The Cycle: Frontier will officially undergo its first seasonal wipe, officially transitioning to Season 2. The high-risk shooter will go on maintenance on September 28 in preparation and so the folks at Yager released the full 2.0.0 patch to give everyone a glimpse of all the changes once the next season goes live.

The Cycle: Frontier Season 2 patch notes

The biggest addition is Tharis Island, the third map in the game that will be considered the endgame content for season 2. Deep underground this mysterious island lies an alien device called The Forge. We don’t know much about the machine as the Devs have been tight-lipped about anything regarding it as they want players to figure out how to operate it on their own. It’s going to be a tough trip to reach it as you have to go through this dark and narrow underground tunnel system, a map layout that sounds scary in itself as players ambushing you is a big possibility.

Tharis Island won’t be available right off the bat as players will need to go through the usual faction mission progression in order to gain access to the third map. This goes for the second map Crescent falls starting in season 2. The next big change is of course the seasonal wipe, which makes all players start at the beginning, clearing all faction progression and removing all K-Marks and gear stored in your account. Don’t worry, all cosmetic and purchased packs as well as any Aurum earned during Season 1 will be retained for season 2.

As for the 2.0.0 patch notes, here a quick rundown of the changes waiting for you when season 2 goes live.

Notable changes in this patch are old currency and scrips now having weight, Marauder having a new attack, weapon balancing, multiple grenades, key durability changes, map changes in Crescent Falls, and more.

IMPROVEMENTS

We also have a lot of general improvements happening with this new update! We want to again extend a big thank you to our players for all of the feedback that they've provided over the course of Season 1. We hope these changes will reflect positively in your experience with Season 2.

Crescent Falls and Tharis Island (Map 2 and Map 3) are now gated behind campaign progression.
- Access to Crescent Falls is granted upon completion of the first questlines where Prospectors gain the trust of the factions.
- Tharis Island can be accessed roughly halfway through the campaigns.
Ping restrictions are implemented and will be adjusted over the course of the next days:
- Ping restrictions will be tweaked on a per region basis.
- The goal is to make region hopping and other ping-based foul play more difficult.
- This system can be easily modified, and will be tweaked over the next few days in order to strike a healthy balance.
Adding a trusted status queue to the game to hamper the creation of alt-accounts and separate them from the existing player base:
- This system is a first step in deterring the process of creating alternate accounts, specifically in regards to ban-dodging.
- It will work automatically behind the scenes, looking at many hidden factors such as account age and purchase history to determine trusted status.
- Trusted parties will get their own separate matchmaking queue with other trusted parties, and vice versa for non-trusted players.
- Trusted and non-trusted players can still party together, but will be placed into non-trusted queues.
- This is the first step in our efforts to make alt-account "spam" more difficult. We will be adding to this system over time with more barriers.
Improvements to our anti-cheat's internal detection methods to automatically ban cheaters.
Backend improvements to the game to make the actual development of cheats more difficult.
The ability to reconnect after losing your connection or crashing has been added to the game.
- This of course has its limits and you will be vulnerable while reconnecting.

Gameplay Changes

Gear

Armors and Shields

Increased Armor and Penetration values for Exotic Weapons, Helmets and Shields from 29 to 30.
Increased Armor and Penetration values for Legendary Weapons, Helmets and Shields from 32 to 33.
Tactical and Restoration Shields of all tiers will now match the armor values of their base versions.
Rare Restoration Shield crafting recipe changed.
- Rattler Skin increased from 5 to 8.
Rare Tactical Shield crafting recipe changed.
- Rattler Skin increased from 5 to 8.
- Pale Ivy Blossom increased from 1 to 2.

Grenades

Light Grenade (new stats)
- Penetration 10
- Radial Damage 84
Standard Grenade (new stats)
- Penetration 17
- Radial Damage 81
Assault Grenade (new stats)
- Penetration 30
- Radial Damage 81

Gas Grenade
- Can't be bought in shops anymore
  - Finishing the Gas Grenade optional quest line now unlocks the possibility to craft them.
  - Crafting cost increased from 300 to 1 000 K-marks.
Since Tactical Helmets and Tactical Shields now have the same armor value as the regular helmets and shields of the same rarity, their price has been adjusted:
- Increased cost of Common Tactical Shield from 450 K-Marks to 680 K-Marks.
- Increased cost of Common Tactical Helmet from 380 K-Marks to 560 K-Marks.

Map Changes

Crescent Falls

Loot tiers have been re-balanced in the Northwest part of the map.
- Nutrion Warehouse is now T5.
- Homes have been updated to T4.
A new key room has been added to the Nutrion Warehouse.
A number of spawn points have been removed in the Northwest and the East.
The spawn points around the back of the Pumpkin Fields and Hay fields have been pulled apart to help prevent spawning next to other players.

AI - Monster changes

Marauder

Increased weak spot damage multiplier from 5 to 10.
Increased first Stagger threshold from 10% damage within 1 second to 30% damage within 1.5 seconds.
Increased second Stagger threshold from 20% damage within 1 second to 50% damage within 1.5 seconds.
Changed its out of combat behavior: it will move around more within its roaming radius.
Combat:
- Puddle attack was reworked:
  - The puddle stays on the ground for 30 seconds (instead of 10 minutes) but is twice as damaging as before (10 damage per second instead of 5). They've finally learnt to clean after themselves.
  - The trajectory of the projectile was slightly revised to make it less likely to hit ceilings in caves. All this bowling training has paid off.
  - Increased frequency of use while out of melee range, resulting in more puddle throws between spitting attacks. Still gross tho.
- New melee attack:
  - Added a quick swipe that does not expose the Marauder's weak point.
  - Melee pattern now alternates between that new quick attack that needs to be dodged and the old heavy attack that needs to be interrupted by staggering the beast.

Art

New improved canopies for many of our trees, further proving our unwavering love for everything made of leaves and branches.
All crates and containers have been reworked to improve performance and quality. We think that's a really crate change.
Improved broken tree trunks, to give a better feeling that the land has been ravaged by the storm.

Faction Campaigns

The Faction Campaigns got tweaked and adjusted:
- Quest lines have been changed and expanded with a total of 48 new missions. Hurray for more grunt work!
- Existing missions have been made less repetitive.
- New campaigns will guide you through Tharis Island and its depths.

Misc

Changed and adjusted the durability of keycards. Good thing those don't break so easily in the real world.
- Server Access Key - 8 → 15
- Mine Access Key - 5 → 8
- Tall House Key - 5 → 15
- Bright Sands Observation Key - 8 → 10
- Skeleton Key - 12 → 8
- Armory Key - 12 → 12
- Luggage Saferoom Key - 12 → 5
- Boss' Office - 18 → 5
- Janitors Key - 15 → 20
- Garage Office - 12 → 8
- Overseers Office - 8 → 10
- Loose House Key - 5 → 15
- Lab Keycard - 18 → 5
- Bar Storage Key - 18 → 8
- Community Room Key - 18 → 5
Added a lot of new loot points, natural resources, mineral nodes and questline relevant items.
More varied NPC voice lines added to Prospect Station, thanks to a budget increase for voice acting.
Increased the frequency of distant lightning strikes during a storm by about 50%. No worries, these just light up the environment and can't damage you.
Increased overall stash size on the station by 5 slots.
Do you even lift? Maybe you should! Increased weight of Scrips and Old Currency.
- Old Currency now weighs 0.001.
- Scrips now weigh 0.1.
  - This is a first step, additional changes to Scrips and Old Currency are being discussed, as an effort to combat RMT.
  - This means no more infinite stacking of these items in your safe pockets... as compensation everyone gets their stash size increased by 5, and Veltecite Hearts and Meteor Cores (two items you might want to hoard) have had their stack size increased.
Light, Standard, and Assault Grenades can now be found in daily crates, with sufficient Player Quarter upgrades.
In addition to refining nickel on a station, it is now possible to upgrade Titan Ore and Veltecite of all qualities via crafting.
- Veltecite still can't be upgraded to Veltecite Hearts. Nice try.
Player Quarter upgrades of higher levels will now require some of the new Tharis Island materials.
Changed weight and stack size for Meteor Cores and some legendary items.
- Meteor Core - Stack size increased from 1 to 3.
- Veltecite Heart - Stack size increased from 1 to 3 - Weight increased from 3 to 10.
- Strider Head - Stack size reduced from 10 to 5.
- Rattler Head - Stack size reduced from 10 to 5.
- Marauder Head - Stack size reduced from 10 to 5.
- Crusher Head - Stack size reduced from 10 to 5.
- Heavy Strider Head - Stack size reduced from 10 to 3.
- Mature Rattler Head - Stack sizer reduced from 10 to 3.
- Savage Marauder Head - Stack size reduced from 10 to 3.
Adjusted and polished several 1st person animations for weapons.
Adjusted and polished a lot of 3rd person animations as well.
Added new sounds to Meteors and adapted the sound pattern, in order:
- Sonic Boom (settle down, Guile).
- Flying (is it a plane? Is it a bird? OH SH- IT'S A METEOR).
- Pre-Impact (this here's a new sound).
- Impact (boom).
Made improvements on several game sounds.
Added new sounds to Marauders. Scarier Jeff is fun, amarite?
Birds will now fly away before a storm starts. Silent birds means you're gonna have a bad time.
Pebbles are no longer considered a "sound trap" but are a surface for footsteps now. You will be able to hear Prospectors running, walking, crouching and jumping on pebbles. Just make sure those don't get in your boots. Consider wearing sandals.
Sound traps like bushes and glass shards only trigger sounds after certain thresholds of movement (no longer by 1 pixel mouse movements).
Increased Uplinks' activity radius.
The Death Recap screen will show additional information, including helmets and shields.
Added a sorting option in the selling menus.
Stack sizes now show properly on any purchasable stacks of items in crafting stations and faction shops.

Bug Fixes

General anti-cheat fixes and improvements to help our detections run more smoothly.
Direct X 12 got disabled for Epic Games Store players as it could cause issues.
... And too many bug fixes to list them here!

Known Issues

Certain areas on Tharis Island are missing foliage.
The Soldier's Blade is currently missing its icon.
There is a stuck spot under a rock formation at the Jungle Thermal Ponds on Crescent Falls.
There's a door in a building north of the Vaccine Labs that cannot be closed after it is opened.
There's a stuck spot between the battery slots of the Dig Site area.
It can happen that mouse sensitivity on the station jumps up, but it is normal on the surface.
The Cultist Maelstrom has its size decreased in the Fortuna Pass preview.
Purchasing Fortuna Pass levels will show you rewards from previous tiers, but you will receive the right ones.
No sound is playing during Fortuna Pass level up overlay when in the Tech Tree.
An item with the weight reduction perk cannot be placed in your safe pockets.
Steam - Ingame bundle displayed prices do not match for KRW and VND: The comma used by steam and in-game is position differently however the final checkout prices on Steam are correct.
It can happen that the red 'hitmarker' appears despite the other player not dying when shooting with the Komrad
Our server hosting provider is currently having a minor backend issue, causing our cheater compensation package system to not send out packages properly. This will be fixed in the next patch.

The Cycle: Frontier Cactaclysm event will still stick around until the maintenance for patch 2.0.0 kicks in. It’s expected to start on September 28, 10 AM CEST / 4 AM EST.

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