A new Apex Legends update is out today on PS4, Xbox One and PC, and it includes some notable balance changes.
The patch notes confirm all the big tweaks made by Respawn Entertainment, including news that the Wingman and the Peacekeeper have been nerfed.
Both weapons have seen a decrease in speed in certain areas, with the Wingman firing more slowly and the Peacekeeper seeing a downgrade when it comes to rechambering.
News on the Season One Battle Pass has also been shared, alongside an update on how the studio hopes to shape the game’s meta in 2019.
So far nothing has been announced on when the new Battle Pass will be released and this has led to some concern among fans that Season 1 could be delayed beyond March.
The good news is that today’s patch notes don’t reveal any kind of delay, but they also don’t confirm when the new Battle Pass will arrive.
“First off, we know you folks are fired up for info on Season 1 and Battle Pass,” the new patch notes reveal.
“We still have work to do to get everything ready for prime time and won’t be talking about it yet.
“There are a lot of moving parts and coordination that go into big announcements and launches like this so please be patient. I know the wait sucks, but it’s coming and ask that you all, please be patient with us.
“Over the course of this week we’ll be talking about a few hot topics and we’re kicking things off today with a patch that is live on all platforms with some fixes, our first tweaks to the meta, and we’ll give a preview of how we’ll be addressing Legend balance and hitboxes for Season 1.
“I want to set the expectation that there will be lots of things we can’t talk about yet. We won’t be confirming or revealing any future content or features in the questions.”
From what has been shared so far on the subject of today’s update and those going forward, Respawn will be releasing a series of smaller patches in March.
These will be less frequent but include higher impact balance changes in order to minimize the impact on gameplay.
“The goal is to ship polished, closer to the mark updates than if we got things out rapidly and iterated in the live environment,” the patch notes add.
“We know y’all are putting a ton of time into the game and mastering every nuance (like Wraith portalling people off cliffs for the final kill lolz).
“Our goal is to make less frequent, better tested, higher impact changes, so it minimizes the effects on your time spent mastering a particular mechanic, weapon, character, etc.
“You shouldn’t have to read our patch notes every few days just to keep up with how characters and weapons now work.”
For those who want to read the patch notes, they can be found below:
WEAPON ADJUSTMENTS LIVE ON ALL PLATFORMS
Wingman
- Rate of fire reduced from 3.1 -> 2.6 shots per second.
- Skullpiercer Headshot damage multiplier reduced from 2.5 -> 2.25
- Increased base hip fire spread and decreased the rate at which hip fire spread decays (shrinks back down).
Peacekeeper
- Shotgun Bolt rechamber rate has been reduced for the Peacekeeper only.
- Level 1 mitigation 10% -> 7.5%
- Level 2 mitigation 20% -> 13%
- Level 3 mitigation 25% -> 16%
- Wingman and Peacekeeper availability has been reduced in all zone tiers.
- Increased availability of energy weapons & ammo in all zone tiers.
ADDITIONAL PATCH NOTES
- Fixed some script errors that we identified were occasionally causing disconnects during matches.
- Caustic occasionally causing disconnects while throwing is Ultimate.
- Pathfinder occasionally causing disconnects when activating a Survey Beacon.
- Players occasionally causing disconnects when removing an attachment.
- Gibraltar occasionally causing disconnects when pulling up his Gun Shield.
- Players occasionally causing disconnects when entering Spectate Mode.
