There is no special reward/win (anymore) for getting all ships and have them fully leveled.
Players have different reasons why they play Star Conflict, some just want to play to have some space action and are not very interested in progression, then some want to play just for progression and play more PvE or others want to play it more “serious” and want to progress and also play in a corporation and even participate in Sector Conquest.
For Sector Conquest you need 3 ships of at least Rank11 and be in a corporation to participate.
Some players don’t want to or just cannot spend any money on Star conflict to buy DLC’s or GS (Gold Standards). Without GS the progression is more time consuming (more grind) than using GS on premium license, upgrades and other things.
This game is Free to Play and everyone can decide if they want to spend money to help them in progression and support the developers.
You could buy almost everything from start to finish with hundreds of dollars but this game is not Pay to Win, it is Pay to grind less (progress faster). Having a higher ranked ship or the best equipment doesn’t make you a better player. You still have to learn how to use your ship and the equipment in battle.
You can also play without spending any money and still progress, it just takes longer than spending some GS on a premium license etc. As mentioned before there is no rush to progress and don’t need to have your ship fully upgraded ASAP.
NEVER EVER SELL A SHIP!
Your faction reputation rank (at the bottom of your pilot stats) is as high as the highest ranked ship in the faction.
GS (Gold Standard)
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don’t burn your GS, 15000 GS maybe looks a lot but you can spend it very easy/fast
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do you want to buy credits with GS or rather want to get them by playing PvP/PvE, look at the cost before you spend your money/GS on credits?
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do you really have much more synergy gain when using premium ammo (costs GS) at weapon and missiles compared to normal ammo (costs credits), is it worth it to spend many GS (calculate how many GS you would spend for dozens of battles)?
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from time to time (every few months) DLC’s are on sale which means you spend less money for the same amount of GS (plus the additional benefit)
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GS packages are never on sale but they sometimes have more GS but if you don’t have all DLC’s then the DLC sale (usually 50% off) provides the best bang for the buck
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there are frequently synergy bonuses on weekend where transferring synergy from a Elite ship costs less GS
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premium ships (the ones you get by buying DLC’s or spending GS) are on sale from time to time
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you can now upgrade equipment in all levels/Mk’s with GS but do you really want to spend your precious GS for that?
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you can have two of the same DLC the effects don’t stack (so no additional syn/credit/voucher bonus except premium license) but if the DLC is on sale you can get GS for less, you need to link you Gaijin account with your Steam account: buy one DLC through steam and the other through Gaijin directly, when you bought through Gaijin directly you have to use the Gaijin account by starting Star Conflict, game.exe in the game folder to activate the DLC (you can use Steam after that again)
Vouchers
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the higher your reputation rank the higher valued contracts you can complete and get more vouchers (see here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmwPJVaL2FbXdFA3YXc1LXh2blBBamQyNDlRTnd2T1E&usp=sharing )
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you can complete some contracts in PvE (see link above)
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some contracts are maybe easier to get in PvE (like win a battle without losing a ship, and capturing beacons)
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don’t stay with one faction to complete contracts that is inefficient and you need vouchers from many factions anyway; so complete the best contracts and then move to the next faction
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before entering a PvP battle make sure your contracts are diverse since you don’t know what game mode you’ll play; more than one beacon contract is not a good idea
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check out this thread about vouchers: [http://forum.star-conflict.com/index.php?/topic/21874-mkiii-modules-loyalty-vouchers-costs/](< base_url >/index.php?/topic/21874-mkiii-modules-loyalty-vouchers-costs/)
Synergy
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use the 2x launch bonus on ships that have a low level to level them up and unlock ship bonuses
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you have one 2x launch bonus for PvP and one for PvE each day, use it
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fully level your ships (especially Tier1) because every fully levels ships gives you 1% more synergy at each battle/mission
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you can synergize ships in PvE, and with a good team - so that you always have a fast win - you have a consistent/steady synergy gain
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synergy gain depends on ship rank and what rank you queue for, that means you can bring a Tier2 ship in addition to your Tier3 and higher ships in PvE; then use the Tier3+ ships get almost the same synergy (only synergy gain for kills/assists is reduced) but complete the mission much faster
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there are frequently synergy bonuses on weekends where you gain more synergy in battle and/or for the first win
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premium ships give you a lot more free synergy (20% instead of 5%) and synergy in general than standard ships, but you still need to synergize standard ships and it is cheaper/better to put synergy directly on them than using free synergy
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you get more synergy in PvP than in PvE but keep in mind that when you loose in any case you get much less (maybe around half) the synergy
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you don’t get synergy for some static structures like destroying turrets and missile launchers in PvE, but you still need to destroy them to ensure completing the mission
Credits
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You can make more credits in PvE than in PvP if your team is not bad so that it takes you less than 20minutes to complete a PvE mission, assuming you win each time
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every month or two there is a sale on ships (50% off), equipment and upgrades for less credits (havent seen that in the past 3months), so just because you unlocked a new ship, this can save you hours of grinding credits
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always keep some credits as reserve for buying upgrade kits during looting or if there is a sale that you already have some credits to buy things; this credit reserve needs to increase when progressing further in the ship tree so maybe keep at least enough to buy a couple non-discounted ships you have (or almost have) unlocked
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premium ships give you more credits
Artifacts and upgrade kits:
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you get better (higher valued) loot in PvE than in PvP
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you get one special (high value) item in addition to the normal loot at the first completed PvE mission of the day
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during looting you sometimes have the option to get more artifacts when you spend some GS, the costs vary and so far the best is around 2GS or less per artifact and should be spend if you really run low on artifacts and want to upgrade something ASAP; as alternative you can spend credits and get the upgrade kit but make sure you really need/use that upgrade kit at some point
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read this thread about artifacts: [http://forum.star-conflict.com/index.php?/topic/22877-artifacts-and-mk4-upgrade-costs/](< base_url >/index.php?/topic/22877-artifacts-and-mk4-upgrade-costs/)
Warehouse
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sell stuff you don’t need for sure like: Do you need 2 plasma arc in the same Tier? Do you need 3 or more Plasma Guns and Beam Canons?
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sell gear and upgrade kit separately to get more, because if you upgrade Mk1 gear to Mk2 you get less than selling the mk1 gear and the Mk2 upgrade kit
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don’t sell too much you maybe need some equipment if you change builds or implants, like enhanced scanner you may not need it with the implant that increases your sensor range but if you change that you need the scanner on many ships
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you can buy some Mk1 equipment where you think you may need them or if don’t have them already and when a Mk2 upgrade kit comes along you can put it on there. That also helps knowing when to sell Mk2 upgrade kits because if there is no Mk1 equipment then it says no appropiate equipment found and so you can sell found Mk2 upgrade kits which don’t have the Mk1 equipment.
Here is a summary and some additional suggestions:
Take your time to progress, be patient. You don’t need MK4/Purple gear to win (but it helps in highly competitive matches). Be efficient in getting resources and spend them wisely.
If you can/want to spend money on Star Conflict, buy DLC(s) when they are on sale and check all the DLC benefits before buy one. GS is not everything, also warehouse size (as Snib mentioned) among other things is important.
Progression and general suggestions
Here a few (additional) thoughts and suggestions about progression for beginners. Don’t force synergizing ships (like using GS etc.) just fly them by the time you have them fully synergized you should be proficient flying it and can move on to the next ship (and should also have enough credits for the next ship without premium license). Fly/have all ships of all factions in T1 before moving on to T2.
In T2 I’d suggest to get all ship lines at all factions to the end (before moving to T3) you don’t have to fully synergize the last (Rank5/6) ship. That may seem a lot of work and you may not like to play some roles/ships but you learn how they work and you see how others beat you (learn pro/con of the ship). You may not think you fly certain roles/ship lines in the beginning but when you change your mind later in T3 or higher, you don’t have to go back to T2 to unlock them.
Do at least one PvE (win) per day to get some credits, get the 1 additional loot and get the PvE 2x launch bonus. In the beginning you may can spend a little bit of time flying in PvE more than PvP to get comfortable to the controls but don’t overdo it because the most fun you have in PvP even if that is sometimes hard or frustrating.
For PvP have in your lineup a ships that you can cover all scenarios and maps. Ideally one Interceptor, one Frigate and one Fighter. Because on some maps/modes you need to be mobile on other you need to provide support or deal a lot of damage.