Xbox Comms Disabled and Latest Updates 06/05/26
✅FIXED: We resolved an issue where players were able to exploit Axle's movement resulting in an indefinite slide ⚠️INVESTIGATING: We are temporarily disabling voice comms for players on Xbox systems to investigate their contribution to a game crash. Xbox players will not be able to hear or speak to other players, regardless of platform. We are also investigating a recent issue resulting in FPS drops, likely tied to specific CPUs. We will provide updates as they become available to us!Current issues impacting Xbox players
⚠️INVESTIGATING: We are looking into an issue preventing players from purchasing the Ultimate+ Battle Pass tier on any Xbox platform. Our current recommended workaround is to try from the Microsoft Store, where possible. We are also tracking a crash impacting Xbox Series machines. We have located the issue and are working towards a fix. We're hoping to have these issues resolved soon and will relay updates as they come.
Ranked Map Rotation Update
ADJUSTED: We are implementing 4.5 hour map rotations in Ranked for all regions! After testing 4.5 hour rotations in our East Asia servers late in Season 28, we believe implementing this cadence in all servers will have a positive impact on the playerbase by enabling more map variety. This means players can engage on their favourite maps more often, or feel less “trapped” on their least favourite maps. During the initial test we saw positive player sentiment regarding the opportunity to potentially play on multiple maps in a single play session and we’re excited to provide this opportunity to all regions. This is a permanent change, though we may continue to test slight variances in rotation duration to pinpoint the most optimal timelines!Apex Legends™: Overclocked Patch Notes
OVERCLOCKED OVERVIEW Overclocked is locked and loaded and ready to go! In Season 29 of the Apex Games we are not only focused on delivering exciting, new seasonal content, but addressing key feedback from our player-base. A brand new Legend, Axle, joins the fray and this combat racer is bound to shake things up. Vantage, Conduit and Ash are getting buffs to keep up with the breakneck pace. We’re introducing Deathbox Respawns and Chained Healing to get you and your teammates back into the fight sooner. The starting line approaches, so get ready to roll in Apex Legends: OVERCLOCKED. To get a quick overview of some of Overclocked’s main updates, check out our Highlights blog from last week. For a deep-dive into meta balancing, check out our seasonal Designer’s Notes. Read on for all the details about what’s happening this season! MATCHMAKING Solo-Queueing Adjustments We’ve heard the continued feedback on solo queueing difficulty. Later this split, we’ll introduce a system where solo players matchmake against opponents of a slightly lower skill tier in both Ranked and Unranked matches. This is aimed at reducing the advantage of full premade squads and tightening win rate gaps between solos and three-stacks. Queue Time Tuning in High-Skill Lobbies Late in 28.1, we began rolling out longer max queue times for higher-skill players. We’re keeping these changes in place to help create tighter skill bands and reduce mismatched games (e.g. Plats vs. Masters), leading to more competitive matches overall. The majority of players will see no difference at all. If you matchmake into smaller pools, for example during off-hours, then you may have to wait up to a few minutes longer than before Bots in Unranked Modes We’re continuing limited testing of bots in select regions and skill ranges in Unranked modes (Trios, Duos, Wildcard). The goal is to improve match quality by reducing extreme skill mismatches and avoiding excessively long queue times, particularly if there are lower-population scenarios. Bots are used only to fill gaps in these scenarios, not replace full matches, and you will never matchmake with an Apex Bot on your team. IN-GAME AUDIO This season, as a quality of life update, we have improved voice chat clarity and added the ability to adjust voice chat volumes for each member of your squad individually. We are continuing our work to resolve existing audio issues and improve in-match audio quality so that you can consistently rely on these systems to inform your situational awareness. We are aware that audio issues increased during the recent Gundam Event and we are continuing to work on our metrics gathering to avoid similar situations in the future. We pushed various stability improvements over the latter half of Season 28 that have improved the situation, pushing us towards cleaner audio experiences. We appreciate the reports we received - they greatly helped our ongoing investigations. PATCH NOTES GAME UPDATES Deathbox Respawns Dev note: With this new mechanic, we wanted to introduce an alternative way to get your teammates back into the fight, faster (but riskier) than the classic Respawn Beacon process, that feels like a reward for teams that successfully clear and hold an area. The safest option will remain disengaging, recovering banners, moving to a safe beacon, and respawning. But a successful Deathbox Respawn may bring your team back to full strength before a third party can capitalize on your weakened squad. Respawn dead teammates directly from their Deathbox. High Risk: Respawning at a Deathbox is loud, visible to nearby enemies, and takes 7 seconds. Be sure to clear the area before attempting it. Respawn with Your Gear: When respawned from your Deathbox, any weapons and gear that still remain unlooted are added to your inventory automatically. Lockout Timer: Each additional death increases the time before teammates can use Deathbox Respawn again. Stay alive to reset the timer. Respawn Beacon Dropship Dev note: Respawn from Dropship is a dangerous and lengthy process. Often the surviving player activating the Respawn Beacon will get pounced on and killed before their teammates disembark the Respawn Dropship. This change is meant to get boots on the ground faster for returning players, while keeping the Dropship visible for the entire lobby for an extended duration, ensuring no enemies miss the cue that players are returning to the battlefield. Animation timing adjusted Dropship arrival shortened so respawned players re-enter the game faster. Dropship hover time after respawn increased. Chain Healing Dev note: This is a Quality of Life change at its core. Many factors contribute to when and how you heal. Limited resources and timing influence this choice: often meaning that you’re going to spam heal several shield cells rather than wasting the more valuable and limited shield batteries you have. This change is meant to make that existing pattern of spamming the heal button to rip 4 cells in a row smoother and less repetitive. While healing, another healing item may now be queued to automatically begin once the current healing action finishes. There are 3 settings options (‘Single’ is the new default option) that can be changed via the Gameplay settings menu: Off: Disables the feature and leaves the current healing system unaffected. Single: While healing, allows the queuing of another healing item. You must queue each additional heal manually by pressing the heal button again, or selecting a new item from the healing wheel. Auto: While healing, allows the queuing of another healing item. Auto will continuously queue that same healing item, without any further input, until the effective health pool is full, or you run out of that healing item. Health Bar Updates We have overhauled the Health Bar system to increase reliability and improve Line of Sight checks when obscuring effects are present. Effects such as smoke and foliage will now more consistently block the LoS check used for Health Bars. This means Health Bars will appear less often in situations where an enemy is obscured to you. LEGENDS AXLE Dev note: Axle was born after a big-picture assessment of the state of movement in Apex following Valkyrie’s two-year reign in the ALGS. Valk was a big pick in competitive play, and on the other side of the competitive spectrum, Octane was the perennial #1 pick. Other Legends with movement abilities have consistently been mainstays in the top five. This comes as no surprise; fluid movement has always been a staple of Apex, a powerful tool in a BR where positioning is paramount. Our movement deep-dive preceding Axle’s development shone a light on our biggest learning: Characterizing “Movement” as a tool is far too reductive. Just look online: community-driven movement wikis and training videos are everywhere. Movement is the toolbox, and every jetpack boost, soft landing, and grapple is just one of many tools inside. Keep your head on a swivel, because Axle transforms the battlefield into her racetrack. Class Skirmisher Passive DRIFT: Increased control while sliding. Axle accelerates and moves faster than others while sliding. She also has increased lateral control. Tactical NITRO GATE: Deploy a speed gate that sends users into a boosted slide. Stepping into a Nitro Gate forces users into a speedy slide, where they have greatly increased velocity and lateral control. This effect lasts for up to five seconds as long as speed isn’t naturally slowed. Manually stopping the slide will end the effect (although it can be maintained through quick b-hops). The gate is team agnostic, meaning it has the same effect on friendlies and enemies, though Axle will be the only one with increased slide control. Ultimate KICKSTART: Deploy an enemy-seeking drone that displaces targets on impact. Axle fires a drone straight out in front of her, where it traverses close to the ground in a straight line as it scans for enemies in a wide FoV. Once an enemy is spotted, the drone seeks towards the target, closing the gap to get within detonation range. If the target cannot outrun or destroy the drone before detonation, it will knockback all targets in range up into the air. Victims are revealed while airborne, take explosive damage, and are briefly stunned. Upgrades Level 2 Super Slider: Gain a second Tactical charge. Automata: Gain a second Ultimate charge. Level 3 Jump Gate: Upgrades the Nitro Gate to give a double-jump. Similar to how Octane’s Triple Jump upgrade works, this upgrades the Nitro Gate itself. Players can use up to one double-jump while the Nitro Gate effect is active. Sliding Shooter: Bullets shot while sliding come straight from inventory instead of magazine. Functionally, this allows for longer continuous firing while sliding before having to reload. Bullets shot straight from inventory are capped at half the weapon’s max magazine size (i.e. if a purple mag capacity is 30 bullets, 15 bullets will get pulled from inventory before instantly transitioning to the active clip). VANTAGE Dev note: Vantage is currently underperforming in fights and as a result is seeing less play overall. Looking over her kit we recognized that, as a sniper, her role becomes more and more difficult the later the game goes on (and playspace shrinks). We really wanted to find ways to keep her kit powerful at every stage of the game. Passive Tracking a team with Spotters Lens will generate 70% of an ultimate bullet 10 second cooldown per team Tactical Vantage is immune to hard landings exiting the tac Increased velocity from 20 Meters Per Second to 21 Meters Per Second Increased double jump range from 4m to 7m Reduced deceleration at final destination by ~25% Cooldown reduced from 20s to 17s Ultimate Toggle fire to equip your Canted Sight: A 2x optic mounted on the side of the rifle While canted rechamber time is decreased from 1.2s to 1.1s While canted ADS time reduced from 0.5s to 0.4s Bullet scaling is drastically reduced in Canted sights (so be accurate!) Increase aiming responsiveness with Normal sight Reduced ADS time from 0.6s to 0.5s Increased weapon handling in both modes Reduced Holster and Lower time from 0.5s to 0.4s Reduced Deploy and Raise time from 1.5s to 1.3s Default Normal scope magnification increased from 3x to 4x Upgrades Tactical Cooldown replaced with Herd Tracker: Pinging an enemy will track the entire team CONDUIT Dev note: As a Legend with a low pick rate that performs quite well relative to other Support Legends, Conduit presents an intriguing design conundrum: why aren’t more players picking her if her match result stats are great? Our primary goals are to keep Conduit feeling challenging but rewarding, to increase her playmaking potential, and also to provide her with more opportunities to have successful supportive interactions with her team. Abilities Passive: New Effect: If Savior’s Speed is active when sprinting toward a Skirmisher, gain an additional 5% movement speed. Tactical: Split Charge has been incorporated into her base kit, granting two charges Decreased Regen Duration from 9s to 6s Decreased Regen from 20/s to 15/s Adjusted Cooldown to 27s Standard Radiant Transfer was 32s Split Charge was 21s Removed cooldown start delay The cooldown will now always begin after casting, even if still searching for a target Upgrades Level 3 Both Radiant Transfer and Split Charge have been removed New Upgrade: Instant Barrier Gain a portion of Radiant Transfer's Temp Shields instantly, but Regen Duration is reduced by 2s. New Upgrade: Enduring Barrier Radiant Transfer's Temp Shield Regeneration persists through taking damage. ALTER Dev note: At the highest levels of play, Alter has been a consistent performer who shakes up fights by being extremely evasive, standing above many of the other legends in her class thanks to the team utility and safety she provides. Though we feel like her playstyle drives a fun player fantasy, we want to incorporate a bit more risk into her gameplay formula, making her cunning escapes not quite as “free” as they have felt before. Abilities Tactical: Increased Cooldown from 20s to 25s Ultimate: Decreased Range from 300m to 250m Increased Recall Time from 2s to 3s Increased Ally Recall Time from 3s to 4s Decreased Chase Portal Open Time from 6s to 4s Upgrades Level 3 Void Breacher Reduced movement speed from 30% to 15% ASH Dev note: We know player sentiment around the most recent round of Ash changes was that we “nerfed her into the ground.” We felt like we had to nerf Ash really hard to manage a relative dominance over global pick rate. But with the presence of other agile Legends like Octane, Wraith and now Axle, we have a little more wiggle room to find the happy middle ground. While we want to give Ash’s passive a little zip back, we are proceeding cautiously to avoid trending toward the state of Ash in Season 24. Passive Cooldown from 12s to 10s Velocity from 425 to 450 New Mythic Universal Melee: Twin Razors Traditional martial arts weaponry meets deadly laser weapon technology in style with the new Twin Razors Mythic Universal Melee cosmetic. These dual melee weapons feature lethal rotating laser blades, dealing dangerous melee blows for any Legend bold enough to wield them. Twin Razors are available as a possible drop in Overclocked Seasonal Packs*, available all season long. *Not available in all regions. LOOT & ATTACHMENTS Care Package Rotation C.A.R. returns to the floor (details below) LSTAR enters the Care Package (details below) Gold Weapon Rotation Devotion LMG, Hemlok Breach AR, Alternator SMG, Charge Rifle, Wingman Light Ammo Dev Note: Light ammo weapons as a whole have become a bit too reliable in both performance and sustain. Adjusting their ammo stack size is a way to take a swing at bringing the entire ammo class down a bit, while giving other ammo types some space to breathe. Decreasing light ammo stack size to 60 (was 72). WEAPONS Hemlok Breach Ar Increased Breach Charge cooldown from 15 seconds to 25 seconds Breach Charge now disperses gas and smoke Decreased damage from 23 to 22 (Previous Hotfix) Decreased magazine size across all tiers by 2 (Previous Hotfix) All Trophy Systems should now properly intercept Hemlok's Breach Charge (Previous Hotfix) Increased horizontal and vertical recoil (Previous Hotfix) Increased hipfire spread (Previous Hotfix) L-Star Emg [Care Package] Damage increased from 19 to 20 Added Hop-Up: Redline Increased damage and projectile size when close to overheating P2020 Increased base damage from 23 to 24 (Previous Hotfix) C.A.R. [Floor Loot] Removed Hop-Up: Galvanic Gavel Magazine size adjustments: Blue magazine increased from 25 to 26 Purple and gold magazines increased from 28 to 30 LOCKED HOP-UPS Double Tap Trigger Increased points to unlock from 375 to 500 on the Alternator Turbocharger Decreased points to unlock from 500 to 425 on the Devotion MAPS Dev note: This season we're taking a big look at macro rotations and the options our maps provide alongside the tools our Legends bring to the table. In previous updates we've implemented changes and adjustments to the Tridents to try and provide interesting and exciting gameplay opportunities. They're however not hitting the mark on what we want out of vehicle gameplay in Apex so we're removing them to let our Legends take the wheel. We've seen players consistently use Tridents in ways that wander far from their intended use: rotating between POIs. We feel we can better achieve this goal of speedy rotations with the existing state of Legend movement, putting another layer of importance on your team comp choices. The Ziprails in Broken Moon have always helped define the overall feel of the map and how teams rotate between POIs. However those Ziprails also contribute to a lot of silent third parties that can feel particularly frustrating. We've gone through and removed the majority of rotational POI-to-POI Ziprails while maintaining the Ziprails within POIs that help define the combat space. This should make navigating the map feel a little more predictable and easier to understand. We want squad compositions and Legend choices to really matter when it comes to how teams traverse through our maps. Pulling back on how quickly players can rotate via Legend-agnostic map tools puts that power back in our Legends hands. Storm Point: Tridents removed Olympus: Tridents removed Broken Moon: Ziprails removed from most rotations, but remain at majority of POIs Added two Redeploy Balloons to west side Two new rotation options added, north of Stasis Array and west of Terraformer Pubs & Ranked Divided Moon Kings Canyon Olympus Mixtape 5/5/26 - 6/23/26 TDM: Fragment East, Skull Town, Zeus Station, Estates Control: Labs, Barometer, Lava Siphon, Caustic Gun Run: Wattson Pylon, Estates, Monument, Skull Town WILDCARD Wildcard Olympus Wildcard (5/5/26 - 5/19/26) Kings Canyon Wildcard (5/19/26 - 6/2/26) RANKED Ranked Ladders (coming later this split) Ranked Ladder 1 5/14/2026 5/17/2026 Ranked Ladder 2 5/21/2026 5/24/2026 Ranked Ladder 3 5/28/2026 5/31/2026 Ranked Ladder 4 6/4/2026 6/7/2026 Ranked Ladder 5 6/11/2026 6/14/2026 Ranked Ladder 6 6/18/2026 6/21/2026 Season Reset Seeding We’ve fixed an issue where players near tier boundaries could sometimes be placed lower than others with similar or slightly lower performance after a season reset. Reset seeding should now feel more consistent and better aligned with your previous season’s results, while keeping the overall reset experience the same. BUG FIXES Fixed rare “SignifierName: 'Player' - is not expected entity type "player" for remote function” client error. Improved interaction between Hardlight and other objects when rebuilding, preventing it from unintentionally destroying some Legend abilities. Fixed some Low/No Ammo notifications incorrectly displaying. Fixed Arc Star and Frag Grenade sound effects when exploded on Hardlight. Fixed an issue with the Volt's "Death Enhancer" skin having visible elements when the player is cloaked. Fixed an issue where the akimbo Mozambique's could sometimes merge and fire as a single weapon. Fixed an issue where weapons in control could sometimes drop a level. Fixed a crash when trying to sort random favorite skins. LEGENDS Newcastle Fixed the ultimate slam not destroying Catalyst’s reinforcements on an empty door frame. Added new VO for Ready to Rumble and Defensive Line upgrade Revenant Fixed sometimes being able to cancel your tactical early and ready your guns sooner than intended. Lifeline Fixed self revive in Wildcard sometimes not using the right animation and having inaccurate UI timings. Vantage Fixed an issue where there was a slight delay before having intended ADS accuracy despite being fully zoomed into scope** Fixed bug where Vantage could equip weapons in fight night. Fixed how Spotter’s Lens gave decoys a low priority so the real Mirage is less obvious to find. Loba: Fixed an issue where black market could steal banners crafted by an enemy squad. Octane: Added new VO for Stim Surge. Mad Maggie: Fixed Wrecking Ball sometimes failing to destroy doors when hitting them at the upper edges. Fuse: Fixed Motherload not properly penetrating some Legend abilities. Gibraltar: Fixed an issue where overlapping Thunder Domes would allow a player to pass into a dome unharmed. QUALITY OF LIFE Firing Range: New Firing Range Settings: Infinite Healing Toggle Self-Revive Toggle Rebuild Hardlight Button Fixed thermite interactions. The missing Nessies have returned from their vacation. Improved CPU performance on physics calculations, eliminating a source of stutters, especially prominent in CPUs with high single-threaded performance, like Ryzen X3D chips. Added logic to prevent Valkyrie, or other legends, from getting inside an enemy respawn dropship. Added Legend voice lines for when Hardlight is Reinforced. Added Legend voicelines when cracking multiple enemy shields in rapid succession. AUDIO Added the ability to tweak individual voice chat volumes for each player in the squad menu. Improved voice chat clarity. Fixed an issue where HAVOC Rifle audio could sometimes cut out for the player firing it. ENGINE Graphics Improved occlusion data structures that were used by Olympus in the last midseason update are now used for all maps, slightly improving CPU performance. Fixed an issue that could lead to an occasional framerate dip when running at very high FPS on PC (e.g. 240+). Cleaner Ambient Occlusion, which includes new specular occlusion. This will also be faster than the previous Ambient Occlusion in most cases, except at High or Ultra settings at high resolutions (4K on PC). Improved accuracy of cubemap reflection intensity, especially in shadowed outdoor areas. Improved accuracy of sky ambient lighting. Improved baked lighting accuracy for many props in maps. [See the original blog post here for slider versions of these before/after images!] Play Apex Legends for free* now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via the EA app, Epic, and Steam. Follow Apex Legends™ on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check out our forums. Sign up for our newsletter today to receive the latest Apex Legends news, updates, behind-the-scenes content, exclusive offers, and more (including other EA news, products, events, and promotions) by email. This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible. For more information, please refer to EA’s Online Service Updates at https://www.ea.com/service-updates. *Applicable platform account and platform subscription (sold separately) may be required. A persistent internet connection and EA account required. Age restrictions apply. Includes in-game purchases. Apex Legends™: Overclocked Patch NotesOverclocked Designer’s Notes
TLDR; Welcome back! Below, we will share insights into meta changes and new mechanics coming in 29.0. We’ll discuss the rationale for the implementations, including the opportunities we’ve identified, and our desired impact for each of the following: Apex’s NEWEST Legend: Axle The NEW Deathbox Respawn mechanic The NEW Chain Healing mechanic Giving Vantage some advantage Making Conduit a more appealing pick Settling down Alter’s dominance Note: As the weapons team was laser-focused on introducing a new Elite Weapon in the 28.1 update, they were largely focused on maintenance for the start of Overclocked. We will return with more discussion around weapon balance in the next Designer’s Notes blog. INTRODUCTION Welcome to Designer’s Notes for Overclocked! We appreciate all the time you put into playing Breach, and the feedback you gave all season long. With your feedback and our internal match data, we have been tuning and adjusting to get ready for Overclocked. We are excited to add Axle to the roster this season. She is going to bring new, compelling ways to play, and to contribute to interesting team comps. Axle is the star, but we are bringing some changes to the existing roster as well; we are tuning up Vantage and Conduit, and reining in Alter a bit to tamp down frustration. Changes are coming to the core combat sandbox as well. We are bringing a new way to respawn right at your ally’s Deathbox, and giving you the ability to chain your healing items. Our aim with this blog is to provide ongoing transparency and reasoning for why we are making the balancing decisions and feature additions with each update. We want you to head into your matches with this knowledge, discuss how the changes are landing, and let us know what is working and what is not. Your continued feedback is important in helping us tune Apex and make the best competitive Battle Royale it can be! NEW LEGEND: AXLE Our newest Legend, Axle, was simply giving everyone else a head start. Players will have to keep their heads on a swivel with how she transforms the battlefield into a racetrack. Axle was born after a big-picture assessment of the state of movement in Apex following Valkyrie’s two-year reign in the ALGS. Valk was a popular pick among competitors, and on the other side of the competitive spectrum, Octane was a perennial #1 pick rate. Other Legends with movement abilities have consistently been mainstays in the top five. This comes as no surprise; fluid movement has always been a staple of Apex, a powerful tool in a BR where positioning is paramount. Our movement deep-dive preceding Axle’s development shone a light on our biggest learning: Characterizing “Movement” as a tool is far too reductive. Just look online: community-driven movement wikis and training videos are everywhere. Movement is the toolbox, and every jetpack boost, soft landing, and grapple is just one of many tools inside. Perhaps “cars in a garage” is a more apt metaphor. Axle is a powerful machine built around a “sliding” chassis. Her kit emphasizes lateral mobility and vertical enemy displacement, the antithesis to Horizon, fast like Octane, but much more refined. The passive is the moment-to-moment driving experience; the tires on the road, or vibrations through the steering wheel during a high-speed turn - the feedback that the driver gets from their car. The tactical is the engine, powering both team utility and creative solo playmaking (two early goals that appeal to different types of players). Axle’s upgrades are like some nice customization options to allow players to lean into whatever playstyle speaks to them. The ultimate is the sidecar of a motorcycle but if it was detachable and careened towards your enemies in traffic in an unrelenting pursuit (not a great car metaphor for that one). PASSIVE: DRIFT Increased speed and control while sliding. TACTICAL: NITRO GATE Deploy a speed gate that sends users into a boosted slide. Stepping into a Nitro Gate forces users into a speedy slide, where they have greatly increased velocity and lateral control. This effect lasts for up to five seconds as long as speed isn’t naturally slowed by an obstacle. Manually stopping the slide will end the effect (although it can be maintained through quick b-hops). The gate is team agnostic, meaning it has the same effect on friendlies and enemies. ULTIMATE: KICKSTART Deploy an enemy-seeking drone that displaces targets on impact. Axle fires a drone straight out in front of her, where it traverses close to the ground, in a straight line as it scans for enemies in a wide FoV. Once an enemy is spotted, the drone seeks towards the target, closing the gap to get within detonation range. If the target cannot outrun (good luck) or destroy the drone before detonation, it will knockback all targets in range up into the air. Victims are revealed while airborne, take explosive damage, and are briefly stunned. LEVEL 2 UPGRADES: Super Slider: Gain a second Tactical charge. Automata: Gain a second Ultimate charge. LEVEL 3 UPGRADES: Jump Gate: Upgrades the Nitro Gate to give a double-jump. Similar to how Octane’s Triple Jump upgrade works, this upgrades the Nitro Gate itself. Players can use one double-jump while the Nitro Gate effect is active. Sliding Shooter: Bullets shot while sliding come straight from inventory instead of magazine. Functionally, this allows for longer continuous firing while sliding before having to reload. Bullets shot straight from inventory are capped at half the weapon’s max magazine size (i.e. if a purple mag capacity is 30 bullets, 15 bullets will get pulled from inventory before instantly transitioning to the active clip) Axle is a fierce competitor, demanding the most from her teammates, while giving them the tools to hold pace. We’re very excited to see how players flex the full potential of her kit. She’s a strong addition to the movement toolbox, if you can handle her. NEW - DEATHBOX RESPAWNS You can now respawn teammates directly from their Deathboxes with a long press-and-hold. With this new mechanic, we wanted to introduce an alternative way to get your teammates back into the fight, faster than the classic Respawn Beacon process, that feels like a reward for teams that successfully clear and hold an area. Deathbox Respawns are risky. The process is noisy, visible to nearby enemies and takes a minimum of 7 seconds. Warnings for active Deathbox respawns are similar to using a Respawn Beacon, so make sure the area is completely clear before you start. Subsequent deaths cause an increasing Lockout Time penalty that temporarily disables Deathbox Respawning. Surviving for longer periods of time resets this Lockout Timer. Deathbox Respawns create an urgency for would-be third parties, and pushes the pace of the game forward. If you can create uninterrupted time at your teammates Deathbox for a respawn, you’ve earned that right. This mechanic rewards aggressive play and area control. If you can’t find the window to respawn at a Deathbox, the classic route remains: recover or craft the Banners and use a Respawn Beacon. NEW - CHAIN HEALING We have added Chain Healing options which give you the ability to, while healing, queue another healing item for use as soon as the current heal action completes. This is a Quality of Life change at its core. Many factors contribute to when and how you heal. Limited resources and timing influence this choice: often meaning that you’re going to spam heal several shield cells rather than wasting the more valuable and limited shield batteries you have. This change is meant to make that existing pattern of spamming the heal button to rip 4 cells in a row smoother and less repetitive. We’ve equipped you with the choice of how you engage with Chain Healing, there are 3 options in the settings: Off, Single, and Auto - Single being the default option. Off disables the Chain Healing feature and maintains the current healing behavior and interactions with no difference from previous versions of Apex. Single lets you queue one additional heal action. With Single queuing, you must queue each additional heal manually. This will default to queuing the same heal type you are actively using; but you can use the healing menu or healing shortcuts to queue a different heal type than the active one. Auto allows you to queue another use of the active healing item, and if you have more of that healing resource and the need to use it, Auto will continuously queue that same item again. Auto will queue these items until you run out of that resource, or the related health pool is full. VANTAGE Vantage is currently underperforming in fights and as a result is seeing less play overall. Looking over her kit we recognized that, as a sniper, her role becomes more and more difficult the later the game goes on (and playspace shrinks). We really wanted to find ways to keep her kit powerful at every stage of the game. Data from 2026-04-08 through 2026-04-14 Additionally her passive is one of the best tracking abilities in the game but it is often underused. This signals that the ability is disconnected from the rest of her kit, so we wanted to find a way to help tie her passive into her core gameplay loop. PASSIVE Added: Tracking a team with Spotter’s Lens will generate 70% of an ultimate bullet 10 second cooldown per team By having her passive generate ult charge we’re aiming for two things: incentivizing players to use her passive in combat and give more reliable up time on her ultimate. With more reliable uptime on the ultimate, Vantage should have more flexibility with her primary and secondary weapon selection. TACTICAL Vantage is immune to hard landings exiting the tac Increased velocity from 20 meters per second to 21 meters per second Increased double jump range from 4m to 7m Reduced deceleration at final destination by ~25% Cooldown reduced from 20s to 17s The goal of these buffs is to keep Vantage agile and fight-ready in closer engagements with her tactical. ULTIMATE Press your toggle fire mode button to switch to your Canted sight: A 2x optic mounted on the side of the rifle While canted, rechamber time is decreased from 1.2s to 1.1s While canted, ADS time reduced from 0.5s to 0.4s Bullet scaling is drastically reduced in Canted sights (so be accurate!) Increased aiming responsiveness with normal sight Reduced ADS time from 0.6s to 0.5s Increased weapon handling in both modes Reduced Holster and Lower time from 0.5s to 0.4s Reduced Deploy and Raise time from 1.5s to 1.3s Default normal scope magnification increased from 3x to 4x It’s time to live out your Vantage quick scope fantasies! Having optics for 2x, 4x and 8x gives her an optic for all ranges of combat. With the increased handling her ultimate is now on par with the Sentinel in CQC. UPGRADES Tactical Cooldown replaced with Herd Tracker: Pinging an enemy will track the entire team We wanted to give Vantage an upgrade that highlighted her recon role and saw an opportunity in replacing a more generic upgrade. This should provide a more interesting choice for level 3 upgrades. CONDUIT As a Legend with a low pick rate that performs quite well relative to other Support Legends, Conduit presents an intriguing design conundrum: why aren’t more players picking her if her match result stats are great? Data from 2026-04-08 through 2026-04-14 The feedback we’ve gathered points toward a few key reasons, including a lack of individual agency, being overdependent on purple upgrades to feel powerful, and an ultimate that doesn’t keep up with the increased pace of the action. As such, our primary goals are to keep Conduit feeling challenging but rewarding, to increase her playmaking potential, and also to provide her with more opportunities to have successful supportive interactions with her team. The majority of Conduit’s changes focus on her tactical, including its upgrades, but rest assured, we are aware of the community’s calls to give her ultimate more love. We will take additional time to cook on further changes for her ultimate at a later date. TACTICAL Firstly, we’re incorporating Split Charge into Conduit’s base kit with a couple of slight balance tweaks. We want to be cautious about how powerful it can be to have the potential to tac both of your squadmates from the start of the game, but we also believe that having two charges presents players with more chances to have impactful shielding. NEW UPGRADES Beyond Split Charge, we’re also saying goodbye to Radiant Transfer (the upgrade, not the ability) in order to make room for two new level 3 upgrades: Instant Barrier grants Conduit and her ally an immediate burst of temp shields on using her tac. This should help to bolster that visceral feeling of actually seeing how you’re helping just as much as you’re feeling it. Enduring Barrier allows the tac’s regen to persist through damage, highlighting Conduit’s unique style of aggressive support. PASSIVE Conduit’s passive is a great tool to keep pace with her squad, but we hear your feedback on its redundancy with the Skirmisher class passive. We want to ensure that, no matter who’s on her team, Conduit feels like she’s getting an effect: Savior’s Speed now grants bonus movement speed (in addition to the base effect) when sprinting toward Skirmishers ALTER At the highest levels of play, Alter has been a consistent performer who shakes up fights by being extremely evasive, standing above many of the other legends in her class thanks to the team utility and safety she provides. Data from 2026-04-08 through 2026-04-14 Data from 2025-04-15 through 2026-04-14 Though we feel like her playstyle drives a fun player fantasy, we want to incorporate a bit more risk into her gameplay formula, making her cunning escapes not quite as “free” as they have felt before. ULTIMATE Void Nexus is Alter’s main tool that she and her team use to safely escape sticky situations. To tone down its strength, we’re decreasing its range, increasing the time it takes to recall, and decreasing the delay before the portal to follow her opens. Altogether, Alter and her teammates will need to be more considerate of how and where they return to the Nexus, while opposing squads will have greater potential for counterplay. TACTICAL We’re also increasing the cooldown of Void Passage. While we want to maintain the super on-brand mind games and overall slipperiness provided by her ability to double tac, she’ll need to make a more concerted effort to save those charges up in order to make that happen. UPGRADES We wanted to add one final nerf to Void Breacher, the significantly more popular of her level 3 upgrades, which contributes heavily to her late game power and mobility. None of these aforementioned aspects are nerfed substantially individually, but combined, we expect them to bring her performance and efficacy more in line with healthy standards without altering her playstyle too drastically. CONCLUSION We hope this blog has been helpful in deepening your understanding of the dev team’s decision making processes behind implementing new systems and making balancing changes. For a comprehensive log of all changes coming in Overclocked, be sure to check out the full Patch Notes, dropping on May 4th, 2026! Play Apex Legends for free* now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via the EA app, Epic, and Steam. Follow Apex Legends™ on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check out our forums. Sign up for our newsletter today to receive the latest Apex Legends news, updates, behind-the-scenes content, exclusive offers, and more (including other EA news, products, events, and promotions) by email. This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible. For more information, please refer to EA’s Online Service Updates at https://www.ea.com/service-updates. *Applicable platform account and platform subscription (sold separately) may be required. A persistent internet connection and EA account required. Age restrictions apply. Includes in-game purchases. Overclocked Designer’s NotesNew Updates Coming with Apex Legends™: Overclocked
NEW UPDATES COMING WITH APEX LEGENDS™: OVERCLOCKED The start of a new season seems like a great time to check in on The Road Ahead. When we released this roadmap earlier this year, we told you that what we had on the graphic was just the start. We’re excited to announce a new addition: a Major Ranked Update is slated for Season 32. We hear your continued feedback and know that Ranked is an important part of your Apex Legends journey. Our team is continuously working on the Ranked mode, testing and tweaking to give you the best competitive experience possible. That work will continue and when Season 32 arrives, Ranked will have a brand new look and feel; we can’t wait to tell you more when the time is right! Now get ready to push it to the limits and redline all season in OVERCLOCKED. In Overclocked, fortune favors the fearless. Move fast and hit hard with Axle, the new hypermobile Legend who will push you to go beyond your limits. Charge into a high-risk, high-reward meta with Deathbox Respawns, Chain Healing and Legend updates to Conduit and Vantage. NEW LEGEND: AXLE A new challenger approaches! Axle joins the Apex Games, and she’s revved up and ready to go! You’ll have to keep your head on a swivel as she transforms the battlefield into her racetrack. Slide with increased speed and control using her Drift passive and launch into high-speed rotations with the Nitro Gate tactical. Control the pace of battle with her ultimate Kickstart, an enemy-seeking explosive drone. Use Kickstart to displace and disorient enemies, flush them out from behind cover, and zoom in to finish the job. Axle demands the most from her teammates, while giving them the tools to keep up. We are thrilled to welcome the newest Legend to the Apex Games and even more excited to see your highlight reels! DEATHBOX RESPAWNS You can now respawn teammates directly from their Deathboxes. We’ve all been there: you and your squad dig deep, hunker down, and fight your way through multiple squads to clear an area and establish zone control. Congratulations! But… you lost a comrade or two along the way and thus begins the grand adventure of collecting banners and rushing to the nearest viable respawn beacon; a potentially long and arduous journey. Introducing: Deathbox Respawns, a new, alternate way to get your teammates back into the fight that feels like a reward for teams that successfully clear and hold an area. Be aware: Deathbox Respawns are risky. The process is slow, noisy, and visible to nearby enemies. Additionally, subsequent deaths cause an increasing Lockout Time penalty that temporarily disables Deathbox Respawning. CHAIN HEALING The new Chain Healing options give you the ability to, while healing, queue another healing item for use automatically after the current heal action completes. There are 3 options in the settings: Off, Single, and Auto. Single is the new default option. Off disables the Chain Healing feature and maintains the current healing behavior and interactions with no difference from previous versions of Apex. Single lets you queue one additional heal action. Auto allows you to queue another use of the active healing item, and if you have more of that healing resource and the need to use it, Auto will continuously queue that same item again. Auto will queue these items until you run out of that resource, or the related health pool is full. OVERCLOCKED’S LEGENDS In addition to a brand new Legend, Overclocked also boasts buffs for Vantage and Conduit. We are pumping up Vantage’s passive with an added ultimate boost, and tweaking her tactical to keep her agile and fight-ready in close-quarters engagements. Vantage’s ultimate now flaunts improved handling and a new 2x optic, to enable your quick scope fantasies at any range. Conduit’s passive, tactical and upgrades are getting a little bit of love, aiming to make her a more dynamic pick as a playmaker in the fleet of Support Legends. Learn about the Dev team’s design approach when Designer’s Notes drop on May 1st, 2026 and get all the details on Legend changes and more in the Patch Notes on May 4th. SEE YOU ON THE DROPSHIP A high speed season with a brand new character, new mechanics and Legend buffs? Sign me up! Overclocked is shaping up to be another banger of a season and we can’t wait to see what you do with it all! Play Apex Legends for free* now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via the EA app, Epic, and Steam. Follow Apex Legends™ on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check out our forums. Sign up for our newsletter today to receive the latest Apex Legends news, updates, behind-the-scenes content, exclusive offers, and more (including other EA news, products, events, and promotions) by email. This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible. For more information, please refer to EA’s Online Service Updates at https://www.ea.com/service-updates. *Applicable platform account and platform subscription (sold separately) may be required. A persistent internet connection and EA account required. Age restrictions apply. Includes in-game purchases. New Updates Coming with Apex Legends™: OverclockedAn Update from the Anti-Cheat Team - 04/24/2026
As we move into the midway point of split 2 for Season 28, we wanted to share some ban numbers and an update on the infection rate of Apex. Since our last post on April 2nd, across all platforms, we have banned a total of 28,267 accounts for various cheating infractions. One highlight from these two weeks of numbers is nearly 1000 bans for DMA card use. RP Removed for S28: 6,655,192 Split 1: 4,413,776 Split 2: 2,241,416 Another highlight and major milestone for the Anti Cheat team is that we have reached the lowest infection rate for Apex since we started tracking infection rate statistics. We're sitting at a 4.1% infection rate currently, midway through the current split, down from our previous all-time-low (low is good) of 5.8% reported in December 2025. While there is more work to be done and more updates to give you all, we want to take a moment to recognize the work put in from our security team and the collaboration from the community to reach this goal. Thank you for your reports and tips that helped us get here. We are currently working on more updates, enhancements and detections, and we are excited to be able to share even more soon!Latest Update - 04/17/2026
Hey all, We've just pushed a couple of quick bug fixes: FIXED: Battlepass progress now extends beyond level 60, as intended. Daily and Weekly Challenges now appropriately contribute to Battlepass progression. Zero Strike skydive emote image displays placeholder texture. @apexlivecomms (Threads) @apexlivecomms (Twitter/X)Latest Fixes and Adjustments - 04/14/2026
Hey all, we have just released an update with the following changes! ✅FIXED: Catalyst's Toxic Empress skin now has the appropriate glow visual effects, in-match Valkyrie's jetpack handles are no longer missing in specific scenarios Fuse's Knuckle Cluster holder is now properly displayed Wattson players will no longer hear Hardlight rebuilding and being destroyed as a result of her tactical/ultimate placement in the ring Game stability improvements on the Switch 2 We are also making the following changes to matchmaking in an effort to provide the best possible match quality for players: 🛠️ADJUSTED: We are increasing maximum queue times slightly for players at the higher end of Ranked and pubs. Our goal is tighter skill bands and more competitive games across the board. For Drop Zone Ranked matches, we will be displaying Ranked tier distribution charts of squads, not individual players consistent with non-Drop Zone lobbies. 📋TESTING: We are testing a 4 hour Ranked map rotation schedule in East Asia for the rest of the split. *We do not recommend changing servers as it will result in much higher ping. @apexlivecomms (Threads)
