Are Blade & Soul Founder's Packs Worth the Money?

With the Closed Beta Testing date of Blade & Soul (BnS) NA/EU officially scheduled for October 30th, many gamers are scrambling to decide whether or not any of the the Founder’s Pack’s are worth the money. With three deals available—being the Initiate Pack at $24.99, the Disciple Pack at $74.99 and the Master Pack at $124.99—each one caters to a different style of players. Purchasing a Founder’s Pack can be a matter of preference, but many people aren’t sure what the real value of what they’re purchasing is.

Each pack comes with access to 5 Weekends of Closed Beta Testing, as well as a 3 Day Head Start for initial release, a certain amount of titles, and a certain amount of Premium Points which are used for perks if you obtain a Premium Membership. Keep in mind that the characters created during CBT are wiped after the beta ends. Figuring out whether a Founder’s Pack is worth it or not comes down to understanding each pack’s features. You can check out the full benefits and descriptions here.

The Initiate Pack features 2 Character Titles as well as 20,800 Premium Points. The advantages stop there, so you’re mostly paying $25 for CBT and a head start. The first pack is extremely underwhelming and personally, for anyone intending to play the game long term, it’s definitely not worth the money. You’re paying to experience a beta which, if you don’t care to help out with bugs, probably means nothing with a character wipe waiting for you at the end. Two titles won’t affect your gameplay experience and the Premium Points can’t be used unless you purchase a Premium Membership as well. For casuals just wanting to field test the game this pack would be the best option.

The price jump between Initiate and Disciple is a whopping $50 to upgrade to the $75 pack, but the perks that come with it are much more significant. On top of what we’ve already seen with the Initiate, you’re upgraded to 3 Titles and 34,000 Premium Points. And this is where the goodies become sweeter. You’re given a 1 Month Premium Membership, 1 Name Reservation, a booster pack containing leveling basics—such as pots, 1 Character Alteration Voucher, 2 Extra Character Slots and 2,400 NCoins (valued at $30). The perks definitely match the upgraded value and the pack is great for those who want to play but don’t have the money to completely invest in the Master’s Pack. What you get in the pack saves you the time of investing into things that you might have wanted later on in the game, i.e. additional character slots.

The Master’s Pack is where the big benefits come in and the value of the items you receive exceeds the price of what you’re paying. You get 4 Character Titles, 48,000 Premium Points, 3 Months of Premium Membership, 2 Name Reservations, an extended booster pack, 2 Character Alteration Vouchers, 5 Extra Character Slots, 7,200 NCoins (valued at $90) and unique costumes only available to those who purchase the Master Pack. In this pack not only do you get pretty much double of everything offered in the Disciple Pack, but the amount you pay is practically valued at the NCoins and Premium Membership already. Everything following can be considered a bonus gift, and that’s a lot of goodies for free! The extended booster pack was mentioned to contain items such as Dragon pouches that are used to upgrade your inventory space—typically only available from questing and the Premium Shop. The entire pack is a great setup for anyone planning to play Blade & Soul long term, and provides you with so much stuff that there won’t be any need to spend more money after release (unless you go on a spree and burn through all of your NCoins early!).

Some things to keep in mind are that the NCoins given to you will be available during CBT and the points will be returned to you upon official release. Another point is that you can’t officially upgrade your pack through their website but you can contact support if you purchase the Initiate Pack first and realize you want to invest in one of the more expensive ones. The Blade & Soul team has been kind enough to help many users make it a smooth transaction.

Founders packs are designed to give players an incentive to play prior to release and give those willing to invest some goodies to boot. With any game, if you want to invest in a pack then it’s up to you to decide whether or not you believe the worth exists. These packs don’t give anyone a competitive advantage in the PvE/PvP content so if you don’t choose to buy one then you’re not hurting yourself. The Blade & Soul team presented gamers with three options so consumers of all kinds are given viable choices if they do choose to invest in a pack.

But from a value perspective the Master Pack gives you the most bang for your buck, and if you’re asking if any of the Founder’s Packs are worth it then the answer is a definite yes.