How to improve the Battle Pass

Game Discussion General Discussion
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Introduction

I really like the Battle Pass (in theory). I think that it is a very good system that allows for the introduction of strange and interesting low and mid tier vehicles—the type we don’t often see in events anymore due to them focusing on high tier. Upon release, the Battle Pass was nearly perfect. It was just about everything I wanted it to be. No high tier vehicles, 4 coupons for vehicles, 6 profile pictures, 2 unique decorations, 5 unique decals, a medal, and a unique title. Plus, for $16.50 USD per season, it was fantastic value (and it still is, even if it is less valuable than before).

However, since season 1, we’ve seen a slow but consistent deterioration of the prizes. Season 2 replaced the medal with a unique, absolutely awesome loading screen which to me is a bonus, and the number of decorations was increased from 2 to 3. However, the 2 low tier prizes—the ship and the low tier tank—were no longer coupons and there were only 4 decals instead of 5. Still, season 2 was the best season for me because of its awesome theming and incredibly good prizes. The T55E1 GMC was a fun little meme machine, the Z25 was tier-for-tier the best destroyer in the game for quite a long time, the ITP (M-1) was and still is a monster, and the Centurion Mk. 5/1 (RAAC) is incredibly good.

Then came season 3. The 2 top prizes were now non-tradable coupons and you could only trade them by getting to levels 105 for the third prize and 125 for the fourth. These coupon upgrades could also be used to get the next season free though, so you have to choose between the ability to sell the vehicles or getting the next season for free. The ability to get the next season for free was nice, but being forced to choose between that and the ability to sell the vehicles as well as being forced to reach a much higher level to sell the vehicles is not. Furthermore, there was only 1 profile picture this time, down from 3 in the previous season and 6 in the first. Finally, they reduced the length of season challenges from the entire season to just 3 weeks. Only the season challenges unlocked in the pass remained for the full season. The one good change was that one of the decorations was now a naval decoration.

Season 4 did see a positive change which was having an extra 15-ish days to do the season, with the season being exitended from 75 days to 3 months.

Season 5 brought a good change: a reworked Warbonds Shop. There were some pieces of the rework I disagreed with, but on the whole, it is a better warbonds shop and certain premium vehicles in it can now be obtained at lower levels.

Everything stayed constant until season 7 which saw a huge reduction in quality. The low tier tank prize was removed entirely and replaced with 10 days of premium account. Including premium account in the season is great, but only 10 days of it is absolutely not worth losing a unique premium vehicle.

Since then, everything has remained relatively constant aside from the very positive change added right before the end of season 13 that at the end of a season, all unlocked prizes should will be credited to your account even if you haven’t clicked claim. This should have been added from the start of season 1, but very late is better than never.

It is clear that the Battle Pass has been in a state of slow, but steady deterioration since season 2. Let’s look at how to fix it.

Changes that need to be reverted

I’d start by reverting many of the changes to their season 1 state: 4 vehicles, all coupons, no coupon upgrades, and multiple profile pictures. It’s relatively self-explanatory why this needs to be done.

I would keep the 3 months seasons, unique loading screens, the reworked Warbonds Shop, the 3 decorations instead of 2 with 1 being a naval decoration, and the end-of-season 13 change of all prizes being automatically claimed at the end of the season.

How to make the Battle Pass even better

A new way to get the Battle Pass for free

A new way needs to be introduced to get the pass for free. I’d suggest simply putting the way to get it free at level 125 like it was before, but if they really want to make you work for it, higher works. But it does need to exist.

Bringing back old event vehicles in the Battle Pass

With War Thunder’s new event cycle, crafting events are gone. This is absolutely a great thing. Crafting events were absolutely horrible. But I think the workshop and the crafting system was a really cool idea and I think there is a much better way to make it work.

At a certain level in the Battle Pass, include a blueprint. This blueprint is for an old event vehicle and when you get it, it opens up the workshop. From there, there is a list of tasks and you need to complete each task to get certain parts. These parts are then used to built the blueprint. This blueprint will last in the workshop as long as it takes to build the vehicle and you can have multiple concurrent blueprints in the workshop.

I think this is a really neat way to bring back old, now unobtainable event vehicles such as the Lorraine 155 Mle. 50 while also giving new use to a really cool mechanic that had been implemented horribly due to the type of event it used to be attached to.

Animated profile pictures

This one is self-explanatory. It’s animated profile pictures. Make the profile pictures have a little animation.

Hangar customization

War Thunder’s hangar has a lot of room for customization. In addition to the vehicle decorations in each BP season, hangar decorations could be included. These decorations could be placed anywhere in your hangar and they could include things such as mini vehicles like the Bob Semple or the Goliath B tracked mine from the Sturmtiger event, as well as standard decorations like a Christmas tree or a set of cannon shells.

Making the vehicles stranger

The Battle Pass is a fantastic way to introduce weird, bizarre vehicles. This is also more possible with the game’s new event cycle, but the BP is where it is at home. Vehicles like the M551 (76) and BV 155 B-1 are types of weird, prototype vehicles that I love to see and the BP is the perfect way to bring more of them into the game.

Breaks between Battle Pass seasons

War Thunder has too much going on. Considering the new event cycle which results in smaller, but constant events, War Thunder now always has multiple events going on at any given time. We need a break. The battle pass needs a break in between seasons. Not much, just 2-3 weeks, but there needs to be a time to cool down. Right now it is just GRIND! GRIND! GRIND! There is no break, and it is bringing many players to burnout.

Conclusion

I really like the Battle Pass, but it can be made much better. Over the last few years, we’ve seen it get noticably worse in value and in enjoyment. Prizes have tended towards getting slightly more boring, with a few really good ones such as the Breda 90/53 and Strikemaster Mk. 88 sprinkled in between. More customization, 4 vehicles per season, stranger and thus more interesting vehicles, and bringing back old event vehicles are all ways that the Battle Pass can be not just made as good as it once was, but made even better.

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when i first started warthunder, I never really understood how the battle pass worked. And i still dont. It was never really explained outside of just “Go do missions.” thats probably my biggest problem with it

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Honestly I just wish they would remove the tasks and let people just play the game they want. I generally play for a couple hours a day and still never earn enough for the first vehicle without paying…

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Yeah, one thing I’d personally add, is, less BP levels, being able to complete battle pass challenges for the entire time, being able to complete BP challenges and substitute parts of it for a different possible challenge (an example of this is the challenges that require you to play Naval, and being able to swap that to another type for a price of SL, just like daily challenges). Now, this is a personal complaint about it, you may not see these things as an issue. This is the highest level I’ve been in a battle pass ever, I’m level 54 right now, have gotten the free Breda 90/53, and it’s camo, just days before the end, I would have been able to do more if the challenges wouldn’t have been incomplete-able.

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Time restriction on everything sucks a lot, the moment you’re not playing all the way through and you fall behind, you get locked out of a bunch more challenges.

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Time restrictions on challenges needs to be lifted, and perhaps they should try a bunch of weekly challenges that reset every week, like get 20 kill with TDs, use 4 tons of TNT on bases, Do so 20,000 damage in ships etc

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Please no. No weekly challenges. Just lift the time restrictions altogether.

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Well, it’s really not much to it than just - go do missions.

You get BP points each day for log in.

In hangar, on the right side of the screen you will see 2 small tabs. 1 is for Battlepass and one is for daily missions. You have 2 daily missions each day. You get 2 BP points for small task and 3 BP points for advanced task. You can then buy special task in Warbond shop (it unlocks after you finish advanced daily) that gives you 5 BP points.
10BP points = 1 BP level.

Now click on the Battlepass tab and in the context window you will see a tab called “challenges” they unlock for you to be completed in a specified time frame. Each one gives 30BP points (3 levels).

That is all there is to it. In summary:
Every day:
Log in
Basic daily
Advanced daily

In a specified time frame:
Challenges

When you feel like it:
Special task

And of course, for more details go visit War Thunder Wiki. Everything is explained there.
For me, BP is well worth it. I already made well over 200GJN and got to keep some very nice vehicles like the A1H.

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To improve BP:

Simplification is needed. Get rid of daily tasks and make it score based just like events. Say 10k score per day for 5BP points. I hate the random aspect of tasks and that I am forced to play in a specific way.

Challenges should be based on players preferred mode, well at least for those who bought the BP as this would get incentive for players to buy the BP at the start of the season AND made sure that those who spent the money would have higher chance of completeing it. There would still be 14 challenges, but at each stage the player would choose between ground/air/naval challenge.

Wagers and orders should be completely removed from BP. They are absolutely worthless, I mean less than trash that just clutters the inventory. They should be replaced by skins, decorations, decals, aerobatic smoke, profile pictures, loading screens, titles and universal backups up until level 90.
10 days of premium time for level 100.
Premium discount deals. Universal GE vehicle discount -50% for level 130, -75% for level 140 and -90% for level 150.

I could even see a 2 tier paid BP. The basic 2000GE with 3 vehicles and advanced for 4000 or 5000 GE with 4 vehicles, the 4th being a high rank (VI-VIII) premium.

As for the Warbond shop. It really needs to give higher tier vehicles. I am sorry but the reason Gaijin reworked BP was to introduce higher rank vehicles. Not only that, but we now have 8 ranks in the game. Getting only rank 2/3 premiums is unacceptable.
Getting skins and talismans should be universal, not for a random vehicle.

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I know how you feel. The current battle pass was the first one I managed to get a vehicle in and that was only because I just happened to have some extra time to grind out a few challenges.

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Or hear me out. If you complete all 4 BP seasons in a year up to a certain level (say level 100 in each of them) you get a universal BP vehicle coupon which you can then turn in for an older BP coupon.
Example: On 24th of january 2025 I will complete 4th BP season from now, I get a universal BP coupon. I will redeem and turn it into a PT 76-57. It would be up to Gaijin to either make it tradable or an untradeable coupon.

I think we absolutely need a way to obtain older BP and even event vehicles.

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If some 1 plays ground RB, he should be ale to make entire BP on ground RB. Its stupid that i cant make some tasks because i dont have a ship with guns above certain caliber.

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I disagree with some of this. Wagers being removed I agree with, but 10 days of premium account is too little and it being at level 100 would replace the unique loading screen.

I also don’t like the idea of the tasks being score-based because every other event is score-based and it becomes so monotonous. The Battle Pass is the only event where something is different.

I also really hate the idea of a 4th vehicle that is a high tier one. I think high tier event vehicles are bad for the game’s health and while the pattern of event vehicles might change with the game’s new event cycle, currently, the BP is the only place where we can consistently get low and mid tier prizes. I’d much rather see the return of a low tier prize as the 4th vehicle.

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Make BP like it was the very first season. It’s only been a progressively worse shit-show since then.

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I’ve always got on ok with BP , I usually do about 7 of the tasks, a few dailys and a few special tasks. Always gets me the top vehicle.
But looking at this one , there’s even more I don’t want to play. It’s forcing you more to not only play naval and air , but also higher level. Something I haven’t found enjoyable for ages, I usually max out at about 8.7.
Like someone said earlier in the thread, let people play whatever mode they want. Have set tasks for each ground /air /naval. I’m sure naval and air players get it worse.

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I’m fine with the naval and air challenges, but I do have a huge issue with the requirement to play high tier for some BP challenges. I really dislike that.

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The Rank 3 requirement is also a major bummer, even more so now after the way they moved so many enjoyable Rank 3 aircraft to Rank 2.

I just want to play the game and enjoy myself, not waste time ‘grinding’ certain tasks with certain vehicles. I’m not alone. Preventing people from unlocking or earning cool shit while simply playing the game so is so myopic and distasteful.

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