Hallelujah: Bunny hopping is getting the nerf bat in XDefiant

Discussion is abuzz with criticism around Ubisoft's latest free-to-play online shooter XDefiant. Aside from hit registration issues, overpowered snipers, and aim-bot hackers, a common gripe among the player base is the game's movement and how many players are abusing the jump mechanic. Fortunately, change is coming.

Bunny hopping around corners is too easy to abuse in XDefiant

It definitely feels to me like Ubisoft has made a concerted effort to make the movement flow more smoothly in XDefiant when compared to Call of Duty – all while maintaining the fast pace and snappy response time the series is so well-known for. The resulting blend makes XDefiant's movement feel like a much faster Apex Legends which, to me, is a very good thing.

So I welcome this direction but must also unfortunately join the chorus of players decrying how easy it is to spam multiple jumps and other movements in a row, resulting in the phenomenon known as jump shotting or bunny hopping. There are already a number of other frustrating quirks to reckon with in XDefiant, the most punishing being the TAC-50 sniper rifle's dominance in virtually every match. So being blindsided by some hopping figure when you turn every corner in this game certainly doesn't help keep morale up.

The abuse of this loophole, especially by higher-skilled players, allows them to run circles around more casual players before finishing them off point-blank. If it's a frustrating experience for me to face off against such players, then I can certainly see players just starting out in XDefiant being turned off from the game. Because, ultimately, it's a cheap crutch for players to rely on before Ubisoft has even had the chance to properly address the issue.

Ubisoft is working on nerfing annoying player movement

The good news is that XDefiant developer Ubisoft is already at work when it comes to reigning in irritating jump spamming and crouch sliding in the highly popular online arena shooter. According to the ex-Call of Duty esports player and current XDefiant developer Patrick ‘ACHES’ Price, Ubisoft is even trying to penalize players who overuse the jump mechanic. On X (formerly known as Twitter), he reminded players that XDefiant's beta last year in 2023 included aim sway to dissuade people from jump shotting and spamming crouch, before being removed from the final game to make room for improvements.

With the news that aim sway will be reintroduced to XDefiant in the near future, I feel more confident that Ubisoft is well aware of the issue at hand. I trust it will do its best to bring in a balanced solution to address jump shotting while still preserving the game's fluid and, honestly, really fun movement mechanics. Let's hope this issue is resolved sooner rather than later, lest I become a bunny hopper myself just to keep up with the competition.

Wondering where to find your K/D ratio and all those other lovely stats in XDefiant? Then be sure to look at How to check K/D ratio and career stats in XDefiant on Pro Game Guides.