It’s been a full year since Apex Legends received a new weapon

The second day of Apex Legends’ 15th season, titled Eclipse, marks exactly a year since the game received its last new weapon.

The last new weapon players received was the C.A.R. SMG, which was introduced at the beginning of season 11 on Nov. 2, 2021. The C.A.R.’s launch coincided with that of Ash and Storm Point. Prior to this, a new weapon was introduced almost every season, with the exception of a handful of seasons: season 10 saw the release of the Rampage LMG, season nine introduced the Bocek Compound Bow, and season eight brought in the 30-30 Repeater, for example.

While seasons 12, 13, 14, and 15 continued the game’s long-established trend of releasing new legends and balance changes each season, none of them included a new weapon, making this the longest Apex has ever gone without receiving a new weapon.

So, where are all the new weapons? During a press conference for season 15, the development team at Respawn Entertainment revealed that one of its primary concerns going forward is to manage the game’s loot pool: ensuring that there are enough weapons, healing items, and other equippables to provide variety without overwhelming players or making things too cluttered.

It’s possible the team are still working on a long-term solution to wrangle Apex’s ever-expanding loot pool, meaning they don’t want to release a new weapon until the solution is finalized. It’s also possible that other features are taking priority and the team is relying on new legends and maps to keep the player base engaged, or that they want to tweak the current weapon pool’s balance even more before throwing something new into the mix.

We know for certain that there is at least one new weapon in development: the Nemesis Burst AR, a weapon that was accidentally leaked by Respawn itself in a season 10 trailer for the Evolution collection event. Leakers and data miners have also revealed evidence of several other weapons in production, so there is certainly plenty going on behind the scenes at Respawn. All the same, a year without a new weapon is certainly something new for Apex, and it’s certainly raising questions on the part of players.

When will the next gun arrive and what will it be? Only Respawn knows the answer to that.