24 September 2024

12 Min Read

XDefiant S2.1 Patch Notes

Gameplay

  • Fixed an issue preventing some players from sliding after a jump if they selected the Hold option instead of Toggle for Crouch and Sprint in the Settings menu.

  • Corrected a control issue that stopped players from sprinting if they fired while quickly switching to ADS in mid-sprint.

  • Victims of melee attacks now suffer a movement penalty of half speed for a quarter of a second, exactly enough time to say, "Ow, hey!"

  • Updated the six Preset loadouts in the Loadout menu so they offer full sets of attachments for the primary and secondary weapons, along with devices that complement the primary weapon in each Preset. The goal of these new loadouts is to offer attachments that support each weapon's strengths while also letting players experience a variety of attachments and devices.

  • Tuned Major and Daily Challenges. 

  • Now when you complete a Major Challenge, the next one is automatically activated so you don't need to select it yourself.

  • Fixed a weapons-progression glitch that wasn't granting weapon XP points for kill assists. 

Factions

  • Highwaymen

    • Straight out of Hope County 2035, the Highwaymen are cutthroat survivors with a high-octane attack style. They're all about dealing maximum damage in a minimum amount of time, thanks to deployable assault turrets, speedy reload and rate-of-fire bonuses, and lethal makeshift tech like their signature saw-blade launchers, wielded with complete disregard for power-tool safety. Highwaymen fight for their comrades and their leaders, Mickey and Lou, and fully expect to go out in a blaze of gory glory. 
  • GS-Kommando

    • GS-Kommando's Active Defense System was kind of a pain to deploy in tight corners but now it's not.

    • Players can now cancel their Active Defense System after deploying it, similar to how Libertad players can cancel El Remedio. Also fixed a bug that allowed the Active Defense System to shoot through soft cover.  

    • Fixed a glitch preventing the Active Defense System from doing its job against enemy proximity mines.

    • Fixed a camera-resetting bug caused by running into GS-Kommando's Shock Wire.

  • DedSec

    • Spiderbot deployment is no longer canceled if the deploying DedSec player immediately activates their ultra. Also, Spiderbot movement sounds have undergone a tune-up to address player complaints that the little facehuggers were getting the drop on them because they couldn't hear them coming. To that end, we've increased the volume of Spiderbot footsteps, as well as the radius within which the footsteps are audible.

    • Decreased the duration of DedSec's Lockout ultra from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.

    • Death no longer offers a release from DedSec's Lockout ultra. Although the duration of Lockout has been reduced to 20 seconds, it now affects enemies who die and respawn during that period.

    • Fixed a glitch that was disabling DedSec's Hijack ability after using it on moving devices such as the Incinerator Drone or Spiderbot.

  • Phantoms

    • Removed an exploit allowing some Phantom players to respawn with invincibility if they managed to trigger the AEGIS ultra moments before death.

    • Fixed the Phantoms' Mag Barrier so it's no longer impervious to the AEGIS's electro-scattergun if hit anywhere except dead center.  

    • Restored controller force feedback when blocking damage with the Blitz Shield. Also added sound effects to indicate when the Blitz Shield takes damage. 

  • Libertad

    • The effective range of Libertad's healthful BioVida Boost has increased to match its visual effect. 

    • Libertad's Médico Supremo soothing health mist no longer disperses in midair if players deploy it while landing from on high.  

    • Fixed a bug locking Libertad players in a zoomed-in ADS state when deploying the Médico Supremo while using ADS.  

    • In other Médico Supremo news, enemies no longer earn Ultra Cancel points for taking out the deploying player if the late player managed to complete deployment of Médico Supremo as their final heroic act.

  • The Cleaners' Incinerator Drone and Phantoms' Mag Barrier no longer launch facing the wrong direction when deployed under a bad network connection.

Maps

  • Waterfront

    • Run for the high ground in Season 2's new Arena map, Waterfront. Storm surge has ravaged this seaside skatepark, where players can grind down adversaries or ollie up to the boat house for some close-quarters combat.
  • Mayday

    • The Mayday map has been removed from CTF Unranked mode playlists because it's just not a well-balanced map for that mode.
  • Fixed various map-geometry issues that were leading to exploits, such as players standing in midair or seeing enemies through walls. Affected maps include Attica Heights, Clubhouse, Emporium, and Pueblito.

  • Tweaked objects in the Emporium and Times Square maps that were preventing GS-Kommando's Active Defense System from deploying.

Game Modes

  • Bomb!

    • Two bombs and zero respawns define the high-stakes, fan-requested new game mode with the objective right in the name: Bomb! Attackers attempt to plant a Detonator on one of two Bombs stationed across the map and keep it ticking until the Bomb goes boom. Defenders try to stop attackers from planting it, or, failing that, they must defuse the Detonator. Attacker success or defender failure yields predictably explosive results.
  • Escort

    • Corrected a visual issue distorting the Package path on inclines and making the Package icon appear all jittery when viewed through walls.
  • Team Death Match

    • Team Death Match had overtime when matches ended in a tie, but it wasn't supposed to, and now it doesn't.

    • Team Death Match mode now has a Daily Challenge.

  • Capture The Flag

    • Completing a CTF session now counts toward earning the Grand Tour achievement.
  • XP scores for accomplishing Escort and Zone Control objectives have been doubled.

  • If you thought you weren't earning Cleanse points for killing the last enemy in Domination, Occupy, or Zone Control, you thought right and it has been fixed.

    • Same goes for Checkpoint-assist points for helping push the Package in Escort.
  • As additional encouragement to finish matches, we've added Medal Challenges for completing Arena modes and completing Linear modes (both named "Complete Game"). These new medals bump up Battle Pass momentum by granting a lump sum of XP upon match completion, making player stick-to-itiveness the primary driver for Battle Pass progression.

Ranked

  • Season 2 also debuts Ranked Loadouts, a new loadout category with 10 slots. Ranked Loadouts allow players to create custom loadouts from all launch weapons, attachments, and devices in Ranked play even if they haven't unlocked them. The tradeoff is that if a player selects a weapon for their loadout that they have not yet unlocked, they will receive no XP progression on that weapon. (Owned weapons will progress normally.) This system doesn't apply to skins, faction characters, or any post-launch weapons/attachments/devices that players have not unlocked.

  • Corrected an issue in Ranked mode preventing PC keyboard users from confirming their pre-selected Ability if a teammate has the same faction pre-selected.

  • Ranked mode now uses the party's average Ranked level to find new players (with the average weighted toward the highest-level player in the party).  

Weapons

  • New for Season 2
    • PP-19: Despite its lower rate of fire, this heavy-hitting SMG is lethal if you can rein in its recoil.
    • SPAS-12: This semi-auto shotgun may have slow handling, but it packs a wallop when wielded up close.
    • L86: A quick reloader and among the most nimble of the LMGs thanks to its bullpup design (magazine behind the trigger), although its per-shot damage is on the low end.
    • Added the Extended Mag Tube, a shotgun-only attachment that increases ammo capacity.
  • Tweaks for Existing Weapons
    • M44: Players wielding the M44 sniper rifle can no longer aim down its sights before the weapon's reload animation finishes.
    • 686 Magnum: Removed a half-second-weapon-sway delay when switching to ADS after triggering the jump/crouch penalty.
    • M870:  Corrected a timing issue on the M870 shotgun so spent shell casings eject when the slide is racked back rather than when the player fires, which is purely a cosmetic matter but, hey, it's the little things.
    • MDR: Removed aiming obstructions when equipped with the Skeletonized cosmetic skin. Also, like to the M870 tweaks above, corrected some mechanical animations to match the real-life weapon: charging handle no longer reciprocates, and spent casings now eject toward the front of the weapon rather than the side.
    • Slight reduction in duration of the sniper hit-flinch penalty from .7s to .5s for the M44, L115, and TAC-50.
  • Tuned some barrel and muzzle attachments for balance. Here are the changes:
    • Muzzle Booster
      • Added short/medium range penalty of 12.5 percent.
      • Removed horizontal/vertical recoil penalty of 10 percent.
      • Added ADS speed penalty of 7.5 percent.
    • Rapid Fire Barrel
      • Added short/medium range penalty of 25 percent.
      • Removed horizontal/vertical recoil penalty of 20 percent.
      • Added ADS speed penalty of 15 percent.
    • Lightweight Barrel
      • Added short/medium range penalty of 10 percent.
      • Removed horizontal/vertical recoil penalty of 10 percent.
  • Reduced shakiness and other visually distorting issues while using a scope and crouching or spamming crouch in crouch-only areas. 
  • Added a new Mastery skin, Pyroclastic, unlocked at Weapon Level 500 --- but only if several other weapons in your arsenal have reached Weapon Level 400. 
  • Reflex and Holographic optics now display enemy outlines as intended.
  • Fixed a slight aiming wobble caused by jumping while in ADS.
  • Eliminated a convoluted exploit in which players could bequeath the damage inflicted by a high-recoil, low rate-of-fire weapon (such as a sniper rifle) to a low-recoil, high-rate of fire secondary weapon if they swapped these weapons and fired moments before getting face-hugged by a Spiderbot. Kudos to anyone who figured out that exploit. Now kiss it bye-bye. 

Devices

  • Fixed a glitch causing EMP grenades to disable conventional grenades (such as Frag and Sticky) if those grenades were deployed just as the EMP was about to activate.

  • Exploding Sticky grenades now damage enemies when you lob them onto ceilings.

Netcode

  • Improved an issue where dying players who squeezed off final shots at an enemy weren't inflicting damage on that enemy (despite evidence to the contrary, such as hearing damage-inflicting sound effects and seeing crosshair-damage confirmation). 

Social

  • Quick Chat is now in the game. This feature lets players select predefined messages from an icon-based Quick Chat menu (such as "group up" or "Attacking A") and send them to teammates for lightning-quick comms.

Audio

  • We've made significant changes to footstep and clothing sound effects to address community concerns, starting with...

    • Balancing all enemy and ally footsteps to be at the same audio levels for sprinting, running (standard movement), and walking (moving while ADS). Crouch-walking is silent.

    • Improving the distances at which players can hear these sounds and how naturally they fade in and out with distance.

    • Improving SFX quality in general, such as footsteps increasing/decreasing with movement speed and sounding muffled on another floor or room.

    • The player's own steps and clothing sounds have been reduced in volume. (Incidentally, all friendlies 180 degrees behind you are muted.)

  • Enabled text-to-speech in voice chat on Xbox platforms while fixing its volume setting on all platforms.

  • Tuned the conditions that trigger a "deathstreak" VO line (dying multiple subsequent times without killing an enemy player) from three deaths with a 30-second cooldown to four deaths with a 60-second cooldown.

  • Eliminated an issue causing low game volume when Windows Spatial sound is enabled. 

  • Audio fixes, various.

Miscellaneous

  • Players can now skip intro videos when starting the game.

  • Added custom framerate-limit options for various features (gameplay, menus, and out-of-focus settings) to the Settings menu. 

  • Corrected some graphical and interface weirdness related to PC players changing their window size while in Windowed mode.

  • Fixed 120hz graphics mode so it persists after reloading the game.

  • Eliminated a game-crashing bug occurring when Sticky grenades were deployed close to the Phantoms' AEGIS shield.

  • Crash fixes, various.