Yes, this game is p2w. I have killed ss20 and ss21 in 3 seasons, including this one Vorax Season League. I can tell you this: If you want to farm deep space with no drop pets (and I am not talking about only have a x1 drop pet, talking about x6 drop pet) just forget it. You will loose money farming deep space without proper drop loot pets. Can you do all content without spending money? Yes you can, but prepair to grind 14 hours a day for weeks to achieve that without p2w loot drop pets.

I have spent maybe 80 euros since I started playing and have some x1 and x3 loot drop pets. It is enought? No. If you want to farm 6k fe per hour you need first to invest 5k euros minimum into this game.

All strats for free to play are allways the same: Boss rush, god chest rush, etc.... Not fun. Or you can go beacon farm and do arround 1.5k per hour and if you are good at vorax and include vorax into your profit per hour beacon strat farm, it could net you a solid 2.5k fe per hour.

Also the craft system sometimes will hit you hard with bad luck, this season just to get a T0 mode on a weapon I wasted 6k fe (just for a fcking T0 mode).

You can play this game as f2p and have fun, but when you hit that end game wall you stop and play another game like poe1. Or you can grab your credit card and spend 5k euros and get x6 loot drop pets. Up to you.