Red's CCU Game Guide - SAVE MONEY on Star Citizen Ship Upgrades

Burnt Brains, must watch again!

Bidet Critter o7

Initial reaction starting on the video, DAGGER DAGGER DAGGER! Fellow critter, how do you do!

I bought the Cyclone MT with LTI, I have upgraded it to the Prospector but eventually would like to get the Liberator.

Im struggling to understand this. I have an avenger titan and id like the zeus. I do not believe i can upgrade to it as i cant find it but the c1 spirit has a warbond sale right now. Will i be able to get to that towards the zeus and is that the saving money that we are talking about? Or should i make the upgrade then melt it for credit to buy the zeus? Is insurance meaning that after that period of time i wont be able to claim my ship? Ive had my avenger since 2020 and it has 6 month insurance. So clearly thats over yet ive not noticed and differences and i can still claim it.

ok, you are the first one who explains that stuff so I can understand it.

i bought a prowler to BMM ccu for 10$ a few years ago, and saved 200$ so far

And then when youve done the mile long chain and the ship changes literally everything over the course of 6 years and you dont want it anymore youre stuck.

I personally dont believe in doing CCU chains. Big brain move --> just get yourself whatever ships you want at standalone, and melt them when they get nerfed/change, keep it in your buy back and try something else. Eventually youll have your own full personal shop in buybacks.

So wait you are saying its possible to buy back ships you CCU'ed. What I've heard is that if you try to buy back a ship that has been ccu'ed you get the base ship back with the additional credit that you spent is that not correct?

Would like to hear your opinion about building your ccu chain backwards. Like if you want a polaris you start building the chain from the polaris and getting backwards to a A2 for example. so you secure the atm price for your goal. so you secure the top of money you have to spend. so the price for the target ship cant increase anymore. What you think about this way? thx for the good content keep going.

My god, 3D printed Rosinate, Lego Star Wars, and hot ones bag in the background. You sir have earned a like and sub. Well done for having impeccable taste. o7

I hope someone who reads this can clarify: it was mentioned to me that IAE warbonds will NOT be available as ccu's, only as standalone ship purchases.

Is this true?

Fantastic info. Thanks for creating this content and sharing.

Just for the short your wearing in this video imma sub lol

I noticed that the f-8 is missing from the upgrade ships menu, even as a source ship... Isn't that a bit odd?

Bro! the Critical Role shirt is Awesome!

You Can't Ride Two Horses with One Ass

I have a aquila to polaris and a aqulia to crucible. Ive been trying to upgrade my way to the ccu but its been difficult because i dont understand this stuff.

Can you buy a ship in game the ccs with real my money

my brain always melts when i try to follow this stuff...im not a smart man...

So the $45 lti ships look to be the best values? The newly released cutters and fury's at this time?

Great video!! Been waiting for something like this.

What about Buy Back pledges? Is the og price retained, even if its changed since you melted?

And thats why i bought 20 P 72 with LTI back in the day when it came out as concept

Worth noting that not all ships will be available during the finale, specifically limited sales ships such as 890, Idris, etc. They also cannot be upgraded to.

Videos like this are what will cause this trick to disappear. CIG is fine if a small subset of the population is gaming the system, but making public exposure of it like this will ensure they clamp down on it….

I see the Critical Role shirt, I like and subscribe.

Fantastic video, I think you kinda mentioned it but you didn't clarify defensive CCUs as much as you could have.

The Connie Taurus $190 is going up $10, and a lot of people are upset because they have a Vulcan $200 are losing that CCU value because is going to -$10. However the Taurus is alway available so you can buy a $5 CCU for a Sabre Comet to the Taurus is preserve the $10 savings.

I spent hours and I mean Hours trying to figure this out, finally found this video, strait forward every other video skipped steps, good job Red u got a follow!

Pro tip for saving money on Star Citizen:
Don't pledge

Your video is muted for me

dont matter with the price changes that they put in stop ccu

I bought the Orion when it was first available....can't believe how much it's going to cost now, like 650+ or something.

I am confused. First you said that we need to secure the warbond deals as soon as they are available because they may change from day to day and NOT come back at the finale. Then you said we should always wait and only commit at the finale because all deals will always be available there and we might get better options at the end. So what is true?

Great video I used the tools to literally CCU to a exploration package where all my ships are 200 and above. Saved a tonne over the years, so I am starting over with a new package.

i must be an idiot coz none of this makes sense to me hahaha watched many videos and still don't get it

Not sure why you wouldn't mention anything about refunds, refund periods and the rules for refunds in general. Seems like a pretty big part of this.

All excellent advice and the new backers will need it as there are quite a few caveats and ambiguous twists in understanding just how CCU's work, and don't. I initially brought CCU's, had pages of them, all in anticipation for those ships i had planned on eventually adding to my one ship fleet. The 1st mistake i made was melting them all, i thought once ide brought them, i could melt and buyback at the same price, but that simple truth, or so i thought was subject to many factors. Secondly, i was setting myself up to potentially keep spending real money to reach my dream ship, and the list was growing with every event and concept sale. Thirdly, these ships, upgraded with care and planning, i couldn't melt, because if i did, i would be left with an just LTI token, and no buy back, and any savings lost. Forth, and important to note, every ship built on a CCU locks away useful Instore Credit, putting you on a path to keep spending more and more real money, because those ships built on CCU's have all that potential Instore Credit locked away and unusable. Sixth, melted ships from CCU's, unlike those brought as ''Warbond/Instore Credit'' don't go into your Buy Back...they are gone for good, along with the CCU's, CCU's are a 'use once option.
In the end i did melt the whole lot of CCU's, decided on being around for the long haul, and invested....if you can call it that, up to Concierge (High Admiral $1,000) + $300+ , and that was 3 yrs ago, and i never have to spend another $, i own all my ships, no CCU's. Get 2 BB tokens a year, and can buy back any ship for the cost i originally paid, with instore credit 4 times a year ( 2 tokens every 3 months).
Your probably going to do one of 5 things, 1. Try the FREE Fly and walk away?, 2. buy a just game the basic package, and be a casual player? 3. build on CCU's until you realize your a ''Space Marshal''?. 4. Or do something along the lines as I've done?. 5?.anytthing and everything.
Star Citizen can become addictive in so many ways, spending large sums of money is one of them, its unique in its content, and the different process it manages its microtransactions (melt/buyback). Its easy to get sucked in, there's a constant barrage of techno babble from CIG, sales, ''look what's coming in the next patch/build'', and content creators. Star Citizen isn't a scam, its like wine, its going to take years to reach its potential, and that takes a lot of $. Enjoy.
PS: Red Monster SC gives some excellent advice and pointers, so prepare and understand the many options and choices you'll experience over the coming weeks throughout this years AIE 2953

One thing to add is if you have store credit or will due to melting any ship/CCU you wont be using, it is best to select warbond ship in the to que, then in the from que select ALL ships (not just your hangar ships), then filter to highest to lowest price. This way you guarantee the CCU will be at the lowest price available for new money. You can then use store credit to bridge any gaps in your chain if require. Another thing to add is that the longest insurance will be selected once a CCU is applied, not particularly that of the base ship if the CCU comes with longer insurance.

One major comment on this is that Concept ships rarely get Warbond CCU's, and if they do it's generally because said concept increased in price. Their concept price is the cheapest you can get a CCU to them at, then they do only one jump to their final release price when they are actually released. The exceptions to this are the older concepts that changed significantly in size from when they were first sold as concepts, with the prime examples of this being the Merchantman and the Hull Series.

While understand that this is a general overview of the CCU system and not going into huge detail, but there are many ships that are bad sources for CCUs and should be avoided. If you're using the CCU Game app, it should now warn you of these bad sources. However, they're still valid sources to select from when using the Pledge store, and it's a bit of a pitfall for those are unaware of them.

Well explained. Thank you.

maximum savings... lol

I have some Connie Andro to Redeemers still, bought for 10 or so... value now 90-110. Not bad.

A couple of things:
You said a CCU may increase in price from buyback if the 'To' ship has increased in price - it definitely will, original price paid is never preserved in buyback for CCU's.

If you have a CCU and there has been price increase of the 'from' ship that would make that upgrade cheaper (as in it would cost more than it should be for the 'To' ship) the system won't let you apply it. All you can do is melt it for store credit. There is no form of warning about this.

Warbond standalone ships do preserve their discount on buyback as long as you purchase the buyback with new cash, but Warbond CCU's do not preserve their discount on melt / buyback, they will however preserve any Warbond perks like insurance level and skins.

When talking of using your buyback list to repurchase, buy in the store or buy CCU's with store credit it is worth mentioning you do not pay sales tax on any amount of store credit used.

You didn't mention that ships / game packages do preserve their original price when bought back from the buyback list even when using store credit to buy them originally. As you say knowing which ships are likely to get significant increases could save a chunk of change later down the line for the cost of placing them in your buyback list. For example you can get the Endeavor for $350 even with store credit, but it will likely be more than double the price by the time it becomes flyable, same with most not yet flyable ships but especially those older concepts that haven't had a price increase. Buy it as a standalone ship with store credit, melt it (hence buy to melt) and the price you originally paid is preserved, you can reuse the store credit.

You didn't mention that some ships, the capital size ships mostly, like the Pioneer and 890J never have CCU's, in which case 'buy to melt' is the best way to lock in a future saving for those still not flyable.

There are also ships that although they have increased in price since their original concept sale they will almost certainly still increase again when they become flyable or sooner, the Orion and the Banu Merchantman for example.

Keep an eye out for price change announcements, they always give a warning of an impending price change on the Spectrum Announcements section. For example the Constellation Taurus will go up by $10 in the next sale, but you can get a CCU for it at the old price today, locking the $10 discount in as long as you hold the CCU. You can use store credit for any CCU as long as it is not Warbond.

Multi-ship packages are also offered at some discount. The bigger the package the more discount usually.

It's also worth mentioning that smaller ships and vehicles will be relatively easy to earn in game so it's best to prioritise your real money toward the larger, more costly ships to cut down on grind after final release. As you say don't spend more than you are willing to to support the project, all ships will be attainable just by playing the game eventually. What we old timers call 'The ship shuffle game' is purely a way to use our existing store credit value and any more cash we choose to kick in for a source of fun to keep the wait interesting while trying out the new stuff.

There is another way to save money during referral bonus periods. With a new email you can create another RSI account (only create it during the referral bonus period) and buy anything $40 or more to get the referral bonus if you use your main account referral code, in which case both your main and second account get the referral bonus ship (typically 2x $40 value), which you can CCU and up to now they have all come with LTI. Having more than one account may not seem like a benefit now but it will later on after release because each game package gives you a new character to play in the game. We will be able to give other players access to ships we own, which means your alt characters get access to all your accounts ships when you enable it. In previous years they have also said they will allow us to break up ship packages and 'share with friends' closer to release.

It's an information dense subject many find very confusing - I recommend starting with the rules typed up bold on screen first then go on to talk about advantages within the rules. I commend you for trying to help the less informed.

If you melt a warbond CCU, you will lose the WB savings. It basically turns into a normal CCU. Therefore you can no longer melt the WB CCUs. They made that change last year I believe. I would not doubt… sooner or later, they may do the same with standalone ships too.

Hull C CCU was awesome. $150 increase been helping a lot of my chains. Now Hull D going up and will go up more when it releases. Got 5 of those CCUs just waiting.

Great tips! I learned some new things. I wish this had been around when I was struggling with the basics. Definitely worth saving to share.

Also: for people who hate the ship system, and who complain about CIG, but want to contribute each year, the CCU game is a great way to make your dollars go far.

I will give CIG $5 or $10 development occasionally because they do maintain a (wonky) test environment to play in.

When I do, that $5 can become $100. Since I want a very small fleet, if I play the long game (since there is no other full game to play 😅) all my little purchases can add up to a big ship for cheap.

“Unfortunately” I have the problem that the basic ships for which I have CCUs have become more expensive than the ships that I want.
So I have to go back and pay more.
I want an Orion mining platform and have a CCU for a Banu Merchantman to RSI Orion mining platform, which cost me $70 back then)
The Banu Merchantman is now $70 more expensive than the RSI Orion mining platform.
I have a lot of very locative CCUs that I can't do anything with.
(Including 9 old Vanguard Warden to Banu Merchantman 0$ CCUs)

Clear as mud.