If someone can threadmark this, that will be swell as it seems the Launcher can be downloaded and you can download the game early today on the PC Port.
But I will actually explain how to basically get through the game as a F2P as you really don't need to spend money unless you REALLY want to... and yes, you can get through this as a F2P, you just need to manage your resources:
Typical MegaThread from the Reddit that will be updated every week, so don't expect to always see this here. This tells you every single Construct/Transcendant(Or as they are called now Omniframes/Uniframes) release and other stuff
And here's the Builder to primarily find out how to gear your various Constructs.
These are also the Youtubers I recommend to watch if you want to see gameplay or how to use Constructs. Rexlent is a Giga Whale so you may end up seeing some massive overperformance but otherwise, he does tell you how it is from a F2P standpoint too.
So to finally get to the brass tacks:
YES, you can very easily play this game as a F2P but it requires knowing what you are doing and what to aim for. First of all, there's 2 different types of Currency:
Black Cards, these are how you primarily roll for Units(if you don't have Construct R&D Tickets, Weapon R&D Tickets or otherwise, you use Black Cards to get the Tickets needed).
And Rainbow Cards, these are Premium Currency you need to buy with Real World Cash, you need these to pay for deals, 30 Day Passes and otherwise(I will get to this later).
Black Cards are what you primarily want to aim for and you will get Black Cards in many different ways:
- Going through Story Mode
- Doing your Dailies
- Doing Phantom Pain Cage(One of the Main Sources)
- Doing War Zone(The other Main Sources)
- Doing Event Stories(though these are also tied to Story Mode)
- Doing Interludes(Character Stories)
- And getting certain Achievements
You can get BCs in other ways but that will require spending money and if you want the best deal, you want to go for the Monthly Pass that costs 28 or 30 BC(These are literally $4-$5 dollars, if you play through Android/Google Play, you can potentially get these for free if you play other games and spend there) and give you 3000-3300 BC per MONTH which seems small... but it's NOT and is really significant in the grand scheme due to how the schedule actually is and how much BC you can gain normally.
Primarily when you start the game, you want to get through the story As Fast As Possible to unlock PPC and WZ as fast as possible to get as much BC as you can. It will be difficult and a pain since you won't have a full party for awhile and you won't get the full BC but it will help maximize your earnings(You can easily get 1K BC per WEEK).
The game will also give you the ability to get an S Rank Construct for Free(and another for playing the game) though you can't control who you get from it... HOWEVER, for this Patch, you can get a SELECTABLE S Rank Construct as long as you log in, play the Event Stages and another easy objective that will be easy to do)! Many people(Including myself) will recommend going for an Attacker Construct like Luna(Dark Physical Attacker) or Lucia: Plume(Ice Physical Attacker) due to being the most recent, still very strong even in China/Japan and will last for a long time. You can choose outside of them but many people will recommend you to stay with them for ease.
HOWEVER, this doesn't mean you should neglect the B and A Rank Constructs! Think of this game like FGO where even the weakest Construct can still be very powerful as long as you can use them(If you get their extra shards, you can further unlock their extra passives and extra stats, meaning an SSS+ Rank Number 21(The Highest Rank) can contribute way more to the team than a simple S Rank Kamui: Tenebrion), while it's far easier to get shards for B and A Rank Constructs, you CAN get free S Rank Constructs Shards by doing PPC(Which is the other reason to do this mode) which can get you to SS which is more than enough to make the units pop(Especially if you don't want to pay to make them SSS+... but again, you really don't need to go that far, that's just whale territory compared to going for A Rank Constructs)
So to talk about to get S Rank Omniframes... you need 15K BC... HOWEVER, S Rank Omniframes actually show up every other month(Nanami: Starfarer has literally released a few days ago) meaning there is a 2 month gap between each S Rank Construct being released(Usually it's followed between an A Rank Construct(Which can easily be gotten for free if you know what you are doing) or an Uniframe(Which you ONLY need 2500 BC to get instantly).
HOWEVER, you
NEED TO SELECT THE RIGHT BANNER TO GET THE S RANK OMNIFRAME OR YOU WILL WASTE THE BC
YOU MUST SELECT THEMED EVENT CONSTRUCT TO GET THE S RANK CONSTRUCT ON THE BANNER WITH PITY! DO NOT PICK FATE THEME CONSTRUCT UNLESS YOU ARE A MASSIVE WHALE! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!! There is also being able to get Weapons/Pets on the banners too... again, unless you want to start spending money on the game, you can ignore these as you can construct pets in certain modes that appear when Events happen(Though it will take a bit) and potentially getting 5* Weapons(Which is more than enough for every Construct) can be gotten in Multiplayer and 6* Weapons is the equivalent of being a whale. If you REALLY want a 6* Weapon, only go for it if you love the Unit or you just want to flex.
If you have anymore questions, you can ask me before you try anything, especially if you are confused on how to handle the game. The game is actually VERY skill intensive and you can't just blow your way through the game easily even going full P2W. There's no PvP in this game, you can play at your own pace.
pgr.kurogame.net 
