IT’S TIME TO BLAST OFF!
NEW MODE | IMPROVED DESTRUCTION | MORE QUALITY OF LIFE
In THE FINALS, we take blowing things up very seriously. Introducing BLAST OFF!, a rocketing Limited-Time Mode where Low Gravity is always on and everyone plays as Medium with Evasive Dash and an explosive, locked-in loadout fine-tuned to make you and your opponents go KABOOM!
BLAST OFF! comes complete with a centered camera position and pixelated explosions to help Contestants relive the boomer-shooter glory days!
Complete contracts to unlock up to 12 free rewards over the next two weeks!
This time, the new mode will also reward Quickplay Points, so Contestants can be rewarded and make steady quickplay progress for playing this mode as much as they like!
Watch Scotty and June introducing the event in action! Have a blast in the Arena!
IMPROVED DESTRUCTION
Destruction is at the very core of THE FINALS. Where would we be without it?
With this update, we're dialing up the dynamism, realism, and tactical payoff of destruction in several key ways. Here's what’s new, and how it improves the experience:
DESTRUCTION PHYSICS
First of all, we are implementing new destruction features which make buildings collapse in a realistic and much cooler way!
IN KYOTO:
The Pagoda in Kyoto was always a beautiful collapse waiting to happen. The updates to destruction will help it fall more naturally, collapsing under its own weight and crumbling down in a way that feels grounded and satisfying. Knock it down and see!
IN SKYWAY STADIUM:
Structures in Skyway Stadium have been updated with the new destruction features, causing them to destroy more realistically! You’ll see that buildings can now deal damage to the other structures as they collapse, creating awesome knock-on effects.
In this map and others, we’re improving the way that buildings break apart under their own weight, where they crumble more realistically, and so that even after a lot of destruction, the level design stays interesting and playable.
DESTRUCTION VISUALS
The visuals of the damaged edges around destroyed surfaces have been improved. The size of these visuals have been reduced so that players can make better judgements about where the damage is. These visuals are also more consistent, seamless, and appear more accurately. This is all part of an effort to improve clarity, and to help players quickly see the cause and effect of their interaction with the environment!
WE’RE NOT DONE YET
We’ve already rolled out plenty of these improvements in many of the maps, so jump in-game and feel it out for yourself! This is just the beginning, expect to see more destruction improvements in the future!
WORLD TOUR
It’s CNS’ turn to take over the World Tour, and they’re restoring Standard Cashout. They want you to see through the walls, but not with VAIIYA’s technology. It’s time to open your eyes.
We also have a stacked store update, including a fun celebration for the 4th of July! With over 20 new items added, you’re sure to find something that catches your eye. Mesh hoodwear? Check. Prefer sending a message through rocket propelled fists? Check. Fan of the retro vibes and want a CL animation pack with less frames than shells - also check!
TWITCH DROPS
Head over to Twitch at any time during the event to earn the all new Broadcast Blaze set just by tuning in to anyone streaming THE FINALS. And for the super-fans, you’ll be able to earn a sticker memorializing the ImpOscar moment, and take home a piece of history from Oscar’s stream!
CUSTOMIZE YOUR INTRO AND OUTRO!
Have you ever wanted to greet opponents with one emote, but use a completely different one to show off when you win? Great - because now you can! Starting today you will be able to select separate intro and winner’s emotes, so you can give your opponents a curated “Hello!” and “Goodbye!”
DOJO IMPROVEMENTS
The smarties (our smart dummies in the Practice Range) have been taking their Omega-3 supplements and have now improved even further! These even smarter smarties fight with more brainpower, and have been balanced to give you a fairer challenge!
Oh, and whether you had mastered the Big Box Battle, or struggled to complete it, there’s something new for you: we have added an Easy and Hard version of the challenge!
Let’s get into all the changes in detail:
Balance Changes
Gadgets
H+ Infuser
Decreased the health given per shot from 20 to 15
Dev Note: The flat healing per second on stationary targets during a Cashout steal has been more impactful than we expected. This change will address that specific use case, while ensuring the H+ is still valuable.
Healing Emitter
Cooldown now begins when the Emitter is destroyed, not on deployment
Cooldown reduced from 35 seconds to 30 seconds
Emitter can now be retrieved via the control tablet, setting its remaining cooldown to 15s
Emitter can now be retrieved via a manual interaction, setting its remaining cooldown to 3s
Dev Note: The Healing Emitter was a bit too forgiving in its initial state where players could drop it carelessly and still get good value. With these changes, smart placement becomes more important: keeping it alive now takes intention, and lazy deployments are more likely to backfire. This brings it closer in line with other deployables like the Guardian Turret. The reduced cooldown helps balance out the updated logic for when cooldown starts.
Gateway
Increased the cooldown on items that travel through the gateway, before they’re able to re-enter it, from 0.5s to 1s, meaning objects thrown into the gateway should less frequently fall straight back through it
Weapons
Dev Note: We recently took a closer look at equip/unequip times and realized that some had become a little out of sync with our initial intent and relative to other items. This led to inconsistencies that didn’t help the overall feel of the weapon system. We’ve now made small adjustments based on new baselines, listed below. Most changes should feel subtle, with a few minor exceptions. These new baselines also give us more room to fine-tune specific items in the future, using speed tweaks as soft buffs. We’ll keep an eye on how these smaller updates feel and adjust further if needed.
93R
Decreased the weapon equip time from 0.2s to 0.15s
Decreased the weapon unequip time from 0.2s to 0.15s
AKM
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.23s to 0.3s
Decreased the weapon unequip time from 0.23s to 0.2s
ARN-220
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.2s to 0.3s
CB-01 Repeater
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.2s to 0.3s
Cerberus 12GA
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.2s to 0.3s
CL-40
Increased self-damage multiplier from 1.25 to 1.35, meaning CL-40 players who shoot at their own feet will take slightly more damage
Decreased inner blast radius from 60cm to 50cm, requiring players to be slightly more accurate to do maximum damage with a shot
Dev Note: We’ve seen an increase in CL-40 usage since the Healing Emitter arrived in the game and, while we think the CL-40 should be somewhat of a hard counter to teams clustered around an Emitter, it’s slightly too effective at very close ranges and without requiring accuracy. These changes address those specific use cases, without hurting the CL-40s general effectiveness.
FAMAS
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.2s to 0.3s
Decreased the weapon unequip time from 0.23s to 0.2s
FCAR
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.2s to 0.3s
Decreased the weapon unequip time from 0.23s to 0.2s
KS-23
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.2s to 0.3s
Lewis Gun
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.23s to 0.35s
Decreased the weapon unequip time from 0.3s to 0.25s
LH1
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.15s to 0.3s
Increased the weapon unequip time from 0.15s to 0.2s
M134 Minigun
Increased the weapon unequip time from 0.2s to 0.25s
Model 1887
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.15s to 0.3s
Increased the weapon unequip time from 0.15s to 0.2s
Pike-556
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.2s to 0.3s
SA1216
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.15s to 0.3s
Increased the weapon unequip time from 0.15s to 0.2s
SH1900
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.15s to 0.2s
Increased the weapon unequip time from 0.15s to 0.2s
ShAK-50
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.2s to 0.3s
Sledgehammer
Increased the height of the primary attack hit sweep from 15cm to 25cm, making this type of attack more reliable
Dev Note: We’ve been monitoring player feedback on melee hit detection and suspect some issues stem from depth perception in first-person view or from sweeps not perfectly matching their animations. This update addresses one such case, and we’re reviewing other melee sweeps for follow-up changes later this season. These adjustments are separate from the broader melee quality-of-life improvements we’re planning for the future.
XP-54
Decreased the weapon equip time from 0.23s to 0.2s
Decreased the weapon unequip time from 0.23s to 0.2s
SR-84
Increased the weapon equip time from 0.15s to 0.3s
Increased the weapon unequip time from 0.15s to 0.2s
New Weapon System
Temporarily disabled to fix major bugs
Dev Note: We’ve temporarily disabled the new weapon system for automatic weapons to fix an issue causing delayed “laggy” hit feedback. While this removes the delay, it may reintroduce some older issues like the occasional “can’t fire” bug. Once we’ve identified and resolved the feedback delay, we’ll re-enable the new system.
Content and Bug Fixes
Animation
New animation customization slot available! You can now customize your cycle action animations
Improved animations when dashing while charging with the Sword or holding Grenades
Fixed a minor visual issue during the Double Up Reload from Empty Animation for the ARN-220
Audio
Re-mastered some player voice-over content
Added Scotty and June commentary for when a team has two Cashouts in progress simultaneously
Added voice-over lines from the player’s respawn statue, audible to their Squad when requesting a revive
Characters
Heavy muscular body types have been given more defined anatomy/muscles
Controller
Fixed a bug where controller would rumble from far away explosions
Cosmetics
You can now select your Contestant’s intro and winner's emotes separately!
Closed Beta Chic shoes now display correctly on Heavy and Medium contestants
Campsite Creeper facewear no longer clips with Sal's Halo and Orbital Witness headwear
Synapse Coreframe and Termiframe chassis no longer clip with Cursed soles and Memento Pumps
Fixed an issue where the Outfit Creation Inspect screen only allowed zooming on the Contestant's face
Fixed decals being mirrored upside down on the ISEUL-T Blueprint Bloom CB-01 skin
Fixed Kanji being mirrored on the grips of the Shinjuku Slicer Revolver skin
Fix for The Freeze Frame Emote so the bullets do not appear in the wrong location when viewed from certain perspectives
Contracts
Fixed an issue that prevented the contract “Set 5 opponents on fire with the Pyro Mine or Pyro Grenade” from progressing
Gadgets
Data Reshaper
Improved its visual effect for the Healing Emitter and Breaching Drill
H+ Infuser
Fixed issue where it would look like it was out of ammo while it was not
Healing Emitter
Fixed an issue where it wouldn't connect to players who stood below it when placed on a platform or ledge
Game Modes
General
Upgraded the winners sequence for all modes!
Cashout
Fixed an issue that could cause Vaults to occasionally spawn within 10m of a Cashout station
Practice Range: Dojo Challenges
Added Easy and Hard difficulties to the Big Box Challenge
Improved bot accuracy across difficulty settings for more consistent results
Added more behavior profiles so bots act more nuanced based on weapon type
Fixed incorrect naming of the middle difficulty in Shooting Gallery from Medium to Standard
Fixed an issue where damage received from a sparring bot in a previous challenge attempt was shown in a new attempt
Resolved navigation issues on the challenge selection screen when using a controller
Fixed a minor UI issue where the back button on the challenge selection widget would distort when hovered
Gameplay
Made doors more responsive by reducing interaction delay
Fixed an issue where detected enemies would not appear if they were inside Smoke, when detected by the Tracking Dart, Sonar Granade, or Proximity Sensor
Dev Note: We believe the increased prevalence of Smoke Grenades over the last season or two has been in part down to this bug. It was always our intent that scanning devices would see through smoke and act as a hard-counter to it. This fix restores that functionality.
Maps
Bernal
Fixed a zipline that was slightly floating above the ground next to the Chapel
Suspended Structures: slightly adjusted the cover placement on the top floor of the ISEUL-T suspended structure to create better cover
General
Partially destroyed structures in the environment now have improved visuals along their damaged edges. These visuals are also more consistent and appear more accurately.
The size of these visuals also has been slightly reduced so that the visual damage on the environment is also easier for players to see.
Fix for inconsistency of lamp bulb assets not being breakable across maps
Monaco
Fixed floating rubble piles in “Duck and Cover” variation
Nozomi/Citadel
Moved the map border in a bit behind the Operations Center and Cybercafe so you can see it from behind the windows to better understand that there's a death pit behind them
Kyoto
The Pagoda in Kyoto has received a new destruction pass and now behaves more realistically when collapsing
Seoul
Fixed an issue with one of the buildings where the floor had no collision making you fall through it
Fixed a gap in the floor of the Data Center where a floor piece was offset
Fix for white lines occasionally showing up on the Construction site floor
SYS$HORIZON
Fixed a spot on a facade to prevent players from hiding in semi-transparent cubes
Skyway Stadium
Fixed a rendering issue for the elevator shaft on the rooftop hospital building
Skyway Stadium has received a destruction upgrade. The new destruction features allow players to cause better looking destruction more reliably and realistically
Private Matches
Fixed an issue where the player tile drag-and-drop action could be continued all the way into the match
Added the limited mode “Blast Off!” to private matches while the game mode is active
Rendering
Increase main menu and intro sequence reflection quality
Social
Fixed an issue where the system menu could appear when closing the text chat using the ESC key
People who have sent you a pending friend request will no longer be able to join voice chat if your privacy setting is set to Friends Only
Fixed an issue where the option to send a Rise & Shine recruitment request was possible to players that are not eligible to be a prospect
Specializations
Fixed an issue where Charge 'N Slam running speed would be slowed down if initiated while firing
Spectator
Fixed the player Team list overflowing the Private Match spectator UI when playing with three Teams
UI
You can now spawn into the Practice Range with a selected Weapon from the equipment screen
Users who are not yet connected to a game are now visible on the scoreboard. They will only be removed when they have abandoned the session
Added support for filters in the Charms/Stickers screens
Fixed an issue allowing players to ping objects through walls at slight angles
Fixed the Weapon Sights menu not showing which Contestants already had the Sights equipped
Fixed an issue where the team respawn countdown timer could show a very large number
Fixed an issue where the currently selected Weapon customization reset after returning from the Inspect menu
Fixed Career progression rewards so they no longer sometimes had a locked icon when they were unlocked
Fixed purchase prompt always appearing after exiting Inspect in the Legacy Battlepass purchase screen
Fixed Contestants not loading with correct items equipped when returning to the customization menu after opening a bundle preview
Fixed an issue which would randomly open the Contestant selection menu after unlocking the Light Build
Security With every big update comes a renewed commitment from our Anti-Cheat team:
Cheat makers operate in a low-risk, high-reward world. They profit by selling cheats, oftentimes packing them with malware that harms their own customers, and they face very little consequences for their actions. Meanwhile, players who use their cheats risk losing everything: their accounts, their money, their time, and their chance to participate in events and competitions.
Our strategy for combating this is simple: raise the cost, difficulty, and time required to develop and distribute cheats.
As mentioned in the 7.0 patch notes, a lot of cheats these days use a kernel-driver to read and write memory to gain an unfair advantage. This means that they run in a privileged mode in the Windows operating system, making it unlikely and in some cases impossible to detect via Anti-Cheat in the game client. The technical solution to combat this is kernel-driver Anti-Cheat. We believe that this is, and will be, a requirement for every competitive multiplayer game for the foreseeable future.
We’re also using machine learning to analyze player behavior, and we have been doing so since the launch of THE FINALS. Machine learning provides valuable insights, especially when detecting cheats such as aimbot usage.
In the coming months, we will also begin an incremental rollout of a new kernel-based anti-cheat solution, intended to significantly raise the bar for cheat makers.
Cheat makers exploit everyone: players, developers, and the community itself. We’re committed to protecting fair play and adapting to new threats.
Despite claims from cheat developers that they’re “undetectable,” every cheat leaves breadcrumbs and we’ve been following them. Closely.
/Chim and Magnum