XDefiant Season 1 will unleash ranked mode (almost) straight away for FPS fans. While the game’s first big seasonal update drops today, July 2, XDefiant ranked play will be arriving a day later on July 3. While most of you that are excited for ranked will be well-versed in competitive modes from other games already, there are a few small new details you need to know before jumping in.
At surface level, XDefiant’s ranked mode is exactly what you’d expect from a modern day competitive FPS game – there’s a set playlist of modes, seven ranks to climb, restrictions on matchmaking, and exclusive rewards. In truth, it looks pretty perfect on paper, but we’ll of course have to wait and see how things shake out once we’ve got some mileage out of our best XDefiant loadouts in ranked lobbies.
The first aspect you need to be aware of though is that changes have been made to some of the modes that are selected for ranked play. The four-mode lineup consists of Occupy, Domination, Zone Control, and Escort, but things will be slightly different in some of these modes compared to what you’ve played already in unranked playlists.
https://youtu.be/ZzZwI_Otk_Q?si=KuEGvFCCvmblKzn4&t=699
Similar to Hardpoint in Call of Duty, Occupy’s capture zones will now follow a set order each match rather than the random order they appear in during unranked games. So, it’s time to learn those rotations, gamers.
Ranked Domination sees matches split into two five-minute halves. Your team will spawn on one side of the map for the first half, and the opposite side for the second half.
And finally, Zone Control will allow the defending team to reduce the attacking team’s capture progress by standing on a zone. Progression on each zone is now split into four segments, and you can push zone progression back to the start of the segment it’s currently on.
Escort, meanwhile, remains completely untouched and will play exactly how you remember it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW7zP-XWNh0
The second thing worth flagging is exactly how you progress through the ranks. After every match, you will either earn or lose Ranked Points (RP) depending on the result of your match and your individual performance, and RP is used to rank up. There are seven rank divisions in total. Excluding the top rank of Legends, each rank has ten levels within them, and each tier is equivalent to 100 RP. The big thing to note is that unlike some other ranked modes, you can be demoted back down the ranked ladder if you lose RP and it takes you underneath a ranked level’s threshold.
A quick word on RP as well: you will always lose RP if you lose a match and will always gain RP if you win a match, but your personal performance can reduce the amount of loss or maximize the gain. And yes, please remember that playing the objective counts towards your personal performance – it’s not all about K/D.
The third and final point you need to be aware of is around matchmaking. Of course, as with any ranked mode, the idea is to pit you against players of similar skill. Ubisoft has confirmed that 15 ranked levels above or below your current ranked level is the range to which you’ll be matchmade against other players. This also extends to those who want to squad up as two, three, or four-player party – you can’t play with friends that are outside of this 15-level window. Also note that once you get to the penultimate rank of Diamond, you can no longer three or four-stack – the maximum party size is two.
Everything else pertaining to ranked mode is fairly self-explanatory and unsurprising, but these are the details that could even catch multiplayer game veterans unaware.
So, whether you’ve been grinding XDefiant already in pre-season, or ranked is tempting you to pick it up for the first time, be sure to keep an eye on the XDefiant meta so that your always heading into battle with the best factions and loadout.
