So, Planetside 2 is obviously a 'free to play' game. And it's an AWESOME one!
...basically, to support the 'free to play' model, there are two kinds of 'currency' in the game:
- Station Cash
This is 'real' money, generally 1:1 with pennies. IE., $5.00 is worth 500 SC. This can buy guns, and is the only option for most cosmetics (decals, helmets, etc). Generally. Fairly regularly, SOE runs 'double SC' days where $5.00 gets you 1000 SC (etc). Also the 5000 SC and 10000 SC levels cost $45 and $80, respectively, instead of $50 or $100. But, as noted, this is only needed for many cosmetics. - Cert points
These you get in the game by just playing it. A kill of a typical player, for a non-member, where you aren't playing during an 'alert', or heavily outnumbered (which all provides bonuses), is about 100 XP. Vehicles are more, major base caps are 1000 XP. You get 1 cert every ~250 XP. Note that you also get bonus XP for number of kills/healing/etc (for example - every 10 kills with a weapon earns you a 'ribbon' for it that gets you 250 XP...1 cert each time, and the first 5 such ribbons you earn in a day are tripled for 750 XP...3 certs each), and medal levels get you certs, directly (the 'auraxium' level medal for a weapon grants 200 certs directly).
Anyway, certs are used for non-cosmetic stuff. IR nightvision gunsight = 30 certs. Silencer on a rifle = 100 certs. etc. You can even buy weapons with certs (usually there are few a variant weapons of the stock ones in the ~250 cert range, although most weapons cost 1000 certs)...IMHO, I'd recommend using real money for the weapons, but that's up to you. It's totally possible to play the game, get really into it, and still not pay any real money.
Okay, so, all that said...what is
free? To start with...well, lemme explain how to enter this. From in the game, hit 'k' or 'm', or whatever to bring up the menu system - then click in the lower right icon on the bar, on your empire's symbol. That takes you to a screen where you have a 'redeem a code' option on the left:
...and then enter the code! You'll get a notification of the item to redeem, then!
Right - so, back to the free stuff! First - general freebies!
Available to all players, at any point These codes can be entered at any time, on one of your characters, to get the corresponding items.
- "PSUARMORDECAL"
This unlocks account-wide (IE., all characters you have or create get access to it). It's an armor decal for your character's shoulders:
- "PSUVEHICLEDECAL"
Also unlocks account-wide, same decal as above, but for vehicles:
- "EQNVEHICLEDECAL"
This unlocks account-wide (IE., all characters you have or create get access to it). It's an Everquest decal, only for vehicles:
- "MLGREPORT"
This code unlocks on ONE CHARACTER, ONLY (so use it on your main character, if you do have more than one). It's actually a number of items you get with this code...
A vehicle decal:
An armor decal:
...and a 50% XP boost as well as 50% resource boost, one hour duration each:
- If you sign in, using your SOE Station Account (please create first, using below link!), to the Clone Wars Adventures site (note that you do not need to install the game - but you do have to create yourself a character, so just go through the character-creator wizard real quick):
https://www.clonewarsadventures.com/
...you get 85 SC! That's right, folks, $0.85. 85 cents!
(Not enough to do anything on its own, as far as I know - but if you do put any of your own money in, it can help provide a bit of a boost to get some better combos or bundles. And you do tend to see a lot of 'odd' numbers when the sales are 25% off or 75% off the original price on things that this can help with.)
For new players, only
If you sign up for an account you are signing up as a recruit from an existing player (me!). That gets you a number of bonus items. Once you sign up for that, you'll get an email/note/thing.
IT'S VERY IMPORTANT YOU VERIFY THROUGH THAT LINK RATHER THAN CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT DIRECTLY FROM THE GAME/SITE. It'll look like this:
Anyway - once you do that, when you create a new character, you'll get a choice of LMG for the 'heavy assault' class (which one you get depends on which faction you choose)...
...and, of course, the 50% XP boost with 1 day duration for that character, too.
All that is free. If you
do choose to spend money in the game - and see, below, for how I'm making that easy for you to do
(using it in-game within 60 days of signing up your account), you do get a choice of another bonus item:
...for my money, I'd take the...well, money. Yes, the rocket pods are generally 700SC (or 1000 certs) in-game, so would seem like a better deal than the bonus 500SC outright...however, the game runs 50% sales on items every day, and the rocket pods have come up a few times (so they'd be 350SC). But that's up to you, of course!
Also for new players - from me! As noted above - I want to get some folks into the game! And to do that, I want to throw some money at you! I've got three (3) $15 (1500 SC) GameStop Planetside 2 gift cards I'll give out the codes for to the first three folks
FROM THE US and
SIGNING UP A NEW PLANETSIDE ACCOUNT FROM MY REFERRAL who
PLAN TO USE THEM IN-GAME TO HIT THAT $10 IN 60 DAYS WINDOW. And since I'm giving you $15 - that should be easy to do!
As these are the GameStop cards, in addition to the 1500 SC, you also get an NS-11 "Platinum" assault rifle for the 'medic' class. This has the same stats as the NS-11A you can buy in-game (normally 700 SC or 1000 certs), but it's got a metallic/reflective 'platinum' texture instead of the standard bronze one.
Doesn't show up super well in pics, but it's VERY reflective when moving...
post edited by rjohnson11 - 2013/09/03 23:09:53