Marking the much-anticipated return of online play to Rock Band, Rivals mode also represents the most dramatic shift to the Rock Band meta game since the franchise’s introduction in 2007. In Rivals Mode, players band together to form crews of up to ten people to take on other crews around the world in a structured and ongoing series of uniquely themed gameplay challenges. At the beginning of each challenge, crews will be assigned to one of six tiers. When a challenge ends, the best crews will ascend to a new tier, while under-performing crews will face demotion. As crews get promoted they’ll earn badges and face stiffer competition in their quest to earn their place amongst the elite in the highest tier - Bloodstone.

Rock Band Rivals challenges are made up of two distinct gameplay elements - Weekly Challenge Songs and Spotlight Songs. Crews looking to climb the leaderboard will need to focus on both if they want to succeed. Performance in weekly challenges is determined by the overall score earned by all crew members while playing qualifying songs. For example, in the challenge “I Want to Know What Love Is,” playing songs and artists with the word “love” in them will contribute to your crew’s Rivals score for the week. Spotlight Songs are an opportunity for Rock Band’s best players to show their stuff. Here, a crew’s Rivals score is determined by the single best performance achieved by the crew as a whole for each instrument. Balanced crews featuring elite singers, guitarists, bassists and drummers will have an advantage.

Up first is Rivals Seasons, a significant reworking of the Rivals Challenge format introduced last year. Rather than competing in a never-ending string of weekly challenges, Rivals mode is now broken up into eight-week long Seasons with unique rewards for top-performing Crews. At the start of each season, standings are reset and all Crews begin their climb up the leaderboard again.  Seasons were designed to make Rivals mode more approachable. To that end, demotion has been removed, allowing for players to take a week off without losing a rank. That doesn’t mean the climb to the top will be easy – only the best of the best will make it to Bloodstone. Season 1 begins June 15.

The Rock Band Rivals Companion App has also been updated in preparation for Season 1 – it is a must-have for competitive Rivals Crews and party players alike. It features a full song list with filtering and search functionality, live Rivals crew chat, leaderboard access and more. The Rock Band Rivals Companion App is available now on both iOS and Android.

Today’s free update also introduces Missions to Rock Band 4. The Rock Band Missions system sets up a fun musical scavenger hunt through a player’s entire Rock Band song catalog. For example, one Mission may require hitting 250 notes in Overdrive in a single song, or getting at least three Unison Bonuses in 10 different songs. Completing Missions will earn players badges that they can show off in Online Quickplay and it’s a great way to get reacquainted with a song library.

For more on Rivals Seasons and Missions, as well as information about updates to the Activity Feed, a level cap increase, Vocal Overdrive and bug fixes, please check out the full patch notes here.

Those aren’t the only additions to Rock Band – the next month of DLC features chart-topping hits; two free songs from Permaband, CCP Games’ in-house band; a Rock Band Rewind track and more.

Here’s a look into the month ahead for the Rock Band 4 DLC Library:

• Dream Theater – “Pull Me Under”
• Fleetwood Mac – “Go Your Own Way” (First appeared on Rock Band 2)
• Permaband – “Killing Is Just A Means…”
• Permaband – “Wrecking Machine”
• Pierce The Veil – “Circles”
• Rush – “Freewill (Vault Edition)”
• … and more!

Two more chart-topping tracks make their way to Rock Band VR’s DLC Library this month. The following songs will be available for purchase in the Oculus Store on Wednesday, June 7 for $2.99 per track:

• The Weeknd – “Can’t Feel My Face”
• Twenty One Pilots – “Stressed Out”