Apex Legends Update 22.1 Patch Notes on 12 September

Apex Legends has just released a massive patch that brings the first event for the season along with a wide range of fixes, changes, and quality of life improvements. The update also brings balance changes to weapons and legends as well as new maps. Here is the complete Apex Legends Update 22.1 Patch Notes on 12 September.

Apex Legends Update 22.1 Patch Notes

BALANCE UPDATES

Gold Weapons Rotation

Mozambique Akimbo, P2020 Akimbo, EVA-8, VK-47 Flatline, G7 Scout

GAMEPLAY UPDATES

Loot Bin Reset

Added Announcer voice line when Loot Bin Reset has triggered for improved clarity
Reduced spawn rate for some high value loot (backpacks, hop ups, gold attachments) after reset
If a Loot Bin is opened just before the reset happens, loot from that bin will be thrown out onto the ground ensuring players can grab desirable items instead of those items being deleted
Legendary Loot Bins will roll fewer Gold items via Smart Loot when opened
Mythic Loot Bins will roll large healing items more consistently
Updates to Legendary (Gold) Loot Bin spawning logic which reduces the number of spawned Gold Bins and more consistently distributes them across the playable space

Dev Note: You should be rewarded for surviving to the late game. More consistent access to high value loot with Loot Bins has been a great reward, however the rewards were a bit too generous. We’ve reduced the rates of the best items that end the loot chase too soon to maintain the value of continuous looting after Loot Bin Reset. Additionally, no one loves the experience of opening a Loot Bin and seeing something they want, only to have the reset slam it shut in their face. Getting that loot onto the ground ensures you get the full value out of a Loot Bin regardless of the reset timing.

Loot Ticks

Greatly improved the contents of loot ticks
Removed white and blue rarity attachments and equipment from possible loot
Increased the chances to receive gold weapons
Removed Phoenix Kit and hop-ups from possible loot

Dev Note: Long have Loot Ticks been a bit underwhelming. We’ve increased their power to be more on par with other, more recent sources of high tier loot acquisition.

WEAPONS & LOOT

Havoc Rifle

Removed Turbocharger as a Hop-up

Dev Note: Even after our most recent round of nerfs, the Havoc is still overperforming compared to our other weapons. Removing its high-valued chase item is intended to tamp down its power level.

R-99 SMG [Care Package]

Damage fall-off at 11+ meters increased to 11
Improved recoil

Ammo

Ammo that spawns with a weapon will now always be a single brick, but with twice the ammo

Dev Note: Previously, there was a 70% chance to spawn two separate ammo bricks and a 30% chance to only spawn one when a weapon spawned with its corresponding ammo. We’ve changed this to clean up the number of items on the ground and slightly increase the ammo economy.

Hop-ups

Reduced spawn rate of Gun Shield Generator
Removed Turbocharger from loot pool

Ultimate Accelerant

Rarity increased to Purple (was Blue)
Reduced spawn rate
Increased movement speed while using

Dev Note: Ult Accelerants are in a tricky spot. Their power is clear to some players, being able to chain multiple ultimates in a single engagement, while other players will leave them on the ground in favor of other loot. We want all of our players to understand the power that comes with the Ult Accelerant, but we also don’t want to mess too much with the careful balancing act that comes with Legend ult timing. This change aims to decrease the cadence with which they can be used while also making their power more obvious and convenient to access.

LEGENDS

Fuse

Hard capped the max radius of the scan area to be 450 (+50% of default ring/flat surface)
Disallowed mortar targeting on multiple objects within the players control to prevent perfect setups

Dev Note: We gave Fuse the ability to see enemies inside the mortar ring as a quality of life improvement. The scan area would scale as large as necessary to match the area of the ring. This had the unintended side effect of giving a very large scan area when shot on tall objects. Our intention for the ult is to primarily be an area of effect ability, not an information gathering ability.

Rampart

Lowered delay before you can re-enter Sheila turret to 0.15s (was 1s)

Revenant

Forged Shadows
Reduced shield health to 50 (was 75)
Activation time doubled

Valkyrie

Now Recon Legend (was Skirmisher)
Full Tank upgrade now includes a 50% reduction in refuel delay to 4s (was 8s)
Gains Threat Vision while jetpacking, stays on until feet hit the ground/zipline
Jetpack UI now has a ‘refuel delay’ timer
More agile jetpack handling that feels similar to Valk’s release
Various buffs to improve reliability and output from Tac
Move slow stun duration increased by 50%
Missile explosion radius increased by 20%
Min attack range decreased by 25% (can hit enemies that are closer)
Max missile travel time now 4s (was 4.5s)
Fire rate for launching all missiles now 25 (was 18)
Upgrades
Aerial Expert: removed
Full Coverage: moved to Level 2, added reduced Tac cooldown
NEW Eyes in the Sky: ignores the LoS check on skydive HUD scan, increases HUD highlighting range by 40m

Dev Note: As Evac Towers rose, Valk’s fall from grace was no surprise. After 16 months of everyone having access to more macro-mobility, we used this midseason update to improve all facets of her kit and reevaluate her role as a Skirmisher. We felt that gating full ult potential behind upgrades was still an important playstyle decision and power check for someone with a jetpack for a passive. Do you prefer the combat strength gained from jetpack and tactical upgrades? Or will you opt for skydiving upgrades that can help you spot good landing locations in crowded endgames? Regardless, Threat Vision while jetpacking and her skydive HUD solidify her as a unique Recon pick: “They can have the ground, I own the sky.”

MAPS

Pubs & Ranked

E-District
Olympus
Kings Canyon

MODES

Duos

Returns September 17, 2024
Available until the end of Shockwave

New Mode: Knockout

New 60 player, 20 squad, points-based BR mode
Squads capture zones and collect EVO to earn points
Five lowest scoring squads are eliminated at the end of each round
Players have infinite respawns until the Sudden Death finale
After 3 rounds, the remaining 5 squads are redeployed for a Sudden Death finale
Last squad standing wins!

MIXTAPE

Map Rotations
September 17-October 14, 2024
TDM: Thunderdome, Skull Town, Estates
CONTROL: Caustic Treatment, Labs, Barometer
GUN RUN: Wattson’s Pylon, Estates, Skull Town
October 15-21, 2024
TDM: , Thunderdome, Skull Town
CONTROL: , Labs, Caustic Treatment
LOCKDOWN: Estates, Skull Town
October 22-28, 2024
BIG TDM: Estates, Skull Town
CONTROL: Thunderdome, Lava Siphon
GUN RUN: Wattson’s Pylon, Fragment
October 29-November 4, 2024
BIG TDM: Thunderdome, Skull Town
CONTROL: Labs, Caustic Treatment
GUN RUN: Estates, Skull Town

RANKED

Ranked has gone through many different layers through the years and of course every player has their favorite rendition. At the end of Upheaval, we stopped baking you Ranked cakes and started baking you Rumble pies. It was a limited run and some of you ate the pies, but realistically everyone that comes to the cake shop is there for cake.

To cut the metaphors, our very first Ranked Rumble was met with rumbles. It didn’t deliver or align with why you’re playing Ranked: grinding for that sweet, sweet ~~icing~~ RP. You let us know about this misalignment and it was also reflected in our participation data. We set out to create a competitive experience that would offer a different flavor and we missed the mark.

Ranked Rumble will not be going live today or at the end of the Shockwave season. We’re going to take it offline and rework some of the fundamental systems to allow for the following goals to be achieved:

Ranked Rumble should add to the existing Ranked experience, not be a substitute
Provide a way to earn bonus rewards for competing directly against other players in your tier
Provide an opportunity for meaningful competition and comparison once you have reached your skill cap
Capture some of the Top Predator placement magic at every Ranked tier
Create some of the best matches that Ranked has to offer by bringing more players together
Create more opportunities for us to gather and respond to feedback, which allows us to dial-in the experience to be more fun and worth your time investment

Ranked Rumble will see a tentative return next season. We hope you’ll continue to enjoy Shockwave’s Ranked and look forward to us talking about Ranked Rumble again in the very near future.

BUG FIXES

Looking for something else?

Our public Trello board

is updated weekly with the status of bugs that we can talk about ahead of the patch note drops. We also update our game status here for those of you not on other social platforms.

DX12 PC: fixed issue that prevented Apex from working on third gen Intel CPUs like 3570 and 3770
Fixed a long standing bug that could cause servers to crash
Fixed rare case where you could get crushed when mantling over open Loot Bin
Legendary Loot Bins will no longer spawn too near each other or in clustered groups
Low Ammo indicators will no longer spam while you’re unarmed
Minimap icons for used/empty Perk Loot Bins will no longer display
R-99 restored to Care Packages in Mixtape TDM and Big TDM
Restored ADS red dot while using “Celestial Sniper” Longbow skin
Restored Zipline upwards from the second floor of Wattson’s Pylon on Storm Point
Teams with all max level players can no longer interact with Evo Harvesters
Vastly reduced the likelihood of being in a constant state of rubberbanding

Loot Bin Reset

Fixed rare crash related to opening Mythic Supply Bins after Loot Bin reset
Loot Bin Reset warnings while spectating now shown at correct times

Legends

Crypto: EMP will no longer occasionally trigger while recalling Hack
Mad Maggie’s passive will now trigger when hitting gunshields
Newcastle’s “Swift Speed” upgrade now works as intended
Wattson
Emergency Power upgrade will now affect teammates and ult accels
Resolved issue with health regen in Mixtape

QUALITY OF LIFE

Added the ability to manage your inventory while healing and ziplining
Valkyrie: can now cancel the her Tac by melee punching

E-District

Added assets to aid in climbing up walls in certain areas
Added two survey beacons to the north side of the map
Electro Dam’s spillway slope can now be traversed upwards
Ground loot and Loot Bin count has been increased
100 Loot Bins have been added to the map
Buses now have ground loot
Various buildings have had their ground loot slightly increased
Reduced the amount of possible high-tier loot spawning at The Lotus
Relocated Blossom Drives crafter to the far West side
Resolved a number of additional bugs and rat spots

GRAPHICS

DX12 PC: made it easier to use stretched res with a DX12-only CVar, “mat_letterbox_aspect_min”. Setting this value to 1.0 as a launch argument, such as +mat_letterbox_aspect_min 1.0, will let Apex stretch the game resolution as the last-stage of rendering in full screen mode, so that players shouldn’t need to modify anything in system settings or in a GPU vendor’s control panel
Fixed some performance issues for quad-core CPUs that were introduced Upheaval mid-season
GPU performance optimizations for rendering FX like legend abilities