Apex Legends, the Battle Royale shooter released by Respawn Entertainment, is here to surprise its fans again. The patch notes for Season 22 have been revealed, and plenty of changes including Class Perks and Balance are coming through.
With the release of Season 22, there will be a new map E-District, which is an urban island district with numerous buildings, and the map accentuates on verticality, and creates landscapes to host solid fights and excitement within end-ring locations. This map will be solely available in Pubs and Ranked for a limited time.
Furthermore, there will be tons of other changes coming through. Some of the more exciting changes are related to the weapons, so let’s see what exactly has been changed.
- The EVA-8 returns to the floor with increased damage and adjustments to its fire rate.
- The R-99 enters the Care Package with improved recoil and a new damage fall-off feature.
A new hop-up, the Gun Shield Generator, has been introduced for all LMGs, providing a frontal shield when aiming down sights. Additionally, the Alternator, CAR, Devotion, Flatline, Havoc, Hemlok, P2020, Mozambique, Mastiff, Peacekeeper, R-301, RE-45, and Rampage have all received tweaks to their magazine sizes, damage and recoil.
Last but not least, Controller and Recon classes are getting new tactical class passives. Controller legends now benefit from Zone Overcharge getting extra shield capacity when playing inside the zone, and Recon gain Threat Vision, showing and highlighting enemies when in ADS.
Get charged up for Shockwave’s launch with class perks, balance and Legend updates, and more.
NEW ENERGY, MORE ACTION
Grab the squad, because the Games have a whole new energy! Drop back into the fight with Revivals, feel your power surge with Akimbo, use two new Battle Sense features to narrow in on your enemies in the heat of the fight, and more updates that make the Outlands legendary for all. Hone your skills in Bot Royale and hit new heights in E-District, your very own neon playground. Customize Stat Trackers to suit your needs or your ships, and you’ll automatically unlock three new ones for logging in this season. Time to Tap in, Legend.
Read the full breakdown of Shockwave’s highlights, including Revivals and Bot Royale, in our dedicated blog here.
NEW MAP: E-DISTRICT
This map was designed to offer players a fresh and innovative experience. While it retains the core elements that define a great Apex map, we also pushed the boundaries by incorporating numerous buildings, emphasizing verticality, and creating varied landscapes. These changes ensure some of the most diverse fights and end-ring locations across the map.
Read the full breakdown of this latest map addition in our Welcome to E-District blog here.
SHOCKWAVE MAP ROTATION
The following maps will be available in Pubs and Ranked for the first half of this season:
- Broken Moon
- E-District
- Storm Point
As an introduction to our newest map, E-District will be the dedicated featured map for a limited time. Let the energy of the neon lights energize your squad with each Pub match for the first week and each Ranked match for the first 72 hours of the season.
CONTROLLER & RECON CLASS PERKS
This season we’re beginning a much more intentional push on what classes mean to the core of the game by bringing new tactical class passives to the Controller and Recon classes. Both will continue to bring strategic depth to their squad via interactions with Survey Beacons and Ring Consoles, but they’ll now have new intrinsic power that better supports their role on the team.
CONTROLLER CLASS
NEW CLASS PERK
- Zone Overcharge: Controller Legends now have extra shield capacity when playing in zone
- The Zone automatically grants an overcharge of 25HP shield capacity
- This capacity is permanent while the player remains in zone (white ring area on the map)
- Overcharge is lost when leaving zone (after 5s delay)
- Overcharge can be healed with cells, batteries and abilities while in zone
- If a player enters the zone at full shields, the overcharge pip will fill automatically
- If a player acquires a shield core that overcharges beyond this extra zone capacity, that additional overcharge will still drain normally but the zone overcharge will remain
- Zone Overcharge will never enhance Legend Armor beyond maximum (red) capacity
NEW QUALITY OF LIFE
- Remote Pick-Up: Controller Legends can now remotely pick-up their undamaged Tacticals by looking back at them and pressing a button
- Additionally, if the player abandons the area, they will prompted to recover ALL possible objects
- Remotely recovering these objects will restore the Tactical charge
Dev Note: Controller Legends are at their best when playing for zone position. This season, we’re rewarding that behavior in Legends who don’t want to skim the edges of battle hunting for EVO, and instead allow them to maintain an equal footing on their armor when playing to their strengths. Gaining knowledge of the next ring and keeping a good position will be important to maintaining this advantage.
Additionally, we noticed that many newer players to the Controller Class struggle with management of their Tacticals. This takes a step towards making it more desirable to experiment with traps or to feel more comfortable setting up shop with less worry about having to abandon your entire setup to move to a slightly better building. We want Controller players to play with their kit more freely and not have to do extra running around to recycle charges or feel locked into their setup if they have to move.
RECON CLASS
NEW CLASS PERK
- Threat Vision: Recon Legends now gain threat vision when aiming down sights
- Threat vision will highlight enemies that the character has Line of Sight to whenever using ADS (aim down sights)
- This ability will not work through walls or smoke, and it’s limited in range by the type of scope or zoom range of an ability
SURVEY BEACONS
- Faster to use ~3s (was ~7.5s)
- Shortened range of ~500m (was scanning the entire map)
- No longer randomly distributed and all will now be turned on with every map
- Scanning now grants 75 EVO (was 200 EVO)
- Now pulses 3 times over 15s, with each pulse taking a snapshot of enemies in range for 5s
- Now release a large in-world scan wave that players can spot to identify an activated beacon (enemies no longer receive a scan message)
- Enemies scanned will display along the edges of the mini-map even if not in
Dev Note: Recon Legends are defined as Legends who are about Enemy Intel & Tracking; which is a core part of each character’s play pattern, but to date, the only class benefit was something players had to seek out via Survey Beacons. We’re ratcheting up the scouting role for Recon Legends this season and putting class power directly into their hands. With ADS Threat Vision, these characters are now adept at spotting distant targets for their team, and now innately do something that no other class can.
The changes to Survey Beacons should allow players to make them a more tactical part of their play, rather than just a strategic element. The full map scan was really only useful to a small number of high level players, and often the scan messaging would turn your team into a magnet for others to hunt. Now, being more frequent, faster to use, and giving more intel for longer makes it easier to use the beacons with confidence and hunt in the immediate area or note secure paths out of a POI for rotation.
UPDATE: STAT TRACKERS
We’ve made a huge quality of life upgrade to Stat Trackers and are separating out the Stat and the Art. You’ll now be able to set these on your Legend Banner Cards separately. The Art on your trackers have also been made universal, which means they can be applied to any Legend Banner Card. We wanted to give players more ways to customize their Banner Cards and let you show off your more than just one Legend there. It’s also a great way to show off your Legend ships!
Login at any point during Shockwave to automatically unlock three new Stat Trackers to add to your mix and match collection.
SHOCKWAVE BATTLE PASS
For a summary of the updated Battle Pass offerings, please check out our dedicated blog and infographic here. Here’s a TLDR:
- With the launch of Season 22 on August 6th through Split 1, we want to give you an opportunity to get the Premium Battle Pass. You can unlock it by completing a series of simple in-game challenges before the end of Split 1 on September 17th at 10:00am PT:
- Play 2 matches in Trios on a specific map
- Deal 1,000 damage as a Recon or Controller Legend in BR
- Open 15 Supply Bins in any mode
- Deal 500 damage in BR with a specific weapon
- Complete 10 levels of the Battle Pass
- Starting with Split 2 on September 17th, you can get the Premium Battle Passes the same way as before: by using 950 Apex Coins. You’ll be able to earn enough Apex Coins via the Battle Pass to get future passes.
- The Battle Pass options now include better rewards—and with the re-tuned Battle Pass challenges, it’ll be faster to complete at only 60 levels.
BALANCE UPDATESCare Package
- EVA-8 returns to the floor
- Blast pattern size slightly increased
- Damage increased to 7 (was 6)
- Fire rate decreased
- Now takes Boosted Loader Hop-Up
- 4 shots remaining activation
- Quick reload overflows Magazine by 2
- Slight increase to recoil
- R-99 enters the Care Package
- ADS strafe speed increased
- Improved recoil
- New Feature: Damage fall-off
- Damage increased to 14 at close range
- Damage falls off to 10 at 11+ meters
- No movement penalty when equipped
- EVO Cache Spawn Rate in the first wave increased to 100% (was 50%)
Gold Weapon Rotation
- Mozambique Akimbo, P2020 Akimbo, R-301, Rampage, Sentinel
GAMEPLAY UPDATESAim Assist
- Console crossplay into PC lobbies: Aim Assist strength reduced 18%
- Console performance mode crossplay into PC lobbies: Aim Assist strength reduced 22%
- Controller on PC: Aim Assist strength reduced 25%
Dev Note: We value our accessibility as a cross-platform game, but it’s equally important for us to monitor that ecosystem. Experiential stories from all types of players tracks with the data we’re seeing when it comes to encounter win rate between different peripherals. Apex Legends is a competitive shooter, and simply put, aim assist is too strong. Aim assist will never be removed as it’s a critical accessibility feature. Console lobbies remain unaffected; this only impacts players on controllers in PC lobbies (our most competitive ecosystem). This change doesn’t solve the intricacies of all aim assist hot topics, but it should help level the playing ground.
Aim Flinch
- Aim Flinch has been removed from all weapons & most abilities
- Damage from the ring still incurs Aim Flinch
Dev Note: Let’s be honest, no one really had love for Aim Flinch. We’ve made the call to eliminate it from all weapons and most Legend abilities. However there are some Legend abilities that do benefit from the added feedback like dunking on someone with a Newcastle ult. We’ll keep an eye on abilities that may need additional feedback as we see how this change affects the game.
Loot Bin Reset
Starting with Shockwave, all loot bins will close and reroll their loot with a significantly increased chance at high tier and rare loot at the mid-way point of the match.
- Bins that have been rerolled will appear slightly differently than ones that have never been opened
- After the reset, multiple bins will convert into Legendary loot bins that provide smart loot, guaranteeing that the contents to be relevant upgrades for a squad
Mythic Bin
- One Mythic bin will spawn into the match with:
- One random Care Package weapon
- Gold version weapons of those that the squad is running at the time of opening the bin
- Medical supplies and grenades
- Large XP bonus to the squad
- Mythic bins are locked and require players to hold interact on them for a significant amount of time to crack them open for their team
- Displayed on the map and minimap
Loot Pool
- Reduce the spawn rate of Purple and Gold attachments by about 50%
Dev Note: Access to high tier attachments in the early game have started to feel too common which results in squashing the power progression over the course of a match. By reducing the amount of high tier loot in the early game players will be fighting on more even terms. To compensate for this reduction, “Loot Bin Reset” improves the overall quality of loot in the world which should provide a much smoother transition to end game power.
Reorganization: Death Boxes and Loba’s Black Market
- Healing items now have a dedicated row and have been removed from the consumables category
- Shield Cores have been moved to the top of the Gear category
Dev Note: These items are critical to a player’s success in the outlands, bringing them up to the top with consistent positions should expedite the looting process and eliminate some tedious scrolling for players.
Traversal
- Mantling at the same time in the same spot as a teammate no longer forces both players to drop
Better Ammo Awareness & Feedback
- Critical Ammo state will now kick on when a player has 0 relevant ammo in their inventory
- On screen Low Ammo indicators kick on earlier allowing players more opportunity to find ammo
- Indicator also now displays the icon of the ammo type
- Pinging for ammo will now display the ammo icon in the kill feed
- When emptying a weapon of all reserve ammo it will now automatically ping that the player is in need of ammo
- When looking at ammo on the ground the tooltip now displays compatibility with any of your currently equipped weapons
Dev Note: Running out of ammo is never fun and our low ammo states were set up in a way that didn’t provide much time or information for players to action on. These changes intend to set players up for more success when it comes to maintaining their ammo economy.
Enemy Health Bars
When damaging an enemy, players are now shown the enemy’s Armor and Health state. This Health Bar is only active for a brief time after dealing damage and then fades away. Health Bars, like Enemy Highlights require direct line of sight.
Enemy Highlight
Enemy players will now be highlighted with a red outline similar to how allies are highlighted with a blue one. The highlight is most prominent at close ranges and the intensity fades as targets get farther away. Enemy Highlights require direct line of sight (you can breathe now, Bangalore mains).
Both Enemy Health Bars and Enemy Highlights can be toggled on/off in Settings.
Dev Note: Visual clarity and accurate information are imperative to a player’s success. These new features, Highlighting and Health Bars, are intended to level the playing field and combat the intensity of battle. No one likes mag dumping into their squadmates back because they totally thought that was the enemy Lifeline.
Experienced players can easily develop the skill to call out health values of enemies based on the amount of damage they are dealing and the various shield levels but for newer players this can be a difficult task. Providing a visual aid for such critical information we hope evens the playing field a bit and can provide accurate and actionable information that can be relayed to the whole squad. You can really call out that “they’re one!”.
AMMO & ATTACHMENTS
Ammo Spawn rates
- Energy ammo: reduced individual spawn rate
- Light & Heavy ammo: slight increase to individual spawn rate
- Shotgun & Sniper ammo: increased individual spawn rate
Ammo Stack Changes
- Light ammo stack size increased to 72 (was 60)
- Individual brick size increased to 24 (was 20)
- Energy ammo stack size decreased to 54 (was 60)
- Individual brick size decreased to 18 (was 20)
- Shotgun ammo stack size increased to 20 (was 16)
- Individual brick size increased to 10 (was 8)
Dev Note: Light ammo weapons have been overshadowed by our Heavy and Energy arsenal the last few seasons. With this set of changes we’re hoping the ammo economy for Light will improve their viability and earn back a place in player’s loadouts.
Hop-ups
- Disruptor Rounds removed from floor loot
- New Hop-Up: Gun Shield Generator
- Usable by all LMGs (Spitfire, Rampage, L-STAR, Devotion)
- When aiming down sights automatically deploy a frontal Gun Shield
- Gun Shield absorbs 40 damage
- Gun Shield is recharged 12 seconds after taking damage or breaking
- Improves Gibraltar’s Gun Shield
- Gun Shield health increased to 75
- Gun Shield recharge time remains the same as his passive
Akimbo
Dual wield two P2020s or two Mozambiques this season by finding and interacting with a second P2020 or Mozambique to automatically enter Akimbo mode.
- Aiming tightens hipfire spread instead of looking down sights
- Attachments are mirrored to the second weapon
- Both P2020 and Mozambique are automatic in Akimbo
- Increased rate of fire
- Longer reload times
- Magazine size is doubled
- Optics are disabled while in Akimbo
- Toggle select fire to holster your second weapon and re-enable your optic.
LMGs
- All LMGs now benefit from the Reverse Hipfire mechanic found on the Care Package Devotion
- New Hop-Up: Gun Shield Generator (see Hop-Ups section above)
Dev Note: LMGs are great at suppressing enemies and unloading huge mags of consistent damage, but they can’t compete with our more aggressive weapon types in raw damage output so we’re trying new vectors of strength—defense and consistency. The Gun Shield Generator is intended to allow players to challenge higher DPS weapons in a new way that plays into their fantasy more than just increasing damage. While the Reverse Hipfire mechanic provides a more consistent close range option.
Alternator
- Magazine size changes
- Base: 19 (unchanged)
- White: 23 (was 22)
- Blue: 26 (was 25)
- Purple/Gold: 28 (was 27)
CAR
- Magazine size changes
- Base: 19 (unchanged)
- White: 22 (was 21)
- Blue: 24 (was 23)
- Purple/Gold: 27 (was 26)
Devotion (Care Package)
- Empty reload speed decreased
- Gun Shield Generator added
- Reverse hip fire improved; shots needed for max hipfire reduced to 14 (was 21)
Flatline
- Magazine size changes
- Base: 19 (was 20)
- White: 23 (was 25)
- Blue: 27 (was 28)
- Purple/Gold: 29 (was 30)
Havoc
- Hipfire accuracy significantly reduced
Hemlok
- Burst Delay slightly increased
- Damage reduced to 19 (was 20)
- Magazine Size Reduction
- Base: 18 (unchanged)
- White: 21 (was 24)
- Blue: 24 (was 27)
- Purple/Gold: 30 (unchanged)
Dev Note: Hemlock & Havoc have both been overperforming, these changes are intended to bring them more in line with the rest of the weapon roster.
P2020 (Single)
- Damage increased to 21 (was 18)
- Hammer Point damage decreased to 23 (was 27)
- Magazine size changes
- Base: 10 (was 14)
- White: 11 (was 16)
- Blue: 12 (was 18)
- Purple/Gold: 14 (was 21)
Mozambique (Single)
- Hammer Point Damage for a full blast reduced to 54 (was 60)
- Rate of fire significantly increased
- Shotgun Bolt rate of fire multiplier decreased at all levels
Mastiff
- Damage increased to 15 (was 11)
- Pellet count reduced to 6 (was 8)
| Old | New |
 |
 |
Dev Note: Shotguns have been feeling inconsistent lately so we’re taking a swing at improving that consistency without just cranking the total damage up. Reducing pellet count and increasing the per pellet damage should increase the average damage dealt.
Peacekeeper
- Damage increased per pellet to 11 (was 9)
- Pellet count reduced to 9 (was 11)
- Blast pattern shape changed
| Old | New |
 |
 |
R-301
- Magazine size changes
- Base: 21(was 18)
- White: 23 (was 20)
- Blue 28: (was 25)
- Purple/Gold: 31 (was 28)
RE-45
- Magazine size changes
- Base: 18 (was 16)
- White: 20 (was 19)
- Blue: 23 (was 22)
- Purple/Gold: 26 (was 25)
Rampage
- Increase projectile size while Revved Up
New Class Perks + Adjustments
- Controller Legends
- Class Perk – Zone Overcharge: extra shield capacity when playing in zone (see above)
- QoL – Remote Pick-Up: remotely pick-up their undamaged Tacticals by looking back at them and pressing a button (see above)
- Recon Legends
- Class Perk – Threat Vision: gain threat vision when aiming down sights (see above)
- Survey Beacons: multiple updates (see above)
Alter
- Void Nexus
- Channel time when knocked decreased to 2s (was 3s)
- Chase portal duration decreased 8s (was 10s)
- Chase portal opening delay increased to 8s (was 6s)
- Increased travel speed to void nexus by about 40% (was 1800)
- Ult cooldown reduced to 3 min (was 3.5m)
- When knocked, you can travel to a friendly Void Nexus without looking at it by pressing character action (H key/D-pad down)
Dev Note: When you’re knocked, you’re at your most vulnerable and taking time to locate an object in the world and look at it for a period of time with no way to defend yourself is both challenging and risky. These changes should make it easier for a knocked teammate to safely use the Void Nexus, and allow you to reset your squad quicker and more safely.
- Removed option to press character action to destroy your own Void Nexus (H key/D-pad down)
Dev note: It was a common misconception that destroying your own void nexus prevented people from following you. In actuality, it only prevented your teammates from using it. This feature was intended to be used only when Alter felt its placement was unsafe. In practice though, it was rarely used this way and mostly resulted in Alter destroying her own Void Nexus when trying to thank her teammates.
- Upgrades: Level 2
- Ult Cooldown: removed ( Level 2 )
- NEW Ringmaster: gain access to Ring Consoles
| Upheaval: Level 2 | Shockwave: Level 2 | ||
| Ult Cooldown | Reduce Ultimate cooldown by 30s | Ringmaster | Gain access to Ring Consoles |
Ballistic
- Whistler: lock-on time decreased to 0.1s (was 0.3s)
Crypto
- Surveillance Drone: cooldown decreased to 30s (was 40s)
- Upgrades
- NEW: It’s called Off the Grid: Crypto becomes cloaked when in drone
- While hidden from sight, Crypto’s cloaking will still emit a close-range cloaking sound to sus his location and ability scans will still reveal his location
- Threat Vision related skills will not reveal Crypto
- Improved Satellite Imagery: Ult now scans anyone it hits for 4s and will track through walls
- Quick Ping: removed, improved handling now integrated into base kit
- NEW: It’s called Off the Grid: Crypto becomes cloaked when in drone
Dev note: Crypto’s upgrades were looking pretty one-sided, so we’ve made changes at both tiers to rival the dominant choices with new options that should introduce some interesting gameplay potential. Crypto’s finally going Off the Grid; which should make players feel more safe playing in the drone and the improvement to satellite imagery gives lasting potential to follow up on your successful EMP blasts. We’ve also pushed the fun of a more responsive drone into every player’s hands.
| Upheaval: Level 2 | Shockwave: Level 2 | ||
| Quick Ping | Improved drone handling | Off the Grid | Crypto cloaks when in drone |
| Upheaval: Level 3 | Shockwave: Level 3 | ||
| Satellite Imagery | +1.5s scan duration | Satellite Imagery | +1.5s scan duration. Scans on Ult hit. |
Lifeline
- Upgrade – Gold-Plated: replaced Gold EVO Cache with Battery
Dev note: Lifeline has been showing some dominance in her recent resurgence, but the free level from the Gold EVO caches and the gold knockdown shield from her upgraded Ultimate were compounding her strength in a cheeky way; bypassing the effort to earn that final armor tier. We feel there’s enough power in guaranteeing the Gold Knockdown Shield to retain the golden girl without the free pass to max level.
Rampart
- Sheila
- Ammo drains from pip charge with use
- Maximum number of place turrets allowed is now 1
- Need 1 PIP of Ultimate change to draw or place Sheila
- No longer requires a full charge to equip
- Now uses an Ammo-Style Ultimate model
Dev note: Sheila isn’t as slept-on as she once was, but we were seeing some players struggle to micro-manage the cooldown of the Ultimate – given that you had to drain the ammo or plant it to not wind up accidentally drawing a Shiela with only a few bullets remaining. Now Sheila will work off an ammo model, similar to Vantage, and constantly refill ammo when not in use. This should let players worry less about tracking the remaining ammo in Sheila, keep the weapon in the action more reliably and allow Rampart to more freely place an extra turret for a teammate behind her walls without sacrificing her Ult.
Seer
- Focus of Attention: Health bars persist for duration of Silence
- Heartbeat Sensor
- Passive move speed has been increased to weapon sprint speed
- Passive is now quieter when active
- Upgrades
- Focus Scan: removed
- NEW Split Focus: gain an additional Tac charge
Dev note: In this Recon-focused season, we’re making some changes to Seer to pull back on some of the sluggish sticking points around using his passive and are adjusting his Tactical to still have a unique benefit with the addition of Player Healthbars this season. We’re also experimenting with giving Seer access to more utility with his Tactical with Split Focus. Now players will get to choose to opt into the longer range with the single all-or-nothing outcome, or gain the second charge with more chances to hit at the cost of overall silence time.
| Upheaval: Level 3 | Shockwave: Level 3 | ||
| Long View | Increase Pas/Tac range to 75m | Long View | Increase Pas/Tac range to 75m |
| Focus Scan | +1.5s scan duration | Split Focus | +1 Tac Charge
-50% Silence Duration |
Vantage
- Echo Relocation: no longer requires LOS to Echo to launch
- Can launch when LOS is blocked
- Can now cancel the tac mid charge
- Tac reticle will turn red when echo is behind you and you are launching
- Will slide-around boxes and geometry as best it can to reach Echo
- Sniper’s Mark
- 2nd Shot Multiplier is now 2.5x (was 2x)
- Can hit “Reload” when in ult to use an Ult Accel
- Spotter’s Lens
- NEW Ranged Tracking
- Waypoint on PING within Passive range will track enemy for 10s
- Will not show within 100m (for each ally individually)
- Recon Info
- added to all optics
- expanded passive scanning screen area to be more consistent
- NEW Ranged Tracking
- Upgrade – Ult Reload: now also doubles Ult Accel use speed in addition to providing 2 extra bullets
Dev Note: Vantage has a number of improvements to her kit this season to make her more effective at what she’s meant to do. Her Ult now secures more damage against weakened prey on its follow-up shots. Her Tac is now more reliable to allow for easier to reach Echo in complex areas. And her passive has expanded to all optics, making it a useful part of her kit regardless of scope and without having to go unarmed. Additionally, her passive has a new tracking feature when pinging a target in your sights at long range—allowing Vantage and her allies to track the target at a distance more easily.
Wattson
- Upgrades
- Power Pylon: now regenerates shield charge
- Split Current: removed
- Emergency Power – Added
- Increases Shield Regen Rate of Interception Pylon
Dev Note: While the Split Circuit upgrade harkened back to the old times and had interesting promise, most players found success bunkering around one stronger pylon, rather than trying to hold space with two and the upgrade was heavily outmatched. These changes aim to look into the shield generator aspect of Wattson’s Ult and the potential for either a faster reset or more resilient ultimate.
| Upheaval: Level 3 | Shockwave: Level 3 | ||
| Power Pylon | Double Ultimate HP | Power Pylon | Doubles Ult HP
Ult shield generator recharges |
| Split Circuit | Double Ult Accel Speed & Ult placements | Emergency Power | Doubles Ult shield generator Rate & Capacity |
MAPS
- Pubs & Ranked Rotation
- Broken Moon
- E-District
- Stormpoint
- NEW E-District
- Urban island district of the city of Suotamo on Gaea
- Features 17 POIs
- Designed for verticality with areas perfect for CQC
- Exclusive map at launch
- Pubs: for the first week after launch, August 6-12
- Ranked: for the first 72 hours after launch, August 6-9
MODES
Bot Royale
- New mode for Apex’s new and learning players
- Battle as a squad against a smaller lobby of enemy bot squads in a quicker version of a standard battle royale match
- Game rules are the same as in standard battle royale modes
- Play with Bots in your squad or bring your own Human friends
- Bot Legends: overhauled as part of Bot Royale
- Improvements made to pathfinding, shooting, ability deployment, and interactions with game objects
- Several Legends were added as Bots in Bot Royale including: Bangalore, Bloodhound, Conduit, Fuse, Gibraltar, Lifeline, Octane, Seer, Vantage, and Wraith
Revival: LTM ft. New Respawn Mechanic
- Respawn into a skydive near your teammates as long as one teammate is still alive
- If all players die, the team is eliminated
- Respawn Timers:
- Respawn timers increase with each passing round
- Respawn timers for your squad increase each time a squadmate dies
- Respawn timers decrease when squad members:
- Deal damage
- Earn knockdowns
- Earn kills
- Execute enemies
- Killing an enemy will reveal their squadmates for a brief time
- Players start with blue knockdown shields (knockdown shields removed from the loot pool)
- Respawning ends and all deaths are final upon reaching a specific round
- Trios Revival: Respawning ends at Round 5
- Straight Shot Revival: Respawning ends at Round 4
Straight Shot Revival (Starts August 20, 2024)
- Straight Shot returns as Straight Shot Revival
- Features new respawn mechanic found in Trios Revival
- Akimbo P2020 and Mozambique replace the single versions in loot
- Enemy Highlight and Enemy Health Bars are enabled
- Purple and gold tier LMGs will include the new Gun Shield Generator hop-up
MIXTAPE
- Akimbo weapons added into all Mixtape Loadouts and Gun Run
- R99 moves out of all loadouts, replaced with akimbo weapon variants
- Mixtape Map Rotations
- August 6-12, 2024
- TDM: Skull Town, Habitat
- Control: Thunderdome, Production Yard
- Gun Run: The Core, Monument
- August 13-19, 2024
- Control: Barometer, Lava Siphon
- Gun Run: Fragment, Skull Town
- Lockdown: Zeus Station, Thunderdome
- August 20-26, 2024
- TDM: Habitat, The Core
- Control: Barometer, Lava Siphon
- Gun Run: Fragment, Skull Town
- August 27-September 2, 2024
- TDM: Habitat, Skull Town
- Control: Production Yard, Thunderdome
- Gun Run: The Core, Wattson
- September 3-9, 2024
- TDM: Habitat, The Core
- Control: Barometer, Lava Siphon
- Gun Run: Fragment, Skull Town
- September 10-16, 2024
- TDM: Skull Town, Zeus Station
- Control: Production Yard, Thunderdome
- Gun Run: The Core, Wattson
- August 6-12, 2024
- LTM: Akimbo & LMG Only Loadouts
- August 13-19, 2024
- TDM: Habitat, Skull Town, The Core, Zeus Station
- August 30-September 3, 2024
- Weekend of Lockdown
- Gameplay Rules: decreased Ult charge while capturing points
- Zeus Station, Monument, Skull Town, The Core, Thunderdome
- September 3-9, 2024
- Big TDM
- Gameplay Rules
- 15 Minute Time Limit
- Score limit increased to 75
- Shield Regen activates on kills
- Thunderdome, Habitat, Zeus Station, Skull Town, Fragment, The Core
- August 13-19, 2024
NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCEWelcome Pass and Challenges
- For new accounts created after the launch of Shockwave
- Complete Welcome Challenges to progress through the Welcome Pass
- Challenges can be completed in any BR mode and Bot Royale
- Unique set of challenges designed around foundational skills
- Welcome Challenges do not refresh
- Receive rewards for reaching each level of the Welcome Pass
- If the player already has the reward in their inventory, they will receive the Crafting Metals value instead
- Start with three Legends: Wraith, Bloodhound and Lifeline
- Unlock Bloodhound, Pathfinder, Gibraltar, and a Legend of their choice through progression
RANKED
We will implement a brand new reset rule at the start of the new season.
- New Season Reset Rules
- No RP reset for Rookie IV to Rookie I, players will keep the RP they have from the last split
- Bronze IV to Platinum IV will reset to Bronze IV 1000 RP
- Platinum III reset to Bronze III 1500 RP
- Platinum II reset to Bronze II 2000 RP
- Platinum I reset to Bronze I 2500 RP
- Diamond IV reset to Silver IV 3250 RP (with +250 demotion protection)
- Diamond III reset to Silver III 3600 RP
- Diamond II reset to Silver II 4200 RP
- Diamond I reset to Silver I 4800 RP
- Master and above reset to Gold IV 5650 RP (with +250 demotion protection)
- Special Cases
- New Players (complete onboarding and above Level 20): Starting Rookie IV 1 RP
- Returning Players who didn’t play last season (excluding Rookie tier which won’t reset): Starting RP threshold for Bronze IV 1000 RP
Dev Notes:The goal is to reset players to a tier that suits them based on their performance in the Ranked League of the previous season when the new season begins. This allows them to start battling from a rank that better suits their skill level while protecting newcomers and low-ranked players. Additionally, a portion of the achievements of high-ranked players who performed well in the previous season is retained, allowing them to compete against opponents of similar skill levels right from the start of the new season.
RANKED RUMBLERanked Rumble returns September 13-17, 2024, with a new best of 10 matches format and free rewards.
- Players can participate in matches without 10 matches limitations
- There is no Re-Entry mechanic; play as much as you want
- Only your top 10 match results count towards your final standings
- If you get a better match score, it will replace your current lowest score
WORLD SYSTEMS
- Improved end ring generation system
BUG FIXES
- Can no longer use Death Boxes through walls
- Cleaning up disconnected players in Mixtape
- Firing Range: Mythic weapons are no longer taken away after respawning
- Fixed a storm point zipline that could kick players off too early
- Fixed bad actor ping crashes
- Fixed prowler spawn den bullet collision hull
Adaptive Supersampling
- Fixed an issue that caused screen tearing
- Fixed an issue that caused Legend banner poses to appear distorted
Death Boxes
- Improvements to help stop deathboxes from getting stuck in doorways and blocking exits
- Should now be lootable in broken doorways
- Will now contain a shield core if the enemy disconnected before dying
LEGENDS
- Alter’s ult can no longer be used for free if you place it onto a moving object and use it immediately
- Bangalore smoke highlights should no longer get blocked by other players
- Fixed an issue that let players affected by Catalyst ultimate to see through Bangalore smoke
- Movement hitch when using Seer’s passive while unarmed should no longer occur
- No more thefts from an explosive hold without warning, destroying Loba’s Black Market
QUALITY OF LIFE
- Mantling on the same location as your teammate won’t knock you down
- Mixtape Gameplay
- Additional starting grenade added for Control & Lockdown
- EVA 8 back into Close-Quarters loadout
- Faster health regen for all mixtape modes
- Lockdown Score Limit reduced to 400 (was 500)
- Reconnect match timer reduced to 2 minutes (was 5 min)
- Team Deathmatch Score Limit reduced to 40 (was 50)
- Mixtape’s Skull Town got a spawn audit (adjusting positions & angles)
- Nessies can once again bounce to their hearts content in the firing range (just not anywhere else)
- Speaking of, a new Nessie (with an appreciation for cinema) has appeared around the firing range
GRAPHICS
- Largely optimized Performance Mode on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5, for more consistent frame rates and fewer resolution drops
- Xbox Series X and PS5 can expect 10 FPS or higher improvements in GPU-intensive scenarios
- DX12 (PC)
- Fixed several causes of graphical corruption issues
- Large optimizations to both CPU and GPU performance. With these changes, we expect that the DirectX 12 beta should now perform better than DirectX 11 for the majority of players.
- PC: removed Adaptive Supersampling video settings option. A small percentage of players used this option and those that did received no benefit from it unless they had a powerful GPU and low res monitor
- Mitigated performance impact of looking at Death Boxes and intermittent performance spikes from champions banners
