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Stellar Blade: Blood Rain vs Windrose
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| shopping_cart Where to Buy | |
| info General Information | |
| Release Date | |
| Aug 20, 2027 | Apr 14, 2026 |
| Developer | |
| Shift Up | Kraken Express |
| Publisher | |
| Shift Up | Pocketpair |
| Genre(s) | |
| Action-Adventure / Character Action | Survival Crafting RPG / Pirate Action |
| Engine | |
| Unreal Engine 5 | Unreal Engine 5 |
| stars Ratings & Price | |
| Content Rating | |
| M | M |
| Avg. User Rating | |
| 4.8 / 5.0 | 4.5 / 5.0 |
| Current Price (USD) | |
| $69.99 | $29.99 |
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| trending_up Progression & Upgrades | |
| Skills & Progression | |
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The combat and progression systems in Stellar Blade: Blood Rain have been completely overhauled to complement Evie's unique fighting style. Unlike Eve's elegant, sword-centric choreography, Evie relies on a brutal, high-velocity gauntlet-based Close Quarters Combat (CQC) system, supplemented by a secondary reverse-grip blade for fast parries and lethal finishers. The skill tree is divided into three primary disciplines: Brawler, Tactician, and Blade. The Brawler tree focuses on upgrading the kinetic impact of Evie's gauntlets, allowing players to unlock devastating combo strings, guard-breaking heavy strikes, and shockwave ground pounds. The Tactician tree enhances Evie's synergy with her support companion, Canna, granting access to combat drones, elemental traps, and defensive shields. Finally, the Blade tree improves the utility of her reverse-grip sword, enabling lightning-fast dodges, perfect parry counter-attacks, and sweeping area-of-effect slashes. Players will earn skill points by defeating Elite Naytibas and discovering hidden memory drives scattered throughout the Nexus Sector. |
Progression in Windrose is deeply rewarding and multifaceted, combining traditional RPG stat distribution with a robust talent tree and an intricate gear upgrading system. Whenever you level up, you can freely allocate attribute points into Strength, Agility, Precision, Mastery (crit chance), Vitality, and Endurance. Since stamina management is absolutely critical for the souls-like combat mechanics, investing early in Endurance is a common and highly effective strategy. Furthermore, players unlock Talents that drastically alter their combat playstyle, with passive abilities like 'Quick Strikes' for bonus base damage, 'Duelist' for intense single-target boss encounters, and 'Deadly Finale' which massively boosts damage by 15% after consecutive melee hits. The game incredibly allows for completely free and unlimited attribute and talent respecs, encouraging players to constantly experiment with different weapon scalings and hybrid builds. To complement personal stats, your gear—from your heavy Conquistador armor to your swift Rapier—must be constantly upgraded at advanced workbenches using gathered materials like copper, iron, and hardwood. |
| public World & Exploration | |
| World & Level Design | |
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The world design in Stellar Blade: Blood Rain moves away from the wide-open, desolate wastelands of the first game in favor of highly dense, vertical, and intricate urban environments. The primary setting, the Nexus Sector, is a massive, multi-tiered cyberpunk-inspired city battered by perpetual rain. Players will explore neon-lit alleyways, claustrophobic transit stations, and towering corporate spires. The game's opening sequence takes place on a high-speed steam locomotive, showcasing a dynamic, moving environment where players must navigate train cars while fending off transforming citizens. The interconnected level design emphasizes the new protagonist's agility and close-quarters combat style, featuring extensive environmental destruction and interactive combat arenas. While the total landmass might be more concentrated than the previous game's Great Desert, the sheer density of explorable buildings, underground subway networks, and hidden facility sectors makes the overall map feel significantly more expansive and immersive. |
The map in Windrose is incredibly vast, utilizing a hybrid system of procedurally generated ocean layouts with fixed, handcrafted unique points of interest, ensuring that every single playthrough feels fresh while maintaining curated, high-quality content. The game is divided into distinct, expansive biomes that you progress through sequentially. You begin in the Coastal Jungle, a massive starting area boasting over 32 unique locations and 62 treasure chests that serve as an introductory proving ground. Once you conquer the jungle and its local boss, you will sail outward to the Foothills, a highly sought-after, resource-rich region where you will establish massive automated farms and mine crucial mid-game ores like iron and sulfur to craft gunpowder. Beyond the Foothills lies the treacherous Cursed Swamps and the blazing Ashlands, each presenting escalated threats, harsher environmental hazards, and requiring heavily upgraded ships and top-tier ascended weapons to survive. Finding and establishing fast-travel bells across these vast archipelagos is absolutely essential to traversing the massive oceanic map efficiently. |
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| book Story & Characters | |
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| people Multiplayer | |
| Multiplayer Details | |
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True to the legacy of its predecessor, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain is an uncompromisingly solitary experience, featuring absolutely no cooperative or competitive multiplayer modes. Shift Up has explicitly stated that their development resources were entirely focused on crafting a dense, highly polished single-player campaign with intricate combat mechanics and a compelling narrative. The introduction of multiplayer would require significant compromises to the game's meticulously tuned, high-speed CQC combat and the dramatic pacing of the story. Evie's journey through the horrors of the Nexus Sector is designed to evoke a sense of isolation and desperate survival against overwhelming odds. While players cannot directly interact in the game world, Shift Up has implemented asynchronous community features, such as global leaderboards for the 'Boss Rush' mode and a system where players can discover the fallen bodies of other players to retrieve minor resources, subtly connecting the community without breaking immersion. |
Windrose undeniably shines brightest when experienced in its incredibly robust cooperative multiplayer mode, natively supporting up to 8 players simultaneously on official or rented dedicated servers. The entire sweeping campaign, from the moment you wash ashore to the massive, multi-ship naval battles, can be played cooperatively from start to finish. The game brilliantly utilizes a clever instanced loot system, meaning that while treasure chests are shared in the physical world, the loot generated inside is entirely unique and bound to each specific character, permanently preventing loot hoarding by a single greedy crew member. Naval combat in multiplayer is a highly coordinated, chaotic affair: players must quickly divide responsibilities, with one steering the massive ship while others frantically man the port and starboard cannons, rapidly repair hull breaches with wood kits, or prepare to swing across ropes for brutal, close-quarters boarding actions. |
| extension Editions & DLC | |
| Available Editions | |
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As part of Shift Up's new strategy to self-publish their titles globally, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain will be available in multiple robust editions across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. The Standard Edition includes the base game and a pre-order bonus cosmetic, the 'Classic Eidos' combat suit. The Deluxe Edition offers the base game alongside a digital artbook, the official game soundtrack featuring the acclaimed Korean sci-fi ambient tracks, and an exclusive 'Crimson Fury' gauntlet skin that alters the visual effects of Evie's attacks. For dedicated fans, the premium Collector's Edition includes a highly detailed, 12-inch PVC statue of Evie in her iconic pure white suit performing a mid-air gauntlet strike, a steelbook display case, a physical replica of a 'Scarlet Sin' vial, and a physical artbook filled with breathtaking concept art of the Nexus Sector and the new enemy designs, alongside all digital bonuses. |
Currently available in Early Access on PC via Steam, Windrose offers a robust Standard Edition priced at an highly accessible $29.99, which provides the complete, uncompromised foundational experience. This edition includes the massive Coastal Jungle, Foothills, and Cursed Swamps biomes, the full seamless co-op multiplayer suite for up to 8 players, and the comprehensive ship-building and base-building mechanics. While there are currently no premium deluxe or physical collector's editions available for purchase, the developers at Kraken Express have implemented a heavily community-focused approach, frequently releasing major content patches and rewarding early adopters with exclusive Discord roles and potential in-game cosmetic banners. Early Access supporters are essentially investing in the ongoing, transparent development of the game, with a projected roadmap spanning one to two and a half years before the official 1.0 release. Future premium expansions and possible cosmetic ship DLCs are fully expected as the game approaches its full launch and expands onto console platforms. |
| Post-Launch Content / DLC | |
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Shift Up has outlined an ambitious post-launch roadmap for Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, capitalizing on their new self-publishing independence. The developer is committed to providing a steady stream of cosmetic DLC, including a vast array of new combat suits, gauntlet designs, and hairstyles for Evie, ensuring the game retains the highly customizable aesthetic appeal of the original. Furthermore, a major gameplay expansion titled 'Echoes of Eve' is slated for release a year after launch. This premium DLC will bridge the narrative gap between the first game and Blood Rain, allowing players to briefly take control of the original protagonist, Eve, as she uncovers the initial outbreak of the Scarlet Sin. Additionally, free updates will introduce a highly requested 'Boss Rush' mode, a 'New Game Plus' feature with remixed enemy encounters, and extreme difficulty settings designed to test the limits of players who have mastered the CQC combat system. |
The post-launch roadmap for Windrose is incredibly ambitious, especially given its already feature-rich state in Early Access. The developers have estimated a continuous, heavy development cycle of up to two and a half years before reaching the final 1.0 milestone. Planned free updates include the introduction of the highly dangerous, fiery Ashlands biome, massive new ship classes like the legendary multi-deck Galleon, entirely new terrifying enemy factions, and deep expansions to the farming and automated merchant systems. Currently, there are absolutely no paid DLCs or microtransactions present, as the studio is strictly prioritizing core gameplay features like improved dedicated server stability and robust admin commands. Community feedback is directly driving the addition of new weapons, unique armor sets, and cozy base decorations. As the game steadily matures, players can expect regular, massive content drops that significantly expand the narrative and the scale of the world. |
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| build Technical Details | |
| Graphics & Visual Fidelity | |
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Leveraging the full capabilities of Unreal Engine 5, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain sets a new benchmark for visual fidelity in the character action genre. The game features breathtaking environmental rendering, utilizing Lumen global illumination to realistically cast neon reflections across the rain-slicked pavement and steam-filled corridors of the Nexus Sector. Character models are astonishingly detailed, with Evie's pure white tactical suit displaying dynamic wear, tear, and environmental reactions, such as accumulating grime and blood splatter during prolonged combat sequences. Shift Up continues to excel in advanced character physics, boasting fluid, motion-captured combat animations that seamlessly blend together without sacrificing responsiveness. The creature designs for the transforming citizens are a masterclass in body horror, featuring grotesque, real-time flesh mutations that dynamically react to the sheer concussive force of Evie's gauntlet strikes. The result is a visually arresting, cinematic experience that pushes modern PC and console hardware to its absolute limits. |
Powered by highly advanced modern rendering techniques, Windrose boasts a gorgeous, stylized aesthetic that perfectly balances gritty realism with a slightly exaggerated, colorful art direction. The game's dynamic lighting engine is particularly impressive, featuring absolutely stunning sunrises that reflect dynamically off the procedural ocean waves, and dense, suffocating atmospheric fog that blankets the cursed swamp regions at night. The water physics—which are absolutely crucial for the immersion of any pirate game—are incredibly detailed, with heavy ships realistically bobbing on the massive swells and reacting dynamically to explosive cannon impacts and harsh tropical weather. Character models and equipable armor sets, like the highly ornate Conquistador's Armor or the rugged Flibustier's Attire, are highly detailed and visually showcase your progression as you craft better gear. Building pieces snap together flawlessly to create aesthetically pleasing forts. |
| Audio & Soundtrack | |
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The auditory experience of Stellar Blade: Blood Rain is a spectacular evolution of the beloved soundscape established in the original game. Shift Up has once again partnered with renowned composers to deliver a breathtaking soundtrack that blends melancholic, ethereal vocals with aggressive, heart-pounding electronic beats. The music dynamically shifts based on the on-screen action; exploring the quiet, rain-drenched alleys of the Nexus Sector features haunting, atmospheric synths, while engaging in high-octane combat against grotesque mutants seamlessly transitions the score into heavy, adrenaline-fueled cyberpunk tracks. The sound design of the combat itself is incredibly visceral. Every punch, parry, and pile-bunker blast from Evie's gauntlets lands with a satisfying, bass-heavy crunch, effectively communicating the kinetic impact of the CQC system. Additionally, the voice acting has been meticulously directed, capturing the raw emotion and tension between Evie and Canna as they navigate the horrific consequences of the Scarlet Sin outbreak. |
The audio design in Windrose is absolutely phenomenal, expertly capturing the thrilling and treacherous atmosphere of the open high seas. When peacefully sailing between island chains, players can press a dedicated button to command their NPC crew to sing authentic, rousing sea shanties, transforming long oceanic voyages into incredibly immersive and entertaining cinematic experiences. The sounds of melee combat are visceral, heavy, and satisfying: the sharp, metallic clash of steel during a perfect parry, the deafening, bass-heavy roar of a 36-pounder cannon tearing through an enemy hull, and the terrifying splintering of wood during full-speed ship collisions are all rendered with high fidelity. The ambient audio dynamically shifts based on your immediate environment, from the serene crashing of waves and rustling of coastal jungle palm trees to the eerie, unsettling moans of the Drowned lurking deep within the Cursed Swamps. |
| User Interface (UI/UX) | |
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The User Interface in Stellar Blade: Blood Rain is designed to be sleek, non-intrusive, and highly informative, fitting perfectly with the game's cyberpunk-adjacent aesthetic. The HUD is dynamically contextual; it fades away during exploration to allow the breathtaking visuals of the Unreal Engine 5-powered Nexus Sector to shine, and instantly snaps into view the moment combat is initiated. Evie's health, stamina, and 'Sync' meter (used for executing devastating team-up attacks with her handler, Canna) are displayed via a minimalist, holographic overlay anchored to the bottom corner of the screen. The game features an updated 3D holomap that projects directly from Evie's gauntlet, allowing players to easily navigate the complex, multi-tiered verticality of the city streets without pausing the game. Furthermore, the inventory and skill menus have been streamlined for rapid access, ensuring that players can swap out gauntlet attachments and upgrade abilities with minimal downtime. |
The user interface in Windrose is purposefully designed to be highly functional and completely unobtrusive, keeping the player fully immersed in the beautiful, dangerous Caribbean-inspired environments. The clean HUD displays essential, real-time survival metrics like health (vitality), stamina, and a quick-access scrolling hotbar for swapping weapons, drinking potions, and selecting building tools. A deeply integrated 'Discoveries' tab elegantly tracks your overarching progression, neatly categorizing unlocked blueprints for crafting stations, heavy armor, and ship parts as you gather new exotic materials. During intense naval combat, the UI seamlessly shifts to provide critical, life-saving information on overall ship hull integrity, individual cannon reload timers, and wind direction indicators for optimal sailing speeds. The inventory system is a classic grid-based layout, requiring careful management of weight and slots, though this limitation is heavily mitigated by crafting and upgrading your backpack at tailoring stations. |
| Accessibility Options | |
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Shift Up has made significant strides to ensure Stellar Blade: Blood Rain is accessible to a wider audience without compromising the game's core challenge. The game includes an extensive suite of accessibility toggles designed to accommodate various player needs. A highly customizable 'Action Assist' mode allows players to adjust the parry timing windows, automate certain defensive maneuvers, or enable auto-targeting for Evie's micro-missiles. For visually impaired players, the game offers high-contrast UI options, scalable subtitle sizes with speaker names and directional indicators, and specific colorblind filters that adjust the telegraphing flashes of unblockable enemy attacks. Additionally, the game features fully remappable controls, an optional 'Hold to repeatedly attack' toggle to reduce repetitive strain injuries, and a 'Story Focus' difficulty mode that significantly reduces enemy health and aggression, allowing players to experience the narrative and the stunning world of the Nexus Sector without hitting insurmountable skill walls. |
While Windrose is widely known as a highly demanding survival game with punishing souls-like combat, the developers have thoughtfully included several features to accommodate entirely different playstyles and skill levels. Right from the world creation screen, players can select their permanent difficulty setting: 'Calm Waters' for a relaxed, story-and-building focused experience; 'High Seas' for the standard, highly challenging survival baseline; and 'Storm's Edge' for absolute hardcore masochists. The game graciously allows for full, unrestricted respecs of both attribute points and talent trees at absolutely any time, completely removing the heavy anxiety of making a 'wrong' build choice early on. An auto-target lock option can be quickly toggled in the settings menu to assist with tracking fast-moving enemies in melee combat. Furthermore, the inclusion of an automated merchant system allows players to passively order massive quantities of raw materials, reducing the grind. |
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| settings_applications System Requirements | |
| 1080p (Full HD) - Recommended (High preset, 1080p/60 FPS (DLSS/FSR Quality)) CPU: Needed to smooth out 1% lows and ensure stable 60 FPS during chaotic CQC combat. CPU (Laptop): High core counts help manage the heavy physics calculations of mutating enemies. GPU: Provides excellent rasterization power and DLSS 3 Frame Generation support for smooth 60 FPS. GPU (Laptop): Frame generation is highly recommended for sustaining 60 FPS. RAM: The sweet spot for seamless asset streaming and minimizing background stutter. Storage: Ensures near-instant load times. | |
memoryCPU: Intel Core i7-12700K / AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 / AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i7-13700H / AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 4060 Mobile (115W) layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 85 GB Gen4 NVMe SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i7-10700 or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i7-11800H laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 3080 Mobile (150W) layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 30GB NVMe SSD |
| 1080p (Full HD) - Minimum (Low preset, 1080p/30 FPS (DLSS/FSR Balanced)) CPU: The bare minimum core count needed to handle basic enemy AI and geometry streaming. CPU (Laptop): Requires at least a 6-core mobile processor to prevent severe bottlenecking. GPU: Minimum VRAM and hardware capability to run basic UE5 rendering pipelines. GPU (Laptop): Needs DLSS Performance mode to maintain a playable 30 FPS. RAM: Absolute minimum to prevent stuttering during fast traversal. Storage: NVMe strongly recommended. | |
memoryCPU: Intel Core i5-9600K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600 developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 / AMD Radeon RX 6600 laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i5-11400H / AMD Ryzen 5 5600H laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (85W+) layersRAM: 16 GB saveStorage (Tier): 85 GB SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 6800 laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i7-9750H laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 3060 Mobile layersRAM: 16 GB saveStorage (Tier): 30GB SSD |
| 1440p (QHD/2K) - Recommended (Max preset, 1440p/60 FPS (DLSS/FSR Quality)) CPU: High-end CPUs are required to feed data quickly for the game's intensive ray-tracing operations. CPU (Laptop): Enthusiast-level mobile processors required to match desktop-class performance. GPU: Ample compute power and VRAM to handle Lumen Global Illumination at higher resolutions. GPU (Laptop): Necessary for maintaining steady framerates with all visual features maxed out. RAM: Essential for caching high-resolution textures. Storage: Maximizes data bandwidth. | |
memoryCPU: Intel Core i5-13600K / AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti / AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i9-13900HX / AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 4080 Mobile layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 85 GB Gen4 NVMe SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i5-13600K or AMD Ryzen 7 7700X developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i9-12900HX laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 4080 Mobile layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 30GB NVMe Gen 4 SSD |
| 2160p (UHD/4K) - Ultra (Max preset, 4K/60 FPS (DLSS/FSR Balanced)) CPU: The absolute peak of current CPU technology to eliminate any bottlenecks. CPU (Laptop): Heaviest CPU load scenario. GPU: The only GPUs capable of running the game at 4K Native or with light upscaling while holding 60 FPS. GPU (Laptop): Requires maximum TGP and DLSS Performance mode. RAM: Standard requirement for 4K enthusiast builds. Storage: Absolute necessity. | |
memoryCPU: Intel Core i9-14900K / AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 / AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i9-14900HX laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 4090 Mobile (175W) layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 85 GB Gen4 NVMe SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i9-13900K or AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i9-13980HX laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 4090 Mobile (175W) layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 30GB NVMe Gen 4 SSD |
| save Overall Storage | |
| Spec: 85 GB Gen4 NVMe SSD Note: SATA SSDs and HDDs are completely unsupported; Gen4 speeds are required for seamless open-world streaming. Type: NVMe | Spec: 30 GB Solid State Drive (SSD) Note: An SSD is strictly necessary to eliminate stuttering when rapidly sailing between procedurally generated islands. Type: SSD |
| desktop_windows Operating System | |
| Spec: Windows 10/11 64-bit Explanation: Requires a modern 64-bit OS for DirectX 12 Ultimate support, utilized extensively by the game's rendering engine. | Spec: Windows 10 64-bit Explanation: Required for DirectX 12 compatibility and modern memory management. |
| gamepad DirectX Version | |
| Spec: DirectX 12 Ultimate Explanation: Mandatory for hardware-accelerated ray tracing, mesh shaders, and advanced volumetric rendering. | Spec: DirectX 12 Explanation: Essential for the advanced water rendering and dynamic weather systems. |
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info_outline Feature details based on available data. System requirements and performance estimates may vary.
laptop_chromebook Laptop Recommendations
Common Recommendations (Handles All Compared Games)
For Stellar Blade: Blood Rain Specifically
For Windrose Specifically
info_outline Laptop recommendations are estimates based on available component benchmarks and game requirements. Actual performance may vary depending on settings, drivers, cooling, power limits, etc. Prices and availability subject to change. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.