Apex Legends season 18 patch notes

Apex Legends’ newest content dropped today with season 18, and players can dig into all the changes that are in store for them with the season 18 patch notes for the Resurrection update.

The season’s launch trailer dropped on July 31, and there have already been a plethora of teasers and leaks that include reworks of a legend as well as a gun. Along with new content, the new ranked season will include some changes intended to make matches more competitive.

There isn’t too much time to waste before it all starts, though. So here’s everything we know so far about the Apex season 18, Resurrection, patch notes.

Apex Legends Resurrection patch notes: All buffs, nerfs, and changes for season 18

Revenant Reborn

On Aug. 2, Respawn showcased an early look at Revenant’s new ability kit with iiTzTimmy, where fans worldwide got to see how the dev team approached the rework, and how the Synthetic Nightmare plays in season 18, Resurrection.

Related: All Revenant Reborn Abilities in Apex Legends

• Passive: Assassin’s Instinct – You crouch-walk faster and can climb higher than other Legends, vertically and horizontally. Low-health enemies are highlighted to you. Bringing enemies to low health marks them to your entire team.
• Tactical: Shadow Pounce – Launch toward a targeted direction. Hold the tactical ability button to charge up energy for a longer distance leap.
• Ultimate: Forged Shadows – When activated, gain a shadow shield with 75 health that absorbs damage and recharges over time. Downing enemies extends the duration and resets your tactical and shield cooldowns.

Other season 18 legend buffs and nerfs

There are several ultimate abilities getting cooldown adjustments and a few more changes as well.

• Ballistic
  • The Whistler tactical is getting a nerf, with overheated weapons now cooling down a second quicker, and overheated weapons now cool down four seconds faster as well.
• Bangalore
  • Ultimate cooldown now 240 seconds (a full minute added)
• Catalyst
  • Ultimate cooldown now 150 seconds (30 seconds added)
• Gibraltar
  • Ultimate cooldown now 180 seconds (reduced by 90 seconds, giving Gibby one of the rare buffs of this season)
• Horizon
  • Ultimate cooldown now 210 seconds (30 seconds added)
• Loba
  • Ultimate cooldown now 150 seconds (30 seconds added)
  • Ultimate accelerants now grant 25 percent to her ult charge (was 20 percent)
  • Tactical teleport ability cooldown reduced to 25 seconds (was 30 seconds)
• Mad Maggie
  • Ultimate cooldown now 120 seconds (30 seconds added)
• Pathfinder
  • Ultimate cooldown now 180 seconds (one minute added)
• Seer
  • Tactical ability nerfs
    • Slow when hit by tactical reduced to 0.5 seconds (was 2.5 seconds)
    • Silence when hit by tactical reduced to eight seconds (was 10 seconds)
    • Firing speed of tactical increased to 1.4 seconds (was 0.9 seconds)
• Wraith
  • Ultimate cooldown now 180 seconds (reduced by 30 seconds, another buff for Wraith)

Ring changes

Respawn is trying to quicken the pace of matches without compromising the game’s competitive integrity too much. As such, the round one ring is getting bigger, the time before the ring closes each round is getting shorter, and the speed at which rings close is getting a bit slower to compensate.

The exact changes are as follows:

• Ring one increased in size by 10 percent
• Ring two damage increased from three to four damage per tick
• Ring four damage decreased from 20 to 15 damage per tick

The general changes there are accompanied by significant timing changes to each round.

• Round One
  • Time before ring close reduced from 90 to 75 seconds
  • Shrink speed on small maps reduced from 167 to 160
  • Shrink speed on large maps reduced from 180 to 165
• Round Two
  • Time before ring close reduced from 165 to 120 seconds
  • Shrink speed reduced from 160 to 140
• Round Three
  • Time before ring close reduced from 135 to 90 seconds
• Round Four
  • Time before ring close reduced from 105 to 90 seconds
  • Shrink speed reduced from 100 to 85
• Round Five
  • Time before ring close reduced from 90 to 75 seconds
  • Shrink speed reduced from 50 to 40

The result of all these changes? Faster matches. All maps have seen a reduction in average time of about 2.5 minutes, with large maps taking about 20 minutes to conclude and small maps having an average time of about 19 minutes.

Ranked changes

The ranked changes for season 18 are now official, and they’re certainly focused on preventing the type of rank inflation that we all saw last year. Ladder Points (LP) will be easier to lose in bunches and more difficult to fain, while bonuses also look like they’ll be harder to come by.

• Finishing in 20th to 14th: Players now lose 50 LP instead of 35
• Finishing in 13th to 11th: Players now lose 30 LP instead of 25
• Finishing in 10th to ninth: Players now receive zero LP instead of 20/24
• Finishing eighth: Players receive 10 LP instead of 40
• Finishing seventh Players receive 25 LP instead of 60
• Finishing sixth: Players receive 40 LP instead of 80
• Finishing fifth: Players receive 55 LP instead of 100
• Finishing fourth: Players receive 70 LP instead of 125
• Finishing third: Players receive 85 LP instead of 150
• Finishing second: Players receive 100 LP instead of 175
• Finishing first: Players receive 150 LP instead of 200

The rules for players in Diamond and above are changing as well. While the LP gains from 10th to first are all the same as the values above, finishing in 11th to 13th as a Diamond or up will cost you 45 LP, and finishing below that will cost 75 LP.

Related: Apex fans, rejoice—Respawn is planning new ranked rewards according to leaks

There will be a small portion of the elimination bonus that is exempt from being withheld due to mismatched MMR, but there won’t be an increase in the overall elimination bonuses overall as Respawn determined that what the ranked system needed most was fewer overall points in the system.

Weapon balance changes

In addition to the Charge Rifle officially getting an overhaul, there are a lot more weapon balance changes to go around, with a seeming focus on bringing some shine back to shotguns, loosening the grip of SMGs on the meta, and making a couple of bad weapons somewhat useful again. If you ask me? The devs are trying to nerf controller players a bit without nerfing aim assist.

• Charge Rifle
  • No longer hitscan
  • No longer has “pre-fire” laser
  • Projectiles open doors
  • Projectiles have player damage passthrough at 80 percent damage retained
  • Projectiles gain damage the further away the target is
    • 75 damage dealt to targets 50 meters away
    • 110 damage dealt to targets 300 meters away, which seems like the upper limit
  • Added extended sniper mags (five for White, six for Blue, eight for Purple/Gold)
  • Ammo consumption now one bullet per shot
  • Reload times decreased 0.5 seconds (3.5 seconds on “tactical” reload, 4.5 seconds when reloading an empty Charge Rifle)
• All SMGs
  • All SMGs get a nerf to ADS strafe speed (remember how you used to sprint left and right in a duel? That’s going to be a lot slower now if you’re using an SMG)
  • All SMG headshot multipliers nerfed to 1.25 (originally 1.5)
• R-99
  • Vertical recoil increased
  • Ammo capacity reduced
    • Base ammo now 17 (was 19)
    • White mag now 20 (was 21)
    • Blue mag now 23 (was 24)
    • Purple/Gold mag now 26 (was 27)
• Spitfire
  • Barrel mods can now be added to Spitfire
  • ADS recoil improved
  • Hipfire spread also improved
• Mastiff
  • Projectile pattern tightened

Grenade changes

Frag grenades are getting a bit more powerful, with “outer radius” up to 350 units from 320, and “inner radius” increased to 125 units from 96. Basically, it’s easier to hit people for more damage with a frag grenade now.

Thermites are getting a slight change to better indicate where exactly the hitbox is for their damaging area as well.

Armor changes

In a bit of a left field change, White evo shields now require 200 damage to level up to Blue, up from 150 damage. The same goes for crafting your White evo shield in a Replicator. Finally, damage should now properly overflow into your leveled-up evo shield on the hit in which you level your armor up.

Disruptor Rounds return and other hop-up changes

Disruptor Rounds are making a comeback as floor loot for the first time since season two of Apex. They will be available for the weapon they’re most closely associated with, the Alternator, but will also get a new fellow in Disruption: the Peacekeeper.

Both weapons will get the damage buff to shields. A Disruptor Alternator will deal an increased 20 percent damage against shields per bullet with the hop-up equipped, and the Peacekeeper will get a whopping 25 percent damage increase per pellet against shields. And honestly? That makes me very interested in picking the Peacekeeper up in season 18.

The Boosted Loader is also making a comeback in season 18 for the Wingman and the Hemlok, while the Double Tap Trigger is being removed entirely, and Hammerpoint Rounds will no longer appear in the crafting rotation.

New care package and Replicator rotations

• Hemlok returns to ground loot with buffs over its previous ground loot state.
• Prowler SMG enters care package with Selectfire hop-up.
• R-99 and Rampage LMG return to ground loot.
• Nemesis AR and Mozambique with Hammerpoints enter crafting rotation.

Many players are likely hoping those Hemlok buffs help it out because when faced with the choice of grabbing a care package Hemlok or a Nemesis from the ground with no attachments in season 17, we picked up the Nemesis almost every time. The gun is just that good, and the Hemlok felt pretty underwhelming to us in comparison.

Related: Kill Code part 2 teases Revenant Reborn in Apex Legends—an end to his glitches

Season 18 map rotation

Storm Point and World’s Edge will leave the map rotation at the start of season 18. Broken Moon will remain, while Olympus and Kings Canyon will step back into the rotation.

Broken Moon is also getting the Mixtape treatment. This means you’ll be able to take part in modes like Team Deathmatch, Gun Run, and Control on various portions of the terraforming project.

World Systems changes

Basically, Respawn is trying to decrease the disparity in “good” POIs by giving different POIs more equal chances for Ring Consoles, Survey Beacons, and Replicator crafters to spawn in any given POI from game to game. This required the devs to tinker with some “exclusion radii” in the background that caused a few POIs to feel like they receive these benefits almost every game, while others rarely got them.

It’s a change that will most likely be popular in the competitive scene, at the very least, as at least one NA ALGS favorite blamed their underperformance at the Split Two Playoffs on changes made to their landing spot’s chances of getting a Ring Console.

Control mode changes

A few changes are being made to Control as well.

• Capture Bonus bounties reduced by 20 percent
• Capture time on a point reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds
• Score limit reduced from 1,250 to 1,000
• Players no longer spawn in waves, and spawn instantly upon choosing their spawn point
• Events like care package drops and mobile respawn beacons will start 30 percent sooner in a match

Bug fixes

• About Game Mode button now works while in game modes
• Adjusted sizing and positioning of elements on the Switch’s communication wheel to give it more breathing room
• Consumables UI no longer freezes while in use and reviewing inventory
• Dying or swapping Legends with a Gold backpack full of large healing items no longer causes the items to be thrown from the player in firing range
• Challenges no longer flip to NBR version when tracking in ranked matches
• Fixed black line in kill feed when a player dies out of bounds
• Fixed persistent gift notifications after returning to lobby
• Fixed players from different teams being able to ride in the same trident if they interacted with both a mounted Sheila and the trident simultaneously
• Fixed support bins occasionally being prevented from providing survival items (heat shield or mobile respawn beacons)
• Map no longer clips behind the challenges on 16:10 resolutions
• Players should now properly spectate the player who knocked or killed them (without being knocked), and not who killed their teammates or who thirsted them from the downed state
• Players can no longer get stuck inside a trident’s collision box
• Pinging Icarus vault from the map (with vault key in inventory) won’t present a malformed string
• Predator badge no longer fades away on champion screen
• Reduced the animate in time of death recap in Control, Team Deathmatch, and Gun Run
• Spectres no longer stand in Catalyst’s Piercing Spikes
• Unitframe consumable progress now updating in the inventory screen
• Using remapped controls on a gamepad/controller no longer prevents pinging from the map
• Fixed players seeing the ranking of players they are spectating

• Fixed animations not playing audio in rare cases
• Improved prioritization for certain enemy movement sounds
• Players movement transitions no longer occasionally play duplicate audio events

• Ballistic
  • CAR SMG doesn’t default to heavy ammo after being converted to a golden gun in sling with light ammo
  • Tempest no longer applies to teammates when friendly fire is enabled in firing range
• Pathfinders voicemails during an Ash heirloom inspect no longer stretched on 16:10 resolutions

• Gibraltar and Bangalore
  • Fixed ultimates not triggering if thrown on ziprail launcher and skydive towers
  • Fixed ultimates not cooldown if they’re killed while holding the ultimate grenade
• Horizon: Lethal Lass skin no longer obstructs ADS on Prowler with 1x holo
• Loba: Lunar Wolf skin no longer has broken mesh
• Rampart: Sheila’s ammo counter now correctly rotated

• Broken Moon:
  • Added building west of the core to minimap
  • Loot tick now correctly drops loot at Production Yard
  • Removed invisible collision above playing field
• Olympus: indoor props without collision no longer blocks picking up loot

• Firing Range:
  • Ballistic’s Whistler is no longer heard across Firing Ranges when shot at the ground
  • Dummies no longer occasionally shoot while set to inactive
  • Small door’s audio and FX no longer heard/seen across Firing Ranges

• Left most ammo on squad member unitframes now represents their currently equipped weapon
• L-Star: low ammo indicator now only appears when ammo is actually low
• P2020: fixed high inaccuracy with first shot using ADS

• Firing Range
  • Dynamic dummy spawning now remains off when you die
  • Legend ultimates will be fully charged after loading into the firing range, swapping legends, and dying
  • A new nessie… and more!
• French
  • In-game/lobby chat now available when language is set to French on console
  • Corrected French translation for R-301 mastery challenge level 20
• Kill feed will now call out when a player has been removed from the match
• Multiple stickers can now be placed
• Players can longer interact with enemy holosprays through walls
• Ranked progress bar no longer bounces value while sitting on match summary screen
• Seer: Exhibit AR throw indicator is no longer offset from ground
  • (no longer gives false impression of where the Ultimate will land)
• Support Perk – Crafting Banners: after grabbing the first banner, you can now immediately grab the second one as well
• Weapon Mastery:
  • New animated celebration sequences when unlocking and completing trials, as well as mastering weapons
  • New animated icon in the HUD weapon element when a weapon is level 100

Apex Legends no longer supporting Windows 7

Finally, Respawn will no longer support Apex on Windows 7 as the amount of errors and “outdated technologies” in the system makes it not worth it. If you’re still using Windows 7 and want to play Apex on PC, it’s time to upgrade.

Apex season 18 is set to go live on Aug. 8.