As THE FINALS Hits Its First Anniversary, Season 5 Takes Things To The NEXT STAGE

Happy birthday to THE FINALS. As the shooter rings in their first year since launch, it's time for the team at Embark to take the game to the NEXT STAGE, and apparently the team is taking that name literally. In fact, it's the actually name of the Season 5 update.

A new season means new sponsors, weapons, and balance changes, and the full patch notes detail all the specifics on fixes, updates, and improvements. Remember, picking your sponsor is a season-long decision, so make sure to choose carefully.

Looking at the season's larger additions though starts with a new map. Bernal shows off iconic locales from Mexico while encouraging you to take things up in the air via rooftops and suspended sponsor platforms.

Clubs are being introduced in NEXT STAGE and you can think of them as guilds. Up to 50 players can join, represent their club via a name and tag, and earn extra XP by completing tasks for the club or teaming up with club members. There's new social features that make scheduling things with club members easy, too.

Players will also be able to gift each other items. If you want to send someone a cool cosmetic or even pick up the battle pass for them, you can. You can gift up to 5 items per day, but if you want to gift a premium battle pass, you need to own it yourself first. 

As for modes, 3v3 Final Round cashout mode comes to Private Matches and other modes have seen improvements and polish.

PS4 players can get in on the action now and current-gen consoles get a new 120Hz mode.

Honestly, it's quite the way to celebrate a birthday.