Phoenix Credits are an end-game currency in The Division.
Summary
Phoenix Credits are the one of the end-game features within The Division, allowing players to purchase some of the best weapons, gear, mods, keys, and other such items. While Daily Missions and Challenge Modes can earn significant Phoenix Credits, they can also be farmed rather easily in the Dark Zone.
Spending Phoenix Credits
Phoenix Credits can currently be used at the Base of Operations Phoenix vendor. This vendor is located in the upstairs section of the tech wing at the back left corner of the room once up the stairs. Note that you must reach level 30 in order for this vendor to appear once the BoO is fully upgraded (Need confirmation that the base must be 100% upgraded for the vendor to appear).
Obtaining Credits
Credits can be purchased directly from the Uplay store in 30 credit amounts. While this is likely the easiest and fastest method to get these credits, this requires real life money, and is thus not very attractive for many gamers.
Credits can be farmed in the Dark Zone, however. Low level enemies give random and small amounts of credits, while higher elite level enemies give larger amounts.
That being said, the easiest way to get credits is to replay the final mission, General Assembly, on hard. With a full team, the mission shouldn't take more than a half hour to forty five minutes, and grants a pretty significant amount of Phoenix Credits depending on how many are in your team.
Nerfing Controversy
There was some controversy amongst players when Ubisoft decided to nerf (or reduce) the amount of credits given to players following some farming exploits. While this has harmed some methods, it is still very possible to farm these credits through basic gameplay, so the nerf only really hurt those getting ridiculously high amounts of credits. Regardless, Phoenix Credits max out at 1,000, so they should be spent routinely anyhow. There has been some suggested issues with the 2,000 max limit, largely centered around the fact that many players have to "waste" their credits or otherwise purchase poor items in order to refresh vendor lists and such. This is being addressed on a patch basis, and has largely been resolved as of the current (5/10) build.
Challenging Modes
Some missions in The Division have a "challenging mode". These missions are some of the best ways to get Phoenix Credits, and are very grindable. That being said, the difficulty lives up to the name, so the Challenging Modes might not be as lucrative as other game modes when considering the time required for each.
Notes
- The DZ06 safe house on West 55th no longer takes Phoenix Credits as of the Incursion update. Instead this vendor now falls in line with other Dark Zone vendors and only accepts Dark Zone Funds.
- In the update 1.2, the Phoenix Credits cap was doubled. Likewise, the gear score was lowered to make up for some errors in calculation and some smudged stats.