Update 2.7.0

2024.05.08

SHE’S FINALLY HERE!

This week, we welcome the long-awaited, community-anticipated Darque Mood outfit. Get your goth on!

This update has 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’ll notice a difference in the number of cheaters in the game. Multiple new rules have been implemented, along with changes to how and when cheaters are detected. These changes mean that cheaters are being detected and removed faster. 

Remember: if you see cheating in the game, 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! 

Mid-Season Update 2.6.0

2024.05.02

NEW MODE: TERMINAL ATTACK

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’re testing this feature to see how it works. 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.

Despite the annoying bug, here's what's in store:

A note on Anti-cheat:

We are acutely aware of and actively combating the current state of cheating. Our team includes 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 information 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 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 been 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 (in one bundle to start, as a test)

• 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 certain players

• Several new suspension rules based on anomaly detection

• Added suspension rule for using Aimbot

• General improvements and fixes

Ranked Leagues in THE FINALS

2024.05.02

By Matt Lowe

I’m Matt, the Design Director for THE FINALS. I’ve been working in the games industry for over 17 years now, predominantly on multiplayer and FPS games. To this day, these types of games are still my go-to experience when I want to have fun. The quality of the multiplayer experience really matters to me and that’s a large part of why I’m here today to explain our approach to ranked play in THE FINALS, both now and into the future.

The goal of ranked matches in any multiplayer PvP game is to let players test their skill against other players, show off their abilities, and have fun improving over time.

The ‘fun’ part is critical here. Ranked players don’t really want to get free wins all the time, as that doesn’t test their skills. They also don’t want to get crushed by their opponents all the time because repeatedly losing isn’t much fun either.

As a result, the ideal scenario is creating fair ranked matches, where players on all teams have similar skill levels, which leads to a good challenge but also gives you a reasonable chance to win. For ranked modes to create these ideal matches, we need some way to measure skill.

“For ranked modes to create these ideal matches, we need some way to measure skill.”

That’s why most ranked modes use Skill-based Matchmaking (SBMM), which assigns players a skill rating based on past performances and uses that rating to find them similarly skilled opponents.

Measuring skill, however, is really tough. In an FPS game, when measuring skill it’s easy to just look at what you do in the game: eliminate opponents. This often results in players looking at kill/death ratios as the only measure of skill.

The challenge is that most FPS games, especially objective-based FPS games like THE FINALS, aren’t just about eliminating opposing players. There are objectives to capture or steal, revives that can save teams from being eliminated, well-timed Goo Grenades that seal off an objective, or a clutch Dome Shield deployment that saves a key player from death. Is it possible to determine which of these actions has the most impact on a win? Which is the most impactful skill? And is that always the most impactful skill?

“Is it possible to determine which of these actions has the most impact on a win? Which is the most impactful skill? And is that always the most impactful skill?”

These questions make skill ratings in any PvP game hard to define. Some people dedicate their entire careers to determining where skill comes from in particular games and sports. I recommend you watch the film (or read the book) Moneyball to get an idea about just how difficult this can be.

As a result of this complexity, the most common approach to measure skill in games is one that ignores all the individual actions players take in a match that might lead to a win and instead measures the player’s win/loss ratio and the skill level of the opposing teams. This way, you remove the difficult questions about which actions contributed most to the win from the equation. Players who win more often are likelier to have the important skills needed to win, and can therefore be considered more skilled.

This is what rating systems like the commonly known Elo System do. When a new player comes along, the system matches them against a range of players, each of whom has a rating based on how often they win or lose and who they have won or lost against. If the new player wins several matches against Gold Tier players, it moves the new player’s rating towards Gold Tier. When that new player starts losing lots of matches at Platinum Tier, the system adjusts and lowers their rating, as it can see they don’t win as often against that tier of players.

Rating skill for a game like THE FINALS has a lot of additional complexity, but this covers the fundamentals.

THE FINALS | Season 1

There are downsides to Elo-style league systems though, one of the biggest being that they’re quite good at finding a player’s skill level pretty quickly. Let me explain why that can be an issue.

You may have seen placement matches in the ranked modes of other multiplayer PvP games. Quite often, by the time the player finishes their placement matches the SBMM in these games has already mapped out the player’s skill level pretty well. This is good as the game can now give those players close matches to compete in, but it can be bad because once a player’s skill level is established it’s actually very hard to improve it without really hard work and meaningful training or practice. This means for most players, in most ranked seasons, their skill rating will barely move for the rest of the season and this lack of progress and progression for a lot of players can seem quite boring. Some players want to progress as they play, they want to feel like they’re learning, but a skill rating that rarely moves doesn’t often give this feeling.

“once a player’s skill level is established it’s actually very hard to improve it without really hard work and meaningful training or practice.”

Ahead of Season 1 of THE FINALS, we felt most of our players would prefer going on a journey through the ranks each season, to get this sense of progression through the leagues, as this was an approach that was becoming more common in PvP games.

In our Season 1 league, the goal was slightly different to Elo-style systems: to take players on a journey through the different leagues before reaching their actual skill rating. This journey feels fun! It’s nice to progress, to have goals to strive for, and to be rewarded for spending time playing the game by moving up through the ranks. For many players, this is more fun than having a skill rating that doesn’t move a lot once reached (like in the Elo-type system).

“In Season 1, the goal was slightly different to Elo-style systems: to take players on a journey through the different leagues before reaching their actual skill rating.”

To reach the close, competitive matches that players want, we still used an underlying skill system, like Elo, that measured the player’s real skill. That rating was converted into a different kind of rating, Fame points, to place the player in the ranking system. Doing this involved a lot of math, but essentially, the system tried to keep the skill rating and the fame ratings somewhat linked.

The system we used for this in Season 1 wasn’t great though. The underlying rating we used to matchmake during the season was okay, but it wasn’t effectively linked to the visible fame or ranks. As a result, any player could theoretically make it to Diamond Tier by the end of Season 1 simply by playing the game enough.

This meant players would often be matched into games where their skill levels were fairly close, but their progress through the leagues was far apart. This made matches seem less balanced than they were, as players would see many different league icons. Understandably, this frustrated our ranked players.

It was clear that Season 2 would need a different plan

THE FINALS | Season 2

In Season 2, we dropped our old fame system in favor of a skill-points system for tracking seasonal progress, a system that was more closely linked to the player’s skill rating than in Season 1. We still tried to preserve some of the seasonal journey by allowing the progress on earning skill points to move slower than the real skill rating.

In Season 2, players were placed below their actual skill rating at the start of the season, in most cases. As they played they would progress through the ranks, but would plateau once they hit their actual skill rating, causing their skill and league ratings to be in sync at that point.

The approach we tried has actually worked more effectively than season 1 in that the league ranking and skill rating remain more in sync and become closer the more the player plays, but it is still confusing, and the lack of information at the beginning of the season didn’t help. Ultimately we still started Season 2 with a similar issue to Season 1, matchmaking based on real skill ratings but displaying league ratings that can be out of sync means players see Silver ranks in matches with Platinum players, even though their skill ratings might be much closer than their current league rating, due to the seasonal journey.

We also found that the time it takes a player to go from the league they were placed in, to the league that matches their skill rating was a little too long, adding to frustration.

The overwhelming feedback from our competitive players is that they would prefer to play a more traditional FPS ranked mode with an Elo-style rating system, where their visible skill/league rating is an accurate measure of their skill level, but where they may not experience much skill growth or rank progress during a season.

“The overwhelming feedback from our competitive players is that they would prefer to play a more traditional FPS ranked mode with an Elo-style rating system”

So what can we do to fix this?

Skill ratings and league systems are nearly impossible to change in the middle of a season. Drastic changes now would mean sudden and massive changes in match quality, sudden rating changes, and so on. This would end up feeling broken, confusing, and unfair. Instead, each new season allows the ranking systems to be freshly reset without causing ill will.

Our plan now is to rework the ranked league system again at the start of Season 3 to give a fresh experience that should feel better, be more informative, and be more closely linked to actual skill. We plan to include an end-of-match summary that informs you about your performance and rank and also shares the rank and level of your opponents—something we aren’t showing right now.

One change we’re going to make in Update 2.6 is to reduce the duration of the seasonal ranked journey, which will allow players to reach their actual skill tier in the league system sooner than before.

To help the quality of matches, we’re going to reduce the size of ranked tournaments from 48 players to 24. Trying to find 48 players of the same skill level within a short matchmaking time is difficult and has often resulted in tournaments where the range of skill levels is too broad for close, fun matches. By cutting the number of players needed to start a tournament in half, it will be easier to find enough players of the same skill level quickly.

We’re hopeful that these changes will improve the experience for the rest of Season 2 and create a much easier-to-understand ranked system in Season 3.

Update 2.5.1

2024.04.24

STORE UPDATE!

This week, we have no update, just a small patch to live the new Store content and provide a fix for the server crashes that have been happening lately.

Check out the store video here:

We also added improvements and adjustments to security and anti-cheat.

Next week, we’ll be back with a more substantial update!

Update 2.5.0

2024.04.17

COMMUNITY CHALLENGE COMPLETE!

Today, we’re bringing you an update with some balance changes and dev comments on future changes to both the Stun Gun and the Cloaking Device! 

The second Community Challenge has come to an end. Congratulations on reaching the goal! We were never worried (maybe a little worried), enjoy your brand new Boombox — and special shout out to contestant “Goo and Sledge” for pushing the platform an astounding 185km!

Also, you may have noticed that we have switched to using Embark ID as our main Display name in-game. You can change your Embark ID display name by visiting the Embark Portal. 

Now! Let’s get into the changes included in Update 2.5.0:

Balance Changes 

Gadgets

• Data Reshaper

  • Range increased from 5m to 15m

  • Target FOV decreased from 25 degrees to 12 degrees
    Dev note: to account for the increased range.

• Stun Gun

Dev Note: We’re aware of player frustrations around being stunned by the Stun Gun and are planning some changes to get it to a better place. However, these changes require more testing before we deploy them so it will be update 2.6 before these arrive. 

Specializations

• Cloaking Device

  • Increased the activation cost from 14.2% to 33%.
    Dev Note: This does not change the maximum sustain time, but makes it drain faster when toggling it on and off too frequently. In addition to this change, we’re also investigating changes to the visibility of cloaked players, but these will not be deployed until the 2.6 update as they require more testing.

• Mesh Shield

  • Decreased health from 1000 to 750

Weapons

• KS-23

  • Bullet dispersion reduced when jumping, sprinting, or zoomed in, to make the weapon more accurate

Security 

• AFK/Idle rule enhancements

• Added detections for software such as cheat tools and injectors, leading to suspensions

Update 2.4.0

2024.04.10

NEW COMMUNITY EVENT

It’s time again to work together as a community for a special prize! This time, you’ll be touring the globe on the Power Shift Platform! Not just once, but 10 times around the Earth! Push and pull that platform far enough and everyone will win a pink Historical Hi-Fi boombox to wear in the Arena! Fail to go the distance and the item becomes an unreachable relic! YOU CAN DO IT! 

Earn the Community-Event-Exclusvie Historif Hi Fi Boombox in Pink!

There will be a leaderboard tracking individual success (with distance added based on your collaborative team effort). 

Want an opportunity for extra prizes during the event?

Join the Official Discord for a chance to earn some swag!

Here is this week’s Store update:

Now for the notes!

This week we are making quality-of-life improvements, adding some new functionality to contracts, another mode to Private Matches, and fixing bugs. 

Players can now track up to 5 contracts inside the game, and you can find options in the settings menu to determine how much (or how little) information is displayed. You’ll also see improvements to the backfill settings on Power Shift, the removal of the glitching UI when eliminated, and a smarter Battlepass that always jumps to your current page.

Finally, we’ve added Solo Bank It to Private Matches and have fixed a number of contracts in the career circuit that were causing headaches to the majority of players.

All this and more! Read the details below: 

Audio

• Fixed an issue where turret sounds could linger if you quickly picked up the Guardian Turret after placing it down.

Gameplay

• Fixed an issue where the deployment preview of placeable gadgets could be seen while being revived

• Fixed an issue where the Mesh Shield could be deployed while emoting

• Fixed an issue where the Dematerializer could interact with Goo

• Fixed an issue where you could pick up objects during an interaction

• Fixed animations sometimes retriggering when entering a Gateway

• Fixed an issue where Guardian Turrets would target respawning Defibrillated players who are immune to damage

• Added functionality allowing projectile weapons, such as different Grenades, the RPG, MG32L, and CL-40 to pass through friendly teammates
  Dev note: This change is to address repeated issues where players would damage themselves if a teammate passed close by them right as they fired the weapon 

• Fixed an issue where players using a Riot Shield would not trigger mines

• Fixed an issue where the throwing arc preview would still appear after a throw had been canceled

• Fixed an issue where some objects, such as Barricades, could travel upwards too quickly when affected by the Anti-Gravity Cube

Modes

• Power Shift

• Improved rules for backfilling on Power Shift mode. Players should no longer be backfilled into matches if the platform is within 20% of its final destination

• Solo Bank It 

• Added to Private Matches 

• Practice Range 

• Fixed an issue where mines would not be triggered by bots

Maps 

• Seoul: 

• Fixed overlapping assets

• Las Vegas:

• Improved far shadow distance in lighting 

• Fix for fog bleeding through walls on low and medium-quality settings

• Monaco: 

• Fix for players getting stuck on balconies in certain situations

• Adjusted the glass on the construction site crane so you can throw grenades through them

UI/UX

• Fixed incorrect tutorial video for the Goo grenade

• First-person animations now loop when being previewed

• Added support for zooming in on character items in the Battlepass and Store

• Added tracking ability for up to 5 contracts 

• Fixed the request respawn button not being responsive

• Tweaked squad intro cameras in Power Shift

• Fixed an issue where first-person animations sometimes would not get equipped

• Fixed the UI shaking after being eliminated

• Fix for some players showing up as diamond league rank in the scoreboard when rank could not be fetched in time

• UI Polish for the Scoreboard

• Set the current Battlepass page to be shown first 

Animation

• Fixed an issue where melee swings would not play after a charge and slam

General 

• Frame rate limit setting will now default to 60 on laptops for new installs
  Dev Note: This will help to prevent thermal issues causing heavy stuttering on some laptops. The frame rate limiter can be disabled or adjusted in the video settings menu.

• Upgraded FSR2 to version 2.2.1 to fix a memory leak

• Fixed an issue where fog would bleed through walls on lower-quality settings

Contracts

• Replaced "Win 1 Tournament" with "Deal 750 Fire Damage to Opponents" in Circuit 1, Stage 3

• Reduced "Deal 5000 damage with grenades" to 2500 in Circuit 1, Stage 1 

• Reduced "Get 11 kills in one round" to 6 in Circuit 1, Stage 4

Security Updates

• Fixed an issue that kicked players from the game and displayed error code TFAV1012

• Gradual rollout of Secureboot enforcement for Win 11 to prevent cheats from running  

• Removed identified game executable vulnerabilities

• Enhanced rules for suspensions, including updated limitations for leaderboard presence 

• Updates and improvements

Update 2.3.0

2024.04.04

UPDATES, BALANCE CHANGES AND THE SKILL ISSUE DISCORD QUEST

We’re excited to announce our very first Discord Quest! You can earn the Skill Issue Set by streaming your gameplay to at least one friend on Discord for 15 minutes. It’s only available on the PC version of Discord, and will work even in a private DM! You can even invite your friend to play with you!

Check out the outfit below:

You can also check out our store update:

And finally, the first version of the ranked progression indicator which shows how you move up and down in rank after each ranked tournament has been added! Your feedback continues to be critical on this, so please keep it coming! 

Here are the updates: 

Balancing 

• FAMAS

• Increased recoil curve recovery delay from 0.68 to 0.8

• Increased recoil recovery time from 0.8 to 1
  Dev note: These changes cause automatic recoil recovery to kick in slightly later than before a player finishes firing. It helps prevent an issue where players who pressed the fire button slightly slower than other players felt they saw a very different recoil pattern for the gun
  

Modes

• Power Shift

• Added SYS$HORIZON to the map pool 

• Enabled a new HUD 

• The platform will now deal damage to players that are squished underneath it, to fix the issue where you could be pushed through the ground when trapped  

UI 

• Fixed a bug where the revive tab and respawn coins were swapped in the scoreboard

• Corrected an issue that made the Career Circuit page appear smaller after viewing rewards on console 

• Fixed an issue where Bank Rabbit Bundle couldn’t be purchased via the outfit screen 

Ranked 

• Added an end-of-match screen to indicate the change in rank

• Added animations to the end-of-match rank screen to show when a player is close to going up or down in rank 

PLEASE NOTE:
We have a known issue where all players will see the incorrect ranking the first time they boot the game. You can ignore this screen, as it will only show once and will not affect your actual ranking in any way. We decided it was better to go out with this incorrect screen, than to hold off on this feature for another week. 

Update 2.2.0

2024.03.27

WELCOME TO THE EASTER EVENT: BUNNY BASH!

Easter is here and it’s time to color some eggs and play BUNNY BASH! 

During this event, you’ll turn in contracts to earn prizes while duking it out in this special version of POWER SHIFT. The SYS$HORIZON map has been visited by the Easter Bunny, who has left plenty of decorations behind! You’ll need to work with a limited loadout during the event, so plan wisely and hop on the platform to smash your way to victory! 

We were planning on shuffling a few game modes to make room for Bunny Bash, but seeing the outpouring of love for Bank It from the community, we’ve decided to keep it. Thank you for always being so vocal when it comes to your experience in the game! We may need to rearrange things in the future to make room for new experiences — but for now, keep grabbing those coins! 

We will be adding Cashout to the casual game modes, to replace unranked tournaments for now. You’ll be able to warm up for ranked in the single-round 3v3v3v3 mode instead. We’ve also added cashout to private matches in case you want to play with up to 12 friends!

Finally, we’ll be switching all PC display names to Embark ID soon, to make social connections easier and to ensure better quality display names going forward. You’ll see a pop-up when you first open the game. You don’t need to do anything for this change, as you already have an Embark ID, but if you’d like to change your Embark ID Display name before the switch, you can do so by visiting the Embark Portal. Don’t worry, there is no risk of losing any progress or friends on the social page due to this change and this does not affect console players at all.

Let’s get to the nitty-gritty: 

Balancing

• KS23

• Increased fire rate from 55 RPM to 73 RPM

• Decreased player damage from 120 to 100

• Increased environmental damage from 600 to 700

• Decreased pump-action animation delay from 0.2s to 0s

• Increased pump-action animation duration from 0.6s to 0.7s

• Increased damage fall-off start range from 15m to 18m

• Decreased damage fall-off end range from 50m to 23m

• Increased the damage fall-off multiplier at max range from 0.4 to 0.6, meaning it does more damage at range

• Increased the projectile speed from 200m/s to 300m/s, meaning players need to lead targets less now

• Decreased bullet dispersion when firing from the hip while crouching, standing, and running, making the weapon more accurate and reliable

• FCAR

• Adjusted recoil pattern to make the weapon slightly less easy to control

• Decreased the damage fall-off multiplier at max range from 0.67 to 0.5, meaning it does less damage at long-range

• FAMAS

• Adjusted recoil pattern to make the weapon slightly easier to control

• 93R

• Increased fire rate from 240 RPM to 260 RPM

• Glitch Trap

• Reduced the duration of glitch effect from 10s to 5s

• Glitch Grenade

• Reduce the duration of glitch effect from 10s to 5s

Changes & Bug Fixes

Daily Quests 

• Daily quests will reward an increase in XP from 500 to 1000

VFX

• Made the dematerializer highlight more visible

• Fixed several instances of VFX not being shown in spectator view

UI

• Removed the “being revived” bar from spectator when being revived with defibs

• Updated the gamemode UI for Power Shift

• Push to talk icon is now more responsive in HUD when activated

• Corrected the clip-size info on KS-23

• Added rank icon next to name tag in frontend and the intro sequence in Ranked Tournaments

• Fixed an issue where the manage contracts button could become disabled

• Tutorial videos on weapons, gadgets and specializations will now autoplay in menus

• Fixed an issue on gamepad preventing players from scrolling the contracts list in end-of-round summary

• Made rank icons in the scoreboard larger and stopped them from fading

• Fixed an issue where the glitch effect was present during the team respawn camera if the last person to be eliminated was glitched

• Fixed an issue where the cashbox icon could start out invisible

Maps

• Las Vegas,

• Fixed the blurry THE FINALS branding decal

• Collision fix on the entrance of Argon casino

• Practice Range

• Updated the Season 1 leaderboard trophy

• SYS$HORIZON

• Fixed an issue where players were able to shoot through a wall at the entrance of the museum

• Fix for flickering lights and reflection issues

• Fixed an issue where players could hide inside geometry above the Work Space building

• Seoul

• Destruction balancing.

• Fixed an issue where players could spawn separately from their team

• Skyway Stadium

• Tweaked spawns to reduce spawn camping from the Office building in Final Round. 

Gamemode

• Cashout 

• Available in the quickplay menu 

• Available in private matches 

• Power Shift 

• Flash the platform lights between the team colors when both teams are on the platform 

• Fixed an issue where statues could bounce around more than intended on the platform

• Reduced the max angle that the platform can sway from 25 degrees to 15 to make it easier to interact with statues and gadgets

• Unranked Tournament

• Removed for now

• Bunny Bash 

• Available for a limited time
  

Gameplay

• Ziplines

• Fixed an issue when jumping and interacting on the same frame led to instant detaching 

• Made so that ziplines can’t be destroyed from the bottom end

• Charge and Slam

• Fixed cases where the slam would trigger instead of the charge when close to the ground

• Dome Shield 

• Fixed so that the outline color is correct 

• Mesh Shield 

• Improved the effect for indicating the shield is about to break

• Glitch Grenades

• Fix to stop them from exploding on friendly shields 

• Anti-Gravity Cube 

• Added outline and team color 

• Gateways 

• Fixed an issue that allowed gateways to deploy without enough clearance above them

• Fixed an issue where there was no distance limit for the gateway gadget

• Defib Revives 

• Fixed an issue where abilities could be activated while being defib revived

• Fixed an issue where players could be stunned and glitched while being defib revived

• Canisters

• Fixed an issue where canisters could be teleported when picked up

• Spawning 

• Increase invulnerability for players who just spawned (not revives)

Battle Pass 

• Updated the total XP required to unlock each level to match our intended design. Early levels will now cost 6k instead of 9k XP. Later levels will cost 12k instead of 9k XP. Levels in the middle will remain the same. This means you might see battle pass levels with strange progress numbers, which self-adjusts after your first game played this update. It also means that some of you may unlock new levels at once after your first match in this update.

Animation

• Fixed an issue where hands were not aligned to the gateway gadget in 1st person

• Fixed an issue where throw animations wouldn't cancel properly when triggering ChargeN'Slam.

• Fixed bullet animations for the 93R when reloading and inspecting

• Improved the sprinting animation while holding the pad in 3rd person

Update 2.1.0

2024.03.20

Welcome to the first update of Season 2! 

This update brings a new development to private matches! In the first of many improvements, we have added map selection to the feature so you can play in the arena of your choice. 

We’re excited to see how many of you love Power Shift! Very soon, we’ll be adding new maps to this mode so you can ride the platform to its destination in a whole new setting! This and more, coming in Season 2 – so stay tuned! 

BUG FIXES & ADDITIONS 

Private matches

• Players can now select the map when starting a private match

• Players will no longer be stuck trying to join the game server after leaving a private lobby

• Fixed an issue where party members with different crossplay settings could be unable to leave private match lobbies

• Fixed a bug where players could bypass the "Crossplay ON" requirement for private matches, which resulted in a softlock

Console

• Crash fix for audio-related crash

Power Shift 

• Monaco:

• Fixed jump pads clipping the streets on low/medium/high settings 

• Added a short zip line to the closed alleyway next to the cathedral to make traversal smoother 

• Polished placement and orientation of spawn points   

• Skyway Stadium:

• Added jump pad outside the construction spawn area

• Tweaked spawns to sit less close to edges

• General:

• Fixed objective count score in the summary screen

Maps 

• Performance and polish on SYS$HORIZON

• Adjusted collision on ceiling blocker to prevent players from getting stuck above the library when using the gateway gadget in SYS$HORIZON

• Moved a spawn location in the corner of Monaco near the Hotels that was creating imbalanced scenarios in some game modes

• Fixed incorrect destruction effect on trees in SYS$HORIZON

• Fixed missing destruction effects on concrete fences in Seoul

• Fixed missing destruction effects in multiple assets in the tutorial 

Weapons & Gadgets 

• Fixed bug with inconsistent damage when multiple explosives were triggered at the same time by C4s and breaching charges as opposed to multiplied melee damage

• Fixed an issue that made recoil on burst weapons not behave as intended 

• Fixed Gateway ammo not being properly refunded when being thrown into an APS

• Fixed hovering objects after transmutation

• Blocked transmutation on friendly carriables

• Improved zipline behavior to better match the intended exit point and direction of the player 

• Improved the dematerializer ability to dematerialize/rematerialized objects when multiple objects are close to each other 

• Removed the ability to equip the mesh shield during defib revive

Art

• Updated the shoulder-length hairstyles to avoid clipping

• Fixed oversized ÖRF Sweater to prevent the sleeves from blocking ADS

UI/UX

• Social syncs will not be excluded if a user is already logged in

• Fixed a bug that would cause carriable objects to weigh more if they had an active Ping marker attached to them

• Fixed incorrect text on certain contracts 

• Fixed overflowing text in item tutorial videos 

Audio 

• Fixed seek-to-start time not working

• Corrected the audio for the Season vignette video

BALANCE 

Weapons

• SA1216

• Decreased fire rate from 230RPM to 200RPM

• Decreased damage per pellet from 7 to 6

Gadgets
 

• Glitch Grenades 

• Changed glitch grenades to trigger on impact when they hit mesh shields and dome shields — on other surfaces, they will still bounce 

• Glitch Traps 

• Changed glitch traps to trigger on impact when they hit mesh shields and dome shields

SECURITY

• Improved prevention and detection

• Added ban progression with a 3-strike system

Update 2.0.0 | Season 2

2024.03.14

CNS PROUDLY PRESENTS…THE FINALS | SEASON 2  

Welcome to a whole new season of the game, contestants! 

Much has changed in and out of the arena, and you can expect lots more as the Season progresses. If you want the tl;dr version: Click here!

You may encounter some strange things this season now that CNS — a rogue hacking collective — has infiltrated the game show. While the showrunners fight for control over THE FINALS, you’ll fight it out with an array of game-changing gadgets and specializations that will require all contestants to rethink their strategies! 

Here’s what to expect: 

WELCOME TO SYS$HORIZON

CNS has introduced a new map: HORIZON. It’s a glitchy, colorful cityscape that’s partially loaded with floating geometric shapes. You’ll have plenty to explore and a night-time mode that glows under a neon sun.

POWER SHIFT

Power Shift is our brand new two-team mode. It’s a casual 5v5 where you’ll compete to escort a physical platform through the arena as it rips through anything in its path. 

With short respawn times and the ability to switch contestants on respawn, you’ll be able to balance your team on the fly, as you fight to control the platform and be the first to deliver it across the finish line!

LEARN THE ROPES

An all-new tutorial set in the streets of Monaco lets new players learn the ropes, and provides a testing ground to try out gadgets, specializations, and weapons! Your friends who are new to the game can get onboarded quickly, and you can get a refresher if you’ve been away.  It’s well worth a visit, even for the most seasoned contestants! 

LOCK AND LOAD 

We’ve got three new weapons entering the loadout this season! 

FAMAS

The FAMAS —a burst-fire assault rifle — will go to the Medium build. The rifle retains most of its damage even at longer ranges, making it excellent for keeping enemies at bay

93R

The 93R — a burst-fire handgun — is the newest edition to the Light loadout. It fires in 3-round bursts and is ideal for close- to medium-range engagements. 

KS-23

And lastly, for the Heavy build,  the KS-23 — stripped-down slug round shotgun. It requires precision to handle effectively, but zooming in and predicting the enemy's movement will help.

JOIN CNS

DEMATERIALIZER

A new specialization for the Medium build that temporarily erases physical surfaces, like walls and ceilings. It allows players to see, shoot, and pass through solid surfaces. You can create new passageways and close them back up again. Each action costs a charge, and the Dematerializer can hold up to 3 charges at once.

GATEWAY

A pair of limited-range deployable portals for the Light build. When both are thrown, contestants and objects can move between the two locations. Anyone can use a portal, but can’t see or shoot through them! Thrown items and projectiles can also travel through the Gateways, but not objectives like the Cashout stations!

ANTI GRAVITY CUBE

A deployable cube for the Heavy build that manipulates gravity in its immediate area. When activated, it lifts contestants and objects up and can be used as both a traversal tool and as an obstacle for enemy teams! Be mindful that destroying the cube will remove the Reverse Gravity zone!

DATA RESHAPER

The Data Reshaper transforms objects in the arena into something else entirely. This gadget for the Medium build will transform deployed equipment from other contestants into harmless arena props. 

UNLOCK THE BATTLE PASS

The Season 2 Battle Pass has 12 pages and 96 rewards —  each page offers a theme that is our love letter to the early days of gaming! With each level, you’ll earn rewards from seasonal sponsors, and even some unsanctioned prizes from CNS. 

Please don’t forget to snag the Seasonal bundle first, which provides a rebate on your purchase so you can get the exclusive Season 2 items. 

BECOME A PROFESSIONAL

The Battle Pass isn’t the only way to earn rewards — we’re also introducing the new Career Circuit!

Each week, a new set of contracts will unlock in the career menu. These allow contestants cash in contracts and earn free rewards!  At the end of each weekly set will be a sponsored prize. You’ll be able to fulfill contracts at your own leisure, but you’ll need to wait for each new circuit to unlock throughout the entire length of the season. The Career Circuit can increase your skill and coax you into trying a variety of new things throughout the season!   

Of course, filling in your weekly career page will get you a free gift a week, but it also counts toward your Battle Pass progress so players can grind for completion, even late to the game! 

BETTER MATCHES

We’ve given League ranking a major overhaul for Season 2!

The goal is to provide a much better quality experience when playing in the ranked tournament. You’ll get your starting rank based on your first eight rounds and from there, you’ll move up and down based on your performance. Contestants can expect to land between bronze and gold at first, and climb the ranks from there.

As you may know, we need a lot of people and time to test a system like this, so you should expect more tweaks and changes throughout the season, as we see it in action! 

PRIVATE MATCHES 

We’re also introducing our first version of Private Matches. In this early, barebones version, you’ll be able to organize matches with a minimum of six friends to play Bank It or QuickCash. We plan to expand this tool throughout the season with more features, so stay tuned! As with everything, we’ll rely on your experiences and your feedback. So don’t forget to give it a try! 

All of this and more comes in Season 2 – RIGHT NOW! 

Check out the details below: 

NEW ABILITIES & EQUIPMENT

NEW MAP

• Added the standard issue of the new SYS$HORIZON map 

NEW GAME SHOW  EVENT

• Added the Retro Invasion 82 event to every map
  

NEW SPECIALIZATION

• Dematerializer

• Enables the user to create temporary holes in the arena construction

NEW GADGETS

• Gateway

• Throw out two Gateways to create a spatial link between them, enabling quick traversing through the arena

• Data Reshaper

• A “prop-swap” executable that lets players transform objects and deployed equipment from other contestants into canisters or decor 

• Reverse Gravity Cube 

• A throwable Cube that creates a limited-area gravity field where anything not nailed to the ground will elevate toward the sky

NEW WEAPONS

• FAMAS - Burst Rifle - Medium

• 93R - Burst Pistol - Light

• KS-23 - Slug Shotgun - Heavy

BALANCE CHANGES

• Throwables, Explosives & “Nukes”

• Added diminishing returns on damage from ‘nukes’ i.e. throwable objects that carry C4s, Breach Charges, or mines

• For each source of explosive damage, including the throwable and starting with the highest, a damage modifier is applied to each instance in the sequence of 60% / 40% / 30% / 20%

• Gas Canisters now immediately start to steer off their direct trajectory (aka “wobble”) when they have attachments

• When picking up throwable objects with explosive gadgets attached (i.e. ‘nukes’ and ‘snukes’), said explosives will become un-armed

• When the player lets go of the carried object, a re-arming timer for the explosives starts

• The explosions from C4, Breaching Charges, and all mines that detonate while unprimed now deal 20% of their original damage

• Decreased the health value of Propane Gas Tanks from 250 to 120

• Fixed a bug with Fuel Barrels where they sometimes wouldn’t ignite when taking damage, for example from explosions or bullets

• Dev Comment: Nukes were a hot-button issue in Season 1. The previous tuning made nukes exceed the intended time to kill by a large margin. Since our initial changes weren’t substantial enough to alter this tactic, we’ve added more ways to balance nukes moving forward.

• Toxic Gas

• Added a delay to the application of damage. Damage will now start to tick 0.5s  after the player enters the gas cloud

• Added new functionality that causes damage to ramp up gradually over time, from 30hp/s to 60 hp/s over 2s. 

• Increased damage tick interval from 0.1s per tick to 0.3s per tick

• Dev Comment: We’ve always intended for Toxic Gas to act as an area denial tool. However, because of its immediate high damage and quick dispersal, it has been too potent. We’ve made changes to make Toxic Gas better fit the original intention.  

• Gadgets

• C4

• Decreased ammo count from 2 to 1 

• Decreased cooldown from 45s to 30s 

• Decreased minimum damage at the edge of the explosion from 93 to 75

• Defibrillator

• Added functionality that causes revived players to gradually re-materialize into the level over a period of 3s before fully loading back into the arena

• Increased charge-up time from 0.6s to 0.8s

• Increased starting health from a defibrillator revive from 40% to 50%

• Dome Shield

• Decreased maximum duration from 20s to 12s

• Jump Pad

• Increased cooldown from 25s to 30s

• Motion Sensor

• Moved from the Light archetype to the Heavy

• RPG

• Fixed an issue that made dispersion almost identical regardless of what state the player was in

• Increased projectile dispersion in all non-aiming states

• Reduced projectile dispersion when aiming down sights 

• Increased zoom-in time from 0.2s to 0.4s

• Increased equip time from 0.45s to 0.5s 

• Increased unequip time from 0.35s to 0.4s

• Sonar Grenade

• Moved from the Medium archetype to the Light

• Tracking dart

• Moved from the Medium archetype to the Light

• Decreased dispersion in most movement states by 50%

• Increased accuracy by decreasing dart dispersion while aiming down sights from 30% to 10%

• Added force feedback for controllers

• Vanishing Bomb

• Increased grace period on teammates from 0.75s to 1.25s

• Increased total cloaked duration on teammates from 6s to 7.5s

• Increased total cloaked duration on the user from 5s to 6s

• Specializations

• Recon Senses

• Removed for assessment

• Dev Note: we’ve concluded that Recon Senses have been detrimental to the game at large, and have decided to put it out of play for now. The specialization may return in some new form down the line, but only after a major rework. 

• Mesh Shield

• Increased cooldown on a fully depleted shield from 12s to 15s 

• Increased starting health after full depletion from 200 to 250 

• Weapons

• AKM

• Decreased damage falloff minimum range from 35m to 30m

• Decreased damage falloff max range from 40m to 37.5m

• Decreased damage falloff modifier at max range from 67% to 55%

• FCAR

• Decreased damage falloff modifier at max range from 67% to 55%

• Lewis Gun

• Updated weapon recoil pattern to be slightly less accurate over time during sustained firing

• M11

• Increased accuracy by decreasing bullet dispersion when firing from the hip

• M60

• Updated weapon recoil pattern to be slightly more accurate over time during sustained firing

• Increased accuracy by decreasing bullet dispersion while moving when firing from the hip

• Increased accuracy by decreasing bullet dispersion while moving when firing while aiming down sights 

• Decreased accuracy slightly by increasing bullet dispersion while standing still when firing while aiming down sights

• R .357

• Increased damage falloff modifier at max range from 33% to 45%

• Throwing Knives

• Increased projectile speed from 120m/s to 138m/s

• XP-54

• Decreased accuracy by increasing bullet dispersion when firing from the hip in most movement states

EQUIPMENT MASTERY

Added new levels with rewards to the following equipment items:

• WEAPONS

• M11

• SR-84

• V9S

• XP-54

• DAGGER

• LH1

• SH1900

• SWORD

• 93R

• AKM

• R.357

• CL-40

• FCAR

• MODEL 1887

• RIOT SHIELD

• FAMAS

• FLAMETHROWER

• LEWIS GUN

• M60

• SLEDGEHAMMER

• MGL32

• SA1216

• GADGETS:

• FRAG GRENADE

• FLASHBANG

• GAS GRENADE

• GOO GRENADE

• PYRO GRENADE

• GLITCH GRENADE

• SONAR GRENADE

• SMOKE GRENADE

• VANISHING BOMB

• BREACH CHARGE

• STUN GUN

• TRACKING DART

• DEFIBRILLATOR

• EXPLOSIVE MINE

• PYRO MINE

• GAS MINE

• GLITCH TRAP

• JUMP PAD

• APS TURRET

• ZIPLINE

• BARRICADE

• C4

• DOME SHIELD

• MOTION SENSOR

• RPG-7

• SPECIALIZATIONS

• GOO GUN

• HEALING BEAM

• GUARDIAN TURRET

GAMEPLAY

• Added an option for auto-sprint in the gameplay section in settings

• Dev comment: You can turn on auto-sprint in the settings menu and select the time it takes for your contestant to begin sprinting. THE FINALS has a unique “omnidirectional sprinting system,” which means characters can sprint in all directions instead of the more common forward-only sprint. As such, we’d love to get your feedback on auto-sprint, and what additional settings would help you better customize your sprinting experience!

• The preview arc for grenades now shows where they will detonate in their trajectory

• Improved an issue where controller players would unintentionally drop carried objects when trying to interact. Now carried objects won’t be dropped when pressing the “Interact and Equip Weapon” button if the weapon is already equipped.

BUGFIXES

General

• Fixed an issue where the scoreboard would not show the potential score for transfers in progress

• Fixed an issue with flamethrower kills sometimes being attributed as self-elimination due to the flamethrower user being eliminated

• Fixed dome and mesh shield not blocking projectiles and explosions correctly

• Fixed broken interactions on the crane

• Fixed an issue that allowed players to steal objectives through floors and walls

• Fixed an issue where flashbang effects were not shown for a spectating player

• Fixed an issue where explosive objects attached to another object would fall off if the primary object was destroyed. The explosive object attached will now also take appropriate damage in this situation

• Fixed an issue where melee swings could damage occluded structures, for example: destroying the outside walls from inside an elevator

• Fixed an issue on controllers where you would drop your held item if you pressed the primary weapon button while the primary weapon was equipped

• Fixed an issue where minor props like chairs and tables sometimes did not get affected by explosives

• Fixed a bug where the Mesh Shield regen would fail to start correctly

• Fixed bug where radial damage falloff was incorrectly calculated for carriables and props

• Fixed a bug where Oil barrels would not start burning from specific damage events

Animation 

• Fixed an issue where melee animations would look wrong when affected by status effects

• Fixed an issue where dagger animations wouldn’t play correctly

• Added new frontend idle animation for squad members equipped with LH1

• Fixed the T-pose bug when players would use the sword lunge and swap items at the same time

• Fixed a bug for the 1887 Dough Wrangler skin where the left hand would pop up on the screen when shooting while crouching

• Fixed a bug that caused floating items to appear when riding ziplines

• Fixed a bug where melee swings happening at the end of mantling would skip the animation

• Fixed a bug where the character's arms would clip each other when wielding throwing knives

• Fixed bug where ADS-specific weapon handling would play outside of ADS

Gamemodes

• Improved spawn selection around active objectives

• Fixed issue where players could push opposing teams to spawn unfavorable by not inserting the Cashbox

• Fix for case where two squads spawning at the same frame could use the same spawn point

Levels

• New & improved algorithm for map selection to ensure you rarely see the same map multiple times in a row — leaving matches will not affect the outcome of the selection  

• Improved lighting on nighttime Monaco 

• Reduced wind movement on vegetation in Las Vegas

• Fixed issue where multiple level objects were overlapping each other

• Fixed issue with some materials in the End of Round Celebration being drawn behind the team logo

• Improved debris handling, letting it settle before being removed.

• Improved lighting on Seoul Fog and Storm settings

Art

• Fixed bug with Glint Tint skin not looking correct

Audio

• Added voice lines for reloading

• Improved footstep audio for players using pistols

• Fixed a bug where objective pings would not play the correct audio

• Fixed bug where match commentary would play in the practice range

• Added sounds for squadmate down and the last player standing

UI/UX

• Player cards are introduced in THE FINALS, these will be generated from your character customization and your chosen intro animation.

• Added THE FINALS spinner to previously black screens when loading

• Added new item gadget tutorial videos

• Improved camera placement and framing for charms 

• Fixed so that your squad is centered in the tournament lineup intros and outros

• Improved respawn timer feedback on teammate icons

• Improved feedback on the “Press Start” respawn mechanic