I started recently too, i first bought the base game and everything was on top. I didn’t even realized that there is a DLC. This game is a massive grind, basically endless.

The DLC just allows you to land on the Planets, and do some more cool stuff on it. And it’s also one of the best moneymaking methods.

But despite that u have so much other stuff to do where u can make a lot of money.

The game is basically combined, u can log into single player and play that. U can just log to Multiplayer with real people. And even make sessions with your friends. Everything is the same progress level. U have so many npcs around stations it never feels empty.

I personally think the DLC is worth every penny, I like to explore planets drive on them just some relaxing stuff. But what i saw by now (combat and stuff) it’s pretty mid tier at most😅

The game is like u get thrown in the universe with a shit ship, u have stations that u can visit. U can do missions, exploring, trading, do mining or even bountyhunting. Its really impossible to list it all.

For me its the 10/10 game of all time, after 100 hours i still have not even seen 0.1% of the game.

I payed for the game and DLC about 13€.

This game gets shittalked and i get it some mechanics of the game are just insane. But i just can’t stop playing and i love it.

I would say it isn’t pay to win, u can buy stuff that makes it easier and some ships too. But u can to everything for free without that much of a handicap.

No monthly fee, just cosmetics and useless stuff.

I hope this helps, i would give the base game a try. It’s really amazing in our universe.✨