Progression, Crafting and Loot Changes

Account leveling now fully incorporates the character progression. Leveling your weapons has been removed, with customization in the form of modifications added. Weapon expertises have been replaced with a passive ability. The loot system is less random with higher drop chances.

In addition to developing Crossroads we’ve been busy with changes to the progression, crafting and loot system. There’s a lot of stuff to talk about so be prepared for a lot of information! Let’s start with how the account progression has changed.

Account Progression Changes

The big news for account progression is that individual character leveling outside of matches has been removed! There will be no need to unlock the skills of each character separately; instead, all individual character progression has been moved into account progression. This means that new characters bought will have the same skills and augmentations available as the character you previously played, and that you’ll be able to change characters when playing with friends without lowering your strength or downgrading weapons. The change will result in improved matchmaking as you won’t have to face less skilled opponents because you changed character.

In addition there will be more rewards while leveling your account. The character unlocks have been moved into the account progression; when an augmentation for the Q-skill is unlocked, it’s for all characters. More consumables will also be handed out when you level your account; currencies have been removed as specific level rewards. The overall progression has been sped up to decrease the grind. Finally, specific modifications will be unlocked in the account progression. What are modifications? Well, that leads us to the…

Crafting System Overhaul

Weapon leveling along with workbench levels have been removed! With the new changes crafting a weapon will put it at its full potential and you’ll be able to craft and use it at the appropriate account level. The amount of weapon tiers has also been increased to make crafting an almost constant progression. As you progress towards the end-game content you’ll get to craft and customize lots of weapons. The new tiers will also smooth out the matchmaking as differences between tiers will be less significant.

Since character levels and leveling weapons will be removed, Unbound XP will disappear. Following that we will of course compensate every user that has paid to unbind XP with an equivalent amount of in-game Cash.

So what are modifications and what does it mean that you’ll be able to customize weapons? We were not satisfied with the feeling of crafting in the current system; in the new system you will be able to collect modifications. Modifications (or mods for short) are permanent unlocks similar to blueprints. An unlocked mod can be used on any weapon that has a suitable modification slot. Each mod has a unique effect. Here’s a few quick examples:

• Bounty Hunter - Killing an enemy awards you with 5 supplies.
• Scratch Shield - Damage taken from Walkers reduced by 10%
• Acrobatics - You have a 30% chance to reset dodge cooldown when dodge is used.

This new modification system will grant an additional layer of depth to crafting. Some weapons have an additional innate modification that goes along with that weapon; a weapon perk. All Legendary weapons will have their own weapon perk unique to that weapon for example.

Additionally, we’ve both rebalanced tons of weapons and changed how stats works with them. Power and Vitality have been merged into a single stat. This change adds a clear difference between weapon tiers, and will balance out Glass Cannon/Tank builds a bit. The secondary stats, the weapon perks and the modifications will now determine if a weapon is offensive, defensive or a utility weapon. Feel free to use whatever weapon you want with whatever character you want, with the new…

Passive Abilities

Characters will no longer have weapon expertises; instead each character has a passive ability. This is to encourage you to use the weapon you feel the most comfortable with when playing a character instead of feeling forced to use certain weapons. Have fun customizing whatever weapon you want to fit your own play style, regardless of which character you play! You’ll get more weapons to choose from than ever before thanks to the…

Loot System Changes

The loot system will now consider your previous drops; if you haven’t gotten a specific weapon type for a while you will have a higher chance of getting that type. The randomness of the system has also been decreased overall, as there will be guaranteed drops if you haven’t received a blueprint or a modification for some time. At the same time, the general chance for receiving blueprints has been increased. If you receive a duplicate blueprint, that blueprint will be automatically converted into Account XP. As a final note, the amount of Gear Points awarded has also been doubled to encourage, among other things, more crafting and customization of weapons.

That was the final reveal. Look forward to Crossroads and these changes coming to Dead Island: Epidemic in the next few weeks!


TL;DR

• Levels for individual characters have been removed: there is now a global character level that applies to each character. Unlocks apply to each character once you reach a new level
• Weapon leveling and workbench levels have been removed
• Weapon modifications have been introduced: Permanent unlocks similar to blueprints that can be used on each weapon – if it has a suitable slot
• Lots of weapon balancing changes
• Character weapon expertise has been removed. Every character now has a passive ability
• Smarter drop system with guaranteed drops and less randomness