XDefiant Team Deathmatch Launches June 21, Weapon Mastery Changes Explained
Just last week, Ubisoft San Francisco dev Mark Rubin mentioned that XDefiant will be getting Team Deathmatch (TDM) in a “couple of weeks.” Well, it seems it didn’t even go past one week, as the mode will be available starting this Friday, June 21!
This announcement was made on Twitter/X by the official XDefiant account today:
What has two words, no objectives, and has been a frequent community request for many moons?
Jump into Team Deathmatch this Friday, June 21st at 10AM PT. pic.twitter.com/QV4gTeK6dy
— XDefiant (@PlayXDefiant) June 18, 2024
As you can see, the mode will be available starting 10 am PT/1 pm ET/1 am HKT (June 22). We’re not expecting a patch for this new mode to be slotted in, as we just got the Y1S0.4 patch earlier today. Speaking of patches, one of the things that got patched in today is the weapon unlock speed. It’s now faster to unlock weapon attachments for all guns, but the downside is, the devs made it harder to obtain mastery camos for the weapons.
Over on Twitter/X, XDefiant Executive Producer Mark Rubin explained the changes made:
Let’s talk about weapon leveling/mastery.
Attachments for weapons affect gameplay. And people were unlocking attachments slower than we estimated. The faster leveling is in response to that.
Weapon Mastery on the other hand does not affect gameplay and is supposed to be…
— Mark Rubin (@PixelsofMark) June 18, 2024
Here’s Rubin’s entire message, so you don’t need to click out to Twitter to read it.
Let’s talk about weapon leveling/mastery.
Attachments for weapons affect gameplay. And people were unlocking attachments slower than we estimated. The faster leveling is in response to that.
Weapon Mastery on the other hand does not affect gameplay and is supposed to be something special that shows off your dedication to a weapon. And so the re-balance of levels was in response to that.
Now, if you’ve ever read any of my posts. If you heard me speak. I try to be as honest, open, and transparent as possible with everyone. And I know this change may upset some people. And we are always willing to say we didn’t do the right thing and we need to correct. We will own our decisions and will continue to evaluate. That being said I’d love it if you guys gave this change a fair chance.
We want to hear from you whether it’s positive or negative.
Also, this whole system is being redone to be more engaging for everyone. It will be a couple of seasons before we see this but we will be looking at feedback now to improve our future implementation.
Love you all!
As someone who’s been playing the game extensively since launch, I do think Rubin and the team made the right move here. I mean, what would you rather want first: weapon attachments? Or get a mastery camo faster? For most players, I’d guess they’d want their weapon attachments unlocked first, since that actually affects gameplay. Now, if you’re thinking: “why don’t the devs just make weapon unlocks faster AND keep weapon mastery leveling the same?,” it’s because that would make the game feel stale fast for grinders. This is a free-to-play game after all. and running out of things to aim for wouldn’t be a good move.
Are you OK with the weapon mastery leveling changes? What compromise do you think would work best for players and the game?
More XDefiant Reading:
- XDefiant Season 1 Launches July 2, New Faction and Content Outlined
- 5 Things Call of Duty Can Learn From XDefiant
- How to Play XDefiant on Steam Deck – Setup Guide, Installation and Settings Detailed
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