THE FINALS Update 11.3.0 turns Team Deathmatch eliminations into dance-floor cash bonuses

THE FINALS is temporarily replacing conventional post-elimination celebrations with something more profitable through the return of Strike a Pose.

Update 11.3.0 brings the limited-time event back with a significant change to its original rules. Instead of connecting dance floors to Cashout objectives, the new version takes place in Team Deathmatch and creates a small performance area whenever a player eliminates an opponent.

Stepping onto the floor and using an Emote can award additional cash, turning one of THE FINALS’ purely expressive systems into part of the match economy.

The update also introduces the Marshal Meteor cosmetic set, a new collection of blue Twitch Drops for melee weapons and another cross-game reward linking THE FINALS with ARC Raiders.

Its balance changes concentrate heavily on correcting the consequences of Season 11’s melee overhaul. Dagger, Dual Blades, Riot Shield and Spear all receive improvements, while the FAMAS and BFR gain smaller damage buffs. Heavy’s C4 is receiving a substantial cooldown increase, and the KS-23 loses part of the damage granted at the start of the season.

Embark has also added the first version of an optional Damage Number display, improved bot behaviour, adjusted destruction across Kyoto and provided an update on Elytra, its internally developed anti-cheat system.

Update 11.3.0 is not another season launch, but it makes several targeted changes capable of altering how Lights, Mediums and Heavies approach the Arena.

Strike a Pose returns inside Team Deathmatch

The original Strike a Pose event was built around Cashout.

Dance floors appeared after important objective interactions, including opening a Vault, starting a Cashout, stealing one or completing the transfer. Players had a short opportunity to stand near the objective, activate an Emote and hold the pose long enough to generate bonus money for their team.

Update 11.3.0 moves the concept into Team Deathmatch.

Eliminating an opponent now creates a small dance floor at the scene of the kill. Players can enter the marked area and perform an Emote to receive additional cash.

The location change fundamentally alters the event.

A Cashout-based dance floor appears around an objective that both teams are already attempting to control. Players normally understand where the danger will come from and why opponents are converging on that location.

A Team Deathmatch dance floor can appear almost anywhere an elimination occurs.

It may spawn in an open street, a damaged building, an elevated position or a section of the Arena already occupied by several opponents. The player must decide whether the additional money is worth remaining near the elimination site instead of repositioning immediately.

Emoting becomes a tactical risk instead of a harmless celebration

Emotes normally have no direct effect on the result of a match.

They allow players to celebrate, taunt an opponent or create a memorable moment, but activating one during combat usually exposes the Contestant without providing a mechanical benefit.

Strike a Pose changes that relationship.

The Emote can now contribute to the team’s score, but performing it still requires the player to interrupt their normal movement and combat preparation.

That creates a visible trade-off.

Dancing immediately after an elimination may provide extra cash while the opposing team is disorganized. It may also give another enemy time to approach, reload or line up an uncontested shot.

The safest elimination does not automatically create the safest dance floor.

A long-range kill can leave the performance area far from the player who caused it. A close-range elimination may create the floor directly beside them but also place it in the middle of an active fight.

The event rewards teams capable of reading whether an engagement is actually over.

Team Deathmatch makes every elimination economically important

Standard Team Deathmatch already converts eliminations into money.

Strike a Pose adds another possible payout after the kill, increasing the value of controlling the space where an opponent was defeated.

This may encourage players to fight more deliberately around defensible rooms and enclosed areas. A team that secures an elimination inside controlled territory can potentially claim the dance bonus with less risk than one fighting in the middle of an exposed plaza.

The event may also reward coordinated protection.

One player can perform the Emote while teammates watch entrances and prevent the opposing side from interrupting the animation. The person who earned the elimination does not necessarily need to become isolated while claiming the reward.

Conversely, opponents may begin using the dance floor as bait.

A player rushing toward the bonus could enter a predictable position, giving the other team an opportunity to punish the celebration.

Strike a Pose remains a deliberately unserious event, but its Team Deathmatch implementation creates genuine tactical decisions.

Embark has not published the complete dance-floor formula

The Update 11.3.0 notes confirm that eliminating an opponent spawns a small dance floor and that using it provides extra cash.

They do not specify the exact amount awarded, how long the floor remains active or whether several teammates can claim a reward from the same elimination.

Players should therefore avoid assuming that every rule from the earlier Cashout version has transferred unchanged.

The original event required players to begin the Emote within a short window and maintain the pose for a minimum duration. It also allowed several members of the same team to contribute around one objective.

The Team Deathmatch version may use similar logic, but the new format needs to be tested according to its current in-game behaviour.

What has been confirmed is the essential relationship: get the elimination, find the dance floor and use an Emote before the opportunity disappears.

Strike a Pose fits Season 11’s improved Emote interface

Season 11 reorganized THE FINALS’ ping and communication wheels.

Emotes now occupy a single wheel, and players can assign a wider range of expressive actions to the dedicated Emote input.

That change makes the return of Strike a Pose more practical.

A player no longer needs to navigate through several overlapping customization wheels while standing in a dangerous position. The desired dance can be selected more quickly, reducing the time between securing the elimination and beginning the performance.

The event also gives players a reason to reconsider which Emotes they have equipped.

Shorter animations may be easier to activate safely, while elaborate dances create a stronger spectacle but may leave the Contestant exposed for longer.

Unless the event applies one fixed interaction duration independently of animation length, the visual choice could have a small practical consequence.

Marshal Meteor brings interplanetary law enforcement to Galaxy Estates

The principal Store addition is the Marshal Meteor Set.

Its theme presents the Contestant as a futuristic law officer assigned to patrol Galaxy Estates and maintain order across distant systems.

The costume fits the retro-futuristic direction of Season 11.

Galaxy Estates is a residential colony constructed inside an enormous space habitat. Its suburban homes, sports centre, botanical areas and commercial architecture reproduce an idealized version of domestic life while speed tunnels, anti-gravity columns and orbital infrastructure reveal that the entire community exists far beyond Earth.

Marshal Meteor imagines the kind of authority responsible for policing that environment.

The set’s presentation emphasizes cosmic jurisdiction: distance does not matter, and justice is expected to follow contestants between systems.

It complements the Arena without becoming another astronaut or industrial worker outfit. The Marshal is not discovering the colony or maintaining its machinery. They are patrolling the streets after the contestants begin destroying it.

Galaxy Estates continues receiving mechanical refinements

Update 11.3.0 includes several fixes and environmental adjustments for the Season 11 map.

The oxygen pods inside Cosmo Physique now have more mass, allowing their physics to behave more convincingly for objects of their size.

A Zipline issue between Orbital Homes and Cosmo Physique has been corrected. Players should no longer detach unexpectedly when interacting through a gap in the surrounding fence.

Embark has slightly adjusted the height of several tables to prevent Contestants from becoming snagged during movement. Doors in the upper Nova Villa building now open in a direction intended to improve movement around the glass-corner staircase.

Pools surrounding the central Eden Dome and Nova Villas have also been made shallower. Gadgets placed inside the water should now remain easier to identify.

Additional corrections prevent carriable objects from falling into the central planter and stop Meteor Shower projectiles from striking the out-of-bounds ceiling instead of reaching the playable Arena.

These are individually small revisions, but Galaxy Estates depends heavily on fast traversal. Minor collisions and inconsistent interactions can interrupt routes through a map designed around speed tunnels, vertical movement and rapid rotations.

C4 receives one of the update’s strongest nerfs

Heavy’s C4 cooldown has increased from 30 seconds to 45 seconds.

Embark identifies the gadget as a persistent outlier in both usage and win-rate data. Heavy is already performing strongly compared with Light and Medium, and the ability to deploy C4 several times during one Cashout fight has contributed to that advantage.

The change does not reduce the damage, explosion radius or structural destruction produced by each charge.

It reduces availability.

A Heavy can still use C4 to collapse a floor, move a Cashout Station, destroy cover or punish enemies attempting to hold an objective. However, using it early in a fight creates a longer period before another charge becomes available.

That should make the initial deployment more consequential.

A charge used only to create minor environmental damage may not return before the decisive steal attempt. Saving it too long can produce the opposite problem, leaving valuable utility unused while the fight develops.

The increase from 30 to 45 seconds represents a 50% longer cooldown, making it more than a minor adjustment.

Grappling Hook receives a cautious mobility buff

Light’s Grappling Hook cooldown has been reduced from seven seconds to six.

The specialization has struggled to compete with Light’s other options, but Embark is approaching buffs carefully.

Grappling Hook affects more than individual combat.

Reducing its cooldown too aggressively could alter the time required to rotate between objectives, allow one Light to separate repeatedly from the team or create traversal routes that other builds cannot realistically match.

The one-second reduction is therefore a controlled test.

It gives Grappling Hook users more frequent access to vertical movement, escapes and aggressive repositioning without redesigning the specialization or dramatically changing map pacing.

The buff should be most noticeable during extended fights.

A Light who uses the Hook to enter an engagement may now regain it slightly earlier, creating another opportunity to reach a roof, cross an exposed area or escape after taking damage.

The BFR receives a small but potentially meaningful damage increase

BFR damage rises from 88 to 90.

Embark describes the weapon as underperforming relative to most other Heavy choices.

The two-point increase looks minor, but weapon balance is often determined by health thresholds and the number of successful hits required to eliminate each body type.

A small damage change can reduce the amount of follow-up damage needed after several shots or improve the consistency of finishing an already injured opponent.

It does not transform the BFR into a completely different weapon.

Its fire rate, handling and effective range remain central to its performance. The adjustment is intended to move it closer to Heavy’s stronger alternatives rather than place it immediately above them.

Dagger becomes better at reaching and registering targets

Dagger’s primary and secondary lunge distance has increased from 4.5 metres to five.

Maximum lunge speed has also been raised slightly, and the sweep duration of the secondary attack has been extended to make backstabs more reliable at the maximum distance.

These changes address a specific problem created by Season 11’s melee overhaul.

The Dagger depends on reaching the opponent’s back and accurately connecting its secondary attack. When the lunge fails to close enough distance or the sweep ends before crossing the target’s valid hit area, the weapon loses the reward intended for its high-risk positioning.

Increasing the reach should help users attach to moving targets more consistently.

The longer sweep window is equally important. A player may begin the attack from a valid angle but lose the backstab because both Contestants continue moving during the animation.

The buff does not make the Dagger easier to use in every situation.

Approaching without being detected, avoiding ranged damage and finding the correct angle remain necessary. It should make successful positioning translate into damage more reliably.

Dual Blades recover part of the aggression lost in Season 11

Dual Blades receive several adjustments.

Their Precision zone angle increases from eight to nine degrees, making precise strikes slightly easier to land.

Primary lunge distance returns from 4.5 metres to five, supported by a small increase in maximum lunge speed.

Cross Slash now lunges forward whenever the player has full stamina, even without a forward movement input. Previously, remaining stationary could prevent the lunge from activating as expected.

Movement speed while maintaining the Deflect stance has also increased by 25%.

Embark acknowledges that some of the reductions introduced with Update 11.0 were too severe. Dual Blades are intended to be Medium’s aggressive melee option, capable of advancing into an engagement and maintaining pressure.

The new patch does not completely restore their pre-rework behaviour. It partially returns the mobility needed for that role while preserving the new stamina, precision and defensive systems.

Deflect should feel less restrictive without becoming full-speed protection

Season 11 reduced movement speed during Dual Blades’ Deflect stance by 50%.

Update 11.3.0 returns part of that lost speed.

The player remains slower while deflecting than during normal movement, but the stance should no longer feel as immobilizing.

That distinction is necessary because Deflect combines defence with potential damage redirection. Allowing a player to move at full speed while neutralizing incoming fire could make the weapon extremely difficult to punish.

Reducing movement too heavily creates the opposite problem.

The user becomes a predictable target who can be surrounded, ignored or attacked from angles the blades cannot cover.

The new value attempts to maintain a meaningful commitment while allowing the Dual Blades player to continue advancing or adjusting position.

FAMAS damage rises from 23 to 24

The FAMAS receives a one-point increase in per-shot damage.

Like the BFR, it has been performing below a tightly grouped selection of alternatives available to its archetype.

Burst-fire weapons are particularly sensitive to individual damage values because every trigger pull distributes several projectiles across one short sequence.

A one-point increase per bullet becomes a larger improvement when an entire burst lands.

The change rewards accurate tracking and burst placement without modifying the weapon’s recoil, cadence or magazine behaviour.

Players who consistently connect partial bursts may notice less difference than those capable of placing every shot on the same target.

The KS-23 loses part of its Season 11 buff

KS-23 damage has been reduced from 110 to 104.

Its maximum-range damage is being preserved through a change to the falloff multiplier, which increases from 0.64 to 0.675.

Update 11.0 raised the shotgun’s base damage from 100 to 110 because Embark believed the weapon’s combat performance remained too low despite its environmental utility.

Live data showed that 110 was excessive.

The new value does not fully reverse the earlier buff. Embark still considers the pre-Season 11 version underpowered and is attempting to find a middle position.

Reducing damage to 104 breaks some close-range combination thresholds and lowers the weapon’s overall damage per second. At maximum falloff distance, its damage should remain broadly consistent with the previous version.

The KS-23 therefore loses part of its close-range lethality while preserving more of its ranged performance and structural utility.

Riot Shield is being reinforced as Medium’s defensive melee weapon

Riot Shield receives a larger Precision zone, increased lunge distance and one additional point of precise-hit damage.

Its Precision angle expands from nine to ten degrees, while the primary lunge increases from 4.25 metres to five.

Precise primary damage rises from 82 to 83.

Shield Bash will now lunge forward at full stamina even when the player is stationary, matching the reliability improvement applied to Dual Blades’ Cross Slash.

Embark is not attempting to turn Riot Shield into another aggressive melee weapon.

The developer’s stated objective is to separate Medium’s two options clearly. Dual Blades should push forward and brawl. Riot Shield should absorb pressure, stall opponents and anchor objective fights.

The buffs improve the Shield’s ability to connect when it does attack, but its principal value remains defensive control.

One point of Riot Shield damage changes an important threshold

The increase from 82 to 83 appears almost negligible until repeated hits are considered.

Three precise attacks at 82 damage produce 246 damage. At 83, the same sequence reaches 249.

The exact practical effect depends on target health, previous damage and whether every strike registers as precise rather than glancing.

Embark’s intention is not to give the Shield a major damage increase. It is refining the breakpoints while restoring some consistency lost through the rework.

The larger lunge and Precision zone may ultimately matter more than the numerical damage change because they determine whether the attack connects with its higher value at all.

Spear receives the patch’s most substantial melee damage buffs

Spear’s precise primary damage increases from 74 to 82.

Base primary damage rises from 55 to 57.

The secondary three-swing sequence changes from 75, 100 and 125 damage to 75, 125 and 150.

The final two strikes therefore receive significant improvements, particularly the concluding attack.

Embark states that the Season 11 reductions were more severe than intended.

The new values restore much of the weapon’s ability to punish opponents who remain within the full secondary sequence. Reaching the third swing now produces a considerably stronger result, but the user still needs enough control and survival time to complete the animation.

The buff should make Spear more threatening in crowded objective fights, where several enemies may remain within the weapon’s sweeping range.

It can also make interrupting the sequence more important. Allowing a Spear user to reach the final swing now carries a larger cost.

Season 11’s melee rework is still being actively recalibrated

Update 11.0 rebuilt melee around stamina, precision zones, defensive stances, lunges and new follow-up attacks.

Such a large systemic revision could not be balanced entirely through internal testing.

Real matches expose interactions across different skill levels, network conditions, maps and modes. A lunge distance that feels sufficient in a controlled environment may fail against players changing direction unpredictably. A defensive movement penalty may become more restrictive once several enemies begin attacking from different angles.

Update 11.3.0 is the first broad correction after observing those systems at scale.

Most changes do not abandon the rework’s philosophy. They increase reliability and restore part of the power removed too aggressively.

Dual Blades remain aggressive. Riot Shield remains defensive. Dagger still depends on backstabs, and Spear still rewards completing wider attack sequences.

Embark is adjusting how effectively each weapon performs its intended role.

Optional Damage Numbers provide clearer combat feedback

Update 11.3.0 introduces the first iteration of a Damage Number system.

When enabled, the amount of damage dealt appears beside the opponent’s health bar.

Players can disable the feature through the settings.

This provides immediate confirmation of how much damage an attack produced without requiring external calculations or relying only on the visual reduction of the health bar.

The system should be particularly useful after a balance patch.

BFR, FAMAS, KS-23, Riot Shield and Spear users can see the result of the new values directly. Melee players can also distinguish precise strikes from lower-damage glancing hits more easily.

Damage Numbers may improve learning for newer players, but they also add another visual element to already busy encounters.

Making the system optional allows players to choose between additional information and a cleaner interface.

Bots now react more intelligently to combat

Season 11 introduced Cashout matches against AI opponents as part of THE FINALS’ revised onboarding experience.

Update 11.3.0 improves several parts of their behaviour.

Bots now become aware when they take damage, making them more responsive to attackers. Their movement around targets has been smoothed, and they should maintain avoidance behaviour even while technically idle.

They will spread between objectives and interactable objects instead of crowding the same target.

Bots should also stop firing indefinitely at Explosive Mines they cannot destroy and select another target instead.

These changes address behaviour that can make AI opponents appear broken rather than inexperienced.

Cashout Bots are intended to teach the structure of the mode. For that training to be useful, enemies need to move, react and contest objectives in ways that resemble human decisions closely enough to establish transferable habits.

Point Break now resolves timeouts correctly

Point Break rounds reaching the time limit will now end with a defender victory.

Previously, the round could conclude abruptly without resolving the result properly.

The correction formalizes the objective logic.

Attackers need to complete their phase before time expires. If they fail, defenders have successfully prevented the objective and should receive the win.

The update also fixes a Power Shift spawn issue on Kyoto that could place members of the bamboo-forest team in different starting locations.

Kyoto’s buildings are becoming more structurally consistent

Embark has increased the sturdiness of most buildings across Kyoto.

The objective is more consistent destruction rather than eliminating destruction itself.

Kyoto contains large traditional structures composed of numerous connected pieces. Damage to one section can sometimes trigger a collapse far beyond what players expected from the original impact.

Increasing sturdiness should make the relationship between damage and structural failure easier to read.

Buildings can still be destroyed, but one damaged point should be less likely to produce an excessive chain reaction that removes a much larger section of the Arena unexpectedly.

Seoul receives a related fix preventing one damaged apartment stairwell from causing an unusually large collapse.

Social and party systems receive practical corrections

Club members should once again be able to join a same-club player’s party when Open to Join is enabled.

Setting an account to Show as Offline now hides party size correctly and should no longer cause the displayed status to flicker when Open to Join is changed.

Removing a teammate from the party now immediately removes that person from squad voice chat.

Invitations and Join Their Party options are disabled once matchmaking has found a session. Players already inside another match or queue will also appear unavailable.

These restrictions are designed to prevent players from entering a match alone or becoming separated from the party because someone accepted an invitation during the transition into a session.

Voice-chat speaking indicators have also been improved across the HUD, Friends, Team and Squad screens.

The controller interface receives several important fixes

Opening the Equipment Wheel and Ping Wheel simultaneously could previously gray out the interface and prevent controller users from selecting weapons or gadgets.

Update 11.3.0 corrects that issue.

A progress bar has also been added when remotely picking up objects with a controller, making the interaction easier to follow.

Quick Melee kicks should now activate correctly when Melee Aim Assist is disabled, while normal Quick Melee attacks should no longer apply the knockback intended exclusively for the stamina-based kick.

These changes are important because Season 11 increased the number of contextual melee and communication actions players must manage during combat.

An interface failure can be more damaging than a small balance problem when it temporarily removes access to the entire loadout.

Showtime Blue Twitch Drops reward melee players

A new Twitch campaign is available until August 13, 2026.

Watching any THE FINALS stream with Drops enabled for one hour unlocks the Showtime Blue Spear.

Two hours unlock the Showtime Blue Dual Blades.

Four hours unlock the Showtime Blue Sword.

The complete reward set focuses entirely on melee weapons, matching a season built around the reworked close-combat system.

Players need to connect the relevant Twitch and Embark accounts before claiming the rewards. As with other campaigns, viewing time normally accumulates only while watching an eligible channel with Drops active.

The three milestones are cumulative, so reaching the four-hour requirement should provide the earlier rewards as well.

Playing ARC Raiders can unlock the Azimuth Set

Embark is reversing the direction of its cross-game promotion between THE FINALS and ARC Raiders.

Season 11 initially allowed players to complete Contracts in THE FINALS and obtain the Azimuth Outfit inside ARC Raiders.

Update 11.3.0 introduces an Azimuth Set for THE FINALS that can be unlocked by playing ARC Raiders and confronting the ARC.

Both games need to be connected through the same Embark ID for cross-game reward delivery.

Embark warns that the reward can take up to 24 hours to appear after the relevant requirements have been completed.

The collaboration reinforces the relationship between the studio’s two universes without making the reward a direct Store purchase.

Galaxy Estates joins the final competitive cycle

Update 11.3.0 also confirms that Galaxy Estates is joining the competitive map pool for Cycle 4 of the 2026 online series.

Cycle 4 is the final regional cycle before The Grand Major.

The team holding the most series points in each region after that cycle receives a direct invitation to the event. Other competitors must qualify through the longer route.

Adding Galaxy Estates forces professional teams to prepare for the movement systems and destruction patterns of Season 11’s newest Arena.

Its speed tunnel, anti-gravity columns and large open spaces can change rotation timing significantly compared with older maps.

Elytra remains in limited anti-cheat testing

Embark has addressed player confusion surrounding Elytra, its new internally developed anti-cheat solution associated with the fictional VAIIYA Corporation.

Elytra is currently being tested with a limited group of selected players and technology partners, including NVIDIA GeForce NOW and Microsoft.

For most users, the service may already be installed or visible in the background but is not yet actively enforcing anti-cheat protections.

That distinction explains why some players have discovered references to Elytra without seeing an official full deployment announcement.

Embark plans to improve how the service reports its status so users can understand whether enforcement is active on their system.

The studio is targeting Update 11.6 to begin expanding the rollout, although the schedule may change according to testing results.

Elytra should therefore not be treated as fully operational across the complete player base after Update 11.3.0.

Update 11.3.0 is a correction pass disguised as a dance party

Strike a Pose provides the update’s most visible identity.

It gives Team Deathmatch a temporary scoring variation, rewards players willing to celebrate in dangerous locations and turns equipped Emotes into something more than cosmetic expression.

Underneath the dance-floor presentation, however, Update 11.3.0 is primarily about correcting Season 11.

C4 is being restrained after remaining too influential across Heavy loadouts. Grappling Hook receives a careful mobility improvement. BFR and FAMAS are pushed toward greater relevance, while the KS-23 is pulled back from an excessive buff.

The melee system receives the largest recalibration.

Dagger can reach targets more reliably. Dual Blades regain part of their forward pressure. Riot Shield becomes more consistent without abandoning its defensive role, and Spear recovers a substantial portion of its damage.

Damage Numbers make those adjustments easier to understand in real time, while improved bots, social fixes, map revisions and controller corrections remove several sources of friction surrounding the new season.

THE FINALS Update 11.3.0 is available now.

Get the elimination, secure the area and strike a pose before the opposing team turns the dance floor into another demolition site. More information here.