EA and DICE have detailed the changes being made to Star Wars: Battlefront II's progression system after hastily turning off the ability to buy virtual currency at the game's launch last year.

The most fundamental change is that progression is now linear, meaning that star cards and all gameplay-impacting items are now earned as set rewards for leveling up. Experience points are doled out for characters, classes, and ships that give you skill points at level ups to unlock or upgrade star cards.

Loot boxes, or crates in the Battlefront II vernacular, no longer contain star cards at all and can only be earned through daily login bonuses, milestones, and timed challenges. Cosmetic items like emotes and victory poses can still be gotten through crates, but anything gameplay-related is off the table.

Starting next month, cosmetic outfits can be purchased through in-game credits or the virtual currency crystals. The outfits are for both the troopers and the heroes, so you can take the appearance of a Rodian and shoot second all you want, though that's probably not recommended as a gameplay strategy.

Everything players have already earned is still theirs to keep, but everything else falls under the new progression system which launches March 21. The cosmetics system will follow later in April without a solid date quite yet. EA also says that new modes are on the way to Battlefront II that the developer describes as "radically different from anything seen before."

During their latest earnings report, EA stated that they missed the sales target on Battlefront II, though seemed bullish on the prospect of reintroducing the payment model to the game.

Our Take

This probably should have been the progression system the game launched with, as the pay-to-win model was merely annoying, but it ended up necessitating a grinding alternative which annoyed more people. That said, at least they are revamping it and I am guessing fewer people will have a problem with cosmetics being purchasable.