Crypto Space Commander Guide: How to play and earn

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Crypto Space Commander — better known as CSC — is a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game built on the Ethereum blockchain. It doesn't have quite the fan base as other crypto games, but it's free to play and you can download it on Steam. There's a bit of a learning curve, but here's how to get started.

Highlights

• Can download from Steam
• Playable on Mac and PC
• Free to play
• PvP and PvE

• Crafting and deconstruction
• Development slowed
• Small player community
• Wallet not required

What is Crypto Space Commander?

Crypto Space Commander (CSC) has been around for a while, launched in 2019. CSC is a space-based game with an open sandbox, unlimited crafting trees and no levels. It's a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, built on blockchain technology.

Image source: Crypto Space Commander

In June 2021, the original developer, Lucid Studios, brought in Hong Kong's Animoca Brands to revitalize the game. It's still the same Ethereum blockchain keeping everything going, but Animoca's job is to re-energize the existing user base and power the game's economy to new heights.

Ships continue to fly between worlds ferrying ores, crafting items and engaging in brutal combat in the darkness of space. However, the site doesn't look like it's been updated since 2020, with advertisements on the Store for the Halloween event sale of 2020, and displays of auction sales that happened over two years ago.

Despite the obvious slow-down in development, you can still download the game and play for free.

Playing Crypto Space Commander

There's no subscription fee or charge to play. First, download the game from the Crypto Space Commander home site or from Steam. From there, you'll need to create a login.

If you want to spend some money to get more resources or improve your character, you can, but it's not required.

You don't have to use an ETH wallet, but if you'd like to export your assets and sell them on secondary marketplaces, you can use your MetaMask wallet or a Trust Wallet. If you don't have MetaMask, check out our MetaMask review for help in setting one up.

Image source: Crypto Space Commander

Once you're set up, you'll begin in a pilot's pod, drifting in space in the Sol system. There are a number of missions arranged in the tutorial campaigns that help you with the basics of the game, including moving around space.

There are over 900 star systems, each with their own planets, resources, loot, and technology blueprints you can use to create new items. You can own an unlimited number of starships — there are multiple ship classes — and you can upgrade your ship with better shields and weapons.

There are many aspects to the game, but here are the core things to know when starting out.

Battle

As a player, you'll own a whole fleet of starships eventually. You can only fly one at a time, and not all starships are good at every task. When it comes to combat, you'll want one of the ships specialized for combat. That means frigates, cruisers, destroyers, battlecruisers and more. Once you have a warship, you'll be able to outfit it with modules for combat — weapons, shield modules and more.

Battles can take place player vs. player (PvP) or against pirates and drones as you explore the CSC world.

Explore

Core Space and Fringe Space form the two zones of CSC.

• Core Space provides a safe area for new players to learn the ropes and prowl around in comparative safety.
• Fringe Space is the wild west of CSC. Anything goes, and players go forth in the full knowledge that you could lose your cargo, your modules and your ship.

Mining

Mining requires specialized mining craft and modules. Rarer resources are found further out in Fringe Space, but be warned — the greater the reward, the greater the risk.

Crafting

Crafting — also known in game as manufacturing — requires a station and various raw materials. You'll have to either purchase a facility on a station or use a public facility.

Nothing can be crafted without a blueprint. You'll obtain blueprints through rare drops or by deconstructing. You can deconstruct various modules and ships you encounter as you play the game.

Each time you deconstruct something, you'll be able to choose one of two options:

1. Recover one blueprint and 30% of resources
2. Recover 50% of resources

Once you have a blueprint for a particular item, you can use that blueprint to attempt to create the item right away. You could also consume the blueprint and increase your mastery of that particular item. With increased mastery comes increased odds of successfully creating that item.

What is the Crypto Space Commander token?

Crypto Space Commander's in-game token is GRP. It's earned in-game and can be used to purchase items, materials, modules and more. CSC doesn't have a governance token.

Crypto Space Commander is ETH-based. You used to be able to use ETH to purchase in-game resources, but is disabled according to the game's wiki at the time of writing.

The in-game currency GRP can be used to buy the required NFTs, and is earned through playing.

How to buy the Crypto Space Commander token

Find an exchange to buy, sell and trade ETH by comparing deposit methods, supported fiat currencies and fees. Select Go to site to sign up directly with the provider.

How does play-to-earn work with Crypto Space Commander?

You complete missions, ferry passengers, mint new items and mine raw materials to earn GRP. Or, you can sell your items on the CSC marketplace.

Players can also earn GRP through PvP combat. Of course, combat is a much riskier alternative, and ships lost in CSC are permanently destroyed.

What are Crypto Space Commander NFTs?

Similar to other crypto games, CSC relies heavily on NFTs, or nonfungible tokens. The NFTs of the game are the ships, modules and skins.

Some of the CSC ships are based on fantasy ships from pop culture, such as the USS Enterprise NCC-1707-E from Star Trek. CSC actually had a partnership with Star Trek and created many starships based on the popular series.

There are also fungible tokens, which include things like components, blueprints and ship salvage — all of these are only tradable in the game. They're called resources.

Image source: Crypto Space Commander

How to buy NFTs on Crypto Space Commander

As a new player, you don't have to invest any money into CSC to start playing, since the game gives every new player a small ship to get started.

If you want, access the CSC Store to buy NFTs directly from the game — such as a starter pack that comes with multiple items like ships, modules, armor, shields, missile launchers and much more.

Select STORE on the main navigation menu. You'll need cryptocurrency and a supported wallet — MetaMask or Trust Wallet — for purchases this way.

There is also the peer-to-peer marketplace, accessible when you've downloaded the game, labeled MARKETPLACE on the main navigation bar of the game to browse NFTs for sale. To buy or sell items, you must be docked at a station.

In the marketplace, there are Selling Contracts and Buying Contracts. You can sort the assets on the left-hand side.

To buy something, select it and continue with the purchase. You can also buy NFTs from secondary marketplaces such as OpenSea.

Compare marketplaces to buy game NFTs

How to sell Crypto Space Commander NFTs

Launch the game and log in. To create a sell contract, select MARKETPLACE on the main navigation bar. You'll see all buy and sell orders currently going on.

Sell a variety of items on the marketplace, including the nonfungible items and the fungible ones — and you can also sell multiple items at once, called stacks.

To sell an item, right-click on the item(s) and select the green SELL ITEM button. A window will pop up for you to choose the item's listing price, and the currency you want.

The fee varies depending on what station you're at, and whether the station is player-owned. Select SELL once you're happy with the listing.

To get a better idea on pricing for your items, view the current selling orders to see what other players are listing them for.

About the Crypto Space Commander developers

CSC was originally developed by Lucid Sight Inc., a game development company that was founded in 2015 out of Los Angeles. The company reached out to Animoca Brands to revitalize the game, but from the looks of it, nothing much has changed to date.

CSC is primarily player-owned and run. There are no moderators to oversee the game, and the CSC release that's currently in use is only an alpha version. There's no tech support, and the game has a distinctly unfinished feel.

Crypto Space Commander roadmap

Right now, players can craft modules, components and their own starships. Eventually, CSC wants to expand crafting to other items, such as space stations and harvesters.

CSC has been out for a while, so development has slowed — and so have events. The last event advertised happened in 2020.

Bottom line

Crypto Space Commander is available on Steam, exposing it to a wider audience than some other crypto-based games. There's also an active community on the dedicated CSC wiki that continues to update information and provide additional resources.

However, the CSC Discord channel only has 3,483 members. This membership count is considerably low compared to other crypto games: CryptoKitties has over 40,000 members, Gods Unchained has over 80,000, and Splinterlands has over 160,000.

If Animoca can re-establish CSC and give it the full support it needs, there's every chance that CSC could take its place alongside bigger, more established space-based sandbox MMOs like EVE Online. Until that time, the CSC world feels unfinished and experimental, with rewards only for those willing to shell out for the biggest and best ships.