In an announcement made on Battle.net’s official website last Friday, Blizzard have announced that an experience and level up system will be present in StarCraft II’s upcoming expansion, Heart of the Swarm.

The system awards experience points to your profile for each unit created and destroyed. Each profile will have a separate level for each race, and a cumulative level that appears next to the profile’s picture. Earning levels will unlock profile pictures, decals and other visual additions.

“There will also be ways to earn bonus experience points for a match,” the announcement said. “We’re already working on concepts like ‘bonus XP for your first win of the day’ and ‘extra XP when you play in a party with a Battletag or Real-ID friend’. “ Blizzard is also considering bonuses standard in other games, such as bonus XP weekends.

Though late to the party, StarCraft II joins the ranks of many non-RPG games that have adopted RPG elements. Over the past few years, games from borderline-RPG games such as MOBAs (League of Legends, Heroes of Newarth) to FPS games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield 3 have introduced perks and upgrades gained from persistent, account-based leveling systems. StarCraft II’s progression rewards, though entirely cosmetic, seeks to add additional rewards to ladder play. This may help to ease the hearts of players suffering from the game’s notorious “ladder anxiety.”

Players with beta access can begin leveling up after the next patch, though Blizzard has stated that beta profiles may be subjected to resets throughout the course of the testing.