Author: Trafficblast

With the conclusion of the Apex Legends Lost Treasures limited-time event, Respawn has released a new update for the battle royale game. Loba fans, rejoice! The update finally fixes the annoying problem with her tactical ability on World’s Edge.

For those who don’t main Loba, she’s had an issue with her tactical ability, Burglar’s Best Friend, on World’s Edge since the start of Lost Treasures. Loba’s tactical ability cancels out if you throw it out-of-bounds or off a ledge–which is helpful, as it prevents you from teleporting to your death. However, on World’s Edge, a bug was causing Loba’s tactical ability to detect normal areas as out-of-bounds, cancelling out Burglar’s Best Friend in places where it shouldn’t.

In a Twitter thread, Apex Legends design director Jason McCord explained how the bug came to be and assured players that a fix was already ready–it just needed to go through some testing first. That fix is now live, though Respawn adds that there “are still some known cases [the team is] continuing to work on.”

This update also adds a rather interesting wrinkle to Apex Legends, which will likely see new strategies form in the battle royale game. During Lost Treasures, Apex Legends saw the return of the limited-time mode Armed & Dangerous, though this time with mobile respawn beacons. These items allowed players to bring back fallen teammates from anywhere on the map as opposed to travelling to specific established respawn beacon locations. Though Lost Treasures is over, this new update permanently adds mobile respawn beacons to Trios, Duos, and Ranked playlists.

Don’t fret, the addition of mobile respawn beacons won’t see the existing beacons go away. They’ll still be there, but now your squad will have the option of carrying around an item that can be used to bring back fallen allies from anywhere–even the final few circles, which rarely have respawn beacons inside them.

Other than weapons, this is the second new item added to Apex Legends. The first, the Evo Shield, was also initially introduced in a limited-time mode before being permanently added to the regular playlists.

The story of the Season of Arrivals in Destiny 2 is also one of departures. With the release of the Beyond Light expansion this fall, several of the game’s current destinations–Titan, Io, Mercury, and Mars–will be removed from the game, at least for the time being. So as you venture through this season’s activities, you’ll be learning about and visiting those spots. A new Exotic quest in the game this week, dubbed “Growth,” has you visiting those locations and uncovering their secrets.

The quest has you hunting for Ruinous Effigy, a new Exotic trace rifle. To get it, you’ll need to engage with the Darkness, complete seasonal events, and trek across the solar system hunting hidden objects. We’re building a complete guide to getting you Ruinous Effigy as quickly as possible. Here’s what you need to do and where you need to go.

Step 1: Compete “Interference”

To get started on the Growth quest, head to the Prismatic , which will dispense the quest. You’ll then need to convene with Eris Morn by completing the weekly Interference quest at the center of this season’s events. To do that, knock out the weekly Prismatic Recaster bounty, “Means to an End,” as normal.

When you’re finished with the “Interference” mission, you’ll see a new story beat between Eris and Zavala, and take a gift from the Darkness: the Pendulum. This one will send you scouring the rest of the solar system for more stuff.

Step 2: Pendulum

You now need to find 25 Calcified Light items and to kill 15 enemies called Savathun’s Marionettes on either Io or Titan.

The Marionettes are Champion enemies you’ll find running around the public areas of either Io or Titan. Look for them when Taken enemies appear in battles with other bad guys, usually following messages announcing the arrival of Taken Disruptors. Depending on which Disruptor appears, you might have to kill the enemy to summon the Marionette; other times, a Marionette will spawn with the Disruptor, and killing both might get you a second one, depending on which type of battle you’re facing.

You can farm Marionettes pretty easily on Io in The Rupture. Taken Disruptors are constantly spawning around the area, so you can race around, killing the high-value targets in order to summon the Champions you need for the step.

The Calcified Light fragments are tougher: you’ll have to find and pick them up on all four planets. Your Ghost can lead you to them, but you’ll need to be close. We’re compiling all their locations now, so check back frequently as we fill them in.

Calcified Light Locations

Titan

1. Near Methane Flush: Spawn in at the Siren’s Watch transmat zone and drop down to the deck below. Look for a door around the back from the staircase to find a way inside and find the Calcified Light.

2. Near Sloane, outside: In Siren’s Watch, go to where Sloane is and follow the nav-point to the catwalk wrapping around her building on the outside.

3. On The Rig: Spawn in at the transmat zone on the rig and head south through the archway. You’ll find the Calcified Light on the ground just on the other side of the structure near the platform’s southern edge.

4. The Eastern Edge: Keep heading east from your last location, past the catwalks where the Fallen like to hang out. This Calcified Light is near the eastern edge of the platform, also behind some structures.

5. Amid Hive Corruption: You should notice that your last marker is very close to the last one. You’ll need to get inside the structure east of you to find the next Calcified Light. Head around to the northeast toward the Solarium to find the door into the building. Turn back south and look for the Calcified Light near some computer terminals.

Io

The Rupture

1. Atop The Pyramidion: From the transmat zone in The Rupture, you’ll need to scale the Pyramidion, just behind where Asher Mir stands. To get there, scale the arm of the Pyramidion just south of Asher–the first one you come to. Climb up to the flat spot and follow the pathway inside the structure to find some platforms. Follow them and you’ll reach a portal that will take you to the top.

2. Beneath the Rupture: Head east into the area, near where the public event here takes place (and the Seraph Tower used to be). Look for a ridge to the east of the public event area where enemies spawn; if you head a little north, you’ll find a cave entrance that runs beneath it. Head down inside and bear left when you find an opening to discover a small room full of blue fluid, a few Taken enemies, and the Calcified Light.

3. Rupture Caves: The next Light is found in another cave not too far from your present position. Head toward the southern corner of the area, near the Aphix Conduit Lost Sector entrance. Look for another cave entrance west of the Lost Sector, and to the right of the roots of the big tree above. Follow the cave inside to find the Calcified Light on a platform above you.

Lost Oasis

4. The Cliffs Below: As soon as you spawn in at the Lost Oasis transmat zone, turn to your right. With your Ghost out, you’ll see the indicator showing the Calcified Light beneath you. Drop down to the cliffs below (a landing spot can be tough to see, so be careful) to find the Light waiting.

5. On The Big Tree: From low to high. Head for the big tree southeast of the transmat zone. Climb up one of the roots and get to a flat platform about halfway up, where you’ll find the Calcified Light.

6. The Tree Near The Terrabase: Go to the north end of the area, near the path toward Terrabase Charon, where you’ll see another tree sticking out of the cliffside. You want to get inside that tree, but you’ll need to go around behind it to enter. Take the path toward Terrabase Charon and watch the left wall to find a cave opening that will take you into the stump. Look for the Calcified Light in the back of the room.

Giant’s Scar

7. Inside The Base: From the Giant’s Scar transmat zone, turn left and head north to the small entrance into the Cabal fortification ahead. Turn right inside and keep moving to the large room full of enemies, with another exit out into the rest of the area to your left. Hop up onto the second floor catwalk and find the Calcified Light waiting there.

8. On The Crane: North of the building in the main area of Giant’s Scar, head to the northwest end of the area. Climb up on the small crane control building to grab the Calcified Light there.

9. Xur’s Cave: Head to the northwest corner of the area and look for a cave opening in the cliff wall. You usually find Xur here when he visits Io; instead, find the Calcified Light in the back-left corner.

10. On The Edge: The last Calcified Light on Io is easy to grab. Just head to the eastern wall of the area and hop up on the small platform growing out from the cliff wall.

Pokemon Go‘s fourth anniversary event is underway until July 8. To commemorate the occasion, Niantic has released a new piece of anniversary art for the game, and as usual, it teases a few new Pokemon that will be making their debut soon.

Hidden among the various monsters in the picture are Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie–the three starters from Pokemon X and Y, the series’ first sixth-generation installments. This suggests that Gen 6 Pokemon are on the way to the game in the near future, although Niantic has not confirmed when they’ll begin appearing.

This certainly isn’t the first time Niantic has teased the arrival of new Pokemon this way. Each year, the studio releases a new piece of anniversary art that features upcoming Pokemon; last September, we got a glimpse of a few Gen 5 monsters before they officially debuted that fall.

Notably, the picture also prominently features the Mega Evolved forms of Lucario and Charizard, while Mega Mewtwo Y can be seen flying with Reshiram and Zekrom in the background. Mega Evolution is a game mechanic introduced in X and Y, and while we already know that Mega Evolved Pokemon are coming to Go, this is further proof that their debut could be imminent.

Although Mega Evolved Pokemon have previously been confirmed, it’s not yet clear how they’ll work. In the mainline games, a Pokemon can only Mega Evolve during a battle if it is equipped with its corresponding Mega Stone, and the transformation isn’t permanent; it will revert back to its original form when the battle ends (or if it gets knocked out). However, The Pokemon Company has teased that players will see “a new take on Mega Evolution that takes advantage of Pokemon Go’s unique gameplay,” suggesting the mechanic will work a little differently.

July is yet another busy month for Pokemon Go. Niantic has a number of events lined up over the next few weeks, including a Gastly Community Day and Pokemon Go Fest 2020. To promote the latter, Niantic teamed up with Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson to film a new Pokemon Go commercial.

In celebrating five years since its launch, developer Psyonix is hosting an anniversary event inside Rocket League. The event brings some limited-time modes and unique items for you to participate in and earn on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

The Fifth Anniversary Event started on June 30, which means one mode–Spike Rush–has already come and gone. However, the anniversary lasts for a full two weeks, meaning there are still two other LTMs you can play on all platforms. This includes the 2v2 Heatseeker mode, which runs until July 13, and the Redemption period (which allows you to earn any items you may have missed) that picks up immediately after and concludes on July 16.

In addition to the LTMs, you can head over to Rocket League’s Event Store to spend balloons that you accrue from online matches to purchase unique items such as antennas, toppers, wheels, and more. Golden Eggs, collectible items that contain unknown goodies, are back and now give you the chance to get items from the game’s Champions Series. You can check the images below to see the various earnable in-game items.

Further, whatever balloons you collect and don’t spend can be exchanged for XP packs to level up your Rocket Pass. The full list of Rocket League’s fifth anniversary LTM’s is outlined below.

• Spike Rush: June 30 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET – July 6 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET
• 2v2 Heatseeker: July 6 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET – July 13 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET (Event Ends)
• Redemption period: July 13 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET – July 16 at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET

GameSpot’s Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming–is ongoing. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.

Ubisoft Forward is set for this coming Sunday, July 12, at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET. The publisher event promises a look at upcoming titles like Watch Dogs Legion and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla along with “a few other surprises,” but you’ll also have an opportunity to claim a free game, Watch Dogs 2, during the event.

To claim Watch Dogs 2 for free on July 12, you’ll need to log into your Uplay account, which is free to create if you don’t have one yet. Ahead of the event that day, Ubisoft team members will kick off their pre-show by streaming Trackmania at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET, and Watch Dogs 2 will be free to claim right after the Trackmania playthrough. You’ll have until the end of the main show, which begins at noon PT / 3 PM ET and should last around 45 minutes, to claim your free copy. That’s a window of less than two hours, so you’ll want to be ready to claim the game that day.

If you’re interested in Watch Dogs Legion but have never played any Watch Dogs games, Watch Dogs 2 offers a great introduction to the stealth action-adventure series. Playing the first game isn’t necessary as Watch Dogs 2 stands on its own, although there are references and connections to the original. Before heading to post-Brexit London in Legion, you’ll be able to explore the San Francisco Bay Area in Watch Dogs 2, a large open-world setting you can traverse on foot or by using vehicles like cars, buses, and motorcycles. You’ll play as a young hacker named Marcus Holloway who has joined hacking group DedSec and is working to expose corruption and crimes committed by a technology company. The game also features both a co-op mode and competitive multiplayer modes such as Hacking Invasion, Bounty Hunter, and more.

Between PlayStation Plus, Games with Gold, Twitch Prime, and other services, there are a lot of free games available to claim right now beyond Watch Dogs 2, so check out our updated guide for the latest freebies.

The newest things to come to Destiny 2 are a new Exotic quest for Ruinous Effigy and the Moments of Triumph, the game’s yearly opportunity for players to show off their biggest achievements in the game and earn some flashy rewards. This year’s Moments comes with some major upcoming changes to the game, though–the removal of several destinations and their activities, which is set to happen with the Beyond Light expansion this fall. Since that includes a bunch of raid activities, the update makes them all much more rewarding.

Bungie detailed the changes in Update 2.9.1 on its blog, complete with full patch notes. It primarily sets the stage for Moments by altering how rewards get dished out in several raid activities. Usually, you can only run a raid one time per week on a given character and expect to get the best rewards. If you’re hunting the Exotic grenade launcher Anarchy in the Scourge of the Past raid, for instance, you would only have one shot at it each week on your Titan. You can increase your chances to three a week if you run the raid on all three characters, but once you’ve got those three completions, you’re stuck waiting for Destiny 2’s weekly reset on Tuesdays to try again.

That changes with the latest patch. Now you can “farm” those activities for their rewards as much as you want–meaning you can keep beating the Scourge of the Past until you finally get Anarchy, or any other reward you’re missing. The change applies to Scourge, which will leave Destiny 2 in the fall, and to all the raid activities that take place on the Leviathan location: the Leviathan raid itself, the Crown of Sorrows raid, and the two smaller raid lairs, Eater of Worlds and Spire of Stars.

Check out the full patch notes, and the rest of Destiny 2’s changes, below.

ACTIVITIES

Contact Public Event

• Fixed an issue where players could collect and deposit 15 motes prior to unlocking the Umbral Mastery II gift on the Prismatic Recaster.

Trials

• Increased Glimmer rewards in Trials of Osiris.

Nightmare Hunts

• Fixed an issue where Nightmare Hunts could grant more Season of Arrivals rewards than intended.

Raids

• The following raids no longer have weekly reward limits from main encounters:
  • Leviathan
  • Eater of Worlds
  • Spire of Stars
  • Crown of Sorrow
  • Scourge of the Past
• Note: Secret Chests will continue to have weekly lockouts
• All armor from the above listed Featured Raids has been updated to use the Season of Arrivals infusion cap.
• Last Wish and Garden of Salvation raid weapons and armor have been updated to use the Season of Arrivals infusion cap.

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GAMEPLAY AND INVESTMENT

Investment

• Fixed an issue where the Heavy Hitters Triumph was not properly tracking which Contact event bosses had been defeated.
• Fixed an issue where the Season of the Worthy Rank Stat Tracker was not appearing properly.

Pursuits

• Fixed an issue where players had the Guardian Games quest in their inventory well after Titans completely dominated the event.
  • Hunters are still pretty sad about it.
• Fixed an issue where there was inconsistent use of weapon and ammo types in High-Stakes Heist quest steps.
• Fixed an issue where Seraph weapons were not counting towards Sleeper Simulant catalyst quest progression.

Weapons

• Fixed a rare crash with Anarchy.
• Fixed an issue with Umbral Enhancements III that was preventing Cold Denial and Falling Guillotine from getting an additional trait.
• Fixed an issue with Vortex Frame Swords where the Heavy attack wasn’t ending properly over the network.
• Fixed an issue where various Season of Arrivals weapons are missing collections entries.

Armor

• Fixed an issue that was preventing Season of the Worthy Seasonal Armor Mods from having a chance to be purchasable on Banshee-44.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing players from purchasing the Unflinching Machine Gun mod from Banshee-44.

Other

• Added the ability for Season of Arrivals armor to use Charged with Light mods from Season of Dawn.
• Corrected some incorrect armor mod icons for several Season of Arrivals mods.
• Corrected incorrect perk descriptions for two Season of Arrivals mods–Reactive Pulse (formerly Font of Light) and Radiant Light–to correctly match their functionality.
• Added the Season of Arrivals mod socket to the pieces of the EDZ destination armor set that did not have them.
• The Unstoppable Pulse Rifles artifact mod will no longer cause non-Pulse Rifle damage to stagger Unstoppable Champions while aiming down sights of a Pulse Rifle.
• The Rival Warlock Ghost Shell from Guardian Games will now show Ghost Projections.
• Fixed an issue where the Unstoppable Pulse Rifle mod icon was displaying a Scout Rifle.
• Fixed a bug that affected aim assistance when shooting through Barricades using Citan’s Ramparts.

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UI/UX

Eververse

• The header for the Flair section of Eververse now displays the correct text.

Controller Remapping

• Updated the description for “Toggle Sprint.”

Xûr

• Updated description of Exotic Engrams on Xûr, as players may now purchase more than one on a given a week using an Exotic Cypher.

Subtitles

• Fixed an issue where subtitles for Season of Arrivals Drifter dialogue could misgender players as “brother” even when using female character.

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MISC.

General

• Adjusted Strike weekly bounty pool for the Seasonal focus.
• Scorn, Cabal, Vex, and Fallen variations should no longer appear during Season of Arrivals.
• Fixed an issue where the first sleeper node “CB.NAV/RUN.()Dynamo.Approach.Arch” was not appearing for players attempting to complete the Nascent Dawn Exotic quest.

Valorant just introduced competitive play back into the game with their 1.02 patch last week, and Riot has already rolled out a new update for the game. Patch 1.03 takes particular aim at the Guardian rifle, reducing its fire rate to be less useful in close-range situations, but increasing its penetration power to make it more viable as a long-range weapon. Its price was also decreased to 2500 credits from 2700.

The other changes to the game are relatively minor, but worth noting. Players will now be able to surrender during unranked matches with only 80% of their team (i.e. four out of five) voting yes. Competitive surrenders still require a unanimous vote, however. The patch also adds a new orb to the popular Spike Rush mode, which releases two wolves to track down your nearest enemies.

Valorant’s Twitter account seemed to tease a new set of skins today. While it’s impossible to know for sure, given this image’s dragon-esque appearance, it may correspond to the Dragon Collection, which was revealed in name only as part of a substantial leak of new skins several months ago.

Besides rolling out the game’s much-anticipated competitive mode, Patch 1.02 made significant changes to the way that some of Viper’s abilities work, since she’s currently considered to be fairly underpowered. The name of Valorant’s top competitive rank was changed from “Valorant” to “Radiant,” after fans petitioned Riot to make it a unique label.

Full patch notes below:

WEAPON UPDATES

Guardian

• Price reduced from 2700 >>> 2500
• Rate of Fire reduced from 6.5 >>> 4.75
• Penetration power increased from Medium >>> Heavy
• Input queue updated from 0.083 >>> 0.1175
  • Up until now, the Guardian has lived in a strange position in the arsenal. Price-wise, it remained close to the premium rifles while not adequately competing with their power, making it too pricey as an alternate economic option, but not powerful enough to be considered as a premiere weapon choice. Its fast fire rate made it more powerful in close range situations than we’d like, given our goals for the weapon’s long-range, precision shot fantasy, and—despite its semi-automatic, heavy-hitting firing style—it matched other rifles in terms of penetrating power. We hope these changes will sharpen the Guardian’s identity as a long-range, versatile weapon, with its heavy penetration values and lower price providing some more nuanced choice competition to the rifle category of the arsenal.

MAP UPDATES

Haven

• Removed spot where Spike was unable to be retrieved once dropped.

All Maps

• Fixed multiple spots where players were able to clip inside level geometry
• Removed more locations where Sova’s sensor arrow was able to go through walls

MODE UPDATES

Spike Rush

• New Orb: Twin Hunters
  • Capturing the orb releases two hunting wolves to track down the two nearest enemies (from orb location, they will not change targets after spawning).
    • Wolves speed up when they spot an enemy and dash at them when close, slowing and near-sighting for 4 seconds upon impact.
    • Wolves have 150 HP and can be damaged
    • Wolves will time out at 15 seconds, or when their target is killed

• Split: Orb Location
  • Mid defender side orb has been moved onto mid platform to make it slightly less defender favored

QUALITY OF LIFE

Surrender changes

• Unrated Mode vote requirements to pass changed from 100% to 80%
• Competitive Mode vote requirements to pass remains at 100%
• You can now call a surrender vote starting with round 5 versus round 8
• A new button in the in-game menu has been added to call a surrender vote
  • We know it can be at times challenging to get a surrender vote to pass given it has historically required an unanimous vote. For Unrated Mode , which is meant to be lower stakes than Competitive (no rank on the line), we have made adjustments so if the vast majority of the team wants to surrender (80%) they can now opt out of that match and find a fairer fight sooner.
  • For Competitive Mode we plan to keep the vote requirement as unanimous, because surrendering has an impact on your rank (all unplayed rounds count as loss credit), we want to make sure the team is in full agreement before a decision is made that will negatively impact a player’s rank. We’ve also slightly reduced the minimum rounds needed to be played so that if players have a particularly bad start, they can opt out of that match earlier.

• In the Collection screens, there is now a checkbox to toggle between showing all items or only owned ones (additional options and improvements for managing your collection will be coming in future patches)
• Fixed a bug where the mission “You or your ally plant/defuse spikes” sometimes did not take into account plants and defuses by allies
• Transition screens and startup screens are now letterboxed
• Fixed text overlap issues in the Battlepass and Contract screens in some languages
• Players in custom games with cheats enabled can select a different Agent to use on the next round in the cheats menu.
• Removing a friend will now prompt a confirmation dialogue
• Pressing Escape while typing in the chat box will clear the message
• Revised layout of confirmation dialogs to make primary action larger and always on the left; applied color in various places, like using red for destructive actions; revised the locations of some confirmation and cancel buttons for consistency
• Minor fixes for visual artifacts on Bind on Intel GPUs
• Minor render improvements for modern hardware
• Added an error popup for crashes on startup linking to troubleshooting guide for crashes
• Patch notes and payment windows will scale correctly on 4K monitors
• IME input on payment windows will now work correctly (Japanese/Chinese)
• Players can now view individual skin levels in the collections and store view
• Updates to censored hit impact effects for better readability
• Added Agent silhouettes for observers
• Improved render performance for silhouettes
• Agent health bars are now visible to observers
• Fulfilling a buy request while moving will no longer interrupt your movement
• Custom Games Tournament Mode:
  • Custom games can now be set to Tournament Mode. This allows every player in the game to have access to the Toggle Match Timer cheat in game without having all other cheats enabled. It also allows observers to be flagged as moderators, which grants them access to additional cheats that they can use as necessary. Regular observers cannot use cheats anymore.
  • We’ll be looking at expanding the list of moderator cheats in future patches.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed a Cypher bug where traps that were placed such that they were on the inside of a doorway, would not trigger when someone walked through them
• Fixed an issue with the Match Timer hitching under unstable network conditions
• Fixed an issue where players couldn’t jump off ascenders if jump was bound to the mousewheel
• Fixed some visual issues that could occur when reconnecting to the game while dead
• Fixed Barrier phase announcement showing up in normal games for observers
• Fixed various UI issues on observer scoreboard