Apex Legends Season 12 Defiance Live, Patch Notes Released
Apex Legends Season 12 Defiance is now live in the game, and fans have quite a bit to look forward to! The new season features a brand-new Legend in the form of Mad Maggie, as well as a new 9v9 limited time mode called Control. These additions will likely be the most exciting part of today's update, but Respawn Entertainment has also added a number of bug fixes, quality of life changes, and other improvements. Hopefully these changes will make for a more balanced experience overall. Full patch notes from the game's official website can be found below:
PATCH NOTES
LEGENDS BALANCE
Crypto
Drone View HUD and other Quality of Life updates:
- Added gamestate (e.g. Ring information, round timers), minimap, killfeed, team status, , and ping information to the Drone's HUD.
- Repurposed the Drone HUD's old Crypto health/shield presentation into displaying the health of the Drone itself.
- Survey Beacon markers are now displayed in-world while piloting the Drone (same as when controlling Crypto himself).
Neurolink changes:
- Increased the Neurolink detection FOV from 160 -> 240 degrees.
- Neurolink detection is now disabled while the Drone is being recalled.
Surveillance Drone changes:
- The deployment of the Drone has received a rework:
- Pressing the Tactical button causes Crypto to send the Drone flying in a straight line in the direction of Crypto's view for a few seconds.
- If thrown to a wall (or other geo), the Drone will hit the wall and re-orient itself so that it's facing away from the wall.
- Crypto no longer immediately accesses Drone View after deploying his Drone in this way.
- Pressing and holding the [Tactical] button will launch the Drone forward in the same way, but then Crypto will immediately access Drone View.
- Reduced Drone health from 60 -> 50.
- The HUD marker for the Drone has been tweaked to increase visibility.
- The HUD marker for the Drone is now always displayed on-screen while the Drone is deployed (instead of only when the Drone was off-screen.
Dev Note
Crypto has been off the grid in terms of pick rate. The goal of these changes was to make his kit more accessible and engaging. With a new deployment option, we lowered drone health to prevent reckless drone deploy. Crypto is still a methodical, calculating legend, and manually piloting Hack should still be the primary way to access macro-level recon. The drone view HUD updates should help here as well. Crypto's never been weak per se; we're cognizant of his strengths at high-level play and will be keeping an eye on his usage and performance.
Caustic
Nox Gas Traps are now destroyable after detonation
- 150hp
- Detonated traps will expire at 11s (instead of 12.5s)
- Gas effects linger for two seconds after barrel destruction or expiration (gas particles still linger a bit longer as they dissipate)
WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT BALANCE
Supply Drop Rotation
The Alternator SMG returns to the ground loot this season and taking its place is the powerful mid-range energy Volt SMG.
Alternator SMG
- Removed disruptor rounds hop-up
Volt SMG
- Damage increased from 15 to 17
- Max mag size increased from 28 to 30
Hop Ups
Kinetic Feeder – Triple Take & Peacekeeper
Sliding with the Triple Take or Peacekeeper significantly speeds up choke time and automatically reloads rounds.
Hammerpoint Rounds – P2020, Mozambique & RE-45
- P2020
- +50% unshielded damage
- Mozambique
- +35% unshielded damage
- RE-45
- +35% unshielded damage
Shatter Caps – 30-30 Repeater & Bocek Bow
- Passively affects hip-fire for both weapons
- ADS remains precision shot
- No longer able to toggle on/off
- 30-30 pellet damage reduced from 8 to 7
- Bow pellet damage reduced 12 to 11
Triple Take
- Removing projectile growth from bullets
- Damage reduced from 23 to 21 per bullet
The Triple Take's return to floor loot has been really positive, but it's proving to be a bit ahead of the pack with its ranged performance. We're eliminating the bullet growth it retained from its days as a sniper to pull it in line with other Marksman rifles.
VK-47 Flatline
- Damage reduced from 19 to 18 per bullet
Rampage LMG (Hotfix)
- Rampage damage reduced from 28 to 26
- Reduced number of shots during the Revved state from ~40 to ~34
On January 13, 2022 we implemented a hotfix to the Rampage and Sentinel infinite charge bug. We took that opportunity to get out a Rampage nerf early. Noting these changes here for anyone who missed our earlier messaging.
Fully Kitted Rotation
- Added: RE-45, Triple Take, Peacekeeper, Prowler, Havoc
- Removed: Mastiff, 30-30 Repeater, R-301, CAR, Longbow
Weapons in Crafting
- VK-47 Flatline and Longbow DMR are now craftable for 30 mats at any crafting station.
- Weapons in crafting can not be found on the ground.
- Crafted weapons come with no attachments and two boxes of ammo
As we continue to introduce new weapons and loot into the game we must consider the impact it has on loot saturation and the ability to find specific pieces for loadouts. With this change we are able to keep weapons available but give our floor loot some breathing room.
Crafting
- Medkit price lowered from 20 to 15
- Kinetic Feeder added to crafting rotation
BUG FIXES AND QUALITY OF LIFE
Fixing some weird rules in how assists and kills are determined and properly rewarded.
- Quitting players can no longer deny kills & assists
- Reviving no longer resets damage history
PRIVATE MATCH UPDATES
- Observer: Added a toggle to disable kill feed while in free cam.
- Observer: Fixed ring visibility on mini map.
- Observer: Fixed kill calculations for the Status & Stats screen.
- Fixed Stats Summary generation for team slots with default names.
- Disabled Club features in Private Match.
- Added unique player ID's to Post-Game API (same ID's seen in the Real-Time API).
- Real-Time API changes:
- Added "weaponSwitched" event. Shows the current item equipped by the player.
- Added player names for events squadEliminated and matchStateEnd.
- Added teammate names for observerSwitched event.
- Fix for items appearing as "Unrecognized".
- Fix for characterSelected event not populating with all players.
Apex Legends is currently available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the game right here.
Are you excited for the new season of Apex Legends? What do you think of these changes? Let us know in the comments or share directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!