We’ve taken the opportunity of Prestige Refresh to revamp the system. We wanted to change the experience so that leveling up an operator was more exciting and the rewards were more relevant for gameplay, and also to make it more accessible for players.
We started by removing the need to wait a long time before raising your rank, which made achieving new ranks much more accessible. We then looked at the other parts of the system and found areas where we could improve it.
For example, a team’s tier will now be displayed on its icon in the main menu, and reaching a new prestige level will require more than just a few battles. If a player has more team XP than the maximum rank threshold, it will still be retained after prestiging, and can even allow them to prestige up three times if they want to. In addition, players will keep their previous rank’s rewards, including the Superiority Emote and the additional Extra XP they received for each new Prestige level.
Other changes include converting Gemstones into Mythic Essence and removing them from bundles. We’ll replace them with a milestone track that unlocks rewards similar to the original Prestige rewards for completing Masterwork missions, but with slightly less Mythic Essence. These rewards will unlock at the same time as the previous rewards, and will disappear when they’re no longer available (we’ll message when this happens).
In the future we plan to introduce a new set of cosmetics for each Prestige level. We’ll also add some more Weapon Attachments that are exclusive to Prestige levels. We also want to give players the option of displaying their prestige status on their avatar and in-game.
We’re also converting 2021’s PROJECT and Battle Academia showcase events from their pre-existing Prestige Point bundles to a rewards track that advances when you open event capsules. This will be a similar system to the free pass track rewards, except that it includes both a unique and permanent Showcase Avatar.
Lastly, we’re adding new Prestige Mods that are similar to Paragon Mods, but limited and rarer. These will be obtainable through the milestone tracks and from Prestige Crates, but they won’t be available in loot pools or for rerolls until their debut period ends (for example, when Ashen Knight Pyke leaves the Mythic Shop or when a seasonal Prestige ward or emote expires).