Maintaining your fleet is not free in Void Destroyer 2. Each ship will cost you periodic upkeep, with bigger ships costing more credits. Making sure your fleet is the right size and composition for your battles ahead is a smart way to optimize your cashflow. There are two main sources of upkeep costs.

Each ship you own that is active in the world will cost you upkeep. Ships stored safely in any station hangar will not cost upkeep.

Upkeep is paid every 16 minutes, realtime. Using time compression will make you perceive this as happening more often.

While in the overworld, look for this symbol on the button bar to view your upkeep.


In general, expect to pay roughly

1400 cr per fighter
3500 cr per gunship
15000 cr per corvette
125000 cr per frigate

While at a station, click this button to view the Commerce screen

Down the left side of the screen are ships that you can hire. Select one, then hover over the Hire button on the right side to see how much it will cost.
You will pay this price initially, (security deposit) and then you will pay it again every time you dock while this ship is in your service. (wages)
Hired Ships will follow you and obey orders such as ALT+A (attack my target). They cannot be upgraded. Keeping them alive is recommended, as you get a small Faction Relations penalty every time you get one of their guys killed. Also, keeping them alive lets you use the Dismiss button when you are finished with them.

Dismissing a follower fully refunds the initial hiring deposit but does not refund any of their wages.