Rewards Pass

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The Rewards Pass (more commonly called a "Battle Pass") is a rewards system where players usually pay a fee to unlock the titular pass, and then fill up an experience bar as they play the game. Once the experience bar is full, the Pass levels up. Each level has a different reward associated with it, usually a cosmetic.

It's a very common way for game developers to keep their game afloat, and a much less controversial alternative to Loot Boxes, since players can see everything they can get before they buy it (although many games have both Rewards Passes and Loot Boxes).

Rewards Passes are also time-limited to some extent, usually over a period of a few months that lasts the update cycle, with each reward being exclusive to the current pass, making it more tempting for players to buy it, and thus serving as a Revenue Enhancing Device by preying on "loss aversion" or "FOMO" (Fear of Missing Out). If a player feels that they won't be able to unlock their desired rewards before the pass expires, or just wants to get the good stuff quickly, then many Rewards Passes permit directly purchasing levels for an additional fee. It's basically a timed subscription by another name, and with a less forceful method of getting players to invest time and money into the game.

Most games that utilize a Rewards Pass tend to feature a free "basic tier" that is available to all players in addition to the paid tier of rewards, though as incentive to purchase the latter, the free rewards tier usually has fewer, less exciting rewards that are also spaced far apart. In this scenario, buying the paid rewards tier will grant the player rewards from both portions of the battle pass, and levels gained for a free Rewards Pass will be compatible with the paid one: that is, if a player levels the free Pass to level 10 and then buys into the premium portion, they will receive all premium rewards up to that level. Rare is the game that only has a free Rewards Pass, but they do exist.

• A Rewards Pass will usually award players:
  • Character skins. These will usually be the most prominently advertised rewards, and the most desirable by players.
  • In-game items
  • Avatars
  • In-game or premium currency (so completing the Battle Pass allows you to earn a partial (or in at least one game, full) refund on its cost)
  • Loot Boxes
  • Emotes and Victory Poses
  • Boosters to earn Experience Points for the pass, or the players' profile.

The Trope Codifier is Fortnite, although similar systems have existed prior to 2018 with (Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2 for example, have similar systems that operate a bit differently).

Games that feature Rewards Passes:

• AFK Arena features Regal Rewards and Champions of Esperia. By collecting Medals of Valor for Regal Rewards, players can earn rare hero soulstones to summon heroes, while collecting heroic merit for Champions of Esperia rewards Hero's Essence. If a Premium Pass is purchased, Regal Rewards will also award a player with Elite Hero Soulstones, Champions of Esperia rewards additional Hero's Essence, and both reward a hefty amount of diamonds.
• Apex Legends has a Battle Pass that provides cosmetics, loot boxes, crafting material for cosmetics and in-game currency. Beginning in Season 22, the season has 2 battle passes, each one lasting for half of the season.
• Battlerite, starting with the February 2019 "Big Patch", has a Battle Pass that awards skins, weapons, mounts, avatars, poses, emotes, chests, currency, and pets. The pass's level increases by one for each 10 Stars earned. Stars are awarded for completing daily or weekly quests and increasing your profile level. There is also a free pass that has less rewards.
• Brawlhalla has a Battle Pass that uses crystals to represent its XP, 12 crystals required to level up the pass up to 85. Unlike most battle passes being Permanently Missable Content or shoved into the regular store/loot pool, instead the game returns the Battle Passes that still retain all of the original cosmetics and then some, though with some bonus goodies for players that already finished the pass last time it was around.
• Brawl Stars uses the Brawl Pass, a 70 tier pass with increasing requirements every few levels that has rewards on every level for both the free and paid versions. Interestingly, only the free version of the pass contains Gems, the premium currency, and has more practical rewards over the paid version which is primarily cosmetics and a single Brawler.
• Chocobo GP uses battle passes to grant access to additional characters and cosmetics beyond what can be unlocked by completing the story mode. Only playing the GP mode advances you up the pass levels; no other mode gives experience.
• Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled had these when Grand Prix events were running, though unlike many of the other examples this game only used the free variant. Players would earn Nitro while an event was running to unlock kart parts, skins, and characters divided up into three tiers (Bronze, Silver and Gold) by completing daily, weekly, and season-long tasks, with the caveat that using certain racers, skins and customization items would add a multiplier to how much Nitro you earned and could complete the pass more quickly. When they ended, players could pay up Wumpa Coins to complete the pass and get anything they didn't earn from the season, and items from earlier seasons eventually got permanently added to the in-game store. The challenges were also kept when Grand Prix support ended but now just award coins for the in-game store.
• Deep Rock Galactic introduced "Performance Passes" when it switched from incremental content updates every four months or so to beefier bi-yearly expansions, starting with "Season 01: Rival Incursion." Unlike most other games, each Performance Pass is completely free for all players, and none of the cosmetic items, paint jobs and weapon skins introduced during them ever become unavailable. Instead, through Season 04, all previous seasonal content was shifted to existing in-game loot systems, while beginning in Season 05, a player can select which season's Performance Pass they're currently working through, switching between them at will without losing progress. Rather than selling players the season's battle pass, Deep Rock Galactic releases purely cosmetic DLC alongside its major updates, which some players will say they're buying because they aren't being charged for the Performance Pass.
• Dislyte has reward passes, M-Pass and R-Pass. M-Pass gives you a wide variety of rewards ranging from Gold to Nexus Crystals while R-Pass focuses on those related to Relics such as Relic Boosts, Relic Essences and Reset Stones. There is the option to pay for a premium tier to get more items.
• Dungeon Fighter Online introduced a fairly rudimentary system called Arad Pass, which rewards some materials, tickets and consumables for clearing randomized daily and weekly missions. You can buy into a paid counterpart called the Royal Pass, which, in addition to unlocking the paid version of the Arad Pass, unlocks Season Missions that give large amounts of Pass EXP and also lets you pick a character on your account to receive Royal Pass rewards. The character chosen for the Royal Pass gets extensive in-game bonuses not related to the Arad Pass itself, such as time-limited endgame gear, a time-limited Creature, a time-limited Title, a time-limited Avatar kit, more rewards from Raids, free Raid entry materials, discounted entry cost on Guide of Wisdom, and +40% Town Movement Speed.
• Dota 2, the Trope Maker, has Battle Passes (previously called "Compendiums") that are used to fund the prize pools of major tournaments. The Pass's level is increased by earning Battle Points by completing challenges, wagering tokens and then winning, or getting tipped at the end of a match. Rewards include cosmetics, announcers, emotes, voice lines, and loading screens.
• Destiny 2 introduced a similar system following the release of the Shadowkeep DLC and switch to free-to-play on Steam in 2019.
• The Division 2: Season passes were introduced starting from the game's second year of service. The free rewards track gives a sampling of whatever new equipment arrived with the latest Title Update, while the paid rewards track includes items that are somewhat harder to farm for, like random Exotics and optimization materials. The paid rewards also include weapon skins, gear dyes, and emotes that are exclusive to one particular season.
• Fire Emblem Heroes has the FEH Pass, a subscription service feature that gave access to things such as special costumes for certain units on a monthly basis, special monthly quests, and other features. The features include a Re-Act function, the Auto-Start function, the ability to form 3 Summoner Supports instead of 1, and Free Resplendent Heroes that given out on every 10th and 25th on every month. The rewards are the exclusive quests which refreshes on every 10th and 25th of every month that give Orbs, Divine Codes, Divine Dew, Heroic Grails, and Aether Stones.
• Fortnite is the Trope Codifier, and offers several types. As of Chapter 6, all rewards passes increase at once; if you advance a level in-game, that applies to all four passes.
  • Battle Pass: The rewards pass for Battle Royale changes every season and is themed around different concepts, tropes, or brands. It unlocks outfits, back bling, harvesting tools, gliders, contrails, emotes, emoticons, sprays, toys, wraps, banners, music, loading screens and items for other modes. Preceded by the Season Shop (Which itself was revived in December 2024), 33 Battle Passes have been available across all 34 seasons, as of February 2025.
  • Lego Pass: The rewards pass for Lego Fortnite, offering an outfit, builds, decor bundles, and additional items. 4 Lego Passes have been available as of February 2025.
  • Music Pass: The rewards pass for Fortnite Festival, each one themed around a different musician or band, offering a themed outfit, emotes, instruments, tracks, banners, and loading screens.
  • OG Pass: The rewards pass for Fortnite OG, each one themed around a different old season, offering three themed outfits, back bling, harvesting tools, gliders, contrails, emotes, emoticons, sprays, wraps, banners, and loading screens.
• Halo:
  • Halo: The Master Chief Collection added a seasonal battle pass system in 2020. Unlike many equivalent systems, it is completely free and is not time-limited; items from past seasons are still available alongside ones from the current season. Items are acquired through Season Points, which are primarily acquired by completing weekly challenges, and the items themselves are mostly cut-content and expanded customisation options from previous games (for example, Halo: Reach has the Dummied Out AKIS and Mariner helmets restored for in-game use, and the robotic arm, previously only an option for a single chest armor type, has been expanded for a much wider range of armors), plus some original new content such as weapon skins.
  • Halo Infinite adopts a similar battle pass system: fitting a free-to-play game it needs to be purchased this time, but it is once again not time-limited and progress can be applied towards any owned battle pass of your choosing.
• Hearthstone replaced its standard Gold-based reward system with a Rewards Track system in late 2020. Instead of gaining Gold from winning 3 matches and doing daily missions, daily and weekly missions give experience points (and a smaller amount from achievements) towards the Track, which give packs, Gold, or some other reward for leveling up. There's also a paid version of the Rewards Track which awards cosmetic rewards and Golden cards.
• Hill Climb Racing 2: The Premium Pass lets you earn additional rewards every time you reach a point milestone like coins, car parts and costumes at the cost of about 3 dollars.
• Love & Pies hosts one-time events that run for 30 days and have unique story arcs. The player progresses with the story by completing sidequests to earn points, reaping the rewards along the way. They can buy a golden ticket with real money to receive additional rewards and exclusive storylines.
• miHoYo's Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail have a Battle Pass and Nameless Honor respectively which run for the duration of half a patch cycle per pass. Completing daily (for Genshin), weekly and Seasonal missions increase pass EXP, gaining pass levels up to Level 60 and rewarding character upgrade materials and premium currency (or some form of it). Paying $9.99 USD unlocks the "premium" tier of the pass which comes with a boatload of extra goodies and allows you to snag your choice of a pass-exclusive weapon/Light Cone at Level 30. The premium tier can be further bought with a $19.99 USD purchase (with price deducted accordingly if you already bought the normal upgrade), which instantly unlocks 10 tiers of the pass and gives you a care package of exclusive cosmetics.
• Mech Arena: The game has Battle Pass Seasons which lasts three weeks each and awards Pass Points for every five battles you fight, filling up a bar that represents the Pass' level and thus obtaining rewards for every level it progresses. It's divided in Silver Pass, which is available to all players, and Gold Pass, which can only be purchased with real money and offers even greater rewards than the Silver one.
• Ninjala: The Ninjala Pass provides additional rewards to tier progress that lasts for the season. Five first missions grant a large surge of experience points per day, with special events that multiply points even more. When the pass is maximized, new and more difficult missions reward medals and special stickers for emotes.
• Overwatch famously relied on Loot Boxes as its form of long-term monetization, but during its sequel-expansion Overwatch 2 in 2022, they were abandoned in favor of Battle Passes (in tandem with the game going free-to-play rather than requiring an upfront price tag). One noteworthy effect from this shift was a change in the obtainability of new heroes — the first Overwatch granted all heroes upfront and immediately, no questions asked, while 2 would gate new heroes of them behind the season's Battle Pass — you can either grind levels and obtain them for free, or you could buy the Pass and obtain them immediately. However, starting in season 10, Blizzard reverted back to the old system in which you get the new heroes immediately with no restrictions.
• Paladins had free and paid Battle Passes, until it was replaced with the nominally similar Event Pass system. Regardless, you gain experience points for playing matches, completing daily quests, and completing sets of special challenges that unlock Rewards. The Event Pass differs in that the rewards are gotten by doing challenges, and compliment the grind, not being all in one track (mostly loading frames, avatars and currency), while grinding the Event Pass nets you the above rewards, but also chests, announcers, skins, and mounts. Both have a free tier, where a limited selection of rewards could be gained with each level up, but the Event Pass guarantees free players to get a skin related to that pass.
• Path of Exile:
  • Challenges system is essentially a free pass - every league (season) comes with a list of tasks, ranging from very easy to extremely hard, and players are rewarded with exclusive cosmetics for completing enough of them.
  • Kirac's Vault Pass is purchased, tied to completion of endgame maps, and rewards exclusive skins and mystery boxes with random older cosmetics. It also has a free track that rewards in-game consumables.
• Phantasy Star Online 2 introduced a system called Mission Pass in 2020. It comes in Free and Gold tiers, with the Gold tier costing Star Gems (a "premium" currency that can be earned fairly easily in-game). To upgrade the Pass, you earn Tier Stars through the ARKS Missions system by completing miscellaneous tasks, such as Daily Missions, Weekly Missions, and Tier Missions (ARKS Missions that only give Tier Stars). The system functions the same regardless of which server you're on, while costs and rewards vary:
  • The Global version of the game introduced the Mission Pass first. It costs 200 Star Gems to buy a Gold Pass, but you get refunded a portion of this cost via the Pass itself rewarding Star Gem Tickets. The rewards you get mainly focus on cosmetics, including outfits, CAST parts, hairstyles, and body paints, that were offered at one point in the Japanese version of the game, and you can also earn a Global Currency Exception called Mission Badges gradually by clearing tiers.
  • The Japanese version of the game featured the Pass after the Global version got the feature. It only costs 100 Star Gems to buy a Gold Pass, but you do not get any Star Gems in the Mission Pass. The rewards you get mainly focus on cosmetics that were featured in the defunct Taiwanese/Southeast Asian versions of the game and color variants of items that are otherwise difficult to get, as well as miscellaneous booster tickets, Bonus Keys, upgrade materials, and Class Excubes. Mission Badges are handed out but are granted in large batches at Tiers 2, 12, and 22 instead of over the course of the Pass. It is also much easier to earn Tier Stars in the Japanese version compared to the Global version.
• Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis re-introduced the Mission Pass system in a post-launch update; it works similarly to the above PSO2 counterpart, but both servers now get exactly the same passes and mechanics^note Gold Pass costs 100 SG, Premium Set gives you a free Gold Pass, lasts four weeks per Season. NGS Mission Passes focus mainly on recolors of NGS cosmetics as well as exclusive Stamps and Accessories; you can also acquire rewards such as assorted materials, N-Mission Badges, Triggers, and Passes like Personal Shop Pass and Salon Pass.
• Pokémon Trading Card Game Live has a standard Battle Pass which rotates each time a major expansion is released for the Pokémon TCG. Rewards include booster packs, cards and cosmetics from the standard Battle Pass, and the game offers an upgrade to a Premium Battle Pass for 600 Crystals that grants more cards and boxes while also giving Crystals back. The Premium Pass itself has an upgrade for 1500 Crystal that unlocks the Premium Pass and also grants 15 tiers instantly.
• PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has an "Event Pass" (later renamed to "Survivor Pass") with free and premium tiers that unlocks clothes, parachutes, emotes, and weapon skins. Levels are gained by playing matches and completing missions. The Event Pass's free rewards were time-limited, but due to fan outcry, the Survivor Pass has permanent free rewards.
• Rivals of Aether II has free monthly events that function similarly to a Battle Pass. This is Lampshaded by Dan in the first Deep Dive trailer, where he insists that it's not a Battle Pass, it's a seasonal progress bar with rewards that are frequently cosmetic.
• Rocket League has a "Rocket Pass" in both free and premium forms that contains rewards such as new cars, paint jobs, and accessories.
• RuneScape has gone through three iterations, but as of 2025 does not have a battle pass system:
  • RunePass was a one-time trial event that ran for two weeks. Players earned points by completing specific tasks, which changed each day, and rewards would be given upon reaching point thresholds. There was both a free and premium track; the premium track had more tasks available, and offered a reward at every level, while the free track only had a handful of rewards. This would be reworked into...
  • Yak Track. Like RunePass it had a free and premium version, which was purchasable with microtransactions but was free to players who purchased the Premier subscription package (an annual Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition), and levels were gained by completing tasks. Unlike other battlepass systems, there was no point system; each tier of the track had two possible tasks, and completing either of them would complete the tier; both the free and premium tracks also had rewards at every level. Tracks would run for six weeks and have fifty tiers, with the type of tasks and balancing being refined over multiple iterations. The final track experimented with more tasks (up to 70) and a longer duration (initially eleven weeks, extended to 15 after player feedback), but players reacted poorly and the system was phased out, to be replaced with...
  • Hero Pass, a hybrid of the two systems. Like RunePass players would gain points by completing tasks, but there were many more tasks available, including daily and weekly tasks (which stacked; if a weekly task was missed, it could be completed at any time until the pass finished), and permanent tasks tied to the game's regular updates; points were also earned simply by playing the game, albeit at a much reduced rate compared to completing tasks. Once again there was a free and premium track, with only the premium track having rewards at every tier; some of the tiers also offered in-game benefits, which became one of the major elements of a massive player backlash that resulted in Hero Pass being significantly nerfed, and cancelled after its first iteration concluded.
• Splatoon 3 has free seasonal catalogs, with each season lasting three months. Catalogs contain special items, poses, and tags that are given out by Harmony at the Hotlantis store by increasing your Catalog Level, which is done by playing any of the multiplayer modes. Players are given bonus points when they get their first Turf War/Anarchy Battle/Salmon Run win of the day and get a knockout victories in Anarchy Battle; meanwhile, participating in special events such as Splatfest and Big Run, as well as just playing during the last week of a season, gives a point multiplier. If one manages to reach Level 100 before season's end, they're given bonus Catalogs to use until then that give a Mystery Box every ten levels. Starting with Version 3.0.0, if you failed to complete the catalog, the items become Random Drops from Shell-Out Machine.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic, as of 2021, has Galactic Seasons, which run for 13 weeks each and serve as filler content at the start of or between updates. All players get rewards, starting with a special companion, but subscribers get limited-time cosmetic weapons, armor, and mounts and free Cartel Coins to spend on the in-game market.
• Super Animal Royale has the "Animal Pass", which offers cosmetics, in-game currency and materials to make more Super Animals in both free and paid tracks. Unlike other battle royales, though, these passes are not time-limited and can be purchased and levelled up after their respective seasons are over.
• Super Mario Party Jamboree has the free version of this. Rewards from the pass are given for every achievement the player gets in the game, up to a maximum of 50 to complete the pass, with the final three boards of the game unlocked at Ranks 10, 20, and 30 (though you can unlock the Rank 30 board early by completing the single-player campaign).
• Team Fortress 2 has the Jungle Inferno pass, which is needed to get premium rewards from premium contracts. However, it does have a free tier that gives you weapons added in the update (Dragon's Fury, Hot Hand, Second Banana, and Thermal Thruster) without having to wait for a random drop. They're also not time-limited, meaning you can take as long as you want to go through them.
  • The annual Scream Fortress events for Halloween also have their own contracts, which give out random Halloween-restricted cosmetics (plus a chance for a bonus item). Unlike the Jungle Inferno contracts these are time-limited, but also completely free.
• Vigor: A season pass was introduced with the Preppers update (1.2), which runs the gamut from cosmetics to weapons and crafting blueprints. The paid rewards track often includes fancier cosmetics plus higher-tier weapons and the blueprints to craft them.
• Warframe eventually replaced its daily alerts system with Nightwave, an in-universe pirate radio broadcast that offers daily and weekly challenges to earn Series-specific items, weapon and Warframe slots for the inventory (which normally have to be bought with platinum), as well as a seasonal currency to spend in the Nightwave shop. Unlike most Rewards Passes, Nightwave is completely free and cannot be spent real money for at all. It also used to tell episodic stories within major seasons, but this has eventually stopped as Digital Extremes had to shift development priority to larger updates.
• World of Warships has two kinds:
  • Event Pass is more or less a standard Rewards Pass, offering a selection of expendable items, resources, unique Commanders, and a free Premium ship on both its free and paid tracks. This pass renews with every monthly patch.
  • Dockyards, in which players complete specific missions to build a high-tier warship, complete with fancy animations for each step in the construction process. Finishing the entire building process will reward the ship itself, with each progression step awarding a variety of items and resources. The catch is that the last few steps can only be completed by buying them with Doubloons. Dockyards are uncommon events, and in the rare occasion Wargaming decides to make a past Dockyard ship available again, it's often only available in expensive bundles or Containers.
• Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox for Windows: Game Pass Ultimate subscribers have a Rewards Pass-esque system called "Quests", which are daily, weekly, and monthly tasks which allows subscribers to earn Microsoft Rewards Points and redeem them on real world items, like gift cards for the Xbox Store or additional Game Pass subscription time (among other things). These tasks generally have subscribers do things like play a certain amount of Game Pass games in a given amount of time for a few minutes or earn specific achievements in select Game Pass games.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel has a Duel Pass which runs for roughly 2 1/2 month cycles. The basic pass grants 300 Gems, an assortment of Craft Points, and an Icon, up to Tier 75. Players can upgrade to a Gold Duel Pass for 700 Gems, which grants 700 Gems (thus refunding its cost), more Craft Points, a Wallpaper, and a Mate, up to Tier 100. Pass EXP is awarded for playing any Ranked or Event mode, but not in Casual Duel, Team Duel, or Solo Mode.