THE FINALS

COMETA is bringing more gear for all Contestants in this week’s Store update. The forecast is also predicting warmer temperatures in the Arena starting next week!

**STORE **| TRANSIT GRADE

Get yourself the latest COMETA arsenal engineered to withstand the worst and the best outerspace has to offer. But if you’d rather take a more improvised route, foil should do the trick against solar radiation.. Right?

We’re also running another sale on some featured bundles such as the City Lancer Set and more! Because who doesn’t like a good deal.

GUITAR PICK INCLUDED

The show is on in the Arena and the fight still going up in space in this week’s Update! Check it out below.

**STORE **| FEEDBACK LOOPER SET

Tonight in the Arena, the spotlights are turned towards you!

Shred on your guitar and through the competition with the Feedback Looper Set. Leather fit on point, shades on, it’s time to step on the scene and make some noise through the Arena!

**EVENT **| DEEP SIGNAL

Orbital Hitters is still going strong, and we’ve seen plenty of Contestants take the fight in outer space thanks to our sponsor ENGIMO. There’s still a whole week to complete your daily contracts and earn up to three tickets a day to spin the new ENGIMO-sponsored Wheel and unlock out-of-this-world rewards. Time to get to it!

**STORE **| TGM25 BUNDLES

This is the last week to get your hands on The Grand Major 2025 Store Bundles! Grab your favorite pack in case you haven’t yet and relive the TGM25 vibes!

**GAME UPDATE **| BALANCE CHANGES

Specializations

Shockwave

• Shockwave will now apply a two second long glitch effect to enemy players it hits. The glitch effect does not impact friendly players, the user or deployables.

_Dev Note: _Shockwave has been the least used of the Medium Specializations for a while, yet we see in it the potential to give Mediums more survivability, as well as allowing Mediums a skill-based counter to Specializations like Mesh Shield, Cloaking Device and Evasive Dash. We think the addition of this glitch ‘micro stun’ should elevate the Specialization in desirability as well as effectiveness

**GAME UPDATE **| BUG FIXES & CONTENT

Audio

• Fixed an issue that could cause weapon audio to sometimes ‘crackle’ on Xbox

Game Modes

Private Matches

• Replaced the ‘salmon’ team color seen by players in spectator slots during private matches with a green team color. The default team colors for spectating in private matches will now be orange, pink, purple and green.

Stability

• Fixed a number of crashes introduced with the upgrade to Unreal Engine 5.7

• Fixed an occasional crash that could occur on PS5

• Fix an issue on PS5 where the save dialog would repeatedly require user input on the first boot of the game

• Removed the need for uninstalling inpoutx64.sys to play the game, as a crash the file previously caused has been fixed

Performance

• Fixed a performance degradation issue that could occur when running AMD FSR3

SPACE MAYHEM

**ENGIMO is proud to present this week’s Update! ** With the return of a beloved LTM, a new wheel packed with rewards, fresh new Twitch drops, and a long list of balance and bug fixes, there’s plenty to see and do in space. Let’s dig into the details.

**LTM **| ORBITAL HITTERS

**Take the brawl to outer space with Orbital Hitters! ** Based on the classic Heavy Hitters formula, re-engineered with the help of ENGIMO, **Orbital Hitters brings Sledgehammers back into the Arena! **Use all the tools available to you to send your opponents flying off into space, but watch your step, you could be the one slipping off the Arena if you’re not careful. Swing, slam and may the best team win.

**EVENT **| DEEP SIGNAL

Rewards are flooding in the Arena thanks to ENGIMO sponsoring a brand new Wheel!

Earn up to three tickets a day by completing contracts for the next two weeks, spin the Wheel and see what you’re bringing home among over 20 rewards. Landed on a duplicate? No worries, this spot will now turn into a Golden Ticket, ready for you to grab the next time you land on it. Golden Tickets guarantees that your next spin will get you a new item!

**DLC **| SUGAR SHOCKER/CRASHER SETS

Are you here to sweeten some hearts or crush them in your hands? It’s all up to you with the Sugar Shocker and Sugar Crasher Sets. Robotic felines are taking over the Arena making the next Cashout Station their scratching post. Both sets come with an outfit, a Legendary BFR Titan skin with its charm, a Legendary emote and 2,400 Multibucks! So.. miau?

**STORE **| HULLWALKER SET

Some prefer the safety of an artificially pressurized atmosphere but you, you’re not bound by security protocols. Grab your vacuum-sealed helmet, step beyond the airlocks, and get the job done with the **Hullwalker Set. **It’s going to be a long shift..

**TWITCH **| BEYOND BOUNDARIES

ENGIMO is once again expanding the boundaries of what’s possible. Watch anyone playing THE FINALS with Drops Enabled on Twitch and earn some sweet cosmetics to show that you too can reach the stars.

• Watch 1 hour to get the** Connection Complete Sticker**

• Watch 2 hours to get the Link Established Charm

• Watch 4 hours to get Meteor Tips Earrings

Available now until September 3rd, 2026. Terms and conditions on twitch.tv

**GAME UPDATE **| BALANCE CHANGES

Gadgets

**Lockbolt **

• Decreased duration of the reload animation from 2.2s to 1.75s

• Moved the point at which ammo restocks during the reload animation from 1.3s to 1.1s, to align with the new reload animation duration

_Dev Note: _This is a small quality of life change for the Lockbolt to make it smoother to use.

Specializations

Dematerializer

• Decreased cooldown from 20s to 15s per charge

• Decreased item raise time from 0.1s to 0s

_Dev Note: _The Dematerializer has drifted out of the meta to a larger extent than we wanted. These changes should make it feel more responsive and nudge it back to being a viable playstyle for Medium players.

Evasive Dash

• Decreased cooldown from 6.5s to 6s per charge

_Dev Note: _We’ve felt that our previous changes to Evasive Dash restricted it too much, this is a nudge back towards the previous balance.

Guardian Turret

• Decreased activation time from 3.5s to 3s

• Increased health from 280 to 300

• Decreased cooldown when retrieving the turret remotely from 17.5s to 10s

• Cooldown when picking up the turret by hand remains 3s

• Cooldown when the turret is destroyed remains 35s

_Dev Note: _The Turret is always a difficult Specialization to balance, as it’s very easy to deal with for experienced players while it can be quite frustrating to face for newer players. We’ve had to tread carefully when trying to balance it. However, we feel at present it is slightly too weak and we’d like it to find more viability at higher skill tiers so that it would demand more use of direct counters to contest it. These changes represent a nudge in that direction.

Weapons

AKM

• Increased damage from 20 to 21

_Dev Note: _While the AKM remains ever popular, it performs slightly worse than weapons like the FAMAS and FCAR, which it should perform more similarly to. This nudge to damage should bring it more in line with those weapons.

ARN-220

• Increased fire rate from 725 RPM to 750 RPM

• Decreased the length of the quick reload animation from 0.75s to 0.66s

• Decreased the length of the empty reload from 2.73s to 2.7s

_Dev Note: _The ARN has lagged behind the XP-54 and M11 for quite some time and we’d like to see it on a more equal footing with those weapons. These changes aim to get it to that place.

BFR Titan

• Increased damage falloff multiplier from 0.65 to 0.7, increasing the weapon's damage at range

_Dev Note: _The BFR has been outperformed by some other Heavy weapons at distances in which it should really dominate. Alongside other changes, this change is aimed at making sure the BFR can have its own niche.

Cerberus 12GA

• Increased damage per pellet from 8 to 9, increasing a full shot’s damage from 104 to 117

_Dev Note: __The Cerberus was more negatively impacted by the reduction in damage to Quick Melee than some other weapons. This change to damage aims to offset that. _

Dagger

• Primary Attack

• Increased base damage from 42 to 49

• Increased damage for precise hits from 60 to 70

• Lunge duration increased from 0.15s to 0.22s to help the lunge reach its intended range

• Secondary Attack - Backstab

• Increased base damage from 75 to 85

• Increased backstab damage from 337 to 340

• Lunge duration increased from 0.22s to 0.32s to help the lunge reach its intended range

_Dev Note: __We’re continuing to further dial in our melee weapons during Season 11, as we get data back and better learn how the new melee system performs in the wild. These new damage values and lunge distance changes should help the Dagger to get onto targets more reliably, but we know there’s still more to be done. We’re working towards some networking improvements for lunge attacks that should really help, but they’re a little while away yet. In the meantime, we think these balance changes will improve the overall experience. _

Dual Blades

• Primary Attack

• Increased precision zone angle from 9 to 12 degrees, making it easier to land precise strikes

Dev Note:_ We feel the two strike animation on the Dual Blades frequently causes the second strike to miss precise hits and only land normal ones. To address this, we’re broadening the precision zone angle for the Dual Blades, making precise hits easier to land, especially for that second strike animation._

KS-23

• Decreased damage falloff multiplier from 0.675 to 0.58, meaning the weapon does less damage at range

• Decreased damage fall-off start range from 18m to 12m, reducing its effective range

• Decreased damage fall-off end range from 23m to 22m, reducing its effective range

Dev Note:_ As mentioned under the BFR change, the KS-23 is one weapon that performs well at ranges where the BFR should really dominate. These changes bring in the KS-23’s effective range a bit, making it less effective at medium to long range._

M11

• Increased recoil when firing from the hip by approximately 75%

• Increased recoil when aiming down sights (ADS) by approximately 25%

• Increased bullet dispersion in ADS, in most movement stances by 25%

• Increased bullet dispersion in ADS when airborne by 120%

_Dev Note: _The M11 outperforms its intended range by quite a bit, cannibalizing combat distances that the ARN and XP-54 should really be a best fit for. These changes bring in that effective range for the M11 by making it less precise. It should be noted, while some of the numbers look very large, because they are percentage changes on the current very low levels of M11 recoil and dispersion they won’t actually feel quite as crazy as they look. :)

Recurve Bow

• Increased damage per shot, when the bow is at max draw, from 124 to 126. The base damage per shot remains at 60 damage

_Dev Note: _Similar to the Cerberus, the Quick Melee damage change from 40 to 25 negatively impacted the Bow more than most. This damage change offsets that lost power and opens up Quick Melee combos versus Lights for Bow users again.

Riot Shield

• Primary Attack

• Increased base damage from 58 to 60

• Increased damage for precise hits from 83 to 86

• Increased lunge distance from 4.25m to 5m (this change was originally listed in 11.3 but didn’t work correctly. This has now been fixed.)

• Secondary Attack - Shield Bash

• Increased damage from 40 to 50

• Increased environmental damage from 50 to 100

• Lunge duration increased from 0.5s to 0.6s to extend the lunge’s max distance slightly

_Dev Note: _As part of the changes to the Riot Shield in 11.0, we very deliberately moved the weapon towards the style of play we originally planned for it, that is a role as a hyper defensive weapon capable of controlling interior spaces, anchoring for their team and playing around deployables such as Turrets and Mines. The way the Riot Shield was sometimes used in the past, to charge enemies while blocking bullets from one side then flailing in with a flurry of hits, was never an intended role for the weapon and felt too similar to the Dual Blades and the Light’s Sword. The Riot Shield was not supposed to be about running up a high kill count, so much as being a powerful defender of objectives and we moved to reinforce that style with 11.0. That said, we feel the changes in 11.0 did reduce the Riot Shield’s ability to get eliminations a little too much and since then, while its win rate has looked very healthy, its elimination rate has been slightly too low. These changes nudge its combat potential back up slightly, while hopefully still making the weapon a ‘stall first’ tool more than anything else.

Spear

• Primary Attacks

• Increased the size of the weapon’s damage sweep box by 60%, making it slightly easier to land hits

• Increased lunge distance from 5m to 6.5m

• Increased lunge duration from 0.3s to 0.45s to help the lunge reach its intended range

• Increased lunge speed by 50% to improve the chances of the lunge catching up to fast-moving targets

• Secondary Attack - Spin Attack

• Increased the delay before the secondary attack resets back to the first attack in the sequence from 0.2s to 0.35s. This is a small quality of life change to make it easier to keep the sequence going if the player hit a target

_Dev Note: _Similar to the Dagger, we’re still trying to get the Spear to a place where it feels reliable to close in on targets. Like the Dagger, the Spear will also benefit greatly from the networking changes we’re currently investigating for melee combat, but in the short term these buffs to lunges should help it perform more reliably.

XP-54

• Update the recoil curve to prevent an issue where the recoil pattern would jump down if the player emptied the whole magazine in a single burst

• Decrease bullet dispersion in ADS when airborne by 8%

_Dev Note: _These are a couple of small quality of life changes for the XP-54, dealing with a couple of edge cases that didn’t feel very consistent but should feel much better now.

**NOTICE **| ANTI-CHEAT

A recent anti-cheat rule we deployed in THE FINALS incorrectly flagged players using gyro controllers as cheaters. We've updated the rule, and affected bans are being reversed automatically. If you were banned as a result of this, you don't need to submit an appeal or take any action. Your account will be restored.

We're sorry. Gyro is a legitimate and supported input method, and players who use it should never have been swept up in enforcement meant for cheaters or made to wait so long for a reversal. We've adjusted our testing process so this class of false positive gets caught before rules go live in the future.

If you have questions about your specific account, our support team is available through the usual channels.

**NOTICE **| INPOUTX64.SYS MESSAGE

When starting the game after today’s update, you may encounter a message about a driver needing to be uninstalled in order to play. This is related to the recent Windows update KB5121003.

Please follow these instructions** **to uninstall the driver in order to be able to play. If you encounter any issues, feel free to reach out to our support team.

**GAME UPDATE **| BUG FIXES

Animation

• Corrected a slight offset in the aim-down-sights animation for the Schwarzschild Blackhole SR-84

• Fixed an issue where deploy animations didn’t blend out smoothly

• Fixed an issue where Quick Melee kicks did not cancel correctly when swapping items

• Fixed leg placement misalignment for Light and Heavy builds in the Vesper Salute Emote animation

Audio

• Improved end-of-round music reliability to prevent it from cutting out when the audio mix is busy

• The SFX Volume slider now also adjusts sound during replays

• Fixed an issue where the revive interaction sound could continue looping after a round ended

• Fixed sound timing for the Star Team emote

Cosmetics

• Fixed an issue where tracker values on some skins could display outdated information

• Fixed an issue where the House Lights skin for the Flashbang did not correctly display its light state to other Contestants

• Fixed cases where some Gateway skins could display incorrect materials

• Fixed an issue where the Recurve Bow’s visual effects could fail to load for certain skins

• Improved the Pyro Grenade inspect animation on the Burn Notice skin and adjusted its audio level

Gameplay

General

• Disabled achievement progression in bot game modes

• Fixed a rare case where the Winch Claw could attach to a target without pulling it

Maps

Kyoto

• Improved stair collision to remove instances where Contestants could fall through

• Fixed a spot where players could get stuck between a cliff and bamboo.

• Fixed a weak point where a building could be destroyed too easily

Galaxy Estates

• Fixed a few places where dressing against walls would not properly take damage, preventing those walls from breaking consistently from all angles

• Added a ladder above the covered walkway from Astral Port to Cosmo Physique to make it easier to reach the highest roof level

• Adjusted the size of the exhaustion vents on the outer walls of Cosmo Physique so they can be more reliably used to climb up, and added a few more of them to create more options to contest the high ground

Skyway Stadium

• Fixed a few places where dressing against walls would not properly take damage, preventing those walls from breaking consistently from all angles

Fangwai City

• Fixed floating decals and signs that could appear after destruction and corrected a floating sign

Las Vegas

• Fixed visual flickering on surfaces in the parking garage

**Las Vegas Stadium **

• Fixed environment and lighting issues

Practice Range

• Fixed an issue where the Cashbox Time-Trial challenge spawned vaults instead of cashboxes directly as intended.

Performance

• Upgraded Unreal Engine from 5.3 to 5.7

Social

• Party invites can now be sent and accepted while matchmaking

• Fixed an issue where the Social screen showed a regular team name and insignia for spectators in Private Match

Stability

• Fixed a crash when spectating at the end of a round

• Fixed a rare issue that could crash servers when a player’s connection stopped acknowledging network packets

UI

• The contextual response prompt is now hidden while dead or spectating, where replying isn’t possible

• Fixed an issue that could cause the event HUD display to show incorrectly when transitioning to the next round in Cashout Bots

• Fixed an issue where the Active Events bar could remain visible after a round reset

• Fixed an issue that caused damage numbers to report 1 extra damage in certain scenarios

• Fixed an issue where navigating the Options screen with a gamepad could get stuck or skip items

• Added spectator-only team colors for Private Match, allowing spectators to use additional colors that are hidden from team color selection

• Fixed an issue that caused gamepad bindings page to be tricky to navigate with a gamepad

• Fixed an issue that caused the Killcam UI to not appear when getting eliminated in Practice Range

Weapons

Dual Blades

• Primary Attack

• Fixed an issue where not all attacks dealt a consistent 25 environmental damage

• Secondary Functions - Deflect

• Fixed an issue where the wide angle deflect blocked damage co

** CHROMED UP**

We’ve got a shiny new Store Update and a sale dropping in the Arena alongside some exciting TGM updates with our first team officially advancing to Stockholm!

**STORE **| ATOMIC LIFESTYLE SET

Crank that analog dial to the max and let the musical waves flow through the Arena while keeping yourself safe from changes in atmospheric pressure with the **Atomic Lifestyle Set. **Mono never sounded this good.

**We are also running a sale! ** For a limited time, a selection of really cool bundles have an extra discount applied to them, including our friend Shieldon! That’s one happy turtle.

**ESPORTS **| THE FIRST GOLDEN TICKET

Cycle 3 has wrapped up across all three regions, and somebody is already preparing to pack their baggage. Five Fears are the first team anywhere to lock a direct invite to The Grand Major 2026, and they did it with a whole cycle to spare.

EMEA

We decided to hand it over to Scotty to give us the rundown on how Cycle 3 happened:

**SCOTTY: **“Here’s how you make history folks: lose your opening Cashout match, drop into the lower bracket, and win the entire show from there! What a rollercoaster for the fans of Five Fears!”.

Five Fears took Cycle 3 the hard way for back-to-back cycle titles, and their 275 points put them mathematically out of reach before Cycle 4 even started. **Alliance **reached their first ever top two, and **Teiko **put points back on the board after that Cycle 2 wipeout. EMEA’s last cycle is now a fight over Closed Qualifier positions, and it is wide open.

AMERICAS

Now this is the most exciting lineup. Looking at the leaderboard, two teams at the top are tied on 155 points. **Unphased **and Luminon Gaming join four other teams to fight for one cycle win that can determine the golden ticket. That begins this Saturday August 15th via the Open Qualifiers stage.

EMEA

**HIBOO **are defending the lead for the first time after back-to-back cycle wins, **KZ **sit five points behind on 225 with the same roster they started the season with, and **DRG **on 200 are quietly close enough to ruin both their weekends.

So here’s the math for everyone else. Most points after Cycle 4 takes your region’s golden ticket to The Grand Major 2026 hosted at DreamHack Stockholm, November 27-29th. One seat at that table is already taken.

And the last entry window of the regular season is still open. Every contestant that was tested on those broadcasts started in the Open Qualifiers, taking the same shot anyone can take, including you. Build your team and claim your spot:

AMERICAS Sign Up | Cycle 4 Qualifiers begin 15th August

EMEA Sign Up | **Cycle 4 Qualifiers begin 22nd August **

So grab your teammates, pick a team to root for, and ask yourself the big question:

CAN YOU REACH THE FINALS?

Hello Contestants,

We’ve pushed a client hotfix to address some of the issues when starting the game. Please note this update only affects players on Steam.

• Fixed a common hang/crash when starting the game from Steam

As always, we thank you for reporting those issues to us, and we’ll see you in the Arena!

Get into the groove of this week’s Store Update and read on the latest TGM intel as the Online Series continues!

**STORE **| FLOWER POWERPLANT

It’s all love in the Arena

Free the spirits within you, spread positivity, and let Mother Nature take you for a ride. In this groovy update to the store, you can be a star child that gently shakes the Arena! Eliminate the competition in the name of peace, love, and happiness!

**ESPORTS **| A PHOTO FINISH

Cycle 3 is nearly done, and the Americas just turned its title race into a photo finish. Two teams hold the same number, four others are close by, and there’s only one more cycle left to split them.

AMERICAS

The Top 8 had come down hard on the scriptwriters. Unphased arrived as the league leaders, but ended up dead last, taking only 5 points with them. Luminon Gaming (the Team ED crew) took second place, and the two of them now sit level at the top of the region on 155 points. But how about the show itself? That was won by NTMR’s rebuilt roster, on debut, starting from zero. Pulsar (140) and **ENVY **(130) are both still one big Saturday away from crashing the golden ticket debate. We asked Scotty about his thoughts on the tie:

**SCOTTY: **“One hundred and fifty-five apiece, folks! I had to run the numbers SIX times!”

APAC

The regional competition wrapped up Cycle 3 two weeks ago, and the top of the table changed hands for the first time all season. **HIBOO **went back to back, which puts them on 230, with KZ, who had led since May, just five points behind on 225. **DRG **sits on 200, close enough to make Cycle 4 a three-way argument.

EMEA

EMEA closes the cycle this Saturday, August 8th, and the Top 8 is already loaded. Five Fears are defending a 175-point lead that is still 75 points clear of anyone. Teiko, the Cycle 1 champions, who scored nothing all last cycle, fought their way back into the room. **Alliance **will play their first final under their new name (you know them as BobaSlurpers). You saw how close AMER and APAC got, and this weekend the golden ticket could be decided!

TUNE IN SATURDAY 8TH AUGUST | 12PM CET | (http://twitch.tv/THEFINALS) OR (https://youtube.com/live/hHLorA0MvfQ?feature=share)

Then it’s Cycle 4, the last one. Most points at the end takes the region’s golden ticket, a direct invite to The Grand Major 2026, and everybody else goes the long way round. APAC’s Cycle 4 qualifiers open this same Saturday, so the season has no room for a break!

Every contestant on those broadcasts started in the Open Qualifiers, taking the same shot that anyone can take, including you. Build your team and claim your spot:

APAC Sign Up | 8TH AUGUST

AMER Sign Up | 15TH AUGUST

EMEA Sign Up | 22ND AUGUST

Clear your Saturday, gather your team, ask yourself the big question:

CAN YOU REACH THE FINALS?

DANCE OFF

Get your dancing shoes on! This week, we’re bringing Strike a Pose back, a fresh new Store Update, alongside new Twitch drops, balance changes, and a bunch of bug fixes. _See you in the Arena! _

**STORE **| MARSHAL METEOR

It’s time to pick up your shift and patrol the streets of GALAXY ESTATES with the Marshal Meteor Set. No matter how far, no matter which system you aim for, justice will find its way. Safety beyond the stars.

**EVENT **| STRIKE A POSE

There’s never been a better moment than now to party up with that one friend who won’t stop emoting! That’s right, Strike a Pose is back, this time in Team Deathmatch. Eliminating an opponent will now spawn a small dance floor for you to bust your best moves in the Arena for some extra cash.

**ESPORTS **| TWO SHOWS, ONE SATURDAY

Cycle 3 gets greedy this Saturday: two broadcasts in one day. AMERICAS plays its Top 8, with a cycle title and real series points on the line. EMEA plays its Top 16, where sixteen teams walk in and eight walk back out. We managed to get a hold of Scotty to hear his quick words of wisdom about the upcoming weekend:

_“TWO shows in one day!? I’ve blocked out the whole afternoon… and most of June’s!” _

AMERICAS.

**Unphased **won Cycle 2 and lead the region, so they arrive with everybody’s homework done on them. **ENVY are through again, Luminon (prev Team ED) **are back after taking 3rd last time out, and Kansas City Pioneers, who missed the Top 8 completely in Cycle 2, are finally back in the running.

EMEA.

Five Fears still sit top of Europe on 175 points, a full 75 clear of anyone else, and everybody chasing them has to survive the Top 16 first. Europe has already shown what that stage does to a favorite: Cycle 1 champion team Teiko went out and scored nothing!

APAC.

HIBOO once again won another cycle and knocked **KZ **from the top spot, who had led the leaderboard since May, off the top of the region by five points. It is 230 to 225 with one cycle to play, and **DRG **on 200 are close enough to make it a three-way scrap!

Then, Cycle 4, the last one of the season. Whoever holds the most points at the end of it takes their region’s golden ticket, a direct invite to The Grand Major 2026, everyone else has to go the long way round! Sign-ups are open in all three regions right now, so this is the last time to ask. Galaxy Estates joins the map pool for it too!

Every contestant on those broadcasts started in the Open Qualifiers, taking the same kind of shot anyone can take, including you! Build your team, and claim your spot:

APAC Sign Up | Qualifiers begin August 8th

AMERICAS Sign Up | Qualifiers begin August 15th

EMEA Sign Up | Qualifiers begin August 22nd

Come along and watch the Top 8 for AMERICAS to find out if **Unphased **can take home the Golden Ticket, or if another team shocks the area!

Live at 18:00 UTC+2 // 18:00 CET // 12PM EST on

Clear your Saturday, pick a team to root for (or to beat?) and ask yourself the big question:

**CAN YOU REACH THE FINALS? **

**ARC x TF **| AZIMUTH SET

Do you have what it takes to venture Topside?

Starting today, play ARC Raiders, face the ARC and unlock the Azimuth Set in THE FINALS! While you already know who your teammates are in the Arena, keep an eye out for other Raiders, you might meet your next best friend or an unfortunate early demise.

_Expect an up to 24 hour delay in rewards being delivered. _

**TWITCH **| SHOWTIME BLUE SET

For the next couple weeks, earn the Showtime Blue Set for absolutely free by simply watching anyone playing THE FINALS with Drops Enabled on Twitch!

• Watch 1 hour to get the Showtime Blue Spear

• Watch 2 hours to get the Showtime Blue Dual Blades

• Watch 4 hours to get Showtime Blue Sword

_Available now until August 13, 2026. Terms and conditions on twitch.tv _

**GAME UPDATE **| BALANCE CHANGES

**Gadgets **

**C4 **

• Increased cooldown from 30s to 45s

Dev Note: The C4 has been an outlier in terms of win rate and usage for Heavy for quite some time, and the archetype in general performs very well compared to Mediums and Lights. The ability to use C4 for 2-3 drops per Cashout fight is part of that power, so this change is aimed to reduce that slightly and bring the C4 more inline with some of the other Heavy Gadgets

Specializations

Grappling Hook

• Decreased cooldown from 7s to 6s

_**Dev Note: **The Grappling Hook struggles to get the same attention from players as the Light’s other Specializations and it’s something we’d like to address, but it can be difficult to do so as a lot of the options that exist to buff the Grapple Hook also risk breaking map pacing (travel time between objectives for example) and could split teams. This change is a small nudge to see if we can help the Grapple Hook without needing to consider more fundamental reworks of it _

**Weapons **

BFR

• Increased damage from 88 to 90

**Dev Note: **The BFR lags quite a bit behind the bulk of the other Heavy weapons at present, on various efficacy metrics. This change is to hopefully nudge it back into relevance slightly

Dagger

• Increased lunge distance on primary and secondary attacks from 4.5m to 5m

• Increased max lunge speed slightly to support the increased lunge distance

• Increased the secondary attack’s sweep time slightly, to help ensure that backstabs can more reliably hit targets at max lung distance

_Dev Note: As expected, following the 11.0 melee re-work a bunch of the melee weapons needed additional tweaks and changes once we saw how they performed in the real world. In the case of the Dagger, one of the initial issues we saw were issues pertaining to getting onto targets and being able to hit them reliably, these changes aim to address that _

Dual Blades

• Increased Precision zone angle from 8 to 9 degrees, making it slightly easier to land precise strikes

• Increased lunge distance on primary attacks from 4.5m to 5m

• Increased max lunge speed slightly to support the increased lunge distance

• Updated the Cross Slash attack to always lunge forwards when at full stamina, even when stationary. Previously the attack required some forward input to trigger the lunge

• Increased player movement speed when using the Deflect stance by 25%

_Dev Note: Our previous changes to the Dual Blades lunge distances were a little too aggressive, so we’ve nudged the lunge distances back up again as well as giving the Blades a slightly more generous Precision Angle. The 11.0 reduction to movement speed while Deflecting, of 50%, was also too aggressive so we’ve dialed that back with these changes. There is also a quality of life change here how the Cross Slash attack’s lunge works to make it slightly more reliable _

FAMAS

• Increased damage from 23 to 24

Dev Note: Similar to the BFR, the FAMAS lags a little behind a fairly tight cluster of Medium weapons in terms of effectiveness. This change is a nudge to try and close that gap

KS-23

• Reduced damage from 110 to 104

• Increased damage falloff multiplier from 0.64 to 0.675, to keep the weapon’s damage at max range consistent despite the damage reduction

_**Dev Note: **Prior to 11.0, and despite its high utility, the KS-23 lagged behind a lot of other Heavy weapons and we wanted to address that. There were worries that the weapon was being ‘slept on’, but we felt it was time for a change to try and help the weapon regardless. Sometimes, making a change is the only way to find ‘the truth’ of why it performs as it does across all the different modes, skill tiers and so on. We can see from the last few weeks on live that the increase to 110 damage was too much, so we’re reducing it to 104 with this update to break some of the attack combo breakpoints and lower DPS. We do still think the pre-11.0 KS-23 needed a small buff, hence not returning to 100 damage per shot immediately, but we’ll continue to monitor how it plays at 104 damage and will adjust it again in later updates if we feel it’s needed _

Riot Shield

• Increased Precision zone angle from 9 to 10 degrees, making it slightly easier to land precise strikes

• Increased lunge distance on primary attacks from 4.25m to 5m

• Increased primary attack damage from 82 to 83

• Updated the Shield Bash attack to always lunge forwards when at full stamina, even when stationary. Previously the attack required some forward input to trigger the lunge

_**Dev Note: **We’ve seen feedback from some players who feel the Riot Shield has lost a lot of its power with the 11.0 update and the changes here to the Precision angle, lunge distance and damage are to address that to some extent. That said, we want to state that the changes made to Riot Shield in 11.0 were very deliberately aimed at giving it a new style of play and role, one that more reliably allows tanking of damage as well as acting as an ‘anchor’ for team fights and objective defense. On Medium, we want Dual Blades to be the more aggressive push-forwards brawling melee weapon, while the Riot Shield is more defensive and about stalling opposing players or anchoring fights, and we think the Riot Shield is definitely able to fill that role more now than it could prior to 11.0. We’ll continue to monitor how it performs as the season goes on and will adjust as we need to _

Spear

• Increased precise hit damage of primary attacks from 74 to 82

• Increased base damage of primary attacks 55 to 57

• Increased the damage of the three swing secondary attack sequence from 75/100/125 to 75/125/150

_**Dev Note: **The damage adjustments made to the Spear with 11.0 have proven to be more severe than we intended. The changes made here aim to address that _

**GAME UPDATE **| BUG FIXES

Animation

• Fixed an issue where aiming down sights could be slower than intended immediately after a Quick Melee kick

• Fixed animation blending when inspecting or reloading after deploying or on first spawn

• Fixed an issue where Quick Melee sometimes failed to play immediately after a kick

• Improved hand placement on the Riot Shield during swipe attacks to polish animation visuals

Audio

• Fixed an issue where the audio on Bot weapons could get stuck when firing in short bursts

• Updated the Data Reshaper sound to be more audible for the user

• Fixed missing audio for the Dual Blades Tractor Beam inspect animation

Cosmetic

• Fixed Signature Stickers not displaying on the Cashbox during insertion at the Cashout Station

• Fixed an issue where the Weapon in the Ready the Steel Emote could disappear at long range

• Fixed an issue where using "Equip to All" after purchasing or equipping a bundle could result in only some Contestants being equipped

• Fixed The Hawk Commander hair clipping through headwear

• Fixed an issue where the Key Change Emote’s music could briefly loop after the animation ended

• Fixed clipping on some face mask cosmetics so they no longer intersect with the face

• Fixed an issue where the Countdown Companion watch face could appear distorted or fail to display the time in certain lighting conditions

• Fixed misalignment of the Series 2000 Lenses eyes when used with the Alien Complexion face

• Fixed a visible seam between the neck and body when using The Observer’s Mirage Face

• Fixed an issue where the Lava Luster heating effect could transfer between Weapons and vanish after the first shot

• Resolved an issue that caused excessive glowing when previewing skins

• Fixed texture stretching and sticker clipping on the YinYang Bang skin for AKM and Healing Beam

• Corrected visual issues on Magnetic Mirage

• Adjusted Retro Robot visuals to better match Light and Heavy Archetypes

• Fixed an issue where the Sledgehammer could appear too close to its spikes in menus and Loadout preview, causing hand clipping

• Fixed an issue where the card and decals on the Throwing Knives skin could appear blank

• Fixed iron sight alignment on the R .357 for a Rain City Special

• Fixed an issue where the Weapon was missing when previewing Deploy or Inspect animations for the Fizzkick Brawler Set in the Store

Gadgets

Dome Shield

• Fixed an issue where friendly melee attacks could damage your Dome Shield

Game Modes

Power Shift

• Fixed an issue where some member of the team could spawn in a different location at the start of the round

Point Break

• Rounds that reach the time limit now conclude with a defender win rather than ending abruptly

Gameplay

• Bots now gain awareness when taking damage, improving their responsiveness to attackers

• Improved bot movement to navigate more smoothly around targets and maintain avoidance behavior even when idle

• Fixed a bug where throwing, catching and dropping a barrel would cause it to break instantly

• Bots now coordinate to avoid crowding the same objective or interactable, spreading out across targets instead of stacking together

• Bots no longer get stuck firing at Explosive Mines and will switch targets if they can’t destroy them

• Fixed an issue where the Quick Melee kick wouldn’t trigger when Melee Aim Assist was disabled

• Fixed an issue where normal quick melee also caused knockback

• Fix issue with goo walls sometimes not spawning properly

• Added a progress bar when remotely picking up objects using a controller

Maps

Seoul

• Fixed an issue where damaging a stairwell in the Apartments could cause the building to collapse excessively

FANGWAI CITY

• Fixed a collision on a backdrop building that could cause a Cashbox to get stuck

• Fixed floating bushes appearing after destroying planters

• Fixed an indestructible pipe

KYOTO

• Updated destruction by increasing the sturdiness of most buildings for more consistent gameplay

Las Vegas

• Fixed visual z-fighting/texture flickering near the western casino entrance

Nozomi/Citadel

• Fixed an issue where Contestants could get stuck under the water slide

Monaco

• Fixed a floating tree

Practice Range

• Added Season 10 and Season 11 trophies

Galaxy Estates

• Increased the mass of the oxygen pods in the Cosmo Physique building so their physics behave more appropriately for their size

• Fixed an issue where you would detach unexpectedly from a Zipline if you interacted with it through a gap in the fence between Orbital Homes and Cosmo Physique

• Slightly adjusted the height of some tables to prevent getting snagged on them

• Flipped the direction a set of doors open in the upper Nova Villa building to create more comfortable flow to-and-from the staircase in the glass corner

• Slightly reduced the depth of the pools around the center Eden Dome building and Nova Villas, so gadgets can be seen better in the water

• Fixed an issue where the meteors of the Meteor Shower game show event would hit the out-of-bounds ceiling

• Fix for carriables falling into the Centre Dome planter

• Fixed missing input prompt for slowing down in the anti-gravity columns when only having Crouch Toggle assigned

Social

Clubs

• Fixed an issue where Contestants couldn’t join a same-club member’s party when they had Open to Join enabled

General

• When set to Show as Offline, party size is no longer shown and the status no longer flickers when toggling Open to Join

• Kicked teammates now leave squad voice chat immediately

• Party invites and Join Their Party are now disabled when a match has been found, and invites to players already in a match or queue appear unavailable, preventing players from entering sessions solo or splitting from their party

Voice Chat

• Improved reliability and responsiveness of voice chat indicators across Friends, Team, and Squad screens

• Improved voice chat speaking indicators to update accurately across the HUD and social screens

UI

General

• Selecting the Music Player widget now opens the Music tab in Settings instead of General

• Fixed an issue where team wipe entries in the kill feed could display the wrong or duplicated team name

• Fixed an issue where opening the Equipment Wheel together with the Ping Wheel could gray out the UI and prevent using Weapons or Gadgets when using a controller

• Fixed an issue with the loading screen having an overlapping video playing in the background when returning to the main menu from the end of round

• Fixed an issue where the Player Card preview could appear in the Contestants menu when backing out and opening options at the same time

• Corrected the 93R’s ammo count in the weapon stats to show 27, matching the in-game value

• Corrected the Pike-556 headshot multiplier shown in the equipment overview to display 1.75x instead of 1.5x

• Added the first iteration of the Damage Number system, displaying the damage dealt to an opponent next to their health bar. This can be turned on and off in the settings.

VFX

• Fixed an issue where bullet traces could be fire

We’ve brought some shiny cosmetics your way in this week’s Store Update. Next week, get ready to dust off your favorite pair of dancing shoes, they’ll come in handy.

**STORE **| VACUUM CHIC

No need for flashbangs, just step into the Arena and let your drip do the talking with the Vacuum Chic Top. COMETA is also bringing the brand-new Countdown Companion Watch, so you never miss a beat while stealing that last Cashout.

**ESPORTS **| THREE SHOWS, ONE SATURDAY

Clear the schedule, because on Saturday 25th July, the road to The Grand Major 2026 gets busy: APAC crowns its Cycle 3 champion, AMERICAS cuts sixteen down to eight, and EMEA fires the starting gun on its Cycle 3.

APAC | TOO CLOSE TO CALL!

4AM just topped Top 16 Qualification, 1st seed ahead of every big name in the region. KZ, still leading the season on 175 points, came through 4th. HIBOO, fresh off ripping the Cycle 2 title away, squeaked in 5th. And the DRG that kept banking points without ever lifting the trophy: 2nd, then 3rd, now 125 points and counting.

Saturday's Top 8 settles it. One KZ stumble opens the door, and both HIBOO and DRG are close enough to barge through it.

Take your seat: WATCH HERE

AMERICAS | SIXTEEN TEAMS, ONE TRAPDOOR

The Top 16 is set, and the bracket wrote its own drama. NTMR are back, rebuilt around 2025 Grand Major champion Lasagna, and they are sharing a lobby with the previous players Team ED, the Major trio that reunited after the mid-season split. Unphased sit top seed as season leaders and reigning cycle champions. And spare a thought for Kansas City Pioneers: miss the Top 8 again and their golden-ticket math is done. No pressure!

EMEA | IT’S YOUR TURN

Cycle 3 Open Qualifiers begin this Saturday, and this is the last call to be in them. Five Fears sit 75 points clear at the top, Teiko are plotting the comeback, and every team on that leaderboard walked in through the same door: the Open Qualifiers, the same kind of shot anyone can take, including you.

Build your team and claim your spot: EMEA Sign Up

Three shows in one Saturday, and somewhere in the middle of it the next great storyline gets written. Grab an OSPUZE, settle in, and ask yourself the only question that matters:

CAN YOU REACH THE FINALS?

** **We have a Store Update and a few crash fixes in today’s update. Also, please be aware that the first boot after this update could take longer due to an increased startup time due to an anti-cheat software update to reduce boot errors.

**STORE **| FUTURE FAMOUS

The future is here. You’re in it, you’ve molded it yourself. Inspire the Arena to transcend gravity, reach the stars, and perhaps become as bright as you are.

**ESPORTS **| THE HALFWAY REPORT

All three regions have now crowned their Cycle 2 champions, we are officially halfway down the road to The Grand Major 2026, and every leaderboard is telling a different story!

EMEA - Five Fears called it.

Before the Cycle 2 Top 8, Carnifex of Five Fears told us exactly what was on the line:

_“If we manage to do good now, we’re going to have a very good lead going into Cycle 3 and 4, which is going to translate to getting the golden ticket to the Major”. _

Then he went out and did it. Five Fears barely survived a late-tournament elimination during the last phase (“I was screaming on top of my lungs, that cashout was absolutely crazy!”) and now sit top of EMEA on 175 points.

Take a look at this moment!

AMERICAS - The close race.

ENVY, containing the 2025 Grand Major champions roster, took Cycle 1 in convincing fashion. Unphased, he answered back and took Cycle 2. Behind these teams sit a traffic jam: five teams sit within 75 points of the top spot, and one big swing could reshuffle the entire order. With two cycles left, no one is safe, and everything is to play for.

APAC - The ice-cold vs the red-hot.

KZ have finished top two in both cycles, and still hold the overall lead on 175 points. However, HIBOO are fresh off ripping the Cycle 2 title away on the back of byusl and his trusty BFR, hunting them down on 130 points, followed by DRG with 125 points. This weekend hosts the T16 stage to determine who will have a shot at earning points for Cycle 3.

The math is simple: whoever holds the most points after Cycle 4 takes their region's golden ticket, a direct invite to The Grand Major 2026. Everyone else has to survive the qualifiers the hard way.

Which brings us to you!

Cycle 3 sign-ups are open in AMERICAS and EMEA, and every daring Contestant starts in the same place: the Open Qualifiers, taking the same kind of shot anyone can take, including you. Build your team and claim your spot:

**AMERICAS Sign Up **(qualifiers begin 18th July) EMEA Sign Up (qualifiers begin 25th July)

Best of luck to the Contestants heading into the second half of the Online Series, as always, the ultimate question lingers:

CAN YOU REACH THE FINALS?

**GAME UPDATE **| BUG FIXES

Performance

• Fixed some issues when starting up the game preventing it from launching

• Fixed some crash issues

** Welcome to Season 11 of THE FINALS.** This time, the gameshow is going interplanetary! ** Our generous sponsor, COMETA, is bringing you **a new Arena out of this world, the reworked melee combat system, bot matches, and so much more!

Let’s take one small step for Contestants and one giant stop for the Arena, and blast our way into a whole new Season!

Stay tuned for more things to come as Season 11 unfolds! There's a lot new to the game at launch but there’s more to unlock as we progress through GALAXY MASTERS!

**NEW ARENA **| GALAXY ESTATES

Welcome to the American dream, reimagined for life among the stars.

Galaxy Estates, from COMETA, is situated inside a massive space habitat. Explore quiet suburban neighborhoods sitting next to luxurious mid-century modern homes that overlook the curve of the colony. Stay active at the sports center, wander through a sprawling botanical garden bringing nature into this artificial world, and make your way to the spaceport, the central hub where residents travel across the ring and beyond to other planets.

Movement is at the heart of how you'll experience this Arena. **The speed tunnel **that encircles the center building acts as a connector between areas, allowing for fast strategic rotations and completely changing the flow of a fight. **Anti-gravity columns **scattered throughout let you float upward to reach higher ground, opening up fresh routes and vertical combat spaces. Two of these can be found inside destructible towers, which can be brought down, changing the layout and creating new playspaces and pathways to move across the Arena.

While you're exploring the colony, stop by the oxygen pods for a breath of fresh air, jump on one of the trampolines in the residential backyards, and soak up the everyday life inside this retro-futuristic world before you walk through the sliding doors towards the Spaceport gates.

Then tear it all down.

Where to play it: Galaxy Estates arrives in Cashout, Ranked Cashout, Quick Cash, and Team Deathmatch (with five different locations). Plus Head-2-Head and Final Round in Private Matches. And we've added a dedicated Cashout queue for the first week so you can drop into Galaxy Estates anytime, every time.

See you at the Orbit Homes neighborhood block party!

**BATTLE PASS **| FREE, PREMIUM, ULTIMATE

Do you see yourself as an industrial retro-futuristic robot, a big brained alien, or a fearless pioneering astronaut? No need to choose just one when you can have them all in the Season 11 Battle Pass. Suit up in brand new, out-of-this-world looks that will launch your wardrobe into orbit!

Get the Premium Battle Pass and unlock up to 106 Rewards, including bonus pages as well as the ability to earn 1575 Multibucks, more than enough to buy next Season's Pass!

For those ready to reach for the stars, The Ultimate Battle Pass is also available, with 12 additional rewards including legendary outfits! Start your season with 20 Levels unlocked and a 25% Match XP boost, perfect to collect those 2575 Multibucks, of which you get 1000 right away!

The Season 8 Battle Pass is also joining the legacy roster!

**NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCE **| REVAMPED TUTORIAL

For the first time, new players will get a deeper introduction to the world of THE FINALS and the journey of becoming a Contestant, connecting the competition in the Arena to the people, places, and **stories of the Meatspace. **

Our new tutorial drops you in as a rookie, thrust into your first round alongside the legendary Contestant Dede. You'll learn the early stages of a Cashout match, getting to grips with Vaults, Cashboxes, and Cashout Stations, along with the dynamic gameplay and core mechanics that make THE FINALS unlike anything else. As you find your footing, the tutorial becomes an open Cashout match against the new bot opponents, complete with all the action and intensity of the real thing.

NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCE | EARLY TALENT PROGRAM

Hit the ground running in THE FINALS! Instead of Rookie Contracts, Dede will now guide you through the Early Talent Program, a training school for new Contestants! This new onboarding path will guide players through various modes, mechanics, and systems!

For eligible new and returning players, the Early Talent Program lives inside the Academy Screen, which has been updated this season. The Academy now includes new tutorial videos for Ranked Cashout, Cashout, Quick Cash, and Point Break, giving new players an easy way to learn each mode. You can also jump straight into the Practice Range Challenges directly from the Academy, picking the Challenge and difficulty you want and loading right into it.

**NEW **| BOT MATCHES

Another major addition this season: Bots!

Select Cashout (Bots) from the play screen and queue solo, as a party of up to three, or matchmake to team up with other players and take on the bots together.

Bot matches use the full Cashout format, so you'll enter a three-round tournament. You'll also earn progress, at a reduced rate, toward the World Tour, the Battle Pass, and other progression systems!

These bot opponents are the real deal. They navigate THE FINALS' highly dynamic environments, cause destruction, and wield a limited array of Weapons, Gadgets, and Specializations, offering the Cashout experience in a space built for learning. If you've ever tried THE FINALS and struggled to find your footing, Cashout Bots is a great place to jump back in.

Cashout Bots are available in Monaco, Bernal, Kyoto,** Las Vegas** and SYS$Horizon for now.

And this is just the start for bots! These bots are in beta. Expect occasional bugs and odd behavior as they grow. Bots in THE FINALS need to make incredibly complex calculations and will take time to perfect. Make sure to share your experiences with the team!

Over time, we plan to extend Bot functionality and support to more game modes, more Arenas, and more items.

**GAME UPDATE **| MELEE REWORK

This season, one of our biggest focuses has been reworking the melee combat system from the ground up. Melee has had two core problems we wanted to solve: we want it to be a viable style of play with a fair chance to win matches, and we want to make sure it's **not frustrating for those on the receiving end. **Rather than keep making incremental balance tweaks, we’ve stepped back and reworked the underlying system itself.

We're excited for you to get your hands on the new melee system and can't wait to hear your feedback. For a deeper dive into the philosophy and all the details behind the rework, check this in-depth blog post from Design Director, Matt Lowe.

GAME UPDATE | PING SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS

We've made another round of improvements to the Ping system and wheels this season, with the goal of reducing the time spent navigating and allowing for faster callouts in the heat of battle.

We've consolidated the ping wheels and made switching between them** more responsive**. Ping wheel input is snappier overall, so you can communicate more quickly mid-fight. We've also changed how pings look and behave, players' responses to a ping are now visibly tallied, and the ping interaction hint carries more useful information. With options in settings to tailor your experience.

As part of this, Emotes now fit on a single wheel, and anything can now be bound to the emote key.

Please note: because of this reorganization, you may need to re-equip some of your customizations and keybindings, including emotes, emoticons, sounds, and sprays.

RANKED TOURNAMENTS | SEASON 11 CHANGES

Over the last six months, we've been refining Ranked play, but we're not done yet and there's still plenty we want to improve.

In Season 11, we're introducing personal performance bonuses that grant bonus Ranked Score based on how you perform in a Match. The amount scales with your performance grade and your current Ranked tier, which means even when you lose a Match, a strong performance still earns you something. The bonus size is much more impactful at lower ranking tiers and very small at higher ranking tiers, in large part because of the very high win rates at higher ranks as well as the smaller RS changes in general at those tiers. For the bulk of the Ranked population, around Silver and Gold tiers, this is where the bonus will have more impact.

We're also adding an updated Ranked Score breakdown at the end of each Match, making it much clearer where you gained and lost RS.

On top of that, we've updated how players are calibrated during placement at the start of the season, which should lead to a much more balanced Ranked distribution early on compared to previous seasons.

Finally, we've added an additional reward token to Ranked for Season 11. Players can now earn two Diamond tokens, one for reaching Diamond 4 and another for reaching Diamond 1

GAME UPDATE | CASHOUT SPAWNING & VARIETY

We've continued tuning the spawning systems in our Cashout modes this season, with the goal of bringing more variety and replayability to your Matches. We've rebalanced how Cashout locations are selected, making the system more flexible and more varied. As a result, you should see a wider selection of Cashout locations from Match to Match, opening up more tactical options.

GAME UPDATE | PLAYER CARD IMPROVEMENTS

This season we've made a range of enhancements to Player Cards, giving you even more ways to customize your Contestants. Just like outfits, Player Cards can now be individually edited and saved, and you can assign a unique Player Card to each Contestant, letting you match your card perfectly to each build you create.

You can also now pick which pose to show on your Player Card, rather than being locked to the pose from your intro Emote.

GAME UPDATE | MORE ARENAS FOR MODES

We're bringing some familiar Arenas to new game modes this season, giving you fresh ways to fight across places you already know.

Point Break comes to Las Vegas Stadium, bringing its Attack and Defense phases to the Strip.

And Team Deathmatch arrives in Monaco, turning those winding streets into a new battleground. Two beloved Arenas, two new ways to play!

SPONSORS | FASTER PROGRESSION

Sponsors as you know them are going to change in Season 12, with the current Sponsor system and reward tracks being replaced with something new, more involved and more engaging, which we'll share information about as we get closer to Season 12

In response to this, in Season 11, Sponsors have drastically eased their requirements to complete each Sponsor's Loyalty Tier.

Fan Requirements have been reduced across all reward tiers, and the total Fans needed to unlock all of a given Sponsor's Rewards have been reduced by around 50%. So, you'll be able to unlock all of a given Sponsor's rewards twice as fast in Season 11, in case you want to collect everything.

REWARDS | WORLD TOUR

We're changing how World Tour rewards are earned this season. Going forward, you'll be granted your reward for reaching a league rather than climbing to the top of it. This means that once you hit Diamond 4, your Diamond league rewards are guaranteed. Emerald works as it has in the past: one coin at Emerald 3, two at Emerald 2, and three at Emerald 1.

**NEW SOUNDTRACK **| SEASON 11

In Season 11 we looked to the stars, to explore the outer bounds of space in order **to bring you 6 new tracks! ** We wanted to provide a soundtrack that was heroic and pioneering, inspired by epic endeavors and futuristic plotlines. Something to propel you forward, in and out of the Arena. And what is more heroic than thunderous brass and thumping saw waves playing in unison to launch you out in space?

We hope you enjoy it to the moon _and back! _ https://lnk.to/TheFinalsS11OST

**NEW BUNDLE **| FUNKOMATIC 2000 SET +2400MB

The FUNKOMATIC 2000 Set comes with enough grooves to keep your wires from short-circuiting on the dancefloor, while you bring the funk, the whole funk, and nothing but the funk, to the Arena! The FUNKOMATIC 2000 Set includes:

• 1 Legendary Outfit

• 1 Legendary Weapon Skin

• 1 Epic Emote

• 1 Rare Charm

• 2 400 Multibucks

Don’t forget to snag the** Season 11 Starter Pack** while you’re at it!

**EVENT **| ARC RAIDERS

**Are you a menace in the Arena and Topside? **

Complete Contracts in THE FINALS and **earn the Azimuth Outfit in ARC Raiders! **

Once you’ve completed the tasks, if you own ARC Raiders and have connected the same Embark ID to both games, you’ll get your outfit within 24 hours!

**TWITCH **| SONIA THE SONAR GRENADE

**Say hello to Sonia! **

Collect the newest Twitch Drops by tuning in to your favorite creators (or catching the release stream!). Link your Twitch account with your Embark ID, watch a THE FINALS streamer with Drops Enabled, and let the rewards roll in.

• Watch 1 hour to get the Trip Report Sticker

• Watch 2 hours to get the Launch Paperwork Charm

• Watch 4 hours to get Sonia The Sonar Grenade

**TWITCH **| SUPPORT A STREAMER

Want to back your favorite creator and get rewarded for it? During Season 11, subscribing to a participating THE FINALS streamer on Twitch earns you exclusive in-game items. Show your support, deck out your Contestant, and help your favorite creators do what they do best.

• Gift **3 Twitch subs **to get the Charmalure Set

• Gift 5 Twitch subs to get the Approach Vector Helmet

**ESPORTS **| THE GOLDEN TICKET IS UP FOR GRABS

A new season means new opportunities. This Saturday 11th July, EMEA plays its Cycle 2 Top 8, the first competitive broadcast of Season 11. New patch, new meta, and the best teams in the region working it out live on air. And what a bracket it is! Remember TEIKO, the last-seed fairytale that ran through Cycle 1? Gone. The reigning champions crashed out of the Top 16, and suddenly the region is wide open. Five Fears, the team they beat in the final, now carry the favorites tag and a point to prove, for their golden ticket to The Grand Major 2026. So tune in, grab another can of OSPUZE, pick a favorite team, and see what Season 11 looks like when the Arena’s best get their hands on it: WATCH HERE If you feel inspired, Cycle 3 is knocking. Sign-ups are already open for APAC and AMERICAS, and EMEA opens Monday 13th July, right after the show! Every Contestant on that broadcast started in the Open Qualifiers, taking the same kind of shot anyone can take, including you!

Build your team and claim your spot: APAC Sign Up AMERICAS Sign Up EMEA Sign Up

Can you win Cycle 3? CAN YOU REACH THE FINALS?

Now, let’s dive into the notes!

**GAME UPDATE **| BALANCE CHANGES

Gadgets

APS Turret

• Increased the amount of projectiles the APS can block from 5 to 6

• Increased health from 160 to 175

• The APS’s cooldown no longer regenerates while it's deployed (similar to Guardian Turret, Healing Emitter and Hover Pad)

• Manually retrieving the APS puts it on a 5-second cooldown

• Added the ability to remotely retrieve the APS with the tablet, putting it on 15 second cooldown

• Destroying the APS puts it on a 30-second cooldown

_Dev Note: _The APS has been out of the meta for some time and we feel it’s in part due to how quickly it can be removed through one method or another, so we’ve added these buffs to improve its impact. The cooldown adjustments are to slightly offset that power.

Breach Charge

• Decreased the arm time when deployed from 1.5s to 1s

Dev Note:_ This is a small quality of life improvement to help responsiveness for the Breach Charge. When attached to a carriable, the arm time remains at 1.5s, to provide some additional defence against ‘nukes.’_

Data Reshaper (accidental omission from the 10.12 patch notes)

• Added the ability to reshape Gateways to immediately disable them

Dev Note:_ We’ve felt f

SEASON 11 | GALAXY MASTERS

WELCOME ABOARD

Explore the new Map, the reworked Melee Combat System, the new Cashout Bot mode, Competitive updates and so much more! Your journey among the stars starts now!

Missed the new Reveal? Watch the VOD below as the team takes you behind Season 11's biggest features:

To experience the full visual patch notes please click this link.

**NEW ARENA | **GALAXY ESTATES

Step into Galaxy Estates, a retro-futuristic space habitat where suburban neighborhoods meet massive orbital infrastructure, brought to you by COMETA, the generous sponsor of Season 11!

Master the new speed tunnels and anti-gravity columns to unlock new movement possibilities, creating the** fastest and most dynamic Arena** ever seen in THE FINALS.

REWORKED MELEE COMBAT SYSTEM

Season 11 completely rebuilds melee combat with new Precision and Stamina mechanics, reworked weapon abilities, and new counterplay options.

Every melee weapon has been rebalanced to reward skill, improve viability, and create fairer close-range engagements.

Check the full blogpost here to learn more!

CASHOUT BOT MODE & NEW ONBOARDING

Been away from THE FINALS for a while? Season 11 is the perfect time to** jump back in, or bring a friend along!**

Legendary coach Dede now guides new contestants through their first matches, while** the new Cashout Bot mode** let you squad up together against bots before taking on full PvP.

COMPETITIVE AND QoL UPDATES

Your feedback shaped Season 11. A series of targeted improvements to spawning, communication, and Ranked **play **help make every match feel more consistent and fair. And so much more!

Enhanced Player Cards also offer more customization options, making it easier to personalize your Contestant!

NEW ULTIMATE BATTLE PASS

The new Season 11 Ultimate Battle Pass is here! Unlock stellar cosmetics, earn Multibucks, and show off your style across the Galaxy!

With Free, Premium, and Ultimate tiers, the Battle Pass offers both Multibucks and new rewards. The Ultimate tier includes 118 rewards (with 12 Elite Skins), a 25% XP Boost and more, for over 55,000+ Multibucks in total value! Available until the end of Season 11!

**NEW ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK **| SEASON 11

Listen to the official original soundtrack of Season 11 | Galaxy Masters! Carl Strandberg and his team are back with a stellar new soundtrack worthy of the biggest stage in the galaxy.

Check out the full album on your favorite platform here.

**NEW TWITCH DROPS **| SONIA THE SONAR GRENADE

Say hello to Sonia! Collect the newest Twitch Drops by tuning in to your favorite creators. Link your Twitch account with your Embark ID, watch a THE FINALS streamer with Drops Enabled, and let the rewards roll in.

Want to back your favorite creator and get rewarded for it? Subscribe to a participating THE FINALS streamer on Twitch to earn up to four exclusive in-game items!

READY FOR DEPARTURE

Welcome to Season 10’s last update! Sponsor Showdown is almost over, the Store got refreshed and XP Feast is still live to help you finish these last Battle Pass pages. In the meantime, Season 11 is right around the corner, and we can’t wait to start sharing more very, very soon™

**STORE **| FLAMINGLE TOP

It sure is warm in the Arena!

Show off your digital suntan in the Arena with the Flamingle and Floral State Tops! We’ve also brought back some 4th of July bundles alongside the brand new** Fourth of Mayhem Set** for the Thermal Bore. Make an impact, and make it spark!

**ESPORTS **| STEP RIGHT UP

Step right up, contestants. The stage is set, the crowd is cheering, and the next big storyline is about to be written!

This weekend, the World’s Greatest Gameshow kicks into gear. On Saturday 4th July, EMEA heads into its Top 16. And on Sunday 5th July, AMERICAS cuts it down to the Top 8.

Last cycle in AMERICAS, Envy barely made it through the Top 16, scraping in as the final seed, sitting one loss away from elimination. Then the Top 8 began, and it all changed. They won every single game, and walked away as the Cycle 1 winners.

The question is simple: can anyone knock The 2025 Grand Major champions off the top spot?

EMEA had its own underdog story. Teiko also qualified dead last, then tore through the region in stunning fashion. With Etelco flying the flag for Medium mains and pushing the class in new directions, Pika and Oji helped turn that innovation into a finale win over Five Fears (after playing hide and seek under a staircase?!).

Now the region has had time to study. Will EMEA find an answer, or is Teiko still one step ahead?

Two regions over two nights, and as we like to say: everyone loves an underdog!

If you’re wondering about APAC, competition is heating up. KZ, the ice-cold Chinese roster, still sit top of the overall leaderboard, and are closing in on a direct ticket to The Grand Major. But do not get comfortable, because they just got stunned in the Cycle 2 final by HIBOO, the Korean side who ripped the title away on the back of Byusl, clutching two separate near 1v3’s with the trusty BFR!

Even if tournaments are not usually your thing, this is a great weekend to take a peek at the limits being pushed in the Arena! Every Contestant started this stage via Open Qualifiers, taking the same kind of shot that anyone can take, including you! Don’t miss your opportunity, build your team and sign up here:

APAC Sign Up [

](https://embark.link/APAC-Cycle-3)[AMERICAS Sign Up](https://embark.link/AMER-Cycle-3)[

](https://embark.link/AMER-Cycle-3)[EMEA Sign Up ](https://embark.link/EMEA-Cycle-3)[

](https://embark.link/EMEA-Cycle-3)So tune in, grab an OSPUZE (or two), pick a favorite team, steal a few ideas and ask yourself the big question:

CAN YOU REACH THE FINALS?

Sponsor Showdown is still underway alongside the XP Feast Event! It is also the last week to try out Respec Order 2.0 and send us your precious feedback!

**STORE **| MAIDENPLATE

Make sure bullets are ricocheting off your chest in style with the MaidenPlate Top! Built to improve your survivability in the Arena without sacrificing your sense of fashion.

**NOTE: **The Glow Getter Charm is currently missing from the Luminous Riot Set but will be added as soon as possible.

**EVENT **| RESPEC ORDER 2.0

On top of the health and movement speed changes brought to the Light and Heavy archetypes, this new version of Respec Order brings some experimental balance changes with it. Read about it in detail in Matt’s (https://www.reachthefinals.com/patchnotes/respec-order-2).

If you've had time to try it out, we welcome your feedback directly on our Discord server, and if you haven’t yet, there’s still a whole week to give it a shot!

NAEJ FEVER

Seasonal Allergies? Meatspace nonsense. This week, Respec Order is back in its 2.0 form, with new changes for you to try.** Sponsor Showdown** is also live, putting the likes of ALFA ACTA and ISEUL-T in a fierce competition for fame. We’ve also got** Twitch drops**, the Bonus XP Feast event and more.

Check it all out below!

**STORE **| MISS BEHAYVIN’ SET

There isn’t anyone else in the Arena harvesting victories like you do! With your satchel by your side, collect cash, wild plants and flourish in the rankings with the Miss Behayvin’ Set.

The harvest has also been plentiful with a whole host of veggie plushies now available to grab!

**EVENT **| RESPEC ORDER 2.0

Respec Order is returning to World Tour, this time for two weeks!

In Respec Order, we perform tests that adjust the health and movement speed of the different Builds. We’ve done this test before, and this time around the event will come with some additional changes to Weapons and Specializations. That means his test will be more detailed and more nuanced. To see the details, learnings from the last test, and read all the Respec Order specific Balance changes, including a more detailed breakdown of the speed and health changes, check out the Respec Order 2.0 blog

Want to give detailed feedback on your Respec Order 2.0 experience? Head on over to the Official THE FINALS Discord Server where we have a channel dedicated to the test!

**EVENT **| SPONSOR SHOWDOWN

The Sponsors are once again battling to be the top dog in the Sponsor Showdown leaderboard! Rack up points for the sponsor repping you every time you play!

At the end of the season, everyone earns some Sponsor swag with the winner’s logo. Pick a side and join the showdown!

**REWARDS **| TWITCH DROPS

To celebrate the return of Respec Order in its new 2.0 format, we’re also bringing back the** Greenroom Glitch Set** to three new weapons! To grab them, simply watch anyone playing THE FINALS on Twitch with Drops Enabled.

• Watch 1 hour to get the Greenroom Glitch ARN-220

• Watch 2 hours to get the Greenroom Glitch Lewis Gun

• Watch** 4 hours** to get the Greenroom Glitch P90

Available now until July 2 2026. Full terms and conditions on Twitch.tv

**EVENT **| XP FEAST

**Contestants, it is time to feast! ** That’s right, we’ve turned the dial up on your XP and Fans gains to the max to help you complete your Battle Pass or even some of your Sponsor tiers.

Now and until the end of Season 10, earn up to 200% XP for Daily Contracts and up to 150% extra XP and Fans for gameplay!

**GAME UPDATE **| BALANCE CHANGES

**Gadgets **

H+ Infuser

• Decreased H+ Infuser healing per shot from 14 to 11.

_Dev Note: The H+ has become the more dominant healing device in the game, in part due to its own power, in part due to the Light’s mobility and survivability compared to the Medium. This change is to address some of that dynamic, although longer term we’d also like to look at the Medium’s survivability in higher end play as well. _

**GAME UPDATE **| BUG FIXES

Cosmetics

• Fixed an issue where Battle Pass Emotes and Inspects could show incorrectly in bundle previews

• The ISEUL-T Trendline Track Jacket now displays the correct text

• The Brewed for Trouble bundle thumbnail now shows the Jinxbrew skin for the Glitch Grenade

Gadgets

Data Reshaper

• Fixed an issues where deployables attached to carriable objects would not get reshaped

• Made it easier to target Lockbolt projectile with the Data Reshaper when placed at heights or uneven surfaces

Gameplay

• Fixed an issue where using Ziplines could unexpectedly teleport a Contestant

Performance

• Fixed a rare crash that could occur when a Match was about to start or when using Instant Replays

Social

• Fixed an issue that cancelled matchmaking if the party leader opened the console UI

• Fixed an issue where the party camera in the main menu did not zoom out in larger parties until someone used voice chat

UI

• When editing an outfit with a controller, exiting Inspect now preserves your selected item instead of resetting to the top of the list

We’re kicking off this week with a fresh Store Update, alongside a special sale on some items, brought to you by OSPUZE!

**STORE **| FIZZKICK BRAWLER

It’s time to kick it off and skip straight to overtime, because you don’t need more than that to make your mark in the Arena! Dribble through the defense, they won’t even see it coming.

We’re also running a special sale on select bundles, now until next week!

**EVENT **| SAFEHOUSE PASS

It’s the last week to get your hands on the SafeHouse Pass, brought to you by ALFA ACTA! Get what your dog and your family deserve, the best of Home defense, right at your fingertips. Guaranteed effectiveness for one simple price.

ÖRF has taken over this week’s Store Update, bringing the shenanigans in the Arena up to new heights!

**STORE **| THE WÖRFY KNIGHT

ÖRF and his pals are bringing you the almighty WÖRFy Knight armor. Ready to jump in the Arena and to serve… mischief. Juno Paico is sure to be proud!

And last but not least, the latest craze, ÖRF Chaos trading cards have finally arrived! Grab your Starter Pack now. Watch out for the cards’ corners, they’re sharp.

DEFENSE BEGINS AT HOME

Welcome to a new week loaded with goodies, Contestants, brought to you by ALFA ACTA.

This week, we’re bringing back a classic World Tour event: Risk & Reward alongside the new Safehouse Standard Event Pass, the Data Crusader DLC, fresh new Twitch Drops and reloaded the Store with new content. We’ve also squashed a long list of bugs and brought a couple balance tweaks for you.

Ready to dive in? Read it all about it below!

**WORLD TOUR **| RISK & REWARD TDM

Risk & Reward is back!

This time, we’re taking the battle into Team Deathmatch. Earn extra cash depending on which weapon and gadget you decide to use. Your loadout matters, are you ready to step out of your comfort zone for some extra cash? It could make the difference between a loss and a victory.

**EVENT PASS **| SAFEHOUSE STANDARD

ALFA ACTA is proud to present its newest Safehouse Standard Event Pass, and as CEO Junior McJohnson once said: "Preparedness is standard. Not an upgrade.”

This includes 16 items such as your favorite weaponry now outfitted with a Trespassers Rejected counter and even the Deadbolt Directive outfit, inspired by the one and only Loretta “Deadbolt” McJohnson herself. The best of the ALFA ACTA’s home-defense line-up at one incredible price, as seen on the Nuclear Family Channel.** **

**SOCIAL UPDATE **| PARTY INVITE

Introducing Open to Join! This updated in-game Party invite setting controls how open your party is to other players and who can join you for a match with an On/Off Toggle.

When it’s Off, your party is invite-only, and any party members can invite.

When it’s On, friends of any party member are open to join.

Discord members can also join the fun! If your Embark ID is linked to your Discord account, players from your Discord servers will see you play and may be able to join. Make sure to check your Discord account and Server settings so they match your preferred party privacy

This new setting is off by default.

**DLC **| DATA CRUSADER

Data is power. Step into the Arena and rewrite the outcome with darksteel and precision. With 2400 Multibucks included!

**TWITCH DROPS **| STREAM TANGERINE

Bright and colorful, the Stream Tangerine Set is back. Looking to get your hands on it? Simply watch anyone playing THE FINALS with Drops Enabled to get it for free!

• Watch for 1 hour to get the SH1900 skin

• Watch for 2 hours to get the Model 1887 skin

• Watch for 4 hours to get the M60 skin

Available now until June 11, 2026. Check Twitch.tv for full terms and conditions.

**STORE **| CUT TO THE BONE SET

You’ve finally returned to the Arena, from 6 feet under to now make your way to the top of the podium. You’ll have an eternal virtual life to take care of your unfinished business with the Cut To The Bone Set, outlasting the competition is already done.

**GAME UPDATE **| BALANCE CHANGES

Gadgets

Breach Drill

• Decreased cooldown from 20s to 15s

Dev Note: We’d love to see the Breach Drill used by more Medium players so we’ve made this adjustment to increase uptime for it, hopefully making it a little more desirable.

**Vanishing Bomb **

• Increased cooldown from 22s to 25s

_Dev Note: The Vanishing Bomb remains at very high usage rates as well as many players expressing frustration at the high uptime the Light class can have with invisibility without taking the Cloaking Device. This is another nudge to try and address that issue. We’ll continue to monitor how this performs and may explore other options if we feel this change doesn’t move us to a better state. _

**GAME UPDATE **| BUG FIXES

Animation

• Fix for 'Ashoborn Reload' not playing after quickly reloading

• Fixed an issue where the right arm didn’t correctly track moving interactions

Audio

Defibrillator

• Fixed an issue where the defib-respawn SFX could be occasionally not played

Hover Pad

• Fixed an issue where Gadget sounds were played every time a skin was previewed

Recurve Bow

• Fixed an issue where the draw sound could play when unequipping

Zipline

• Fixed a missing sound when destroying a Zipline anchor

General

• Fixed an issue where sound would sometimes not play for animations that re-trigger in fast sequence

• Fixed a bug that could cause the the respawn-available sound to not play when you could use a respawn credit

• Fixed issues where sounds could overlap and fail during Instant Replays

• Fixed an issue where music from Weapon skins could get stuck after previewing in the Main Menu

• Fixed an issue where previewing sound rewards in the Battle Pass could play audio twice or continue after leaving the preview

Cosmetics

General

• Fixed an issue where the mouse accessory on the Purrfect Pack Upper Back could appear detached from the item

• Added movement to the Portable Dreamstate, Collectible Orb, and Buccaneer Canteen lower back items

• Fixed an issue where Contestants on the end-of-round MVP screen could show an incorrect outfit number

• Restored visual quality of multiple outfit items and accessories, improving the overall quality of material detail and color

• Improved the necklaces on the Crimson Shadow Tee for a cleaner look

• Huntstride Pants are now properly compatible with long jackets

• Fixed an issue where Dark Matter and Arcane Growth facial hair appeared squished on Heavy contestants

• The Overburn Mask is now compatible with hats

Gadgets

Hover Pad

• Fixed an issue where the Hover Pad could be destroyed instantly when struck by a Cash Box or a Cashout Station

• Hover pad can no longer stay underground forever when clipped through the ground.

RPG-7

• Fixed an issue where the rocket could be invisible for a moment during RPG-7 reloads when using The Escalator skin

Game Modes

Point Break

• Fixed an issue where the red barrier could appear instantly for Defenders at the end of a phase

Gameplay

• Fixed an issue where Vaults in Cashbox Challenges didn't unlock immediately

• Fixed a rare issue where Weapons could fail to fire after attempting to equip an item

General

• Fixed Dematerializer and Data Reshaper previews showing while climbing ladders

• Fixed an issue where Shockwave could collide with Riot Shield when used during movement, preventing it from being thrown properly

Map

**Las Vegas Stadium **

• Fixed an issue where a ladder could remain floating after destruction

• Fixed window decal materials

• Fixed a skewed ENGIMO decal

• Corrected the scale of OSPUZE decals

NOZOMI/CITADEL

• Fixed a spot where Contestants could get stuck under the water slide

Seoul

• Fixed a visual decal issue

Kyoto

• Fixed cropped scrolling text on Arena backdrops

Bernal

• Fixed an issue where small objects could fall through the ground in the Residential Zone

General

• Fixed an issue where Spectators in Private Matches could leave the Arena bounds on Starlight Hollow when using free camera

Performance

• Some additional minor performance improvements to the store

• Improved server performance during high intensity destruction

• Reduced game startup time on Xbox Series X|S

Social

• Replaced the Party setting “Open to Friends” with “Open to Join.” When enabled, players can join the Party through any party member's profile on third party platforms (Steam, Playstation, Xbox, Discord) or in-game.

• Any party member can now send party invites, these actions are no longer restricted to the party leader.

Stability

• Fixed a rare crash that could occur during texture streaming

• Fixed a crash that could occur when viewing the ARN-220 item screen with a randomized skin

UI

• Improved clarity of rating stars in the end-of-round Personal Performance screen to reduce pixelation

• Improved loading screen responsiveness so it no longer appears frozen during map loads

• Fixed an issue where the Upcoming Reward on the Sponsorship page could display an already claimed reward’s name and icon after signing with a Sponsor

• Fixed missing button sounds for XP button

• In-game video volume now follows the SFX Volume setting instead of Music Volume for more consistent control

• Added a button press sound when navigating between tabs with a controller

• Fixed an issue where navigation sounds were missing in the End of Round screen

• Fixed an issue where sounds from animations on characters off-screen could still play in Main Menu

• Fixed an issue where the Spectator Zoom Speed setting displayed overly precise decimal values in Settings

• Fixed an issue where the Specialization icon next to health bars could display the wrong ability after a Contestant changed Build type

• Fixed Event Pass rewards and the progression bar not appearing on the End of Round screen when the pass was completed with XP earned in that session

• Fixed a "Round Over" text being shown briefly at the end of Point Break

• Fixed an issue where Throwing Knives could incorrectly show as not ready despite being available

• Preview of Mostly Heroic Fellowship bundle now shows a correct outfit, instead of a mix of pieces

• Fixed an issue where the VOLPE badge reward icon could appear twice during the end-of-round sequence.

• Fixed an issue where the World Tour rank-up screen could display the wrong title when ranking up (e.g., showing Silver 1 instead of Emerald 1).

SEE YOU IN THE ARENA!

We’ve got one more week of Dragon’s Claim, so the battle for the banner rages on! You also have one more week to spend your tickets, spin the wheel, and earn prizes, but the Daily Contracts that earn you tickets have officially ended. So don’t forget to spend your remaining tickets and collect your free rewards!

**STORE **| CHAIN REACTION

It’s time to get medieval on the opposing team! Chainmail wasn’t designed for bullets? The Chain Reaction top can and will protect you from most hazards you’ll encounter in the Arena. Spike the Healing Emitter just rolled into your life! He has a cute face and will give you heals and splinters! Handle with care!

A new store update has landed inside the Arena, and do not forget to check out Dragon’s Claim, where a fierce battle awaits you alongside a lot of goodies!

**STORE **| THE FACE OFFENDER SET

In the Arena, they are playing your game. Spawn in, complete your objective and don’t let anyone stop you with the Face Offender Set. Get a grip on the Hands-On Approach Revolver and land softly in the Arena with some Pip slippers from ÖRF!

**EVENT **| DRAGON’S CLAIM

The Dragon is still roaming the Arena, and with it, the battle for the control of the banner continues in Dragon’s Claim. Don’t forget to participate daily to win up to 3 tickets to spin the wheel and earn some cool cosmetics! And with the addition of Golden tickets, you’re sure to be rewarded.

**GAME UPDATE **| BUG FIXES

**Modes **

Dragon’s Claim

• Fixed an issue so this mode now rewards players with World Tour points

• The Chimera-XB now has proper ammo amount in Private Matches

Known Issue

Scales of Fortune

• We are aware of an issue with the Scales of Fortune wheel where a duplicate slot can convert into a Golden Ticket before the wheel stops spinning, making it appear that a Golden Ticket has been awarded. In actuality, you have just landed on a duplicate, so the golden ticket slot has been created. The functionality of the wheel is correct, this is a visual bug.

DOWN TO ASHES

It’s time for the Mid-Season Update! The Arena is bustling with a brand-new Limited Time Mode, tons of free cosmetics for you to grab and a long list of bug-fixes and balance changes. Check out the gritty details below!

**LTM **| DRAGON’S CLAIM

The battle for the banner has begun! Dragon’s Claim is a brand-new Limited Time Event, where control, teamplay, and siege tactics are your path to victory.

In this 5v5 mode, take and keep control of the banner long enough to be able to plant it into the ground. Once you’ve staked your claim, a zone around the banner will appear and everyone in the Arena will know where to stand. Stay in the zone to rack up money, and take as much of the treasure as you can while the banner lasts. The team that plants the banner will receive a bonus, then every Contestant in the Arena will earn additional cash by surviving in the zone.

The battle around the banner is sure to be heated, but not nearly so intense as the Dragon raining fire from above! The banner will attract the dragon so keep an eye on the sky and don’t get burned!

The first team to earn the winning amount or the team with the most cash at the end of the round wins!

Play Dragon's Claim from now until May 28!

**EVENT **| SCALES OF FORTUNE

Once again, we’ve reinvented the wheel with the Scales of Fortune! Complete daily contracts to earn up to 3 tickets a day and use them to spin the wheel. Unlock more than 20 rewards with a Legendary outfit on completion.

Each spin will grant you a reward from the pool of prizes! Landing on a duplicate prize will convert that wheel tile into a Golden Ticket. Land on a Golden Ticket to earn an additional, extra special spin that’s guaranteed to be a new, unowned item! It is still possible to buy a reward out of the wheel with Multibucks, of course!

Get spinning, Contestants, and may the (vastly improved) odds be in your favor!

Earn all the free rewards before May 28!

**DLC **| THE CROWN THAT REMAINS

Show them that you were born to rule the Arena! Heavy is the head that wears the crown (but Medium and Light, as well)!

The bundle includes a legendary outfit, grenade skin, an emote, as well as an epic charm and 2400 Multibucks.

**STORE UPDATE **| HELION EXARCH SET

Praise the stars for the Helion Exarch and the Helion Eclipse Set! Be the knight in shining armor you always wanted to be, where classic fits meet modern weaponry. Shine bright so your name can climb to the top.

Stock up on potions with the Brewed for Trouble set, and share them with the competition for maximum potency. It’s an aggressive way to use your wares, but business is cut-throat.

ALFA ACTA favorite test dummy M.E.L.V.I.N. Reforged is back for action, but he will be hard to eliminate! Try to run him through with your sword and see if he drops a few coins.

**TWITCH DROPS **| UP THE SCALE

Conquer the heat with the newest Twitch Drops and rise up to the challenges. Link your Twitch & Embark account, watch a stream of THE FINALS with Drops Enabled to earn free rewards!

• Watch 1 hour to get the Wyrmmarked Sticker

• Watch 2 hours to get the Scale Crest Charm

• Watch 4 hours to get the Scaelium Edge Chimera-XB Skin

*Drops available until May 21

Balance Changes

Gadgets

Vanishing Bomb

• Decreased the duration of invisibility on the user from 6s to 5s

• Increased cooldown from 18s to 22s

_Dev Note: Over time, the Vanishing Bomb has gradually become a must pick for Lights and this depresses the value of the Cloaking Device quite a bit. These changes are aimed at reducing its power relative to other items to move it into a much more balanced place. _

Game Modes

General

• Increased the minimum distance a player must spawn from enemies when using a coin by approximately 20%. This impacts Cashout, Ranked Cashout and Quick Cash modes

Dev Note: We’ve seen from live data that some of the spawn changes we made in 10.0 can cause coining players to spawn in positions that are a little too advantageous to their team, for example allowing immediate flanking of enemy teams. This adjustment should resolve that issue.

Ranked Tournaments

• Recalibrated league rank distribution to more evenly distribute players across the different ranks

_Dev Note: With some of the more recent changes made to Ranked Score we’ve seen the population become overly distributed towards the lower half of the ranking scale, which should not be the case. This change rebalances this, more evenly distributing players across the whole scale. The change will take place gradually as players play matches over the remainder of the season, until recalibration is complete. As a result, you may briefly see very different RS gains and losses while recalibration happens, with the net outcome being most players should see some rank gains. _

Gameplay

Goo

• Decreased the time it takes for Goo to break when overlapping a player from 0.8s to 0.35s

Dev Note: Following some adjustments to ensure Goo will still block interactions, and a re-evaluation on the stall duration of Goo based on feedback following the 10.3 change, we’ve settled on this new duration for how quickly Goo should break. We feel this should reduce frustration from blocking while still retaining some of the gameplay around Goo that players enjoy

Specializations

Shockwave

• Reverted a change made in 10.3 that constrained how high players could be launched when combining the Shockwave with the Jump Pad

_Dev Note: The change in 10.3 was intended to constrain the absolute most extreme case of Shockwave combined with Jump Pad, which happens fairly rarely. Ultimately, it ended up being far too aggressive in practice. This change reverts the Shockwave to the previous state. Depending on how this continues to perform on live, we may still consider adding a cap at some point that nudges the extreme down by 5% to 10%, but we’ll see how things develop. _

Guardian Turret

• Increased the vertical vision angle from +-45 degrees to +-60 degrees, making it easier for the turret to attack targets above and below itself

Weapons

.50 Akimbo

• Decreased max bullet dispersion when firing from the hip from 8 to 7.5, making the weapon slightly more accurate

• Decreased the default hip fire dispersion when firing from the hip while standing from 2 to 1.8

• Decreased the default dispersion when firing from the hip while moving from 2.6 to 2.2

Dev Note: Despite being fairly popular, the Akimbo Pistols tend to underperform compared to most Heavy weapons. This change is a small nudge to try and help their viability a little.

Chimera-XB

• Decreased damage falloff minimum range from 20m to 17.5m, giving the weapon a slightly shorter effective range

• Decreased damage falloff max range from 30m to 27.5m, giving the weapon a slightly shorter effective range

• Decreased damage falloff multiplier from 0.6 to 0.53, meaning the weapon now does slightly less damage at range

Dev Note: Now that we’ve had a solid period of time to see the Chimera settle in the meta, it’s outperforming some of the longer ranged weapons at distance, which was not intended. These adjustments should nudge it more towards the mid-range bracket,

KS-23

• Disabled trigger-hold delay on the pump action, reducing the chance of shots being delayed by misclicks

_Dev Note: When the player holds down the trigger after firing a manual action or pump action weapon, like a number of other FPS games, this blocks the action until the trigger is released, allowing some additional control for the player. We feel this is something that is rarely being used intentionally though, and it can have a hidden negative impact on players who are slower at pressing the fire button as it slightly slows their rate of fire due to briefly blocking the action. We’ve removed this blocking on all pump action shotguns to give a smoother and more consistent experience. _

M11

• Increased damage falloff max range from 17.5m to 20m, giving the weapon a slightly longer effective range

• Decreased damage falloff multiplier from 0.52 to 0.45, meaning the weapon now does slightly less damage at range

_Dev Note: The M11 is performing a little too well at medium to long ranges, causing it to cannibalize the roles of weapons like the XP-54 and LH1. These changes bring down its damage a little at those longer ranges, but with a small extension to its optimal range to offset that. _

M26 Matter

• Disabled trigger-hold delay on the pump action, reducing the chance of shots being delayed by misclicks

Model 1887

• Disabled trigger-hold delay on the pump action, reducing the chance of shots being delayed by misclicks

Spear

• Increased the cap on how many player targets a spin attack can hit from 8 to 24

• Increased the cap on how many non-player targets on spin attack can hit from 20 to 60

Dev Note: This is a small quality of life change to the Spear’s secondary attack that has been pending for a little while. In light of the S11 melee rework, the Spear’s secondary may yet change in how it functions, but we don’t see that as a reason not to release this change in the meantime.

V9S

• Decreased magazine size from 20 to 18

_Dev Note: Among Light weapons, the V9S still slightly over-performs where it should be relative to other weapons available to the Light. This change is to bring it more inline with the other guns _

Content and Bug Fixes

Animation

ARN-220

• Fixed an issue where the ARN-220’s inspect animation could stop midway and get stuck in a pose

Riot Shield

• Fixed an issue where custom hand gestures would not play

Spear

• Fixed an issue where sprinting sideways or backward with the Spear caused it to cover too much of the screen

General

• Improved interactions with the right arm so they now track the target while looking around with the camera. This is purely visual and no boundaries on interactions have changed

• Fixed a several bugs and inconsistencies regarding hand gestures

Audio

• The cannon audio is no longer muffled by its barrel in Monaco

• Fixed an issue where audience sounds could cut out completely in the middle of a round

• Sliding sound now fades out faster when a slide is canceled

• Fixed issues with Weapon firing sounds getting stuck when switching perspective while spectating

• Fixed Vault and Cashout Station sounds getting stuck if a Practice Range challenge was cancelled

• Fixed an issue where music could end earlier than the squad intro

• Improved handling of replay and reconnect audio to prevent lingering sounds (e.g., objective and emote SFX)

Cosmetic

• Added Item Status Indicators to the Maw of Many Multidevice skin

• Fixed an issue where the Contestant voice was not modified while wearing the Critical Hit Mask

• For visual improvement, we removed the ability to use Crossbody items with the following Upper Body items: Skill Issue Vest, Predator Payload, Creamline Vest, Vaiiya Firewall Vest, Ospuze Tactical Vest and the Flak Vests

• Added back compatibility between Puck Stopper and Dede's Mask as well as other masks that appear on the side of your head

• Added compatibility between face masks and Duskvane Helmet and Tradition's Edge

• Flower crowns should now work with more Face items

• Improved cloth simulation performance

Expressions

• Fixed an issue where the opening sound effects of the Furry Fury and Headstrong emotes were not audible in matches

• Updated the Major Coronation expression so that Nama Tama’s face is visible from further away

Gadgets

Glitch Trap

• Can now be pinged

Proximity Sensor

• Pinging a placed Proximity Sensor now shows the correct icon, event log message, and voice line

General

• Fixed a bug where trying to pick up objects (e.g. Barricade) could get unintentionally cancelled

Game Show Events

Orbital Lasers

• Fixed an issue where Orbital Lasers audio and visual effects could replay after you respawned and returned to your point of elimination

Gameplay

• Scissor lifts now stop when a Contestant is underneath, preventing clipping underground or out of bounds

• Fixed an issue where the Revive Statue could clip into walls or doors when dropped, thrown, or when the carrier was eliminated

Cashout

• [Fixed an exploit where certain actions could move Cashout Stations much farther than intended

Charge ‘n’ Slam

• Fixed bug where hitting an enemy with a Melee Weapon at the same time as cancelling Charge 'n' Slam would cause an unintentional boost in movement

Guardian Turret

• Fixed an issue where Practice Range Challenge bots would shoot the base of Guardian Turrets (dealing no damage)

Hover Pad

• Eliminations caused by opponents hitting a Hover Pad and falling into a death pit now correctly credit the Contestant who placed it

General

• Fixed a bug where the default AKM could sometimes appear over your selected Loadout at spawn

• Fixed an issue that allowed players to ping cloaked Contestants

• Fixed an issue on controller where switching from H+ Infuser to a Weapon could sometimes trigger a false firing animation on M11, XP-54, LH1, SH1900, V9S, 93R, M26 Matter, and ARN-220

Maps

General

• Reduced the depth of the floor indent below an escalator for smoother traversal in Fangwai City, Las Vegas, and Las Vegas Stadium

Monaco

• Fixed missing shadows on a cliffside corridor

• Fixed a visual issue where the map ceiling was visible during the tournament intro

• Tweaked Vault placement and sped up defender approaches in the first phase of Point Break

Seoul

• Fixed issue with invisible collision on a corner architecture piece

Modes

Private Match

• Added Dragon’s Claim to Private Matches

Social

• Added a noise suppression option for voice chat to reduce background noise

• The “X Contestants joined the party” message now shows the correct party size to all party members without appearing twice

• Fixed an issues where voice chat could break after opening platform UI

Spectator

• Fixed an issue where items did not correctly display their active state while spectating

Stability

• Fixed a crash that could occur during tournament intro/outro on some Arenas

• Fixed a crash that could occur at the end of a Tournament

• Fixed an issue that could cause the loading screen to remain visible and block gameplay

• Fixed an issue that would sometimes result in a crash when switching Contestants

UI

General

• Improved visuals for the Match Summary Screen

• Improved playstyle images in the unlock screen with higher-resolution art and refreshed icons

• Fixed an issue where New indicators in the inventory did not clear for some Multidevice items

• Fixed an issue where Vault and Cashout icons could become invisible after elimination

• Removed the button click sound when opening the scoreboard in the MVP screen

• Fixed an issue where Contestant icons could appear as black tiles or load with a delay in the Choose Contestant Pack screen

• Fixed an issue where weapon level skin rewards were not shown in the end of round Progression tab

• Added a Spectator Zoom Speed slider in Gameplay Settings to adjust third-person zoom speed

• Fixed an issue where Sword, Dagger, Dual Blades, Riot Shield, Sledgehammer, and Spear showed incorrect ammo counts after spawning at the start of a match

• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused sliders in settings to step to an incorrect value when editing with a controller

• You can now see which tournament round you are in, in the tab scoreboard

• Fixed bug where reconnecting Teams caused incorrect sorting in the scoreboard

• Fixed an issue where the New marker on the Contestant button in the Home screen did not appear for some new items

• Sights now show their zoom level (Slight, Enhanced, Strong) in the equipment screen when selected

Point Break

• The Team list now shows all the players in your team, but in a more compact way

• Requesting a revive now displays a revive request marker to help teammates locate your Statue

Sponsorship

• End-of-round Progression screen now shows a checkmark when a Sponsorship track is finished

World Tour

• Fixed an issue where the World Tour progression screen ended too quickly after the progress bar completed, improving readability of your updated score

Weapon

General

• Fixed an issue where reloading the Model 1887 or CB-01 Repeater could desync the ammo count when interacting with a zipline mid-reload

CROWD CONTROL

** **This week we have a refreshed Store and a sale on multiple sets! We’ve heard rumors of a large shadow looming over the Arena, but that might just be someone horsing around. To be safe, Contestants should keep their guard up, next week will bring a spark to the show.

**STORE | ORDERKEEPER SET **

** **It is time someone brings some order to the Arena, and we’re giving you the tools to do so with the Orderkeeper set. Yield to no-one, maintain control, and make sure your authority is understood by other Contestants. If not, correction may be applied.

Why the long face? There’s also a small addition we just couldn’t say neigh to, so giddyup and trot on into the store to see it for yourself.

We’re also running a special sale on multiple fan-favorites such as the Death by Rhodent and Hellborne sets, now until next week!

See you in the Arena!

We’ve solved an issue with achievements, which should now be back in working order.

Thanks for all the swift reports, and for your patience while we solved this frustrating bug!

SEE YOU IN THE ARENA!

Gear up for hand-to-hand combat in the Arena with this week’s Store update. Check it out below!

**STORE **| WIDE WATCH KIT

Win any arguments efficiently and shield yourself from any consequences with the Wide Watch Kit. They’ve told you to be blunt, after all..

**GIVE YOUR FEEDBACK **| RESPEC ORDER

The Respec Order Event has come to a close! Thank you to everyone who gave it a try, provided feedback, and joined the conversation in the community!

If you want to know a bit more about the test, tune in today for Oscar’s Stream with special guest, Matt Lowe, Design Director of THE FINALS. Matt will be answering some of the questions that have been asked over on the fan-run Reddit: r/thefinals

We’re still collecting feedback on the Official Discord Server for THE FINALS.

Join us tonight at 5PM CEST on (https://twitch.tv/thefinals) & (https://www.youtube.com/@reachthefinals)

** See you in the chat! **

Following Update 10.3, we noticed several unintentional bugs and with today’s update, we’re fixing some of these issues as well as temporarily reverting some changes. We’re still investigating other reports as well. Thank you as always for reporting those issues to us!_ _

**GAME UPDATE **| BALANCE CHANGES

Gameplay

Goo

• Temporarily increased the time it takes for goo to break when overlapping a player from 0.2s to 0.8s

Dev Note: The change to the time it takes for goo to break that we made in 10.3 caused several unintended severe bugs, including not interrupting objective steal attempts, as well as allowing shielding of stealing teammates from all damage. As a result, we have to revert this change for the time being, but we intend to have these issues solved and the change reinstated in 10.6. We apologize for the mistake, especially after all the great memes related to this change yesterday!

**GAME UPDATE **| BUG FIXES

Cosmetics

• Fixed an issue with the Envy Jersey cosmetic that caused it to change color

Gadgets

APS Turret

• Fixed an issue that could cause deployed APS Turrets to bounce around, often moving other objects in the world with them

Data Reshaper

• Fixed an issue that caused items to be reshaped into a random object, rather than a pre-defined object based on what was being reshaped

Gameplay

• Fixed an issue that could prevent or interrupt sliding

• Fixed an issue with Quick Melee attacks that could cause them to be delayed when used in combo with melee weapons

VFX

• Reverted a change to the Gateway’s preview effects that made it too hard to see against light backgrounds and the sky

This week, we’re introducing an experimental World Tour event, some balance changes, performance improvements, a long list of bug-fixes, a freshly updated Store and a bunch of freebies to collect. Read all about today’s update below and don’t forget to tune in to the community stream for some TGM26 info!

**WORLD TOUR **| RESPEC ORDER

Our World Tour stop for Update 10.3, Respec Order, is less of an event and more of an experiment! That means, we need your help to try it out!

Back in Season 3, we used World Tour as a testing ground for various changes to Cashout mode. This gave us a chance to gather telemetry and sentiment, player feedback, and just see how small changes interacted with the game. Respec Order will do exactly the same, and your feedback will be important (once you’ve actually gotten in the game and given it a try).

In Respec Order, we’re adjusting both the health values and the base movement speeds of the Heavy and the Light archetypes in Cashout mode for one week, the changes will be as follows:

• Heavy

• Health decreased from 350 to 325

• Base movement speeds (run and sprint) increased by approximately 10%

• Light

• Health increased from 150 to 175

• Base movement speeds (run and sprint) decreased by approximately 10%

• Increased health regen delay from 7s to 8s

Try out the Respec Order event in World Tour and see how your experience changes!

To learn more about the reasoning behind this experiment, what we hope to learn, and more, please head over to this blog post from Matt Lowe, Design Director on THE FINALS.

You can also join the conversation yourself by chatting in the dedicated channel we’ve created in the official Discord server, or ask Matt a question over on Reddit. We’re working with the fan-run r/thefinals subreddit to collect your questions for Matt. The top relevant questions will be answered when Matt joins Oscar’s stream on Thursday, April 23rd!

See you there!

**NEW CIRCUIT **| SIEGE THE DAY

No Cashout is safe!

This week, complete contracts from the Siege the Day Circuit and earn some sweet rewards including the Ironthorn Sovereign Legendary V9S skin and spike things up in the Arena.

**STORE **| LADY UNYIELDING SET

While your true identity is sealed away behind your mask, everyone in the Arena knows who you are. As the last one standing on the frontline, this cashout station is now yours. Anyone who dares to attempt to steal it will learn that iron doesn’t bend, and neither do you.

**TWITCH **| TANGERINE SET

As delicious as it looks, the Tangerine Set is available for free as a Twitch Drop! Simply watch anyone playing THE FINALS with Drops Enabled to be eligible to earn this set.

• Watch for 1 hour and claim the Tangerine Spear

• Watch for 2 hour and claim the Tangerine Blades

• Watch for 4 hour and claim the Tangerine Sword

Available now until April 30th. Check Twitch.tv for the full terms and conditions.

**TWITCH **| APE SQUAD CLASSICS

Join in and celebrate the Ape Squad Classics as for the first time we have an additional Twitch reward for all Contestants to collect! The Classic Cosmetic might even be as delicious, and the potassium might fuel you to Reach THE FINALS!

Watch Ape Squads Classic Tournament with 80 teams across EU and NA compete for victory and cheer your favorite team on! Watch the official

channel, or any of their affiliated channels, for 4 hours to claim the APE SQUAD Banana Gun Charm. The next event is already close - check out for NA competing April 16th at 8pm ET (2am CEST) and April 19th 1pm ET (7pm CEST) for EU!

The campaign is live from April 16th at 11PM UTC, through May 12th 1am UTC. Check Twitch.tv for the full terms and conditions.

GAME UPDATE | BALANCE CHANGES

Gadgets

H+ Infuser

• Increased the delay before ammo starts regenerating from 8s to 10s

_Dev Note: The H+ Infuser still performs a little too well compared to the Medium’s Healing Beam and can be too powerful in securing Cashout steals while under fire. This change has been made to level things out _

Healing Emitter

• Added the ability to deploy the Healing Emitter in the air, no longer requiring it to be placed on a surface. If deployed in the air it will fall to the ground after deployment

• Decreased the size of the Healing Emitter by approximately 15%

Dev Note: These are largely quality of life changes for the Emitter, allowing it to be more easily deployed and less of an obstruction when walking into it.

Hover Pad

• Increased health from 300 to 350

Dev Note: Based on early feedback from the community since its S10 launch, we feel like the Hover Pad needs a little extra health to be a more desirable tool.

Gameplay

• Decreased the time it takes for goo to break when overlapping a player from 0.8s to 0.2s

Dev Note: Goo overlapping and blocking players wasn’t ever intended but is one we’re happy to keep, within reason. It definitely requires some better visual treatment going forwards and has been too powerful to date, so we think this change will reduce a lot of the frustration some players experience related to it.

• Slightly decreased the movement velocity required to trigger a slide, to make them easier to perform

Weapon

93R

• Increased damage from 24 to 25

• Decreased ammo count from 24 to 21

_Dev Note: Believe it or not, the 93R is now the least picked Light weapon across all modes. These changes are aimed to increase its viability and desirability, without tipping it back to the dominant place it had in the meta a few seasons ago. _

FAMAS

• Slightly decreased recoil when aiming down sights (ADS), making the weapon more accurate at range when using ADS

Dev Note: The FAMAS has gradually drifted out of serious viability for the Medium Build as other weapons have been buffed, so this small quality of life improvement is aimed to put it back on a similar footing to the other Medium ARs.

XP-54

• Increased ammo count from 34 to 36

_Dev Note: We’ve struggled for a few seasons now to find a sweet spot for the XP-54 where it’s desirable for Lights but not overpowered compared to other Light weapons. With each change, the weapon has swung from one state to the other, unfortunately never quite settling in a good place. This latest change is another attempt to get that balance right _

GAME UPDATE | CONTENT AND BUG FIXES

Animation

• Fixed hit reaction animations not displaying correctly on Riot Shield when struck by projectiles or melee attacks

• Improved cloth simulation to produce more natural bending and reduce clipping

• Fixed an issue where aiming with some gadgets could cause the character to over-rotate

• Fixed an issue where certain emotes could briefly replay when switching between menus, most noticeable with the Light Build

• Improved animation behavior when aiming down sights and moving

• Reduced weapon clipping with certain Outfits in menus by updating the poses for Lewis Gun, M60, Flamethrower, SH1900, Model 1887, and Sledgehammer

Audio

• Improved Minigun audio timing so firing stops immediately when released in order to reduce desync

• Considerably reduced Weapon audio latency on systems with at least 16GB of RAM

• Fixed an issue where the team wipe buzzer could play too late

• Fixed an issue where crowd audio could cut in and out

• Improved character movement foley with new clothing material variations and additional leg-specific audio sets

• Improved clothing movement sounds by refining loop pitch behavior and adding coverage for more outfits

• Fixed an issue where Weapon sounds could sometimes be replaced by audio from other weapons

Cosmetics

• Fixed a visual culling issue on the Point Proven emotes for OSPUZE and VOLPE

• Adjusted charm clipping on several Defibrillator skins

• Fixed pixelation on dirt details for the Lewis Gun Angel Clause skin

• Fixed an issue where the LH1 Feral Frequency skin’s magazine could be invisible on Low and Medium graphics settings

• Reduced the brightness of the clear tape on the Special Delivery AKM skin in darker areas to prevent a glowing appearance

• Reduced excessive cloth movement on the Argent Dominus Helm

• Fixed visual issues with several Emotes: the trophy no longer hovers during the Bigshot Show-Off Emote, the spyglass from Land Ahoy! no longer remains on screen after inspecting, and the Waking the Dragon Emote no longer clips into teammates in the pre-match line-up

• Bullets no longer appear to float when using the Repeater’s Mark of the Marooned skin

• Fixed an issue where the Dominion Drape lower-body item could be missing on Medium Contestants when using Low video settings

• Improved visual detail of the dragon pet during the Drag n’Load SR-84 Inspect animation to prevent a low‑poly appearance

• Fixed an issue where the Emotional Damage Emote’s heart effects could remain attached to the hand after the Emote was interrupted

• Added a pickup animation and improved the look of the interaction and recall animations on the Codex of Exile Multi-Device skin

• Fixed some Throwing Knives not showing the correct skin when sticking to soft or metal surfaces

• Fixed the Arcane Uplink Multi-Device skin so its fire effect now changes color when placement is invalid

• Updated cloth simulation on multiple outfits (coats, capes, skirts, hair) for more consistent movement

• Updated the charm ring placement for the Codex of Exile skin

• Reduced clipping in the neck and clavicle area on Contestants

• Fixed rendering issues with the Fertilizer Bag and Copper Coin String Charms

• Updated teeth shading to improve character appearance, 9 out of 10 digital dentists approve of this change

• Adjusted cape attachment and cloth simulation on The Sovereignless to fit different body types better and prevent clipping

• Added physics to the Ho Ho Hat, for no particular reason other than that we could

• Fixed the logic of the screen customization for the Codex of Exile Multi-device skin so incompatible screen options are now locked

• Fixed misaligned bowstring on the Cupid bow skin in the MVP screen

• Fixed an issue where the Time to Fret Emote’s sound effect could stop playing after repeated or interrupted use

• Improved compatibility between certain masks and hooded jackets

• Improved compatibility across headwear, hoods, and facewear to support more combinations

Gadgets

Data Reshaper

• Added input buffer time to improve stability during use

• Fixed an issue where using it on a Hover Pad over a pit would not credit an environmental elimination when an enemy fell

Hover Pad

• Fixed an issue where it could be destroyed when a Cashout vault opened

• Fixed an issue where it could spin erratically when an Anti-Gravity Cube was placed beneath it with Barricade or Guardian Turret attached

Jump Pad

• Fixed an issue where it could clip into the Cashout station

Dome Shield

• Fixed misaligned hit detection when using the Sheldon Shelldome or Island Pop skins

Game Modes

Cashout

• Fixed an issue where Vaults and Cashout Stations could continue spawning beyond the intended limit

Point Break

• Added Starlight Hollow to the regular map rotation

• Defender Gadgets left in captured zones now take damage over time until destroyed, reducing lingering threats after a zone changes control

• Fixed an issue where deployable Gadgets and Specializations could not be placed on Grand Vault barriers

• Added cover and tweaked defender borders to prevent spawn camping on Starlight Hollow

General

• Fixed an issue where backfilled players could spawn at initial spawn locations

Gameplay

• Fixed an issue where deploying a Healing Emitter or Guardian Turret near walls could launch players upward

• Fixed an issue where destroying a Hover Pad with CL-40, MGL32, or RPG-7 would not award an environmental elimination

• Fixed an issue where using Shockwave while carrying an item could cause the item to be dropped

• Shockwave now interrupts vaulting, preventing delayed knockback and unintended boosts

• Fixed an issue where players could be automatically detached when interacting near the top of vertical Ziplines, improving attachment and descent reliability

Maps

Fangwai City

• Fixed collision issues on one of the bridges

• Fixed an issue where the intro camera could clip through the jumbotron

Kyoto

• The Temple railing ends now block bullets

• Fixed missing collision on bamboo piles

Monaco

• Fixed an issue where the Quick Cash Tutorial could load the Monaco map twice

Skyway Stadium

• Fixed floating roof-ledge pillars in the Market District that could appear after a building was destroyed

• Fixed an indestructible roof piece

NOZOMI/CITADEL

• Improved stability and destruction at the VAIIYA Research Facility

• Fixed the VAIIYA sign being unbreakable

• Fixed a railing that blocked a vent and used the wrong material

• Fixed missing destruction effects on exterior stairs and stair casings

P.E.A.C.E. Center

• ALFA ACTA welcomes you back to the P.E.A.C.E. Center!

• Fixed an issue where multi-story buildings could remain suspended after ground-floor walls were destroyed

• Fixed trees that lacked collision

Las Vegas

• Increased health of larger planters to 800 from 400 so their health corresponds better to their size

Starlight Hollow

• Fixed an issue on where Light and Medium Contestants could get stuck under slanted thatch roofs in the Rival Farms area

• Fixed thatch roofs cracking visuals to appear as wood instead of concrete

• Adjusted barrel placement to resolve a visual overlap with a hay bale

• Fixed missing candles and corrected lighting on candle tables

• Updated building beams to the correct materials

• Fixed a movement and camera jitter issues when standing against barrels in certain areas

• Fixed an issue where destroyed oak tree stumps could have oversized collision, blocking movement.

Practice Range

• Updated trophies with Season 9 leaderboards

General

• Changed the health of shop storefronts from 500 to 2000 to make them more consistent with walls

• Updated wall trim on bottom floors to be destroyed when surrounding architecture is destroyed or dematerialised, improving player movement

• Adjusted ceiling destruction settings to reduce how much they break when surrounding structures are destroyed

Performance

• Improved boot and menu load times by optimizing how game data loads across multiple categories

• Upgraded XeSS to SDK version 3.0.0

• Improved performance by pre-loading destruction settings at level start to reduce potential hitching

• Optimized Game Show Events by loading assets asynchronously to reduce memory usage and improve performance

• Updated AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution to version 4 and set it as the default upscaler, with support added for FSR2, FSR3, and FSR4

• Hover Pads now correctly occlude after they finish spawning, improving performance and visual consistency

• Added support for PSSR 2 on PS5 Pro consoles

• Reduced latency by avoiding frame generation hooks when the feature is disabled or unsupported

• Improved performance when navigating the store

• Optimized visual effects for Orbital Lasers, Alien Invasion, and the Glitch Grenade to improve performance

Social

• Restored the voice chat Mute button for non-party teammates in the Social menu during matches

• Updated the Clubs menu so the Playstyle dropdown now correctly shows Cashout and Ranked Cashout

• Fixed an issue where controller users could not scroll to the bottom of the Friends list after switching back to the Friends tab in the Social menu

• Added an on-screen message when you reach the limit for outgoing friend requests

• Fixed an issue where the Emote Wheel could remain on screen after pressing L3 on a gamepad

• Fixed an issue where the online Club members counter could decrease by one when using Show As Offline

Specializations

Mesh Shield

• Improved status display to more accurately reflect regeneration

Shockwave

• Hitting a player now detaches them from ladders and Ziplines

• Fixed an issue where Shockwave could launch players much higher than intended when two were triggered simultaneously

• It now interrupts the Cloaking Device

Winch Claw

• Adjusted the pull on Hover Pads, preventing it from overshooting and stopping far from the player

Stability

• Fixed a rare crash that could occur when viewing the End of Round progression tab

• Fixed a crash that could occur, preventing the option to reconnect

• Fixed a potential crash when caching voice-over data

• Fixed a server crash that could occur after a round ended, sometimes when players disconnected and reconnected

• Prevent crash in AMD FSR when failing to load DLLs

• Addressed a rare crash that could occur during graphics upscaling initialization

• Fixed a crash that could occur in Power Shift

UI

• Apply Selective Shutdown system to comply with Korean regulations

• Removed an unintended clickable area next to tabs in the Seasonal Reward Shop and in

While the virtual bunnies are leaving the Arena and the Easter festivities are winding down, we’ve carved up a pretty neat Store update for you all as well as a fix for the automatic server selection. Check it out below!

**STORE **| BULL'S EYE BARREL SET

THE WOODEN ORIGINAL

For he was once only created for Contestants to mindlessly train upon him, chained to his own fate, Barrel has now freed himself and is looking to hand out some splinters in the Arena. Gone are the days of standing in Barry’s shadows, this time, Barrel will rise above the competition, a plank expression and a new target on his mind.

**GAME UPDATE **| BUG FIXES

Server Performance

• Fixed an issue that could cause players queuing from outside the EU, US and Asia to matchmake to servers from the wrong region when using “automatic” region selection

See you in the Arena!

HOP IN!

Easter has reached the Arena, and with that we’re bringing back a classic Limited-Time Mode with a twist alongside a freshly updated Store.

**EVENT **| BUNNY HOP

**Bunny Hop is now live! ** Fight for the control of the Easter-basket platform on Powershift with custom loadouts and, as a little twist, we’ve enabled Super Jump! Expect trouble from above, keep control of the platform and complete special contracts to earn some eggciting free rewards!

**STORE **| URBAN PALADIN SET

Your blade is forged from centuries of craftsmanship and imbued with modern technology, ready to take on any foe. The Urban Paladin Set combines the brutal strength of a knight armor while still being urban-ready for encounters under the bright spotlights of our Arenas. Victory will be your crowning.

Easter cosmetics are also back in store for the festive season!

**GAME UPDATE | **CONTENT AND BUG FIXES

Performance

• Fixed a Server Crash introduced in 10.0

• Fixed a bug with the disconnect penalty forgiveness introduced in 10.0 which caused players to still receive penalties, despite reconnecting and winning

SEE YOU IN THE ARENA!

SEASON 10 | FANTASY LEAGUE

FORGE YOUR PATH

Step into a world of steel, fire, and legend. Dart around the Arena with the new Aerialist Playstyle, duel to the death in the all-new Arena Starlight Hollow, and dress like the champion of your dreams with a fully loaded new Battle Pass!

We’re introducing improvements to Ranked Tournaments, quality of life changes across the board, and balance changes to fine tune your fight to the throne in this long-awaited medieval fantasy season. A magical new force is stirring in the depths of THE FINALS, enter the Fantasy League!

To experience the full visual patch notes please click this link.

Let’s take a closer look at everything new kicking off in Season 10!

**NEW PLAYSTYLE | **THE AERIALIST

Meet the Aerialist, the newest Playstyle for the Medium Body Type! Specialized in movement manipulation and traversal play, this is the ideal pick for Contestants who like to move with tactical unpredictability and disrupt their opponents. It comes with a quiver of bolts and a bold new take on teamplay!

Learn more about the New Specialization, Weapon, and Gadget below!

**NEW SPECIALIZATION | **SHOCKWAVE

Conjure and throw orbs which detonate on impact, pushing players and objects away from the blast with force! Detach mines and turrets, disrupt and displace opponents, and creatively traverse the Arena with the Shockwave.

**NEW WEAPON | **CHIMERA-XB

Bolt down the competition with this semi-automatic crossbow, a fast and precise Weapon for the Medium Build. Designed for quick follow-up shots and reliable hip-fire accuracy, the high fire rate makes the Chimera-XB a responsive and easy-to-handle option to complement agile Playstyles. Enjoy, Aerialists!

**

NEW GADGET **| HOVER PAD

Use this deployable platform hovering in mid-air to create temporary high ground anywhere in the Arena. Gain vertical advantages, support teammates, and create inventive traversal paths! The perfect stepping stone for creative minds.

**NEW ARENA | **STARLIGHT HOLLOW

Crafted by ALFA ACTA’s best engineers, enjoy sightseeing in this cozy village surrounded by fields of flowers, nestled in a forest straight out of a fairy tale. Despite the idyllic setting, this town wasn’t built for peace. Contestants will trample its flower beds, spill coins across the cobblestones, and rip it down to the foundation in both Point Break and Team Deathmatch! This quiet hamlet is ready for destruction!

Starlight Hollow was designed with the unique aspects of Point Break and TDM specifically in mind, with a narrow layout perfect for Attack and Defense phases. The Daytime and Nighttime variants each provide a different layer of charm and fantasy, providing a storied backdrop to the drama of combat.

To make it easier to experience this new location reliably, we’ve added a special button to World Tour that will guarantee you’ll play Point Break on Starlight Hollow every time! This Arena Debut will be the only place where you can experience this game mode on the new Map, otherwise, it will be in the normal rotation for TDM.

Starlight Hollow isn’t carrying the Fantasy League theme alone though!

Many Arenas have been given a magical twist. Fantasy themed decorations have been added throughout gameplay spaces and beyond. Enter the Arena through a newly enchanted intro tunnel, and keep an eye out for whimsical moments spread throughout the Maps!

**NEW FEATURE | **THE REWARD SHOP

Contestants returning from Season 9 may have some shiny new coins to spend at the Reward Shop!** **If you spent time grinding World Tour to Emerald or you placed Gold or above in Ranked Tournaments, you might have Emerald, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, or Ruby coins to spend.

Introduced in Season 9, rewards Coins will let you pick a skin for any Gadget or Weapon of your choice allowing you to show off just how many hard won battles you got through! In Season 10, you’ll be able to earn them all over again, and the road starts now!

Which Weapon or Gadget will you choose? Are you going to devastate your opponents with an Emerald AKM, or surprise them with your Ruby Proximity Sensor? How you flex is up to you now!

**S10 SPONSORSHIP | **ALFA ACTA

It’s time to sign! You have your pick of any Sponsor throughout the season, but you can only sign your allegiance to one at a time! The CEOs are watching your progress, so prove your loyalty or test out the competition for the better deal! The Fans you earn during a match will only go to the active Sponsor you are currently signed to, so don’t forget who you are representing in the Arena!

As the official Sponsor of Season 10, ALFA ACTA also offers a new loyalty track with fresh items. Go make a killing!

NEW TUTORIALS | THE FINALS ACADEMY

Namatama is here to help, and so is THE FINALS Academy!

Whether you're brand new, a little rusty, or looking to improve, THE FINALS Academy will provide tips and tricks to up your game! Discover new concepts to further your understanding of the Contestants and the Arena.

If these videos help you learn the ropes and make you a better contender, you might find more like them from content creators online! Over time, we’ll be expanding on this series. Join the Official Discord to share ideas on courses that the Academy should offer next!

QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS

Season 10 is bringing many improvements to core features of THE FINALS.

**QUALITY OF LIFE | **MVP SCREEN & MATCH RECAP IMPROVEMENTS

The Match Recap screen has been updated with a more detailed and streamlined flow, displaying even more information to players, including an MVP screen to honor the best Contestants in the Match! Keep track of your performance and focus on your strengths!

We are also introducing a Best Score screen that will show between rounds in Cashout. This will highlight the best player for combat, support, and objective categories.

To top it off, before the regular scoreboard screen at the end of a match, the new Personal Stats & Player Performance screen will let you know where you stand. We hear that graduates of THE FINALS Academy see a big improvement…

**QUALITY OF LIFE | ** PING WHEEL

A big area of focus for Season 10 is to improve teamplay in the game, especially for solo players who prefer not to use voice comms. To help achieve this goal we’ve made a range of significant additions and improvements to our Ping Wheel systems, in order to enable more teamplay.

The updated ping system is more responsive and reliable, making it easier to communicate information quickly during a Match. It also includes lots of additional voice lines for specific items and objectives in the world.

But wait, there’s two additional ping wheels at your disposal!

The new Comms Wheel is available to eliminated players, allowing them to message teammates while incapacitated. This includes calling for revives, informing teammates you’ll be using a Respawn Coin, or telling them to hold off on bringing you back so you can change your Loadout!

The new Equipment Status Wheel allows players to make callouts to teammates about the status of each item in their inventory by, for example, letting them know whether their RPG is available or on cooldown. Communication is key!

On top of that, we’ve added controls that make pinging more reliable, allowing players to adjust how accurate ping clicks need to be. Got a ping spammer on your team? You can mute their pings easily now!

**QUALITY OF LIFE | **CONTROLLER REWORK AND INPUT IMPROVEMENTS

This update gives controller players a better, more customizable, experience. By addressing long-standing input issues and adding new customization options, it makes key actions more reliable, improves input flexibility and provides greater control over aim assist and gameplay settings.

The Toggle Interactions setting allows players to act without holding down the button, keeping them free to aim, look around, and react. Similarly, the autosprint option can be triggered on customizable input thresholds.

Input buffering has been added to more key actions, making it more reliable to grab objects and interact with things like Ziplines and doors. More input hints will also be given to ensure key actions are clearly highlighted as available.

Finally, the new aim assist settings give controller players finer control over Sensitivity Reduction and Target Tracking, allowing you to tune aiming to your preferred playstyle.

**RANKED TOURNAMENTS | **SEASON 10 CHANGES

With World Tour progress becoming earnable via any game mode in Season 9, we’ve seen the number of players participating in Ranked Cashout increase by around 25%, which is amazing!

We want the Ranked experience to get even better, and with Season 10 we’re starting a strong push to improve Ranked Cashout over the next few seasons.

This begins with a number of big changes. In Season 10, we are adjusting the matchmaking algorithm for Ranked so that full parties of three and teams made up of solo players are separated more often when possible. While we can’t always fully separate them, especially during quieter times of day, this should significantly reduce how often these teams meet.

Additionally, we’re introducing a restriction where parties of two cannot queue for Ranked together if they are more than 10,000 RS apart. This change is to protect solo players, who often suffer when matched with a duo of high skill disparity, leaving their team under-strength for their matchmaking tier. This restriction does not apply during placement matches or for parties of three, and should only negatively impact around 5% of duo Ranked rounds.

Other Ranked changes include: the replacement of Tournament Difficulty with the more accurate attributes of Tournament Skill Range and Tournament Goal, penalty forgiveness if a disconnected player reconnects late but still wins the round, and greater transparency around opposing teams’ skill ratings when exiting tournaments. We’re also updating Ranked Score (RS) calculations to make first round losses as a 1st seeded team in Bronze, Silver and Gold tiers slightly less punishing.

To improve placement matches, starting with Season 10, the initial rank compression that happens during placement matches will be less aggressive than during previous seasons. As a result, placement will now cover a wider range of possible ranks, extending up to Platinum, reducing situations where very high ranked players are matched against much lower ranked teams.

Work on Ranked will continue into S11, where among other things, we’re hoping to add a small RS bonus per match based on players’ personal performance.

**SOCIAL UPDATE | **VOICE CHAT & EMOTES

Substantial work has been done to improve the VOIP system. Players can now expect a more reliable experience when communicating with other players over voice chat.

We adjusted voice chat to support a new team flow, and improved the messages displayed in the chat. You should now switch fluidly between party chat in the lobby and team chat in game. Display Names should also be more consistent and show the correctly.

We’ve also improved several Social features, giving more reliable status updates for Friends and Club members, and making the recently played list much more efficient by displaying how long it’s been since the last time you played with each person.

And for an additional bit of fun, you can now emote in the main menu, solo or with friends! They will be able to see you emoting for some synchronized goodness. Enjoy!

**BATTLE PASS | **FREE, PREMIUM, ULTIMATE

Do you consider yourself a Knight or perhaps more of a court Jester? No need to pick your favorite when you can have them all in the Season 10 Battle Pass. Show your class and your drip with brand new, fantastical looks that will add a magical flair to your wardrobe!

Get the Premium Battle Pass and unlock up to 106 Rewards, including bonus pages as well as the ability to earn 1575 Multibucks, more than enough to buy next Season’s pass!

For those in the mood for something even more epic, The Ultimate Battle Pass is also available, with 12 additional rewards including legendary outfits! Start your season with 20 Levels unlocked and a 25% Match XP boost, perfect to collect those 2575 Multibucks, of which you get 1000 right away!

The Season 7 Battle Pass is also joining the legacy roster!

**NEW SOUNDTRACK | SEASON 10 **

In the words of our Audio Director Carl Strandberg, “Contestants, prepare your spellbooks for the wizardry that is the Season 10 Soundtrack! The Music team has been hard at work summoning dark, arcane energy and combining it with the light that is the classic sound of THE FINALS. Featuring mountain-moving drums, war horns that can rally hordes, shimmering synths, and even some magical vocals, this season's soundtrack is sure to keep you spellbound.”

Check out the new Season 10 soundtrack!

https://lnk.to/thefinalss10ost

**END OF AN ERA | **PS4 SUPPORT

As announced earlier in the 8.9 Update, we will be retiring PS4 support for THE FINALS with the start of Season 10. Your progress and purchases will be stored on your Embark ID and will transfer to anywhere you choose to play.

Our focus is on delivering the best experience possible across modern platforms, taking full advantage of the innovation that drives THE FINALS forward and unfortunately supporting older hardware hinders that pursuit and ambition.

We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who’s been part of the PS4 community, and we hope to see you in the Arena again!

DISCORD QUEST | SKILL ISSUE 3.0 SET

Skill Issue? At least you won’t experience any Drip Issue with the newest Discord Quest.

Starting now, accept the Discord Quest, play THE FINALS for 15 minutes and earn the Skill Issue 3.0 set! Make sure to complete your quest before April 5th!

You can redeem your code on the Embark website: (https://id.embark.games/id/the-finals/giveaway))

REWARDS | TWITCH DROPS

Don’t tell Barbara from accounting we are using her items!

Collect the newest Twitch Drops from now until April 9 by watching your favorite creators (or just tune in to the 24 hours release stream!). Link your Twitch account with your Embark Id, watch a THE FINALS streamer with drops enabled, and let the rewards roll in.

• Watch 1 hour to get the Accounting Services Charm

• Watch 2 hours to get the Barbara’s Red Review Facewear

• Watch 4 hours to get the Audit Authority Breach Drill

Calvin will attest, she's the perfect coworker in the Arena!

**LOOKING AHEAD | **NEW ROADMAP

We’re also sharing** a first look at what’s coming next. **For the first time, we’re opening up our Year 3 Roadmap, including Seasons 11 and 12.

It’s an early preview, not final, and there’s still more to come, but it provides a sneak peek into what we’re building this year.

Balance Changes

Gadgets

Data Reshaper

• Data Reshaper can now reshape objects through Dome Shield and Mesh Shield Dev Note: We’ve wanted to nudge up the viability of the Data Reshaper and this change, which makes the Reshaper somewhat of a hard-counter to Dome Shields, should be able to help with that.

Hover Pad

• Added the Hover Pad Gadget to the Medium archetype

Lockbolt

• Decreased cooldown from 40s to 30s

• Decreased lock duration from 8s to 7s Dev Note: The Lockbolt has seen pretty low pick rates in recent seasons and we’d like to boost its viability. This change to cooldown should make it more desirable.

Nullifier

• Decreased cooldown from 25s to 18s Dev Note: This change is one of three changes to Gadget cooldown rates, including the Sonar Grenade and the Thermal Bore. These are small nudges to increase the viability of these otherwise underused items.

Sonar Grenade

• Decreased cooldown from 40s to 34s

Thermal Bore

• Decreased cooldown from 35s to 25s

Game Modes

Cashout

• Introduced new spawn point selection logic in the Final Round for when a team respawns after a team wipe. This change also applies to Ranked Cashout _Dev Note: This change significantly reduces the impact players from rival teams can have on spawn point selection, preventing issues where defending teams would spread out to block various spawn points. With this change, lone defenders who are away from their teammates may find the respawning team spawning very close to them. _

• Updated the logic used for spawn point selection when a player uses a coin to respawn, making the distance to teammates more consistent and reducing the frequency of longer spawn distances. This change also applies to Ranked Cashout

• Increased the amount of XP and FANS earned for completing objectives in Cashout and Ranked Cashout modes _ _

Point Break

• Added Nozomi/Citadel to the Point Break map pool

• Updated spawn point selection in Point Break mode to better place the player near active objectives

• Attackers now earn +5 respawn coins per Grand Vault destroyed rather than +

This is it, Contestants, one more week until we officially launch Season 10 of THE FINALS. Keep an eye on our social channels, we have a lot more to share.

It’s also time for you to get those last Battle Pass levels, finish your Ranked and World Tour seasonal journey and participate in the final push in Sponsor Showdown and make the CEOs proud. We’ll see you in the Arena.

STORE | RAYZER S-TEAM SET**

**

This week welcomes the return of one of the legend from the S-Team, Rayzer himself. Effective entry and clean swipe is the motto. No amount of preparation and defenses can keep him and his team away from their objective, and 2nd place is not an option.

LUCK N’ LOADED

What’s at the end of a rainbow? Looks like a brand-new Store update!

Don’t forget Sponsor Showdown is also still live and we’re already seeing some Contestants putting a lot of work in the Arena to help their Sponsor climb the rankings! Nothing is set in stone, so don’t let your guard down just yet. The CEOs are watching!

**STORE **| CHARM OFFENSIVE SET

If you’re in need of a new pair of lucky socks, we’ve got you covered.

This week is all about giving you that little extra edge over the competition, no rules broken, pinky promise. So jump into the Arena and bet big on your next Cashout attempt…this just might be your lucky day!

We’ve pushed a fix to an issue where the Discord SDK saved excessive user information when logging was enabled. No private and/or personal data was collected or shared by Embark. This fix has removed the excessive logging from happening. For additional measures, we’re conducting a deeper audit to ensure no further issues. If you have questions or concerns, please contact our support team.

It is time for you to pick the sponsor you want to represent for this season’s Sponsor Showdown Event and make them proud. We’ve also enabled the Chun Jie Bonus XP and Fans Event to make your progress even faster! All of this alongside a brand new Store update, free Twitch drops and some bug-fixes, check it all out below:

**EVENT **| SPONSOR SHOWDOWN

Sponsor Showdown is now live, and it’s your mission to hop into the Arena, no matter the game-mode you play, and earn as many Fans as possible to help your Sponsor shine in the rankings. This season, every single Sponsor is participating, and we’re not locking you to any one of them. The leaderboard is live, may the best Sponsor win!

Let the Showdown begin!

**EVENT **| CHUN JIE BONUS XP

Need a hand to finish those last few Battle Pass levels? Well now is the perfect time, the Chun Jie Bonus XP and Fans event is live! Now and until the end of the season, you can earn up to 200% XP for Daily Contracts and up to 150% XP and Fans for gameplay.

**STORE **| EXTRACURRICULAR CREW SET

Most people say they came in peace, but a few know they really came to Earth to party. This week, expect visitors from outer space to come down and visit the Arena, incognito, fully blending in with the rest of.. you all. By the way, have you checked on your dog recently?

Thirsty for more? We’re extending a big thank you to OSPUZE for sponsoring this week’s Store update with the incredible Unquenchable Set. ** Clench. Cosmic. Thirst. **

**TWITCH DROPS **| HELPING HANDS

We’ve welcomed a lot of new Contestants into the Arena lately! To celebrate all of the new players joining us as well as the ones who have been here since the start, we’ve prepared some new additions to your wardrobe. You can now earn the “Free Advice” Emblem, the “Wing It Protocol” Top and the “Precision Protocol” Hoodie by watching anyone playing THE FINALS on Twitch with Drops Enabled!

Available now until March 19

**PERFORMANCE **| SERVER IMPROVEMENTS

With tremendous thanks to our community on Discord, we were able to track down a server cluster issue that was impacting the West Coast from Feb 12-25. This issue caused lag for a large portion of our players, and has now been fixed. Your quick alerts really helped us locate and solve the issue! Those who were adversely affected should now have a much smoother experience.

Balance Changes

Game Modes

Point Break

• Increased the Objective Score given for capturing Grand Vaults from 100 to 1,000

• Increased the Objective Score given for eliminating opponents near Grand Vaults from 25 to 250

• Increased objective score by 10x for capturing objectives and eliminating opponents near objectives

Content and Bug Fixes

Cosmetics

• Improved visuals on multiple skins for the M11

• Fixed an issue where the stomach could appear compressed when wearing certain skirts with crop tops

• The Chart-Topper Emote that was reverted to match the store video now has two versions! The Chart-Topper and Chart-Stopper Emotes! Everyone who already owns The Chart-Topper Emote will soon have the Chart-Stopper Emote, too! Anyone purchasing in the future will receive both, so you can dance however you like!

• Removed compatibility with crossbody items on the Wise-Wing Jumper to reduce mesh clipping.

• Fixed clipping on the Renegade Wrap Playful Spirit top to improve fit and appearance in low settings

• Fixed a visible hole on the Final Mantra outfit

Maps

General

• Removed Lunar New Year lanterns and restored standard map rotation, bringing back blue healing visuals in Seoul, Monaco, and Las Vegas

• Re-enabled the Duck and Cover map variant

Fang Wai City

• Fixed missing collision that allowed players to go out of bounds and access unintended areas on a map

• The ocean in the backdrop was sometimes not visible, creating a gap in the terrain. We have now made sure that the backdrop water asset is loading in correctly

UI

• Fixed an issue where Multibucks rewards did not display quantity or rarity

We’ve restocked the Store with a fresh new drop of content alongside a sale on some old favorites, so make sure to take a look! This is also the last week to play Bank It, so jump in, collect red envelopes, and don’t forget to cash them in!

**STORE UPDATE **| CURTAIN CALLER

It’s time for you to be making your ceremonial entrance into the Arena with the Curtain Caller set. Stay focused and let the other teams know you’re the one running the show. Curtain’s up! All the Arena’s your stage.

**LUNAR NEW YEAR **| LAST WEEK

Bank It is still here for another week! We hope you’ve been successful in banking red envelopes as well as lighting up your lanterns for the Collection Event. While the time is up to collect tickets, you can still redeem any unused tickets until next week as well as purchase rewards if you have missed any.

Contestants! We have crafted a very cool high-tech Store update for you all featuring the Longwei Prime Pack as well as some extra goodies, courtesy of IVADA!

Also, we’ll be running Season 9 for one additional week on top of the original schedule to allow the team to polish the upcoming Season 10 and take it to the next level. We’ve been locked in on building the next season of THE FINALS, and we can’t wait to start sharing more with you all very soon!

Let’s take a look at what’s in store:

**STORE UPDATE **| LONGWEI PRIME PACK

Forged in tradition, engineered for stealth, your return to the Arena will be felt by those who will dare to attempt crossing you. This week, IVADA is proudly sponsoring the highest form of tech in THE FINALS, which is now fully embedded inside you.

Hello Contestants!

We’re pushing an update through now that will fix the broken text strings that some players have been seeing in-game since Update 9.9.0. This issue was caused by an update to the system we use for text strings. Everyone should see the correct names with this fix!

As always, we thank you for all the reports.

SEE YOU IN THE ARENA!

A beautiful moon takes over the Arena, and rising lanterns float upwards, casting a soft glow across the Arena. The Lunar New Year festivities have officially started in THE FINALS!

Don’t miss the Lunar New Year decor scattered across many of the maps in the Arena. Pick prizes from the lanterns in the Lunar New Year collection event, and say hello to Bank It, a fan favorite returning as a limited time mode.

Alongside a refreshed store, you can also earn a brand-new set of free Twitch drops and read about some balance changes to weapons like the CB-01 Repeater, and more!

Check out the details below:

**COLLECTION EVENT **| LUNAR NEW YEAR

Light em’ up!

Complete 3 daily contracts to light up a lantern each day and earn up to 15 free Lunar New Year-themed rewards, including the Legendary Final Mentra set!

We’ve also tuned the event a bit to make it easier for everyone, as you will now only need to collect 12 out of the 14 rewards in order to unlock the Legendary set! If you still end up missing a reward, the option to purchase any reward with Multibucks is also available.

**ARENA UPDATES **| LUNAR NEW YEAR DECOR

The Arena is aglow with Lunar New Year decorations lighting up selected maps! Visit Fangwai City, Las Vegas, Monaco, Seoul, and Fortune Stadium to embrace the festive spirit!

**LTM **| BANK IT

A classic in THE FINALS is now back as a Limited-Time Mode!

That’s right, Bank It is making its return as you race to eliminate your opponents and collect precious red envelopes to bring them safely to a Deposit Station. Be on your guard, the more envelopes you collect, the longer and more visible the trail behind you becomes, making you a prime target to eliminate.

Unlock vaults, eliminate your opponents, steal their envelopes, and don’t wait too long to **Bank It! **

**STORE **| REVENANT SETS

It has been said that they never truly left the Arena. Step into the boots of the mysterious spirits inside THE FINALS with the Ling Shen and Graveward Revenant sets and chase down your opponents in a relentless pursuit for vengeance. Oh, and… a duck.

**TWITCH DROPS **| BOOTLEG HOTLINE

**Wireless. Sort of. ** File your HOLTOW insurance claim hands-free thanks to your brand-new, sturdy, 45 EU-sized phone that’s been laced with the latest tech! Call a friend and make a sole-ful connection or stay dialed in from head to toe! If you listen carefully, you might even hear Oscar say “Hello?”

Watch anyone playing THE FINALS with Drops Enabled to earn the “Hello?” Emoticon, “Cold Call Relic” Charm and the “Bootleg Hotline” headwear.

Impressive how far technology has come. This has been a real step up in communications. Available until Feb 26.

Balance Changes

Weapons

BFR Titan

• Decreased damage from 90 to 88

• Increased manual action duration from 0.73s to 0.745s, causing the gun to fire slower

• This change effectively decreases the BFR’s fire rate from 82RPM to 80.5RPM

• Decreased damage falloff minimum range from 30m to 25m, giving the weapon a slightly shorter effective range

• Decreased damage falloff max range from 45m to 40m, giving the weapon a slightly shorter effective range

• Decreased damage falloff multiplier from 0.7 to 0.65, reducing the weapon’s damage at range

_Dev Note: These changes are aimed at reducing the Heavy’s ability to ‘poke’ at ranged compared to the Medium and especially the Light, as we feel the ‘poke’ meta has become a bit too possible for the non-Light archetypes. With a low ammo weapon like the BFR, there’s little room to balance here, but we believe these changes should weaken the Heavy’s ability to ‘poke’. This and the CB-01 change were originally planned for 9.7, but held back for further testing. _

CB-01 Repeater

• Decreased damage from 88 to 84

• Increased lever action duration from 0.71s to 0.73s, causing the gun to fire slower

• This change effectively decreases the CB-01’s fire rate from 84.5RPM to 82RPM

• Decreased damage falloff minimum range from 40m to 35m, giving the weapon a slightly shorter effective range

• Decreased damage falloff max range from 45m to 40m, giving the weapon a slightly shorter effective range

• Decreased damage falloff multiplier from 0.7 to 0.64, reducing the weapon’s damage at range

Dev Note: As with the BFR changes above, these changes are aimed at reducing the ‘poke’ strength of the Medium, while also making the Pike-335 a more comparable weapon choice for long-ranged Medium players

Cerberus 12GA

• Increased pellet count from 11 to 13

• Decreased damage from 9 to 8 per pellet

• Updated pellet pattern to fit the new pellet count and normalize distribution, making the weapon more consistent

• Decreased the heat generated per pellet to account for the extra pellets. The ignition point for players/objects catching fire should remain the same as before

Dev Note: These changes are aimed at bringing the Cerberus back to viability, without it becoming as overpowered as it has been in some previous seasons. To get the right level of overall damage, we needed to increase the pellet count to give us more room to work with. The damage per pellet was reduced to offset this a little, but the change effectively results in a buff from 99 damage per shot to 104, excluding fire damage.

LH1

• Reduced camera shake from firing the weapon by approximately 50%, increasing readability between shots

Content and Bug Fixes

Animation

• Fixed an issue where animations for throwing a Grenade or interrupting a throw could sometimes fail to play

• Fixed an issue where the Flip-Out Flayer skin for the Dagger could appear to float during inspect

• Improved crouch pose, turning while crouching, and slide transitions for smoother visuals and more consistent motion when transitioning to standing and running

• Fixed an issue where first-person animations could continue playing after switching to third-person view (for example, by activating the Mesh Shield or the Spear’s alternate attack), causing visual inconsistencies

• Fixed an issue where the left hand could shake while sliding with the .50 Akimbo Manual Ballistics skin_ (Pew pew!)_

• Fixed an issue where a Contestant’s feet could appear misaligned during movement

• Fixed an issue where switching between teammates while spectating could sometimes carry over animations and give the appearance of a player performing a Quick Melee movement

• Fixed a bug where using the Gateway while swapping weapons could result in incorrect animations or deformed weapon and arm visuals

• Fixed a bug where the initial spawn animation could sometimes trigger when being revived with the Defibrillator

• Updated the Tracking Dart’s ADS firing animation to be less aggressive

Audio

• Fixed audio stutters when sliding on stairs or debris

• Fixed an issue where Quick Melee sounds from other players sometimes would not play

• Fixed inconsistent sprinting footstep sounds when the Riot Shield is equipped

• Added a sound when players pick up deployed Gadgets so others can hear the action

• Fixed missing water impact sounds for melee hits

• Fixed an issue where Repeater reload sounds could continue playing after the reload was interrupted

• Fixed an issue where movement sound effects would sometimes play while idling with the Riot Shield

Cosmetics

• Volpe Bout Blanket now displays the proper decal, which matches the icons

• Ensured that Gala Guard Cut, Gothic Leather Pants, Bouncer Trim, Kabuto, and Tosei Gusuoku items display correctly on both High and Low graphics settings

• Fixed an issue where the Contestant icon on Player Cards could appear grayed out or show an outdated look after equipping an item from the Store

• Adjusted the The Fumigator facewear to prevent clipping when combined with headwear

• Fixed an issue causing Catastrophe Grin (The ÖRF! mascot head) to appear low-resolution in the Contestant Screen on low settings

• Fixed an issue where Light characters’ heels appeared to be floating when wearing the Ascendant Soles boots

• Fixed an issue where the Pocket Pop & Play charm would activate when not visible

• We’ve updated the Chart-Topper emote to better match the intended movement

Game Mode

General

• Fixed an issue in the drafting screen where the team loadout overlay could appear under the wrong squad member or fail to update when teammates changed Contestants

Cashout

• Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause a 7th and 8th Vault to spawn in Cashout matches

Point Break

• Updated the Lockbolt to allow it to attach to Grand Vaults again

• Slightly increased the effect of the Anti-Gravity Cube on Grand Vaults _Dev note: With the addition of constraint zones around the objective in 9.7, which prevent the Grand Vaults being moved too far from their original spawn location, we feel we can now increase the impact of Anti-Gravity Cubes on the Grand Vaults without significant negative effects _

**Private Matches **

• To celebrate the Lunar New Year LTM, Bank It has been temporarily added back to the Mode pool

Gameplay

General

• Fixed a bug where Practice Range Bots would stop shooting when players stood too close to them

• Fixed flower pots across several maps not triggering the Fatal Florist achievement

• Fixed an issue where reloading while carrying objects would not reload the Weapon correctly when playing with gamepad

• Removed an unintended camera shake in spectator free-cam when observing a Contestant firing Tracking Darts

• Fixed an issue where explosive canisters sometimes failed to display explosion effects, particularly when struck with melee in the Practice Range

Maps

General

• Improved the look of billboard videos in Monaco and Seoul

• Reduced the brightness of certain lamps in nighttime map variants to prevent glare and improve visibility

• Increased the health of rooftops in Monaco and Kyoto to make them consistent with other structural elements

• Temporarily removed the Duck and Cover variant due to compatibility issues with the Lunar New Year Event decor

• Fixed an issue where hanging clothes and other simple destructible props, wall decals, and fixtures could remain floating or fail to break after nearby structures were destroyed

Nozomi Citadel

• Polished arena signs and improved visuals and collision

Fortune Stadium

• Rolled out improved destruction, adding impact damage, to deliver more consistent, reliable, and dynamic destruction

• Corrected misplaced rubble piles and fixed culling and collision issues after building destruction

• Fixed an issue where a staircase pillar had no collision after being destroyed

Seoul

• Fixed a visual jitter that could occur when the large apartment building collapses

• Fixed a railing near the Data Center that could not be destroyed

• Fixed an issue where apartment buildings didn’t respond correctly to environmental damage

Fangwai City

• Adjusted the tournament intro lighting to improve visibility

• Fixed a gap in the ground that could appear after destroying a building

• Corrected flickering on an uphill road section

• Adjusted Zipline and Jump Pad placement

SysHorizon

• Fixed doorframes to resolve visibility issues in multiple locations

Kyoto

• Temple ceiling decorations now break when the supporting structure is destroyed to improve consistency

• Fixed three ladders to improve traversal reliability

• Adjusted a garden Zipline to better align with nearby Jump Pads

• Reduced light leakage on rooftops to improve lighting quality

• Trees can now be destroyed by the environment

• The Pagoda has received Smooth Destruction to allow for more dynamic collapses and knock-on effects

• Updated banners to break on touch so they no longer block rockets and grenades

Las Vegas Stadium

• Fixed visible floor gaps in the Engimo building

Bernal

• Fixed an issue where multiple suspended structures could collapse after removing a single hook

Skyway

• Fixed a weak spot in the destruction that could cause parts of a building to collapse incorrectly

Performance

• Improved performance of environmental destruction updates, especially regarding small changes to large structures

• Fixed an issue where the shader stutter warning could appear incorrectly during gameplay

• Reduced frame hitches when loading player assets during matches

• Shader preloading is now significantly faster in subsequent runs

• FSR and DLSS Frame Generation now requires a restart to turn on in the settings and will reduce the memory usage and latency, especially with vsync turned on

• Optimized CPU performance of in-game billboard videos

• Fixed an issue where changing graphics settings could cause Weapons or hands to appear distorted or to temporarily not render

• Reduced hitches and stutters when items and cosmetics are granted or when switching Contestants

Social

• Fixed an issue where typing past the 16-character limit when editing your Embark ID could disable the Confirm button

• Fixed a bug where friends who set "Show As Offline" could disappear from the Friends list until reopening the Social menu

• Fixed an issue where Point Break was missing from the Clubs preferred game mode list, making it selectable again in the Playstyle dropdown

• Platform friends who choose to appear offline are now shown as offline in Clubs, and inviting to Party from the Clubs screen respects their hidden status

• Fixed an issue where the Club Contracts tab could show placeholder icons or hide contracts when using languages other than English

• Console players can now open a player's profile directly from the match summary scoreboard

• Embark ID is now the primary name shown across all platforms. On consoles, platform display name is also shown next to the platform icon on player profiles

Specializations

Winch Claw

• Fixed an issue where the Winch Claw sometimes wouldn't work when activated immediately after vaulting

• Fixed an issue where a Charge N Slam from teammates could cancel Winch Claw hooks, causing hooks to break unexpectedly

Spectator

• Fixed several issues with the Statue camera: it now respects the option to avoid spectating statues, no longer switches to destroyed statue markers, prevents jitter when teammates block the view, and removes a brief jump to an unrelated location when your team is eliminated

• Spectating now works as intended and updates the spectated statue’s status correctly

• Fixed cases where switching to Free-Fly Cam at the moment the viewed player is eliminated could leave the camera tilted or keep unintended camera effects

• Fixed an issue where the spectator camera could get stuck or lose its target after the last followed player was eliminated

Stability

• Fixed a rare client crash

• Fixed a crash that could occur at the end of a match in scenarios involving the Anti-Gravity Cube

UI

• Fixed an issue where the player marker scale option didn’t change the actual marker size

• Fixed a bug where adding a secondary keybind overwrote the primary keybind in the next round

• Fixed an issue where creating a new default Outfit could replace thumbnails of previously saved Outfits

• Fixed an issue where deleting a duplicated Outfit could turn some thumbnails black

• Fixed an issue where the post-elimination Player Card could appear blank or show a hologram instead of the correct Contestant model

• Fixed an issue where the first loadout icon could appear blurry after launching the game

• Increased visibility of on-screen hit markers against solid-color backgrounds

• Adjusted controller bindings for the Equipment Wheel preset: fixed overlap between Ping and the Communication Wheel so pinging works again, restored the Equipment Wheel direction on the gadget radial, and moved Go To Marker to the right face button

• Added clearer communication to the end of round in Point Break to enhance player understanding of match outcomes

An Update from Anti-Cheat _ _

Hello from the anti-cheat team!

In the patch notes for our 9.0 update we described how we’ve been significantly increasing our cheat detection capabilities, enabling us to detect even more types of cheats with higher precision. In this update, we want to give you an idea of how some of this technology works to help give you a better sense of what we’ve been doing, and to address some worries we’ve seen the community discussing related to the notion of false bans.

To start off, I think we should put cheating in THE FINALS into some kind of context. At present, on any given day and calculated across all players, only about 0.02% of players receive a ban. This is a relatively small number of bans, but online discussions can make it seem otherwise.

So how do we know bans aren’t false? Let’s examine one example that showcases the kinds of detections we have been working on and the process we go through before introducing them into the game.

In THE FINALS, weapon recoil must be manually controlled. Each burst generates hundreds of mouse or controller inputs. Human recoil control produces organic, noisy patterns.

For example, the image below shows a natural recoil pattern with the M11, where the player has tried to control the weapon. Below that is the output of the player’s mouse, showing the sort of natural pattern we see with natural, human recoil control.

By comparison, cheats such as aimbots, XIM devices, recoil scripts, or spoofed aim

We’re kicking off the return of Super Cashball for a special weekend, with a brand-new fresh field on the CA$HBALL ARENA, your team’s outfits, and a shiny new ball! Grab your cleats and get ready to tackle some grass stains and some Contestants!

We’re gearing up for love day with a new Event Battle Pass! The Heartbreaker ‘26 Pass, perfect for the upcoming Valentine’s Day. Whether you get it for yourself or a loved one, it is sure to make an impact! Show your love in the Arena, but also please focus on the objective…

**LTM **| SUPER CASHBALL WEEKEND

SUPER CASHBALL returns for five days only in a high-stakes weekend event, putting teamwork, timing, and smart plays at the center of the action! Squads will** face off in 5v5 matches** where crisp passes, clutch scores, and every decision can turn the score. It’s all about reading the field, trusting your lineup, and cashing in when it counts.

_Time to hit the locker room! _

**EVENT **| HEARTBREAKER ‘26 PASS

Cupid doesn't miss, and neither does this pass!

Fall hard into the Arena with the HEARTBREAKER ’26 Pass. **Two full pages of unlockable gear **that will get your heart racing await you in this limited-time holiday Battle Pass! Get it before it's gone, but once you have it, unlock it at your own pace!

Love hurts, but so does everything else in the Arena!

**STORE **| FIZZY LINEBREAKER

** **POP. POUR. GOAL!

Let the whole Arena know OSPUZE has your back with the Fizzy Linebreaker set. Built for your protection and definitely not for your opponent's comfort once they meet your padded shoulders. Match it with the Homecoming Reign and Homecoming Hit sets for the perfect blend of sporty and spirited!

**TWITCH DROPS **| FIELD TRAINED

We’re adding two new additional drops to the current rotation!

You can now also earn the Game Plan Multidevice Screen and the Iron Spiral Frag Grenade by watching anyone playing THE FINALS with Drops Enabled. Whether you want to feel the grass beneath your feet or watch the game from the bleachers, you’ve got two new ways to celebrate SUPER CASHBALL WEEKEND!