Developer Blog – Earned Cosmetics
Hello everyone, I’m Brian Waggoner, a System Designer at Crystal Dynamics working on Marvel’s Avengers. In this blog, we’ll be talking about updates we’re making around earnable cosmetics in our next update on November 30!
Cosmetic Vendor
First, we’ve made some updates to the Cosmetic Vendor inventory on the Helicarrier. When you visit Chastity McBryde for the first time after the update, you’ll see that she once again has a full inventory! The top 16 slots are full of various emotes, nameplates and outfits that rotate daily. Make sure to come back each day to see what she has available. Her inventory is a mixture of items that were previously available as well as some new ones that Chastity found lying around, including nameplates and emotes for Black Panther!
We wanted to give users more choice in their Cosmetic Vendor experience, so we are now utilizing the Specialty Items selection to showcase a single set of items each month. During a specific timeframe, a specific set of outfits will rotate each week in the Specialty Items section, including outfits that were previously only available through special promotions and some brand new looks. If you miss one of the outfits one week, it’ll appear again in a following week, allowing you more time to ponder and choose. Keep an eye out for information on the Specialty Item outfits coming to the vendor each week in our weekly blog! We’ll make sure to state what outfits are available for the next few weeks so that you can plan ahead!
Patterns
Patterns will be making their return as well. Patterns that were previously available via random drops now have a chance to drop whenever a Mega Hive gauntlet is completed! You can exchange Patterns at the Fabrications machine in the Helicarrier or in Birnin Zana.
Shipments
Shipments is our brand-new feature for earnable cosmetics in this update. You’ll find them located as a new tab in your character management screen under the consumables tab. Shipments are another way for you to spend your Units to earn cosmetics, resources, and consumables. Each shipment can grant the following item types:
- Outfits
- Takedowns
- Emotes
- Nameplates
- Boosters
- Fragments
- Upgrade Modules
- Polychoron
Some items are obviously rarer than others, but each shipment has hundreds of possible items for you to collect. Each shipment costs 500 Units, the same cost as a Nameplate on the Cosmetic Vendor.
Current Stock
When you select the shipment icon in the Shipment UI, you’ll be presented with what is in the current stock.
That specific set of stock will be available until the next daily reset (9AM PT). If you decide you like what you see in the Current Stock and claim it, you will be granted the items listed and a new set of stock will become available for you to review. If you don’t see anything that you are interested in in the Current Stock, you can always wait until the next refresh. You can also preview items in your Current Stock to see them before you claim! If you are interested in all the items that are possible to obtain in the current Shipment, you can select More Info.
On top of listing all the items that are possible to obtain from the Shipment, this portion of the UI will also show you items that you may already have with a white checkmark in the lower right corner of the icon. Any items that you have already collected that are selected in your Current Stock will have a Fragment value that is based off item type and item rarity. In the Current Stock, these items will also be indicated with a white check mark and will let you know the Fragment value you will get in exchange. In the event that there are multiple items that you may already have collected in your Current Stock, the total Fragment amount will be listed at the bottom of the claim UI.
Specialty Item
Each Shipment will have a specialty Item for you to chase. The specialty item can be obtained one of two ways.
- There is a small chance to obtain the specialty item each time your current stock refreshes.
- After you have claimed 100 Shipments within the refresh timeframe, you will be automatically granted the specialty item.
On the Shipment screen, you’ll see an image of the specialty item as well as some descriptive text. You’ll also be able to see your progress towards earning the guaranteed specialty Item as well. Above that bar, you can see the time left for you to earn the Specialty Item.
You’ll see here that our first Specialty Item is Iron Man’s Wakandan Stealth Outfit. We have some very exciting ones planned for upcoming Shipments, so keep earning those Units! Here’s a better look at the Wakandan Stealth Outfit.
The Chase
Over time, we’ll cycle out the current Shipment and add a new one. Each new Shipment will bring a new specialty Item to earn, new outfits, emotes, nameplates and more. All Shipments have a specific set of “evergreen” items that will be a part of multiple Shipments as well as some that are limited time. The time remaining to earn the Specialty Item appears in the UI above the progress bar.
Free Claims!
Each day, you’ll be able to earn a voucher for a free Shipment claim by completing the Rise and Shine mission chain that we have recently added in addition to the other rewards that the mission chain grants. The voucher expires at the next daily reset, so you’ll need to make sure you use it before then!
After you’ve earned the voucher from the quest, the next time you head into the Shipment tab, the price will be updated to show it has no cost!
Units
To help players earn Units, we have added Units to some quests and game modes as rewards where there previously were none. We have also increased the number of Units gained from bronze strongboxes from 6 to 10. We will be monitoring Unit earn rates once the update releases and will adjust if needed.
Conclusion
We’re excited for you to be able to earn more cosmetics and have different places to spend your Units. Be sure to check these new features out when our next update releases on November 30th.