Ahead of next week’s Volume 2 DLC adding new cars, events, and online free-roam cop chases, a massive Need for Speed Unbound patch update has arrived on all platforms.
Compared to January’s underwhelming patch, this is a substantial update with much-needed quality-of-life improvements requested by the community before next week’s Volume 2 DLC.
Let’s look at the extensive Need for Speed Unbound Vol 2 patch notes to see what you can expect.
Need for Speed Unbound Volume 2 update
Absent at launch, online cop chases are finally coming to NFS Unbound's online multiplayer in free-roam events.
The Volume 2 update also adds three new cars: the Lotus Emira Balmain Edition 2021, Nissan Fairlady ZG 1971 and a mystery "Ultimate Luxury" Hot Laps challenge reward car.
There are also four new Endurance events, two new Rumble Playlists, and 40 new Daily Challenges.
Quality of life improvements
While the new Volume 2 update doesn't launch until 21 March, the patch brings several quality-of-life improvements requested by the community.
One of our main issues with NFS Unbound’s online multiplayer is that progression is separated from the single-player. Because your progress is reset, your garage cars unlocked in single-player don’t transfer to multiplayer. Cash payouts for winning races also were frustratingly low, making it difficult to acquire cars to race online.
Thankfully, Criterion Games has addressed this by making some significant changes to the in-game economy. Now, race playlists and free-roam challenges reward higher payouts so you can buy cars faster.
Since NFS Unbound launched in December last year, players have been using an exploit where the Ferrari 488 Pista could be downgraded to enter B-class races, giving an unfair performance advantage. To level the playing field, cars can now only be downgraded by one tier.
In addition, Driving Effects can now be applied to different cars instead of being restricted to characters and music tracks can be skipped in online multiplayer races.
Another welcome change is the ability to change cars between races in online playlists.
Need for Speed Unbound Vol 2 patch notes
We’ve shared some highlights below, but you can check out the full Need for Speed Unbound Vol 2 patch notes here.
AI Rivals & Cops
- Fixed a number of issues where traffic cars were spawning in unexpected places
- Fixed an issue that caused AI rivals’ icons to flicker on screen
- Fixed an issue where AI rivals were getting busted during events and completing the race early
- Fixed an issue where cops would remain idle in some areas after busting the player
- Fixed an issue where Helicopters were not chasing correctly during a pursuit
- Fixed an issue where the 'Old Town Road' event had B tier, rather than A tier rivals
- Fixed an issue where Waru's vehicle has a default player "NFS" number plate
- General fixes and balancing to AI racers
- Improved cop chat trigger conditions
Balance and Meta Tweaks
- Limited the ability to downgrade cars to one tier below stock
- Resolved an exploit where players could access extra gears using 3rd party hardware
- Fixed an issue where A$AP Rocky's custom vehicle only allowed 3 engine swaps
- Fixed an issue where the track reset could give an unfair advantage on 'Rapid Transit'
- Balanced Aston Martin Vulcan's top-end acceleration in S class
Challenges
- Added the ability to pin a challenge directly from a locked item
- Fixed a number of UI issues relating to challenges
- Fixed an issue that caused the player to receive only one challenge complete pop-up notification after completing multiple challenges
- Fixed an issue that caused the return to garage rewards screen to appear twice after completing challenges
- Fixed an issue where certain Challenges displayed incorrect information
- Improved challenge unlock criteria feedback to the player
Customisation
- Added the ability to select a driving tag on a per-vehicle basis
- Improved the performance customization flow to show whether performance parts will move the car below a tier
Map & Mini Map
- Added District names to the map
- Locked but purchasable safehouses can now be seen on the map
Multiplayer
- Added the ability for players to see what other players are up to whilst on the map, meetups and the on-server list of the party menu
- Fixed an issue that caused traffic cars to have delayed responses to collisions in Multiplayer
- Improved the way player position is handled in multiplayer lobbies, smoothing out gameplay in playlists
- Fixed a number of issues preventing players from sending multiplayer invites
Playlist and Racing
- Added the ability to swap cars out on each race in a playlist, so players can choose cars better suited to each event type
- Added visual feedback in playlist UI to indicate whether the player was using a rental car.
- Increased base payouts for all Multiplayer playlists, and added greater payouts scaling with higher player counts
User Interface
- Added option to reverse sort order of cars in the garage
General Fixes and Improvements
- Added an option to reset the camera in Snapshot mode
- Added idle camera to garage
- Added the ability to skip music tracks in races
- Resolved some inconsistencies in the way race routes are displayed in the map, meetup, and in-game