Agents, we are rolling out a small hotfix for the most pressing issues surrounding the holiday rumble. Here’s what’s making its way in the game with this update:
Bounce Mat
We’ve received feedback that the changes to the bounce mat made it hard to use it to break a fall. To remedy this a bit, we have made the time before deflating more lenient. We’ll keep monitoring feedback around this topic for future adjustments.
Time before the bounce mat deflates has been raised 1.0s-->1.3s
Bug Fixes General:
Fixed an issue where XP boosters and bonds rewarded from the event would not be received This issue was fixed through the back-end on the 12th, but we wanted to acknowledge its existence.
Larcin:
Fixed an issue where the cooldown value for Larcin Active Mod 1 (Grande Finale) was incorrect.
Red
Fixed an issue where shooting with Red’s base weapon would cause screenshake.
Deceive Inc. Holiday Rumble Update
HOLIDAY RUMBLE PATCH NOTES
Agents, it’s time to get into the holiday spirit! We have a new update with our first ever live event, a silver reef overhaul and a hearty helping of fixes and tweaks. Let’s get into it right away!
General
Holiday Rumble Event Holiday Rumble is our first live event and brings with it 10 free rewards to unlock as well as a new holiday look for the lobby and the maps!
To unlock your holiday rumble rewards, you will have to look for gifts spread through the map and loot them for event points. Grab enough gifts and you’ll be able to forcefully bring the holiday cheer into your foe with the coveted Santhans skin!
Silver Reef Vault Rework With this update, we are starting a longer term commitment to update existing maps and locations to make them flow better with what we learned about the game since launch. The first part of this initiative is mostly focused on Silver Reef’s vault area.
Let’s get the obvious part out of the way: Long winding corridors with no alternate routes are not fun.
Our main focus with this vault update was to transform the long corridors leading to the submarine into actual play spaces with verticality and flank routes. You will find that you have many more options to change direction and leverage good positioning.
We have also added a restroom on the opposite side of the vault to make sure players have good access to healing no matter the side they choose to pick.
While the vault was our focus this update, we have one last little surprise in store. Vault terminal C room is FINALLY getting an alternate exit. This should help alleviate un-interesting camping scenarios happening around this terminal.
We hope you enjoy this rework and we look forward to the feedback around it to help us better target our future reworks for existing maps.
Spectacting UI Overhaul We are overhauling the spectating UI to give much more information on who you are currently spectating. With this update, you will have access to ALL information about the player you are looking at. This includes cooldowns, all lootables in their possession and even the health of their allies in team modes.
We hope this helps players to better read what happened after dying and just make the spectating experience overall more interesting and engaging.
Gamepad ‘look rotation’ overhaul We have changed the look rotation axis on Gamepad to a single 2D axis instead of two separate 1D axis. This allows us to properly manage acceleration on both axes as a whole rather than treating horizontal and vertical rotations as separate actions.
The result is a much smoother experience when looking around, particularly when rotating along both axis in diagonal movements where previous implementation would not apply acceleration. We hope this makes the experience for our gamepad user much more pleasant and we look forward to your continued feedback on the topic!
Guard Aggro Overhaul In this update, we have a substantial upgrade on how guards handle aggro in situations involving multiple spies. We’d been gathering clips and feedback from players on situations that felt off with guard aggro and managed to find the root issues of a lot of those behaviors.
What that means in practice is overall better handling of who they should target, fixing situations where guards would focus on a single spy in a fight involving more than one.
NPC behavior tweaks In this update, both staff and technicians are getting an updated behavior. Staff being able to open drawers has been unreliable for a while now, and we have a fix in this patch. That means that staff opening drawers left and right won’t necessarily be a spy anymore.
A new addition with this fix is that technicians can now do the same! This makes the technician cover more valuable inside the vault as you can now look into drawers without arousing suspicion.
We hope this fix and addition makes the game more nuanced and interesting on the stealth front.
Balance Balance changes in this update are focused around an overarching goal of reducing the amount of shots required to down rival spies while keeping time to kill at about the same length for other players to react on a variety of weapons.
We think this direction will make fights feel better overall and make gunplay more engaging while also making landing the first shot with a good guess on a spy more rewarding. Ace: Base Weapon: Queen of Diamond
Fire Rate: 1.3 --> 1.1
Passives We have reduced Ace’s passive charge time in the past before but we are pushing this much further with this update. Our overall idea with this change is to make using ADS a more integral part of Ace’s toolkit beyond the opening shot of a fight. To better accommodate this, we’ve reduced the duration of the inflicted status effect since you will be landing charged shots more often.
Time to charge: 1.15 --> 0.35
Base Passive: Diamond’S Bet
Effect Duration: 20s --> 12s
Passive Mod 1: Crippling Shot
Effect Duration: 7s --> 4.5s
Passive Mod 2: Neutralizing Shot
Effect Duration: 12s --> 8s
Cavalière Base Weapon: Dragoons
Fire Rate: 5 --> 4
Damage: 12 --> 14
Reload Time: 1.7 --> 1.8
Mag Size: 16 --> 14
Chavez: Beyond following the goal outlined at the outset of reducing shot to kills while keeping time to kill similar, Chavez is getting more tweaks to further differentiate his weapon options. The vigilante in particular has fallen behind quite a bit and is getting a faster firing identity in thi update to make it a more unique option. Base: Sentinel
Fire Rate: 1.3 --> 1.1
Damage: 25 --> 30
Crit Multiplier: 1.75 --> 1.7
Mod 1: Vigilante
Reload Time: 1.65s --> 1.15s
Fire Rate: 2.3 --> 2.8
Mod 2 :Duke
Reload Time: 3.1s --> 2.7s
Fire Rate: 0.75 --> 0.65
Damage: 35 --> 40
Squire Base Weapon: Lance
Fire Rate 3.2 --> 2.5
Damage: 17 --> 20
Mag Size: 12 --> 10
Mod 2: Javelin
Damage: 20 --> 25
Fire Rate: 2 --> 1.9
Larcin Base Weapon: Silence
Fire Rate: 5 --> 4.25
Damage: 10 --> 12
Max Ammo: 5 --> 4 mags
Octo We wanted to highlight that while you won’t find balance changes here directly, multiple balance affecting bugs around Octo have been fixed in this update. You will find all the details in the bugfix section.
We will keep an eye out on how Octo performs with these issues settled to have a better idea of where to take him next since some frustrating elements of his kit were due to specific issues rather than intended mechanics.
Gadgets The balance of the bounce mat and shield-brella have always been hot topics of balancing discussions. In this update we are taking further steps to reduce the all–encompassing flexibility of the bounce mat and calm down the shield quick-swap tech further.
Bounce Mat The crux of the bounce mat issue is in its flexibility. It does everything: It gives mobility, allows blocking of areas and can force spies to blow their cover to get it out of the way. The change we are introducing is aimed at making the bounce mat focused much more uniquely on mobility rather than being an efficient block tool. We think this change keeps the essence of what makes the mat great, while diminishing its overreach on the meta.
Will now deflate by itself after a second to limit use as a blocker.
Now has a small cooldown before being inflatable again to prevent spam.
Shield-brella We are adding additional limitations to alternating shield and shooting. We’ve introduced in the past a delay to shooting after having the shield up. We are now introducing a secondary delay to opening the shield after shooting. Splitting the delay in two like this allows us to really limit the overall DPS output of players using this strategy while making sure the shield does not feel sluggish to use in normal use.
Added a .5s delay to open after shooting.
Delay to shoot after opening increased .3s => .4s
Bug Fixes General
Fixed an issue where mashing the expertise button match start could allow you to use it before the start of the game.
Fixed the shield-breall not blocking shots from guards.
Fixed voice chat not working in private lobbies for teams beyond foxtrot
Fixed Red “a view to a kill” description not being translated in other languages
Fixed text that would overflow UI elements in multiple languages
Fixed intro-poses not appearing in intro when selected during pre-game lobby.
Fixed players respawning with the ammo they had in their weapon before dying at a revive station.
Fixed weapons disappearing in the main menu when selecting an intro pose without a weapon.
Fixed calling card loadout resetting when purchasing a new one.
Fixed a variety of gadgets sounds that were not affected by audio sliders in options.
Fixed the inspect profile function on PC.
Fixed field upgrades icons not updating when changing your deck in the pre-game lobby.
Fixed victim effect notifications overlapping health numbers in the UI.
Fixed low health feedback staying stuck even after healing in spectator mode.
Agents Ace:
Fixed an issue where Ace ADS shots would not deal damage or not apply the status effects under certain circumstances.
Larcin:
Fixed an issue where shooting while inside the smoke cloud of grande finale would make shooting animations not play.
Fixed an issue where Arsene Larcin’s cape would go over his body when using the “sieur volecoeur'' intropose.
Octo:
Fixed an issue where victims of “on the house” would stay affected even outside the range.
Fixed an issue that caused damage even through walls and floors with the Nautilo.
Fixed an issue where the “on the house” visual effect could stay stuck for the victim forever.
Fixed an issue where the intel drain VFX would randomly appear on players not playing Octo.
Fixed an issue that made the Nautilo AOE not break gadgets.
Fixed an issue where the Nautilo would not spend intel in training mode.
Fixed some inks not applying correctly to Octo’s weapons.
Sasori:
Fixed an issue where positive status effects would scale the damage on Yuki & Hikari.
Fixed an issue where Yuki & Hikari would only deal base damage to opponents in cover.
Fixed an issue where Yuki & Hikari damage would stack with every drone trace if the drone is picked back up in between traces.
Fixed an issue where holding melee then pressing and releasing ADS would make Sasori hold a dart even when having no ammo.
Fixed an issue where using Noxious Gas while getting neutralized would make the expertise go on cooldown and remain in Sasori’s hand.
Fixed an issue where victims of poison could not pick their gadgets back up.
Madame Xiu:
Fixed an issue where getting eliminated while teleporting could leave you stuck in the teleport stance on revive.
Fixed an issue where the Queen/Monarch skin’s nails could clip while hacking.
Fixed an issue where the sleeves of the Suan Ming costume could clip through Madame Xiu’s body in the main menu..
Yu-Mi
Fixed an issue where mashing shots could break her animations and fire rate.
Fixed an issue where the midnight protector’s skin could lead to clipping in the endscreen car.
Maps All maps
Fixed several locations where players could hug purple room walls to evade the vault terminal alarm in all maps.
Overhaul of navigation mesh around all levels to reduce npc stuck spots and open path that were previously impossible to them.
Hard Sell
Fixed a location in Hard Sell where players could clip inside a column.
Fixed an issue where the fountain statue in Hard Sell had a zone around it that would block weapon shots.
Fixed multiple issues with clipping assets.
Silver Reef
Fixed an issue where NPCs standing on the extraction when the car arrives would walk in place.
Fixing the bar inside the vault that was lacking some textures.
Fixing some plants inside the aquarium that would only be visible from certain viewpoints.
Fixing a couch that could not be sat on inside the staff rooms.
Diamond Spire
Fixed the central purple room in the vault having no NPC.
Fixed lightmap issues on glass walls.
Fixed invisible collision on top of some railings.
Fixed multiple walls that could be seen through by walking close enough to them.
Fragrant Shore
Fixed navmode not giving a path to vault terminal E.
Sound Eclipse
Vault Doors now have collisions when opened.
Fixed a location where teammates could spawn very far from each other.
Fixed a large list of non-sittable chairs. Sit away!
Fixed certain drawers that could not be open if a level 3 intel spawned on top of it.
Fixed collision on multiple assets inside the galleria.
Deceive Inc. Double XP and Twitch Drops!
Hello Agents,
For a limited time, we have a special assignments available for you! Double XP is live and we are introducing Twitch Drops to Deceive Inc. this weekend!
Earn Double XP now through November 20th!
To kick off the weekend Sweet Bandits and Tripwire Presents are activating a Twitch Drops campaign! Twitch drops will be live for the remainder of November. Connect your Deceive Inc account to Twitch to become eligible for free items simply for watching a Deceive Inc stream.
Watch for 15 minutes and claim the XP Booster reward
Watch for 30 minutes and claim the Summer Palm Ink reward
Watch for 1 hour and claim the Convention-goer Octo Skin reward
Update: Issues with Twitch connection should now be resolved. Those who have already connected their account and received an error will need to freshly connect their accounts again.
OF QUEENS AND KINGS Player Count Experiment
OF QUEENS AND KINGS Player Count Experiment
Agents, in an effort to ensure that the match experience is at its best, we would like to invite you to participate in a week of experiment for player counts in solo lobbies.
Our goal with this is simple: We want to have your feedback (here in the forums or Discord) on how 3 different player counts affect the solo matchmaking experience in the game. Is it a better experience, or is it worse? Why? We will follow-up with a survey to gather your opinions on the subject.
Here’s what you can expect to see in the solo queue across the week:
Player Count Schedule:
Monday Nov. 6-Tuesday Nov. 7: 7 Players Solo matches Wednesday Nov. 8 -Thursday Nov. 9: 8 Players Solo matches Friday Nov. 10 -Saturday Nov. 11: 9 Players Solo matches
Hotfix 1.08.02 Is Now Live!
OF QUEENS AND KINGS HOTFIX 2
General Sound Eclipse Polish Overall environment polish to sound eclipse. Added detail and new elements to multiple areas. You can expect to see new assets around the map and new sightlines in the vault purple rooms.
Additional Player Spawn Work This update continues the work we’ve been doing since the live update to better curate spawns with the new system to prevent very early game fights. We’ll keep monitoring so please report any spawns you feel should not happen for review.
Memory Optimization We’ve included multiple optimizations to memory usage around the game in this hotfix which might result in improved performance on different configurations.
Recoil Mitigation Right after the launch of Catalog 3, we released a quick update to reduce the amount of recoil on full automatic weapons to make them more manageable, especially on controllers. With this update, we are once again making changes to make both Red and Xiu’s base weapons feel more comfortable from a recoil standpoint based on controller player’s feedback.
Bug Fixes General
Fixed an issue that prevented reviving an ally at revive stations if your other ally was eliminated completely.
Fixed footstep sound issues on multiple NPC and Spies.
Fixed an issue that could lead to the revive station UI indicator staying stuck.
Fixed an issue that showed the “Revive Spy” UI element even after the full team is eliminated.
Agent Octo
The “on the house” zone is now seen by Octo’s allies.
Fixed “on the house” making hacked intel appeared not hacked until the expertise is finished.
Fixed an issue that led to having no hit markers when hitting with Nautilo’s AOE.
Fixed an issue that led to staying stuck in ADS when canceling a charge shot with Nautilo.
Fixed audio issues with Nautilo that could lead to incorrect sound playing after revving up.
Sasori
Fixed an issue where getting neutralized while using Noxious fumes could lead to a stuck state
Sword attacks with coated weaponry now apply trace when using poison sense as a passive.
Fixed an issue where stacking traces with a drone could lead to damage increasing every time with Yuki and Hikari.
Yu-Mi
Fixed an issue that allowed Yu-Mi to chain charged shots quickly without charging again.
Levels Tutorial
Fixed bathroom sinks with the wrong material.
Sound Eclipse
Fixed to multiple exploits that allowed players to leave the map
Fixed to an issue that allowed players to contest the main hall extraction point from underneath.
Private Lobbies
Fixed an issue that prevented players and lobby leaders from assigning certain factions to players.
Hotfix 1.08.2 Preview Brief
OF QUEENS AND KINGS HOTFIX 2
Please keep in mind that this is a Work In Progress changelog and things are subject to change (items may also be removed or added) before the final release..
General Sound Eclipse Polish Overall environment polish to sound eclipse. Added detail and new elements to multiple areas. You can expect to see new assets around the map and new sightlines in the vault purple rooms.
Additional Player Spawn Work This update continues the work we’ve been doing since the live update to better curate spawns with the new system to prevent very early game fights. We’ll keep monitoring so please report any spawns you feel should not happen for review.
Memory Optimization We’ve included multiple optimizations to memory usage around the game in this hotfix which might result in improved performance on different configurations.
Recoil Mitigation Right after the launch of Catalog 3, we released a quick update to reduce the amount of recoil on full automatic weapons to make them more manageable, especially on controllers. With this update, we are once again making changes to make both Red and Xiu’s base weapons feel more comfortable from a recoil standpoint based on controller player’s feedback.
Bug Fixes General
Fixed an issue that prevented reviving an ally at revive stations if your other ally was eliminated completely.
Fixed footstep sound issues on multiple NPC and Spies.
Fixed an issue that could lead to the revive station UI indicator staying stuck.
Fixed an issue that showed the “Revive Spy” UI element even after the full team is eliminated.
Agent Octo
The “on the house” zone is now seen by Octo’s allies.
Fixed “on the house” making hacked intel appeared not hacked until the expertise is finished.
Fixed an issue that led to having no hit markers when hitting with Nautilo’s AOE.
Fixed an issue that led to staying stuck in ADS when canceling a charge shot with Nautilo.
Fixed audio issues with Nautilo that could lead to incorrect sound playing after revving up.
Sasori
Fixed an issue where getting neutralized while using Noxious fumes could lead to a stuck state
Sword attacks with coated weaponry now apply trace when using poison sense as a passive.
Fixed an issue where stacking traces with a drone could lead to damage increasing every time with Yuki and Hikari.
Yu-Mi
Fixed an issue that allowed Yu-Mi to chain charged shots quickly without charging again.
Levels Tutorial
Fixed bathroom sinks with the wrong material.
Sound Eclipse
Fixed to multiple exploits that allowed players to leave the map
Fixed to an issue that allowed players to contest the main hall extraction point from underneath.
Private Lobbies
Fixed an issue that prevented players and lobby leaders from assigning certain factions to players.
Of Queens and Kings Live Update 1 Is Now Live
OF QUEENS AND KINGS LIVE UPDATE
Agents, while the team is still working on a hotfix patch with bug fixes and overall polish, we decided to move forward with a live update to address feedback from the community and pain points in a quicker fashion. This is a server side patch so no client update should be expected.
The scope of these changes are, of course, pretty narrow but targeted based on community feedback. Let’s get to it.
General Map Spawn Points Tweaks We’ve been keeping a close eye on the behavior of the overhauled spawn system and made quite a few adjustments across multiple maps to better spread player spawn points. We’ll keep monitoring to make live adjustments when needed. Please continue to send reports of spawns you consider too close for comfort to help us track them down.
Agents Balance As always after a seasonal update, balance feedback is extremely active. For now, we are addressing two points that keep coming back: The strength of Hans’s passives and the utility of Larcin’s base expertise post patch.
Hans The intent with Hans’s passive is to give friction to your victim, allowing you to capitalize on the offensive. Initially with the tweaks we made, we gave fear projection a longer slow than his base passive since it was his most underused passive at the time.
We are now making both slow the same duration and making it a bit shorter on his base option. We want to keep the slowness as a short friction, not a massive disadvantage to the victim. Passive Base: Dreadful Presence
Slow duration 2.5s => 2s
Mod 1: Fear Projection
Slow duration 4.5s => 2s
Larcin While the overall nerfs on Larcin seem to have gone pretty well, one recurring topic is how the removal of a second on the duration of Larcin’s base option really hit it hard. We agree and as such we are making his base passive 6 seconds long again to keep his relocation ability intact. Expertise Base: Au Revoir
Restored duration to 6s to allow better relocation.
Octo We are looking at Octo feedback and issues evolving since release. While we will have a more in-depth look at Octo’s place in the balance in the near future, we are taking action on the charge shot of the Nautilo being a bit too potent, especially in teams. Weapon Mod 1: Nautilo
Fully Charged damage 70 => 60
AOE size at full charge 5m radius => 2.5m radius
We will revisit this balancing when we have a more solid solution to aoe affecting players through solid objects.
Of Queens and Kings Community Notes and Hotfix Changelog
OF QUEENS AND KINGS COMMUNITY NOTES Agent, as is now tradition, we wanted to give you an idea of where we are at and what our next steps are following the release of season 3. We are very happy to see a lot of you jumping back into Deceive Inc. and we are very thankful for the large amount of feedback we’ve received. Let’s jump in.
While opinions on the strength of Octo as a character are still heavily in flux, one subject matter has cut to the top of all the chatter: Recoil.
On the subject of recoil: In the season 3 patch notes, we discussed changes to Red’s recoil on her automatic weapons. A multitude of factors has led to both undocumented changes and unwanted behavior on fully automatic weapons across multiple characters in the game including Red, Xiu, Cavalière and of course Octo. We hear your feedback loud and clear on the subject: The recoil changes have a negative impact on the experience of both controller and keyboard and mouse user.
As to what we will do about it, our plan is twofold:
In the short term: We are deploying a hotfix now with the following changes to recoil:
Tweak to recoil values to remove horizontal noise that leads to a feeling of weapon drift.
Calming down vertical recoil values to make full auto weapons more accessible, especially to controller users.
Particular attention given to Xiu’s Weapon mod 2 to change its recoil to be less overwhelming.
In the longer term: We will move away from recoil as a balancing mechanic by leaning more into damage falloff ranges on different weapon types. We agree with the overall feedback that this is the right path forward to keep the game accessible for as many players as possible while reigning back the power of fast firing weapons at long range.
In addition to the recoil changes, we are making back-end changes that should result in a better match-making experience for newer players entering the game.
As you can imagine, this is not the only thing we are looking at for hotfixes. We are expecting to have multiple bug fixes as well as overall polish to Sound Eclipse in our next update following the recoil fix.
We will keep monitoring the situation on live over time to better target our next tweaks and keep you updated on what our next moves will be.
Deceive Inc. "Of Queen and Kings" Update 1.08 is live!
OF QUEENS AND KINGS UPDATE
Please keep in mind that this is a Work In Progress changelog and things are subject to change (items may also be removed or added) before the final release.
Agents, it’s time to lift the curtain on our biggest content update yet with “Of Queens and Kings”! We are extremely excited to show you what we have in store, so let’s not delay and dive into what’s new right away:
The long awaited arrival of private lobbies
A new Operation (map) with Sound Eclipse
A new Spy: Octo
A new catalog “Of Queens and Kings”
Tweaks, bug fixes, and balance changes!
Major Additions
New Spy: Octo, The Boisterous Hacker
Introducing Octo In the information world, few names attract as much attention as Octo. The self-proclaimed “King of hacking” has earned his reputation through un-rivaled skills and boisterous showmanship. An old acquaintance of Madame Xiu, Octo is as much a rival as an ally, working together countless times and trying to one up each other on every possible occasion. Even though she is annoyed by his extravagant attitude, Xiu herself would have to admit that he is the best when it comes to hacking into something.
The rumor goes that after a security breach in Deceive Inc.’s servers, Octo was immediately hired…
Bringing intel to a gunfight Octo joins the roster as our newest disruptor character, introducing with him a whole new perspective on intel. Octo is all about Intel. Acquiring it. Spending it. Going all in on a gamble. Octo’s weapons all have a unique trait: their hip fire shots use ammo, but transform into intel-powered weapons when aiming down sight with unique properties.
All of Octo’s expertise are focused on ways to earn intel, from gathering it instantly to stealing it from rivals in a myriad of ways. On the flipside, his passives are all about spending intel to get benefits.
We hope you enjoy the push and pull of intel as you get to know Octo better in the coming weeks!
New Catalog: Of Queens and Kings For this season, we jump in the cutthroat world of high fashion with the chess-inspired “Of Queens and Kings” collection. You’ll be able to earn new regal costumes, intro poses and calling cards as you make your way through 50 levels of unlocks.
Purchasing the premium catalog will give you instant access to our newest agent, Octo, and exclusive rewards. As a reminder, players can still buy Octo with Credits earned by simply playing.
New Reactive Ink “The entire court” Catalog 3 comes with a new reactive ink that behaves differently from the one found in Neon Nights. “The entire court” will change appearance depending on your current disguise level as well as changing when outside of cover.
Private Lobbies Release Following our Beta in September, we are now ready to unleash private lobbies in a definitive manner with Season 3! By far the most requested feature ever since our alphas, private lobbies will allow you to invite friends and play the map of your choice in solo, duos, or trios.
You’ll find private lobbies in the mode select screen where you can get started OR you will automatically be taken to the private lobbies menu if your party size exceeds 3.
A few notes about private lobbies:
XP gains are 50% of regular matches XP.
XP booster do not work in private lobbies and won’t deplete during a private lobby match
Bonds Pile and Credit purses do not spawn in private lobbies
You cannot start a private lobby with less than 2 players
We look forward to seeing what you will do in private lobbies and will be looking at your feedback to further build up the mode in the future.
To join or host a private lobby session, simply go to the matchmaking type menu and click on private lobby.
New Operation (Map): Sound Eclipse Hazen, famous singer, artist and writer, is finally ready to unveil their newest performance: AGE OF DARKNESS, an opera that will revolutionize performance art forever.
The venue: The Valkyrie, the world’s first luxury space station for the rich and famous.
The catch? Hazen’s performance is a cover to unleash a powerful EMP device from space. Hazen, a true artist at heart, believes technology has rendered humanity incapable of creativity. The Valkyrie Comet, to them, is the ultimate sign of the decadence that technology has brought. If Hazen is not stopped, the highest note in their show will trigger the device, sending humanity’s technology back to the dark age. A veritable… sound eclipse, if you will.
General Changes Account level cap raise New season, new level cap. We are raising the cap to level 500 with the all-new Spinel ink to unlock as a progression reward.
Audio Occlusion Changes We’ve made changes to how weapon sounds propagate in maps to make obstructions a bigger factor. In this update, walls and other obstructions will have a bigger effect on blocking sound while open areas will keep sounds propagating from far away. We hope this makes picking fights in closed off rooms safer and more of a strategic consideration.
Player Spawning Rework After a lot of discussions, player feedback and observations on the spawn system that determines where players start a match, we have a substantial rework to how things work.
This rework has two major goals:
Reduce the possibility for experienced players to rush other players' spawn by introducing MANY more possible spawn locations with more randomness.
Give more breathing room in the early moments of a game to prevent having a player right next to you at the start of a match.
The way this system works is with the introduction of “spawn groups”, multiple rooms that are considered mutually exclusive for spawning a player instead of setting single rooms as possible spawn points.
What this means in practice is that you could, for example, spawn in multiple different rooms in silver reef or even in the corridor in front of one of these rooms, but no other player will be able to spawn in this spawn group. This adds quite a bit of variables to where a player could be at spawn.
We have manually revisited every map to tweak them with these new rules and we will keep a close watch on how things go with the new system. Since the spawning system is tweakable live, you can expect some changes to happen in the background without an update.
Matchmaking delay options A much requested feature from streamers is the addition of matchmaking delay options. We’ve added multiple tweakable settings to help mitigate possible stream sniping from constant delay to random delays within a maximum set by the user.
Room Weighting overhaul A driving factor on how NPC navigate a map is based on “weights” attributed to room. In this update, a major overhaul of restricted areas weight has been made across the entire game.
This now means that all guard rooms have a balanced weight to not skew certain rooms to have much higher guard traffic than others, making some rooms more desirable to sneak into without a costume early on. This is a subtle change on the surface that should result in a better balanced experience overall.
NPC Vision arc tweak NPC are getting a vision upgrade with this update. What that means is that the side of npc will be less of a deadzone for them to spot you at various angles. We were very careful to tweak this in a way that still allows players to sneak behind npc, but standing right next to one on their side will result in them noticing you now.
NPC Scolding behavior overhaul Previously, when a npc spotted a player with the wrong disguise from far away, they would walk slowly to them to scold them. This meant that players could easily run through large restricted areas with very little risk of npc catching up to them. Now, aggro-ed npc that are far away will run toward the player to scold them.
We also think this behavior makes more sense for a player trying to emulate a npc and spotting someone with the wrong disguise from afar which should help blur the line more.
Duo Stats Tracking Duo mode is losing its experimental tag and gaining full-fledged stat tracking in the stats menu. We’ve been tracking Duo wins for a little while now in the back-end and are finally making it official in the profile menu.
Terminal Revive Cover When revived at an extraction terminal in duo or trio, you will now respawn with a random civilian disguise instead of your last disguise before getting eliminated.
New Store Items We have a new selection of legendary skins, inks and intro poses hitting the store with Season 3. Here’s a preview of Midnight Protect Yu-mi, Luchador Chavez, Marquis Larcin and Under-Convent Red!
Balance General Balance
Lower Body damage Modifier removal Since the Misery Empire update, the game has been operating with 3 types of hits: Headshots, body hits and lower body hits. This had multiple effects on the game that we now feel are undesirable.
The main reason we are removing lower body hits modifiers has to do with consistency. With the pace of the fights in Deceive Inc. you often do not notice that the hit you just landed was not a body hit and the change in damage could lead to fights feeling inconsistent or taking more shots than they should.
Lower body hits are also an indirect buff to the strategy of jumping in fights as it increases the likelihood of enemies shooting you in the legs.
We hope this will make combat feel more reliable and consistent by removing some of the noise in the damage between players.
Expertise charging on match start With this update, you will notice that your expertise at the start of a match starts uncharged instead of being ready to use right away. This is a change we are trying for many different reasons:
It’s a balancing mechanism against expertises that are very strong in combat in early gameplay. This means combat focused expertise will need some time to come into play and will encourage lower profile play in the early game.
It gives quick-charging expertise an added appeal in early game vs long charging ones.
It gives more leeway for cooldown reduction powerups to be appealing in low level slots to get an edge on the competition early on.
While we think this change will be beneficial to the overall gameflow, please give us feedback on how it affects your gameplay!
Agents Balance For Season 3, we are bringing a mix of balance changes and reworks to some under-used tools in agents toolsets. We have also put an increased emphasis on bug fixing on our buggiest agents to get them in a better spot. Our focus was mostly on Madame Xiu and Red, but a lot of agents benefitted from the bug fix focus in some ways.
Ace We gave quite a bit of attention to Ace for the Upper Echelon update and as such she won’t be getting any gameplay changes this update.
Cavalière We are adjusting Cavalière’s redemptions timers to make it a more competitive choice and give it a stronger fantasy.
Expertise Mod 2: Redemption
Downed spies and npcs will no longer expire as an interactable clue (unless the person that eliminated them is no longer alive).
Chavez Chavez used to have an extremely strong presence a few updates ago, but the compounding effect of nerfs has brought him down significantly. While we need to be careful not to bring him back to a too oppressive status, we are going back on nerfs to his ammo pools to give him a bit more leeway in matches overall.
Weapons Mod 1:Vigilante
Starting Ammo 12 => 15
Mod 2: Duke
Ammo per box 2 => 3
Max ammo 12 => 18
Starting ammo 6 => 9
Hans This update we have reworked hit detection on both of Hans projectile based expertise to solve issues where players would sometimes not get an effect applied when they should. We hope this will make using them more efficient, especially in situations with multiple targets in close proximity.
Expertise Base: Incapacitor Orb
Increased reliability of hits
Mod 2: Shock Ray
Increased reliability of hits
Larcin We know Larcin is currently a force to be reckoned with and as such we are tweaking quite a bit on his kit to make his window of opportunity tighter on his expertise and reduce Cadence’s lethality while keeping its longer range identity intact. Weapons Mod 1: Cadence
Burst Fire rate: 10 bullets per second => 9 bullets per second
Headshot Modifier 1.5 => 1.3
Expertise Base: Au Revoir
Duration reduced 6s => 5s
Mod 1: Grande Finale
Duration reduced 15s => 10s
Madame Xiu We’ve spent a good amount of time on this update to fix some long-standing Xiu bugs (detailed in the bugfix list below) and took the occasion to update her less interesting passives.
Weapons Base: Zhulong
Reload time 1.7s s => 1.9s
Passive Mod 1: Krait’s Instinct
Can see out of cover low health enemies even through walls in a 35m radius around her.
Mod 2: Mamba’s Hunch
Now triggers every time a vault terminal is disabled in the first phase.
Now triggers every time extraction arrives
Sasori Sasori is getting some buffs to his overall reliability in combat with faster charge time, easier to land projectiles and some tweaks to his damage scaling on mod 2.
Weapons Base: Ame and Kage
Increased projectile travel speed
Mod 1: Hyõ and Hanei
Kunai Charge time .375s => .3s per kunai (1.5s total => 1.2s total)
Increased projectile travel speed
Mod 2: Yuki and Hikari
Damage scaling per status effect 50% => 75%
Increased projectile travel speed
Squire With Squire, we’ve been looking at under pressure as a good candidate for a buff. A lot of characters in the cast can get amped up without spending their expertise, so we felt it should do a bit more. With this buff Squire got the longest amped up duration in the entire cast and gets a substantial buff to his reload speed to help in tight combat situations.
Expertise Mod 1: Under Pressure
Duration 6s =>10s
Reload speed buff 25% faster =>35% faster
Red For Red, we are toning down her base weapon a bit to make it less deadly in longer range engagement and give more space for the jack of heart to take that role. We are also overhauling lovebomb to try and make it a much more appealing proposition as a trap. Weapons Base: Heartbreaker
Damage 9 => 8
Fire rate 6 => 5.7 bullet per second
Reload time 1.7s s => 1.9s
Tweaked recoil to give a bit more kick especially in hipfire
Mod 1: Jack of heart
Damage 18 => 20
Reload time 2.1s s => 1.9s
Mod 2: Lovebite
Fire Rate 1.15 => 1.30 shot per second
Expertise Mod 2: Lovebomb
Lovebomb now gives heartbreak to out of cover enemies in its range instead of charming them back into cover.
Out of cover allies within the range of the blast regain cover.
Yu-Mi For Yu-Mi, she settled in a better place with the recent nerfs to her kits. While we are aware that the healing bubble is still a top pick for her, we are mostly looking at future tweaks to make her other options appealing in comparison. Expect to see some changes to her expertise options in the future.
For now, we are adding some utility to one of her passives to make it a more interesting (and chaotic) choice.
Passive Mod 2: Booby Traps
Now creates a bubble when destroying rival gadgets too
Gadgets One of our major areas of focus around gadgets is to diminish the presence of effects that lead to the “Team Deathmatch” impressions on the overall gameflow. We feel Tripwire and Hacktrap are major culprits of this and as such we are reworking their capabilities in this update.
We hope these changes keep these gadgets useful but reduce the pinpoint accuracy of finding rival players and the hopelessness it instills in victims.
Bounce Mat
We are making the cooldown to get your bounce mat higher to make the “drop and forget” strategy less efficient and drive more plays where you go back to pick it up after use.
Cooldown to regen 45s => 60s
Hacktrap With Season 2, we gave the hacktrap a massive power boost by making it trap players even when they had the keycard to a door. While this gave the hacktrap a lot of reliability (which it desperately needed), it made it a gadget that has very few counter plays as a victim. With this tweak, we are giving victims more lee-way to disappear into the night after getting hacktrapped while still keeping the gadget’s DNA as an alarm that you can set up anywhere.
No longer traces but leaves a snapshot of the player that triggered it at the location it was triggered.
The silhouette stays in place and does not follow the victim, giving them a chance to escape the scene.
Silhouette shows which spy they are playing as
Tripwire After a lot of observation, we came to the conclusion that broadcast is a very problematic effect to put into the player's hands. We are keeping the Tripwire almost identical to before but substituting broadcast with a trace. This way, the whole lobby won’t hop into a room as soon as you walk into a tripwire, making it less of a deathmatch summoning machine.
Replaced broadcast with trace status effect
Turret We are tweaking the turret a bit to make it more reliable in the time a fight normally takes place. We are not upping its damage, but making it more reactive so that players can see their traps setup bear fruit.
Deploy Delay 2s=>1s
Rev Up Time 1s => .5s
Hit frequency .5s => .4s
Scrambler We added a distinctive VFX on everything affected by a scrambler to make it easier to read and give a better idea of what it’s currently doing for the user.
Added a visual effect to everything affected by Scrambler
Umbrella Shield Like the bounce mat, the umbrella shield gets a higher cooldown to prevent it from being present multiple times in a single prolonged fight.
Cooldown to regen 45s => 60s
Field Upgrades Overclock Chip
Gold 75%=>60%
Purple 60% => 50%
No longer affects healing stations and Ammo dispensers
Side note: We have made the ammo dispenser interact faster by default to compensate for this change and make using them more convenient for everyone.
Bug Fixes General
Fixed an issue that allowed players to see out of cover spies outline through walls if looking through a teammate’s body.
Fixed an issue that showed the expertise and gadgets in the HUD as red even when fully charged.
Fixed an issue where intro poses that were off screen at the start of the player intro would be delayed.
Fixed issues where some actions would stop players from running when using the “toggle run” feature.
Fixed an issue where extraction could not be highlighted in navmode when having downed teammates on your team.
Fixed an issue that showed the tripwire image when unlocking items instead of the correct image.
Fixed an issue that caused the gamemode to randomly swap back to tutorial after playing matches.
Fixed some elements that would not update immediately when changing language in settings.
Tweaked navmode overlay to make sure it does not hide players when a highlighted item is in front of them.
Items unlocked through mastery level will no longer require to leave to the main menu to be usable when requeuing in the spectate screen.
Fixed an issue that led to the revive icon being visible when dead in solo.
Fixed an issue where a revived spy could keep their red outlines for enemies, even in cover.
Agents Ace
Fixed an issue with Big Blind where transparent NPCs would remain visible when turning it off while far-away from it.
Fixed an issue that showed a magazine in hand if meleeing while reloading the king.
Cavalière:
Fixed an issue that caused Cavalière’s guns to clip inside her notepad during her expertise.
Fixed an issue where the screen effect of Cavalière’s expertise would stay stuck in the end screen.
Chavez:
Fixed an issue that made Chavez locket desynced during his expertise animation
Fixed an issue that led to Chavez base walk being his reverse walk animation.
Hans
Using your expertise right before going back into cover will no longer keep the vfx visible.
Fixed an issue that led to the neutralize effect staying forever in the hud when dying during the effect and getting revived.
Larcin
Fixed an issue where Sasori was unable to use his sword inside Larcin’s Grande Finale zone.
Red
Fixed an issue that led to lovebomb staying active even after Red was eliminated.
Fixed an issue where Sweet Embrace would cleanse the poison status effect, permitting Red to heal anyway.
Fixed an issue that allowed players to recall lovebomb for free the first time, but not the second time onward.
Fixed an issue when players would break charm quickly after receiving it that would keep the locket reticle for the entire match.
Fixed an issue that could stack the resistant status effect if regaining cover multiple times in a short period.
Fixed an issue that caused the Red resistance VFX to stay active in the result screen.
Fixed an issue that caused Naughty List passive to trigger even when Red is dead.
Fixed an issue that caused the Red trace indicator to stay stuck when regaining cover on victims.
Fixed an issue that caused Red to not regain cover when using her expertises if she got shot at the same time.
Madame Xiu
Fixed an issue where using the serpent's bluff expertise, Xiu players could see a red outline on spies in disguise.
Fixed an issue that prevented Xiu’s from using her third cast of Python’s ruse if the player waited longer than a second before using it.
Fixed an issue that made players visible from an infinite distance with Krait’s instinct in certain conditions.
Fixed an issue that led to players teleporting on NPC that were currently off-screen because targeting was too wide.
Fixed an issue that caused Xiu weapon sounds to continue playing when using expertise while shooting.
Fixed an issue that kept the “serpent’s bluff” NPC silhouette visible even after the expertise cooldown expired.
Fixed an issue that allowed Xiu players to teleport around the map by setting a serpent's bluff on a NPC falling off the map.
Sasori
Fixed an issue that lowered Sasori ammo count in the background when keeping the “fire” input held in an online match.
Fixed an issue that made Sasori’s footsteps possible to hear even when in cover.
Sasori will now say his voice lines when changing into a civilian.
Fixed Sasori’s video reel in agent select not playing completely on Steam Deck.
Projectile trails now visible from other agents in third person.
Squire
Fixed an issue with animation scaling while using under pressure that would give the impression that Squire was reloading slower than normal.
Fixed an issue that caused squire “out” animation to never play when landing melee attacks.
Yu-Mi
Fixed an issue that made the glint on Yu-Mi’s fully charged slingshot not visible for other players.
Projectile trails now visible from other agents in third person.
Breaking an umbrella shield weak point will now give expertise refund when using the energy catalyst passive.
Fixed an issue that sometimes made Yu-Mi’s pellet visible to other players while in cover.
Gadget cooldown time will now display correctly on the compoudrier when using base passive.
Gadgets Bounce Mat
Fixed an issue where the mat could appear visually inflated when placed in a corner even when not inflated.
Hack-Trap
Fixed an issue that allowed players to place one more trap than they should be allowed to.
Fixed an issue that would cause the hack-trapped VFX to not play if the trapper was too far away from the victim.
Mimic
Fixed an issue where double tapping the mimic button while airborne can stop players from being able to use their expertise.
Fixed an issue that could allow players to mimic while getting scolded in some situations.
Drone
Fixed an issue that caused what the player was holding to disappear when the drone came off cooldown.
Fixed an issue that made it hard to hit mimicked players with the drone.
Fixed an issue where equipping the drone right after a stance expertise could lead to multiple issues.
Level Diamond Spire
Fixed benches that could not be sat on on the rooftop central bridge.
Fragrant Shore
Fixed an issue with shortcuts near terminal D sometimes not opening completely.
Fixed benches that could not be sat on in the park area.
Silver Reef
Fixed Silver Reef mannequin having the wrong texture once mimicked.
Private Lobbies (from previous beta)
Fixed an issue that would lead to the team selection drop down menu to close prematurely.
Fixed an issue that allowed a party leader to start a private lobby even if all players were not ready.
The “play” button is no longer accessible while spectating in a private lobby.
Error messages now work properly if matchmaking encounters an issue in private lobbies.
Fixed an issue with private lobbies UI not updating without closing the game when changing language.
Matchmaking now stops for the entire party if the party leader cancels it.
Fixed an issue that led to players being kicked from a private lobby still appearing in the lobby from their end.
All private lobbies text elements are now localized correctly.
October Update: Work In Progress Changelog Preview Brief
OF QUEENS AND KINGS UPDATE
Please keep in mind that this is a Work In Progress changelog and things are subject to change (items may also be removed or added) before the final release.
Agents, it’s time to lift the curtain on our biggest content update yet with “Of Queens and Kings”! We are extremely excited to show you what we have in store, so let’s not delay and dive into what’s new right away:
The long awaited arrival of private lobbies
A new Operation (map) with Sound Eclipse
A new Spy: Octo
A new catalog “Of Queens and Kings”
Tweaks, bug fixes, and balance changes!
Major Additions
New Spy: Octo, The Boisterous Hacker
Introducing Octo In the information world, few names attract as much attention as Octo. The self-proclaimed “King of hacking” has earned his reputation through un-rivaled skills and boisterous showmanship. An old acquaintance of Madame Xiu, Octo is as much a rival as an ally, working together countless times and trying to one up each other on every possible occasion. Even though she is annoyed by his extravagant attitude, Xiu herself would have to admit that he is the best when it comes to hacking into something.
The rumor goes that after a security breach in Deceive Inc.’s servers, Octo was immediately hired…
Bringing intel to a gunfight Octo joins the roster as our newest disruptor character, introducing with him a whole new perspective on intel. [U]Octo is all about Intel[/U]. Acquiring it. Spending it. Going all in on a gamble. Octo’s weapons all have a unique trait: their hip fire shots use ammo, but transform into intel-powered weapons when aiming down sight with unique properties.
All of Octo’s expertise are focused on ways to earn intel, from gathering it instantly to stealing it from rivals in a myriad of ways. On the flipside, his passives are all about spending intel to get benefits.
We hope you enjoy the push and pull of intel as you get to know Octo better in the coming weeks!
New Catalog: Of Queens and Kings For this season, we jump in the cutthroat world of high fashion with the chess-inspired “Of Queens and Kings” collection. You’ll be able to earn new regal costumes, intro poses and calling cards as you make your way through 50 levels of unlocks.
Purchasing the premium catalog will give you instant access to our newest agent, Octo, and exclusive rewards. [U]As a reminder, players can still buy Octo with Credits earned by simply playing[/U].
New Reactive Ink “The entire court” Catalog 3 comes with a new reactive ink that behaves differently from the one found in Neon Nights. “The entire court” will change appearance depending on your current disguise level as well as changing when outside of cover.
Private Lobbies Release Following our Beta in September, we are now ready to unleash private lobbies in a definitive manner with Season 3! By far the most requested feature ever since our alphas, private lobbies will allow you to invite friends and play the map of your choice in solo, duos, or trios.
You’ll find private lobbies in the mode select screen where you can get started OR you will automatically be taken to the private lobbies menu if your party size exceeds 3.
A few notes about private lobbies:
XP gains are 50% of regular matches XP.
XP booster do not work in private lobbies and won’t deplete during a private lobby match
Bonds Pile and Credit purses do not spawn in private lobbies
You cannot start a private lobby with less than 2 players
We look forward to seeing what you will do in private lobbies and will be looking at your feedback to further build up the mode in the future.
To join or host a private lobby session, simply go to the matchmaking type menu and click on private lobby.
New Operation (Map): Sound Eclipse Hazen, famous singer, artist and writer, is finally ready to unveil their newest performance: AGE OF DARKNESS, an opera that will revolutionize performance art forever.
The venue: The Valkyrie, the world’s first luxury space station for the rich and famous.
The catch? Hazen’s performance is a cover to unleash a powerful EMP device from space. Hazen, a true artist at heart, believes technology has rendered humanity incapable of creativity. The Valkyrie Comet, to them, is the ultimate sign of the decadence that technology has brought. If Hazen is not stopped, the highest note in their show will trigger the device, sending humanity’s technology back to the dark age. A veritable… sound eclipse, if you will.
General Changes Account level cap raise New season, new level cap. We are raising the cap to level 500 with the all-new Spinel ink to unlock as a progression reward.
Audio Occlusion Changes We’ve made changes to how weapon sounds propagate in maps to make obstructions a bigger factor. In this update, walls and other obstructions will have a bigger effect on blocking sound while open areas will keep sounds propagating from far away. We hope this makes picking fights in closed off rooms safer and more of a strategic consideration.
Room Weighting overhaul A driving factor on how NPC navigate a map is based on “weights” attributed to room. In this update, a major overhaul of restricted areas weight has been made across the entire game.
This now means that all guard rooms have a balanced weight to not skew certain rooms to have much higher guard traffic than others, making some rooms more desirable to sneak into without a costume early on. This is a subtle change on the surface that should result in a better balanced experience overall.
NPC Vision arc tweak NPC are getting a vision upgrade with this update. What that means is that the side of npc will be less of a deadzone for them to spot you at various angles. We were very careful to tweak this in a way that still allows players to sneak behind npc, but standing right next to one on their side will result in them noticing you now.
NPC Scolding behavior overhaul Previously, when a npc spotted a player with the wrong disguise from far away, they would walk slowly to them to scold them. This meant that players could easily run through large restricted areas with very little risk of npc catching up to them. Now, aggro-ed npc that are far away will run toward the player to scold them.
We also think this behavior makes more sense for a player trying to emulate a npc and spotting someone with the wrong disguise from afar which should help blur the line more.
Duo Stats Tracking Duo mode is losing its experimental tag and gaining full-fledged stat tracking in the stats menu. We’ve been tracking Duo wins for a little while now in the back-end and are finally making it official in the profile menu.
Terminal Revive Cover When revived at an extraction terminal in duo or trio, you will now respawn with a random civilian disguise instead of your last disguise before getting eliminated.
New Store Items We have a new selection of legendary skins, inks and intro poses hitting the store with Season 3. Here’s a preview of Midnight Protect Yu-mi, Luchador Chavez, Marquis Larcin and Under-Convent Red!
Balance General Balance
Lower Body damage Modifier removal Since the Misery Empire update, the game has been operating with 3 types of hits: Headshots, body hits and lower body hits. This had multiple effects on the game that we now feel are undesirable.
The main reason we are removing lower body hits modifiers has to do with consistency. With the pace of the fights in Deceive Inc. you often do not notice that the hit you just landed was not a body hit and the change in damage could lead to fights feeling inconsistent or taking more shots than they should.
Lower body hits are also an indirect buff to the strategy of jumping in fights as it increases the likelihood of enemies shooting you in the legs.
We hope this will make combat feel more reliable and consistent by removing some of the noise in the damage between players.
Expertise charging on match start With this update, you will notice that your expertise at the start of a match starts uncharged instead of being ready to use right away. This is a change we are trying for many different reasons:
It’s a balancing mechanism against expertises that are very strong in combat in early gameplay. This means combat focused expertise will need some time to come into play and will encourage lower profile play in the early game.
It gives quick-charging expertise an added appeal in early game vs long charging ones.
It gives more leeway for cooldown reduction powerups to be appealing in low level slots to get an edge on the competition early on.
While we think this change will be beneficial to the overall gameflow, please give us feedback on how it affects your gameplay!
Agents Balance For Season 3, we are bringing a mix of balance changes and reworks to some under-used tools in agents toolsets. We have also put an increased emphasis on bug fixing on our buggiest agents to get them in a better spot. Our focus was mostly on Madame Xiu and Red, but a lot of agents benefitted from the bug fix focus in some ways.
Ace We gave quite a bit of attention to Ace for the Upper Echelon update and as such she won’t be getting any gameplay changes this update.
Cavalière We are adjusting Cavalière’s redemptions timers to make it a more competitive choice and give it a stronger fantasy.
Expertise Mod 2: Redemption
Downed spies and npcs will no longer expire as an interactable clue (unless the person that eliminated them is no longer alive).
Chavez Chavez used to have an extremely strong presence a few updates ago, but the compounding effect of nerfs has brought him down significantly. While we need to be careful not to bring him back to a too oppressive status, we are going back on nerfs to his ammo pools to give him a bit more leeway in matches overall.
Weapons Mod 1:Vigilante
Starting Ammo 12 => 15
Mod 2: Duke
Ammo per box 2 => 3
Max ammo 12 => 18
Starting ammo 6 => 9
Hans This update we have reworked hit detection on both of Hans projectile based expertise to solve issues where players would sometimes not get an effect applied when they should. We hope this will make using them more efficient, especially in situations with multiple targets in close proximity.
Expertise Base: Incapacitor Orb
Increased reliability of hits
Mod 2: Shock Ray
Increased reliability of hits
Larcin We know Larcin is currently a force to be reckoned with and as such we are tweaking quite a bit on his kit to make his window of opportunity tighter on his expertise and reduce Cadence’s lethality while keeping its longer range identity intact. Weapons Mod 1: Cadence
Burst Fire rate: 10 bullets per second => 9 bullets per second
Headshot Modifier 1.5 => 1.3
Expertise Base: Au Revoir
Duration reduced 6s => 5s
Mod 1: Grande Finale
Duration reduced 15s => 10s
Madame Xiu We’ve spent a good amount of time on this update to fix some long-standing Xiu bugs (detailed in the bugfix list below) and took the occasion to update her less interesting passives.
Weapons Base: Zhulong
Reload time 1.7s s => 1.9s
Passive Mod 1: Krait’s Instinct
Can see out of cover low health enemies even through walls in a 35m radius around her.
Mod 2: Mamba’s Hunch
Now triggers every time a vault terminal is disabled in the first phase.
Now triggers every time extraction arrives
Sasori Sasori is getting some buffs to his overall reliability in combat with faster charge time, easier to land projectiles and some tweaks to his damage scaling on mod 2.
Weapons Base: Ame and Kage
Increased projectile travel speed
Mod 1: Hyõ and Hanei
Kunai Charge time .375s => .3s per kunai (1.5s total => 1.2s total)
Increased projectile travel speed
Mod 2: Yuki and Hikari
Damage scaling per status effect 50% => 75%
Increased projectile travel speed
Squire With Squire, we’ve been looking at under pressure as a good candidate for a buff. A lot of characters in the cast can get amped up without spending their expertise, so we felt it should do a bit more. With this buff Squire got the longest amped up duration in the entire cast and gets a substantial buff to his reload speed to help in tight combat situations.
Expertise Mod 1: Under Pressure
Duration 6s =>10s
Reload speed buff 25% faster =>35% faster
Red For Red, we are toning down her base weapon a bit to make it less deadly in longer range engagement and give more space for the jack of heart to take that role. We are also overhauling lovebomb to try and make it a much more appealing proposition as a trap. Weapons Base: Heartbreaker
Damage 9 => 8
Fire rate 6 => 5.7 bullet per second
Reload time 1.7s s => 1.9s
Tweaked recoil to give a bit more kick especially in hipfire
Mod 1: Jack of heart
Damage 18 => 20
Reload time 2.1s s => 1.9s
Mod 2: Lovebite
Fire Rate 1.15 => 1.30 shot per second
Expertise Mod 2: Lovebomb
Lovebomb now gives heartbreak to out of cover enemies in its range instead of charming them back into cover.
Out of cover allies within the range of the blast regain cover.
Yu-Mi For Yu-Mi, she settled in a better place with the recent nerfs to her kits. While we are aware that the healing bubble is still a top pick for her, we are mostly looking at future tweaks to make her other options appealing in comparison. Expect to see some changes to her expertise options in the future.
For now, we are adding some utility to one of her passives to make it a more interesting (and chaotic) choice.
Passive Mod 2: Booby Traps
Now creates a bubble when destroying rival gadgets too
Gadgets One of our major areas of focus around gadgets is to diminish the presence of effects that lead to the “Team Deathmatch” impressions on the overall gameflow. We feel Tripwire and Hacktrap are major culprits of this and as such we are reworking their capabilities in this update.
We hope these changes keep these gadgets useful but reduce the pinpoint accuracy of finding rival players and the hopelessness it instills in victims.
Bounce Mat
We are making the cooldown to get your bounce mat higher to make the “drop and forget” strategy less efficient and drive more plays where you go back to pick it up after use.
Cooldown to regen 45s => 60s
Hacktrap With Season 2, we gave the hacktrap a massive power boost by making it trap players even when they had the keycard to a door. While this gave the hacktrap a lot of reliability (which it desperately needed), it made it a gadget that has very few counter plays as a victim. With this tweak, we are giving victims more lee-way to disappear into the night after getting hacktrapped while still keeping the gadget’s DNA as an alarm that you can set up anywhere.
No longer traces but leaves a snapshot of the player that triggered it at the location it was triggered.
The silhouette stays in place and does not follow the victim, giving them a chance to escape the scene.
Silhouette shows which spy they are playing as
Tripwire After a lot of observation, we came to the conclusion that broadcast is a very problematic effect to put into the player's hands. We are keeping the Tripwire almost identical to before but substituting broadcast with a trace. This way, the whole lobby won’t hop into a room as soon as you walk into a tripwire, making it less of a deathmatch summoning machine.
Replaced broadcast with trace status effect
Turret We are tweaking the turret a bit to make it more reliable in the time a fight normally takes place. We are not upping its damage, but making it more reactive so that players can see their traps setup bear fruit.
Deploy Delay 2s=>1s
Rev Up Time 1s => .5s
Hit frequency .5s => .4s
Scrambler We added a distinctive VFX on everything affected by a scrambler to make it easier to read and give a better idea of what it’s currently doing for the user.
Added a visual effect to everything affected by Scrambler
Umbrella Shield Like the bounce mat, the umbrella shield gets a higher cooldown to prevent it from being present multiple times in a single prolonged fight.
Cooldown to regen 45s => 60s
Field Upgrades Overclock Chip
Gold 75%=>60%
Purple 60% => 50%
No longer affects healing stations and Ammo dispensers
Side note: We have made the ammo dispenser interact faster by default to compensate for this change and make using them more convenient for everyone.
