Embark's free-to-play destructible-arena shooter. PapaKow's Friday-night game: Light, Medium and Heavy loadouts, clutch cashouts and clips.
The Finals is Embark Studios' free-to-play, fully destructible arena shooter — a game-show where teams of three fight over cash boxes and cashout stations while the map falls down around them. It launched in December 2023 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with cross-play, and runs seasons with new maps, weapons and events.
You pick a body type — Light (fast, fragile, stealth and mobility), Medium (the flexible support with heals and turrets) or Heavy (big guns, shields and demolition) — then a specialisation, a weapon and three gadgets. The main mode is Cashout (steal the vault, bank it before the other teams do), with Quick Cash, Bank It, Power Shift, World Tour and the tighter Terminal Attack rounding it out.
Friday nights are for chaos. The Finals is the game where a losing round turns around in the last twenty seconds because someone blew the floor out from under the cashout — that's the clutch Karl streams for. It's free, so anyone in chat can jump in, and the loadout vote works brilliantly here: three classes, dozens of gadgets, and chat gets to choose which one he suffers with.
Mostly Medium — heal beam, defib, keep the squad alive and hold the cashout — but chat regularly votes him onto Light for flank plays or Heavy for a bunker round. Viewer trios on Fridays: first in, first served, members' spots held.
Loadouts below reflect what Karl is running this season. Embark rebalances every few weeks, so check the notes and vote on the next one live.
These are the builds Karl actually runs on stream. Chat votes on the next loadout live on papakow.com, so they change — last updated 17 September 2026.
Karl's default. Heal beam keeps the Heavy alive on the cashout, defib turns a lost fight around, jump pad gets the squad onto the roof before the enemy does. Swap the gas mine for an explosive mine on open maps.
Sit on the cashout, wall it off, and make them come to you. RPG for clearing a wall (or a team) in one shot, C4 on the box for when a steal is unavoidable. Slow but wins rounds.
Chat's favourite vote because it goes wrong beautifully. Cloak in, glitch their shields, breach the floor under the cashout, steal, vanish. Dies to one sneeze — don't take fair fights.
For maps with a defendable cashout room. APS eats grenades and rockets, guardian turret holds a door, zipline gets you back fast after a defib. Strong in Terminal Attack.
Yes — it's free, cross-platform, and Embark keeps shipping seasons with new maps, weapons and modes, so the player base is healthy on PC and console. If you want a fast, tactical shooter where the map itself is a weapon, it's one of the best around. PapaKow plays it live on Fridays on papakow.com if you want to see the current meta before you download it.
Medium is the safest all-round pick and what PapaKow runs most: healing beam, defibrillator and a solid rifle keep a squad alive through a cashout. Heavy wins holds with shields and demolition; Light wins steals and flanks but dies fast. A balanced trio (one of each, or two Medium and a Heavy) beats three of anything.
Four rotating builds: Medic Main (FCAR, Healing Beam, Defibrillator, Jump Pad, Gas Mine), Cashout Bunker (Lewis Gun, Mesh Shield, RPG-7, C4, Dome Shield), Flank Rat (XP-54, Cloaking Device, Breach Charge, Vanishing Bomb, Glitch Grenade) and Turret Nest (AKM, Guardian Turret, Zipline, APS Turret, Explosive Mine). Chat votes on which one he runs next during the stream on papakow.com.
Friday nights from 6 pm Brisbane time (AEST) — that's Friday 4 am US Eastern / 1 am Pacific, or set a reminder from the schedule page, which converts the time for you. PapaKow streams Thursday 6–10 pm, Friday 6 pm until late, and Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 am until late (Brisbane time, AEST — no daylight saving).
Watch ad-free on papakow.com, or on Twitch (twitch.tv/papakow), Kick (kick.com/papakow) and YouTube (@papakoww).
Yes — viewer trios on Friday nights, organised in The Clutch Club Discord. First in, first served; members' spots are held. The Clutch Club Discord is free to join from papakow.com/community.
Yes. The Finals supports cross-play between PC (Steam), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with progression tied to your Embark ID. Console players can turn cross-play off in the settings if they'd rather avoid PC lobbies.
All times are Australia/Brisbane (AEST, UTC+10, no daylight saving). The full schedule converts them to your timezone and counts down to the next stream.