Apex Legends Season 7 Is Bringing the R-99 Out of Care Packages

Apex Legends players better start practicing their recoil mitigation and stocking up on light ammo because the R-99 is coming back to the normal loot pool in Season 7. A go-to weapon for close and medium-range encounters, the R-99 is leaving the Care Packages it's been restricted to for the current season and will again be findable amid all the other weapons on the ground and in Supply Bins. It'll be replaced by the Prowler which will only be acquired through Care Packages starting next season.

The R-99 never truly left Apex Legends during Season 6, but since it was relegated to a rare Care Package, it was seldom seen like the Peacekeeper which was similarly dominant in earlier seasons. The Prowler with its Selectfire Receiver has been a common replacement for the R-99 this season given its own impressive rate of fire and damage output, so it'll be taking the R-99's place in the Care Packages.

There’s a whole new world out there in Season 7 – Ascension. Explore a dangerous city in the clouds, meet a brilliant astrophysicist with a mastery of gravity, and hop aboard Olympus’s levitating vehicles.

Rise to new heights when Season 7 launches Nov 4. pic.twitter.com/EYZLfbbTES

— Apex Legends (@PlayApex) October 30, 2020

Eagle-eyed Apex Legends players may have noticed the R-99 without its Care Package attachments in the gameplay trailer above that was released this week for Apex Legends Season 7. We asked Respawn Entertainment during a press event if the R-99 would be staying in the Care Packages or not and got confirmation from gameplay director Chad Grenier that it'd be coming back to the normal loot pool.

"We're pulling the R-99 out of the Care Package and are putting it back into the ground loot," Grenier said during the press event. "And I believe the Prowler is going into the Care Package."

What's not clear yet is how the R-99 will be adjusted ahead of its return to the Season 7 loot pool assuming it'll be changed at all other than having its pre-set attachments stripped away. The power of the R-99 was the whole reason it was locked away in the first place, so it wouldn't be unexpected to see some sort of nerf come through for the gun before it's back to being a common sight in Apex Legends. Respawn didn't confirm any plans for that though, so we'll have to wait for the official patch notes for the Season 7 update to see what's to be done about that.

Apex Legends Season 7 is scheduled to start on November 4th.