XDefiant boss responds to community backlash over Mastery Camo changes

Ubisoft's XDefiant has done admirably in teeing up a long and prosperous life in the FPS market, despite some thoughts that player retention would dip off quite quickly.

The main target for keeping players interested is through longer unlockables and challenges that take a while to complete, such as unlocking the DedSec faction. 

But after struggling to find the sweet spot between fun, long grinds, or unachievable and demotivating goals, XDefiant has now made some stark changes to the Mastery Camos and has had to come out with a bat to defend them. 

XDefiant has made it much harder to achieve Mastery Camos

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In a bid to balance how XP affects the unlocking system with weapons, Ubisoft has deployed a range of changes that will make attachments easier to obtain, but mastery camos much harder.

The first change is with attachments. The XP required for primaries to level up has been reduced from 3,500 to 3,000 XP per level, which makes it much quicker to get the attachments that work best for your chosen gun. Compared to the previous system, it's a buy six, get one free deal.

Secondly, the Mastery Camo levels have increased in all three levels. Bronze now requires level 100 (previously 50), Silver level 150 (previously 75), and Gold level 200 (Previously 100).

The latter change was met with scepticism, though. Players immediately felt that the increase in Mastery levels was unwarranted, having already begun the grind towards the new looks on their favourite weapons.

Mark Rubin responds to XDefiant Mastery Camo critics

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Taking to social media, the ever-vocal Mark Rubin, XDefaint Lead Developer, has now defended the Weapon Mastery Camo increase, saying that they are supposed to be "special" and not something you can get easily.

"Weapon Mastery [...] does not affect gameplay and is supposed to be something special that shows off your dedication to a weapon. So, the re-balance of levels was in response to that," he said on X (formerly Twitter) and shared on Reddit.

"I try to be as honest, open, and transparent as possible with everyone. And I know this change may upset some people. And we are always willing to say we didn't do the right thing and we need to correct.

"We will continue to evaluate. Also, this whole system is being redone to be more engaging for everyone. It will be a couple of seasons before we see this but we will be looking at feedback now to improve our future implementation."

XDefiant Season 1 is just around the corner where the Rainbow Six crossover will come into play and more game modes will be added.