Introduction
XDefiant has officially released, and it was well worth the wait. It was one, along with The Finals, of the most anticipated competitive games of 2024 and it has really delivered. It had a solid following during the beta and the community of players joining in continues to grow. If you want to get into the game yourself and you want to get the best XDefiant settings without hours of tweaking and experimenting, we’ve got just the guide for you.
Best Video Settings for XDefiant
Video and graphics settings are the most important part of setting up your game for the best performance and XDefiant is no exception. Ubisoft has made the game pretty light to run and you can get decent FPS with a mid tier setup. It’s no surprise that having higher framerates does offer a lot of competitive advantages though, and XDefiant is a highly competitive shooter with an extremely short TTK (time-to-kill).
For this reason, the settings listed below are for prioritizing performance, trying to squeeze out every bit of framerate that we can. If you have a beefy system you can up the graphical fidelity if you like, but we do recommend prioritizing framerates over fidelity in this game.
| Windowed Mode | Fullscreen (we had Windowed Fullscreen on because of screenshots) |
| Resolution | Your monitor’s native resolution (e.g. 1920×1080). |
| Refresh Rate | Set it to the default refresh rate of your monitor (e.g 240). |
| Monitor | You can leave it at default if you only have one monitor. On the other hand, if you have a multi-monitor setup, select the monitor you game on. |
| Enable Reduced Latency | Turning it on reduces input lag but it comes at the cost of lower frames, so pick your poison here. |
| NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency | Enabled+Boost. |
| Brightness | Personal preference. The default setting works fine. |
| Contrast | Personal preference. The default setting works fine. |
| DX 12 Renderer | There is a tiny boost in frames having this on. We recommend experimenting with it. Turning this on unlocks the HDR settings, which we recommend keeping off for best performance. |
| Graphics Quality | Custom |
| V-Sync Mode | Off. It syncs your framerate to your monitor refresh rate but introduces noticeable input lag. Only turn this on if you are experiencing a lot of screen tearing. You can read more about Vsync here. |
| Framerate Limit | Turn this On, and set it to the refresh rate of your monitor. |
| Shadow Quality | Set this to Low. It controls the quality of the shadows in-game. In some games, it is beneficial to have this on as it can give you information on enemies, but in XDefiant there is no such advantage. |
| Spot Shadows | Same as Shadow Quality: set it to Low for the best performance. |
| Spot Shadow Resolution | An eye candy setting, set it to Low. |
| Contact Shadows | Set it to Low for the best framerates. |
| Resolution Scale | Controls the render scale of your resolution. For example, setting it to 50% will make the game render 50% of the original resolution. Decrease it if you are struggling with frames, but know that it significantly reduces the overall sharpness of the game. |
| Sharpness | Mostly personal preference but 8 is a good starting point. |
| Particle Detail | An eye candy setting, set it to Low. |
| Volumetric Fog | An eye candy setting, set it to Low. |
| Global Reflection Quality | Purely eye candy, set it to Low. |
| Local Reflection Quality | Purely eye candy, set it to Low. |
| Vegetation Quality | Set it to Low for the best performance. |
| Sub Surface Scattering | Turn this Off. |
| Ambient Occlusion | Another eye-candy setting, Low is the best option for performance. |
| Object Detail | Controls how detailed objects are in the game, 0 is the lowest and offers the best performance. Tweak it to your preference. |
| Extra Streaming Distance | 4, setting it very high can cause a lot of RAM usage. |
| Lens Flare | Off. |
| Water Quality | Low. |
| Chromatic Abberration | Off. |
| Terrain Quality | Low. |
These settings aren’t set in stone. We went performance-first while configuring the video and graphics settings. Because of that, there is a huge loss of graphical fidelity and the game will not look as good as it can. You can tweak these settings to find a balance between performance and graphics that works for you and your PC.
Best Gameplay and UI Settings for XDefiant
This section covers mostly personal preference settings, but we will go over what we think is best from a competitive point of view. We will be covering the Gameplay part of this section as the UI settings don’t impact the game itself and can be left at default.
| Gameplay Input | Whatever you use to game with. |
| Field Of View | 120, the more the FOV the more information you can see on your screen. |
| ADS Field Of View | Consistency is the best option, Independent makes it so when you ADS the FOV switches to default i.e. 100. |
| ADS Behavior | Personal Preference, although Hold offers better control as you will be scoping in and out a lot. |
| ADS Sensitivity Transition | There are three options; Instant, Blend, and After ADS. This basically controls when your sensitivity switches from normal to ADS. Instant is -as the name suggests- instnat. Blend gradually changes your sensitivity and After ADS switches only switches your sensitivity when you are fully scoped in. Experiment with all to find the one you prefer. |
| Melee While ADS | On. |
| Aiming Interrupts Reload | Off. |
| Crouch Behavior | Personal preference. |
| Sprint Behavior | The next setting is for Auto-Sprint, which we recommend having on so this setting becomes irrelevant. |
| Auto-Sprint | On. You will be sprinting most of the game, having this on will help with that. |
| Auto-Sprint Threshold | A controller-only setting, determines how much you have to move the stick to start sprinting. Leaving it at default is fine. |
| Sprint Interrupt Reload | Off. |
| Slide Behavior | Personal Preference. |
| Auto Reload Weapon, Auto Switch Weapon, and Auto Grab Ledges | All set to On. |
Best Mouse and Keyboard Settings for XDefiant
Mouse sensitivity and keyboard binds are very essential to play well in any competitive game. We recommend investing some time in setting up your binds and sensitivity. If you have played other competitive shooters like this such as Apex Legends, you can use a sensitivity converter to get your sens in this game. If you are new then we have a detailed guide on how to find your perfect sensitivity for you. These binds are mostly personal preference, but we have a good starting point for you in the image below.
Best Controller Settings for XDefiant
Since XDefiant is free, has cross-play, and has CoD-like gameplay, the game has attracted a lot of controller players. Thankfully, XDefiant has an entire section dedicated to controller settings. Similar to keyboard and mouse settings, most of these settings are personal preference. We can’t tell you a single sensitivity that will work for all of you, it will take a bit of trial and error to figure out the best controller settings for you. However, what we recommend is trying pro/streamer settings and seeing how they work for you. You can then just tweak them to fit your comfort.
Best Audio Settings for XDefiant
Audio is a huge part of a competitive shooter as it allows you to hear enemies and incoming utilities. Unlike in some other games, the audio settings in XDefiant are relatively simple and are mostly personal preference. Since audio quality varies from headphones to headphones we can’t recommend a single volume setting that will work for you all. That’s why we recommend just testing it out to see what’s comfortable.
Other XDefiant Settings
The sections left in XDefitant settings are Language/Accessibility and Matchmaking settings. Most of these are personal preference settings and have no impact on the game itself. These include accessibility settings for disabled individuals. However, some of these can make the game better for you as well. Colorbind settings are the most common setting players fiddle with as they can sometimes give a competitive advantage.
There is one setting that we will recommend trying out and that is the Flashbang Effect. The default is Bright, but there is also a second option called Dark. This makes it so when you get flashed, your screen goes black instead of white. Since most of us gamers tend to play in a dark room, this can reduce the strain on your eyes when you get flashed.
Conclusion
XDefiant is a really entertaining game and is one of the best releases in 2024. The fast-paced movement and the short TTK make for an exciting and thrilling gameplay experience. The game looks stunning and the mechanics are polished as well. Despite the optimization issues, the game can perform well if you tune it the right way, and this guide will help you with that.
