Apex Legends’ October 1 Update Fixed Alter’s Ability Bug and Tuned Axle and Wildcard

Apex Legends’ October 1 update fixed unreliable Alter Tactical and Ultimate use near large moving structures, reduced Axle’s mobility, and adjusted Street Fighter 6-themed Wildcard combat. Respawn’s October 1 Steam update notice lists the completed changes.

Axle’s passive sliding lateral control fell by 50%, with a separate 25% reduction for Nitro Gate users, making tight cornering and slide momentum harder to maintain. The Gate’s initial push speed dropped to 650 from 700. Kickstart drones now chase for 8 seconds instead of 10, and their maximum knock-up fell to 650 from 700. A drone that locks on immediately after deployment also causes a significantly smaller knock-up.

Wildcard’s changes give gun users more damage against fighters while limiting repeated Ultimate casts. Fighter’s Defense now reduces incoming damage by 50% instead of 55%, and Ryu, Chun-Li, and Dhalsim can store two Ultimates rather than three. The changes leave those fighters’ Ultimate charge rate and damage output alone. Fight Gauge now regenerates when players are outside Fighter Form and below one pip, addressing shortages that can follow the destruction of K.O. Trucks.

The new adjustments follow the September 24 update notice, which covered plans to make blocking drain Fighter Gauge faster, prevent damage from extending Fighter Mode, and bring Core Wildcard back alongside Apex K.O.

Patch Notes for Apex Legends: Latest Update – 10/01/2026

✅ FIXED:

ALTER

• Unreliable tac and ult usage near large moving structures

🛠️ ADJUSTED:

AXLE

Passive:

• Sliding lateral control nerfed by 50% (making it harder to maintain slide momentum while tightly cornering)

Tactical:

• Sliding lateral control nerfed by 25% for Nitro Gate users
• Aim assist is disabled for players under the effect of the Nitro Gate
• Nerfed Nitro Gate initial push speed to 650 from 700

Ultimate:

• If the Kickstart drone locks on immediately after being deployed, the resulting knock-up is significantly decreased
• Nerfed max knock-up magnitude to 650 from 700
• Nerfed max drone chase time to 8s from 10s (meaning it’ll give-up on an active chase 2s sooner)

WILDCARD:

We are continuing to track community feedback regarding Apex KO and are making a few additional tuning changes to address player painpoints.

• Reduced Fighter’s Defense from 55% damage reduction to 50%
  Dev Note : We’re still seeing that fighters are difficult to take down in a 1v1 Gun vs Fighter combat situation. This change will give players using guns a bit more damage when encountering a charging fighter. We’ll continue to keep an eye on fighter combat performance.
• Reduced the max number of Ult charges for Ryu, Chun-Li and Dhalsim from 3 to 2
  Dev Note : We’ve been seeing situations where fighters are able to cast multiple Ultimate abilities in a row to completely decimate enemy teams without reasonable time for those teams to respond. Without changing the rate at which Fighters accumulate their Ultimate meter or their damage output, we’ve reduced the total number of stored ultimate for these fighters by 1.
• Enabled passive Fight Gauge regen when not in Fighter Form and below 1 pip of Fight Gauge
  Dev Note : We’ve observed potential droughts of Fight Gauge Tokens mid-match as K.O. Trucks are destroyed. To counter this, we’re enabling a passive regen on your Fight Gauge. The goal here is to allow players to access Fighter Form more often and be prepared for their next encounter.

Have Fight Gauge Token droughts affected how often you can enter Fighter Form in Apex K.O.? For more updates on the Street Fighter crossover and its changing Wildcard rules, follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.

Apex Legends

Developed by Respawn Entertainment

Conquer with character in Apex Legends, a free-to-play Hero shooter where legendary characters with powerful abilities team up to battle for fame & fortune on the fringes of the Frontier.

Master an ever-growing roster of diverse Legends, deep tactical squad play and bold new innovations that go beyond the Battle Royale experience—all within a rugged world where anything goes. Welcome to the next evolution of Hero Shooter.

• Genre Shooter, Tactical
• Platforms Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch 2, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
• Perspective First person
• Modes Multiplayer, Co-operative, Battle Royale
• Release February 4, 2019
• Publisher Electronic Arts
• Age Rating

PlayStation Store Xbox Store Nintendo eShop Steam Epic Games Store Explore Apex Legends Official Site