Update 14th November: EA has amended the credits required to purchase hero characters, slashing them by 75% – so now Darth Vader can be purchased at 15,000 credits, as opposed to 60,000 earlier

As we head closer to the release of Battlefront II, so does the mussing and complaints about the game’s micro transaction and loot box system grow louder with each passing day. Is it that bad? How will it break the game? We’ve poked around the net to find out how will the system affect your playtime, as well as things you’d want to know before dipping your toes into the multiplayer facet of the highly anticipated game set to drop 17th November 2017.

Without further ado, here’s the lowdown you’d want to get hold of prior to starting your journey as a disposable grunt in Battlefront II.

Star Cards

As we found out via the beta recently, Star Cards is the main way for players to progress and get stronger in the game. These Star Cards can be slotted into each of these classes – Troopers, Hero, and vehicle -  slots to stats be it defensive, offensive and special traits. These cards also come in several tiers with differing effects depending on its level and replicated cards can be scrapped to be used for crafting.

Boost cards – As the name imply, these cards apply general improvements to a class or character be it reduced damage from explosives or faster health regeneration. As for armoured vehicles and ships, these boosts include improved shields, better regeneration rate and shorter weapon cooldown times.

Ability cards – With ability cards, you can customize the abilities of your class, character or vehicle. For example, with Improved Thermal Detonator, your Assault class’ grenade gets a larger blast radius and shorter recharge time.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q51LZ2HpbE&w=560&h=315]

Players can equip up to three Star Cards per class, character, or vehicle type; but you have to start with one at first. You will only get the remaining two once you level up that particular character, class or vehicle once you reach ranks five, and the third at rank ten.

To get these Boost and Ability cards, you’ll have to crack open the dreaded loot crate. Here’s how you can get them and what each crate has to offer:

All three types of loot box types can possibly contain a Star Card for any class, character, or vehicle type. Each of these boxes also will give you Crafting Parts, and may also contain a weapon, emote, or victory pose.

Trooper Crates – Rewards Star Cards for your main classes (eg, Assault and Heavy),

Starfighter Crates – Rewards Star Cards for your X-Wings and the ships, for use in the Starfighter Assault mode;

Hero Crates – Rewards boosts for the hero characters you can play as during multiplayer mode.

You can obtain these crates via two ways; purchasing them via in-game credits which you earn by completing multiplayer matches or with the Premium Currency or ‘Crystals’, purchasable via the store. The cost are as follows:

Trooper Crate: 4,000 Credits/ 200 Crystals
Starfighter Crate: 2,400 Credits/ 120 Crystals
Hero Crate: 2,200 Credits/ 110 Crystals

You’ll one Daily Login Crate per day containing three items and a Founder’s Crate if you participated in the beta. Don’t forget to check out the Challenges portion as they will reward you with credits for accomplishments throughout.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvmx94cUVEY&w=560&h=315]

Crafting

Apart from the cards mentioned above, the loot boxes also come with Crafting Parts which can be used to create Star Cards at 40 Crafting Parts each. These parts can also be used to upgrade Star Cards later on.

Unlocking Weapons

Acquiring weapons require players to hit milestones to unlock them e.g 50 kills instead of getting them via loot boxes.

Unlocking Heroes and Villains

You’ll require a shit ton of credits in order to unlock the special character Heroes and Villains such as Yoda, and Darth Vader. When playing the Heroes vs Villains mode, everyone spawns as a special character, while heroic ships can be used in the Starfighter Assault mode.

Players start with several Heroes unlocked while the tastier ones are locked behind a paywall. Want to be in the boots of Luke Skywalker? The prepare to stock up and spend 15,000 Credits. The most affordable Hero is Iden Versio – 5,000 credits while Darth Vader will set you back 15,000 Credits. Apparently there is no way to purchase these heroes via Crystals so expect to grind to get your hero of choice.

Theoretically the loot box system in Battlefront II does not ruin nor break the multiplayer experience but you will time and time again, find yourself losing a one-on-one fight to a player simply due to them having more slots unlocked as compared to yours. Expect to lose certain skirmishes due to inferior gear as well rather than skill but we expect as the more hours are invested into the game, everyone will eventually come to parity in terms of unlocks and loadout tiers. We kinda like the fact that one cannot simply swipe their card to gain access to higher tier heroes such as Darth Vader and Luke, and hopefully EA will be able to balance out the huge pool of characters and heroes as the game servers mature.

Star Wars: Battlefront II hits PC, PS4 and the Xbox One come November 17 2017.

Main source: PC Gamer