When to Buy DLC and Season Passes Without Wasting Money
By Lowstamp Editor · 2026-06-21
You pick a game, open the store page, and it's not just the base game. There's DLC, a season pass, a deluxe edition, a whole pile of extras. What do you actually need for the full experience, and are you throwing money away if you grab it all? I've bought DLC I never installed more than once. Here's the order that fixed it.
What DLC and season passes are
DLC is extra content sold separately after the base game launches: new stories, characters, areas, costumes. Once people have finished the base game, the studio might sell a whole new adventure for another $10 to $20. A season pass is a discounted bundle of several of those DLCs bought up front, often including ones that aren't out yet. So a season pass is paying for the future in advance.
Rule one: base game first, DLC later
The safest order is to buy the base game, play it, and make sure it's your kind of thing before you think about DLC at all. It happens constantly: a 30-hour game, you play 5 hours, and the interest fizzles. If you'd bought the DLC up front, that money is just sitting there. Buying DLC after you're sure you want more loses you nothing.
DLC and season passes usually do nothing without the base game. If the base game is a letdown, the DLC is pointless too.
Rule two: a season pass buys things that don't exist yet
The trap with a season pass is that you're paying for content nobody has seen. The promised DLC might turn out worse than hoped, get pushed back forever, or quietly fizzle. A season pass that bundles DLC that's already out is safe, because you can see exactly what you're getting. Anything labeled 'includes future DLC' is a promise, so it's easier on the mind to wait and buy once you've seen the reception.
Complete edition, or base game plus DLC?
Long-loved hits usually get a 'complete edition' that wraps the base game and all the DLC together, and if you plan to play all of it, that's often cheaper than buying piece by piece. Not always, though, so do a quick bit of math.
- Check the sale price of the complete edition.
- Add up the base game's sale price plus the sale prices of only the DLC you actually want.
- Pick whichever is cheaper. If the complete edition is stuffed with DLC you'll never touch, there's no reason to pay for it.
- With a lot of DLC you probably won't play, base game plus a couple of hand-picked add-ons usually wins.
DLC goes on sale too
DLC and season passes drop in price during sales just like the base game, and they bottom out in the same big sales. Instead of paying full price at launch, enjoy the base game first and pick up the DLC on sale. Lowstamp shows the base game's price against its tracked low, so grab the base game at a good price, play it, and wait for the DLC's turn.
When the base game turns out great, that's when you grab the DLC on sale. Stick to that order and you'll almost never regret it.
Three things. Use the base game to confirm you like it. Be careful with a season pass that has you paying for things that aren't out. Compare the complete edition against buying separately and pick the cheaper one. Base game or DLC, if you're not in a hurry, buying near the tracked low during a sale is the thriftiest move.