Update 11.3.0
2026.07.30
DANCE OFF
Get your dancing shoes on! This week, we’re bringing Strike a Pose back, a fresh new Store Update, alongside new Twitch drops, balance changes, and a bunch of bug fixes.
See you in the Arena!
STORE | MARSHAL METEOR
It’s time to pick up your shift and patrol the streets of GALAXY ESTATES with the Marshal Meteor Set. No matter how far, no matter which system you aim for, justice will find its way. Safety beyond the stars.
EVENT | STRIKE A POSE
There’s never been a better moment than now to party up with that one friend who won’t stop emoting! That’s right, Strike a Pose is back, this time in Team Deathmatch. Eliminating an opponent will now spawn a small dance floor for you to bust your best moves in the Arena for some extra cash.
ESPORTS | TWO SHOWS, ONE SATURDAY
Cycle 3 gets greedy this Saturday: two broadcasts in one day. AMERICAS plays its Top 8, with a cycle title and real series points on the line. EMEA plays its Top 16, where sixteen teams walk in and eight walk back out. We managed to get a hold of Scotty to hear his quick words of wisdom about the upcoming weekend:
“TWO shows in one day!? I’ve blocked out the whole afternoon… and most of June’s!”
AMERICAS.
Unphased won Cycle 2 and lead the region, so they arrive with everybody’s homework done on them. ENVY are through again, Luminon (prev Team ED) are back after taking 3rd last time out, and Kansas City Pioneers, who missed the Top 8 completely in Cycle 2, are finally back in the running.
EMEA.
Five Fears still sit top of Europe on 175 points, a full 75 clear of anyone else, and everybody chasing them has to survive the Top 16 first. Europe has already shown what that stage does to a favorite: Cycle 1 champion team Teiko went out and scored nothing!
APAC.
HIBOO once again won another cycle and knocked KZ from the top spot, who had led the leaderboard since May, off the top of the region by five points. It is 230 to 225 with one cycle to play, and DRG on 200 are close enough to make it a three-way scrap!
Then, Cycle 4, the last one of the season. Whoever holds the most points at the end of it takes their region’s golden ticket, a direct invite to The Grand Major 2026, everyone else has to go the long way round! Sign-ups are open in all three regions right now, so this is the last time to ask. Galaxy Estates joins the map pool for it too!
Every contestant on those broadcasts started in the Open Qualifiers, taking the same kind of shot anyone can take, including you! Build your team, and claim your spot:
APAC Sign Up | Qualifiers begin August 8th
AMERICAS Sign Up | Qualifiers begin August 15th
EMEA Sign Up | Qualifiers begin August 22nd
Come along and watch the Top 8 for AMERICAS to find out if Unphased can take home the Golden Ticket, or if another team shocks the area!
Live at 18:00 UTC+2 // 18:00 CET // 12PM EST on https://www.twitch.tv/thefinals
Clear your Saturday, pick a team to root for (or to beat?) and ask yourself the big question:
CAN YOU REACH THE FINALS?
ARC x TF | AZIMUTH SET
Do you have what it takes to venture Topside?
Starting today, play ARC Raiders, face the ARC and unlock the Azimuth Set in THE FINALS!
While you already know who your teammates are in the Arena, keep an eye out for other Raiders, you might meet your next best friend or an unfortunate early demise.
Expect an up to 24 hour delay in rewards being delivered.
TWITCH | SHOWTIME BLUE SET
For the next couple weeks, earn the Showtime Blue Set for absolutely free by simply watching anyone playing THE FINALS with Drops Enabled on Twitch!
Watch 1 hour to get the Showtime Blue Spear
Watch 2 hours to get the Showtime Blue Dual Blades
Watch 4 hours to get Showtime Blue Sword
Available now until August 13, 2026. Terms and conditions on twitch.tv
GAME UPDATE | BALANCE CHANGES
Gadgets
C4
Increased cooldown from 30s to 45s
Dev Note: The C4 has been an outlier in terms of win rate and usage for Heavy for quite some time, and the archetype in general performs very well compared to Mediums and Lights. The ability to use C4 for 2-3 drops per Cashout fight is part of that power, so this change is aimed to reduce that slightly and bring the C4 more inline with some of the other Heavy Gadgets
Specializations
Grappling Hook
Decreased cooldown from 7s to 6s
Dev Note: The Grappling Hook struggles to get the same attention from players as the Light’s other Specializations and it’s something we’d like to address, but it can be difficult to do so as a lot of the options that exist to buff the Grapple Hook also risk breaking map pacing (travel time between objectives for example) and could split teams. This change is a small nudge to see if we can help the Grapple Hook without needing to consider more fundamental reworks of it
Weapons
BFR
Increased damage from 88 to 90
Dev Note: The BFR lags quite a bit behind the bulk of the other Heavy weapons at present, on various efficacy metrics. This change is to hopefully nudge it back into relevance slightly
Dagger
Increased lunge distance on primary and secondary attacks from 4.5m to 5m
Increased max lunge speed slightly to support the increased lunge distance
Increased the secondary attack’s sweep time slightly, to help ensure that backstabs can more reliably hit targets at max lung distance
Dev Note: As expected, following the 11.0 melee re-work a bunch of the melee weapons needed additional tweaks and changes once we saw how they performed in the real world. In the case of the Dagger, one of the initial issues we saw were issues pertaining to getting onto targets and being able to hit them reliably, these changes aim to address that
Dual Blades
Increased Precision zone angle from 8 to 9 degrees, making it slightly easier to land precise strikes
Increased lunge distance on primary attacks from 4.5m to 5m
Increased max lunge speed slightly to support the increased lunge distance
Updated the Cross Slash attack to always lunge forwards when at full stamina, even when stationary. Previously the attack required some forward input to trigger the lunge
Increased player movement speed when using the Deflect stance by 25%
Dev Note: Our previous changes to the Dual Blades lunge distances were a little too aggressive, so we’ve nudged the lunge distances back up again as well as giving the Blades a slightly more generous Precision Angle. The 11.0 reduction to movement speed while Deflecting, of 50%, was also too aggressive so we’ve dialed that back with these changes. There is also a quality of life change here how the Cross Slash attack’s lunge works to make it slightly more reliable
FAMAS
Increased damage from 23 to 24
Dev Note: Similar to the BFR, the FAMAS lags a little behind a fairly tight cluster of Medium weapons in terms of effectiveness. This change is a nudge to try and close that gap
KS-23
Reduced damage from 110 to 104
Increased damage falloff multiplier from 0.64 to 0.675, to keep the weapon’s damage at max range consistent despite the damage reduction
Dev Note: Prior to 11.0, and despite its high utility, the KS-23 lagged behind a lot of other Heavy weapons and we wanted to address that. There were worries that the weapon was being ‘slept on’, but we felt it was time for a change to try and help the weapon regardless. Sometimes, making a change is the only way to find ‘the truth’ of why it performs as it does across all the different modes, skill tiers and so on. We can see from the last few weeks on live that the increase to 110 damage was too much, so we’re reducing it to 104 with this update to break some of the attack combo breakpoints and lower DPS. We do still think the pre-11.0 KS-23 needed a small buff, hence not returning to 100 damage per shot immediately, but we’ll continue to monitor how it plays at 104 damage and will adjust it again in later updates if we feel it’s needed
Riot Shield
Increased Precision zone angle from 9 to 10 degrees, making it slightly easier to land precise strikes
Increased lunge distance on primary attacks from 4.25m to 5m
Increased primary attack damage from 82 to 83
Updated the Shield Bash attack to always lunge forwards when at full stamina, even when stationary. Previously the attack required some forward input to trigger the lunge
Dev Note: We’ve seen feedback from some players who feel the Riot Shield has lost a lot of its power with the 11.0 update and the changes here to the Precision angle, lunge distance and damage are to address that to some extent. That said, we want to state that the changes made to Riot Shield in 11.0 were very deliberately aimed at giving it a new style of play and role, one that more reliably allows tanking of damage as well as acting as an ‘anchor’ for team fights and objective defense. On Medium, we want Dual Blades to be the more aggressive push-forwards brawling melee weapon, while the Riot Shield is more defensive and about stalling opposing players or anchoring fights, and we think the Riot Shield is definitely able to fill that role more now than it could prior to 11.0. We’ll continue to monitor how it performs as the season goes on and will adjust as we need to
Spear
Increased precise hit damage of primary attacks from 74 to 82
Increased base damage of primary attacks 55 to 57
Increased the damage of the three swing secondary attack sequence from 75/100/125 to 75/125/150
Dev Note: The damage adjustments made to the Spear with 11.0 have proven to be more severe than we intended. The changes made here aim to address that
GAME UPDATE | BUG FIXES
Animation
Fixed an issue where aiming down sights could be slower than intended immediately after a Quick Melee kick
Fixed animation blending when inspecting or reloading after deploying or on first spawn
Fixed an issue where Quick Melee sometimes failed to play immediately after a kick
Improved hand placement on the Riot Shield during swipe attacks to polish animation visuals
Audio
Fixed an issue where the audio on Bot weapons could get stuck when firing in short bursts
Updated the Data Reshaper sound to be more audible for the user
Fixed missing audio for the Dual Blades Tractor Beam inspect animation
Cosmetic
Fixed Signature Stickers not displaying on the Cashbox during insertion at the Cashout Station
Fixed an issue where the Weapon in the Ready the Steel Emote could disappear at long range
Fixed an issue where using "Equip to All" after purchasing or equipping a bundle could result in only some Contestants being equipped
Fixed The Hawk Commander hair clipping through headwear
Fixed an issue where the Key Change Emote’s music could briefly loop after the animation ended
Fixed clipping on some face mask cosmetics so they no longer intersect with the face
Fixed an issue where the Countdown Companion watch face could appear distorted or fail to display the time in certain lighting conditions
Fixed misalignment of the Series 2000 Lenses eyes when used with the Alien Complexion face
Fixed a visible seam between the neck and body when using The Observer’s Mirage Face
Fixed an issue where the Lava Luster heating effect could transfer between Weapons and vanish after the first shot
Resolved an issue that caused excessive glowing when previewing skins
Fixed texture stretching and sticker clipping on the YinYang Bang skin for AKM and Healing Beam
Corrected visual issues on Magnetic Mirage
Adjusted Retro Robot visuals to better match Light and Heavy Archetypes
Fixed an issue where the Sledgehammer could appear too close to its spikes in menus and Loadout preview, causing hand clipping
Fixed an issue where the card and decals on the Throwing Knives skin could appear blank
Fixed iron sight alignment on the R .357 for a Rain City Special
Fixed an issue where the Weapon was missing when previewing Deploy or Inspect animations for the Fizzkick Brawler Set in the Store
Gadgets
Dome Shield
Fixed an issue where friendly melee attacks could damage your Dome Shield
Game Modes
Power Shift
Fixed an issue on Kyoto where some members of the team starting in the bamboo forest could spawn in a different location at the start of the round
Point Break
Rounds that reach the time limit now conclude with a defender win rather than ending abruptly
Gameplay
Bots now gain awareness when taking damage, improving their responsiveness to attackers
Improved bot movement to navigate more smoothly around targets and maintain avoidance behavior even when idle
Fixed a bug where throwing, catching and dropping a barrel would cause it to break instantly
Bots now coordinate to avoid crowding the same objective or interactable, spreading out across targets instead of stacking together
Bots no longer get stuck firing at Explosive Mines and will switch targets if they can’t destroy them
Fixed an issue where the Quick Melee kick wouldn’t trigger when Melee Aim Assist was disabled
Fixed an issue where normal quick melee also caused knockback
Fix issue with goo walls sometimes not spawning properly
Added a progress bar when remotely picking up objects using a controller
Maps
Seoul
Fixed an issue where damaging a stairwell in the Apartments could cause the building to collapse excessively
FANGWAI CITY
Fixed a collision on a backdrop building that could cause a Cashbox to get stuck
Fixed floating bushes appearing after destroying planters
Fixed an indestructible pipe
KYOTO
Updated destruction by increasing the sturdiness of most buildings for more consistent gameplay
Las Vegas
Fixed visual z-fighting/texture flickering near the western casino entrance
Nozomi/Citadel
Fixed an issue where Contestants could get stuck under the water slide
Monaco
Fixed a floating tree
Practice Range
Added Season 10 and Season 11 trophies
Galaxy Estates
Increased the mass of the oxygen pods in the Cosmo Physique building so their physics behave more appropriately for their size
Fixed an issue where you would detach unexpectedly from a Zipline if you interacted with it through a gap in the fence between Orbital Homes and Cosmo Physique
Slightly adjusted the height of some tables to prevent getting snagged on them
Flipped the direction a set of doors open in the upper Nova Villa building to create more comfortable flow to-and-from the staircase in the glass corner
Slightly reduced the depth of the pools around the center Eden Dome building and Nova Villas, so gadgets can be seen better in the water
Fixed an issue where the meteors of the Meteor Shower game show event would hit the out-of-bounds ceiling
Fix for carriables falling into the Centre Dome planter
Fixed missing input prompt for slowing down in the anti-gravity columns when only having Crouch Toggle assigned
Social
Clubs
Fixed an issue where Contestants couldn’t join a same-club member’s party when they had Open to Join enabled
General
When set to Show as Offline, party size is no longer shown and the status no longer flickers when toggling Open to Join
Kicked teammates now leave squad voice chat immediately
Party invites and Join Their Party are now disabled when a match has been found, and invites to players already in a match or queue appear unavailable, preventing players from entering sessions solo or splitting from their party
Voice Chat
Improved reliability and responsiveness of voice chat indicators across Friends, Team, and Squad screens
Improved voice chat speaking indicators to update accurately across the HUD and social screens
UI
General
Selecting the Music Player widget now opens the Music tab in Settings instead of General
Fixed an issue where team wipe entries in the kill feed could display the wrong or duplicated team name
Fixed an issue where opening the Equipment Wheel together with the Ping Wheel could gray out the UI and prevent using Weapons or Gadgets when using a controller
Fixed an issue with the loading screen having an overlapping video playing in the background when returning to the main menu from the end of round
Fixed an issue where the Player Card preview could appear in the Contestants menu when backing out and opening options at the same time
Corrected the 93R’s ammo count in the weapon stats to show 27, matching the in-game value
Corrected the Pike-556 headshot multiplier shown in the equipment overview to display 1.75x instead of 1.5x
Added the first iteration of the Damage Number system, displaying the damage dealt to an opponent next to their health bar. This can be turned on and off in the settings.
VFX
Fixed an issue where bullet traces could be fired from the wrong location
GAME UPDATE | ANTI-CHEAT
You may have spotted references to Elytra, our new in-house anti-cheat solution built by VAIIYA Corp.
Elytra is in a limited testing phase. We're running it with a small group of selected players alongside our technology partners, including NVIDIA GeForce NOW and Microsoft, to validate compatibility, stability, and performance across the range of hardware and platforms our players use.
For most players right now, Elytra is installed and may be running in the background, but it is not yet enforcing anti-cheat protections. That's caused some understandable confusion. A future update will change how the service reports its status so players can see clearly whether it's active for them.
Once testing wraps and we've worked through the issues it surfaces, we'll begin a gradual rollout to a broader audience. We're targeting the 11.6 update to start expanding availability, though testing results may move that date.
Expect more details as Elytra gets closer to full deployment. Thanks to everyone who's been testing and sending feedback.
Tom and the Anti-cheat Team at Embark
