Money pit
You can progress up to about level 25, maybe 30, relatively quickly, but past that, it’s nearly impossible without spending money. And probably lots of it. $20 just to upgrade 1 work station, and there are about a dozen of them and who knows how many levels there are to upgrading them all. Then there’s the clothing, tools and weapons. They all have durability. Meaning they wear out and you will need to craft new ones or buy them. Crafting new ones sounds simple enough, but getting those resources are near impossible because they are surrounded by bandits and gangs and wolves packs,etc,etc so you are forced to spend money or grind endlessly to get where you want to be. So far, all the newer players don’t seem to last long. There’s not a great deal of people on there playing, most are money spenders with top gear.