The latest Zwift update has been announced and will be released in phases over the next few days. This release doesn’t include new features, but it contains some new route badges. Read on for details!
Level 10+ Requirement
Now that the Tour of Watopia is over, routes that use Watopia’s southern coast road will be restricted to Zwifters at level 10 or higher. This applies to both cyclists and runners. Note: while this restriction hasn’t currently taken effect, it will be activated on Zwift’s side in the next few days, once the update has rolled out to everyone.
Zwifters who aren’t yet at level 10 can still enjoy the new roads by joining an event on one of the new routes, or by using the “Ride With” feature to join a Zwifter at level 10+ who is riding those routes.
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Stress Points to TSS
Zwift has replaced the “stress points” (SP) title on the workout details screen with “Training Stress Score” (TSS®). TSS® is a registered trademark of TrainingPeaks. The actual values haven’t changed, Zwift is just calling it by its more well-known name.
The workout editor screen still shows “stress score” instead of TSS, but we assume Zwift will update this in short order.
Learn what TSS is and how it’s calculated >
New Achievement Badges
Zwift’s update notes include a line about a new route achievement badge for Repack Rush, the steering-required test course that recently got a multiplayer gamification upgrade. But this update also includes three additional route badges that Zwift didn’t mention!
The badges are for three different Rebel Routes:
- Spiral Into the Volcano: a longer route (55.6km) ending on the Volcano KOM
- Big Flat 8: a mashup between Watopia’s Tick Tock and Volcano Flat routes… or Watopia’s Waistband as a figure 8.
- Castle Crit: a pitchy, 3.5km Makuri Islands circuit
The badges are in game, but the routes are not yet available to ride freely. When will they be available? Watch for a big event to be announced soon!
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Improved Route Estimates
Zwift has increased the time estimates for a few of the newer routes:
- Accelerate to Elevate now shows 90+ minutes
- The Big Ring now shows 90+ minutes
- Shorelines and Summits shows 90+ minutes
- Sugar Cookie now shows <90 minutes
More Release Notes
Zwift provided notes on additional tweaks and bug fixes in this update:
- Improved visibility of sprint markers on the Shorelines and Summits route.
- Resolved an issue on the Going Coastal route that made the horizon appear to flicker.
- Performance improvements to Watopia’s Southern Coast to provide a better cycling and running experience.
- Small improvements to the Get Started tutorial design.
- Ensured that the pace line in a running workout graph correctly displays running pace, and not FTP.
- Ensured that workouts appear in the correct order in training plans.
- Apple TV: Fixed a potential crash that could occur when customizing your avatar or equipment in the Garage.
- iOS: Fixed an issue where Workouts could not be edited, copied, or deleted on certain iPads.
- Android: Fixed an issue where Workouts could not be edited, copied, or deleted on Android tablets.
Discuss this release on Zwift’s forum >
Questions or Comments?
If you spotted any other changes or bugs in the update, please comment below!
Dang. I JUST printed out a copy of the updated route badge sheet, too!
Week (unknown) of asking for completion badges for the climb portal routes.
Guessing routes will used for Tour de Zwift in Jan. Done all three. Spiral into the volcano is long ride if zwift keeps it the same as the rebel route.
Would be good if the ride estimate time was in actual minutes and based off your low z2 effort and weight. 90 mins+ is not that helpful
lol, that’s fine if you want to ride in low z2, what about everyone else who wants to ride in a different zone. This is what I like about Zwift requests from normal users, they don’t consider the bigger picture and accept that Zwift can’t please everybody.
These times are a guide.
Point was that for longer rides it could give you more detail than 90 minutes +. A low zone 2 would be a time that someone could expect to finish a route regardless of length. I.e uber pretzel.
Also if you ride faster than zone 2 you go faster to answer your question.
That would be awesome. It’d give you an easy goal time to beat and allow you to fit a ride into your schedule.
ZwifterBikes app will tell you everything you need to know, like time, for a given bike, weight, power, draft, etc.
Rolled back already?
I really miss the opportunity to see the duration of intervals in the workout overview. Will this return?
Back to Stress Points
My legs hurt from ZRL yesterday.
I believe it could be a good thing the time estimates being calculated using the ftp and weight. I believe that wouldn’t be that hard to do
When will we get the Velodrome put on?
Honest question not intending to be critical. My son and I go to one of the few velodromes in the USA and it’s a whole different kind of riding and racing but I don’t understand the request to have a velodrome in Zwift – even with steering enabled. I can’t see how going around and around in circle would be appealing with the current Zwift gameplay system. What would this look like in mind? What am I missing?
With steering, enforced gearing, velodrome physics and enough riders/racers I think a velodrome would be fun. We have a 1/4 mile(ish) track for runners already, and it actually gets used. Imagine running on a treadmill, while your avatar goes roundy-round, it’s quite mind-numbing (even my avatar got bored with it and left the track.
Really happy to see them add more route badges. More 1 to 2 hours routes and large events is what keeps me motivated to ride. Add more portal climbs too!
Is anyone else still not getting 1.53? I’ve quit Zwift in the notification window several times and restarted and also ran the setup exe and I’m still on 1.52.2
Zwift updates are rolled out incrementally to all users. Even if you delete and re-install you will still get the same version until it is rolled out to you. Also, this particular release was rolled back due to a new bug, you can check the zwift forum link above for more details. Don’t expect to get the new version until next week (after US Thanksgiving).
UPDATE November 21
We are aware of reports that Zwift Click can not be selected in the Pairing Screen using game version 1.53.
We are pausing the phased rollout of game version 1.53 to investigate this bug. If you’re having this issue, please join us on this dedicated thread 29.
Hi. I´m Level 60+X. I rode yesterday 3h. First I startet on IOS on old version (new is not available yet here) and noticed that the drafting wasn’t or isn’t working anymore. Avatar stayed all-time in aero position! Than I startet a new ride with newest version on Mac OS and had the same issue. Supertuck was also not working.. New Badgeds are not displayed. Rode the Repack Rush on Zwift Controller.. By the way, they are in my Opinion a big game changer for saving Watts during racing and gaining position by tacking corners shorter! Even If you not steer, the Avatar does less “washing machine” in group!
I also just got the kickr climb, there I also had it 2 times on different tracks that it startet to climb (a lot) while the track was flat in that place. For the rest of the ride the experience was with the climb better in combination with the kickr move than without. Handlebars are more stable, an its less moving backwards.
A other point I´d like to have in the setting menu is trainer difficulty and climb should be separate!
Ride On!
Hello. Any idea why you need to be level 10 to do the coast road? Seems very strange to me. Doesn’t affect me personally, as I am t Level 58, but I don’t understand the point of levels in Zwift. If could be nice if reaching a new level gave you something genuinely new or useful, but it doesn’t. Maybe this is the start of something new with Zwift, but it seems an odd place to star.
The Jungle and Alpe du Zwift were already level locked.
When will they improve the route preview? Now the route preview takes a long time to be drawn instead of being immediately visible. Does this bother anyone? Sometimes I wait for a dozen or so seconds for one route to be drawn in the preview. Reviewing several routes is a waste of time and I give up. Does it also take you that long to preview the route?
Why has zwift stopped showing interval duration and exact power levels in the workout library selection – you cannot now choose a workout to suit requirements? Useless for those who don’t want to chase avatars round a cartoon landscape! Stopped subs as now no good – and they won’t answer my question.
Its still possible to have those values. When in workouts, click on plans – workouts and u have the old view back with duration and power level.
Great, thanks Andy can see that now. Cannot understand why they would want to change the main view though- why do intervals if you can’t see what you’re in for – until it’s started! Oh well.
Any update on when the Zwift Racing Score will be implemented/re-launched? I remember reading somewhere that they would launch it late November.
I think we’ll see some news in early December. Fingers crossed.
I don’t want anything to to with “gravel routes”, how about an op-out feature?
You are likely aware, but with the updated Crr values on road wheels, gravel is basically asphalt now. There is a little speed hit (at same power…) but not much of one. No real reason to avoid them now, same with dirt, just think of it as different colored asphalt and enjoy the new roads.
Thank you! I had a great 41km ride all over Makuri this morning without worrying about “dirt” LOL
So, I have still not received the Update through the app. Is it still early in the process?
See the posting above. Its paused because of a bug.
Thanks Andy. Didn’t see that. Appreciate the reply. P
I did more than 10Tkm on my kickr bike and have still the feeling, that drafting in groups is not working like before. As well there are weired speed changes at same cadence and gear that seem strange, in between few meters your speed changes from 34 km/h to 30 km/h and back again, on flat routes. It seems like the software does some recalculations from time to time. Maybe garbage collection or cache reorganization. Sometimes i am afraid to change gears in races, because higher gears are suddenly extremely hard and your cadence drops from 100 to 60 and you have to shift several gears back, to not loose the group.
Since the update, the app does not record the username/password. It’s quite annoying to type it every time. Is this a bug for me or anyone else? Or is it caused by the update? what can i do to make it remember again?
When will I be able to tidy up the garage? I can put things I don’t need on the stock exchange.
I rode the Big Flat 8 this morning. I see the segment in Strava. I’m on 1.53.2 and I see the (uncompleted) badge in Zwift. But I didn’t get credit for the route in Zwift. Is there something I did wrong?
https://www.strava.com/activities/10316507863/segments/3166036774294191376
The route isn’t an official route yet. If you want the badge you have to choose the route when you begin you ride. Since the route isn’t official yet you can’t do this. Zwift, for some reason, made the badge visible even though you can’t get it yet.
Ahh, I made the wrong assumption that because the badge was available in Zwift that you could ride the route and get credit for it even though the route option hadn’t been provided yet. So the badge presence is just a placeholder that can’t be fulfilled until a later release when they actually present the route as an option.
Appears true, yes. IDK either why they did it in that order. I was just trying that out on Castle Crit. Sorry you had to learn this the hard way with a much longer effort 🙁
Dang. Had the impression that this would mean we could actually get the badges if we did them, but it does not seem so :(. I even did an extra lap of castle crit for good measure, but no dice.
Hi, do updates happen automatically?
Typically yes. See https://zwiftinsider.com/update-zwift/
Will steering be a requirement to participate on Repack Rush, and if so does this mean if you haven’t bought Zwift’s steering setup you will not be able to get the route completion badge?
Correct.
Wow. Thanks for the quick reply Eric.
So in other words. Zwift has gone to a pay to play format, where certain “rewards”, i.e. achievments will only be available if you have purchased additional products?
Might be time to bail on Zwift. Once a company starts down this path..
/shakes head