---
title: "Can You Get Zen Without Paying in Star Trek Online? | -PTF-"
canonical: "https://ptfarmada.com/answers/star-trek-online-earn-zen-free/"
description: "Yes. Refined Dilithium can be exchanged with other players for Zen in STO. Learn how the Dilithium Exchange works and why buy offers can become backlogged."
language: "en-GB"
source: "https://ptfarmada.com/answers/star-trek-online-earn-zen-free/"
date_published: "2026-09-12"
date_modified: "2026-09-12T22:07:00Z"
last_modified: "2026-09-12T22:07:00Z"
representation: "text/markdown"
---

# Can you get Zen without paying in Star Trek Online?

Yes. You can earn Dilithium through play, refine it, and use the Dilithium Exchange to place an offer for Zen sold by other players. Buying Zen with real money is not the only route.

## Use Refined Dilithium on the Dilithium Exchange

### You can trade Refined Dilithium for Zen.

The Dilithium Exchange is a player market. You place an offer using Refined Dilithium, and another player supplies the Zen. The market can fill an offer immediately or leave it waiting in the queue.

## From gameplay currency to Zen

### Four steps

You need Refined Dilithium before you can place a Zen buy offer.

### An offer may have to wait

If enough Zen is being sold at your offered rate, the trade can fill quickly. If not, your offer stays open and waits for sellers.

## Why can a Zen offer take a long time to fill?

### Zen buy offers can form a queue.

The exchange rate is capped at 500 Refined Dilithium per Zen. If buy demand is still higher than the Zen being sold at that cap, offers can become backlogged. Offers at the same rate are filled in queue order as Zen is sold into the exchange.

Your offer completes when it reaches the front of that queue and enough Zen has been sold into the exchange to fill it. PC, PlayStation and Xbox are separate game worlds, so exchange conditions can differ between platforms.

## Sources

- https://store.epicgames.com/p/star-trek-online--faq
- https://stowiki.net/wiki/Zen
- https://stowiki.net/wiki/Dilithium_Exchange
- https://support.arcgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018162513-Xbox-One-and-PS4-General-Questions