XDefiant patch notes make changes to Factions, gameplay, and more

Ever since the launch of XDefiant, Ubisoft has been listening to community feedback and acting on it and the latest set of patch notes are further evidence of that.

Highlights from the update include movement becoming more fluid and adjustments to Factions, along with a huge batch of bug fixes.

XDefiant patch notes (October 9)

Gameplay 

• Daily Challenges can now directly level up the Battle Pass, earning up to an entire BP tier if players complete hard challenges. 
• Players now receive notifications for destroying specific enemy abilities (such as Spiderbots, Scrap Turrets, Mag Barriers, etc.). 
• Previously, players could negate the sway penalty for spamming the Crouch button if they held their breath (in the game, not IRL) while aiming down the sight. But now, fixed! 
• Mantling ledges was inconsistently successful when the Auto-Grab Ledge option was enabled in settings. Now you can mantle with confidence. 
• When transitioning from sprinting to shooting, weapons now shoot only if the player is holding the Fire button at the end of the transition. Before, tapping the Fire button while sprinting caused the weapon to shoot at the end of the sprint-shoot transition, giving the impression that the weapon was firing willy-nilly. 

Factions

• Highwaymen
  • The Highwaymen’s Scrap Turret doesn’t track and shoot enemies from behind cover that is taller than the turret anymore. 
• GS-Kommando
  • GS-Kommando’s Flash Shield now flash-blinds enemies hunkered behind the Mag Barrier or AEGIS shield. As well it should; those things provide damage protection, not eye protection. 
• DedSec
  • Spiderbots were not making any new fans with their uncanny-and unintended-tendency to meld into stairs and slopes while skittering across graded surfaces, which also granted them immunity from Hijacking. All of that stuff has been fixed. 
• Phantoms
  • The Phantoms’ finer performance points have been tweaked for faction balance.
    • Their movement speed has been reduced 5 percent.  
    • The time it takes for their health to begin regenerating has increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds (1 second longer than the regeneration delay of all other factions).  
    • Their health-heightening Hardened trait has been reduced from 120 hit points to 115 hit points. 

Game modes

• Bomb!
  • Players who joined a Bomb! match in progress were spawning on the map in a disorienting paralyzed state instead of chilling out in spectator mode until the start of the next round. We fixed that. 
• Updated the Welcome Playlist to ease players into Season 2, with new lists of suggested maps, modes, and an updated player maximum level to 40. 

Ranked

• Minor tuning of the Rank Point formula to speed progression through the Silver, Ruby, and Diamond ranks.
• Players no longer see the incorrect selection for their next map when voting for “Random Map and Mode” in Ranked play. 

Weapons

• AK-47
  • Adjusted recoil of the AK-47 equipped with the Holographic Sight to keep the reticule closer to center screen. 
• M1911
  • The Ranked “R” symbol has been reapplied to the Flying Tiger M1911 pistol skin. 
• Recalibrated the Holographic and Reflex optics for accuracy.
• The Pyroclastic Weapon Mastery skin paint job for the M4A1 no longer covers special magazines such as the Extended Mag, which is consistent with how cosmetic skins cover non-standard magazines on other weapons.
• Graphical fixes, various. 

Devices

• Fixed a delay in deploying the proximity mine if players tapped the button instead of holding it (both actions should deploy the prox mine with equal rapidity). 

Netcode

• Reduced by half the timespan in which two adversaries can score their final shots, which should reduce the instances of kill trades (when two players die simultaneously). 

Audio

• Fixed the “Grenade Multikill” VO line that’s supposed to play when you kill multiple enemies with a single explosive device. As Cleaners’ announcer Joe Ferro always says, “Great boom for the buck, pal!” 
• Text to Speech now works for the Quick Chat commands. 
• Audio fixes, various. 

Miscellaneous

• The loading screen was getting stuck at around 40 percent for an unreasonably long time after exiting a match, but now it keeps on keeping on. 
• Weapons that reached level 500 during a match displayed level 501 in the match-summary screen, which was both incorrect and also infuriating for round-number fans. 
• Eliminated a delay in loading the map environment when joining a match in progress. 
• Improved the interface for switching perspectives and following the action when you’re spectating post-death.   
• Restored unlock-requirement descriptions that were missing from some weapons on the Major Challenge tab.   
• Crash fixes, various.

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