When to pick Seedance 2.5. Any job where length, reference density, or composition control actually matters: full 30-second social hooks, character-locked brand campaigns, pre-viz with 3D-blockout cameras, scenes that need 4K with no upscaling step.
When to stick with Seedance 2.0. Short cuts (~10 seconds), simple briefs with one or two references, draft work where you don't yet need the larger reference budget, or any time you're burning credits to iterate quickly. Many teams iterate on Seedance 2.0, then run the final version on Seedance 2.5.