As the title says, you will need to purchase the pass to continue progress on it when the Combined Arms operation launches next week. If you have already purchased the S5 pass, you will be able to switch between it and other passes as normal.
The Combined Arms operation will last five weeks (ends Dec 19, when Winter Contingency launches) and will have its own free 20 item track to progress on, a premium option will be available to unlock a premium-only item, keep the operation pass forever, award bonus xp during the duration of the operation, and to unlock an extra challenge slot for the duration of the operation.
For more information on Operations, see this Waypoint article.
Oh the operations actually have a premium pass? I thought it was just the option to pay to progress faster and purchasing them after the operation has ended. Must’ve missed that, hopefully still some decent stuff in the free tier
Actually I think you are correct, did a quick re-read of that operations post on waypoint:
Operations, like Events before them, will continue to launch as totally free activities. Each Operation will include 20 tiers of free unlockable rewards that can be progressed at your leisure over the specified duration of the Operation.
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First, players may choose to upgrade an active Operation for 500 credits, which will instantly unlock an exclusive bonus customization item while also making the Operation pass durable (it will not expire) and, when equipped, offers bonus XP and an extra challenge slot during the Operation’s live window.
A second premium option for 2,000 credits instantly unlocks all 20 tiers at purchase as a convenience and additionally includes the exclusive bonus customization item.
I’ll update this post, thank you!
I really don’t like this new system. They are masking more fomo microtransactions by saying they are giving us more time to do operations compared to events. Super two-faced considering we could do events at the same time as the battle pass previously. This is just adding more grind by basically having 3 smaller season passes and trying to get you to buy into all of them.
But you’ll have 4 to 6 weeks to unlock 20 tiers of content.
There is no grind to the game and this is just giving more active progression throughout the season.
In fact, paying for an Operation pass only gets you 1 additional reward. Hardly fomo.
But I used to be able to do the event AND still progress on the season pass at the same time. And that was with 4 challenge slots. Now, despite the fact that I bought the season 5 battle pass, I only get 3 challenge slots for the operations because I don’t want to fork over another $5 (each).
They could have just made events available for longer than 2 weeks but they chose to add more microtransactions. Idk how anyone with a brain could think that’s good for the players.
Losing the challenge slot is dumb, but you didn’t mention that.
There are half the tiers in the BP than previous months, and you’ve bought it which means you can complete it at your own pace. Focus on the timed Operations and when they’re inevitably completed in a couple of weeks (because they are only 20 tiers), then go back and finish the BP. You legit don’t need to think about paying for the Operation - so don’t fret about it.
You’re making it seem like a bigger deal than it is, but the truth is they’ve watered down the BP + Operation progression anyway that you can so much as fart near the game and gain a level.
And if you don’t have the 3 hours a week it takes to keep on top of these, then I’m gonna tell you now, you’re spending too much time worrying about something that doesn’t need to be a concern for you.
Play the game, enjoy it. These systems have no impact on the gameplay or the fun to be had with it.
