Hi everyone,

Yesterday, we took the game down for standard maintenance and to switch Anti DDoS providers.

This was supposed to be a pretty simple procedure... but like all things APB, it quickly unraveled and turned into a cluster.

Our fiber connection in Amsterdam has had some issues, and it went out midstream.

They got in back online, but an issue with other hardware prevented the EU World from fully functioning.

We sorted out those issues, only to have the optic fiber connection go bad again.

At this point, we have worked with our Amsterdam host to replace all the hardware giving us issues. The goal is get EU back online as soon as possible.

To be clear, no player data was lost. The outage has been a cascade of fixing underlying network issues that were missed when we put Amsterdam online, or came up during our Anti DDoS cutover. I'll give updates here until that happens.

Then over the next week, we will replace all of the other hardware that has been not been 100%.

To be continued..

Thanks,

Matt

Starting April 16th, dive into our wild Easter-themed chaos in special versions of Financial and Waterfront. Your mission? Gather as many eggs as possible before time runs out by targeting bunnies, chickens, and other players! Complete challenges to earn new titles and valuable Joker Tickets.

Watch for animals roaming the streets - mug bunnies for one egg, or chickens for up to five. The real excitement comes from player encounters: perform a full mugging to steal all their eggs, or take them down for half their stash (rounded up).

To protect your precious eggs, deliver them to contacts throughout the district. Here's everything else you need to know:

• It's a full-on free-for-all - no teams, no alliances.
  
• Each match runs for 20 minutes.
  
• Mugging any target - chicken, bunny, or player - gives you a temporary speed boost and brief invulnerability. You'll see eggs floating around your character when this shield is active.
  
• While shielded, you can't use weapons, and the protection disappears if you enter a vehicle or use certain mods.
  
• Players can't interrupt your mugging, so snatch those eggs in peace.
  
• If you're in the top 20% of egg carriers in the district, you must deposit your haul before returning to the lobby.
  
• Collect the most eggs to become the Egg Lord - but watch out! Everyone will see your location on the map, making you the prime target.

Additionally, running from the 16th of April until the 30th April is a login reward campaign awarding every character that logs in during that period with the “A New Me” player title.

Happy hunting, and may the most egg-crazed player win!



Along with our in-game event, we’re bringing back our classic Easter items in one convenient bundle – and that’s not all! Enjoy a 15% discount across the entire ARMAS Marketplace during the event. Don’t miss out!

We're back online and ready to roll!

After some unexpected downtime due to unplanned maintenance, we worked behind the scenes to get everything running smoothly again. It took some extra effort, but now the servers are live, and it's time to jump back into the action!

[h4]Back In The Streets Event[/h4]
The Back In The Streets Event is part one of our downtime compensation and aims to get players 2000 Joker Tickets rather quickly by just playing 10 missions with an additional 500 Joker Tickets awarded for a total of 30 missions played during the Event. In addition to Joker Tickets, each level of the Back In The Streets role also awards unique Titles that will be unobtainable after the Event ends.

• 1 Mission (Total): 500 JT + Back In The Streets Title
  
• 4 Missions (Total): 500 JT + Connecting to World Server Title
  
• 7 Missions (Total): 500 JT + Back Online Title
  
• 10 Missions (Total): 500 JT + 404 Aim Not Found Title
  
• 30 Missions (Total): 500 JT + Certified SPiN Technician Title

Additionally, upon logging in, players will receive the following login rewards:

We appreciate your patience, and to thank you for sticking with us, we're offering the following login rewards. Also, don't miss the ARMAS sale details at the end of this article!

• Viper Weapon Skin
  
• Cut The Wrong Wire Title
  
• Lost The Path Title
  
• Touched Grass Title
  
• Valentines Day Quiver Backpack

To make up for lost time, we're rolling out an event packed with rewards! Players will receive the STAR 556 'Love Gun' and the Colby SNR 850 'Cherub' upon logging in, allowing them to jump into the ongoing roles from previous events. Get ready to hit the streets, complete missions, and earn exclusive rewards!

[h4]Valentines Day 2025 Titles[/h4]
Log in every other day to obtain one of the 7 new Valentines Day Titles!

• XOXO Title - March 6th 9 AM UTC Until March 8th 9 AM UTC
  
• Secret Admirer Title - March 8th 9 AM UTC Until March 10th 9 AM UTC
  
• Lovebird Title - March 10th 9 AM UTC Until March 12th 9 AM UTC
  
• Matchmaker Title - March 12th 9 AM UTC Until March 14th 9 AM UTC
  
• Smitten Kitten Title - March 14th 9 AM UTC Until March 16th 9 AM UTC
  
• Heart Thief Title - March 16th 9 AM UTC Until March 18th 9 AM UTC
  
• Date Dodger Title - March 18th 9 AM UTC Until March 20th 9 AM UTC

[h4]"Someone's favourite"[/h4]

• Rank 1 (50 Total Kills) = Title: "Someone's favourite"; 500JT
  
• Rank 2 (150 Total Kills) = Title: "Is very soft"; 500JT; OSCAR 'Sweetheart' (7-Day Lease)
  
• Rank 3 (300 Total Kills) = Title: "Love-struck"; 500JT; STAR 556 'LCR "Love-gun" (7-Day Lease)
  
• Rank 4 (500 Total Kills) = Title: "Pookie Bear"; 500JT; OBIR 'Heartache' (7-Day Lease)

Also presented simultaneously, is the Valentine's Massacre role from previous years, which will earn you these sweet rewards if you haven't got them already!

• Rank 1 (50 Total Kills) = Death Theme: Romance
  
• Rank 2 (150 Total Kills) = Clothing: Love Heart Glasses
  
• Rank 3 (300 Total Kills) = Death Theme: Pizza Guy
  
• Rank 4 (500 Total Kills) = Colby M-1922 'Chopper' (10-Day Lease); Clothing: Pink Police Hat; Unlock: STAR 556 'Love-Gun'
  
• Rank 5 (750 Total Kills) = Title: "Casanova"; Valentine's Weapon Skin

[h4]Snubbed Love[/h4]
Lastly, the Snubbed Love role from the previous years is also returning, requiring you to give Cupid a taste of their own medicine and rack up kills with the Colby SNR 850 'Cherub' secondary weapon. Upon logging in during the Valentine's Event, this weapon is gifted to players.

• Rank 1 (25 Total Kills) = Unlock: Ophelia - Blond Decal
  
• Rank 2 (75 Total Kills) = Enforcers: Prentiss Tigers "Violet Valentine" Symbol; Criminals: Bloodroses "Rose-Heart" Symbol
  
• Rank 3 (150 Total Kills) = Unlock: Ophelia - Redhead Decal
  
• Rank 4 (250 Total Kills) = Unlock: Colby SNR 850 'Cherub'
  
• Rank 5 (375 Total Kills) = Title: "Cherub Chaser"

[h4]Back in the Streets ARMAS Sale[/h4]
Now that the servers are live, we're kicking off a sale, offering a 15% Bonus G1C on every G1C purchase and introducing these event-themed items!

• Colby M-1922 'Big Chopper'
  
• Colby CSG-20 'Speed-Dater'
  
• N-HVR 243 'Cupid's Arrow'
  
• STAR 556 'Love-Gun' R&D III
  
• Obeya CR762 'Heartbreaker'
  
• Joker SR15 'Casanova'
  
• Valentines Classic Bundle
  
• Leather and Lace Bundle
  
• OSCAR 'Sweetheart'
  
• STAR 556 'LCR' "Love-gun"
  
• OBIR 'Heartache'
  
• Valentines Marksman Bundle

Thank you for being a part of our community and for your patience. Jump in, enjoy the action, and make the most of the rewards while they're here!

Hello everyone,

For players who may have missed our updates on social media and updates on our Steam Forums, we want to provide a full recap of what has been happening behind the scenes over the past few weeks and share the latest progress on restoring our servers.

On February 2nd, all three of our world wide data centers went dark and all our servers went offline without notice. We were informed by our primary network hosting provider they had encountered a serious issue requiring an unspecified amount of days to fix. This forced APB:Reloaded and GamersFirst offline. Unfortunately, we were not provided with an ETA at the time, but we immediately began working with our provider to resolve the issue.

After ongoing discussions, we were initially told services would be restored by Friday, February 7th. However, as delays continued, and deadlines were missed, we made the very difficult decision to terminate all services and implement an entirely new hosting solution to regain control over our infrastructure and ensure long-term stability.

This process has involved quickly securing all of our existing servers, acquiring new servers to meet player demand, and kicking off multiple network colocation and transit contracts around the world. Once we secured new servers, our team began working on restoring services. At the same time, we finalized development for what would have been our Valentine's Day event. As promised, this event will be launched for APB Reloaded once the game is back online.

As of right now, here is what we have accomplished for APB Reloaded, Fallen Earth, and GamersFirst:

• 2/21 (Friday): Network circuits were scheduled for provisioning and activation.
  
• 2/24 (Monday): Hosting cabinets were finalized and handed over for setup.
  
• Server Racking Begins: We moved and racked all the necessary hardware for both NA and EU data centers.

All servers in North America have been set up, and we are currently waiting for one final part before going live.

In Europe, hardware has been moved to Amsterdam, racked, and plugged in. We are now waiting on circuit activation. Our CEO is currently in Amsterdam, tirelessly overseeing everything to ensure a smooth transition. Our team is actively working on-site in both locations to complete the setup as quickly as possible.

We truly appreciate the patience and support from our dedicated players. This transition has been a massive undertaking, and we are doing everything possible to ensure that APB Reloaded and Fallen Earth return stronger than before.

We are posting regular updates on our Discord, and we welcome everyone to join us there for the latest news and discussions: discord.gg/littleorbit


We will continue providing updates via Steam, Discord, and social media as we approach the final stages of this process.

Thank you for being patient with us and we'll see you back in-game soon!

As the year draws to a close, APB Reloaded v1.32 "Mobilize" delivers a wide range of improvements, new features, and seasonal content. After the significant New Horizon update in August and a return of the 2018 Halloween festivities in October, the focus now turns to refining matchmaking, strengthening anti-cheat measures, and celebrating the holidays in style.

Below are the key highlights and additions included with the "Mobilize" update and the upcoming Holiday 2024 event starting December 18th.

What’s New:

• Removal of Threat Districts: Traditional threat-based district segregation has been eliminated. Players can now be matched with others across all instances of a specific district type.
  
• Easier Access to Matches: Instead of waiting for a full district, players can relax, explore, socialize, or engage in faction-based gameplay. Once a suitable match is found, participants will be seamlessly moved to a new server.
  
• Expanding the Player Pool: Previous district caps limited opponents to a small pool. With cross-district matchmaking, the entire player population in the same type of district is now available for match creation, greatly increasing the chances of balanced matches.

Future Plans:
The development team intends to enable cross-type district and even cross-world matchmaking, further broadening the player pool and enhancing the overall gameplay experience.

Multi-Layered Protection:

• Real-Time and Daily Detections: All three modes of the new SARD anti-cheat system are now fully online. Some methods provide immediate detections, while others run daily analyses to catch less obvious issues.
  
• Refined Ban Policy: Players identified with 100% cheating confidence are subject to discretionary bans. Those with lower-confidence detections accrue “Cheat Points.” These points may lead to restricted matchmaking or limited features until they expire, reducing exposure to suspected cheaters while minimizing false-positive impacts on regular players.

Monitoring and Adjustments:
The system will be closely observed, with prompt adjustments made as needed. The goal is to maintain a fair, enjoyable environment for all players.


This year’s holiday festivities return to the classic spirit of APB: Reloaded’s Christmas events. Progression roles have been tweaked so players can grind at their own pace. New titles, Joker Tickets, and unique weapon unlocks await participants who engage with the various activities and challenges.


Five Rotating Minigames: Two new gun games join the rotation

• “Blast from the Past” Gun Game: Experience legacy weapons with original stats, including minimal sprint delays for high-speed combat.
  
• “Redhill Experiments…?” Gun Game: Experiment with absurd weaponry, from the PMG-SD ‘Staple Gun’ to the N-SPiN 3310, and even a Redhill attempt at “Snowparo.”

Returning favorites include:

• Prototype Testing Grounds – A fan-favorite pushing the limits of regular APB weapon rules.
  
• 12 Deaths of Christmas – Classic Gun Game with adjusted mods for smoother play.
  
• Snowball Fight! – Faction-based snowball skirmishes using a buffed HohohoPGL.

Participating in Beacon minigames levels the new “Elfin’ Around” role. Progression grants six new titles, 2400 Joker Tickets, and permanent access to lease the DOW Stock NFCP 2 shotgun.

• Seasonal weapons (HohohoPGL and Snowball grenades) will be sent via in-game mail. Use them to progress the returning “Snowball Fight!” Weapon Role in Mission Districts and earn Joker Tickets, new titles, and the Candy Cane weapon skin.
  
• Look out for special community-wide Snowball Fights and Gun Games organized by Staff and GMs throughout the holiday season, offering additional Joker Ticket rewards.

The Elves have refreshed their stock, allowing players to earn five titles from previous Christmas events and purchase all six Christmas-themed weapon skins for Joker Tickets.


Wilde at the Joker Distribution Store is expanding the lineup with permanent weapon additions, including:

• CBMP-45 ‘Arrow’
  
• Norseman ‘Hel’
  
• Norseman ‘Tyr’
  
• Norseman ‘Hoenir’
  
• Joker RFP-9-SD “Talon”
  
• S-AS PDW “Hotfoot”

These additions are timed perfectly with the surge in Joker Ticket rewards from holiday activities, giving players more options to spend their earnings.


The VBR ‘Enchantress’ is a high-mobility, fast-firing, two-shot-to-kill sniper rifle with limited range but superior accuracy on the move. Inspired by the original N-HVR 243 ‘Scout,’ it enhances the jump-shooting dynamic without recreating past balance issues. To fully leverage its mobile accuracy, Hunting Sight 3 is required, ensuring that this Legendary remains balanced and skill-oriented.

From December 18th, all ARMAS items will be discounted by 15%. Additionally, a variety of permanent and limited-time seasonal items will be available, including:

New Permanent Additions:

• Future Tech Weapon Skin
  
• CBMP-45 ‘Arrow’

Limited-Time Christmas 2024 Items:

• Stocks out Bundle (N-TEC 5 Dvah Stock, OCA-EW 626 NFCP 3 Stock, JG-1140 Tactical)
  
• Christmas Classics Bundle (Six Christmas-themed weapon skins: Candy Cane, Christmas Holly, Snowflake, Santa Sleigh, Sugar Plum Fairy, Nutcracker)

Returning Limited-Time Christmas Items:

• Christmas Symbol Bundle
  
• Holiday 2019 All Items
  
• Holiday Symbol Bundle
  
• Slay Bells Decal Sheet
  
• Ugly Holiday Sweater Bundle

The APB Reloaded team appreciates the community’s dedication and support throughout 2024.

The changes and additions introduced this year are intended to set a strong foundation for 2025, aiming for improved fairness, more frequent matches, and fresh content that caters to a wide range of playstyles. Whether participating in epic firefights, enjoying minigames in The Beacon, or spending time in the Social Districts designing new outfits, there’s something for everyone.

Enjoy the holidays, the new matchmaking system, the anti-cheat enhancements, the Legendary VBR ‘Enchantress,’ and the wide array of new Joker Store items that players can earn for free.

Here’s to making the remainder of 2024 enjoyable and setting the stage for a fantastic 2025.

The Epidemic Returns: Can You Survive San Paro’s Deadliest Infection?

Hey everyone! After a long break, Epidemic has returned, bringing chaos back to San Paro! Though it hasn’t been seen since 2018, the dangerous objective remains unchanged: three rival corporations are competing to unleash their deadly pathogens and infect the city’s population, turning citizens into mindless zombies. It’s a fight for domination, but only one virus will prevail. The question is: which corporation will reign supreme?

Meet the Epidemic Teams: The battle lines are drawn, and three corporations are trying to unleash their deadly toxins across San Paro:



Epidemic Teams
Who do you think will come out on top?

How Epidemic Works:

Epidemic Daily Activities: Daily side tasks and rewards will be randomly assigned when you enter the event. Completing these challenges will help you level your Epidemic 2024 role as well as awarding some extra Joker Tickets for your efforts and spicy new Titles!

Additionally, you may sometimes encounter rare daily activities which are a little harder to complete but award you with the Blue Glow in the Dark Weapon skin or coveted Witches Hat!

Game Goals:
1 Transportation of Toxin Barrels: In the Epidemic District, your team starts in one of three territories—top, bottom left, or bottom right. Your job is to collect toxin barrels from your starting zone and carry them to neutral territories to spread your infection. But beware—these barrels degrade over time and will eventually explode if you don’t act quickly.



Barrels are also vulnerable to enemy attacks, so you’ll need to protect them while transporting. Once you capture a territory, new barrels will spawn there, allowing you to infect even more areas and strengthen your control.

2 Conquer Neutral Territories:
At the beginning of the match, six neutral territories will appear on your map, marked as task checkpoints. Your goal is to capture these zones by placing your team’s toxin barrel within the boundaries. The more areas your team captures, the faster your infection spreads. Reach 100% infection to trigger the final showdown!



3 Protect or Destroy Captured Territories:

Once a toxin barrel is placed in a territory, the borders turn your team’s color, and a large barrel bundle spawns to maintain control of the area. Defend it well, because enemy teams can destroy the bundle to neutralize the territory. The barrels are tough but not invulnerable, and they’re surrounded by toxic gas that harms enemy players, making them tricky to destroy.



End Game: The Battle for Havalynd Central Memorial Park

1 The fight to control Havalynd Central Memorial Park:

The first team to hit 100% infection triggers the final phase of the game—the battle for Havalynd Central Memorial Park. To win, your team must capture and hold this territory.

If the park is neutral, all you need to do is place a small toxin barrel and let the infection take hold. But if an enemy team has already claimed it, you’ll need to neutralize their hold before placing your own barrel. Even if your team hasn’t hit 100% infection yet, you can still try to take control of the park, forcing your rivals to recapture it.



Defend your barrel within the Park’s boundaries from enemy attacks for 90 seconds and secure your team's victory.

Epidemic 2024 Rewards:
With this years run of Epidemic players can earn a bunch of new Titles as well as some of Epidemics old rewards such as two out of the three weapon skins as well as the Epidemic symbols! Additionally, every level of the Epidemic role award you with 150 Joker Tickets!

• Rank 1: Bullet Boo Title
  
• Rank 2: Spooktacular Title
  
• Rank 3: Dead Aim Title
  
• Rank 4: Haunted Title, Epidemic Skin Selector
  
• Rank 5: Epidemic Symbol Pack
  
• Rank 6: Mummy Issues Title, Halloween Backpack Selector
  
• Rank 7: Zombicine, Necrocite, and Undedox Symbols
  
• Rank 8: Silent Killer Title, Epidemic Skin Selector

Halloween 2024 Sale: Spooky Deals Await!
To celebrate the return of Epidemic, we're launching the Halloween 2024 Sale with an array of killer deals. Stock up on Joker Tickets, character slots, and some of your favorite weapons like the OCA Nano ‘Butcher,’ Colby .45 AP, and the VAS C2 ‘Troublemaker.’ All SWARM, ISSR-A, FR0G, and ATAC 424 variants are also discounted, along with exclusive kits and vehicles like the Criminal and Enforcer Firehawk sets and the Han Coywolf Bundle.

This Halloween brings a set of Biohazard-themed weapon skins for Undedox, Zombicine, and Necrocite, alongside classic spooky skins like Halloween Ghost and Glow in the Dark Blue. Returning favorites include the Halloween Classics and 2018 bundles, as well as costume and animal symbol sheets to let your creativity shine.

Don't miss out on these hauntingly good deals while dominating San Paro!

Celebrating the launch of “New Horizon” with exciting events, promotions and new offers.

APB: Reloaded Version 1.31 “New Horizon” launches today — We’re excited to finally get some new content into the game and hope that you all enjoy New Horizon as much as we enjoyed making it.

You can read our CEO’s introduction of the new patch here.

You can also read more about our two new contacts and their free rewards here.

This update is one of the largest updates that we have ever shipped, so we are expecting to run into some issues that we are going to have to address. We will keep you all in the loop about any ongoing issues in our dedicated “New Horizon Launch Updates” thread on the forums and Little Orbit discord.

Starting today, players will be awarded with the “Horizon Hero” title for logging into the game. This promotion is going to last until August 27th.

Join us on Saturday, August 17th, Sunday, August 18th, Saturday, August 24th, and Sunday, August 25th on both Citadel and Jericho as we spin up some fun little Minigames that award Joker Tickets. These Minigames will include an updated version of our Joker Box Gun Game with all the recent Legendary guns, including the new ISSR-C ‘Kingdom’. These events will be a great opportunity to get your hands on them and try them out.

We will announce when and where you can find us through in-game broadcasts, so keep an eye out!

With the release of Version 1.31 “New Horizon” we’re introducing the ISSR-C ‘Kingdom’ Legendary Burst rifle, but that’s not all we’re also bringing you 14 New Male clothing items as well as 13 New Female Clothing items to both ARMAS and the Joker Ticket store in two convenient bundles.

The Kingdom is the first new Weapon we brought to APB Reloaded in quite a while so we are excited to finally get it in your hands. The ISSR-C ‘Kingdom’ Legendary is available for purchase on Anne inside the Joker Ticket store.



Character wide: 2000 Joker Tickets
Account wide: 599 G1c

All items are available for both body types.

1. Tech Top
   
2. Tech Top Rubber
   
3. Tech Trousers
   
4. Tech Trousers Rubber
   
5. Night Vision Goggles

Character wide: 4000 Joker Tickets
Account wide: 1299 G1c

The following items are available for both body types:

• Tattoo Sleeve L/R
  
• Latex Gloves L/R
  
• Fishnet Gloves L/R
  
• Longsleeve Fishnet Top
  
• VNeck Tee

The following items are available exclusively for female characters:

• One Piece Swimsuit
  
• Short Qipao Dress
  
• Trench Coat

The following items are available exclusively for male characters:

• Longsleeve Changshan Top
  
• Gauntlets L/R
  
• Fingerless Gauntlets L/R

Following the launch of 'New Horizon,' Matt will be hosting an AMA to discuss all things post-launch. Stay tuned for the exact date, which we’ll be announcing soon!

Excited to learn more about everything coming in Version 1.31 “New Horizon”? Then check out a series of blog posts and patch notes here:

• APB 1.31 New Horizon Announcement
  
• Meet Lucas and Lynette
  
• Patch notes / https://www.gamersfirst.com/apb/known-issues

Meet Lucas and Lynette

Introducing Lucas Van Rooyen and Lynette Casey, two fearsome higher-ups in their factions that are looking for new recruits to do their bidding in return for rewards that will help you stay on top of the ever-changing street wars of San Paro.

Unlike previous contacts, Lucas and Lynette are not of the specialist tier, instead, these contacts are positioned a little more in APB Reloaded’s mid-game progression and have 15 levels each which means that these contacts can be unlocked as early as Rank 88 if you focus your efforts on maxing just Blood Rose or Prentiss Tiger contacts!



Unlocking Lucas Van Rooyen requires you to reach level 10 with the following Blood Rose contacts:

• Tyron Sennet
  
• Jeung Bloodrose

Unlocking Lynette Casey requires you to reach level 10 with the following Prentiss Tigers contacts:

• Chiza
  
• Byeong Lee

If you have already maxed out the contacts named above you will be referred to Lucas or Lynette when logging in with your character on Version 1.31 “New Horizon”.

When reaching the maximum level with Lucas Van Rooyen, he will refer you to Michael Simeone. Similarly, reaching the maximum level with Lynette Casey will result in her referring you to Orlenz' Moretti.

New contacts bring new rewards, so here’s a quick overview of what Lucas and Lynette have in store for you!

The following weapons are available as part of the standard contact progression with Lucas and Lynette:

• Showstopper Pistol
  
• OCA ‘Nano’ Pistol
  
• Obeya CAP40-C NFCP 2
  
• N-SSW 74 Adeen
  
• VBR ‘Temptress’
  
• VAS C2 NFCP 1
  
• N-TEC 7 Adeen
  
• N-HVR 243 ‘Scout’ Nol

If you have maxed out Lucas or Lynette you may also be eligible for a rare daily activity awarding you with the following weapon:

• N-ISSR-B ‘Recon’

Additionally the following Weapon skins are awarded for reaching the maximum level of Lucas or Lynette:

• Short Circuit - Blue
  
• Short Circuit - Red
  
• Short Circuit - Green

New contacts are a perfect opportunity to add new modifications and spice up the gameplay, here are three new modifications as well as one returning modification available in v1.31 New Horizon:

• Display Banner

Orange character mod allows you to place down a large Display Banner with your personal symbol on it! This feature was originally a refer-a-friend reward, and we are bringing it back for those who missed the chance to unlock it previously.

• Long-Range Rifling

The red weapon modification increases your weapon's effective range by 25% at the cost of reducing the weapon's rate of fire by 10%. Additionally, burst weapons suffer a 20% burst rate penalty for using this mod.

• Muzzle Brake (Vertical)

Muzzle Brake (Vertical) is a red weapon modification that will reduce the vertical recoil of your weapon by 30% at a minor drawback of increasing horizontal recoil by 7%.

• Suspension Tuning

Lastly Suspension Tuning, our very first “Tuning” vehicle modification uses a red vehicle modification slot. This modification will decrease the Suspension Stiffness and Damping of your vehicle by 50% with no additional downside. We’re excited to see which cars can use this modification to greatly empower their maneuverability.

These modifications are going to be available for purchase after unlocking them and players will not receive a free version as part of unlocking them as we felt like this behavior should be kept exclusively for Specialist contacts.

Vehicles
The following vehicles are unlocked as part of leveling Lucas and Lynette:

• Growl S3
  
• Sungnyemun Mirage S-22

Maxing our Lucas or Lynette will award you with their respective outfit as well as Blood Rose/Prentiss Tiger inspired presets using some of our new clothing items such as the Trench Coat. Here’s a sneak peek:



Inventory Expansions
More items require you to have more inventory capacity, fortunately, Lucas and Lynette have you covered! Players will be able to earn the following inventory expansions as part of Lucas and Lynette’s contact progression:

• +5 Vehicle Inventory Space
  
• +10 Clothing Inventory Space
  
• +5 Symbol Inventory Space
  
• +5 Weapon Inventory Space

Hi everyone.

It's been quite a while since we have had a new version of APB this large.

So I thought I would take some time to break everything down that is coming over a series of blog posts. But before I do, I want to acknowledge a couple of things about version 1.31.

First, and most importantly, we focused a lot on new free content. It's something I have wanted to do in the past, but for various reasons we haven't been able to. It's a bit of an experiment, as we're now giving away more free items than ever in the regular progression of the game. We took time to identify and fill in gaps for weapons and vehicles that otherwise weren't available.

Second, this patch brings together content and features that have been in the development for a while. Honestly, it sort of snowballed. As the weeks and months have passed, more and more items have been pushed into this new version. As the name implies, we're hoping New Horizon sets a new bar for APB and offers a "jumping on point" for many players who have felt there was nothing new in the game.

Third, there was a lot of R&D required for this patch. Little Orbit has never added contacts to the game or modified any of the district geometry. In some cases, we had to write entirely new plugins to build compatibility between APB and newer modeling systems. We've also had layoffs, so there was some retraining required to even do some of the things we've already done in the past. Regardless, I feel like our progress will enable updates like to happen a bit more quickly going forward.

Lastly, we are in final testing on many of the components in this patch, but it is our goal to launch Version 1.31 New Horizon in the next couple of weeks.

With that out of the way, let's jump into what is coming.

Major Additions

• (2) New Contacts - Lucas 'Van' Rooyen and Lynette Casey

These two fearsome higher-ups in their factions are looking for new recruits to do their bidding in return for rewards that will help you stay on top of the ever-changing street wars of San Paro. Both of these characters have been in the APB lore for quite a while, and it was important to me that their rewards and storylines feel on par with other contacts that were already in the game. I will be posting a separate News blog with a full run-down of Lucas and Lynette's rewards soon.

• SARD Anti-Cheat

APB has had many different integrations in the past, but I felt it was important to take the proper time to evaluate both old and new solutions. This time around, I had two major criteria: (1) client and server side support and (2) custom integration where Little Orbit collects the penalty information, but we apply our own rules on how to handle cheaters. The team at SARD has been fantastic to work with, and after months of development, we are finally ready to launch.

• Re-distribution of contact rewards and lowered all mod Rank requirements

We feel this is a significant quality of life improvement. We decided to lower the Rank requirements for R195l mods to level the playing field between older and newer characters. With that same goal in mind, we also identified gaps in the vehicle progression and redistributed vehicles to unlock more cars sooner. And finally, we added missing weapons like the Showstopper, the NTEC 7c, and the N-HVR '243' 'Scout' to the player progression.

• Changes to the Waterfront

We knew we couldn't launch two new Waterfront contacts without addressing some of the player complaints about that district. We've added more cover around common spawn areas and objective locations as well as more access routes to spots that were previously very hard to attack. These edits are still be completed, so I will be posting a separate News blog with the new changes to Waterfront soon.

• The ISSR-C 'Kingdom' Legendary

We decided to have a little fun and also add a new legendary. The ISSR-C 'Kingdom' is RedHill Homeland Defense's new cutting-edge, fast, short-ranged burst rifle made up from parts of Nekrova's infamous ISSR weapon series with an integrated RedHill burst module. Its quick four-round bursts make it suitable for close to medium-range fights whilst retaining Nekrova's trademark of deadly accuracy.

Full Patch Notes:

• Added two new Tier 4 Contacts to the Waterfront district.
  
• Added three new modifications.
  
• Added many new clothing items for both body types.
  
• Added SARD Anti-Cheat.
  
• Reworked many areas of the Waterfront district to improve gameplay.
  
• Added the ISSR-C 'Kingdom' burst rifle as a new Legendary gun available for purchase at Anne inside the Joker Store through Joker Tickets.
  
• Changed the Rank requirement of all mods that previously required a Character Rating of 195 or above. These mods will now have a Rank Requirement of R40, 60, or 80 and cost 20.000, 40.000, and 60.000 APB$ respectively.
  
• Increased the range in which Mobile Spawn Points become invalid from 35m to 55m.
  
• Decreased the Health and Stamina damage to the DMR-AV Sniper Rifle to decrease the range in which it can Kill in two shots from 88-100m to 95-100m. The ability to stun in two shots has been removed entirely. The DMR-SD is unaffected by these changes.
  
• Decreased the range of the OBIR by 5 meters. We are going to revisit this change once we are closer to making larger balance adjustments but we feel like the gun is currently too dominant and would like to address that for the time being.
  
• Added 3-Point Sling 3 to the ARMAS and Joker Store versions of the non-legendary Showstopper Pistol and renamed it to Showstopper 'Quickdraw'.
  
• The following vehicles unlock their 0 to 4-slot versions one entire Contact Tier sooner.
  
  • Balkan Varzuga
    
  • Balkan Ravan
    
  • Macchina Calabria
    
  • Macchina Cosenza
    
  • Packer Ceresco
• Retroactively added the following vehicles to late-game contact progression:
  
  • Growl S4
    
  • [Dolton Fresno D400
    
  • Charge Sentinel CS904
    
  • Dolton Montane D230
    
  • Dolton Montane D430
    
  • Balkan Varzuga Rally 353 XS
• The Sungnyemun Mirage now supports primary and secondary police lights.
  
• Fixed various LOD issues of the Sungnyemun Mirage.
  
• Fixed multiple minor issues of the Sungnyemun Mirage.
  
• Added the Mirage 'Sundown' and 'Horizon' presets to the Joker Ticket Store. These were designed by an awesome community member that goes by the name of ElinSylwiaVT.

More to come.

Thanks, Matt

Hello everyone!

Get ready to join us on OTW this Monday, 05/27/2024, at 6 PM UTC for an hour-long matchmaking test. We need your help to put our new matchmaking code through its paces and iron out any kinks. The more of you who join, the better we can fine-tune our system. Your input is invaluable, so please log in and lend us a hand during this crucial phase.

Remember to create a character on the "NA Test" World of OTW for this test! Your involvement truly counts! Let's work together to make this test a resounding success!

Check out the notes for Matchmaking Improvement below:

• With this build, we have deployed new code based on the existing matchmaking functionality on Live.
  
• Matchmaking has been moved from the World server to operate on its own dedicated Matchmaking server.
  
• Matchmaking will only function in the same district - at least for now.
  
• Backup is once again offered in cases in which the Matchmaker has to create an uneven Match and will add one player to each team trying to increase the overall Match quality to make it more even.
  
• In evenly matched missions both Team Leaders are now offered the option to “Escalate” the mission. If both Team leaders put in a request to escalate players will be added to both teams up to a maximum of 20 players per side. Team leaders will need to agree to Escalate the mission further each time new players are added to the mission.
  
• Fixed an issue related to Backup/Escalation calls that caused the matchmaker to be bottlenecked during the playtest on Sun. May 19.
  
• Fixed the crash issue related to playtest that happened on Thur. May 23.

If you haven't yet! Make sure to grab the OTW client and download it ahead of time so that you can participate.