Voidwalker Event & Patch Notes: September 3, 2019
Wraith Town Take Over
A mysterious research site has been unearthed in Kings Canyon that was used as part of Project: Wraith, including a functioning prototype portal.
Exclusive Event Challenges
Complete a variety of challenges to earn exclusive skins and Wraith-themed content. All challenges and rewards will be limited to the 2 week event.
Direct Purchase Shop
New Event Limited cosmetics including the Wraith Voidwalker Legendary skin for 1,800 Apex Coins. Additional themed cosmetics are included ranging from 500 to 1000 Apex Coins.
Double XP for Top 5 and Wins Weekend
From 10:00 a.m. PT on September 6 to 10:00 a.m. PT on September 9, players will earn double XP for Top 5 finishes and wins. This bonus will affect both Account Level and Battle Pass progression.
Limited-Time Mode: Armed and Dangerous
- Shotguns and Snipers only
- Enabled Guns: Mozambique, Peacekeeper, EVA-8, Longbow, G7, Triple Take
- Attachments not used by Snipers or Shotguns are disabled
- Gold variants of weapons spawn in High Tier loot zones and in airdrops
- Kraber and Mastiff loot values are tuned so they spawn in late-game airdrops and very rarely as ground loot (1-2 per game each)
- Reduced Armor
- Disabled Loot: Armor (Blue/Purple/Gold), Helmets (Blue/Purple/Gold)
- Spawn rate for Common Armor and Helmets is reduced.
- Ground Loot Drop Chances are reduced by 45% (Supply Bins are not affected by this)
- Bullet Counts and Stacks are modified
- Light Rounds: 16 per drop, 32 per inventory slot
- Energy Rounds: 16 per drop, 32 per inventory slot
- Heavy Rounds: 7 per drop, 14 per inventory slot
- Shotgun Rounds: 7 per drop, 28 per inventory slot
- Overall, loot density is reduced, but ammo/weapon spawn rates are increased and stack sizes are increased to offset the loot scarcity and allow players to have enough ammo to not discourage combat.
- Increased spawn rates for syringes to compensate for lower loot density.
- Reduced spawn rates for shield batteries to match rarity of armor.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug where sometimes a player’s reward would not display properly after completing a challenge that awards crafting metals.
- Fixed a bug where sometimes players would see a different rare skin equipped to the Legend they are spectating when hanging from a ledge.
- Fixed some issues related to script errors.
- [Xbox] Fixed issue where sometimes players would have issues connecting to a match at the same time as their party forcing them to join Legend Select late with Legends already locked.
- [PS4] code fixes to address crashes related to out of memory issues.
- Fixed a bug where sometimes players would still be in an out of bounds state when they are not actually out of bounds.
Quality of Life
- New Promo Window - A new feature we’ve added to the Lobby that will display offers and info and allows for direct navigation to the website or store.
- Added Auto Sprint feature to all platforms that can be turned on or off. This is disabled by default and can be changed in the Settings menu.
- Players can now adjust Aim Down Sight look sensitivity per optic zoom level.
- Visual improvements to Legends in the Lobby and Character Select screen
- Increased overall brightness.
- Softer/lighter shadows.
- Improved reflections on hard surfaces.
- Improved detail and contrast to textures.
- Added UI to the Spectator View that lets players easily tell if they are spectating a squadmate or enemy.
- Added setting to disable weapon auto switching when ammo runs out.
Weapons
- Increased projectile width for the TripleTake
- SMG weapons are no longer compatible with the 3x HCOG and 2x-4x variable ACOG scopes.
- Note from Respawn: Our goal with this change is to better define weapon archetypes and improve the looting experience so that players aren’t accidentally picking up a long range site for a close range weapon that they have to manually remove.
Legends
Wattson: Wattson will now have low profile attributes [takes %5 more damage to base health]. Reduced the maximum number of Interceptor Pylons that can be active to 1.
Bloodhound: Fixed an issue that allowed players to cancel the start up animation for their ultimate when activated while using a zipline.
Iron Crown and Solos Mode Event: August 13th, 2019
Limited Time Mode - Solos
We are finally dipping our toes into the Solo waters. We’re going to put it out there and see what happens. Too early to say if this will become permanent or not - healthy matchmaking across all modes is priority. Give it a shot and let us know what you think.
Octane Town Takeover - New Town on Kings Canyon
Double XP for Top 5 & Wins Weekend
From 10am PST on August 16th through 10am PST on August 19th players will earn double XP for Top 5’s and Wins all weekend long. This bonus will affect both Account Level and Battle Pass progression.
A special Collection Event Apex Pack and Iron Crown Event Store
Available for a limited time. The 25 item set must be unlocked with the premium Apex coins currency. The set (culminating in the Raven's Bite melee skin for Bloodhound) costs around $170 to unlock everything.
Exclusive event challenges with free loot.
Complete a variety of challenges to earn two Iron Crown Collection packs, exclusive Iron Crown event badges, and event currency (Crowns).
August 13 Patch Notes
Bug Fixes
- Fixed issue where assigned challenges not resetting properly and giving rewards.
- Fixed bug causing incorrect calculation of Kill/Death Ratio in player stats.
- Fixed an issue where sometimes a Care Package would clip into map geometry.
- Fixed a bug that was sometimes showing Apex Predator ranked players RP as zero when viewing the badge in the Lobby.
- Fixed issue with players having connection issues when trying to join a squad that has already played a match.
- Fixed issue where Daily and Weekly Challenges would reset earlier than communicated in the game.
- Fixed a bug where sometimes Arc Stars would attach to players and some objects at a distance and appear to float off of them.
- Fixed bug where sometimes Arc Stars would not explode or do no damage when it detonates.
- Fixed issue with players sometimes unable to unlock the “Double Duty” Badge.
- Fixed bug where sometimes using a healing item while experiencing bad ping would cause them to heal for twice as much.
Quality of Life
- Added a Death Recap to the end of match summary that will display a damage summary of your last battle.
- Improved the UI during the Match Summary to better show Battle Pass progression.
- Added In-game Survey: While playing you may get a prompt that will pop up asking if you enjoyed the last match. This data will be helpful to us so please provide your input when you see it.
- Added option to spectate your squadmates after dying.
- Added option to “Invite Squad” in the Squad Tab.
- Players should no longer lose RP when experiencing a server crash or disconnect in Ranked Mode.
- Fixed issue where squadmates could not ping a friendly Wraith portal.
- Fixed issue where players could pull other players out of a match by joining them, and then joining another friend from the Lobby.
- Fixed issue where sometimes a player would get left behind from their squad in the Lobby after they enter a match.
- Fixed issue where players would sometimes get a “Party Not Ready” error message even though they were no longer in a party.
- Fixes that should improve overall game stability to reduce crashes.
Weapon Balance
Disruptor Rounds with Alternator:
Reduced Shielded damage multiplier 1.7 -> 1.55.
Designer Notes: Disruptor rounds on the alternator are shredding shields a bit too quickly and still proving to be stronger than intended, so we're reducing the disruptor rounds multiplier on shield damage.
RE-45:
Increased Magazine Size for all tiers to the following:
- Base: 16
- Common: 19
- Rare: 22
- Epic: 25
Designer Notes: We’re giving the RE-45 a small boost in power by giving it one more round for every mag size. Downing a non-fortified enemy with the RE-45 with 0, 50, 75, and 100 shields requires 10, 14, 16, and 19 shots respectively, so this extra round gives the gun the ability to one-mag more armored enemies instead of leaving them barely alive.
R-301:
Increased vertical and horizontal recoil. Slightly increased recoil pattern randomness.
Designer Notes: We’ve made these changes as we’ve seen that the R301 is a bit stronger than intended at long range. We’ve adjusted recoil to balance keeping it effective at medium to close range--which is the original intent--but it should be more difficult for players to auto fire and still laser enemies at long distances.
Legends
GENERAL
Made adjustments to Pathfinder’s and Low-Profile Legends hitboxes.
Taking shots to the hip now does torso damage instead of leg damage. This should more closely match the behavior of the other Legends.
Fixed a bug where activating a healing item would cancel the Ultimate for Legends that need to prime it [Bangalore / Pathfinder / Caustic / Gibraltar / Bloodhound]
Fixed an exploit where players would sometimes be able to still shoot while downed.
BLOODHOUND
Increased the distance that Bloodhound can see traversal clues left by other players [but not other kinds of clues] to 25 meters.
Adjusted the area of effect for Bloodhound’s Tactical to 125 fov.
WRAITH
Based on player feedback, we’ve reduced the “hum” audio that’s playing while using Wraith’s Kunai.
Fixed issue where actions for Wrath would have a slight delay when her weapon is holstered and crouching or sliding while the kunai is equipped.
Fixed an exploit that allowed players to remove the cooldown for Wraith’s Tactical Ability.
MIRAGE
Fixed bug where Mirage was able to stay invisible and still be able to shoot and melee when using his Ultimate on a zipline.
OCTANE
Fixed bug where sometimes Octane’s Jump Pad would not launch the player.
July 16 Patch Notes
- Fixed issue where Lifeline’s D.O.C.'s Shock Finisher preview video not playing when viewed from the menu.
- Fixed issue with text overflow on the stats page.
- Fixed some cases of crashes related to game logic, client, and script errors.
- Fixed cases of players being set in non-optimal data centers.
- Season 1 stats have been temporarily removed as we work on some issues with it.
- Fixed bug where players would unlock the level 94 Battle Pass reward before they should [Octane’s loading screen].
- Fixed exploit where the HAVOC could fire full auto without charging up.
- Fixed some cases of the Care Package clipping through map geometry.
Season 2 patch notes: July 2, 2019
BATTLE PASS
To get the Battle Pass, jump into Apex Legends and head to the Battle Pass tab in the store. Grab the Battle Pass for 950 Apex Coins or the Battle Pass Bundle for 2,800 Apex Coins (containing 4,700 Apex Coins’ worth of content!), and you’re all set.
CHALLENGES
Take on Daily and Weekly Challenges to score bonus Battle Pass XP and level up even faster.
NEW CONTENT TYPES
Skydive emotes, music packs, and unique loading screens are now part of the rewards track.
MORE LEGENDARIES AND CRAFTING MATERIALS
Grab even more Legendary skins from the reward track and earn enough Crafting Materials to create a Legendary item of your choice.
FREE REWARDS
Everyone who plays Apex Legends Season 2 can earn:
- Season 2 stat trackers for each Legend.
- Five Apex Packs.
- The Wattson Hot Rod skin.
KINGS CANYON CHANGES
The Leviathans have breached Kings Canyon and it’ll never be the same! Many areas have been affected by our new guests. Enjoy exploring the new changes!
NEW LEGEND: WATTSON
Wattson has entered the arena and is available for 750 Apex Coins or 12,000 Legend Tokens.
- PASSIVE: Spark of Genius
- Ultimate Accelerants fully charge Wattson’s ultimate. Standing near the Interception Pylon boosts Wattson’s tactical recharge rate.
- Ultimate Accelerants fully charge Wattson’s ultimate. Standing near the Interception Pylon boosts Wattson’s tactical recharge rate.
- TACTICAL: Perimeter Security
- Create electrified fences by connecting nodes. Fences damage and slow enemies.
- Create electrified fences by connecting nodes. Fences damage and slow enemies.
- ULTIMATE: Interception Pylon
- Place an electrified pylon that destroys incoming ordnance and repairs damaged shields [can place up to 3 Pylons at one time].
- Place an electrified pylon that destroys incoming ordnance and repairs damaged shields [can place up to 3 Pylons at one time].
RANKED LEAGUES
Check out the full details on our goals, how Ranked Mode works, and more here.
One thing we forgot to mention in the blog post: Players abandoning in Ranked will be penalized both with a matchmaking penalty, as well as have any potential RP gains zeroed out. On top of that, they will pay an additional penalty RP cost equal to their match entry cost. For example: if a Gold player gets 4 kills and would have finished top 5 but abandons his or her match on purpose, that player will get 0 RP for kills and placement, pay the 2 RP entry cost, and on top of that pay another 2 RP abandon penalty cost.
WEAPONS
New Airdrop Weapon: L-STAR EMG
- Fires large high-damage plasma projectiles
- Will overheat if player fires for too long
- Comes with its own limited ammo supply
- Only available in Airdrops
New Hop-Up: Disruptor Rounds
- Increased damage to shielded targets.
- Compatibility: Alternator / RE-45
New Hop-Up: Hammerpoint Rounds
- Increased damage to unshielded targets.
- Compatibility: P2020, Mozambique.
New Attachments: Energy Mags
- Increases magazine capacity.
- Increases reload speed at rare and above.
- Compatibility: Havoc, Triple Take, Devotion.
- Reduced default mag sizes on compatible weapons.
Skullpiercer Hop-Up: Upgraded to gold tier & increased rarity.
Flatline:
- Damage 16 -> 19
P2020:
- Damage 12 -> 13
Triple Take x Precision Choke:
- Choke time 1.5 -> 1.1
Alternator:
- Damage 13 -> 15
- Recoil mitigation increased for all barrel attachments.
Kraber:
- Damage 125 -> 145
- Headshot scale 2.0 -> 2.05
- Leg damage scale 0.76 -> 0.8
- Slightly increased rarity
Arc Star Tweaks
- Increased ignition delay from 2.5 to 2.8 seconds.
- Sticking a full health player with no armor will now down them.
- Players at the edge of the explosion no longer get their shields completely shredded.
Ammo Stack Sizes
- Shotgun max stack reduced from 64 to 16. Players now need multiple stacks of ammo to run a shotty.
- Energy max stack increased from 60 to 80; now matches Light/ Heavy ammo.
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Rotated Gold Weapons
- Flatline
- Alternator
- RE45
- Mozambique
- P2020
Airdrop Weapon Spawn Rates
- L-STAR added to airdrop weapon loot tables.
- Airdrop weapon spawn rates now change based on early/ mid/ late game. For example, early game will spawn more Krabers, end game will spawn more Mastiffs.
Performance Optimizations
- Improved performance when firing weapons, especially for multi-projectile weapons like shotguns and Triple Take.
- In our testing this has contributed to delivering a smoother overall experience on both server and client, particularly during early game combat situations.
Bug fixes
- Fixed exploit where players could use weapon inspect to cancel out other weapon behaviors.
- EVA-8: ADS recoil now resettles back to starting point instead of a randomized offset of the starting point.
- Thermite Grenades: fixed an issue where players downed with thermite could be invincible to thermite after being revived.
General
- Fortified [ Gibraltar, Caustic ]
- Damage reduction increased: 10% -> 15%
- Fortified Legends are now immune to slow effects from weapon fire.
- Damage reduction increased: 10% -> 15%
- Fortified Legends are now immune to slow effects from weapon fire.
- Low Profile [ Wraith, Lifeline, Pathfinder ]
- Low Profile increases incoming damage by 5%.
- Low Profile increases incoming damage by 5%.
Bloodhound
- Eye of the Allfather
- Enemies scanned now are tracked in real time instead of leaving a ghost image behind. The tracking lasts for 1.5 seconds.
- Increased the angle of the scan to 110 from 90.
- Enemies scanned now are tracked in real time instead of leaving a ghost image behind. The tracking lasts for 1.5 seconds.
- Increased the angle of the scan to 110 from 90.
- Tracker
- Increased clue duration to 90 seconds from 60 seconds.
- Fixed a bug where energy weapons wouldn’t leave behind weapon fired clues.
- Fixed a bug where movement clues would sometimes not be generated.
- Increased clue duration to 90 seconds from 60 seconds.
- Fixed a bug where energy weapons wouldn’t leave behind weapon fired clues.
- Fixed a bug where movement clues would sometimes not be generated.
Mirage
- Vanishing Act
- Mirage can now cancel out of his ultimate cloak early.
- Mirage now has a small delay when disabling cloak.
Caustic
- Nox Gas
- The magnitude of the slow is reduced by 50% when effecting teammates.
Gibraltar
- Dome of Protection
- Increased the duration by 3 seconds.
Pathfinder
- Updated the hit box to better conform with the base model.
- We are also planning to make adjustments so his hitbox better reflects Legendary Skins as well for cases where it’s not matching up.
Lifeline
- D.O.C. heal drone now gets destroyed after 2 damage ticks by the circle.
STATS PAGE
- Added a stats page. You can access it by hovering over your name while in the Lobby and clicking it to inspect. The page will show you your overall account stats as well as access to your stats for each season and Ranked Series.
- We're sure you all will have feedback on other stats you'd like to see here. What we're shipping with Season 2 is just the start and we're planning to build on it. We won't promise anything but definitely let us know what other stats you want shown after you've played around with it.
- KNOWN ISSUES: There will be some stats [like assists for example] that will start counting for Season 2 but won’t account for progress before that. This is because until we added the feature, this stuff wasn’t being counted. We’re looking at future improvements to retroactively update these areas that we hope to address down the road.
THE RING
With Season 2, we’ll trying out new circle closing speed, size, and damage that now applies to both Ranked Leagues and the normal Apex Queue.
Ring Damage is now the following:
- Round 1: 2% damage taken per tick.
- Round 2: 5% damage taken per tick.
- Round 3: 10% damage taken per tick.
- Round 4: 20% damage taken per tick.
- Round 5: 20% damage taken per tick.
- Round 6 and beyond: 25% damage taken per tick.
Ring start and closing speed is now the following:
- First Circle
- Starts closing after: 3 minutes.
- Time to close: 2 minutes.
- Starts closing after: 3 minutes.
- Time to close: 2 minutes.
- Second Circle
- Starts closing after: 2 minutes 30 seconds.
- Time to close: 2 minutes.
- Starts closing after: 2 minutes 30 seconds.
- Time to close: 2 minutes.
- Third Circle
- Starts closing after: 2 minutes 15 seconds.
- Time to close: 2 minutes.
- Starts closing after: 2 minutes 15 seconds.
- Time to close: 2 minutes.
- Fourth Circle
- Starts closing after: 2 minutes.
- Time to close: 2 minutes.
- Starts closing after: 2 minutes.
- Time to close: 2 minutes.
- Fifth Circle
- Starts closing after: 1 minute 30 seconds.
- Time to close: 1 minutes 40 seconds.
- Starts closing after: 1 minute 30 seconds.
- Time to close: 1 minutes 40 seconds.
- Sixth Circle
- Starts closing after: 1 minute 30 seconds.
- Time to close: 1 minutes 40 seconds.
- Starts closing after: 1 minute 30 seconds.
- Time to close: 1 minutes 40 seconds.
- Seventh Circle
- Starts closing after: 2 minutes.
- Time to close: 1 minute 20 seconds.
- Starts closing after: 2 minutes.
- Time to close: 1 minute 20 seconds.
- Eighth Circle
- Starts closing after: 20 seconds.
- Time to close: 1 minute 20 seconds.
- Starts closing after: 20 seconds.
- Time to close: 1 minute 20 seconds.
Ring radius for the first circle has been slightly reduced [it’s about 9% smaller than it was before].
QUALITY OF LIFE
- Pings
- When pinging a closed door, the player will now say “closed door here”.
- When pinging an open door, the player will now say “someone’s been here”.
- When a player requests a hop up, if the gun only accepts one kind of hop up, the player will callout that specific hop up they are looking for. If the gun accepts multiple hop ups, the player won’t vocalize it but all possible hop ups requested will show up in the obit feed.
- When pinging a closed door, the player will now say “closed door here”.
- When pinging an open door, the player will now say “someone’s been here”.
- When a player requests a hop up, if the gun only accepts one kind of hop up, the player will callout that specific hop up they are looking for. If the gun accepts multiple hop ups, the player won’t vocalize it but all possible hop ups requested will show up in the obit feed.
- Arc stars that are stuck to players should no longer fail to do damage when the part of the player it is stuck to is intersecting another object.
- Made visual improvements to the Legends while in the Lobby and character select.
- Added improvements and polish to the Legend’s animations while skydiving.
- Improved melee hit detection on the hover tank while it’s moving.
- Server optimizations.
- Improved server and client performance when firing weapons, especially for multi-projectile weapons like shotguns and TripleTake.
- Large doors and Supply Bins can now be used while viewing them from more extreme angles.
- Slow Effects will now slow players equally regardless of their controller settings.
- Wraith’s Heirloom will now more reliably show its lightning visualFX.
- Heal items will now more reliably show the correct model when switching between different types.
- General optimizations to improve framerate.
- Fixed issue with geometry sometimes flickering when viewed from a long distance.
- Death Box rarity colors are now more visible from a distance.
- “Send Friend Request” tool-tip now shows up when hovering over teammates Banners while viewing the “Squad Eliminated” screen and “Squads” tab during a match.
- Made it so that your weapon won’t play its priming animation when you pull it out after skydiving.
- Fixed issue with skydive continuing to loop falling soundFX after landing.
- Apex will no longer swap from full screen to windowed mode automatically if you shift to focus on other applications while Apex is booting up.
- Fixed issue with players seeing their Origin friends listed as offline when they aren’t.
- Made improvements to voice chat for PC.
- Fixed issue where you could lose your Steam friends list after restarting Apex on PC.
- Fixed issue where sometimes players would get a black screen during character select.
- Added “Flash Hider” description to the Gold Barrel Stabilizer attachment. It always did this but the information wasn’t provided well so we added it to the description when inspecting the attachment.
BUG FIXES
- Fixed a hit registration bug that could occur if you fired your weapon while being damaged by an enemy shotgun.
- Fixed a bug where sometimes load screens would not appear properly and players would temporarily see the training map before loading into a match.
- Fixed issue with players not always hearing selected quip dialogue when performing a finisher or being executed.
- Fixed issue with Apex not working correctly when SLI or Crossfire is enabled.
- Fixed bug with the consumables wheel sometimes appearing blank.
- Fixed bug where players would sometimes get stuck on the Battle Pass Level screen.
- Fixed bug where The Unlock button would be greyed out when it shouldn’t be when trying to view rewards.
- Fixed bug where players would sometimes be unable to exit the Battle Pass tab after selecting it from the Lobby.
- Fixed an exploit where players could jump while downed.
- Fixed issue where sometimes the client would crash to the Dashboard when entering character select on Xbox One.
- Fixed a bug where pinging a sniper stock in your inventory would show up as “looking for Grip”
- Fixed a bug that caused players and loot to begin sliding permanently or launching inconsistently onto Supply Ship surfaces after doing melee attacks against the Supply Ship walls.
- Fixed bug that could cause players to shift to a location under the map when switching between players while spectating.
- Fixed bug for cases where performing a melee attack while inspecting an item would cause the attack to slow down and not deal damage.
- [X1 only] Fixed bug where players were not being rewarded “The Player” achievement after hitting level 50. If you have reached level 50 and not received it in the past it should now be awarded retroactively.
- Fixed the bug that sometimes caused Apex to crash when plugging a PS4 controller into your PC while the game is active.
- Fixed bug that caused an “Out of Bounds” warning and timer while riding the Supply Ship over certain areas of Kings Canyon.
- General improvements to game stability related to various script errors.
LEGENDS
- Bloodhound
- Fixed bug where players wouldn’t create movement evidence markers unless they were sprinting.
- Fixed bug where sometimes energy weapons wouldn’t create ‘weapon fired’ evidence markers.
- Fixed bug where players wouldn’t create movement evidence markers unless they were sprinting.
- Fixed bug where sometimes energy weapons wouldn’t create ‘weapon fired’ evidence markers.
- Wraith
- Fixed bug where Wraith’s jetpack boosters could still be seen while phasing.
- Fixed issue where in some rare cases, performing a Finisher while down player is entering a Wraith Portal.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed players to place extra Dimensional Portals.
- Fixed bug where Wraith’s jetpack boosters could still be seen while phasing.
- Fixed issue where in some rare cases, performing a Finisher while down player is entering a Wraith Portal.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed players to place extra Dimensional Portals.
- Octane
- Fixed a bug that caused throwable items to bounce off a jump pad without actually touching it.
- Fixed a bug that caused throwable items to bounce off a jump pad without actually touching it.
