When it comes to creativity and player-led innovation, The Finals is a canvas of explosive possibilities. There’s plenty of room for impressive feats of genius in gunfights, one of which is the ability to create ‘nukes’ out of the game’s canisters. With The Finals Season 2 now underway, Embark Studios is reconfiguring how nukes work in battle.
No matter which of The Finals classes you prefer to use, just about anyone can conjure up a nuke in Embark’s hit multiplayer game. If you aren’t aware, nukes involve attaching explosives like Gas Mines, Pyro Mines or C4 to explosive/gas canisters or gasoline barrels. The combination is pretty devastating, so as Embark tweaks the Season 2 meta, the studio explains that “nukes were a hot-button issue in Season 1. The previous tuning made nukes exceed the intended time to kill by a large margin.”
In other words, Xbox and PS5 players were getting kills far too easily in the chaotic FPS game. To circumvent this issue, the studio is adding “diminishing returns” to nukes as players continue to mount more explosives to a single canister. Essentially, the more explosives that combined will decrease your chances of a higher damage output. We don’t know about you, but we’re certainly glad to see this change implemented after getting blasted into oblivion during pivotal Cash Out clutches.
“For each source of explosive damage, including the throwable and starting with the highest, a damage modifier is applied to each instance in the sequence of 60% / 40% / 30% / 20%,” Embark clarifies. With this change now live in-game, Embark hopes that this will reduce player frustrations, as its “initial changes weren’t substantial enough to alter this tactic.” Furthermore, the developer lists other changes that will impact nuke creation going forward:
- Gas Canisters now immediately start to steer off their direct trajectory (aka “wobble”) when they have attachments
- When picking up throwable objects with explosive gadgets attached (i.e. ‘nukes’ and ‘snukes’), said explosives will become un-armed
- When the player lets go of the carried object, a re-arming timer for the explosives starts
- The explosions from C4, Breaching Charges, and all mines that detonate while unprimed now deal 20% of their original damage
- Decreased the health value of Propane Gas Tanks from 250 to 120
- Fixed a bug with Fuel Barrels where they sometimes wouldn’t ignite when taking damage, for example from explosions or bullets
We’ve had significant time with the latest update already, following our recent The Finals Season 2 preview. Not only do we reckon Season 2 is a clear-cut contender for Embark, but we also got the chance to sit down the developer to dig into what makes Season 2 an important moment for the acclaimed shooter.
For more news on The Finals, don’t forget to more from our Embark Studios interview. From revealing the magic behind the game’s cosmetics, to the current weapon meta, Season 2 is the start of an exciting time for players everywhere.