XDefiant, Ubisoft’s free-to-play arena FPS, will have five playable factions at launch. Each class will have unique passive, active, and ultra abilities. The game will release a new faction every season, according to its recent content roadmap video. However, its current lineup caters to different kinds of players already. For example, XDefiant’s Cleaners faction seems to take inspiration from Team Fortress 2’s Pyro class, with its napalm-based abilities.
The game’s factions are based on organizations from Ubisoft’s game franchises. The Cleaners is a major enemy faction from Tom Clancy’s The Division series, with a pyrotechnic skill set that carries over to XDefiant. Its kit specializes in area denial, making it invaluable for the game’s various point control and escort game modes.
The Cleaners: XDefiant’s Premier Zone Control Class
The Cleaners are experts at zoning out enemies. Its passive trait automatically equips the player’s loadout with incendiary rounds, which inflict burn damage at the cost of decreased range. These bullets can literally melt the enemy’s health pool, making Cleaners difficult to face in close combat scenarios.
The faction’s Incinerator Drone active ability lets players send out an aerial napalm strike that burns enemies over time. Firebomb, on the other hand, works like a basic Molotov cocktail one would see in other FPS titles and some wrestling games. It explodes and engulfs an area in flames for a short period. Lastly, The Cleaners’ ultimate ability is called The Purifier, a powerful flamethrower that sends enemies running.
This faction burns the brightest on XDefiant’s zone control maps like Occupy, Domination, and Zone Control. A Cleaner can easily defend a point by Firebombing entry points and spamming corners with a heavy machine gun equipped with incendiary bullets. They can become unstoppable when protected by shields like the Phantoms’ Mag Barrier. On attack, they can use their Incinerator Drone to provide literal cover fire and scare enemies away from the objective, allowing allies to retake it. If the opponent does try to retaliate, whipping out The Purifier will have them on the retreat in no time.
Cleaners can also thrive on Escort maps, especially on the defending side. They can stall pushes with their Firebombs and Incinerator Drones. On the attacking side, this faction’s ultra ability can come in clutch to burn down enemies during the final push. When it comes to Hot Shot and other possible deathmatch or free for all modes, the Cleaner may not be the best choice, despite its powerful passive and ult. It doesn’t have regeneration or mobility abilities that would be useful in Hot Shot’s fast-paced gunfights. While a cleaner can get multi-kills with The Purifier, they can’t use it constantly because of the long cooldown. Such maps are best left for more agile factions like the Echelon and Dedsec.
The Grim Origins of XDefiant’s Cleaners
According to XDefiant’s official description, The Cleaners are former New York City sanitation employees who solve their problems with fire. While this does sound cool, it doesn’t reflect the more tragic and sinister story of the faction. In The Division, the Cleaners were fed up with the local and federal authority’s failure to protect them and their families from the outbreak. Joe Ferro, Manhattan’s sanitation supervisor, decided to take matters into his own hands. He formed a group of fellow NYC sanitation workers and started incinerating anyone suspected of carrying the virus with a flamethrower, even healthy survivors who were merely exposed to the disease.
The Cleaners eventually grew into a full-fledged guerilla army with hundreds of members. They even have specialized fuel factories for napalm, and The Division’s agents are instructed to take extra caution when approaching Cleaner territory because of the faction’s dangerous weapons and tactics.
The Cleaners faction will fit like a glove for players who like zone-control characters in other games, like Team Fortress 2’s Pyro or Junkrat from Overwatch 2. Its active abilities and ult can prevent enemies from touching a point, or scare them off the objective. The incendiary bullets also do a lot of damage, especially when paired with a machine gun or assault rifle. They’re also a nightmare in close combat with The Purifier - that is, of course, if opponents can even get close.
XDefiant is currently in development.