The first Blood Bowl 3 season pass, or ‘Blood Pass’, launches for free on June 22, starting three months of global ranked multiplayer and unlocking the Lizardmen team for all players. Wargamer spoke to Blood Bowl 3 project manager Gautier Brésar, who revealed that XP earned in the Warhammer fantasy videogame will be tied to the length of matches.
As a conciliatory gesture to fans after the game’s rocky launch, Cyanide is making the season one Blood Pass free.
“The current goal is that for every complete match you go through, you should gain a level” in XP on the Blood Pass track, Brésard says. He adds that the experience you gain has been tied to the length of the match; a match that ends in an early concession is worth less XP, while a match that runs to overtime is worth more.
Brésard hopes that the XP gain for playing matches to completion may give an incentive for coaches to see matches through to the final whistle.
Coaches conceding early, either to protect their team from a mauling, or to spite an opponent about to earn SPP for a touchdown, is a contentious issue, which Brésard acknowledges: “it’s a complex balance between the fun of the person winning being able to complete a game, and the hardship of the person losing being stuck in a game and being punished for it, no matter what they do”.
The free Blood Pass grants immediate access to the new Lizardmen team for all players – non-subscribers would ordinarily have to completely fill the XP track to unlock the Season’s team. Brésard is excited for the team to be out there: “I’m a Lizardmen player. I’ve been grinding my gears during pre-season playing Dark Elves instead.”
For the most competitive players, Brésard says “there are exclusive rewards for people who are the among the top 100 of the ladder at the end of the season”, though he adds that Cyanide hasn’t settled on a first prize for the champion of champions.
Each season’s Blood Pass XP track sits alongside the game’s Manager experience levels. That also grants more XP for longer matches, but requires progressively more XP to unlock new levels and rewards.
Our Blood Bowl 3 review was positive, but proved to be unrepresentative of the actual launch experience for many players. Check out the other parts of our interview to learn about the work Cyanide has done smoothing the multiplayer experience for the launch of Blood Bowl 3 season one, and the team’s progress and plans supporting Blood Bowl 3 private league administrators.
Blood Bowl 3 season one launches on June 22 9am PST / noon EST / 4pm UTC / 6pm CET.