Since the release of the Season Pass, its farming mechanics and ways to interact with it have undergone multiple changes. A number of poor design choices led to a situation where players felt forced into repetitive, monotonous gameplay just to reach the desired 500 level. As a result, the game began to feel more like a chore, with economic efficiency prioritized over enjoyment.
While Sealed Points could drop from a range of sources, the value of those sources varied greatly — making late-night runs to Forge-11 the obvious choice for efficient farming. No matter how many sources were added, players always gravitated toward the most efficient method, even if they were sick from farming it.
What was originally intended as a light, optional background activity, that accompanied the main gameplay, eventually turned into the main focus of the game, overshadowing other content.
The dull daily and weekly tasks, questionable economic content, and inconsistent reward progression in the Season Pass only made things worse. The system needed a redesign.
What a Season Pass should be
Before we dive into the list of changes, it’s important to clarify what we’re aiming for. What role does the Season Pass play in the game? And what should it look like in the ideal version of STALCRAFT: X?
- The Season Pass is an optional activity that complements the core gameplay. Players should be free to engage in their favourite activities while earning additional rewards along the way.
- Farming the Season Pass should be as transparent and predictable to the player as possible.
- Sources of Season Points should be diverse and should encourage participation in various game activities.
- All activities should offer comparable value in terms of economic efficiency so that players don't have to focus solely on the most profitable options.
How it used to be
And the event hasn’t even started yet…Level gain per day
Regular players earned around 5–6 Season Pass levels per day. Those with more free time could grind out 20 or more. This led to burnout among the most active players, while others were simply unable to reach the final goal.
In this setup, the majority of players couldn’t get anywhere near the ultimate goal, while the more active ones were forced to spend days doing monotonous, exhausting work.
Tasks popularity
Previously, some daily and weekly tasks were significantly more boring and challenging than others, which put players on unequal terms. Players ignored objectives such as delivering backpacks or investigating Proto-Discharge Clusters or closing Anomalous Rifts, opting instead for simpler tasks like killing NPCs and mutants. And what about the tasks to kill mutts, behemoths or fiends, though? They were nearly impossible to complete — when was the last time you even saw a fiend or a behemoth in the North?
What has changed
Now the system is organised in such a way that most players can move steadily towards the goal without burnout, and the most active players will not be forced to grind to death.
- Most players will be able to gain about 8 levels per day now, and the most active ones even more.
- It's no longer possible to farm dozens of levels in a single run — Sealed Points have been removed, as they were at the root of many issues.
- We tried to take into account the weaknesses of the old tasks — now they have become more achievable and, if possible, more interesting.
- And if there is a task that the player feels too lazy to do, it can always be replaced. Especially since we've increased the number of task rerolls by many times.
Season Pass shouldn’t feel like a work. It's back to being what it should be — a reward for regular, diverse gameplay.
Major changes
Season Pass content changes
Season Pass/Free rewardsThe farming pace of the Season Pass is now much more controlled, which allowed us to significantly increase the number of valuable rewards — for example, the amount of Advanced Spare Parts has been tripled. We’ve also added new special cases containing tradable gear, making the Season Pass far more rewarding overall.
The number of valuable rewards in Season Pass has significantly increased, including making all rewards up to level 500 bound. Transferable rewards are in repeatable positions after level 500.
You can find more details about rewards in the patchnote.
Just look at the season crate Gift of Murmur — all the junk has been removed, and valuable rewards like blueprints now drop much more frequently.
Moreover, starting this season, all players who complete the northern storyline will automatically receive 50 levels of Season Pass.
Daily task categories
Now, every day players will choose three categories of daily tasks they prefer to complete. All daily tasks are divided into the following categories:
- Combat;
- Science;
- Exploration;
- Session battles;
- Subdivision battles.
Additionally, players who have activated Premium will gain access to an extra task category of the same name.
Each of the regular categories contains 4 assignments and the bonus category contains 3 assignments. Thus, a player can access a maximum of 15 different tasks per day.
But there is one CATCH! Each task can be completed an infinite number of times. However, its difficulty increases and the reward decreases each time the player complete the task.
Example: the first time a player completes a boar killing task, which is to kill 15 boars, and the player will receive 200 Season Pass points. The next time the player will need to kill 30 boars and the reward will be 100 points. And so on.
When all the tasks from one category are completed, an even more satisfying reward awaits the player for closing that category.
Weekly tasks removal
All the usual weekly tasks have been replaced by a bonus for completing the categories.
Each week, players can earn up to three bonus rewards:
- For completing 3 categories;
- For completing 9 categories;
- For completing 15 categories.
Since a player can complete up to 3 regular categories per day (excluding the Premium category), they’ll need to finish all tasks in their chosen categories over 3 days to earn the second bonus, and over 5 days to earn the third.
Overdrive
Overdrive is a way to speed up the Season Pass by doubling the rewards of completing tasks. One overdrive allows doubling the reward for the first completion of a task within each category.
Overdrive can only be used on the first completion of a daily task. Overdrive does not work starting the second completion of the tasks.
Overdrive can be obtained from:
- the Season Pass;
- daily login rewards;
- promo codes;
- the shop.
Tradable Season Pass Levels
Tradable Season Pass levels have been added to the in-game shop. You can now purchase them as a gift for another player or sell them via the auction.
There are 3 available bundles:
- 1 level — 109 SC;
- 10 levels — 1039 SC;
- 25 levels — 2299 SC.
Open world changes
By the way, to diversify gameplay and space for daily quests, we added new events with mutants and NPCs. Yeah, now you'll have fiends, snipers, sappers, and behemoths waiting for you in the North.
Most of the new activity is concentrated in the home territories of the northern factions — now there’s actually something to do there.
Location events that are required to complete tasks will be highlighted when the map is opened.
Our Expectations
We expect the changes to benefit gameplay and allow players to spend more time doing their favourite in-game activities. Also, the SP levelling process will become more transparent and predictable, making it easier and more convenient for players to make long-term plans for their character's development.
We'll be monitoring feedback from players and bringing the system up to speed — so feel free to express your opinion on the official resources.
