The Marvel’s Avengers video game received a rather significant update today on Xbox One and Xbox Series X console families, Windows PCs, and Sony’s PlayStation consoles.
This update, officially referred to as Patch 2.3, primarily focuses on improving the gameplay experience for new and experienced players and also fixes a massive number of bugs. One of the more noteworthy changes has been the way rewards are triggered during raids.
Here’s the part from the patch notes that detail how the new reward system works:
Checkpoint Rewards for the Discordant Sound Raid
We have changed the setup of rewards to drop from major encounters in the Raid, rather than all at the end. There are now four instances in the Raid that will award Gear.
Normal Raid
- Sonic Wall – Discordant Gear (Defense/Heroic Slot) *Power level Increase
- Forge/Control Room (which is completed first) – Discordant Minor Artifact *Power level Increase
- First Klaw Fight – Discordant Minor Artifact
- Final Klaw Fight – Discordant Gear (Melee/Ranged Slot) *Power level Increase
Elite Raid
- Sonic Wall – Discordant Minor Artifact *Power level Increase
- Forge/Control Room (whichever is completed first) – Elite Discordant Gear (Defense/Heroic Slot) *Power level Increase
- First Klaw Fight – Discordant Minor Artifact *Power level Increase
- Final Klaw Fight – Elite Discordant Gear (Melee/Ranged Slot) *Power level Increase
- We have added Units as a reward to both the Mission Chain and the Mission itself. This means you will earn 1,000 Units when you complete it the first time per week, and 500 Units for each subsequent completion.
- The mission Exotic remains the same.
- The normal Raid will drop an additional Klaw Minor Artifact (though it will not improve your Power Level). We are still looking at improving the subsequent rewards and will update you when we have that plan finalized.
- The new Mission Chain panel lists the order and what encounter gives you Gear.
Vault/Villain Sector Rewards
- Vaults no longer need coordinates and can be picked up from the SHIELD Faction mission giver. One weekly Elite Vault and Villain Sector will also be a part of the weekly updates.
- Vault and Villain Missions will always stay on the War Table, and their rewards now have a chance to drop the Exotic variants of their sets. Completing the daily and weekly Mission Chains gives a higher chance at the Exotic.
- The weekly Elite Mission Chains will award two pieces of Gear: one will be either Melee or Ranged, and the other will be either Defense or Heroic.
- Polychoron amounts have also been increased to 20 from normal and 30 from elite Vaults and Villain Sections.
Hero-Bound Mega Hives
- The Mega Hives will work a little differently from other Hero-Bound Missions because of the elimination mechanic. If your Hero is above Power Level 140, even if you are knocked out during the Mega Hive, you will be able to claim weekly rewards after completing the Hive. Once those rewards are claimed, the Mission Chain will restart.
- The first weekly completion per Hero will grant rewards. If you’d like to claim more rewards on the same Hero again, you will have to wait until the weekly reset.
Matchmaking Changes
- Quickmatch – The Quickmatch option is now visible at both the regional and world view on the War Table. Quickmatchers will now match directly with each other. A random map from the Quickmatch pool is now selected upon mission launch. Groups can now queue for Quickmatch.
- Join to Quinjet – On joining a Strike Team, players will now load directly into the Quinjet, skipping the load to the main menu. We’re introducing a voting system so that players can decide together on their preferred choice for important decisions. There are now new options including kicking a player, cancelling a selected map, and cancelling launch countdown.
Voting for Matchmaking
- Select Mission. The strike team votes to select a mission from the War Table.
- Interact/Story Vote. The strike team votes to begin a conversation/cutscene/etc. that will involve the entire Strike Team.
- Fail On Expire Votes are a new voting option, which requires a unanimous yes vote to succeed. Players who abstain from voting will have their vote counted as a no. The following decisions are Fail On Expire.
- Cancel Selected Mission. The selected mission is cancelled.
- Cancel Mission Launch Countdown. Mission launch is aborted.
- Matchmaking Toggle. Matchmaking is toggled to enabled or disabled for the Strike Team.
- Kick Player. The chosen player is removed from the Strike Team. The player to be kicked is not informed of the vote, shown in the list of voting players, or tallied in the vote results.
- Pass On Expire Votes are the former “Vetoes”, which only require one player to vote against the decision. Players who abstain from voting will have their vote counted as a yes. The following decisions are Pass On Expire.
- Return to Quinjet. The strike team votes to return to the Quinjet if they’re in an active Warzone.
- Reload Checkpoint. The strike team votes to reload checkpoint. This option is available in outposts and missions.
Another big change with this update has been with the War Table which has been reworked to be more accessible to new players and to make the missions easier to understand. The popular character, Nick Fury, has also been added back into the game as a tool to guide players through the changes.
Here’s the details on the War Table changes made with this latest update to Marvel’s Avengers:
War Table Updates: Mission Chains
- To improve the experience for new players, we’ve changed the Power Level (PL) of specific content and created a new mission chain to guide players more easily through the Avengers Initiative’s variety of content. This new mission chain replaces several previous missions.
- A new mission chain led by Nick Fury has been added. Reigning Supreme’s mission chain rewards are now included in this mission chain.
- New mission chains meant to onboard players to various mission and systems have been added
- A new mission chain has been added tracking completion of all Heroic Mission Chains except Spider-Man’s.
- Reigning Supreme mission chain has been removed
- Hive Mind mission chain has been removed
- Cloning Around mission chain has been removed
- Vault Discovery mission chain has been removed
- SHIELD Protocols mission chain has been updated to unlock when any hero is at least Power Level 20. If the mission chain is already unlocked on an account prior to any hero being PL 20, you must get any hero to PL 20 to progress further in the mission chain.
- Inhuman Sanctuary mission chain has been updated to unlock when any hero is at least Power Level 30. If the mission chain is already unlocked on an account prior to any hero being PL 30, you must get any hero to PL 30 to progress further in the mission chain.
- Iconic Avengers mission chain has been updated to unlock when any hero is at least Power Level 10. If the mission chain is already unlocked on an account prior to any hero being PL 10, you must get any hero to PL 10 to progress further in the mission chain.
- Last Avenger Standing mission chain has been updated to unlock when any hero is at least Power Level 130. If the mission chain is already unlocked on an account prior to any hero being PL 130, you must get any hero to PL 130 to progress further in the mission chain.
- Beating the Odds mission chain has been updated to unlock when any hero is at least Power Level 20. If the mission chain is already unlocked on an account prior to any hero being PL 20, you must get any hero to PL 20 to progress further in the mission chain.
- The Rise and Shine mission chain has been updated to completing a mission using Quickmatch.
- Flashback Missions now have a new Icon.
War Table Updates: Missions
- All Dropzones, Hives, and Threat Sectors are now always available on the War Table.
- Faction Missions will now be removed from the War Table upon completion.
- New Wasteland Dropzones and Threat Sectors have been added
- A new Wasteland Vault has been added
- Hero HARM Training rooms are now set to PL 1
- The hopper system has been removed and all hopper-based missions such as Dropzones, Hives, and Threat Sectors are always visible on the War Table
- Flashback Missions that end with a Villain have been replaced with Wasteland and Wakanda missions
- HARM Challenges I-V will be unviewable on completion
- HARM Challenges I-V and Priority HARM Challenges will now rotate once-a-day for users that have completed the HARM Challenges mission chain. This effect is retro-active for those that have already completed the mission chain prior to this patch.
- Villain Sectors are now always visible on the War Table and no longer require grabbing a mission chain to unlock. Normal Villain Sectors require the player to be at least Power Level 25 to be viewable and Elite Villain Sectors require at least Power Level 90 to be viewable.
- Vaults now require being Power Level 20 to view on the War Table
- Flashback Threat Sectors now require being Power Level 80 to view on the War Table
- Iconic Missions now require being Power Level 10 to view on the War Table
- Faction Missions now require being Power Level 10 to view on the War Table
- Tachyon Rifts now require being Power Level 110 to view on the War Table
- Priority Threat Sectors now require being Power Level 140 to view on the War Table
- Mega Hives now require being Power Level 140 to view on the War Table
War Table Updates: Factions
- SHIELD Faction Mission Givers will now provide Vault mission chains instead of Villain Sector mission chains once per day.
- A new weekly Elite Vault mission chain will be given
- Inhuman Alliance Faction Mission Givers are now the only way to start Villain Sector mission chains, once per day.
- A new weekly Elite Villain Sector mission chain will be given
War Table Updates: Matchmaking
- Matchmaking is now only enabled for the following mission types outside of Quickmatch: Vault, Elite Vault, Villain Sector, Elite Villain Sector, Omega-Level Threat, Raid, Mega Hive, HARM Challenge, Priority HARM Challenge, as well as Event Missions: Corrupted Vibranium Threat Sector, Cosmic Threat Sector, Tachyon Rift, Flashback Threat Sector, and Priority Threat Sector.
- Mission types with matchmaking disabled can be played solo or by inviting other players to your session.
The number of bug fixes made with this update are too numerous to list on this page though they can all be found in the full patch notes here.
Marvel’s Avengers has had a rather controversial time on the market since it launched in late-2020. From an overly negative reaction from players and the Spider-Man character PlayStation exclusivity to the major delays in content updates, to say that excitement around this video game has dropped would be one of the gaming understatements of the past decade.
Still, the development team has been putting in some legitimate efforts to improve the game and acknowledge weaknesses and there seems to be a lot of fun content on the way judging from leaks uncovered back in 2020 such as Agents of SHIELD’s Quake and Mockingbird coming to the game and even the likes of Doctor Strange and Vision being planned inclusions.
Fortunately for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, Marvel’s Avengers is actually available to play for free (as part of the subscription) on both Xbox consoles and Windows PCs which means that those who were unsure about the title can pretty much play it in full without dropping a significant amount of cash.
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