XDefiant devs confirm Prestige system & progression overhaul in the works

XDefiant’s mastery system is getting some drastic shake-ups in response to weapon leveling getting some buffs, making it much harder to truly max out a weapon and get those mastery skins. However, these changes are also meant to pave the way for a Prestige system.

Progression beyond weapon unlocks and camos in XDefiant is pretty limited, and something that players have been asking for some big upgrades to keep them engaged. This is why the devs’ choice to reduce the rate of weapon mastery progression was a controversial one.

Rubin explained why the team decided to raise the level requirements across the board for weapon mastery in their set of changes to weapon leveling.

“Attachments for weapons affect gameplay. And people were unlocking attachments slower than we estimated. The faster leveling is in response to that. Weapon Mastery, on the other hand, does not affect gameplay and is supposed to be something special that shows off your dedication to a weapon. And so the re-balance of levels was in response to that.”

So, while the weapon mastery levels being substantially raised seems like it will make getting that gold skin much harder, the reality is that it’s a “sidegrade” due to sped-up weapon progression.

This is just part of a continued effort to give players much more to do once they’ve gone through all the weapon unlocks.

“Prestige is coming. A new version of weapon mastery is coming. And other forms of progression are coming,” Rubin claimed.

Though it went under the radar at the time, Prestige in XDefiant was confirmed months ago. Back in January 2024, far before XDefiant’s actual release date, Rubin claimed that Prestige would have a “yearly” system at the time to try and keep things fresh.

“We want to have the classic prestige system but we also recognize that while games like CoD you get a new set of prestiges every year (ala new game), and we are a game designed to last for years so looking at possibly yearly prestiges.”

Though some players aren’t too happy with XDefiant’s current offering when it comes to overall progression, the devs are working on ways to reward the game’s biggest fans.