Useful Tips and Advice On Buying Packs From The ME3 MP Store (To Get The Most Out Of Your Credits)

Welcome to the second of my follow up articles to A Beginners Guide To ME3 MP, (BTW you can catch last weeks article on tips for completing objectives quickly here) today I'll be discussing the packs that you can buy from the multiplayer store and more specifically what packs are a better purchase option depending on the situation you're in. OK, so you've played a handful of games and now you're ready to start spending your hard earned credits but what packs to buy? Well if you're a beginner or still fairly new to game, the one you should be really concentrating on is the Recruit pack, these are the cheapest and as the in game description says, is a great way to start adding basic things to your inventory. You'll only get a bunch of Common items but with each pack priced at 5,000 Credits, you'll be able to purchase three of these after just a single Bronze game, which can result in a lot of new stuff being unlocked. It might be really tempting to save up the Credits from multiple games and then take a chance on one of the more expensive packs, in the hopes of getting a decent Rare/Ultra-Rare weapon or character kit but I really don't think that's a good idea at all. Everyone thinks about it as a beginner and I'll be honest I actually did it once or twice myself but I'm telling you now, I never got anything worth while and I always ended up regretting my decision to not buy a load of cheaper packs instead. There was already a large pool of items when I was a beginner but the amount of stuff there is to unlock these days is even greater, not to mention the fact that items will repeat until they're maxed, means the chances of you getting something that you really want is absolutely tiny. Take my advice and start out by purchasing Recruit packs until you max out all of your Common items but if you insist on purchasing otherwise, a Veteran pack every now and then is as far as I would go, remember to visit your N7 HQ to easily check out all your unlocks and their levelling progress.

Due to the random nature of the packs contents you might not quite max out all the Common items but end up with a few things that require just one or two more upgrades, at this point I'd say you're also ready to move onto purchasing the next pack up. The Veteran packs are priced at 20,000 Credits and will contain at least one Uncommon item with a (minuscule) chance for something better, unlike the Recruit packs, you won't be able to purchase a Veteran pack after a single Bronze match. But hopefully by the time you've maxed out all of your Common items (which won't happen over night), you might be ready to move up the difficulty ladder and if you are, then completing a single Silver game will allow you to buy a Veteran pack. Not everyone will be comfortable in changing the difficulty at this point, in which case you just need to save your credits up over multiple Bronze games i.e. if you play four matches, this will generate enough credits for three Veteran packs. As a beginner or person still relatively new to ME3 MP, I think the transition from Recruit to Veteran packs is a pretty rewarding stage of the game because now you'll start to unlock some good weapons/mods and begin to have access to Bonus Equipment items, which will definitely increase your killing potential. Once you start levelling up your Uncommon items, you should begin to feel the game get a bit easier, especially if you use any of the weapon amps and ammo bonuses as well. At this point you might want to start thinking about trying out Silver matches to see how you fair and if all goes well, then to start playing those over Bronze games but only if you're absolutely comfortable with doing so, as it happens in my next article I'll actually be discussing the subject of changing the difficulty in more detail (you can find the link for that article at the bottom of this page).

Once you've maxed out all of your Uncommon items or the vast majority, it's time to move on again and start purchasing a different pack. The reason I suggested contemplating a change of difficulty in the previous section is because the next pack up from Veteran is Spectre and these are priced at 60,000 Credits, this is a lot more than what you earn from a single Bronze game but would only require two Silver matches. Of course there's nothing wrong with saving your credits up from four Bronze games but obviously then you'll be unlocking Rare items at an incredibly slow rate (one per Spectre pack), which might be a bit frustrating. When I stopped buying Veteran packs I went immediately onto Spectre packs and stayed on these for a good while time but looking back now I really should've considered Premium Spectre packs because at the time I was playing Silver comfortably and in fact was starting my transition onto Gold games. Premium Spectre packs are priced at 99,000 Credits and while this is an exceedingly large figure to contemplate spending, the packs are the quickest way to unlock Rare items because every pack will contain at least two of them, which works out at just under 50,000 Credits per Rare Item. You should definitely buy a couple dozen Spectre packs to start with but then once you've unlocked a respectable number of decent kits and weapons, it might be an idea to save up for Premium Spectre packs, especially if your goal is amass the largest number of new unlocks and then level them up in the quickest time (relatively speaking). The chances are you'll be ready to move onto the next difficulty before you max out all the Rare items because there are loads of them and if this is the case for you, I personally think it's worth saving the Credits up from two Gold matches and then buying one Premium Spectre pack and one normal Spectre pack, this way you strike a good balance between unlocking a lot of Rare items without neglecting you're consumables and equipment stock levels.

Some players like to concentrate solely on Premium Spectre packs after they've maxed out all their Uncommon items and while this does generate the most Rare items for your Credits, it can also leave you rather low on supplies of consumables and equipment. This leads me nicely to the Jumbo Equipment packs, these are priced at 33,000 Credits each and will contain 10 items comprising of nothing but equipment (ranging from level I to III) and consumables. As you might've realised these packs include twice as many items as any other pack sold in the store, which might sound great as a beginner but they're not as good as you might think. Not being able to unlock weapons and character kits from the Jumbo Equipment pack is what balances them out, yes you can load up on gear to take into a match but if you haven't got decent weapons and characters to wield them, they're not that useful. A little known fact about consumables is that there is a max number that you can have in your inventory, this is not to be confused with your in game consumable carrying limit, I mean the number you see when you're in the Equipment section of the menu. The cap is 255 of each consumable item and 3 Power Reset Cards, once/if you hit this figure, you should stop seeing them appear in any of the packs you buy from the MP store. By default Jumbo Equipment packs will always contain 5 Cobra Missiles, 5 Ops Survival Packs, 5 Medi-Gels and 5 Thermal Clip Packs but if like me you don't use the emergency Thermal Clips and have max stock, this will free up that slot in your packs for something else to appear, I'm not saying that you'll get something better in it's place but at least it'll be something you can use. I should also mention that you can also get the +2 variant of these consumable items in addition to the default +5, so it's possible to buy one Jumbo Equipment pack and end up with 5 + 2 = 7 Medi-Gels. Sometimes when I've maxed two or more of the consumables, I've even experienced walking away with as many as 5 + 2 + 2 = 9 Medi-Gels, which is always a welcome sight.

In this short section I'll be discussing some more advanced tips regarding the Jumbo Equipment packs and keeping stocks amounts topped up, beginners can choose to skip the paragraph or carry on reading and retain the information for future reference. Generally speaking the Jumbo Equipment pack is the best way to max out your consumables quickly but like I said above, you won't be unlocking new character kits or weapons, so it's really something you have to weigh up. A good tip is that if you're in need of more than two types of consumables then your Credits are better spent on a Jumbo Equipment pack, which will give you a minimum of 5 of each, with a small opportunity to amass a couple more. If you're only in need of one type of consumable i.e. you've maxed out the other three, then I think the Veteran pack is the best to buy because you'll get a guaranteed 6 of whatever it is you need, without all the excess that comes with a Jumbo Equipment pack (unless of course you want that lol). Something I used to do before buying packs was to consult my stock levels; if I was maxed out on consumables and not too fussed about getting more equipment items, then Premium Spectre packs were the way to I'd go but if I needed/wanted consumables and equipment, then I chose the normal Spectre pack. Alternatively if you have the credits available, it's a good idea to buy Jumbo Equipment packs for consumable and equipment items and then buy Premium Spectre packs for your Rare items, while hoping to net one or two Ultra-Rares (that is if your luck is in :P). It's always a good idea to consult your consumable stock levels before any planned shopping sprees because you don't want to have a situation where you've got something like 254 Cobra Missiles and 253 Survival Ops Packs, then go buy a Jumbo Equipment and unlock 5 of each, which would give you a surplus that is discarded (effectively you'd be wasting credits).

Moving onto the final two packs that you can purchase in the MP store, the Arsenal and Reserves packs (each will contain at least two Rare items), these were introduced towards the end of 2012 and have been received with mixed feelings by the ME3 MP community. Both priced at the same value as the Premium Spectre pack (99,000 Credits) and each claim to provide a higher chance of unlocking weapons and character kits, respectively. I find the description of these packs to be somewhat dubious because I can't honestly say that I've experienced more weapons appearing in the Arsenal pack nor character kits appearing in the Reserves pack, in fact most of the time the contents seem to be more or less the same as that of the Premium Spectre packs. Having said this, I have already unlocked and maxed everything that isn't Ultra-Rare status, so perhaps those who haven't might fair differently with their purchases but I still say it's best that you form your own opinions and try not to read too much into what they're described as likely to give you. Take for instance the Premium Spectre packs, they themselves claim to have a higher chance of producing Ultra-Rare items but in my entire experience of playing ME3 MP, I can't say I've noticed any sort of reliable trend in unlocking more Ultra-Rares from Premium Spectre packs over normal Spectre packs.

The MP store does give you the option to make purchases with real money (Pounds, Dollars, Euros etc) but don't expect a higher drop rate of Ultra-Rares or anything like that because there simply isn't one. The packs aren't particularly cheap either, so unless you've got money to burn, I really don't think it's worth it to be dropping your hard earned cash over some virtual in game items that you may or may not even get. Some people might be tempted to buy packs as a sort of "short cut" to maxing out their inventory, well you should know that if you haven't already maxed out your Common and Uncommon items, they can pop up in those Spectre and Premium Spectre packs (don't moan at me, I already said the store sucks in the guide). Remember also that the appearance of Ultra-Rare items is completely random, you can buy a dozen Premium Spectres and get zip, then another time buy a single Veteran pack and get one, so just treat them as a bonus and if you unlock one that's great but if not then so be it. Don't waste your money chasing Ultra-Rare items, you've probably got a better chance of getting a payout by placing a bet in a casino (not that I'm advocating gambling) but if you must insist on spending money, why not just shout your mates or buy a treat for the partner? If you prefer, I can forward you my bank account number, you pay into it and I'll spend your money for ya ;)

So in summary if you haven't maxed out everything (not including Ultra-Rare items), I standby the advice I provided earlier, in that it's best to get a mix of both types of Spectre packs in order to unlock/upgrade your weapons and character kits, while also maintaining a moderate number of equipment and consumables. As a beginner you shouldn't really need to buy Jumbo Equipment packs because if you've followed my strategy and began by maxing out your Common and Uncommon items first through Recruit and Veteran packs, you should've collected a respectable number of these items already. Don't be get too depressed if you don't unlock new Rare weapons and character kits all the time, I personally think most of the Uncommon weapons and characters are very good once they're at max level and I'd happily use some of them in Gold games, even over unlocks that are categorised as Rare (in fact I actually do that quite a lot). Take it from me and don't assume something is going to be good or bad just from it's status, I'd even go as far as to say approach them like you would the N7 Rank i.e. treat it as not being the least bit accurate in representing it's capabilities and make a judgement call for yourself, after taking said item for a spin. The Mantis sniper rifle for example, despite being a Common weapon, in the hands of a proficient sniper and on the right character kit can be used quite comfortably in a Gold match. So don't worry too much about unlocking the "good" stuff, test it all out, consult the damage values and make an informed decision.


Next Article: When To Change Difficulty On ME3 Multiplayer And What To Expect