Cease to Hope posted:

You also pick a deck of 15 cards, chosen from your library of about 75-ish. Everyone has the same library in the alpha. I assume but do not know for certain that this is the main thing you'll be grinding for in the game; they have said you unlock cards with "challenges". (I've seen the edges of a non-functional challenge UI in the alpha, as I accomplished things like finishing the first act for the first time or killing X number of ridden zombies.) Generally, cards have an always-on bonus (eg +10% reload speed) or a triggered bonus (everyone heals 75 health when someone goes down). There's also cards to start with a basic primary weapon: a one-star sniper rifle, sawed-off shotgun, AK, or Uzi SMG.

Your deck has one "loadout" card that you always start with at the beginning of a run. This is a good place for a card that's a lynchpin to your build, often a primary weapon to start with. You then draw cards randomly from your remaining deck; three cards to start, then one card before each stage in the run (or every time you fail and hit continue). Some of the cards are so closely tied to certain characters with art and mechanics that I suspect that they're earned by playing that character, possibly similar to perk cards in Gears 5 Horde. If you're playing in the alpha, the non-ADS perk cards are super great, and I don't think two cards that do the exact same thing (eg +10% accuracy and +30% accuracy but no ADS) stack together. However, team based bonuses do stack with each other; if all four players take +10% fatigue, everyone gets +40% fatigue. It's possible that the cards end up some sort of lootbox/CCG system where they're available for real money, but none of the announced DLC stuff with the deluxe edition says anything about that.

Before each stage, there are also Ridden perk cards. This is more or less fixed based on difficulty right now, but I think it'll be a bit more random in the final game. Ridden perk cards change what enemies you face. There's three different speeds of regular zombie, plus an armored zombie wearing police riot armor with helmets that pop off when you shoot them. There's also a chance for the Ogre boss from the trailer to appear in 1-3, where you have to fight him to get by. (He always appears in 1-2, but you just run away like in the trailer.) This seems like an obvious place to graft on more unlockable stuff to mix up the stages you've already done before, or add in new special zombies in later DLC.