Update 9.7.0
2026.01.29
STAY ON THE MOVE!
Hey there, Contestants!
This week, we are bringing a bunch of bug fixes, some performance improvements, changes to Point Break, balance changes and more! The recent DDoS attacks have also been largely mitigated by now, so the game should be back to normal service!
Check out the full notes below.
SOCIAL | DISPLAY NAME
As part of our ongoing process of protecting the game from bad actors, we have introduced new rules for your Embark ID Display Name that will make it easier for our moderation tools to find offensive names.
If your Display Name did not fit in the new rule system, it was likely changed, with no cooldown so you can pick a new one easily. You can change your name in the settings menu by going to Settings > Social > Account, then choose Edit Embark ID.
If you were affected by this change, you may also have received an inbox message warning about possible permanent bans. That message was sent by mistake, and we are sorry for the confusion it caused. Please disregard it. Only accounts with display names that were clearly and severely inappropriate were meant to receive that warning.
NEW REWARD | THE VOLTAGE MARAUDER SET
Are you a full-on Embark stan?
Earn the Voltage Marauder Set in THE FINALS when you own ARC Raiders! Simply connect your same Embark ID account across both games, then sit back, and watch the rewards roll in.
STORE UPDATE | PEAK-FORM STRIKER
Send your opponents down a slippery slope in style with the Peak-Form Striker and the Slope Slammer sets. And you know what, sometimes you just need to get right to the point: We added Finger guns.
WORLD TOUR | ORBITAL BREACH
Watch out, Contestants, Orbital Breach has been enabled in the Arena. You will have to think twice about taking a break in the corner of a room as this event combines Hackout, letting you see nearby opponents through walls, and Orbital Lasers, targeting anyone standing still for too long. Use this to your advantage but remember, other teams will as well.
DLC | GLITCH PROWLER SET
Let your feline side take over and leave no chance to the competition with the Glitch Prowler Set. Embrace the cuteness, lull your opponents in a false sense of security, and strike :3
Glitch in, start the hunt, and always land on your feet!
OPTIMIZATION | LONG-TERM IMPROVEMENTS
As a part of our ongoing performance work, this patch has tons of small performance fixes for objects used on Bernal, Nozomi, Seoul. We’ve made dozens of micro changes that may not spell out noticeable improvements this time, but there are hundreds more planned and together they’ll build a better experience overall, change by change.
TWITCH DROPS | GREENROOM GLITCH
Foomp - Foomp foomp foomp - BRRT BRRT
We have a brand new set of free Twitch drops ready for you to grab!
Simply watch anyone playing THE FINALS with Drops Enabled to be eligible to earn the Greenroom Glitch CL40 for 1 hour, Greenroom Glitch MGL32 for 2 hours and the Greenroom Glitch 93R for watching 4 hours!
*Drops available until Feb 12
GAME UPDATE | BALANCE CHANGES
Gadgets
Dome Shield
Decreased health from 300 to 250
Dev Note: The Dome Shield has essentially been a ‘must have’ for Heavy players for quite some time and does lack a range of hard counters. This is especially bad in double Heavy team compositions, where they’re able to spam Dome Shields. This adjustment aims to reduce the value of the item in the short term. Longer term, we’d like to introduce more shield counters to better balance out the Dome Shield and Mesh Shield.
Glitch Grenade
Increased ammo from 1 to 2
Increased cooldown from 12 to 25 seconds
Dev Note: Our changes to Glitch Grenade in 9.0 aimed to ask more of players when it came to Glitch Grenade placement, by removing the second, immediately available grenade. In hindsight, we see that this has been too punishing and removed some key utility, so we’ve decided to return to having two ammo. To add more cost to Glitch usage though, the cooldown has been raised to 25 seconds.
Game Modes
Point Break
Added constraint zones around Grand Vaults, preventing them from being moved too far from their initial spawn point
Dev note: Moving objectives is something we feel is part of the ‘Dynamism’ pillar in THE FINALS. However, we want to make sure it remains fun and balanced. In Point Break especially, the location of the objective can quickly shift the balance of the mode. With this change we aim to reach a nice balance between dynamic objectives and a reliable Point Break match experience.
Added the ability to spectate from the position of your Revive Statue when eliminated in Point Break mode
SYS$Horizon: Adjusted the location of an attacker spawn in phases two and three, to better balance the distances as the objectives progress
Bernal: Adjusted the location of an attacker spawn in phase two, to better balance the distances as the objectives progress
Bernal: Added ladders for comfortable flow from the adjusted spawn location to objectives
Weapons
FCAR
Increased damage from 22 to 23
Decreased rate of fire from 540 RPM to 520 RPM
Dev Note: We’ve seen both ‘poke’ (long ranged, high damage) and ‘brawl’ (short ranged, high damage) weapons increasingly becoming the top weapons in the meta over the last season or so, and this was never really intentional. It’s left a lot of automatic weapons struggling performance wise by comparison, so we’re making various small nudges to a range of automatic weapons in 9.7 to help them out. This FCAR change, a small buff in overall DPS for the weapon, is one of those.
M60
Decreased dispersion when aiming down sights while standing and moving, making the weapon more accurate
Decreased dispersion when firing from the hip, in some stances, where the dispersion level could reach unintended extreme values
Dev Note: These changes should make the M60 feel easier to use, hopefully bringing it closer to the Lewis Gun in usage.
P90
Increased damage falloff minimum range from 16m to 18m, giving the weapon a slightly longer effective range
Increased damage falloff max range from 22m to 24m, giving the weapon a slightly longer effective range
Dev Note: Similar to the FCAR change above, this is to increase the P90’s viability.
Pike-556
Increased damage from 48 to 49
Dev Note: Our last round of changes to the Pike-556, along with the CB-01’s overall performance, have really hurt the Pike’s popularity in a serious way. This small tweak should bump its viability.
XP-54
Increased rate of fire from 860 RPM to 880 RPM
Dev Note: Another FCAR-like change, hopefully boosting the XP-54’s viability.
GAME UPDATE | CONTENT AND BUG FIXES
Animation
Gateway
Fixed an issue where some actions (such as throwing a grenade, backstabs, reloads, etc) could visually reset when passing through a Gateway
Audio
Added new commentator voice lines in Point Break when the Grand Vault is activated or deactivated
Fixed an issue where all sound effects could stay muted after leaving a paused Private Match until the game was restarted
Polished commentator audio when a stolen Cashout is taken back
Fixed an issue where custom bow audio could be heard by other players
Fixed an issue where fountain water sound effects continued playing after the fountain was destroyed
Fixed mismatching vocalizations and breathing sounds for the "Deep” voice
Fixed an issue where the match intro commentary did not play at the start of Quick Cash on Fangwai City
Set the "Revive Request" dialogue cutoff distance to 100 m so it only plays for nearby squad members
Contracts
Clarified Rookie "Arena Challenges" objectives to require completing a challenge (not just playing), and fixed "Deal 5,000 damage with Gadgets" so Guardian Turrets no longer progress it
Fixed unreliable tracking for the "Deal damage with grenades" contract (including CL40 damage)
Fixed the broken Sky Bridge Saboteur Achievement in Seoul
Fixed issue where the 'Get X eliminations in a single match, X times' contract could be progressed multiple times during a single match
Cosmetics
Fixed a visual issue where the Baggy Battle Cargos could push the feet inward
Fixed some items looking too different depending on the video quality settings
Fixed an issue where the Frostclava could clip with faces
Improved clarity of loadout and contestant preview icons
Fixed cases where textures could appear low-resolution, such as the first loadout icon and certain masks on low settings
Fixed an issue where the Frostbite Flyer skin on the Frag Grenade could appear to glow unnaturally in shadowed areas
Fixed an issue where equipped Multi-Device skins, charms, and stickers were not shown on the tablet preview from the loadout overview
Fixed issue where some longer capes and cloaks would not attach properly
Gameplay
Fixed an issue where movement input could become temporarily unresponsive after network connection problems
Fixed an issue where players revived with the Defibrillator during Point Break phase transitions could respawn in the wrong area
Maps
Fangwai City
Fixed several spots where players could stand on invisible collision
Restored missing stairs to improve navigation
Fixed an issue where a street could appear excessively bright on PS4
Kyoto
Added a path from the Villa Compound into the courtyard behind the Entrance building
Spread out barrel spawn points to prevent chain reactions
Las Vegas
Fixed a visual issue where a wall could display broken materials after destruction
Monaco
Fixed boxes that could float in the air after the floors were destroyed
Fixed window collision that could block players from climbing through
Practice Range
Updated the S8 trophy leaderboards and added the S9 Snowball Blitz trophy
Fixed an exploit where players could escape the map by using Goo
Skyway Stadium
Fixed an issue where the construction cranes bottom section could not be destroyed
Performance
Adjusted texture sampling setting to improve Xbox GPU performance
Improve performance and movement around stairs, elevators, and escalators
Ongoing GPU optimization for Las Vegas
Social
The Stay as a Party feature has been updated with new animations and sounds
Added an option to appear offline, hiding your online status from other players
Dev Note: Please note that if you are also friends on other platforms, such as Steam, you need to set yourself as “invisible” there as well.
Restricted the allowed characters in Display names to create a more streamlined and easily moderated system
Scoreboard and social menus now display the correct platform icon
Specialization
Dematerializer
Fixed an issue where the Dematerializer could consume a charge without dematerializing anything
Spectator
Fixed an issue where the spectator camera zoom distance would drift when using a gamepad
Stability
Fixed a crash in the store menu on PlayStation
UI
Added a subtle shimmer effect to game mode buttons when pressed
Fixed a bug where buying Battle Pass levels could cause gamepad focus to be lost, preventing navigation until leaving the menu
Fixed an issue where the Match Recap timeline could list squads in the wrong order
Improved the accuracy of cash totals when selecting a bar in the Match Recap Timeline
Improved controller navigation reliability in the main menu by restoring focus automatically after certain actions
Fixed a one-frame flash at the start of certain UI animations, including the Player Card
Polished the Stay as a Party avatar animation for smoother visuals and improved pulse timing
Fixed the Match Recap screen in TDM sometimes showing the wrong team's winning score
Fixed an issue where the Scoreboard could get stuck if held open when the round ended in TDM
Fixed Motion Blur Mode and Lens Distortion settings sometimes showing incorrect states after resetting video settings to default
Fixed an issue where Player Cards could appear missing or as black tiles in the Match Recap and other screens
Fixed an issue where the pickup prompt appeared even when glitched or nullified
Match Recap in Power Shift now shows the final win bonus cash (including Overtime wins), so the last bar reflects the full amount awarded to the winning team
Fixed the Grand Vault to show the correct value at round start and update during its animation.
Improved Attacker and Defender labels in Point Break
Fixed an issue where multiple tournament brackets could appear at once on the Ranked Tournament and World Tour screens
VFX
General
Fixed an issue where the H+ Infuser’s healing visuals could look incorrect when healing a teammate
Kyoto
Fixed wrongly assigned destruction materials on wooden beams
Fixed an issue where boats moved in an unrealistic way
Fixed issue where Concrete Canopy would cause some Weapons to render incorrectly
Added subtle movement to the water to improve visual clarity
