Here's how Star Wars Battlefront 2's crate system works
See for yourself in the closed alpha
We already knew that Star Wars Battlefront 2 [official site] was doing away with season passes, instead doling out post-launch maps, modes and characters for free, but that doesn’t mean EA and DICE won’t be trying to tempt you to part with your cash in other ways. Battlefront 2 will feature optional microtransactions, letting players purchase crates with in-game currency and real cash. An EA-sponsored video from BattlefrontUpdates breaks down how this will work below.
In this build, the crates contain star cards and crafting supplies. The former come in a variety of rarities and can be applied to characters to give them new abilities or augment base abilities. The latter can be spent on upgrading those cards. So if you have a common star card, you can spend your crafting supplies to transform it into an uncommon version. Any duplicates you find are converted into more crafting supplies.
While I’m looking forward to being able to muck around with different builds and customise the game's various heroes and villains, I’m a bit put off by the potential for big spenders to get an advantage over players who don’t want to throw more money at a premium game. I’ve never had a problem with loot boxes in Overwatch, for instance, because skins and sprays are purely cosmetic. That said, this is still infinitely better than locking players out of maps and modes the way the last Battlefront did.
Below, you can see the difference between common and epic star cards.
A few of you might be able to see this for yourselves, as it looks like the closed alpha has snuck up on us. Invites have been sent out, as noted by NeoGAF users, and players have already started to discuss (and complain about) the game on the official forums.