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XDefiant got off to a great start when it launched its trial Season 0 around six weeks ago. Time flies when you are having fun and we are finally at the main launch of Season 1 – Can Ubisoft’s themed shooter continue to fill the mid-year void of Call of Duty, and even set itself up to challenge the mighty franchise later in the year?
Time will tell, but for now, let’s take a look at what the Season 1 patch brings with it and pull out some key highlights.
XDefiant Season 1 Patch highlights
The patch is a sizable one – maybe not as big as many we have seen in the past but there are enough changes here to keep us honest.
Some of the things worth looking at for starters include the lowering of the XP threshold to speed up progression through the Battle Pass which seemed a tad slow in Season 0.
We have a new map, Clubhouse which features a two-storey building, and a new Capture the Flag game mode all alongside a decent number of balancing changes and the introduction of weapon mastery. Oh, and we get a nice new faction too – the GSK.
So, nothing groundbreaking, but a fair few things you would expect to find. Here are the patch notes in detail.
XDefiant Season 1 Patch notes
Gameplay
Changed the expiration timing of activated Boosters so their lifespan counts down only during match time, when you’re actually playing, rather than all the time, like when you’re folding laundry or whatever.
Lowered the XP threshold for each Battle Pass tier to give Battle Pass progression a little more pep.
Tuned Match Bonus XP rewards: MVP and Victory went from 2,000 to 1,000 XP. Draw went from 1,000 to 500. Completion doubled from 2,000 to 4,000 to encourage player stick-to-itiveness.
Answered a community ask to add a headshot icon to the Killfeed because it feels good to rub it in.
Factions
Added the GSK faction and their no-nonsense announcer: HQ.
These elite Team Rainbow operators from Germany’s Border Protection Command specialize in crowd control and securing territory. They can deploy electrified barbed wire for area denial, counter incoming enemy devices with their Active Defense System, and dazzle multiple foes with flash charges mounted on their G52-Tactical Shield ultra. Call them Grenzschutzkommando because it’s fun and also accurate.
Increased the cooldown of Echelon’s Intel Suit from 30 to 40 seconds.
Tuned the cooldown of the Phantoms’ Mag Barrier from 30 to 40 seconds. Mag Barrier hit points were also reduced from 500 to 400.
The Phantoms’ AEGIS now takes damage from EMP grenades (lob six to put it out of commission).
DedSec Hijack cooldown decreased from 28 seconds (plus the remaining duration of the hacked skill) to 20 seconds (plus the remaining duration of the hacked skill).
For example, let’s say a Mag Barrier has 7 seconds left and gets hacked: The cooldown becomes 20 plus 7 seconds. Failed Hijack cooldown, meanwhile, decreases from 8 to 5 seconds.
DedSec’s Spiderbot cooldown increased from 25 to 40 seconds.
Adjusted Spiderbot behavior so multiple Spiderbots won’t attempt to hug the same face, nor will Spiderbots continue to ignore faces they’ve hugged multiple recent times. Some give and take from the Spiderbot kingdom.
Decreased the cooldown of Libertad’s BioVida Boost from 25 to 20 seconds.
Fixed Libertad’s Medico Supremo so it will no longer disappear after the deploying player respawns as a different faction.
Maps
Added the new Clubhouse map, a two-story hangout popular with international operators. Ideal for firefights in the short- to mid-range. Home to game modes Domination, Occupy, Hot Shot, and the new CTF.
Game Modes
Added Capture the Flag, hereafter referred to as CTF. For the uninitiated: You take the enemy’s flag from their base and bring it back to your own, while protecting your team’s flag. CTF is available on a variety of maps.
Weapons
Improved the hit flinch penalty incurred when being shot with a sniper rifle equipped.
These changes are intended to refine the behavior of hit flinch, prevent instances where the camera would move off the target with the first hit and back onto the target with the second, and improve the experience for players sensitive to wild camera movements. Here’s the nitty-gritty:
The speed of the hit flinch camera transition has been increased by 25 percent.
The camera will now always kick upward rather than up or down at random.
The amount the camera will kick left or right has been increased by 3 times.
Added the L115 sniper rifle, which is not quite as heavy as the TAC-50 and has faster handling, although it deals slightly less damage and is not as effective at penetrating cover.
Added the LVOA-C, a snazzy customized rifle similar to the M4A1. It has a much faster rate of fire than the M4A1, but with that comes more recoil and less range. It also has slightly longer reload and equip times.
Added the Sawed Off secondary weapon. This close-range version of the double-barreled shotgun packs a big boom for its size. Imagine carrying a primary weapon in your secondary slot and that’s this.
Added new Mastery skins: Titanium Violet (unlocked at Weapon Level 300), Titanium Azure (unlocked at 350), and Titanium Prisma (unlocked at 400).
Fixed weapons and optics shake in first-person view while using ADS.
Devices
Added a new and improved visual effect for the flash grenade (replacing the previous effect, which was…intense). The new effect is less retina-searing but still appropriately disorientating.
Removed an exploit where players could respawn with multiple devices after fiddling with the “Copy Loadout” option in the lobby, so nice try.
Audio
Tweaked the mix of in-game voices and sound effects for volume and clarity.
Miscellaneous
Players who participated in the Closed Beta were supposed to keep Kersey’s Dungaree skin. They didn’t but now they do.
Fixed Challenge-tracking issues with Ubisoft Connect.
Graphical and audio fixes, various.
Additional crash fixes.
