And what’s next
The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 season pass (referred to as an “expansion pass”) was revealed during a recent Nintendo Direct presentation, but now that it’s actually here, we have some info on what it actually comes with. Right now you’re buying into the “Adventure Support Pack,” as well as the promise of two smaller DLCs, and one bigger expansion
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 season pass Adventure Support Pack contents
The eShop description says that it contains “a collection of helpful items, as well as color variations for existing outfits,” but we can do a bit better than that thanks to snooping the expansion pass menu in the actual game:
- Nopon Coin (Silver) x 30
- Nopon Coin (Gold) x10
- Iron Temple Guard
- Circlet of Wisdom
- Silver Belt
- Auto-Balancer
- Glass Memory
- Nopon Strap
- Noah – Color 02 (outfit)
- Mio – Color 02
- Eunie – Color 02
- Taion – Color 02
- Lanz – Color 02
- Sena – Color 02
As you can probably glean, none of it is essential.
Nopon Coins are helpful in Xenoblade Chronicles 3(they can speed up gem creation, as well as class leveling and cooking), but you can easily get by without them or find more out in the world through exploration and quest completion (when choosing a side for world event clashes, try and err on the side of coins: you can always get XP later). All of the other items might be helpful early on as quick upgrades (especially when you don’t have much to go around), but you need to unlock equipment slots anyway gradually by leveling up, and you can find plenty of good equipment through vendors and quests.
As it stands, you might want to wait for the second pack to come out before pulling the trigger, unless you really want alternate costume colors.
So what’s next for the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 season pass?
On the immediate horizon, “pack 2” is called “New Hero & Intense Enemy Battles.” Based on the official in-game description, it includes:
- A Challenge Battle mode against difficult enemies
- A new hero character and accompanying quests
- New character outfits (this part is not directly advertised in-game, but is listed on the eShop description)
Expect it to operate like a lot of 2010s-style “arena bout” DLC, and you’ll likely get a new hero to mess with (and thus, a new class) at the end of it. Nintendo says the release date for the pack will be “by 12/31/2022,” so by the end of the year.
As for pack 3, it’ll contain the exact same contents as pack 2, and will be released by “4/30/2023.”
Pack 4 is the main event, and involves a “new original story scenario,” and will arrive by “12/31/2023,” so by the end of next year.
