With the close of the Star Wars: Battlefront II beta, publishers EA have written a blog in which they address the key points of player feedback – notably, the game’s loot boxes, which can be purchased for real money and drop gameplay-affecting Star Cards.
Here’s everything we know about Star Wars: Battlefront 2.
If you’re wondering exactly what those Star Cards do, click here for details on all of them. In short, they are your abilities – your grenades, jetpacks, and special weapons – and can be mixed between classes in your loadout screen. They can be upgraded for stronger effects.
“We know you have a lot of questions about crates and progression, so we want to clarify a few things, as the complete system was not in the beta and will continue to be tuned over time,” say EA. “As a balance goal, we’re working towards having the most powerful items in the game only earnable via in-game achievements.”
That’s the closest EA have come to an assurance that paying for microtransactions won’t give players a significant edge over their competition, though they also say “you have to earn the right to be able to upgrade Star Cards and unlock most Weapons. You can only upgrade or unlock them if you have reached a high enough rank, which is determined by playing the game.” So even if you splash some real-world cash, some gameplay is still required to get your Star Cards to their most powerful form.
Crates will continue to contain Star Cards, along with outfits, emotes, and victory poses. You can earn crates through “completing challenges and other gameplay milestones, or by purchasing them with in-game credits or Crystals, our premium currency.” Duplicate Star Card drops will be converted into crafting parts, which you can then use to upgrade the Star Card of your choice.
Here’s the blog by EA.