What are the differences if you upgrade your ship with a fake license?

Question

I've discovered that you can now upgrade your ship using a fake license, but it seems there is another alternative method of upgrading your ship, I assume the legit way.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of upgrading via the fake license or the other method?

The fake license seems like a really good choice to me since I have no idea how to even go about upgrading it via the other method, I'm guessing I need to do more main story missions or something. However I am reluctant to do it this way as I fear that there may be a disadvantage. Maybe closing some possibly side quests or something, I don't know.

Answer 1

Upgrading your ship normally involves getting crew members from NPC settlements (a total of 2, 4, 6, 8, then 10) by completing small randomly generated quests for them, or by hiring penguin mercenaries after defeating Dreadwing.

Once upgraded, there is no difference between a ship that was upgraded with a fake license and a ship that was upgraded with a real license. You will not be locked out of side-quests, and can still gain crew members if you want to.

The main disadvantage to upgrading your ship with fake licenses is its cost. You'll need a total of 280,000 pixels to fully upgrade your ship. Also, if you buy the first few fake licenses then decide to go the normal route, you'll still have to get up to the number of crew members you'd need normally to unlock the next tier, so your previous licenses have gone to waste.

The advantage to upgrading your ship with fake licenses would be that you don't have to run around completing small quests for NPCs, although I've personally found this much easier than collecting 280,000 pixels.