Zwift adds three new pace partners to Watopia

Pace partners are bots in Zwift that ride at perfectly steady paces, allowing players in the game to draft and stay at a targeted effort. Today, Zwift is adding three more pace partners in an update that should hit your device today, May 12.

The three new pace partners will have average watts/kilogram paces of 1.15w/kg, 1.8w/kg, and 2.15w/kg. The existing pace partners are rated at 1.5w/kg, 2.5w/kg, 3.3w/kg, and 4.2w/kg.

All seven pace bots will travel in Watopia only after the game update.

With the update to version 1.25.0, three new pace partners will be added to Watopia, while all pace bots will be pulled from Makuri Island.

Also read: Zwift to cease support of older hardware, operating systems as of August 1

Riding with pace bots offers experience point multipliers. Riding in the game racks up ‘XP’ numbers, which can be used to buy things like frames and wheels in the game.k

Zwift said all users should have the latest update by 11 a.m. PDT. The game producer plans to stick to a standard release schedule for Sundays, in the early morning hours.

“Expect frequent changes on an almost weekly basis as we test new features, new routes, new paces, and dial-in Pace Partner behavior. All changes will be made on normal Sunday night (PST)/Monday morning (UTC) schedule for consistency,” said Zwift senior manager of North American public relations Andrew Bernstein.

Bernstein also said that the new paces may be adjusted based on user feedback. At this time, Zwift is evaluating pace needs and collecting gameplay data to determine if additional pace bots could be added at other paces.

With the addition of the new pace partners, Zwift is also updating the pedal-assist for pace partners and all instances when pedal assist is invoked — late-joining an event or a group ride, for instance — to a minimum of 10 seconds, and a maximum of one minute if no power is detected.

“Assist stops once power is input into the game after the initial 10-second window,” Bernstein noted. “This change applies to all pedal-assist instances, not just pace partners.”

Zwift also plans to add pace partners for events, but has not yet provided a timeline for adding this feature.

Other updates to the game will include improvements that provide flexibility for those who use training plans. The update should allow users to start a training plan on any day of the week, and also start from the first day of a plan.

Improvements to the Zwift Companion (version 3.36.0) should include enhancements to the search, filter, and sharing functionality, and may be rolled out on June 1.