Season 8 for The Finals from Embark Studios is live and brings a broad update: Instant Replay, Smooth Destruction, new weapons, and matchmaking changes. The season launch coincides with the Major qualifiers and an incremental anti-cheat rollout tied to the Steam release.
The headline feature is Instant Replay, a beta system that reconstructs elimination moments by replaying player movement, destruction, and object interactions. The feature requires more memory on some machines and is off by default on systems with less than 16 GB RAM. Players can toggle it on and provide feedback as Embark polishes performance and integration through the season.
Smooth Destruction changes how collapsing structures interact with the world, introducing knock-on effects and cascading damage that can reshape arenas mid-match. The initial targets are suspended structures, cranes, and the wrecking ball, which now do real damage on collapse and create new traversal opportunities. Kyoto receives focused updates to make collapses more predictable, add jump pads and simplify interiors to improve flow and performance.
Season updates also include two new weapons, the BFR Titan revolver and the P90 SMG, plus a migration to a new Weapons System intended to reduce longstanding weapon bugs. Playstyles are added as pre-made Contestant templates to help new players get started, and cosmetic and customization options expand with an Earring category and more outfit slots. Console players gain mouse and keyboard support, and the esports calendar lists Closed Qualifiers on September 20 and 21 ahead of the Grand Major in Stockholm.
For more details on how Playstyles work, see the Playstyles blog.
A complete set of notes is available on the developer News Page.
Patch Notes – SEASON 8
Balance Changes
Gadgets
Frag Grenade
- Added in-world grenade indicator
H+ Infuser
- Decreased healing per shot from 15 to 145Dev Note: The Infuser was still slightly outperforming other healing items, this change is made to address that.
Thermal Vision
- Temporarily disabled Thermal VisionDev Note: Thermal Vision has struggled with a considerable number of bugs and issues for some time now, issues that are not a simple or quick thing to fix. Some issues can offer players an unintended advantage, so we’ve made the decision to bench the Gadget for now. We’ll re-work it over the next few seasons, at which point it will return to the roster.
General
- Increased the damage done by the crane’s wrecking ball from 10 to 75
Specializations
Dematerializer
- Decreased the number of charges from 3 to 2
- Added new functionality which now remembers exactly which wall segments were dematerialized when a charge was used. These segments are now grouped together and if any of them is rematerialized, all of those in the group will also always be rematerialized
- Added a vignette to the screen that will be displayed when a wall segment is dematerialized near the player, just outside of their field of view, so that players are better aware of what is happening around them
- Updated the dematerialize effect on walls when activated, adding a slight delay before the wall segment becomes fully transparent
- Added a new ‘vibration’ effect to dematerialized wall segments, which will start to play just before the wall segments would automatically rematerializeDev Note: These changes have been a long time coming. The Dematerializer Specialization has been by far the most picked Specialization and the most winning, across the majority of modes and skill tiers. We never intended any item to see so much usage and it has sped up the pace of the game and how quickly Cashout fights resolve. Our intent has been to reduce the number of charges available, to throttle the usage rate, but we felt we couldn’t make that change until we fixed how unreliable opening and closing wall segments could be. With this new system and the improved visual feedback, we’re now in a place where we can reduce the ammo count. Between this change and the Turret and Healing Beam buffs, we’re hoping to return to a more varied Medium meta.
Guardian Turret
- Decreased the cooldown from 40s to 35s
- Decreased the cooldown when retrieving the turret from 20s to 17.5sDev Note: As Specializations go, the Turret has been fairly underused. We want to increase its desirability without making it too frustrating. This change will buff its availability in-match.
Healing Beam
- Increased healing rate from 40 per second to 46 per secondDev Note: Since the Healing Beam is a Specialization, it should be one of the more desirable healing tools in the game, Since the introduction of the H+ Infuser and the Healing Emitter (a.k.a Chuck), it’s not been desirable enough. This change allows the Healing Beam to go from 220 to 253 healing before overheating, which should buff it to where it should be.
Winch Claw
- Increased cooldown when missing a target from 7s to 10s
- Increased cooldown when successfully hitting a Cashout Station or Contestant from 14s to 18s
- Increased the cooldown when hitting all other object types from 7s to 14sDev Note: The power and impact of the Winch Claw is out of line with some of the other Heavy Specializations and that is reflected in the data.
Weapons
.50 Akimbo
- Decreased damage falloff minimum range from 35m to 32m, giving the weapon a slightly shorter effective range
- Decreased damage falloff max range from 42.5m to 39m, giving the weapon a slightly shorter effective rangeDev Note: We feel the akimbo pistols are performing slightly too well at longer ranges, so this is a small nudge to bring them more into their intended niche.
CB-01
- Increased damage from 84 to 88Dev Note: The CB-01 has struggled to perform well across most modes and sees a very low pick rate. This change is intended to improve viability.
Dual Blades
- Increased how quickly sprinting is re-enabled after the second attack animation begins by 25%
- Increased how quickly sprinting is re-enabled after the third attack animation begins by 15%Dev Notes: This change is mostly to correct some inconsistencies between attacks, which made the second animation in the attack sequence more aggressively slow the player than it should have.
LH1
- Increased damage from 42 to 44Dev Note: We’re still trying to get the LH1 to a place where it’s viable but not dominant. Previous changes have seen it really bottom out in both usage and performance, so we’re nudging it in an effort to improve viability and desirability.
Pike-556
- Decreased damage from 50 to 48
- Decreased damage falloff minimum range from 45m to 40m, giving the weapon a slightly shorter effective range
- Increased damage falloff multiplier from 0.75 to 0.8, meaning the weapon now does slightly more damage at range. This is somewhat offset by the reduction in base damage
- Increased the size of bullet dispersion when firing from the hip, especially while crouching, making the weapon less accurate when not aiming down sightsDev Note: We feel the Pike currently has too much utility, being both good at long range but also very viable at close range. These changes aim to get it to where it should be, a medium-to-long range rifle that is less effective when fighting at close quarters.
Riot Shield
- Decreased maximum speed of an attack’s lunge to the target from 10m/s to 7m/s
- Decreased minimum speed of an attack’s lunge to the target from 7m/s to 5.5m/s
- Decreased the trigger range of the attack’s lunge from 4m to 2.5mDev Note: The recent buffs to melee, including the Riot Shield, exposed some pre-existing issues, including its ability to too reliably keep attackers on top of enemies once they reached them. These changes should address that.
Content and Bug Fixes
Animation
- Fixed an issue where the Sword’s secondary charge-up animation was sometimes not shown correctly in spectator view
- Reworked the first-person view of the Riot Shield. You will now have a better sense of where your shield is blocking when aiming up and down
- Fixed a small but noticeable inconsistency when aiming down sights after sprinting in first-person. This transition should now feel more consistent
- Polished first-person animations for the Defibrillators, including an improved visual cues on the charging cables to make it easier to tell when they’re ready to use
Career Rank
- Added career levels up to level 500, and re-balanced the tiers from Bronze to Amethyst
Controller
- Additional rumble has been added for more things in the game
- Fixed an issue where pressing buttons while loading could cause focus to be lost when returning to the menu
Contracts
- Added Rookie Contracts for new players where all cosmetics that used to be in the career path will now be available under the Rookie Contracts instead
Cosmetics & Customization
- Added Earring category
- Added 4 more Outfit slots
- Character effects have now been split from their headwears into its own customization slot
- Fixed sleeve clipping for the Toga Damnata coat during certain animations
- Fixed folding issues when crouching in the Combat Chore Dress on certain Builds
- Updated the Spray preview to now show the Spray applied to a concrete slab (Slabby?!), instead of a card
- Ballistic masks can now be worn with hoods, enhancing your character customization options
- Reduced the intense bright spots of the Shock Value Effect in the Arena
Consoles
- Added Mouse and Keyboard support, at long last
Gadgets
Smoke Grenade
- Updated the placement and duration of the smoke’s blocking volume, which hides enemy players. This should now better match the visual effects of the smoke
Sonar Grenade
- Increased hitbox size to make it easier to destroy by shooting
Proximity Sensor
- Increased hitbox size to make it easier to destroy by shooting
Game Modes
General
- Removed Terminal Attack from Quickplay and Private Matches
- Added Head2Head to Quickplay and Private Matches
- Removed Bank It! from Private MatchesDev note: While we still see lots of love for Bank It! in the community, it hasn’t been played often enough in Private Matches to warrant the overhead it brings when it comes to regular maintenance, QA testing, etc.. It will likely return in another format some day in the future!
- Fixed an issue where the abandoned check did not work as intended. Players are now only marked as abandoned if they’ve actually left and are no longer tracked by the connection system. We’ll be keeping an eye out to ensure this behaves correctly
Practice Range
- Added two new challenges: Cashout Defense and Cashbox Time-Trial
- Added a 4th version of the Meet the Dummies challenge where you’ll meet all three Dummies at the same time
- Updated Dummy behavior to enable them to fight back against some Gadgets and Deployables
- Tweaked Dummy aim behavior to improve their ability to land hits at long range
Ranked
- Increased the tournament reconnect window from 210 to 240 seconds to give players more time to rejoin mid-match
TDM
- Added Bernal to the map pool
Tutorial
- Fixed an issue where the Nama Tama hint could become stuck
Gameplay
- Enabled Smooth Destruction for the Crane, Wrecking Ball, and Suspended Structures
- Gadget previews are now better aligned with actual usability timing, preventing missed inputs in the Arena
- Fixed an issue where sounds and visual effects would occur in the Arena without any player nearby
- Fixed an issue where elimination hitmarkers would sometimes fail to display
GameShow Events
- The Dead Go Boom Gameshow Event is now enabled on all Maps and Modes where Events are available
- Alien Invasion has been adjusted to target objectives when applicable and lift up playersDev note: we’re looking into a bug where UFOs don’t avoid collision with none-playable buildings, which once squashed, will allow us to enable the updated Alien Invasion on more maps in the near future.
Languages
- Added Russian localization to the game
Maps
General
- All Suspended Structures will now use the new Smooth Destruction feature which allows them to destroy the environment underneath them when they fall
- Updated crane visuals to allow players to vault to top part of crane more easily when the cabin ladder is broken
- Fixed an issue where shooting at text or decals on windows would need more bullets to be fired in order to break the glass.
- Slightly reduced scale of goo and smoke ATK Canisters to minimise players getting stuck on them
Bernal
- Fix for player movement issues on curved metallic slanted roof
- Added a short ladder to the area in front of the Chapel courtyard
- Adjusted the zipline in the courtyard next to the Chapel for smoother exiting in multiple directions
- Fixed collision complexity on a low tree to fix issues with player revives
Fortune Stadium
- Fix for player getting accidentally stuck beneath ground of ISEUL-T buildings when falling through
Kyoto
- Added several Jump Pads between Temples and Villa Compound to make the Villa Compound easier to attack, improve the Macro Flow, and reduce the need for movement gadgets.
- Added cover and reworked the layouts of all basements in Kyoto to make them more varied and interesting to fight in. We also removed as many “floating” pillars as we were structurally able to, to make navigation easier – particularly during combat.
- Adjusted the amount of basement entrances, to reduce the number of engagement angles you have to cover at once.
- Removed all Cashout Stations inside the Bamboo Forest as prolonged combat proved too problematic in such a dense, natural environment.
- Nearly all buildings in Kyoto have seen small interior layout tweaks to reduce their overall complexity. The aim is to make them easier to navigate and quicker understand at a glance.Dev Note: Kyoto’s architecture and building sizes naturally lean towards denser and tighter layouts, especially when compared to our other maps. With this pass we want to simplify and open the spaces up a bit more without compromising its theming or gameplay intent.
- Residential – Added a Zipline to allow for rooftop access without the need for movement gadgets
- Pavilion – Objectives have been moved to the sides of the building, to ensure fights happen in the flanks, not the center of the structure.
- Pavilion – Ground floor layout has been adjusted to reduce the amount of 360 fights
- Added Zipline between Guest House and Residential to improve macro flow and reduce the need for movement gadgets
- Added ladder from Entrance to Guest House as an alternative shortcut
- Small Guest House – Added ladder to the rooftop to allow for easier access without needing movement gadgets. Also added a small veranda to subdivide the space and add some cover for combat.
- Training Quarters – Added more dividing doors to better define chokepoints
- Training Quarters back building – broke up the corridor and moved the Cashout Station into the other room to make fights more directional. Removed the Cashout Station that was on the exterior veranda as those fights proved too chaotic.
- Added several planks around the map to highlight and open up new traversal opportunities
- Villa Compound Garden – Added a Jump Pad on the south side of the Tea House to help players escape precarious situations more easily
- Villa Compound Tea House – Moved and rotated slightly to frame the new Jump Pad better. Its layout has been subdivided to improve combat longevity
- Hillside House – Interior has been simplified to reduce its navigation complexity and better support defending the most common approach angles
- Main Temple – Interior layout has been reworked to make taking control over its spaces easier and fights less 360/chaotic
- Vault updates and additions all over the map to facilitate more “stand-off” encounters between competing teams
- Many small QoL tweaks to the flow and readability of Kyoto
- Fix for indestructible stone fence modules on exterior staircase area
- Kyoto destruction re-work that make structure collapses result in debris that is more traversable and less chaotic
Las Vegas 2032 & Stadium
- Added more player spawn points and adjusted a few
- Fixed a duplicate Zipline in the staircase of Alfa Acta building
- Fixed a ladder floating above the roof of Glamora casino
Monaco
- Suspended Structures map variant has been reworkedDev note:The previous version could severely restrict players who didn’t have the right items to contest the suspended structures, and it lacked meaningful variation between the different setups across the map. With this rework we aim to enable a larger variety of strategies and playstyles, whilst also offering a more balanced experience between attackers and defenders.
- Fix for collision of cathedral pillar piece on duck and cover variant to be more predictable with player movement and gadgets
- Added more player spawn points and adjusted a few
- Added new Vault locations
- Added new Cashout Station on the crane
- Added ladders on the sides of a few buildings to make it easier to traverse between rooftops
- Adjusted the cliffs at the edge of the Forest to make it easier to climb up the walls in a couple places
Nozomi/Citadel
- Added some more cover along The Rift between Cybercafe and Apartments
Skyway Stadium
- Fixed floating zebra crossing in the residential district
- Added more player spawn points and adjusted a few
- Adjusted backdrop building to prevent crane clipping issues on Skyway Stadium
Seoul
- Added more player spawn points and adjusted a few
- Moved a hospital bed away from a window where you could easily get stuck between the two
SYS$HORIZON
- Added more player spawn points and adjusted a few
Tutorial
- Improved Tutorial flow to include more scenarios and better teach the basics of gameplay
Matchmaking
- Updated the matchmaker to put more emphasis on separating premade parties and solo players in matches for World Tour, Powershift and QuickCashDev note: This change is possible due to new functionality we’ve added to the matchmaker, that gives us more flexible ways to make matches. As it’s relatively new and requires quite a bit of testing, it’s only being rolled out for these modes to start with, but it’s our aim to move all modes to this system in the near future
Performance & Stability
- Moved shader compilation to in-game rather than startupDev note: Moved shader preloading to frontend, allowing players to customize their loadout, visit the shop and adjust settings while waiting for it to complete. If a player attempts to start a game before preloading has finished, a warning is shown. The warning can be ignored if the player prefers to start immediately and risk performance issues.
Private Matches & Spectator
- Added the ability to change color and assign preset team names to teams in private matches
Rendering
- Fixed an issue that could cause pixelated artifacts around the edges of your contestant in the Main Menu
- Fixed an issue that caused light flickering when changing Effects quality setting in-game
- Made changing NVIDIA RTX Global Illumination setting more responsive in-game
- Fixed a rare issue that caused the 3D scene to flicker and show up cropped incorrectly in the top left corner
- Fixed an issue causing jittering red dot and holographic sights when AMD FSR3 Frame Generation was enabled.
Social
- Moved block management to in-game instead of web based
Specializations
Dematerializer
- Fixed an issue when trying to rematerialize a section that has just been dematerialized would incorrectly consume ammo
Winch Claw
- Improving winch claw hit detection by making sure the hooking player has some visibility over the enemy it’s trying to hook.
UI
- Fixed an issue where the incorrect weapon skin was highlighted as you entered the skin screen for weapons
- Fix player card customization menu resetting to the selected Contestant when opened from gamepad
- You can now inspect rewards in the contract screen
- Wishlist prices will now update correctly when adding items to your cart and updating your already existing wishlist
- Allow toggling HUD in PracticeRange/Tutorial via F10 key
- Now you can easily equip gadgets, specializations, and weapons directly from the equipment screen!
- Added specialization icon to contestant pack icons in frontend
- “Playstyles” tab has been added to the equipment screen
- “Playstyle Token” currency has been added to the top bar, which only displays if the player has unlockable playstyles remaining. Clicking on this currency will open the playstyles tab.
VFX
- Fixed an issue with the elimination coin effect that could make it disappear too early
- Updated visuals for the Gas Canister explosion
Weapons
Sights
- Setup for Magnifex Sight on all weapons that support Reflector Sight
- Added 3 new sights to various guns:
- Iron Vantage – An alternate, high magnification scope added to:
- Pike-556
- Quickspark – A red dot sight for handguns added to:
- – R .357
- – BFR Titan
- – V9S
- Magnifex – A box holographic with moderate magnification added to:
- – XP-54
- – FCAR
- – FAMAS
- – LH1
- – CB-01 Repeater
- Iron Vantage – An alternate, high magnification scope added to:
- Fixed the visual misalignment of the ‘Looking Glass’ scope with the Shak-50 weapon model
Dual Blades
- Fixed an issue where dual blades would sometime not play deflect animation when deflecting a turret projectile
Riot Shield
- Fixed several instances of animation desync of the Riot Shield in third person, zig zag sprints, ziplines and aiming should now all be more accurate to where the collision is situated
- Reworked the setup in first person to better represent the collision state both in guarded and non guarded stateDev note: We have made another animation pass on the Riot Shield to improve the visuals so they better match the collision state. While this improvement does obstruct some of your vision in the left field of view, it does give both the wielder and the attacker a better understanding of which bullets will hit the shield, and which will hit the character. There are still some issues left to solve and we have another update cooking that will improve this even further, but we felt that instead of holding off changes we’d opt for a middle step that will improve things overall.
Spear
- Fixed an issue where being Winch Clawed while using the secondary attack of the Spear would prevent using that attack again for a few seconds
Security
Updates from the Anti-Cheat team!
Our technical test of Denuvo for XBox on Windows was successful.
As a result we will start an incremental rollout on Steam for Season 8.
We know there have been concerns about us choosing Denuvo from Irdeto, and we’d like to re-iterate that we’re not using their Digital Rights Management service. We are working closely with the game team to ensure minimal impact on performance, and trust us, they drive a hard bargain!
In order to keep up with cheaters, we are always on the lookout for new solutions, so aside from Denuvo we have a couple more exciting updates.
We have asked VAIIYA to build a solution for us, which is a complicated and time consuming effort. It’s still very much a work in progress, so stay tuned for updates.
We have also partnered up with Anybrain, and have rolled out their solution to a small percentage of our playerbase as a test with plans to continue throughout Season 8. Evaluations are ongoing and this may become a permanent part of our toolbox to protect fair play and the integrity of our players.
Share your thoughts in the comments, tell what stood out to you, and follow updates on X and Bluesky.
