THE FINALS News

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[h2]Update 5.10.0[/h2]

[h3]Balance changes and an AMA [/h3]

In this update, the Stun Gun has been temporarily removed as we begin a full rework to refine its role as a true crowd control tool. This change is aimed at improving gameplay balance, especially for new players. Check the attached dev note for more details!

Also of note, we’ve been closely investigating server performance for some time, recognizing that it hasn’t been meeting expectations. After thorough analysis, we believe we’ve identified a key issue, and this fix should significantly improve the experience for a large number of players.

That said, our work isn’t done. We’re committed to making ongoing improvements and will continue rolling out fixes as we identify further opportunities for optimization.

Thank you for your feedback and reports, community input has been invaluable in helping us refine the experience. Please keep sharing your observations, and let us know if you experience a difference after this update.

[h3]Join Our AMA![/h3]

If you’re looking for real-time interaction with the devs, we’ll be hosting an AMA over on r/thefinals tonight, where some of our directors will be answering your burning questions. Drop by live or post your questions now and check back later to see if you got an answer!

You can submit your questions already right here.

And of course, this update comes with fresh new items in the store. Go check them out!

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[h3]Balance Changes[/h3]

Gadgets

Breach Charge

• Decreased priming time from 1.9s to 1.5s

Dev Note: With the change to three ammo, the Charge's priming time now feels a bit slow for its projectile count. This adjustment aims to improve that.

Frag Grenade

• Decreased ammo from 2 to 1
• Decreased damage from 150 to 140
• Increased environmental damage from 600 to 900

Dev Note: Frag Grenades have been outperforming the RPG-7 in damage, ammo, and cooldown, which isn’t ideal. We also recognize that grenades can be a pain point for players. These adjustments aim to bring grenades more in line with other explosives while slightly buffing their impact on the environment.

Additionally, our goal is to increase the readability of grenades in the future, which should help alleviate some of the frustration. When that update arrives, we’ll revisit these changes and make any necessary adjustments.

Stun Gun

• Temporarily disabled the Stun Gun’, pending a re-work that will release some time during season 6

Dev Note: The Stun Gun has long been a major pain point for players. Despite multiple adjustments, it remains overly punishing for those on the receiving end.

The gadget was always intended to be primarily for crowd control. However, it instead functions too often as a tool to secure a kill, leaving little room for counterplay. This is especially problematic for new players, as early encounters with the Stun Gun can be frustrating enough to impact their experience and desire to continue playing. To keep the game engaging and fair for all, we need to fix this.

After careful evaluation, we’ve made the call to fully rework the Stun Gun. Our goal is to refine its mechanics, visuals, and overall clarity so that when encountered in the Arena, its role is clear, fair, and impactful. To do this properly, we’re temporarily removing the Stun Gun while we work on delivering a better version that matches our vision.

All progression, skins and unlocks will carry over to the new version of the Stun Gun when it returns. For now, the gadget will be unavailable while we build a true crowd control tool that benefits the whole team and enables clutch plays, without the frustrations that held it back.

We hope to be able to put an improved Stun Gun back into your hands as soon as possible.

Weapons

General

• We’ve improved animation timing so that manual actions (such as lever-action or pump-action sequences) now play more quickly after a quick melee attack, reducing dead time between actions. The impact of this change varies depending on the weapon’s specific animation set

Dev Note: Our fix for the manual action cancel exploit unintentionally made these weapons feel less responsive. This update should help improve that. We’re still reviewing manual actions and looking for ways to make them smoother while keeping them balanced.

[h3]Content and Bug Fixes [/h3]

Animation

• Fixed a rare case where contestants would be stuck in a T-pose when emoting

Audio

• Added headshot elimination sound

Characters

• We've updated the hand model to a new, improved version that looks significantly more realistic and detailed, enhancing the overall immersion

Controller

• Fixed an issue where controller navigation would stop working in the main menu for party members who were not the party leader
• Fixed an issue where controller navigation was broken in the Recently Played With tab

Cosmetics

• Fixed hairstyle compatibility with the following cosmetics
  • Cabalgata Bolero
  • Ballad Brim Headwear
  • Multi-Mood Mask

Gameplay

• Fixed an issue where destroying certain friendly gadgets incorrectly granted combat score
• Resolved issues preventing item use, including weapons not dealing damage and grenades failing to explode
• Doors now open automatically at lower sprint speeds, making movement smoother
• Cashouts can now be vaulted and climbed on
• Fixed an issue where some grenades and projectiles (e.g., Dome Shield, Anti-Gravity Grenade, Goo Projectiles) were larger than intended
• Fixed a bug that could cause extreme respawn timer values for teams

Tournament modes

• Fixed an issue where, upon elimination in later tournament rounds, loadout changes could sometimes be overwritten

Bernal

• Fixed dark reflections in the foggy weather setting
• Adjusted the angle of a rooftop tile that appeared walkable but was too steep to climb
• Fixed two instances where multiple doors were overlapping in the same location

Kyoto

• Kyoto destruction fix. Increased the floor’s resistance to impulse damage
• Power Shift: Fixed an issue where players on the Bamboo Forest side would sometimes spawn in the wrong location at the start of the round

Skyway Stadium

• Fixed the floating props in the market

Settings

• Updated AMD FSR resolution scaling method to version 3.1.3 (not including Frame Generation which is still being worked on)

Specializations

Winch Claw

• Updated the underlying physics of pulled objects, which should make their behaviour more consistent when dragged by the Winch Claw
• Reduced the amount of physics force-pulled objects can apply to world objects, preventing them from launching items like Cashout Stations across long distances

Dev Note: We've seen players creatively using the Winch Claw to launch objects, sometimes sending Cashout Stations hundreds of meters across the map. While we love the ingenuity, this can disrupt game pacing and make stealing nearly impossible. These changes retain the core gameplay but limit how far objectives can be launched, keeping the flow of the game mode balanced.

Stability & Performance

• Fixed a case where some world textures would remain blurry even though there was enough video memory to stream in higher quality

UI

• Fixed an issue where some elements of the player cards were not rendered correctly
• Fixed an issue where chat messages from club members displayed with double brackets
• Updated the gamepad inventory layout for the following presets: Equipment Wheel, Modifier Button Equipping, and Directional Equipping. The new layout better matches the actual gamepad controls. If customized bindings no longer align with the new layout, it will revert to the previous horizontal layout
• Fixed an issue where the Play button incorrectly displayed "World Tour" when matchmaking into a different mode

VFX

• Fixed an issue where particle effects such as masks could persist on the ground after a contestant was eliminated
• Fixed an issue where indestructible objects did not display a visual effect on melee impact to indicate their indestructibility

Security and Anti-cheat

• Resolved EAC and OBS incompatibility issue for versions 30.1 and above
• Resolved EAC and Windows 24H2 incompatibility
• General improvements and detections enhancements

This week, we have a store update and a special message about balance changes and our new goal. Make sure to check it out below, along with a few tweaks to weapons in this update!

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[h3]Balance Changes[/h3]

We want to take a moment to acknowledge some of the recent frustrations around the frequency of balance changes. At the end of Season 3, we adjusted our balance cadence from a demanding weekly schedule to a more structured approach, aligning the majority of balance changes with the start and middle of each season. Our goal was to create a more stable experience for players while also giving our dev team the time needed to properly assess and test changes before making adjustments.

That said, the current pace feels a bit too slow, and we understand how a lack of iteration has been frustrating.

Starting with Season 6, we’re shifting to a roughly 3-week balance update schedule. This should create a better experience for both players and our dev team, allowing for more consistent refinements. Major balance shifts will still happen at the start of each season, but balance tweaks will now be more frequent throughout.

Expect smaller, more frequent updates for the rest of Season 5 as we transition to this new approach. We appreciate your patience and feedback, it helps us continue improving the game for everyone.

With that, let’s get a head start with a few small changes in this update:

Weapons

Dagger

• Decreased the backstab angle on the Dagger’s secondary attack from 180 degrees to 150

Dev Note: This change addresses concerns about the Dagger's backstab being inaccurate and the frustration around how easily it can land backstabs, seemingly from the side. With this change, this should be less of an issue.

On a related note, we've noticed some community members testing melee mechanics in the Practice Range using target dummies. However, these dummies use slightly different hit detection logic compared to real players, making them an unreliable test for certain interactions. For example, we've seen reports of players landing melee hits on dummies while facing away from them. This is a quirk of the dummies and does not apply to actual players.

To improve testing accuracy, we plan to replace the current target dummies with updated versions soon. This will ensure that the dummies provide more reliable feedback, especially for testing certain Gadgets. However, this change will take some time and testing before it is ready to deploy.

KS-23

• Increased min damage falloff multiplier from 0.6 to 0.7, meaning the weapon now does slightly more damage at long-range
• Decreased bullet dispersion when aiming down sights to increase accuracy in the majority of different stances (such as crouching, running, etc.)

Dev Note: The KS-23 has been struggling after the recent fixes to ‘manual actions’ in Update 5.8. We recognize that these changes had an unintended negative impact on its performance, and we want to make sure it feels more viable in gameplay.

With this update, we’re making some adjustments to help the KS-23 get back on track. This isn’t the last step; we’ll continue monitoring its performance and exploring additional ways to improve if needed.

[h3]Love Hurts[/h3]

Roses are red, violets are blue, get eliminated and drop a bomb or two!

This week, DISSUN is celebrating Valentine’s Day with an explosive twist because nothing says love like an explosion! During this stop, eliminated contestants will leave behind a heart-shaped bomb, ready to be scooped up and sent flying. Toss it quickly before it detonates and let your opponents feel the heartbreak!

Whether you’re spreading the love or dodging it, one thing’s for sure: heartbreak hits harder this Valentine’s!

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ARENAS:

• Kyoto Wintery Valentine’s Day
• Seoul Valentine's Day
• Skyway Stadium Valentine's Day
• Las Vegas Valentine's Day

Along with this Word Tour update, we also have two bug fixes to add:

• Fixed a bug where players would sometimes end up in the wrong server region
  
• Removed the ‘Eliminate 5 opponents from 30 meters or more using gadgets’ contract, as it is not working

[h3]Season 5 Mid-Season Patch [/h3]

Love is in the air, Contestants! As we hit the heart of the season, there are some exciting events kicking off, plus a whole slew of balance changes and fixes to keep your matches fresh, fierce, and fun.

Valentine’s Event: Spin the Wheel of Love!

Cupid's not the only one shooting arrows this season! Our Valentine’s event is live, and the Wheel of Love is here to steal your heart (and maybe a few wins). Earn tickets by completing daily contracts, spin the wheel, and unlock up to 20 charming rewards. If you snag them all, you’ll also win the final prize: the Arena Amorator Outfit! Not totally in love with your daily contract? Re-roll with VRs!

This time around, when you land on a duplicate item, you’ll receive a ticket part. Collect four parts to craft a new ticket for another spin! You’ll also start off with a ticket to ensure everyone gets lucky this Valentine’s Day!

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Stay tuned tomorrow for the Love Hurts World Tour event for another week of heart-pounding action, with an explosive touch!

Reddit AMA Incoming (Feb 19)!

Got burning questions about THE FINALS? Join Rob and the team for an AMA on r/thefinals, the fan-run Reddit on February 19. It’s your chance to dive deep, get insights, and maybe even drop that meme you’ve been saving. Please come and join us for a few hours of questions!

Stun Gun Rework on the Horizon

We hear you loud and clear: the Stun Gun needs some love (the other kind, not the Valentine’s kind). We’re got some plans for this gadget and will give you more insight about the road ahead in Update 5.10.0

Patch Highlights:

Alongside the fun, we're rolling out a hefty batch of balance changes, weapon tweaks, and bug fixes. From adjustments to the Lockbolt Launcher and Cashout mechanics to performance boosts and UI improvements, there's something for everyone. Dive into the full notes to see how your favorite gear and strategies might shift.

Finally, check out this week’s store update full of sweet surprises to heartfelt treasures!

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So, suit up, spin that Wheel of Love, and we’ll see you in the arena!

[h3]Balance Changes[/h3]

Gadgets

Breach Charge

• Decreased the delay between throwing multiple Breach Charges from 0.9s to 0.6s

Lockbolt Launcher

• Re-enabled the ability for the Lockbolt to attach to objectives
• Increased activation grace period from 0.8s to 1s, making it slightly easier to lock on to targets
• Decreased the minimum pull distance from 8m to 6m, giving locked players slightly less room to maneuver

• Decreased the maximum pull distance from 10m to 6m, giving locked players less room to maneuver
• Increased the pull force of the Lockbolt by 50%, making it slightly harder for players to move beyond the radius of the lock’s chains
• Increased the damage the Lockbolt applies to targets from 0 to 5
• Added functionality that will disable the Lockbolt’s tethers if the Lockbolt is carried through a Gateway that is outside the maximum pull distance (6m)
  
  

Game Modes

Dev Note: Since our changes to deposit values in Cashout in Season 3, we’ve noticed an increasing number of teams adopting the ‘plug meta,’ where teams primarily focus on depositing Cash Boxes in World Tour and Ranked Tournaments to increase their chances of winning. While we wanted to encourage teams to focus on depositing and protecting cashouts, rather than third-partying already active cashouts, the ‘plug meta’ has become a little too common and leads to a bad teamplay experience. The changes to team wipes and deposit values, listed below, aim to nudge teams away from focusing entirely on plugging, while still reducing the incentives for third-partying.

Cashout

• Decreased the percentage of cash in a Cashbox that is awarded for depositing it at the Cashout Station from ~30% to ~20%
• Increased the percentage of cash in a Cashbox that is awarded for completing a cashout from ~70% to ~80% of the Cashbox’s value

Ranked Tournament (Cashout)

• Increased the amount of cash lost from a team’s total for a team wipe from 10% to 15%

Specializations

Charge N’ Slam

• Decreased the damage done by the initial impact on enemies from 130 to 100
• Decreased the damage done by subsequent hits on enemies from 50 to 40
• Decreased the minimum damage of the ground slam, based on fall height from 80 to 50

Dev Note: The damage applied by Charge N’ Slam has been quite high for some time and is especially punishing for Light players, especially when repeatedly hit by the charge. We feel these new values offer a fairer experience

Dematerializer

• Decreased the duration of dematerialized objects from 30s to 15s, causing objects to rematerialize sooner
• Added the ability for the Dematerializer to remove props attached to wall segments

Dev Note: This change should mean that the Dematerializer now makes clearer holes in the environment that are easier to move through

Guardian Turret

• Decreased the cooldown from 8s to 3s when manually picking up the Guardian Turret

Winch Claw

• Decreased the range of the Winch Claw from 12m to 10m

Weapons

Cerberus

• Increased damage from 9 to 10 per pellet
• Slightly decreased the size of the pellet distribution, making the weapon more accurate
• Decreased the reload time for reloading one cartridge from 2.2s to 2.1s
• Decreased the reload time for reloading two cartridges from 2.4s to 2.25s
• Decreased the reload time for reloading three cartridges from 2.6s to 2.45s

CL-40

• Decreased the radius of the weapon’s projectile from 10cm to 5cm, making it easier to avoid accidentally hitting nearby surfaces
• Decreased self-damage multiplier from 1.6 to 1.25, meaning it will now do less damage to the player using it should they accidentally hit themselves

Dev Note: While the CL-40 has been in a much better place recently than in the past, we feel these small ‘quality of life’ changes will improve the experience of using it

Dagger

• Added a slight adjustment to FoV when charging up for a secondary attack, to make it clearer when the attack is at maximum charge

FAMAS

• Decreased the fire rate from 230 RPM to 220 RPM
• Decreased damage per bullet from 24 to 23

LH1

• Decreased damage from 48 to 46
• Decreased rate of fire from 280 RPM to 270 RPM

Model 1887

• Decreased damage from 13 to 11 per pellet
• Increased min damage falloff multiplier from 0.6 to 0.7, meaning the Model 1887 retains the same damage at max range as in update 5.7

Pike-556

• Increased damage from 47 to 50

SR-84

• Decreased the bolt action animation duration from 1.25s to 1.05s, slightly increasing the SR-84’s rate of fire
• Increased damage from 115 to 118

Sword

• Increased the length of the Sword’s secondary attack hit sweep by 55cm

Dev Note: This change reverts the change made in 4.6 and should mean the primary and secondary attacks of the Sword now have a more consistent length

[h3]Content and Bug Fixes [/h3]

Animation

• Fixed a bug where player animations would stutter in the intro and celebration sequences
• Fixed clipping issues on ShAK-50 inspects
• Fixed an issue where the character's hands looked broken after throwing the Gravity Vortex
• Fixed an issue where the red dot sight for the Horizon Hammer R .357 skin wasn't aligned properly when aiming down sights

Characters & Cosmetics

• Fixed the Mirrorball Mood helmet so it would not clip with facewears
• Fixed the hologram effect for ISEUL-T Escape Pants and ISEUL-T Lifestyle Coat
• Fixed visual fidelity of the Final Toss cosmetics
  
  

Contracts

• Fixed "Blind 2 opponents with a Flashbang" so it would not count for teammates
• Fixed an issue where some contracts were able to progress inside Private Matches

Gadgets
Lockbolt Launcher

• It will deactivate if carried through a teleporter outside of the max pull range
• Removed the ability to tether to the same object it is attached to
• Removed the ability for objects to be attached to the Lockbolt

C4, Breach Charge, Gravity Vortex

• Fixed an issue where the light indicator on the detonators was not visible on consoles

Gameplay

• Improved stuttery movement on elevators and elevator doors
• Fixed draw bridges to prevent stuttering when moving
• Fixed an issue that allowed players to vault while being revived by Defibrillator
• Improved the visual effect during respawn invulnerability to be more prominent
• Fixed issue where grenades with certain skins would visually go through walls and floors
• Removed the ability to bypass manual action animations (such as using a bolt action or pump-action) by interrupting them
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck between objects while falling
• Fixed issue making it so that any secondary melee ability would retrigger when held
• Fixed the Sword lunge not charging after a vault when holding the button down
• Fixed an issue where Cashout Stations could launch way beyond their intended range when interacting with Jump Pads
  
  

Game Modes

General

• Fixed a rare issue that could lead to locked black screen when reconnecting to a tournament match that just finished
• Fixed an issue that prevented equipment or customization changes from appearing in-game unless the user navigated away from the screen before the match started
• Fixing bug where squad respawns would ignore enemy proximity when there are no active objectives on the map

Quick Cash

• Fixed an issue where you could sometimes respawn instantly

PowerShift

• Fixed an issue where the wrong loadout icons could be displayed if revived while changing characters
  
  

Maps

General

• Fixed an issue with billboard text looking stretched
• Fixed several floating assets, clipping, and faulty collisions across all maps

Bernal

• Improved fog rendering

Kyoto

• Upgraded the destruction from the ground up
  • Each building will collapse more easily, with destruction happening on a more granular scale
  • Debris from collapsed structures will behave more naturally and add to the terrain

Monaco

• Fixed one of the issues that could make the Cashbox fall through the ground
• Fixed collision issues with some walls in the park area
• Upgraded terrain to improve performance

Practice Range

• Updated the trophy room to include the trophies from Season 4

Skyway Stadium

• Fixed one of the issues that could make the Cashbox fall through the ground
• Improved general traversal by fixing collision issues

SYS$Horizon

• Fixed an issue where some pieCes of the map could be left haNging in the air when deStroyed
• Fixed incorrect health value on one of the big metal apples in the Art Gallery building so it can be destructed as intended
• Added some extra cover in front of and behind the Museum building
  
  

Stability & Performance

• Optimized GPU load when there are a lot of effects onscreen
• Resizing the game window by dragging its borders now works better and doesn't constrain it to its previous aspect ratio
• Improvements to destruction performance on Monaco
• Minor GPU optimizations for Low and Medium ‘Post-Processing’ Quality
• Upgraded XeSS SDK to version 1.3.1

Settings

• Fixed an issue with preview resolution in the video settings for Borderless Fullscreen on non-primary monitors
• Fixed an issue where tooltips would not show for settings in the general options tab
• Added an option to Video settings that enables an overlay with performance metrics during gameplay. Previously this overlay was only shown in the in-game video settings menu
• Improved the list of available resolutions in Windowed mode. This included fixing a rounding error that resulted in odd resolutions and making sure standard 16:9 resolutions were added to the list

Specializations

Healing Beam

• Added a sound to indicate the target is completely healed
  
  

UI

• New loading screens!
• Fixed an issue where loading screens could appear stretched when using an ultra wide monitor
• Add a cooldown to the Play button to avoid matchmaking start/cancel spamming
• Fixed an issue that would result in player cards not rendering for some users
• Fixed an issue where players could temporarily be named PlayerName and have a partially incomplete scoreboard before the match started
• Increased the number of emotes you can equip to 8

Security and Anti-Cheat

• UI updates for a more transparent player messaging when using prohibited software
• Use of NVIDIA Profile Inspector is no longer allowed
• Improvements to anti-cheat performance and reliability