Today’s update marks a new chapter for Quake Champions as we transition the game from a free-to-play service to a paid application on Steam. Along with 30 Seasons worth of content to enjoy, all Champions are now unlocked for everyone, and most vanity content is available to equip. Battle Passes and microtransactions have been removed. Quake Champions is now available for one low price on Steam. No additional content updates are planned at this time. If you previously played Quake Champions on Steam, the new version will appear in your Steam Library at no additional cost. Please visit our FAQ for more details about these changes.
Major Product Changes
Removed Microtransactions & In-App Purchasing
Removed Battle Pass
Removed Weekly / Event Challenges
Removed the Store
Removed Platinum and Shard Currencies
Removed Loot Boxes
Removed Daily Login Rewards
Removed Champion Progression (the shard reward path)
Most Vanity Content is now Available to All Users
Third-party entitlements, such as AMD Ruby Nyx, Twitch Rocket Launcher, Nvidia Pulsar Railgun, and merit-based rewards like QuakeCon Belts and Golden Crowns, are hidden from the Customization list unless you already own them
Golden Crowns can still be earned as ranked rewards for reaching Elite Rank and are hidden until unlocked
All other items are unlocked and available for all users to equip
All items are equipped through Customization
UI Reorganization
Customization is now located on the top navigation of the Main Menu
Profile customization (profiles, nameplates. Podiums) are now found inside the main Customization section next to Outfits and Weapons
Critical Fixes
Fixed several crash conditions that could occur during map loading
Fixed an anti-cheat false positive, surfaced as an Error 103 message
New Content
Weapons
QCON 2026 Starting Machinegun
QCON 2026 Starting Shotgun
QCON 2026 Starting Nailgun
Weapon Shaders
MOONSTRIKER Rocket Launcher: Purple and White weapon shader
ERADICATOR Railgun: Green and Black weapon shader
Podiums
Ithagnal’s HELL MAGIC Podium
Profile Icons
5 Team Arena Clan Profile Icons
New Features
Callvote System
Players can now issue callvotes to kick cheaters or abusive players
Right-click on a player in the in-game Social menu to start a vote
There must be 4 or more players in a match to call a vote
Each player may only call 3 votes per match
Players vote with their “Yes” (F1) and “No” (F2) Say Command binds
Weapon Accuracy UI & Fixes
Enable Weapon Accuracy – Displays the accuracy for your current weapon in the lower right corner of your HUD
Enable Weapon Bar Accuracies – Displays the accuracies for every weapon alongside your weapon bar on the right side of your HUD
Fixed hitting not tracking hits for deployables such as totems, and turrets
Player Outline Thickness Options
Added Enemy Outline BOLD option
Added Ally Outline BOLD option
Adaptive FPS Stabilizer
Reduces framerate spikes when you’re unable to maintain stable framerates at the framerate limit set (Game Options)
New Leveling System
Players can now reach Level 999, but the journey will be long and hard fought!
Players will earn 24-Hour Haste Bonus XP every 10 levels
Player Profile Levels are now visible on the in-game scoreboard. This can help players identify accounts that are new to the game
Quality of Life
Learn Section
The in-game Guide is now delivered via local web files, so it will no longer be blocked in some regions. Everyone can once again read the in-game guide information in the Learn section.
FPS Limiter Improvements
Fixed the built-in frame-rate limiter's precision and pacing
Fixed the accuracy of the framerate on the HUD Show FPS display
Network Performance
Reduced the total size of the network data being transmitted per player
Input System
Threaded Input improvements for high polling rate mice and/or improved CPU usage
Fixed old inputs from being processed as respawn actions, which would cause the player to instantly respawn or respawn before desired
Weapon Fixes
Fixed the weapon trail prediction bug, causing multiple railgun trails
Fixed weapon vanishing when swapping during a starting weapon upgrade that is actively in progress
Item Pickups & Dropped Items
Fixed incoming power-up notification timing becoming desynced for players joining after the match starts
When an item drops, it will now blink in the final moments before it despawns
Unified how long weapons, armor shards, Stroyent, Blood Punch health, souls, and flags remain on the ground to 20 seconds
When you drop a power-up with the Drop Power-Up command, the power-up’s duration will now deplete
Fixed drop commands from issuing text chat messages when a dead player hits the bind
Added Power-up icons into the frag list controller for kills earned by power-up carriers
Audio
Fixed a crash that could occur when unplugging or plugging in a USB headset
Fixed a bug that could cause jumppad sounds to play from the closest jumppad to the player instead of the correct jumppad of origin
Fixed missing jump, landing, falling, and jumppad sounds.
These were delivered in unreliable packets that could get lost
These events are now reliable
These events are now synthesized client-side when the network data fails to arrive within 200ms of the event
Improved the announcer VO queue system
It will now play a sound when selecting an audio option (armor beep, armor break, hit beep, kill beep)
Fixed winning / neutral / losing music in objective & round-based modes (CTF / Sac)
Fixed detecting the correct mood (winning / neutral / losing) when switching soundtracks mid-match
Increased the volume of the weapon switch sound
Fixed an issue in the Say Command system that could have produced multiple say commands to be sent
Fixed Dialogue VO cooldown that would cause some say commands to trigger text-only without VO
Playlist Queue Stats
Enabled playlist queue size information in the Play Now UI
In-Game: How many players are in a match on your datacenters for your current playlist selection
In Queue: How many players are queuing on your datacenters for your current playlist selection
Recommended: Our best datacenter recommendation considering both your ping and how many players are active on the datacenter
Bot Improvements
Bots are now marked as Level 0 on in-game scoreboards so that they can be more easily identified by new players
Fixed bots from having perfect aim for up to five seconds following the use of their abilities
Fixed bots from targeting their own totems or turrets as enemies. This behavior would occur after dropping their deployable and then dying, causing them to lose track of their ownership
Added the ability for bots to recognize incoming rockets and be able to intentionally dodge them, either by strafing or on some occasions jumping to the side to avoid either a direct rocket or splash damage from a predicated impact
Improved bot’s side-to-side dodging, making less predictable
Added the ability for bots to recognize when they are taking damage and to adjust their movement mechanics and goals
Add a bot health management system that includes scaled urgency for picking up health depending on their health value, combat retreat when losing a fight, and refusing bad fights in the first place that they are not yet equipped to win
In team games, when bots are in a team of at least 3 players, if the bot is in last place on their team, they will now improve their mechanical skills, becoming a better player and more effective teammate for as long as they remain in last place on their team
Spectator Fixes
Fixed the spectator camera's Auto-Follow behaviors, now when a follow mode is enabled it will immediately switch to an appropriate target if one exists (ie, power-up or soul carrier)
Added Follow-Mode highlighting to the Spectator Hints UI to communicate what follow mode the spectator camera actively has enabled
Game Modes
Fixed Sudden Death bug in games set with Scorelimit 0
Fixed XP rewards for XP earned in games set with Scorelimit 0
Added the Weapon Bar, Ammo UI, and the new Weapon Accuracy UIs to the Clan Arena and Slipgate spectator HUDs
Breakables and Lore Scrolls will no longer spawn in game modes where Health items do not spawn, such as Clan Arena
Maps
Lockbox
Item layout updated: the Heavy Machinegun is now near Mega Health and the Super Nailgn is now near Heavy Armor stairs.
Corrected spawns that faced away from the weapon pickup
Tower of Koth
We once again use the large version of Tower of Koth for FFA, TDM, and IG
Duel, 2v2, and UHT still use the smaller version
Champion Updates
Ranger Dire Orb Updates
Dire Orb collision size reduced by 40% from 1m to 0.6m radius
Splash damage now falls off from full damage down to 50% damage based on the distance from origin of explosion
When someone else destroys Ranger’s orb, Ranger will regain 50% of his cooldown
Additional Champions
Death Knight: Fixed centered weapons moving to the right after ability usage
Doom Slayer: Added VO dialogue for say binds
Doom Slayer: Fixed Double-Jump from sometimes automatically triggering when jumping off the ground
Galena: Fixed in-active player totems not appearing solid through walls and would appear the same as in-active teammate totems
Nyx: Fixed Ghostwalk gun visibility issue after going invisible while holding the default Heavy Machinegun with a weapon shader applied
Random: Fixed Ranger not being chosen by the RANDOM champion any mode where it would lock in a single selection for the entirety of the match, such as Duel
Scalebearer: Fixed Scalebearer Bull Rush target detection
Sorlag: Fixed centered weapons moving to the right after ability usage
Strogg: Fixed Pro League outfit effects in the main menu
Strogg: Fixed an issue that could cause the Strogg player model from entirely vanishing when entering or exiting cloak
Strogg: Fixed the cloaking particle effects when entering or exiting cloak
Main Menu UI
Fixed the persistent blur effect in the main menu after escaping the Battle Report
Fixed repeated ranked sequences and improved Battle Report navigation
Fixed missing K/D data on Battle Report statistics
Fixed the sorting of bot names in the Custom Game Lobby Add Bot dropdown list to now be alphabetical
Fixed the Champion Roster from closing after making a champion selection while in the Weapon Customization menu
Fixed duplicate values in the Custom Game Score Limit, Time Limit, and Weapon Respawn Time dropdowns, adding support for them to now default to the correct value instead of the first in the list. We now also mark the default value for easy identification
Fixed the Armor Break FX setting description
Fixed changing podiums in customizations not automatically refreshing the actively loaded podium
Fixed the head icon art for Random in the bot dropdown list
Vanity Items
Fixed Weapon Shader loadout saving
Fixed vanity items that didn’t receive Quad Damage or Protection power-up effects
Fixed Skull & Bone Podium texture quality
Datacenter Updates
We have reduced the number of datacenter locations, consolidating more players into the same server locations to provide faster MatchMaking. We recommend that you check your selected datacenters in-game and utilize the new Playlist Queue stats to help determine the best datacenters to use when searching for matches.
