Crystal Dynamics recently promised to reveal what’s coming next to Marvel’s Avengers, following reports of the game’s dwindling player base and fading interest. Today, the developer has delivered, with a patch 1.3.3 that’s out now on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Stadia. This major update adds SHIELD Substation Zero as a new outpost, and introduces Tachyon Rift missions. Substation Zero can be found in the Pacific Northwest, and it’s where you’ll meet new characters. It’s also likely to connect to some of the upcoming DLC, such as Hawkeye.
Tachyon Rifts, on the other hand, are end-game missions available to players level 140 Power and above. In these missions, Tachyon storms will be on all the time, slowly eating away at players’ health. On the flip side, your Heroics will charge much faster. You can only stay within a Tachyon Rift for a limited time, but you can pass through Temporal Anomalies to extend that window. Tachyon Rift missions reward Cosmic gear. Patch 1.3.3 also introduced a couple of big fixes and quality of life improvements worth highlighting. Each outpost now has a faction terminal where you can pick up daily bounties and assignments without having to visit all of them. Regular players will be happy to know that the pickup radius for drops has been extended, and that cosmetics sold at vendors can now be previewed. Another welcome change comes in the form of a boost to movement speed in all outposts. Crystal Dynamics also made a few tweaks to AI companions, to make them revive you more consistently and be a bit more effective in their own fights. Outside of that, the new update introduces DLSS support for Nvidia RTX owners. Crystal Dynamics is already working on 1.3.4, with details on that to follow closer to its release. Until then, here’s everything in today’s 1.3.3 patch.
Campaign and Avengers Initiative
Addressed multiple causes of infinite loading screens. Multiple crash issues resolved. Improvements to save data integrity. Improved reliability of backup saves used immediately after completing the Reassemble Campaign. Fixed issue that would sometimes cause Abomination to become unresponsive in War Zones. Reduced how often trapped Inhumans and SHIELD agents will ask for help. Companions will now help hold an area in War Zone missions during the code validation phase. Note: They still won’t activate the small code terminals to prevent them from accidentally messing with your progress. Improvements to companion assistance when player needs to be revived. Increased chances of a successful Parry from companions. Fixed an issue where Thor & Iron Man companions would become stuck in hover. Companion Iron Man and Black Widow now have a boosted priority to attack drones, fliers, and turrets. Movement speed increased in Outposts when in Avengers Initiative. Remote faction terminals are now available in Outposts. These devices allow collection of Faction Assignments and Villain Sector bounties without the need to visit each Faction Coordinator in person. Removed requirement to purchase an item from Chastity McBride when visiting her for the first time. Prevented the majority of cases of enemies getting stuck behind doors during missions. We are actively working to resolve the remaining bug triggers. Fixed an issue with “destroy core” objectives in War Zone missions where players could complete steps out of order, thus halting objective progress. Fixed a bug where the Elite Exo could teleport “out of the world
Multiplayer and matchmaking
Renamed ‘Launch Mission’ button to ‘Ready Up’ while matchmaking in the Quinjet to make it clearer about the button’s function. Improved text clarity related to matchmaking options in the Quinjet. Resolved an issue where players were unable to find a Strike Team as Selected Hero via Quick Match after naturally matchmaking for a previous mission. Improved stability after the host has left a match. Disabled pause in Quinjet to prevent loading issues. Fixed a rare bug that caused Heroes to lock when invited directly from a Reassemble Campaign mission to a Strike Team. Fixed an issue where requested companions would not despawn - resulting in duplicate heroes - when a player disconnected. Strike Team integrity is kept intact when Reloading Checkpoint in Hives.
UI
Players can now preview cosmetic vendor items. Tactical Awareness now stays on longer. Removed unnecessary shoot and punch tutorials. Fixed various localization issues in Arabic, Italian, and Polish. Added Accessibility Menu to Settings for easy access to those options. Added option to scale subtitle/closed caption text size. Closed Captions will no longer be automatically display in cinematics when Subtitles are displayed.
Combat
Fixed issue that would cause some players to not be invulnerable immediately after reviving. Fixed rare issue where Black Widow would lose Veil of Shadows buff shortly after triggering. Fixed an issue with Iron Man where Counterfire would not always trigger after evading. Tuning: Improved Captain America’s melee combo flow. Refactored the modifiers Fisticuffs & Torpedo to only buff the player, not enemies. Tuned heroic drain inflicted by SPIN Drones. Tuned difficulty in “Alone Against AIM” mission. Tuned defensive effects of blue Overshield on enemies. Tuned Cryo Adaptoid slam attack.
Gear, challenges and rewards
Implemented a fix that will retroactively grant Iron Man’s iconic outfit for players who previously lost it due to a bug. Fixed issue where Hero Challenge Card rewards were being scaled by difficulty. Re-enabled skipping challenges from the Hero Challenge Card screen. Fixed several issues with the tracking of various hero challenges. Fixed an issue with Thor’s Grip of Fenrir’s Maw, where boosting didn’t properly unlock perk. Extended pickup radius reward drops. Fixed several issues where deciphering rare patterns at the fabrication machine wouldn’t award a cosmetic item. ‘Fractured’ Hulk skin is now properly unlocked and accessible in the outfits menu when awarded. ‘Unbroken’ Hulk skin should no longer disappear from a player’s inventory after being awarded. Fixed the appearance of both Talisman Artifacts in the Gear Menu. Fixed an issue where one of Kamala’s gear pieces would drop an Iron Man perk. Fixed the artifact perk “Bountiful” so it has a chance to trigger when opening strongboxes in the helicarrier during the Reassemble campaign. Fixed an issue where DNA keys were not deducted from inventory when opening a DNA. strongbox while in Hulkbuster. This also prevents players form losing DNA keys after dying. Reward Tuning: Tuned some Exotic gear to be power level appropriate when earned. Improved Mega Hive Rewards. They now are guaranteed to give two exclusive exotic gear items and an increased amounts of upgrade modules upon completion. Players will no longer occasionally get Power Level 1 Gear from Elite Hives. Improved Exotic Gear Attributes. Improved reliability of Norn Stone perks that increased drop chance/added extra rewards to loot tables.
Platform specific -PC
Added support for Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling technology. Fixed problems with mouse & keyboard sprint, when set to hold to sprint option is enabled. Fix for Thor and Captain America ranged abilities when using toggle to aim.
-Xbox One
Fixed an issue where the “Trying on Perfection” achievement was rewarding “Seeing Stars”. Fixed an instance of the “Best Defense” Achievement not triggering properly.
