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XDefiant is Ubisoft’s recent free-to-play game that blends first-person arena shooting gameplay with factions derived from their own popular franchises like Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, The Division, and Watch Dogs 2, to name a few. XDefiant varies gameplay by offering unique abilities for each of the factions, with Splinter Cell’s group focusing on stealth.
Termed the Echelon, XDefiant players can delve into matches with Splinter Cell-inspired class to employ stealth-based tactics and disorient their opponents. The characters within this faction are called Super Spies and one can turn the tides of battle in their favor by taking a nuanced approach and leveraging the abilities of this group.
Demystifying Echelon faction abilities in XDefiant
XDefiant offers the flexibility to choose from several unique factions to vary the tactics in battle. Players must experiment with the faction's abilities while being cautious about their opponents since XDefiant is a fast-paced shooter. Just like other factions, Echelon provides two active abilities, one passive skill, and one Ultra ability.
The game encourages team coordination and players can resort to the Intel Suit active ability. This skill enables players to emit sonar waves, revealing enemy locations to the players activating this ability and their teammates. One can employ this tactic before entering open areas on the map and pre-empt the positions of their opponents before initiating combat.
Players in vulnerable situations like getting cornered by enemies or those who wish to evade multiple foes scouting the area without being seen can rely on the Digital Ghillie Suit active ability. It makes the player invisible to their opponents. Players must try to be stationary when using this ability since any kind of movement or aiming maneuver is liable to degrade its effect.
The passive ability of the Echelon faction, called Low Profile, is extremely useful in surprising the enemy. This passive trait prevents the player from appearing on the opposing character’s mini-map. Players can freely rely on this trait since no action will obstruct its proficiency and opponents won’t be able to locate them on the mini-map.
When all tactics fail, players can fall back on the Echelon faction’s Ultra ability called Sonar Goggles. Using this ability makes the in-game character don Sam Fisher’s tactical goggles. This allows players to spot enemies clearly and defeat them with Sam Fisher’s iconic 5.7 pistol.
The shooter comprises other factions like The Cleaners from Tom Clancy's The Division, Dedsec inspired by Watch Dogs 2, Phantoms derived from Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon franchise, and the resistance group Libertad from Far Cry 6.
XDefiant is still awaiting an official release, but players can delve into the closed beta and experience a small chunk of this arena shooter from Ubisoft. One can peruse this article which covers all the details regarding the game modes and maps included in this beta.
However, some players have been experiencing issues in the beta like server not working errors owing to increased traffic. Others have encountered 'Searching for player lobby error'.
