One of the main hurdles to contend with in The Cycle: Frontier is the currency. Everything you do and the items you need revolve around how well you can manage that cash flow. Credits are not difficult to earn, but they're very easy to lose as everything costs cash.
It's unsurprising for a free-to-play game, and microtransactions do play it into a little bit, but it's not too egregious and you can game the system a little bit if you're short. So for those looking to get the lowdown on how the in-game economy works, here's a brief guide to currency in The Cycle: Frontier.
What’s The Currency For?
First things first, the currency in The Cycle: Frontier is used for pretty much everything. From buying gear to insuring items and even crafting, everything costs a buck and nothing is for free. Unless it's a login bonus.
Most low-tier and crucial items like resource scanners and backpacks are relatively cheap and usually cost a couple of hundred credits. However, the high-end equipment and endgame exotic gear is going to cost into the five and six-figure numbers. One weapon in particular, a sniper rifle called the KARMA-1, costs a cool one million to have made in the gear printer.
How Many Currencies Are There?
Unlike other free-to-play games which tend to bog you down with various currencies that you need to micromanage in a big mathematical number-crunching headache, The Cycle: Frontier has three. There’s premium Aurum, the normal Krypto Marks and Insurance Tokens.
They have their own uses and can be acquired in various different ways that can be a little tricky to work out at first. To make things simpler, here’s a brief breakdown of each one, how you get it, and what they're used for in the game.
Krypto Marks
The common bit of cash you’ll be dealing with on a regular basis. These are used to pay for everything from consumables to armor, weapons, attachments, insurance, and more. Without Krypto Marks you can’t get much. So you need to start hustling on those drops if you want to be successful.
But don’t worry about that digital wallet going dry too quickly, because it’s relatively easy to get your hands on a couple of credits if you’re running low. They can be earned by selling items from drops, completing tasks for the different factions around the Hub, through the resource generators in the Residential Area, or by just logging in regularly to collect the sign-in bonus.
Aurum
This is the premium currency and naturally, it’s much harder to get and it's mainly acquired through spending real cash through the store or through the Fortuna Pass as a reward. Luckily Aurum doesn’t have too major of an impact on the game, which is always a concern when premium currency is involved.
It’s mainly used in Item Insurance as a way to completely recover lost gear instead of just its worth in Krypto Marks. Aurum is also used for purchasing skins for weapons or your Prospector or for speeding up build times for items as crafting in The Cycle: Frontier involves real time to pass for gear to be constructed.
Insurance Tokens
Insurance Tokens are the third currency in The Cycle: Frontier and they’re used solely for recovering gear intact instead of just getting Krypto compensation or paying with Aurum. Making the whole process of potentially losing important items on a drop a little easier on the wallet.
Tokens are much harder to get your hands on and are only available through the games Fortuna Pass, which is basically their attempt at a Battle Pass. They appear occasionally as free awards, but the amount you get early on is very low so it’s worth preserving them until you really need them. For example, if you have a really powerful weapon you don’t want to lose.
Easy Ways To Get Currency
It might seem like that cash is constantly slipping through your fingers, especially if you're having a few rough runs. There are ways to build up that credit stockpile without touching the taint of the microtransaction store, though it's not as expedient as whipping out a debit card. Thankfully, if you find your funds running low there are some tricks you can try.
For example, there's a login bonus that increases in value the more days you join the game. You do get some credits for this and if you don't need the gear it drops you can always sell it for extra cash. Another easy trick is to use the special generators which slowly build up resources like supplies and credits over real-time. These can be upgraded with, you guessed it, credits, and these help by passively farming even more credits. The other cheap trick is to run bare minimum loadouts on drops and just hoover up what you can quickly before evacuating just as expediently. It might not get you a massive payday like the longer runs, but it's a simple way to grind up an extra bit of sci-fi bucks if you badly need the cash.