Patch notes & season tracker
⨀ rssWiki tracks what changed; this page tracks what it means for your kit. Every patch entry includes a curated kit-impact callout so you don't have to rediscover the meta after every update.
S12 — Tides of Koen
Apr 14, 2026 → Jul 8, 202611d left
Economy-focused season. Lockdown gear cap raised to 1M, Forbidden cap removed, T6 ammo crafting unlocked at trader level 4. Insurance payout floor bumped from 50k to 75k. Two new maps in rotation (Southfork Refinery, Black Sands Outpost).
meta shifts this season
- →AKM-platform meta returned — 7.62×39 BP buffed to T5 reliable on T5 plates
- →UHMWPE armor now ~12% lighter, opening CQB-mobility builds back up
- →Suppressor ergo penalty reduced from -8 to -4 — silent kit no longer a tax
Patch history
2.4.1May 6, 2026
bugfixbalancemaps
Hotfix — refinery exploit + AKM frequency
- •Patched the Southfork Refinery overhead-pipe exfil exploit (could skip the boss room).
- •AKM raid drop rate on Lockdown reduced from 4.1% → 2.8%, restoring scarcity.
- •Fixed an issue where some Lockdown raids paid out insurance at Normal rates.
kit impact
AKM-base kits will see prices climb by ~15% over the next two days as supply tightens. If you were holding off on a meta AKM build, do it now or wait for the next supply wave.
2.4.0Apr 28, 2026
seasonmapsweaponseconomy
Tides of Koen launch patch
- •Two new maps: Southfork Refinery (Lockdown only) + Black Sands Outpost (Forbidden).
- •Forbidden gear cap removed — chads run 1.5M+ kits now.
- •T6 ammo (BS, BP, AP) becomes craftable at trader level 4.
- •New gun: PKP Pecheneg LMG (7.62×54mmR, drum-fed, sniper-tier suppression).
- •Insurance payout floor +50% (50k → 75k) for any item with cost ≥ 30k.
kit impact
Forbidden meta has fundamentally shifted — survivability matters less now that kits can scale infinitely, but profit math gets messier without insurance ceilings. Run the optimizer at 800k+ for new Forbidden zones.
2.3.5Apr 8, 2026
balancearmor
Pre-season balance pass
- •UHMWPE plates: weight reduced 12% across all classes (T3-T6).
- •Suppressor ergo penalty: -8 → -4 universally.
- •5.45×39 7N39 (T6) damage rebalance: 60 → 56 per shot, pen unchanged.
- •Med-kit interaction window reduced from 8s → 6s (faster heals).
kit impact
CQB-mobility builds are viable again — UHMWPE T5 + light rig hits the 70kg break-even at ~85k cost. The suppressor change makes silent meta budgets land 10-15k cheaper than last season.
2.3.4Mar 25, 2026
questsloot
Quest reset + curse-tier loot
- •Weekly quest pool refreshed with 14 new tasks (extract-streak, ammo-discipline categories).
- •Curse-tier loot rooms added to Airport Terminal (Forbidden) — guaranteed boss spawn nearby.
- •Trader Knight now buys T6 ammo at 130% market value (up from 110%).
kit impact
Boss-hunter Forbidden runs got more lucrative thanks to Knight's T6 ammo buy bump. The new curse rooms require T6 plates and high pen — don't bring sub-T5 ammo to airport terminal Forbidden.
2.3.3Mar 11, 2026
featuresux
Discord-share + replay system
- •Native Discord rich-embed sharing for kits (third-party tools like ours still recommended).
- •Raid replays now stored for 7 days (was 48h).
- •Add-friend notifications during loading screen — fewer missed squad-ups.
kit impact
No combat impact. The replay buffer extension means you can review your own deaths to verify which armor tier failed — useful for survivability-tuning your kits.
2.3.2Feb 25, 2026
balanceweapons
Mid-season patch
- •AS Val: vertical recoil reduced 8%, fire rate unchanged.
- •VSS Vintorez: damage curve flattened past 80m, was wonky beyond effective range.
- •Vector .45 ACP: hipfire stability +12%, ergonomics +6 to compensate weight.
kit impact
AS Val became the meta CQB suppressor — cheaper than Vector and now controllable in mag-dump. Optimizer will surface it more often in Lockdown CQB.
items mentioned
Curated by the Chad Optimizer team — verify against the official patch notes before betting your raid life. Spotted a meta shift we missed? Ping us.