Unless if you're on my shard (I don't like to share)

The following graphs, will show you all the zeta materials you could buy if you spend all your fleet tokens into the fleet shop.

This will not take into account the various rewards you could get from events and battles.

...and you will see why you should not give up on ships.

Context

I can't compare every possible fleet arena reward. I can't take into account as well the different places you might have day after day. That's why for simplicity, my scenario is based around 3 "static" results. You'll see the results when :

you're first everyday in fleet arena

you're fith everyday

you're in the 51st-100th tier everyday.

Charts

Zeta Material acquired over 30 days in fleet arena

No surprise, over 30 days being first provides more reward.

But if you look closer, when you're first, you need 23 days to complete a full zeta, vs 32 when you're 51st+. 9 days, more than a week.

The difference between 5th and 1st is only 4 days.

But 4 days out of 23 is 17%.

It takes 17% more time to acquire a full Zeta when you're 5th compared to being 1st.

...and I think that's huge.

Full Zetas acquired over a year

Wow, another marvelous graph... Let's compare the totals. At the end of the year :

Being 1st grants 16 full zetas

Being 5th grants 13 full zetas

Being 51st+ grants 11 full zetas.

16 vs 11. That's enough to cover the meta right ? One Hero with 3 zetas, and 4 support characters with 2 zetas each. In fact, your arena team doesn't need 2 zetas per character, you've got spare zetas !! 11 is far enough for your main team.

...Well, the meta changes about twice a year... You'd better cross your fingers and have some stock ready.

Ok, that's not relevant. Here's relative values :

Being 5th all year long grants 18% more zetas than being 51st+

Being 1st all year long grants 45% more zetas than being 51st+

Another angle : a player ranked 1st needs 8 months to grab 10 full zetas, when ranked 51st+ that player will need 3 more months...

Zetas are important

...true story.

They're enabling essential synergies for arena = they bring in crystal revenue.

They're sometimes more than helpful on some characters for various events = you can unlock better rewards

They will help you win Territory Wars with more powerful squads = more bragging on Discord (and more zetas mat)

And most of all you can't buy them anywhere else !

Bonus : what should you do ?

Well, ship arena is rather simple.

pick the best ships (if you don't follow the news, just pick what's most used on your arena - but I'd recommend to stay ahead and follow the community)

update the crew as much as you can : gear, abilities, mods

For the time being, we're safe from random bonuses : a basic E-grade mod level 15 will provide the same bonuses as an A-grade with a +24 speed bonus.

As long as your crew is close to the max, you'll have some fair fights. If you don't want to overinvest, you can check the Ship Stats Simulator. You'll be able to compare the effects of adding gear to your current crew, and follow the upgrades it will provide. ... Handy to see if you're admiral will be faster than your opponents !

Yeah, speed... always ! ;-)