Quake Champions June update brings bots, gore, and new features to the arenas

Quake Champions continues to evolve and grow in Early Access thanks to the feedback from the community, and this month’s update is no exception.

Live today, the game’s June update introduces innovative features that will make it faster and easier for friends to jump in and get good together, including the launch of one of the community’s most requested features – Bots.

UPDATES

BOTS GALORE – Want to hone your skill? Did some quitter bail from a game mid-match, leaving your TDM crew a bit short? Well, now Bots are here to save you. That’s right, the same kind of AI that will soon reach singularity and grow into our apocalyptic overlords now powers (optional) enemies in-game! Featuring a scalable skill level to help players practice and improve in training mode, Bots will also automagically fill slots in live games where needed. This small, first phase of the impending robo-pocalypse – in Quake form – supports Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Instagib modes. More exciting updates on our road to Matrix-style Armageddon are scheduled to come soon!

GLORIFIED GORE – Gibbing enemies into a misty flower of blood and guts has been a key part of all id games, and Quake Championsalready has some juicy, entrails-blasting death scenes. But, what if I told you that the ferocious combat and visceral injury of the Arena could be made even more brutal, with the new Gore System, added today? Yes, now, in this first stage of Gore, each Champion has received a unique gib-makeover, with attention paid to the individual pieces of armor they wear, as well as their proper organs, cybernetics, and appendages, to create precious works of Pollockian art. The new Gore System even adjusts the gooey airborne chunks based on the special skins or shaders a Champion is wearing. It’s splatterific!

AN UPDATED STORE – With the Gore System shredding friends and foes into a super-detailed mess, it’s more important than ever to play dress up and make your Champion unique. To that end, the in-game store has been updated with tons of new cosmetics, allowing players to dress up before they are dressed down.

AND LOTS MORE – Community feedback is more important than ever, and because of one of the most vibrant and fun communities in gaming, the team has also added the following changes to the game:
- Multi-Mode Play Lists: Been playing all day and need to mix it up? Now you can change modes between matches while remaining in the Match Lobby. Players can vote on what they want to play next, choosing between two selected combinations of mode and map, and one random option. Stay in the Arenas FOREVER! You know … like Ranger!
- Killer Cam and Stacks: Quake Champions is fast. So fast that sometimes you can’t even tell how someone survived fragging you. Now, during unranked matches, the new Killer Cam will show freshly fagged players their opponent’s remaining Health and Armor on the death screen. They made the kill with 1HP? Good for them – now get back in there and get revenge with a single machine gun shot!
- Team Health and Armor Stacks: In team-based modes, the Health and Armor stacks of allies will show onscreen so players can decide whether to suck up that Mega-Health for themselves or leave it for their barely surviving friend.
- New Progression and Loot Systems: Earning XP has been adjusted to help people climb levels faster. In addition, players who choose to play in parties will receive bonus XP and Favor. Backpacks, Chests and Reliquaries also now have a lower number of duplicates and Shards can be used to purchase Chests. The entire system is faster, easier, and more rewarding than ever.
- New Way to Try – and Buy – Champs: The roster of Champions has grown since Early Access launched and our free players want to keep trying the new additions. To help make this easier, Champion rental has been removed and replaced with a rotation of free Champions. In addition, Champions can now be permanently unlocked with in-game Favor as well as premium Platinum – in short, you can now try Champions easier and acquire new Champions just by playing.
- Balance Changes: In addition to the more on-the-surface improvements, Quake Champions is receiving some under-the-hood tweaks to improve the overall balance of the game. These changes include alterations to movement speed, health and armor stacks for Light, Medium and Heavy Champions as well as changes to certain weapon statistics and specific Champions abilities.