How's the monetization work in this? Is it purely cosmetic still, or are there exclusive character classes/weapons/expansions of sorts?
Also, does it perform any better on the Switch now than it used to? How about on PS4 regular and Pro? Considering getting some friends together and starting.
It's not purely cosmetic, but the paid elements aren't intrusive. From the top of my head, there's the following paid elements:
Elite Hunt Pass (additional rewards in the Hunt Pass, basically)
Additional loadouts (you unlock up to 6 for free, with another 6 paid)
Additional Cell Slots (put more cells combining simultaneously. You can put one and can't unlock the other two without paying)
Hunting supplies (VERY easy to get ingame. Some can even be bought with the game's currency, which is also pretty easy to get. They really need some money sinks)
Patrol Chests (more specific rewards)
The weird purple coins? Speed up the cell combining process.
So yeah, aside from patrol chests (you get 2 free per day, and can receive more from the daily login bonus) and the purple coins, both consumables, there's a really low ceiling of how much you would spend. Iirc, for 20 euros/dollars you get all permanent stuff with actual gameplay effects.
You need to buy the Elite Hunt Pass every season (a season is a little over a month), but the pass also gives some platinum, so you end up recovering some of the investment and using it in the other things I mentioned. I bought 2 of the 3 last Hunt Passes and with the platinum I got from the passes I bought one set of extra loadouts and one cell slot (which is only useful as long as you have cells to combine. Once you got all the skills at +3 x2, which honestly isn't even difficult, it's... kinda useless.)
