XDefiant Finally Gets a Major Overhaul for Weapon XP

Feedback from the June 18 update prompted XDefiant developer Ubisoft to announce an overhaul that will speed up weapon XP leveling and introduce more mastery changes.

Progression has been a thorn in the side of the burgeoning XDefiant community since its launch. In particular, players were unhappy with the difficulty related to XP and weapon mastery levels.

The June 18 patch made some adjustments in this regard, speeding up weapon upgrades on primary weapons, with the requirements decreasing from 3,500 to 3,000 XP. Secondary weapon requirements increased from 1500 to 1000 XP.

However, weapon mastery levels have been increased, requiring players to work harder and longer to unlock XDefiant's Bronze, Silver, and Gold skins.

This caused backlash from the community, forcing developers to reconsider their approach to weapon leveling across the board. As a result, improvements that speed up the processes behind XP and weapon mastery levels will go live soon.

The official XDefiant Twitter/X account confirmed this on June 21, noting that earning Weapon XP will soon be done twice as fast.

On primary weapons, increasing ranks will require 1,500 XP instead of 3,000. For secondary weapons, ranking will be done after 500 XP, compared to 1,000 currently.

The developers haven't said when XDefiant players can expect these highly coveted weapon XP changes to go live.

Executive producer Mark Rubin offered more information about the previous adjustments and the upcoming update on his personal social media page.

“The levels you need to unlock a mastery skin remain the same, but the net effect is that this will undo the change we made while still retaining the 14% speed increase.

“This means that unlocking attachments will be super fast, but quest for gold will be 14% faster than before the recent patch. This also means that everyone will benefit from a large increase from their current level.

Rubin further noted that because weapon mastery is the “core job” of XDefiant, the team was concerned that players would finish the job too quickly, thus making “the skins less special and less rewarding.”

This explains the controversial June 18 update, although Rubin admits it was a bad idea to overhaul the system when players had already invested time in progression.

“What we should have done is stay focused on the new challenges and challenges that we are working on,” he added.

At the time of writing, it's unclear if the new changes will arrive before XDefiant Season 1 begins on July 2.