Earlier, during the July 2021 Technical Preview, we got our first look at the Battle Pass and progression system. In the September/October 2021 Technical Preview, not much had changed from the July flight. The key differences were that the Battle Pass was modified to have 30 tiers and that the Challenge system was working properly in this iteration. Rather than reexplain how all these systems work again, I will focus solely on the differences between the two Tech Previews.
As before, the Battle Pass was accessible from the Main Menu through several means, such as pressing the "Y" button and selecting "Battle Pass" or using the Settings menu to access it. On the Battle Pass screen, players could scroll through the Free and Paid rewards at all 30 tiers of the Battle Pass, view their progress towards the next tier, purchase it for 250 cR (Credits) if they had not already done so, and activate Consumables.
Just like in the July Tech Preview, each tier of the Battle Pass required the player to earn 500 XP or spend 200 cR to advance. XP could only be earned by completing Daily and Weekly Challenges, while cR, as the premium currency, was only allotted at the start of the Tech Preview in a single batch of 3000. This time, Daily Challenges were impossible to fully complete (due to the limited matchmaking availabilities, and there were enough Weekly Challenges available to level the Battle Pass through all 30 tiers, especially when using Double XP Boosts.
Page 1 of the Battle Pass, showing Tier 1 through the first half of Tier 6, can be seen above. All progress from the July Tech Preview carried forward, but the Battle Pass tiers and rewards were modified for this Tech Preview.
Page 2 of the Battle Pass, showing the second half of Tier 6 through Tier 11.
Page 3 of the Battle Pass, showing Tiers 12 through 18.
Page 4 of the Battle Pass, showing Tier 19 through the first half of Tier 24.
Page 5 of the Battle Pass, showing the second half of Tier 24 through the first half of Tier 30.
Page 6 of the Battle Pass, showing the second half of Tier 30.
The rewards for each stage of the Battle Pass are transcribed in text as follows:
Free:
Tier 1: Challenge Swap
Tier 2: Karaba Sirocco Armor Coating (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 3: N/A
Tier 4: Challenge Swap
Tier 5: N/A
Tier 6: Cloven Seafoam Armor Coating (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 7: Challenge Swap
Tier 8: N/A
Tier 9: Goblin Visor (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 10: N/A
Tier 11: Challenge Swap
Tier 12: N/A
Tier 13: Scorpion Punch Armor Coating (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 14: N/A
Tier 15: Challenge Swap
Tier 16: N/A
Tier 17: MedAux Unit/Type I Utility (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 18: N/A
Tier 19: Challenge Swap
Tier 20: N/A
Tier 21: Arctic Void Armor Coating (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 22: Challenge Swap
Tier 23: N/A
Tier 24: Cosmic Corruption Armor Coating (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 25: N/A
Tier 26: Ghost Grey Armor Coating (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 27: N/A
Tier 28: Challenge Swap
Tier 29: N/A
Tier 30: UA/M550D Halfplate Chest (Mark VII Armor Core)
Paid:
Tier 1: AVIATOR Helmet (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 2: XP Boost
Tier 3: Rampant Visor (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 4: UA/AGATHIUS Right Shoulder Pad (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 5: UA/AGATHIUS Left Shoulder Pad (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 6: XP Boost
Tier 7: XP Boost
Tier 8: UA/RELIKT Cuirass Chest (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 9: MAT-2550\Grenade Pack Utility (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 10: UA/Type II-A1 Buckler Wrist (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 11: XP Boost
Tier 12: XP Boost
Tier 13: UA/M557 Jackplate Chest (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 14: Phalanx Visor (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 15: N/A
Tier 16: XP Boost
Tier 17: UA/ALAIR Right Shoulder Pad (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 18: UA/ALAIR Left Shoulder Pad (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 19: Vandal Visor (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 20: Blue Rampage Armor Coating (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 21: XP Boost
Tier 22: UA/Type RG Knee Pads (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 23: UTIL/ENAV Beacon Chest (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 24: MedAux Unit/Type II Utility (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 25: TRAILBLAZER Helmet (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 26: XP Boost
Tier 27: Dragoon Visor (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 28: UA/Type SP Knee Pads (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 29: FCI-I/AIRWOLF Helmet Attachment for TRAILBLAZER (Mark VII Armor Core)
Tier 30: Estate Gold Armor Coating (Mark VII Armor Core)
This breakdown helps show that, in the Tech Preview, Free players could earn all but two Armor Coatings for the Mark VII Armor Core, a few armor pieces, and every Challenge Swap. Upgrading to the Paid Battle Pass would allow players to obtain far more cosmetic items as well as multiple consumable XP Boosts.
As with the July Tech Preview, the final aspect of the Battle Pass section is the ability to use Consumables, as seen above. There are three options on the Consumables page:
"Level Up": Spend 200 cR to advance the Battle Pass by one Tier.
"Activate XP Boost": Consume an XP Boost to double the XP earned from all Challenges for 30 minutes, including time spent in menus and outside the game.
"Use XP Grant": A feature not enabled in this Tech Preview. Likely consumes an XP Grant to give the player a set amount of XP toward their Battle Pass.
The quantities of XP Boosts and XP Grants are also visible from this screen.
Note that activating an XP Boost will enable a timer that is only visible from the Battle Pass screen. This timer indicates for how long the XP Boost will apply to XP earnings.
The only other Consumable featured in the Tech Preview is the Challenge Swap (shown by the small icons to the left of the Weekly Challenges). When on the Challenges screen, players can select a Weekly Challenge they do not wish to complete (or cannot complete) and consume a Challenge Swap to switch it out for another randomly selected Challenge of the same difficulty (indicated by the color of its background).
Players must still complete a Weekly Challenge in the same tier, but they are welcome to reroll the requirements so long as they have a Challenge Swap. Note that rerolling a Weekly Challenge resets progress on it.
Daily Challenges could only be completed one at a time, but they escalated in difficulty more slowly than in the first Tech Preview. There were three tiers of Daily Challenges, each awarding slightly more XP than the previous tier. As with Weekly Challenges, difficulty is indicated by the color of the background: gray for Tier 1, gray/blue for Tier 2, and blue for Tier 3.
Each Daily Challenge was called "Practice Makes Perfection X" where X was the number of the Daily Challenge. The order of the Daily Challenges and their objectives, as far as I was able to discover, are listed below:
1: Play any Match (1) -- Tier 1 (100 XP each)
2: Play any Matches (1)
3: Play any Matches (1)
4: Play any Matches (2)
5: Play any Matches (2)
6: Play any Matches (2)
7: Play any PvP Matches (3) -- Tier 2 (150 XP each)
8: Play any PvP Matches (3)
9: Play any PvP Matches (4)
10: Play any PvP Matches (4)
11: Play any PvP Matches (5)
12: Play any PvP Matches (5)
13: Win any PvP Matches (3) -- Tier 3 (200 XP each)
14: Win any PvP Matches (3)
15: Win any PvP Matches (4)
There were only 8 hours of matchmaking available each day, and I was only able to progress as far as the 15th Daily Challenge within those 8 hours. There are likely more Daily Challenges beyond what is listed above, but they would all fall in the Tier 3 category, requiring victory in PvP matches.
Players could progress three Weekly Challenges simultaneously with the Free Battle Pass and four simultaneously after purchasing the Battle Pass. After the player completed an active Weekly Challenge, a new one from the Upcoming Weekly Challenges section (shown above) would replace it until there were no more challenges in this section.
In this Tech Preview, there were 7 Weekly Challenges that reset every 2-3 days (to expedite leveling during the preview). The first four Weekly Challenges slotted into the Active Challenge section were from Tier 1, and they each offered 200 XP. Two of the Upcoming Weekly Challenges fell into Tier 2, and they each offered 250 XP and were slightly more difficult than those in Tier 1. Finally one Tier 3 Weekly Challenge initially started in the Upcoming Weekly Challenges section and was the most difficult of the three tiers. However, completing a Tier 3 Weekly Challenge awarded the player with 300 XP.
Completing all available Weekly Challenges within a given week unlocks the final Capstone Challenge for the week, which awarded 250 XP and a unique cosmetic item. During the "week" where the Hexen Slate Armor Coating was available, this Capstone Challenge required the player to complete 15 PvP matches, while the Stone Green Armor Coating Capstone Challenge required players to kill 25 enemy Spartans (half the requirements from the first Tech Preview).
Note that none of the above rewards, values, or rules for Free versus Paid items are final, and they may change considerably between this Tech Preview and the final release of the game this Holiday. That being said, don't be afraid to provide feedback on things you liked and things you didn't like about this system, as it will be a factor in the final version released with the game and where it expands beyond launch.
Summary
The Battle Pass system in the September/October Flight was only a slice of what players can expect when the full game launches on December 8. The below conclusions detail what their current plans for the system are based on what we saw in the Tech Preview and what we have seen from other sources. Since some of it may change between now and launch, the below summary points may become inaccurate or obsolete once the game is released.
The Battle Pass will have Paid rewards in nearly every Tier.
The Battle Pass will have Free rewards in many Tiers spread throughout the entirety of the Pass, but not every Tier will have a Free reward.
Free rewards can include Armor Coatings, Visors, Chests, Utilities, and Challenge Swaps.
Paid rewards include a larger variety of customizations and XP Boosts.
All XP comes from Challenge completion. There is a finite number of Weekly Challenges available each week and Daily Challenges available each day, but the Daily Challenges are designed to not run out unless a player spends 16-18 hours playing in a given day.
Players can use an XP Boost to double all XP they earn for 30 minutes, including time spent in menus. It is best to use these when you will be completing a large number of Weekly Challenges in the next few matches.
Players will be able to use a consumable XP Grant to instantly earn a set amount of XP.
Players will be able to use premium cR (Credits) to advance the Battle Pass as an alternative to earning XP.
On the Challenge screen, players can consume a Challenge Swap to swap out the objective for any active Weekly Challenge. The Challenge must still be completed, but the requirements will be randomly rerolled. The new objective selected will be from the same difficulty tier as the original Challenge.
As the player completes active Weekly Challenges, new Weekly Challenges from the Upcoming Challenges section will rotate into the Active Challenges section until none are left.
There will be one Daily Challenge available at a time. There is a set progression for Daily Challenges whereby their difficulty and rewards increase over the course of the day.
The first tier, with the lowest XP payout, contains challenges that require players to simply play matches of any kind, including in Bot Arena.
The second tier, with a middling amount of XP rewards, requires players to play PvP matches specifically.
The final tier, which offers the most XP per Challenge, shifts the objective to wins in PvP.
Alongside Daily Challenges, Weekly Challenges also offer three tiers, each awarding slightly more XP than the previous tier but with increased difficulty. Like with Daily Challenges, the Challenge tiers are indicated by the background color used for the Challenge: gray is the lowest tier, gray/blue is the second tier, and blue is the highest tier.
Completing all Weekly Challenges in a given week will unlock the ability to complete the Capstone Challenge, which will reward players with an exclusive cosmetic item and some XP.
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