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 NotesApex Legends™: Breach Patch Notes
Legends, it’s just about time for the newest season: Breach, so grab your squadmates and get ready! As with any new season, there’s plenty of new and exciting changes to look forward to! Breach adds Hardlight Mesh to Apex Legends, encouraging new breach-and-clear gameplay. Also, Fuse is getting a Rework, Catalyst and Bloodhound are getting updates, and we’re seeing the meta continue to shift towards close quarters combat with Marksman nerfs and Shotgun buffs! Plus, we think you’re going to like the changes to Knockdown Shields and Backpacks… So get ready to kick down the door on Apex Legends: BREACH. For an overview of some of Breach’s key updates, check out our highlights blog from last week and for details on all seasonal changes, please read on! HARDLIGHT MESH A NEW ENTRY INTO THE WORLD - Hardlight The Apex Games are evolving once again, adding new ways for players to move, engage, and fight. Legends will encounter Hardlight across windows in structures scattered throughout the world. Hardlight acts as destructible and breachable Windows. While Hardlight Meshes are intact they are translucent: allowing players to see through them, but they block projectiles and player movement. When broken or damaged, Hardlight Meshes rebuild after a lengthy delay. Hardlight takes Damage from weapon fire, and increased Damage from specific weapon classes, Explosives, Melee, and Legends’ Abilities. Break Hardlight to breach into buildings creating new entries, and find new angles to lay down an assault on opponents. Hardlight can be Rebuilt or Reinforced by Controller Legends. Reinforced Hardlight is much stronger than normal Hardlight meshes, taking more damage before breaking. Providing Controller Legends an opportunity to bunker down and delay enemy assaults. Hardlight Details: At Match Start: Hardlight Meshes are automatically spawned into the world at preset positions on various structures. Hardlight Mesh defaults to 200 HP. Hardlight takes increased damage from Explosives (8.5x), Shotguns (2.5x), Snipers (3.5x), and Legend Abilities (10.0x). Hardlight takes damage from Ring. Hardlight cannot repair, rebuild, or be Reinforced in Ring. Upon Reinforce, Hardlight health total is set to 1250HP. Hardlight cannot be rebuilt immediately after breaking. Rebuild Delay: 4 seconds Controllers subject to a limit on the number of Reinforced Hardlights: Max 4 Reinforced Hardlights. Reinforced Hardlight Decays when the original reinforcing player exceeds Reinforcement Limit. Reinforced Hardlight Decays when there are no players nearby for an extended period of time. When Reinforced Hardlight Decays, it returns to a standard Hardlight Mesh state it decays to baseline Health 200 HP. We will be monitoring community feedback about Hardlight as the season progresses and making adjustments as necessary. RANKED MATCHMAKING We are implementing focused changes based on learnings from our previous matchmaking tests. Our previous end-of-season tests that restricted Masters (+Pred) players from matching below various Diamond ranks have led us to bake in these changes directly into each season. To provide the best possible matchmaking experience, we will be shifting the restrictions dynamically each season as Ranked populations naturally shift throughout the duration of the split. The timing of when these restrictions kick in, as well as exactly which Diamond ranks can match with Masters, will depend on when the population of those players is high enough to sustain good matchmaking. We will continue to provide additional updates throughout the coming season as we monitor and adjust. AUDIO UPDATES In Season 28, in response to community feedback, we’re taking it a step further by adding more audio customization options and giving you control. You can look forward to more granular customization options surrounding: Legend Dialogue, Ping Dialogue, and Announcer Dialogue. In Season 27 we added the Focused Mix to provide a more robust contextual in-game soundscape - we’re excited to continue down this path, providing you with even more options to use to customize your experience. In addition to other smaller changes, we’ve also split enemy and geo bullet impact audio in order to prioritize them independently, ensuring players always know when they’ve landed a shot. 28.0 PATCH NOTES LEGENDS FUSE Dev Note: This old dog needed some new tricks. In particular, Fuse’s ultimate was seen as being too difficult to use and often unimpactful. The ult’s new behavior should make it easier to find effective use cases while cementing Fuse’s identity as mobile artillery. With the ultimate focused on clearing out large spaces, we wanted to focus the tactical on being quicker and easier to tag enemies. The reduced duration on Knuckle Cluster can also help you follow up on your own damage, particularly alongside his passive change. Knuckle Jumper replaces Knuckle Hustler as a movement option that feels more Fuse-y, with plenty of nuance to master the many ways to use it. Abilities Passive Fuse is no longer slowed when taking explosive damage Tactical Faster weapon stow time when switching to the tactical Flattened the trajectory to make tap-firing more accurate Reduced delay before explosions start up (was 1.7s, now 1.0s) Increased base damage (was 10, now 15) Reduced the duration by 50% Ultimate Refreshed ultimate behavior. Fires a mortar that explodes against the ground, then sprays out smaller bombs around its landing point. When aiming down sights, the mortar can pierce cover up to 13m deep and deliver explosives to the other side. Upgrades Level 2 Pyro Techniques: Your ultimate will drop behind patches of fire for 8 seconds after the bombs explode Knuckle Jumper: Jumping when next to your own Knuckle Clusters will give you an explosive boost (destroys the cluster afterwards). Level 3 Reignition: Dealing explosive damage to enemies recharges your ultimate (for every 2 damage dealt, reduces cooldown by 1 second) Removed Ring Master, Scar Tissue, and Knuckle Hustler CATALYST Dev note: Catalyst has needed help for a while, especially as other controllers have gotten buffs in the past few seasons. While the ultimate is generally well liked, the tactical needed some attention to help her compete; the bigger area and extra max trap lets you block off more territory. With a reduced activation time and two new upgrade options, you should have more options on how to deploy your spikes to distract and punish your opponents. We have some bigger changes in the works for her, but we feel this is enough to give Catalyst players more opportunities to shine. We will be actively looking for community feedback for how these changes feel, so Catalyst mains, get loud! Abilities Passive Can now reinforce up to 4 doors (was 2) Tactical Flattened the trajectory, slightly lowered the pitch, and increased the overall range Increased size by roughly 50% Reduced the delay before spikes can deal damage (was 2s, now 1s) Can now have 3 traps maximum (was 2) Activation radius reduced by 20% This is how close you have to be before the spikes stand up and the core is vulnerable Ultimate You can now toggle to deploy the ultimate horizontally Length increased by 5m The wall can now build up through standard doors, Lifeline’s D.O.C. Halo, and Gibraltar’s Dome of Protection. Can now be placed on steeper angles Reduced Dark Veil duration when enemies walk through (was 7s, now 5s) Upgrades Level 2 Hidden Spikes: The spike pool is now hidden to enemies while inactive Sole Piercer: Spike traps activate 50% faster and deal 5 more damage per hit Removed Sister Spikes and Long Veil BLOODHOUND Dev note: As the seasons have progressed, Bloodhound has found themselves outclassed by other Recon characters. The tactical and passive changes can help you track where enemy squads are while reducing distractions. Big quality of life changes to the ultimate, on top of the new upgrades, should make it easier to chain kills instead of getting quickly shut down as the fights get more intense. We intend to give them a bigger set of changes down the road, but we’re hoping this is enough to push the veteran Legend back towards relevance as we retool the kit. Abilities Passive Enemies outside of 13m no longer block white ravens from spawning (Flock upgrade brought into base kit) Clues more than 13m away no longer block White ravens (was ~50m) Tactical Total scan duration up to 4s (was 3s), full-body duration remains half the full scan duration (so now 2s, was 1.5s) Reduced screen coloration during scan Fewer clues will pop-up on screen when your tactical successfully scans an enemy Ultimate: Cooldown reduced to 2.5 minutes (was 4 minutes) Activation time reduced by ~20% After activation, the wider FOV gradually shifts back to your normal FOV Knocks while your ultimate is active increase the duration by 5s (will always reset to 10s if below) (Unchanged) Knocks while your ultimate is active resets your tactical duration This has been active for a while but is now called out in the ability description Upgrades Level 2 Taste of Blood: Regen 50 health when getting a knock while your ultimate is active Raven’s Flight: When activating your white ravens, they can ping enemies twice as far as normal Level 3 Hunter’s Agility: Your tactical is faster to use and has -5s cooldown Eye of the Allfather removed from level 2 Removed Raven’s Blessing, Flock, and Sighthound CRYPTO Dev Note: We wanted power coupling to add value for Crypto while actively piloting the drone and scanning enemies. But with the current version, it's main impact is in refunding ult charge on EMP scan. To help refocus the upgrade, we changed the behavior so that it no longer gains ult charge on EMP scan. From data we also saw that the amount of ult charge gained from players was too generous so we're taking the opportunity to bring that in line as well. Prevent Power Coupling for 5s after EMP Reduced charge gained from scanning players from 10 to 5 PATHFINDER Dev Note: Grapple God is the runaway upgrade choice at level 3. We wanted to offer some more benefit to Feeling Zippy without a big refresh for Pathfinder so the choices are more compelling. Feeling Zippy additionally increases allied movement speed on Energized Ziplines from 1000 -> 1350 Feeling Zippy additionally increases allied acceleration on Energized Ziplines from 700 -> 800 OCTANE Dev Note: Daredevils time extension was letting Octane chain sequential fights longer than we'd like. As such we're making an adjustment to the max time extension. Max Duration extension reduced from 6s to 3s WEAPONS ANIMATIONS New inspect animations EVA 8 Peacekeeper Sentinel MARKSMAN WEAPONS G7 Scout [Care Package] Added Hop-up: Double Tap Trigger Damage increased to 37 (was 36) Increased rate of fire Can be equipped with sniper optics Bocek Compound Bow Max damage decreased to 60 (was 65) Max energized damage decreased to 50 (was 55) Increased draw time 30-30 Repeater Decreased base damage to 41 (was 43) Decreased charged damage multiplier Slightly increased charge time Triple Take Reduced rate of fire Slightly increased choke time PISTOL P2020 [Floor Loot] Removed Hop-Up: Kinetic Feeder Damage decreased to 23 (was 25) Reduced reload speed Reduced rate of fire Increased enhanced hipfire spread SHOTGUNS Dev Note: With Hardlight making its grand entrance into the Apex Games, it felt right for the Breach and Clear weapon class to make their way to the spotlight. Shotguns are getting a little love with some targeted updates and new hop-up additions. Mastiff Decreased pellets per blast to 5 (was 6) Damage per pellet increased to 19 (was 16) Adjusted blast pattern EVA-8 Slightly increased rate of fire Tightened blast pattern LOCKED HOP-UPS Dual Shell 300 Locked Hop-Up Points to unlock Added to: Mastiff and 30-30 Repeater Hammerpoints 500 Locked Hop-Up Points to unlock Added to: P2020 Disruptors 500 Locked Hop-Up Points to unlock Added to: Peacekeeper Gun Shield Generator Removed from: Tripletake, Hemlok and R301 Graffiti Mod Removed from: Volt and Mastiff Added to: L-STAR and Longbow DMR Double Tap Trigger Added to: EVA-8 Turbocharger Decreased points to unlock to 500 on the Devotion (was 600) BALANCE UPDATES Care Package Rotation P2020 return to the floor (details below) G7 Scout enters the Care Package (details below) Gold Weapon Rotation Sentinel, VK-47 Flatline, Peacekeeper, 30-30 Repeater, Akimbo P2020 Evo Changes Reviving Teammates only provides full Evo (100 points) for the first 2 Revives per team per game. Each subsequent Revive will reward 25 less Evo until no Evo is rewarded. Dev Note: At higher levels of play, we have observed players are intentionally getting knocked to set up Revives for excessive Evo gain. We’re activating a diminishing return on Revives to reduce the max Evo that can be farmed in this way. Don’t feed face for Evo, it does not pay dividends. EQUIPMENT Dev Note: We’re doing a little loot pool clean-up with this patch. Integrated Knockdown Shields not only keep your survivability consistent with Evo progression across the game, but it also means that when you are looting, you will be finding more desirable items in the loot pool. We’re actioning on community feedback and making changes to White Backpacks, giving players an easier looting ramp up in early game, and removing an item of negligible value in late game. Now, in their place, you’ll find more of what you want and start with more inventory space. Knockdown Shields Removed from loot pool. Knockdown shield level is now tied to legend level. i.e. Legend Level 1 = White Knockdown Backpacks White backpack removed from loot pool. White backpack added to starter kit. MAPS Pubs & Ranked Broken Moon E-District World’s Edge Mixtape 2/10/26 - 3/24/26 Map Rotation TDM Fragment, Skull Town, Zeus Station CONTROL Production Yard, Barometer, Lava Siphon GUN RUN Wattson Pylon, Monument, Skull Town RANKED Drop Zones disabled in Ranked All Ranked matches return to the singular Dropship deploy, with Jump Masters leading your skydives into the BR, putting the game start back into your hands, Legends. Dev Note: Drop Zones was a big change for Ranked, a way to bring fairer and faster starts to the Ranked experience. While we saw positive reactions and outcomes for some players, it was not a universal win for everyone. Some players felt that having randomly assigned Drop Zones deterred them from the playstyle they wanted and greatly impacted their match outcome. For now, returning to the big Dropship brings us back to known ground and puts full control back in your hands. We are still working out what the future looks like for Drop Zones, as part of the overall future of Ranked and competitive play. Ranked Ladders (coming later this split) Ranked Event 1 2/19/2026 2/22/2026 Ranked Event 2 2/26/2026 3/1/2026 Ranked Event 3 3/5/2026 3/8/2026 Ranked Event 4 3/12/2026 3/15/2026 Ranked Event 5 3/19/2026 3/22/2026 Ranked Event 6 4/2/2026 4/5/2026 Ranked Event 7 4/9/2026 4/12/2026 Ranked Event 8 4/16/2026 4/19/2026 Ranked Event 9 4/23/2026 4/26/2026 Ranked Event 10 4/30/2026 5/3/2026 WILDCARD Wildcard 2/10/26 - 3/10/26 Wildcard: Kings Canyon Wild Cards Wild Card Rotation Here are the Wild Cards that will be available this season: Chain Reaction Damage is chained to additional enemies within an affected area Crackerjack Instantly reload weapon on knock Extra Ordnance The player gains the ability to carry +1 Ordnance Fast Draw Reload weapons and use shield cells faster Get Up and Go When a player revives a teammate, both receive a burst of speed Good Doctor Revive teammates with additional health and shields Gren-Aid Mark enemies damaged by your explosives Love Potion When using a consumable, nearby teammates receive the same health Sent Packing Explosions have increased knockback. Smoke Out Drop smoke cover when downed, smoke regens shields for self and teammates Status Report Reveal enemy locations on knock Wildcard Respawning When players die in quick succession, they will be more aggressively pushed further away from their previous death location and closer towards the center of the ring. Dev Note: After parsing the data from Wildcard matches, we are seeing an emerging pattern that the majority of fights are happening in the same POI for a large portion of a Wildcard match. We hope that this change will slow down the rate at which players continue to re-land at a hot drop POI and allow for a bit more breathing room for players to reset. Controller Legends Controller Legends can now remotely pick up their deployed tacticals, just as they can in other game modes. Dev Note: With Wildcard disabling all Class Perks, we observed this to be a massive QoL improvement for players and have now enabled this perk. BOT ROYALE EVOLVED Bot Royale has evolved, it is now a full BR experience mixing humans and Apex Bots. Bot Royale Evolved lobbies will consist of 1-5 full human squads and 15-19 Apex Bots squads (20 squads total). Bot Royale Evolved has a tighter matchmaking compared to Trios to make sure you have an opponent at your level. If we cannot find those, we backfill with bots. Bot Royale Evolved has the same game length and ring tuning as Unranked BR (whereas the original Bot Royale had shorter matches) for a full BR experience. XP gains are no longer capped, and the ability to progress your Challenges has been added! Earning Badges is still restricted, and no stats will advance while playing this mode. Dev Note: By designing a space with less pressure than Unranked, Ranked and Wildcard, we hope to provide a game mode that can be played for different use cases: Learning the game at your own pace, practice with a friend, warm-up before jumping into a more intense game mode, wind down after some high-intensity ranked games, etc. Regardless of what drives you to play Bot Royale Evolved, your time will be well spent and you will continue to progress towards Challenge and Account rewards. APEX BOTS New accuracy system that rewards players for moving and shooting. Stand still and their accuracy will increase! New drop logic system Apex Bots will distribute evenly across POIs, allowing the decision to hotdrop on you - the player! Improved ring survival Apex Bots have a better understanding of the ring, will rotate to safe areas and avoid fighting while in the ring. Improved strafing When in combat range, bots will strafe to avoid incoming damage New Bot Loadout System While Apex Bots will still loot, as they survive into further rounds their loadouts will improve with better attachments and better equipment. Making them a tougher target in further rounds. Improved Squad Coherence Apex Bot squads will no longer roam away from their squad, they’ll stick close to their squad leader to move as a group and attack as a group. Dev Note: Improvements to Apex Bots are key to providing a fun and challenging experience for our lower-skilled players, as well as improving the overall matchmaking quality for unranked BR modes. We hope that you enjoy the new Apex Bots as we work to monitor, tune and improve their challenge profiles and their overall behaviours. BUG FIXES Bug fix for potential issues on Storm Point where the first Ring could spawn in playable space before closing for Round 1. Fixed issue where the Power Booster Amp UI would be present even when you did not have the Amp equipped. Fixed issue where Crate Weapons could lose their infinite ammo when using the Infinite Ammo Amp. Fixed controller Legends not being able to remotely pick up their tactical in Wildcard Fixed some effects not playing correctly on the reactive EVA-8 skin “Heart of Brimstone” LEGENDS Octane Fixed FOV scaling issues with Stim Surge Fixed Stim Surge sometimes lowering your speed Fixed Stim Surge being used first if it was previously canceled with a mantle Fixed a bug where Stim Surge would trigger automatically in a multitude of contexts Fixed a bug where Daredevil could grant Battle Surge movement speed buff in addition to fast reloads Valkyrie Fixed the ultimate being blocked by a Trident and leaving the scan on permanently QUALITY OF LIFE Control Weapons will no longer interrupt shooting, healing, or other actions when a player levels up. Weapons will now seamlessly update in hand or in their inventory upon level up, matching the way it works in Wildcard. The button prompt for manually upgrading a weapon has been removed, as the weapons will upgrade seamlessly. Ballistic Ballistic's Sling will no longer interrupt shooting when the Sling weapon is being upgraded/downgraded as part of the Ultimate or when leveling up EVO. Settings Menu Gameplay menu options have been broken up and reorganized into 5 subcategories (Combat, Movement, HUD UI, Accessibility, Privacy) so they’re easier to find. Added additional voicelines when pinging an Elite Weapon. Respawn Beacon icons on the map and mini-map will now flash after they have been used by another team. ENGINE Improved graphics device selection when multiple are present on the system. Added a user facing error message if the minimum spec Shader Model 6.0 is not supported, including a reminder that this is likely due to outdated drivers. WISHLIST UPDATE Certain Rare, Epic, and Legendary Apex Packs can now be upgraded to Wishlist-enabled packs. Once these packs are upgraded, your Active Wishlist selections will influence the guaranteed item slot for these packs. All previous rarity drop rates and Apex Pack guarantee rules apply to the upgraded Wishlist pack. Upgrade Apex Packs into Wishlist-enabled packs in the Pack Inventory Screen using Legend Tokens. The Upgrade button will only show for eligible packs and you can upgrade multiple at a time. If your Wishlist is Unavailable, pack upgrading is also unavailable. The cost to upgrade is: Rare Apex Pack: 1,500 Legend Tokens Epic Apex Pack: 3,000 Legend Tokens Legendary Apex Pack: 5,000 Legend Tokens Play Apex Legends for free* now on PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, 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. †Not available in all territories. Apex Legends™: Breach Patch NotesGet explosive in the Wild Iron Event
It’s cybernetic supremacy versus the raw power of nature in the Wild Iron event, Legends. Wildcard gets explosive. Loot the new Mythic Flatline from Rampart Care Packages and try its two devastating abilities: knocked enemies turn into time bombs and every 5th bullet fired does double damage plus an AOE blast. EPG-1 grenade launchers in Mythic bins and higher Bocek spawns fuel the carnage. Craft new Wild Cards to get the edge over rival squads, with new abilities like marking enemies with explosive damage or instant reload on knock. Mad Maggie and Seer are blowing up the scene with their new Legend updates. Fight for nature, technology, or making things go boom—time to step up and outplay the world. WILDCARD: WILD IRON You ready for this dance? Rampart’s latest and greatest is coming in hot, and this time she’s partnered with ol’ Fusey on the Flatline! This collab weapon’s bullets occasionally come with a little extra fire power via a potential explosion on impact and bomb placement on knocked enemies. Pick your squadmate back up before the bomb detonates to defuse it. From September 16-30, even more explosive gear will be available amongst Wildcard’s loot with a chance of finding an EPG. Visit your local Replicator to increase your power with one of eight new Wild Cards: Crackerjack: instantly reload weapon on knock Down Bad: enemies explode when knocked Extra Ordnance: player gains ability to carry +1 ordnance Good Doctor: revive squadmates with additional shields Gren-Aid: mark enemies damaged by your explosives Sent Packing: frag grenade knockback is increased Shield’s Up: gain Epic level shield Stowed Reload: stowed weapon auto-reloads after several seconds EVENT ITEMS Gear up for your next throwdown with Wild Iron Event Packs†, which may drop items including new Legendary Skins for Lifeline, Pathfinder, Vantage, and more, plus Legendary Weapons Skins, including the Mastiff, Bocek, and Nemesis. You may also get the new Mythic Flatline, inspired by Fuse, the master of controlled demolition. Each event pack contains one event item and two standard items, and there are no duplicates of event items in these packs. REWARD SHOP Earn Cores by completing daily event challenges, then check out the Wild Iron Reward Shop to redeem them for rewards and see your progress with all four event badges. Offerings will rotate halfway through the event. GAME STABILITY Steam Datagram Relay (SDR) has been reintegrated with our servers on GameLift for added protection against DoS attacks. We have enabled SDR in 100% of Diamond and Masters Ranked matches, and are happy to report that we’ve seen a ~90% drop in suspected DoS attacks since. We’ll continue rolling this out to more matches, but first we are carefully monitoring statistics to ensure that players are benefiting without adverse effects to network conditions like packet loss and latency. These effects vary by region, so we are continuing to A/B test usage of SDR while we investigate any issues that arise. Tests so far have provided high confidence in performance in Asia and Australia. We’ve already ramped up a small percentage of coverage for matches in Ranked below Masters and Unranked in these regions, and will continue to expand here and in other regions in the future. PATCH NOTES BALANCE UPDATES EVO Harvesters (Previous Hotfix) Spawn rate increased to 10-11 depending on map size (was 7-8) Reduced likelihood of multiple EVO Harvesters spawning in a single POI Ring Exploit Prevention Adjusted to prevent system abuse LEGENDS Assault Class Stowed Reload: time to reload while stowed increased to 4s (was 2s) ASH Abilities Passive: Predator's Pursuit Increased dash cooldown to 12s (was 8s) Dash gives less of a boost when not dashing in the direction you're moving Tactical: Arc Snare Breaks more easily, base duration now 6s (was 8s) Less pulling strength Doesn't deal extra damage to shields Upgrades Level 2 Dual Breach & Marked for Death: removed NEW Longer Reach: increases Phase Breach range by 25m NEW Ultimate Cooldown: reduces Phase Breach cooldown by 30s Dev Note: Despite nerfs in recent patches, Ash has stayed at the top of the pack and we want to bring her back in line with the rest of the squad. In particular, a longer cooldown on her dash alongside Dual Breach’s removal should make it easier to punish Ash’s misplays. CAUSTIC Nox Gas Damage from gas ramps up more slowly, increases every 2 ticks (was every tick) Removed aim punch when taking damage Dev Note: Caustic’s recent improvements succeeded in bringing him back into the meta, but there were a couple places we wanted to tamp down to make the gas more forgiving to deal with. MAD MAGGIE Abilities Tactical: Riot Drill Firing animation sped up by 10% Drill now comes out immediately after releasing the button (was delayed by a few frames) Ultimate: Wrecking Ball Throw animation sped up 25% Wrecking Ball is now more reliable at moving around/over obstacles Explosions deal up to 25 damage (was up to 20) Reduced lifetime to 7s (was 10s) Speed pads increase movement speed for 3.5s (was 2s) Speed pads give fortified buff for the duration, doesn’t stack with already fortified Legends Speed pads last 20s (was 60s) Speed pads deactivate 6s for the player using it after being used Speed pads no longer drop from the final explosion Upgrades Level 2 Shots Shots Shots: removed NEW Gunrunning: Passive movement speed increase also works with SMGs and Pistols Fire Ball: now drops magma patches along the ground as it moves and Mad Maggie takes 50% less fire damage from all sources Dev Note: Mad Maggie was effective in certain circumstances, but we wanted to give her a bit more reliability and team utility to compete against other Legends. It’s now easier to get both her Tac and Ult to go where you want them to go. The fortified speed pads give her and her squad stronger options to both push and rotate. And the new Gunrunning upgrade allows her to have more flexibility in the close-range weapons that she can use effectively. SEER Abilities Passive: Heart Seeker Long View upgrade now permanent, increasing range for Passive + Tac to 75m (was 50m) Now one constant heartbeat instead of differing beats for each enemy UI and audio pulse to indicate when the heartbeat scans happen Directional waveforms are now taller or shorter depending on whether the enemy is close or far from where you are aiming Improved UI visibility Tactical: Focus of Attention Reduced weapon holster time by 60% when activating Tac with a gun out Scanning someone with Tac now gives Seer a speed boost for 4s Scan duration increased to 4s (was 2.5), slow duration to 1s (was 0.5s), and silence duration reduced to 2.5s (was 8s) Cooldown reduced to 20s (was 30s) Increased delay before the scan goes off to 1s (was 0.7s) VFX adjusted including extra clarity on AOE effects that let you know where the scan will hit Ultimate: Exhibit Artist's Reach upgrade now permanent, increased throw range to ~50m (was 15m) Sphere radius increased to 38m (was 34m) Seer gains enhanced jumping and ADS hover while inside any Exhibit Added threat indicator within 15m of the center that enemies will see Adjusted throw's pitch while aiming so you don't have to aim as far up to get longer throws Upgrades Level 2 Artist’s Reach: removed (improved and added to base kit) Ultimate Cooldown: removed NEW Lasting Beats: enemies who leave the dome have their locations shown for 5s NEW Home Base: Tac recharges 4x as fast in your Exhibit sphere Level 3 Long View: removed (added to base kit) NEW Energizing Focus: regen 25 shields when hitting an enemy with Tac Split Focus: no longer has a downside Dev Note: It’s time to bring Seer back into the meta. He’s been popular before, but that strength usually came at the cost of being extremely frustrating to play against. We’re aiming to have Seer be fun to play with more in-combat power, while avoiding some of the issues that made him feel oppressive as an opponent. SPARROW Abilities Tactical: Tracker Dart Tracking duration now 12s (was 15) New VFX when aiming to show if your dart will activate a nearby Enemy Scan Beacon Ultimate: Stinger Bolt Bolt health now 400 (was 550) Bolt’s pulsing now slows Sparrow and his allies, not just enemies Adjusted the animations when aiming Stinger Bolt to make it easier to see the trajectory Upgrades Level 2 Extra Traps: now gives 1 additional trap in world (was 2) Dev Note: Sparrow’s continued popularity surfaced some frustrating elements to his kit. His Stinger Bolt should now be easier to take down with 1 or 2 people, while his tracking should no longer lock opponents down for too long. We also included a couple of QOL improvements related to aiming his abilities. LOOT & ATTACHMENTS ATTACHMENTS Gold Magazine Time to reload while stowed increased to 4s (was 2s) LOCKED HOP-UPS Accelerator Increased points to unlock to 300 (was 150) Removed from: Peacekeeper, L-Star, and Alternator Added to: G7 Scout, CAR, and Flatline Graffiti Mod Increased points to unlock to 425 (was 300) Added to: Mastiff Gun Shield Generator Increased points to unlock to 375 (was 250) Selectfire Receiver Increased points to unlock to 375 (was 250) Skull Piercer Increased points to unlock to 600 (was 400) Turbocharger 600 points to unlock Compatible with Havoc and Devotion Dev Note: We're really happy with how Locked Hop-Ups have changed the game and provided a clearer path to unlocking a weapons power. However, we've found that the values we launched with have been a little too generous and that power is coming online a little earlier than we'd hoped. Increasing the unlock requirements should reign in their early game strength while still maintaining their consistency in the mid to late game. LOOT Amps (Previous Hotfix) Spawn rates reduced at match start Icon added to enemy health bar for which Amp they have WEAPONS LMG Devotion LMG Removed perk that would turbocharge after equipping a purple barrel, magazine, and stock MARKSMAN Bocek Compound Bow Decreased charge time to fully nock an arrow to 0.35s (was 0.45s) Improved hipfire spread PISTOL RE-45 Burst (Previous Hotfix) Reduced projectile size to match other pistols Reduced magazine size by 3 at all tiers, including base Increased horizontal and vertical recoil Wingman Damage increased to 50 (was 48) Skullpiercer headshot multiplier reduced to 1.92 (was 2.0) Skullpiercer headshot damage stays unchanged at 96 SHOTGUN Mastiff Increased delay before firing when drawing the weapon to better match our other shotguns Peacekeeper Increased size of blast pattern when choked MAPS Unranked & Ranked E-District Kings Canyon Olympus Mixtape TDM: Fragment, Skull Town, Zeus Station, Estates Control: Hammond Labs, Caustic Treatment, Barometer, Lava Siphon Gun Run: Wattson’s Pylon, Monument, Estates, Skull Town MODES Duos Reduced squad count to 15 (was 30) Reduced player count to 30 (was 60) Ring starts partially closed, timings adjusted Drop ship now starts at the edge of the ring (similar to Wildcard) Ring closes 4 times WILDCARD Wildcard Trios: Wild Iron (September 16-30, 2025) Kings Canyon Wildcard Rampart Care Packages: Mythic Flatline Increased spawn rate for explosive gear Added chance to find EPG in loot 8 new Wild Cards available in Replicators (see above) Crackerjack Down Bad Extra Ordnance Good Doctor Gren-Aid Sent Packing Shield’s Up Stowed Reload Wildcard Trios: Core (September 30-October 14, 2025) RANKED Ranked Ladder Scoring Changes Entry Cost no longer included in Ranked Ladder scoring Dev Note: One of the key goals for the Ranked Ladder is to create a fair comparison across players of similar skill levels. By removing Entry Cost from the scoring, we ensure that performance in matches (not rank-specific costs) is the only factor that drives your Ladder RP. This levels the playing field for all players competing on the same leaderboard. BUG FIXES Ammo notifications no longer broken after dropping the Infinite Ammo Amp Increased accuracy when pinging the map when zoomed Locked Hop-Ups + Points Fixed some strings where the Locked Hop-Up Graffiti Mod was incorrectly named Points will no longer occasionally reset when moving between Ballistic's sling after leveling up Locked Hop-Ups once again work as intended after respawning in Firing Range “No Ammo” message no longer appears on screen when your knockdown shield’s destroyed Players once again spawn with primary weapon equipped in Wildcard Switch 2 dynamic mode will no longer occasionally switch joycon modes LEGENDS Alter: “Celestial Essence” skin once again plays effects correctly Caustic: fixed an exploit that allowed him to accumulate research points quicker (Previous Hotfix) Mad Maggie Tac no longer deals up to 33% less damage than intended Wrecking ball no longer gets caught/reflected backwards by friendly Mirage decoys Rampart: hexagon FX no longer missing from the amped shield QUALITY OF LIFE Added “For You” section in the shop that contains personalized offers that rotate weekly Ranked Drop Zones: removed the jumpmaster, now all teammates skydive independently Wildcard Respawn notifications Reduced the size of the announcements to take up less screen space Removed the announcement for when individual teammates have died Reworded death banner to read “Last Legend Standing” ENGINE Shader count reduced by nearly 50%, improving performance and startup times especially on PC Now uses bindless resources for particle and FX rendering. This reduces CPU usage especially in cases of intense combat with lots of character abilities being triggered. PC: fixed an immediate crash when booting the game if the player has an Unknown Display Driver (sometimes the result of uninstalling previous drivers). Note: there may still be other issues with Unknown display drivers. Source: Get explosive in the Wild Iron Event 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. †Not available in all territories.
Feel the holiday rush in the Merry Mayhem Event
AMPED OVERVIEW We’re starting the hype train for Season 27: Amped, right now, and this is your invitation to get on board! There’s plenty to be excited about this season: major changes to Olympus, Valkyrie retakes the skies, while Rampart and Horizon are getting tune ups, the meta is shifting to close range chaos with a new ‘Double Tap Alternator’ Hop-Up and Gold Laser Sight for pistols and SMGs, and we’re introducing fun updates to Tridents! Grab your friends, squad up and get ready to dive into Amped! For additional insights into some of Amped’s key updates, check out our highlights blog from last week and for details on all seasonal changes, please read on! ANTI-CHEAT Before we get into the nitty gritty of seasonal changes, a quick Anti-Cheat update for you all! As part of our continued efforts to combat cheaters in Apex Legends, we launched a new detection model, in early October, to assist us in investigating possible 3rd party bots in our game. In just two weeks, over 1,000 bot accounts were banned. We saw a majority of bans hit Windows PC (71%) and Switch (21%). Detected bot infection rates spiked after the rollout as expected - meaning the new tech is successfully identifying bots - then tapered off as we banned these accounts. As a result, we saw a meaningful decline of player reports (for AFK and abandoned match behavior) on Switch and reports per user over the subsequent 28 days decreased for both PC and Switch. Our team is continuing their hard work to establish and maintain competitive integrity and we will continue to provide updates when we have information to share! AUDIO UPDATES We've been developing many new audio systems to address community feedback and improve audio reliability.This season we’re adding a new "Focused" mix option, intended to give you control over how you prefer to hear the action. Our new threat system will add dynamic contextual awareness to the mix. Multiband sidechain compression will help enemy footstep audio be heard more clearly. Environmental audio improvements offer a smoother blend between indoor and outdoor spaces. Additionally, we’re now armed with improved telemetry to more accurately discover causes of audio failures. We will continue to monitor feedback in our community spaces as it helps us understand how these changes affect your gameplay experience as we continue to work on these systems. For more details, please check our audio-focused dev blog. GAME STABILITY We rolled out a profiling tool to our production servers to capture more information about instances of slow performance on servers. This tool (RProf) has commonly been used in our development environment to find slow segments of engine code and game script, but is now tuned for production use. From this, we have been able to examine and fix cases that are more unique to running the game at scale, and can more easily track degradations in performance over time. As always, game stability work is always happening behind the scenes and we will share updates when we have them! RANKED This season, we’re making balance adjustments to Kill Point values making eliminations more rewarding across all placements. We’re also making changes to loot distribution across Ranked Drop Zone POIs - there will still be some variance, obviously, but we’re hoping things feel a lot more even. We will continue to monitor player feedback on this change, and general sentiment surrounding drop zones. Additionally, we are reducing the requirement to earn the Ranked Ladder Champion Dive Trail from 3 completions to 2 to simplify seasonal goals, reduce grind, and make the Dive Trail more attainable while keeping it a mark of consistent top performance. You’ll find all of the details about these changes later in this Patch Notes. NEW FEATURE: WISHLIST We want to give players some additional options for certain packs. Wishlist is a feature that will be enabled on select packs and will influence cosmetic drops for the Legends and loadouts you designate. Here’s how it works: Pick 5 Legends and 2 Weapons to add to your Wishlist Depending on the pack Wishlist may only impact items of a certain rarity (specific rarity tier will be noted) If the pack drops a Wishlist-enabled item you are guaranteed at least one item from your chosen Legends All selections must be valid for Wishlist to be Active. A selection is valid as long as you don't own 100% of the items for that Legend or Weapon Class from the Apex Pack Pool If a Wishlist is Inactive or Unavailable at the time of opening a Wishlist-enabled pack, the items will instead draw from the generic Apex Pack pool. You get 5 Wishlist edits per season (refreshed each new season). After that, you can keep editing anytime for 500 Legend Tokens per edit. See here for more specific details on how Wishlist functions and how our packs function. NEW: AMPED SEASONAL PACK This season, we're introducing the Amped Seasonal Pack, available all season long. This special pack is Wishlist-enabled and gives you a chance at unlocking: The new ‘Bird of Prey’ Mythic R-99 Weapon New Legendary cosmetics to change up your look Wishlist activation for Epic-tier drop, relevant to your chosen Legends or Weapons The Amped Seasonal Pack brings a new and more focused way to earn cosmetics all season long. You can earn up to 5 Amped Seasonal Packs throughout the season via challenges and the free Battle Pass Tracks. For full details and Amped Seasonal Pack probabilities, please view our Additional Pack Disclosures page (updates November 4, 2025). PATCH NOTES BALANCE UPDATES Care Package Rotation Triple Take return to the floor (details below) C.A.R. SMG enters the Care Package (details below) Gold Weapon Rotation Alternator SMG, G7 Scout, Havoc, Bocek Compound Bow, Akimbo Mozambique GAME UPDATES Extended Supply Bins & Weapon Supply Bins Added icons back to the minimap and full-map Arsenals Increased ammo bricks to give full stacks of the applicable ammo type Replicators New craftable item: Arrow Bundle Only obtainable when crafting Ammo when Bocek Compound Bow is in your loadout On pick-up, fully replenishes your arrow reserves on one Bocek weapon Can only be picked up if you are holding a Bocek and it is not full on arrows Mantle Boost Added Mantle Boost ability to all Legends, granting velocity on a timed input after a mantle Added options for customizing Mantle Boost input key or button Added option to remap character movement ability Added options for reducing the UI footprint on the HUD for Mantle Boost Dev Note: We were inspired to add Mantle Boost by our players’ exploration of the unique momentum-based movement of Apex Legends. This new official Mantle Boost will enable all players to perform an advanced movement technique. It will be accessible, but it still requires skill to learn to use it and to know when it’s the right time to Boost. Heat Shields Update Heat Shields removed from Core BR Modes (including Trios and Duos). Dev Note: We rolled out the removal of Heat Shields in Ranked with Season 26, focusing decision making for players around strong strategic plays and rotations. We have seen positive outcomes with that change so we’re expanding the change to all Core BR modes. Playing outside the Ring should be a risky endeavor that is only a last resort. Don’t wanna get burned? Get a move on, Legend. Tridents 2.0 Foundational Improvements: Updated model and textures Collision tightened for a smoother ride and to allow occupants to be hit Trident can now be damaged and destroyed – starts at 800 health Trident occupants and the vehicle can be damaged independently Tridents can now damage enemies if hitting them at high speeds Camera and controls tuned for more responsiveness and precision Boost Meter has replaced the single use Boost New Movement Features: Jump: Press Jump to jump from the ground Glide: Hold Jump to Glide when off the ground. While gliding: Trident will very slowly lose altitude Trident can be steered in any direction Trident can boost forward New Healing and Spawning Features Auto-Healing: If a Trident avoids damage for a period of time, it will slowly regenerate health and regress its damage state Auto-Respawn: A destroyed Trident will be replaced by a new one at its original spawning location after an indicated delay Improved UI to better indicate to driver and passengers Trident health and damage information Control mappings adjusted to account for new features Dev Note: The Tridents are receiving a tune-up this season with a number of redesigns to offer players a more interesting, responsive, and satisfying driving experience as well as provide exciting counter play options. Tridents no longer split damage between occupants which should make them feel like a safer tool to use when making large rotations. However, they'll no longer provide movable indestructible cover when being used more tactically during a firefight. LEGEND CHANGES VALKYRIE Dev note: Valkyrie’s pick rate has been up and down all year, and we feel she’s currently in a place where she’s not living up to her potential. This set of buffs should help to modernize this fan-favorite. VTOL Jets Jetpack cooldown and fly speed reworked Cooldown Recharge delay significantly reduced (8 → 2.5 sec) Recharge time significantly reduced (~10.9 → 3 sec) Fuel doesn’t start recharging until you touch ground EMP effects drain jetpack fuel Speed Horizontal fly speed and strafe amount significantly increased Vertical fly speed increased. Additional vertical speed when flying straight up Reduced initial speed boost for first 0.5 sec (~25% faster → ~5% slower) Total fuel reduced (8 → 6 sec) Initial fuel consumption slightly increased Dev note: Valkyrie’s Jetpack broke new ground when it was introduced to Apex, but over time we started to feel it wasn’t living up to the high-flying promise of a Jetpack character. This new change rewards longer burns of the jetpack, allowing you to cover distance faster. Learning to use the (largely forgotten) flight mode is one of the keys to success with the updated jetpack! Missile Swarm Removed self damage and stun effect Added short (1.5 sec) full body scan on hit Tac damage now puts movement passives on cooldown (like other EMP effects) Removed 5 seconds of cooldown (30 sec → 25 sec) Removed vertical clearance firing restriction Improved missile pathing to work better in some situations such as low clearance situations (firing indoors or at targets under a bridge) Increased max range (~100m → 125m) Dev note: Valkyrie’s tactical was one of her biggest pain points, with many situations where it was either was more likely to stun her than to hit the target (or just wasn’t allowed). We improved the reliability of her tactical, and also took the opportunity to lean a bit more into Valkyrie’s identity as a recon by adding a short scan to the missiles. Skyward Dive Increased launch height 15% (integrated Afterburners upgrade) Reduced cooldown by 30 seconds (3 min → 2.5 min) Reduced delay before takeoff (2 sec → 1.5 sec) Slightly reduced time slowly rising before takeoff (1.83 sec → 1.33 sec) Removed self cancel cooldown penalty Reduced damage cooldown penalty (54 sec → 30 sec) Skydive Improvements Allow tactical to be fired when skydiving (except from drop ship) Land faster when skydiving (spend less time slow falling near ground) Dev note: The skies belong to Valkyrie. Upgrades Level 2 Afterburners: Removed (included by default) Eyes in the Sky: Moved to Level 2 Full Coverage: Changes missile swarm pattern to 4x5 (was 3x5) Level 3 Full Tank: Removed (jetpack reworked) NEW Supersonic: Ultimate launch time reduced ~50% REWORKED: Aerial Expert: Improves jetpack horizontal speed, significantly improves handling, decreases initial fuel consumption, slightly reduces total fuel. Dev note: To top off Valk’s update, we added a few new premier upgrades, allowing you to push either her Ultimate or Passive to their final forms. RAMPART Dev note: Rampart’s effectiveness and pick rate have slipped to extremely low levels in recent months. We hope this refresh to her kit will enhance her survivability and make her more of a viable Controller pick. Battle Modder Adds additional effect to old passive (Modded Loader). Cover walls permanently gain health as Rampart gains Evo Levels. Amped Cover Adds amped shield roof to wall Walls can now be charged by doing damage through the amped shield or by having the wall be damaged by enemies. Wall charge is converted to a speed boost by going over the wall Wall can store up to 300 damage, which results in a 15 second speed boost at full charge. Speed boost time scales linearly with stored charge. Wall charge is only usable by teammates, and each teammate can use stored charge individually. Speed boost is automatically given to nearby teammates when the wall is destroyed. Damage to wall is stored at 25%, while damage through amped shield is stored at 100% Speed boost only applies when sprinting Battle Modder health increases: Wall health increase by 200 per Evo level (400 → 800 at max level) Shield health increased by 25 per Evo level (175 → 225 at max level) Health while wall building reduced (120 → 100 ) Amped shield arc star damage multiplier removed (1.5x → 1.0x) Wall frag grenade damage multiplier increased (1.0x → 2.0x) Dev note: Rampart’s walls are core to her identity and playstyle, but felt like they’d been left behind. With her new passive giving the walls more health and roof, the walls should keep you safer in more situations while the speed boost should help your team capitalize on the impact from the wall. We’ve also increased the damage walls take from grenades, and reduced their health while building to preserve counterplay. Upgrades Level 2 Ultimate Cooldown: Removed Bandolier: Removed (replaced with Combat reserve) NEW: Combat reserve: Bigger ammo stacks, extra grenades slots, access red weapon supply bins NEW: Locked and Loaded: gain faster reloads and infinite ammo when behind amped cover and shield is in tact Level 3 Ramped up: Unchanged Amped Reloads: Removed (replaced with Locked and Loaded) NEW: Rebuild Module. Amped cover will regen health and rebuild shield section after not being damaged for a period of time Dev note: Rampart’s upgrades allow you to lean either into a more aggressive Assault playstyle or doubling down on her walls to hold space and apply constant pressure to opposing squads. HORIZON Dev note: Horizon has been in an interesting place in the meta. She is at her lowest pick rate ever, but maintaining a strong encounter win rate. We’re giving her back some of the power that’s been nerfed previously to make her a more attractive pick, and we are adding a few new fun upgrades to play with. We’ll continue monitoring to see how she performs in live. Gravity Lift Increased lift speed (300 → 375) Increased hover time at top of lift (0.5 sec → 1.5 sec) Cooldown reductions: Reduced cooldown by 5 seconds (25 sec → 20 sec) Reduced delay before cooldown starts 8 sec (10 sec → 2 sec) Effectively reduced cooldown from 35 sec → 22 sec Black Hole Reduced cooldown by 30 seconds (3.5 min → 3 min) Increased health (175 → 225) Upgrades Level 2 Ultimate Cooldown: Removed (included by default) Tactical Cooldown: Removed (included by default) NEW: Gravity Boots: Press crouch while in the air to fall much more quickly NEW: Newt Scoot: Press jump after exiting gravity lift to glide Level 3 Conservation of Energy: Unchanged Combat Reserve: Removed NEW: Knock Expert: gain tactical charge on knocks. REVENANT Dev Note: We are seeing Revenant pull away from the rest of the roster in very high tier lobbies, and believe it's in part due to his ability to drop on enemies suddenly from very far away. Given how fast his 'weapons up' time is now, we felt reducing the maximum amount of distance he can travel in Shadow Pounce will reduce the frustration on the receiving end. We think this combined with the Valkyrie and Horizon changes will create a more even split between our most mobile characters. Reduced the maximum possible velocity of Revenants Shadow Pounce LOOT & ATTACHMENTS AMPS Reduced healing rate of Overflow Healer Added Infinite Ammo and Over Armor to early game floor loot Added Over Armor potential Assault Bin amps ATTACHMENTS Gold Laser Sight New laser tier added: usable with all SMG and Pistol weapons Greatly improves ground and aerial hipfire spread Adds reverse hipfire – Continuous firing tightens hipfire spread LOCKED HOP-UPS Double Tap Trigger 375 Locked Hop-Up Points to unlock Compatible with Alternator Accelerator Accelerator removed from all compatible weapons G7 Scout, Flatline, and CAR Skull Piercer Skull Piercer removed from all compatible weapons 30-30, Wingman, and Longbow Graffiti Mod Removed from: Spitfire and EVA-8 Added to: Mozambique and Wingman Gun Shield Generator Removed from: Rampage Added to: Triple Take Selectfire Receiver Increased points to unlock to 450 on the Charge Rifle (Previous Hotfix) WEAPONS LMG All LMGs (Except L-STAR EMG) Removed Reverse Hipfire mechanic from LMGs Hipfire spread decreased to compensate Updated reticles to original plus design Dev Note: Reverse hipfire provides a lot of power in close quarters combat. This season, we want to give some room for our true close quarters weapons to shine, so we have removed this mechanic from LMGs. MARKSMAN All Marksmans Reduced projectile size and scaling Decreased projectile launch speed Reduced headshot damage multiplier Dev Note: The Marksman meta has been reigning strong for a few seasons now and the time has come for us to hit them with some more potent adjustments. We are hoping that these changes will hit their long range consistency, as well as remove the spikiness that can come with landing one or two headshots. 30-30 Repeater Headshot multiplier reduced (Previous Hotfix) Bocek Compound Bow Added 2x-4x AOG Scope as a compatible attachment Dev Note: We did it. Triple Take [Floor Loot] Damage reduced to 22 per bullet (was 23) Increased choke charge time Increased fire rate while hipfiring PISTOL P2020 [Care Package] Increased fire rate Increased magazine size to 26 (was 22) RE-45 Burst Horizontal and vertical recoil improvements (Previous hotfix) Purple mag size increased by 3 (Previous hotfix) SHOTGUN Peacekeeper Full burst damage reduced to 99 (was 108) Increased choke charge time Rechamber time decreased to 1.1 (Reverting a previous hotfix) Clip size reduced to 5 (was 6) (Previous Hotfix) Dev Note: The PK has been super dominant since coming out of the care package. While we have seen some good downward movement since our most recent set of hotfixes, we hear you, damage and range are the pain points here. We are giving back some of the handling we took away in a previous hotfix and hitting it accordingly. SMG Alternator SMG Damage increased to 19 (was 18) Magazine size adjustments: Blue magazine decreased to 26 (was 27) Purple and gold magazines increased to 30 (was 29) While using Double Tap Trigger: Shoots bullets out of each barrel, simultaneously Reduced fire rate Damage per bullet reduced to 15 C.A.R. SMG [Care Package] Added Hop-Up: Galvanic Gavel Allows the magazine to be swapped between Disruptor and Hammerpoint Rounds Upon first pick-up, begins on Disruptor Rounds Magazine size increased to 30 (was 28) Improved reload speed of the mag swap Prowler PDW While in burst fire mode, holding down the trigger now releases subsequent bursts Slightly increased burst delay Volt SMG Increased projectile size in close quarters SNIPER All Snipers Reduced projectile size Charge Rifle Maximum damage reduced to 99 (was 110) Damage reduced by 40% while using Select Fire mode (was 25%) (Previous Hotfix) Damage scaling minimum distance increased to 75 meters (was 50m) (Previous Hotfix) MAPS Olympus: Added Somers University POI (replacing Orbital Cannon) and moved Elysium nearby. Added Gravity Engine POI (replacing Energy Depot) Added Stabilizer POI (replacing Docks) Added Dockyard POI Added large amounts of additional cover in open rotation spaces around the following POIs: Phase Driver Oasis Clinic Hammond Labs Estates Hammond Labs: Transformed terrain and added tunnels to protect players and provide additional options to attack the waterfall high ground. Hammond Labs: Moved additional cover from Control mode into the base map, including the home base structures. Hammond Labs: Added jump tower behind Hammond Labs. Rift: Added new camp in the center of Rift to reduce open space. Added additional cover to open spaces in Rift. Rift: Replaced vacuum behavior of the Rift teleporter with a Horizon Lift to prevent players from entering accidentally. Rift: Added a large camp between Rift and Gardens to resolve the previously large open space and help players contest the high ground. Grow Towers: Replaced the third Grow Tower with buildings and tunnels to help players safely rotate through the POI when teams are holding the towers. Added jump tower. Turbine: Added a new camp underneath the highway between Turbine and Estates to prevent players from being gatekept at the ramp. Turbine: Added a new rotation from the east tunnel that connects directly to Gravity Engine (previously Energy Depot). Carrier: Added two additional doors at the central chokepoint to prevent the fight from stalling. Phase Driver: Increased Phase Driver loot cooldown from 45 seconds to 90 seconds. Added a camp in the circular pit between Hammond Labs and Somers University (previously Orbital Cannon). Bonsai Plaza: Added additional ziplines to access high walls around the POI. Removed a large amount of Trident barriers across the map. Dev Note: While Olympus has been a fan favorite for a while, we want to action on player feedback related to how to improve its competitive integrity. Keeping in mind both high-level matches and overall balance, we made some significant revisions to POIs like Energy Depot and Orbital Cannon to address anything from lopsided rotations to a distinct lack of cover in some of the more desolate areas. It was important to maintain the map’s identity during this process, so we wanted to only add to what makes Olympus so special while being very surgical and precise about anything that was removed or replaced. Pubs & Ranked Rotation Olympus Broken Moon World’s Edge Mixtape 11/04/25 - 1/5/26 Map Rotation TDM Skull Town, Thunderdome, Fragment, Estates CONTROL Barometer, Labs, Production Yard, Lava Siphon GUN RUN Estates, Skull Town, Zeus, Thunderdome WILDCARD Wildcard 11/04/25 - 11/18/25 Wildcard: Kings Canyon Wild Cards We’ve seen meaningful positive player sentiment surrounding Wild Cards in Wildcard, so: Wild Cards are now activated and here to stay, even when we don’t have an active event! Every match now features a range of Wild Cards, bringing extra chaos and surprises for more unpredictable and exciting gameplay. Wild Cards Extra Ordnance Drone Support Smoke Out High Velocity Status Report Speedy Charge Recharger Fast Draw Monstrous Strength Wildcard Gameplay Updates Highlight on Enemy Elimination balance tweaks Enemy highlights will no longer trigger on a team unless there is only one enemy still alive. Enemy highlights will no longer trigger if players choose to manually bleed out. Enemy highlight duration reduced 5 seconds -> 2.5 seconds. Dev Note: Currently in Wildcard, when you eliminate any enemy, their teammates are highlighted for a period of time. We are updating the rules of this system to reduce the benefits of thirsting as well as have more natural encounters without having enemy locations constantly revealed. Shield Cells Increased carrying capacity of shield cells from 12 -> 15 More shield cells spawn in loot, reduced ammo spawns to compensate. Dev Note: We’ve heard feedback that players were running low on healing items throughout a wildcard match, so we have increased carrying capacity and increased their loot spawns to make this pain point a little smaller. Gold 1x Digital Threat sight returns to loot as a rare spawn. Equippable on SMGs, Shotguns, and Pistols. Dev Note: Similar to the 1x Holo, The Gold Digital Threat scope has been vaulted for some time, and we know it is a fan favorite for some. We are re-introducing it to the Wildcard loot pool for this season as a fun item to find and make your SMGs, Shotguns, and Pistols even more deadly! Wild Cards balance Reduced shield recharge rate on Recharger wildcard when sprinting. Reduced initial speed gain when using the Wallruning wildcard. Dev Note: In Season 26, these wildcards were some of the strongest bunch in the pool and in some cases were becoming frustrating to play against. We are tuning them down a touch to bring them in line with some of the other wildcards coming in this season. New Mythic Weapon rotation. WEAPONS LEAVING L-STAR Devotion LMG Hemlok R-99 Peacekeeper WEAPONS RETURNING Kraber Triple Take Wingman Prowler P2020 Akimbo Rampage LMG Automatically Revved up when first being picked up. G7 Scout Double Tap and Sniper Scopes can be attached. NEW WEAPONS C.A.R. RANKED As part of our ongoing efforts to improve the Ranked experience, we conducted a matchmaking test at the end of Season 26 (more on that here). We will return with the results of this test once the data has been compiled, so keep an eye out! Scoring Tuning Kill Points changes 1st: 22 RP (was 20 RP) 2nd: 20 RP (was 18 RP) 3rd: 18 RP (was 16 RP) 4th: 16 RP (was 14 RP) 5th: 16 RP (was 12 RP) 6th: 14 RP (was 10 RP) 7th: 14 RP (was 10 RP) 8th: 14 RP (was 10 RP) 9th: 12 RP (was 8 RP) 10th: 12 RP (was 8 RP) 11th-15th: 8 RP (was 6 RP) 16th-20th: 6 RP (was 4 RP) Challenger Bonus changes If the killer’s rank is 1 tier lower than the victim: KP +20% bonus, was 15% If the gap is 2 tiers: +30% bonus, was 25% If the gap is 3 tiers: +40% bonus, was 35% Dev Note: Throughout Season 26, we consistently heard feedback that eliminations often felt undervalued compared to placement. Many players expressed that strong combat performance didn’t always translate into meaningful progression, especially in mid-to high-tier lobbies. In Season 27, we’ve adjusted Kill Point values to make eliminations more rewarding across all placements. This tuning increases the RP value earned from fights while keeping placement as a significant factor in final score calculation. Our goal is to better recognize player impact in every match — rewarding those who take risks and perform well in combat, without overshadowing strategic play and survival. Drop Zones Loot Overhaul Made the loot that spawns across all Drop Zone POIs more fair. There is still variance between POIs, but it is much less than previously. Maintains the same number of spawns across the map for each loot item, but changes where they are more likely to spawn, in order to avoid inflation/deflation. These loot changes are for Ranked only, not Unranked. Dev Note updated: Drop Zone has been a contentious topic within the community; while some praised how it improved the competitiveness of Ranked, others expressed concerns - primarily, the negative impact unbalanced POI loot levels have on the fairness of the mode. Our focus is to listen to those concerns to try to bring the feature to a satisfactory spot. As such, we did this loot overhaul to bring POIs in line with each other as far as we could without changing the maps or causing loot inflation/deflation. We'll continue to monitor your feedback as the season progresses. Ranked Ladders (coming later this split) Ranked Ladder Start Date End Date Ranked Ladder 1 11/13/2025 11/16/2025 Ranked Ladder 2 11/20/2025 11/23/2025 Ranked Ladder 3 11/27/2025 11/30/2025 Ranked Ladder 4 12/4/2025 12/7/2025 Ranked Ladder 5 12/11/2025 12/14/2025 Ranked Ladder 6 12/25/2025 12/28/2025 Ranked Ladder 7 1/1/2026 1/4/2026 Ranked Ladder 8 1/8/2026 1/11/2026 Ranked Ladder 9 1/15/2026 1/18/2026 Ranked Ladder 10 1/22/2026 1/25/2026 Ranked Ladder 11 1/29/2026 2/1/2026 Ranked Ladder 12 2/5/2026 2/8/2026 Ranked Challenges The requirement to earn the Ranked Ladder Champion Dive Trail has been reduced from 3 completions to 2. Dev Note: This change simplifies seasonal goals, reduces grind, and makes the Dive Trail more attainable while keeping it a mark of consistent top performance. BUG FIXES Wildcard Fixed players being able to revive each other to stay alive in the ring longer than intended Locked Hop-Ups Fixed Locked Hop-Ups not working properly in the Firing Range Fixed some issues with Ballistic’s sling and Locked Hop-Up weapons Fixed some issues with the Locked Hop-Up UI Ranked Fixed issue where you could not remove map pings in the prematch preview Misc Fixed the infinite ammo amp sometimes causing the player to respawn with locked inventory slots Fixed retro packs in the store not updating the amount of packs already opened Fixed skydive emotes leaving a breadcrumb on the legend tab but not the specific legend which had the new unlock Fixed health bars sometimes not displaying properly when firing through windows Fixed a wall that could be seen through around Artillery LEGENDS Valkyrie Fixed green color correction when skydiving being oversaturated. Rampart Fixed issue where camera could jump around when walking into Amped Cover. Catalyst Enemies near her Piercing Spikes should no longer see two threat indicators for a single spike Gibraltar: Fixed incorrect damage flyout UI when shooting his passive arm shield Newcastle Fixed Castle Wall sometimes hitting enemies through floors and walls QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES Requeue, with Squad Requeue has been expanded to allow players outside of a party to opt-in to continuing to play together. Each Party Leader (including parties of 1, ie. solo queuers) has the option to either ‘play again’ and merge their party together with other parties that also want to play again, or they can requeue with only their existing party. This does not create any kind of Friends relationship – it only forms a new Party that can continue to play together without having to return to the Lobby. Designer’s Note: We want to remove as many barriers as possible to keeping a fun time going. When you do find that magical unicorn of a random player and everyone wants to keep playing into the next match, this is the solution. UX/UI Added a button prompt in the Legend Locker screen for Legend skins, Weapon skins, and Melee skins to show/hide the UI to get a better view of the cosmetic Standardized a number of square button widgets, mostly in the lobby menu, to achieve a more consistent interactivity and aesthetic across the game Misc. Added a new voice chat option to toggle your microphone. Ranked - Added announcer VO saying which Drop Zone your team is landing at. Note: The Core on Broken Moon and Trident on Storm Point do not currently have VO. LEGENDS Valkyrie Fixed green color correction when skydiving being oversaturated. Rampart Allow interactions such as looting while holding Sheila Added additional placement mode for walls. By pressing Aim Down Sights, you can place a single wall and then pull out your weapons (matching the launch behavior). Placing a wall with the Attack button is unchanged from the current behavior. Reduced size of ‘amped’ bullet tracers when shooting though amped cover Rampart Added voice lines when being summoned to the Void Nexus when knocked ENGINE PC: Improved the performance of loading models and textures on systems with integrated graphics, especially Intel Iris XE laptops. This improves map loading times and reduces issues with missing models in-game. Added PC support for Handheld/Compact UI which makes it easier to play Apex on PC Handheld devices. Players can toggle between Full, Compact or Auto UI in game Settings.Apex Legends™: Amped Patch Notes
AMPED OVERVIEW We’re starting the hype train for Season 27: Amped, right now, and this is your invitation to get on board! There’s plenty to be excited about this season: major changes to Olympus, Valkyrie retakes the skies, while Rampart and Horizon are getting tune ups, the meta is shifting to close range chaos with a new ‘Double Tap Alternator’ Hop-Up and Gold Laser Sight for pistols and SMGs, and we’re introducing fun updates to Tridents! Grab your friends, squad up and get ready to dive into Amped! For additional insights into some of Amped’s key updates, check out our highlights blog from last week and for details on all seasonal changes, please read on! ANTI-CHEAT Before we get into the nitty gritty of seasonal changes, a quick Anti-Cheat update for you all! As part of our continued efforts to combat cheaters in Apex Legends, we launched a new detection model, in early October, to assist us in investigating possible 3rd party bots in our game. In just two weeks, over 1,000 bot accounts were banned. We saw a majority of bans hit Windows PC (71%) and Switch (21%). Detected bot infection rates spiked after the rollout as expected - meaning the new tech is successfully identifying bots - then tapered off as we banned these accounts. As a result, we saw a meaningful decline of player reports (for AFK and abandoned match behavior) on Switch and reports per user over the subsequent 28 days decreased for both PC and Switch. Our team is continuing their hard work to establish and maintain competitive integrity and we will continue to provide updates when we have information to share! AUDIO UPDATES We've been developing many new audio systems to address community feedback and improve audio reliability.This season we’re adding a new "Focused" mix option, intended to give you control over how you prefer to hear the action. Our new threat system will add dynamic contextual awareness to the mix. Multiband sidechain compression will help enemy footstep audio be heard more clearly. Environmental audio improvements offer a smoother blend between indoor and outdoor spaces. Additionally, we’re now armed with improved telemetry to more accurately discover causes of audio failures. We will continue to monitor feedback in our community spaces as it helps us understand how these changes affect your gameplay experience as we continue to work on these systems. For more details, please check our audio-focused dev blog. GAME STABILITY We rolled out a profiling tool to our production servers to capture more information about instances of slow performance on servers. This tool (RProf) has commonly been used in our development environment to find slow segments of engine code and game script, but is now tuned for production use. From this, we have been able to examine and fix cases that are more unique to running the game at scale, and can more easily track degradations in performance over time. As always, game stability work is always happening behind the scenes and we will share updates when we have them! RANKED This season, we’re making balance adjustments to Kill Point values making eliminations more rewarding across all placements. We’re also making changes to loot distribution across Ranked Drop Zone POIs - there will still be some variance, obviously, but we’re hoping things feel a lot more even. We will continue to monitor player feedback on this change, and general sentiment surrounding drop zones. Additionally, we are reducing the requirement to earn the Ranked Ladder Champion Dive Trail from 3 completions to 2 to simplify seasonal goals, reduce grind, and make the Dive Trail more attainable while keeping it a mark of consistent top performance. You’ll find all of the details about these changes later in this Patch Notes. NEW FEATURE: WISHLIST We want to give players some additional options for certain packs. Wishlist is a feature that will be enabled on select packs and will influence cosmetic drops for the Legends and loadouts you designate. Here’s how it works: Pick 5 Legends and 2 Weapons to add to your Wishlist Depending on the pack Wishlist may only impact items of a certain rarity (specific rarity tier will be noted) If the pack drops a Wishlist-enabled item you are guaranteed at least one item from your chosen Legends All selections must be valid for Wishlist to be Active. A selection is valid as long as you don't own 100% of the items for that Legend or Weapon Class from the Apex Pack Pool If a Wishlist is Inactive or Unavailable at the time of opening a Wishlist-enabled pack, the items will instead draw from the generic Apex Pack pool. You get 5 Wishlist edits per season (refreshed each new season). After that, you can keep editing anytime for 500 Legend Tokens per edit. See here for more specific details on how Wishlist functions and how our packs function. NEW: AMPED SEASONAL PACK This season, we're introducing the Amped Seasonal Pack, available all season long. This special pack is Wishlist-enabled and gives you a chance at unlocking: The new ‘Bird of Prey’ Mythic R-99 Weapon New Legendary cosmetics to change up your look Wishlist activation for Epic-tier drop, relevant to your chosen Legends or Weapons The Amped Seasonal Pack brings a new and more focused way to earn cosmetics all season long. You can earn up to 5 Amped Seasonal Packs throughout the season via challenges and the free Battle Pass Tracks. For full details and Amped Seasonal Pack probabilities, please view our Additional Pack Disclosures page (updates November 4, 2025). PATCH NOTES BALANCE UPDATES Care Package Rotation Triple Take return to the floor (details below) C.A.R. SMG enters the Care Package (details below) Gold Weapon Rotation Alternator SMG, G7 Scout, Havoc, Bocek Compound Bow, Akimbo Mozambique GAME UPDATES Extended Supply Bins & Weapon Supply Bins Added icons back to the minimap and full-map Arsenals Increased ammo bricks to give full stacks of the applicable ammo type Replicators New craftable item: Arrow Bundle Only obtainable when crafting Ammo when Bocek Compound Bow is in your loadout On pick-up, fully replenishes your arrow reserves on one Bocek weapon Can only be picked up if you are holding a Bocek and it is not full on arrows Mantle Boost Added Mantle Boost ability to all Legends, granting velocity on a timed input after a mantle Added options for customizing Mantle Boost input key or button Added option to remap character movement ability Added options for reducing the UI footprint on the HUD for Mantle Boost Dev Note: We were inspired to add Mantle Boost by our players’ exploration of the unique momentum-based movement of Apex Legends. This new official Mantle Boost will enable all players to perform an advanced movement technique. It will be accessible, but it still requires skill to learn to use it and to know when it’s the right time to Boost. Heat Shields Update Heat Shields removed from Core BR Modes (including Trios and Duos). Dev Note: We rolled out the removal of Heat Shields in Ranked with Season 26, focusing decision making for players around strong strategic plays and rotations. We have seen positive outcomes with that change so we’re expanding the change to all Core BR modes. Playing outside the Ring should be a risky endeavor that is only a last resort. Don’t wanna get burned? Get a move on, Legend. Tridents 2.0 Foundational Improvements: Updated model and textures Collision tightened for a smoother ride and to allow occupants to be hit Trident can now be damaged and destroyed – starts at 800 health Trident occupants and the vehicle can be damaged independently Tridents can now damage enemies if hitting them at high speeds Camera and controls tuned for more responsiveness and precision Boost Meter has replaced the single use Boost New Movement Features: Jump: Press Jump to jump from the ground Glide: Hold Jump to Glide when off the ground. While gliding: Trident will very slowly lose altitude Trident can be steered in any direction Trident can boost forward New Healing and Spawning Features Auto-Healing: If a Trident avoids damage for a period of time, it will slowly regenerate health and regress its damage state Auto-Respawn: A destroyed Trident will be replaced by a new one at its original spawning location after an indicated delay Improved UI to better indicate to driver and passengers Trident health and damage information Control mappings adjusted to account for new features Dev Note: The Tridents are receiving a tune-up this season with a number of redesigns to offer players a more interesting, responsive, and satisfying driving experience as well as provide exciting counter play options. Tridents no longer split damage between occupants which should make them feel like a safer tool to use when making large rotations. However, they'll no longer provide movable indestructible cover when being used more tactically during a firefight. LEGEND CHANGES VALKYRIE Dev note: Valkyrie’s pick rate has been up and down all year, and we feel she’s currently in a place where she’s not living up to her potential. This set of buffs should help to modernize this fan-favorite. VTOL Jets Jetpack cooldown and fly speed reworked Cooldown Recharge delay significantly reduced (8 → 2.5 sec) Recharge time significantly reduced (~10.9 → 3 sec) Fuel doesn’t start recharging until you touch ground EMP effects drain jetpack fuel Speed Horizontal fly speed and strafe amount significantly increased Vertical fly speed increased. Additional vertical speed when flying straight up Reduced initial speed boost for first 0.5 sec (~25% faster → ~5% slower) Total fuel reduced (8 → 6 sec) Initial fuel consumption slightly increased Dev note: Valkyrie’s Jetpack broke new ground when it was introduced to Apex, but over time we started to feel it wasn’t living up to the high-flying promise of a Jetpack character. This new change rewards longer burns of the jetpack, allowing you to cover distance faster. Learning to use the (largely forgotten) flight mode is one of the keys to success with the updated jetpack! Missile Swarm Removed self damage and stun effect Added short (1.5 sec) full body scan on hit Tac damage now puts movement passives on cooldown (like other EMP effects) Removed 5 seconds of cooldown (30 sec → 25 sec) Removed vertical clearance firing restriction Improved missile pathing to work better in some situations such as low clearance situations (firing indoors or at targets under a bridge) Increased max range (~100m → 125m) Dev note: Valkyrie’s tactical was one of her biggest pain points, with many situations where it was either was more likely to stun her than to hit the target (or just wasn’t allowed). We improved the reliability of her tactical, and also took the opportunity to lean a bit more into Valkyrie’s identity as a recon by adding a short scan to the missiles. Skyward Dive Increased launch height 15% (integrated Afterburners upgrade) Reduced cooldown by 30 seconds (3 min → 2.5 min) Reduced delay before takeoff (2 sec → 1.5 sec) Slightly reduced time slowly rising before takeoff (1.83 sec → 1.33 sec) Removed self cancel cooldown penalty Reduced damage cooldown penalty (54 sec → 30 sec) Skydive Improvements Allow tactical to be fired when skydiving (except from drop ship) Land faster when skydiving (spend less time slow falling near ground) Dev note: The skies belong to Valkyrie. Upgrades Level 2 Afterburners: Removed (included by default) Eyes in the Sky: Moved to Level 2 Full Coverage: Changes missile swarm pattern to 4x5 (was 3x5) Level 3 Full Tank: Removed (jetpack reworked) NEW Supersonic: Ultimate launch time reduced ~50% REWORKED: Aerial Expert: Improves jetpack horizontal speed, significantly improves handling, decreases initial fuel consumption, slightly reduces total fuel. Dev note: To top off Valk’s update, we added a few new premier upgrades, allowing you to push either her Ultimate or Passive to their final forms. RAMPART Dev note: Rampart’s effectiveness and pick rate have slipped to extremely low levels in recent months. We hope this refresh to her kit will enhance her survivability and make her more of a viable Controller pick. Battle Modder Adds additional effect to old passive (Modded Loader). Cover walls permanently gain health as Rampart gains Evo Levels. Amped Cover Adds amped shield roof to wall Walls can now be charged by doing damage through the amped shield or by having the wall be damaged by enemies. Wall charge is converted to a speed boost by going over the wall Wall can store up to 300 damage, which results in a 15 second speed boost at full charge. Speed boost time scales linearly with stored charge. Wall charge is only usable by teammates, and each teammate can use stored charge individually. Speed boost is automatically given to nearby teammates when the wall is destroyed. Damage to wall is stored at 25%, while damage through amped shield is stored at 100% Speed boost only applies when sprinting Battle Modder health increases: Wall health increase by 200 per Evo level (400 → 800 at max level) Shield health increased by 25 per Evo level (175 → 225 at max level) Health while wall building reduced (120 → 100 ) Amped shield arc star damage multiplier removed (1.5x → 1.0x) Wall frag grenade damage multiplier increased (1.0x → 2.0x) Dev note: Rampart’s walls are core to her identity and playstyle, but felt like they’d been left behind. With her new passive giving the walls more health and roof, the walls should keep you safer in more situations while the speed boost should help your team capitalize on the impact from the wall. We’ve also increased the damage walls take from grenades, and reduced their health while building to preserve counterplay. Upgrades Level 2 Ultimate Cooldown: Removed Bandolier: Removed (replaced with Combat reserve) NEW: Combat reserve: Bigger ammo stacks, extra grenades slots, access red weapon supply bins NEW: Locked and Loaded: gain faster reloads and infinite ammo when behind amped cover and shield is in tact Level 3 Ramped up: Unchanged Amped Reloads: Removed (replaced with Locked and Loaded) NEW: Rebuild Module. Amped cover will regen health and rebuild shield section after not being damaged for a period of time Dev note: Rampart’s upgrades allow you to lean either into a more aggressive Assault playstyle or doubling down on her walls to hold space and apply constant pressure to opposing squads. HORIZON Dev note: Horizon has been in an interesting place in the meta. She is at her lowest pick rate ever, but maintaining a strong encounter win rate. We’re giving her back some of the power that’s been nerfed previously to make her a more attractive pick, and we are adding a few new fun upgrades to play with. We’ll continue monitoring to see how she performs in live. Gravity Lift Increased lift speed (300 → 375) Increased hover time at top of lift (0.5 sec → 1.5 sec) Cooldown reductions: Reduced cooldown by 5 seconds (25 sec → 20 sec) Reduced delay before cooldown starts 8 sec (10 sec → 2 sec) Effectively reduced cooldown from 35 sec → 22 sec Black Hole Reduced cooldown by 30 seconds (3.5 min → 3 min) Increased health (175 → 225) Upgrades Level 2 Ultimate Cooldown: Removed (included by default) Tactical Cooldown: Removed (included by default) NEW: Gravity Boots: Press crouch while in the air to fall much more quickly NEW: Newt Scoot: Press jump after exiting gravity lift to glide Level 3 Conservation of Energy: Unchanged Combat Reserve: Removed NEW: Knock Expert: gain tactical charge on knocks. REVENANT Dev Note: We are seeing Revenant pull away from the rest of the roster in very high tier lobbies, and believe it's in part due to his ability to drop on enemies suddenly from very far away. Given how fast his 'weapons up' time is now, we felt reducing the maximum amount of distance he can travel in Shadow Pounce will reduce the frustration on the receiving end. We think this combined with the Valkyrie and Horizon changes will create a more even split between our most mobile characters. Reduced the maximum possible velocity of Revenants Shadow Pounce LOOT & ATTACHMENTS AMPS Reduced healing rate of Overflow Healer Added Infinite Ammo and Over Armor to early game floor loot Added Over Armor potential Assault Bin amps ATTACHMENTS Gold Laser Sight New laser tier added: usable with all SMG and Pistol weapons Greatly improves ground and aerial hipfire spread Adds reverse hipfire – Continuous firing tightens hipfire spread LOCKED HOP-UPS Double Tap Trigger 375 Locked Hop-Up Points to unlock Compatible with Alternator Accelerator Accelerator removed from all compatible weapons G7 Scout, Flatline, and CAR Skull Piercer Skull Piercer removed from all compatible weapons 30-30, Wingman, and Longbow Graffiti Mod Removed from: Spitfire and EVA-8 Added to: Mozambique and Wingman Gun Shield Generator Removed from: Rampage Added to: Triple Take Selectfire Receiver Increased points to unlock to 450 on the Charge Rifle (Previous Hotfix) WEAPONS LMG All LMGs (Except L-STAR EMG) Removed Reverse Hipfire mechanic from LMGs Hipfire spread decreased to compensate Updated reticles to original plus design Dev Note: Reverse hipfire provides a lot of power in close quarters combat. This season, we want to give some room for our true close quarters weapons to shine, so we have removed this mechanic from LMGs. MARKSMAN All Marksmans Reduced projectile size and scaling Decreased projectile launch speed Reduced headshot damage multiplier Dev Note: The Marksman meta has been reigning strong for a few seasons now and the time has come for us to hit them with some more potent adjustments. We are hoping that these changes will hit their long range consistency, as well as remove the spikiness that can come with landing one or two headshots. 30-30 Repeater Headshot multiplier reduced (Previous Hotfix) Bocek Compound Bow Added 2x-4x AOG Scope as a compatible attachment Dev Note: We did it. Triple Take [Floor Loot] Damage reduced to 22 per bullet (was 23) Increased choke charge time Increased fire rate while hipfiring PISTOL P2020 [Care Package] Increased fire rate Increased magazine size to 26 (was 22) RE-45 Burst Horizontal and vertical recoil improvements (Previous hotfix) Purple mag size increased by 3 (Previous hotfix) SHOTGUN Peacekeeper Full burst damage reduced to 99 (was 108) Increased choke charge time Rechamber time decreased to 1.1 (Reverting a previous hotfix) Clip size reduced to 5 (was 6) (Previous Hotfix) Dev Note: The PK has been super dominant since coming out of the care package. While we have seen some good downward movement since our most recent set of hotfixes, we hear you, damage and range are the pain points here. We are giving back some of the handling we took away in a previous hotfix and hitting it accordingly. SMG Alternator SMG Damage increased to 19 (was 18) Magazine size adjustments: Blue magazine decreased to 26 (was 27) Purple and gold magazines increased to 30 (was 29) While using Double Tap Trigger: Shoots bullets out of each barrel, simultaneously Reduced fire rate Damage per bullet reduced to 15 C.A.R. SMG [Care Package] Added Hop-Up: Galvanic Gavel Allows the magazine to be swapped between Disruptor and Hammerpoint Rounds Upon first pick-up, begins on Disruptor Rounds Magazine size increased to 30 (was 28) Improved reload speed of the mag swap Prowler PDW While in burst fire mode, holding down the trigger now releases subsequent bursts Slightly increased burst delay Volt SMG Increased projectile size in close quarters SNIPER All Snipers Reduced projectile size Charge Rifle Maximum damage reduced to 99 (was 110) Damage reduced by 40% while using Select Fire mode (was 25%) (Previous Hotfix) Damage scaling minimum distance increased to 75 meters (was 50m) (Previous Hotfix) MAPS Olympus: Added Somers University POI (replacing Orbital Cannon) and moved Elysium nearby. Added Gravity Engine POI (replacing Energy Depot) Added Stabilizer POI (replacing Docks) Added Dockyard POI Added large amounts of additional cover in open rotation spaces around the following POIs: Phase Driver Oasis Clinic Hammond Labs Estates Hammond Labs: Transformed terrain and added tunnels to protect players and provide additional options to attack the waterfall high ground. Hammond Labs: Moved additional cover from Control mode into the base map, including the home base structures. Hammond Labs: Added jump tower behind Hammond Labs. Rift: Added new camp in the center of Rift to reduce open space. Added additional cover to open spaces in Rift. Rift: Replaced vacuum behavior of the Rift teleporter with a Horizon Lift to prevent players from entering accidentally. Rift: Added a large camp between Rift and Gardens to resolve the previously large open space and help players contest the high ground. Grow Towers: Replaced the third Grow Tower with buildings and tunnels to help players safely rotate through the POI when teams are holding the towers. Added jump tower. Turbine: Added a new camp underneath the highway between Turbine and Estates to prevent players from being gatekept at the ramp. Turbine: Added a new rotation from the east tunnel that connects directly to Gravity Engine (previously Energy Depot). Carrier: Added two additional doors at the central chokepoint to prevent the fight from stalling. Phase Driver: Increased Phase Driver loot cooldown from 45 seconds to 90 seconds. Added a camp in the circular pit between Hammond Labs and Somers University (previously Orbital Cannon). Bonsai Plaza: Added additional ziplines to access high walls around the POI. Removed a large amount of Trident barriers across the map. Dev Note: While Olympus has been a fan favorite for a while, we want to action on player feedback related to how to improve its competitive integrity. Keeping in mind both high-level matches and overall balance, we made some significant revisions to POIs like Energy Depot and Orbital Cannon to address anything from lopsided rotations to a distinct lack of cover in some of the more desolate areas. It was important to maintain the map’s identity during this process, so we wanted to only add to what makes Olympus so special while being very surgical and precise about anything that was removed or replaced. Pubs & Ranked Rotation Olympus Broken Moon World’s Edge Mixtape 11/04/25 - 1/5/26 Map Rotation TDM Skull Town, Thunderdome, Fragment, Estates CONTROL Barometer, Labs, Production Yard, Lava Siphon GUN RUN Estates, Skull Town, Zeus, Thunderdome WILDCARD Wildcard 11/04/25 - 11/18/25 Wildcard: Kings Canyon Wild Cards We’ve seen meaningful positive player sentiment surrounding Wild Cards in Wildcard, so: Wild Cards are now activated and here to stay, even when we don’t have an active event! Every match now features a range of Wild Cards, bringing extra chaos and surprises for more unpredictable and exciting gameplay. Wild Cards Extra Ordnance Drone Support Smoke Out High Velocity Status Report Speedy Charge Recharger Fast Draw Monstrous Strength Wildcard Gameplay Updates Highlight on Enemy Elimination balance tweaks Enemy highlights will no longer trigger on a team unless there is only one enemy still alive. Enemy highlights will no longer trigger if players choose to manually bleed out. Enemy highlight duration reduced 5 seconds -> 2.5 seconds. Dev Note: Currently in Wildcard, when you eliminate any enemy, their teammates are highlighted for a period of time. We are updating the rules of this system to reduce the benefits of thirsting as well as have more natural encounters without having enemy locations constantly revealed. Shield Cells Increased carrying capacity of shield cells from 12 -> 15 More shield cells spawn in loot, reduced ammo spawns to compensate. Dev Note: We’ve heard feedback that players were running low on healing items throughout a wildcard match, so we have increased carrying capacity and increased their loot spawns to make this pain point a little smaller. Gold 1x Digital Threat sight returns to loot as a rare spawn. Equippable on SMGs, Shotguns, and Pistols. Dev Note: Similar to the 1x Holo, The Gold Digital Threat scope has been vaulted for some time, and we know it is a fan favorite for some. We are re-introducing it to the Wildcard loot pool for this season as a fun item to find and make your SMGs, Shotguns, and Pistols even more deadly! Wild Cards balance Reduced shield recharge rate on Recharger wildcard when sprinting. Reduced initial speed gain when using the Wallruning wildcard. Dev Note: In Season 26, these wildcards were some of the strongest bunch in the pool and in some cases were becoming frustrating to play against. We are tuning them down a touch to bring them in line with some of the other wildcards coming in this season. New Mythic Weapon rotation. WEAPONS LEAVING L-STAR Devotion LMG Hemlok R-99 Peacekeeper WEAPONS RETURNING Kraber Triple Take Wingman Prowler P2020 Akimbo Rampage LMG Automatically Revved up when first being picked up. G7 Scout Double Tap and Sniper Scopes can be attached. NEW WEAPONS C.A.R. RANKED As part of our ongoing efforts to improve the Ranked experience, we conducted a matchmaking test at the end of Season 26 (more on that here). We will return with the results of this test once the data has been compiled, so keep an eye out! Scoring Tuning Kill Points changes 1st: 22 RP (was 20 RP) 2nd: 20 RP (was 18 RP) 3rd: 18 RP (was 16 RP) 4th: 16 RP (was 14 RP) 5th: 16 RP (was 12 RP) 6th: 14 RP (was 10 RP) 7th: 14 RP (was 10 RP) 8th: 14 RP (was 10 RP) 9th: 12 RP (was 8 RP) 10th: 12 RP (was 8 RP) 11th-15th: 8 RP (was 6 RP) 16th-20th: 6 RP (was 4 RP) Challenger Bonus changes If the killer’s rank is 1 tier lower than the victim: KP +20% bonus, was 15% If the gap is 2 tiers: +30% bonus, was 25% If the gap is 3 tiers: +40% bonus, was 35% Dev Note: Throughout Season 26, we consistently heard feedback that eliminations often felt undervalued compared to placement. Many players expressed that strong combat performance didn’t always translate into meaningful progression, especially in mid-to high-tier lobbies. In Season 27, we’ve adjusted Kill Point values to make eliminations more rewarding across all placements. This tuning increases the RP value earned from fights while keeping placement as a significant factor in final score calculation. Our goal is to better recognize player impact in every match — rewarding those who take risks and perform well in combat, without overshadowing strategic play and survival. Drop Zones Loot Overhaul Made the loot that spawns across all Drop Zone POIs more fair. There is still variance between POIs, but it is much less than previously. Maintains the same number of spawns across the map for each loot item, but changes where they are more likely to spawn, in order to avoid inflation/deflation. These loot changes are for Ranked only, not Unranked. Dev Note updated: Drop Zone has been a contentious topic within the community; while some praised how it improved the competitiveness of Ranked, others expressed concerns - primarily, the negative impact unbalanced POI loot levels have on the fairness of the mode. Our focus is to listen to those concerns to try to bring the feature to a satisfactory spot. As such, we did this loot overhaul to bring POIs in line with each other as far as we could without changing the maps or causing loot inflation/deflation. We'll continue to monitor your feedback as the season progresses. Ranked Ladders (coming later this split) Ranked Ladder Start Date End Date Ranked Ladder 1 11/13/2025 11/16/2025 Ranked Ladder 2 11/20/2025 11/23/2025 Ranked Ladder 3 11/27/2025 11/30/2025 Ranked Ladder 4 12/4/2025 12/7/2025 Ranked Ladder 5 12/11/2025 12/14/2025 Ranked Ladder 6 12/25/2025 12/28/2025 Ranked Ladder 7 1/1/2026 1/4/2026 Ranked Ladder 8 1/8/2026 1/11/2026 Ranked Ladder 9 1/15/2026 1/18/2026 Ranked Ladder 10 1/22/2026 1/25/2026 Ranked Ladder 11 1/29/2026 2/1/2026 Ranked Ladder 12 2/5/2026 2/8/2026 Ranked Challenges The requirement to earn the Ranked Ladder Champion Dive Trail has been reduced from 3 completions to 2. Dev Note: This change simplifies seasonal goals, reduces grind, and makes the Dive Trail more attainable while keeping it a mark of consistent top performance. BUG FIXES Wildcard Fixed players being able to revive each other to stay alive in the ring longer than intended Locked Hop-Ups Fixed Locked Hop-Ups not working properly in the Firing Range Fixed some issues with Ballistic’s sling and Locked Hop-Up weapons Fixed some issues with the Locked Hop-Up UI Ranked Fixed issue where you could not remove map pings in the prematch preview Misc Fixed the infinite ammo amp sometimes causing the player to respawn with locked inventory slots Fixed retro packs in the store not updating the amount of packs already opened Fixed skydive emotes leaving a breadcrumb on the legend tab but not the specific legend which had the new unlock Fixed health bars sometimes not displaying properly when firing through windows Fixed a wall that could be seen through around Artillery LEGENDS Valkyrie Fixed green color correction when skydiving being oversaturated. Rampart Fixed issue where camera could jump around when walking into Amped Cover. Catalyst Enemies near her Piercing Spikes should no longer see two threat indicators for a single spike Gibraltar: Fixed incorrect damage flyout UI when shooting his passive arm shield Newcastle Fixed Castle Wall sometimes hitting enemies through floors and walls QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES Requeue, with Squad Requeue has been expanded to allow players outside of a party to opt-in to continuing to play together. Each Party Leader (including parties of 1, ie. solo queuers) has the option to either ‘play again’ and merge their party together with other parties that also want to play again, or they can requeue with only their existing party. This does not create any kind of Friends relationship – it only forms a new Party that can continue to play together without having to return to the Lobby. Designer’s Note: We want to remove as many barriers as possible to keeping a fun time going. When you do find that magical unicorn of a random player and everyone wants to keep playing into the next match, this is the solution. UX/UI Added a button prompt in the Legend Locker screen for Legend skins, Weapon skins, and Melee skins to show/hide the UI to get a better view of the cosmetic Standardized a number of square button widgets, mostly in the lobby menu, to achieve a more consistent interactivity and aesthetic across the game Misc. Added a new voice chat option to toggle your microphone. Ranked - Added announcer VO saying which Drop Zone your team is landing at. Note: The Core on Broken Moon and Trident on Storm Point do not currently have VO. LEGENDS Valkyrie Fixed green color correction when skydiving being oversaturated. Rampart Allow interactions such as looting while holding Sheila Added additional placement mode for walls. By pressing Aim Down Sights, you can place a single wall and then pull out your weapons (matching the launch behavior). Placing a wall with the Attack button is unchanged from the current behavior. Reduced size of ‘amped’ bullet tracers when shooting though amped cover Rampart Added voice lines when being summoned to the Void Nexus when knocked ENGINE PC: Improved the performance of loading models and textures on systems with integrated graphics, especially Intel Iris XE laptops. This improves map loading times and reduces issues with missing models in-game. Added PC support for Handheld/Compact UI which makes it easier to play Apex on PC Handheld devices. Players can toggle between Full, Compact or Auto UI in game Settings.Apex Legends™: Showdown Patch Notes
WILDCARD Check out our dedicated blog here for all the cards you’ll want to have in your hand before jumping in. LEGEND UPDATES In addition to some Controller class updates, we’ve also taken a pass at two smokeshow Legends. Good to have you back in the meta, Gas Daddy and Bangydang. CAUSTIC Caustic’s gas should be deadly enough to live up to the fantasy, but lately it’s felt a little toothless. With the updates detailed below, Nox Gas has become something Caustics can trust to threaten or hold an area for a long time with windows that attackers can play around. Also, Caustic’s new Field Research perk allows him to gain additional Legend Updates—making him the first to be able to get all four upgrades at once! BANGALORE With a whole new Legend Upgrade tree, Bangalore’s been given tons of new flexibility. Among these new options, are new breaching mechanics that allow you to clear out entrenched enemies. GAMEPLAY ADDITIONS We’ve got three powerful additions to the Outlands with Showdown. Read on for an overview or dive into specifics with Patch Notes sections further down: Elite Weapons take the firepower from Ballistic’s personal stash and into your hands. These variants pack a punch and replace their typical counterparts for a limited-time. Showdown brings the RE-45: Burst, which swaps to Energy ammo and comes with a spin-up mechanic. Legend Amps are game-changing passives available in Unranked and Ranked BR matches. With five options to choose from, there’s an optimal Amp that could sway things in your favor in any type of fight. Locked Hop-Ups means that the looting for these boosts are no more. Each weapon comes pre-equipped with its Hop-Up waiting to be activated and unlocked for the rest of the match. RANKED Key adjustments have been made to better reflect your performance and risks. Entry costs, placement RP, and kill points have been tuned to create more room for performance-based variance and rewarding consistent well-rounded play. The updated Challenger Bonus gives more RP to players who take on and win fights against higher-tier opponents. And those aren’t the only Ranked updates in Showdown. NEW: DROP ZONES Drop Zones will start Ranked matches faster and fairer with squads automatically spread out across POIs. Before the match starts, you’ll see a preview of your Drop Zone with a ping-able map for strategic co-ordination before locking in your Legends. Loot has been fairly distributed across POIs, so no Hot Zones here. Keep your head up, though. There’s always the chance a neighboring squad will contest by skydiving in. AURAS Introducing a brand new cosmetic option: Auras. When equipped, your Aura will be visible in the lobby, Legend selection, and during podium moments. In matches: during dives, emoting in 3rd-person, and it’s visible for both of the engaged players when reviving or finishing. You can toggle your clout on/off in the Legend Locker. Every player with access to Ranked will get the “Ascension Crest” Aura after logging-in after Showdown’s launch and it will reactively reflect your Ranked Tier going forward. Those still working on their Road to Ranked will be granted this Aura once Ranked is unlocked. ACCOLADES Time to recognize players and their squadmates for all that they do during a match—not just winning. From pulling off tricky double kills to expertly blocking damage for your squad, Accolades highlight actions that often go unnoticed, uncelebrated, and untracked. They’re designed to celebrate varying playstyles and skill, and can be earned in Unranked, Ranked, Wildcard, and Mixtape with each tracking separately. Each Accolade has up to four tiers for you to achieve as you progress and they’ll award XP too. Post-match, the summary will show your earned Accolades and your Gladiator Card the top three. You can earn and record multiple Accolades each day, but there’s a cap of 2200XP for these per day. Find the full list and your tracking under Account Progression, including descriptions, targets, and those you’ve earned this season, per mode, and how many times you’ve hit them. CHALLENGE UPDATE We’ve updated our challenge system to try and help you progress more consistently no matter which mode you choose. Most challenges that used to require specific modes or had dual targets now count across all modes, making it easier to play how you want and still finish your Battle Pass. To keep time-to-completion balanced, some challenge targets have increased and we've added progression boosts to some modes. For example, “Deal 10K damage as a Skirmisher or Assault Legend” gets a 2x progress modifier in BR to match it to Mixtape’s completion time. This is part of our long-term goal to create challenges that support a wider range of playstyles. Jump in, play your way, and get rewarded just like before. NEW REWARD FLOW Based on your feedback around reward confusion, we’ve created a new summary to showcase your hard work and rewards without the plethora of pop-ups. You’ll now be able to see each reward (including those occasionally granted silently), how it was earned, and additional details all at once—giving you more time to celebrate those Ws. NINTENDO SWITCH 2 Apex Legends is now available to download on Nintendo Switch 2! Log into Apex Legends on your Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch 2 before September 16, 2025 to automatically receive the “P.A.T.H.” Pathfinder skin!** Enjoy up to 60 FPS, depending on monitor/hardware capability and compatibility (1920x1080 docked, 1792x1008 undocked) When you login, you’ll be redirected to the eShop to download Apex Legends on Nintendo Switch 2. You’ll be able to delete “Apex Legends for Nintendo Switch” after you login to the updated version. **Requires EA account & all game updates. Applicable platform account &/or subscription may be required. Only available on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. Must log in to Apex Legends (available separately) by September 16, 2025 to claim. Limit 1 per account. PATCH NOTES BALANCE UPDATES Care Package Peacekeeper returns to the floor Akimbo P2020 enters Gold Weapon Rotation EVA-8, Hemlok, RE-45: Burst, Sentinel, Wingman EVO Harvesters EVO rewarded by Harvesters increased to 425 (was 350) Overhauled placement to guarantee spawns closer to the geo-center and away from POIs cores Spawn rate reduced to 8 or 9 depending on Map size (was 17-20) Dev Note: EVO Harvesters haven’t seen many adjustments, so it’s time to shake things up. We’re removing spawns at the edges of playable space and preventing them from the center of POIs. This could lead to unfair starts where some levelled up quickly by chance, while others were left behind. Now intentional strategic moves will be needed to access Harvesters. With fewer of them, the chances of bumping into enemies is high, but the reward is too with nearly enough EVO to level up. GAMEPLAY UPDATES NEW: Amps Purple tier loot items Early game: fairly uncommon with a higher chance to spawn in high tier loot locations such as Care Packages, Vaults, and the Hot Zone After Bins Reset: all bins have a higher chance to spawn an Amp Mythic, Legendary, Extended, and Weapon supply bins guarantee one Five Amp types: Infinite Ammo Amp: gain infinite ammo for non-care package weapons Temporarily locks two inventory slots. These slots can hold ammo, but you cannot drop their contents. Bottomless Batteries Amp: Batteries are not consumed upon use Must have at least 2 Batteries in your inventory to activate Over Armor Amp: gain an additional 25 shield capacity Stacks with Ring Expert, but cannot exceed 125 total shields Heal Overflow Amp: after using a cell or syringe, the corresponding health bar will fully heal over time Taking damage stops the regeneration Power Booster Amp: reduces cooldown for Tac and Ult Refresh a Tactical charge when knocking an enemy Dev Note: Amps are a new vector to explore when creating and optimizing your loadout. Your choice could be influenced by playstyle, team composition, weapons, and the bedlam each match provides. The Amp you want in one match may not be the one you need in the next. NEW: Elite Weapons Limited-time standard-issue weapons are replaced with one from Ballistic's private collection Features devastating new mechanics from across the Outlands Showdown’s Elite Weapon is the RE-45: Burst Swaps Light ammo for Energy ammo New spin-up mechanic that fires 3-round bursts in rapid succession NEW: Locked Hop-Ups Hop-Ups removed from floor loot Now pre-equipped and locked to weapons, start as inactive Can’t be removed or transferred Gain Locked Hop-Up Points to activate by: Dealing damage to other players with the weapon (damage from any any other source grants partial credit) Upgrading at the appropriate Arsenal Picking up Hop-Up Boosters White, blue, and purple kitted weapons do not come with Locked Hop-Ups Gold kitted and Care Package weapons come with their Hop-Ups already unlocked Helmets Removed Gold and Mythic helmets from floor loot World’s Edge: Rampart’s Big Maude Paintball weapons are no longer offered at vending machines Blue and purple kitted weapons are now offered at vending machines Reduced time to unlock weapons by 2 seconds LOOT BINS Extended Supply Bins Top drawer contents now give support items to everyone Secret drawer and EVO value remain unchanged Removed icons from minimap and full-map Before Bin Reset: small chance of spawning an Amp and/or an Ult Accelerant After Bin Reset: guaranteed Amp and/or Ult Accelerant Weapon Supply Bins Top drawer contents now give assault items to everyone Secret drawer and EVO value remain unchanged Removed Icons from minimap and full-map Before Bin Reset: small chance of spawning Amp and/or Hop-Up Booster After Bin Reset: guaranteed Amp and/or Hop-Up Booster if a squadmate needs one Legendary Supply Bins Amps and Hop-Up Boosters added to the pool LEGENDS Controller Class Zone Overcharge: now continuously regenerates shields while in zone Taking damage stops this for 6s Ring Consoles: players can spawn a taller custom EVAC from Ring Consoles they have scanned Dev Note: Controllers should have priority when taking key spots and defending, so we’ve buffed their perks so they can get to zone early and fight with less loot. BANGALORE Abilities Passive: Double Time Speed increased by 5% Tactical: Smoke Launcher Canister breaks and travels through doors Projectile speed increased to 2900 (was 2500) Pull out time reduced to 0.25 (was 0.35) Cooldown reduced to 30s (was 35s) Gas now reactive: ordnance and abilities can disable it for 5s when used inside/nearby Ultimate: Rolling Thunder Cooldown reduced to 210s (was 270s) Reduced anim frame to fire projectile to 1 (was 5) Upgrades Level 2 Ultimate Cooldown+ & Tactical Cooldown: removed Cover Me: moved to Level 2 Electric Smoke: electrifies Tac dealing 100 damage to enemy Ults and destroys Tacs Level 3 Refuge: removed, integrated into Cover Me NEW ECM Payload: electrifies Ult dealing 10 more damage, destroys enemy deployables NEW Medal of Honor: faster revives and passive triggers running towards knocked allies Dev Note: Bangalore is always fun to play, which also makes her a prime candidate to buff into a flex pick. We’ve updated her upgrades to give her more choices and be a stronger balancing force overall. Similar to how other Controllers are set to answer highly mobile Legends, Bangalore can now be the one to tackle slower, more defensive metas. CAUSTIC Nox Gas Damage Increased to 10-15 (was 4-10) Now causes aim punch to victims when causing damage Caustic’s Health Bar does not show while inside Increased visibility both outside and inside his own gas Green highlighting is still active Clouds now have threat indicators for victims Now Grounds enemies: slowing them once and draining them of movement cooldowns “Slow” changed: immediately drains velocity to the desired speed even if the target is moving at high velocity or in the air Gas now reactive: ordnance and abilities can disable it for 5s when used inside/nearby Abilities NEW Passive: Field Research (was Nox Vision) Gain research points from poisoning enemies, opening unique Death Boxes, and scanning ring consoles Unlock an upgrade point for every 100 research points (max 2) Can uniquely have all 4 upgrades unlocked at once Tactical: Nox Gas Trap Trap health increased to 225 (was 150) Trap can be activated earlier while inflating Reduced toss and stow by 0.1s Increased trap activation radius to 260 (was 140) Increased gas radius to 300 (was 282) Doubled lifetime to 22s (was 11s) Caustic traps take ring damage Increased activation delay to 0.8s (was 0.2s) Traps take bullet damage while inflating Traps take critical (1.4x) damage when hit in the o-ring/base Ultimate: Nox Gas Grenade Reduced cooldown to 2min (was 3m) Reduced toss and stow time by 0.05s Increased projectile speed to 1500 (was 1300) Increase duration to 20s (was 15s) Upgrades Level 2 Parabolic Force & Residual Toxins: removed (integrated into base kit) NEW Extra Traps: one additional charge, increased max in world by 2 Breathe It In: moved to Level 2 Level 3 NEW Gas Fighter: Tac recharges 300% faster while in gas Particle Diffuser: increases Ult radius by +50% Dev Note: At long last Nox Gas is powerful enough to be scary, even lethal again. To balance this out, we’ve made it reactive to explosions and player abilities. We hope this makes Caustic feel powerful and more relevant, while offering opponents a way to counterplay if they’re smart about using resources. AMMO & ATTACHMENTS NEW Hop-Up Booster Grants 100 Locked Hop-Up Points on pick-up Only found in Weapon and Legendary Supply Bins Can not be picked-up without a Locked Hop-Up weapon Does not appear in Loba’s Black Market LOCKED HOP-UPS Accelerator 150 Locked Hop-Up Points to unlock Compatible with Peacekeeper, L-STAR, and Alternator Must have weapon in hand in order to receive additional Ult gain on knock Assist window reduced to 3s (was 10s) Ult gain on knock increased to 30% (was 20%) No longer comes pre-equipped to white, blue, and purple kitted weapons Dev Note: Accelerator has been a very powerful Hop-Up since its addition. We want to keep its power high while incentivizing you to use these weapons more, rather than just shoving them in your secondary slot or sling (looking at you Ballistic mains). Graffiti Mod 300 Locked Hop-Up Points to unlock Compatible with Volt, Spitfire, and EVA-8 Greatly improves weapon handling Slightly increases magazine size Adds paintball rounds for some battlefield flair Gun Shield Generator 250 Locked Hop-Up Points to unlock Compatible with Hemlok, R-301, and Rampage Selectfire Receiver 250 Locked Hop-Up Points to unlock Compatible with Charge Rifle and Prowler Skull Piercer 400 Locked Hop-Up Points to unlock Compatible with Wingman, Longbow, and 30-30 WEAPONS LMG Devotion LMG Widened reverse hipfire spread Removed improved scaling from high-tier barrels and stocks (Previous Hotfix) Mag size reduced to 48 (was 52) (Previous Hotfix) M600 Spitfire & Rampage LMG Widened reverse hipfire spread Dev Note: LMGs were feeling especially oppressive in close quarters combat and reverse hipfire contributes to a lot of that. They’re a strong and relevant weapon class, but recognize that we need to tamp down on some of that spray gameplay. PISTOL Akimbo P2020 (Care Package) Increased damage to 25 (was 24) Decreased reload time Improved hipfire accuracy Added Hop-Up: Kinetic Feeder RE-45 Burst Added to floor loot Also found on Energy Arsenals RE-45 Auto Removed from floor loot SHOTGUN EVA-8 Auto (Previous Hotfix) Damage per pellet increased to 7 (was 6) Reduced rate of fire Purple and Gold bolts now match other shotguns Mozambique Shotgun Slightly tightened blast pattern Increased rate of fire in akimbo and single fire modes Increased rate of fire when using a white or blue shotgun bolt Peacekeeper (Floor Loot) Increased magazine size to 6 (was 5) Increased choke time Widened blast patten Increased rechamber time No longer deals headshot damage MAPS NEW: E-District Daytime Lighting overhaul: now takes place during the day Lotus: new rotation added Added adjacent doorways to many shops for additional flow Removed some buildings and clutter to improve readability MAP ROTATIONS Unranked & Ranked Broken Moon E-District Storm Point Mixtape (August 5-September 15, 2025) TDM: Thunderdome, Fragment, Skull Town Control: Lava Siphon, Barometer, Production Yard Gun Run: Skull Town, Thunderdome, Zeus Station MODES Trios & Duos (August 5-September 15, 2025) Wildcard (August 5-18, 2025) Second Chance Revivals Legend stacking possible Self Revive Drop Kit Simplified Loot & Inventory Auto Looting EVO Orbs Level up weapons Reduce respawn timers Grant a percentage of shield & Ult charge Kickstart health regen Wildcard (September 9-15, 2025) Return to core Wildcard experience RANKED Drop Zones Details Match start: squads are randomly assigned a POI Pre-Legend Select: players are presented with a map preview of Drop Zone After Legend Select: players deploy via squad Dropship to assigned zone with nearby enemy POIs marked for imminent threat During landing: added warning for incoming threats if an enemy squad invades Drop Zone Dev Note: Ranked matches should allow you to get into the match before it’s over—bad drops can ruin that and lose you RP. Drop Zones means that all players will land at relatively the same time and have a shot at survival without waiting for the Dropship to unload. Contested drops are still possible, but limited and manageable: no more will half the lobby drop on the same POI. You’ll get the best chance at loot in your assigned Drop Zone, but efficient looting is still important in case enemies invade. Heat Shields Heat Shields are disabled in Ranked Dev Note: Stalling near the Ring and doing long out-of-Ring rotations will now be even riskier. You’ll need to rely on good positioning in order to survive into the late game. SCORING Challenger Bonus: reworked bonuses when eliminating higher-ranked opponents If the killer’s rank is 1 tier lower than the victim: KP +15% bonus If the gap is 2 tiers: +25% bonus If the gap is 3 tiers: +35% bonus If the gap is 4 tiers or more: +50% bonus Entry Cost Adjustment Bronze: 10 RP (was 0 RP) Gold: 38RP (was 35 RP) Platinum: 48 RP (was 45 RP) Kill Points Adjustment 1st: 20 RP (was 26 RP) 2nd: 18 RP (was 22 RP) 3rd: 16 RP (was 18 RP) 4th: 14 RP (was 16 RP) 5th: 12 RP (was 16 RP) 6th: 10 RP (was 16 RP) 7th: 10 RP (was 14 RP) 8th: 10 RP (was 14 RP) 9th: 8 RP (was 12 RP) 10th: 8 RP (was 12 RP) 11th-15th: 6 RP (was 10 RP) 16th-20th: 4 RP (was 10 RP) Placement Points Adjustment 2nd Place: 100 RP (was 95 RP) 3rd Place: 75 RP (was 70 RP) 6th Place: 40 RP (was 30 RP) SYSTEM Added report option for Wallhacking/Impossible Gamesense Dev Note: Based on your feedback and the Reddit AMA, the Wallhack report option is back! If you encounter impossible game sense, let us know by reporting them. BUG FIXES Burst weapon firing sounds now stop if the weapon overheated due to Ballistic's Tac Fixed inconsistent behavior when picking up some weapon attachments Fixed intermittent issues when predicting aim punches from ring damage Firing Range: fixed a few bugs that allowed other players in the server to impact your game Replicator: can no longer craft on a side with an item printing Ring visual effects now consistently show up in Kings Canyon Storm Point’s Northpad Tower drops sniper loot again Ziprails make a first person noise when attaching LEGENDS Wattson Corrected the used weapon name for eliminations from electrified door Dropping Gold Helmet no longer removes effects of Energized Healer upgrade (Previous Hotfix) Double doors no longer have one door electrified if the other breaks Ultimate Conductor no longer gives Ult charge from self damage (Previous Hotfix) Ultimate Conductor gives burst Ult charge correctly Bangalore: Ult missile no longer destroyed if it hits Newcastle Tac QUALITY OF LIFE Bots: improvements to behavior Lifeline: updated Halo’s enemy coloring to help differentiate against the ring Newcastle: Ult can now be targeted and placed over Alter’s Tac portals Replicator: updated color and associated assets to blue (was purple) Vantage: scanning an enemy will no longer show shield information if enemy’s eliminated. Previously, dead enemies would show if banner was active. (Previous Hotfix) Wattson: electrified doors no longer end if the fence placer dies or disconnects Updates and tuning to some VFX, primarily on 1P Impact FX revolving around Armor and Flesh Impacts Armor: 90% less smoke, 40% less debris Flesh: less lingering blood with shorter lifespan, smaller blood size debris AUDIO Reduced occlusion of roof footsteps for clarity and consistency Skydiving audio will be quieter in intended in certain situations Mic monitor in audio settings now displays for solo players in lobby GRAPHICS New tonemapping for a more natural appearance of highlights with very bright colors VFX: more consistent brightness regardless of in-game auto exposure, preventing extreme brightness in dark areas Apex Legends™: Showdown Patch Notes 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. †Not available in all territories.
Apex Legends™: Takeover Patch Notes
OVERVIEW There’s no better way to kick off year seven of Apex Legends than upping the heat of battle. Two heavy hitters that have been in the background a bit too long make their way center stage with updates worthy of Apex Predators, and revamped perks raise up the rest of the Assault Class. No weapon is a bad weapon with buffs across the board for every piece that you can get your hands on. This new meta is cooking and it’s safe to say that this anniversary season flips the season of Support to one of aggression. Coupled with some strong updates for Armor and Helmets, greater access to weapons with the new Arsenals, and reduced visual clutter and time-to-kill has never been faster. It’s a whole new Outlands—be ready to fight. LEGEND BUFFS Leading the charge this season are two Assault Legends who’ve been flying under the radar and are ready to explode: Ash and Ballistic. ASH Ash sees a number of improvements this season to her Arc Snare and Phase Breach to make them more effective and reliable. Her snare change lets her snag targets against the strong edge of the tether more often. Her Ult goes farther, travels faster, and endpoint detection has improved to make the targeting stickier and less prone to accidental bad snapping. The big change for Ash is her new passive: Predator's Pursuit. This grants her an omnidirectional short-range dash—enabling her to close the gap on a tethered target or evade swiftly in a close-quarters skirmish. With these changes, Ash is set to become the Apex Predator she was always meant to be. BALLISTIC Ballistic sees some of his favorite upgrades, the extra charge and sling levelling, integrated into his base kit, giving him more utility and versatility in the early game. A new Level 3 upgrade allows him to double his Whistler charges, opening up his utility and crowd control potential immensely. Tempest, his Ult, now also grants a speed bonus—making him a frightening force when he and his team bare down on you. But the big guns? Ballistic's sling can now carry crate weapons, which can spool with infinite ammo when Tempest is active. In Takeover, Ballistic may very well relive his glory days. ASSAULT CLASS PERKS Assault Legends are walking arsenals: forged in combat and always ready for a fight. Their abilities grant them incredible combat utility that helps disrupt enemies, threaten their positions, or give them openings to strike. These Legends are enhanced with perks that let them worry less about their weapon economy, bring more explosive power to the table, and give them the combat edge to capitalize on one of core moments in any combat encounter—the shield break. Combat Reserve Carry extra ammo per ammo stack Have two new grenade-only slots in inventory Retain access to Red Extended Supply Bins Stowed Reload: stowed weapons automatically reload after 2s Battle Surge: breaking an enemy’s shields grants a speed burst, fast reloads, and highlights the target enemy for 4s WEAPON BUFFS, HELMETS AND ARMOR Over the years, Apex has evolved in so many ways to provide players with more agency and deeper options for how to play, survive, and express their skill. Through that evolution, the benchmark damage for our weapons has stayed stable, but has grown stale. We want to make sure the nuanced flow of combat remains tight and weapons are lethal in order to provide exciting gameplay options. Battle Royales are all about strategy and timing. These are the mechanisms to success, but strategy goes right out the window if encounters are taking too long to resolve and you're dealing with your 3rd, 4th, or even 5th party. This latest suite of changes is designed to keep you in the drivers seat by providing the tools to resolve conflicts faster, getting you back to if the 3rd party is coming and not when. In addition to sweeping weapon buffs, we have taken a look at the defensive side of loot in Apex with some hefty streamlining. Low tier Helmets (white, blue, and purple) have been removed, and rare high value Helmets that provide meaningful gameplay perks have been added in their place. As for Armor, you will no longer level into red tier (125 shields) at Level 4 but will instead be capped at Level 3 (100 shields). However, red shields will still be available in the form of the new Mythic Armor Upgrade Helmet. MUZZLE FLASH Visual clutter in gunfights is no joke. In an attempt to combat this, we’ve reduced the effects and particles you see when you fire your weapon. We believe this update balances increased visual clarity while still selling the impact and fantasy of firing our weapons. All 1P weapons muzzle flashes have been updated 95% less visual noise over the line of sight (sparks, smoke, glows etc) Noise/visuals kept below line of sight Reduced size of muzzle flashes Optimized particle count Cleaned noise from shells ejects Cleaned lingering elements (smoke, sparks, etc) Light toned down to avoid flickering on weapons and environment models PATCH NOTES BALANCE UPDATES Care Package R-99 returns to the floor (balance details below) Peacekeeper enters the Care Package (balance details below) Gold Weapon Rotation Alternator, R-99, Wingman, 30-30 Repeater, Rampage LMG EVO Max level achievable by earning EVO is now Level 3 (Purple Armor) Red Armor no longer earnable through leveling EVO required to reach Level 3 increased to 1700 (was 1350) Dev Note: Red armor allowed for a much wider health disparity in the mid to late game which reinforced activities like farming damage on the outskirts and avoiding encounters to collect resources. By lowering the total Armor available to these actions and the levels required to earn them, you can now get end-game ready more easily and focus on what matters most—the fight. Accelerated Weapons Assists with an Accelerated Weapon equipped will no longer grant the extra 30% ult charge in Mixtape Modes GAMEPLAY UPDATES NEW Arsenals These stations provide players with easy and deterministic access to weapons and ammo of their choice. Stations across all POI's on every map with fixed locations Ammo type provided randomizes each match Equipped with an enhancing terminal that upgrades one weapon matching the ammo type per Arsenal Enhancing grants an upgraded attachment and provides an optic if one is missing Healing Cells now take 2.5s to complete (was 3s) Syringes now take 4s (was 5s) Cells & Syringes now stack up to 6 Players now start with 4 Cells and 4 Syringes (was 2 each) Battery and Medkit spawn rates have been slightly increased Dev Note: Players will undoubtedly need to continue popping meds whenever they can with lowered max health, a universal gold helmet perk, and a ton of weapon buffs. We’ve decided to shave down some of those sharp edges to make healing a little easier across the board. Helmets White, blue, and purple have been removed from the loot pool Players no longer start with a white helmet Dev Note: Finding and equipping Helmets has always been a bit lackluster in both feeling the impact of wearing one and making the potential damage output a bit murky. Removing headshot damage reduction from the game makes damage more consistent, understandable, and easier to calculate. Gold Helmet Reworked into Gold Armor Upgrade Helmet Offers Improved Minor Healing perk that doubles the output of Cells & Syringes Sets the player’s Armor to 100 regardless of Level Leveling still required to unlock Legend Upgrades, but no longer affects armor while equipped No headshot damage reduction Chance to appear in Gold Bins after Bin Reset NEW Mythic Armor Upgrade Helmet Red tier introduced Sets player’s armor to 125 regardless of level Leveling is still required to unlock Legend Upgrades, but no longer affects armor while this item is equipped Red helmets offer no headshot damage reduction Appears in the Mythic Bin & late game Care Packages Dev Note: Both the new Gold and Red Helmets are designed to pull some of the passive power embedded in Legends and put it into the loot pool to create new items to chase and fight for. They’ll also create dynamic gameplay options for players to strategize which squadmates don these powerful new items. Knocked Down State Significantly increased crawl speed while knocked with and without knockdown shield raised POI Names on Drop Now able to see the name and loot tier of each POI projected over the POI during first drop Also includes Arsenal info to help drive drop choice AMMO & ATTACHMENTS Hop Ups: Hammerpoints have been removed from the loot pool Gold Magazines: time to reload while stowed decreased to 2s (was 5s) Optics: 1x Holo optic has been removed from the loot pool Replicator: reduced the amount of ammo to 1 stack per weapon (was 2 stacks) WEAPONS AR Havoc Rifle [Care Package] Damage increased to 21 (was 18) Headshot damage: 27 Beam Shot damage increased to 70 (was 53) Beam Shot headshot damage: 105 Hemlok Burst AR Damage increased to 20 (was 19) Headshot damage: 26 Nemesis Burst AR Damage increased to 17 (was 16) Headshot damage: 22 R-301 Carbine Damage increased to 14 (was 13) Headshot damage: 18 VK-47 Flatline Damage increased to 19 (was 18) Headshot damage: 25 LMG Devotion LMG Damage increased to 16 (was 15) Headshot damage: 20 L-STAR EMG Damage increased to 20 (was 18) Headshot damage: 25 M600 Spitfire Damage increased to 21 (was 19) Headshot damage: 26 Rampage LMG Damage increased to 30 (was 26) Headshot damage: 38 Reduced the decay rate of the revved state over time MARKSMAN 30-30 Repeater No charge damage increased to 43 (was 39) No charge headshot damage: 69 Full charge damage increased to 58 (was 53) Full charge headshot damage: 93 Slightly increased projectile size at long range Bocek Compound Bow [Care Package] Damage increased to 75 (was 70) Headshot damage: 120 Fire rate slightly reduced Removed Deadeye’s Tempo passive Shattercaps damage per pellet increased to 13 (was 12) G7 Scout Damage increased to 35 (was 33) Headshot damage: 56 Fire rate slightly reduced Slightly increased projectile size at long range Triple Take Damage per bullet increased to 22 (was 21) Headshot damage: 105 (all bullets) Slightly increased projectile size at long range Dev Note: Marksman weapons sit between the mid-range arsenal and snipers, but find themselves often outclassed by one of their neighbors. Their adjustments this season should make them feel more consistent at range, improve their performance when tracking enemies, and staying on target while providing headshots without stealing the play-making potential of our snipers. PISTOL P2020 Damage increased to 24 (was 21) Headshot damage: 30 RE-45 Auto Damage increased to 14 (was 13) Headshot damage: 18 Wingman Damage increased to 48 (was 45) Headshot damage: 72 Base magazine size reduced to 5 (was 6) With added magazine - White: 6, Blue: 7, Purple/Gold: 8 SMG Alternator SMG Damage increased to 18 (was 16) Headshot damage: 22 C.A.R. SMG Damage increased to 14 (was 13) Headshot damage: 17 Added Laser Sight barrel attachment Prowler PDW Damage increased to 16 (was 15) Headshot damage: 19 R-99 SMG [Floor Loot] Damage decreased to 13 (was 14) Headshot damage: 16 No longer has damage fall-off ADS strafe speed normalized to other SMGs No longer eliminates movement penalty when equipped Recoil increased Volt SMG Damage increased to 16 (was 15) Headshot damage: 19 SHOTGUN EVA-8 Auto Damage per pellet increased to 8 (was 7) No longer deals increased headshot damage Mastiff Shotgun Damage per pellet increased to 16 (was 14) No longer deals increased headshot damage Mozambique Shotgun Damage per pellet increased to 16 (was 15) Headshot damage: 60 (all pellets) Peacekeeper [Care Package] Damage per pellet increased to 12 (was 9) Headshot damage: 135 (all pellets) Choke speed significantly increased Fully choked blast pattern is significantly tighter Pellets pierce dealing 50% damage after the first enemy hit Dev Note: Shotguns are receiving a base damage increase, but losing their ability to deal increased headshot damage. They already represent incredible burst damage, but hitting those headshots create sharp output spikes that’s difficult to account for. This change creates a more understandable damage landscape that encourages players to land as many pellets as possible (instead of aiming for the head and whiffing half of them). Mozambiques will retain their headshot damage as a hybrid shotgun-pistol and the Care Package version of the Peacekeeper also keeps it to really lean into that slug shotty territory. SNIPER Charge Rifle Base damage unchanged Headshot damage (min. distance): 135 Headshot damage (max. distance): 198 Autofire headshot damage (min. distance): 101 Autofire headshot damage (max. distance): 149 Limb damage reduced to 70% (was 90%) Kraber .50-Cal Sniper Damage increased to 150 (was 140) Headshot damage: 210 Longbow DMR Base damage unchanged Headshot damage: 108 Limb damage reduced to 70% (was 80%) Sentinel Base damage unchanged Headshot damage: 126 Limb damage reduced to 70% (was 90%) Removed Deadeye’s Tempo passive Dev Note: For our Snipers, we’ve tuned their headshot damage to be much more impactful rather than increase their base body shot damage. This is to key into their role and fantasy as precision weapons that reward patient and skilled gameplay. To hammer this home, we’ve reduced the amount of damage they deal to limbs. These weapons benefit greatly from well placed shots and we don’t want that to change. LEGENDS Assault Class Perks New perks: Combat Reserve, Stowed Reload, & Battle Surge (detailed above) Removed Carry Extra Ammo & Access Weapon Supply Bin perks (now integrated into Combat Reserve) Support Class Perks Heal Expert Removed: Support Legends no longer heal double with small meds or have increased movement speed while healing Dev Note: The Support Class was very strong last season. The faster movement and double small med heals gave these Legends rapid combat-reset potential that made them effective skirmishers, but didn’t inherently have a team-oriented feel. While this was great during the season of Support, we felt their identity was stronger as revival experts and this change will let them focus on that team-oriented specialization rather than feeling hard to kill. Ash Predator’s Pursuit Removed ability to scan Death Boxes to reveal killers, but they’ll still show on the minimap and map with info on how recently they died NEW: press the Jump key while in the air to perform a dash Arc Snare Tether plants at location of projectile on impact rather than the hit player's location Tether is slightly harder to break and no longer gets instantly broken by some abilities Phase Breach Range increased to 100m (was ~76m) Travel time reduced Improved reliability of placement Removed one frame delay on placement preview Now has VFX to show max range when in placement mode Upgrades: Level 2 Murder Machine: removed One Minute to Live: removed Greedy Snare: moved to Level 2 NEW Dual Breach: adds additional ult charge Upgrades: Level 3 NEW Ghost in the Machine: adds additional Dash charge Dev Note: Ash was overdue for some improvements to her kit to resurge her as a top Apex Predator. Many of her changes aim to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of her abilities: the improved placement, distance and speed of her Ult, and the snare’s tether point snagging from the projectile’s point rather than her escaping target. Most notably, Ash sees the addition of a brand new movement passive - reminiscent of her titan’s ability of yore. Her new dash is an incredibly effective mid-combat repositioning tool or distance closer making her a more effective skirmisher when closing in on her prey or quickly out-maneuvering in a duel. We expect to see a lot of impressive Ash players rise to the top with many of her upgrades doubling her abilities this season. Ballistic Sling Now upgrades with Level by default Can now carry Crate Weapons and they will gain infinite ammo with Ult Whistler Tac now has 2 charges Overheat reaction time increased to 1.2s (was 1s) Smart Bullet on ground damage increased to 20 (was 10) This damage is now equal to the direct hit damage Tempest: squad gains a speed boost when empowered by Ult Upgrades: Level 2 Sling Shot: removed (integrated into base kit) NEW Killing Time: increases duration of Ult by 15s Upgrades: Level 3 Extra Bullets: doubles the number of Tac charges (was +1 charge) Quiet Time: Overheat now also silences enemy for 6s Dev Note: Ballistic has had a few updates, but has never really found his footing to lead the charge. Integrating the Sling and extra bullet upgrades into his kit gives more players access to the core of the Legend while empowering his Ult with speed—increasing his natural combat effectiveness and encouraging his squad to push and engage. Allowing Ballistic to carry a Crate Weapon in his Sling has always been something we’ve been dubious of, but this season we’re taking a bold stance to let Ballistic go…well, ballistic. The increased number of Tac charges should also allow players to more freely deploy the Overheat into their combat patterns or control the field if they also opt into the lasting bullet upgrade, giving more range of play and options for Ballistic. Crypto EMP: once again destroys Gibraltar’s Dome of Protection Loba Ult back to starting at 50% charge Dev Note: This was always intended as a short term buff to help Loba shine among an all-star Support lineup. However, it messed with the delicate dance that is landing off drop, which impacted long standing 'good' player behaviors around landing near your squad, looting, and using abilities into slightly more disruptive behaviors. Maggie Wrecking Ball Once again destroys Gibraltar’s Dome of Protection Will now destroy Newcastle’s Mobile Shield Dev Note: We’re returning these hard counters to empower Maggie in this Assault-focused season…for now. MAPS Pubs Kings Canyon Olympus Broken Moon Ranked Kings Canyon Olympus Storm Point Mixtape February 11-March 24, 2025 TDM: Thunderdome, Habitat, Skull Town, Estates, Zeus Station Control: Lava Siphon, Barometer, Labs, Caustic, Thunderdome Gun Run: Wattson, Estates, Thunderdome, Fragment, Skull Town MODES Mythic Mayhem Royale (February 11-March 3, 2025) Rampart’s new experimental care packages deliver three Mythic R-301 weapon variants Hornet (Yellow): faster movement and reload speed, Tac charge on shield break, Ult charge on knock Limelight (Green): helps replenish your squad’s health and shields when damaging enemies Vermilion (Red): increases critical hit damage and triggers Thermite on knocked enemies Redemption Trios & Duos (February 25-March 3, 2025) In collaboration with Creator Commissioner: Ninjayla Respawn Tokens are a new Mythic rarity Survival Slot item only available in this Takeover. If you are eliminated with this item in your inventory, you’ll immediately respawn back into the action At the start of the match, all players are given one Respawn Token Collect additional Respawn Tokens from: eliminating other players, Care Packages, and Mythic Supply Bins No respawn limit and no penalty for respawning multiple times Usable until the start of the final ring, then any equipped Respawn Tokens will be exchanged for EVO Armor XP They only last a short while when on the ground, so pick one up if you need one! Respawn Beacons can still be used to bring back players without Respawn Tokens Relic Weapons Trios & Duos (March 4-10, 2025) In collaboration with Creator Commissioner: Ninjayla Weapons spawn fully kitted Only weapons on the ground are Gold and Mythic tier Sights can be looted and swapped out, but all other attachments come with the weapon Increased supply drops each round which carry two Mythic tier weapons The second Mythic weapon replaces the Evo Caches Reduced Evo for scanning Care Packages Standard Trios & Duos March 11-24, 2025 LTM: Three Strikes Mystery Legends (March 11-24, 2025) In collaboration with Creator Commissioner: Oraxe Three Strikes returns with a twist modifier Mystery Legends All Legends will be selected for you before entering the Drop Ship Respawning will select a new random Legend Squads can have duplicate Legends With each EVO level up, you’ll gain all upgrades for that Level automatically and your Level will be maintained through respawns RANKED NEW Road to Ranked Challenges Introduced a new set of challenges to unlock Ranked for new players and returning players who have not yet reached the level requirement. Level 20 minimum still required to access Ranked and this is reflected as one of the challenges Existing players above Level 20 retain access Party restrictions apply: all members must complete challenges to access Ranked Dev Note: The previous system of only requiring Level 20 was very prone to abuse by third-party bots, and could also be achieved by players who preferred Mixtape or LTMs. This new system will ensure that all new players joining Ranked have done the required work in BR matches and tested their mettle to a sufficient level to earn a spot in the competition. SYSTEM NEW Bot Royale Tutorial Notes will appear to assist with Legends, weapons, loot, and gameplay scenarios Low ammo or health items also receive prompts to ping nearby desired loot items On by default for accounts below Level 20 and will turn off once that threshold is reached Can be manually turned on/off through the System menu under “Tutorial Systems” Weapon Mastery Trial simplification Re-designed all trials Removed weapon level restriction for trials Dev Note: The current Weapon Mastery system presented some issues, including overly complex gating mechanics that disrupt progression, trials demanding high player skill levels, and excessive reliance on randomness that can slow or stall progress. These new trials remove unnecessary randomness, shifting the focus back to the essence of weapon usage: dealing damages and eliminating enemies. If you’ve already completed trials and earned rewards they will remain unaffected. If your trials were partially completed or 90% done, no problem! Your progress will be converted, no need to start over. BUG FIXES Fixed an issue where the Mythic Bin could become merged with a Gold Bin Fixed more firing range realm spawning issues: Thermite VFX Maggie ball bouncing off of invisible doors Mirage decoys getting stuck on invisible doors Fixed rare issue that could prevent the ring VFX and other particles from spawning Mixtape: swapping to secondary akimbo weapons from loadouts will no longer play the first draw animation PK will no longer occasionally lock up after using the Choke Rechamber times can no longer be bypassed on the Sentinel and PK by swapping attachments Reactive weapons will no longer lose their reactive state after swapping Squadmate animations once again play during Legend selection "View upgrades" button in Legend locker will no longer take you to friends list LEGENDS Alter / Ash / Wraith: Void Vision (enemy highlighting) no longer applies on enemy portals Alter: Upgrades Tactical Cooldown+ and Void Vision returned to correct tier placements Lifeline Crashing will no longer occur when gliding or using the D.O.C. Heal Drone Gliding will no longer occasionally lower performance Pathfinder grapple can once again attach to D.O.C. Halo Mirage Fixed a crash that could occur when using Mirage's Ult near Gravity Cannons Lifeline’s D.O.C. now cloaks properly to prevent revealing Mirage (previous hotfix) Newcastle: Ult no longer canceled by Ash’s snare Revenant Resolved rare crash that could occur when pouncing Shadow Pounce now plays leap audio when spectating a Revenant Wattson: fixed upgrade that was allowing the placement of two interception pylons Valkyrie: Tac now working inside of D.O.C. Halo and near Dome of Protection’s edges Vantage: sprinting no longer available while using Ult Accelerant QUALITY OF LIFE Added further hardening to prevent hipfire cheats Added Account Level details Info about your Account Level progress and rewards granted at each future level Accessed via Lobby (top left), also displays XP bar and level progress Adjustments to Match Summary XP Gain, Challenge, and Pass progression added to end of match flow Squad Summary section now picks from a small set of stats instead of always showing “Revives,” “Respawns,” and “Time Survived” for unranked Duos and Trios Mixtape: disabled assist Ult gain with accelerated weapons which allowed for some Ults to be used too quickly Reactive skins now show their effects in the lobby menus Some Rat Spots have been eliminated across all maps AI Bots: Cover and Peeking Can now use geometry in the environment as cover Can also utilize “peeking” behavior to provide more of a challenge Plethora of bug fixes across all parts of the Bot experience Improvements and tuning on Easy and Normal difficulty Bots (E1 - N3 Difficulty) AUDIO Added Mono output option for players with limited hearing Mono audio combines left and right sound channels into one, making it easier for players with hearing impairments to hear all audio cues. It ensures no important sounds are missed, regardless of ear or stereo positioning. Friendly footsteps volume and audible distance reduced Friendly skydive volume reduced to allow for strategizing during drop (enemy volumes unchanged) Increased importance for zipline attach/detach and doors to ensure they are heard more consistently Reduced volume of squadmate and ambient audio while enemies are being revived Reduced volume for Fuse's Tac and Ult Reduced volume for Survey Beacons and Ring Consoles for self and squadmates (enemy volumes unchanged) Dev note: Audio can be crucial whether you’re the squad attacking or the one being attacked. We’ve adjusted multiple audio cues to assist with combat effectiveness, and have a few more initiatives in the works to optimize audio throughout the match. GRAPHICS Improved CPU rendering performance on all consoles DX12 (PC) Changed the way that ultrawide monitors handle 16:9 and 16:10 resolutions in full-screen mode. They will now have pillarboxing (black borders on left and right) and no stretching. This behavior can be disabled with +mat_wide_pillarbox 0 launch argument, if stretching is desired. CPU rendering performance improved 5%-10% (situation based) and some frame drops may be reduced Added a launch argument +mat_minimize_on_alt_tab 1 that allows behavior similar to DX11 where tabbing away from/clicking out of the fullscreen game causes Apex to minimize Improved loading performance after compiling shaders for the first time (up to 30% faster on some systems). Note that shaders always need to be pre-loaded to minimize gameplay stuttering. Added a launch notification for players with incompatible GPUs that DX11 support will be discontinued Play Apex Legends™ for free* now on PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch™, and PC via the EA app, Epic, and Steam. Follow Apex Legends™ on X, Instagram, 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.Latest Update - 13/05/2026
Hi all. We hope you're all enjoying the start to OVERCLOCKED. We have pushed the following fixes for a smoother season experience! ✅FIXED: Xbox voice comms have been reenabled (we are continuing to investigate edge cases) Various server crashes and stability fixes Respawning a teammate from their deathbox now grants intended XP Enemy healthbars are now removed from in-match player UI when disabled in settings On PS5, performance mode settings no longer reset with game relaunch On PS5 and Switch, graphic and brightness settings no longer reset with game relaunch Opening 50 Wishlist upgraded packs no longer results in an error/crash Removed purple dots on Ballistic in the splash screen Axle's Tactical and Ultimate abilities now display the appropriate names Axle's Ultimate no longer targets friendly Mirage decoys Crypto can no longer teleport to his drone in certain circumstances Players are now appropriately shielded by Gibraltar's Tactical from Gibraltar's Ultimate while healing Xbox players are now able to purchase the Ultimate+ Battle Pass by ensuring their Xbox OS is fully updated ⚠️INVESTIGATING: We are continuing to investigate FPS drops and stuttering/hitching on specific hardwareLatest 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)
