Friendly reminder that warbond CCUs are a thing

FZD

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@FZD Great topic. I need some guidance and help. I am very new and have an avenger titan. A little knowledge and feel that I should get a lifetime insurance ship as a basis and then build towards another long term. I am not sure what will be the final ship I shoot for. I like doing bounties and starting to do some mining/cargo. Hence I was thinking about getting to cutlass black as the next ship. Hence can you please advise how can I take advantage of this event and what would you recommend for the long term? I saw videos and recommendations for the future were 600i and/or Andromeda. I do not know of high end target ships.
Also how do I find which ship or vehicle has LTI that I can use as the bases. I can buy that and then start building my chain. Perhaps melt my titan and buy towards Cutlas black to start off.
Great question, let's see (last chance to grab a cup of coffee, this is a long one)... I'll break this down to categories, sub-$100, $100-$200, etc.

Firstly, let's talk of the sub-$100 offers. The issue is, these are kinda rare. There have been a few, for sure, but I wouldn't hold my breath. In the past 3-4 years I've been hunting for deals, I've seen Mustang Delta go from $60 to $65 (saving you $5), Nomad ($80) being offered $10 off, Spartan (now $80) was pretty good at $65, saving $15. And Hull A went from $60 to $90, saving you a whopping $30 in one go. You can look at https://starcitizen.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_ship_and_vehicle_prices to give you some idea of how many discounts there have been, if you compare the current standalone price and warbond / concept sale prices, though a lot of those have not come in CCU form.
There is some hope however. Even this event, we might (/will) be seeing a new small ground vehicle. This might come with a minor $5-$10 discount and based on what I know of it, it's more likely in the sub-$100 category. All in all, the sub-$100 is the most precious category, since even though the discounts tend to be just $5 or $10 tops, with some ultra rare situations like the Hull A going $30 up in price, these discounts are applicable to just about every single CCU chain you can think of. So whenever you can see one such discount, you basically want to secure it.
If you got store credits kicking about, you might also tie some of those to CCUs TO the yet to be released ground vehicles, X1 variants and Ranger variants, in hopes that some of those might go up $5 when they become flight ready, though their concept sales came with $5 discounts already so that might be wishful thinking, though Nox did go from $35 to $45 so it's not that unlikely. Something like Mustang alpha -> Ranger RC and Nox -> X1 Force could net you a $10 discount total if things go well. (There needs to be $5 difference in CCUs for you to be able to buy it, so if Ranger RC goes from $35 to $40, you can still buy the missing Ranger RC -> Nox CCU for $5 to complete that chain.) Oh, that might be bit pointless if you're starting from Titan though, but if you're developing a second ship, that's more useful for that.
Also, I'm not sure if I still got it since I'm a concierge, but Hull A is giving me the warbond CCU option. If you got that available, you definitely want to grab that, though it's just $10 discount now (not the full $30 you'd gotten if you bought it in concept).

Total price to clear the sub-$100 range, hmm, $60 would be already really lucky, maybe $80 would be more likely. There's really not that many nor that big discounts here.

In the $100-$200 there are far more discounts and far more often. The normal ones are around $10, but ultra rares can be up to $40 (For example, some time ago they announced that Taurus will go up in price. This allowed you to speculate quite easily, and even use store credits to get like $5 CCUs from Razor to Taurus. The Taurus then went up $40, and is $190 now.) Even though that sort of insane discounts do not happen that often, it's relatively easy to get $10-$20 off per CCU here. Even now, you might want to put some store credits to Legionnaire, it's bound to go up in price like $10 or so once it's flight ready.

With some patience, and some luck, it's entirely possible to clear the $100 to $200 range with just... I'd say $25 to $50, depending on your luck, patience and skill.

Over $200, well, you might be thinking "I'm not going to spend over $200!" To which I say "I sincerely hope you manage to avoid such fate, but the odds are not in your favor." In any case, the discounts here start to get a bit extreme. If you had the foresight to get a CCU to BMM and then just stuck with that since the beginning of time, you'd be looking at $300 discount from that alone. Even just last year, the Hull C went from $250 to $350, likewise the Hull D went from $350 to $450. And I'm still expecting all those 3 ships to get a bump when they're actually flight ready. Those kinda price increases don't happen for just any ships though, just for very old concept ships that haven't seen major bumps yet, it'd be worth getting a $10 CCU from Gemini to Endeavor / Crucible (or both). Those are the remaining ships that still might go up a whole lot. Also, if you can get a CCU to Corsair, that might see a bump in flight ready as well, though it'll likely be a more reasonable $10-$20.

Not going to estimate how much it takes to clear "over $200" range, as there's no clearing it. But I dare say, the BMM is currently $550, if you get a CCU to it now (to lock it at $550) and then get CCU to Endeavor / Crucible, you just might be going from $200 to BMM for like $100, depending on how the other CCUs between $200 and $340 pan out.

Notes about LTI: This usually means you got to buy a whole new ship at once. Once, they did sell a warbond CCU with an LTI, that's how I managed to upgrade my non-LTI game package to LTI, but I've not seen such offer since. You might want to ask around, someone might still have Warbond Nomad CCUs... I know @vahadar had quite an extensive shop, though seems the CCU shop is closed. Wouldn't hurt to ask him if he still has one or two of those kicking around though. ( Sorry @vahadar , I'm telling others to bug you 🍻 ) Now, you might get lucky and see an extremely cheap new ship come with LTI, and I mean extremely, like maybe even just $35. Who knows, maybe that new ground vehicle, Mule. That is, however, an extra $35 (or it could be an extra $50, or more, if that's the cheapest token you find) besides your game package, so if you were aiming for discounts, that sets you back a bit. While I got LTI on all my stuff, I'd still maintain that getting a 120-month insurance upgrade from a warbond CCU during ILW or IAE is more than enough. Sure, you'd probably be playing Star Citizen on and off for over 10 years, but in those 10 years you've probably accumulated enough in-game wealth that some minor insurance fee is entirely unnoticeable. And who knows, maybe 5-8 years in there's some new offer / method to upgrade to LTI.

Also, what @Patrick Spaceman and @DrunkSpacePeej said about getting a base ship (or what I call CCU FROM) as close to the value of the target ship (what I call CCU TO) isn't wrong, though I'd tweak that advice a bit. What you want to do, is get the cheapest possible warbond CCU, always. If there's a $5 option, you basically want the $5 option. Even if that ship isn't always available. The trick here is, you then also get a CCU TO that ship. So for example, let's say they put Glaive ($350) out with $20 warbond discount. Mole $315 is the closest permanently available ship, however, there is redeemer at $325 that has limited availability. What you want to do, is get a CCU from Redeemer To Glaive for $5, AND a CCU from MOLE to Redeemer for $10. There are two important reasons for this: Firstly, you have to spend new money on the warbond CCU to Glaive. If you got MOLE to Glaive, that'd be $15. Redeemer to Glaive, it's $5, so you can spend $10 store credit on the rest. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, there is a non-zero chance that redeemer will go on sale at some point, allowing you to combine more discounts in the chain.

Some rules of thumb:
New ships are offered at an initial concept sale discount. This might be around 5-10% of the ships price, so sub-$100 ships will get just $5-$10 concept discounts, or sometimes even none.
Ships moving from concept to flyable go up in price. This tends to be another 5-10%.
Sometimes, a ship expands in function during development, and gets a price bump. Sometimes this gets announced, sometimes not. These price bumps can be a lot larger than concept/flyable bumps, and can be quite extreme especially for really old ships.
Even flight ready ships may get a price bump when they get their gameplay implemented.
Sometimes ships just get a price bump, for no real reason. Caterpillar got one because " With the utility and especially cargo capacity of the Drake Caterpillar, its value has come to exceed its pledge price. "
Any ship can, at any time though usually at ILW or IAE, be offered with a warbond CCU. This tends to be 5%-20%.
Especially ships that have just had a price bump, can be offered with warbond CCU that negates that price bump as a sort of 'last chance.'

Some suggestions for a plan:
- Forget LTI, just get a warbond CCU with 120 months instead. This saves you the trouble of buying a second ship. Unless you're planning on spending more, then, sure. Go right ahead.
- Hull A warbond CCU, if you got that available.
- Legionnaire CCU with store credit (if you got any). If you melt your game package, remember you need to get a new one to play. What's the melt value of your game package?
- Since you got Avenger titan, and are thinking of maybe getting a Cutlass Black, this means you got at least $45 to play with. Try getting warbond CCUs to ships below the $200 range as well as grab a CCU to Corsair. If you do well, you might be looking at Drake Corsair for a bit over the price of Cutlass Black. If you run out of patience or something, you can just melt those CCUs and fall back on Cutlass black. That's an awesome ship as well, and I use one on daily basis myself.
- There is a pretty decent looking discount on C8X starter pack (that is, if you melt your current game package) (also a version with SQ42 if you want that). Already comes with 120-month insurance, so you don't need to worry about that, and the Pisces is valued at $45, so you're basically getting the Pisces + Game for the price of Pisces. The problem, however, is that if you're melting your current game package, that's then store credit. Can't use store credit to make use of warbond discounts, so if your original budget was 'around cutlass black,' you're very likely to go over that if you get any warbond discounts, which then makes you unlikely to get that great of discounts (other than the pisces, that's actually pretty good discount already.) Store credit isn't entirely useless though, even with warbond discounts you need to bridge the gaps in the CCU chain, and that can be done with store credit. And there's that Legionnaire I'd advice to get a CCU to, which, likewise, store credit.
Of course, if your current game package already was discounted, then it'd probably be pointless to melt it to get another discounted game package.
 
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vahadar

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Since you mentioned me @FZD , I have quite some nomad lti CCU left but unfortunately and since the CCU overhaul in February I am keeping them for me untill my fleet plan is done.

My CCU shop is indeed closed because I first want to secure my fleet wishes with what I have left. And secondly because I have not yet assessed all spare upgrades I can offer for trade again.

So I won't trade them for now sorry.
 
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FZD

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Ah well, was worth asking. :)

Update: Retaliator bomber today
 
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Starooqi

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@FZD Thanks for the info. I think I could only figure it out partially due to a lack of my knowledge. :)

In any case, I have a starter package that I got for a discount and then I upgraded to Titan. I also have the SC42 that I bought as part of the starter package. Therefore based on your comments I will wait for the mule to see what is the price and then decide the next steps. The Legionnaire has LTI. I can pick that up also to start the chain but I am not sure yet. I think I like to get better at flying the ships and in combat. I am a noob so a long way to go. I have not played with other players yet. All solo currently. Therefore what would you recommend as a long-term combat ship goal? Based on my research Andromeda and 600i both are good targets because they also function pretty well as solo ships in bounties. Any other recommendations. I also want to do some mining and cargo. I will be looking for a couple of ships for those over time. Thinking about Freelancer MAX and Prospector for those objectives. I do not know what the should be long term targets for those. I am thinking that I probably need to start 1-3 CCU chains that I can build over time.

I will try out different ships this week to see which I like.
 

Vavrik

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Just my take, since I most often to cargo or mining right now.
Sounds like you're thinking is straight.

I had a Freelancer Max and I loved it for income. I ultimately replaced it, but only because I got the Mercury Star Runner. Both have their ups and downs, and similar cargo capacity. I just have too many ships with about the same cargo capacity.

For mining, I would definitely go with the Prospector first, then see how things go from there. What you can do is There is plenty of time to make your decision whether to upgrade it or get a second mining ship later on. BTW if you mine, you will need a cargo capable ship to haul the refined product to the commodity trading center on a planet... Freelancer is perfect. If it happens, avoid the temptation to buy a C2 for the purpose of hauling refined goods to market. Something "bad" happening on your way to sell refined ore would ruin your month.
 

FZD

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@FZD Thanks for the info. I think I could only figure it out partially due to a lack of my knowledge. :)

In any case, I have a starter package that I got for a discount and then I upgraded to Titan. I also have the SC42 that I bought as part of the starter package.
Ah, I see. Yeah, then you should stick with that. No point in melting a discounted starter to get another discounted starter :)

Therefore based on your comments I will wait for the mule to see what is the price and then decide the next steps. The Legionnaire has LTI. I can pick that up also to start the chain but I am not sure yet.
Hmm, perhaps I could provide better advice if I knew what sort of long-term budget you're going for, approximately? Like, do you eventually plan to find yourself among Concierge, or does your wife get nagful after couple hundred? :)

I think I like to get better at flying the ships and in combat. I am a noob so a long way to go. I have not played with other players yet. All solo currently. Therefore what would you recommend as a long-term combat ship goal? Based on my research Andromeda and 600i both are good targets because they also function pretty well as solo ships in bounties. Any other recommendations.
Well, yes, constellation Andromeda and 600i are both good combat ships, that's for sure. Though the thing is, they're kinda large and and if you're fighting fighters, you'll have a frustrating time trying to hit them. That is to say, they're not very good in dogfights. There's not really an overall best combat ship if you ask me, it really depends on what you're fighting against.
But they're not solely fighters, they got value elsewhere as well.

Meanwhile, you might want to make use of ILW / (or later IAE) to check out Cutlass Black and Freelancer for more manageable solo fighter that expand nicely to multicrew. And try out Hawk / Super hornet as well for more of a fighter experience (and the cool thing about super hornet is, you can either fly it solo without losing any firepower, or fly with a friend who will take over your turret.) Retaliator and Vanguards are worth checking out as well. Though lots of these smaller ships are quite affordable in-game, not sure if you want to take that into consideration.

But anyhow, try those out, see what sort of play style you like or if any of those strikes your fancy. And keep in mind that the combat system has been entirely reshuffle like 3 times already. And there are more changes in coming. Currently smaller ships are in ascendancy, but could be that once ship armor is a thing, we'll see larger ships entirely scoff off smaller attackers. Or not. That's the thing, we don't know.

Oh, and Andromeda and 600i have value outside of just combat as well, so that's of course a bonus.

Ah, and a ship that's a lot like Andromeda / 600i is in the works. Check out Corsair, especially worth paying attention to since it's not gotten its flight-ready price bump yet. Might be worth even just having it as part of the chain for the discount.

I also want to do some mining and cargo. I will be looking for a couple of ships for those over time. Thinking about Freelancer MAX and Prospector for those objectives. I do not know what the should be long term targets for those. I am thinking that I probably need to start 1-3 CCU chains that I can build over time.

I will try out different ships this week to see which I like.
For mining, yes, prospector is good for solo. Probably even better than getting a MOLE, as that's a bit tricky solo. I've heard it done, but... eh. NPC crews might improve things a lot for solo players though. MOLE could be a good long-term goal though. Try it out at IAE, see how you like it.

Freelancer MAX, hmm. You might as well be hauling with Andromeda tbh. Freelancer max has 120 SCU, Andromeda 96. Yes, 120 is more than 96, but it's not that much more. Perhaps a Hull B would be a better choice for purely hauling. Or longer term, Hull C. (With several thousands of SCU, Hull C blows most of the competition right out of water, though it comes with the caveat that it can't land on planets. Hull B supposedly can.)

If you're setting yourself lofty goals though, I'd definitely recommend getting Gemini to Endeavor and Gemini to Crucible CCUs next IAE though. those two ships are not only very old, but they've not seen any major price bumps yet. Especially Endeavor is currently the cheapest (and most customizable) capital ship in the game. I fully expect it to go up in price quite a bit, though a lot of its value is also distributed to the modules sold separately, so might not be quite as insane increase as BMM. Those two CCUs tie down just 2x$10, but might end up saving you few hundred each.
 

Vavrik

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If you're setting yourself lofty goals though, I'd definitely recommend getting Gemini to Endeavor and Gemini to Crucible CCUs next IAE though. those two ships are not only very old, but they've not seen any major price bumps yet. Especially Endeavor is currently the cheapest (and most customizable) capital ship in the game. I fully expect it to go up in price quite a bit, though a lot of its value is also distributed to the modules sold separately, so might not be quite as insane increase as BMM. Those two CCUs tie down just 2x$10, but might end up saving you few hundred each.
I might actually buy a 2nd Endeavor this IAE, I mean if it's available. Reason: Gawd I have so many modules to change out all the time, or simplify my life with 2 ships to customize... works as long as I don't buy any more modules.
 

FZD

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Update: Today's CCUs are Taurus and Scorpius.

That's a pretty nifty $30 off from all chains targeting ships above $250. Rejoice!
 
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FZD

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Is everyone else waiting until the finale to pickup their CCU's, when they're all on sale again, or just me?
Personally, I'm always too paranoid to wait till finale. When it comes to CIG, I only trust that the things will be as they are right now until they cease to be the way they are right now, which could happen at any moment.

But if you want to wait till finale, you can check the first post in this thread, I've been documenting which CCUs were on sale, so you can ready your wallet.
 

Doc Flanigan

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Personally, I'm always too paranoid to wait till finale. When it comes to CIG, I only trust that the things will be as they are right now until they cease to be the way they are right now, which could happen at any moment.

But if you want to wait till finale, you can check the first post in this thread, I've been documenting which CCUs were on sale, so you can ready your wallet.
I understand what you mean. There was a spektrum post about all the Warbond CCU's going back up for sale on the finale day, and that's when I plan to put my CCU Chains together. I usually try to finish all my CCU Chains within one sale, which is why I wait until the last day to put them all together.
 

FZD

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Update: 325A today

I picked up a few warbonds I knew I'd need and a handful of others with spare store credit. If there's a surprise warbond or something at the end I can just melt some of the credit purchases then.
Keep in mind that the warbonds must be fresh money, so you can't melt something and purchase Warbond. You can, however, melt something and purchase a normal CCU you need to chain up with a warbond CCU.
 
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FZD

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After some careful calculations, my Ursa Rover is now a 325A.

I had a $5 discount on the Rower (concept sale or something). At $55 melt value, there weren't that many options between that and Arrow (next in chain is Arrow -> Hull B with a whopping $50 discount). $75-$55 is basically possible for at most 2 $5 discounted CCUs, even if I got $5 discount on an Arrow itself, working backwards I'd be at something that's $65 ($75-$5-$5). Then I'd need to have a discount on that specific thing and get down to Ursa. So, I'm happy with turning my Ursa into 325A already. Worst case, I'll lose out on an additional $5 discount (that I'd need to pay $5 fresh money for). Atm, that chain is looking a lot like $170 melt value Endeavor. Pretty happy with that tbh, looking at the chain, there's one bit where there's $15 slack so I might be able to cut it down to like $160, but even if I can't, $170 is pretty nifty. So the only question is, do I actually want an Endeavor... Well, we'll see when the ship comes out.
 
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FZD

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UPDATE: C2 Hercules
 

FZD

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Aww F*k me, how did I miss a Sentinel WB sale? I would've made good use of that; I ALWAYS like to keep one around for a DD but then also ALWAYS want to use it as a base for the pricier upgrades, so I go through a lot of those damn CCUs! :(
Well, unless my paranoia becomes reality, you'll have a second chance at the end of Invictus. So be extra sure not to miss that :)
 

Brictoria

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UPDATE: C2 Hercules
Is it wrong to say that I wish this was a $20 savings CCU rather than a $30 savings one?

With the $30 savings offer we have, the cheapest options are $20 from difficult to get\CCU to ships (Phoenix or Glaive), or "concept" ships whose price may increase before CCU is applied, decreasing value of CCU (Hull C, Endeavour, Crucible), which leaves you with paying $30 (making a 50% saving) through CCUing from Starfarer Gemini if you want relatively stable\fixed value from it.

If it was a $20 saving instead, you could buy a $5 CCU from the Valkyrie, giving an 80% discount, and being able to stack with the Valkyrie CCU from the event as well.

Of course, if the next offer is the Starfarer Gemini, I may have to revise this opinion...
 
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