If you're looking for an impressive pet, the new Stygian Steed is your choice! This weekend we're also discounting a huge selection of weapon skins, weapon effects and shields. For the duration of this sale, we're offering one free Angels and Demons Mystery Box when you spend points!

If you're looking for an impressive pet, the new Stygian Steed is your choice! This undead horse with a flaming blue mane will happily join your Exile on their journey or become a great hideout dweller. Match the look of this pet with an outfit composed of the Stygian Armour Set, Wings, Character Effect, Weapon and Weapon Effect. Check out the video of the Stygian Steed below or press M in game to get yours!



This weekend we're running a sale on a huge selection of weapon skins, weapon effects and shields with more than 150 cosmetic effects available at discounted prices, including the Dark Magic Weapon Effect, Infernal Celestial Shield, Dreadspire Weapon and more. Please note that this sale excludes some of the weapon microtransactions introduced since the launch of the Harvest expansion.

The sale will run from the time of this post until Aug 03, 2020 9:00 PM (PDT). Check out the full list of specials by pressing M in game.

In addition, we're offering one free Angels and Demons Mystery Box when you spend any amount of points in the store. To receive the Mystery Box just make any purchase in the store - a discounted cosmetic effect on sale, the Stygian Steed or any other microtransaction. This offer is available on both PC and Consoles.

Please note: it's only possible to get one free Angels and Demons Mystery Box from this promotion. Making additional microtransaction purchases will not grant additional mystery boxes. Purchasing a supporter pack will not grant a free Mystery Box but spending points from a supporter pack can grant a free Mystery Box.

This offer will end at Aug 03, 2020 9:00 PM (PDT).

Thank you for your continued support! Have a great weekend!

This week we took a moment to chat with Jeff, our Console Producer, to discuss his work with us. If you're playing on Xbox One or PS4, you may already know him as he's the person behind all the patches and communication on consoles. Check out his interview in this news post!

Hi Jeff, thank you for participating in the interview! Can you please tell us a bit about yourself?
Hello! My name's Jeff, I'm 29 years old, originally from the land of maple syrup (Canada). I've been with Grinding Gear Games since 2016. As an avid gamer all my life, this has been a match made in heaven for me.

What does your current role at GGG involve?
My primary focus is and has been everything to do with the console platforms since shortly after starting with GGG. I organize the console patches; this involves communicating with the development team to address issues as they arise, creating the updates themselves, and working closely with the console Quality Assurance team. I also handle the bulk of the behind the scenes work with both Microsoft and Sony. This involves platform compliance, backend product maintenance, patch submissions and resolving any issues that may come up.

How and when did you find out about Path of Exile?
I was an avid player of the Diablo series, starting in elementary school when I definitely shouldn't have been playing Diablo 1 thanks to one of my parents having a keen interest in computer games; I would hover around the computer at every possible opportunity when they were playing, which led to me jumping on anytime our home PC was free. I heard about Path of Exile through various gaming communities early on in its development, and found myself getting access to the closed beta.

What was the moment that got you hooked on the game?
After getting access to the game and seeing the resemblance of Diablo II, I was hooked. I had spent thousands of hours playing Diablo II in its prime, and Path of Exile offered vastly more complexity and build diversity, needless to say I was quickly drawn to the game.

Console production has many unique challenges. What are the main differences in getting patches onto consoles compared with PC?
Testing content on consoles is slower than PC from step one of the process, updating all of the consoles with each build iteration takes a considerable amount of time, whereas on PC we can update our clients within seconds. While we have access to similar in-game commands that PC has, they're much slower to reproduce; On PC if we're testing a specific issue that has listed reproduction steps, we can copy and paste them into the client, whereas on consoles we either need to manually input them or create a separate scripts which then needs to be put onto the console itself, all of which takes time. What I'm trying to say is that everything to do with the console pipeline takes more time from nearly all angles. When it comes to having the updates deployed to the Microsoft and Sony store, they each have respective processes, again, both of which take time and scheduling (are you seeing the pattern here?), which primarily fall outside of the time zone in New Zealand. This means I frequently have to stay up very late after hours to get an update into the certification process as quickly as possible. In comparison to PC, they're able to patch an update as soon as 'go ahead' has been given by Quality Assurance and the server admin team has everything they need in place on the servers.

What did you do before working with us?
Following my university studies I took a leave of absence from a bank job that I was working into travel and play poker on the side. Strategy games had always appealed to me, and one that I could compete in while supporting myself was very attractive. I spent two years travelling throughout North America visiting different cities and friends I had made online over the years, which made for many memorable experiences before I found myself travelling to New Zealand.

How did you end up working at GGG?
I was able to get a work visa which allowed me to live and work in New Zealand, I packed two suitcases which included nothing but clothing and my PC. When I arrived I landed an interview with GGG for a Quality Assurance position, which went well. I learned the ropes of Quality Assurance for my first few months, then began working on the Xbox platform, which was early into its development at the time. I began working closely with Chris, who was spearheading the project's production. As time went on, I learned what was involved with the different stages of production, and soon found myself taking over the reins of the platform entirely, while still reporting to Chris. Following the launch of Xbox, PlayStation became the next project being discussed. After having just learned the process from start to finish on Xbox, I took charge of the production and behind the scenes work for PlayStation too. Today I oversee most of the production tasks for both Xbox and PlayStation, which occupy the better part of most days for me.

What kind of hobbies do you have outside of work?
My main hobbies are gaming and keeping physically active. A typical day for me involves some form of exercise following work, playing games in the evening, or spending time with friends. I would like to do more travel in the future but this is on hold due to the current global situation.

What's the best part about what you do?
Working in an area that I love; as the saying goes, find a job you love doing and you'll never work a day in your life. On top of this, the freedom and flexibility we're given at GGG in our work days is priceless and promotes a healthy balance in my life.

Your brother also works with us. What's it like working alongside a family member?
It's great! He's somebody I can always count on professionally, and personally; to know that I have that level of support here gives me peace of mind knowing that when in doubt, he's always someone I can go to.

You're originally from Canada. How does it compare living and working in New Zealand?
Living in New Zealand compared to Canada is great. I very much enjoy not dealing with the brutal winters that Canada endures. Waking up in the morning and not needing to put on layers of warm clothing to shovel snow is amazing. I do chuckle to myself at times when hearing kiwis talk about winter as freezing when I think of waking up the morning after a blizzard, while I often only need a sweater here to keep warm.

Do you have any advice for people who might want to get into game production?
Communication skills, both written and oral are very important. Be a team player: in production you'll work with every department within an organization, which is going to require you to problem solve with a range of team members. A high level of organization, as working with deadlines requires a good amount of planning and preparing for obstacles that you may face along the way. Oh, and a passion for video games!

What can we look forward to in terms of what you're working on?
With the next generation of consoles on the horizon, I'll be continuing to focus my efforts on all things console.

As you brave your way through new challenges, you will uncover the never-seen-before memories of Meg Thomas, Philip Ojomo (The Wraith), Lisa Sherwood (The Hag), and Ace Visconti!

Humans are capable of wondrous achievements because of their unique ability to feel, empathize and dream.
Without these qualities, without empathy, without feeling, without our humanity... we are like any other animal species fighting for territory... resources... survival.
But unlike any other species, humans have a great imagination for death, cruelty and mass murder and an even greater capacity to enjoy their destructiveness.
It is in our most trying times that we must hold on to our humanity with unwavering conviction lest we become the very thing we hate.... and plunge into a personal hell of infinite night.

Unlockable character Memories include:

• Meg Thomas - EAT DUST
• Philip Ojomo (The Wraith) - THE ALGEBRA OF INFINITE NIGHT
• Lisa Sherwood (The Hag) - STROKE OF LUCK
• Ace Visconti - GO FOR BROKE

In the CONVICTION Rift, earn over 60 cosmetic items through the Free and Premium tracks to be yours forever even once the Rift closes. Unlock 10 new outfits, including the Conviction Collection for the Tome IV focus characters. Unlock the Rift Pass in-game and get instant access to 3 exclusive items for 1,000 Auric Cells. You can earn it all back by playing the game.

Look deeper into the Fog with Tome IV: CONVICTION.

: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/582010/announcements/detail/2717311757314941912]here[/url].

[Notice]
Please see the details below for fix patch Ver. 14.02.00, which addressed a recent reported issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

■Available
Release date to be determined. Please check the website or community again soon for an official date announcement.

■Bug Fix
Fixed an issue that caused certain monsters such Glavenus, Acidic Glavenus, Anjanath, and Fulgur Anjanath to perform unintended behavior towards Palicoes when they're brought on a quest.


Important:
Matchmaking in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne requires players to have updated to the same version. Keep in mind that you can only match with other players who have the same update. You can verify the version number in the bottom-right corner of the title screen.

For other questions, please visit the official Monster Hunter World: Iceborne support portal below.
http://www.capcom.com/mhwsupport/

This week (potentially later today) we're planning to deploy a 3.11.1d update on PC with several bug fixes. To give you an idea what to expect from this update, we've prepared a preview of patch notes. Check them out below!

Please note that these are still subject to change prior to the patch's deployment.

• Areas in the Labyrinth created by Gifts, Tributes or Dedications to the Goddess for which instances have previously been opened and then timed out will no longer grant items or experience when re-entered. This previously applied to all Labyrinth difficulties.
  
• Harvest Infrastructure can no longer be placed from your stash by using the 'Stash View' functionality.
  
• Cultists in the Lookout Map boss room can no longer have the Fractured nemesis modifier.
  
• Ballista Totems no longer play surge effects.
  
• Fixed a rare bug where multiple uses of a Harvest crafting option could be consumed from a single crafting action.
  
• Fixed a bug preventing autoplanting of Harvest seeds from the Seed Stockpile if the seeds were item level 86 or higher.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Sacred Ashes degeneration could persist after the Avatar of the Grove encounter was completed.
  
• Fixed a bug where some Zana mission variations weren't offered as options. The "Single Portal" variation will remain permanently disabled.
  
• Fixed a rare bug where you could not access some encounters which branched off of Niko's Mineshaft.
  
• Fixed a bug which prevented Redeemer-influenced Boots from being able to roll Attack Dodge and Spell Dodge modifiers together.
  
• Fixed a bug where Burtok, Conjurer of Bones' projectiles originated from his target, rather than himself.
  
• Fixed a bug allowing Mother of the Hive in the Strange Sinkhole vaal side area to spawn far more Sand Spitters than intended.
  
• Fixed a bug where the effects of the Solaris Sky Beam skill didn't scale correctly with area of effect modifiers.
  
• Fixed a bug where Ballista Totems that used Power Siphon could cause performance loss after they had expired.
  
• Fixed three instance crashes.
  
• Fixed a client crash that could occur when using Shield Charge.
  
• Fixed a client crash that could occur when taking a screenshot.

In addition, the team has been working on improvements and fixes to the bloom technology[www.pathofexile.com]. We'll give you an update on this as soon as possible, potentially next week. Thanks for your patience!

Planned: 11 AM EDT

Planned: 11 AM EDT

Planned: 11 AM EDT

Planned: 11 AM EDT

Planned: 11 AM EDT


JULY DEVELOPER UPDATE: Click here[forum.deadbydaylight.com]

POST-PTB CHANGES: Click here[forum.deadbydaylight.com]

TOME IV: CONVICTION
Please note that the new Tome and Rift will release tomorrow, July 29th.

PATCH NOTES
https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/kb/patchnotes

Y5S2.3 will release the week of July 27th for PC.


Some updates to the notifications system to help make future popups less spammy.

After August 11, 2020, 2-Step Verification will be mandatory for ranked on PC in APAC[rainbow6.com]. If you have not activated 2SV prior to this date you will be locked out of the Ranked queue until 2SV is activated on your account.

Go activate 2SV under the account management section at https://account.ubisoft.com/!

For more information on balancing changes, see our Designer's Notes[rainbow6.com].



If you've ever stepped on a Lego...this hurts worse.

By making her gadget a bit more enjoyable to use, we're looking to make Gridlock players' lives a bit easier.

• Lowered Gridlock's Caltrop deployment time to 9s (down from 13s).
  
• Lowered the individual Caltrops deployment time to 0.45s (down from 0.7s).
  
• Lowered the range of random deploy variation to 0.05s (down from 0.1s).
  
• Added a delay of 0.45s before the deployment sequence starts (previously no delay).

The Rainbow 🐐 has goat to dash.

We want to let Oryx make more use of his dash, and added mobility and durability will hopefully make him a bit more fun to play.

• Using his dash through a soft wall will not deplete all the dash charges.
  
• Increased Dash refresh time to 12s (up from 8s).
  
• Dash recovery time for all dashes is now 0.5s. (Previous recovery times: soft wall = 1s, enemy = 0.7s).

Hide the hostages! Giving Fuze a bit more presence and utility with an additional charge.

• Increased the number of cluster charges to 4 (up from 3)

To maintain consistency with softwall interactions, we're giving enemies that are pushed through walls the same feedback as when Oryx dashes through them.

When pushed through a wall by Nomad's airjabs or Oryx's dash, players will receive the same feedback and rtake the same damage (5 hp) as when Oryx dashes through a soft wall.

• FIXED – Missing anchoring decals from Ace's SELMA.
  
• FIXED – Ace's SELMA can get stuck when thrown in a certain way at some beams, becoming unrecoverable.
  
• FIXED – While grappling through a window or hatch, Amaru can aim faster with her LMG if she times her sprint and ADS buttons just prior to landing.
  
• FIXED – IQ's gadget will not display the outline and distance of Melusi's Banshees.
  
• FIXED – Zofia's concussion grenades are impacted by external explosions and can bounce away from the target location.
  
• FIXED – Flattening the doorframes and windows on all maps.
  
• FIXED – Floating and indestructible wooden squares after destroying some walls on Yacht.
  
• FIXED – Gunshot sounds are muffled when shooting from inside 1F Technical Seating of Plane.
  
• FIXED – Various menu/UI fixes.
  
• FIXED – Various cosmetics fixes.
  
• FIXED – Various Lighting issues on maps.
  
• FIXED – Various shop visual and cosmetic fixes.
  
• FIXED – (PvE) Interaction between Ace's gadget and AI.

Today, we'd like to take a look at some Harvest statistics. We'll start with a breakdown of the challenges and seeds, and will continue with crafts, Avatar of the Grove and more statistics next week!

First, let's take a look at the number of seeds dropped by type, broken down by tier of seed.
In total, over 3 billion Tier 1 seeds dropped from Seed Caches. That's a lot of gardening! Let's now take a look at the amount of Tier 2 seeds dropped.
Just over 118 million Tier 2 seeds dropped from defeating Tier 1 Harvest monsters. This is roughly a Tier 2 seed for every 25 Tier 1 Harvest monsters killed. In reality, the chance is actually higher than that, though these numbers are skewed by the lower drop rate at the start of the league, and therefore don't fully reflect the doubling of their drop chance in the 3.11.1 update. Now, let's take a look at Tier 3 seeds.
In total, just over 14 million Tier 3 seeds dropped from killing Tier 2 Harvest monsters. Finally, let's take a look at Tier 4 seeds.
Just over 1 million Tier 4 seeds dropped from killing Tier 3 Harvest monsters. This is actually fewer than expected, though a likely explanation is that Tier 3 Harvest monsters can only drop a Tier 4 seed if they're at least level 68. If players had acquired some Tier 3 seeds from non-Map areas, they wouldn't be eligible to receive Tier 4 seeds from those monsters.

The graph below shows what percentage of players have how many challenges and only includes accounts that have completed at least one challenge.

• 16.3% of players have completed 12 challenges and earned the Harvest Footprints Effect.
  
• 1.68% of players have completed 24 challenges and earned the Harvest Cloak.
  
• 0.38% of players have completed 36 challenges and earned the Harvest Portal Effect.

As per usual, these statistics were taken roughly four weeks into the Harvest league. Let's compare these to those from Delirium league.
The amount of players that have obtained at least 12 challenges is down slightly from Delirium league, coming in at 16.3% of players (compared to 17.85% during Delirium league). 1.68% of players have completed at least 24 challenges, down from 1.95% of players in Delirium league. Interestingly, while the amount of players that completed 12 & 24 challenges is lower than Delirium league, the amount of players completing at least 36 challenges is significantly higher than Delirium league, with 0.38% of players compared to 0.23% from Delirium league. Notably, Harvest offers a portal effect for completing 36 challenges, where Delirium did not. This could be playing a part in the higher completion rates we're seeing here. We're certainly interested in hearing from those of you that did hit 36 challenges this league; did you feel that the challenges were easier this league, was the reward a driving motivator for you, or was it something else? Let us know!

Download in full resolution[cdn.survivetheark.com]

As we gear-up for the epic conclusion of ARK: Survival Evolved's storyline with ARK: Genesis Part 2, we're checking in with the community on its progress. Near the beginning of this year, the studio transitioned to working remotely. While the development of Genesis Part 2 has been ongoing throughout, and significant progress has been made, going from a highly collaborative in-office workflow to remote comes with specific challenges.

Upon further evaluation, we now have a better sense of the production timeline for Genesis Part 2. The new locked-in release date is now March 2021 simultaneously on all platforms. We understand that you are eager to get into it, and this news is disappointing; however, we are passionate about delivering something genuinely special, memorable, and suitably epic. This additional time allows us to ensure a better and unique experience and is well worth the investment.

We'll be showing an extensive first-look at Genesis Part 2 later this year, revealing more details about completing your quest for ultimate survival; the forthcoming preview will reveal some of the new creatures, items, locations, features, and more!

We do however have other significant updates locked-&-loaded for this year! Just over the horizon, you can look forward to:

'The Crystal Isles' Free DLC on console: This includes the map in its entirety as well as three new tamable and breedable Crystal Wyverns. We are planning to release this significant update during the last week of August 2020.



Tender Love and Care Pass 3: This patch will overhaul two classic creatures with a new makeover containing updated models, animations, visuals, and new gameplay functionality for them. We'll also be doing further general quality of life, balance, and gameplay changes to the core-game in this update. Our much anticipated TLC 3 pass is planned for a simultaneous release on all platforms in October 2020! More on that a little later ;)

On behalf of the broader Wildcard team, we want to thank you for your ongoing support. We are continuously humbled and appreciative of the community's creativity, passion, dedication! We're looking forward to sharing ARK's next chapter with you and a very exciting 2020 & 2021!

Studio Wildcard


We've spoken a lot about what players can look forward to in the future for ARK, now let's talk about the present! This Thursday, July 30th, we'll be releasing a minor version update on PC, Xbox, and PS4 which will contain a number of quality of life and balance changes. Here's some of what you can expect to get your hands on. We'll share the full set of notes on patch day:

Basilosaurus
- Increased deep-sea-depth value at which damage taken by approximately 30%
Bloodstalker
- Reduced armour penetration by approximately 35%
- Reduced durability damage by 50%
Carno
- Added 30% armour penetration to the Left Click attack
- Added a Bleed effect to the right click attack which does up to 5% of targets health over 10 seconds, cannot
be stacked but the timer can be reset.
Carbonemys
- Increased resistance to TEK Turrets by 10%
Dunkleosteus
- Reduced weight of Obsidian in inventory by approximately 75%
- Reduced weight of metal, stone, crystal, and black pearls by approximately 50%
- Increased swim speed by approximately 20%
Liopleurodon
- Increased buff timer from 30 minutes to 6 hours
Megachelon
- Reduced Shell Resistance by 30% (from 80% to 50%)
- Reduced Health Per Level gains by approximately 15%
Paracer
- Reduced Health Per Level gains by approximately 15%

- Reduced Mosasaur maturation time (now matches Yutyrannus)
- Reduced Basilosaurus maturation time (now matches Gacha)
- Reduced Tusoteuthis maturation time (now matches Yutyrannus)
- Reduced Plesiosaur maturation time (now matches Gacha)
- Reduced Compy maturation time (now matches Otter)
- Reduced Equus maturation time (now matches Procoptodon)
- Reduced Quetzal maturation time to approximately 5 and a half days
- Reduced Phiomia maturation time (now matches Ovis)
- Reduced Ichthyosaurus maturation time (now matches Roll Rat)
- Reduced Dunkleosteus maturation time (now matches Mammoth)
- Reduced Jerboa maturation time (now matches Otter)
- Increased Rhino maturation time (now matches Doedicurus)

- Flying creatures will prioritise picking up friendly-creatures rather than dismounting friendly riders
- Baby Creatures will no longer auto-wander when hatched
- Mounting a flying creature will no longer instantly cause it to take off
- Cryopods in a player's inventory will now charge if a player is sleeping in a TEK Pod.
- TEK Helm will now provide players with the Gas Mask bonus, protecting them from the Poison
Wyvern and Basilisk spit.
- TEK Turrets now require double the amount of shards per bullet
- Metal Ingot stack size has been increased to 300
- Raw Metal stack size has been increased to 300
- Spoil time on Lesser Antidote has been increased to 3 days
- Spoil time on Prime Meat and Prime Fish have doubled
- Gasbags will no longer push Dinos around in PVE when landing to prevent griefing and exploits
- HLNA and Chibi Creatures no longer disable the protection against Bees buff.
- Yell and Whisper can now switch between the following modifier keys on PC: Left Shift, Left Ctrl,
and Left Alt
- Boss Fight timer on Valguero has increased from 20 minutes to 30 minutes.
- We are also adding a configurable GameUserSettings.ini which allows server hosts to limit the
amount of gateways that can be placed on platform saddles. This configuration is not retroactive, so
applying this change will require some manual administration work to clear up any pre-existing
platforms that exceed the limit.

MaxGateFrameOnSaddles=2

We'll be enabling this on our Official PvP Network and setting the limit to 2, on all platforms. Official
PvP players will have approximately 30 days to adjust their current existing platforms to remove any
that exceed the gateway limit.

- Added an additional 15 seconds to all race missions on Xbox and PS4
- Added Event Emotes to the Hex Store at the cost of 50,000 hexagons

We've heard you loud and clear!

Since March, our Official Networks across those 3 platforms have been under the effect of an Evolution Event as these increased rates have now become the norm and we are happy with the results, it's time to make it a permanent change!

Going forward, we'll be doubling the fun by doubling the Official Rates across PC, Xbox, and PS4 as standard along with some changes to our specialty servers. From the next major version, Official rates will now have increased default rates for Harvesting, Taming, and XP. What was previously '2x rates' prior to today, will now become the new base rate (1x).

The increased 2x rates will be implemented directly in the game build itself. This means that Non-Dedicated Servers, Single Player Sessions, and of course Unofficial Servers will also feel the increased rates. Therefore, if you're currently using customized rates, it's something you will want to keep in mind before this change is in place -- specifically upon the release of the next Major Version on each of your respective platforms, you may wish to reduce your server/game rates by 50% to have the same effective values as before.

Official rates will be adjusted accordingly:

• Standard Official Servers: 1x harvesting, taming, and XP (which is equivalent to 4x when considering our old values)
  
• Small Tribes Servers: Smalls will have their taming, harvesting, and XP changed to 2.5x (which is equivalent to 5x when considering our old values)
  
• Apocalypse Servers: These will remain at 3x harvesting, taming, and XP (which is equivalent to 6x when considering our old values)

P.S -- This is actually the second time[survivetheark.com] we've increased the default rates if we look back to the early access days of 2015. So for you old timeys, it's technically 4x 😜. Inb4 comments 'back in my day, it took us two weeks to build a wooden 4x4'.



As mentioned above, the Official Network rates will be increasing to 2X following the next major version update. Following the update, we'll have more information on EVO events. Until then, we'll be using the EVO event system to apply the bonuses.

Fan Art Cutscene by @Nightshade_404


Rock Drake[www.deviantart.com] by @DiN-the-Painter


Child Who Likes Rain by @sis_6193


Wear Your Mask by @PicturesofArk


Japanese-Style Castle by @sam_stimo


Who's Playing Crystal Isles by @DudeSolo1


Kanata Castle by @forbanana


El Galeón Capitán Archer by @RikerPlays


See you next week!

Studio Wildcard


Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark

We're continuing to showcase Harvest-themed artwork, submitted by the community to our latest competition. If you're interested in participating - you still have plenty of time to do so as the competition ends on the 10th of August (NZT). In the meantime, check out the highlights we've selected for today.

Artwork by RrocketBest


Oshabi by koris14


Mists of Delirium by Madly500


'Sowing a New Path, Harvest a New Meaning' by CheeseNachowithCheese


Have a look at more entries here[www.pathofexile.com]!

In this latest edition of Designer's Notes, we'll go into more detail about the balancing changes that'll come with the 2.3 patch and give you an insight into the reasons behind these changes. We'll also take a look back at the previous changes detailed in the Y5S2 Designer's Notes and the impact they had on several of the operators.





Please note that we are using presence to gauge the popularity of an operator. This notion had to be introduced to reflect the implementation of the pick & ban.

Presence definition: pick rate of an Operator when not banned. Win Delta: The Win Delta is aggregated from Operator's Win Deltas per Bomb Site.

• Increased total number of Cluster Charges to 4 (from 3).

Population targeted by this change: Casual and Top Ranked.

We are investigating several ways to look into increasing Fuze's presence and usefulness. After looking into his overall performance, we noticed that the number of uses of his charges is fairly low. (Below 2 charges per round on average).

We suppose that Fuze mains are trying to optimize their charges and may sometimes be reluctant to deploy them. By increasing the number of Cluster Charges, we would like players to use those resources more aggressively.

Fuze can be quite efficient at destroying bulletproof gadgets deployed on Bomb Sites, given the number of pellets in each charge, he is often able to effectively destroy Defender gadgets, even with the presence of Wamai or Jäger.

• Increased general Trax Stingers deployment speed (from 13s to 9s).
  
• Decreased individual Caltrops deployment time (from 0.7s to 0.45s).
  
• Added small delay before Trax Stingers start deploying. (from 0s to 0.45s).

Population targeted by this change: Casual and Top Ranked.

By increasing the deployment speed of Gridlock's gadget, we hope to make this gadget a bit more comfortable to use. We do not expect this change to have a significant impact on her Presence or Win Delta.

We were initially thinking about making the deployment even faster. The feedback we gathered pushed us to find a more reasonable middle ground, as it could become quite hard for Defenders to effectively counter the gadget deployment.

We are going to monitor the effect of this change and see if it influences her overall playstyle.

• Using the Remah Dash through a soft wall does not deplete dashing charges.
  
• Increased Dash charge refill to 12s (from 8s).
  
• Unified recovery time after dashing set to 0.5s (from 1s after dashing through soft walls and 0.7s after colliding with an enemy).

Population targeted by this change: Casual and Top Ranked.

Oryx's Presence is lower than expected. Our goal is to increase his mobility to make him more popular and fun to play, while increasing his survivability.

Our goal is to make Oryx a better Roamer and we are exploring ways to make his ability more efficient in that regard.

Unifying the Remah Dash recovery times should also help understanding and streamline the ability.

The changes detailed in the Y5S2 Designer's Notes[rainbow6.com] had some significant impact on several of the Operators.

Thanks to our data analysts, we are now able to share this information, as well as some of the key learnings from the Y5S2 patch.

Some statistics may have evolved following the Y5S2.1 patch, but this should still provide an overview of the impact of the previous changes.

This Season's changes brought to Amaru have led to some significant improvements, both in terms of Presence and Win Delta.

At both Top and Regular levels of play, Amaru's K/D following a use of her Garra Hook has significantly improved, from 0.45 to 0.90 for Top Ranked players, and from 0.45 to 0.96 for casual players. The Garra Hook is now used on Barricaded Windows the majority of the time (from 38% to 60% at both Top and Casual levels of play).

This has been a very solid improvement for Amaru. For Top players, her Pick Rate has increased from 4% to 10%, which makes her a Top 15 attacker in terms of Pick Rate. Her Win Delta went from 0.2% to 1.5%. For Casual players, her Pick Rate has increased from 5% to 11% and her Win Delta went from 0.8% to 1.7%.

Y5S2.1 Update: Amaru has stabilized at a 10% Pick Rate at the Top level of play with a positive Win Delta of 0.7%.



The Graph above is an analysis of the use of the Garra Hook. "Fight%" represents situations when in the 5 seconds following the use of the gadget Amaru entered a fight against a Defender.

The addition of the Angled Grip has provided Oryx players with a stronger option - although it seems this has not been fully accepted amongst the community: The Vertical Grip is still picked 59% of the time. In the current season, Oryx has a slightly higher Win%, 7% higher kills per round, and a better K/D ratio that exceeds 1.0!

It looks like players have responded well to the Remah Dash Damage reduction. At both levels we see significant increases to the number of wall dashes per round (+16% for Top Ranked, and +26% for Casual). We have also seen a nice reduction in rounds during which the Remah Dash is not used. In both Top Ranked and Casual - Regular players did not dash during 22.5% of rounds in Y5S1.2 (down to 17.2% in Y5S2.0).

Oryx has seen solid increases to his Win Delta as a result of these changes, but he still needs more help from -2.3% to -2.0% for Casual players, and from -3.8% to -3.0% for Top Ranked after the changes. His Pick Rate remains low at both levels with 4%.

Y5S2.1 Update: Oryx has an improved Win Delta, moving from -3.0% to -0.2% at the Top level of play but we are still monitoring this - the size of data we have on him this season is relatively low.

As a result of the disorientation effect changes, Echo players at both the Top Ranked and Casual level have seen a reduction in the percentage of kills they score on disoriented targets. For Top Ranked players, the percentage of kills under the effect of the Yokai Drone went from 0.478% to 0.400%, and for Casual players from 0.464% to 0.401%.

Echo players at the Top level have experienced a solid Win Delta increase from (from 0.4% to 0.9%), while his pick rate and win delta for the Casual population haven't moved. Echo is banned much less at Top Ranked (from 68% to 38%) and Casual (from 59% to 37%) levels. The addition of Melusi probably had a direct effect on Echo's ban rate.

Y5S2.1 Update: Echo has a lowered Win Delta, moving from 0.9% to -0.2% at the Top level of play and a slightly reduced presence compared to Y5S2.

Changes brought to Kali's Lance has led to 13% reduction in Lances Destroyed per round at Top Ranked level and a 10% reduction for Casual levels of play. It seems that the fuse time reduction is making it a bit harder for defenders to counter-play, but not overwhelmingly so.

We have noticed a ~10% increase to Gadgets Destroyed per round at both levels due to more Lances detonating successfully. Lances are also used a bit more often than during the previous patch with a 7% increase at both levels of play.

The CSRX 300 recoil reduction is likely a small positive change (although follow-up shots by Kali are much weaker than a first shot).

The number of kills per round with the CSRX is on the decrease, because of the addition of the SPSMG9.

In Y5S1.2 35% of Kali's kills at the Top level came from her C75 Auto (the remaining 65% coming from the CSRX 300). In Y5S2.0, we see the SPSMG9 accounting for 49% of Kali's kills (for both levels of play). As a result of these changes, Kali is seeing small but noted Pick Rate increases at both Top Ranked (from 3% to 7%) and Casual (from 8% to 11%) levels.

Her Win Delta saw a small increase for Top players (from -2.0% to -1.6%) but no change for Regular players, holding steady at -1.9%

Y5S2.1 Update: Kali has experienced an increase in her Win Delta since Y5S2 - moving from -1.6% to -0.6% with a similar presence (8%).