Marvel Snap’s season pass, explained

After months of closed beta testing, Marvel Snap is finally playable for anyone with a smartphone. Following in the footsteps of other live service games, the game is free-to-play but has a lot of financial incentives. You can level up cards, build your deck, and earn credits at a faster rate if you spend real money. But this begs questions: Is the season pass necessary? And is it worth the $10 asking price? I’ve been playing Marvel Snap since the days of the beta, let me clear things up.

How much does Marvel Snap’s premium season pass cost?

Marvel Snap’s season pass — called “Symbiote Invasion” — comes in at a $9.99 price point, if you want to unlock its premium edition. Like in other free-to-play games featuring one of these level ladders, it also comes with a few free level-up bonuses.

What do you get with the Marvel Snap season pass?

The season pass gives you a new reward every time you unlock enough experience points from leveling up your play level by completing missions. These missions aren’t hard to complete at all. I honestly regularly complete each batch of them by simply playing without even knowing what the missions are. While there are a few free unlockable rewards, doled out intermittently, the premium season pass gives a new bonus for every new level you hit.

These bonuses start with a pretty strong Miles Morales Spider-Man card, perfect for decks based around the movement mechanic. From there, you’ll begin unlocking gold, which can be unlocked much more slowly through leveling up your rank level, credits, which are unlockable through leveling up your card level and rank level, and boosters, which are unlocked through upgrading card level. You also get a few cool variant cards — twists on existing cards you have, done in a different art style — and profile pic avatars.

The main bonus comes from the gold, credits, and boosters. Gold is used to purchase credits, variants, and card packs from the in-game shop. The credits you purchase and unlock are used to level up your card collection level, which needs boosters. Through doing this you’ll push your way to unlocking even more cards, which means more fun while playing.

Image: Marvel/Second Dinner Games via Polygon

The season pass comes with 1,200 gold in all for the first 50 levels, with 300 of it being free. This alone makes the $10 a deal if you’re looking to play Marvel Snap consistently. (In the shop, 300 gold in the shop goes for $4.99 of real-world money; 1,450 gold costs $19.99.) And it doesn’t even stop at the ensured 1,200 gold and extra credits. Once you pass level 50, you hit the season cache levels for each level you hit in the season pass. These include a surprise bonus that consists of cosmetics for your profile and cards or currency, which leads to even more credits or gold. So the value of the pass just keeps getting better.

Is Marvel Snap’s season pass worth it?

If you’re looking to quickly get a bunch of cards for new decks, it’s worth considering the season pass. And while the cards and variants included may not be your cup of tea, I just consider those bonuses to the great monetary perks.

Basically, Marvel Snap’s season pass is 100% worth it for anyone who knows they’ll complete every level and keep playing the game afterward. The price point is industry standard for similar battle passes, and the return is well worth the money you spend. If you’re iffy on the game but want to keep trying, the free levels offer an idea of what you get, so you can decide if you want to invest the $10. You’d be spending much more than that to get started in a traditional trading card game, so at least here you can try before you buy.