DIAGO RETURNS!

Diago, the supremely suave Miraluka is back for another Season and available to all new players in the Arena Pass! For returning players who have already picked up Diago in a previous Season you will receive free access to the Arena Pass with additional bonus rewards available!

RANKED MODE

Introducing Ranked Mode! This is where players can put their skills to the test in highly competitive matches. Climb through a series of Leagues and Divisions, with the goal being to reach the highest Rank on the leaderboard. By progressing in Ranked players will be able to earn a selection of rewards, some exclusive to Ranked. To understand Ranked Mode in depth we have released a separate blog which goes into more detail on how this will work, you can find this HERE

GUNPLAY UPDATE

Gunplay has been completely overhauled within Star Wars: Hunters. The new Gunplay mechanics will add extra challenge for players, with recoil, overheating and reloading there is a lot to master! All ranged weapons now include the following mechanics:

• Overheating or Ammo

• Weapon Spread & Recoil

• Improved Focused Aim capabilities

Overheat

All blaster based weapons now generate heat per shot. Each weapon will have different overheat values based on their weapon archetype. When a weapon overheats the player is unable to fire for a timed duration as the weapon vents - cooling the weapon back down to normal. Players can still use Abilities while venting. Players can choose to manually vent their weapon before it reaches the maximum overheat level.

The overheat feature affects the following Hunters:

• Imara Vex

• Sentinel

• Utooni

• Slingshot

• Sprocket

• Zaina

Ammo

Non-blaster weapons will now have an ammo count. Once the ammo is depleted the weapon must be reloaded. Each weapon will have different ammo and reload values based on their weapon archetype. Players can choose to manually reload their weapon before the ammo clip is empty.

The ammo feature affects the following Hunters:

• Diago

• Charr

• Skora

Weapon Spread & Recoil

All weapons now include weapon spread and recoil.

How does weapon spread work? The more the weapon is fired the less accurate it becomes. This impacts each weapon differently depending on the weapon archetype and the overheat/reload balancing.

How will recoil affect Hunter gameplay? The more a weapon is fired the more difficult it is to control the kickback. This impacts each weapon differently depending on the weapon archetype and the overheat/reload balancing.

Focused Aim

With the Overheat/Ammo, weapon spread and recoil mechanics, Focused Aim provides more benefits as it impacts the effects of weapon spread and recoil.

GAMEPLAY BALANCE

To correspond with the major update to Hunter Gunplay, all weapons have been rebalanced and we have made changes to several key areas, to improve moment to moment gameplay. This update primarily impacts Hunters with movement-based abilities.

Cooldowns for movement-based abilities have been drastically reduced, allowing Hunters to react and respond much more often against oncoming threats. The previous Season’s balance relied heavily on cooldown management, which could create scenarios where Hunters had to hide for an extended amount of time waiting for their abilities to be available again.

All balance changes below reference their base stats. Upgrades have been updated accordingly:

DAMAGE CLASS

Diago:

• Ammo Count: 8

• Weapon Damage: 30 > 45

• Critical Weapon Damage: 60 > 90

J-3DI:

• Attack Damage: 40 > 45

• Faux Pull Cooldown: 11s > 7s

• Deflecting Stance Cooldown: 12s > 7s

Imara Vex:

• Overheat Count: 25 shots

• Grapple Cooldown: 11s > 7s

• Missile Launcher Cooldown: 11s > 8s

Rieve:

• Attack Damage: 40 > 45

• Ruthless Pursuit Cooldown: 7s > 4s

• Ruthless Pursuit Damage: 55 > 60

• Vicious Leap Cooldown: 8s > 4s

• Lightsaber Throw Cooldown: 9s > 13s

• Lightsaber Throw Damage: 40 per hit > 60 per hit

Sentinel:

• Overheat Count: 60 shots

• Barrel Slam Cooldown: 8s > 2.5s

Utooni:

• Pulse Blaster Overheat Count: 5

• Arc Caster Overheat Count: 12

TANK CLASS

Charr:

• Ammo Count: 2

• Primary Attack Damage: 56 > 70

• Critical Attack Damage: 84 > 105

Grozz:

• Stampede Cooldown: 15s > 8s

• Time required for War Cry to heal: 0.55s > 1.55s

Slingshot:

• Overheat Count: 24

• Damage per shot: 12 per shot > 15 per shot

• Trickshot Cooldown: 8s > 6s

• Scatterboom Cooldown: 9s > 7s

SUPPORT CLASS

Skora:

• Ammo Count: 12

• Damage per shot: 12 per tick > 11 per tick

• Healing per shot: 20 per tick > 18 per tick

• Adrenal Boost Cooldown: 12s > 4s

• Stim Shot Cooldown: 11s > 7s

• Quickfire Cooldown: 12s> 13s

Sprocket:

• Overheat Count: 30

• Damage: 12 per shot > 7 per shot

• Rate of Fire: 0.25s > 0.135s

Zaina:

• Ammo Count: 6

• Damage: 18 > 26

• Rate of Fire: 0.45s > 0.6s

• Bacta Bomb Cooldown: 7s > 4s

• Bacta Bomb Healing: 70 self healing, 90 ally healing > 75 for self and ally healing

• Dodge Roll Cooldown: 5s > 3s

• Dodge Roll Distance: 6m > 4m

New Map - Vandor Railyard

Introducing Vandor Railyard! This new multi-modal map is set on an Imperial Railcrawler Facility, nestled deep in the mountains of Vandor. Players will not only be up against their foes, but they will also face the challenges of the steep cliffs, and you won’t want to be hit by the moving train passing through the map!

New Game Modes

Dynamic Control

Dynamic Control is a brand new mode that adds another layer of strategy and tactics to objective gameplay! In Dynamic Control squads must compete for rotating Control Points. Hold the Control Point while keeping the opposing squad out of the objective boundaries to score. The first team to 100% wins!

Limited Time Mode: Grozz's Boulder Bash

Sprocket introduces Holo-Arcade! Our resident technical wizard has created his own Game within the Holo-Arcade where he makes the rules. First up is Boulder Bash, where each player will play as Grozz and will battle only using their Ultimates. To add to the chaos, the cooldown for Ultimates is vastly reduced. 

New Cosmetic Content

There are 70 new pieces of Cosmetic content going out in 0.19.0 (there's 357 in total that will be available to acquire, including re-released content).

Not all of this content will be available on day one as some of it will be released through the Arena Pass, Bundles and Events.

Of the new content for players we have the following:

• 21 Costumes

• 23 Weapons

• 12 Avatars

• 10 Stickers

• 1 Victory Pose

Arena Pass Improvements

Arena Pass - Stellar Tiers

Stellar Tiers have been added to the Arena Pass! Have you found yourself completing the Arena Pass and wanting more? Stellar Tiers are there for you! After the initial Arena Pass is complete you can also earn additional LIMITED EDITION rewards. So get to playing now to get these exclusive rewards! These offer even more value to the Arena Pass for dedicated players!

Arena Pass - Visual Overhaul

Various changes have been made to the Arena Pass visuals to increase reward cohesion! 

New Events

Participate in events throughout the Galactic Frontier Season to earn fantastic rewards in the Daq’s Devotees Event!

Play in the new Ranked Season to make progress in the all-new “Kyber or Bust” Events!

Play through dozens of new Events, including Battlefield Crush and a new Clash event featuring Diago and Sentinel!

Event and Quest Improvements

Pinned Quests

Quests can now be pinned! One Quest can be pinned at a time and will appear at the top of the Quest list by default, and also be pinned to the Home Screen for quick reference.

Quest Rewards and Next Top Reward

Quests now show the next top reward and tapping on this will show all the rewards that will be earned by completing each part of a Quest!

Multiple Challenges in a Quest

Quests may now have multiple challenges in each Part! This was developed to try and vary up the type of gameplay that Quests can ask for!

More Quests!!

We'll be adding even more Quests to the game, not only are we filling out the Roster so that every Hunter will have their own associated Quest. We're adding more Quests that reward players for engaging with things like Ranked Mode and the Arena Pass!

Early Player Experience

We’ve made several tweaks aimed at improving the introduction of new features and content, with the goal of creating a more engaging and digestible experience for new players.

Tooltips

We have added in new text tips to help explain what different elements across the game are, how to earn them or what their functionality is. Tap on different non-clickable elements that you may be curious about to make these text tips appear. 

User Interface Refresh

We have made significant changes across our UI style and color palette - switching over to a modern and bright blue palette that improves UI visibility and enhances our games user interface dramatically. 

Ability Upgrades

Specific Ability Upgrades have been updated to improve overall game feel and ensure our Hunters are balanced. Specific Hunter Upgrades have been adjusted to create a more eventful and action packed experience for Players. The fluidity of battles should now be faster and more intense than ever before!

Changes include:

Grozz’s Stampede - Thrash Upgrade: Slow has been removed from Levels 1-4 but the overall Damage has been increased for this Upgrade

Grozz’s War Cry - Invigorate: Invulnerable has been removed from Level 5 and replaced with Damage Reduction. Invulnerable is a powerful status effect which negates all damage from every source. This created an unfair experience where Grozz could consistently soak all enemy weapon damage, ability damage and ultimate damage without any downside.

Imara Vex’s Grapple - Evade: Invulnerable and Damage Reduction have been replaced with gaining Temporary Health on use. Invulnerable is a powerful status effect which negates all damage from every source. This created an unbalanced experience where Imara Vex could consistently take all enemy damage types without consequence.

Slingshot’s Protective Shield - Shatter: Slow and increased Fire rate have been removed from the Upgrade track. Knockback has now been included when shattering the shield.

Slingshot’s Protective Shield - Fortify: The rate of fire increase has now been added to Fortify. The mechanic is more useful for Fortify as this Upgrade promotes having the ability activated for a longer amount of time than the Shatter Upgrade.

Slingshot’s Trickshot - Recharge Upgrade: Level 5 Damage Reduction has been replaced with a cooldown reduction mechanic. Hitting enemies with this ability will reduce the cooldown of the Protective Shield ability.

Diago’s Proximity Mine - Pinpoint: Slow has been removed from Level 5 and replaced with an additional mine. Diago will now be able to place 2 small mines to protect himself from flanking opponents, creating a more tactical approach to play.

Diago’s Bullseye - Steady: Knock back has been removed from this Upgrade and replaced with increased fire rate. As an opponent to this ability, it was too difficult to understand where the damage and effect was originating from and this balance should help overall gameplay.

Sentinel’s Suppressing Fire - Blitz: Knock back has also been removed from this Upgrade, being replaced with increased damage the closer the enemy is to Sentinel. As an opponent to this ability, knock back was too disruptive to the fluidity of gameplay.

Ultimate Charge Update

Ultimate charge is earned through the following mechanics:

Dealing Damage

Healing Allies

Ultimate Pickups

Time

The balance of these mechanics has been altered, damage and healing now play a much bigger part of earning Ultimate charge, and Ultimate charge earned through time has been reduced. This change means a Hunter’s performance within a match has a much bigger impact on earning multiple Ultimate activations.

Player Reporting

We’ve made changes to how Players can report others for inappropriate behavior. This can now be done in the Match History Screen. Reporting is a simple and confidential process which is important for keeping our community safe and positive! CHeck our FAQ here

Controller Aim Assist

Multiple updates have been implemented to improve Aim Assist for controller players. These updates should improve tracking targets and leading shots against fast moving opponents. The updates should put controller players on par against those using touch controls.

Other Updates

We have implemented several bug fixes and performance improvements.