Marvel’s Avengers 1.3.3 patch notes: Tachyon Rifts, SHIELD Substation Zero, Remote faction terminals, and more

Less than two months have passed since the release of Marvel’s Avengers.

The game was supposed to be the next big hit for its publisher Square Enix, a live service game that was designed for longevity, something that millions of players will actively play for years to come, and which will bring a steady flow of revenue.

Given the popularity of Marvel's superheroes, the idea of a game where you could play with your friends as your favourite Marvel characters on paper looks like a no-brainer for a successful project, and yet, somehow, they've failed. Horrendously.

(Picture: Square Enix)

Just two months after the release, concurrent players number fell below 1000 on average on PC, which causes serious matchmaking problems for those who are still playing the game.

• Read more:Marvel's Avengers free rewards released as an apology for troubled launch

There is simply not much to do after you beat the basic game and players are quickly getting bored, which is not something you want to see in a game that is supposed to run as a live service game, where constant players' engagement is crucial for the game's health.

Crystal Dynamics, develop behinds Marvel’s Avengers, is trying their best to breathe new life into their dead-on-arrival game. Recently, they promised fixes, improvements, and additions "as fast as we safely can to make Marvel’s Avengers the game we all aspire it to be."

(Picture: Square Enix)

Some of those promised features and fixes are now released with the Marvel’s Avengers 1.3.3 Patch.

This patch comes with refreshing new content, but also with some highly requested features and changes that players are were happy to see.

SHIELD Substation Zero Outpost and Tachyon Rift Missions should bring some new fun stuff for players to come back for at least some time.

• Read more:Players left angry at Marvel's Avengers' expensive microtransactions

Remote Faction Terminals is one of the most requested features and reactions from players are almost unanimously positive.

Some other quality-of-life additions are also a welcomed change, like the ability to preview cosmetic vendor item and extended pickup radius for reward drops.

(Picture: Square Enix)

Besides fixes and new content, Square Enix is also being quite generous to their players, with some rewards being significantly improved.

Mega Hive rewards are guaranteed to give two exclusive exotic gear items and increased amounts of upgrade modules upon completion.

And all this just the beginning, they are already working on Patch 1.3.4, which will include "several quick match fixes and improvements, further reward tuning, and new UI options!".

Things are definitely starting to get better, but will it save the game and bring it back from its demise? Only time will tell.

Marvel’s Avengers 1.3.3 Full patch notes

• SHIELD Substation Zero Outpost: SHIELD has opened Substation Zero to investigate new temporal anomalies that have begun forming across the world. A space that offers new narrative, characters, and content, you can find SHIELD Substation Zero in the Pacific Northwest on the WAR TABLE.   
• Tachyon Rift Missions: You’ll investigate the temporal anomalies by taking on the new Tachyon Rift missions, which are the first place players can get Cosmic Gear. The Tachyon storm will damage players over time but charges Heroic energy at an increased rate. With the “Meridian” modifier active, players can pass through Temporal Anomalies to extended the time you can spend within a Tachyon Rift. A late-game offering, Tachyon Rift Missions require 140 Power Level or higher Super Heroes to play. These missions are available once per day and rotate out daily.      

• Addressed multiple causes of “infinite loading screens”.   
• Multiple crash issues resolved.   
• Improvements to save data integrity.   
• Improved reliability of backup saves used immediately after completing the Reassemble Campaign.   
• Fixed issue that would sometimes cause Abomination to become unresponsive in War Zones.   
• Reduced how often trapped Inhumans and SHIELD agents will ask for help.*   
• Companions will now help hold an area in War Zone missions during the code validation phase. Note: They still won't activate the small code terminals to prevent them from accidentally messing with your progress.   
• Improvements to companion assistance when player needs to be revived.   
• Increased chances of a successful Parry from companions.   
• Fixed an issue where Thor & Iron Man companions would become stuck in hover.
• Companion Iron Man and Black Widow now have a boosted priority to attack drones, fliers, and turrets.   
• Movement speed increased in Outposts when in Avengers Initiative.*   
• Remote faction terminals are now available in Outposts. These devices allow the collection of Faction Assignments and Villain Sector bounties without the need to visit each Faction Coordinator in person.*   
• Removed requirement to purchase an item from Chastity McBride when visiting her for the first time.   
• Prevented the majority of cases of enemies getting stuck behind doors during missions. We are actively working to resolve the remaining bug triggers.   
• Fixed an issue with "destroy core" objectives in War Zone missions where players could complete steps out of order, thus halting objective progress.   
• Fixed a bug where the Elite Exo could teleport “out of the world".      

• Renamed 'Launch Mission' button to 'Ready Up' while matchmaking in the Quinjet to make it clearer about the button's function.*   
• Improved text clarity related to matchmaking options in the Quinjet.   
• Resolved an issue where players were unable to find a Strike Team as Selected Hero via Quick Match after naturally matchmaking for a previous mission.   
• Improved stability after the host has left a match.   
• Disabled pause in Quinjet to prevent loading issues.   
• Fixed a rare bug that caused Heroes to lock when invited directly from a Reassemble Campaign mission to a Strike Team.   
• Fixed an issue where requested companions would not despawn - resulting in duplicate heroes - when a player disconnected.   
• Strike Team integrity is kept intact when Reloading Checkpoint in Hives.      

• Players can now preview cosmetic vendor items.*   
• Tactical Awareness now stays on longer.*   
• Removed unnecessary shoot and punch tutorials.*   
• Fixed various localization issues in Arabic, Italian, and Polish.   
• Added Accessibility Menu to Settings for easy access to those options.   
• Added option to scale subtitle/closed caption text size.*   
• Closed Captions will no longer be automatically displayed in cinematics when Subtitles are displayed.*      

• Fixed issue that would cause some players to not be invulnerable immediately after reviving.   
• Fixed rare issue where Black Widow would lose Veil of Shadows buff shortly after triggering.   
• Fixed an issue with Iron Man where Counterfire would not always trigger after evading.   
• Tuning:   
• Improved Captain America’s melee combo flow.   
• Refactored the modifiers Fisticuffs & Torpedo to only buff the player, not enemies.   
• Tuned heroic drain inflicted by SPIN Drones.*   
• Tuned difficulty in “Alone Against AIM” mission.*   
• Tuned defensive effects of blue Overshield on enemies.   
• Tuned Cryo Adaptoid slam attack.*      

• Implemented a fix that will retroactively grant Iron Man's iconic outfit for players who previously lost it due to a bug.   
• Fixed issue where Hero Challenge Card rewards were being scaled by difficulty.   
• Re-enabled skipping challenges from the Hero Challenge Card screen.   
• Fixed several issues with the tracking of various hero challenges.   
• Fixed an issue with Thor’s Grip of Fenrir’s Maw, where boosting didn’t properly unlock perk.   
• Extended pickup radius reward drops.*   
• Fixed several issues where deciphering rare patterns at the fabrication machine wouldn’t award a cosmetic item.   
• ‘Fractured’ Hulk skin is now properly unlocked and accessible in the outfits menu when awarded.   
• ‘Unbroken’ Hulk skin should no longer disappear from a player’s inventory after being awarded.   
• Fixed the appearance of both Talisman Artifacts in the Gear Menu.   
• Fixed an issue where one of Kamala’s gear pieces would drop an Iron Man perk.   
• Fixed the artefact perk "Bountiful" so it has a chance to trigger when opening strongboxes in the helicarrier during the Reassemble campaign.   
• Fixed an issue where DNA keys were not deducted from inventory when opening a DNA. strongbox while in Hulkbuster. This also prevents players from losing DNA keys after dying.   
• Reward Tuning:   
• Tuned some Exotic gear to be power level appropriate when earned.   
• Improved Mega Hive Rewards. They now are guaranteed to give two exclusive exotic gear items and increased amounts of upgrade modules upon completion.*   
• Players will no longer occasionally get Power Level 1 Gear from Elite Hives.   
• Improved Exotic Gear Attributes.*   
• Improved reliability of Norn Stone perks that increased drop chance/added extra rewards to loot tables.      

Xbox   

• Fixed an issue where the “Trying on Perfection” achievement was rewarding “Seeing Stars”.   
• Fixed an instance of the “Best Defense” Achievement not triggering properly.      

PC  

Note: Since launch, we are continuously making improvements to the game and will keep rolling out these patches. We are also actively working with NVIDIA on specific issues that some users have reported with performance degrading over time. With the latest 1.3.3 patch, we've added NVIDIA DLSS, which significantly improves framerate while maintaining high-quality visuals for NVIDIA RTX hardware. We've also added DLSS support for ultra-performance mode and Dynamic Resolution scaling.  More information about NVIDIA DLSS can be found here.      

• Added support for Nvidia's DLSS upscaling technology.   
• Fixed problems with mouse & keyboard sprint, when set to hold to sprint option is enabled.   
• Fix for Thor and Captain America ranged abilities when using toggle to aim.