Overview
If you’re hearing about Star Citizen for the first time, it might be because of the sometimes very high ship prices. The word scam comes up quite often. But is that really justified?
Yes, you can spend a lot of money on ships in this game. But I’ll say it again and again: all you need to play is a starter pack with a simple ship. It costs $60.00 $45.00 plus tax and is more than enough to enjoy the full game.
The starter pack only includes game access to Star Citizen. The single-player campaign Squadron 42, which is due to come out in Q2 2027, has to be bought separately. At the moment, though, it isn’t for sale.
Every ship in the game can be earned in-game. There’s just one exception: new ships that have just been introduced into the game are only available for real money for roughly the first three to six months. After that, you can also buy them in-game with money you’ve earned.
CIG has often stressed that it will only fund development with ship sales during the alpha phase. Whether they’ll stick to that remains to be seen.
All in all, every ship purchase is mainly one thing: voluntary financial support for CIG to push the further development of Star Citizen.
Store Credits
You bought a ship, a package or some equipment in the store and then realized it’s not really your thing? No problem at all! In most cases you can simply turn your purchase into store credit. That’s basically CIG credit that gets added to your account.
Later you can use this credit to get a different ship or package, without spending any real money again. Store credit matches the original purchase price (excluding taxes) in US dollars.
There’s just one small catch: if you’ve got your eye on a so-called warbond offer, you need real money for it. These special offers can’t be combined with store credit. In return, they often come with a small discount or other extras on top.
That way you can keep buying new ships, skins or armor, try them out and return them without paying CIG any new money.
You can’t turn your last game package with game access into store credit, it’s locked. That way you can’t lose access to the game by accident. More on this under package lock.
Warbond
Some items in the Pledge Store are marked with the Warbond tag, but what exactly does that mean?
Warbond offers are special packages in the store that can only be bought with real money, so without store credit. In return, you often get a discount or extras like a better insurance package (LTI – Lifetime Insurance), additional goodies, equipment or weapons.
Why all this? Quite simple: CIG wants to reward players who support the project directly with fresh money. A small thank-you, so to speak, for your investment in the game’s development.
In a nutshell:
- (+) The packages are cheaper than the regular version.
- (+) Often with extras like longer insurance, skins and FPS gear.
- (-) Can’t be bought with store credit, only with real money.
So if you don’t own any ships or store credit yet and have your eye on a warbond package, there’s nothing to think about. And if there’s none in the store right now, as a newcomer it’s worth waiting for the next offer.
These packages are offered on many holidays, but also during special in-game trade shows and celebrations.
Play Star Citizen for free:
IAE 2956 Free Fly from November 13 to 27!
Always wanted to dive into the Star Citizen universe? Now’s the perfect time! From November 13 to 27, the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo 2956 is on, and for the whole show you can play Star Citizen completely free. In the expo halls in New Babbage, you can check out every ship, and each day brings new ones to test-fly for free. Everything about the expo is on the IAE page.
A little tip: The account for the Free Fly costs nothing. Still, create it with a referral code right away, because you can’t add the code later. If you like the ‘verse and pick up a game package at some point, you’ll get 50,000 aUEC of extra starting credit.
No code yet? Just use my referral link to sign up, so you’re ready for anything!
Ship upgrade
Let’s say you bought a Mustang and have been playing with it for a while. But in the game you’ve seen a nice little cargo ship, the C1 Spirit, and you absolutely want it. But there’s no game package with this ship. So do you have to buy it on top of your Mustang? No, because there’s another option: the ship upgrade.
Go to the RSI Pledge Store and click Ship Upgrade. Now you’ll see your ships on the left and a selection of the ships currently available on the right. Select the ship you want to upgrade and your target ship.
The price difference is shown at the bottom.
No matter how much you paid for your existing ship, the standard price is always shown here. So if you bought it as a warbond on sale, you keep your discount even after the upgrade.
When you buy the upgrade, it’s delivered to your hangar. As soon as you’ve applied it there, your new ship is waiting for you in the game.
Sometimes warbond upgrades are offered too. Then you get the cheaper price here as well. So if you upgrade a warbond package, you get double the discount. Sometimes you can build whole warbond chains this way.
And once more: you don’t need a better ship to fully enjoy the game. It isn’t a real discount if you pay $100 for a ship that normally costs $200. It’s an in-game item, and you already have the game. On the other hand, who am I to tell you what to do with your money 😆.
Refunds
In case you clicked the wrong thing or simply changed your mind: according to RSI, digital pledges can be refunded within 30 days of ordering via a support ticket.