It takes up to 40 hours to unlock Darth Vader and other Heroes in Star Wars Battlefront 2
If you're playing Star Wars Battlefront 2 this week you'd better be prepared to grind.
According to data analysis on Reddit of hours played by fans, on average it will take 40 hours to earn enough credits - 60,000 - to buy a single hero in the game.
According to EA that's because it wants you to unlock heroes such as Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker as a sense of accomplishment, but many fans feel that they will have to spend hours grinding or buy into the shady loot box economy.
As pointed out in our breakdown of Battlefront 2's convoluted rewards system, the most popular heroes in the game can be awarded via Star Cards, but they still need the required credits to unlock and use them.
Players can also earn credits from optional challenges and rewards in-game, which can be put towards buying new heroes. Not all heroes are as expensive as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker's 60,000 asking price, with Princess Leia and Chewbacca going for 40,000 credits, and Iden Versio the cheapest at 20,000 credits.
"The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes," said EA in a statement posted on Reddit.
But the grind is made all the more of a slog when you consider those same credits used to unlock heroes are also required to unlock loot crates. To lock away this content in a game players have already paid full price for is a step too far for those with limited time.
"We're constantly evaluating and tweaking the earn rates versus the cost of crates and heroes," said EA. "The current rates were based on open beta data, but you should expect us to constantly evolve these numbers as we hit launch and onwards.
"There will also be more milestones that award credits and crafting parts available, as well as star cards only unlockable through those milestones. If all you want to do is play and grind towards your next unlock that will be fully possible and we'll continue to tweak the numbers until the requirements feel fun and achievable."
Players can buy Crystals for in-game currency, but EA suggests these can't be used to unlock heroes. However, as pointed out by fans, you could buy Crystals for real cash, buy loot boxes, break down any duplicate star cards for credits, and then use those credits towards unlocking heroes.
This is a quicker route to unlocking the most popular villains and heroes from the Star Wars franchise, for those that are willing to pay more on top of the full-priced game.
EA and developer DICE has pointed out how significantly the game's economy has changed since the alpha and beta tests, where its early loot box system came across as a pay to win, and players should expect more changes after the game goes live this week.
"Working on a game with a live economy and without a premium content lineup is a new challenge for us at DICE.
"We had one progression system in the closed alpha and heard your feedback back then. We made another iteration for the open beta and heard your feedback then too. For launch, we're having another iteration and there will definitely be more iterations as we evolve this game post launch."
Update: EA has announced multiple changes to Star Wars Battlefront 2's progressions systems.