BOO!

A mysterious fog has taken over the Arena, and with that, a bucket worth of tricks and cosmetics are now available! We’re also bringing some bug fixes to smoothen things out. Don’t forget, you have one more week to collect tickets during the Frights Galore Event!

They say some things are better taken to the grave, but that’s not how you operate.
Let the Arena witness your return from beyond with the Revenant Countess Set and make the competition tremble in fear. It is the season of pumpkins, skeletons and spiders in your hair after all, and we’ve brought everything you need to celebrate these spooky times.

With the release of PRIME TIME, our new moderation tools have been hard at work, going through over 10M messages and 500k+ display names. We’re still working on the never-ending tweaking of these new systems as they are new, and we’re still sifting older display names through them. If you believe your username was flagged unnecessarily, please fill out this form[embark.link], so the name can be reviewed. You can also report chat words and phrases that you believe are being flagged without necessity. 

Translocator

• Decreased max range from 70m to 50m

Dev Note: The Translocator has definitely had a higher impact than we initially expected and on top of some bugs and balance issues we’ve also seen the feedback that enemies rapidly vanishing can feel very frustrating. In this update we’ve addressed some of those bugs and the change to range is part of bringing the balance to where it should be, but we still feel there is more to do to get the item to a good place. As a result, we’ll continue to make some changes as the season goes on, but for now this is one more immediately actionable change.

• Decreased the duration for shotgun pellet hit markers from 1s to 0.5s

Dev Note: We’ve seen that some players find the shotgun hit markers quite intrusive so with update 12.1 we’re giving players the option to disable them, as well as reducing the default duration of them to make them less intrusive. Between these two changes we think we’re in a lot better place now. 

CB-01 Repeater

• Decreased damage from 88 to 85

Dev Note: Early data from the Season 12 shows that we’ve perhaps slightly over-tuned the power of the CB-01, so this change aims to nudge that down to a more reasonable spot. Pike-556

• Decreased headshot multiplier from 1.75 to 1.5

Dev Note: The Pike jumped significantly in usage, damage output and kill rates following the 12.0 changes, making it one of the more dominant weapons in the game. We still believe it needed that help but we clearly went too far with the changes, so this adjustment to headshots aims to bring that back down slightly.

• Fixed an issue where the Infiltrator playstyle’s stage screen entrance used a generic animation instead of a bespoke one

General

• Fixed an issue that prevented daily and weekly Contracts being able to be progressed in Cashout (Bots)

At the launch of Season 12, we became aware of a number of items where the placeholder art was added instead of the intended art. In this update, those incorrect items have been removed and their proper art has been put in place. Our intention is always to follow our policy where we may use procedural and AI-based tools to assist with content creation. In all such cases, the final product reflects the creativity and expression of our own development team. Thank you so much for the early alerts on this incident. 

• Fine-tuned the adjustments on the M60 Lagoon skin to prevent sight obstruction when aiming down sights.

• Fixed a visual issue causing Concrete Canopy skins to appear gray

• Pretty Hostile Set boots no longer have heels clipping through the bottom

• Fixed issues with some hairstyles and gloves when combined with the Synapse Coreframe or Termiframe Chassis

• Fixed chest clipping on the Transit Jacket, Crimson Shadow Tee, and The Street Spectrum Top at lower detail levels for the Type 01 Medium Body Type

• Fixed blinking lights and sound issues on the P90 Toy Gun skin

• Fixed an issue where the XP-54’s Short Carry sprint animation could break when using certain skins

Mimic Device

• Fixed an issue where using the Mimic Device could display both the prop’s shadow and a Contestant-shaped shadow, revealing the user’s position

• Fixed an issue where using the Mimic Device could leave behind an invisible Contestant-shaped collision after elimination by an explosion, blocking movement and projectiles until respawn or revive

• Fixed an issue where momentum could be incorrectly carried over after dashing while using the Mimic Device, causing unexpected speed changes

• Fixed an issue where the Mimic Device allowed players to pass through Cashout Stations and Grand Vaults

Tracking Dart

• Fixed an issue where the Tracking Dart could trigger your Weapon to fire after its ammo was depleted

• Fixed an issue where statues could get stuck out of bounds after an environmental elimination; they now return as expected

• Fixed an issue that prevented Quick Melee from being able to topple Cashout Stations

• Fixed some curtains in Monaco and Skyway Stadium that could block movement

• Improved stability during map loading screens and fixed a freeze on PS5 and Xbox

• Reduced color and distortion artifact when taking damage

• Added a setting under Interface to disable the HUD glow

• Added a setting to toggle the shotgun pellet hit markers On or Off

• Improved contrast and UI overlap in some areas of the game for better readability

• Updated Game Mode selection modals: adjusted image size and polished on-screen text

• Improved contrast and readability on the Backstage screen by adjusting background elements for TV displays

• Fixed an issue where animation customization was disabled for Mimic Device

• Added a Solo Showdown leaderboard to the in-game leaderboards

• Added markers that indicate newly unlocked items in the Sponsor Archives and Signature Plays tabs

• Fixed a yellow on-screen artifact that could appear when taking damage

• Improved in-game scoreboards with higher-contrast score tiles for better readability

• Reduced color distortion when taking damage

• Improved visibility and interaction cues for secondary buttons across menus

• Fixed camera framing on the Personal Performance screen so it correctly centers your last‑played Light, Medium, or Heavy archetype

• Fixed opacity issues on progress bars

• Fixed an issue where the Battle Pass video could play on every boot for some players

• Improved the Game Rules panel on loading screens in Cashout to prevent text from appearing squished

• Updated the Career Profile screen layout by adding text drop shadows and adjusting opacity for improved readability

• Improved readability of Contracts by increasing contrast, adjusting opacity, and removing in-game background blur

• Improved gamepad navigation in categories when customizing and swapping between tabs

• Improved contrast in front-end menus and contract list entries to enhance readability

• Fixed an issue where the ‘Attackers’ and ‘Defenders’ text could overlap with objective icons on the Point Break loading screen

• Fixed an issue where a “99:99” timer could briefly appear at the top of the HUD in Point Break when time limits are disabled, including after elimination, spectator transitions, and HUD visibility changes

• Adjusted exposure and fog in LAS VEGAS STADIUM to improve visibility

• Adjusted Monaco Evening condition’s lighting to reduce contrast

• Improved lighting on Seoul to enhance visibility in Afternoon, Foggy, and Storm conditions

• Adjusted height fog to prevent it from interfering with Smoke Grenade effects

• Refined Afternoon condition’s lighting in SKYWAY STADIUM with color, haze, and brightness/contrast adjustments

Hi folks, 

We wanted to provide you with a brief update on the game’s gyro controller functionality and where it’s headed in the future. 

We’re aware that a good number of players currently play with gyro controls in THE FINALS using third-party software to set up their controls. We don’t want players using gyro controls to be banned from playing THE FINALS, but the reality is that some third-party software setups for gyro, especially ones that map gyro to mouse and/or keyboard, can be indistinguishable from cheating, and this is not something that can easily be solved. 

As a result, we want to be clear that third-party software for gyro controls are not officially supported and when using such software you risk being banned by our anti-cheat detection. Our recommendation is to only use the native gyro support provided in the game. 

We realize this will be disappointing for many of you, especially because our current support for gyro controls in THE FINALS only includes DualSense controllers and has a small set of options, which is a limiting factor.

To address this, we’re actively working to update our native gyro controller support and offer more settings to allow a wider range of supported peripherals.

This work will take some time, but our goal is to reach a place where you’ll be able to play effectively with gyro within our game, which will end the need for third-party software for gyro players.

We hope this update provides some clarity for you and gives a better sense of where we’re headed when it comes to gyro controls. 
Thank you for your continued support of THE FINALS, 

Matt Lowe