Mass Effect 3: Side-by-Side Pack Analysis
Stats Updated May 28: Hey guys, as you know, I’ve been keeping track of the credits I spend on packs. I thought it might be interesting to compare the actual drop rates for weapons, characters, and ultra rares in the packs (Spectre, Premium Spectre, Arsenal, and Reserve). Here are my results – they may be a little skewed because I’d already maxed out all my Rares and Uncommons before starting to keep track, but for the most part, I think the numbers are pretty true to form.
| Spectre | Premium | Arsenal | Reserve | |
| Credits Spent | 14,280,000 | 16,731,000 | 6,633,000 | 11,484,000 |
| Weapon Drop Rate | 18.9% | 28.4% | 9.0% | 4.3% |
| Character Drop Rate | 39.9% | 52.7% | 1.2% | 12.0% |
| Ultra Rare Drop Rate | 1.9% | 2.6% | 3.0% | 4.3% |
| Credits Spent Per Ultra Rare | 649,091 | 760,500 | 663,300 | 459,360 |
I am not surprised that I’ve had a greater drop rate with the Spectre and Premium Spectre packs for weapons – the last 20 or so Arsenal packs I’ve bought have had no weapons to speak of! It seems the Ultra Rare drop rate has been pretty close for all of the packs, though in terms of credits per ultra rare spent, the Reserve Pack has been the winner.
Of course, results may be skewed because at some point you unlock most of the good stuff and only get crap after, so if I had bought 100 Arsenal Packs first rather than Spectre Packs, maybe I’d have better odds with the Arsenal Packs. Oh well. The point is, I’ve spent way over 65M credits total (including the packs before I started tracking) and I still don’t have a maxed manifest! :)
The most surprising find for me is the success of Reserve packs for UR weapons. From here on out, I plan to only buy Reserve packs … gotta get that Lancer X!
Which packs have you had the most success with? Let me know in comments!
I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your blog. I came across it a little while ago, and I was astounded at the quality of the articles. It’s nice to see a girl playing video games, but it’s even better to see another person who takes video games just seriously enough to maximize how awesome they can be. I’ve used your data and analysis quite a bit in my ME3 experience, and it’s been incredibly useful. I also really enjoyed the post on Paradise Cove, as it’s an okay game if you don’t cheat, but it really is the greediest goddamn game ever. Your hack for it has made it much more enjoyable.
So thank you, and please, continue to do what you’re doing.
Also, I’m looking for a regular ME3 player to play with, as my friends are spotty with their online time. Glitching platinum for 150k credits in 18 minutes is my goal, so if you’re interested, feel free to add me. My GT is Bone or Kill (created while in high school haha).
Thanks for the comment, Collin! Yeah, Paradise Cove and all Pocket Gems games are unreasonably paced and priced. They need to learn from TeamLava games like Castle Story which are fun and fair (and incidentally, impossible to hack, haha). Anyway, glad to be of some help. I’ll add you next time I’m on xbox :)
I would like to second what Collin says about ME3. Your blog has helped me immensely with what I should buy pack-wise. I also am down to glitch for some credits. My GT is Cheme2008, if you’re down to get lots of credits.
I’ll add you next time I’m on – thanks!
I spent about 7.5M last night on spectre packs. I have everything except my higher leveled URs, and had been buying PSPs until I read some of your posts here. I think I was on a lucky run, but I got 14 URs. The same points spent on PSPs netted me 6 URs. Not to mention, I actually like getting the extra consumables from the SPs, I am always running out of AR AMP IIIs and have SO much rank 4 ammo that I probably will never use so the Rares from PSPs really were worthless to me anyway.
Great graph. Thanks for all the work you put into your blog.
Hi. First of all I just want to say I love your blog and I find it really usefull and complete (maybe you could just share with us more of your personal favorite characters and why you have those particular preferences along with how you play them, that would be awosome). I can tell how much you enjoy playing the game and making new posts about it and I just love that!
I got a few questions, and I dont mean anything bad whith this, I’m just really curious and I hope u get what I am trying to mean and dont misunderstand my words (since typing give words an impersonal tone..)
How do you manage to get the time to do all this, I mean with studies, work or the other things you might be doing?
Do you plan on doing something related to this in your life or try to keep it as a hobby?
What inspired you to make a blog about something you seem to like a lot and giving it part of your free time?
I’m sry if I posted this in the wrong place I didn’t mean to do so, but I didn’t knew where else to put it lol.
And I apologize for making a huge post, my bad english (not my native language lol) and all this weird questions, I understand if you don’t want to answer them and I’ts ok, I know it might be uncomfortable even with somebody you knew :P
I just want to know how you manage to do all this stuff and how you feel about it because personally vidogames are one of the few things that passionate me (not just playing them, talking about them, analyzing them, making an opinion, etc.) and I havn’t found the way to keep them like that or do something more about it, like you :P
Anyway thank you and I hope you can answer!
Your blog helped me a lot, thanks for the huge work you did.
I am awfully short of weapons and ready for some credit farming!
PeaceableGab
I’ve noticed the same trend with the URs, either SPs or reserves are the way to go. BonitaApplebum5 if anyone wants to add me. Looking for glitches or gold players. I don’t do much silver or bronze these days.
First off, thank you for everything you did to help us in playing mass effect 3. Everyone who has been here knows it. Second, out of everything I heard in this blog, it looks like your one of the best mass effect 3 players I’ve ever seen. And finally, Welcome home!
Thanks! Glad to be of help!
Hello i am kavin, its my first time to commenting anywhere, when i read this piece of writing i
thought i could also create comment due to this brilliant paragraph.
nice work!
actually i did a similar work with reserve and armor packaging, every time i reached 99k credits i take one of those sets, until i’ll have all rare items at maximum (at the moment: weapons are ok)
weirdly in this last month i found more UR weps in reserve packs than in armor ones.
for you, when i’ll get all characters and i re-start buy PS packs, i’ll find only UR or what?
I’ve also gotten twice as high of an ultra rare drop rate with Reserve Packs! I would buy only Reserve Packs after everything else is maxed out – PSP only give you junk (level 3/4 equipment) and give you less URs than Reserve Packs. What I do is save 3-4 million credits, promote all my characters, and buy only Reserve Packs. That way, I level my characters most of the way back up at the same time I’m getting URs :)
o3o
i totally have to try it! it will be awesome!
Great blog thanks for the work. If anyone wants to add me its insaneherobt looking for gold and quick credits