These The Finals weapons just got seriously buffed in new update

A new update recently came out for The Finals after it was slightly delayed. It is a big patch full of many fixes and tweaks, along with the transformation of glitch barrels into carriable objects. Not only that, but The Finals fans absolutely love the buffs provided to melee weapons, daggers and riot shields as they have been greatly improved in several ways.

Make sure to check out the full update 2.8.0 patch notes to see of all the changes and fixes implemented by Embark. Unfortunately, the patch is still resulting in the game crashing for some users on start-up, but this appears to be the minority and Embark is aware of the issue. In addition, you should know that the patch has implemented a new issue that you must fix yourself as it won’t be officially fixed until next week’s update.

With all of the above problems acknowledged and out of the way, it’s important to highlight that this week’s update is very good. There is a lot of great ingredients, but the most important and best according to fans is the significant buffs to melee weapons.

The Finals new update buffs melee weapons

Below is the buffs to melee weapons, daggers, and riot shields in The Finals update 2.8.0:

Dagger

• Improved backstab validation
  • Dev Note: We’ve received a lot of feedback about Backstabs not feeling as good. Hopefully, we’ve rectified that issue in this patch. The only way to tell is to let you try it and then gather your feedback! 
• Fixed so that the aim assist for backstabs now synchronizes with the swing, rather than triggering at the start of the charge-up.

All Melee Weapons 

• Improved hit validation for all melee weapons
• There is now a setting for turning melee aim assist on/off in the “Gameplay” section
• The aim assist and lunge range are slightly more generous for quick melee
• We have changed the way sprinting gets blocked when attacking with melee weapons and using quick melee, so that sprint is only blocked through parts of a swing, instead of the whole duration of the attack. This is tweaked on a weapon-to-weapon basis
• The sprint toggle no longer gets canceled by melee attacks, so players don’t have to re-toggle spam to efficiently chase their target while attacking

Riot Shield 

• The shield can now be raised more quickly after performing an attack

Looking at the above patch notes, these are some great buffs for all melee weapons. More generous aim assist and lunge range should help you with actually hitting enemies, and not having to keep toggling sprint after melee attack is a godsend. As for the dagger, the improved aim assist is fantastic news, too.

Reacting to the changes on Reddit, fans are very happy with how fun melee weapons have become following the update. Reddit user Battlekid18 says they have been playing melee pretty much all day, and that it has been incredibly satisfying ‘actually blocking shots with the riot shield while also… hitting way more consistent sword lunges and dagger backstabs, and overall just being a lot more mobile’.

Agreeing with the OP, one user replied ‘It’s so rewarding using dagger and actually getting the backstabs you deserve’. Another user echoed this sentiment saying ‘The dagger backstab’s hitbox is at least doubled. That’s crazy’.

Emphasizing just how significant the improvements are, one user highlighted the following changes as the best:

• Ability to sprint while attacking at certain parts of the animation (full animation for Dagger)
• Better hit validation across the board
• Riot Shield can block almost instantly after swinging
• Much more forgiving Dagger backstabs

Another user said ‘I’ve always loved hammer, recently picked up sword, but today I tried the Riot Shield. I blindly jumped onto the Power Shift Platform alone, against 4 meme era of the enemy team, and just started SWINGIN. The shield actually blocked enough damage that I was able to take out TWO of them and get the other two down pretty far before I finally was overwhelmed. In that moment I felt like god’.

For more The Finals, check out our guide to the best weapons in the game ranked, and we also have a guide to the best gadgets. In addition, we have a guide to the best FPS settings to help you win matches along with a ranking of the best classes in the game.