Yes the title is correct, players will be able to play on the DLC maps even without the game’s premium pass. But there is a catch, players will only be able to do so if someone in their party has the premium pass for the game.
In a blog post, DICE announced that Premium Friends was going to become a thing after there was beginning to be a divide between friends who wanted to play together when some of them didn’t pay for the DLC. To get around the divide, the developer made the decision to allow parties to enter battle together as long as the host had purchased the content. That means that only one person in the group needs to have purchased the $50 Premium Pass in order to play the new maps with their whole party.
“We will pay close attention to your feedback on Premium Friends. It’s our goal to work towards molding this feature into something that embodies our commitment to you, our amazing community.”
This to many seems like an amazing deal, you’ll be able to play maps without purchasing them as long as you know someone who has it. To take away from the fun, there is a small catch. Players who don’t own the premium pass can play on the maps but they won’t accumulate any experience from the matches.
Here is a list of some of the fine print attached allowing non premium pass owners to play on the DLC maps from the post.
- In a “Premium Enabled” party, only owners of a Battlefield 1 Premium Pass or the specific expansion pack will earn XP from the maps exclusive to that expansion. We will save the XP for everyone else and grant them retroactively if they decide to get the Battlefield 1 Premium Pass for themselves.
- Only owners of a Battlefield 1 Premium Pass or the specific expansion pack will be able to spawn in with weapons and vehicles unique for the expansion.
- Only owners of a Battlefield 1 Premium Pass or the specific expansion pack will track progress towards the unique medals and codexes for the expansion.
There will be a test run for Premium Friends during the Battlefest event which starts today. While you won’t get any experience while on the DLC maps, this could be a way for you to see if the Premium pass is something you wish to get in the future after seeing what you get for it.