Alien week - Yes, there are warbond CCUs

[FZD]

Just a quick heads up, there's warbond CCUs:
Defender (melt $220) for $20 off. (So So Hurricane to Defender is $5, as an example.)
(Might be because I'm concierge but Scorpius $240 is still $20 off as well)
Prowler (melt $440) for $30 off
BMM (melt $600, up from $550 previously) for $50 off. So like, last chance for $550 basically.

That's it. Just a heads up for anyone interested in warbond CCUs.
(Don't think we'll have more warbond CCUs this week, think that's just it. Correct me if I'm wrong.)

 

[vahadar]

The warbond Defender is much welcomed here as I ran out of that CCU last year and needed a few more for my own fleet to pair with my remaining Defenders to MSR for 5$. So Hurricane to MSR for 10$.

Compared to the Terrapin warbond which sold recently during Invictus (Hurricane to Terrapin for 15$) this is a great CCU (Hurricane to Defender for 5$), as the 2 ships are valued equally at 220$.

The Prowler CCU is also really nice priced, especially if you can pair it with old C2 CCUs or BIS 2951 C2 warbond CCUs or IAE 2951 Reclaimer warbond CCUs.

 

[Patrick Spaceman]

Just a quick heads up, there's warbond CCUs:
Defender (melt $220) for $20 off. (So So Hurricane to Defender is $5, as an example.)
(Might be because I'm concierge but Scorpius $240 is still $20 off as well)
Prowler (melt $440) for $30 off
BMM (melt $600, up from $550 previously) for $50 off. So like, last chance for $550 basically.

That's it. Just a heads up for anyone interested in warbond CCUs.
(Don't think we'll have more warbond CCUs this week, think that's just it. Correct me if I'm wrong.)

Speaking of CCU's someone on spectrum (then personally confirmed)..CIG removed all CCU's for Avenger Titan, Stalker and the Gladius?

 

[vahadar]

Speaking of CCU's someone on spectrum (then personally confirmed)..CIG removed all CCU's for Avenger Titan, Stalker and the Gladius?

Very often they do mistakes like that. I cant remember any sale where there was not a problem with a ship "accidently" removed from the upgrade store, while it was available as standalone.

Dont worry, it will be back soon.

 

[Starooqi]

@FZD @vahadar (or anu other experts), I need some advice. I am building a CCU chain to Polaris. (I may switch to Odyssey or stop at Carrack/Merchantman but not decided yet.) This is my saved CCU chain:

I recreated a new one and it looks as follows:

What is you advise to fill out some missing spots with current Warbonds available? Should I pick up the defender -Scorpius CCU? I am not sure about Prowler and Merchantman CCUs. I am learning so looking for advice and suggestions from experts. (or start an intersting conversation. :) )

 

[Brictoria]

@FZD @vahadar (or anu other experts), I need some advice. I am building a CCU chain to Polaris. (I may switch to Odyssey or stop at Carrack/Merchantman but not decided yet.) This is my saved CCU chain:

View attachment 23097

I recreated a new one and it looks as follows:

View attachment 23098

What is you advise to fill out some missing spots with current Warbonds available? Should I pick up the defender -Scorpius CCU? I am not sure about Prowler and Merchantman CCUs. I am learning so looking for advice and suggestions from experts. (or start an intersting conversation. :) )

I'd suggest that you ignore the vulture -> defender CCU, and grab a Constellation Taurus -> Defender CCU instead, leaving a gap betwen the Vulture and the Freelancer MIS (Constellation Taurus CCU you have) to fill in later.
I'd also suggest an M2 -> Merchantman CCU, leaving a gap between the Valkyrie and the M2 to fill later (IAE, invictus, or other events\sales)
Finally, replace the Valkyrie -> Prowler CCU with a C2 or Reclaimer -> Prowler (If you picked up a C2 CCU during Invictus, it's better value\bigger savings than the Valkyrie one). I doubt you'll see a WB Valkyrie -> C2 CCU in the future, so further savings in this space may be unlikely.

Spending the smallest amount possible on a CCU and leaving larger gaps between WB CCU's is probably the best way to save the most on the final ship, as there is more space to fit additional links.

Having a starting point of a CCU being a concept ship (such as the vulture) is something to be careful with as well, as the ship will almost certainly increase in price towards\at release. If you don't intend to use the CCU's before then, hold off filling the gap until you know what the price will be (You could save $10-15 doing this if Vulture increases from $140 to $150/$155)... Having the end-point of a CCU is good, as it locks in future savings (As per Merchantman increase by $50 during this sale).

From what you have shown in the 2 pictures, I'd suggest something like:

From	To	Location	cost\gap	Saves	Notes
F7C-s Hornet Ghost	Vulture	Hangar		$10	Saving will increase as Vulture's price increases at release
Vulture	Freelancer MIS		$35		Gap will decrease as Vulture is released, may be possible to squeeze an extra CCU in as well in the future.
Freelancer MIS	Constellation Taurus	Hangar		$10
Constellation Taurus	Defender	Store (WB)	$10	$20	Saves as much as Corsair -> Scorpius, but leaves wider hole in next link for future savings
Defender	Railen	Store	$5		Lock in saving for future Railen price increase
Railen	Ares Ion		$25		Leave for future savings from Railen price change
Ares Ion	Vanguard sentinel	Hangar		$15	Optional: Could be replaced with future sales of items above and below this step
Vanguard sentinel	Mole		$40		Leave for future sales
Mole	Starfarer Gemini	Hangar		$20
Starfarer Gemini	Valkyrie	Hangar		$25	Best replaced with a Starfarer Gemini -> C2 if purchased at Invictus for additional $5 saving
Valkyrie	C2 Hercules		$25		As above
C2 Hercules	Prowler	Store (WB)	$10	$30
Prowler	M2 Hercules		$80		Leave for future sales
M2 Hercules	Merchantman	Store (WB)	$30	$50
Merchantman	Hammerhead		$100		Leave for future sales\Merchantman price rises.
Hammerhead	Polaris		$25		Try to grab to lock in cheapest possible final price

Hopefully this all makes sense and I didn't miss any steps...

 

[vahadar]

@Starooqi , @Brictoria gave you very good tips above (to spend the smallest amount on CCU and to leave gaps to fill later, with inserting M2).

If you are going for the very long run I would also bet also on unreleased ships like Vulcan, in addition to inserting more warbonds upgrades from sale in the largest gaps in your chain.

Vulcan will probably jump by 20-30$ (Defender jumped from 200 to 220, Ares jumped from 220 to 250 and Scorpius for 220 to 240).
Start by securing a Hurricane to Vulcan when its on sale (5$).
If Vulcan jumps by 20$ you can save now a Vulcan to Railen CCU (if you have spare credit ie), melt it, and buy it back for 5$ when Vulcan released (if you bet Vulcan will release before the Railen and to have the CCU ready for repurchase at any time).
Then there is another potential bet on the Railen price increase, if Railen only jumps by 20$, and ends at 245$, you can do a Railen to Ares Ion in the future, and then use your Ares to Sentinel warbond CCU.

Of course its all bets, they sometime pay, sometime its a fail :) That's why you need to secure also a safe route like you do, you will save a bit less in the end but at least you are sure you can do the chain. In general, if you have spare store credits, it will cost you nothing to buy and store upgrades in buyback for any potential bets.

In the end, when you can get the cheapest Merchantman (BMM), stop then and wait for BMM price increase, because it will rise in price again before release (I bet 650 this IAE 2022, 700 ILW 2023 and 750 at least IAE 2023 if released then, but more like 800-950 in the end probably). You can get the M2 to BMM warbond upgrade now.

Whatever sale there will be on the Perseus / Polaris / Hammerhead... it wont help as much since if you do it right, you wont have to spend more without sales.

Perseus to Polaris warbond was sold for 25$ before (50$ saving), so if BMM jumps to 650, you need to spend 50$ more $ to get a Polaris (BMM>Perseus 25, Perseus > Polaris 25).
If BMM jumps to 700, you also need to spend 50$ for a Polaris with normal Polaris CCU price (BMM > Polaris 50).

Here I am going for the Perseus route as I have a few Polaris warbond CCU, and will keep 2 for me with those (waiting for BMM at 650). But it would cost me the same without those warbond Polaris CCU, I would just need to wait for BMM to jump at 700$.

If BMM jumps directly at 750 from 600, well :) failed bet. Hopefully during sales, Polaris is usually sold before Alien ships, so if you fear a huge price jump you still have time to secure a CCU (or to buy back if you stored one).

But you have alternative routes then still to save your chain, like using old BMM to Carrack warbond CCU for 10$ (550 to 560), and wait for a Perseus sale and get a Carrack to Perseus then (Perseus probably at 625-635 on sale so 25-35$ cost), and then apply a Polaris warbond CCU on the Perseus (25$). Instead of spending just 50$ with a safe BMM path, at worse you would spend 70$.
If that is the case, I have BMM>Carrack warbond CCU to save your chain and minimize damage ;)

In short always have a plan B

 

[FZD]

In addition to what @vahadar and @Brictoria said, I'd point out that Crucible and Endeavor are still $350 despite being absolutely ancient concept ships. They're not available right now, unless you go to the gray market, but next IAE you should probably make securing a CCU to both something of a top priority. Something like Gemini->Crucible and Gemini->Endeavor. This is a real gamble. Could be Crucible already goes up come next IAE and is not available for $350 anymore. Or could be when they finally come out, it's just a lackluster bump. But there is some real potential there, for a $100-200 savings, just like the $350 Carrack is now $600, the $350 Hull D is $450 (and expected to go up more), the $350 Reclaimer is just $400 though it might get an additional bump when it gets its functionality in game, and the BMM that at one point was $350 is now $600. Particularly the $350 Endeavor, which is actually a capital ship, could conceivably go up by quite a bit, though some of the price increase with Endeavor might be divided to its components that are sold separately. (The second cheapest Capital ship is the Hull D at $450, fully expected to be bumped more. Then the next one is Orion at $575.)

Now, while those crucible/endeavor CCUs could be expected to clear the $340 to $450 price range, or perhaps even more, I'd still get a C2 to Prowler as a backup. Why not reclaimer? Well, salvaging is coming out soon, reclaimer is a salvage ship, it's possible that it'll get a price bump.
As for BMM, that M2 to BMM is probably as good as it gets, and you really need to lock down the price for the BMM as it's likely to go up yet again.
I would, however, also consider taking a Liberator/Orion to BMM as a backup, incase Endeavor or Crucible happen to go up by $200. Pretty much a hail Mary at this point though, you'd most likely end up melting those CCUs. Particularly since it's entirely possible that Liberator / Orion gets released or worked on before Endeavor/Crucible, in which case their prices might actually go up first. Or Endeavor/Crucible could go up by just $100 or $150, which would enable you to use the M2 to BMM anyhow. Hmm...
What you could do, is get $25 Orion to BMM CCU today, melt it tomorrow and spend that store credit to get Liberator to BMM. That way, you only spent 25 but you got that other CCU in buybacks in case we start hearing rumors about them working on the other one. If the price changes while it's in buybacks, that change is reflected in the buyback price, but at least you'd have an access to buy the CCU without waiting for an event like IAE/Alien Week. The price bumps mainly happen during events anyhow, so you'd have time until a bit before next IAE to keep considering whether or not that CCU might be useful or not, then buy it back before BMM goes up in price again. Probably not the most useful trick, but you'd at least learn how storing stuff in buybacks works.

I mean, I wholeheartedly agree with what Vahadar said about having a plan B.

 

[Brictoria]

@Starooqi , @Brictoria gave you very good tips above (to spend the smallest amount on CCU and to leave gaps to fill later, with inserting M2).

If you are going for the very long run I would also bet also on unreleased ships like Vulcan, in addition to inserting more warbonds upgrades from sale in the largest gaps in your chain.

Vulcan will probably jump by 20-30$ (Defender jumped from 200 to 220, Ares jumped from 220 to 250 and Scorpius for 220 to 240).
Start by securing a Hurricane to Vulcan when its on sale (5$).
If Vulcan jumps by 20$ you can save now a Vulcan to Railen CCU (if you have spare credit ie), melt it, and buy it back for 5$ when Vulcan released (if you bet Vulcan will release before the Railen and to have the CCU ready for repurchase at any time).
Then there is another potential bet on the Railen price increase, if Railen only jumps by 20$, and ends at 245$, you can do a Railen to Ares Ion in the future, and then use your Ares to Sentinel warbond CCU.

Of course its all bets, they sometime pay, sometime its a fail :) That's why you need to secure also a safe route like you do, you will save a bit less in the end but at least you are sure you can do the chain. In general, if you have spare store credits, it will cost you nothing to buy and store upgrades in buyback for any potential bets.

In the end, when you can get the cheapest Merchantman (BMM), stop then and wait for BMM price increase, because it will rise in price again before release (I bet 650 this IAE 2022, 700 ILW 2023 and 750 at least IAE 2023 if released then, but more like 800-950 in the end probably). You can get the M2 to BMM warbond upgrade now.

Whatever sale there will be on the Perseus / Polaris / Hammerhead... it wont help as much since if you do it right, you wont have to spend more without sales.

Perseus to Polaris warbond was sold for 25$ before (50$ saving), so if BMM jumps to 650, you need to spend 50$ more $ to get a Polaris (BMM>Perseus 25, Perseus > Polaris 25).
If BMM jumps to 700, you also need to spend 50$ for a Polaris with normal Polaris CCU price (BMM > Polaris 50).

Here I am going for the Perseus route as I have a few Polaris warbond CCU, and will keep 2 for me with those (waiting for BMM at 650). But it would cost me the same without those warbond Polaris CCU, I would just need to wait for BMM to jump at 700$.

If BMM jumps directly at 750 from 600, well :) failed bet. Hopefully during sales, Polaris is usually sold before Alien ships, so if you fear a huge price jump you still have time to secure a CCU (or to buy back if you stored one).

But you have alternative routes then still to save your chain, like using old BMM to Carrack warbond CCU for 10$ (550 to 560), and wait for a Perseus sale and get a Carrack to Perseus then (Perseus probably at 625-635 on sale so 25-35$ cost), and then apply a Polaris warbond CCU on the Perseus (25$). Instead of spending just 50$ with a safe BMM path, at worse you would spend 70$.
If that is the case, I have BMM>Carrack warbond CCU to save your chain and minimize damage ;)

In short always have a plan B

I left currently unavailable items off the suggestions, and stuck with what is available now, to avoid complicating things :)

For example, if you bring the Vulcan in, it confuses things more than they already are:
In the $195-$250 range you have (among many possible combinations):
Hurricane->Defender->Railen ($195-$225+ for $10)
or
Hurricane->Vulcan ($195-$200+ for $5, with optional Vulcan->Corsair->Railen CCU's for another $25 for the inevitable increase in price of all 3)
or (not recommended)
Hurricane->Scorpius ($195-$240 for $25)

I only started to understand CCU's in the lead up to Invictus this year - I bought several at IAE last year (around when I started playing) to the RAFT and Spartan, but it didn't register with me that there were WB CCU's on other ships besides the new releases that could be bought (and being newish to the game, I hadn't worked out what I wanted to eventually have).

My thinking\planning around them so far (for what it is worth):

• Buy cheap "LTI tokens" where available (At present I believe you can melt these and rebuy at "cost", but I haven't risked this yet).
• Buy CCU's for the smallest price possible (If you want a CCU "link" to end at a certain ship, don't buy one from a ship that is $10 cheaper when a $5 option is available) - For example, if buying a CCU to the $125 F7C-s Hornet Ghost, the $120 Nova is a better choice than the $115 Talon.
• Buy WB CCU's when on offer as they have the best "guaranteed" savings
• If the final ship in the chain is a "concept", buy the "final link" to the closest option (or buy multiple CCU's to different "closest" options) to lock in the cheapest final price (also worth considering if you expect a price rise on the desired ship even though it is in game) [1].
• Create links ending at a concept ship (Defender->Railen) as the value of the link will increase as the price of the "top end" of the link will increase.
• Try to avoid creating links from a concept ship (Vulcan->Defender for example) as the price of the "start" ship will likely increase, lowering the "value" of the link.
• A permanently available ship is less likely to increase in price than a "seasonal"\limited availability ship
• Don't buy links from "hull limited" ships which cannot be CCU'd to (Constellation Phoenix, for example)
• If you have the funds, planning multiple routes\buying multiple links which cover the same\similar price range allows more future options (at the cost of greater outlay of funds).
• If you think the end of a link will soon increase in price, make sure it is not in buy-back.
• If a link "decreases" in value (start ship increase in price so difference in price between ends of link is less than melt value of it), melt it and then buy-back - You get 1 "credit buy-back" voucher (2 for Concierge) each quarter that can be used here.

for reference in the above: a link is a step between 2 ships. A chain is a combination of links leading from a starting ship (LTI token, generally) to the desired final ship to be added to a hangar.

[1] I was "stung" by the Merchantman price increase, having a "last link" from it to a Liberator, but I also had a reserve M2->Liberator in buy-back, so didn't lose anything from the final cost providing I reclaim it before a price rise on the Liberator... If another ship is introduced between the M2 and Liberator, I'll be looking at a CCU from it as well, as "insurance" - I may even grab a spare M2->Merchantman in case the liberator bounces above the Merchantman on release.

Slightly off-topic: I (foolishly) looked at my account in the "CCU Game" app and I seem to have almost as much tied up in CCU's as I do in actual ships (CCU's are about 40% of my account "value", rising to around 48% if I buy back all the CCU's I have in Buyback). On the plus side, despite never applying a CCU, my fleet cost around 26% below "RRP", with every ship coming in below it's individual RRP (Excluding one which has the Squadron 42 pack pushing the cost of the pack above the ship's RRP) with all except 2 having LTI as well (one is 120 months, the other is a 6 month one that needs upgrading somehow), so it's certainly possible to "save" on ships without CCU's...

 

[vahadar]

Slightly off-topic: I (foolishly) looked at my account in the "CCU Game" app and I seem to have almost as much tied up in CCU's as I do in actual ships (CCU's are about 40% of my account "value", rising to around 48% if I buy back all the CCU's I have in Buyback). On the plus side, despite never applying a CCU, my fleet cost around 26% below "RRP", with every ship coming in below it's individual RRP (Excluding one which has the Squadron 42 pack pushing the cost of the pack above the ship's RRP) with all except 2 having LTI as well (one is 120 months, the other is a 6 month one that needs upgrading somehow), so it's certainly possible to "save" on ships without CCU's...

I have slighlty under a third of my total hangar pledge in the form of upgrades in hangar. But those upgrades do account for more than 2 times their value in savings if looking at MSRP (saving 68%).

In comparison, the total amount of saving vs pledge for ships I have in hangar is 1-4 (I am saving just 23% on the MSRP total value). Almost all of those ships are original standalones.

Needles to say that most of those OC standalone ships will go for sale once I will be able to finally build all my planned CCU chains.

How do you see the % in CCU game of what you have in buyback? (When you say 48%, or is it an estimation you do base on your own data sheets?).

 

[Brictoria]

I have slighlty under a third of my total hangar pledge in the form of upgrades in hangar. But those upgrades do account for more than 2 times their value in savings if looking at MSRP.

In comparison, the total amount of saving vs pledge for ships I have in hangar is 1-4 (I am saving just 20% on the MSRP total value). Almost all of those ships are original standalones.

Needles to say that most of those OC standalone ships will go for sale once I will be able to finally build all my planned CCU chains.

How do you see the % in CCU game of what you have in buyback? (When you say 48%, or is it an estimation you do base on your own data sheets?).

I had to use a calculator to find the %:

CCU pledge total / (CCU pledge total + fleet pledge total)

With "CCU pledge total" being either hangar alone, or hangar + Buy-Back.

I'm planning to slowly convert as many CCU's into "cash" rather than credit based as I can, so if I don't need them in future and they increase in value (vulture ones in 3.18, for instance) I can make them available to others - most of the ships I'm building chains for are yet to be released, so holding them that way is not taking funds away from ships I want, it's ensuring I have the funds present when I do decide to "buy" the ship.

 

[vahadar]

I had to use a calculator to find the %:

Oh I meant, how did you estimate the cost of all CCU in buyback (the 8% more). You just made the total sum yourself? That works if you have small buybacks, but I was wondering if there was a feature on CCU game for that because I have no idea what I have in buyback (for the value).

 

[Brictoria]

Oh I meant, how did you estimate the cost of all CCU in buyback (the 8% more). You just made the total sum yourself? That works if you have small buybacks, but I was wondering if there was a feature on CCU game for that because I have no idea what I have in buyback (for the value).

If you go to the CCUs section of "Your Items", there's an option\filter for "hangar" and "buyback" (headed "Place")... Select whichever you want, then scroll to the bottom of the table. I then used the numbers in the calculation:
Hangar -> Hangar CCU pledge total \ (ships pledge total + Hangar CCU pledge total)
Hangar and Buyback -> (buyback CCU pledge total + hangar CCU pledge total) \ (ships pledge total + buyback CCU pledge total + Hangar CCU pledge total)

 

[vahadar]

If you go to the CCUs section of "Your Items", there's an option\filter for "hangar" and "buyback" (headed "Place")... Select whichever you want, then scroll to the bottom of the table. I then used the numbers in the calculation:
Hangar -> Hangar CCU pledge total \ (ships pledge total + Hangar CCU pledge total)
Hangar and Buyback -> (buyback CCU pledge total + hangar CCU pledge total) \ (ships pledge total + buyback CCU pledge total + Hangar CCU pledge total)

Ah ok, I was using the browser extension. But I see that it is visible only on the ccugame.app. Thank you for the information, very helpfull !

 

[Starooqi]

@Brictoria, @FZD, @vahadar, I picked up Taurus to Defender and M2 to MM CCU for now. Thanks a bunch for this round. I will look you up for the next sales event. :) Journey continues.