If you’ve been playing Enlisted for a while and wondering whether the store offers anything that genuinely changes the experience, the short answer is yes — but the reasons are more specific and more interesting than the usual “pay to win” assumption that follows any free-to-play shooter. The store in Enlisted doesn’t sell power in the conventional sense. What it sells is progression speed, historical rarity, visual distinction, and access to weapons and squad types that you simply can’t build from the standard research trees. Understanding what each category actually does before spending is genuinely worth a few minutes of your time.
Premium Squads — The Cornerstone of the Store
Premium squads are the main thing the Enlisted store is built around, and the concept is worth understanding properly rather than just knowing they exist. Each premium squad comes with a fixed set of soldiers carrying weapons that are often historically rare — variants produced in limited numbers, weapons from a specific factory or production run, prototypes that saw limited field use, or equipment that existed but never made it into standard military doctrine. These aren’t necessarily stronger than fully upgraded regular squads, but they’re different in character, distinctive in appearance, and carry weapons that add genuinely interesting variety to how battles play out.
The two practical benefits that come with every premium squad are what make them worth having for any serious player. First, they earn double Silver and double experience in every battle you play them. Silver is the in-game currency used for researching weapons, soldiers, and vehicles across your four national armies — it’s what everything costs, and earning more of it per match directly translates into faster progression across the entire research tree. Second, premium squads occupy a dedicated extra squad slot that exists only for them, added specifically to the battle lineup without requiring you to remove a regular squad. This means your tactical options in battle increase when you bring a premium squad rather than staying flat — you’re adding variety to your lineup, not making a trade.
The Nations and What Premium Squads Look Like Across Each One
All four playable nations — the USA, Germany, the USSR, and Japan — have their own premium squad catalogs, and the available units reflect each nation’s historical equipment profile in genuinely interesting ways. USSR premium squads might carry rare factory variants of familiar weapons like the PPD-40 in a Vladivostok shipyard configuration, or prototype self-loading carbines that closely resembled the eventual SKS but chambered in a completely different cartridge. German premium squads might include paratroopers carrying Hungarian submachine guns like the Kiraly 43M, or Italian flamethrower units using the Lanciafiamme Mod.35. American units have appeared carrying uniquely designed submachine guns with double-stack magazine configurations that saw very limited real-world distribution.
The Japan premium catalog has developed significantly as the game has expanded to bring Japan to full parity with the other nations, now covering all tier levels and giving Japanese army players genuinely competitive equipment across the research tree alongside distinctive premium options. If you play multiple nations — which the game actively rewards and makes progressively easier — having premium squads for each one means the Silver income boost applies across all of them simultaneously when you rotate between armies during a session.
Gold — The Currency Worth Understanding Before You Buy
Gold is the premium currency for Enlisted, purchased through the Gaijin store or the in-game shop across all platforms. It’s used to buy premium squads directly, purchase premium account time, acquire additional squad slots, buy certain cosmetic chests, and access temporarily available squads during limited windows. Gold doesn’t expire, which means you can stock up during sale events and spend it when something specific becomes available rather than making immediate purchase decisions under time pressure.
The exchange rate between real money and Gold varies by package size, with larger Gold purchases offering better value per unit. For players who know they’re going to be investing in the game over time, buying Gold during a sale or at a higher package tier is consistently the most efficient approach. The timing of purchases matters in Enlisted more than in many games because the sale windows — which happen regularly and are announced on the news page — typically apply to Gold-priced items in the store alongside in-game Silver-priced items.
Premium Account — The Progression Multiplier Worth Having
The premium account is a time-based subscription that boosts both Silver and experience earned in every battle, applied to your entire account rather than just specific squads. It stacks multiplicatively with the premium squad double income bonus, which means a premium squad played during an active premium account session is earning substantially more than either bonus provides on its own. For anyone who plays regularly and has a research tree they want to advance faster, the combination of premium account plus premium squads is the most efficient Silver-generating setup available.
Premium account is offered in multiple duration tiers — shorter trial options and longer commitments including ninety-day and annual options. The annual option consistently represents the best long-term value, and it’s the one most frequently discounted during major sale events. During the New Year sale and other holiday promotions, premium account at the longer tiers has been available at meaningful discounts, making these sale windows the obvious time to extend or renew a subscription rather than buying at standard price in between.
The ability to purchase additional squad slots while a premium account is active is worth noting separately — squad slots expand how many units you can bring to battle, and having more slots means more strategic flexibility when assembling your army for a specific map or game mode.
Starter Packs — For New Players Who Want to Skip the Early Confusion
Starter packs are designed specifically for new commanders who want to arrive in their first battles with something more than the baseline equipment the free game starts with. A well-designed starter pack includes soldiers already upgraded beyond the base level, weapon samples relevant to the nation and battle rating they’re intended for, a short stint of premium account, a supply of Gold, and utility items like first-aid kits and explosives that help new players navigate situations they haven’t encountered before.
The practical value of a starter pack is the acceleration of the learning curve rather than a bypass of the game itself — you’re still playing through the same progression system and the same battles, but with enough of a head start that the first hours feel engaged rather than helpless. For players who come from other games with established preferences around how they want to approach WWII combat, a starter pack lets them start acting on those preferences immediately rather than spending the first several sessions unlocking the gear to make those choices possible.
Cosmetic Chests and Squad Customization
The most recent major updates have introduced a cosmetic layer to the Enlisted store that’s genuinely worth knowing about. Chests purchasable for Gold contain squad customization options — cosmetic items that change the appearance of your soldiers, units, and equipment without affecting gameplay. This system was introduced with the Operation Neptune update and gives players who’ve already built their armies to a satisfying level something meaningful to invest in that expresses personality rather than power.
These cosmetics apply to the visual experience of being on the battlefield — the way your squads look while performing the same roles they always have — and represent the kind of purchase that’s about enjoying the aesthetic of the game rather than gaining progression advantages. For players who’ve been with Enlisted long enough to have deep armies across multiple nations, cosmetic chests offer a way to further personalize those armies in ways the standard research tree doesn’t enable.
Sales — When to Watch and What to Expect
Enlisted’s sale schedule is regular enough to plan around, and the discounts during peak sale periods are substantial enough to justify patience if you’re considering a larger purchase. The New Year sale, the May holiday sale, and the summer sale are the three most consistent annual events, and each brings serious discounts to premium squads across all nations, premium account at longer durations, and the return of temporarily unavailable squads for limited windows.
The temporary squad mechanic during sales is one of the more distinctive parts of Enlisted’s store structure. Premium squads aren’t all available all the time — some rotate in and out of the shop on limited windows, and sales are often when they return. This creates genuine scarcity around specific units, especially the historically interesting or visually distinctive ones that weren’t part of the base rotation. Tracking which squads you want and timing a purchase around their return window is a more active approach to the store than most games require, but it also means there’s consistently something worth looking at rather than a static catalog that never changes.
The Microsoft Store also runs its own Deals Unlocked add-on sales periodically, covering squads and starter packs for all nations with additional platform-specific discounts that can apply on top of the standard sale pricing.
Battle Pass — Seasonal Rewards Without Direct Purchase Pressure
Enlisted’s Battle Pass system offers seasonal reward tracks that advance through normal gameplay, providing additional squads, currency, cosmetics, and progression items to players who are active during a given season. The Battle Pass rewards are available to all players at the base level, with a premium track that provides additional rewards for those who choose to unlock it. This is a lower-stakes way to acquire premium content through play time rather than direct purchase, and it runs in parallel with the main store rather than replacing it.
Seasons are time-limited but the rewards carry forward — anything earned through the Battle Pass stays in your account regardless of when the season ends.
Why the Enlisted Store Is Worth Engaging With
The clearest argument for spending in Enlisted is the combination of Silver income acceleration and the historical authenticity of what the store actually offers. The premium squads aren’t just economically efficient — they’re the most historically interesting content in the game. The weapons they carry, the units they represent, and the visual detail they bring to the battlefield make the game richer for everyone who encounters them, not just the player who owns them.
If you play Enlisted regularly and you’re invested in building your armies to a level where you can compete effectively on every front, the premium account and a selection of premium squads for your most-played nations is the most direct way to make that progression happen at a pace that doesn’t require grinding for months to reach the equipment tier where the game becomes fully interesting. The sale calendar makes this accessible at genuinely good pricing multiple times a year, and the temporary squad windows mean there’s always something worth watching the store for even between the major events.
Checking the current offers on the news page at enlisted.net and the Gaijin store before your next session is a habit worth building if you’re serious about the game.