NEW MAP: DEATH STAR CROSSFIRE

Get ready to blast off to the pivotal conflict between the Empire and the Rebellion with an all new Arena that has been meticulously built, so it looks and feels like you’re fighting across the real Death Star II!

Players will navigate the crossfire of these warring factions, as X-wings and TIE fighters swoop overhead past heavy fire from Turbolaser towers. Navigate devastating crash sites and classic Imperial interiors in this exciting new Arena experience!

To catch a first glimpse of our new map, check out our latest video flying through Death Star Crossfire.

QUESTS

We’ve introduced a new quest system to help guide players on their journey through the Arena, and provide players with additional challenges to overcome and master! To understand Quests in depth we will be releasing a full blog post going into detail on how they work.

In relation to the launch of Quests and the change in Hunter upgrades, we have given all players a free Ability reset, don't forget to reassign your ability points!

NEW COSMETICS

There are 194 new pieces of Cosmetic content going out in 0.18.0.

This includes:

• 88 Costumes and Weapon Wraps 

• 26 items for our new Hunter - Charr 

• 55 Stickers 

• 23 Avatars

• 28 Victory Poses.

There is so much stuff coming out for you to pick up during this update so make sure to keep an eye out for when it drops!

ROSTER VISUAL UPDATE

The Roster environment has seen a big visual upgrade! Every Hunter now has their own unique dynamic screen graphics and lighting that reflect their themes and personas.

ABILITY UPGRADE SYSTEM

We’ve updated the term “Ability Variants” to “Ability Upgrades”, and have adjusted the cost of the upgrades themselves. 

These changes are intended to provide a more intuitive understanding of the system, and give players more flexibility in spending their first few ability points. This change should also make spending on Ability Upgrades more balanced for players as they level up.

HUNTER BALANCE UPDATE:

SENTINEL

Combat Shield Amplify Upgrade has been reworked. The Level 1 mechanic, increased weapon damage on activation, is now at Level 5.

The Level 5 mechanic, increased weapon damage on Shield hit, is now at Level 1.

This change makes the Upgrade track more useful for players leveling Sentinel, as the Shield is hit many times during a single activation.

Suppressing Fire Blitz Upgrade has had the inaccuracy aspect of it removed. The main choice between these Upgrade tracks is now between slowing down or knocking back.

Sentinel’s weapon damage has also been increased from 9 (18 Critical) to 10 (20 Critical).

J-3DI

Faux Pull is a core part of J-3DI's kit, but with a 14 second cooldown it was not having the intended impact in the Arena. The cooldown has been reduced to 11 seconds and the Upgrade tracks also reflect this change.

RIEVE

Rieve is fast and a very strong Hunter, but her ability cooldowns are all too long to support this playstyle consistently. From this we have reduced Ruthless Pursuit’s cooldown from 8 to 7 seconds. Lightsaber Throw’s cooldown has also been reduced from 11 seconds to 9 seconds. Upgrade tracks also reflect these changes.

GROZZ

The speed of Grozz's Stampede has been increased by 20% as the current speed made it too easy for enemies to dodge.

Stampede Thrash Upgrade damage has increased from 50 to 70 at Level 1.

Grozz's Upheaval Ability is mainly focused around utility, setting Grozz up for a Stampede or making it easier for allies to eliminate the opponents. This is not meant to be a damage ability that focuses on eliminations. The damage has been reduced from 50 to 30. Upheaval Quake Upgrade damage has been reduced from 75 to 45 at Level 1.

War Cry Bolster Upgrade Temporary Health for allies has been increased from 70 to 80.

Upgrade tracks also reflect all of these changes.

UTOONI

Utooni's push and pull playstyle should have long range opponents attacked by the Pulse Blaster and close range opponents attacked with the Arc Caster. Currently the Arc Caster range is slightly too long to promote this playstyle.

The Arc Caster distance has been reduced by ~15%. The minimum damage Arc Caster can do has been increased from 12 to 15.

The Pulse Blaster damage has also been decreased from 55 to 50.

Utooni's Surprise Passive Ability has also received a large tuning update. The radius has been reduced by ~40% but the fuse time has been shortened by 0.25 seconds. The damage has also been increased from 55 to 100.

SKORA

Skora's healing and temporary health output make her incredibly strong. She currently dominates the support category and is much more powerful than her counterparts.

Her weapon damage has been reduced from 13 to 12 per tick. Her weapon healing has been reduced from 22 to 20 per tick.

Her passive healing has also been reduced from 11 to 10 per tick.

Stim-Shot temporary health has also been reduced from 175 to 125. These changes are also reflected in her Upgrades.

DIAGO

All proximity mines will now deploy instantly.

SLINGSHOT

Slingshot is meant to be a mobile tank, his speed allows him to get in and out of battle while causing as much disruption as possible. The following changes will give him extra survivability, mobility and impact in the Arena.

Slingshot’s health has been increased from 300 to 325.

Slingshot’s weapon damage has been increased from 10 (20 Critical) to 12 (24 Critical).

Trickshot cooldown has been reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.

Trickshot damage has been increased from 60 to 70.

Trickshot Energize Upgrade maximum charge required has been reduced from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds.

Scatterboom cooldown has been reduced from 12 seconds to 9 seconds.

Scatterboom core and Spread Upgrade area of effect have been increased.

All these changes have also been reflected in all Upgrade tracks.

SPROCKET

Targeting Droid Pester Upgrade duration has been increased from 4 seconds to 6 seconds. This is also reflected in the individual levels of this Upgrade track.

POST MATCH EVENT AND CHALLENGE PROGRESS

A new screen has been added Post-Match that shows current progress for individual challenges, the Arena Pass, Events, Quests, and more.

Players can claim challenge rewards directly from this new screen. Players will still need to claim event milestone rewards from the Events page directly.

This change will be rolled out to all players by week 3 of the season.

Also, Players level 7 and up will only see the Player XP and Hunter Fame screens after a match when they’re close to leveling up.

MOBILE CONTROLLER SUPPORT

New, gamepad-specific Settings screen is used when a controller is attached. This is fully navigable using gamepad and includes all options from the touch Settings screen in a more gamepad-accessible form, in addition to controller-specific options for aim sensitivity and joystick dead zones that are not present on the touch Settings screen.

We have also added functionality to remap gameplay controls on a per-Hunter basis.

Plus, functionality to select controller type, along with appropriate button icons for each controller type in the HUD and Menus.

Players can now confirm leaving the Training Grounds using controller input.

On Android, we have fixed cases of misidentifying other connected peripherals as gamepads. Also on Android we have fixed in-match HUD erroneously switching to gamepad layout when buttons are pressed on other connected peripherals, such as volume controls.

AIM ASSIST

We have also added new options to Settings allowing players to customize the level of aim assist they receive on both touch and controller.

BUG FIXES AND OTHER CHANGES

Facebook as a log in method is going to be phased out over this update.

We have also been working hard on general bug fixes and performance improvements.

With this update, we will also be resetting the Player Match History. This will now be done periodically with future updates.