Marvel's Avengers Update Adds New Missions As Next-Gen Versions Delayed

Marvel's Avengers has a new patch on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and it introduces some major new content. The big new additions to the endgame are Tachyon Rifts, which contain new unique gear, and the SHIELD Substation Zero, which promises new characters and narrative.

With patch 1.3.3, SHIELD has opened its Substation Zero Outpost, which will be looking into temporal anomalies. This promises "new narrative, characters, and content," although the patch notes don't get too specific about what this will all look like. It'll appear in the Pacific Northwest region of the War Table once it arrives.

The Tachyon Rift missions also relate to these anomalies, hurling players into dangerous environments where Tachyon storms will damage them over time (but also charge up their Heroic energy faster). These missions require a 140 Power Level or higher, and are available once per day, rotating out daily. They will also offer up a Cosmic Gear, a new tier of high-powered gear for your Avengers.

Developer Crystal Dynamics has been promising more content for the game's playerbase, so hopefully this update will give everyone more to do. This news comes as the latest NPD report shows that it was the top-selling game in September in the United States.

The patch also adds many fixes and improvements to the game. Here's a highlight list from the full patch notes:

• Remote faction terminals have been added to outposts, which allow collection of faction assignments and villain sector bounties without the need to visit each faction coordinator in person.
• Extended pickup radius for reward drops.
• The ability to preview cosmetic vendor items.
• Option to scale subtitle/closed caption text size.
• Closed Captions will no longer be automatically display in cinematics when subtitles are displayed.
• Movement speed increased in outposts when in Avengers Initiative
• AI companion improvements, including assistance when player needs to be revived.
• Improved Mega Hive rewards. They now are guaranteed to give two exclusive exotic gear items and an increased amounts of upgrade modules upon completion.
• Implemented a fix that will retroactively grant Iron Man's iconic outfit for players who previously lost it due to a bug.

The patch is coming for the Stadia version too, but isn't available yet.

It's not all good news, though. Crystal Dynamics released a blog post outlining its future roadmap, and that included pushing back the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions to 2021. The new consoles will still play the old-gen versions, however. In fact, they will still see higher frame rates and shorter loading times.

The Kate Bishop DLC was also given a slight delay, out of October but seemingly still due this year. The second part of that two-part arc, which will add Clint Barton, was not given a new release target, so it may still be on track for November.

Spider-Man will land in the game early 2021, but they'll be a PlayStation exclusive. This is only possible because of Sony's Spider-Man publishing rights, and Crystal Dynamics has made it clear that he will be the only console-exclusive character.