Is this game fun without spending (much) money?

[Ranwyr]

I have seen several discussion on limited inventory space and as far as i have seen these cost dilithium on higher levels. Is there a way to get dilithium without real money? Throwing away stuff that looks good only because my inventory is full always bugs me, so I'd like to know some opinions on this.

[TK-421]

There's a VIP system that will gradually increase your crew limit as you spend real money on the game - I've spent a stupid amount of money on the game, but even spending $15 will give you the benefits of the VIP expansions. As for it being fun with spending money, it absolutely is - progression is just slower and you have to prioritize your crew members.

[Spiketail]

Depends on what is fun for you?

There are some achievements that award dilithium, but by the time you get them, it'll have been quite a while as it's for immortalizing crew. If you think you will try this game long term, you will have to tough it out as a free player or, on the spending side, get a monthly card at the minimum. $4 for 3K dilithium for a few months will get you a lot of benefits.

As TK notes, higher VIP levels give more crew slots. As a minimum VIP level, I'd say VIP 4 is the best. It gets you 20 more slots, Warp 1 & 10, and you can replicate 2 items a day. It takes 1000 points to reach, which is a $20 single shot purchase. Monthly cards get you 150 points per card, so you'll reach it in 13 months.

I posted a response here about crew quarters. Also, the STT Wiki[stt.wiki] can be very helpful.

[Ranwyr]

I spent some money and i can now use warp. But i have to say i don't quite understand why i should use it. It gets less xp for me (using 3-4 crew who gain xp each is much more than the few xp boosters warp gets me). And I have the feeling I get less loot than on a personal run of a mission. All I can think of is the time saving aspect. Could someone enlighten me if I missed something?

[Spiketail]

Early on, manually going through missions is probably better for you, for the XP. You haven't maxed a faction up high enough to get the 5-star XP booster (2500 XP) or even 4-star boosters (500 XP) from the rewards. I am literally swimming in 5-star XP boosters (1K+ of them). Spending time going through missions manually is a waste of time for me as the loot is worth more than the XP.

As for getting less loot, you get exactly the same amount of loot as you would of going through it manually. The only way to be able to Warp is to A.) Have the VIP level to do so AND B.) Gotten all of the rare rewards. Warping auto-succeeds all of the loot nodes and gives you the same amount of loot items for less XP.

[DG Dobrev]

Yes, yes and yes. I played for 3 months before even adding the 4€ 100/day dilithium card because I was playing it everywhere - easily spending over 90 hours a month, so I thought I was stealing...

I would also venture to say that the 50 crew limit isn't exactly a hindrance, and a very good limit to start from. You only need around 18 crew slots allocated to cadet missions/gauntlet challenges at start, which gives you 32 crew slots to do what you want. I have thoroughly tested the system on a second account (I play since january, and I already have a bunch of VIP levels so I couldnt do it on a main) and it works wonders. I might even drop a guide on how to play and not pay - and still have tons of fun.

[Lerysh]

I find it fun without spending much money. I buy the monthly card in order to progress faster but it's by no means a requirement.