This update is approx. 5.9 GB on Steam.
Loadout-Limited Infil Limit
Developer’s Note: This new infil restriction has two purposes: reduce the efficacy of AOE grenade spam and reduce the prevalence of Bubble Shields. We think grenades are in a good place damage-wise, but feedback is clear that spam is still an issue on Cryo and that Bubble Shields are flattening high level combat.
Bubble Shield
Energy Amp
Dev Note: Invisibility is currently too powerful as a tool for completely sidestepping PvE encounters. We’re taking a sizeable swing here to make it so players will need to be more intentional with their movement after activation. You’ll still be able to navigate past enemies but choosing when to sprint and when to move more slowly will be more important. Alongside this change, we’re increasing the uptime of Smoke Dive to help ensure that Assassin still has strong disengage tools at their disposal, and we’ll continue to evaluate how Invisibility is playing moving forward.
Dev Note: Echo Pulse is a primary contributor to undesired standoff behavior in our higher tier activities, so we’re making some changes to reduce how quickly it snapshots enemy location information and the number of snapshots it provides. This should give players more time to reposition or push between pulses in combination with the changes to Energy Amp detailed above reducing its effective uptime for highly invested players. We’ll be keeping an eye on this to see how it performs alongside the rest of the changes for future updates.
Dev Note: With the infil limit for grenades detailed above coming in, we wanted to give Sentinel’s kit a bit more general usability to compensate. Snare Mine will be a more reliable damage tool, and Prey Tracker no longer has an easily accessible counter without downside. As with any new shell, dialing in potency will be a process that happens over time – we’ll be monitoring Sentinel’s performance for the rest of the season to see how things shake out.
Dev Note: With Season 2, Rook’s playstyle shifted more firmly back into scavenger territory without an arsenal of claymores and shotguns, but its ability to recover from a bad situation without reliance on healing consumables with Recuperation wasn’t hitting the bar. Overall healing has been more than doubled, making Rook much less reliant on finding Patch Kits in-run. The potency of Rook’s arsenal is something we’re looking at season-over-season to find the right potency.
Implants
Backpacks
Miscellaneous
D54 Battle Pistol
V22 Volt Thrower
Twin Tap HBR
KKV-9SD
CE Tactical Sidearm
Bully SMG
WSTR Combat Shotgun
Misriah 2442
Volt Battery Weapons
Exit Buddy