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Battleborn – Winter update is now live, unlocks all 25 core characters

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Gearbox has released the Winter update for Battleborn. This update unlocks all 25 core characters for all players, introduces quests and two new training modes, comes with a number of improvements for the game’s Story mode, features a Draft mode and overhauls the game’s User Interface.

This patch also increases Command Rank and Character Rank, updates the in-game Economy, and improves performance.

The Winter update for Battleborn is 15GB in size and will be auto-downloaded from Steam.

You can read more about its content here. Below you can find a part of its huge changelog (full changelog can be found here).

General:

  • Command Rank maximum has been increased to 150, with additional rewards for each rank after rank 100.
    • Core Packs awarded for most Command Ranks
    • Legendary Packs awarded every 10 Command Ranks
    • New Titles awarded every 10 Command Ranks
    • “Battleborn” achievement still awarded at rank 100
  • Character Rank maximum for all characters has been increased to 20, with additional rewards for ranks 16-20.
    • Earn a Faction Pack for the associated character faction for each for ranks 16-20.
    • Earn new Character-specific titles at rank 17 and rank 20.
    • Character Mastery rewards are still granted at rank 15.
    • “First Among Heroes” achievement still awarded at rank 15.

Performance:

  • Numerous performance improvements to maps and FX content
  • Improved Command UI performance
  • Bandwidth improvements to reduce amount of data needed when replicating shield, health, experience, and stat data
  • Fixed a bug with map driven player alerts allowing them to be re-implemented using much less bandwidth
  • Optimized client and server processing of player profile data
  • Optimized purchase item functionality in Command UI
  • Optimized friends list functionality on the frontend

Training:

  • Added a Versus tutorial, featuring concepts from the Incursion game mode
    • Players will initially be able to access a single-player Incursion tutorial to learn the basics of the game mode
    • After completing the tutorial, players will be able to access a training experience that matches 3 players against 3 bots
  • Added a single-player Dojo training map

Capture:

  • Players now start at Level 3
  • Players now start with 500 Shards
  • Reduced the amount of time required to capture or neutralize a point from 8 seconds to 6 seconds
  • Increased Experience bonuses for capturing, occupying, and neutralizing capture points
  • Varelsi Scouts no longer drop Helix pickups when killed
  • Varelsi Scouts now drop 150 Shards when killed
  • Varelsi Scouts now provide the entire killing team with significant Experience
  • Varelsi Scouts no longer gain brief invulnerability while turning
  • Reduced the respawn time of small and medium Shard clusters from 30 seconds to 15 seconds

Interface:

  • The Command Menu has received a visual makeover!
    • New layout for the Information page
    • Stats page has received a major update
      • The “Objective” statistic has been replaced by a game mode-specific statistic in each Versus mode
      • Added Character Statistics for Best Damage Dealt, Best Healing Given, and Best Damage Taken
  • Added a new Gameplay option for Damage Number Styles
    • Show Combined Damage Numbers: Multiple instances of damage or healing will show a single combined number
    • Show Individual Damage Numbers: Multiple instances of damage or healing will show individual numbers for each instance
  • The default team colors have been changed to blue for allies and orange for enemies
  • Combined the “Extras” and “Options” menus.
  • Added attention-grabbing animation to Sentry health HUD bar when being attacked

Broadcaster Mode:

  • Added a first-person camera view (Go into the normal third-person follow-cam and then zoom in (mousewheel/LT-up) until the mode changes to first-person; go back to third-person again by zooming out.
  • Set first-person spectating preferences in the Options Menu (first-person only, third-person only, prefer-current and prefer-third)
  • Broadcasters now see skill targeting indicators in the third-person camera view
  • Broadcasters now see teleport timers when in both first-person and third-person camera views
  • When the killer of a spectated player taunts, the camera will automatically jump to spectate the taunting player.

FX:

  • Numerous FX adjustments have been made to reduce visual noise and improve performance
  • Improved the buildable cooldown timer bar
  • Added third person FX when a player respawns