THE FINALS

Update 3.9

Check out the store update for this week:

THE FINALS is best with friends, and to aid you in your quest to build the ultimate team, this week we are introducing the refer-a-friend program! Head on over to Embark ID to get your unique URL that can be shared out to friends who have yet to play THE FINALS.

Once your invited friend has played 20 rounds of the game, you’ll both get 100 Multibucks! Get rewarded for up to five friends and check out the full rules over on Embark ID.

Want one more way to recruit your friends? What better way is there than to wear THE FINALS merch in public? Today we’re also launching our merchandise store where you can pick up some THE FINALS or OSPUZE-related merch, oh, and there’s stickers! With some of the items, you can get an in-game copy of your IRL drip! This is our first run, so supplies are limited! The shop will drop in a few hours, and you can watch the countdown in the meantime: https://merch.reachthefinals.com/

Finally, this week we have a new community challenge! Collectively cash out $100 billion in World Tour Cashout and earn the DISSUN Interrupter helmet from our generous World Tour sponsor! Only those who contribute to this eye-popping goal will get the reward, so make sure to do your part!

Content and Bug Fixes

UI

• Fixed a bug where the “THE FINALS” leaderboard was incorrectly counting wins from other game modes, in addition to Tournament wins.

Continue reading...

 

After Hotfix 3.8.1, we had an issue where some Steam players were not able to launch the game.
Thanks to the quick and detailed feedback from our community on Discord, we we were able to resolve this issue.

Continue reading...

 

With update 3.8, we saw a dip in game performance, specifically related to network and bandwidth.

We have just released a hotfix to all platforms that solves this issue. Once you've updated, you should all have a smoother experience across the board with fewer network-related disruptions.

SEE YOU IN THE ARENA!

Continue reading...

 

Update 3.8

All that glitters is not gold.. Sometimes it’s Emerald!

It’s time to ask the age-old question, Contestants - CAN YOU REACH THE FINALS?

Today we’re finally unlocking THE FINALS inside the World Tour for all players who have reached a World Tour Badge Tier of Gold 1! Here you’ll be able to continue your badge progression past Gold and into Emerald, with unique rewards unlocking for each tier you achieve. In THE FINALS you only earn win points for winning an entire World Tour Tournament - so this truly is a challenge for our most seasoned contestants to show off their dedication.

We’re also heading to the next stop on the World Tour, the DISSUN Challenge. For this one, we’re updating the rules a bit by reintroducing cash loss on team wipe at 10% of total team cash. Make sure to play the DISSUN Challenge, and all of THE FINALS, with a friend or two because with this update we’re also introducing bonus Battle Pass & career XP when playing in a party!

When it comes to bug-fixes we have another fix for the infinite loading screen, fixed the issue which caused the very bright contestant selection screen and we solved the unclimbable stairs on Kyoto!

Full list of changes below:

Balance Changes

Game Modes

World Tour

• Teams now lose 10% of their cash total on team wipe

Dev Note: The rule changes we tested during the VOLPE Championship seem to have had positive results both with the community and in the analytics data we’ve been looking at. For our next World Tour stop, the DISSUN Challenge, we’ll keep testing this rule set, but with team wipe penalties reintroduced at 10%. This will allow us to continue to monitor how these changes impact the game. Huge thanks to everyone who provided feedback and impressions over the past two weeks!

• Increased the number of Win Points earned for reaching the second round of a tournament from 5 to 7
• Increased the number of Win Points earned for reaching the final of a tournament from 12 to 16
• Increased the number of Win Points earned for winning a tournament from 20 to 26

Dev Note: Win Points are not accumulative. They are awarded based on where you finished in a tournament, meaning that if you win a tournament, you earn 26 points in total.

Content and Bug Fixes

Animation

• Fixed issue where charged weapons would stay charged visually for spectators at times

Characters

• Allowing watches to show properly when paired with the Alien upper body cosmetic

Gadgets

• Fixed an issue where goo would not stick to surfaces as intended

Game Modes

• “THE FINALS” seasonal event is now live in World Tour. Contestants who achieved Gold 1 can participate in THE FINALS to progress through the Emerald Badge Tiers where only tournament wins reward win points
• Respawn tokens should now show the proper amount
• The elimination sequence is now showing again before going to a new match
• Fixes for weather being applied wrong in the squad intro sequence
• Fixed lights being too bright during team introductions in some instances

Maps

Kyoto

• Tweaked Respawn points to be more evenly spread across the entire map
• Fixed staircase that was difficult to traverse

Progression

• Added bonus XP while playing in a party, players in a party of 2 will earn +7,5% XP and players in a party of 3 or more will earn +10% XP towards their Battle Pass and career levels

Specializations

• The Evasive Dash specialization will now open doors automatically when dashing into them

Stability

• Crash fixes
• Fixed another issue which could cause an infinite loading screen

Dev Note: This issue has been difficult to solve, so please make sure to let us know on our Discord Server if you still experience it after this update!

• Fixed a connection issue where users who crashed in the lobby could be marked as abandoned which could lead to faulty suspensions
• Added the ability for players who leave a ranked game to reconnect to their current game while suspended from matchmaking

UI

• Added the ability to see the leaderboard for each World Tour stop
• Removed showing faulty cash amount gained for friendly kills
• Fixed so the infinite damage symbol shows when falling off a ledge or other scenarios
• Fixed tracking being allowed on locked quests
• Hide respawn coins in the scoreboard for Terminal Attack
• Fix for unintended behavior of the dropdown menu in Private Matches
• Fixed issue with the camera sniper skin playing unintentional sound effects while equipped
• Fixed the issue which caused contestants outside of the top 500 on the leaderboards to appear as “unranked”

Continue reading...

 

It’s summertime and the Embark office is officially in vacation mode! Don’t worry though, as we still have a crew of people working hard and diligently watching and listening. So next week, you can expect a patch with the update!

Check out the new store content here:

Last week, we added a whole new set of rules to the World Tour and we would love to gather your feedback on those changes! If you have played the new Cashout rules, please take a moment to give us your thoughts in this survey.

Continue reading...

 

Update 3.6

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

We hope you’re warmed up and ready, Contestants, because the next stop on the World Tour is the VOLPE Championship, and it’s offering some contracts with exclusive sports gear rewards! We’re also running brand new Twitch Drops throughout this World Tour stop, so make sure you tune in for some THE FINALS on Twitch.Tv!

The sponsors are also in full swing fighting over exposure in this week’s store update; check it out below:

Summer is in full swing and vacation times are in full effect, but this week still has some rather substantial changes and bug fixes. In the VOLPE Championship, we’re upping the amount of money you earn per elimination in Cashout, and granting your team part of the vault value immediately when initiating a cashout! We’re also completely removing cash penalties from team wipes - make sure to try these changes out and let us know what you think.

On the bug-fixing side, we have a second fix coming in for the infinite loading screen issue and the issue that prevented contestants from using their specializations, weapons, and gadgets at certain times. For our controller friends, we’ve also fixed the aim assist issue introduced in 3.4 for controller players on PC.

Full list of changes and fixes below:

Balance Changes

Gadgets

Goo Grenade

• Increased the time it takes for fire to destroy goo from 6s to 12s

Game Modes

Cashout

• Increased cash awarded for kills from $200 to $500
• ~30% of the cash in a Cashbox is now awarded to the team that deposits the Cashbox the moment it is added to the Cashout Station. The remaining ~70% of the cash in a Cashbox is awarded when the cashout is completed at the Cashout Station. These values are rounded off to give easier-to-understand values. This replaces the previous $2000 a team would receive for initiating a cashout.
• Removed all cash loss penalties for team wipes
• Updated the Vault spawning logic at the start of a match for more even distribution
• Added new notification messages to the HUD for when cash is awarded to a team
• Increased the time taken to steal a cashout from 6s to 7s

Dev Note: We’ve felt for some time that Cashout generates more ‘third party’ fights than intended, as well as long-lasting team-versus-team encounters, and that happens in part because of the incentives of the scoring system. We are testing the changes above to see if they address these issues and improve the overall experience. These changes have been selected as the ruleset for the VOLPE Championships. We’ll monitor how they perform via telemetry and your feedback and will adjust them as needed.

Ranked Terminal Attack

• Destruction is now reset at half-time without needing to reload the level
  Dev note: This should give a smoother experience and reduce downtime

Terminal Attack & Ranked Terminal Attack

• Added health regeneration thresholds per archetype to Terminal Attack, meaning players will now regenerate health up to a specific threshold based on if they are a Light, Medium or Heavy, rather than the current fixed 100HP. New thresholds are:
  • Light = 100HP
  • Medium = 125HP
  • Heavy = 150HP

Dev Note: We feel this change will help level the playing field, as well as reduce the effectiveness of ‘poke’ damage with weapons like the SR-84. We also feel this change better represents the variety in the archetypes.

Specializations

Evasive Dash

• Increased the cooldown duration from 5.5s to 6.5s per charge

Goo Gun

• Increased the time it takes for fire to destroy goo from 6s to 12s

Grapple Hook

• Decreased the cooldown duration from 10s to 8s

Healing Beam

• Decreased the time taken until the Healing Beam can overheat from 7s to 5.5s

Dev Note: Overheating is something Healing Beam users rarely have to manage, so we’ve lowered the time to overheat which means players need to be slightly more controlled in their use of it.

Weapons

93R

• Slightly decreased bullet dispersion when firing from the hip in all stances, making the weapon more accurate
• Decreased the amount of horizontal recoil when firing the 93R, making it easier to control and more precise
• Slightly tightened the cluster of bullets fired in a burst, making the weapon more precise

Content and Bug Fixes

Contracts

• Updated the text on some contracts to say they are earned for ‘rounds,’ not ‘matches,’ to make them clearer
• Added some additional Contract types

Gadgets

General

• Fixed an issue where some Gadgets could become ‘locked’ and unable to fire/use

Goo Grenade

• Fixed an issue where goo could stick to the side of the warm-up zone in Terminal Attack modes

Game Modes

Private Matches

• Added ‘Pause match’ functionality to private matches. Anybody in a spectator slot can pause the match using the R button

World Tour

• Fixed an issue where the ‘elimination’ outro screen at the end of a tournament would not show up correctly

Ranked Terminal Attack

• Adjusted how Ranked Score (RS) updates are calculated for parties.

Dev Note: This should lead to more intuitive RS changes for parties with smaller RS differences between members. Parties with higher RS differences between members will see more appropriate updates based on their own RS. The result should mean that RS changes will be better based on the match result, i.e. larger RS gained when beating stronger teams, and less RS gained when beating weaker teams.



Specializations

General

• Fixed an issue where some Specializations could become ‘locked’ and unable to fire/use

Goo Gun

• Fixed an issue where goo could stick to the side of the warm-up zone in Terminal Attack modes

UI

Game Summary Screen

• Brought back the “deaths” statistic to the summary
• Brought back the mixed-caps style font

Front-end menus

• Fixed several issues that could result in ‘out of memory’ crashes
• Fixed an issue where having text chat open could block some button inputs

HUD

• Fixed an issue where the colorblind settings would not update in the Terminal Attack score widget

Ping System

• Changed default ping intent on Cashout Stations owned by enemy teams to "attack"
• Jump pads now generate an event log message when pinged
• Fixed an event log message that had incorrect player name data
• Updated event log message text from “Going to vault X” to “Move to vault X,” to bring it in line with other instructional pings
• Added a new HUD icon when pinging player statues

Weapons

General

• Fixed an issue where some Weapons could become ‘locked’ and unable to fire/use

Continue reading...

 

Update 3.5.0

Protocol Core, Community Event & Bug Fixes!

Get ready for a brand new community event, the Protocol Core Set, and lock in your aim with the futuristic Mech-Arrow Set!

Check them out in the brand-new store update:

Today, we’re kicking off the first Community Event of Season 3, and we are challenging you to eliminate 1,900.000 contestants using the weapons and gadgets introduced in Season 3! Join in the race to fill the meter, and everyone who contributes will win the DISSUN Capacitor skin for Dual Blades.

We’re happy to announce that this update will also happen on Xbox, so the wait is over! With the issue resolved, we want to thank all of our Xbox players for their patience! This interruption in the update schedule was not planned and took far too long to fix. As a thank you for your endurance and as a nod to our own…issues… in this situation, we are gifting all Xbox players the Skill Issue Set. Expect your gift to show up in the next few days!

Certain fixes and server changes intended for this update have been postponed as we prioritized making sure all Contestants got up to speed on the updates, so you can expect more changes to come. But, in order to make sure things are running smoothly, this update will only include:

Content and Bug Fixes

Build

• Ensured all platforms are on the same build to re-enable crossplay and content updates for Xbox

Performance

• This week we fixed one of the bugs causing players to be stuck in an infinite loading screen

• Fixed a bug that caused players to be unable to properly cancel ranked matches

Continue reading...

 

Update 3.4

Update 3.4 is coming in hot with multiple features and changes fighting over the spotlight! ISEUL-T is entering The Arena as the latest sponsor on the next stop of the World Tour - The ISEUL-T Cup! The Pro Circuit also goes live with this update, however, both of these changes are sharing that spotlight with a certain green someone in our latest store update…

Introducing the Pond Dweller:

Also, we have quite the list of changes this time including several changes to Bank-It, shorter wait-times in Terminal Attack, the addition of party chat while in the main menu and the ability to equip multiple weapon animations to the same gun.

Those of you with a keen eye will also notice that we’ve added an info panel that explains the World Tour’s FINALS event - check it out in-game.

Finally, both Polish and Turkish translations of THE FINALS are now live with this update, so make sure to throw a “Cześć” or “Merhaba” into team chat at the start of a game!

Full list of changes included in this update:

Balance Changes

Gadgets

Breach Charge

• Decreased minimum damage applied at outer edge of explosions to 0
• Increased damage radius from 2m to 2.5m
• Set damage fall-off to scale linearly from the max damage radius to the outer radius

Dev Note: Previously, our area of effect (AoE) Weapons and Gadgets had several ‘damage shelves’, where damage would fall off radically at the edge of the inner radius of a blast and at the edge of the outer radius. This could result in AoE damage feeling somewhat inconsistent. These changes now cause damage to fall-off linearly from the inner radius damage value, down to 0 at the outer edge of the radius, which we believe will feel much more consistent. The radius of each AoE weapon has been increased slightly as a result of this, as the outer edge of explosions now does much less damage than it did previously.

C4

• Decreased minimum damage applied at outer edge of explosions to 0
• Increased damage radius from 6m to 6.5m
• Set damage fall-off to scale linearly from the max damage radius to the outer radius

Explosive Mine

• Decreased minimum damage applied at outer edge of explosions to 0
• Increased damage radius from 3.5m to 4.25m
• Set damage fall-off to scale linearly from the max damage radius to the outer radius

Frag Grenade

• Decreased minimum damage applied at outer edge of explosions to 0
• Increased damage radius from 4.5m to 5m
• Set damage fall-off to scale linearly from the max damage radius to the outer radius

Game Modes

Dev Note: These changes are the first part of a series of improvements we’re planning to make to each of our game modes over the course of Season 3, including our Cashout and Power Shift modes. These changes will cover a range of areas, from pacing to scoring. The goal is to smooth out some of the rough edges in each of our modes, hopefully leading to a better overall experience across all our modes.

Bank It

• Removed team wipes
• Decreased respawn time from 17 seconds to 10 seconds
• Added the ability for players to change to a different Contestant while dead

Terminal Attack & Ranked Terminal Attack

• Decreased lobby duration from 15 seconds to 10 seconds
• Decreased warm-up duration from 25 seconds to 20 seconds
• Decreased round duration from 150 seconds to 130 seconds

Weapons

CL-40

• Decreased minimum damage applied at outer edge of explosions to 0
• Increased damage radius from 2.6m to 3m
• Set damage fall-off to scale linearly from the max damage radius to the outer radius

Dev Note: As with the AoE Gadgets, our AoE weapons have also been updated to get more consistent feeling damage fall-off.

MGL-32

• Decreased minimum damage applied at outer edge of explosions to 0
• Increased damage radius from 3.75m to 4m
• Set damage fall-off to scale linearly from the max damage radius to the outer radius

RPG-7

• Decreased minimum damage applied at outer edge of explosions to 0
• Increased damage radius from 4.5m to 5.5m
• Set damage fall-off to scale linearly from the max damage radius to the outer radius

Content and Bug Fixes

Animation

• Fixed a bad transition animation between the Winch Claw and using the ability to lift items
• Fixed an issue where players could not play emote animations consecutive times
• Added support for enabling multiple custom weapon animations at once. If multiple animations are equipped, an animation will be randomly selected from that list when triggered

Characters

• Fixed a bug that caused ‘General Goodboy’ pet to be rendered with blurry artifacts
• Fixed various smaller issues with cosmetic items, such as various clipping issues

Gadgets

Thermal Bore

• Fixed an issue where the Thermal Bore could become stuck in mid-air

Game Modes

Bank It

• Fixed an issue where it would sometimes not be possible to respawn

Practice Range

• Added Season 2 trophies for Ranked, Terminal Attack event & season

Ranked Terminal Attack

• Fixed an issue where the full rank score gain could sometimes not be given to players due to the losing team abandoning the match

Localization

• Added support for Turkish and Polish languages

Maps

Kyoto

• Made various fixes to improve the quality of building destruction
• Fixed various issues were there were gaps in the map

Matchmaking

• Fixed an issue where the matchmaking region could be wrongly set for new players on consoles

Stability

• Fixed several issues that could cause client crashes
• Fixed one issue where players could sometimes spawn into a game and be unable to attack or use Gadgets
• Fixed one of the issues which would cause a player to be unable to fire their weapon or use their abilities

UI

HUD

• Fixed an issue where respawn markers could fly off to unintended locations

Ping System

• Increased max ping distance to 300m

Text Chat

• Added support for text chat in the front-end menus when in a party
• Improved profanity filter to include more languages
• Fixed an issue where chat from blocked players could sometimes still be visible
• Removed some status messages from text chat to make it less spammy

World Tour

• Added info panel for the World Tour ‘THE FINALS’ event

Weapons

General

• Fixed a bug that could cause players to experience different recoil decay rates when using some semi-automatic guns

Spear

• Reduced the impulse applied by the secondary attack, to prevent some objects being pushed a long way by the attack

Continue reading...

 

Update 3.3.0

Check out the new store update:

This week we are introducing something for our most competitive Contestants - RUBY rank!
Ruby is an exclusive rank for the very best of the best, as it’s only available for the top 500 players in the world! Unlike our other ranks, the Ruby rewards will only be fully rewarded at the end of the season, so you have to make sure you’re within those top 500 positions when the season ends!

Beyond the introduction of Ruby and a store update featuring the ÖRF! backpack (make sure to check it out properly, we have a few updates coming your way - all listed below:

Content and Bug Fixes

Game Modes
Ranked

• Enabled Ruby Rank in Ranked Terminal Attack

Tutorial

• New players will now play a tutorial that corresponds to the first gamemode they decide to try out

UI
Contracts

• Fixed Quick Melee and Shotgun/Marksman Rifle contracts which were not working
• Weekend contracts will now be removed when the weekend ends
• "Weekend contracts" text will only be visible on the World Tour tile when available
• Hid the timer for elapsed stages of the World Tour

Maps
Destruction

• Fixed a bug where destruction could cause wrong simulation behavior in some situations

Continue reading...

 

Update 3.2.0

Check out the store update for this week:

Also, we have a few fixes and tweaks to share below. Most notably, you can now reconnect in Private Matches if you are disconnected during the match! Also, we’ve had to temporarily remove Solo Bank It from Private Matches in order to fix an issue in the mode. It will be back soon.

Today is the last day of the ENGIMO Open and tomorrow, we are proud to announce the OSPUZE Expo! In this leg of the World Tour, things will get fizzy and explosive in Monaco, Las Vegas, and Kyoto! The rules will be Standard Cashout and keep an eye out for some contracts over the weekends!

Get ready to Pop. Pour. Perform!

Here’s the change list for this update:

Content and Bug Fixes

Animation

• Tweaked inspect animations for carriables so that you can start a consecutive inspect quicker
• Fixed an issue where the weapon would be visible while getting revived
• Fixed an issue where the players would get stuck in the sword lunge animation
• Fixed a bug where players could die without spawning a statue if a teammate immediately started to revive

Gadgets

Grapple Hook

• Can no longer attach to surfaces that are out of bounds

Dome Shield

• Fixed an issue where the Dome Shield would skip on or bounce off of water surfaces

Game Modes

Private Matches

• Disconnected players can now reconnect
• Fixed an issue that would cause the game to lock players in a state of accepting an invite
• Solo Bank It temporarily removed due to a bug

Cashout

• Fixed an issue where the Cashbox icon would not re-appear after fading away for the first time when in the possession of another team

Terminal Attack

• Fixed a bug that caused extraction location names to not be visible at the start of a round
• Fixed motion blur being incorrectly forced during the warm-up phase
• Fixed an issue where key insertion failed after the hold interaction was complete
• Improved the penalty system for delivering sanctions to players who leave the match early

Power Shift

• Fixed a bug that made it possible to overtake the platform after the round had ended

Performance

• Added improvements on cosmetics and distance fields to save memory

Specializations

Winch Claw

• Fixed an issue where players lunging with the Sword could get stuck in a captured state when hit with the Winch Claw

UI

• Fixed an issue that caused the spectator camera vignette to play in the drafting screen in Terminal Attack
• Fixed the Battle Pass background to prevent it from being cleared when entering the Career screen
• Changed the controller input for editing the Player Card to avoid canceling matchmaking
• Fixed an issue that caused player score to be cleared for reconnected players
• Disconnected players will be hidden in certain squad intro scenes

Weapons

Dagger

• Fixed an issue where the Dagger’s secondary backstab attack could hit multiple players at once, which was unintended
  Dev note: Melee weapons' ability to hit multiple targets was a new addition with unintended consequences. Now, we've refined it so that heavy-hitting attacks intended for single targets can't be used to hit multiple people.

Sledgehammer

• Fixed an issue where the Sledgehammer’s secondary overhead swing attack could hit multiple players at once, which was unintended

SR-84

• Fixed an issue where the scope glint effect would not be shown at distances over 150m

Maps

Kyoto

• Tweaked destruction behavior to better support prolonged combat and traversal by making buildings collapse more slowly, break into larger chunks, and debris settle faster

Dev Note: We felt that Kyoto buildings were a bit too brittle, so we tweaked their destruction behavior to be more sturdy. We will continue to monitor this and apply further changes where necessary.

Monaco

• Changed the collision of the see-through curtains so that all projectiles and thrown objects pass through them.

Security

• Further enhancements to our Aimbot detection system for faster reaction time

Continue reading...

 

UPDATE 3.1.0

Let’s get Dressed to Deploy in The Arena with our first store rotation and update of Season 3! We’re heading full sprint into summer and there’s a green theme in the store - from the Jaded, But Not Jaded set to the Midsummer Maypole!

The Midsummer Maypole is free to claim for the coming week, so make sure to do so!

Here is the new store update:

We’re also bringing some balance changes and stability increases.

Let’s get into the notes!

Balance Changes

Gadgets

Sonar Grenades

• Decreased range from 15m to 12m

Weapons

LH1

• Decreased damage from 52 to 48

Throwing Knives

• Decreased damage from 63 to 60

Winch Claw

• Decreased damage from 15 to 5

Content and Bug Fixes

Bug Fixes

Fixed a server crash related to certain types of destruction

Game modes

Unranked Terminal Attack

• The mode now randomly selects the starting player and objective spawn scenario, proceeding through the sequence of scenarios from that point

Dev note: Terminal Attack previously had the same set sequence of scenarios as Ranked Terminal Attack, but due to it featuring less rounds, you would less often get to see the later combinations of team and objective spawns. By giving it a random starting point in the sequence, you can now experience and practice all of them more regularly.

Continue reading...

 

Update 3.0.0

Welcome to Season 3 where the system has been reset!

(Trailer)

Here’s what’s happening in Season 3:

INTRODUCING THE WORLD TOUR

Fame, fortune, and glory. This is where all the contestants gather to reach for stardom. In the World Tour, you’ll compete to climb the ladder from Bronze to Gold and beyond. Season 3 will focus on Cashout Tournaments of 24 players in 2-3 week Tournament cycles. The top five players will be on the front page of the World Tour, so check the leaderboard often!

We’ll kick off the Season with ENGIMO Open, the first stop on the World Tour. This event features traditional Cashout across three maps, including the new Kyoto 1568 Arena!

The World Tour is your oyster, contestants! How will you open it?

EXPLORE KYOTO 1568
The new Kyoto 1568 Arena features a network of interwoven 16th-century temples, gardens, and dense bamboo forests. Intense terrain height variation and layered buildings with hidden traversal options underneath await you in our newest and perhaps more picturesque map location. Traditional Japanese Shoji paper walls that players can shoot and tall, intricate structures ramp up the destruction!

RANK UP IN TERMINAL ATTACK
The new Rank Mode for Season 3 is Terminal Attack! Players attack and defend a terminal in this robust and exciting ranked mode by delivering a decryption key. The 5v5 mode creates close, competitive, head-to-head matches. On top of that, we’ve revamped the ranked system to better measure skill and have introduced Rank Score points so you can track your progress much more easily!

UNLOCK THE BATTLE PASS
The Battle Pass is packed with 96 rewards, 26 for free, with 1575 Multibucks to be unlocked in total. There are 10 extra rewards for the overachievers, spanning two bonus pages, which can only be earned through XP! This Season’s Battle Pass features prizes inspired by the history and pop culture of Japan!

NEW WEAPONS
We’re introducing three new weapons entering the loadout this season:

RECURVE BOW
A new weapon for the LIGHT Build: a high-skill, medium- to long-ranged bow that shoots arrows in a curved arc. Its range and damage increase the further back the bowstring has been drawn.

DUAL BLADES
A new melee weapon for the MEDIUM Build: its primary attack is a fast, multi-strike combo with a wide reach. It can also block and deflect incoming bullets in a defensive stance.

SPEAR
A new melee weapon for HEAVY Build: its primary attack is a fast long-range stab. It can also be spun up to cover a wider area. It deals less damage than the Heavy’s Sledge Hammer but is decidedly more nimble.

NEW TOOLS
THERMAL BORE
A new gadget for LIGHTS: a long-range, high-cooldown, tactical breaching gadget, that’s best used to breach walls, buildings, and other obstacles from a distance, to open up pathways or sightlines for you and your team. Perfect in combination with a long-range weapon!

WINCH CLAW
A new specialization for HEAVIES: launches a chain that pulls objects or enemies toward you, briefly stunning them, making it a perfect companion to the new Spear. Requires tactical use, accuracy, and skill!

COMPLETE THE CAREER CIRCUIT
This season, a whole new Career Circuit is available, with challenges that unlock over time and through fulfilling contracts. With these advanced challenges, you can earn XP toward the Battle Pass throughout the whole season!

We have an action-packed season full of fun rewards, amazing cosmetics, and so much more! We’re introducing Text Chat so you can chat with your team. It’s in the early stages, but give it a try! We have also added a dedicated spectator spot to Private Matches for better matches and private tournaments.

There’s plenty more to discover in this season!

Balance Changes

Builds

Light

• Decreased health regeneration delay from 10 seconds to 7 seconds, meaning health starts regenerating sooner. Does not apply in the Terminal Attack game mode

Dev Note: The dynamics of Terminal Attack mode, with its limited health regen up to 100 HP, means that the Light archetype with their precise and high DPS weapons, can be very effective later in rounds. For that reason, we’ve chosen not to extend these new health regen rules to Terminal Attack for now. We’ll monitor these changes closely, as the season develops and adjust where needed.

Medium

• Decreased health regeneration delay from 10 seconds to 9 seconds, meaning health starts regenerating sooner. Does not apply in Terminal Attack game mode
• Healing Beam has been replaced with Guardian Turret as the default Medium Specialization
• Defibrillator has been replaced with Glitch Trap as one of the default Medium Gadgets
  Dev note: As Terminal Attack becomes the Ranked mode, we want to make sure new players have a loadout that works in all modes. Healing-focused items are still available.

Specializations

Goo Gun

• Getting hit by goo will now block movement Specializations such as Evasive Dash, except Charge ‘n Slam

Winch Claw

• Decreased max range from 20m to 17m

• Increased cooldown when missing targets from 6s to 7s
• Increased cooldown when hitting carriables or teammate’s statues from 6s to 7s
• Increased cooldown when hitting players, Cashout Stations or Terminals from 12s to 14s

Gadgets

Breach Charge

• Increased ammo count from 1 to 2
• Increased cooldown from 15s to 26s
• Decreased player damage from 200 to 80

Data Reshaper

• Increased ammo count from 1 to 2
• Increased cooldown from 15s to 26s

Gas Grenade

• Increased radius from 4.5m to 5m

Glitch Trap - ITEM REWORK

• Glitch trap is no longer a proximity detonation device
• Glitch trap now has a line-of-sight application. If an enemy player stands within range and in line-of-sight to the trap it will attach a tether to them. Tethered players have the Glitch effect applied to them, preventing them from using Specializations and Gadgets, and disrupting their HUD. Players will need to break the line of sight to the trap, destroy it, or get out of range of it, to remove the effect.

Goo Grenade

• Increased the size of the goo wall created by the Goo Grenade from 2x4 to 2x6
• Getting hit by goo will now block Evasive Dash and Grapple Hook

Guardian Turret

• The cooldown regeneration on the Guardian Turret now starts when the turret is destroyed, not when it is deployed.
• Added the ability for players to remotely destroy their Guardian Turret, allowing them to trigger the cooldown if their turret is not nearby. This is done by equipping the Specialization again and holding an interaction for a brief duration.

Motion Sensor - ITEM REWORK

• Motion Sensor no longer sends out impulses at regular intervals for detection
• Motion Sensor now has line-of-sight application. If an enemy player stands within range and in line-of-sight to the device, the sensor will attach a tether to them. Tethered players will be scanned by the Motion Sensor, allowing friendly players to see them through walls. Players will need to break the line of sight to the sensor or destroy it, to remove the scanning effect.

Smoke Grenade

• Increased ammo count from 2 to 3
• Increased cooldown from 45s to 50s

Sonar Grenade

• Increased detection radius from 10m to 15m

Stun Gun

• Players are now unable to use Specializations while the Glitch status is applied

Weapons

93R

• Updated recoil pattern, making the weapon much easier to control and hopefully making headshots easier to achieve

Dev Note: To increase viability for the 93R, we’ve made it considerably more precise but lowered the DPS slightly to offset that. Our aim is to make the weapon more effective when using precise aim and going for headshots, and we’ll continue to monitor its performance following these changes.

• Decreased fire rate from 260 RPM to 210 RPM
• Decreased automatic recoil recovery duration from 0.72s to 0.7s, making the weapon easier to control
• Increased the damage fall-off start distance from 15m to 23m, meaning the weapon will do max damage at longer ranges now
• Increased the damage fall-off max distance from 22m to 35m, increasing the range before damage fall-off is fully applied
• Decreased the damage fall-off multiplier at max range from 65% to 45%, meaning the weapon will do less damage at longer ranges now

CL-40

• Decreased damage from 110 to 93
• Increased fire rate from 250 RPM to 275 RPM
• Decreased pump-action duration from 0.7s to 0.65s
• Decreased self-damage multiplier from 1 to 0.75, reducing how much damage the grenades do to the player using them

FAMAS

• Decreased automatic recoil recovery duration from 1s to 0.8s, making the weapon easier to control
• Decreased the delay before recoil recovery begins from 0.8s to 0.7s, making the weapon easier to control
• Increased damage from 23 to 24

KS-23

• Decreased pump-action duration from 0.7s to 0.575s

Lewis Gun

• Further updated recoil pattern, making the weapon easier to control for the first few bullets in the sequence, but making the weapon recoil more the longer the trigger is held
• Decreased damage from 25 to 22

LH1

• Updated firing animation, which should make the weapon easier to use
• Decreased fire rate from 300 RPM to 280 RPM
• Decreased bullet dispersion when crouching and standing still, making the weapon more precise
• Increased player damage from 49 to 52

Dev Note: Overall the effective damage of the LH1 should remain roughly the same, but it should now be easier to use, less nauseating, and more precise when standing still, as well as incentivizing headshots. The lower RPM should help make it feel distinct and make it easier to maintain targets in sights

M60

• Updated recoil pattern, making the weapon recoil more during the first few bullets, but making it easier to control for the rest of the sequence
• Decreased damage from 22 to 19

SH1900

• Increased damage from 10 to 13 per pellet
• Decreased fire rate from 100 RPM to 80 RPM
• Increased the size of the pellet dispersion pattern, making the weapon less accurate at range

Dev Note: We've wanted for a while to make the SH1900 more effective against Heavies without making it oppressive for Lights. With higher pellet dispersion the SH1900 is now optimized for very close range only, which has allowed us to buff the damage, hopefully making Heavies easier to kill. This is a change we will be monitoring closely to measure its impact

Sledgehammer

• Updated camera animation when sprinting, which should reduce motion sickness for some players

Throwing Knives

• Decreased projectile speed of primary attacks from 16.5 m/s to 14.75 m/s
• Decreased projectile air drag of primary attacks from 7.5 to 7, allowing the projectile to travel farther
• Increased projectile speed of secondary attacks from 13.8 m/s to 18.5 m/s
• Increased projectile air drag of secondary attacks from 4 to 5.5, increasing the speed at which the projectile slows down
  Dev note: Our last balance changes on the Throwing Knives pushed them in the right direction but ultimately felt too powerful, changing the weapon's character too much. We have here dialed down the velocity of the regular projectiles so that leading your throws becomes a requirement again, but not to the same extent as before the last changes. Similarly we sped up the secondary projectiles so that they become a more long-range option with a focus on timing rather than leading.

V9S

• Increased damage from 36 to 37

Carriables

Glitch Barrel

• Decreased radius from 6m to 3.5m

Goo Barrel

• Decreased the size of the goo wall created by the Goo Barrel from 2x6 to 2x4

Toxic Gas Barrel

• Decreased radius from 5m to 3.5m

Dev note: Overall, we’ve seen a low use of certain gadgets when there are overlapping items available in the arena. Therefore, we are swapping some values around on arena items and gadgets to ensure the latter have a stronger effect while still ensuring players can adapt to different situations even when out of gadget charges.

Game Modes

Terminal Attack

• Players must now interact with the terminal in order to deliver the decryption key, rather than throwing it into the terminal

Dev Note: It was too easy for attacking teams to rush a terminal and throw in the key to start a decryption, without needing to secure the objective first. This change should force attacking teams to seize the area around the terminal to start decrypting.

• Increased the throw distance of the decryption key now that it cannot be thrown into the terminal, allowing for more passing of the key
• Added ‘warm-up zones’ to Terminal Attack, limiting where players can move to for the first 25 seconds of the match. This provides more time for the defending team to prepare
• Carriable canisters now respawn at the start of each round in Terminal Attack, making sure each team gets access to the same amount each round
• The specific combinations of team and objective spawn locations in Ranked Terminal Attack now occur in the same sequence in both halves of the match, making matches fairer.
• Added unique names to all terminal locations in the arenas, these are displayed when looking at the terminals and in the lobby screen
• Added a player count notification when contestants are eliminated
• Added icons in the arena and to the HUD to highlight eliminated teammates and their location
• Added Ranked Terminal Attack mode with a best of 13, first to 7 format
• In Ranked Terminal Attack, if the match starts without full teams, the game will be automatically abandoned early and players will return to the queue. This is done to ensure games start in a good condition
• Added a half-time reset of destruction to Ranked Terminal Attack mode, so that both teams have the same starting conditions as their opponents when defending or attacking

Maps

Las Vegas

• Updated Terminal Attack spawn scenarios

Monaco

• Updated Terminal Attack spawn scenarios

Skyway Stadium

• Added to the Terminal Attack map pool
• Tweaked the Power Shift related spawn points inside the Construction area so that players are better oriented toward the platform’s path

SYS$Horizon

• Updated Terminal Attack spawn scenarios

Content and Bug Fixes

Animation

• Added inspect animation for carriables
• Blocked left arm gestures in third-person when riding ziplines
• Fixed an issue where bullets clipped with the mesh when reloading XP-54
• Fixed an issue where the first throw animation on Gateway sometimes didn't play properly
• Fixed an issue where an immediate melee attack was not properly displayed after using a Mesh Shield
• Fixed an issue where your contestant was not centered during the “tunnel run” match intro
• Fixed an issue where melee animations were sometimes not shown when exiting the emote camera.
  Dev Note: This was a purely visual error, melee timings were not affected by this bug.

Audio

• The audience has been reworked and will now be more responsive to various events in the arena and cheer for the contestants

Career Rank

• Added 10 new Career ranks with associated rewards

Fire Propagation

• Added a distance limit to all fire sources, to prevent fire from spreading infinitely

Gameplay

• Made it possible to skip the elimination camera after a short while and go directly to spectating teammates

Game Modes

• Added a dedicated Spectator slot to Private Matches
• Updated available game modes
  • “Terminal Attack” remains as a base mode
  • Added “Terminal Attack - Ranked”
  • Added “Terminal Attack - Tutorial”
  • Added “World Tour” mode
  • Removed “Single Round Cashout”
• Added more info to the game summary screen
  • Team name
  • Game mode
• Disabled the Deathmatch game show event as it was not working as intended

Maps

New map: Kyoto

• Available in Quick Cash, Tournaments, Bank It, Power Shift and Terminal Attack game modes
• Features shallow water that will slow the player’s movement speed, making it risky to cross large open bodies of water
• Shoji paper walls that allow bullets to pass through easily

Settings

• New volume slider in settings for changing the commentator dialogue volume separately from the in-world dialogue

Store

• Enabled single-item purchases for bundles from previous seasons

UI

• Text chat added to the PC version
• Player cards
  • Added background customization
  • Added badges that display your rank in World Tour and Ranked Mode
• Updated the end-of-round screen to include player cards and to highlight stats
• Added a shortcut button to the Play menu from the Career screen
• Added a cooldown for the event log when spamming pings and voice lines
• Updated event log messages for various types of pings
  • Updated event log messages related to Cashouts and Terminals to be consistent and always include information about which objective was pinged
  • Added missing event log messages for certain pings on various objectives, like Cashboxes and Decryption Keys
  • “Attacking here” ping wheel action was renamed to “Attack here”
  • “Defending here” ping wheel action was renamed to “Defend here”
  • Updated “Attack Here” and “Defend Here” event log messages to match the character voice lines
  • Added event log message when pinging ziplines
• It’s now possible to zoom in on pets in the Battle Pass and Store screens
• Temporarily disabled the re-rolling of Daily Contracts

Dev Note: We currently have a very small pool of Daily Contracts and felt it was unfair for players to spend VRs to re-roll a contract to only keep getting limited options in return. We hope to introduce more Contracts during the season and then re-enable re-rolls at some point when they offer more value.

Weapons

• Added Season 3 items
  • Thermal Bore - Light Gadget
  • Recurve Bow - Light Weapon
  • Dual Blades - Medium Weapon
  • Winch Claw - Heavy Specialization
  • Spear - Heavy Weapon
• Updated several Equipment HUD Icons:
  • All Grenades
  • All Mines
  • C4
  • Breach Charge
  • APS Turret
  • Barricade
  • Motion Sensor
  • Thermal Vision
  • Riot Shield
• Added 1 more progression level, with associated reward, for all weapons and gadgets. All item based Specializations (e.g. Guardian Turret or Goo Gun) also received this.
• Fixed an issue where equipped charms would disappear when standing close to walls
• Fixed emote animation exploit with the Sword which allowed multiple lunches in rapid succession.

Dev note: While these moves discovered by players increase the effectiveness of some melee weapons, they are ultimately exploits and ones that most players find hard to use or unintuitive, adding confusion to the game (especially for those on the receiving end).

Security

• Updates to our Aimbot detection system
• In-game reporting feedback - We'll inform players who report unfair gameplay when appropriate actions have been taken.

Continue reading...

 

June 7, 2024 - Summer Game Fest, LOS ANGELES — During the Summer Game Fest live show, Embark Studios unveiled Season 3 of THE FINALS, the free-to-play team-based multiplayer shooter, available on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X | S, and GeForce Now. Launching on June 13, players will be transported to the lush Kyoto Valley in Japan for an epic showdown.

Watch THE FINALS Season 3 Trailer from Summer Game Fest here:

Starting in Season 3, THE FINALS will emphasize a more tactical and competitive experience by introducing Terminal Attack as the Ranked game mode. In Terminal Attack, attackers deliver a Decryption Key to one of two terminals, while defenders guard the terminals and prevent the transfer from completing.


This strategic, 5v5, attack-and-defend mode pits two teams against each other for the best of 13 rounds. Contestants must plan carefully, strategize, and collaborate — with no healing, no revives, and only one life per round, every decision counts.


Nestled against a steep mountainside in the lush Kyoto Valley, the new Kyoto 1568 arena features a network of interwoven 16th-century temples, gardens, and dense bamboo forests — in contrast to the modern urban arenas THE FINALS is famous for.


Intense terrain height variation, interconnected, layered buildings with hidden traversal options underneath, encourage free-flowing, fluid, and sneaky player movement. Traditional Japanese Shoji paper walls that players can shoot through dial destruction up to eleven.


All builds are getting new weapons & gear — inspired by feudal Japanese combat tactics:


RECURVE BOW — a new weapon for LIGHTS: a high-skill, medium- to long-ranged bow that shoots arrows in a curved arc. Its range and damage increase the further back the bowstring has been drawn.
THERMAL BORE — a new gadget for LIGHTS: a long-range, high-cooldown, tactical breaching gadget, that’s best used to breach walls, buildings, and other obstacles from a distance, to open up pathways or sightlines for you and your team. Perfect in combination with a long-range weapon!

DUAL KATANAS — a new melee weapon for MEDIUMS: its primary attack is a fast, multi-strike combo with wide reach and forward momentum. It can also charge a lunge attack and deflect incoming bullets in a defensive stance.

SPEAR — a new melee weapon for HEAVIES: its primary attack is a fast long-range stab. It can also be spun up to cover a wider area. It deals less damage than the Heavy’s Sledge Hammer but is decidedly more nimble.

WINCH CLAW — a new specialization for HEAVIES: launches a chain that pulls objects or enemies toward you, briefly stunning them, making it a perfect companion to the new Spear. Requires tactical use, accuracy, and skill!


Season 3 also introduces the World Tour events series that challenges players to take part in events and tournaments, featuring a unique mix of rules, loadouts, locations, and rewards. As contestants rack up World Tour victories, they’ll climb the Leaderboard and rank up their World Tour Badge through bronze, silver, or gold tiers — and earn Multibucks by the end of the Season depending on their position on the podium.

So what are you waiting for? Sharpen your katanas, head into the arena, and reach the top. THE FINALS is available for free on PC via Steam, on PC cloud streaming via NVIDIA GeForce Now, on PlayStation 5, and on Xbox Series X|S.

Continue reading...

 

UPDATE 2.11.0

Sun’s out, guns out in The Arena this week with a store update featuring the No Oasis Set as well as the matching Desert Dust Set featuring no less than eight weapons!

We also want to congratulate all of you on beating the Community Event! The pink tank featuring the panda print will be in your inventory in a couple of days - well done everyone!

Here is the new store update:

As for today, the last update of Season 2, we’re bringing you a couple of bug fixes and then we set our sights on Season 3. This update will only need to be downloaded by PC players, console players will not need to update their games but will still see the updated store.

Content and Bug Fixes

Performance

• Fixed a crash related to certain hardware which was introduced in 2.10
• Fixed an issue which prevented parties from joining Private Matches

Continue reading...

 

Hotfix 2.10.4

We’re pushing out a Hotfix for many of the issues introduced in Update 2.10.0 this week. Huge thank you to our community for helping us find and define the most pressing issues.

Here are the updates:

Gameplay

• Fixed Aim Assist to prevent tracking enemy contestants through objects such as walls, terrain, etc.
• Reverted a change that removed directional weapon binding for controller

UI

• Fixed Enemy Healthbars persisting on screen longer than intended, as well as being visible through walls/terrain
• Fixed an issue where players could not track contracts in rookie/challenger/pro/master circuits
• Fixed the incorrect message displayed when an account is restricted from playing

Weapons

• Fixed exploit where animation canceling allowed certain weapons, such as FAMAS, Throwing Knives, R93, to be fired at a much higher rate than intended

Continue reading...

 

Update 2.10.0

As we near the end of Season 2, it’s time to boost XP to give a helping hand to those still working on that last page of the Battlepass!

We have the final community event of Season 2, and the final event featuring the community-pink rewards! Here is your mission, if you choose to accept: work together to collectively deal 18 billion in damage to enemy contestants in the next week! For the first time ever, you’ll be able to track your progress both in-game and on embark ID. Let’s make sure to end the season with a bang!

Check out today’s store update right here:

We’re also bringing some changes to the APS turret, making it less of a powerhouse, a sweet set of buffs to the Throwing Knives and a fix for the annoying Voice Chat bug on XBOX, and much more!

Let’s dive in:

Balance Changes

Gadgets

APS

• New feature: The APS turret now consumes a set amount of health for each projectile it destroys
  • The health cost per destroyed projectile is 40%

Weapons

Throwing Knives

• Reduced the delay before the first projectile spawns from 0.22s to 0.11s to make the attacks more responsive
• Reduced the delay between the first and second projectile spawning from 0.15s to 0.11s to make it easier to land both knives on a moving target
• Increased the initial projectile speed from 138m/s to 166m/s increasing the weapon’s precision
• Increased the primary attack damage from 60 to 63

Content and Bug Fixes

Animation

• Fixed an issue where a camera shake would play at each orbital laser charge up event, the shake is now removed

Audio

• Fixed voice chat not working in certain situations on Xbox

Characters

• Fixed the Darque Mood Hairstyle to prevent it from briefly obscuring the first-person camera during the intro screen
• Fixed the in-game appearance of the Pink Chunky Wedge Trainers

Controller

• Fixed an issue where selecting contracts using a controller would break the selected focus

Game Modes

• Fixed a bug where healbeam and defibrillators could be used in Terminal Attack
• Make it less likely that boxes and stations get stuck underneath the ground

Gameplay

• Reduced the size of the Zipline anchors’ ping hitbox
• Reduced the scale at which Ziplines become easier to ping from a distance, making it less likely that they absorb pings intended for other nearby targets
• Fixed unintentional freelook enabled when interacting with objectives and statues
• Fixed the Glitch Barrel being hard to pick up in certain situations
• Fixing issue where players could get stuck colliding with Goo when on moving platforms

Maps

Las Vegas

• Fixed lens flares incorrectly appearing around the edge of the screen at sunset
• Fixed characters hovering slightly above the ground during the post-match winner celebration

Progression

• Fixed issue where a win in Terminal Attack did not count towards the “First win of the Day” and “Win X Games”- contracts
• Community event progress is now displayed on the leaderboard screen
• Daily Contracts increase from 1000 XP to 10000 XP
• In-game performance and objective XP has been increased by 50%

Settings

• Added support for Steam invites

Specializations

• Fixed a bug where players could quick melee while using the Charge 'n' Slam ability
• Fixed quick melee being available while using the Mesh Shield

UI

• Added more events to the in-game score log, such as revives
• Fixed an issue where your own position wasn't shown in the leaderboard screen
• Fixed Quick action buttons disappearing after switching tabs in the Social menu
• Fixed an issue with the 'Enable Voice Chat' key bind remaining togglable while typing a player report
• Fixed an issue where players could accidentally open the party menu when in settings by pressing the shortcut button
• Animations will autoplay the current selection when browsing customization categories
• Updated the overview stats in the equipment screen for FAMAS and FCAR to better reflect their tuning
• Added a new system to the frontend that limits frame rate and resolution after receiving no user input for a while, or when the app is not in focus
  Dev note: This will help save energy and spare your PCs and consoles from working too hard when the game is idling. This only affects the main menu and can be toggled in the new Energy Saving section of the Video setting.

VFX

• Fixed some environment decals rendering on top of the first-person meshes

SECURITY

• We have now increased our detection of devices that emulate a controller while playing with Mouse and Keyboard, which is not permitted
• Updates and improvements to current detection methods for increased accuracy

Continue reading...

 

Update 2.9.0

Terminal Attack is here to stay!

Alongside this week’s store update, we want to congratulate the community on completing the Community Event by achieving 7 MILLION eliminations in Terminal Attack in just one week! If you contributed to the event, be on the lookout for your brand-new community-themed canvas shoes. Nice work, yolks!

In the past few weeks, we’ve been watching you play Terminal Attack! We are so grateful for your feedback and impressions, and we’ve had a blast watching you attack and defend! Input from the community has been incredibly valuable to us as we work to make this mode a significant and permanent part of THE FINALS. While the event has now ended, and the contracts have expired, we still see so many of you having fun in TA, so we’ve decided to keep it in the game a while longer.

Don’t forget to keep the feedback coming over on Discord!

Continue reading...

 

Update 2.8.0
Welcome to Update 2.8.0 and an all-new community event!

We are hosting a community event in honor of our last week of Terminal Attack! If everyone in the community can pull together to achieve a total of 7 MILLION eliminations in TA this week, everyone who contributed will earn a sweet prize: canvas shoes to add to your cute-mmunity look!

We’ll also host a leaderboard for the event so you can see the top contributors! As always, we’ll give out prizes on Discord during the event.

This update focused on many quality-of-life changes and improvements. Most notably, we have made changes to melee weapons, hoping to improve how they feel to play with in the game. We’ll need your feedback on these changes!

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty:

Content and Bug Fixes

Animation

• Fixed an issue where hand gesture animations were overriding the Mesh Shield animations, resulting in broken character poses
• Fixed an issue where throwing animations would not play while inspecting weapons
• Added an intro animation in terminal attack to improve the round countdown

Audio

• Player Voice lines will now only play for teammates and not opposing players

Gadgets

Anti-gravity Cube

• We made the cube heavier so that it doesn’t get pushed as easily when hit by other objects
• Fixed a bug where objects would lift much faster than intended when they were attached together
  • This also prevents an exploit in which the cube could be carried upwards together with the objects it’s lifting, causing entire structures to traverse upwards into the sky endlessly

Dome Shield

• Fixed an issue where it was not able to be glitched when the center was occluded

Gameplay

• A new carriable object has been added to the Arena: Glitch Barrels

Dev note: Glitch barrels are carriable objects. Pick them up and throw them to apply their effect in an area, or shoot them to detonate them from afar. The Glitch barrels apply the same effect as Glitch Grenades, removing the target's ability to use their Gadgets and Specializations.

• Fixed an issue where players were able to start opening a Vault during the beginning of an emote
• Fixed an issue where the Cashbox was incorrectly dropped far away from the player if it clipped through the map border
• Interactions such as using a zipline, pressing elevator buttons, and interacting with a revive statue should now be more responsive, especially on console/gamepad
• Improved visibility of barrels in dark and monochrome areas
• Fixed a bug with sliding where auto-sprinting players could get stuck between the crouch and sprint state
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to deal damage to their teammates
• Fixed an issue where players would get stuck in goo when running up to it

Dev note: This will only fix the issue outside of moving platforms. We know that goo sometimes behaves strangely on moving platforms and are looking into it for a later patch.

Maps

All Maps

• Rooftop reflections have been improved

SYS$HORIZON

• Tweaked the zipline at the Museum entrance so you exit earlier automatically, instead of it taking you all the way to the ceiling

Monaco

• Power Shift: Adjusted spawns to balance out the distances to the platform and to reduce how often you have to run after the platform when defending

Modes

Terminal Attack

• Added a distinct sound change on the Terminal when there is only 15 seconds left to stop the decryption
• The icon for the terminal will no longer appear in the center of the screen when decryption starts
• Due to a known issue that could not be resolved in time, players can only swap weapons and gadgets between rounds and not in spectator mode after elimination

UI

• Ping wheel additions and changes
  • Added new ping messages “Breach here” and “Hold this Position”
  • To make room for the two new pings “Hype” and “Danger” have been moved/removed. Hype is added to the expression wheel, replacing “Need Help.” “Danger” is removed from the wheel but still accessible via double-tapping the ping button on any target
  • Support/Social pings are now located at the bottom of the wheel, while tactical options are on the top half
  • “Going here”, “Defending here” and “Attacking here” in the Ping wheel are now called “Go here”, “Defend here”, and “Attack here” to make it clearer that they are requests to your team, and consistent with the character voice lines
• Updated several event log messages related to pinging game mode relevant objects, to more clearly communicate the context

Dev Note: There are still some events missing their proper messages. They will be added in the future!

• When holding the ping wheel on your own ping now we only show the remove option to make it clear that you pinged an existing ping
• Fixed an issue that sometimes made it impossible to cancel the ping wheel
• Fixed UI elements being drawn on top of the in-game menu in Terminal Attack
• Flipped background opacity for dead/alive players in the scoreboard
• Updated contestant icons
• Fixed an issue in frontend where clicking buttons multiple times in short succession would cause them to not register
• Updated required round completion on a terminal attack contract from 10 to the intended 14
• Changed the key bind for “Hide UI” from F12 to F10
• Changed the order of tiles for Quickplay
• Updated the lighting on Player Cards

Specializations

Charge'N'Slam

• Can now clear higher obstacles when activated on the ground to reduce instances where players get stuck on geometry

Weapons
Dagger

• Improved backstab validation
  Dev Note: We've received a lot of feedback about Backstabs not feeling as good. Hopefully, we've rectified that issue in this patch. The only way to tell is to let you try it and then gather your feedback!
• Fixed so that the aim assist for backstabs now synchronizes with the swing, rather than triggering at the start of the charge-up.

All Melee Weapons

• Improved hit validation for all melee weapons
• There is now a setting for turning melee aim assist on/off in the “Gameplay” section
• The aim assist and lunge range is slightly more generous for quick melee
• We have changed the way sprinting gets blocked when attacking with melee weapons and using quick melee, so that sprint is only blocked through parts of a swing, instead of the whole duration of the attack. This is tweaked on a weapon-to-weapon basis
• The sprint toggle no longer gets canceled by melee attacks, so players don’t have to re-toggle spam to efficiently chase their target while attacking

Riot Shield

• The shield can now be raised more quickly after performing an attack

SR-84

• Is now correctly marked as a Marksman Rifle instead of a Melee Weapon in the menus

Security

• Updates and improvements

Known Issues

• Heads up! There is an issue with all gamepad presets (except for “Modifier Button Equipping”) which causes players to equip weapons when pressing the “Interact and Equip Weapon” button, which is not intended. This will be resolved in the next patch, but until then, please go into the controller settings and fix it by clearing the “Weapon” bind. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Continue reading...

 

Update 2.7.0

Welcome to Update 2.7.0!

This week, we welcome the long-awaited, community-anticipated Darque Mood outfit. Get your goth on! We’re also bringing you a few performance improvements, UI fixes, and a security update!

Content and Bug Fixes

Performance

• Fixed an issue where launch options like -dx11 stopped working. However, we still recommend playing without any additional options
• Fixed a rare crash on the server

UI

• Polished the look of the incoming melee damage indicator
• Fixed an issue with single item bundle purchase where the wrong item was equipped
• Fixed the nametag sometimes intersecting the HUD in terminal attack when in the squad-up screen

Security

This week, you will feel a difference in the number of cheaters you encounter in the game. Multiple new rules have been implemented and changes to how and when cheaters are detected. These new changes mean that cheaters are being detected and removed faster.

Remember: if you see cheating in the game, make sure to report it and add a good comment explaining what is happening! We also collect video reports on Discord, so if you capture suspicious behavior, send it in!

Continue reading...

 

Update 2.6.0

MID-SEASON EVENT: TERMINAL ATTACK

Welcome to the mode:

Terminal Attack is a new 5v5, single-life, attack-and-defend game mode in which contestants take turns delivering the decryption key to the terminal and the best of seven rounds wins. Attackers are tasked with completing the upload, while defenders must prevent it by any means necessary.

No healing. No revive. One life.
Players can regenerate health up to 100 hp, and gadgets do not regenerate at all, so engage with caution and go in with a plan. You can play Terminal Attack in the SYSHorizon, Monaco, and Las Vegas arenas, and be warned, the destruction you cause will carry over through all seven rounds.

Throughout the event, cash in contracts to earn event cosmetics to show your support for CNS, a rogue hacking collective, and VAIIYA, a cyber-security firm. Which side are you on?

Get in there, contestants!

This week, we have a special article from our Design Director, Matt Lowe, who explains League ranks, the journey THE FINALS has taken, changes in this update, and the potential future of ranked play. Please give it a read here.

This update has plenty more to offer, all outlined in the bullet points below. The highlights include a change to Private matches that allows matches to start with as few as 2 players and the addition of Power Shift! Let the 1:1 battles commence!

We’ve added two bonus Battlepass pages with rewards for the grinders out there. Make sure to check out the new drip!

Power Shift has a new arena in rotation! Now you can ride the platform through Seoul.

Finally, for the first time ever, the new Outfit added to the store will allow you to purchase individual items from the bundle as well as the entire bundle all at once. We also added a way to equip your new item to the contestant of choice at the time of purchase, but this feature has a bug that displays the wrong image and fails to equip. We have a fix already, but it will come in the next update. Check the bundle out right here!

A note on Anti-cheat:
The current state of cheating is one we are acutely aware of and actively combating. We have a team of skilled engineers, data analysts, security experts, and machine learning experts whose full-time jobs are centered around anti-cheat. Talking too much about anti-cheat can provide too much info to those who build, sell, or use cheats. And yet, if we say nothing, many will feel we aren’t doing enough.

Easy-Anti Cheat is our base software. It acts as the first line of defense and a catch-all for blatant, non-careful cheating. After that, we have added additional layers of prevention methods and anti-cheat tools and software that obfuscate, check telemetry, hardware behavior and more. With each passing week, we add more rules based on our own data and adjust the old ones. This is because anti-cheat is a game of cat and mouse. With every change we make, the cheat makers respond, and we switch tactics and they follow suit.

When we catch cheaters, depending on the level of offense, we may provide a 7 day ban or a permanent ban. If the offender is cheating for a second time, the ban will become permanent.

We have also introduced a video report program on Discord, where you can capture cheating when you see it and provide the video as evidence. This is to catch cheaters who evade our current anti-cheat preventions and to provide our community of players with a place to report hard evidence. From these reports, we will be able to better understand the types of cheats that evade our current systems.

Please know that we are developing several new technologies and techniques that we will test and deploy as soon as they are ready. We will never back down from this challenge.

Now, let’s look at the mid-season update in detail:

Balance Changes
Gadgets

Barricade

• Increased the size of the Barricade by 20%

Glitch Grenade

• Update glitch effect so that it will now pass through Mesh Shields and Dome Shields

Stun Gun

• Increased the Stun Gun projectile’s maximum travel distance from 12m to 16m
• Players who are stunned can now use their Specializations and Gadgets while stunned
• Players who are stunned can now aim down sights while stunned
• Players who are stunned can now crouch

Dev note: We felt that the Stun Gun was a little too dominant as a Gadget and led to many slow, inevitable deaths. The stun effect now mostly lowers the target’s movement speed, blocks them from jumping, mantling, or vaulting over obstacles, and interrupts interactions. This makes stunned players vulnerable but gives them a fighting chance.

Vanishing bomb

• Decreased the impact of the cloaking effect on the Vanishing Bomb, so affected players are slightly easier to see when moving

Maps

Monaco: Power Shift

• Tweaked the traversal options between Villas and Park for easier access to rooftops
• Minor adjustments to the spawn points around the Forest and Royal Plaza areas to provide a clearer frontline during the final stretch
• Slightly adjusted the path of the platform to fix some clipping issues and make it more accessible on the road between Shopping District and Forest

Specializations

Cloaking Device

• Decreased the impact of the cloaking effect so that cloaked players are slightly easier to see when they are moving

Weapons

FCAR

• Decreased damage from 25 to 22
• Increased magazine size from 20 to 25
• Increased the fall-off damage multiplier at max range from 50% to 55%, meaning the weapon does slightly more damage at range

Dev Note: Our data shows us that the FCAR is very strong in the hands of good players but harder to use for newer players. These changes hopefully rein in the weapon’s power at higher skill levels, while making it slightly more forgiving to use for newer players

Content and Bug Fixes
Animation

• New intro and idle animation added for Dagger and Sword
• Swapping items when quick meleeing will now instantly cancel the quick melee animation
• Fixing an issue preventing hand gestures from playing for dual-wield items

Audio

• Increased priority of enemy footsteps, and tweaked attenuation and occlusion to make them easier to hear.
• Tweaked loudness of dematerialize and rematerialize sounds

Battlepass

• Added two bonus pages of rewards to the end of the Battlepass – good luck contestants!

Characters

• Fixed an issue where the fur on the bunny outfit was flickering when viewed at close distances
• Fixed an issue where players did not get the default outfit when creating a new contestant

Controller Gyro Aiming

Important!

There is currently a serialization issue with some of the new gyro settings in this patch, which causes players to initially get the wrong defaults. We therefore recommend that you restore defaults in the Gyro tab before enabling and trying out the new settings.

• Moved gyro aiming options to a separate tab in the settings menu.
• Made general improvements to the responsiveness and precision of gyro aiming controls.
• The "gyro orientation" setting now has three modes:
  • World (New) - Rotation is based on the controller's rotational movement in the world
  • Local - Rotation is locally read from the controller's point of view
  • Player (Previously World) - Rotation is based on the controller's rotational movement from a player perspective
• Vertical gyro sensitivity is now an absolute value, rather than based on a ratio of the horizontal sensitivity
• Added a new setting that enables focal length scaling for gyro aiming, which scales sensitivity based on changes in FOV, making scoped weapons more precise
• Added options for inverting each gyro axis individually
• Added new settings for gyro acceleration, which increases sensitivity the faster the controller rotates, allowing for sharp turns while maintaining precision for small and steady adjustments
• Add a new ‘flick stick’ mechanic that can be enabled with gyro, which changes the functionality of the look stick so that you can quickly snap to face any direction
• Added the following optional controller binds:
  • Reset vertical rotation (necessary when playing with flick stick)
  • Toggle gyro aiming (On/Off)
  • Disable gyro aiming (Hold)

Gadgets

• Flashbang
  • Fixed an issue where weak flashes could overwrite strong flashes
• Fixed an issue where Grenades, Mines, and C4s with default customization sometimes got a random customization applied
• Fixed an issue where spectators could trigger mines
• Fixed several issues where it looked like the player could place an object but no object appeared
• Fixed an issue where the preview arc showed the in-air detonation effect on grenades that don't actually detonate on a timer

Game Modes

• Power Shift
  • Added Seoul to the map pool

Graphics

• Reduced graphical Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA) artifacts on consoles

Maps

• General
  • Adjusted collision on some bushes to improve interactions with placeable jump-pads
  • Fixed an issue where Zipline Cables did not break correctly when intersecting certain objects
• SYS$HORIZON
  • Reduced the intensity of some of the interior colors

Dev note: Monitor and graphic settings that boost saturation make the colors more intense. Adjusting these settings can help to further reduce the intensity.

Private Matches

• Lowered the requirement to start private matches to 2 players
• The private match lobby creator now has the option to opt out of participating in the match
• The private match lobby creator can now kick players from the lobby
• Minor UI improvements to the private matches screen
• Power Shift is now available in private matches

Ranked Tournaments

• Reduced Ranked Tournaments size from 48 to 24 players

Dev Note: This change should make matchmaking faster, make tournaments available to more players in different regions, and help improve the quality of skill-based matchmaking leading to closer games

• Reduced Ranked Tournament duration from four rounds to three, to account for the change in the number of players
• Increased the speed at which visible league rankings synchronize with SBMM ratings
• Improved matchmaking to closer matchmake player within their league rank
• Added an indicator in the league overview screen to show your change in rank progression from the last tournament you participated in

Dev Note: This is the same arrow indicator that you get after a ranked tournament has completed so that if you missed it, you can review it on the league overview page.

Settings

• Add a link to the Embark Portal in the system menu

Specializations

• Fixed an issue where turrets lost targeting on players with riot shield
• Fixed an issue where turrets would fall through buildings and not rotate when landing

Stability

• Fixed three of the most common crashes
• Fix for being able to close the "Compiling shaders" screen resulting in a softlock

Store

• Players can now purchase single items within a Bundle
• There’s now an equip button in the store rewards screen

UI

• We have added a score log to display more scoring events in all different game-modes
• Various playertag marker changes
  • Playertags now show distance to you
  • Playertags in-game are now uppercase
  • There’s now an effect on in-game healthbars to indicate healing
• Fixed an issue in Game Summary where you could see duplicate stats for the same player
• Fixed an issue where the 'Contracts' tab could faultily be accessed from the Battle Pass screen
• Fixed an issue where the camera could be misplaced after inspecting rewards in the circuit screen
• Polished and refined how pings are visualized in-game
  • Ping-icons are now smaller and will scale depending on their screen-centeredness
  • Pings, team health bars and objective icons now fade out when they come closer to the center of the screen
  • Off-screen enemy pings now behave like other off-screen icons and hug the screen edge closest to the pinged location. (Was previously not visible when off-screen)
  • Fixing bug where spectating players wouldn’t fade icons when the spectated player enters aim-down-sights
• Voice lines for the default ping (when you ping a random location with no object attached to it) have been updated to be more consistent. Previously it would use “I will…” and “We should…” intermittently
  • In general, pinging something will now ask your allies to engage with that object, while pinging the ground will announce your own intention to move there
• Updated options in the Contextual Ping menu
  • “Huddle here” changed to “Group up,” with all new voice lines
  • “Moving here” changed to “Go here,” using more consistent voice lines
• Fixed an issue where you didn’t go to the correct page in the Battlepass from the outfit screen
• Fix rare instances where first-person animations such as, reloads, inspects, and deploys could not be changed through customization
• Added the ability to track contracts with a right click on the circuits screen
• Fix for showing a single item rarity in the UI when previewing out of a bundle instead of the bundle rarity
• Hit-indicator now differentiates damage from these types of attack
  • Long range damage
  • Short range damage
  • Melee damage

VFX

• Polished the grappling hook wire animation.

Weapons

• Improved melee aim assistance so that it not only looks for targets when the attack is initiated by the player, but also validates that they are still correct at the time aim correction is applied. This should reduce the number of occasions where melee attacks could pull the player away from a target

Security and Anti-Cheat

• Added a requirement to have Secure Boot enabled for suspicious players
• Several new suspension rules based on anomaly detection
• Added suspension rule for using Aimbot
• Tweaks to current anomaly detection
• Hardened the suspension progression system

Continue reading...