THE FINALS Rebuilds Its HUD and Menus for PRIME TIME — and This Time Players Can Customize Them

THE FINALS is changing more than its Arenas when PRIME TIME begins. Embark Studios has revealed the game's full HUD and UI rework ahead of the October 20 launch, redesigning both the information players see during a match and the menus they use outside one — with customization playing a central role in the overhaul.

The latest PRIME TIME preview is presented by UX Director Linda Hovde and focuses less on adding another weapon, gadget or Arena than on something players interact with during virtually every second of THE FINALS. Combat information has been reorganized for faster readability, the HUD can be scaled, ultrawide displays have been considered, menus have been restructured and a new side panel introduces quicker access to frequently used information and settings.

And, as Embark emphasizes during the presentation, “the best part: it's customizable.”

PRIME TIME is rebuilding the layer between players and the Arena

A HUD rework can sound relatively minor next to new weapons or destruction technology, but THE FINALS is a particularly demanding game for interface design.

Players simultaneously need to follow their own health, abilities and ammunition while tracking teammates, objectives, Cashouts, enemy teams, respawn states and match timers. All of that information sits on top of environments where entire buildings can collapse while the fight is still happening.

PRIME TIME is making those environments even more complicated.

Embark has already confirmed that October 20 will introduce its most significant destruction overhaul since launch. Structures will be able to remain partially attached instead of simply switching between intact and destroyed states, floors can sag, walls can lean, suspended pieces can swing, debris can form new playable surfaces and explosions can trigger chain reactions through surrounding structures. Smoke is also becoming dynamic and capable of responding to physical forces.

That makes visual communication more important, not less.

Embark says it has been working on clearer visual cues throughout PRIME TIME so players can better understand what is happening around them and react before environmental changes become dangerous. The redesigned HUD fits directly into that same philosophy: more information is happening in the Arena, so the interface needs to become easier to parse under pressure.

The new HUD is built around mid-fight legibility

One of Embark's stated priorities is preventing important information from becoming too small or difficult to catch during combat.

The redesigned HUD uses a stronger holographic presentation and reorganizes several of its core elements while keeping the overall visual language recognizable as THE FINALS. Health, team information, combat feedback and other indicators are being presented more deliberately instead of relying on players to extract small pieces of text while bullets, explosions and collapsing architecture compete for their attention.

It is not simply an aesthetic exercise.

In a slower game, looking away from the centre of the screen for an extra second may be relatively harmless. In THE FINALS, that second can contain a Cloaking Device activation, a Heavy crashing through a wall, a Cashout steal beginning or half the floor disappearing underneath the player.

Legibility therefore becomes a mechanical concern.

The new interface is attempting to reduce the amount of effort required to interpret those situations without removing the exaggerated game-show presentation that has defined THE FINALS since launch.

Whether every part of the new visual treatment succeeds will ultimately depend on using it in an actual match, but Embark's objective is clear: information that matters during combat should be easier to identify immediately.

HUD scaling finally gives players more control over that presentation

The more consequential part of the overhaul may be that Embark is not forcing one exact HUD configuration on everyone.

PRIME TIME introduces HUD scaling options, allowing players to adjust the size of interface elements according to their display and personal preference. The redesign has also been developed with ultrawide aspect ratios in mind.

That solves two different problems.

Players sitting relatively far from a television may prefer substantially larger information than somebody using a monitor directly in front of them. Ultrawide users, meanwhile, have different usable screen space from somebody playing at a conventional 16:9 resolution.

A competitive HUD that ignores those differences inevitably works better for some setups than others.

Giving players control over scale also reduces the risk inherent in a major redesign. Someone who wants a more prominent interface can increase it, while a player who values a less intrusive view of the Arena can take the opposite approach.

Embark has not presented PRIME TIME as a completely freeform HUD editor where individual components can necessarily be dragged anywhere on screen. The confirmed customization is more structured than that, so it would be premature to assume every element can be independently repositioned or recolored.

But the principle is significant: the new HUD is designed to adapt to the player rather than expecting every player to adapt to one fixed layout.

Quick Settings could be one of the most useful changes in practice

PRIME TIME is also introducing a new side panel designed to reduce how often players disappear into full-screen menus.

The panel keeps the match visible while exposing useful information and shortcuts, including a Quick Settings section for frequently adjusted options such as volume, graphics quality and sensitivity. Players can choose which settings appear there, effectively creating their own shortlist instead of repeatedly navigating through the complete settings structure.

That sounds mundane until it is considered in the middle of a live match.

Adjusting microphone or game volume, changing sensitivity or modifying a visual option currently means stepping away from the action and navigating several layers of interface. THE FINALS does not pause while that happens.

A persistent side panel shortens that process substantially.

The customization matters here too. Different players change different things frequently, and a fixed Quick Settings menu would simply replace one navigation problem with another. Letting the user decide which controls deserve immediate access makes the feature substantially more useful.

It is a UX improvement rather than a new gameplay mechanic, but those are exactly the kinds of changes that become valuable hundreds of matches later.

The main menu is being reorganized as aggressively as the HUD

The redesign continues outside the Arena.

THE FINALS' main menu has been decluttered and reorganized around the actions players use most frequently, with Embark also reconsidering navigation across both PC and console. Instead of layering new features onto the existing structure indefinitely, PRIME TIME introduces a cleaner hierarchy intended to make important destinations easier to find.

This has become increasingly necessary as THE FINALS has expanded.

The game that launched in December 2023 had considerably fewer systems competing for menu space. Since then Embark has added Sponsors, World Tour, Clubs, additional progression systems, events, new customization categories, Academy content and other persistent features.

Live-service interfaces have a tendency to accumulate rather than evolve. Each new feature receives another tab, button or sub-menu until a structure that originally made sense becomes difficult to navigate.

PRIME TIME appears to be Embark's attempt to avoid that outcome before another year of systems is placed on top of the existing UI.

The redesign also arrives alongside a larger rework of the game-show presentation itself. Embark has already said contestant, team and Arena introductions are changing, while Sponsors are being transformed into a more fundamental part of the player's identity rather than remaining a comparatively passive progression choice.

So the new menu is not being created in isolation. It needs to support a version of THE FINALS whose metagame structure is also changing.

PRIME TIME wants the interface to feel like part of the fictional game show

THE FINALS has always had an unusual UI problem because its interface exists somewhere between conventional shooter information and fiction.

Matches are presented as a virtual competitive game show. Contestants are effectively participants inside an entertainment product, Sponsors influence the surrounding world and much of the visual presentation deliberately resembles broadcast graphics.

That means Embark cannot simply pursue minimalism.

A perfectly clean competitive HUD could technically improve readability while simultaneously stripping away part of what makes THE FINALS recognizable.

The PRIME TIME redesign instead pushes several interface elements toward a more holographic, digital appearance. Combat information still looks like something being projected into the contestant's virtual environment rather than a completely detached overlay.

That direction also aligns with Embark's broader plans for Season 12.

Executive Producer Christian Aarsrud has described PRIME TIME as a major step in strengthening the presentation of the game show itself. Sponsors will become more closely tied to contestant identity, Arena introductions are being reworked and each classic Arena will receive stronger sponsor-specific branding, colours and visual character.

The UI therefore has to connect those systems.

It is not only telling players where to click. It is part of how THE FINALS sells the idea that everything — menus included — belongs to an enormous televised competition.

Not every player is convinced by the new visual direction

The early response also demonstrates why interface redesigns are difficult.

While features such as HUD scaling and configurable Quick Settings have been received positively in community discussion, some players have criticized the redesigned main menu for looking more conventional than THE FINALS' existing interface. Others have questioned the stronger blue glow surrounding HUD elements, arguing that an effect intended to separate information from the environment could itself reduce clarity.

Those concerns are subjective, but they highlight a genuine design tension.

The current interface has accumulated problems as THE FINALS has expanded, yet it also has a distinctive visual identity. Simplifying navigation risks making it resemble the standardized tile-and-panel layouts used by many other multiplayer games.

Conversely, preserving every unusual stylistic choice would limit Embark's ability to improve navigation and accessibility.

PRIME TIME is attempting to balance those priorities rather than simply reskinning the existing menu.

The customizable elements should help with some concerns, particularly scale, but Embark has not confirmed that every visual characteristic shown in the preview — including glow, opacity, colours or every individual information component — can be independently altered.

Those distinctions will matter once the complete update is available on October 20.

The preview may contain clues about balance changes, but they are not confirmation

Sharp-eyed players have also been examining the new HUD for information Embark may not have intended to make the focus of the video.

Community analysis has pointed to health-bar segmentation apparently consistent with the experimental Respec Order 3.0 values recently tested for Light and Heavy contestants. That experiment increased Light health from 150 to 175 while reducing Heavy health from 350 to 325, alongside movement and regeneration adjustments.

The footage has therefore generated speculation that at least some of those values could become permanent with PRIME TIME.

That should currently remain exactly that: speculation.

Embark has not used the HUD reveal to formally announce permanent Light or Heavy health changes, and the studio has already said that PRIME TIME contains broader balance work that will be detailed separately. A number visible in pre-release footage is not equivalent to final patch notes.

The UI reveal should consequently be treated as confirmation of the interface overhaul, not as a substitute for the Season 12 balance documentation.

The HUD is only one piece of a much larger October 20 rebuild

PRIME TIME is increasingly looking less like an ordinary content drop and more like a systemic refresh of THE FINALS.

The official roadmap currently lists The Infiltrator, a new Light Playstyle using the True Sight Specialization, Mimic Device and Translocator; an additional new mode; the new Sponsor Journey; reworked match presentation; redesigned classic Arenas; the full HUD and UI overhaul; major destruction changes; dynamic smoke; performance improvements; balance updates and a footstep audio rework.

Embark has explained why.

Instead of treating each 2026 season as an isolated three-month production cycle, the studio planned much of the year around a larger objective: improve the existing game and invest in systems too extensive to fit comfortably inside a conventional seasonal update. PRIME TIME is where much of that longer-term work finally converges.

That context makes the HUD rework more significant.

It is not an isolated visual refresh inserted between seasons. It belongs to the same project that is revisiting destruction, Arenas, Sponsors, match presentation and fundamental readability across the game.

Nearly three years after launch, Embark is effectively reconsidering how THE FINALS communicates with the player from the moment they enter the menu until the moment an entire building collapses around them.

A better interface matters precisely because players should eventually stop noticing it

The strange thing about good HUD design is that success often makes it less noticeable.

Players should know their health without consciously searching for it. They should understand whether a teammate is available, where the objective is and what just happened in a firefight without spending valuable attention deciphering the interface.

The same applies outside matches. Starting another game, changing a setting or reaching a frequently used system should not require remembering where Embark placed another submenu several seasons ago.

That appears to be the philosophy behind PRIME TIME's overhaul.

THE FINALS is keeping its game-show identity, but Embark wants the information underneath it to become faster to read, easier to navigate and more adaptable to different players and displays.

Whether the new visual direction proves more popular than the old one will only become clear after players spend time with it. Interface familiarity is powerful, and any substantial redesign can initially feel wrong simply because years of muscle memory no longer apply.

But this is considerably more than a new coat of blue paint.

HUD scaling, ultrawide consideration, configurable Quick Settings, a persistent side panel and a reorganized menu structure all address practical UX problems that have accumulated as THE FINALS itself has grown.

The redesigned HUD and UI arrive with THE FINALS: PRIME TIME on October 20, 2026, alongside the wider Season 12 overhaul.