Character Release and Season Start Calendar Changes

S0kun
S0kun ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 1,103 Chairperson of the Boards
in MPQ General Discussion

In an effort to better streamline our live service operations of MPQ with our IP2 team, who are on Melbourne, Australia time, there will be some changes to the schedule beginning with the upcoming Season.

  1. Seasons and Character releases are being brought forward 1 day
  2. i.e. From Thursday US to Wednesday US
  3. There will be no changes to the length of the Season
  4. Seasons and Character releases will occur at 00:00UTC (roughly 7 hours later than they have up to now), other event times will remain unchanged
  5. Events that form part of the regular event cadence other than the regular weekly/bi-weekly rotating events (e.g. DDQs, Lightning Rounds etc) will also be brought forward 1 day so they continue to fit neatly with the Season timing

Therefore, the upcoming Season and the next 5-Star Character will release:

  • Thursday 5th February 00:00UTC

The first event for the next 5-Star character will start:

  • Wednesday 4th February 12:00UTC

These changes allow the IP2 team more time during their working week to resolve issues and monitor the releases, but moving forward, we otherwise intend to keep your events routine as consistent as possible.

Thank you for bearing with these changes everyone!

Comments

  • Heartstone
    Heartstone Posts: 234 Tile Toppler
    edited 30 January 2026, 21:24

    I'm probably misreading this, but from

    Therefore, the upcoming Season and the next 5-Star Character will release:

    Thursday 5th February 00:00UTC

    The first event for the next 5-Star character will start:

    Wednesday 4th February 12:00UTC

    It looks like the event for the new 5* will start before that character is released...

  • LuxAurae
    LuxAurae Posts: 23 Just Dropped In
    edited 30 January 2026, 21:40

    So it’s just the start time of season that changes, but not the start time of sim or the individual slices, and not the end time (ending with S5).

    So basically a change in name only? As there won’t be any events running until Sim and S1 starts.

    Mostly just a quest thing?

    Thank you for your reply on this

  • St_Bernadus
    St_Bernadus Posts: 647 Critical Contributor

    @Heartstone said:
    I'm probably misreading this, but from

    Therefore, the upcoming Season and the next 5-Star Character will release:

    Thursday 5th February 00:00UTC

    The first event for the next 5-Star character will start:

    Wednesday 4th February 12:00UTC

    It looks like the event for the new 5* will start before that character is released...

    That is the release event that will have the new character in placement. If I read it correctly.

  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 6,967 Chairperson of the Boards

    @Heartstone said:
    I'm probably misreading this, but from

    Therefore, the upcoming Season and the next 5-Star Character will release:

    Thursday 5th February 00:00UTC

    The first event for the next 5-Star character will start:

    Wednesday 4th February 12:00UTC

    It looks like the event for the new 5* will start before that character is released...

    You can’t earn a new character anyway until the end of the first PvE. So it’s fine. We’ll get retros or whatever the night (my time) of the first sub of the PvE that releases them as shards you can earn.

  • fnedude
    fnedude Posts: 417 Mover and Shaker
    edited 30 January 2026, 22:56

    So is IP2 going to tell us what's up with the "season quests"? There is 37d left for the missions to be done, but only 2d left in the "season"

    So what I mean:
    Under the "Season Rewards" on the home screen says "2d Xhrs" left
    Under "Quests" there are missions that have 37d left
    The under "Recruit Heros/Vaults" it shows :"5d XXhr" left

  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 6,967 Chairperson of the Boards

    @fnedude said:
    So is IP2 going to tell us what's up with the "season quests"? There is 37d left for the missions to be done, but only 2d left in the "season"

    So what I mean:
    Under the "Season Rewards" on the home screen says "2d Xhrs" left
    Under "Quests" there are missions that have 37d left
    The under "Recruit Heros/Vaults" it shows :"5d XXhr" left

    I’m sure the quests would run for 37 days but the pass ends as you say in 2 days. So get going!

    Playing while new devs learn the ropes keeps things interesting, anyway.

  • Hammer3001
    Hammer3001 Posts: 304 Mover and Shaker

    So Thursday 5 12 UTC is Wednesday 4 7pm EST.

    @S0kun said:
    In an effort to better streamline our live service operations of MPQ with our IP2 team, who are on Melbourne, Australia time, there will be some changes to the schedule beginning with the upcoming Season.

    1. Seasons and Character releases are being brought forward 1 day
    2. i.e. From Thursday US to Wednesday US
    3. There will be no changes to the length of the Season
    4. Seasons and Character releases will occur at 00:00UTC (roughly 7 hours later than they have up to now), other event times will remain unchanged
    5. Events that form part of the regular event cadence other than the regular weekly/bi-weekly rotating events (e.g. DDQs, Lightning Rounds etc) will also be brought forward 1 day so they continue to fit neatly with the Season timing

    Therefore, the upcoming Season and the next 5-Star Character will release:

    • Thursday 5th February 00:00UTC

    The first event for the next 5-Star character will start:

    • Wednesday 4th February 12:00UTC

    These changes allow the IP2 team more time during their working week to resolve issues and monitor the releases, but moving forward, we otherwise intend to keep your events routine as consistent as possible.

    Thank you for bearing with these changes everyone!

    So according to Google this means the character will release Wednesday at 7pm EST.

    And the event will launch Tuesday at 5am EST

  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 6,967 Chairperson of the Boards

    The Hunt is now up for pre-join. Starts Sunday morning in EST at 7 am. Normal.

    Runs until Thursday 7 am for slice 1, so it’s the 4 day version. If the plan is to start the release pve for the new 5 on Wednesday, these PVEs will overlap.

    I guess they can remove it and replace it when they come in like 9 hours later or I guess we just get to play overlapping pves for a day which everyone loves.

  • SuperCarrot
    SuperCarrot Posts: 351 Mover and Shaker

    So is this the right place to talk about Cosmic Ghost Rider and his stranglehold on the 6 star shards?

  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 6,967 Chairperson of the Boards

    @SuperCarrot said:
    So is this the right place to talk about Cosmic Ghost Rider and his stranglehold on the 6 star shards?

    Love it. Keep going for like 11 more months and I’ll have 13 covers.

    Option B is rotation and it takes 3x that.

  • Waddles_Pines
    Waddles_Pines Posts: 1,300 Chairperson of the Boards

    Another wrinkle in the future, does their area in Australia observe daylight savings? Wikipedia says some areas do and some don't 🤷‍♂️

  • Hellblazer666
    Hellblazer666 Posts: 460 Mover and Shaker

    @bluewolf said:
    The Hunt is now up for pre-join. Starts Sunday morning in EST at 7 am. Normal.

    Runs until Thursday 7 am for slice 1, so it’s the 4 day version. If the plan is to start the release pve for the new 5 on Wednesday, these PVEs will overlap.

    I guess they can remove it and replace it when they come in like 9 hours later or I guess we just get to play overlapping pves for a day which everyone loves.

    Hunt is still there. Wish it had started tomorrow like it usually would

  • killercool
    killercool Posts: 303 Mover and Shaker

    @Waddles_Pines said:
    Another wrinkle in the future, does their area in Australia observe daylight savings? Wikipedia says some areas do and some don't 🤷‍♂️

    Yes Victoria does have daylight savings, but daylight saving dates are start of April and start of November in Australia.

  • TheMigz
    TheMigz ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 30 Site Admin

    @Waddles_Pines said:
    Another wrinkle in the future, does their area in Australia observe daylight savings? Wikipedia says some areas do and some don't 🤷‍♂️

    One reason we've decided to base timing off of UTC (and communicate in UTC) is so it's always consistent and no one has to work out whether or not it's daylight savings time in Australia. 😉

    So the Season will start 11am during Daylight Savings here in Melbourne, but 10am otherwise, but it'll always be 00:00UTC. So you folks should only have to work out your local time from that UTC source of truth.

  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 6,967 Chairperson of the Boards

    @TheMigz said:

    @Waddles_Pines said:
    Another wrinkle in the future, does their area in Australia observe daylight savings? Wikipedia says some areas do and some don't 🤷‍♂️

    One reason we've decided to base timing off of UTC (and communicate in UTC) is so it's always consistent and no one has to work out whether or not it's daylight savings time in Australia. 😉

    So the Season will start 11am during Daylight Savings here in Melbourne, but 10am otherwise, but it'll always be 00:00UTC. So you folks should only have to work out your local time from that UTC source of truth.

    I’m probably being dumb or overthinking this. But just to make sure. Thursday 0:00 utc is like one minute after 23:59 on Wednesday right ? Not one minute after 23:59 on Thursday?

    If so, the season starts at 7:00 my time which is one day and one hour before it used to.

    Honestly I’m not sure what part of the season will be 7 hours later unless it means the quests which usually started at 12 noon for me.

    Thanks!

  • kuntilanak
    kuntilanak Posts: 324 Mover and Shaker

    @TheMigz Oh wow... Another double PVE schedule with The Hunt just started and Operation Spider Silk in <12hr? You guys REALLY love us... :/

  • nycjonny
    nycjonny Posts: 61 Match Maker

    A new PVE starting 24 hours after the current one? Seems like a button was pressed that should not have been. Either way that will be the 8th event in a row with Cosmic Ghost Rider shards.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 8,129 Chairperson of the Boards

    Double progression rewards!

  • TheMigz
    TheMigz ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 30 Site Admin

    @bluewolf said:
    I’m probably being dumb or overthinking this. But just to make sure. Thursday 0:00 utc is like one minute after 23:59 on Wednesday right ? Not one minute after 23:59 on Thursday?

    If so, the season starts at 7:00 my time which is one day and one hour before it used to.

    Honestly I’m not sure what part of the season will be 7 hours later unless it means the quests which usually started at 12 noon for me.

    Thanks!

    It is more likely I got (very) confused in the comms based on the internal calendar here. It uses a few different time zones depending on the event right now which did make it confusing to talk about. (We are going to clean that up too.)

    But yes, the next Season will begin when the clock strikes midnight to herald the arrival of Thursday UTC.

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