Introducing Season 4

2024.09.12

SETTING THE STAGE FOR SEASON 4

Season 4 of THE FINALS is hurtling toward us, and we are more excited to share it with you every day. 

But first, we need to say goodbye to Season 3!  This season, we introduced a gorgeous new map and started the World Tour, along with the new Ruby rank (will you be Ruby by the end of the season?) and the Emerald badge! However, we know the switch to Terminal Attack as ranked mode was a misstep. But with missteps come learnings, and while we believe in TA and saw many of you playing and enjoying it, it's just not quite the right fit for our Ranked Play or the core of THE FINALS!

Thanks to the feedback from all of you, we hope that Season 4 will feel like a homecoming with Ranked Cashout taking the spotlight and new elements that harken back to the original intentions of THE FINALS!

Without further ado, here are some of the things we’ve been working on for Season 4, starting on September 26th:

RANKED TOURNAMENTS ARE BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER 

Season 4 welcomes back the heart and soul of THE FINALS, the world’s largest game show, the greatest tournament: Ranked Cashout! It’s all within your reach, so get ready to hunt for vaults, defend the cashout, revive your teammates, and coin back in again and again! And, thanks to all the time we had in Season 3 to test the waters, we’ve created a Cashout experience we are proud to reintroduce as a core ranked mode.

We were thrilled to see so many contestants enrolled in the World Tour this season. You can expect the tour stops to continue into Season 4 as a completely separate experience from Ranked Tournaments. Throughout the season, you can expect new and exciting elements that change up the game from time to time and allow you to progress your badge! 

Finally, for the Terminal Attack fans, don’t worry! You’ll still be able to play and climb the leaderboards from the Quick Play menu!

THIS SEASON SPONSORED BY…

Where would THE FINALS be without sponsors to keep us going?

In the next chapter of THE FINALS, all contestants will have the opportunity to sign up to represent one of the three generous sponsors of Season 4. Your pick for the season will determine your rewards, and earn you and your Sponsor fans! 

Which sponsor will you sign to? Here is the Season 4 lineup: 

HOLTOW

Digitally insured, virtually secured.

Thanks to HOLTOW CEO Quemby Rutile, virtually any virtual asset can be insured against damage or loss…except for stolen cashouts, of course.

ENGIMO

Beyond boundaries; within reach.

Owing to ENGIMO CEO Ichikawa Natsume, you have access to unparalleled connectivity and speed in communications, allowing you to connect to anyone, anywhere in the meatspace or virtual world.

ISEUL-T 

You can be anybody. You can be everybody.

Yun Beom-seok, CEO, encourages you to transcend the physical limitations of the meatspace with style. 

WHO WILL YOU SIGN WITH? 

Will your stylish plays be branded with ISEUL-T? Will you achieve swift success under the banner of ENGIMO? Or will your consistency in the Arena better befit HOLTOW’s reliability? Choose wisely, because you can only pick one!

EVEN MORE CONTENT

Once you’ve chosen your sponsor, duke it out in Fortune Stadium, the new map that features sectors dedicated to each generous sponsor! Slide through the halls of HOLTOW, browse the aisles of ISEUL-T, and check to make sure the lights are on at ENGIMO’s complex! 

Stay tuned for future reveals of the stacked Battle Pass, a new set of circuits to feed your career, new weapons, alternative sights, and new cosmetic features such as additional faces, facial hair, and much more! 

We’ve also been working on a new tutorial and first-time player experience to help onboard new contestants, and we have major upgrades to our engine for next season to enhance performance and optimization for the game!

Now…The lights are buzzing, the crowds are loading in…

IT’S SHOWTIME!

Update 3.13.0

2024.09.11

We’ve arrived at the penultimate update of Season 3 - 3.13, and this week’s store rotation offers some pretty Big Shoes To Fill!

For the nocturnal gamers who skulk around the Arena in the middle of the night, check out the Trickpaw Tanuki Set!

We’re nearing the end of Season 3 and we are full steam towards Season 4 here in the office, and we can’t wait to share more with you soon!

Also, make sure to tune in for tonight’s Community Stream on Twitch.tv/thefinals just in case we share something then, and keep your eyes peeled throughout the rest of the week…

Here is this week’s store update:

Update 3.12.0

2024.09.04

BONUS XP MATSURI

Say hello to the BONUS XP MATSURI event! From now until the end of the season, we’ve increased the XP amounts you get for playing, and doubled the amount of XP you obtain from Daily Contracts. Join the party and finish the Battlepass before Season 4! 

For Cashout, we’re turning off the Defender bonus in the final round of a Tournament and introducing an Underdog bonus for squads with disconnected players.

After one of the most challenging Community Events yet, where we challenged you to play 6 million rounds partied up, we are glad to see you make it past the finish line at the last second! Well done! Expect the ISEUL-T Reality Check Frag Grenade skin to be added to your inventories soon!

Season 4 is on the horizon and we are excited to share what we’ve been working on very soon! Alongside all the new things we have prepared for you, you can expect balance changes that reflect on everything we’ve learned–and continue to learn– throughout Season 3. If you can’t wait, tune into Oscar’s stream tonight to perhaps hear something more…

And finally, check out the store update for today: 

Content and Bug Fixes

Animation 

• Fixed the grenade throw animation so it continues to play while high vaulting 

Gadgets 

Defibrillator

• Fixed a bug where defibrillation revives got blocked by friendly Mesh and Dome shields

Game Modes

World Tour 

• In the final round, the defender bonus, which grants teams defending a cashout quicker individual respawn times, has been turned off 

• Introducing the Underdog Bonus, which reduces both the individual respawn and squad respawn timers to 20s when one or more players leave the match

Gameplay

• Fixed a bug where melee aim assist would not be reset when restoring default settings

• Fixed a bug where the revive hologram would block bullets

• Updated the visuals for when you get hit by goo

Stability & Performance

• Improvements in launch time from application startup to reaching the main menu 

• Animation performance work, should lead to overall better performance

UI

• Fixed the text chat and event log not showing during the end of a round

• Updated the SR-84 to be labeled correctly as a  "Marksman Rifle"

• World Tour - Fixed a bug where the World Tour Tally Charm was not awarded 

Update 3.11.0

2024.08.28

COMMUNITY EVENT: PARTY UP!

The new community event has started and this time, it’s a party! 

This week, ISEUL-T challenges you to collectively complete 6 million rounds of gameplay while in a party! Should you manage – any contestant to contribute to the goal will be rewarded with the ISEUL-T Reality Check Frag Grenade skin!

So, grab a friend and hop in the game! You can also make some new friends over on the Official Discord! Join the party challenge and build your team!

Here is this week’s store update: 

Update 3.10.0

2024.08.21

The next update for THE FINALS is here and with it we’re saying farewell to the DISSUN Challenge as we enter the next stop on the World Tour - the VAIIYA International!

Before diving into the rest of today’s changes, we need to take a moment to celebrate that you all completed the Community Event! You made it juuuuuuuust in time, but $100 BILLION was cashed out in World Tour in just a week, and as a result you can all expect the DISSUN racing helmet to appear in your inventories later this week.

We are excited to introduce more options to our crosshair customization feature, a much-requested QOL feature! You’ll be able to edit both the static and dispersive crosshair parts independently of each other and we’ve added further crosshair reticles for you to choose from. Let us know what you think! 

For Cashout, we’re experimenting with the “Defender bonus,” which will help teams currently defending the cashout get back in the action faster! We’re also adding some balance changes to the mix!

For those of you on that World Tour grind, we’re lowering the number of wins needed to progress through Emerald. Emerald 4 will now need 3 wins rather than 10, and making it all the way to Emerald 1 will now take 63 wins, down from the previous 75.

We also have a fully stocked store for you to check out, both in-game and in the video below, as well as other bug fixes!

Let’s dive into the details: 

Balance Changes

Gadgets 

Dome Shield

• Decreased duration from 12s to 5.5s
  Dev Note: The Dome Shield was always intended as temporary protection that would synergize well with supportive actions. Over time, its main use case has been as a ‘mobile fortress’ used to steal objectives. We want teams to have to secure the area first in order to steal an objective. To encourage this intended design, we’ve adjusted the Dome Shield’s duration.   

Goo Grenade 

• Decreased the time it takes for fire to destroy goo from 12s to 9s
  Dev Note: We feel our previous buff to the goo, which was intended to aid defensive play, was a little too heavy-handed and removed fire’s role as a hard-counter to goo. 

Game Modes

Cashout

• Introduced a defender bonus for teams that currently hold a Cashout Station. While they hold the objective, the dead players on the defending team will be able to spend any respawn coins they have after 15 seconds, rather than 30 seconds
  Dev Note: We see cashouts getting stolen at higher rates than expected. This change encourages teams to start and defend cashouts rather than swooping in late. This is part of a series of changes we’re making to incentivize acting first when it comes to objectives rather than later and an ongoing part of our Cashout experimentation. 

World Tour 

• We’ve reduced the number of Cashout Tournament wins needed to reach each level of Emerald, for example, Emerald 4 will require 3 wins instead of 10 and the total wins needed for Emerald 1 is now 63 instead of 75.
  

Specializations

Goo Gun

• Decreased the time it takes for fire to destroy goo from 12s to 9s

Winch Claw

• Decreased the max range from the Winch Claw from 17m to 12m
  Dev Note: The Winch Claw is meant to enable combat in short-range fights. We feel this new range better reflects this intent.  

Weapons

Throwing Knives

• Decreased the fire rate of the primary fire from 125rpm to 107rpm
  Dev Note: Throwing Knives have become quite an oppressive weapon! We’ll monitor this change closely and likely make more involved changes if this adjustment doesn’t do enough to address that feeling.   

Content and Bug Fixes

Animation 

• Fixed the zipline attach animation not playing under certain conditions

• Fixed the riot shield not hiding properly when vaulting

• Updated animation for the Flamethrower’s Soak ‘n’ Scorch skin so it will always play the full animation

• Fixed aim down sights so it is properly portrayed in spectator view

• Updated the Mini Roulette skin for the Lewis Gun to make it compatible with animation customizations 

Contracts

• Fix for the Quick Melee contract so it only registers quick melee attacks, not melee attacks with weapons

• Fixed so that the “Stop opponents from stealing your cashout or decrypting a terminal 5 times” now also counts eliminations by attackers on defenders trying to stop the decryption in Terminal Attack

• Fixed so that winch claw properly counts towards the interrupt contract

• Fixed for the contract “'Get 15 eliminations or assists with Launchers or Shotguns”, it now correctly rewards assists

Game Modes 

• Mines and charges will now stick to the vault’s surface correctly 

• Fixed the bug that sometimes caused the connect/leave button to be present after finishing a World Tour session 

• Fixed an issue in Ranked Terminal Attack that caused the teams to play different objective configurations (i.e. the locations of spawn points and terminals) when Attacking or Defending. Both teams now play the same sequence of objective configurations

• Fixed an issue where Ziplines would not properly reset after midgame in Ranked Terminal Attack

• Changed so the in-game Cashout text will display in the corresponding team’s color

• When reconnecting into World Tour in a late round, loadout choices should now be correct

Gameplay

• Fixed a bug where players were unable to use items from the start of the round and throughout the match, such as the Healing Beam

• When backfilling into a match, respawn statues will now display the correct team colors instead of being white

Maps

• Debris in Skyway Stadium now properly resets after midgame in Ranked Terminal Attack 

Specializations

Winch Claw

• Fixed an issue where the action could get canceled if the targeted player jumped right when getting hit

• Fixes issue where the wrong target could get pulled if it was close to the intended target

Turret

• Fixed recovery text being wrongly displayed

Grapple Hook

• Can once again attach to walls that are out of bounds

Security and anti-cheat

• Improved existing detection rules

Stability & Performance

• Fixes for some of our most common crashes

• Performance optimizations for all platforms

• Additional fix for a rare case of the infinite loading screen

• Fixed an issue where players failed to join matches resulting in uneven teams for modes with no backfills

UI 

• Leaving a private match now shows the correct dialog

• Fixed a navigation issue in the settings menu for controller

• Added more crosshair customization options

Update 3.9.0

2024.08.14

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 with 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

Hotfix 3.8.2

2024.08.09

Steam Issue Resolved

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 were able to resolve this issue.

Hotfix 3.8.1

2024.08.09

Performance Update

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!

Update 3.8.0

2024.08.07

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 XP when playing in a party! 

UPDATE FOR CLARITY: For those who have already reached Gold 1 in the World Tour, please note that you have THE FINALS tile unlocked and the normal World Tour now appears locked. Have no fear, you will still be able to play with your friends and progress along your Emerald badges, regardless of the badge level of your party members. We realize, now that it is live, that this was a confusing way to present this change and we’ll work on a fix to make it more clear. Regardless of your badge level (Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Emerald), you are all still playing World Tour. 

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” tile is now live in World Tour. Contestants who achieved Gold 1 can participate in THE FINALS to progress through the Emerald Rank 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

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”

Update 3.7.0

2024.07.31

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.