Season 30 Update
Quake Champions Patch Notes — June 11, 2026
Aggregated from Steam, cross-tracked with Battle.net coverage on GamePatchNote.
Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Quake
In celebration of Quake's 30th Anniversary, the Season 30 Battle Pass is free for all players. Rewards include a variety of Quake (1996) and QuakeCon rewards, previously exclusive skins, as well as the new DISINTEGRATOR Rocket Launcher and Goroth's EARTH MAGIC Podium.
Now let’s dive in and see what the Season 30 update has to offer.
Season 30 Free Battle Pass Rewards
New Vanity
New Quake II Enhanced DISINTEGRATOR Vanity Rocket Launcher
New Goroth's EARTH MAGIC Podium
LAST JUDGMENT CLASSIC Rocket Launcher, free to all owners of the LAST JUDGMENT RL
First-Time Battle Pass Appearance Rewards
Vanity Items
SPOILS OF WAR Ranger Vanity
SCRAG HOOD Ranger Vanity
BOTTLED EMBRYO Ranger Vanity
THE KEEPER’S HEAD Ranger Vanity
Profile Icons
SWORD OF THE SUN Profile Icon
RED DRAGON Profile Icon
BLUE DRAGON Profile Icon
YELLOW DRAGON Profile Icon
NEON HELL MAGIC Profile Icon
NEON EARTH MAGIC Profile Icon
NEON BLACK MAGIC Profile Icon
NEON ELDER MAGIC Profile Icon
RANGER CHIBI Profile Icon
DEATH KNIGHT CHIBI Profile Icon
Vanity Weapons
QCON 2021 Gauntlet
QCON 2018 Heavy Machine Gun
QCON 2023 Super Shotgun
QCON 2022 Super Nailgun
QCON 2024 Tri-bolt
QCON 2019 Rocket Launcher
QCON 2017 Lightning Gun
QCON 2020 Railgun Podiums
QUAKECON 2023 Podium Armor Outfits
QUAKEGUY Ranger Outfit
BRAWLER Ranger Outfit
Network Updates
The network code has been overhauled with the following goals:
Reduce packet loss and packet management to ensure that players are receiving important game data
Reduce the amount of lag compensation for low ping clients
Improve projectile prediction & lag compensation validation scenarios
Due to these network changes, the 160ms max ping restriction to connect to matchmaking datacenters has been removed.
Players now receive up to 100ms + their ping of lag compensation instead of always providing 250ms of compensation regardless of your ping
Fixed unreliable messages dropping at the end of every frame, leading to dropped packets
Fixed force-retired packets being marked as lost, instead of tracking them as retired, leading to retired packets being reported as dropped packets
Fixed rockets not exploding and dealing damage when the rocket owner has died after firing the shot but before it exploded
Fixed rate of fire weapons from over-counting or over-hitting caused by applying damage in batches due to packet processing during lag compensation that did not respect the rate of fire of the weapon
Fixed a teleporter lag compensation discrepancy that would allow a player to get shot as they are entering the teleporter, but on their screen see themselves successfully exit the teleporter to then be pulled back through the teleporter as dead
Fixed projectile hit validation when playing with a ping above 150ms
Game Client Updates
Fixed the collision bug that pushed players out of the map, through the map geometry collision layer
Fixed being able to damage a respawning player by attacking their death location with a gauntlet
Raw Mouse Input fixes & optimizations • NVIDIA Reflex fixes & latency markers added
Code optimizations and cleanup for the damage summation markers code
Code optimizations and cleanup for the special movement input code
Fixed Heavy Machinegun shader not applying when attempting to customize its shader prior to selecting any other weapons in Customization
Fixed the wrong champion medals being awarded after meeting the qualifications for a medal and then changing champions
Fixed an issue where you could see a static player doll in the map when a spectator enters Freefly cam mode
Fixed spectators not being able to exit Freefly cam mode after entering it
Fixed a crash in the camera manager when switching to a player that is currently dead
Added caching optimizations to improve performance when referencing user setting values
Reduced RAM size requirements for Texture Quality levels
Quality Settings will no longer be lowered for hardware that is too new to appear in our internal CPU & GPU databases
Removed the fullscreen UI popup that would occur after a match when reaching Level 2, announcing that a new mode (Slipgate) has been unlocked
Fixed several cases of game crashes
Threaded Input
This option is enabled by default as it has tested to improve performance under most conditions – however, this option is not recommended for Linux users and may not be ideal for mice using polling rates of 4Khz or greater.
Added Threaded Input setting - Enables moving the input to a dedicated thread that runs at above normal priority. This has some benefit regardless of input mode but greatly reduces Raw Mouse Input latency
Sound Updates
Broken Persistent Sounds
Fixed sounds that would remain persistent in the world after they should have ended
Pain Sounds
Fixed missing pain sounds
Fixed the incorrect pain sound playing when exactly 25 or 50 hp
Restored pain sounds between 75 and 100 hp
Added Acid & Fire panic sounds when a damage-over-time effect has been applied
Death Sounds
Death Sound radius extended to 35m to match other character sounds
Weapon Sounds
The volume of the RUTHLESS water railgun shot sound was reduced
Item Updates
Power-ups dropped from dead players will now have a minimum duration of 3 seconds remaining • Dropped Power-ups no longer pop up vertically before dropping
Dropped items now fall at the normal rate of gravity
Fixed in-game Lore drops, in addition to being able to unlock a readable lore item, it grants an in-game bonus to those who discover them
Fixed dropped items (weapons, powerups, flags, etc.) from being able to land on a player’s head and remain floating in the air
Bot AI Updates
Fixed Doom Slayer Bots so that they can now use their Berserk ability
Fixed Scalebearer Bots so they can no longer run backwards during Bull Rush
Fixed Scalebearer Bots so they can no longer accidentally cancel their abilities early
Fixed Strogg Bots so that they can now use their Drone Strike ability
Armor Feedback
To provide players better feedback regarding how their combat encounter is going, we have integrated the armor hit beep system from Quake 4 and expanded upon it further. This new feedback will provide unique hit beeps when dealing damage to an opponent with armor, as well as provide visual feedback when that armor has depleted.
Armor Hit Beeps
You will now hear a unique hit beep when you hit an opponent who has armor
AUDIO Settings: Added ARMOR BEEP STYLE - includes OFF, Q4 and QC options Armor Break FX
You will now see special fx when the damage you deal depletes your opponent’s armor
HUD Settings: Added ARMOR BREAK FX Armor Break Sound
You will now hear a special sound effect when the damage you deal depletes your opponent’s armor
AUDIO Settings: Added ARMOR BREAK SOUND - includes OFF, POWER DOWN, ENERGY RELEASE, SHIELD PUNCH, and METAL TINK options
Additional Hit Beep Options
Added HITBEEP styles – includes:
Mid-Tone (popularized in Quake 3)
High-Tone (from Quake 4)
Damage-Based (from Quake Live)
Additive Damage (introduced in QC)
Teamplay Features
Teammate Death POIs
Teammate Death POIs have been added to assist in teamplay. These not just help you know when a teammate has fallen but can act as a sign of danger. Whether you choose to rush into that combat zone for revenge or heed its warning to find a new path is up to you.
Show a Point of Interest markers at the position a teammate dies
HUD Settings: Added TEAMMATE DEATH POI
Drop Commands
Now available in team modes are the Drop Weapon and Drop Power-Up commands. Each command will drop the item if available and trigger a message in team chat
Drop Weapon will drop the weapon with the current ammo count if you own below the weapon’s starting ammo amount
Say Commands
Added 6 Say Commands: Yes, No, Hi, Bye, Thanks, Sorry.
Available in all game modes, issuing these commands will print a chat message and generate a local in-world VO message that everyone can hear
Show Vanity Customizations Toggle
Enabled by default, this new setting allows you to toggle off the in-game armor shaders, vanity items, vanity weapons (including their custom fx and sounds), and weapon shaders. This can be toggled on the fly in a match. You will still see all vanity in the Match Lobby and the Pre and Post Match Podium scenes to show off your style, but during gameplay all vanity will be removed
Weapon Zoom Toggle
Activating the toggle will keep the weapon zoomed in until you either untoggle or change weapons
CONTROLS Settings: Added ZOOM TOGGLE
Hidden Weapon Position
New Hidden option sets the weapon and hands to be invisible and centered
Added a Gauntlet icon to the ammo HUD, so that the gauntlet weapon selection is always visible
Weapon, Ammo, & Knockback Updates
Starting Weapons now upgrade instantly without weapon switch downtime
Weapon Pickups will now always add the starting ammo count to your current ammo count
Knockback is now applied immediately instead of queuing and applied in delayed batches
Knockback cap adjusted from 120 to 132, resolving the rocket jump penalty accrued in the prior update
Champion Specific Weapon Loadouts
Weapons are now equipped per Champion in Customization
Added an optional Equip on All Champions button
Random Champion Select
The Random Champion, selected in the Champion Roster, will make a random selection from all champions. This option allows players to play locked champions (albeit random) on Practice, Quick Play, and Ranked
In Duel, it selects one champion at random that will be used for the entirety of the match
In Sac Tourney, CTF Tourney, and TDM Tourney, selects a champion during the pick phase, ensuring that it is a unique selection within the team
In Duel Rounds, makes a random selection during the pick phase, ensuring that it is a unique selection within the squad
In all other modes, it picks a Mystery Champion that cycles at random with each respawn, with ability cooldown retained
Universal Weapon Shaders
All weapons that currently have shader support now support 23 universal shaders, which have been made available for free to all players, instead of needing to own different sets of basic weapon shaders for every individual vanity weapon
Basic weapon shaders
Red, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Lime, Green, Teal, Blue, Purple, White, Grey, Charcoal, and Black Basic Shaders Camo weapon shaders
Grasslands, Forest, and Snow Camo Shaders Patterned weapon shaders
Blue and Brown Patterned Shaders Mastery weapon shaders
Ithagnal, Cthalha, Goroth, Volkerh, and Master Shaders
UI
Player HUD Updates
Buff & Debuff player info HUD (such as Quad, Protection) shows a remaining duration number when duration is 5 seconds & below (and shows decimal durations when duration is 3 seconds & below)
Pre & Post Game
Fixed the Drag/Move Player hit detection of the bottom right pillar in the Custom Game 4v4 Lobby
Fixed a the Add-Bot \[+] UI elements appearing on top of the Settings UI when passing Party-Leadership to a player actively in the Settings menu
Added new tips to the map loading screens
Fixed the persistent menu blur bug when leaving the Battle Report after a match
Champion Updates
All Champions
Changing champion mid-game no longer resets the ability cooldown
Anarki
Disabled weapon switch during ability usage, while still allowing you to queue the switch, which will execute after the Injection completes
Fixed the Anarki hoverboard sounds' Teammate Volume support
Athena
Grappling Hook: Fixes & updates to pull speed acceleration
BJ Blazkowicz
Increased the maximum speed cap from 650 to 900 ups
Starting Armor in Duel reduced from 50 to 25 ap
Increased Walk Speed from 160 to 280 ups (for silent walking)
Fixed BJ Blazkowicz’s SUMMERTIME outfit attachments when combined with the GOLDEN CROWN
Clutch
Starting armor reduced from 100 to 75
Barrier
Barrier: Breakable shield, increased duration that degrades as it receives damage, with a maximum of 200 dmg received before breaking
Barrier: Both duration and damage soak share the same energy pool. For example, while the shield can withstand a maximum of 200 dmg before breaking, if half of its duration expires before taking damage only 100 dmg is needed to burn through the shield’s remaining energy
Barrier: Shield sound now alters pitch as duration depletes
Barrier: Fixed incorrect movement settings during ability usage, including move speed 300 instead of 320 and max speed of 750 instead of 600
Mining Laser: Duration is now 3 seconds, instead of the remaining time from Shield duration
Dodge
No Dodge Passive while the Shield is active • Spawns with 1 of 3 dashes available
Reduced stamina regen from 0.33 to 0.3
Improved the responsiveness & accuracy of the Dodge Stamina UI
Added a 10ms delay between executing dodges to address small issues when rapidly executing dodges
Updated the Air-Dodge passive title & description to Dodge Jump, to fully encompass both Air-Dodge and Ground-Dodge mechanics
Death Knight
Increased the maximum speed cap from 650 to 900 ups
Starting Armor in Duel reduced from 50 to 25 ap
Fixed the "bayonet" bug that would leave the sword extended outward while holding a weapon
Fixed Death Knight’s Humiliation vanity not staying equipped
Flame Strike
Fixed the splash damage from the fireball projectiles, they will now always add the flame dot
Charring Passive
Fire Dot - Increased from 6 dmg x 5 sec (30 dmg max) to 9 dmg x 5 sec (45 dmg max)
Doom Slayer
Increased the maximum speed cap from 650 to 700 ups
Starting Armor in Duel reduced from 50 to 25 ap
Berserk
Improved enemy visibility in Berserk, making them appear solid white (with an enemy outline colored arrow)
Duration reduced from 5 to 3 sec (to reduce the distance he can run away when using berserk passively)
Duration restored in full when he lands a punch, resetting the remaining berserk time to 3 seconds (to encourage offensive usage)
Added a sound effect when a punch lands, to help it feel more visceral and for punches to feel like they are making contact
Added magnetism, trails, and new pickup sounds for blood punch bubbles
Fixed a bug with the weapon drop and hand raise that resulted in being stuck without fists or a weapon during or after ability usage
Blood Punch sound added when earning a kill with Berserk
Eisen
Increased the maximum speed cap from 650 to 700 ups
Max Extra AP reduced from 175 to 150 ap
Starting Armor in Duel reduced from 50 to 25 ap
Improved Eisen armor decay rate from 1pt every second to every 2 sec
Sentry Turret
Added Damage Summation audio support for hitbeeps from turrets
Added Overhead Health Bars for both friendly and enemy turrets; health bars on enemy turrets are visible when the turret is either below full health or when it has obtained any armor upgrades
Decreased the turret’s max health from 120 to 100 hp
Increased the turret’s starting health from 120 to 125 hp
Starting Armor 0 ap, Max Armor 50 ap, Max Extra Armor 75 ap. Armor is granted via the updated Repair passive
Improved Turret armor decay rate from 1pt every second to every 2 secs
Damaged health now regens back up to 100 hp, healing 5 pts every 1 sec when it does not receive any further damage for 5 seconds
Reduced activation delay from 2.0 to 1.5 sec
Added an a health and armor info status indicator above the ability info to show when you have an active turret deployed and how healthy it is • Fixed turrets from eternally bouncing on jumppads
Throwing a turret into a kill zone will now grant 80% of your cooldown back, as it isn't exactly fair that we destroy the turret and you lose your cooldown just because we decided the turret was placed in an unallowed location. We grant 80% instead of 100% to discourage spam and exploitation
Repair Passive
Removed the armor regen passive, in favor of a new Turret Repair passive
Eisen can now deny Light Armor pickups when at max armor by standing near the pickup for 2.5 sec. Any armor Eisen picks up will also be applied towards the deployed turret to "upgrade" the turret's stack
Salvage Passive
Shards will now grant 5%, Light Armors 10%, and Heavy Armors 10% cooldown reduction
Galena
Increased the maximum speed cap from 650 to 900 ups
Starting Armor in Duel reduced from 50 to 25 ap
Improved the fitting of the QPL SEASON 3 BELT with Galena’s ACOLYTE Outfit
Unholy Totem
Hitbeeps will now play when damaging enemy totems
Damage Numbers will now appear when damaging enemy totems
Added Overhead Health Bars, Enemy Arrows, and Owner Names for friendly totems
Added Overhead Enemy Arrows for enemy totems, when targeted Owner Names, and when damaged Hit Beeps and Health Bars
Totems now receive Quad Damage, Protection, and Spawn Protection FX to show when they will deal or can receive more damage
Added fire SFX to totems when 3 totems are deployed
Totems you own will now appear solid through walls, to differentiate them from totems belonging to a teammate Galena
Friendly totems will now appear yellow through walls when 3 overcharged totems are deployed
Enemy totems will now have a visible SFX ring around them that is visible in any lighting quality setting
Starting Health increased from 60 to 75, Max health increased from 60 to 75
Damaged health now regens back up to 75 hp, healing 5 pts every 1 sec when it does not receive any further damage for 5 seconds
Throwing a totem into a kill zone will now grant 80% of your cooldown back, as it isn't exactly fair that we destroy the totem and you lose your cooldown just because we decided the totem was placed in an unallowed location. We grant 80% instead of 100% to discourage spam and exploitation
Fixed applying the Super Shotgun's close range bonus damage towards totems; damage was capped at 80 dmg with the Super Shotgun but you can now deal 120 dmg
Slightly increased the totem's weapon collision mesh, so that close range shotgun pellets don't miss when expected to hit
Keel
Increased the maximum speed cap from 600 to 800 ups
Starting Armor in Duel reduced from 75 to 50 ap
Grenade Swarm
Fixed grenades sometimes explode 3 times instead of once
Reinforced Passive
Improved self-damage reduction from 60 to 67%
Improved splash damage reduction from 20 to 33%
Stockpile Passive
Improved ammo box cooldown reduction from 10 to 20%
Nyx
Increased the maximum speed cap from 750 to 1000 ups
Ranger
Increased the maximum speed cap from 650 to 900 ups
Starting Armor in Duel reduced from 50 to 25 ap
Ranger Gladiator outfit renamed to BRAWLER to avoid having two armor sets with the same name (Strogg's GLADIATOR, which is based off of the Q2/Q4 Strogg Gladiator enemy). BP art for new reward added
Dire Orb
Velocity reduced from 1000 ups to 900 ups
Shoot Delay after throwing increased from 0.4 to 0.5 sec
Shoot Delay after teleporting increased from 0.4 to 0.5 sec
The orb now has 75 pts of health and can be destroyed when shot, triggering the orb to explode. The explosion can be triggered by anyone: Ranger, teammates, or enemies
The orb’s damage output is now based on it’s time in flight, gaining damage over time & distance
Scalebearer
Increased the maximum speed cap from 600 to 800 ups
Starting Armor in Duel reduced from 75 to 50 ap
Fixed an IK animation crash in the Scalebearer’s animation set when trying to reach a target position during weapon-aiming that was unreachable
Bull Rush
Fixed the Scalebearer sensitivity bug, where sometimes the default rotation limits are not restored
Fixed Scalebearer Bull Rush sometimes passing through the enemy target with a collision (especially at high ping)
Slash
No changes.
Sorlag
Starting Armor in Duel reduced from 75 to 50 ap
Strogg
Starting Armor in Duel reduced from 50 to 25 ap
Will no longer drop Stroyent when he commits suicide
Fixed Golden Crown power-up shaders • Fixed Golden Crown crash behaviors that would occur when cloaking & decloaking
Drone Strike
Drone: Fixed Peeker’s camera view angles from updating if its Strogg owner's body enters a teleporter domain
Fixed Peeker’s drone flight sounds persisting after death
Visor
Starting Armor in Duel reduced from 50 to 25 ap Piercing Sight
Piercing Sight now exposes the enemy’s health and armor information
Increased the volume of Visor’s third-person ability VO and reduced how much the occlusion muffles its volume
Game Mode Updates
Lobbies/Queues
In a ranked match, when a player disconnects from the lobby/match, the leaver still gets the existing forfeit loss, but now loses SR. The remaining opponent now also gets a forfeit win persisted to their profile
Added Unholy Trinity TDM to the Bot Practice queue
Added support for disabling the Score Limit, by setting Score Limit 0 in Custom Game
Matches
Fixed the max warmup time bug, which would allow warmup to go on forever, instead of being capped to 120 sec
Fixed the Auto-Abort system, to properly end matches when no enemies remain in game
Anti-Griefing system will now exit the current match and send you back to the main menu, instead of closing the game application
Duel
Dead player bodies will now hide at the minimum respawn time (3 seconds) -- so that it doesn't convey when an opponent chooses to respawn. This also allows you to use the Hide Dead Bodies option without being penalized
2v2 TDM
Dead player bodies will now hide at the minimum respawn time (3 seconds) -- so that it doesn't convey when an opponent chooses to respawn. This also allows you to use the Hide Dead Bodies option without being penalized. Instagib • IG Matches in Quick Play now last for 10 minutes with no score limit
Sacrifice
Active Abilities are now canceled on Soul Pickup, just like we do in CTF during flag pickups • Added an Announcer VO countdown from 10 to 1 as the point reaches 90-99% captured
Clan Arena
Added First-Person Spectating while dead to replace the third-person spectating
Slipgate
Added First-Person Spectating while dead to replace the third-person spectating
Unholy Trinity
UHT Matches in Quick Play now last for 10 minutes with no score limit
Spectating
Fixed spectators having a delay changing the spectator player, when the followed player dies and has entered the death HUD UI
Map Updates
All Maps
Quake 30th Anniversary Banners added
Blood Covenant
Removed an unused out-of-bounds jumppad
Blood Run
Added a teleporter from the Tri-bolt mid-level to the Super Nailgun / Power-Up room
Fixed a hole in the wall mesh near a statue
Fixed the position of an out-of-bounds breakable urn, placing it back into the map
Church of Azathoth
Fixed missing game mode flags for items in the disabled obelisk area
Fixed the position of an out-of-bound breakable urn
Removed the out of bounds jumppad
Citadel
Removed out of bounds fireplace reference inside the central jumppad Deep Embrace
Recreated ocean mesh from scratch for performance optimizations
Fixed three small holes in the map mesh
Insomnia
Fixed holes in the window frame mesh near HMG
Ruins of Sarnath
Swapped the SG spawn and SG player-spawn locations (so that you don't have to turn around to pick up the Super Shotgun)
Fixed three small holes in the map mesh
Tower of Koth
The smaller version of Tower of Koth will now be used in DM, TDM, IG, i9, and UHT
The larger version of Tower of Koth has now added the support beam above the central mid-level teleporter that was introduced in the smaller version of Tower of Koth