Did the Dota 2 Battle Pass fall off? A Comparison

Right from its release last week, there's been a lot of criticism about The 2022 Battle Pass. But is it as bad as the community is making it out to be? It's time to settle the debate. Let's throw on our detective hats and compare, contrast and find out if the Dota 2 Battle Pass has really fallen off.

Before we start comparing Battle Passes and Compendiums, lets look at an overview of the current Battle Pass so we can compare. The unique aspect about The 2022 Battle Pass is that its divided into two sections that are pretty spaced apart. Part I which is out now lasts until November 2nd and Part II starts November 3rd, running until the January 12th, 2022.

There's been outspoken criticism of this format, as players aren't the biggest fans of the new two-part Battle Pass. Especially since many of the major rewards of Part I, including the Primal Beast Bundle and Phantom Assassin Persona are unreleased. But in terms of rewards, here's the breakdown of all items for The 2022 Battle Pass.

So there are a lot of rewards that can be earned throughout The 2022 Battle Pass. The issue is that to get all the main rewards, you need to reach level 495. With all the rewards and leveling you can do, you can only reach a maximum of level 103 without paying (specifically 103,950 points). So, if you want to even come close to the lowest level "featured reward", you'll have to purchase levels.

The first battle pass-like event that was similar to the modern Battle Pass format was TI4's Compendium. But rather than the standard earning levels, the Compendium functioned like a Kickstarter. With rewards being earned once certain prize pool milestones were reached. Additionally rather than quests, there was a "Daily Hero Challenge" and "10 Hero Challenge", where players could earn Compendium Points by playing matches with a random heroes.

The TI4 Compendium also introduced a recycling mechanic called "Offering of the Aegis". This feature allowed players to almost recycle unwanted items. With the rerolling, players could get either 25 Compendium Points or items from common to mythical rarity. In terms of rewards however, the TI4 Compendium hails in comparison. There were some iconic loading screens that you can see here, as well as the first attempt at a evolving courier and the Immortal Strongbox. The Strongbox contains 11 of the first immortals to feature ambient effects. Additionally there was Spectre's Mercurial's Call reward, which was one of the few items that go on the "voice" slot.

So just on the base level, when comparing the International 4's compendium to the modern, 2022 Battle Pass, there are worlds of difference. What's more, while not all of those awards were immediately available, the Kickstarter-format softened the blow.

But since this was eight years ago now, we'll need a more modern comparison. So to see if The 2022 Battle Pass is lacking in some aspects, lets look at the last year's Battle Pass. The 2021 Battle Pass had five main rewards. Pudge and Anti-Mage received personas in The Toy Butcher and The Disciple's Path respectively. On the other hand there were Arcanas for Wraith King, Queen of Pain, and Windranger. There were also three sets of Immortals that had eight or 10 different treasures each (Immortal III only had eight). On top of the featured rewards, there was Rylai's Blessing in which you could earn items of all different rarities, sprays, emotes as well.

But for a full breakdown to compare, here are the levels of rewards for the 2021 Battle Pass:

So by comparing, to achieve the highest leveled featured reward, you'd need to reach level 575 of the 2021 Battle Pass. The rewards in general are at higher levels than 2022's Battle Pass. However, in terms of earning Battle Points, there were more options available to players. There were not only levels as rewards in the Immortal Treasures, but also Aghanim's Labyrinth which could also grant upwards of 4000 points per week.

The answer is more complex than "yes" or "no". The 2022 Battle Pass has higher-tier rewards earlier than previous years, but it is somewhat behind a paywall, in that it is much harder to earn Battle Points. Additionally, the featured game mode of Diretide isn't being released until Part II, meaning we won't know exactly how easy it is to earn points until November.

At release, last year's Battle Pass is on paper, much better. As in previous years where you could earn a decent amount of rewards from just grinding out the cavern crawl and events. At the moment, with so much locked behind the title of Coming Soon™, it's hard to imagine The 2022 Battle Pass meeting those expectations.

So ultimately, its up to you to decide. If you don't mind paying the extra money to get the levels at earlier rewards The 2022 Battle Pass is better. But, if you have the time to grind the experience then last year's or previous Battle Passes were better.