Image: Ubisoft
XDefiant Season 1 launches today with a new faction, three new maps and more.
Ubisoft is rolling out the first season of its free-to-play shooter XDefiant today. The game’s first season of content adds a new GS Kommando faction from Rainbow Six Siege, new game modes, new weapons and three new maps for players to check out, in addition to ranked play.
Watch the season reveal trailer below:
XDefiant Season 1 adds a swathe of new content
XDefiant Season 1 launches today, July 3, giving players access to five major content additions to the game. This season’s big ticket item is its new GS Kommando faction, inspired by the Rainbow Six franchise. The playable faction is themed around high defense, starting with a passive trait that gives players immunity from headshot damage multipliers.
Their activated ability can either be an Active Defense System that nullifies all enemy throwables within range, or a Shock Wire that slows down and damages enemies who trip on it. Their Ultra ability gives them a G52 Tactical Shield, which defends them and allows them to blind enemies.
Season 1 also adds two new game modes: Capture the Flag and Bomb. Capture the Flag is a run-and-gun mode that has players fight to deliver enemy flags to capture points, but Bomb is a Counter-Strike-like one-life mode that has one team attempt to plant a bomb while the other team either stops them or defuses the bomb. Bomb is only launching later in the season, but Capture the Flag is available now.
Three new weapons are also coming to XDefiant in Season 1: The LVOA-C assault rifle, the L115 sniper rifle and a sawed-off shotgun secondary weapon. Starting today, the game is also getting a new Rainbow Six-inspired Clubhouse map, with two more maps called Daytona (from The Crew 2) and Rockefeller (from The Division) launching later in the season.
Given that players have now had plenty of time to learn the ropes in XDefiant’s pre-season, Season 1 is also introducing Ranked Play to the game. The Ranked Playlist will feature skill-based matchmaking, increasing player ranks upon a win and decreasing them upon a loss. However, top scorers on losing teams will be penalised less for a loss and likewise, the lowest scorers on winning teams won’t get as much credit for a win. That way, performance is still a factor in competitive rankings.
XDefiant Season 1 is now available on all platforms.
