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After several internal delays, XDefiant is now available for everyone to play outside the barriers of betas and playtests. The game is a lot of fun and it is quickly developing a strong playerbase thanks to its free-to-play entry. However, while the free-to-play entry is nice, fans are concerned that XDefiant’s “criminally slow” weapon progression will turn players away.
You can grab two free skins right now if you are part of the XDefiant experience. There is a battle pass available to buy with a slew of unique rewards, and it’s important to note that this battle pass is scheduled to end on July 2nd. Right now we are in pre-season only, and Ubisoft expects the launch of Season 1 in July to be followed by a new season every three months.
New content should theoretically keep people coming back for more, but many players are already disgruntled thanks to the slow weapon progression. Fans believe progression is purposefully slow to extort money from people, and there is the belief that players will simply walk away.
XDefiant players blast “criminally slow” weapon progression
Taking to Reddit, user Lo0ksToTheMo0n posted a criticism of the weapon progression in XDefiant. The OP claims that they are an “experienced twitch shooter player,” and that they played about 5-7 hours of XDefiant “with nothing but 50 bomb games and have barely unlocked any gun attachments”.
They argue that “Unlocking the guns and factions themselves is fine but the attachments are absurd. A solid 40-50 kill game will get you to barely level 2, MAYBE halfway to 3. Griding the M44 to ACOG without a booster and being forced to use the 12x is a disgusting experience that I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. Not to mention, the XP requirements in levels go up as you level and the final attachment is unlocked at lvl 42”.
Although there is an acknowledgement that XDefiant is free-to-play, they ultimately argue that the current weapon progression speed is “demoralizing” and that it is “designed to essentially be unusable without paying for boosters”.
As of writing, the thread has over 600 upvotes. Many of the comments unanimously agree with the criticism. One of the top comments says, “They should monetize skins and camos but monetizing weapon exp gain will turn people away”.
In response to the fear of people turning away, one user replied, “I was at the point last night where I considered buying one of the founders packs so I could get a handful of XP tokens. That made me realize what kind of game this really is, and I’m not 100% sure I will continue to play it.” Not only is the weapon progression slow, but fans are annoyed that there is not something unlocked with every level.
Many fans are not able or willing to spend an entire day barely levelling up over several hours. As pointed out by one user, “I’m in my 30s. I can’t play games all day and I don’t want to. If playing for an hour doesn’t reward me in any way and it doesn’t feel rewarding, why should I play the game?”.
Another user echoed the sentiment of wanting their time respected: “People act like everyone has enough time to play the game for hours every day not to mention if you also play other games. I mostly play on the weekends. Maxing out all guns would probably take me a year with how it is right now. No thanks”.
Unfortunately, as pointed out by many people in the comments, it appears that the weapon progression is purposefully slow to entice players to just spend money on XP boosts. There is no word from Ubisoft on whether they will be making changes to weapon progression, but, if they don’t, many players claim they are ready to walk away instead of spending cash.
For more XDefiant, check our guide to the best factions and best loadouts for every class. We also have a guide to the best weapons in the game.
