Outriders fans may finally be getting an anxiously awaited patch People Can Fly claims will fix issues related to player damage mitigation against enemy attacks. The developer announced today that this patch addressing Outriders' damage mitigation issues, which was delayed last week due to potential instability, will drop tomorrow on May 25.
May has been a month of hard work for People Can Fly with tough resistance from some dissatisfied players. While Outriders enjoyed a pretty successful April and surpassed an impressive 3.5 million total players, PCF's efforts to fix several different bugs have frequently resulted in new problems introduced into the game. Even the promised item restoration, which sought to fix one the most devastating bugs in the game, was met with some criticism, as certain lucky players were able to get maximum stat Legendary items with otherwise impossible mod combos.
Outriders' damage mitigation problems have certainly affected its active player count. These issues have largely shown up in endgame Expeditions, and with no other efficient ways to get Legendaries, many fans are waiting to play again until these issues are fixed. Although this new patch was originally supposed to release last Thursday, it seems PCF has finally ironed out the stability hiccups. The primary purpose of the patch is to fix damage mitigation issues, but it will also include crash fixes and diagnostics to help determine the cause of some persistent sign-in problems that have remained since launch.
Besides working on patches, PCF has also addressed many player complaints during the month of May on Square Enix's official Reddit page for Outriders. While not all of these complaints are receiving solutions, PCF is continuing its push for transparency with fans. Among the more informative comments from the developers are posts outlining the bug fixing/patch process, PCF's intentions concerning successful communication with players, and the gather thread for those experiencing damage mitigation issues which has contributed to the upcoming patch.
If PCF can stick the landing on this patch, it could restore player confidence in the developer's ability to get a clean patch through. It would also be great timing for a much needed fix, as Outriders is currently discounted by 25% on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms. With around 40 hours of story to get through and plenty of side quests to do before players even get to Expeditions, the game has a lot to offer looter-shooter fans.
Some of PCF's latest comments have also indicated that the company might be working on Outriders DLC. Whether this DLC is exclusively a story expansion or also includes new gear and a higher level cap isn't known right now, but fans may see this news as a double-edged sword. If anything can be learned from Outriders' first few months, many fans would rather have a highly polished DLC experience than one that releases anytime soon.
Outriders is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.