7. Battle Pass Challenges Data Analysis - cat-friend/ultimate-accelerator GitHub Wiki

Battle Pass Challenges are based on play modes, playable characters (legends), or weapons and challenge types. The goals of analyzing game data were:

1. determining the most granular data related to Battle Pass Challenges. Using the most granular data allows for calculation of the maximization of stars accrual with minimum gameplay time.
2. determining key words used to identify challenge types and their requirements so, rather than providing the user with a fixed list of available challenges, the user can input their Battle Pass Challenges and the database can be updated programmatically vs. manually.

Apex Legends has three play modes:

1. Battle Royale - players and their squadmates play against 57-58 other people. To win, they must remain the last players standing as the map grows increasingly smaller.
2. Arenas - players and their squadmates must defeat a team of three on smaller maps. To win a round, players must defeat the other team. To win a match, players need to win at least three rounds and be ahead of the enemy team by two points. One round awards a team one point.
3. Limited Time Mode (LTM) - a game-mode that are only available for a limited time.

Apex Legends has 20 playable characters (legends) and 3 classes of legends (recon, defense, support)

Legend Name	Class
Bloodhound	recon
Gibraltar	defense
Lifeline	support
Pathfinder	recon
Wraith	assault
Bangalore	assault
Caustic	defense
Octane	assault
Mirage	assault
Wattson	defense
Crypto	recon
Revenant	assault
Loba	support
Rampart	defense
Horizon	assault
Fuse	assault
Valkyrie	recon
Seer	recon
Ash	assault
Mad Maggie	assault

In Apex Legends, there are 28 weapons and 9 categories of weapons, two of which (red tier and craftable) overlap with other types. All weapons belong to at least one category.

Weapon	Category
P2020	pistol
RE-45	pistol
Wingman	pistol
Flatline	assault rifle, craftable
Havoc	assault rifle
Hemlok	assault rifle
R-301	assault rifle
Alternator	sub machine gun (SMG)
CAR	SMG
Prowler	SMG
R-99	SMG
Volt	SMG, red tier
Devotion	light machine gun (LMG)
L-STAR	LMG
Rampage	LMG
Spitfire	LMG
EVA-8	shotgun
Mastiff	shotgun
Mozambique	shotgun
Peacekeeper	shotgun
30-30 Repeater	marksman
Bocek	marksman
G7 Scout	marksman, red tier
Triple Take	marksman
Charge Rifle	sniper
Kraber	sniper
Longbow DMR	sniper
Sentinel	sniper

I collected Apex Legends' Season 11 Weekly Battle Pass Challenges raw data and grouped the data into challenge categories. I identified 11 distinct challenge categories:

1. Ability-based challenges - these challenges involve completing objectives related to a character's passive or active abilities.
2. Collect materials/use a replicator - these challenges involve collecting crafting materials or using a replicator to craft equipment.
3. Damage - these challenges require players to deal damage. damage challenges may require the player to use a specific weapon or legend, but never both. That is, weapons and legends are mutually exclusive for damage challenges.
4. Finish - finish challenges require the player to place in a certain rank in the Battle Royale (i.e. Top 3) or win an arenas match.
5. Health - health challenges require the player to restore health or revive themselves or squadmates.
6. Kills, Knockdowns, Assists (KKDA) - KKDA challenges require the player perform a number of kills (knockdown an enemy and the enemy must be killed while down, either by the player who knocked them down or someone else), knockdowns (reduce an enemy's health to 0), and/or assist in the killing of another player.
7. Loot - loot challenges require the player to loot various types of equipment containers or specific types of items.
8. Play - play challenges require the player to play a certain number of game-types or as specific characters.
9. Purchase - purchase challenges are Arena mode specific and require the player to purchase or upgrade their weapons.
10. Scan - scan challenges require the player to play as a recon hero and scan survey beacons.
11. Survive - to complete survive challenges, the player must outlive a number of other players or live through a number of ring closings (a ring closing is when the Battle Royale or Arena map play area contracts).

Each challenge type has identifying words associated with them, for example damage challenges all contain "deal << X >> damage << OPTIONAL: with legend or with weapon>>".

Based on the glossary of legends, weapons, weapon types, and challenge types, I developed four (4) regexes (Appendix B: Regexes) to identify key information from user input data. I developed three (3) dictionaries with Battle Pass Challenge-related vocabulary as the keys and the id of the data on its associated model (Appendix C: Dictionaries). I then designed a function to programmatically iterate through data gathered via regex matching, compare regex data with data in the dictionaries, and add data from the dictionaries to the payload. The payload is then sent to the backend.