The Finals Season 8: Everything you need to know

It's fair to say the multiplayer FPS scene is dominated by the likes of Counter-Strike 2, Call of Duty, Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege X, and Apex Legends. However, these aren't the only options available for players; if you're looking for an alternative, The Finals may be your answer.

The Finals was officially released in December 2023 and almost two years since its release the game has established itself in the FPS community. Their Steam numbers, according to Steam Charts, reflect the reality and the potential Embark Studios' game has: a 20,000 concurrent players 24-hour peak at the time of writing, but an all-time peak of 242,400.

As in any other video game of its kind, releasing new content such as new characters, maps, skins, and battle passes is important to refresh the game's experience. Another step taken by The Finals is the creation of an esports scene, which is already in the makings as the game has created partnerships with Spacestation Gaming, ENVY, Team Secret, Alliance, among others.

Now, The Finals have introduced Season 8 — a new wave of content that could change the game for ever. So, here's everything you need to know about The Finals:

The Finals Season 8 Reveal Panel

Before heading to all of the details regarding The Finals' Season 8, you can check the Season 8 Reveal Panel uploaded on The Finals' official YouTube channel. The video can be found right above this paragraph.

Without further ado, here's what has changed in The Finals Season 8:

Instant Replay

Starting from The Finals Season 8 players will be able to watch an Instant Replay of their death. This is a great addition because it allows players to see who killed them and what led to their death.

Here's what the devs said regarding this feature coming to The Finals in Season 8:

As the quote shows, this feature is in its beta stage. This means that developers will surely appreciate any kind of feedback!

Match Recap

The Finals is adding a Match Recap that will be displayed at the end of World Tour, Ranked, and Quick Cash matches. These graphics will show information regarding your performance in the game, including ratings across Combat, Support, Objective score, and more.

The Finals gets two new weapons in Season 8

In Season 8, The Finals is getting two new weapons: the BFR Titan and the P90. The BRF Titan is a high caliber, manual action revolver. Meanwhile, the P90 is a submachine gun with a high capacity magazine.

In short terms, the BRF Titan is for those with great aiming skills where each bullet delivers a big chunk of damage, while the P90 is for those who prefer short-distance combats where aiming isn't as differential.

Weapons System

The Finals is migrating more weapons to the new Weapons System. This will happen during Season 8 as Embark Studios sees this as a "long-term initiative" which means the developers are "taking it step-by-step to make sure this first phase is done right."

With this decision, The Finals expects to "finally put an end to some of the longest standing weapon related bugs in THE FINALS,  once and for all."

Dematerializer Improvements

The Dematerializer is a great gadget in The Finals. This piece of tech allows players to, basically, dematerialize a wall. However, sometimes, it creates unfair situations for both the shooter and the impacted players.

To improve the Dematerializer while making it more fair to other contestants, Embark Studios have made it "more reliable when opening and closing wall segments" while also adding an "off-screen indicator" to better show players when a wall near them has been dematerialized.

Grenade Indicator

Although this isn't mind-blowing, it's a great addition: The Finals will finally have a grenade indicator, letting players know when a grenade has been thrown nearby.

Smooth Destruction

Smooth Destruction is possibly the best update coming to the game in Season 8: impact damage from collapsing structures will destroy buildings.

Before Season 8, when a crane would fall on a building, the building wouldn't be damaged by the impact. However, with Season 8, this won't be the case anymore as the building will be completely destroyed.

Embark Studios already admitted that this is "only the beginning" as they "plan to keep pushing the boundaries and spreading Smooth Destruction across every Arena in new and exciting ways!"

Kyoto and Monaco improvements

Kyoto and Monaco have been improved in Season 8. The improvements focus on the structure of some buildings, especially after destruction has been applied. The changes also improve new map designs, including the addition of extra jump pads and the simplification of some interior layouts.

New sponsors HOLTOW and TRENTILA

HOLTOW is back for Season 8 while TRENTILA is a brand-new sponsor. Players who represented HOLTOW in the past will get a new set of cosmetics.

The Finals Season 8 Battle Pass

The Finals Season 8 will have three Battle Pass Rewards Tiers, including Ultimate, Premium, and Free. The best Battle Pass of the three, the Ultimate, will include:

• 117 rewards
• 2,575 Multibucks (earn-back more MB than the purchase price!)
• 11 dynamic Elite skins
• 25% Match XP Boost
• 20 Levels Unlocked at start

Playstyles

The Finals is introducing Playstyles, defined as "pre-made Contestant templates that bundle a Specialization, Weapon, and Gadgets into a recognizable style of play."

This feature mainly focuses on newcomers. It allows them to have a pre-made loadout for each playstyle, making it less confusing for them. At the same time, more experienced players can experiment with other combinations.

Updates for Newcomers

Additionally, The Finals have added Tutorial Updates, new Dummy Challenges, and Rookie Contracts. All of these will allow players to easily understand The Finals which can be quite tough. You have no excuse to get into The Finals now!

Faster Boot times and Ranked reconnect improvements

Starting from The Finals Season 8 the game client will boot up much faster. Moreover, Embark Studios have also adjusted the rules for Ranked Tournament abandonment.

Earrings and Effects

The Finals is adding Earrings and Effects with Season 8, giving players newer options to customise their in-game appearance.

Game Modes

Starting from Season 8, Head2Head won't be a limited event. Additionally, Team Deathmatch has been added to Bernal and Terminal Attack is leaving the game.

Mouse and Keyboard for console

The Finals is giving console players the option to play mouse-and-keyboard. This is a bit controversial, as players who play with a controller may find it difficult to play against mouse-and-keyboard users.

Balance Changes

Finally, here's a full look at what's changing in The Finals Season 8:

Gadgets 

Frag Grenade

• Added in-world grenade indicator

H+ Infuser

• Decreased healing per shot from 15 to 14Dev Note: The Infuser was still slightly outperforming other healing items, this change is made to address that.

Thermal Vision

• Temporarily disabled Thermal VisionDev Note: Thermal Vision has struggled with a considerable number of bugs and issues for some time now, issues that are not a simple or quick thing to fix. Some issues can offer players an unintended advantage, so we’ve made the decision to bench the Gadget for now. We’ll re-work it over the next few seasons, at which point it will return to the roster. 

General

• Increased the damage done by the crane’s wrecking ball from 10 to 75

Specializations

Dematerializer 

• Decreased the number of charges from 3 to 2
• Added new functionality which now remembers exactly which wall segments were dematerialized when a charge was used. These segments are now grouped together and if any of them is rematerialized, all of those in the group will also always be rematerialized
• Added a vignette to the screen that will be displayed when a wall segment is dematerialized near the player, just outside of their field of view, so that players are better aware of what is happening around them
• Updated the dematerialize effect on walls when activated, adding a slight delay before the wall segment becomes fully transparent
• Added a new ‘vibration’ effect to dematerialized wall segments, which will start to play just before the wall segments would automatically rematerializeDev Note: These changes have been a long time coming. The Dematerializer Specialization has been by far the most picked Specialization and the most winning, across the majority of modes and skill tiers. We never intended any item to see so much usage and it has sped up the pace of the game and how quickly Cashout fights resolve. Our intent has been to reduce the number of charges available, to throttle the usage rate, but we felt we couldn’t make that change until we fixed how unreliable opening and closing wall segments could be. With this new system and the improved visual feedback, we’re now in a place where we can reduce the ammo count. Between this change and the Turret and Healing Beam buffs, we’re hoping to return to a more varied Medium meta.

Guardian Turret

• Decreased the cooldown from 40s to 35s
• Decreased the cooldown when retrieving the turret from 20s to 17.5sDev Note: As Specializations go, the Turret has been fairly underused. We want to increase its desirability without making it too frustrating. This change will buff its availability in-match. 

Healing Beam

• Increased healing rate from 40 per second to 46 per secondDev Note: Since the Healing Beam is a Specialization, it should be one of the more desirable healing tools in the game, Since the introduction of the  H+ Infuser and the Healing Emitter (a.k.a Chuck), it’s not been desirable enough. This change allows the Healing Beam to go from 220 to 253 healing before overheating, which should buff it to where it should be.

Winch Claw

• Increased cooldown when missing a target from 7s to 10s
• Increased cooldown when successfully hitting a Cashout Station or Contestant from 14s to 18s
• Increased the cooldown when hitting all other object types from 7s to 14sDev Note: The power and impact of the Winch Claw is out of line with some of the other Heavy Specializations and that is reflected in the data.

Weapons 

.50 Akimbo

• Decreased damage falloff minimum range from 35m to 32m, giving the weapon a slightly shorter effective range
• Decreased damage falloff max range from 42.5m to 39m, giving the weapon a slightly shorter effective rangeDev Note: We feel the akimbo pistols are performing slightly too well at longer ranges, so this is a small nudge to bring them more into their intended niche. 

CB-01

• Increased damage from 84 to 88Dev Note: The CB-01 has struggled to perform well across most modes and sees a very low pick rate. This change is intended to improve viability. 

Dual Blades

• Increased how quickly sprinting is re-enabled after the second attack animation begins by 25%
• Increased how quickly sprinting is re-enabled after the third attack animation begins by 15%Dev Notes: This change is mostly to correct some inconsistencies between attacks, which made the second animation in the attack sequence more aggressively slow the player than it should have.

LH1

• Increased damage from 42 to 44Dev Note: We’re still trying to get the LH1 to a place where it’s viable but not dominant. Previous changes have seen it really bottom out in both usage and performance, so we’re nudging it in an effort to improve viability and desirability. 

Pike-556

• Decreased damage from 50 to 48
• Decreased damage falloff minimum range from 45m to 40m, giving the weapon a slightly shorter effective range
• Increased damage falloff multiplier from 0.75 to 0.8, meaning the weapon now does slightly more damage at range. This is somewhat offset by the reduction in base damage
• Increased the size of bullet dispersion when firing from the hip, especially while crouching, making the weapon less accurate when not aiming down sightsDev Note: We feel the Pike currently has too much utility, being both good at long range but also very viable at close range. These changes aim to get it to where it should be, a medium-to-long range rifle that is less effective when fighting at close quarters.

Riot Shield

• Decreased maximum speed of an attack’s lunge to the target from 10m/s to 7m/s
• Decreased minimum speed of an attack’s lunge to the target from 7m/s to 5.5m/s
• Decreased the trigger range of the attack’s lunge from 4m to 2.5mDev Note: The recent buffs to melee, including the Riot Shield, exposed some pre-existing issues, including its ability to too reliably keep attackers on top of enemies once they reached them. These changes should address that.  

Content and Bug Fixes

Animation

• Fixed an issue where the Sword's secondary charge-up animation was sometimes not shown correctly in spectator view
• Reworked the first-person view of the Riot Shield. You will now have a better sense of where your shield is blocking when aiming up and down
• Fixed a small but noticeable inconsistency when aiming down sights after sprinting in first-person. This transition should now feel more consistent
• Polished first-person animations for the Defibrillators, including an improved visual cues on the charging cables to make it easier to tell when they’re ready to use

Career Rank

• Added career levels up to level 500, and re-balanced the tiers from Bronze to Amethyst

Controller

• Additional rumble has been added for more things in the game
• Fixed an issue where pressing buttons while loading could cause focus to be lost when returning to the menu 

Contracts

• Added Rookie Contracts for new players where all cosmetics that used to be in the career path will now be available under the Rookie Contracts instead

Cosmetics & Customization

• Added Earring category
• Added 4 more Outfit slots
• Character effects have now been split from their headwears into its own customization slot
• Fixed sleeve clipping for the Toga Damnata coat during certain animations
• Fixed folding issues when crouching in the Combat Chore Dress on certain Builds
• Updated the Spray preview to now show the Spray applied to a concrete slab (Slabby?!), instead of a card
• Ballistic masks can now be worn with hoods, enhancing your character customization options
• Reduced the intense bright spots of the Shock Value Effect in the Arena 

Consoles

• Added Mouse and Keyboard support, at long last 

Gadgets

Smoke Grenade

• Updated the placement and duration of the smoke’s blocking volume, which hides enemy players. This should now better match the visual effects of the smoke

Sonar Grenade

• Increased hitbox size to make it easier to destroy by shooting

Proximity Sensor

• Increased hitbox size to make it easier to destroy by shooting

Game Modes

General

• Removed Terminal Attack from Quickplay and Private Matches
• Added Head2Head to Quickplay and Private Matches
• Removed Bank It! from Private MatchesDev note: While we still see lots of love for Bank It! in the community, it hasn’t been played often enough in Private Matches to warrant the overhead it brings when it comes to regular maintenance, QA testing, etc.. It will likely return in another format some day in the future! 
• Fixed an issue where the abandoned check did not work as intended. Players are now only marked as abandoned if they’ve actually left and are no longer tracked by the connection system. We’ll be keeping an eye out to ensure this behaves correctly

Practice Range

• Added two new challenges: Cashout Defense and Cashbox Time-Trial
• Added a 4th version of the Meet the Dummies challenge where you’ll meet all three Dummies at the same time
• Updated Dummy behavior to enable them to fight back against some Gadgets and Deployables
• Tweaked Dummy aim behavior to improve their ability to land hits at long range

Ranked

• Increased the tournament reconnect window from 210 to 240 seconds to give players more time to rejoin mid-match

TDM

• Added Bernal to the map pool

Tutorial 

• Fixed an issue where the Nama Tama hint could become stuck 

Gameplay

• Enabled Smooth Destruction for the Crane, Wrecking Ball, and Suspended Structures
• Gadget previews are now better aligned with actual usability timing, preventing missed inputs in the Arena 
• Fixed an issue where sounds and visual effects would occur in the Arena without any player nearby 
• Fixed an issue where elimination hitmarkers would sometimes fail to display

GameShow Events

• The Dead Go Boom Gameshow Event is now enabled on all Maps and Modes where Events are available
• Alien Invasion has been adjusted to target objectives when applicable and lift up playersDev note: we're looking into a bug where UFOs don’t avoid collision with none-playable buildings, which once squashed, will allow us to enable the updated Alien Invasion on more maps in the near future.

Languages

• Added Russian localization to the game

Maps

General

• All Suspended Structures will now use the new Smooth Destruction feature which allows them to destroy the environment underneath them when they fall
• Updated crane visuals to allow players to vault to top part of crane more easily when the cabin ladder is broken
• Fixed an issue where shooting at text or decals on windows would need more bullets to be fired in order to break the glass.
• Slightly reduced scale of goo and smoke ATK Canisters to minimise players getting stuck on them

Bernal

• Fix for player movement issues on curved metallic slanted roof
• Added a short ladder to the area in front of the Chapel courtyard
• Adjusted the zipline in the courtyard next to the Chapel for smoother exiting in multiple directions
• Fixed collision complexity on a low tree to fix issues with player revives

Fortune Stadium

• Fix for player getting accidentally stuck beneath ground of ISEUL-T buildings when falling through

Kyoto

• Added several Jump Pads between Temples and Villa Compound to make the Villa Compound easier to attack, improve the Macro Flow, and reduce the need for movement gadgets.
• Added cover and reworked the layouts of all basements in Kyoto to make them more varied and interesting to fight in. We also removed as many “floating” pillars as we were structurally able to, to make navigation easier - particularly during combat.
• Adjusted the amount of basement entrances, to reduce the number of engagement angles you have to cover at once.
• Removed all Cashout Stations inside the Bamboo Forest as prolonged combat proved too problematic in such a dense, natural environment.
• Nearly all buildings in Kyoto have seen small interior layout tweaks to reduce their overall complexity. The aim is to make them easier to navigate and quicker understand at a glance.Dev Note: Kyoto’s architecture and building sizes naturally lean towards denser and tighter layouts, especially when compared to our other maps. With this pass we want to simplify and open the spaces up a bit more without compromising its theming or gameplay intent.
• Residential - Added a Zipline to allow for rooftop access without the need for movement gadgets
• Pavilion - Objectives have been moved to the sides of the building, to ensure fights happen in the flanks, not the center of the structure. 
• Pavilion - Ground floor layout has been adjusted to reduce the amount of 360 fights
• Added Zipline between Guest House and Residential to improve macro flow and reduce the need for movement gadgets 
• Added ladder from Entrance to Guest House as an alternative shortcut 
• Small Guest House - Added ladder to the rooftop to allow for easier access without needing movement gadgets. Also added a small veranda to subdivide the space and add some cover for combat.
• Training Quarters - Added more dividing doors to better define chokepoints 
• Training Quarters back building - broke up the corridor and moved the Cashout Station into the other room to make fights more directional. Removed the Cashout Station that was on the exterior veranda as those fights proved too chaotic.
• Added several planks around the map to highlight and open up new traversal opportunities
• Villa Compound Garden - Added a Jump Pad on the south side of the Tea House to help players escape precarious situations more easily
• Villa Compound Tea House - Moved and rotated slightly to frame the new Jump Pad better. Its layout has been subdivided to improve combat longevity 
• Hillside House - Interior has been simplified to reduce its navigation complexity and  better support defending the most common approach angles
• Main Temple - Interior layout has been reworked to make taking control over its spaces easier and fights less 360/chaotic
• Vault updates and additions all over the map to facilitate more “stand-off” encounters between competing teams
• Many small QoL tweaks to the flow and readability of Kyoto
• Fix for indestructible stone fence modules on exterior staircase area
• Kyoto destruction re-work that make structure collapses result in debris that is more traversable and less chaotic

Las Vegas 2032 & Stadium

• Added more player spawn points and adjusted a few
• Fixed a duplicate Zipline in the staircase of Alfa Acta building
• Fixed a ladder floating above the roof of Glamora casino

Monaco

• Suspended Structures map variant has been reworkedDev note:The previous version could severely restrict players who didn't have the right items to contest the suspended structures, and it lacked meaningful variation between the different setups across the map. With this rework we aim to enable a larger variety of strategies and playstyles, whilst also offering a more balanced experience between attackers and defenders.
• Fix for collision of cathedral pillar piece on duck and cover variant to be more predictable with player movement and gadgets
• Added more player spawn points and adjusted a few
• Added new Vault locations
• Added new Cashout Station on the crane
• Added ladders on the sides of a few buildings to make it easier to traverse between rooftops
• Adjusted the cliffs at the edge of the Forest to make it easier to climb up the walls in a couple places

Nozomi/Citadel

• Added some more cover along The Rift between Cybercafe and Apartments

Skyway Stadium 

• Fixed floating zebra crossing in the residential district
• Added more player spawn points and adjusted a few
• Adjusted backdrop building to prevent crane clipping issues on Skyway Stadium

Seoul

• Added more player spawn points and adjusted a few
• Moved a hospital bed away from a window where you could easily get stuck between the two

SYS$HORIZON

• Added more player spawn points and adjusted a few

Tutorial

• Improved Tutorial flow to include more scenarios and better teach the basics of gameplay

Matchmaking

• Updated the matchmaker to put more emphasis on separating premade parties and solo players in matches for World Tour, Powershift and QuickCashDev note: This change is possible due to new functionality we’ve added to the matchmaker, that gives us more flexible ways to make matches. As it’s relatively new and requires quite a bit of testing, it’s only being rolled out for these modes to start with, but it’s our aim to move all modes to this system in the near future 

Performance & Stability

• Moved shader compilation to in-game rather than startup Dev note: Moved shader preloading to frontend, allowing players to customize their loadout, visit the shop and adjust settings while waiting for it to complete. If a player attempts to start a game before preloading has finished, a warning is shown. The warning can be ignored if the player prefers to start immediately and risk performance issues.

Private Matches & Spectator

• Added the ability to change color and assign preset team names to teams in private matches

Rendering

• Fixed an issue that could cause pixelated artifacts around the edges of your contestant in the Main Menu
• Fixed an issue that caused light flickering when changing Effects quality setting in-game
• Made changing NVIDIA RTX Global Illumination setting more responsive in-game
• Fixed a rare issue that caused the 3D scene to flicker and show up cropped incorrectly in the top left corner
• Fixed an issue causing jittering red dot and holographic sights when AMD FSR3 Frame Generation was enabled.

Social

• Moved block management to in-game instead of web based 

Specializations

Dematerializer

• Fixed an issue when trying to rematerialize a section that has just been dematerialized would incorrectly consume ammo

Winch Claw

• Improving winch claw hit detection by making sure the hooking player has some visibility over the enemy it's trying to hook.

UI

• Fixed an issue where the incorrect weapon skin was highlighted as you entered the skin screen for weapons
• Fix player card customization menu resetting to the selected Contestant when opened from gamepad
• You can now inspect rewards in the contract screen
• Wishlist prices will now update correctly when adding items to your cart and updating your already existing wishlist
• Allow toggling HUD in PracticeRange/Tutorial via F10 key
• Now you can easily equip gadgets, specializations, and weapons directly from the equipment screen!
• Added specialization icon to contestant pack icons in frontend
• "Playstyles" tab has been added to the equipment screen
• "Playstyle Token" currency has been added to the top bar, which only displays if the player has unlockable playstyles remaining. Clicking on this currency will open the playstyles tab. 

VFX

• Fixed an issue with the elimination coin effect that could make it disappear too early
• Updated visuals for the Gas Canister explosion

Weapons

Sights

• Setup for Magnifex Sight on all weapons that support Reflector Sight
• Added 3 new sights to various guns:
• Iron Vantage - An alternate, high magnification scope added to:
• Pike-556
• Quickspark - A red dot sight for handguns added to:
• - R .357
• - BFR Titan
• - V9S
• Magnifex - A box holographic with moderate magnification added to:
• - XP-54
• - FCAR
• - FAMAS
• - LH1
• - CB-01 Repeater
• Fixed the visual misalignment of the 'Looking Glass' scope with the Shak-50 weapon model

Dual Blades

• Fixed an issue where dual blades would sometime not play deflect animation when deflecting a turret projectile

Riot Shield

• Fixed several instances of animation desync of the Riot Shield in third person, zig zag sprints, ziplines and aiming should now all be more accurate to where the collision is situated
• Reworked the setup in first person to better represent the collision state both in guarded and non guarded stateDev note: We have made another animation pass on the Riot Shield to improve the visuals so they better match the collision state. While this improvement does obstruct some of your vision in the left field of view, it does give both the wielder and the attacker a better understanding of which bullets will hit the shield, and which will hit the character. There are still some issues left to solve and we have another update cooking that will improve this even further, but we felt that instead of holding off changes we’d opt for a middle step that will improve things overall. 

Spear

• Fixed an issue where being Winch Clawed while using the secondary attack of the Spear would prevent using that attack again for a few seconds

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