The Finals Season 11 Update Fires Out on July 9 via Patch 1.000.147
Embark has launched The Finals Season 11 today, July 9, and this brings a new Galaxy Estates map, reworked melee system, new onboarding system and so much more.
Console gamers will see this download as The Finals update 1.000.147 for Season 11, and this should be a sizable file size.
Read on for the Season 11: Galaxy Masters patch notes.
The Finals Season 11 Patch Notes and New Content Introduce a New Map
NEW ARENA | GALAXY ESTATES
Welcome to the American dream, reimagined for life among the stars.
Galaxy Estates, from COMETA, is situated inside a massive space habitat. Explore quiet suburban neighborhoods sitting next to luxurious mid-century modern homes that overlook the curve of the colony. Stay active at the sports center, wander through a sprawling botanical garden bringing nature into this artificial world, and make your way to the spaceport, the central hub where residents travel across the ring and beyond to other planets.
Movement is at the heart of how you’ll experience this Arena. The speed tunnel that encircles the center building acts as a connector between areas, allowing for fast strategic rotations and completely changing the flow of a fight. Anti-gravity columns scattered throughout let you float upward to reach higher ground, opening up fresh routes and vertical combat spaces. Two of these can be found inside destructible towers, which can be brought down, changing the layout and creating new playspaces and pathways to move across the Arena.
While you’re exploring the colony, stop by the oxygen pods for a breath of fresh air, jump on one of the trampolines in the residential backyards, and soak up the everyday life inside this retro-futuristic world before you walk through the sliding doors towards the Spaceport gates.
Then tear it all down.
Where to play it: Galaxy Estates arrives in Cashout, Ranked Cashout, Quick Cash, and Team Deathmatch (with five different locations). Plus Head-2-Head and Final Round in Private Matches. And we’ve added a dedicated Cashout queue for the first week so you can drop into Galaxy Estates anytime, every time.
See you at the Orbit Homes neighborhood block party!
NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCE | REVAMPED TUTORIAL
For the first time, new players will get a deeper introduction to the world of THE FINALS and the journey of becoming a Contestant, connecting the competition in the Arena to the people, places, and stories of the Meatspace.
Our new tutorial drops you in as a rookie, thrust into your first round alongside the legendary Contestant Dede. You’ll learn the early stages of a Cashout match, getting to grips with Vaults, Cashboxes, and Cashout Stations, along with the dynamic gameplay and core mechanics that make THE FINALS unlike anything else. As you find your footing, the tutorial becomes an open Cashout match against the new bot opponents, complete with all the action and intensity of the real thing.
NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCE | EARLY TALENT PROGRAM
Hit the ground running in THE FINALS! Instead of Rookie Contracts, Dede will now guide you through the Early Talent Program, a training school for new Contestants! This new onboarding path will guide players through various modes, mechanics, and systems!
For eligible new and returning players, the Early Talent Program lives inside the Academy Screen, which has been updated this season. The Academy now includes new tutorial videos for Ranked Cashout, Cashout, Quick Cash, and Point Break, giving new players an easy way to learn each mode. You can also jump straight into the Practice Range Challenges directly from the Academy, picking the Challenge and difficulty you want and loading right into it.
NEW | BOT MATCHES
Another major addition this season: Bots!
Select Cashout (Bots) from the play screen and queue solo, as a party of up to three, or matchmake to team up with other players and take on the bots together.
Bot matches use the full Cashout format, so you’ll enter a three-round tournament. You’ll also earn progress, at a reduced rate, toward the World Tour, the Battle Pass, and other progression systems!
These bot opponents are the real deal. They navigate THE FINALS’ highly dynamic environments, cause destruction, and wield a limited array of Weapons, Gadgets, and Specializations, offering the Cashout experience in a space built for learning. If you’ve ever tried THE FINALS and struggled to find your footing, Cashout Bots is a great place to jump back in.
Cashout Bots are available in Monaco, Bernal, Kyoto, Las Vegas and SYS$Horizon for now.
And this is just the start for bots! These bots are in beta. Expect occasional bugs and odd behavior as they grow. Bots in THE FINALS need to make incredibly complex calculations and will take time to perfect. Make sure to share your experiences with the team!
Over time, we plan to extend Bot functionality and support to more game modes, more Arenas, and more items.
GAME UPDATE | MELEE REWORK
This season, one of our biggest focuses has been reworking the melee combat system from the ground up. Melee has had two core problems we wanted to solve: we want it to be a viable style of play with a fair chance to win matches, and we want to make sure it’s not frustrating for those on the receiving end. Rather than keep making incremental balance tweaks, we’ve stepped back and reworked the underlying system itself.
GAME UPDATE | PING SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS
We’ve made another round of improvements to the Ping system and wheels this season, with the goal of reducing the time spent navigating and allowing for faster callouts in the heat of battle.
We’ve consolidated the ping wheels and made switching between them more responsive. Ping wheel input is snappier overall, so you can communicate more quickly mid-fight. We’ve also changed how pings look and behave, players’ responses to a ping are now visibly tallied, and the ping interaction hint carries more useful information. With options in settings to tailor your experience.
As part of this, Emotes now fit on a single wheel, and anything can now be bound to the emote key.
Please note: because of this reorganization, you may need to re-equip some of your customizations and keybindings, including emotes, emoticons, sounds, and sprays.
RANKED TOURNAMENTS | SEASON 11 CHANGES
Over the last six months, we’ve been refining Ranked play, but we’re not done yet and there’s still plenty we want to improve.
In Season 11, we’re introducing personal performance bonuses that grant bonus Ranked Score based on how you perform in a Match. The amount scales with your performance grade and your current Ranked tier, which means even when you lose a Match, a strong performance still earns you something. The bonus size is much more impactful at lower ranking tiers and very small at higher ranking tiers, in large part because of the very high win rates at higher ranks as well as the smaller RS changes in general at those tiers. For the bulk of the Ranked population, around Silver and Gold tiers, this is where the bonus will have more impact.
We’re also adding an updated Ranked Score breakdown at the end of each Match, making it much clearer where you gained and lost RS.
On top of that, we’ve updated how players are calibrated during placement at the start of the season, which should lead to a much more balanced Ranked distribution early on compared to previous seasons.
Finally, we’ve added an additional reward token to Ranked for Season 11. Players can now earn two Diamond tokens, one for reaching Diamond 4 and another for reaching Diamond 1
GAME UPDATE | CASHOUT SPAWNING & VARIETY
We’ve continued tuning the spawning systems in our Cashout modes this season, with the goal of bringing more variety and replayability to your Matches. We’ve rebalanced how Cashout locations are selected, making the system more flexible and more varied. As a result, you should see a wider selection of Cashout locations from Match to Match, opening up more tactical options.
GAME UPDATE | PLAYER CARD IMPROVEMENTS
This season we’ve made a range of enhancements to Player Cards, giving you even more ways to customize your Contestants. Just like outfits, Player Cards can now be individually edited and saved, and you can assign a unique Player Card to each Contestant, letting you match your card perfectly to each build you create.
You can also now pick which pose to show on your Player Card, rather than being locked to the pose from your intro Emote.
GAME UPDATE | MORE ARENAS FOR MODES
We’re bringing some familiar Arenas to new game modes this season, giving you fresh ways to fight across places you already know.
Point Break comes to Las Vegas Stadium, bringing its Attack and Defense phases to the Strip.
And Team Deathmatch arrives in Monaco, turning those winding streets into a new battleground. Two beloved Arenas, two new ways to play!
SPONSORS | FASTER PROGRESSION
Sponsors as you know them are going to change in Season 12, with the current Sponsor system and reward tracks being replaced with something new, more involved and more engaging, which we’ll share information about as we get closer to Season 12
In response to this, in Season 11, Sponsors have drastically eased their requirements to complete each Sponsor’s Loyalty Tier.
Fan Requirements have been reduced across all reward tiers, and the total Fans needed to unlock all of a given Sponsor’s Rewards have been reduced by around 50%. So, you’ll be able to unlock all of a given Sponsor’s rewards twice as fast in Season 11, in case you want to collect everything.
REWARDS | WORLD TOUR
We’re changing how World Tour rewards are earned this season. Going forward, you’ll be granted your reward for reaching a league rather than climbing to the top of it. This means that once you hit Diamond 4, your Diamond league rewards are guaranteed. Emerald works as it has in the past: one coin at Emerald 3, two at Emerald 2, and three at Emerald 1.
EVENT | ARC RAIDERS
Are you a menace in the Arena and Topside?
Complete Contracts in THE FINALS and earn the Azimuth Outfit in ARC Raiders!
Once you’ve completed the tasks, if you own ARC Raiders and have connected the same Embark ID to both games, you’ll get your outfit within 24 hours!
The Finals Season 11 Balance Changes
Gadgets
APS Turret
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Increased the amount of projectiles the APS can block from 5 to 6
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Increased health from 160 to 175
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The APS’s cooldown no longer regenerates while it’s deployed (similar to Guardian Turret, Healing Emitter and Hover Pad)
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Manually retrieving the APS puts it on a 5-second cooldown
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Added the ability to remotely retrieve the APS with the tablet, putting it on 15 second cooldown
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Destroying the APS puts it on a 30-second cooldown
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Dev Note: The APS has been out of the meta for some time and we feel it’s in part due to how quickly it can be removed through one method or another, so we’ve added these buffs to improve its impact. The cooldown adjustments are to slightly offset that power.
Breach Charge
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Decreased the arm time when deployed from 1.5s to 1s
Dev Note: This is a small quality of life improvement to help responsiveness for the Breach Charge. When attached to a carriable, the arm time remains at 1.5s, to provide some additional defence against ‘nukes.’
Data Reshaper (accidental omission from the 10.12 patch notes)
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Added the ability to reshape Gateways to immediately disable them
Dev Note: We’ve felt for a long time that there are not enough counters to the Light’s Gateway, which somewhat devalues the Medium with their Jump Pad and Zipline. This addition is a change aimed at evening this out a little.
Hover Pad
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Increased health from 350 to 425
Dev Note: The Hover Pad has some good use cases, but its vulnerability is still hindering those from being used more frequently. This change aims to address that.
Game Modes
Cashout & Ranked Tournaments
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Updated Objective Spawning in Cashout and Ranked Tournament, making Cashout Station locations more varied and less predictable
General
Item Progression
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Increased the Item XP earn rates for a range of items, making them easier to progress. This includes:
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Specializations
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Cloaking Device
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Dematerializer
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Evasive Dash
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Healing Beam
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Mesh Shield
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Shockwave
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Winch Claw
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Gadgets
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Anti-Gravity Cube
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APS Turret
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C4
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Data Reshaper
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Defibrillator
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Dome Shield
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Explosive Mine
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Frag Grenade
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Gas Grenade
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Gas Mine
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Gateway
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Glitch Grenade
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H+ Infuser
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Healing Emitter
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Lockbolt
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Nullifier
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Proximity Sensor
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Vanishing Bomb
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Dev Note: These changes are a temporary solution to even out some of the item progression in the game, to make the worst performing items less punishing. Ultimately, how we award item XP is somewhat constrained by the functions and uses of the items themselves, which makes it hard to get to a better solution in the short term, but we would like to re-work this whole system in the longer term to give a better experience. For the time being, these adjustments hopefully help a little.
Melee Weapons
Dev Note: For 11.0, given the Melee System rework, we’ve split the balance values for the melee weapons into their own section. This following section establishes the core balance changes and additions made with the rework.
General
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Added Stamina system. Stamina controls if a melee attack has access to its lunge component or not. When out of Stamina, attacks will not lunge. When the player has Stamina, attacks will lunge. Stamina regenerates over time or when landing Precise hits
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Added Precision system. When melee attacks that hit an enemy hit them within the ‘Precision zone’ of their swing, they will deal critical damage. Melee hits landed outside this zone deal reduced damage
Dagger
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Added Stamina and Precision
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Added Stamina regeneration time of 2s
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Primary Attack
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Replaced old damage value of 60
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Set damage for precise hits to 60
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Set base damage to 42, this damage value is used for ‘glancing blows’
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Decreased max movement speed during an attack from sprint speed to run speed
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Decreased sweep range by ~0.5m, to make it more accurately match the animation
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Increased lunge distance from 3m to 4.5m
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Decreased lunge target angle from 25° to 20°, meaning players need to be more precise with their aim to get the benefits of the lunge
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Set Precision zone angle to 9°
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Secondary Attack – Backstab
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Increased backstab damage multiplier from 4.26 to 4.5 to offset the decrease in Quick Melee damage
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Reduced charge up time from 0.8s to 0.65s
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Added a small pushback to opponents when hit by the secondary attack
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Increased lunge distance from 3m to 4.5m
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Decreased lunge target angle from 25° to 20°, meaning players need to be more precise with their aim to get the benefits of the lunge
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This attack does not use Precision
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Dual Blades
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Added Stamina and Precision
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Added Stamina regeneration time of 3s
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Primary Attacks
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Removed the cross-swipe attack from the end of the three-attack strike sequence, leaving two double-swipes
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Replaced old attack sequence damage values of:
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First attack – 50 x 2
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Second attack – 60 x 2
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Third attack – 100
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Set damage for precise hits to 57 x 2
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Set base damage to 39 x 2, this damage value is used for ‘glancing blows’
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Lunge distance remains at 4.5m
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Decreased lunge target angle from 25° to 20°, meaning players need to be more precise with their aim to get the benefits of the lunge
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Set Precision zone angle to 8°
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Secondary Functions
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Deflect
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Decreased movement speed while deflecting by 50%
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Increased damage multiplier while deflecting from 0.1 to 0.2, meaning enemies now do slightly more chip damage through Dual Blades’ deflection
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Cross Slash
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Added a new Cross Slash attack that can be executed by pressing the Primary Fire button while in the Deflect stance. This triggers a fixed distance lunge attack (no target required) followed by a cross-slash attack for high damage
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Set damage for precise hits to 140
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Set lunge distance to 5m
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Set base damage to 84, this damage value is used for ‘glancing blows’
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Added a small pushback to opponents when hit by the Cross Slash attack
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Set Precision zone angle to 8°
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Quick Melee
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Decreased Quick Melee damage from 40 to 25
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Added a contextual Kick attack to Quick Melee. If a player has full Stamina and Quick Melees a target, a Kick attack will be performed that pushes the target back ~5m
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Added Stamina regeneration time of 2.5s for Kick attacks
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Added a modifier to control the knockback from Kick attacks when used on targets who are performing Hold interactions, such as stealing an objective. This reduces the knockback distance to ~1m
Dev Note: We’re very conscious of the impact Kick attacks could have on steals, so we’ll be monitoring this closely following Season 11’s launch and will adjust as we feel is needed.
Riot Shield
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Added Stamina and Precision
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Added Stamina regeneration time of 3s
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Primary Attack
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Replaced old damage value of 90
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Set damage for precise hits to 82
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Set base damage to 57, this damage value is used for ‘glancing blows’
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Decreased sweep range by 0.5m, to make it more accurately match the animation
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Increased lunge distances from 3m to 4m
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Decreased lunge target angle from 40° to 20°, meaning players need to be more precise with their aim to get the benefits of the lunge
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Set Precision zone angle to 9°
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Secondary Functions
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Shield Block
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Updated the Shield’s collision when blocking to now provide full frontal protection to the user
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Decreased movement speed while blocking by 25%
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Increased reliability when blocking incoming melee attacks
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Shield Bash
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Added a new Shield Bash attack that can be executed by pressing the Primary Fire button while in the Shield Block stance. This triggers a fixed distance lunge attack (no target required, forward input required) that will knockback any opponents it strikes
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Set damage to 40
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Set lunge distance to ~3m
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Set knockback distance to ~5m
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This attack does not use Precision
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Sledgehammer
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Added Stamina and Precision
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Added Stamina regeneration time of 2s
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Primary Attack
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Replaced old damage value of 100
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Set damage for precise hits to 120
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Set base damage to 90, this damage value is used for ‘glancing blows’
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Increased lunge distances from 4.5m to 5m
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Decreased lunge target angle from 25° to 20°, meaning players need to be more precise with their aim to get the benefits of the lunge
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Set Precision zone angle to 10°
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Secondary Attack
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Replaced old damage value of 175
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Set damage for precise hits to 200
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Set base damage to 150, this damage value is used for ‘glancing blows’
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Added a small pushback to opponents when hit by the secondary attack
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Increased lunge distances from 4.5m to 5m
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Decreased lunge target angle from 25° to 20°, meaning players need to be more precise with their aim to get the benefits of the lunge
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Set Precision zone angle to 10°
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Spear
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Added Stamina and Precision
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Added Stamina regeneration time of 3s
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Primary Attack
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Removed first attack from the three-attack animation sequence, going down to two and making the weapon more responsive
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Removed old scaling attack damage sequence of 65, 80 then 90 damage
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Set damage for precise hits to 74
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Set base damage to 55, this damage value is used for ‘glancing blows’
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Decreased lunge distance from 7.5m to 5m
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Decreased lunge target angle from 30° to 20°, meaning players need to be more precise with their aim to get the benefits of the lunge
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Set Precision zone angle to 8°
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Secondary Attack
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Removed old spin attack that did 100 damage per spin, for three spins, over 2.66s
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Add new spin attack sequence that does three spins
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Set damage as:
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First spin – 75
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Second spin – 100
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Third spin – 126
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Set spin durations as:
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First spin – 0.8s
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Second spin – 0.75s
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Third spin – 1.1s
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Setup Spin Attack such that each spin requires stamina to perform
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Setup Spin Attack such that when a spin hits an opponent, stamina is immediately regenerated. If the player is already holding the Spin Attack button or presses it again, this allows the second or third spin to immediately trigger
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Spin Attack will now end after a single spin attack if the player fails to trigger the next attack or has no Stamina with which to trigger it
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Set Spin Attack Precision zone angle to 0 (it does not use Precision)
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Sword
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Added Stamina and Precision
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Added Stamina regeneration time of 2s
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Primary Attack
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Replaced old damage value of 88
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Set damage for precise hits to 110
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Set base damage to 71, this damage value is used for ‘glancing blows’
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Updated the primary attack sweep to make it more accurately match the animation
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Increased lunge distances from 3m to 4.25m
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Decreased lunge target angle from 25° to 20°, meaning players need to be more precise with their aim to get the benefits of the lunge
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Set Precision zone angle to 9°
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Secondary Attack
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Lunge attack now requires Stamina to achieve the maximum range
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Lunge distance with stamina increased from ~9m to ~10m
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Lunge distance without stamina set to ~5m
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Decreased rotation clamping on the lunge attack by increasing the forward clamp angle from 40° to 110°
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Specializations
Cloaking Device
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Decreased the minimum cloak duration from ~13s to ~11s
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Switched energy consumption from linear to discrete:
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Energy is now consumed at the minimum possible rate when moving slower than run speed, e.g. the player can maintain maximum cloak uptime while stationary or crouched moving. Previously this rate of energy consumption only occurred when stationary
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Energy is now consumed at the maximum possible rate when moving at or above run speed. Previously this rate of energy consumption only occurred when sprinting
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Dev Note: We understand that a lot of players find Cloaking to be frustrating and a little oppressive and we feel part of that is how easily it can be used at speed. Our intent with stealth was never for it to be super effective on the move, but rather more impactful when moving slower, supporting a more ‘hide and seek’ playstyle. These changes are a nudge a bit further in that direction.
Evasive Dash
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Decreased the number of charges from 3 to 2
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Decreased the cooldown from 7.5s to 6.5s
Dev Note: Testing of Evasive Dash having just two chargers in the run up to and during Respec Order, as well as the positive feedback it received from the community, has convinced us this adjustment to Evasive Dash is warranted, despite Lights not having Respec Order’s additional 25 HP. This change reduced a lot of player frustration and in practical terms Lights still played relatively similar to before with the reduced cooldown. Evasive Dash has been a strong outlier among Light Specializations for a long time, with high utility coming from its three dashes and we think overall these changes move the overall balance of the game to a better place.
Winch Claw
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Decreased minimum stun duration on the victim from 0.25s to 0.1s
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Decreased the duration the victim is locked in place and prevented from moving when they reach the destination from 0.15s to 0.1s
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Decreased how soon the user can act after grabbing a player with Winch Claw from 0.25s to 0.1s, allowing them to act sooner
Dev Note: The Winch Claw is intended to be a gap-closing displacement tool, but it has been a bit too effective as a kill-tool when it’s used at closer ranges to mini-stun opponents in place. These changes should reduce the advantage players get when using the Winch in this way.
Weapons
.50 Akimbo
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Increased damage from 44 to 46
Dev Note: Despite some players swearing by the Akimbos, they’re generally one of the least used and a slightly under-performing weapon for Heavies. We feel this buff will nudge up their desirability and viability.
93R
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Decreased damage from 25 to 24
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Increased ammo count from 21 to 27
Dev Note: Since its last buff, the 93R has been a very strong outlier compared to all other Light weapons, by a considerable margin. We believe this power comes from the damage additions we made in 10.3, when a buff was warranted but took the weapon to its current state. At the time we went from 24 bullets to 21 to try and offset the impact of the 25 damage, but that has proven not to have worked. So with this change we’re looking back to the changes we made in 10.3 and taking a different path, we’re returning to its old pre-10.3 damage, reverting the ammo change, then buffing the ammo count instead.
FCAR
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Decreased fire rate from 540RPM to 530RPM
Dev Note: Our previous buff to the FCAR pushed it well above most other Medium weapons in performance metrics, making it a significant outlier. This change is ‘splitting the difference’ on our last buff and its prior state to try and get the FCAR to a more balanced spot.
KS-23
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Increased damage from 100 to 110
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Decreased damage falloff multiplier from 0.7 to 0.64, meaning the weapon now does slightly less damage at range
Dev Note: While the KS has good utility, it still lags on a bunch of performance metrics compared to the Heavies many better combat focused options and we want to close that gap a little. The falloff multiplier change is to retain the same damage at distance despite the damage buff.
M134 Minigun
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Decreased dispersion in all aim states by 10%
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Decreased how aggressively dispersion scales-up when the player is moving the camera around quickly
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Increased environmental damage from 30 to 35
Dev Note: We’d really like the Minigun to have its chance to shine in the meta and we feel this change will bump up its effectiveness enough to allow that to happen.
Model 1887
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Increased pellet damage from 12 to 13
Dev Note: The Model’s viability has struggled for some time now, and we’d really like to see it find its place in the meta, we think this damage boost will help it get here.
Pike-556
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Increased headshot damage multiplier from 1.5 to 1.75
Dev Note: The Pike has been something of a problem child, constantly bouncing between just too under-powered and being fairly over-powered. We’ve generally been reluctant to do more than a couple of tiers of headshot multipliers as we feel granular headshot multipliers frequently make the overall combat system seem inconsistent for players, but in this case we’ve decided to add a 1.75 multiplier to try and bump up the Pike’s power without stepping into over-powered territory again.
For the rest of the bug fixes and balance changes affecting other stuff, read on.
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