The Black Market
The black market will allow you to make a name change, reallocate attribute points, reallocate tactic points, and reset your squad. You cannot change your flag without resetting here; once you have chosen it, you're stuck with it.It will cost you 10 gold bars to change any of these the first time, but any time you want to do the same thing a second time, it will cost you 40 gold bars.
Resetting your squad will bring you back to default, level 1, choose your flag all over again, and choose your name again. And no, your money does not come with you. All the gold bars you purchased do not come with you, you lose everything. You're starting all over again.
The black market is also where you use your real money to buy gold bars.
These gold bars can buy you the following:
25 Gold Bars - 2 tactic points
25 Gold Bars - 1 Mercenary
12 Gold Bars - XXX Amount of Cash (5 times your total income in cash)
15 Gold Bars - Full recharge of health, energy and stamina (ammo)
20 Gold Bars - Claim 5 special weapons insurance
If you are going to spend money on FoW, spend it wisely.
Here is how I would go about spending money. Depending on what your own strategy is, you may change it.
Tactics > Mercenaries. Tactics are more important than mercenaries. Once you reach level 80 and people are using max amp/suppress, mercenaries are almost useless.
Some people spend hundreds of dollars on this game; it is not uncommon.
Using real money isn't the only way to obtain gold bars, you may also obtain them through invasions and mastering missions.
In invasions, you can obtain gold bars by dealing the most damage to a boss or delivering the killing shot (you were the user that killed the boss). If you dealt the most damage and deliver the kill shot then you will earn both rewards.
A gold bar is also rewarded to you for every mission that you master (master 3 tiers for every mission for the maximum of 3 gold bars each).
If you wanted to fill suppress and amplify by level 80 and/or buy 100 mercenaries without participating in invasions or missions, this is approximately how much it will cost.
Max suppress & amplify at Level 80 (Buying at Full Price): $440
Max suppress & amplify at Level 80 (Buying During 20% Sale): $355
100 mercenaries (Buying at Full Price): $445
100 mercenaries (Buying During 20% Sale): $355
You may also buy Limited Edition (LE) Weapons/Vehicles, though I suggest that you buy weapons that are stronger than the M-200, so their attack should be greater than 43 and defense greater than 42. For vehicles I'd suggest that you buy stronger than the F-22 Raptor, so a higher attack than 77 and a higher defense than 71. The great thing about LE items: no upkeep! I would still suggest buying tactics and mercenaries before LE items though.
Tactics > Mercenaries > LE Items > Everything else.
Special weapons insurance may be helpful to some people, but most people tend to stay away from craftable items because of their expensive upkeep. The insurance just keeps you from losing the add-ons that you are attempting to use to upgrade a weapon, so when you go to craft a weapon in your armory, the insurance is used and you receive the item you were attempting to craft.