Just because it's a Sunday - the day of rest - don't think for one second that Wordle will take a day off. In fact, far from being a nice relaxing teaser to keep you entertained over breakfast, Wordle 407 is a fiendishly difficult puzzle that might require some help. Fortunately, that's where Express Online comes in. If you need a hint or two for Wordle 407 on July 31, simply head to the bottom of the page. And don't worry, it's not cheating, because these clues are spoiler-free.
Wordle tasks players with figuring out a five letter word in just six attempts. Sounds simple, but it can be a lot harder than you think.
If you want to solve those Wordle puzzles, then you'll need to pay close attention to the colour of the tiles after each guess.
If the letter tile turns grey, the letter does not appear in the word you are guessing. If the tile turns yellow, the letter you guessed is in the word, just not in the correct position. If the tile turns green, the letter is in the word and in the right place.
The app keeps track of your statistics, showing the number of correct answers you've managed, as well as your winning streak.
If you fail to solve the puzzle, then you'll have to wait until the next day for a new Wordle to be released. You'll also lose your precious winning streak.
Read on for some general Wordle tips, followed by three specific clues for Wordle 407 on July 31...
General Wordle tips and tricks...
• Don't use the same letter twice in your opening guess.
• Try to use a couple of vowels in your first guess, particularly 'A' and 'E'.
• Avoid letters such as 'X', 'Z' and 'Q' until later on, when you have a better idea what the answer is.
• 'RAISE' is a good word to start with, while 'TOUCH' is a decent second guess.
• Check out the daily hints provided by Express Online below...
Wordle 407 hints and clues for July 31...
1. Wordle 407 starts with the letter C.
2. Wordle 407 contains just one vowel.
3. Don't sit in one position for too long, you might get this.
It's the launch weekend for Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and although there was a lot of demand for the physical versions of the game, it seems plenty of people are still picking up the digital version of the title.
For some, these purchases may have even been due to the delays associated with the fancier collector's versions. According to the eShop charts in the US, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is now out in front of Minecraft.
It's the same situation in locations like the UK - Xenoblade is out in front, ahead of games like Among Us, FIFA 22, and Mario Kart. And in Japan, the game is also in the top spot. To add to this, it's charting on websites like Amazon as well.
Once again, it's not a bad start for an RPG series like this. The previous game Xenoblade Chronicles 2 sold over 2 million copies, and the original game's Definitive Edition on Switch has shifted more than 1.5 million copies.
Have you contributed to Xenoblade Chronicles 3's digital or physical sales? Can you see this going on to become the best-selling entry in the series? Leave your thoughts down below.
It's Sunday, and the prospect of a lazy afternoon lies ahead — but first, Wordle. If you're finding today's a challenge, though, we're here to help. All you need is a pointer or two, and you'll be well on your way.
The answer to the July 31 Wordle, puzzle #407, can be found at the end of this article, or you can simply read on for a few tips, gentle hints, and strategies to help you every day.
Where did Wordle come from?
Former Reddit engineer Josh Wardle came up with the game in 2021 as a private exercise for him and his word game-loving partner. It eventually became a staple of their family WhatsApp messaging, and that's when Wardle started to suspect he might have something special enough to merit a wider release.
We have some ideas to help you pick the perfect first move. Such tips include choosing a word with at least two different vowels to rule those building blocks in or out, plus a few common consonants such as S, T, R, or N.
Also, even if you're attached to your mathematically sound starter, once it's been the answer on any given day it won't be the answer again for a few years — so if you happen to get the elusive 1/6 result, celebrate by swapping out your starting five.
What happened to the Wordle archive?
While you could once play the entire archive of past puzzles, the archive was taken down at the request of the New York Times, according to the site's creator.
Why are there two different Wordle answers some days?
The whole point of Wordle is that everyone's solving the same puzzle, with the same answer, no matter where you are in the world. However, occasionally the puzzle game will accept two different correct solutions on the same day. This aberration is due to changes the New York Times began making after it acquired Wordle earlier this year, excising words form Wardle's original list that the team considers obscure or potentially offensive.
To make sure you're always getting the same puzzle as everyone else, refresh your browser before you play — don't worry, the site will keep your streak.
Wordle is back with another tough puzzle in time for the weekend. Wordle 406 is live for the next 24-hours only, which means you'd better hurry if you want to solve the puzzle and keep your winning streak alive. Fortunately, Express Online is here to help, courtesy of a selection of spoiler-free hints and clues for the latest Wordle teaser. Just head to the bottom of the page for your daily hints to help you solve the answer.
Wordle tasks players with figuring out a five letter word in just six attempts. Sounds simple, but it can be a lot harder than you think.
If you want to solve those Wordle puzzles, then you'll need to pay close attention to the colour of the tiles after each guess.
If the letter tile turns grey, the letter does not appear in the word you are guessing. If the tile turns yellow, the letter you guessed is in the word, just not in the correct position. If the tile turns green, the letter is in the word and in the right place.
The app keeps track of your statistics, showing the number of correct answers you've managed, as well as your winning streak.
If you fail to solve the puzzle, then you'll have to wait until the next day for a new Wordle to be released. You'll also lose your precious winning streak.
Read on for some general Wordle tips, followed by three specific clues for Wordle 406 on July 30...
General Wordle tips and tricks...
• Don't use the same letter twice in your opening guess.
• Try to use a couple of vowels in your first guess, particularly 'A' and 'E'.
• Avoid letters such as 'X', 'Z' and 'Q' until later on, when you have a better idea what the answer is.
• 'RAISE' is a good word to start with, while 'TOUCH' is a decent second guess.
• Check out the daily hints provided by Express Online below...
'Good morning,’ said my computer screen when I switched it on to write this.
‘Welcome back,’ it said a few minutes later when I returned from a trip to the loo.
A friendly companion for a writer in his hours of voluntary self-isolation and a boost to his always-fragile ego?
Actually no – that machine is an electronic blabbermouth whose neck I’d often cheerfully wring if it had one.
It’s not the relentless drip of on-screen messages that gets to me but the attempts to make them sound ‘human’. Which I guess must mean sounding a lot like computer programmers – on this evidence some of the most annoying people ever born.
Suppose I’ve Googled something but a glitch in the wi-fi is blocking access to it. On the screen will appear a question mark inside a thought-bubble and a trail of dots.
‘Hmm,’ says the message, as if the computer is scratching its head in perplexity and embarrassed to be letting me down, ‘looks like we can’t find your page…’
Another version goes ‘Oops!’ instead of ‘Hmm’ and sick-makingly adds: ‘Hurry back because the Net won’t be the same without you.’
On my (admittedly antiquated) computer, even the ‘Save’ function has been given a personality. Rather than ‘Save’ or ‘Save your changes?’, it says ‘Want to save your changes?’ with what seems to me a sly nudge and a wink.
Even our cars now are positively crammed with verbose robot presences, what with satnavs, the invisible invigilators who mark one’s driving out of ten after each journey and the Bluetooth phone-enabler which announces ‘I’m connecting!’ with a spill of letters across its little blue screen that looks practically orgasmic.
Our satnav voice is that of a cultured young Englishwoman, but they are available with every regional accent and in celebrity versions including Tom Cruise, Homer Simpson and Darth Vader.
MYSELF, I’ve never got over the uneasy feeling of having a stranger in the car who’s supposed to know the way but falls silent for long, unnerving intervals and goes into an audible sulk if its directions aren’t followed to the letter.
Who could have guessed such tight-lipped contempt could be put into the words ‘route recalculation’?
I remember once seeing a television documentary about a British couple driving to France to start a snail farm – pre-Brexit, of course – under the guidance of a particularly sultry-sounding female satnav.
By halfway through their journey, they were on the verge of divorce, with the wife accusing the husband of preferring the satnav to her.
Mid-20th Century literary prophets such as George Orwell and Aldous Huxley envisioned the machines that would dominate our lives as coldly impersonal and implacable, but they’re turning out to be the very opposite.
Indeed, a young engineer at Google was recently fired for suggesting ‘artificial intelligence’ could have feelings and emotions deserving just as much respect and sympathy as human ones.
So must we learn to live on equal terms with our satnavs and Bluetooth or – knowing us – will they become a persecuted sub-species like the robots in Blade Runner?
I’ve always wondered who does the voices for satnavs, as well as telephone answering machines and public-address systems – whether it’s a career in itself or a stepping stone to the West End or the Royal Shakespeare Company. The most ubiquitous one must be the security warning incessantly played at railway stations and on trains (when staff aren’t on strike) in a supreme example of ad-copywriter cack-handedness: ‘If you see something that doesn’t look right, text the British Transport Police. We’ll sort it. See it, say it, sorted.’
What’s achingly absent from this urgent message is any sense of urgency. ‘Something that doesn’t look right’ merely suggests some social gaffe like wearing brown shoes with a blue suit or eating peas off a knife. Suspect bags or packages, as we know, are not so effortlessly ‘sorted’. And that clunky ‘See it, say it, sorted’, for which some creative genius must have been paid a fortune, undermines the whole thing, telling us we don’t have to worry when we so patently do.
My most shaming lack as a technophobe is never having consulted Siri, the cyber world’s fount of all knowledge who can be summoned by voice alone. ‘Hey, Siri,’ one hears on every side. ‘What was John Wayne’s real name?’ or ‘Hey Siri, how do I make perfect hollandaise sauce?’ or ‘Hey Siri, what is the gross national product of Uzbekistan?’
Siri, who I naturally assumed to be female, clearly chafed at my silence and continually interrupted my searches for other things with her enquiry as to ‘What can I help you with?’ followed up in a few seconds by ‘I’m listening.’
One day, under authorial stress, I answered: ‘F*** off.’
‘I won’t respond to that,’ said an unexpected male voice, possibly her cyber bodyguard or boyfriend.
It looks like new content may be on the way to The Ascent.
Whilst not formally confirmed by developer Neon Giant - all we got was a cheeky tease on Twitter celebrating the game's first anniversary and a ten-second video - we are told to "gear up for a new contract", leading some to speculate that it may be referencing new, and currently unannounced, DLC.
Let's Play The Ascent: SOCIAL CLIMBING CO-OP! The Ascent Xbox Series X gameplay.
"It's our 1st Year Anniversary!" Neon Giant tweeted. "We're humbled by the support and love we've had since launch. Thank you to our awesome community for sticking with us and for playing our game! We appreciate each and every one of you!
"Now with that being said, we'll just leave this here…"
It's our 1st Year Anniversary! We're humbled by the support and love we've had since launch. Thank you to our awesome community for sticking with us and for playing our game! We appreciate each and every one of you!
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Neon Giant isn't saying anything else - at the time of writing, it's not even responding to excited replies on the Twitter post - so we'll watch this space and update you just as soon as we know more.
"What is the most visually impressive indie game you've ever seen?" we said at the time. "From our perspective, The Ascent - released last summer for PC and Xbox - is a strong candidate. This Unreal Engine 4-based isometric action game features dense environmental geometry, great lighting, and high quality effects work. It's easily mistaken for a big-budget title but was in fact primarily made by Neon Giant, a small Swedish studio with just 12 core developers. Previously an Xbox console exclusive, The Ascent is now available for current-gen and last-gen PlayStation consoles - and we highly recommend it.
"The PlayStation versions of The Ascent offer a great way to open up the game to more players, the only slight niggle being that existing issues in the Xbox versions remain unaddressed," we said at the time. "However, those issues have little impact on the quality of the game and regardless of platform, The Ascent is an excellent release that shouldn't be missed."
The aim during design and development of the new car based on the 992-shape 911 was to make it “fast for longer,” according to Sebastian Golz, project manager on the latest-generation 911 GT3 R.
“Our task was less about making the new 911 GT3 R even faster – the classification within performance windows set by the Balance of Performance quickly cancels out this advantage,” explained Golz. “For us, it was primarily about our customers being able to drive the racing car fast for longer.
“This requires durability, and that’s why we focused predominantly on improved driveability.”
Porsche 911 GT3-R
Photo by: Porsche AG
Central to the concept of the car is a larger-capacity version of Porsche’s normally-aspirated flat-six engine, which has been increased from four to 4.2 litres over its predecessor based on the previous-generation 991.2 Porsche 911.
This has allowed Porsche to increase torque at the bottom of the rev range by approximately 9% and by 4-5% in the top half.
The engine has been tilted front to rear by 5.5 degrees to improve the weight distribution and to create room for a larger rear diffuser.
Porsche 911 GT3-R
Photo by: Porsche AG
The car also has a pronounced aerodynamic step under the nose of the car, which has been made possible by cutting away part of the boot structure at the front.
The revised front-end aerodynamics allow for a cleaner airflow to the rear diffuser underneath the car.
Together with an increased wheelbase this has created “more stable and constant aerodynamics and lower loads on the rear tyres”, according to Golz.
Porsche has also aimed at lowering running costs of the new GT3 by 10 percent over the car it replaces.
The new car ran for the first time in July 2021 at Porsche’s Weissach test track and has so far notched up 112 hours of running, including a trouble-free 30-hour endurance run at the Barcelona circuit.
Porsche 911 GT3-R
Photo by: Porsche AG
Porsche Motorsport hasn’t ruled out undertaking a test race this year, most likely one of the late-season rounds of the Nurburgring Long-distance Series (formerly the VLN), but its competition debut as a homologated car will be at next January’s Rolex 24 Hours IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opener.
The car will also be eligible for the Le Mans 24 Hours from 2024 when the FIA World Endurance Championship and its sister European Le Mans Series adopt GT3 rules as the basis of a new category to replace GTE provisionally called LMGT.
The new car, which will be on display in the paddock at the Spa round of the GT World Challenge Europe from Saturday, retails at €511,000.
That compares with the 2022 list price of €459,000 for the current 911 GT3 R introduced ahead of the 2019 season.
There are, however, more standard features on the latest car that were extras on its predecessor, including a tyre-pressure monitoring system.
Porsche Motorsport has officially launched and released full technical details of its new GT3 car that will enter global competition with customer teams next year.
The latest Porsche 911 GT3 R will be based on the 992 generation of the Porsche 911 road-going model. According to the German manufacturer, key focus areas of the new vehicle are “more power, sophisticated aerodynamics and optimized balance.”
Porsche revealed the first images of its Type-922 GT3 car last month from an April test at Spa-Francorchamps, while this weekend it presented the car publicly for the first time at the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa.
The new 911 GT3 R features a larger engine than its 2019 predecessor, with the 4.2-liter displacement exceeding the 4 liters of the Type-991.2 car that is now in its final season.
This has resulted in a 5 percent increase in the engine’s capacity, which Porsche hopes will fulfill its target of “tapping into larger reserves for different BoP classifications.”
Porsche says that it has optimized the torque and power curves across the entire rev range to make the power unit “better suited” to amateur drivers.
Like the 2019 model — which has won several major endurance events including the 24-hour races at Spa, the Nürburgring and Daytona — the new car’s engine is a rear-mounted, water-cooled flat-six boxer with four-valve technology and direct fuel injection.
However, the engine has been tilted forward by 5.5 degrees to create more space for the diffuser. Additionally, the alternator and air conditioning compressor have been moved forward and down in the car to sit in front of the engine and gearbox.
The sequential six-speed gearbox derives from the current 911 GT3 Cup car, which is also part of the 992 generation.
“We hit the bullseye with the enormously successful predecessor,” said Porsche 911 GT3 R project manager Sebastian Golz.
“Accordingly, the bar for its successor is high. Our task was less about making the new 911 GT3 R even faster – the classification within performance windows set by the BoP quickly cancels out this advantage.
“For us, it was primarily about our customers being able to drive the racing car fast for longer.
“This requires durability and that’s why we focused predominantly on improved driveability.
“This is reflected in the new 4.2-liter engine’s broader usable rev band, more stable and constant aerodynamics and lower loads on the rear tires, which allow their potential to last longer.”
The 2023 Porsche 911 GT3 R also includes “modified” suspension components designed for more precise steering and reduced tire wear. The front axle has a double-wishbone layout while the rear axle has a multi-link design, as is the case on the 2019 product.
There has been a slight wheelbase increase from 2,459 to 2,507 mm courtesy of the rear wheels being moved further back.
The new vehicle’s aerodynamic profile features an elevated underbody and a rear diffuser, while Porsche has introduced a ‘swan-neck’ mount for the rear wing. Similar rear wing layouts have been added to this year’s Evo II version of the Audi R8 LMS GT3 and next year’s Ferrari 296 GT3.
Inside the cockpit, the driver position has been moved closer to the center for better ergonomics within the roll cage and the FIA’s newly developed side impact protection.
The steering wheel includes elements derived from other Porsche racing cars, such as the 10.3-inch display from the 911 GT3 Cup and the clustered multi-switch concept found in the GTE-spec 911 RSR-19.
Porsche customer teams will be able to run the new GT3 car in a wide range of series that use the global formula, including the FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans which are accepting GT3-based machinery from 2024.
“The new 911 GT3 R has big shoes to fill,” commented Michael Dreiser, sales director at Porsche Motorsport.
“Its forerunner has won almost everything there is to win in the GT3 scene in four seasons since 2019.
“Its stand-out successes include overall victories at the 24-hour races at the Nürburgring and also here at Spa- Francorchamps.
“Raced by our customers, the predecessor scored class victories at the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. Furthermore, the car has clinched numerous titles in international GT3 sprint and long-distance championships.”
Porsche has stated a price of €511,000 ($521,188 USD) plus VAT for its 2023 contender, which is expected to make its race debut in non-homologated trim later this year.
Images: Porsche
Daniel Lloyd is a UK-based reporter for Sportscar365, covering the FIA World Endurance Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, among other series.
Ever since Steam Deck was announced last summer, Valve's handheld has been defined by long queues and limited supply. That may soon be changing, though, as Valve announced today that it has some "good news" for prospective Steam Deck customers.
In a news post that went up this morning, Valve announced that it would be able to fulfill demand sooner than expected.
"Many of the supply chain shortfalls that affect Steam Deck are gradually clearing up, and we're continuing to ramp production, so we're able to produce more Decks faster than ever before," Valve said.
As a result, Valve is promising that everyone currently in the reservation queue will get their Steam Deck email "this year," with "many customers" who were in the Q4 or later window getting moved up to the Q3 window, which runs from July to September. New reservations will fall into the Q4 window. This follows Valve's promise to "double" the number of units it will ship.
Steam Deck has proven a hit with fans since its release in February. While Valve's handheld has been criticized for its screen quality, battery life, and occasional performance issues, it has also won praise for its flexibility and support.
We wrote in our Steam Deck review, "When the Steam Deck is living up to its promises, it's absolutely incredible. Playing GTA 5, God of War, and other modern games on the go is an absolute joy, and the hardware and controls feel good to hold even though it’s a big chubby boy of a handheld."
In the meantime, the list of verified Steam Deck games continues to grow. You can view the full list right here.
Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
A full half year after its intended January release date, a beta for the highly anticipated 1.1 release of the operating system that powers the Analogue Pocket is finally out. While it comes with support for additional controllers while docked, the Memories feature which stores savestates, and the openFPGA feature (which promises support for new consoles via third-party core development), the beta doesn’t include all of the expected features.
Notably absent is the full Library feature which populates game data when you insert a cartridge, and the screenshot feature which will also populate your save files under Memories. Less officially, but perhaps of most interest to Pocket owners, it’s unclear if this AnalogueOS 1.1 milestone has been what’s holding up the long-awaited jailbreak which, following all previous Analogue products, promises to replicate the built-in functionality while adding support for sideloading ROM files.
Upon release, the Pocket supported just a handful of 8BitDo controllers, along with the Switch Pro and PlayStation 4 DualShock 4 controller. The new 1.1 beta brings with it support for a host of new 8BitDo controllers, along with support for the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller. Notably absent is support for any Xbox controller. We’ve asked Analogue whether support for Xbox controllers is still planned.
The Memories feature works as promised. While the original Pocket release had support for savestates — D-pad up or down plus the Analogue button would save or restore a state while in game — it wasn’t possible to save those and move between games. Now, the Memories features, accessible from the home screen, can store up to 128 savestates for Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Game Gear games. Analogue’s press materials say, “In the near future, Memories will evolve to features that display each Save State with a screenshot showing exactly where you were in game when the Save State was captured along side sorting options to view Save States organized with your preference.”
Image: Analogue via Polygon
Image: Analogue via Polygon
The Library feature makes an appearance here, but it’s only half-baked. When you insert a cartridge, it sure enough loads up the game’s title, system, developer, publisher and more on the Game Detail screen. But it’s not possible to peruse your games, or all games available on a console, or make playlists — all features originally intended to be included. Again, Analogue promises additional development here: “In the near future, Library will evolve to a reference level database to play, explore and share. A scholarly cataloging of the entirety of video game history. You will be able to search and explore through its full breadth; system by system, game by game, region by region, developer by developer, publisher by publisher, revision by revision.”
And lastly, the so-called openFPGA component of the Pocket, intended to allow third-party developers access to create additional cores beyond the console’s built-in handheld cores, launches with a core recreating one of the very first video games ever made: 1962’s Spacewar! for the legendary PDP-1 computer. The core will be distributed directly by its author, Spacemen3. Analogue’s Chris Taber told Polygon to expect more third-party cores today, while notable MiSTer core developer Jose Tejada polled his Patreon supporters to gauge appetite for porting his cores to the Pocket. There is some debate on the merits of porting these open-source efforts to a platform monetized by a private company, as spelled out here by RetroRGB founder Bob.
An FPGA dev just posted a poll on their Patreon account, asking if we thought they should port their cores to the @analogue pocket. While I'm always learning and evolving my opinions, after almost 20 years of being in hardware dev, my opinion is split, but very strong... pic.twitter.com/1tn4LRKvAb
While we wait and see which cores might be launching on Pocket today, Taber tells us that Analogue has “received a few thousand applications” to its developer program, and should be getting access to a “proper development documentation section” of its site today. When asked if he anticipates MiSTer cores being ported to Pocket, Taber said, “Due to Pocket being purposefully designed for FPGA development of video game hardware it will be able to support virtually every third-party core out there, even when you compare the LE [logic element] differences between something like the [MiSTer’s] DE10-Nano.”
This week at Bungie, we’re planning a raid date night.
Happy Solstice, everyone! The bonfire is lit, there is grass in the Tower, and Guardians are donning their new armor with the stats and glows to go with it. We hope you are enjoying your time in the EAZ this year. We have been tracking your feedback on what you are liking about the event, changes that aren’t feeling good, as well as any improvements you would like to see added. Thanks for sharing your feedback and keep it coming.
We’ve got a busy TWAB planned for you today. As promised, we will be going over the launch date of the next raid and then also talking over some matchmaking changes rolling out in Season 18 and Season 19.
Let's get into it.
Raid the Date
Coming up in Season 18 will be our second go at bringing a raid out of the Destiny Content Vault and this time it’s going to be... [REDACTED]. Sorry, we’re saving the reveal of which raid is coming to Destiny 2 for our Destiny 2 Showcase on August, 23. But we wanted to make sure you had time to make any arrangements necessary to be ready on day-one. So, request off work, hire a babysitter, but don’t skip school please, your education is important.
[REDACTED] raid goes live at 10 AM Pacific on August 26, 2022.
Because this will be a raid that many of you are already somewhat familiar with, we will be changing up the World First race a bit similar to how we did with Vault of Glass. Here is what to expect:
The raid will launch with Contest Mode enabled for 24 hours.
You will need to be at 1560 Power to be at the cap for all of the encounters.
Clearing the raid with Contest Mode active is the first step to access the new Challenge Mode in the Director and the special Triumph for completing all of the challenge Triumphs for each encounter.
Completing the secret Triumph, a curated list of challenges in this newly unlocked Challenge Mode, will be how a fireteam crosses the World First finish line and claims their prize.
To enforce the Triumph requirements in the Challenge Mode, your team will wipe if you fail the success conditions during any encounter.
Challenge Mode and the secret Triumph will only be available for the first 24 hours, so make haste if completing it is on your bucket list. The first fireteam to do so will be declared the World First winners—pending a review from our team. If everything checks out, the final six members of the winning fireteam in the activity will be awarded the coveted raid belts as a monument to their achievement.
Good luck!
Making Matches
Starting in Season 18, we will be introducing some changes in how we play matchmaker in the Crucible. This will be the first iteration that is part of a larger plan going through Season 19. Our World Systems teams are leading the charge on this transition and are here with a big info dump on what to expect.
Let's Talk About Skill and Connection
We know this has been discussed with a lot of passion and goodwill in many places in the community (and inside Bungie), so we are going to give you a clear tl;dr before we get deeper into the how and why:
We’re striving towards a goal that all players—including New Lights!—can enter the Crucible and regularly get matches where they can feel competitive and have a reasonable chance of winning/competing.
Making fair matches using Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM) is going to be important to help meet that goal.
We are starting by implementing loose SBMM to the Control playlist at the start of Season 18.
Loose SBMM has a wider starting skill-similarity than Survival and should result in matching with a wider variety of players, while also eliminating some of the frustrations we see in our current system.
Expect loose SBMM to expand to other playlists in future Seasons as we tune what we consider a "high-quality match" by gathering real data and feedback from you.
We are not planning to add it to every matchmade Crucible playlist.
We will continue tuning until we are in a good place.
We will report tuning updates regularly.
We will be implementing a form of fireteam-size-preferred matchmaking in Season 19.
A lot of what follows is pretty in-depth, feel free to skip to the Tuning section below if you aren’t interested in the details and just want a high-level view of what you will be experiencing!
Goals of Creating High-Quality Matches
We developed some goals which we will be working on over the next few Seasons:
All players (including New Lights!) can enter the Crucible and regularly get matches where they can feel competitive.
All players, whether solo or with a fireteam, can find a place in the Crucible where they can play a variety of matches and have a reasonable chance of winning/competing.
We are defining reasonable as "expected win rate between 40 and 60% for most matches.”
Players are rewarded based on their skill, and proud of their skill.
Reserve a place for players who do not want to engage in the skill system.
Generally speaking, any matchmaking in a competitive multiplayer game tries to put together high-quality matches. We consider three things when assembling a high-quality match:
Connection quality:
There are two types of connections that are important:
Connection to the game server.
Connection to all other players in the match.
Generally, bad connections to other players have a larger effect in Crucible than connection to the game servers, so when we talk about connection quality in Crucible, we are talking about that—connection from player-to-player.
Lower quality matches result in jerky movement by other players, missed shots, or getting unexpectedly damaged or killed.
When fireteams are spread across the globe, we pick a single player's latency to speed up finding matches.
Match fairness:
Ideally, all players in a match have a reasonable chance to win that match (i.e., have similar skill).
Matchmaking speed:
We always consider matchmaking speed as a key element—no one wants to wait 10 minutes between matches, no matter how perfect they end up being.
When matchmaking, we must balance these three elements. If we want to lower matchmaking speed, we are either going to need matches that are less fair or matches with a lower connection quality.
We’ll continue tuning to find the best balance possible.
Skill
Throughout this TWAB we will be using the term “skill.” In Destiny, that term refers to how we rate all players who participate in PvP on a scale of 2000. Player skill is reflected in a graph that looks like this:
Internally, skill is a combination of stats made up of your performance (kills, deaths, captures, round wins, revives, dunks, etc.) that ranks you against all the other players in a match. Each player’s skill is compared against the skill of the other players in a match, and we make skill adjustments for all players at the end of a match where the two rankings differ. There is also a confidence rating—the more games the system has seen you in recently, the more confident the skill adjustment is.
In addition to the stats mentioned above, skill encompasses all sorts of things: your reaction times/agility, how you approach fights, how well you know the map/mode, how well you know your character, how you build your character, the weapons, armor, and mods you use, and how you blend all of those into performance with other players.
You won’t ever actually see a skill value in-game, and while we are currently only using it to try to get fairer matches in Survival and Elimination, we still track it for all modes (including Gambit!). This gives us a reasonable starting spot in new game types like Rift or Zone Control.
Now, how do these skill numbers actually play out in-game? Here’s a good shorthand we use internally:
If someone is 200 skill above you, you can definitely tell they are better than you, and they will win ~75% of engagements against you. The opposite is true if someone is 200 or more below you.
By the time you get to a difference of 400, the better players are going to win ~90% of engagements and lower-skilled players need to get extremely lucky to pull off a win.
Once you get to a difference of 600 there is basically zero chance for the lower-skilled player to ever win a 1v1 conflict.
Engagements should get fairer the closer you get to the same skill. This is our goal.
The Problem Space
As we started looking at the competitive landscape in Destiny, we noted a few things:
Outside of Survival and Elimination, the ability to influence whether your team wins or loses is usually out of your personal control if you are average skill or below (half the population!). This can feel bad, as the match outcome feels essentially random, and you don't feel motivated to try to win. This has contributed to us de-emphasizing winning as a requirement to gain rewards in the Crucible.
The current landscape also allows brand new players to match up with some of the highest skill veterans and are expected to compete. On the flip side, if you are highly skilled, you are often put on a team where it feels like you are carrying them and must constantly perform if you want to stand a chance at winning. This doesn't feel good for anyone.
In Control, the skill disparities on a team can be stark—over 50% of matches have a skill disparity of 900 or more between best and worst player, which is so significant that the outcome is already known before a single shot is fired. On the other hand, in Freelance Survival, 60% of matches have a 250-skill difference or less. This is much more reasonable.
These wide variances in skill also lead to more mercy games than you would expect. For example, Control:
Wide disparities in skill also exacerbate other problematic elements:
With wide disparities in skill, trapping a single team in a spawn is significantly easier.
With wide disparities in skill, it's more likely that most of one team is dead at the same time, freeing the other side up to roam around and look for new targets without having to worry about danger.
Because of these extreme factors, no matter what your skill, it becomes hard to tell if you are improving or not. "Was that a great play, or are they just a worse player than me?" You may, quite reasonably, look for other stats to demonstrate how good you are—kills, assists, and deaths (KDA) are great, but it's still unclear how good your opponents are. Given that matchmaking is dependent on lots of factors, a KDA in a low population situation can mean a very different thing (skill-wise) than a KDA in a normal or high population scenario.
If you can't tell if you are improving, it's hard to be motivated to try to improve!
We know we have to do something to solve these problems (and more) to get Crucible into a better place. We know we won’t be able to address everything in one fell swoop in Season 18, but this will be the start of an ongoing process to improve PvP over time.
Match Balancing
Once we match a group of players into a lobby, assuming we don't have any full fireteams, we try to split them up into balanced teams. If the player skills are somewhat random, the system has a tough time—we've tried several different algorithms here, to mixed results. For the time being, we are hoping that reducing the skill variability in any given lobby will make this easier.
SBMM in Control
At the start of Season 18, we are going to start turning match fairness back up in Control (and only Control) in the Crucible. We want to start slowly to limit the number of playlists we consider when tuning matchmaking with hundreds of thousands of people. We can do some testing, but nothing can fully simulate how the full population will be affected by these changes before we ship. We are going to be live-tuning the matchmaking parameters over the first few weeks until we land on something that provides a better balance between fairness, quality, and speed.
We will not be touching any other Crucible playlists during Season 18. Trials has no planned changes to its matchmaking, Elimination and Glory will still use the same SBMM they have been using, and everything else will still use the connection-based matchmaking they have been using for years. We are currently planning to make further adjustments in Season 19 (based around the goals listed above), but rest assured, any major changes will be communicated in either a TWAB or a blog post, as well as patch notes.
Connection-Based Matchmaking
Connection-based matchmaking (CBMM) is what most of the Crucible playlists utilizes to find matches that have the best possible connection quality.
First, we identify a pool of available players with a good connection to you.
Within that pool, we choose players with the very best connections.
If we can’t find players within that pool, we widen the variance in connection.
We repeat until we find enough players, then we break them out into equally skilled teams.
A key point about matchmaking in a fireteam:
The latency we measure to find a good match does not take into account a fireteam with disparate connection speeds. We only measure latency for one of the players in a fireteam. So, if you are in Tokyo, and you are in a fireteam with someone in New York and someone else in Johannesburg, you are in for some LAGGY Crucible matches no matter what lobby you join!
Skill-Based Matchmaking
Better known as SBMM, skill-based matching uses a similar model to connection-based matchmaking. In addition to latency, SBMM uses skill similarity when asking to join a lobby. Like latency, the acceptable skill similarities expand over time:
First, we identify a pool of available players with a good connection to you.
Within that pool, we choose players closely matched to your personal skill rating.
If we can’t find players within that pool, we widen the variance in skill.
If THAT doesn’t work, we expand the search again with more variance in connection quality.
Once enough players are selected, we break them out into equally skilled teams.
Our current Glory matchmaking settings prioritizes connection quality and matchmaking speed while still trying to find a fair match. The goal statement for our standard SBMM is: “We would rather sacrifice some match fairness in order to maintain connection quality and matchmaking speed.”
Loose SBMM
Our initial version of loose SBMM for the Control playlist is going to work a little differently. It starts with wider acceptable skill variance, and then expands very slowly on both acceptable skill and connection quality at the same time.
The goal statement for this new loose SBMM is, "Start with a broad definition of match fairness and compromise on matchmaking speed in order to keep match fairness and connection quality high.” We expect overall matchmaking times to go up—moreso if you and your fireteam are on the eitherend of the skill curve—depending on the current population in your region. However, we are hoping the tradeoff for matches that aren't super sweaty or lopsided blowouts will be worth it.
We have analytics set up to review overall matchmaking data each hour (especially critical over the opening few weeks of the Season) and will be monitoring and adjusting timings and thresholds above while we try to home in on good settings. Control is generally a nice high-population playlist, so it will be a good testbed for tuning like this.
What are we going to be looking at as we tune?
Amongst other things, we’re looking at:
Matchmaking time
Minimize players who cannot find a match in 10 minutes with a goal to keep the average under 2 minutes, and under 4 minutes for 95% of players.
Mercy games
Right now, mercy rates vary based on the map (as low as 5%, and as high as 25%).
We believe the number of mercy games should be under 5% on all maps but not actually hit zero.
Final score differential
In general, games should be closer in score.
Right now, 65% of matches end with one team hitting the score target, (15% going to time, and 15% ending with a mercy). Our goal is that >80% of matches end with one team reaching the score target, and most of the rest ending with a time limit. We are looking for most matches to have under 10-point difference between the two teams.
Less variance between the top player and bottom player
Right now, 5-10% of matches have the best player scoring 30-39 more kills than the worst player in the match, and 50% of matches have the best player getting 20-29 more kills.
We believe that 90% matches should have less than 20-kill difference between the best and worst players, and 50% should have no more than a 10-kill difference.
All of this is great, but there are some things it does not address that we will be looking toward in future Seasons:
Skill Distribution
As we discussed in the Skill section, player skill in Destiny (and most games) tends to follow a bell curve, centered around skill 100. That means half of the players are clustered between -100 and 300 skill, and just 1% above 800 or lower than –550.
When you do skill-based matchmaking with skill windows, what ends up happening is players at either end of the bell curve have fewer potential players to match against, and thus potentially take longer to find a match with a good connection. This is one of the reasons we will start with a wider skill threshold and expand more slowly (to make sure we go through all available players). Like we’ve said, we expect this to cause longer matchmaking times initially, but it’s important to note that we are going to be looking at outlier skill thresholds and tuning the experience for them.
In a future Season, we are hoping to introduce some technology that allows us to search with a wider skill variance based on your position in the skill curve and keep matchmaking times more consistent (with the downside of loosening some match fairness).
Fireteam Size Mismatches
It's no mystery that full fireteams often stomp six solo players who matched against them. Fireteams that are used to playing together may also be in voice chat with each other, allowing them to communicate more effectively than those who are not. Oddly enough, if we look at the average skill for solo players, it fits the bell curve from above clearly. If we look at the average skill for full fireteams in Control, we can see the bell curve centers around 400-500. So, not only do the fireteams have a communication advantage, but they also have a decisive skill advantage. The big question is, "Are high-skill players more inclined to play in fireteams? Or do regular fireteams make your skill go up?"
Either way, we will be implementing a form of fireteam-size preferred matching in Season 19. We will be sharing details about how it works closer to release. Our goal is for it to be utilized like skill—sometimes as a strict requirement, sometimes as a loose one, (or sometimes not used at all!). Further, it will allow us to eventually replicate the benefits of playing in a Freelance playlist without having to split the population.
That is our current plan going forward. We will keep you updated as we tune settings in Season 18 and beyond.
Votes Are In
Last week, we revealed that three maps would be voted on by the community to determine this week’s Trials of Osiris map. Eternity, Widow’s Court, and Rusted Lands were all on the ballot. But there could only be one winner:
Eternity is the community picked map for the Trials weekend of July 25.
This one was close with Widow’s Court and Rusted Lands coming in within 1% of each other, but Eternity pulled away to win with 39% of the vote.
Results:
Eternity - 39%
Widow’s Court - 31%
Rusted Lands - 30%
What wasn’t close was our challenge to the community to tally up 77,000 votes in the first 48 hours. You all completely decimated that goal and have unlocked the special new emblem for everyone through Bungie Rewards. Players can pick up this emblem starting next week after reset on August 2.
Primed and Ready
What is better than free rewards? That question is rhetorical so I’m not going to answer it for you but am going to tell you how you can get some awesome rewards in Destiny 2 just by having Amazon Prime. Here is how it works: sign up for Prime Gaming, link to your Bungie.net account, and get the sweet cosmetics listed below. Lined up for this month, we have the Flip Out Exotic emote, the Takanome Wings Exotic ship, the Constricting Exotic Ghost Shell, and the Spaded Knife Legendary Sparrow. Check them out!
Player Support Report
A bonfire a day keeps the Darkness away
Now we introduce our Player Support Team. They are our live-game experts, getting you the info you need on any issues or upcoming maintenance and fixes.
This is their report.
SEASHORE PACK UPDATE
Last week we identified an issue causing players who purchased the Seashore Pack from Eververse to not receive the included items when opening the bundle.
This issue has since been resolved for future purchases of the Seashore Pack, and affected individuals who previously purchased the set should now have the individual items unlocked to acquire from Rahool in the Tower.
EVENT CARD EXPIRATION
Players should ensure that they complete and claim all Event Challenges and event rewards from their Solstice Event Card prior to its expiration at the weekly reset on August 9.
After the weekly reset, players won’t be able to acquire any unclaimed rewards from their Event Card.
KNOWN ISSUES
While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help forum:
The Hyperborean Pinion Sparrow does not appear in Collections.
The Photodraulic Actuators Exotic ornament for Synthoceps appears owned for all players when inspecting armor cosmetics for the armor piece.
Tracked Seasonal Challenges may not disappear from nav mode view once completed.
Nightmare Containment does not award progress for the Solstice Jubilee Event Challenge.
The Arc, Solar, and Void Solstice glows appear less bright than prior to Hotfix 4.1.5.1.
Some players are only receiving one Silver Ash on secondary characters when completing a Bonfire Bash.
For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.
Invasions and Sweeper bots
Ivan: Since Bruno is enjoying his well-deserved vacation, today I’m the one to select #MOTW. Enjoy:
Movie of the Week: Born to Rule
I love Gambit. It’s like comfort food for me—always soothing. This #MOTW will inspire you to jump through that portal. Go and make Drifter proud, Guardian!
Movie of the Week: LANDFALL: A Destiny 2 Story (Ep. 5)
Sweeper bots are not useless. It’s always a pleasure to meet one in the Tower—at least someone is doing something while you are pointlessly jumping around and showing off emotes. Apparently sometimes sweeper bots can help Guardians too. I bet you will be waiting for the next episode. Well done, OVERHEAL.
It “Wimdy” But We Knittin’ Through It
Hippy: It’s no secret that a lot of us are lowkey in love (don’t judge) with Caiatl and her promise of breaking “small men” in half. (Seriously, how cool was that line?!) But what if our favorite behemoth was bite-sized? As a massive collector myself, this Caiatl action figure was too good to pass up, and many of you in the community agreed! Pocket Caiatl... it does have a certain ring to it.
Art of the Week: Pocket Caiatl
Sam: I know that I should probably not pick “yarny” things all the time, but also, why shouldn’t I?! Can you just imagine what is going through their heads?
Zavala: “Oh this is lovely. I cannot wait to cast on my next project!”
That makes me laugh. Oh, can we also talk about how she gave him the big chair? Because ohmygosh that’s too precious. Okay, enough from me now, stay crafty, Guardians.
Art of the Week: Knitting Besties
Hippy: I would say we’re sorry for this bonus art, but we’re not. We’re really, really not.
Bonus Art of the Week: It “Wimdy.”
Alright, we covered a lot today, so I am going to keep this outro short. You have another date to mark on your calendar with the [REDACTED] raid going live on August 26. If you haven’t already, make sure you also have August 23 on there as well for the Destiny 2 Showcase. Can’t wait for you to see what we’ve been cooking up!
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