Season 10 introduces a wide range of updates aimed at improving balance, refining core gameplay systems, and expanding the overall experience in THE FINALS . With a strong focus on both competitive integrity and player choice, this update brings meaningful changes across gadgets, game modes, weapons, and ranked play
One of the most noticeable themes in this patch is an effort to improve underused equipment. Several gadgets, including the Lockbolt, Nullifier, Sonar Grenade, and Thermal Bore, have received cooldown reductions to make them more viable in moment-to-moment gameplay. Additionally, the Data Reshaper now interacts more effectively with defensive tools like Dome Shields, giving players new ways to counter entrenched positions and shake up defensive strategies.
Game modes have also seen significant adjustments, particularly in Cashout and Point Break. Updates to spawn logic aim to create fairer and more consistent respawn scenarios, reducing frustrating edge cases where teams could manipulate spawn positions. In Point Break, attackers now earn respawn coins more gradually through objective progress, which is designed to improve match flow and reduce early stalemates. These changes reflect a broader push toward more balanced and competitive matches.
Ranked play receives several structural improvements as well. New systems such as Tournament Skill Range and Tournament Goal provide clearer insight into matchmaking expectations, while restrictions on high-rank disparity duos aim to create fairer team compositions. Adjustments to Ranked Score penalties and reconnect forgiveness also help reduce frustration for players impacted by disconnects or uneven matchmaking scenarios.
On the gameplay side, specializations and weapons have been rebalanced to encourage greater diversity in loadouts. The Cloaking Device and Grappling Hook receive small buffs to increase their appeal, while Evasive Dash sees a slight cooldown increase to tone down its dominance. Meanwhile, weapons like the FCAR, AKM, and M134 Minigun have been adjusted to better align with their intended roles, and new additions such as the Chimera-XB crossbow and Shockwave specialization expand build possibilities for players experimenting with new playstyles.
Quality-of-life improvements round out the update, including enhancements to communication systems and controller customization. New tools like communication wheels and improved input handling give players more control and clarity during matches, reinforcing the importance of teamwork and coordination in high-pressure situations.
Overall, the Season 10 update represents a continued effort to refine the core gameplay loop while introducing new content and systems that keep the experience fresh. By targeting both balance and usability, the update aims to create a more dynamic and competitive environment for all players.
Balancing Changes:
Gadgets
Data Reshaper
• Data Reshaper can now reshape objects through Dome Shield and Mesh Shield Dev Note: We've wanted to nudge up the viability of the Data Reshaper and this change, which makes the Reshaper somewhat of a hard-counter to Dome Shields, should be able to help with that.
Hover Pad
- Added the Hover Pad Gadget to the Medium archetype
Lockbolt
- Decreased cooldown from 40s to 30s
• Decreased lock duration from 8s to 7s Dev Note: The Lockbolt has seen pretty low pick rates in recent seasons and we'd like to boost its viability. This change to cooldown should make it more desirable.
Nullifier
• Decreased cooldown from 25s to 18s Dev Note: This change is one of three changes to Gadget cooldown rates, including the Sonar Grenade and the Thermal Bore. These are small nudges to increase the viability of these otherwise underused items.
Sonar Grenade
- Decreased cooldown from 40s to 34s
Thermal Bore
- Decreased cooldown from 35s to 25s
Specializations
Cloaking Device
- Increased minimum cloaked duration from 11s to 13s
• Increased maximum cloaked duration from 27s to 29s Dev Note: We've felt that for some time now Lights have been forced towards Evasive Dash usage as the main approach to Light play and we'd like the Cloaking Device and Grappling Hook to see more usage. This increase in up-time is a small nudge to help the Cloaking device out.
Dematerializer
- Increased cooldown from 10s to 20s
• Increased ammo count from 2 to 3 Dev Note: In recent seasons the Dematerializer has seen quite a drop in usage compared to the Healing Beam, in a large part because of the ammo reduction we made in Season 8. This increase in cooldown should be enough to throttle the Dematerializer to the point that we can increase the ammo back to three without major issues. This hopefully makes this Specialization more viable compared to the Healing Beam.
Evasive Dash
• Increased cooldown from 6.5s to 7.5s Dev Note: Evasive Dash remains the most loved Light Specialization, but also a common cause of frustration for many players, especially new Contestants who find Lights very daunting to play against. This is a small adjustment to try to diminish the negative impacts of Dash, without damaging its viability for Light players.
Grappling Hook
• Decreased Grappling Hook cooldown from 8s to 7s Dev Note: This is a very small buff to Grapple Hook, aimed at making it more appealing compared to Evasive Dash for Light players.
Guardian Turret
- Increased patrol rotation speed from 30 degrees per second to 40 degrees per second
- Decreased turret vision angle from 45 degrees to 40 degrees
- Increased damage from 5 to 6
- Decreased fire rate from 450 RPM to 400 RPM
• Decreased setup wait time from 4s to 3.5s Dev Note: With the introduction of the Shockwave Specialization we're looking to see a more evenly distributed selection rate of Medium Specializations. The Turret needs some help to achieve this, but we don't want to return to Turrets being as frustrating as they have been in the past. We feel these small adjustments to the Turret help get it to the right place.
Shockwave
- Added the Shockwave Specialization to the Medium archetype
Weapons
AKM
• Increased magazine size from 32 to 34 Dev Note: This adjustment hopefully makes the AKM more comparable in impact to the Medium's other Assault Rifles.
Chimera-XB
- Added the Chimera-XB semi-automatic crossbow to the Medium archetype
CL 40
- Increased max damage from 100 to 105
- Increased self-damage multiplier from 1.35 to 1.4
- Decreased damage modifier at the edge of the inner blast radius from 90% to 75%
• Increased damage modifier at the edge of the outer blast radius from 0% to 10% Dev Note: The CL-40's effectiveness is not great compared to many other Medium weapons. We know facing the CL is frustrating for some players, so we want to be careful with how much we buff it, but these changes are needed to increase its viability. The aim is to incentivize more direct hits with the CL-40, rather than less accurate splash damage shots.
FCAR
• Increased fire rate from 520 RPM to 540 RPM Dev Note: After our last round of changes to the FCAR, many players felt we'd nerfed the weapon. This is largely due to a TTK table that was shared in the community and, while that table was accurate, how TTK, DPS and other metrics are calculated can sometimes be misleading when it comes to item efficacy. Various ways of calculating these stats can over-simplify what actually happens during a firefight, and will often discount metrics such as accuracy, headshot percentage, damage fall-off, etc. Sometimes certain elements of weapon functionality, such as reload frequency per kill are ignored. This is why, for all changes we make, we also monitor real-world performance of the items once they go live, tracking how they actually perform across tens of thousands of rounds. In the case of the 9.7 changes, we did see the FCAR's overall performance and pick rate actually increase based on the changes we made, but not quite as much as we had hoped. This change to RPM will hopefully push the weapon a bit further, so once again we'll monitor and adjust as needed.
M134 Minigun
- Increased magazine size from 250 to 300
Dev Note: This is a small buff to the Minigun to increase its viability.
M26 Matter
- Decreased pellet pattern radius by approximately 10%, making the weapon more accurate
- Increased environmental damage per pellet from 5 to 9 (total from 55 to 99)
Dev Note: The Matter has been under-picked for quite some time and performs worse than many other Light weapons, so we're boosting its accuracy slightly to make it a more desirable choice.
MGL-32
- Decreased damage modifier at the edge of the inner blast radius from 100% to 90%
- Increased damage modifier at the edge of the outer blast radius from 0% to 12%
• Increased the inner blast radius from 1.84m to 2m Dev Note: I want to go immediately on the record here and say, this is not the MGL-32 re-work we promised some time ago, but rather some small quality of life changes. When it comes to that re-work, it's worth sharing an update on where we see the MGL being right now. It is a very viable weapon on certain maps, for example Fortune Stadium and Nozomi/Citadel, where there are lots of interior encounters. When combined with items such as the Lockbolt and Proximity Sensors it can also be highly effective, but it still has one major drawback: when an opponent gets within 10m, you have almost no options to fight back effectively. This is the main issue we'd like to address, not making the MGL hyper-effective at those ranges, but at least making it possible to have some very close-range defense. That is where we'll focus when we do the re-work. It is our hope though to try to tackle this in the next couple of seasons.
Pike 556
• Updated the weapon's recoil pattern to make it slightly less erratic and smoother to use Dev Note: These changes hopefully make the Pike a little easier to use and a slightly more viable choice compared to other Medium weapons.
SH1900
- Decreased damage per pellet from 13 to 12 per pellet (total from 195 to 180)
- Updated pellet pattern to have it give a more consistent distribution
• Decreased pellet pattern radius by approximately 10%, making the weapon more accurate Dev Note: These changes lower the power of the SH1900, while making it slightly more viable at a longer range, which should be a quality of life increase for the weapon.
SR-84
- Decreased the air drag on the projectile from 0.4 to 0.08, allowing bullets to retain more velocity
- Decreased initial projectile velocity from 260m/s to 240m/s
• Decreased gravity multiplier on the projectile from 0.6 to 0.55 Dev Note: We feel the SR-84 really struggles in a lot of cases right now, so these changes are aimed to increase its reliability and effectiveness. We have considered returning the weapon to be fully hit-scan, but are holding off on such a change for now as we know previous versions of the hit-scan SR-84 caused a lot of frustration in modes like Power Shift.
One undocumented change we have found was the removal of Head2Head from the World Tour playlist. While the mode is still playable in private matches, you can no longer matchmake into it at this time. A lot of the community has been left confused, as this mode was introduced as a core quickplay mode in the beginning of Season 8, which was not that long ago. Players speculate this may return once the featured playlist for the new Point Break map expires.
For the full update's patch notes, visit: https://www.reachthefinals.com/patchnotes/10-00