Salutations, Quakers! In this December update we've got a whole lot of NEW: vicious new vanity items, new custom game options, and two new competitive modes! Plus, some map fixes and miscellaneous updates. Check out the full notes:

• Quake 2 CHAINFIST Gauntlet

• Quake 4 DARK MATTER GUN Rocket Launcher

• Quake Wars STROGG LIGHTNING PISTOL Lightning Gun

• CTF Tourney - 1-8 players, no bots. One-champion-limit-per-team, 5 second weapon respawn times, no breakables, no killer target cams, and no killer death HP stacks
  
• TDM Tourney - 1-8 players, no bots. One-champion-limit-per-team, 15 second weapon respawn times, no item timers, no breakables, no killer target cams, no killer death HP stacks, 10s->5s max forced respawns, and Friendly Fire (will initially test 50% damage).

• Force Champion (supports None, Mystery Champion, or a specific champion of your choosing)
  
• Starting Weapons
  
• Weapon Respawn Time
  
• Active Abilities (now also supports enabling them in modes where they weren't present)
  
• Refresh Ability on Spawn (cooldown reset when a player respawns)
  
• Max Health & Armor on Spawn
  
• Health & Armor Decay
  
• Self-Damage
  
• Instagib Weapons
  
• Instagib Abilities
  
• Infinite Ammo
  
• Enemy Knockback
  
• Friendly Fire
  
• Spawn Power-ups
  
• Spawn Health
  
• Spawn Armor
  
• Spawn Ammo
  
• Spawn Pickup Weapons

• Blood Run - Fixed an issue that could cause players to fall out of the map during warmup, reported in Clan Arena
  
• Vestibule of Exile - Fixed decal collision on HA and LG jumppads

• CTF - Increased the size of the flag pickup trigger, 0.5m to 0.8m radius
  
• CTF - Active abilities are now disabled when picking up the flag
  
• Pings on the Duel scoreboard are now colored green, yellow, or red based on connection quality
  
• Removed Mystery Champion game modes from Custom Game, as you can now enable it in any game mode using the new settings options

• Updated anti-cheat, resolved Daemon Tools compatibility issue

We've fixed some issues in today's hotfix, now live:

• Fixed a crash that could occur when another Keel player or a bot fires a grenade that explodes after bouncing and hitting no opponents
  
• Fixed Keel's grenade explosion from showing up at the map origin
  
• Fixed Keel grenade explosions not being visible when directly hitting players or when taking a direct hit from Keel's grenade
  
• Fixed Doom Slayer Berserk speed
  
• Fixed Athena's pull speed. Holding backwards will no longer cause her pull speed to be slower than intended
  
• Fixed double body collisions during Athena grapple body slams
  
• Fixed Athena's missing grapple flyby sound
  
• Fixed the ETF Rifle's fletchette nail visibility
  
• Fixed a hit beep bug when the damage dealt was exactly 25, 50, or 75
  
• Fixed errors from deprecated sound event sources
  
• Fixed gore blood FX particle emission source
  
• Fixed breakables FX generation
  
• Fixed Q4 RL explosion sounds
  
• Replaced pitching effects in projectile flyby sound events

• Anti-cheat updates
  
• Updated the AMD GPU Service Library
  
• Updated the D3D Compiler Library

We're at ground zero for Season 24, and there will be a reckoning with some brand new weapon vanities inspired by the Quake II Mission Packs! Check out the full notes for today's fall season update:

• Added the PHALANX PARTICLE CANNON Tri-bolt from Q2: The Reckoning

• Added the ETF RIFLE Super Nailgun from Q2: Ground Zero

• Added the ION RIPPER Rocket Launcher from Q2: The Reckoning

• Code optimizations for CPU & Memory
  
• Optimized sound events, reducing their CPU & Memory loads
  
• Optimizations to Tri-bolt water impacts
  
• Fixed two memory leak fixes
  
• Marked several effects as low priority and renamed the 'Weapon Effects' option in Adv Video to 'Low Priority FX'

• Improved the volume and mixing of the footstep and falling sounds
  
• Elevation sound balancing is now only for third-person steps and jumps
  
• Improved the firing sounds for the Freezegun (1st & 3rd) and the Disruptor Plasmagun (1st)
  
• Teammate Volume now defaults to 10
  
• Marked unnecessary first-person weapon sounds as ambient for Gauntlets, Q4 SNG, and Q2R Tri-bolt (PPC). These will now be affected by the Ambient Volume slider and from the silent-walking ambient stun.
  
• Project is back to 44.1k instead of 48k to address some mixer performance issues
  
• Resampled some of the legacy 22k sound sources to 44.1k
  
• Enemies once again have 3 pain sound ranges (1-25, 26-50, 51-75)
  
• Reduced the 1st person volume of Slash's skating sounds
  
• Reduced the chance of Anarki & Slash's long VO from playing

• Machinegun
  • Spread reduced from 0.02 to 0.01
• Shotgun
  • Is 16 pellets, rings of 1, 3, 5, 7 - 5 damage each. A total of 80 damage.
• Super Shotgun
  • Is also 16 pellets, rings of 1, 3, 5, 7 - 5 damage each. A total of 80 damage.
    
  • However, the SSG now gains bonus damage based on range. The range damage, is up to 40 additional points, bringing the total possible damage to 120. Full bonus granted within the first 5 meters and then falls off linearly until there is no range bonus at 10m.
• Shotgun & Super Shotgun
  • Falloff distance is 1 point of damage every 19.2m. Falloff is now greatly reduced due to the above changes.
    
  • Decreased nearspread from 0.6 to 0.25 m
• Nailgun
  • Damage increased from 12 to 15
• Super Nailgun
  • Damage increased from 15 to 20
• Nailgun & Super Nailgun
  • Nail projectile collision reverted to a point trace, for performance (and balance)
• Tri-bolt
  • Projectile collision reverted to a point trace, for performance
• Rocket Launcher
  • Reverted rocket projectile collision reverted to a point trace, for performance
• Lightning Gun
  • Damage increased from 6 to 7

• Clutch
  
  • Air-Dodge reduced from 9.02 to 8 m/s and to 7 m/s during shield usage
• DOOM Slayer
  
  • Berserk mechanics improved to make it more reliable, including hit detection and jump-punch physics
    
  • Can no longer double jump during Berserk

• Cursed Soul
  • Lighting improvements
    
  • Quad and Protection now swap locations each spawn
    
  • Fixed collision on sand patch at the top of the water well
    
  • Fixed a seam right of the doorway from the NG room to the MH room
    
  • Fixed a seam below the pillar at vista hallway
    
  • Fixed spectator camera orientations
    
  • Fixed entity visibility issue at dungeon staircase entrance
    
  • Fixed entity visibility issue at 2x25hp staircase
    
  • Improved collision at SNG pillars
    
  • Reworked the collision on the lava pillar ramp
    
  • Added an additional broken pillar at lava pillar ramp to better hint at the clipped wall
    
  • Fixed a seam in a doorway near upper crypt
    
  • Improved collision at stone to health jump in throne room
    
  • Improved collision at lava teleporter dropdown
    
  • Minor skybox updates
• Citadel
  
  • Fixed bots to getting stuck on the soul obelisk in Sacrifice
• Lockbox
  
  • Item layout changed a lot; have fun!
    
  • Trap updated, now deep and deadly

• Permanently unlock Ranked if you've ever reached Level 25
  
• Fixed on-screen FX during Picmip (so that they no longer get mipped), ex: sorlag spit, dk fire, health damage, ghostwalk fx
  
• Fixed Peeker drone HUD when using Picmip
  
• Fixed the missing Aquamarine shader for the Q2 Malediction Railgun
  
• Fixed Anarki Striker beard shaders

Salutations, Quakers! We're just TWO WEEKS AWAY from QuakeCon, and to celebrate we're releasing a brand new map in today's update: CURSED SOUL! Plus: a new QuakeCon bundle is available in the store, and we'll show you a sneak peek of a FREE reward coming August 5-12!

The ankh is a symbol of resurrection, and you'll be subjecting your opponents to a lot of respawning in this all new 8-player map!

Available for modes: TDM, DM, SAC, CTF, CA, IG, UHT, and I9.

• QuakeCon 2024 Nameplate & Profile Icon store bundle (available now!)
  
• QuakeCon Tri-Bolt - Free login reward available August 5-12

• Teammate Volume - Lowers or mutes your teammate's movement, VO, and shot sounds

• FMOD upgraded from 1.08.13 (2016) to 2.02 (latest stable)
  
• Improved sound quality, increased sample rate from 44.1 kHz to 48 kHz
  
• Increased max sound channels from 50 to 256 to address sounds cutting out
  
• Fixed Surround Sound support for 5.1 and 7.1
  
• Sounds above and below the player’s eye line now have distinct EQ balancing to make their vertical position discernible
  
• Optimized sound events for reduced CPU usage
  
• Fixed distance attenuation and occlusion for item pickup sound events
  
• Fixed Tri-bolt third person sounds from playing the incorrect vanity Tri-bolt sound set
  
• Removed the HRTF option in favor of the new audio system

• Shotguns updated for improved damage and consistency in close & mid-range fights. Pellet counts, spread, falloff all adjusted, but total damage and DPS unchanged.

• Crucible - Respawn locations reworked

• Fixed Tri-bolt third person FX for Sunrise 69

• Fixed anti-cheat compatibility issue with 2000-2010 era CPUs

Grab your sunscreen, Quakers, we're hitting the beach in Season 23 with some summer-themed vanities, including an all new weapon skin!

• Added JETSCREAM, a bubble gun vanity for the starting Nailgun

• Team Player Heads setting - Toggle the display of each team's player portraits at the top of the HUD in team games

• Updated Shotgun, increased near and far spread & damage falloff values

• Athena - Fixed cooldown HUD timings
  
• Clutch - Starting armor lowered from 100 to 75
  
• Scalebearer:
  
  • Fixed the crash in Ability FX when activating on jumppads
    
  • Re-activated the now working Bull Rush FX
    
  • Bull Rush damage lowered from 75 to 50 when moving below 400 ups

• Added Team Player Heads to the HUD in all team games
  
• Teammate Power-up Carriers (quad, protection, soul, flag) will now show up solid power-up colored when behind walls, so that you can easily find, track, and coordinate with your friendly power-up carrier
  
• Added new support to show on the Team Player Heads UI when a player has both Quad Damage and Protection (previously the Quad display would override the Protection display)
  
• Reduced power-up and weapon vertical pop-up when dropped

• Removed Spring Décor & Environment updates for Awoken, Deep Embrace, Ruins of Sarnath, and Tempest Shrine
  
• The Molten Falls - Added spawning platform to Mega Health spawn
  
• Tower of Koth (Duel/2v2) - Fixed spectator fixed camera positions that were located outside of the map

• Fixed a crash that could occur at the end of the match (right when the matchlimit hit)
  
• Fixed Announcer Volume, slider was missing from settings
  
• Fixed Scorelimit issues in Unholy Trinity (Announcer and medal placements were incorrectly based on fragcount at the end of the match instead of the score.)
  
• Fixed not being able to throw the soul in Sacrifice when someone was directly behind you, by lowering the soul's player collision radius from 0.8 to 0.3m
  
• Fixed potential for wrong first-person pain sounds from occurring when over 100 HP, or when playing a game mode with a base health above 100 HP, or when holding protection
  
• Added a cooldown for Champion VO to reduce overlap. (This does not include nor prevent pain sounds or low HP VO from triggering.)
  
• Fixed QPL Belt 2023 missing power-up & menu FX shaders
  
• Learn section updated with latest weapon changes

Time to spring forward into the Arena with an all new update! This update includes new vanity content; a spring decor makeover for Awoken, Deep Embrace, Ruins of Sarnath, and Tempest Shrine; and various other fresh updates for the springtime season!

• SPRING PODIUM
  
• Sorlag SPRING EGG Vanity
  
• Quake 4 SMC Squad icons (8)

The Tower of Koth has been reworked for Duel & 2v2:

• Resized the geometry to be 90% of its original size.
  
• Adjusted stair collision
  
• Added new spawn points
  
• Removed teleporter exit speed limits
  
• Adjusted collision on both sides of the green FX tower above SNG
  
• Adjusted positioning of a breakable mesh element behind the RL TP to prevent exploitation of totems (that may still be placed there)

• Added Hitbeep Volume
  
• Added Killbeep Volume

• Optimized the elapsed frame time tracking
  
• Fixed false positives events for minor frame drops
  
• Fixed non-functioning events for major frame drops
  
• Misc code cleanup for optimizations and reduced CPU overhead

• Switched trace style from spherical ray to a point trace (removing pellet radius)
  
• Reduced starting shotgun pellet count from 17 to 8
  
  • SG : 1 / - / 7 pellets
• Reduced super shotgun pellet count from 25 to 12
  
  • SSG: 1 / 4 / 7 pellets
• Increased damage per pellet from 5 dmg 10 dmg, total damage decreased from 85 to 80 for SG and from 125 to 120 for SSG
  
• Adjusted spread values to account for the new pellet size and count
  
• Damage falloff distance increased from 6.4 to 12.8 m (256 to 512u)
  
• Fixed SSG visual FX bug where it cycled between 2 & 3 rings (between the SG & SSG spread patterns) when holding fire
  
• The display of the shotgun hit FX are no longer delayed by one frame

• This 25 hp overstack item with a 15 second respawn has been changed to a 50 hp no overstack item with a 30 second respawn
  
• Bloom FX toned down, so was to not over-emphasize the item now that it no longer overstacks

• Fixed the LOD mesh at double-health double-cooldown hole

• Resized The Dark Zone to be 125% its original size, to give players more space
  
• Cleaned up geometry, removed unseen backfaces
  
• Improved lightmap texture density
  
• Optimized lightmap with video quality
  
• Fixed hole on ramp below Tri-bolt

• The Longest Yard - Fixed the size of the rock kill volumes
  
• The Longest Yard CTF - Fixed the size of the rock kill volumes

• Fixed UHT armor loadout (Example: Ranger should spawn 100 max armor points, not 50 starting ap nor 175 overmax ap)

• Made the Quake Champions main theme available to listen to in-game. Created by Chris Vrenna (Tweaker, Nine Inch Nails), our main theme is an amazing track and it is now available in-game, debuting as an alternative main menu music selection.

• Extra decimal in sensitivity settings
  
• Adjusted the performance icon thresholds for minor frame drops
  
• Assigned the Learn, Season Pass, and Challenges UI menu background cameras to new positions to address podium visibility issues
  
• Now use the blackghost shader of the customization pip previews for vanity items
  
• Fixed sizing of Eisen's FROSTED HAT vanity
  
• Fixed sizing of Eisen's LEATHER HAT vanity
  
• Fixed missing shard dismantle offer for Scalebearer’s CYAEGHA'S GAMBIT vanity
  
• Disabled voice chat while investigating MSS platform issues

Salutations Quakers!

We've released a new update for Quake Champions:

• BOW OF EROS - Valentine's Day Crossbow Railgun
  
• WINGS OF ANTEROS - Valentine's Day Cupid Wing vanities for all champions

• Skill Rank Reset & Ranked Event Challenges

• Midair: Fixed knockback
  
• Vale of Pnath: Disabled railgun ammo pickup

• Athena: Fixed ability HUD
  
• Eisen: Only regen up to 50 ap
  
• Galena: Fixed inactive totems clearing debuffs
  
• Scalebearer:
  
  • Bull Rush damage reduction improved from 50 to 60%
    
  • Forward accel max speed increased from 425 to 450 ups

• Shotguns:
  
  • Fixed a server-side damage validation issue that resulted in blood impacts but no damage dealt
    
  • Falloff distance reduced from 9.6 to 6.4m (384 to 256 u)
• Railgun: Increased starting ammo from 5 to 10 (10 starting, 10 max)

• Unholy Trinity:
  
  • Once again spawn Health and Armor pickups
    
  • Spawn players with starting HP instead of over max health and max AP instead of overmax armor.
    
  • Added damage bonus scoring system (+1 point for every 100 damage dealt)
    
  • Scorelimit increased to 250
    
  • Re-enabled blood pools
• Sacrifice:
  
  • Reduced the world collision radius of the soul (0.5m to 0.0125m)
    
  • Increased the player collision radius of the soul (0.5m to 0.8m)
• Clan Arena: Improved bot logic -- they will not stop fighting

• Champion platinum price reduced from 400 to 250
  
• Weapon platinum price reduced from 1000 to 500; shard price reduced from 500 to 250
  
• Vanity item platinum price reduced from 500 to 250
  
• XP Booster platinum price reduced from 300 to 250; shard price increased from 200 to 250, but extended from 3 days to 7 days
  
• Rename service platinum price reduced from 1000 to 500
  
• Holiday items are now available year round
  
• Fixed missing shard offer for Scalebearer's MILITARY ISSUE GUARD vanity

• Shortened length of explosion sounds from 5-6 seconds to 3 seconds in length
  
• Reduced the volume and duration of the rank down sound fx

• Fixed SCORPION Super Nailgun spectator crash
  
• Fixed SCORPION Super Nailgun quad firing & idle animations
  
• Fixed nvidia outdated driver issue in Linux
  
• Updated Scalebearer passive descriptions
  
• Updated Eisen passive descriptions
  
• Updated Galena passive descriptions
  
• Updated Visor passive descriptions
  
• Disabled in-game lore drops (available in Champion progression)
  
• Fixed Clutch SUPREME INTELLIGENCE top hat & monocle vanity when attached to the Pro League head

• Anti-cheat updates
  
• Updated encryption cert

Quakemas is (almost) here, and its wintry winds have blown in an all-new update!

• Winter Podium
  
• FROSTGORE Rocket Launcher
  
• Awoken Winter
  

• Added Ally Names & Enemy Names controls in HUD Settings

All Champions

• Updated hitboxes
  
• Cooldowns increased from 45 to 60 sec

Anarki

• Max speed reduced from 640 to 625 ups

Athena

• Grapple count from 2 to 3
  
• Swing damage from 25 to 20
  
• Rope break at 75 dmg
  
• Removed Stockpile passive
  
• Increased delay between grapple usages from 0.8 to 1 sec

Clutch

• Size scale reduced from 1.2 to 1.15x
  
• Reduced gear shift delay from 2nd to 3rd forward accel stage from 1.25 to 1.0 sec

Death Knight

• Reduced ability duration from 7 to 5 sec
  
• Reduced fireball speed from 800 to 666 ups

Eisen

• Added Armor Regen passive
  
• Fixed sinking turrets, so we no longer de-spawn turret after 1 minute

Galena

• Totem detonates when target is within 3m but damages up to a 4m range
  
• Slower health decay rate

Keel

• Splash damage reduction passive will no longer apply towards Telefrags
  
• Reduced grenade knockback from 100 to 50, to match 1:1 with their 50 dmg (self knockback unchanged)

Ranger

• Dire Orb touch damage reduced from 25 to 15 dmg

Scalebearer

• Forward Accel max speed reduced from 500 to 425 ups
  
• Forward Accel now uses ground friction
  
• Stomper damage capped at 25 dmg over 395 ups
  
• Bull Rush max speed reduced from 800 to 700 ups
  
• Bull Rush damage simplified to 75 dmg
  
• Bull Rush damage reduction reduced from 67 to 50%
  
• Bull Rush shoot delay increased from 0.2 to 0.4 sec

Slash

• Max speed reduced from 750 to 700 ups

Sorlag

• Reduced max speed from 625 to 600 ups

Visor

• Added a 10% speed boost during ability usage

Starting Machinegun

• Spread reduced from 0.03 to 0.02
  
• Damage reduced from 8 to 6
  
• Air Knockback lowered from 8 to 7 (to match the ground knockback)

Heavy Machinegun

• Spread reduced from 0.03 to 0.01
  
• Zoomed spread reduced from 0.009 to 0
  
• Unzoomed damage reduced from 10 to 9
  
• Air Knockback lowered from 8 to 7 (to match the ground knockback)

Starting Shotgun

• Reduced air knockback from 3.75 to 2.5 per pellet (to match the ground knockback)

Super Shotgun

• Reduced air knockback from 3.75 to 2.5 per pellet (to match the ground knockback)

Lightning Gun

• Use a point ray trace instead of cylinder radius

Railgun

• RG starting ammo reduced from 10 to 5
  
• RG max ammo reduced from 25 to 10
  
• RG low ammo warning reduced from 5 to 2
  
• Railgun - Air knockback reduced from 80 to 60 (to match the ground knockback)

• Increased the value of Armor Shards from 5 to 10 hp
  
• Reduced dropped shard count from 3 to 2
  
• Drop armor shards in a tighter circle

• Unholy Trinity - Spawn players max hp & max ap
  
• Unholy Trinity - No longer spawn or drop items
  
• Unholy Trinity - Blood pools are no longer active
  
• Sacrifice & Sac Tourney - Reduced soul extraction time from 3 to 2.5 sec

Blood Covenant

• Added railgun ammo to lower pillar cooldown ledge (new ammo in Duel and moved TDM ammo to this location)

Corrupted Keep

• Fixed exploit outside HMG bones

Crucible

• Fixed ledge collision exploit behind HA

Insomnia

• Duel layout for all modes
  
• Moved HA room cooldowns to near the MH LA ledge
  
• Moved HA room upper jump pad health to the HA room ledge
  
• Fixed brickslide wall collision near SNG
  
• Fixed power-up fx
  
• Fixed exploitative collision above HP stairs between LG & SNG

Ruins of Sarnath

• Fixed exploitative collision above HA jump pad

The Molten Falls

• Fixed exploitative collision above LG stairs
  
• Moved the cooldowns from SNG to mid-level door in the main courtyard
  
• Removed one cooldown from the banana bones

Vale of Pnath

• Fixed exploitative collision above RG
  
• Added RG ammo near the TP window
  
• Added RL ammo to the LG cave
  
• Added LG ammo to the HA mid-level
  
• Removed SG ammo from center tower
  
• Removed HMG ammo from TP window

Vestibule of Exile

• Updated some troublesome collision

• Fixed pain sound percentage issue in modes where max health is set to above 100
  
• Reduced pain sounds to two pain events, one below 50 hp and one below 25 hp
  
• We now use the previous 100 & 75 pain sounds to generate the 50 hp sound event, to give more separation clarity between the <50 and <25 pain sounds
  
• Increased the volume of the third person pain sounds, bringing them to the same db levels, and added a new low pain sound for DK that isn't just him saying "Ow!"
  
• Removed the delays in elements of the Love Shaft shot sounds
  
• Bots disabled in all Quick Play modes (this test is backend updates only & not build dependent)
  
• Fixed Scorpion SNG spectator crash
  
• Increased telefrag radius from 0.5 to 0.8 m (same as Dire Orb & Ghostwalk)
  
• Fixed on-screen acid in picmip
  
• Fixed TORMENTOR barrel fx during Ghostwalk
  
• Simplified Leaderboard data, to remove inaccurate or incomplete stat data
  
• Disabled Arena Kings leaderboard
  
• Defaulting to Direct Mouse Input
  
• Disabled Razer Chroma by default
  
• Reduced texture load for High and Ultra
  
• No longer selling reliquaries in the store (still available as login rewards)
  
• Fixed Warehouse loading screen

• Anti-cheat updates
  
• Fixed Linux/Proton direct input support