Apex Legends nerfs assault rifles, buffs shotguns in season 16

It’s a time of great change in Apex Legends, as season 16 launches on Feb. 14.

Alongside wider updates to the way that classes operate, a new weapon and some upcoming adjustments to two of the most popular weapon archetypes are sure to drastically shake up the sandbox. Respawn Entertainment hit both assault rifles and shotguns in this update, nerfing the former and buffing the latter in the hopes of correcting an imbalance of power that currently exists.

Eric Canavese, the lead weapons designer at Respawn, walked us through the changes coming at a recent press event. The assault rifle nerfs can’t be seen as too much of a surprise, owing to the fact that Canavese said the goal of the new assault rifle—the Nemesis—is to try and dethrone the R-301.

“It’s definitely tuned pretty hot. It’s going to be a strong gun when it launches. It definitely is going to gun for the R-301 and the Flatline,” he explained. To further aid in its attempt for the throne, the R-301 itself will be getting a slight nerf. Respawn is knocking down its damage from 14 to 13 per bullet, which will be enough to not outright kill the weapon’s power but better balance it out with its contemporaries.

The specific damage reduction for the R-301 will launch alongside a wider nerf to the efficacy of assault rifles when hip-firing. The spread of all assault rifles is being widened when firing from the hip in an attempt to curb their potency at close range in comparison to other close-quarters options.

Related: The new class perks coming to Apex Legends in season 16 are a major evolution for the game

“These assault rifles, they’re swiss army knives, they’re definitely the kings of mid-range,” Canavese said, pointing out how a lot of the popularity attributed to assault rifles comes from their universal application. “One of the things they do a little bit too well is beam in mid-range and then transition into that hip-fire to take down targets that are rushing you. It’s not great to have one type of weapon take every engagement range, so by increasing the spread on their hip-fire, it’s gonna open up some room to make players feel empowered to bring those shotguns in and those SMGs in.”

To further encourage players to pick up shotguns more often, they will be receiving a buff at the same time through a variety of updates. Not only will the Mastiff and the Peacekeeper now be able to equip standard stocks like the EVA-8 has been able to previously, but a new golden shotgun bolt attachment is going to join the floor loot as well.

Canavese says the golden shotgun bolt is taking a lot of inspiration from the Kinetic Feeder hop-up, but admits it’s “tuned quite a bit hotter” than that hop-up was. “When you’ve got this on a shotgun and you slide, it will take shotgun shells from your backpack and put them into the shotgun,” he said. As it’s much stronger than the Kinetic Feeder was, “you’ll get rounds into those shotguns a lot more consistently,” he then added. “Just slide hopping around, the basic traversal, sliding in combat, all of that is going to trigger this.”

Shotguns are also going to receive a small quality-of-life improvement to their consistency. “We’re going to improve the projectile size of all of our shotguns across the board at close range,” Canavese continued. He didn’t go into specifics on the significance of the change, but said they are “really just trying to improve the consistency in which these shotguns perform. We’ve all had situations where you only get one pellet and you see that nine, you see that 11, and you’re like ‘if only it hit more pellets.’ So as long as you can keep your crosshair on a target, it should feel a lot more consistent this season.”

Here’s the rundown on all the changes hitting assault rifles and shotguns that we were privy to at the press event:

• The R-301’s damage is getting nerfed from 14 to 13
• Assault rifles will now have wider spread when firing from the hip
• The Peacekeeper and Mastiff can now take standard stocks
• Improved pellet projectile sizes on all shotguns for better consistency at close range
• New golden shotgun bolt attachment for all shotguns that boosts fire rate and comes with an enhanced version of Kinetic Feeder

How drastically these changes will impact the meta and the pick rate of popular guns like the R-301 remains to be seen, but players will be able to explore all of the balance updates for themselves when Apex’s 16th season—Revelry—goes live on Feb. 14.