Are the microtransactions necessary on Assassins Creed Unity?

Solution 1:

No, the microtransactions in Assassin's Creed Unity are not necessary to advance through the game.

In Unity, you can buy "Helix Credits" for real money which you can then spend ingame either on "boosts", "time savers" or equipment like weapons and armour. There is no gameplay restriction behind a paywall, so chests etc. don't require microtransactions and there are no "helix credit" exclusive items.

If you are connected to the internet I believe you can get a few hundred credits for free through Uplay just by playing the game. I'm not sure how, but I remember I had enough Helix credits for two time saver packs without buying any.

It is important to note that, unless you never played a game before or want to rush through everything as fast as possible (but then why would you buy the game in the first place?), you will most likely never have the desire to do any microtransactions. They are entirely there for "saving time".

Equipment:

Unity is laid out in a way that you get stronger as you progress the game by upgrading your equipment with money you earn for all the activities in the world. With helix credits you can simply avoid all the side missions and chests and buy equipment with real money.

By playing normally through the game and opening some chests every now and then, you will have enough money to unlock good equipment anyway. If you open all the chests and do some missions or play online you will be able to unlock everything without helix credits. The credits only give you faster access.

Time Savers:

Synchronizing viewpoints no longer marks all collectibles and missions on the map. They are instead unlocked by getting close to them or using the eagle eye while in range. There are a few time saver packs that will show these items on the map (e.g. there is one for showing all chests, one for all "Paris Story" missions etc.). If you are going for collectible trophies/achievements, two of these are very useful, if you don't want to run around the whole of Paris with the eagle eye active.

The free credits I got through Uplay were enough to unlock these packs, so I didn't need to spend money. Alternatively, you could find maps with all chest locations on the internet, to find ones you missed, so the packs are not necessary.

Boosts:

They are entirely useless. You can activate boosts like "do more melee damage for five minutes", which are never necessary at all. They are basically mild cheats that make you overly powerful for a moment. The game is balanced in a way that the difficulty is normal without ever using these.