Upcoming XDefiant Patch Will Double The Speed That You Level Up Weapons

Highlights

Ubisoft responds to player feedback on XDefiant weapon progression by cutting XP needed to level up weapons in upcoming patch.
Executive producer explains changes will speed up weapon XP, but keep mastery skin grind and give a boost to players’ current levels.
Ubisoft admits mistake in making weapon mastery grind too hard and announces adjustments to address player frustration.

Ubisoft has confirmed that an upcoming patch for XDefiant – the date of which is still to be decided – will be making some major changes to weapon progression, taking the total XP required to level up a weapon down to 1500 XP from the previous 3000 XP.

Shortly after XDefiant was released last month, players were expressing their frustration with the time it took to leave up weapons. But Ubisoft has now acknowledged the outcry from the community, saying it has “heard the feedback” and will be making some pretty major changes in the game’s next update.

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“Earlier this week, we made the mastery system unlock at higher levels, making it take longer to unlock mastery skins. We heard the feedback – Weapon XP will now go 2x as fast,” Ubisoft announced. “Ranks will now take 1500 XP (from 3000) on primary weapons and 500 XP (from 1000) on secondary [weapons].”

XDefiant’s executive producer Mark Rubin took to X (formerly Twitter) to elaborate on the upcoming changes saying, “The levels that you need to get to unlock a mastery skin are staying the same but the net effect is that this will revert the change we made but keep the 14% speed increase.”

“This will mean that unlocking attachments will be super fast but the grind for Gold will be 14% faster than what it was before the recent patch. It also means that everyone will get a big bump in their current level,” Rubin said in his statement. He also stated that these changes would be “coming very soon” but no date for the update has been set just yet.

The executive producer went on to explain the reasoning behind XDefiant’s weapon mastery grind and how that is the “main grind” in the game right now. Rubin noted that future updates, such as Ranked play in Season 1, will have new ways for players to grind out rewards, but that the main thing for players to grind right now is weapon mastery.

This means that Ubisoft wanted to make weapon mastery a real grind as it “feared that players would achieve the end of that grind too fast.” The mistake came when Ubisoft opted to make that grind even harder whilst players were already progressing, which Rubin acknowledges was a mistake.