Watch Dogs 2 Patch Notes Detail Today's Big Free Update

A major free update arrives today on all platforms for Watch Dogs 2, delivering a new multiplayer mode and weapon, among other things.

Ubisoft describes the 1.13 patch as the game's biggest free update so far. Its most significant feature is Showdown, a new 2v2 PvP mode intended as an "endgame challenge" that you can play with a friend or other players found through matchmaking. Matches are set in 15 different locations and involve one of three different objective types that approximate Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, and Domination-style modes in other games.

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Drone, motocross, and ekart races all receive support for multiplayer in this update, and each will have its own respective leaderboard. Additionally, when exploring the world, you'll also begin to come across armored loot trucks. These can be hacked, activating an event where you have to survive waves of police in return for a big reward.

New clothing options have been added, as has a new weapon, the paintball gun. This stuns enemies or, in the case of multiplayer, obscures the enemy's screen by covering it in paint.

The 1.13 update makes some bug fixes and improvements, such as adjusting the effectiveness of explosives when playing online. There are also PC-specific fixes; you can see all of this in the patch notes below.

Today's patch arrives one day before the PS4 release of the No Compromise DLC pack, which comes to Xbox One and PC on May 18. This was originally intended to include Showdown mode, but Ubisoft recently announced plans to offer more multiplayer content for free. In place of what will now be available to all players, DLC owners will receive more single-player content.

Watch Dogs 2 1.13 Patch Notes

• New Online Mode: Showd0wn – This is a new type of online gameplay for 2v2 PvP matches that can be played with a friend, or through random matchmaking. Showd0wn will feature three types of objectives [Steal the HDD, Doom-load (KotH style), and Erase/Protect the Servers] across 15 distinct locations. This is a great endgame challenge to play with friends, provided you're not a script kiddie and know how to use all of the tools in your arsenal.
• Online Races – Drone, motocross, and eKart races are getting multiplayer functionality! They will also have their own leaderboards, so you can use them to compete for season rewards.
• Loot Truck Event – These armored trucks will randomly appear in the world, offering you a chance to hack them and then defend against the flood of police that will be responding. These will not be easy to rob, but the cash and followers payout is fat.
• Paintball gun – This bad boy will be available in the 3D printer and can stun enemies with a barrage of paintballs. Fun fact: in PvP gameplay your opponent’s screen will be colored in paintball splashes when you attack them.
• New Clothes – 13 new clothing items are available in the various stores, as if you didn't look fly enough already.

Improvements

• Explosive damage – We've improved the effectiveness of explosives for online play. With this update, damage to the opponent is determined by their proximity to the explosion. Standing on top of the IED will end in immediate and embarrassing death, but you’ll suffer less damage if you’re further out when the blast goes off. Check yourselves before you wreck yourselves.
• Leaderboards – Multiple minor improvements to the leaderboard system

Bug Fixes

• "Bio Hacking" blocker – Fixed an issue that was preventing some players from completing this mission.
• Duplicate operations – Fixed a bug that was sometimes causing duplicate operation entries in the DedSec App.
• Key Data – We've updated some Key Data units with proper definitions and descriptions on the map.
• Lots of other minor bug fixes and improvements we don't want to bore you with.

PC Specific – Title Update 1.013.177.1

• Fixed an issue when the game couldn’t be started in Steam after the download with "Launch the game as soon as it's ready" option turned on.
• Fixed an issue when the San Francisco Fog was displaying incorrectly during rain.
• Fixed an issue when the game launched on laptops with integrated GPU, instead of dedicated.
• Lots of fixes to various minor issues with flickering, reflections, missing textures, windowed modes behavior, UI, text, online game modes, other stuff, yada yada.