As announced earlier this month, Halo Wars 2 will have a microtransaction system. You will collect packs for playing the game’s campaign, multiplayer, and the newly announced blitz mode to create a deck.
Some of the cards are specific to the UNSC and Banished, while others relate to specific leaders. You can earn these packs by completing missions and challenges, or you can buy them with real money. But developers 343 Industries and Creative Assembly are hoping to avoid a “pay-to-win” scenario.
“Once you earn a card, it’s yours forever and you can use it however you like,” 343 studio head Dan Ayoub said in 343’s latest weekly blog post. “You do have the ability to purchase packs as well, but we are very mindful of ‘pay-to-win’ concerns and are expressly tuning to prevent those types of scenarios. We’ll also be adding new cards through DLC, that again can also be earned through challenges.”
Also available to buy beyond the initial game is Halo Wars 2’s $30 season pass, which comes with a new campaign expansion, Blitz cards, additional leaders, and more multiplayer units.
For lots more on Halo Wars 2’s Blitz mode, watch GameSpot’s preview in the video above. You can also hear directly from 343 about the mode here on Halo Waypoint.
Following a delay, Halo Wars 2 comes out on February 21, 2017. You won’t have to wait that long to play, however, as there will be a second beta that features a new mode. It’s not known yet if the new mode is Blitz, but we’ll report back with more details as they become available.
Halo Wars 2 is an Xbox Play Anywhere title, meaning you can buy it digitally on Xbox One and get the Windows 10 PC version free or vice versa.