Getting Started #6 - Game Economy

STFC has many resources that players need to improve their ships, or upgrade their base. Below is the most basic materials in the game.

Parasteel	Used mostly for building/upgrading the base
Tritanium	Used mostly for ship upgrades
Dilithium	Used mostly for Research

These materials when supplies are low, is produced by Generators inside the base, and must be collected from the generators for them to continue to produce the material. Upgrading the generators improves the speed and storage of materials.

The basic resources can also be mined or collected from hostiles when destroying them. Some events reward resource tokens, that make for an excellent stockpile. Once a player reaches Level 15, bases can be hit for this basic material.

Other materials (Crystal, Gas, Ore) can be mined and refined throughout the galaxy. Crystal, Gas and Ore are used mostly for upgrading ships or research. While mining these materials, each ship has an amount of "Protected Cargo" that the player will keep when shier ship gets destroyed, but anything over that Protected Cargo amount, is stolen by the player that hits you. This material is safe from base raids by other players, but not while mining or in transit back to base.

Remember, leveling up a mining ship will improve the mining rates, as well as using the correct officers for the material being mined.

Below is the mining rates once a player reaches level 20 for 3*/4* materials. There are chances of getting the Uncommon and Rare materials while refining.

Eventually, players will discover that Latinum can be mined and refined, which greatly speeds up advancement as Latinum can be used to purchase materials needed as well as speed up builds/repairs.

Once a D'Vor is at a top tier, the Latinum refinery changes to have the Latinum and the D'Vor Parts separate.

Latinum is used for a variety of things, like common ship parts, ship XP and speed-ups. Below is a chart of the Latinum to Ship XP conversion rates: