Firefall

Progression
The new progression system is live!

Weight has been renamed to “Mass”.
CPU has been renamed to “Cores”.
All currently created items in the game have been removed and replaced with starting gear.
Tiers have been removed from the game. Unlocking new Battleframes now costs 10 Pilot tokens or 100 Red Beans. Pilot tokens are awarded at the 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th unlocks in each of the 3 constraint progression trees.
Unlocking progression items in the three trees will increase Battleframes Mass, Power and CPU Cores accordingly. Battleframes movement speed and overall damage will be affected by Mass and Power usage respectively. More constraints mean more room to equip better gear!
Acquiring progression items in the three trees requires Experience, Resources, and a special crafted item for the 10th unlock. Each Battleframe has a different resource requirement and special item needed to progress.
CPU Cores are used to equip abilities. These will be utilized more in a Future Update
You can now preview Battleframes before unlocking them.
As this is a system in progress, please help us by reporting any oddities, and expect changes as we work out the kinks and bring more features online!

PVE
The Accord Battle Lab
Welcome to the The Accord Battle Lab:
The Accord Battle Lab serves as a basic tutorial for players as they enter the game. This experience will introduce the player to the world of Firefall. It features a series of challenges from movement, combat, character customization, and introduces weapons and abilities for each of the 5 Accord Batteframes. For this patch, all players, when they first log on, will play through this experience.
Things to Expect:

When players enter the experience, they will find that they are in Civilian Clothes, and will be walked through a series of challenges
Players will be given access to each of the 5 Accord Battleframes and be offered challenges to test each of these abilities.
Players will meet both Aero and Oilspill

Known Issues

If you use any of the interactable terminals more than once, you will queue VO lines. This can result in Aero repeating herself.
After selecting a Battleframe from the Holograms you will see 5 challenge Drones. They are friendly. Interact with them and they will give you the appropriate challenge
The Triage Challenge is not working as intended.
Before using an Ultimate, make sure to run over the HKM Power Up. This is mentioned in text and via a Sin Card, but some people miss both of these.

Chosen Warfront
General

Chosen no longer attack watchtowers from random locations on the map.
Attacks now come in more organized groups in much more noticeable ‘warfront’ patterns.
Chosen attack from outposts they control and directly from the melding
New Chosen AI has been integrated into all warfront encounters

Invasions

They’re back, and have been redesigned
The Chosen are focused on invading Thump Dump and Sunken Harbor
The Chosen use siege tactics to bombard the SIN towers as well as invade with ground forces to destroy the shield generators, requiring players to both defend and attack to deal with the threats.
Invasions are designed to be multi-squad encounters

Chosen Scouts & Drop Pods

Drop pods have been redesigned
They no longer spawn everywhere / anywhere in the world. Instead, they are called down by Chosen Scouts.
Chosen Scouts and their drop pods are designed as solo-player content.

Incursions

Incursions have been redesigned
The number of Chosen defending the Incursion has been increased and the number of defending structures has been decreased in order to make the encounter more mobile
Players need to clear out the area around the Incursion in order to spawn a Shield Disruptor
When players use the Shield Disruptor, it begins the defend state. During this time, players defend the Shield Disruptor against waves of Chosen while it brings down a shield protecting a generator.
When a generator is vulnerable, players can quickly blow it up to start the next defend wave, which is harder than the previous wave
After all the generators are destroyed, the Warbringer is vulnerable and can be destroyed
Incursions are designed to be squad content

Watchtowers

When occupied by Chosen, the spawn room contains a device that governs the Chosen’s ability to spawn in that room. Players can interact with that device to blow it up to prevent the Chosen from spawning in the watchtower until a new device is arcported in.
Watchtowers updated with new VO
Watchtowers now display the amount of Chosen in the vicinity (if any) when Accord controls the tower
Watchtowers are no longer revealed by default on the map. They are now associated with certain points of interest (POI). When players uplink to a POI’s SIN tower, the associated watchtowers are then fully revealed.
Watchtowers are designed to be group content
Placement of some glider pads on watch towers have been adjusted so they no longer propel the user into terrain

POI Buffs

POIs under Accord control now give players buffs
Major POIs (Thump Dump, Copacabana, Sunken Harbor, and TransHub) each give a unique buff to all players in the zone while the Accord maintains control of the POI
    Copacabana: Increased health regen
    Thump Dump: Increased resource gain
    TransHub: Reduced cooldowns
    Sunken Harbor: Increased XP gain
Minor POIs (Sigu’s Sanctuary, Northern Shores, Cerrado Plains, etc) give a small stacking damage buff that increases in strength the more minor POIs that are controlled by the Accord
When the Accord loses control of these POIs, they also lose the associated buffs
Note: UI is not yet in the game to communicate that these buffs are active, but they are working behind the scenes. We decided to keep the bonuses in-game while we continue to work on the UI for it.

ARES Missions / Local Events
Introduced ARES missions throughout New Eden!

There are many new locations around New Eden where your expertise as an ARES operator is required
Thirty new interior spaces will now challenge you with objective based combat scenarios
    Missions vary in difficulty, from solo encounters to five player group scenarios.
    Fight through several different mission types with ever changing enemy forces in every one of the thirty spaces.
    Earn rewards for the new crafting and progression system.
    Nearly 200 unique narrative scripts have been added to these encounters which highlight the role of players as ARES Operators and inform about the state of New Eden and its population.

Known issue

Sometimes the Arcporter does not appear at the end of an ARES mission. If this happens, you may need to re-enter the mission volume and exit again to make it appear.

New Event: Player Created LGV Races

A new item called “Starting Line” is craftable at the manufacturing station, and becomes a consumable.
Place the Starting Line anywhere in the world. You are automatically given the Finish Line which you place a minimum of 500m from the Starting Line.
Anyone can participate in the race by interacting with the Starting Line.
The race will stay in the world as long as players keep using it.

Thumper and Scanning Improvements

All of the thumper costs and capacities have been adjusted.
New sizes of Personal and Squad thumpers have been designed by Accord engineers and are available for manufacture. Find the thumper that best fits your squad’s gear and skill!
Personal Thumpers are designed for 1-2 players. Resources recovered are split amongst the squad.
Squad Thumpers are designed for full squads. Resources are shared equally amongst the squad (no splitting).
Creatures spawned by the thumper are much more region-specific.
The balance and timing of all thumper spawns have been adjusted.
Completing a thumper to 100% yields a double resource bonus.
Completing a thumper to 100% results in an XP reward for the squad.
Explosive Aranhas killed by players only have small explosions instead of their large self-destruct explosion.
If you help a squad with their thumper, you will receive a small resource reward from the Accord.
Thumpers now have global mapmarkers – check your map to find a nearby squad with an open slot that is digging for a resource you need.
Lots of new voice over and feedback has been added to the thumper encounter.
Thumper placement rules have been adjusted to reduce positional exploits.
Players are now able to thump in flat water and wet sand
Many other small improvements to thumpers including: visual effects, lighting, creature spawn positions, thumper health, new creatures, etc.
You can only see the Thumper map markers if you’ve connected to the SIN tower for that area
Scan Hammer visuals have been improved – the SIN data should be much easier to read in order to find the best veins.

Open World

The Sunken Harbor watch towers now have unique names
Sunken Harbor spotlights now move even if players are not looking at them
Several NPCs in Trans Hub now have different names
Floating buildings around New Eden have been put back on the ground
Various floating rocks, bushes, etc. are now back on the ground
Various texture glitches have been fixed
Various texture seams have been closed
Hisser nests now align properly to mountains
Fixed auto turrets that clipped through the ground
Antennas are now properly displayed from far away
Plugged terrain holes in the Dig Site 5 cave
Plugged terrain holes in the back of the Cliffedge Encampment near Copacabana
Plugged terrain holes around the Broken Shores Secret Lab
Plugged terrain holes around Thump Dump
The SIN Tower in Thump Dump now has collision
Shield barriers of the SIN towers in Sigu and Stonewall are now correctly aligned
The /cheer emote of the female character no longer loops
Removed some rocks in the middle of the road by Cerrado Plains

SIN Imprints

Fixed some SIN imprints that were not playing
Playing a SIN imprint will interrupt other SIN imprint recordings
SIN imprints are now prettier and easier to see from a distance
Missions & Encounters
Daily missions are now resetting properly
Players no longer get double rewards for the Holmgang mission
Dynamic events are now spread out in a more distributed pattern

Chosen

Chosen have a new fashion designer
Chosen have taken to wearing masks
Chosen have developed their own weapons and weapon appearances
Chosen will now take additional damage when shot in critical locations with any weapon
Chosen are no longer able to re-capture towers after dying
Chosen no longer get stuck between a crate and a rock ledge
Chosen no longer get stuck during an invasion trying to target shield generators through walls

Chosen Assault

Renamed to “Shock Trooper”
Now uses the Chosen Assault Rifle instead of the burst rifle
Various AI tweaks and improvements
Gets the party started by deploying a Tortured Soul spawner

Juggernaught

There have been slight adjustments to his plasma cannon

Siegebreaker

Revision to hit area of Siegebreaker’s charge attack
Corrected animation issues with Siegebreaker’s weapon firing

Sniper

Chosen snipers have been spotted in New Eden for the first time
May also deploy Tortured Soul spawners

Engineer

Chosen engineers are now pushing out of the Melding
Now owns Chosen Drones

Drone

Owned by Chosen Engineer
Provides support to other Chosen units

Tortured Soul

Chosen have been seen sending mutated creatures known as Tortured Souls into battle.

Grunts

Now only plays one sound when making melee attacks
The Chosen grunt now plays his attack animation properly
The Chosen Grunt animations no longer twitch

Creatures

Creatures now drop specific crafting components instead of random resources
Where creatures spawn in the world is more closely related to the environmental conditions.
NPCs can now use weapon alt-fires, be cautious
Creature burrow/unburrow improvements
Reduced health points of smaller creatures like the shelless Hisser and Skiver from 700 to 200

Terrorclaw

Terrorclaw now hits targets in a more reasonable area while rolling
Fixed various animation glitches

Toxic Aranha

Toxic Aranhas now have screen effects when damaging a player

Thresher

Thresher charge delay duration reduced

Wyrms

Wyrms are hostile and gradually decay hostility
Fixed wyrm facing issues with ability and attack
    Shortened target selection range in combat
    Checks range before attacking

Storm Kestrel

Storm Kestrel have their descend speed reduced but their charge increased

Explosive Aranhas

Explosive Aranhas will not walk through shields anymore
Less powerful explosion when killed by a player vs. blowing up on their own

Wasp

The wasp has been introduced into New Eden for the first time
Behaves much like the Culex and can be found inland

Skiver

Skivers have been introduced into New Eden for the first time
Skivers are small creatures with low health and tend to attack in swarms
Sand Skiver variants are found in different biomes than Skivers

Combat
General

Double Damage is now dropped when the carrier dies. It can be picked up again by nearby enemies/allies during its 20 second “active” duration.

Movement

Increased base movement speeds in PvP
Increased air control universally
Increased jet thrust strength
Increased gravity
Added “Air Sprinting” – press and hold shift while jetting to move faster in a horizontal direction. Costs more energy per second.
Sprinting will now drain energy while enabled in PvP

Crafting
We have laid the foundation for our new crafting system!

Resources

Resources now only have 3 aspects (down from 5): Power, Mass, and CPU-Cores
    Like the previous resources, each resource in a family is "best" at a specific aspect
    An additional stat on resources is called "Purity" which influences the the refining process (read below)
The number of resources are changing from 3 families of 3 (9 total) to 5 families of 3 (15 total)
    Resources and families have new, less cryptic names
Creatures now drop only crystite and have a chance of special drops which are used in many recipes

Resource Refining

Raw resources
    All resources are acquired as "raw" and must be refined before they can be used in crafting recipes
    Aspect stats of raw resources persist into their refined versions
Refining takes the raw resources and splits them into multiple results:
    Seed Crystite (currency)
    Refined resources (used for crafting)
    Crystite Hybrids (used for crafting)
        Crystite hybrids are used in the new crafting system to power the more powerful weapons and abilities
        For every unit of raw resources being refined, there is a 0.1% chance of getting a crystite hybrid
            If you refine 1000 units of a raw resource, you get 1 crystite hybrid 100% of the time
        If you refine more than 1000 units you have a +0.1% chance of getting an extra crystite hybrid per unit being refined
            Refining 1355 units of a raw resource means you get 1 crystite hybrid, and have a 35.5% chance of an additional crystite hybrid
    The higher the purity of the raw resource, the more units are outputed when refined

Crafting & Components

All Battleframe modules & weapons now have component-based recipes
To build a Plasma Cannon I, you must first build two components: the Plasma Cannon Barrel I and the Plasma Reactor I, each requiring refined resources
Each component affects a different attribute of the master item – the Plasma Cannon Barrel I affects AOE radius, the Plasma Reactor I affects damage
The quality of the resources used determine the quality of the component crafted – the higher the component’s quality, the better it affects the related attribute
There are 4 stages of crafting planned per item, this patch features the first two
The higher the crafting stage, the more complex the recipe and the more powerful the item
More powerful gear will be more constraint-hungry – see the Progression notes!)
For the time being, ALL crafting recipes are available – in a future patch, you will have to research each crafting recipe before you can build the item

Manufacturing UI

A new, and still in development, interface has been added at the molecular printer to allow players to manufacture components and gear.
Recipes are organized by category for organizational purposes.
A search field has been added for ease of finding specific nanoprints.
All players will have 2 available workbenches allowing 2 nanoprints to be built in parallel.
Many improvements to come in future patches.

Old Resources

New recipe added for Beta Crystite Refining
The Beta Crystite Refining recipe takes up to 6 inputs at once
The Beta Crystite Refining process takes 20 seconds regardless of the amount of input
You can use full stacks of resources in the Beta Crystite Refining recipe
Old resources will convert into Beta Crystite at a ratio of 1:1
You may only use old resources for Beta Crystite Refining, all new recipes will require the new resources.
The vendor containing items purchasable for Beta Crystite is not yet in the game, it will be made available at a later date.

Battleframes

Each Battleframe now comes equipped with a unique Hyper-Kinesis Module (HKM) which is the "ultimate" ability of the Battleframe.
HKMs are charged by dealing damage, taking damage, or healing
After a duration of not dealing damage, taking damage or healing, the HKM meter will slowly lose its charge.
Added a HKM meter to the bottom of the ability bar.
    Yellow: signifies you are charging your HKM
    Green: signifies HKM is ready
    Red: signifies HKM charge is fading
Known issue (bug): using your scan hammer will empty your HKM charge

Accord Battleframes
Assault

Primary Weapon – Plasma Cannon
    Fires a plasma round which deals both splash damage and extra direct damage. Splash radius has been reduced.
Alternate-Fire – Scattershot
    Fires a shotgun-style blast of small plasma projectiles
Specialty (Passive) – Accord Absorption Plating
    Player receives a bonus heal over time equal to 25% of the health granted from a health pickup.
Ability 1 – Crater
    Player slams to the ground, dealing AOE damage that scales up based on distance travelled (height).
    Crater now sends the player down-and-forward at a consistent angle.
Ability 2 – Afterburner
    Player dashes in the direction they are facing at a high speed
Ability 3 – Overcharge
    Overcharges the Battleframe, causing the player to deal bonus damage for the duration
HKM - Shockwave
    Fires a shockwave shell in the direction the player is aiming, dealing massive damage to any enemy it passes though

Biotech

Primary Weapon - BioNeedler
    Discharges small spikes at a high rate of fire.
Alternate Fire – Needle Shotgun
    Fires a cluster of spikes at once
Specialty (Passive) - Accord Siphoning Plating
    A percentage of all damage and healing dealt returns to the Biotech as health.
Ability 1 - Healing Wave
    The Biotech sends out a wave in a frontal cone that heals allies, as well as damages and knocks back enemies.
Ability 2 - Poison Trail
    The Biotech emits toxic clouds that linger for a duration, dealing heavy damage and snaring any enemies that pass through them.
Ability 3 - Triage
    Biotech is able to revive allies at a much faster rate, as well as receive less damage from enemy attack for its duration.
HKM - Accord Chemical Sprayer
    The Biotech's weapon switches to a chemical sprayer for a short duration, which damages any enemies and heals any allies caught in the spray.

Dreadnaught

General – Base movement speed increased slightly.
Primary Weapon - Heavy Machine Gun (HMG)
    Requires spin-up time before firing, and rapidly discharges bullets in a cone of fire.
    Accuracy cone has been improved, though weapons damage decreases beyond 20m.
    Rate of fire decreased slightly and damage per round increased slightly (no change in DPS).
Alternate Fire - Forward Shield
    While the alt fire is active, a Forward Shield is projected from the HMG, blocking incoming projectiles until its health reaches 0.
    If the shield is "broken", it will go on a short cooldown
Specialty (Passive) - Resilient Plating
    When the Dreadnaught falls below 35% health, it gains increased health regeneration until reaching 35% again.
Ability 1 - Explosive Rounds
    Overrides the HMG ammo for a short duration. Rounds deal bonus damage and explode on impact, causing some AOE damage.
Ability 2 - Heavy Armor
    Activates a shield around the Dreadnaught, causing them to take less damage for a short duration.
Ability 3 - Repulsor Blast
    The Dreadnaught emits a powerful wave of energy, dealing damage to and knocking back any enemies caught in the blast.
HKM - Accord Mortar Launcher
    The Dreadnaught's weapon is replaced with a Mortar Launcher, which fires projectiles that explode for AOE damage upon impact.

Engineer

Primary Weapon - Sticky Grenade Launcher
    Fires grenades that stick to surfaces and wait to be remotely detonated (can stick to players).
Alternate Fire - Sticky Grenade Launcher Detonation
    The alt fire detonates all deployed grenades from the Sticky Grenade Launcher when triggered.
Specialty (Passive) - Accord Nanite Deployment
    When the engineer's deployables drop below a certain amount of health, small nanites are deployed to repair the device over time.
Ability 1 - Heavy Turret
    Deploys a heavy turret that deals moderate damage within combat range. This turret automatically upgrades itself after dealing enough damage to enemies.
Ability 2 - Forward Shield
    Deploys a quarter-dome shield that blocks projectiles and prevents enemies from moving through it.
Ability 3 - Supply Station
    Deploys a supply station that periodically spawns health and ammo pickups that anyone can use.
HKM - Anti-Personnel Turret
    Spawns a useable anti-personnel turret that can be controlled by either the player or ally. Lasts 30 seconds or until destroyed.

Recon

Primary Weapon – R36 Assault Rifle
    A specialized assault rifle with a mid-range scope, better accuracy, and harder hitting rounds.
Alternate Fire - Range Scope
    The Recon aims down the sights, greatly increasing accuracy when firing.
Specialty (Passive) - Accord Regenerative Plating
    Grants health regeneration after achieving a kill or assist
Ability 1 - Cryo Bomb
Throws a grenade that detonates on impact
    Enemies caught in blast radius are significantly snared for a short duration
Ability 2 - Decoy
    Activates a cloaking field, rendering the Battleframe invisible
    Leaves behind a SIN hologram that does not move to distract enemies
    Hologram explodes at end of duration for moderate AOE damage
Ability 3 - SIN Beacon
    Launches a beacon in a straight line from the Recon.
    Sticks to any surface and adds enemies in its radius to SIN. Enemies entered in SIN in this way take additional damage from the Recon's allies.
HKM - Accord Artillery Strike
    Designates an artillery strike at spot of reticle
    After a brief moment, Accord artillery shells impact the designated area for AOE damage

Specialty Battleframes
Assault
Firecat

Primary Weapon - Thermal Cannon
    Fires a small fire-based plasma projectile that does heavy/wide AOE damage.
Alternate Fire - Triple-Shot
    Fires three smaller projectiles that damage and apply the Firecat's passive damage-over-time effect to enemies they hit
Specialty (Passive) - Incinerator
    Any damage dealt by the Firecat's abilities or alt-fire cause their enemies to catch on fire, dealing a minor amount of fire damage every second. The lifetime of the effect is extended when the target takes damage from the primary fire of the Thermal Cannon.
Ability 1 - Thermal Wave
    Shoots a burning projectile in a straight line forward that deals moderate damage
    Applies passive damage-over-time effect to enemies hit
Ability 2 - Immolation
    Deals heavy fire damage to enemies around the player. Also applies the passive damage-over-time effect.
Ability 3 - Inferno Dash
    Player dashes in the direction they are facing at a high speed
    Enemies in the path of Inferno Dash are ignited with the passive damage-over-time effect.
HKM - Fuel Air Bomb
    Calls in a bomb that explodes for significant fire damage over a large area upon impact.

Tigerclaw

Primary Weapon - Fusion Cannon
    Fires a plasma round that deals bonus direct damage but has very little splash.
Alternate Fire - Nova Cannon
    Fires a larger, slower moving plasma ball that deals heavy AOE damage and costs more ammunition
Specialty (Passive) - Auxiliary Fuel Tanks
    Activating an ability causes the Tigerclaw to gain bonus energy regeneration for a duration
Ability 1 - Trailblaze
    Creates a spot of energy on the ground that significantly increases the Tigerclaw's movement speed as well as the movement speed of allies when passed through. Up to 3 uses of this ability can be stored at once.
Ability 2 - Missile Shot
    Single shot override for the Fusion Cannon
    Travels faster and does AOE damage upon impact
Ability 3 - Disruption Wave
    Sends a ball of energy straight out from the Tigerclaw
    Deals small amount of damage to enemies and snares them for a short duration.
HKM - Tether Field
    Fires a projectile that detonates and creates a field of energy
    Enemies caught in the field are unaffected unless they leave the field
    Leaving field causes enemy to be significantly snared for a moderate duration
    Tigerclaw’s Specialty is active for duration of Tether Field

Biotech
Dragonfly

Primary Weapon - BioRifle
    Fires small energy projectiles at a high rate of fire
    Projectiles do a small amount of AOE damage upon impact
Altfire – Micro-Healing Wave
    Applies a small heal-over-time to affected allies, which is cancelled upon taking damage
Specialty (Passive ) - Rally
    Allies below a certain percentage of health when healed receive an extra heal-over-time. The heal-over-time stops if the target takes damage.
Ability 1 - Healing Ball
    Fires a projectile that detonates upon impact of an ally or when ability is pressed again. The detonation heals allies within the AOE's explosion and damages enemies
Ability 2 - Healing Pillar
    Fires a projectile on the ground that creates a circle. After a short duration the circle erupts in a pillar, healing allies and damaging enemies in the radius
Ability 3 - Emergency Response
    Dragonfly launches up and forward at a high velocity
    Leaves a cloud behind that causes enemies to take bonus damage for a duration if they pass through it.
HKM - Healing Dome
    Places a deployable at point of activation and creates a dome. Allies within the dome are healed for a significant amount over time.

Recluse

Primary Weapon - BioCrossbow
    Fires a crossbow bolt at a relatively low rate of fire
Alternate Fire - Poison Grenade
    Fires a grenade that explodes on impact, poisoning any enemies struck
    Applies Necrotic Poison
Specialty (Passive) - Necrotic Poison
    Deals a percentage of the target's maximum health in damage every second.
    Duration refreshed when struck by a BioCrossbow Bolt
Ability 1 - Kinetic Shot
    Single shot ammo override
    Deals bonus damage based on distance the projectile travels (more distance grants more damage).
    Applies Necrotic Poison
Ability 2 - Creeping Death
    Single shot ammo override
    Projectile detonates upon impact and releases a large cloud of poisonous gas, which grows over time
    Applies Necrotic Poison
Ability 3 - Evacuate
    Causes the Recluse to launch up and backwards at a high velocity
    A poison cloud is left where the Recluse launche from and applies Necrotic Poison as well as damages enemies
HKM - Necrosis
    Creates a cloud around the Recluse. Deals significant damage to nearby enemies and applies Necrotic Poison

Dreadnaught
Mammoth

General – Base health increased.
Primary Weapon - Heavy Plasma Machine Gun
    Rapidly fires small plasma projectiles that explode for light AOE damage on impact
Alternate Fire – Snare Rounds
    Fires plasma bolts accurately at a much slower rate, but snare targets upon impact
Specialty (Passive) - Imminent Threat
    All enemies near the Mammoth take more damage from all sources
Ability 1 - Teleport Shot
    Fires a projectile that teleports the Mammoth to the spot of impact. Modified to allow hitting the ground or other objects.
    Damages creatures when teleporting to them.
    Limited Range
Ability 2 - Thunderdome
    Creates a shield at the location of the Mammoth, which allies can freely pass through, though enemies cannot
    Blocks projectiles
Ability 3 - Shield Wall
    Raises a durable forward shield that blocks incoming enemy projectiles.
    Mammoth and allies can fire through the shield
    Allies behind the shield take less damage from all sources
HKM - Tremors
    Powerful seismic waves erupt from Mammoth every second for Tremors' duration, causing damage to nearby enemies, knocking them back and snaring their movement

Rhino

Primary Weapon - Heavy Laser Machine Gun
    Fires lasers at a high rate of fire and maintains damage at longer distances than other HMG variants.
Alternate Fire – Focused Beam
    The Heavy Laser MG fires a single, short-ranged laser that consumes ammunition at an incredibly high rate but does higher DPS than the primary fire.
Specialty (Passive) - Personal Shield
    Each time the Rhino activates an ability, it gains a personal shield that absorbs a low amount of damage.
Ability 1 - Charge!
    The Rhino accelerates over a few seconds and maintains the new maximum speed for a few seconds more
    Enemies the rhino passes by are snared for a short duration
Ability 2 - Gravity Field Grenade
    Rhino throws a grenade that creates a gravity field at the point of impact
    Projectiles that pass through the field are redirected to the center
    Enemies caught within the field are heavily snared
Ability 3 - Sundering Wave
    Powerful wave erupts from Rhino dealing low damage to nearby enemies and causing them to take bonus damage from all sources for a duration
HKM - Dreadfield
    The Rhino surrounds itself with an energy-siphoning vortex.
    Drains energy from nearby enemies
    Grants bonus damage to Rhino that stacks based on how many enemies are affected.

Engineer
Bastion

Primary Weapon - Tesla Rifle
    Fires a straight beam of lightning that has a limited distance.
    The damage of the Tesla Rifle ramps up as it successfully hits targets. This bonus damage decays over time when not firing or missing.
Alternate Fire - Drain Beam
    An energy-siphoning beam that is very short range and drains the target’s energy quickly.
Specialty (Passive) - Overseer
    When a Bastion is nearby its deployables, those deployables take 15% less damage from all sources
Ability 1 - Multi-Turrets
    The Bastion can place multiple, weaker turrets. These turrets can stick to any surface and can be upgraded once to specialized styles of turrets.
Ability 2 - Sentinel Pod
    Deploys a sentinel pod. This device will repair damaged deployables in range once per second. If no deployables nearby are damaged, it will look for a nearby enemy to siphon energy from and deal slight damage to.
Ability 3 - Energy Wall
    Fires a projectile that can be detonated to create a wall that’s impassable to enemies.
HKM - Fortify
    Fortify strengthens all of the Bastion’s deployables in range, healing them back to full life and giving them a bonus rate of fire for the duration.

Electron

Primary Weapon - Shock Rifle
    Fires a straight laser that goes long distance and is very precise
Alternate Fire - Energy Orb
    The Shock Rifle's alt-fire shoots an energy ball that can be detonated by hitting it with the primary fire of the weapon. Otherwise it explodes on impacting a surface.
Specialty (Passive ) - Fail-Safe
    Upon reaching a low health threshold, the Electron’s Battleframe detonates an EMP blast. This blast completely drains the energy of any nearby enemies and gives all of their abilities a 2 second cooldown.
Ability 1 - Boomerang Shot
    The Electron fires a projectile out that passes through enemies and deals relatively high damage. This projectile stops at a certain distance and then returns to the Electron, once again damaging enemies it passes through. The Electron gains a temporary shield if any enemies are hit.
Ability 2 - Bulwark
    Fires a projectile that can be detonated. Upon detonation, any friendly targets in range gain a temporary shield that will absorb damage.
Ability 3 - Hypercharging Pad
    Deploys a pad that generates a pickup periodically. When run over, this buff grants the player bonus movement speed and energy regeneration for a duration.
HKM - Electrical Storm
    Launches a projectile that moves fast and can be detonated. Once detonated, the projectile grows into a large spherical energy storm that moves slower and snares all enemies it passes near, as well as dealing significant damage.

Recon
Nighthawk

Primary Weapon – Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle
    Deals high damage per shot, and double damage on headshots.
Alternate Fire - Scope
    A scope which gives the player a 4x and 8x zoom.
Specialty (Passive) - Ambush
    When not in enemy SIN, the Nighthawk deals more damage. This can only occur for one shot every 30 seconds.
Ability 1 - Execute Shot
    The Nighthawk loads a special round for his next shot, which deals 20% more damage (base). If the target dies from this shot, they bypass incapacitation and are dead. If he shoots a downed opponent with this shot, the opponent is executed and explodes for AOE damage.
Ability 2 - Smoke Screen
    Throws a smoke grenade that removes allies from SIN and prevents targets inside from being added to SIN.
Ability 3 - Long Range Charge
    Deploys an explosive at long range. This explosive sticks to any surface and does not detonate until the ability is activated again.
HKM - Eruption Rounds
    The Nighthawk equips special ammunition for the duration. These rounds explode for AOE damage whenever they pass near an enemy target.

Raptor

Primary Weapon - Charge Rifle
    Charges up while scoped, dealing more damage the longer it has to charge between shots.
Alternate Fire: Scope
    A scope which gives the player a 4x and 8x zoom.
Specialty (Passive) - Conduit
    Successfully hitting an enemy with the Charge Rifle grants the Raptor an electrical charge. Upon reaching 3 electrical charges, all of his abilities become Empowered and gain additional effects/benefits.
Ability 1 - SIN Scrambler
    One shot ammo override
    Scrambles target's SIN reading, making them appear as an enemy to their allies
    Prevents healing for its duration
    SIN Scrambler makes target take additional damage from all sources when Empowered
Ability 2 - Power Field
    Launches a deployable that detonates when impacting a surface
    Creates a power field that grants allies Supercharge when they walk through it
    Increases rate of fire and gives unlimited ammo
    Grants unlimited energy when Empowered
Ability 3- Teleport Beacon
    Throws a beacon that the Raptor will teleport to when activated again.
    Raptor gains massive movement speed bonus after teleporting when Empowered
HKM – Overload
    The Raptor uses his Battleframe to power his Charge Rifle, firing electrical beams instead of regular bullets. These beams deal splash damage at their points of impact. For the duration of Overload, his Charge Rifle charges twice as fast and all of his abilities are Empowered.

New You

New You and Manufacturing Terminals now show up on the world map
The comparison tooltips are a lot bigger
It's now possible to select ornaments when in New You
This change was done to avoid situations where certain ornaments with slot restrictions are equipped in such a way that none of the head slots are available which makes head selection impossible
New ‘mouth’ category for ornaments in the New You
Sex changes are now available in the New You
Bald is beautiful, bald is back! The bald option should now be available as a "hair" option

Garage

Removed duplicate items from the selection lists
Group similar abilities and weapons together
Cleaner exit for Garage if suddenly closed, so it can start up properly the next time it is accessed
Stabilized the garage and reduced crashes
Fixed patterns being inaccessible without a custom warpaint
Fixed breakage when exiting garage without saving a pattern edit
Automatically navigate to the slot of the loadout you are currently wearing when opened
Increased the visibility of tooltips in the garage
Removed ammo, reactor, and processor slots
Show confirmation dialog for constraints upgrades
Disabled zooming in and out
Fixed an issue where the garage interface was unresponsive
Fixed a bug where making the armor pattern smaller or bigger would break the garage

Vehicle

Improved vehicle behavior
Vehicle engines now are disengaged when the vehicle is destroyed
Reduced the collision impulse when the vehicle is moving at low velocity
Improved vehicle collision against deployables
Reworked vehicle collision damage
Vehicles should no longer receive damage on bumpy roads
Fixed a bug where a player gets immediately ejected from a vehicle if they hold the interaction key too long while entering
Tied exhaust effects to engine state so there is no smoke while the engine is off
The light of the LGV is no longer shining through the LGV
The Founder LGV is now back in the calldown menu

Interface

Notifications can now be accessed from the World Map, New You, and the garage
Fixed an issue where players received multiple loot messages
Fixed an issue where players received multiple experience gain console messages
Fixed the giant nametags in the spectator mode
The E-To-Interact interface element is now pointing better at the player’s face
Changed some interface outline colors
Post processing for low and medium settings is now disabled
Added notifications for experience boosts
Added notifications for experience boost expiries
Fix for when using the scan hammer via the fire ability keybind, would then select the first ability rather than stay on the scan hammer
A text field was added to the loading screen to indicate when you are connecting to the server versus actually loading into the game.
The character creation screen has been cleaned up and battleframe selection has been removed since all players will receive each of the Accord battleframes.
The text of the loading screen has been repositioned
Fixed a bug where active menus did not receive mouse clicks
Fixed a bug where interface elements could receive mouse clicks while still loading into the game
Optimized the loading process and progress display of the loading screen
Fixed the bug where players were stuck in the loading screen at 100%
Added a "waiting for response" message to the Login UI
The intro sequence can now be skipped by mouse click or space bar
The ESC-menu is the topmost menu again
The crafting interface closes itself automatically when the resolution is changed
Fixed a bug that displayed self-heals twice in third person
The death message when killed by an explosive Aranha is now much shorter

Navigation

Introduced a new navigation system that shows breadcrumbs to objectives and waypoints
    Hold F to display all current navigation trails
Waypoints
    Reduced the distance at which waypoints are docked to the edge of the screen
    Improved the 3D look of waypoints
    Waypoint icons will scale with distance to the player
    Gigantic waypoint labels have been resized
    Waypoint indicators are now animated when the user opens the world map

SIN Cards

Improved the perspective to the player so SIN cards are better to read
SIN cards fade out after 100m distance by default
Improved the size scaling of far away SIN cards
Improved the resolution of big SIN cards so the font looks less pixelated
Increased the small SIN Card of small thumpers to make it look more proportional

Achievements (shortcut “Y”)

The achievement window has been made prettier
The achievement completion count text is now displayed properly
A reward display and tooltip has been added for achievements
Pressing the view achievements key while an achievement notification is up will open the window to that specific achievement entry
SIN imprints can be played from the achievement window
Added animations to the achievement icon
Achievement icons now light up brighter on mouse over
Added a reward unlock text in the achievement completion notification
Updated the achievement notification to not display the reward text if the achievement was completed before
Combat awards and achievement completion notifications are now separated
Fixed the daily challenges not displaying the completion notification
Adjusted the saturation of the achievement progress bar background
Daily achievements now work as intended
Fixed a spelling error of the Colossal Remains achievement
Completing the achievements of Grand Executioner and Scourge of the Chosen will reward the user with the same accessory, which is the Executioner's Hoody

NavWheel (shortcut “_”)

Added a preview list to the side as you move through the top-level, to show you what is in each category
Added a calldown history for the last 8 used items you slotted. Cycle through them with the 'Select Next/Previous Calldown' keybinds under Interface (defaults to [ and ])
Increased the text space for titles in the NavWheel
Added armies to the social menu
The friends list option now opens the correct interface
Added navigation hints to the NavWheel
The social section has been reorganized
The achievements option has been moved to the correct section (was in the social section before)

Keybindings

Moved "Activate Selected Ability" to be after the "Select Previous/Next Ability" bindings

HUDNotes

Popups will no longer appear on loading screens
Fixed a bug that would display old subtitle text if no new subtitle is available
Popups will now be on the topmost layer
Popup are not clickable
Duel request HUD-notes are now colored in the PvP color
World map / Minimap
Fixed an issue where initially the world map was loaded at a wrong position
The world map now notifies you when outposts in unexplored areas are taken over by Chosen so players are aware when they walk into a possible conflict
Watchtower icons now appear on the mini-map as well as world map
The watchtower icon now correctly changes the color after becoming friendly

Options

Gameplay options
    Added options to disable fly cam to respawn point

Challenge system (shortcut “/challenge”)

Replaced the old challenge system with a new interface that can be accessed through the NavWheel (‘~’), the Versus menu (‘K’) or by typing “/challenge”.
Added an event to update the daily challenge timer on daily challenge update
Added PvP item rewards for winning and losing teams
You cannot queue while in a challenge
You cannot create a challenge while queued
Players are no longer required to be in a squad to initiate or accept a challenge. Invite squad leaders to invite their entire squad.
Invite spectators directly to the match challenge
All private challenge mode matches provide no XP
All private mode matches are played at 2pm in-game time
Added a ‘lobby’ chat channel
    Chat with both teams in a private chat channel while waiting for Ready-Up
Play matches with fewer than max players
View map selection in UI
See who is ready and not ready on either team
Kick players from the challenge mode
Give invite permissions to other players
Invite squad leader to invite his entire squad

Social Features
Armies

Armies have been added to Firefall!
You are now able to build an army with your friends
Access the Army panel via the Social section in your Nav Wheel
Name your Army and set the Army Tag that will appear next to your name.
Manage your roster and promote members to help you out.
Get your own chat channel (/a or /army to select channel)
Additional Army functionality in future releases.

Squad

Implemented a search (lfg) feature
    Panel can be found under the social section of the nav wheel
    /lfg <message> slash command. If message is left blank, the command will toggle the player's lfg status

Friends

Added sounds for when friends come online and go offline
Added chat messages for friends coming online and offline

Chat

Chat now shows army tags for players in active armies
The chat no longer fades out if you are AFK
Emotes are now case insensitive
Removed the Splash Damage tip when taking falling damage
The Red 5 Studios logo has replaced the [R5] tag on developer chat messages
The bonus reward text color has been changed
Chat bubbles have been fixed
The chat is being docked into predefined slots on the New You, garage, and crafting screens to prevent overlap and hiding of key UI elements
Fixed a typo in the chat bubble
Added additional channel sound options

PvP

Teams will rebalance during warm up if players drop or join in late.
Added large XP rewards for winning and losing in PvP
Removed individual XP rewards for kills, hacks, etc.

Sabotage

The message “warm up” is no longer intersecting with the timer at the top of the screen
The interface now flashes while hacking a point

Harvester

The interface has been cleaned up and the winner is now displayed properly at the end of the match
Added capture points to the HUD and minimap
The boost effect no longer plays after the effect expired
Increased the size of the A,B,C objective so they can be read from greater distances

Shanty Town

Added bullet collision to a ramp in Shanty Town
Players can no longer fall and get stuck in a tight spot behind a building
Closed the underside of a tower

Sunken Harbor

Various force fields on Sunken Harbor are now properly aligned to the opening
Floating ammunition powerups have been put back to the ground

OCT

Double Damage now spawns near the currently open point. I.e. when B is capturable, Double Damage spawns near B, and when C is capturable, it spawns near C.
In round 2, OCT will end as soon as a winner can be determined rather than going until the timer runs out.
Fixed a bug where the winning team sometimes did not get the win

Moisture Farm

Moisture Farm will temporarily be offline for PvP matchmaking while its spawning rules are revamped and updated to our new encounter system.

PvP Queue

Hitting ’unqueue’ now unqueues the player even when he gets the confirm/decline match popup
Squad mates get notifications of other squad mates cancelling the queue
The match will wait for the ‘Accept Match’ period to end or for all players to accept instead of starting with the minimum amount of players
Removed unqueue when becoming idle.

Matchmaking

Modified the balancing algorithm to create better teams with disparate skill ratings
Teams are now auto-rebalanced if a match is in warmup and one or more users are backfilled or dropped during launch
Improved searching mechanism to matchmake players faster
Players at extreme ranges of skill ratings should experience much lower queue times
All matches created via matchmaking are played at hours between 8am and 6pm in-game time (no more night time PvP)

Misc

Fixed a launch error when using Russian characters in the name with a windows account
Resume file downloads for the patch files
Reward experience points for zone unlocks
Updated password reset appearance
Adding ‘Forgot Password’ button to login UI
Updated the Red 5 logo movie to be higher res and quieter
Fixed bug where dropship twists on landing pad
Fixed bug where dropship sinks into landing pad
Tweaked gamepad and gamepad aiming
Improved support for Windows user names with UNICODE characters
By default clients entering the game for the first time will play the introduction sequence regardless if the character has seen it already
Lots of installer/patcher changes
Various crash fixes for disconnecting in various error scenarios
Fixed a crash when restarting a replay as spectator
Changing the default fly cam FOV to 90 degrees to better align it with the game FOV.

Visuals

Outline shader improvements
    Improved the artistic style of character and object outlines to have a more SIN feel
New Water Rendering
    Rewritten and massively improved
Screen Space Emissive Lighting
    Each pixel on the screen is an emissive light source.
    Very expensive effect, not enabled by default (not even on Ultra settings)
    Watch as your Battleframes and the world light up!
Smaller worst-case patch sizes
Added support for high-DPI display settings
Multi-monitor surface support (Eyefinity, Surround)
Fixed a bug to restore the camera when exiting vehicle
The vertical FOV is now preserved when the window is wide
Enabled the area light on grass
Reduced the moon size in the moon illusion effect to make it look more natural
Updated video quality auto-detect settings
Decals have shadows now
Vegetation (i.e. grass) bends when players walk through itMade the lens-flare effect look more dirty
High sun intensity will boost sky intensity to provide an "HDR-ish look"
Enabled terrain normal maps on medium shader quality which is an huge improvement at a moderate cost

Audio

Added sounds to the character create screen
HMG and Sniper flybys are now playing properly
Improved the music system
Fixed a bug where the HMG weapon sound would loop
Increased the SIN imprint audio volume
New jumpjet sounds have been added for Dreadnaught, Engineer, Recon and Biotech

Performance

Performance Improvements (both CPU&GPU)
    40% improvements on some CPUs/GPUs
UI improvements
    20% improvement of the user interface
Fixed a memory leak in matchmaker
Plugged a physics engine memory leak
Plugged a UI memory leak
Fixed several 64bit fixes
Fixed a bug that caused the system to assume the client was running on a 32-bit system and thus trim down some memory pools
Fixed a particle bug where deleted memory was accessed
Tweaked terrain for ultra settings
Added water performance improvements for low to medium lighting quality settings
Various latency tuning and cleanups
Fixed parallax mapping, now twice as fast
Implemented additional fine-grained shadow quality settings
Tweaked shadow cascade distances for overall performance and quality improvements
Fixed large frame time spikes in physics engine when many enemieswere killed in close proximity