Premium content
Here I will try to explain the monetary/economical perspective on how to advance in the game with a specific base knowledge. With this said I urge the reader of this guide not to participate in any buying of anything with real money before learning at least the basics of the game or consulting more experienced players.
In this guide I will try to cover the premium aspects, DLC's, and store bundles and how to buy smart and advance in the game in a more cost effective way than before. I'm aware that this will also spark some negative response so I would like to kindly ask not to blow out steam on my thread because I am not at fault here and those discussions are located somewhere else.
The GS Handbook will start with the absolute basic elements that can be bought and continue to advanced stuff and end with collector grade/rich elements that are in main part optional. I'm a long term "basic element" user, so I would like to point that out as how much you can achieve with just the basics and how powerful it is to have more than that given the fact that you always know what you are doing/getting for your money without inflated expectations.
The Basic Package
The Basic Package includes only the Spatial Scanner and the Extended Hull modules, Hull Extender being optional.
The Spatial Scanner is the absolute lowest option and first option for buying anything in Star Conflict with real money because it grants you access to blueprints, high amount of credits, vouchers, some parts and some very rare parts which are very hard to obtain without the scanner or very costly to obtain with money.
The Extended Hull serves mainly as a "helper" mod when you're out in Open Space with the scanner collecting invisible/cloaked mysterious cargos. It grants you additional cargo space so you can collect stuff without worrying much about your inventory space.
The traits of those 2 mods are also great for other stuff, the scanner grants additional critical hit chance aside from it's main role and can be used in crit-built ships to avoid negative effects on stacking several critical mods together and the extended hull has a nice extra in hull strength/volume increase and it also doesn't trigger any negative effects in stacking other volume mods with it. All in all they are useful in a battle as well as useful in getting you very rich for a small amount of money.
Tip: It's best to buy the T4 (the 13 one) Spatial Scanner because it can be used on ships above rank 10 as well as used in every sector since the highest requirement for a ship rank to move freely anywhere is essentially rank 10. Also never pay for Duplicators unless you're super rich.
The Advanced Package
This is pretty much what everybody has, the basic package I mentioned before + premium license and optional stuff like one or more DLC's and GS here and there. I'll talk about DLC's separately fyi.
The Premium license is a powerful tool if you plan on playing each day of its duration, basically, it doubles your overall gains, gain limits (like synergy gain per OS session) and much more.
I would like to point out some specific aspects of the Premium License like the 2 extra loot searches for PvP and PvE (and other modes with loot searches) can mean the world of a difference if you want to farm rare loots, even if you don't have any other bonuses present, the license itself grants you the chance of higher gains as in higher chance of getting something rare in less tries at least. The other important thing is the higher limit of synergy gain in every mode because synergy is a must-have at all times.
Tip: Premium license doubles the Open Space synergy overall gains as well as the gain limit which varies with each rank.
As for the optional stuff you can incorporate into the Advanced Package are stuff like one-time buys, additional devices and others.
Additional devices are a good thing to use every now and then but are expensive in a long term use so avoid them unless you really really need them, there are 2 types of additional devices, these GS I mentioned and the others can be bought via regular game credits, don't mix them up.
Tip: Don't use GS to buy credits just as much as you shouldn't buy duplicators for GS (duplicators can be constructed btw)
Spoiler
The Grab Her By the GS Package
This package is basically all I have mentioned until now + all DLC's + everything in a OCD collector grade of buying and it's not for everyone. Actually it's for very few people either really liking this game and supporting it's future development in a massive money spending way and or people that like having/collecting it all.
Here I will cover the premium ships, the difference between the collectible ones vs regular premium, the store and the DLC store in general. Basically, the first two explanations/packages are what everyone is using or were using at some point in playing Star Conflict, they are the mainstream ones and I personally would like to suggest them, the first one as a beginner and the second one as a seasoned player, everything else is literally EVERYTHING ELSE and up to you.
The Bundle Store
There is not much to say about the bundle store, what you see is what you get. Every bundle offers a guaranteed drop if you buy the x5 option PLUS the drops you would get by individually buying each of the bundles (5 total). Be careful while buying bundles because they are not cheap and basically a lottery if you decide to buy 1 by 1 bundle which is not advised.
Always buy the x5 options when presented the chance and avoid purchases like 1 by 1 bundle because x5 is cheaper and offers more with the guaranteed part aside from the common random drops.
Purchasing bundles should occur only then when you absolutely have no time to play and/or when you lack a specific part or two for something specific. Purchasing something from scratch is not advised under any circumstances unless you have the money and don't mind spending at all, in that case, make it rain.
The Premium Ships
The premium ships have been a thing of discussion for a long time, some are truly powerful in the right hands, some are average but the main thing is they are not bad, so, whatever you may choose to fly, wont let you down, that much I'm certain.
The non-collectible and non-DLC premium ships offer the same kind of setup (more or less) as their non-premium counterparts but with an extra buff equaling one or half a mod stat (in rare occasions more) i.e. extra damage, critical chance or similar.
The collectible premium ships are a different story, they have a unique design and unique purpose. They often come with special modules available only to them. The good and the bad about them is that they are something called a one-trick-pony, when they do their one trick/fulfill their purpose, then that's pretty much it, although keep in mind that THAT one "trick" is a very good "trick". They can be played outside of their main purpose but that's mainly wasting a good potential in battle.
I would just like to add that standard ships are perfectly fine and that premium ships do not have an upper hand making them extremely unbalanced as some would like to think. Premium ships have this specific role to fulfill and that's being able to provide that specific something a player needs in a much higher level. For instance a player wanting to be the best support for his team would do his best gathering Brokk parts since Brokk is the only specialized engineer ship aside from Octopus (which is a special project ship), it's only natural for a good player perfecting himself in what he does best.
There are 200+ ships in the game and there's probably more to come, standard ships offer everything except leisure bonuses like premiums have, premiums offer a lesser capability in builds and plays and standard premium bonuses written in each description, to each their own I would say, for those lucky enough to perfect their skill in something, there will always be a ship that will just come perfect afterwards, may it be a standard, premium or special project, the choice is yours.
The DLC Store
Work in progress.