Gears 5 Will Have Direct Store Purchases, No Season Pass or Gear Packs

The Coalition has revealed how players will be earning “content” (which means DLC, cosmetics, and boosters) in the upcoming Gears 5. Essentially, there’s no Season Pass or random Gear Packs. The developer has also stated that DLC maps will be free for both matchmaking and Private Play purposes.

Gears 5 has a new “Tour of Duty” system, where players can partake in Daily Challenges and seasonal Medals. Ranking up will grant “customization content”, namely character skins. “The path to each piece of content earnable is clear – you will know what you need to do to earn each specific customization item. In addition, there is no ‘Premium’ pay-only content for Tour Of Duty,” said the developer. Tour of Duty will have different seasons, with each providing new content and challenges.

Placing in the leaderboard for Escape or Versus will also provide some rewards, but The Coalition isn’t abandoning random rewards entirely. As you play multiplayer, whether its PvP or PvE, time spent will contribute to receiving a random item from the Supply. These Supply Drops are essentially cards for character skills, but will turn into Scrap if you earn duplicates. This can be used to either upgrade existing cards or craft Supply items you want.

As you’ve probably guessed, Supply Drops can’t be purchased with real money. Real money can be spent instead on a premium currency called Iron (though you’ll also earn some in Tour of Duty). These are used for the in-game store, and all purchases are direct with no RNG involved. Though Boosts for double multiplayer XP, double character XP for Escape and Horde,and double speed Supply Drop progression can be purchased, The Coalition states that all items in the store won’t provide pay-to-win benefits.

Gears 5 is out on September 10th for Xbox One and Windows 10 PC. It will support 4K and 60 FPS on the Xbox One X.