NGL Biathlon
In biathlon the last few metres often decide the place. Players ask us whether the lunge at the line helps, where the photo finish picture comes from and why it is sometimes missing, why the Finisher skill used to last longer on some tracks than on others, and how to take the flag before the finish. Here it is step by step
How the finish is timed
The time is taken when the tip of the leading boot crosses the line. That is how real biathlon is judged, and the game judges every athlete that way, not just the one the camera is showing. The game works out the moment of crossing more precisely than a single frame, and that time decides the place in the results. So two athletes can show the same tenths on the board and the order between them is still fair
The rule is the same in every format. In a relay the last leg finishes, and the line in the results belongs to the team
The lunge
The lunge is throwing the foot forward on the last stride before the line. There is no key for it: the athlete does it automatically if your superboost is running over those metres. No superboost, no lunge. Bots never use the superboost, so their rule is different: a bot lunges if its Max speed is 85 or higher
The lunge is worth about a tenth of a second. The foot goes forward, the athlete gets a short push with it and crosses the line earlier. In a tight mass start or pursuit finish that is the difference between places. In a sprint or an individual race there is usually no rival next to you, but the tenth goes into your final time all the same
So it pays to keep a little of the superboost reserve for the line itself. How the superboost works is covered in Skiing, boost and superboost
The photo finish
After you finish, the panel has a Photofinish button. It opens a picture from the side camera at the line, taken the moment the boot tip crossed it. The photo finish is always on, there is no setting for it
- The camera follows you. It switches on when you are 10 metres from the line and takes the moment when the line is crossed by your boot or by the boot of a rival right next to you, within a body length. A pair finishing ahead of you does not take your picture
- Whoever is far ahead will not be in it. A rival who crossed the line before you got within 10 metres of it had already finished when the camera switched on
- No picture, no button. That happens in a relay if you did not ski the last leg: your team finishes, but the camera only switches on at the line you are approaching. There is no button after shooting training either
- The picture lives on screen. It is not saved as a file, so if you want to keep it, take a screenshot
The Finisher skill
The skill opens at Max speed 85. It works over the last 100 metres of the last lap, and those 100 metres are measured along the course the same way everywhere. The start of that stretch used to be set by markers on the track, so depending on the track it ran from 65 to 113 metres. In 2027 that is gone
Over those metres the skill does three things
- Fatigue eases off: Strength works as if the athlete were fully rested, though Speed-strength still drops as before
- The boost bar does not drain, however long you hold it
- The boost adds three times its usual power
The boost is what matters here. The skill amplifies it, so hold the boost key for the whole finishing stretch: without it, all that is left of the skill is the removed fatigue. The superboost still works with the skill, but its push over those metres is half the usual one, since the skill already gives the power. A short superboost right to the line is still worth it for the lunge
Bots have the skill too, and it shows at the finish: about three quarters of the overtakes on the finishing straight are made by Finisher holders, even though they are less than a fifth of the field. Athletes without the skill usually arrive in the order in which they entered the straight
In a relay the skill only works on the last leg: only that leg has a finishing straight, the others end with a handover. That is why the game puts a Finisher holder on the fourth leg, see Relays. How to give the skill to your own athlete is covered in Your own athlete
Finishing with a flag
As in real biathlon, a leader with a big gap can take their country's flag and cross the line with it
- Where. Mass start, pursuit and the last leg of a relay. There is no flag in sprint and individual races, and none in online races
- Who. The leader on the last lap, if second place was at least 10 seconds behind at the last split. Neutral athletes do not take the flag
- How. Before the finishing straight a fan holds out the flag and a Take the flag prompt appears on screen. The key is F, on a gamepad X (square). Bots take the flag too
- The cost. With the flag you cannot boost or lunge, and you ski slower: the flag costs about four seconds. The 10 second gap covers that
All the seconds in this article are on the game's normal clock. If Realistic time is switched on in Settings, every time and gap on the board is shown 3.75 times larger, and so are these: the lunge is worth about a third of a second there, and the gap for the flag is 37.5 seconds
