The Season 1 Battle Pass has 66 free rewards for players who don’t want to spend $10 on the premium pass, but more than half of of these are just challenge swaps (40 of 66).
You get 2 helmets, 1 set of shoulder pieces, 3 chest attachments (2 of which are almost the exact same), 3 nameplate backgrounds, 4 visor colors, 1 AI model, 1 AI color, 1 stance, and 5 armor coatings (most of which look awful and will never be used) if you grind out the ENTIRE pass. All of the armor pieces I mentioned are also only compatible with the Mark VII armor core.
Considering the battle pass is currently the only way to progress in this game, and is an excruciating grind, you basically have to cough up the money if you want to progress and actually customize your Spartan the way you want. And some tiers don’t have any free rewards at all. It wouldn’t be as big a deal if you could earn credits through just playing the game, but you can only directly purchase them from the store.
If you don’t pay for the premium battle pass, you never feel rewarded for all of your effort. You never feel a sense of progression. You’ll never be able to access that “Reach-level armor customization” if you don’t want to spend money on the battle pass. It’s disappointing to see the ability to customize your Spartan paywalled.
And even if you do pay for the premium pass, some of the cosmetics are presets, so you can’t mix and match the armor pieces and are instead forced to use them as part of a set, or just not at all.
The battle pass needs a lot of work in its current state, especially since it’s the only method of progression and unlocking customization options. Players should be able to progress and customize their Spartans the way they want without having to pay for overpriced microtransactions. It’s been a big part of Halo ever since Halo 3 in 2007. Many free to play players will quickly leave the game without having anything to progress towards.
Thank you for reading. I hope 343 reads this and makes improvements to the free rewards.