I'd like to start a thread for any and all tips on making and/or saving credits.

Feel free to share any tips of your own.

 1. You  don't have to buy every upgrade

Most ships have multiple tiers of upgrades you can perform. While you do need to research the current upgrade to unlock the next you do not need to purchase it.

For example the USN tier 4 DD Fletcher has 4 engine power upgrades available for research. By only purchasing the 2nd and 4th upgrades and leaving the 1st and 3rd unpurchased I saved over 2,000 credits.

2. Survive the battle/Repair in battle

One would think this would be a no brainer but every match I see ships with less than 20% health suicide charge and get sunk before ever getting in range to fire on the enemy.

Now getting sunk will happen more often then not but if you manage to fall back off the front lines when heavily damaged stay back and wait for your ship to repair. You can still help your team, practice firing at max range and keep a teamate between you and the enemy so they are more likely to be targeted.

Repairing your ship at the end of battle costs money, the less that needs to be repaired the more credits you get to keep at the end of your battle.

Even at DD  1 - 4 levels surviving with 20% health vs getting sunk doing a suicide run will have you taking home several hundred more credits at the end of each match.

Another benefit is that once you repair a bit you will have enough DP/health in your ship to be of some actual use to the team in an attack.

3. Remove armor before selling ship/switching ships

On the ship armor screen you can click the currently installed armor and as long as there is an empty box above it in the pop up window that armor can be removed and installed on another ship.

Instead of buying a set for each ship you own you are able to move the armor between (for example) your DD3 to DD4.

Basic armor is only 120 credits for a set but every little bit saved helps.

4. Stay till game ends

If you get sunk and leave the game before it ends it counts as a loss and you will receive less credits.

EDIT: If you know your team is going to lose just retreat, you will get roughly same reward either way.

5. Capture bases  (bvoid0)

Capturing bases can provide bonus credits. The reward varies by contribution as I have had rewards of 80 credits one game and 120 credits another.

6. Using a mastered ship (tip from Merrick, verified by myself)

A Mastered ship provided more credits and exp.

If you research all available upgrades as well as any ships that progress from your current one your ship with be Mastered.

I ran 3 games in a DD2 before I got it mastered.

In those games I did between 2-3k attack (guns) and was sunk at around 3 minutes in and retreated immediately.

Credits earned were 167, 189, 161.

Exp earned was 363, 392, 355.

I then purchased my last upgrade to master my DD2 and played 2 more times (2-3k attack and sunk at 3 min).

Credits earned were 269 and 243.

Exp earned was 568 and 570.

A Mastered ship earns some universal exp that can be used on other ships upgrades.