Patchnotes

Open Beta

OB INITIAL CHANGES

Iconic Arenas

• NEW Skyway Stadium — Experience the ever-changing Skyway Stadium, where players can test their limits in this treacherous playground.
• Monaco – Play through the cobblestone streets of Monaco, making it a perfect map for destruction and closed-quartered combat.
• Seoul – Fight atop towering skyscrapers in downtown Seoul with fast paced, vertical gameplay. Be careful to watch where you step so you don’t fall.

New and Updated Game Modes

• NEW Bank-It — Four teams of three battle it out for coins in this casual-friendly, combat-focused mode. The team that reaches the max limit first, or the team with the most cash banked at the end of the round, wins.
• Unranked Tournament — A Cashout mode where four teams of three compete to find cashboxes and deposit them in vaults, in an unranked tournament format with three rounds and 24 players in total.
• Ranked Tournament — A Cashout mode with four teams of three in a ranked tournament format with four rounds and 48 players in total.
• Quick Cash — A casual-friendly variant of Cashout in a 3v3v3 format. This mode has longer matches, faster respawn timers, faster extraction times and only one vault at a time.
• Practice Range — A place for contestants to test weapons, gadgets, movement—and of course, destruction.

Contestant progression

• The free Open Beta BattlePass will include 16 exclusive rewards that, if unlocked, will be transferred to the full game at launch
• Item progression will include 5 Mastery Levels per weapon

League Progression

• Five Leagues (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond) will include permanent rewards for each tier, along with an exclusive Legendary Diamond Weapon Skin reward for contestants who reach Diamond tier.

Even More Content

• The open beta will feature 20 Weapons, 26 Gadgets and 9 abilities for contestants to choose from, as well as improvements to performance, movement, teamplay, and more.

Open Beta - Patch 0.4.0

Fixes and Updates

• Anti-Cheat
• Overall improvements to our anti-cheat systems
• Lowered detection thresholds in our internal systems to strengthen the identification of unfair play
• Added additional blocklist of third-party systems

Contracts

• Removed contracts related to the Bank It mode that weren’t correctly awarded

Crashes

• Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred when reporting a player
• Fixed a crash caused by having players on the blocked player list
• Deployable Shield
• Fixed broken collision on Deployable Shields that could cause the game to run slower.

Glitch Trap

• Increased ammo amount from 1 to 2

Goo

• Fixed a bug where Goo sometimes got welded to fractured structures
• Added timed destruction events to Goo, for better overall behavior
• Fixed an issue where Deployable Barricades attached to Goo caused catastrophic explosions

Matchmaking

• Fixed an issue where backfilling wouldn’t work if a player disconnected during matchmaking

UI

• Fixed a bug where an incorrect or missing number of VRs could be shown on the end-of-match review screen
• Fixed a bug where party members and the party leader would see different matchmaking messages
• Removed ‘Leave Party’ button for players not in a party
• Fixed contestant icons on PlayStation 5 that were difficult to see
• Fixed an issue where server performance indicators would incorrectly show in the HUD
• Fixed an issue that caused players to accidentally open the radial wheel on controllers
• Updated Team Colors to be on by default. Players can revert to using red vs blue team ID via the settings menus if they wish
• Fixed an issue where already equipped store items appeared as not being equipped
• Fixed player names so they appear consistently in the menus on all platforms
• Fixed an issue where the Add Friend button was disabled when Crossplay was disabled
• Various small fixes to the party and social screens
• Made total VRs more visible in more places
• Fixed an issue where multiple input actions could be wrongly bound to the same key on PC
• Fixed an issue where the recent players' social screen would not always be populated

VoIP

• Various small fixes for issues that occurred when switching between party and team channels

VRs

• Fixed an issue where players who backfilled might not receive VRs for the match

Closed Beta Two

CB2 initial changes

*ding* *ding*

We’re back for round 2!!

Our first Closed Beta (CB1) happened in March, and we have so many of you to thank for all the tremendous and valuable feedback. We listened to your concerns about movement, balancing, customization, and more. In the outline below, we will go over some of the improvements and additions you can expect to see in this test… and the rest will be there for you to discover in the Arena!

If you played in CB1, you’re automatically enrolled in CB2, so make sure to check in once the beta starts. We’re ready to invite many new contestants to this test, so if you didn’t get in last time, make sure you’re signed up for Playtesting on Steam and be on the lookout for an invite. We’re sending out new batches of invites every day!

Welcome back to Arena!

General info

• The Closed Beta 2 takes place June 14-June 21, 2023, on PC through Steam.
• Invites will be distributed through Steam Playtesting and everyone who participated in the first Closed Beta on Steam will be automatically eligible to play.

The beta includes two maps:

• the skyscrapers high above the heart of downtown Seoul.
• Old-town Monaco, on the banks of the French Riviera.

Four game modes:

• Quick Cash: a casual-friendly variant of Cashout in a 3v3v3 format. This updated mode has longer matches, faster respawn timers, faster extraction times, and only one vault at a time.
• Unranked Tournaments: traditional Cashout with four teams of three in an unranked tournament format with 3 rounds and 24 players in total.
• Ranked Tournaments:  traditional Cashout with four teams of three in a ranked tournament format with 3 rounds and 24 players in total.
• Practice Range: a place for contestants to test weapons, gadgets, movement—and of course, destruction.

New weapons:

• XP-54: this tactical submachine gun has a slower firing rate compared to the M11, but compensates with enhanced damage and accuracy for those long-range engagements. Available to the Light Body Build.
• FCAR: a tactical assault rifle with slower firing rate compared to the AKM, but offers improved accuracy over long distances. Available to Medium Body Builds.
• Lewis Gun: this LMG has a lower rate of fire compared to the M60, but compensates with enhanced damage and accuracy over longer distances. Available to Heavy Body Builds.

New permanent rewards, that contestants can earn exclusively during this beta only, and keep once the game releases in full:

• 5 league awards (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond).
• 2 epic outfits in the battlepass.

Contestant progression updates & new cosmetic items, including fashion items, weapon skins, weapon charms, and emotes. In addition, there are now brand new ways to customize, including weapon stickers and sprays.

New Orbital Laser World Event that may trigger during matches, where lasers take aim at contestants who aren’t moving.

CB2 Hotfix 1

Intro

A huge thanks for playing the Closed Beta 2! Now, time for our first hotfix, that fixes a number of bugs and brings a few key balance tweaks!

As always at Embark, we run our beta tests in the true spirit of experimentation and improvement. This game isn't done and it isn't perfect, but with your help, we hope to get much closer to a complete experience.

Let's get into the weeds!

Bug Fixes

• Clicking on an item in the character customization menu will now lead players to the corresponding bundle in the store.
• Fixed the issue that caused cloaked players to produce an unintended sound.
• Fixed an issue caused by party leaders canceling and re-queueing too quickly.
• Introduced a fix that we hope alleviates an issue that caused the game to crash.
• Party leaders are now the only party members that can cancel matchmaking.
• Fixed an issue that caused characters to show up as invisible in the menu
• Introduced a fix that we hope will prevent the issue where some manual action weapons stop firing.

Balance Updates

• Tournament & Ranked Tournament: early vs. late cashout value tweaked to improve the desirability of early session cashout endeavors
  • Decreased the Cash reward for starting a CashOut to 2000 from 3000
  • Increased the Cash amount in the first wave of Vaults to 10000 from 7000
  • Decreased the Cash amount in the subsequent waves of Vaults to 15000 from 1600

• C4 tweaks:
  • C4 fuse delay increased to 1.9 seconds from 0.8 seconds
  • C4 inner radius damage decreased to 240 from 300

CB2 Patch 1

Intro

Yesterday we shipped a hotfix and now it's time for the first patch of Closed Beta 2. We can't thank you enough for testing THE FINALS with us! Your feedback is invaluable and you keep helping us hone in on a ton of things that need fixing and tweaking.

The first full day of the beta saw some issues with performance and stability, and we've been hard at work improving the experience ahead of the weekend. Today's patch also fixes a number of bugs and brings about a balance tweak that will make it a little bit harder for Heavy builds to bust in and steal clutch extractions.

Let's get into it:

Bug Fixes

• Performance improvements
• Repaired an issue causing players on Asian servers to have issues with matchmaking and stability.
• Fixed an issue where players who join a Cashout round already in progress occasionally have fewer respawn coins than they should have.
• Removed an issue that incorrectly showed items in the Character customization menu as new.
• Repaired a setting that prevented players from accessing the game from VPN and IME plugins.
• Fixed the issue that prevented the Heavy build from using ADS on distance weapons and firing gadgets.
• Repaired an issue that occasionally caused web browser crashes on game shutdown.
• Added a permanent tag to the Nama Tama Halo Sticker that can be earned via the Battle pass.
• Added sharper contrast to the afternoon lighting in Monaco for a more beautiful and clear experience.

Balance Updates

• Bumped up the time to steal an extraction by one second.

Closed Beta One

CB1 Patch 1

• Fixed a bug where bullet hits wouldn't register for some cilents
• Fixed a bug that caused third-person characters to get stuck in frozen animation states.
• Fixed a client crash that sometimes occurred when downloading avatar images.
• Improved the level of detail for high-quality graphics settings.

CB1 Patch 2

• Say goodbye to the crackling noiseǃ
• Fixed a bug that prevented rewards from showing up.
• Made it easier to pick up statues to prevent triggering unitentional revives.
• The "Phantom Footsteps" bug should be gone nowǃ
• Fixed a bug that made vautls go flying when goo was attached to them.
• A major adjustment to XP for win/lossː now you'll earn 500 XP for each round played.
• Fixed a bug that caused some players to get stuck in the menu.
• Fixed the most frequent client crashes.
• Numerous smaller bug fixes and adjustment.

CB1 Balance Patch 1

• Cashout Scoring
  • Increased score reward from 100 to 200 for eliminations
  • Increased score reward from depositing Cash Boxes from 1000 to 3000

• Cashout Re-spawning
  • Reduced team wipe re-spawn duration from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.

• Quickplay
  • Increased number of Respawn Coins from 2 to 4

• Gadgets
  • Jump pad
    • Reduced the number of Jump Pads players can have deployed at once from 2 to 1
    • Jump pad cooldown reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds.
  • Zipline
    • Cooldown increased from 20 seconds to 30 seconds.

CB1 Patch 3

Fixes and Updates

Cashout Mode

• Added a visual effect to coins being lost from Cash Boxes as their value reduces over time in the last 2 minutes of the round.
• Updated HUD widgets to show accurate value of cash boxes during the last two minutes of the round.

Movement

• Fixed an issue where players could get "ice-skating" movement as a result of bad goo spawns.
• Made improvements to jump, fall, and landing animations.
• Made improvements to Medium body type vault and ledge grab animations.
• Added speed clamping to some moves, to prevent exploits where players could boost across large distances very quickly.
• Added air friction and drag to prevent players traveling faster than intended over long distances when airborne.
• Fixed an issue where players could fly by repeatedly vaulting on liftable props.

Scoreboard

• Squad names added.
• Eliminated icon now show when a player is eliminated.
• Local player is now highlighted.

Customization

• Fixed an issue where pants would clip with the Cowboy Boots.

UI

• Fixed an issue where multiple slots in the Loadout could have the same item.
• Fixed "new offers" timer so it updates in real-time in the store.
• Added an active state to buttons on the contracts and settings screens.
• The store purchase notification now closes automatically when a purchase is complete.
• The unlock notification now closes automatically when unlocks are completed on the battle pass screen.
• Fixed an issue where the fire effect would linger on the spectator camera after elimination.
• Added a contracts summary to the end-of-round flow.
• Fixed an issue where the 'Round Over' screen would sometimes show the wrong result.
• Fixed various issues relating to the feedback survey screens.
• Made picking up revive statues even more reliable.

Specatator

• Fixed an issue where the spectated player's Loadouts didn't show correctly.

Levels

• Fixed an issue where players couldn't shoot through fences or railings.
• Updated the trajectories of some pre-placed jump-pads in Seoul.

Audio

• Updated hit sound with more coins to help it penetrate the audio mix more gracefully.
• Lowered hit sound to reasonable loudness level to avoid it sticking out too much at lower game audio volume levels.
• Slightly increased hit sound ducking to carve more space for it in the mix.
• Fixed an issue where the low health sound would continue playing during the end of round screens.

Controls

• Fixed an issue preventing the binding of mouse buttons such as Mouse 4 and 5.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the unbinding of duplicate buttons.

Graphics Settings

• Made various changes to improve the visual quality of Low and Medium graphics settings.

Destruction

• Fixed an issue where props and objectives would float in the air after destruction.

Balance Adjustments

Weapons

• M32 GL
  • Increased round fuse time to 2.5 seconds from 1.2 seconds.
  • Rounds will now detonate on impact after one bounce.
  • Reduced explosion inner radius to 1.5m from 2m.

• Pump-action GL
  • Increased max damage to 84 from 80.
  • Increased min damage to 45 from 30.

• .30-06 Sniper
  • Fixed an issue where bullet dispersion could occur when aiming down sights.

• Flamethrower
  • Reduced the intensity of visual effects when fired directly at the player.

Gadgets

• APS Turret
  • Reduced APS Turret radius to 3m from 5m.

• Dome Shield
  • Fixed an issue where the Dome Shield wouldn't block bullets from Turrets.

• Ziplines
  • Fixed an issue where players could exploit the zipline to perform larger than intended jumps.

• Goo Grenade
  • Fixed an issue where Goo could be attached to objects that were attached to Cashout Stations, causing them to move.

• Explosive Mine
  • Fixed an issue that caused Mines to not detonate.

Abilities

• Turret
  • Reduced Turret health to 300 from 350.
  • Reduced Turret damage to 5 from 7.

• Mesh Shield
  • Fixed an issue where Mesh Shield wouldn't block bullets from Turrets.
• Charge 'n' Slam
  • Fixed an issue where the ability animation would stutter.
• Goo Gun
  • Fixed an issue where Goo could be attached to objects that were attached to Cashout Stations, causing them to move.

CB1 Patch 4

Intro

Heading into the weekend, we got a patch coming your way, with both fixes and balance updates, and the addition of a Diamond League to the ranking system! Buckle up!

FIXES & UPDATES

• Animations
  • Fixed an issue where manual action reloads would sometimes not trigger.

• Audio
  • Tweaked ranges for various Foley sound effects.
  • Tweaked relevancy of indoor ambience.
  • Updated various clothing sounds.
  • Added progress sound for getting revived by a teammate.

• Characters
  • Fixed an issue where some characters would appear without clothing.
  • Fixed an issue where characters would become permanently invisible.

• Gravity Glove
  • Improved response time when picking up items.

• Levels
  • Improved interactions with vertical ziplines to make them easier to use.
  • Removed camera shake from Cashout Stations.
  • Made crane ziplines indestructible.

• Ranked Mode
  • Added Diamond League to the ranking system.

• UI
  • Fixed an issue with teams not highlighting correctly on the tournament pyramid.
  • Fixed an issue where squad loadouts would not change during drafting.
  • Fixed an issue where the 'Invite to Party' button would show for the party leader even when the party was full.
  • Fixed an issue hindering Report a Player from recent players screen.
• Visual Effects
  • Tuned various muzzle flash effects.

Balance Updates

• Cashout Mode
  • Reduced team wipe respawn times from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.

• Abilities
  • Cloak
    • Added new audio when in use, including volume adjustments based on movement speed and new exit and entry audio.
    • Increased the max duration from 10 seconds to 12 seconds.
  • Dash
    • Fixed an issue where dash sound effects would not play.
• Body Types
  • Reduced Heavy health from 350 to 325.

• Gadgets
  • Dome Shield
    • Reduced radius by 25%.
    • Increased friction and reduced bounce to make Dome Shields easier to place.
    • Removed the ability to pick them up.
    • Fixed an issue where theys could knock over or push Cashout Stations and Vaults.
  • Defibrillators
    • Reduced the health given by 50%
  • Explosive Mines
    • Fixed an issue where spectator cameras could detonate mines.
    • Increased Mine environmental damage from 550 to 1025.
• Liftables
  • Increased Oil Barrel environmental damage from 550 to 2050.
• Weapons
  • .30-06 Sniper
    • Fixed an issue where the crosshair of the sniper scope could twitch.
  • AKM
    • Increased AKM magazine size from 30 to 36
  • Flamethrower
    • Reduced Flamethrower reload time from 4 seconds to 3.5 seconds.
  • LH1
    • Increased LH1 magazine size from 10 to 20
  • M32 Grenade Launcher
    • Reduced M32 reload time from 3.5 seconds to 3.1 seconds.
  • M60
    • Reduced M60 reload time from 4 seconds to 3.5 seconds.
  • M11
    • Increased magazine size from 32 to 40.
  • Pump-action Grenade Launcher
    • Reduced Pump-action manual action reload duration by 20%.
  • Repeater Shotgun
    • Decreased bullet dispersion size.
  • Riot Shield
    • Increased Riot Shield damage from 60 to 68.
  • SA1216 Shotgun
    • Decreased bullet dispersion size.
  • Sledgehammer
    • Increased Sledgehammer damage from 130 to 145.
    • Increased Sledgehammer environmental damage from 550 to 685.
  • Sword
    • Increased Sword damage from 45 to 74.
  • V9S
    • Increased V9S magazine size from 18 to 24.

CB1 Patch 5

Intro

Contestants! Just a few tweaks and fixes as we near the finish line.

FIXES & UPDATES

• Tournaments
  • Fixed an issue where penalties for leaving tournaments early weren't applied.

BALANCE UPDATES

• Abilities
  • Guardian Turret
    • Fixed an issue where turrets would have no cooldown

• Weapons
  • LH1
    • Reduced LH1 magazine size to 15 from 20
    • Increased bullet dispersion when firing from the hip when crouching
    • Increased recoil slightly
    • Decreased recoil recovery speed slightly

^{Smashel Was Here}