Cartel Coins Purchases, What Should I Buy?

[Selah]

Hello MMO Champ SWtoR!

Hope your day is going well. I'm starting my journey through the game and realized, there's a lot of MXT in the game for things like bag slots, hiding helm slots, using weapon qualities, ect.

So, my question for you all that are vets is this. What are the must have purchases for all of the content in the game? I care about story plot, zones, inventory, skills slots, transmog unlocks, ect. and anything that's going to be an account wide unlock. I'm not concerned with boosts, unlockable races/hair, actual transmog sets, mounts, skins, ect.

I know there's a sub option that opens up a bunch of stuff but I hate being bound to subs.

Also, is there a way to permanently unlock credit transfers amongst your account without the sub? I have an old character from 2016 that has 357k credits that I would like to give to my new one.

[Biomega]

First of all, NEVER EVER EVER purchase convenience or legacy unlocks with CC. It's an easy trap to fall into, but most of them can either be unlocked very easily by playing or simply for credit - and it's practically always more efficient to convert CC into credits by selling something like crates to other people.

I'm not sure about how the credit limits work for non-sub players. I believe if you've ever had a sub at any point, even if it's no longer active, you're now a "preferred player" and have different perks. Might be something to look into; but in all honesty, if you're even remotely interested in playing this game for more than a casual try, just subscribe. It's so, so much better an experience it's not even funny.

As for the must-haves... I think inventory slots are fine but overrated; you probably don't need all of them. I never bought any extras beyond what I get as a sub player, and it wasn't ever a problem. Vendors to unload your trash items are on every corner, and it's a one-click affair. Later on you salvage a lot of the gear you find anyway, and that's a built-in interface, too. So there really isn't a lot of inventory space taken up by stuff.

The legacy unlocks are probably the most useful. Quick travel options/cooldown reductions, faster access to mounts, all that. But you can very easily unlock those with credits as you go. The personal rocket boost is also incredibly useful.

Again the caveat for non-sub, but as a sub at least credits are actually far easier to get than it seems. I would recommend new players just run gathering Crew Skills like Slicing/Scavenging/Bioanalysis or Archaeology/Scavenging/Bioanalysis and sell EVERYTHING you get. Check the GTN to see what's currently selling for high amounts - often it's mid-level stuff around rank 7 to 10 that brings in the highest profit, though there tends to be a steady demand for max-rank stuff, too. It varies a bit. Run your missions for the high sellers, and you'll be drowning in credits. When I was still playing before 7.0 I easily made 200-300mil credits a week from nothing but running gathering missions on alt characters and selling them on the GTN. That's more than enough to buy most things to get you started, and then you can start saving for the big-ticket items like coveted lightsaber skins or mounts; or spend your CC buying those (ideally while on sale).

[pahbi]

Anything that helps with travel would be at the top of my list, though, in my opinion, the travel speed boosts don't really seem worth it.

I'm a returning player, I didn't know this, but apparently some cartel items can be sold on the GTN for lots of credits, maybe buy some of those items and sell them on the GTN then use the credits to buy your upgrades?

[shadowmatrix]

As for transferring cash if I remember correctly you can buy the legacy stronghold storage and deposit credits into it to move them between characters.

[Selah]

First of all, NEVER EVER EVER purchase convenience or legacy unlocks with CC. It's an easy trap to fall into, but most of them can either be unlocked very easily by playing or simply for credit - and it's practically always more efficient to convert CC into credits by selling something like crates to other people.

I'm not sure about how the credit limits work for non-sub players. I believe if you've ever had a sub at any point, even if it's no longer active, you're now a "preferred player" and have different perks. Might be something to look into; but in all honesty, if you're even remotely interested in playing this game for more than a casual try, just subscribe. It's so, so much better an experience it's not even funny.

As for the must-haves... I think inventory slots are fine but overrated; you probably don't need all of them. I never bought any extras beyond what I get as a sub player, and it wasn't ever a problem. Vendors to unload your trash items are on every corner, and it's a one-click affair. Later on you salvage a lot of the gear you find anyway, and that's a built-in interface, too. So there really isn't a lot of inventory space taken up by stuff.

The legacy unlocks are probably the most useful. Quick travel options/cooldown reductions, faster access to mounts, all that. But you can very easily unlock those with credits as you go. The personal rocket boost is also incredibly useful.

Again the caveat for non-sub, but as a sub at least credits are actually far easier to get than it seems. I would recommend new players just run gathering Crew Skills like Slicing/Scavenging/Bioanalysis or Archaeology/Scavenging/Bioanalysis and sell EVERYTHING you get. Check the GTN to see what's currently selling for high amounts - often it's mid-level stuff around rank 7 to 10 that brings in the highest profit, though there tends to be a steady demand for max-rank stuff, too. It varies a bit. Run your missions for the high sellers, and you'll be drowning in credits. When I was still playing before 7.0 I easily made 200-300mil credits a week from nothing but running gathering missions on alt characters and selling them on the GTN. That's more than enough to buy most things to get you started, and then you can start saving for the big-ticket items like coveted lightsaber skins or mounts; or spend your CC buying those (ideally while on sale).

I appreciate the information, thank you. Question, what is a legacy unlock? Is that just the terminology for the account wide unlocks?

UPDATE

Disregard, I found the tree. Never mind lol.

[Super Kami Dende]

With SWTOR even with People who don't like Subs, I suggest buying just 1-2 months of Sub and consider it a buy2play investment on the account. As it will grant you a bunch of things basic F2P does not. Including expansions.

You will also be granted like 500-600 CC for each month, so with 2 months should give you 1200 to cover anything not unlocked by preferred status.

[Witchblade77]

to add to above replies

yes. buy at least one month of subscription, it is the only way to unlock the complete story among other things (if you look at it as one time expansion purchase, it may sit easier - expac unlock is permanent). preferred credit limit is 1 mill, but.... you can also stash your credits before you hit the limit in your legacy bank. I'm currently up to 296 mil and haven't hit the limit in legacy bank yet. aside from that, given your preferences - while you are playing with subscription, 1 - attach authenticator you your account. it remains on it even after your subscription expires, but that's 100 free CC each month. you also get a little bit of CC just from playing through stories and the like via achievements.


there are couple of story quest chains that do not unlock via subscription, I believe, but they are /shrug. IMO.

[xenogear3]

I assume that your old character and the new character are in the same account.
Long time ago, the free 7 days can unlock everything.
Now, the only way is to buy a sub.

Long time ago, a rich guy put tons of "unlock items" in GTN and sell them for very little credit.
I bought all of them, and they are "account wide".
Now, unless your GTN is cheap, I don't suggest to buy them.
They are very expensive, especially the "account wide" items.

Long time ago, EA promised that if you bought all these unlocks, you should be good forever.
It is not true any more, so I don't suggest to buy these unlocks.

[Witchblade77]

I assume that your old character and the new character are in the same account.
Long time ago, the free 7 days can unlock everything.
Now, the only way is to buy a sub.

Long time ago, a rich guy put tons of "unlock items" in GTN and sell them for very little credit.
I bought all of them, and they are "account wide".
Now, unless your GTN is cheap, I don't suggest to buy them.
They are very expensive, especially the "account wide" items.

Long time ago, EA promised that if you bought all these unlocks, you should be good forever.
It is not true any more, so I don't suggest to buy these unlocks.

7 day free trial never unlocked everything. I think there may have been a bug once where it did unlock preferred status for some people but you never could get all of the content through it. in fact - you used to have to buy expansions separately, they were not unlocked with subscription alone. I know cause I have rewards from those days - hutt holo trainer, Revan statue and holo vendor, things like that (I think you can now buy those from seasonal vendor, but IMO its just not worth it)

and yes I too bought all of the unlocks back in a day before inflation where you could still buy weekly ops passes for about 150k credits (which was about half the original preferred credit limit, before they upped it to 1 mil to keep up with inflation). and yes, some of those unlocks got rolled into current preferred account. that is NOT a bad thing, IMO. IMO those restrictions were far too punitive. they still are, just not as bad. the rest of those account unlocks? are still there and still valid. how do I know? cause I've been playing mostly as preferred.


speaking of buying things from vendor. we are having an anniversary year, so I would strongly suggest grabbing various rewards from said vendor, since they are basically free, but they also only normally show up once a year. this year is an exception.

[xenogear3]

The F2P trial doesn't unlock preferred status. You have to spend $5.
The trial doesn't unlock Knights of the Fallen Empire and Knight of the Eternal Throne.
A bug unlocks Onslaught.

A rich guy put tons of Account Wide Artifact Equipment Authorization for 350k credit in GTN.
This thing costs 2700 Cartel Coins. What a nice guy !
Good old times.

Here is the list of the unlocks,
http://www.swtor-spy.com/guides/swto...Wide%20Unlocks

[Witchblade77]

The F2P trial doesn't unlock preferred status. You have to spend $5.
The trial doesn't unlock Knights of the Fallen Empire and Knight of the Eternal Throne.
A bug unlocks Onslaught.

A rich guy put tons of Account Wide Artifact Equipment Authorization for 350k credit in GTN.
This thing costs 2700 Cartel Coins. What a nice guy !
Good old times.

Here is the list of the unlocks,
http://www.swtor-spy.com/guides/swto...Wide%20Unlocks

no it doesn't. maybe there is a language barrier, but in your first post you claimed that 7 days subscription trial unlocked everything? no. no it did not. it never had. it temporrarely allowed you to enjoy perks of subscription MINUS the content you didn't already have. and in any case - it no longer exists. (if you are talking about preferred bundle - you only got that IF you got your 7 day subscription from refer a friend after already having preferred status, but it still didn't unlock content)


also, back in the days where artifact equipment authorization went for that low, were the days where we didn't have insane hyperinflation yet, so 350k was 1. a lot harder to save up for 2. bought you a hell of a lot more and not just in terms of cartel unlocks. hell... I used to buy hypecrates for like 600k back in those days, because of how much harder it was to have 600k and housing still cost in millions.

that said. refer a friend with its 7 days of subscription is no longer available and hasn't been for a while now.

[pahbi]

As a returning player, the inflation is staggering, where are all these credits coming from?

[xenogear3]

no it doesn't. maybe there is a language barrier, but in your first post you claimed that 7 days subscription trial unlocked everything?

This is in the early days before any expansion.
EA tried to sell the "account wide unlocks" as an alternative way to sub.
EA changed its mind after the first expansion, Rise of the Hutt Cartel.

SWTOR should have something similar to WoW's time token.

[Edge-]

SWTOR should have something similar to WoW's time token.

With the current credit cap at 1M still, they'd likely have to remove it entirely for this. Otherwise it would just be subscribers selling subs to other subscribers. Though I don't know enough about the economy to know how it would be impacted by sanctioned RMT. It may work for WoW (and GW2 and a few others), but it doesn't necessarily work for every MMO.

[Witchblade77]

This is in the early days before any expansion.
EA tried to sell the "account wide unlocks" as an alternative way to sub.
EA changed its mind after the first expansion, Rise of the Hutt Cartel.

SWTOR should have something similar to WoW's time token.

they... never have though? they tried to sell it as alternative way to play. you know with weekly passes and all. but you didn't get the subscriber benefits the way subscriber would.

and I would absolutely love it if swtor had something like wow time token. but... I highly doubt it would happen. in part because it IS a f2p game and in part because they would need to figure out a way to separate it away from cartel coins. (why? have you SEEN how many cartel coins you can get just by completing seasonal track as a subscriber? a lot of people complete that truck on multiple servers too)

[xenogear3]

they... never have though? they tried to sell it as alternative way to play. you know with weekly passes and all. but you didn't get the subscriber benefits the way subscriber would.

EA changed its mind about the Weekly Ops Passes.
They are gone.
It is very strange what EA is thinking.

I guess too many F2P are using these passes.
EA hates F2P players.

[Witchblade77]

EA changed its mind about the Weekly Ops Passes.
They are gone.
It is very strange what EA is thinking.

I guess too many F2P are using these passes.
EA hates F2P players.

yes. yes they did. unfortunately. but they didn't change their minds on those until KOTFE expansion. where they also made all of endgame virtually inaccessible by non subscribers becasue galactic command system only leveled if you were subscribed. I went preferred during Revan expansion and I still did ops with my guild thanks to passes. Galactic command basically killed my guild almost overnight.

at least they relaxed a bit and removed some of the restrictions. like.. you can actualy gear up as preferred nowadays.

but those passes were never subscription equivalent. they allowed acess to certain content, but you still had other restrictions to deal with. still.. I wish they brought them back. I mean.. its not like those passes were just free, you had to pay cartel coins for them, same way someone has to buy those wow passes for RL cash before trading them on GTN for gold...

ah well.

[Dunachar]

The story content is unlocked simply by subscribing once. You get permanent access to all story content that is available or becomes available while your sub lasts -- except for operations (raids), which are only for subs.

I'd say the most useful unlocks are legacy wide inventory and cargo hold space unlocks (both for subs and f2p). These work even across servers.

If you intend to stay as f2p, your life will be made easier by:

- extra crafting skill unlocks
- artifact authorization (to be able to equip above blue quality gear)

As for cosmetic stuff: there's no simple answer for that. Whatever you happen to like.

[Biomega]

Inflation works both ways, too - it means you get more credits for the goods you sell. It's not super hard to amass a couple of billion even as a fairly casual player, and then wait for a good deal to come around on your cosmetics targets - like e.g. when they're on sale on the CM and the price on the GTN plummets.

I've managed to pick up quite a few goodies SIGNIFICANTLY under the usual market value that way. I've never bought CC and mostly spend them on things you can't get otherwise, like collection unlocks for my most-used cosmetics.

[Witchblade77]

Inflation works both ways, too - it means you get more credits for the goods you sell. It's not super hard to amass a couple of billion even as a fairly casual player, and then wait for a good deal to come around on your cosmetics targets - like e.g. when they're on sale on the CM and the price on the GTN plummets.

I've managed to pick up quite a few goodies SIGNIFICANTLY under the usual market value that way. I've never bought CC and mostly spend them on things you can't get otherwise, like collection unlocks for my most-used cosmetics.

pretty much.

as to source of inflation? the primary jumps were due to several exploits that took too long to patch and by that point credits were laundered so thoroughly, that taking them out of the economy would affect too many people that did NOT use the exploits. couple that with removal of several credit sinks as well as making heroic 2 missions in early/easier zones both relevant to high level players AND something that awards a very decent amount of credits on completion and you have the situation we have today.

but yeah, I'm currently sitting at 296 mil in my legacy vault (not sure how much my actual total is, though I tend not to keep more then 500k on any given alt because you are about to reach credit limit message is annoying, so maybe a few mill more across the alts?) while playing solo VERY casually

and when I say casually, I mean most days I just hop in, pick up daily login rewards, use a rep token - currently a seasonal one though I'm still not maxed out on solo space missions, so sometimes I might do that, gift some gifts to whatever companion I'm leveling which progresses both my daily seasonal points AND builds up to conquest rewards, while taking less then 5 minutes of my time - and log out. when I actualy play beyond that its either playing through story quests or running a few h2 here and there, maybe a solo dungeon if the mood strikes. how did I build up a third of a billion you ask. Mostly selling encryptions from conquest rewards with a side of occasional mat you get with tech fragments. because I'm too lazy to do much else