It seems like Apex Legends’ newest weapon is taking over the show.
An update to the Apex Dev Tracker yesterday shows that the Charge Rifle will undergo changes to improve the battle royale’s quality of life.
“Current charge rifle balance is not where it should be,” according to Respawn developer Scriptacus. “Changes incoming.”
Although Respawn hasn’t provided any additional information on the nature of the changes, the Charge Rifle will likely be nerfed due to players’ complaints that it’s overpowered.
The new sniper, which shoots out a weak ray before exploding into a powerful blast of energy, only uses one ammo per shot, has a quick fire rate, and is extremely accurate. To top it all off, the Charge Rifle is a hitscan weapon, which means that it’s bullets have no travel speed—wherever you point to, it’ll hit.
Popular streamers and pros have commented on how the Charge Rifle fits into the current state of the game. Clique Esports’ Gustaf “kangakanga” Leufstedt jokingly analyzed the Apex meta in a tweet on Oct. 2.
First-person shooter legend and former CS:GO pro Michael “shroud” Grzesiek tested out the Charge Rifle on his stream and he was amazed at its dominance when out in the open. It does have a glaring weakness, however.
“Jesus Christ, this thing is nasty, bro,” shroud said. “It’s insanely good if they’re out in the open, but if there’s any cover at all, it’s really not that good… The only way to really do a lot of damage is to trace somebody for the full amount of time.”
Although the adjustments to the Charge Rifle are ambiguous, Respawn will likely release the changes in the next patch.
