Known Lag Problems
These problems are reported by real players. If your region or ISP is listed, a network optimizer is likely to help.
Southeast Asia
40–150ms to Singapore server- Singapore server exists but ISP routing quality varies significantly by country
- Philippine players on PLDT report inconsistent routing to Singapore Google Cloud nodes
- Players in Indonesia and Malaysia may get 50–120ms depending on ISP Google peering
- Quilkin proxy layer adds routing hop overhead on top of base geographic latency
South America
20–60ms SA server (when connected), 100–200ms on NA fallback- South America server added post-launch — previously all SA players used NA servers at 100–200ms
- SA server population is low which can cause cross-region matchmaking to NA at high ping
- Some SA ISPs still route to NA due to poor Google Cloud SA peering
- Low local player count means longer queue times pushing players onto NA servers
Oceania
15–40ms AU server (Sydney)- OCE server added post-launch — previously all OCE players used Asian servers at 80–150ms
- Low population means matchmaking sometimes crosses to Asia or NA at peak off-times
- New Zealand players typically get slightly higher ping to Australian server than local AU players
What players commonly report
- No built-in ping display — removed after alpha, not restored
- Inconsistent feel blamed on Quilkin middleware and low base tick rate
- Kernel-level EAC false positives blocking legitimate software (AMD overlays, ReShade)
- South America and OCE servers added late — players had months of 150ms+ before regional servers launched
- Cheating issues in early 2024 despite EAC — led to Theia anti-tamper addition
- Low SA/OCE population causes cross-region matchmaking spilling into NA/Asia
How to Fix It
Try these first — they're free and solve the problem for most people.
01 Manually set your Preferred Region
1. Launch THE FINALS 2. Go to Settings > Gameplay > General 3. Find 'Preferred Region' setting 4. Change from 'Automatic' to the region nearest to you 5. Restart the game for the change to take effect 6. If you play in a party, the party LEADER's region setting determines where everyone is matched
Direct fix for consistently high ping. The automatic region selector sometimes picks a suboptimal server. Manually locking to your nearest region typically improves measured ping for players who were being placed on wrong-region servers; check the difference in Resource Monitor before/after.
02 Switch to wired Ethernet
1. Connect an Ethernet cable from your PC to your router 2. Go to Windows Settings > Network & Internet 3. Disable the WiFi adapter to force traffic through Ethernet 4. Launch THE FINALS and check ping via Resource Monitor 5. On WiFi, you may see ping fluctuate 20–60ms between checks — on Ethernet it should be stable
Eliminates WiFi jitter. In a game with physics destruction, packet loss from WiFi can cause walls to desync differently between your client and the server, causing deaths that look impossible.
General network tips (not THE FINALS-specific)
03 Check your actual in-game ping with Resource Monitor
1. Launch THE FINALS and get into a match 2. Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) 3. Click 'More details' if in compact view 4. Go to Performance tab > click 'Open Resource Monitor' at the bottom 5. In Resource Monitor, click the Network tab 6. Expand 'TCP Connections' section 7. Look for Discovery.exe entries — the Latency column shows your ping in ms 8. Watch this during a match to see if ping spikes during fights
THE FINALS has no built-in ping display. This is the most reliable way to monitor your actual server latency without third-party tools.
04 Close bandwidth-consuming applications
1. Before queuing, open Task Manager > Network column 2. Sort by Network usage — identify high-bandwidth processes 3. Pause: OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive syncs 4. Stop: Steam downloads, Windows Update downloads 5. Close: streaming apps (YouTube, Twitch, Spotify) 6. These compete with game packets and cause queuing delay
Reduces packet queuing at your router. On connections under 100 Mbps, a background download can cause burst ping spikes that feel like rubber-banding.
05 Run the Windows network reset
1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator (search 'cmd', right-click > Run as administrator) 2. Run: ipconfig /flushdns 3. Run: netsh winsock reset 4. Run: netsh int ip reset 5. Restart your PC 6. This clears stale DNS entries and resets TCP/IP stack state
Fixes sudden onset ping increases that weren't there before. Stale routing cache or corrupted winsock settings can cause packets to take wrong paths.
06 Set QoS priority on your router for game traffic
Access router admin panel > QoS settings > prioritize UDP traffic or Discovery.exe by application name (if supported).
Ensures game packets are processed before household bandwidth-sharing from other devices.
Regions with good connectivity
Players in these regions likely won't benefit much from a network optimizer.
- Western Europe — Germany/Netherlands Google Cloud infrastructure. Well-peered by major EU ISPs. Players typically see 10–30ms.
- US East Coast — Largest NA player base. Good Google Cloud Virginia/Iowa connectivity from major US ISPs.
Still lagging? The problem is likely your ISP's routing to the game servers.
PingAim detects THE FINALS automatically
No manual config. PingAim identifies THE FINALS by process name and routes it through your fastest connection using a kernel-level WFP driver.