SPACE MAYHEM

ENGIMO is proud to present this week’s Update!With the return of a beloved LTM, a new wheel packed with rewards, fresh new Twitch drops, and a long list of balance and bug fixes, there’s plenty to see and do in space. Let’s dig into the details.

Take the brawl to outer space with Orbital Hitters!
Based on the classic Heavy Hitters formula, re-engineered with the help of ENGIMO, Orbital Hitters brings Sledgehammers back into the Arena! Use all the tools available to you to send your opponents flying off into space, but watch your step, you could be the one slipping off the Arena if you’re not careful.
Swing, slam and may the best team win.

Rewards are flooding in the Arena thanks to ENGIMO sponsoring a brand new Wheel!
Earn up to three tickets a day by completing contracts for the next two weeks, spin the Wheel and see what you’re bringing home among over 20 rewards. Landed on a duplicate? No worries, this spot will now turn into a Golden Ticket, ready for you to grab the next time you land on it.
Golden Tickets guarantees that your next spin will get you a new item!

Are you here to sweeten some hearts or crush them in your hands? It’s all up to you with the Sugar Shocker and Sugar Crasher Sets. Robotic felines are taking over the Arena making the next Cashout Station their scratching post. Both sets come with an outfit, a Legendary BFR Titan skin with its charm, a Legendary emote and 2,400 Multibucks! So.. miau?

Some prefer the safety of an artificially pressurized atmosphere but you, you’re not bound by security protocols. Grab your vacuum-sealed helmet, step beyond the airlocks, and get the job done with the Hullwalker Set. It’s going to be a long shift..

ENGIMO is once again expanding the boundaries of what’s possible.
Watch anyone playing THE FINALS with Drops Enabled on Twitch and earn some sweet cosmetics to show that you too can reach the stars.

• Watch 1 hour to get the Connection Complete Sticker

• Watch 2 hours to get the Link Established Charm

• Watch 4 hours to get Meteor Tips Earrings

Available now until September 3rd, 2026. Terms and conditions on http://twitch.tv/

Lockbolt 

• Decreased duration of the reload animation from 2.2s to 1.75s

• Moved the point at which ammo restocks during the reload animation from 1.3s to 1.1s, to align with the new reload animation duration

Dev Note: This is a small quality of life change for the Lockbolt to make it smoother to use.

Dematerializer

• Decreased cooldown from 20s to 15s per charge

• Decreased item raise time from 0.1s to 0s

Dev Note: The Dematerializer has drifted out of the meta to a larger extent than we wanted. These changes should make it feel more responsive and nudge it back to being a viable playstyle for Medium players.

Evasive Dash

• Decreased cooldown from 6.5s to 6s per charge

Dev Note: We’ve felt that our previous changes to Evasive Dash restricted it too much, this is a nudge back towards the previous balance.

Guardian Turret

• Decreased activation time from 3.5s to 3s

• Increased health from 280 to 300

• Decreased cooldown when retrieving the turret remotely from 17.5s to 10s

  • Cooldown when picking up the turret by hand remains 3s

  • Cooldown when the turret is destroyed remains 35s

Dev Note: The Turret is always a difficult Specialization to balance, as it’s very easy to deal with for experienced players while it can be quite frustrating to face for newer players. We’ve had to tread carefully when trying to balance it. However, we feel at present it is slightly too weak and we’d like it to find more viability at higher skill tiers so that it would demand more use of direct counters to contest it. These changes represent a nudge in that direction.

AKM

• Increased damage from 20 to 21

Dev Note: While the AKM remains ever popular, it performs slightly worse than weapons like the FAMAS and FCAR, which it should perform more similarly to. This nudge to damage should bring it more in line with those weapons.

ARN-220

• Increased fire rate from 725 RPM to 750 RPM

• Decreased the length of the quick reload animation from 0.75s to 0.66s

• Decreased the length of the empty reload from 2.73s to 2.7s

Dev Note: The ARN has lagged behind the XP-54 and M11 for quite some time and we’d like to see it on a more equal footing with those weapons. These changes aim to get it to that place.

BFR Titan

• Increased damage falloff multiplier from 0.65 to 0.7, increasing the weapon's damage at range

Dev Note: The BFR has been outperformed by some other Heavy weapons at distances in which it should really dominate. Alongside other changes, this change is aimed at making sure the BFR can have its own niche.

Cerberus 12GA

• Increased damage per pellet from 8 to 9, increasing a full shot’s damage from 104 to 117

Dev Note: The Cerberus was more negatively impacted by the reduction in damage to Quick Melee than some other weapons. This change to damage aims to offset that. 

Dagger

• Primary Attack

  • Increased base damage from 42 to 49

  • Increased damage for precise hits from 60 to 70

  • Lunge duration increased from 0.15s to 0.22s to help the lunge reach its intended range

• Secondary Attack - Backstab

  • Increased base damage from 75 to 85

  • Increased backstab damage from 337 to 340

  • Lunge duration increased from 0.22s to 0.32s to help the lunge reach its intended range

Dev Note: We’re continuing to further dial in our melee weapons during Season 11, as we get data back and better learn how the new melee system performs in the wild. These new damage values and lunge distance changes should help the Dagger to get onto targets more reliably, but we know there’s still more to be done. We’re working towards some networking improvements for lunge attacks that should really help, but they’re a little while away yet. In the meantime, we think these balance changes will improve the overall experience. 

Dual Blades

• Primary Attack

  • Increased precision zone angle from 9 to 12 degrees, making it easier to land precise strikes 

Dev Note: We feel the two strike animation on the Dual Blades frequently causes the second strike to miss precise hits and only land normal ones. To address this, we’re broadening the precision zone angle for the Dual Blades, making precise hits easier to land, especially for that second strike animation.

KS-23

• Decreased damage falloff multiplier from 0.675 to 0.58, meaning the weapon does less damage at range

• Decreased damage fall-off start range from 18m to 12m, reducing its effective range

• Decreased damage fall-off end range from 23m to 22m, reducing its effective range

Dev Note: As mentioned under the BFR change, the KS-23 is one weapon that performs well at ranges where the BFR should really dominate. These changes bring in the KS-23’s effective range a bit, making it less effective at medium to long range.

M11

• Increased recoil when firing from the hip by approximately 75%

• Increased recoil when aiming down sights (ADS) by approximately 25%

• Increased bullet dispersion in ADS, in most movement stances by 25%

• Increased bullet dispersion in ADS when airborne by 120%

Dev Note: The M11 outperforms its intended range by quite a bit, cannibalizing combat distances that the ARN and XP-54 should really be a best fit for. These changes bring in that effective range for the M11 by making it less precise. It should be noted, while some of the numbers look very large, because they are percentage changes on the current very low levels of M11 recoil and dispersion they won’t actually feel quite as crazy as they look. :)

Recurve Bow

• Increased damage per shot, when the bow is at max draw, from 124 to 126. The base damage per shot remains at 60 damage

Dev Note: Similar to the Cerberus, the Quick Melee damage change from 40 to 25 negatively impacted the Bow more than most. This damage change offsets that lost power and opens up Quick Melee combos versus Lights for Bow users again.

Riot Shield

• Primary Attack

  • Increased base damage from 58 to 60

  • Increased damage for precise hits from 83 to 86

  • Increased lunge distance from 4.25m to 5m (this change was originally listed in 11.3 but didn’t work correctly. This has now been fixed.)

• Secondary Attack - Shield Bash

  • Increased damage from 40 to 50

  • Increased environmental damage from 50 to 100

  • Lunge duration increased from 0.5s to 0.6s to extend the lunge’s max distance slightly

Dev Note: As part of the changes to the Riot Shield in 11.0, we very deliberately moved the weapon towards the style of play we originally planned for it, that is a role as a hyper defensive weapon capable of controlling interior spaces, anchoring for their team and playing around deployables such as Turrets and Mines. The way the Riot Shield was sometimes used in the past, to charge enemies while blocking bullets from one side then flailing in with a flurry of hits, was never an intended role for the weapon and felt too similar to the Dual Blades and the Light’s Sword. The Riot Shield was not supposed to be about running up a high kill count, so much as being a powerful defender of objectives and we moved to reinforce that style with 11.0. That said, we feel the changes in 11.0 did reduce the Riot Shield’s ability to get eliminations a little too much and since then, while its win rate has looked very healthy, its elimination rate has been slightly too low. These changes nudge its combat potential back up slightly, while hopefully still making the weapon a ‘stall first’ tool more than anything else.

Spear

• Primary Attacks

  • Increased the size of the weapon’s damage sweep box by 60%, making it slightly easier to land hits

  • Increased lunge distance from 5m to 6.5m

  • Increased lunge duration from 0.3s to 0.45s to help the lunge reach its intended range

  • Increased lunge speed by 50% to improve the chances of the lunge catching up to fast-moving targets

• Secondary Attack - Spin Attack

  • Increased the delay before the secondary attack resets back to the first attack in the sequence from 0.2s to 0.35s. This is a small quality of life change to make it easier to keep the sequence going if the player hit a target 

Dev Note: Similar to the Dagger, we’re still trying to get the Spear to a place where it feels reliable to close in on targets. Like the Dagger, the Spear will also benefit greatly from the networking changes we’re currently investigating for melee combat, but in the short term these buffs to lunges should help it perform more reliably.

XP-54

• Update the recoil curve to prevent an issue where the recoil pattern would jump down if the player emptied the whole magazine in a single burst

• Decrease bullet dispersion in ADS when airborne by 8%

Dev Note: These are a couple of small quality of life changes for the XP-54, dealing with a couple of edge cases that didn’t feel very consistent but should feel much better now.

A recent anti-cheat rule we deployed in THE FINALS incorrectly flagged players using gyro controllers as cheaters. We've updated the rule, and affected bans are being reversed automatically. If you were banned as a result of this, you don't need to submit an appeal or take any action. Your account will be restored.
We're sorry. Gyro is a legitimate and supported input method, and players who use it should never have been swept up in enforcement meant for cheaters or made to wait so long for a reversal. We've adjusted our testing process so this class of false positive gets caught before rules go live in the future. 

If you have questions about your specific account, our support team is available through the usual channels. 

When starting the game after today’s update, you may encounter a message about a driver needing to be uninstalled in order to play. This is related to the recent Windows update KB5121003.

Please follow these instructions[www.reachthefinals.com] to uninstall the driver in order to be able to play.
If you encounter any issues, feel free to reach out to our support team.[id.embark.games]

• Corrected a slight offset in the aim-down-sights animation for the Schwarzschild Blackhole SR-84 

• Fixed an issue where deploy animations didn’t blend out smoothly

• Fixed an issue where Quick Melee kicks did not cancel correctly when swapping items

• Fixed leg placement misalignment for Light and Heavy builds in the Vesper Salute Emote animation

• Improved end-of-round music reliability to prevent it from cutting out when the audio mix is busy

• The SFX Volume slider now also adjusts sound during replays

• Fixed an issue where the revive interaction sound could continue looping after a round ended

• Fixed sound timing for the Star Team emote

• Fixed an issue where tracker values on some skins could display outdated information 

• Fixed an issue where the House Lights skin for the Flashbang did not correctly display its light state to other Contestants 

• Fixed cases where some Gateway skins could display incorrect materials

• Fixed an issue where the Recurve Bow’s visual effects could fail to load for certain skins

• Improved the Pyro Grenade inspect animation on the Burn Notice skin and adjusted its audio level

General

• Disabled achievement progression in bot game modes

• Fixed a rare case where the Winch Claw could attach to a target without pulling it 

Kyoto

• Improved stair collision to remove instances where Contestants could fall through

• Fixed a spot where players could get stuck between a cliff and bamboo.

• Fixed a weak point where a building could be destroyed too easily

Galaxy Estates

• Fixed a few places where dressing against walls would not properly take damage, preventing those walls from breaking consistently from all angles

• Added a ladder above the covered walkway from Astral Port to Cosmo Physique to make it easier to reach the highest roof level

• Adjusted the size of the exhaustion vents on the outer walls of Cosmo Physique so they can be more reliably used to climb up, and added a few more of them to create more options to contest the high ground

Skyway Stadium

• Fixed a few places where dressing against walls would not properly take damage, preventing those walls from breaking consistently from all angles

Fangwai City

• Fixed floating decals and signs that could appear after destruction and corrected a floating sign 

Las Vegas

• Fixed visual flickering on surfaces in the parking garage

Las Vegas Stadium 

• Fixed environment and lighting issues

• Fixed an issue where the Cashbox Time-Trial challenge spawned vaults instead of cashboxes directly as intended.

• Upgraded Unreal Engine from 5.3 to 5.7

• Party invites can now be sent and accepted while matchmaking

• Fixed an issue where the Social screen showed a regular team name and insignia for spectators in Private Match

• Fixed a crash when spectating at the end of a round

• Fixed a rare issue that could crash servers when a player’s connection stopped acknowledging network packets

• The contextual response prompt is now hidden while dead or spectating, where replying isn’t possible

• Fixed an issue that could cause the event HUD display to show incorrectly when transitioning to the next round in Cashout Bots

• Fixed an issue where the Active Events bar could remain visible after a round reset

• Fixed an issue that caused damage numbers to report 1 extra damage in certain scenarios

• Fixed an issue where navigating the Options screen with a gamepad could get stuck or skip items

• Added spectator-only team colors for Private Match, allowing spectators to use additional colors that are hidden from team color selection

• Fixed an issue that caused gamepad bindings page to be tricky to navigate with a gamepad

• Fixed an issue that caused the Killcam UI to not appear when getting eliminated in Practice Range

Dual Blades

• Primary Attack

  • Fixed an issue where not all attacks dealt a consistent 25 environmental damage

• Secondary Functions - Deflect

  • Fixed an issue where the wide angle deflect blocked damage completely instead of the center of the deflect radius

    • Imprecise Deflect angle damage modifier updated from 0% to 20%

    • Precise Deflect angle damage modifier updated from 20% to 0%

Riot Shield

• Fixed an issue where visual and sound effects would not be displayed from a third-person perspective when impacting the Riot Shield

CHROMED UP

We’ve got a shiny new Store Update and a sale dropping in the Arena alongside some exciting TGM updates with our first team officially advancing to Stockholm!

Crank that analog dial to the max and let the musical waves flow through the Arena while keeping yourself safe from changes in atmospheric pressure with the Atomic Lifestyle Set. Mono never sounded this good.

We are also running a sale!
For a limited time, a selection of really cool bundles have an extra discount applied to them, including our friend Shieldon! That’s one happy turtle.

Cycle 3 has wrapped up across all three regions, and somebody is already preparing to pack their baggage. Five Fears are the first team anywhere to lock a direct invite to The Grand Major 2026, and they did it with a whole cycle to spare.

EMEA

We decided to hand it over to Scotty to give us the rundown on how Cycle 3 happened:

SCOTTY: “Here’s how you make history folks: lose your opening Cashout match, drop into the lower bracket, and win the entire show from there! What a rollercoaster for the fans of Five Fears!”.

Five Fears took Cycle 3 the hard way for back-to-back cycle titles, and their 275 points put them mathematically out of reach before Cycle 4 even started. Alliance reached their first ever top two, and Teiko put points back on the board after that Cycle 2 wipeout. EMEA’s last cycle is now a fight over Closed Qualifier positions, and it is wide open.

AMERICAS

Now this is the most exciting lineup. Looking at the leaderboard, two teams at the top are tied on 155 points. Unphased and Luminon Gaming join four other teams to fight for one cycle win that can determine the golden ticket. That begins this Saturday August 15th via the Open Qualifiers stage.

EMEA

HIBOO are defending the lead for the first time after back-to-back cycle wins, KZ sit five points behind on 225 with the same roster they started the season with, and DRG on 200 are quietly close enough to ruin both their weekends.

So here’s the math for everyone else. Most points after Cycle 4 takes your region’s golden ticket to The Grand Major 2026 hosted at DreamHack Stockholm, November 27-29th. One seat at that table is already taken.

And the last entry window of the regular season is still open. Every contestant that was tested on those broadcasts started in the Open Qualifiers, taking the same shot anyone can take, including you. Build your team and claim your spot:

AMERICAS Sign Up[embark.link] | Cycle 4 Qualifiers begin 15th August

EMEA Sign Up[embark.link] | Cycle 4 Qualifiers begin 22nd August

So grab your teammates, pick a team to root for, and ask yourself the big question:

CAN YOU REACH THE FINALS?