Star Trek Online offers players a buyout option for advancing reputations

If you’re a new player in Star Trek Online, there are a lot of reputations to level up once you get to a sufficient level. If you’re a veteran player who took a break, there may still be a lot of reputations for you to level just to catch up. The bright side of the new acceleration option available to players is that it ensures you can gain the net increases of more traits and abilities directly by simply buying an advancement of these reputations to Tier V. The down side is, well… it costs 3000 Zen to do so.

Yes, it’s a new kind of microtransaction and it costs as much as a new ship (although it also does have a discount applied if you have already done some of the leveling). Players will also be only able to reach Tier V, rather than the ultimate Tier VI reputation. Still, it’s a rather significant cost to avoid waiting for a bar to fill, and it may prompt unkind comparisons to mobile titles using similar mechanics to speed up slow processes.