S.T.A.R.T.
Overview
The S.T.A.R.T. Vendor sells, for in-game currency, everything which players could spend real money on before the 2012 shutdown. It also offers access to some additional functionality. S.T.A.R.T. Vendors are located in the tutorials, in the starting zones (Atlas Park, Mercy Island, and Nova Praetoria), Pocket D, Grandville, Firebase Zulu, Fort Trident, The Crucible, and Echo Plaza. During the Winter Event, a S.T.A.R.T. vendor is located in the Winter Forest.
The S.T.A.R.T. Vendor in Pocket D, Echo Plaza, Fort Trident, and The Cruicible are accessible by characters on a Task Force or AE Mission. The Winter Forest Vendor is accessible as well, but only during the Winter Event.
Prestige Enhancements
These 5 enhancements are free, but unique. Until level 21, these are some of the best enhancements you can use.
Prestige Powers
Unlike temporary powers, any prestige power obtained from the S.T.A.R.T. vendor will last forever; some can be "revoked" at the vendor in order to choose another option. Powers not offered at the S.T.A.R.T. vendor can still be earned in-game (see Accolade Powers.)
Prestige Powers offered at the S.T.A.R.T. vendor typically were once a part of the Paragon Rewards program, or obtained from the Veteran Rewards Program.
Attacks
Origin Powers can be selected here; a character can have only one, so the one assigned based on Origin will have to be revoked first.
You can also choose from a selection of melee and ranged prestige attacks. These are free if you have fewer than three total.
Buff Pets
You can buy pets that boost your Resistance and Damage or Defence and Recovery. One is free; additional buff pets are priced at a million inf each.
Just for Fun
100,000 inf: the Flying Disc and Snowball powers.
Sprints
Free: grants all the prestige sprints. Note that it cannot be revoked.
Travel
1,000,000 inf: the Flying Carpet, Void Skiff, and Rocket Board flight powers. These provide reasonable speed, but are expensive and prevent you from using powers on other ingame entities while in use.
The Jump Pack and Steam Jump powers, which are identical apart from their appearance. One is free, but a second will cost you 100,000 inf. They let you jump as high as you like for 30 seconds, then cool down.
The Athletic Run, Beast Run and Ninja Run powers, which increase running speed considerably and jumping height somewhat. They are also identical other than their appearance. Players can choose one for free; additional choices cost 1,000,000 inf each.
1,000,000 inf: the Coyote Travel Power and Panther Travel Power. These transform you into the relevant animal, turn off other powers, and boost your running speed considerably.
1,000,000 inf: Assemble the Team (free if you have the Paragon badge).
1,000,000 inf: Base Transporter
1,000,000 inf: Mission Transporter
10,000,000 inf: Team Transport Power
1,000,000 inf: Pocket D VIP Pass - grants the badge which gives Pocket D as a location in Long Range Teleport; free if you have spent 1 hour in Pocket D.
Utility
The Mystic Fortune, Inner Inspiration, and Secondary Mutation powers; the first is free, but the others cost 500,000 inf.
1,000,000 inf: Return to Battle or Renewal of Light. These self-rez powers are mutually exclusive. Return to Battle is free if you have the The Unbroken Spirit badge.
10,000 inf: the Reveal power.
10,000,000 inf: the Portable Workbench (free if you have the Field Crafter badge).
100,000 inf: the Self Destruction power.
10,000 inf: the Shadowy Presence stealth power.
Vanity Pets
1,000,000 inf: each of the Vanity Pets, which are all non-combat. Only one vanity pet (regardless of origin: S.T.A.R.T. Vendor, Anniversary Token purchase, or Mini-Pet Recipe) can be active at a time.
Recipe & Inspiration Drops
For a small fee, you can no longer get drops of various categories of IO recipe - Common, Uncommon, Rare, or Very Rare and PVP. You can also re-enable these drops.
For small inf fees, you can disable inspiration drops by type (eg accuracy, damage, endurance) or size, or re-enable ones you have disabled. You can also enable dual and team inspirations.
It is important to note that disabling IO or Inspiration Reward drops does not 'cycle' to a lesser reward, or pick a different option behind the scenes. If a recipe drop would have given you a disabled recipe type, instead you get nothing. The same applies to Inspiration drops during combat. Example: with disabled inspirations turned on at the S.T.A.R.T. Vendor, using the Inner Inspiration prestige power would grant fewer inspirations if one of the disabled ones would have been rewarded. It is entirely possible to activate the power and receive nothing if enough inspirations are disabled, or the Inner Inspiration power would have granted three Inspirations of the same disabled type.
Revoke
You can remove various S.T.A.R.T. powers if you no longer require them. This is useful for swapping Origin Powers, or for those classes of power where one is free but a second one is expensive.
This only removes the power. It does NOT give a refund.
Temporary Powers
Temporary Powers sold here are consumable: either based on Charges or a Time Limit. All Temporary Powers purchased from the S.T.A.R.T. Vendor can be deleted by opening the Powers tab above the Power Tray, finding the power in the right column, right clicking it and choosing "Delete Power." (Right clicking the power in the status window beneath the XP Bar can cancel a temp power in use only.)
No refund is given for deleted Temp Powers; this is only useful in certain circumstances, such as changing the XP Booster rate.
Attacks
Item | Rate | Notes |
---|---|---|
Toy Bat | 100 charges for 100,000 inf | Granted for free during Mapserver Invasion (April Fool's Day) since 2022 |
St. Louis Slammer | 30 charges for 5,000 inf | Melee attack +KB |
Envenomed Dagger | 30 charges for 50,000 inf | Ranged attack -Regen -Def |
Hand Grenades | 18 charges for 5,000 inf | Ranged AoE attack |
Plasmatic Taser | 24 charges for 5,000 inf | Ranged AoE +Immob |
Revolver | 30 charges for 5,000 inf | Ranged High Damage |
Gabriel's Hammer | 30 charges for 5,000 inf | Melee High Damage |
Smoke Flash | 10 charges for 500,000 inf | Melee -Acc |
Stun Grenade | 20 charges for 50,000 inf | Ranged +Stun |
Buffs
Amplifiers
Item | Rate | Notes |
---|---|---|
Offense Amplifier | Variable Cost by Level | +15% Dam, +10% ToHit, +15% Rech 1 hr. |
Defense Amplifier | Variable Cost by Level | +5% Def, +7% DamRes, +Mag4 StatProtect 1 hr. |
Survival Amplifier | Variable Cost by Level | +15% Regen, +20% Recovery, +40% HP 1 hr. |
Custom XP Rates
Item | Rate | Notes |
---|---|---|
25% XP Booster | Lv. 1-49: Free Purchase Lv. 50 Not Available |
25% XP Boost, 25% INF Reduction for 1 Hour |
50% XP Booster | Lv. 1-49: Free Purchase Lv. 50 Not Available |
50% XP Boost, 50% INF Reduction for 1 Hour |
Double XP Booster | Lv. 1-49: Free Purchase Lv. 50 Not Available |
100% XP Boost, 100% INF Reduction for 1 Hour |
Combat
Item | Rate | Notes |
---|---|---|
Ethereal Shift | 500,000 inf / 50 charges | +Stealth 30 sec/5 min rech. |
Kinetic Dampener | 500,000 inf / 30 minutes | +60% S/L Def +200% Energy Def 30 min/10 min rech. |
Med Pack | 500,000 inf / 10 charges | Minor Heal 1 min rech. |
Power Analyzer | 50,000 inf / 20 charges | Special (Shows Enemy Power Window) 1 min rech. |
Recovery Serum | 50,000 inf / 5 charges | +Recovery 4 min/10 min rech. |
Resuscitator | 500,000 inf / 10 charges | Ally Rez 10 min rech. |
Summon
Item | Rate | Notes |
---|---|---|
Backup Radio | 500,000 inf / 5 charges | Summons a PPD Hardsuit (Ranged/Melee offensive mix, but at -1 Player Level) for 2 minutes |
Signature Summon | 10,000,000 inf / 5 charges | Signature Summons calls an "aspect" of a Freedom Phalanx or Arachnos Leader to aid in combat at the player's current level. Comes in Melee, Ranged, Support & Tank varieties for 2 minutes |
Travel
Jetpacks (5,000 inf / 30 minutes for the ordinary one)
Other jetpacks available for 50,000 inf / 30 minutes for a selection of different skins with identical performance.
Historical
The S.T.A.R.T. Vendor was called the P2W Vendor (Pay-2-Win) in Paragon City/Rogue Isles areas or T4V Vendor (Transact 4 Victory) in Praetoria. This was an inside joke referring to the removed Paragon Market feature which used to sell many of its wares as micro-transactions, as well as the Paragon Rewards program which would lock several prestige powers and additional charges of temp powers that used to be available in-game as monthly subscription perks.
The vendors appeared in Issue 25 instead of both programs. As such, any links and references to Paragon Market and Paragon Rewards UI was removed altogether from the client. Longevity-based perks such as badges and tokens in Paragon Rewards became the basis for Veteran Levels while the rest of the prestige power unlocks were moved to these vendors instead.
- In Issue 25, the jetpack vendors were replaced with P2W Vendors in Grandville and Firebase Zulu.
- P2W/T4V Vendors lasted through Issue 27, Page 7. It was renamed S.T.A.R.T. to make its purpose more clear as part of the New Player Experience improvements initiative. The rename also simplified the contacts across city zones from CoH/CoV/Going Rogue (Easier for players to understand the S.T.A.R.T. Vendor in Atlas Park is no different than the one in Mercy Island nor in Nova Praetoria.)