ships in the game (not by a longshot), but they tend to be a source of fun for players. Why?
They’re so…amazingly…huuuuge!
They had players doing stuff like this when they first released! (Video from ZEFilms, uploaded a hair over 7 years ago.)
In fact, when this Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle released, some players saw others forming a line of Enterprise-Js and Valkises (Valkii?). (What, no Durgath love here, folks?) (Also, links to original sources are given, just look back a line or two. 😉 ).
VIDEOS
Now, let’s see these ships in action! As with the Prototype Dreadnoughts, these are brief combat runs to show off ship capabilities and are not to be taken as build advice. Ships are run with default gear, 1-2 Endeavor Perk Points, and no skill points allocated (not intentionally, but we work with it!).
As for performance-based videos, I couldn’t find a parsed run for the Universe, but I did find videos with combat parses for the Durgath and Valkis.
First off, we have Brent Justice of Justice Gaming showing off the Universe-class, AKA the Enterprise-J, just 4 months ago.
CasualSAB (Spencer) did a stream at the end of 2022 looking at the Durgath. He parsed over 400k in an ISE run. The video below is time-linked to the ISE run, but you can look through his whole stream for the build and any discussion on the ship.
Lastly, here’s Auggie again, this time with a 7-year-old 577k run in ISE. As with other years-old videos, I’d say a build similar to this but updated to the current meta gear picks would do better.
3) Merian Command Science Dreadnought
ORIGINAL RELEASE METHOD: Infinity Lock Box – main prize choice pack
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: April 5th, 2022
Time Before Account-Wide Availability: 1 Year, 11 Months, 23 Days
* This marks the 7th ship to go to Mudd’s Market within a 2-year timeframe of being a Lock Box main prize. That accounts for ~10% of all Lock Box ships overall and ~19% of all Mudd-released Lock Box ships.
CLAIM TO FAME: No real fame before its re-release as best as I’m aware, but currently it’s a Sci-Torp build platform (Torpedo build with a more Science-heavy lean) that can use the Type 7 Shuttles from the Ahwahnee Command Carrier to help with debuffing enemy ships. (A note on that: get the Elite version from the Fleet Starbase. They have the highest rank of Attack Pattern: Beta to get the most debuff possible, and they have Beam: Fire at Will, so they’ll hit multiple ships.)
So the Merian…yeah, best as I’m aware, it’d been more a 32nd Century ship collection completion requirement than a meta ship that you had to have for max DPS.
But on the plus side, being account-wide unlocked means you get some nice-looking 32nd Century Federation Refit Phasers that might get you some cooldown reduction on your Bridge Officer abilities. Of course, only take these standard, non-upgradeable weapons into Normal content, and even then I’d keep it to Patrols or solo TFO runs. Normal TFOs in a random group might be fine, depending on your gear, but the lower your gear level, the more abilities, Consoles, BOFFs, DOFFs, and Endeavor Perk Points you’ll need to make up the gap between “unusable” and “contributing well to TFO completion.” And remember, a 2.5% proc rate means you may get that proc every so often but not enough to warrant using them just for that reason.
Plus, you get access to 32nd Century Shuttle hangar bay combat pets, so if you like the 32nd Century aesthetic and wanted hangar pets to go with them, here’s your shot.
VIDEOS
Below, I show off the visuals of most of what the ship can do with stock equipment on Tribble.
About a week ago, Spencer built a Merian live on stream as a Sci-Torp setup. Although not to his liking, one of his tests pulled ~960,000 to ~1 million DPS in an ISE. Like the Durgath video, I’ve time-linked where the ISE run starts (give or take a few seconds), but you can fast-forward or rewind the stream as needed for additional information.
THE OTHER ITEMS
WARNING: The contents below tend to be “Bound to Account” when you get them from Mudd Choice Packs/MEGA Bundles. Do not expect to sell any of these items; you’d only pick them to use them on your character/account.
Images and descriptions used here are likely copy-and-pastes from previous Visual Overview posts, with Ambassador Kael’s images of the other items used where available from blog posts of previous Choice Packs/MEGA Bundles.
1. Master Key (x50)
The primary way of obtaining Lobi is using Master Keys to open various Lock Boxes, minimum 4 per box with a community-calculated average of around 5-6 per box over a long run of openings. That could be anywhere from 200-300 Lobi if you’re needing a piece of Lobi gear.
And who knows? You may open an [Infinity Prize Pack – T6 Ship] and can pick most any ot
2. 100% Discount Coupon: Tier 6 Ship (x2)
These coupons are usable on practically any ship available in the C-Store under the “Ships” tab as long as they’re available for sale separate of a Bundle.
(Mudd’s Market ships aren’t found in the “Ships” tab of the C-Store, they’re found in the “Mudd’s Market” section [with a “Ships” sub-tab…yeah, I know, just go with it] and are not available for purchase with these Coupons.)
These coupons tend to be Bound to Account, which means they’re usually not good on any ship still in the “New Items” tab (Event Campaign prize coupons historically can’t, thus the possible restriction). Ships do rotate out of that section eventually, but it may be a while before you desired ship does.
3. Epic Prize Token – Phoenix Prize Pack (x2)
NEW-FOR-THIS-BUNDLE INFO: There are two of these Epic-level Prize Tokens in this Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle. Otherwise, the following is a copy-and-paste of previous 1-token entries (so if you see any subject-verb or pronoun-antecedent disagreements, that’s why).
Needing that D.O.M.I.N.O. console to boost your overall DPS? Need the healing power of a Protomatter Field Projector? This is probably a valid option to consider since getting those tokens feels like it’s the same odds as a getting a T6 Lock Box ship. Estimates put the “Expected Value” (how long it’d take before we could expect to see an Epic-level token) at ~$70 worth of Dilithium on average to buy the boxes you’d need to open to on average see 1 Epic Token. Remember, you may see 0, 1, or multiples. Sometimes, it’s better to take the guarantee here.
To help a little bit with your choices, here’s a video JeSter made nearly 2 years ago going over his top picks for use of an Epic Phoenix Prize Token.
Remember, the tokens are Bound to Account, but the ships you get are NOT an account-wide unlocks. Any ships you get from the Phoenix Prize Pack store are single-character purchases that don’t include reclaims. Choose and claim wisely and precisely.
4. Ultimate Tech Upgrade (x10)
If you’re lazy or extremely conscious of your Dilithium supply and not wanting to use other upgrade types, this may not be a bad option. The ability to go straight to Mk XV Epic with a single upgrade is quite tempting!
DREADNO(UGH)T YOUR CHOICES!
…okay, fine, I’ll admit, I just wanted a clever pun for the final part of this blog post. So sue me! (Actually…don’t.)
Maybe this post has sold you on this Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle. Perhaps it’s piqued your interest. Or perhaps you’re still skeptical but you got to see some fairly large ships blow up some relatively smaller ships. 🙂
I’m hoping to have the relatively boring financial section up in a couple days after this posts, so you’ll hopefully have at least a day with this information to help you paint a picture of if this Choice Pack (or even perhaps the MEGA Bundle) is worth it to you.
Until next time, continue enjoying Star Trek Online!
Joe and STO 