Marvel’s Avengers Game Vendors & Cosmetics Explained, Hero Challenge Cards for Post-Launch Heroes Are $10 Each

MP1st is here to bring players the Marvel's Avengers game weekly Marketplace reset today September 10.

If you played the Marvel’s Avengers beta, chances are you found yourself a wee bit overwhelmed by the in-game currencty and how it works. Thankfully, Crystal Dynamics has shed some light on that today, as we now have an explanation on how the Marvel’s Avengers game vendors and cosmetics work, as well as the announcement that Hero Challenge Cards for post-launch heroes will be paid with real-world money.

Before diving in, Crystal Dynamics hammered home how anything that can be bought with real-world money are purely for cosmetics only. These won’t affect gameplay at all. Got that? Good. Read on for the details.

Marvel’s Avengers game vendors, cosmetics and Hero Challenge Cards explained:

What are Cosmetics?  

Cosmetic items come in four different varieties:

  • Outfits: Outfits are aesthetic only – they do not influence gameplay. This was an intentional decision to avoid pay-to-win play scenarios.
  • Emotes: Character-specific Emotes bring out the personality of each Super Hero, and let you express yourself to your teammates – AI or otherwise!
  • Takedowns: Takedowns are flashy finishers that show off each hero’s signature style on the battlefield!
  • Nameplates: Nameplates show off your hero’s stats and are drawn from iconic art in Marvel history

How do Vendors Work?   

Vendors are narrative-based store operators who can be found in multiple locations in our game world. They sell Cosmetics, Gear, and Rare Resources in exchange for Units and common Resources.

  • Resources: Resources come in Common (ex: Fragments), Rare (ex: Plasma), and Exotic varieties (ex: Uru) – and are traded with Vendors or used to upgrade gear. Resources can be found in Resource Crates, dropped by enemies, gained through dismantling Artifacts, received as Faction assignment rewards, and via Hero Challenge Cards (more on those in a bit!).
  • Patterns: Patterns are earned through high-level crates, activities, Faction Missions, and increasing your Faction level. They can be used at Fabrication Machines to create an Outfit or Nameplate.
  • Units: Units are our soft-currency – in-game digital currency with no real-world value – which can be spent with Vendors. Units can be found in strongboxes or earned as rewards for increasing your Faction Level.

There will be Gear Vendors, and Cosmetics Vendors in the game.

Gear Vendors:

Gear Vendors will sell you character-specific Gear and Resources in exchange for Fragments gained through play. Collecting and dismantling Gear will fill you full of Fragments and other resources, which is why it is worth picking everything up and dismantling unneeded items for resources to exchange or reinvest! Gear rotates daily and weekly.

Cosmetic Vendors  

Cosmetic Vendors accept Units gained through play to purchase Outfits, Emotes, and Nameplates. Legendary Outfits rotate weekly, while Nameplates, Emotes, and Epic & Rare Outfits rotate daily.

In addition to the vendors, the game has a marketplace as well. This is where players can purchase character skins, emotes, outfits, takedowns and more. The marketplace will house Uncommon, Rare, Epic and Legendary items which will rotate weekly and can be purchased with Credits, which is the game’s main real-world money (microtransactions) currency.

Here’s how it’s priced:

  • Credits: Credits are our hard currency – in-game currency purchased with real money that can be spent in the Marketplace on cosmetic items. A 500 credit pack is $5.00. Credits come in packs of 500, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000 with bonus credits for bigger packs.

Now, for those curious, Hero Challenge Cards (aside from character skins) will be the game’s main microtransaction element, as post-launch heroes will have their Hero Challenge Cards for sale for $10.

Hero Challenge Cards allow players to earn Resources, Units, Credits, and Cosmetics for completing in-game challenges – essentially, do cool things to earn cool rewards.   

Each Hero Challenge Card has 40 tiers of free and premium rewards. Rewards are earned via Challenge Points by completing daily and weekly challenges. Hero Challenge Card rewards include:      

  • Rare Resource Bundle: Nanotubes, Nanites, Plasma, Catalyst
  • Resource Bundle: Fragments & Upgrade Modules
  • Upgrade Module Bundles: Upgrade Modules
  • Exotic Resource Bundle: Polychoron & Uru
  • Units
  • Credits
  • Hero Nameplates
  • Team Nameplates
  • Emotes
  • Takedowns
  • Outfits

Note that for the base game, the Hero Challenge Cards for all six starting heroes are free at launch. Also important to note there is, if you do buy a Hero Challenge Card for post-launch heroes, completing said Card will earn you more Credits, so you can buy the next one.

We want to reward players for their time, so once you activate the premium rewards of a Hero Challenge Card for 1,000 Credits, you can earn everything on that card, including more Credits! If you complete all challenges on your Hero Challenge Card, not only will you earn back your 1,000 Credit activation cost, all the content you’ll earn has a value of over 12,500 Credits. Remember, these rewards deliver fun in-game cosmetic enhancements and effects, but they do not provide a gameplay advantage.

While I personally have no issue with how these are handled given they are cosmetics only, I can already see people getting annoyed that these cosmetic items are tucked away for a fee. At the very least though, we are getting all post-launch heroes and missions for free.

Marvel’s Avengers will fly out this September 4, though don’t expect a review from us on launch day and here’s why. A new War table devstream is set for next week where we

Make sure to check out our top six Marvel’s Avengers changes/fixes we want to see in the final game based on the beta.

Source: Avengers Square Enix

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