Assassin's Creed Unity features a new alternate in-game currency used to unlock in-game upgrades, and it can be bought for real-world money in amounts up to $99.99.

The purchase of "Helix Credits," doesn't appear to be available on all platforms yet, and seems to have gone live overnight with Assassin's Creed Unity's launch in North America.

Under the concept, a player is able to access some customizations, boosts or other unlockables with experience points acquired, for free, through regular play.

For some items, users can skip that process and can "hack" the unlockable by buying "Helix Credits," which appear to be acquired only with real money. They may be used to upgrade weapons, buy boosts which up a player's attributes for a short time, or reveal stuff on their map without visiting a sync point.

This screenshot shows 1,400 Helix Credits being sold for $19.99, with $99.99 getting a lot of 20,000.

This screenshot shows an unlockable revealing all of a certain collectible within the Paris city map, available for 150 credits.

The Assassin's Creed series has featured real-money transactions before, in order to make cosmetic modifications (as in last year's Assassin's Creed: Black Flag). Polygon has reached out to Ubisoft for additional information on the publisher's plans for "Helix Credits," including a full pricing list.