16 days, 5 hours, and 14 minutes of in-game time later, I’m finally Grand Master Prestige. After progressing through roughly 1,580 individual levels, I believe 10 Advanced Supply Drops to be a lackluster award. There are a few reasons for this, but first: what are Advanced Supply Drops and how do they work?
Advanced Supply Drops
Advanced Supply Drops (ASDs) are the premium version of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s standard supply drops, which give a random assortment of items to players - such as in-game reinforcements, character customization pieces, and weapon variants.
A standard supply drop is not guaranteed to give anything in particular, where an ASD must give its opener three items, at least one weapon variant, and one item of professional rarity or better. ASDs also neglect to include Rapid Supply and Orbital Care Package reinforcements, as they are recognized as essentially useless by most of the game’s community.
Supply drops are awarded to players at completely random times during their multiplayer experience, whereas Advanced Supply Drops are only given to players at certain milestones along their journey through the prestige modes. Unless, of course, players choose to buy them.
Advanced Supply Drops are available for purchase in a number of bundles:
1 ASD ($1. 99) 5 ASDs + 1 ($9. 99) 10 ASDs + 3 ($19. 99) 20 ASDs + 8 ($39. 99)
Considering that all the loot a player might receive in these drops is 100% random, the price for Advanced Supply Drops seems pretty expensive.
I know what you’re saying. “So BlackTide, why are you complaining that you’re going to get $20 worth of content, free of charge?” Let me tell you, dear reader.
Advanced Supply Drops are No Longer Available
Throughout the multiplayer leveling leading up to Grand Master, Advanced Supply Drops are awarded to players at levels 20, 30, 40, and upon reaching prestige mode (level 50 +1). These ASDs come free of charge and have the same potential for awards as premium bundles, or the ten free drops on Grand Master Prestige day.
Once a player reaches Grand Master Prestige, they can no longer earn free ASDs. Instead, if a player wants to feel the sensation of opening the coveted crates again, they have to buy them (at a ridiculous price, I might add). Of course, standard supply drops are available to Grand Master Prestige players, but they’re still just as useless as they regularly are.
Advanced Supply Drops were not present at the launch of Advanced Warfare. Therefore, players that had the game from Day One did not receive any of the ASDs for their first few prestige modes. For example, I was somewhere around Prestige 7 when Advanced Supply Drops became available at levels 20, 30, 40 and Prestige. I missed out on thirty-two-ish ASDs. Those are Advanced Supply Drops that the game will never give me back. A brand new player to the game will receive every single ASD on their journey, but dedicated fans who bought the game on Day One miss out on a huge amount of rewards.
I haven’t yet mentioned that Advanced Supply Drops contain exclusive content that cannot be found in standard drops. Once a player hits the level cap, they will never be able to unlock these items without spending their hard-earned cash.
The Skinny
Sure, Grand Master Prestige players will receive ten Advanced Supply Drops on October 19th, but is that measly “$20 of content” really a good enough award for Call of Duty’s most dedicated players? I don’t think so. Even though ASDs are supposed to hold all of these great items, I’ve opened plenty to no avail. I am strongly against ASDs and Call of Duty mircotransactions in general. I know that by next November, there will be a new game to buy, and any extra cash I spent on the current title will be going down the drain. (For a great example of my feelings towards supply drops, and the contents of an average ASD, check out this supply drop opening video on my YouTube channel!)
Sledgehammer Games gave players thirty days of warning concerning Grand Master Prestige Appreciation Day, but I don’t think a lot of players answered the call of duty (ha-ha). Ten ASDs are not enough of a reward to give dedicated fans who have waited at the level cap for four months. Ten ASDs are not enough of an award to players who have been grinding it out for the last thirty days to reach that maximum level. Advanced Supply Drops cost nothing for Sledgehammer to make. The least they could do is really thrill fans and give out twenty-five or fifty. How many people are actually Grand Master Prestige anyways? Only a crazy person would grind through thirty prestige modes!
Although I disagree with the awards, I’ve become Grand Master Prestige within the last thirty days so that I can continue a fan favorite series on my YouTube channel. Expect to see a new supply drop opening on Grand Master Prestige “Appreciation” Day.
