Minecraft Dungeons 2 Deluxe Edition: skip it, play on Game Pass

Minecraft Dungeons II landed on 29 September, and unusually for a launch week the interesting question is not whether to buy it. If you hold Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass, the Standard Edition is already sitting in your library at no extra cost. The actual decision is narrower and more expensive: whether the Minecraft Dungeons 2 Deluxe Edition is worth paying for on top of a game you can otherwise play for nothing.

That question has a clearer answer than most launch-day upgrade questions, and it is not the one Mojang would prefer.

What our price record already shows

Playze began tracking Minecraft Dungeons II on 19 June 2026, three months before release. Across the 23 days we logged a price in that pre-launch window, the cheapest listed key never once rose above $27.99, and the lowest we recorded was $25.99 at Eneba on 22 September 2026 — a week before the game was out. As of 30 September 2026, that pre-launch figure is still the lowest price in our record.

In other words, this game was already below its list price before anyone could play it, which is normal for a Microsoft-published title with keyshop distribution and abnormal for a first-party launch of this profile. It also tells you something useful about the Deluxe upgrade: the base game's price floor moves, and the upgrade's generally does not. Check both on the Minecraft Dungeons II game page before committing to either.

The combat is broadly unchanged from the first game — readable, chunky, built for four people shouting over each other. (Official Steam screenshot)

What the Minecraft Dungeons 2 Deluxe Edition actually contains

Microsoft's own store page lists three tiers. Standard is the base game, and it is the version included with Game Pass. Deluxe adds four additional hero skins, the Soul cape, the Blub pet, and DLC 1 and 2. Ultimate is described as the upgrade path from Standard, carrying the same Deluxe content for players who already own or have access to the base game.

Strip out the cosmetics and the entire value proposition is two DLC packs. Neither has a release date. Neither has had its content described beyond the fact that it exists. You are being asked to pre-order two unannounced expansions, bundled with a cape, at launch.

That is the crux of it. If the two DLC packs are good and you were always going to buy them, the bundle is cheaper than buying them separately later — that is how these bundles are priced, and it is a real saving. If you are not certain you will still be playing in six months, you are paying now for content that does not exist yet.

The official launch trailer, from Mojang's own Minecraft channel.

The review split that should decide this for you

Critics have been warm. Steam players have not, and the gap is wide enough to matter.

As of 30 September 2026, Steam's own review API reports 3,094 user reviews for Minecraft Dungeons II: 1,752 positive and 1,342 negative, which works out at roughly 57% and lands the game on "Mixed". That is a first-week sample and it will move, but a Mixed rating on a first-party Mojang launch is not a rounding error.

The complaints cluster around the structural change. The first game was a linear run of discrete levels; the sequel opens that out into a connected world called the Sift. Reviewers have generally liked the ambition of that shift. A meaningful slice of players have found it means more travel between the parts they enjoyed, and that loot progression feels slower as a result.

You do not have to adjudicate that argument. You can just play it on Game Pass and find out, which is precisely the advantage of a day-one Game Pass release and precisely the reason not to buy an upgrade on day one.

The Sift replaces the first game's mission select with connected space. It is the change most of the negative reviews are about. (Official Steam screenshot)

Four-player co-op is where the series has always been strongest, and it needs no edition upgrade to work. (Official Steam screenshot)

Game Pass makes the upgrade a worse deal, not a better one

There is a trap in how this is packaged. Game Pass gives you Standard. The Deluxe content is sold as an add-on. So a subscriber's mental arithmetic becomes "the game is free, the upgrade is only a bit more" — which is exactly the framing that gets people to spend on cosmetics and unreleased DLC they would not have bought outright.

Run the numbers the other way. You already have the game. The only thing the money buys is two unannounced packs plus a cape, a pet and four skins. Would you pay that price for two unannounced DLC packs for a game you had not played yet? Almost certainly not.

It is also worth knowing that Minecraft Dungeons II is an Xbox Play Anywhere title, so a purchase on Xbox covers the PC version and vice versa — our guide to which games give you both versions for one purchase explains where that does and does not apply. And if you are not currently subscribed, the Game Pass tiers are worth understanding first, because only Ultimate and PC Game Pass include this one.

The official gameplay trailer, also from the Minecraft channel, if you want a longer look at the Sift.

If you do not have Game Pass

Then the calculation changes, because you are buying the base game anyway and the only question is which tier.

Buy Standard. The keyshop channel already had this game below list price before launch, as our record above shows, and first-party Microsoft titles reliably discount further inside their first year. Buying Deluxe on day one means paying the highest price this game will realistically ever carry, for content nobody has seen.

If you bounce off it, you have lost the smaller amount. If you love it and the DLC turns out to be substantial, you can upgrade later through the Ultimate tier, which exists for exactly that purpose. The upgrade path being available at all is the strongest argument for not taking it now.

Our piece on whether pre-ordering is ever worth it makes the general version of this case; the Deluxe edition of a day-one Game Pass title is close to the purest example of it.

The original Minecraft Dungeons is still on Game Pass and still a reasonable evening. Worth trying first if you are undecided. (Official Steam screenshot)

Gear progression is the pacing complaint in most of the negative Steam reviews. Twenty hours on a subscription will tell you whether it bothers you. (Official Steam screenshot)

What else to play if the loot loop is the appeal

If what you actually want is a dungeon crawler rather than this dungeon crawler, the field is well served and mostly cheaper. Grim Dawn is the deep, mechanically serious option and has been discounted hard for years. Torchlight III occupies similar accessible-ARPG territory to Minecraft Dungeons and turns up at very low prices. Diablo IV is the heavyweight, and also rotates through Game Pass.

For what is currently on the service, our list of the best PC Game Pass games is a better use of a subscription than any single upgrade, and the titles leaving the service are worth a glance before they go.

The bottom line

Play Minecraft Dungeons II on Game Pass. Do not buy the Deluxe Edition this week.

The critical reception is good, the player reception is currently Mixed at around 57% across 3,094 Steam reviews, and the Deluxe content is two DLC packs that have not been described, let alone dated. The upgrade path stays open indefinitely; the money does not come back. Give it twenty hours on the subscription, and if you are still playing in November, buy the upgrade then — by which point you will also know what the DLC actually is.

If you have no subscription, buy Standard, check the live listings first, and revisit the rest in a sale.