Skip to main content

XDefiant factions guide: all abilities and ultras

A Defiant standing with a gun in front of a large yellow X.
Ubisoft

XDefiant certainly has plenty of guns and fast-paced gameplay to offer right out of the gate, but if you want to make the most of your options in gunfights, you’ll need to choose a faction that complements your playstyle. Each faction features three unlockable characters who all share universal passives, abilities, and ultras that can turn the tide of battle in a heartbeat. Below, we’ve listed a breakdown of each faction and their kits so you can figure out what suits you best.

Note: You can change your faction mid-battle, so always feel free to swap between them on the fly to better help your team accomplish specific tasks.

Recommended Videos

Cleaners

Cleaners are heavy damage dealers from The Division franchise, and they feature a kit designed around cleansing everything with deadly fire.

  • Passive: Incendiary Rounds — Bullets inflict fire damage at the cost of reduced range.
  • Ability 1: Incinerator Drone — A drone drops napalm and burns everything in a straight line.
  • Ability 2: Firebomb — Detonates a Molotov cocktail at your feet to ignite everything around you.
  • Ultra: The Purifier — Grants you a flamethrower for a limited time.

DeadSec

DeadSec brings hacking to the forefront, capitalizing on their well-known disruption from the Watch Dogs franchise.

  • Passive: Fabricator — Fabricates a new device after each time you deploy one.
  • Ability 1: Hijack — Hacks enemy-deployed abilities to make them your own.
  • Ability 2: Spiderbot — Deploys a spiderbot that targets and attaches to the face of nearby foes to stun them.
  • Ultra: Lockout — Disables your foes’ HUD, mini-map, and abilities in your general area.

Echelon

Echelon from Splinter Cell are recon specialists who prioritize stealth and revealing enemy locations to everyone on your team.

  • Passive: Low Profile — You don’t appear on enemy mini-maps under any circumstances.
  • Ability 1: Digital Ghillie Suit — Renders you nearly invisible for a limited time.
  • Ability 2: Intel Suit — Highlights the location of nearby enemies for you and your team.
  • Ultra: Sonar Goggles — Reveals all enemies on the map and grants you a deadly Third Eheclon 5.7 pistol for a brief time.

Libertad

Far Cry 6‘s Libertad is all about healing, providing various regenerative and health-boosting abilities for you and your allies.

  • Passive: Espíritu de — Constantly regens health for you and nearby allies.
  • Ability 1: BioVida Boost — Sends out a wave that increases health for you and nearby allies.
  • Ability 2: El Remedio — Throws a gas canister that heals any allies within it until destroyed or canceled.
  • Ultra: Médico Supremo — Doubles health and provides a healing boost for a limited time.

Phantoms

Phantoms from the Ghost Recon franchise are the most defensive class in the game, offering increased health and multiple types of shields to protect your team.

  • Passive: Hardened — Has a higher maximum health than other classes.
  • Ability 1: Mag Barrier — Throws out an electromagnetic shield that blocks incoming fire and grenades.
  • Ability 2: Blitz Shield — Grants you a protective tactical shield for melee bashes.
  • Ultra: Aegis — Surrounds you with a plasma shield and grants you a close-quarters scattergun.
Billy Givens
Billy Givens is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience writing gaming, film, and tech content. He started as a…
All upcoming PS5 games: 2024, 2025, and beyond
Team up abilities in Marvel Rivals

The PlayStation 5 has been out for some time now, and its reception has been mostly positive. It includes lots of quality-of-life improvements over its predecessor, the PlayStation 4, such as faster load times, a solid-state drive (SSD) instead of a regular hard disk drive (HDD), and an improved controller in the form of the new DualSense. However, a console is only as good as the games available on it and, thankfully, the PS5 has you covered on that front as well.

While the machine already has a worthy library of great PS5 games, there are even more to look forward to — most of the best upcoming video games are going to hit PS5. Some will be completely free PS5 games, some will be PS5 exclusives, and others will be completely cross-platform so you can play with friends on Xbox, PC, and Switch.

Read more
All upcoming video games (PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC): 2024, 2025 and beyond
Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows fighting an enemy. He's dressed in his samurai armor.

Keeping track of every new video game release is a nearly impossible task. Ggames are constantly being announced, delayed, rereleased on new platforms, remastered, canceled — you get the point. With the upcoming games lineup constantly shifting on PC, Switch, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5 and mobile, it can be hard to find games to look forward to playing (and to budget for) in the coming months.

Despite the herculean task of tracking an entire year of video game release dates, we're giving it our best shot. Check out this month-by-month schedule of new video game releases. We're focusing mainly on highly anticipated titles with concrete release dates, but will also include little-known indies and keep an eye on launch plans for up-in-the-air titles like Grand Theft Auto 6 or games that are still very early on in development like Hogwarts Legacy 2 or The Last of Us Part 3. If you're looking to get a quick glance at the future of video games, this is the place. We'll keep this list updated and as accurate as possible at regular intervals.
November release dates

Read more
Oh hey, GTA 5 is back on PlayStation Plus this month
Michael on the phone in Grand Theft Auto 5.

November's PlayStation Plus lineup is packed with games this month, both in terms of quality and quantity. However, with Grand Theft Auto 6 on the horizon (hopefully sometime next year), arguably the biggest addition is Grand Theft Auto 5, which is back on the subscription service after leaving earlier this year.

There's not much to say about GTA 5 that hasn't already been said. It's one of the bestselling games of all time and still holds up more than 10 years after release. It's likely you already own it on some platform, but if you somehow don't or just want to play it on the PlayStation 5 or 4, you can play it for free with an Extra or Premium subscription.

Read more