XDefiant Season 1 is now live with new maps, major nerfs, and more

XDefiant Season 1 Patch Notes

Gameplay

• The expiration date of activated Boosters has been adjusted so that their lifespan only counts down during the match, when you’re actually playing, instead of all the time, like when you’re folding laundry or something.
• The XP threshold for each Battle Pass tier has been lowered to add a bit more spice to Battle Pass progression.
• Tuned Match Bonus XP rewards: MVP and Victory increased from 2,000 to 1,000 XP. Draw increased from 1,000 to 500. Completion doubled from 2,000 to 4,000 to encourage player persistence.
• I responded to a community request to add a headshot icon to the Killfeed, because it feels good to rub it in.

Factions

• The GSK faction and their sober announcer have been added: HQ.

These elite Team Rainbow operators from the German Border Protection Command specialize in crowd control and securing territory. They can deploy electrified barbed wire to deny access, counter enemy devices with their Active Defense System, and blind multiple enemies with flash charges on their G52 Tactical Shield ultra. Call them Grenzschutzkommando because it’s fun and accurate.

• Echelon’s Intel Suit cooldown has been increased from 30 to 40 seconds.
• The Phantoms’ Mag Barrier cooldown has been adjusted from 30 to 40 seconds. The Mag Barrier’s hit points have also been reduced from 500 to 400.
• The Phantoms’ AEGIS is now damaged by EMP grenades (throw six to disable it).
• DedSec Hijack’s cooldown has been reduced from 28 seconds (plus the remaining duration of the hacked skill) to 20 seconds (plus the remaining duration of the hacked skill).

For example, let’s say a Mag Barrier has 7 seconds left and gets hijacked: The cooldown becomes 20 plus 7 seconds. The cooldown of a failed hijack decreases from 8 to 5 seconds.

• DedSec’s Spiderbot cooldown has been increased from 25 to 40 seconds.
• Changed Spiderbot behavior so that multiple Spiderbots will no longer try to hug the same face, and Spiderbots will no longer ignore faces that they have hugged multiple times recently. Some give and take from the Spiderbot kingdom.
• Libertad’s BioVida Boost cooldown has been reduced from 25 to 20 seconds.
• Libertad’s Medico Supremo has been adjusted so that it no longer disappears after the player performing the attack respawns as another faction.

Cards

• The new Clubhouse map has been added, a two-story hangout popular with international operators. Ideal for short to medium range firefights. Home to Domination, Occupy, Hot Shot and the new CTF game modes.

Game Modes

• Added Capture the Flag, hereafter referred to as CTF. For the uninitiated, you capture the enemy flag from their base and bring it back to your own base, while protecting your team’s flag. CTF is available on multiple maps.

Weapons

• The hit penalty for being shot with a sniper rifle has been improved.

These changes are intended to refine the behavior of hit flinch, prevent situations where the camera would move away from the target on the first hit and back to it on the second, and improve the experience for players who are sensitive to wild camera movements. Here’s the gist of it:

• The speed of the hit-finch camera to hit-finch camera transition has been increased by 25 percent.
• The camera now always moves up instead of randomly moving up or down.
• The amount the camera moves left or right has been increased by 3 times.

• The L115 sniper rifle has been added. This rifle is not as heavy as the TAC-50 and is faster to handle, but does slightly less damage and is less effective at penetrating cover.
• Added the LVOA-C, a flashy custom rifle similar to the M4A1. It has a much higher rate of fire than the M4A1, but with that comes higher recoil and less range. It also has slightly longer reload and equip times.
• Added the sawed off secondary weapon. This version of the close-range double-barreled shotgun packs a big punch for its size. Imagine carrying a primary weapon in your secondary slot and that’s this.
• New Mastery skins added: Titanium Violet (unlocked at weapon level 300), Titanium Azure (unlocked at 350), and Titanium Prism (unlocked at 400).
• Fixed weapons and optics vibrate in first-person view when using ADS.

Devices

• Added a new and improved visual effect for the flash grenade (replacing the previous effect, which was… intense). The new effect is less retina-burning, but still appropriately disorienting.
• Removed an exploit where players with multiple devices could respawn after messing with the “Copy Gear” option in the lobby. Nice try.

Social

• The Creator Code program has been added, allowing players to choose a creator who will receive commissions from their XCoin purchases at no additional cost. Select “Support a Creator” in the store to see a list of eligible creators.
• Players could group up with enemy players and voice chat during matches, even if they were on a different team. This seemed suspicious, but has been fixed.
• Whispering in text chat disabled.

Sound

• The mix of in-game voices and sound effects has been adjusted for increased volume and clarity.

Mixed

• Players who participated in the Closed Beta were supposed to keep Kersey’s Dungaree skin. They didn’t, but now they do.
• Fixed issues with following challenges with Ubisoft Connect.
• Graphics and audio solutions, various.
• Additional crash fixes.