At the end of November Crystal Dynamics launched the Winter Solider update for their mixed-response 2020 title, Marvel’s Avengers. The recent update added Bucky Barnes, Winter Solider skins, and now, a couple of weeks later, through a new update, the game is also getting a new Winter Solider Mission Chain called “Winter Kills,” and for your effort in completing it, some new Power Level 165 gear will be coming your way as well.

In a press release, Crystal Dynamics has shared the full details of this particular update, outlining the following,

New Winter Soldier Mission Chain: ‘Winter Kills’

A new mission chain for the Winter Soldier is available in 2.7.1 – ‘Winter Kills’ – and it rewards players with a full set of Power Level 165 gear!

Yes – barring the objectives you have to complete for the mission chain, this more or less allows new players to skip the grind for Winter Soldier and jump right into challenging endgame content like our new Omega-Level Threat: AIM’s Cloning Lab.

We’ve seen so many new and returning players log in to experience the Winter Soldier (Sidenote: your Photo Mode shots of Bucky are giving us life), and we want these players to experience the thrill of completing endgame challenges too. The PL 165 barrier to entry can be restrictive, so our goal with this new mission chain is to give more players an easier path into the endgame loop.

That said, ‘Winter Kills’ is not an immediate skip to PL 165; you’ll need to complete a list of objectives that starts with finishing Bucky’s Heroic Mission Chain and culminates in completing the Discordant Sound raid (on Normal difficulty). You’d typically have to go through our endgame loop for weeks to obtain max PL gear, but through ‘Winter Kills,’ which can breezily take about a week to get through, players now have an easier path into our endgame content than before.

The developer also provided a breakdown of the Power Level 165 gear that players will earn upon completing the new mission chain:

• Melee Exotic Gear 165 (Hero A – Classic set)
• Ranged Exotic Gear 165 (Hero A – Classic set)
• Defense Exotic Gear 165 (Hero A – Classic set)
• Heroic Exotic Gear 165 (Hero A – Classic set)
• Minor Artifact at 165 (x2)
• 10,000 Fragments
• 2,500 Polychoron
• 5,000 Units

They then expand further on several other, non-Winter Solider updates and changes that have been implemented with this new update,

REASSEMBLE CAMPAIGN & AVENGERS INITIATIVE

• Having Kamala as a companion while equipped with the “Polymorph Counter Spike” perk no longer causes the game crash that some players experienced after Update 2.7.
• In the new Omega-Level Threat: AIM’s Cloning Lab, MODOK can no longer dodge to the side while his gigabeam is active.
• Also in the Cloning Lab, we added collision boxes to certain environmental elements in the boss encounter room to prevent Heroes from clipping into the world.
• Similarly, the camera for some players would clip under the floor when those players would take damage during the MODOK fight. We’ve updated the collision elements in the floor assets to prevent this from happening.
• We fixed an issue causing the camera to lock onto the player during the MODOK fight rather than MODOK.
• MODOK will occasionally follow flying Heroes without attacking them, but the Avengers don’t get off that easy! MODOK will now attack flying Heroes, as intended.
• Damage modifiers were not applied correctly to MODOK when targeting specific parts of him – specifically the head and terrigen crystal. We’ve fixed this so that damage modifiers are applied correctly!
• When playing with a full Strike Team, MODOK’s gigabeam VFX weren’t displaying for at least one player in the party. All players in a Strike Team will now see the VFX.Matchmaking hosts controllers will no longer vibrate when another player in the party playing as Winter Soldier shoots his rifle.

USER INTERFACE

• We updated the mission chain descriptions for “Omega-Level Threat: AIM Cloning Lab” to have the correct descriptions.

ART AND ANIMATION

• MODOK’s back battery was missing its gem, so we added the VFX in for that!
• Bucky no longer draws his weapon automatically after using a melee attack.

GEAR, CHALLENGES, & REWARDS

• Black Widow’s ‘Support Cryo Administrator’ Perk no longer grants double the expected nanites to allies.
• Black Panther’s ‘Ultimate Gamma Administrator’ Perk no longer doubles the expected amount of nanites to allies.
• ‘Ultimate Lethal Cryo’ and ‘Ultimate Gamma Administrator’ Perks now grant charges for appropriate Heroes as intended.

KNOWN ISSUES & WORKAROUNDS

• A quick update on gear! Stat growth on exotic gear pieces and the Ultimo-Stone legendary minor artifact is currently under-tuned. We are working on a fix so that there will be greater jumps in stat growth at PL 167, 171, and 175 than at present. (Currently, the stat growth gates are at PL 171 and 174.) This fix is not present in this update – 2.7.1 – but will come shortly after! For now, our recommendation is that you do not upgrade your favorite gear pieces past PL 170 until the fix is live. Thank you for your patience!

Marvel’s Avengers is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.