Here are Apex Legends’ season 7 Ascension patch notes

Apex Legends’ season seven is just days aways and Respawn gave a detailed list of all the upcoming changes today. The patch notes show a series of balancing adjustments across the board, including legends, weapons, and alterations to the new map, Olympus.

Respawn has already teased the broad strokes of everything that’s coming in season seven: the new legend Horizon, a new arena called Olympus, and the Trident hovercar, Apex‘s first pilotable vehicle. The season will also mark the battle royale’s Steam debut, complete with celebratory gun charms.

What’s new with the patch notes, however, is the specifics of gameplay changes that are on the way, particularly with weapons and legends.

Map rotation

With the new season comes a new map and Respawn is thinning out the map rotation. For the first two weeks, players will only be able to dive into Olympus in casual games and in the limited-time Olympus Preview mode.

After that period ends, however, the rotation will only feature two arenas: Olympus and World’s Edge. Kings Canyon will be out of the normal rotation, at least for the next few months.

Legend adjustments

A series of legends will go under the knife in season seven, from the ubiquitous Pathfinder to the rarely-seen Loba.

Bangalore’s ultimate will deploy faster, in six seconds instead of eight. The shorter fuse “will encourage enemies to leave the zone slightly faster,” and it could also increase the ability’s synergy with Horizon’s ultimate. A faster deployment time means that using the two in conjunction becomes more comfortable.

Caustic’s traps will also see significant changes. The blurred-vision effect of the Nox Gas is out of the picture, but to make up for lost power, Respawn is buffing its damage. Ticks deal increasing damage ranging from six to 12 health instead of four to 10.

Mirage mains are getting a new toy. The trickster’s decoys now have 45 health but won’t work as a shield. Any bullet that hits the hologram will continue to travel normally until it hits another object. Decoys will also flicker temporarily after being shot to help discern between the real Mirage and his clones.

Octane’s heal rate will double to one health per second, which allows the daredevil to regenerate much faster and be more aggressive—just like Octane should be.

Wattson’s fences are getting a boost and are ready to stop anything in her tracks. The damage of her tactical will increase to 15 from a previous 10, which makes her fences even deadlier. Players will want to triple-check a room before storming through the door.

Loba’s Black Market is getting an upgrade. Players can stock up on all the ammunition they want without burning through a slot, which is perfect to solve your team’s loot needs.

Rampart’s ordnances will get to work much quicker. The new patch will drop Sheila’s spin-up time to 1.25 seconds (down from two) and amped cover will trigger after just three seconds instead of the previous four. Respawn doesn’t want to remove her need to set up before an engagement, but wants to make it easier to do so.

Pathfinder’s changes aren’t confined to his kit. Respawn updated his hitbox to make him a little easier to hit, but he’s still harder to hit than other legends. The developers also maintained the Low Profile passive, which increases incoming damage.

Pathfinder’s Grappling Hook is going under the knife, too. Respawn is pushing an intense variant of the recent changes to his tactical. His cooldown is capped at 30 seconds, which, accounting for animations, means that the downtime won’t be larger than 35 seconds in total. Respawn has doubled the amount of distance necessary to reach the maximum cooldown and will allow the Grappling Hook to be considered “finished” even if the legend isn’t touching the floor.

Weapon meta

The new season is bringing key balancing changes to some weapons, too, including the reintroduction of the R-99 as ground loot and the Prowler’s move to care package territory.

The Hemlok will receive a different recoil pattern, which applies mostly to the burst-fire mode, and its headshot multiplier will also drop to 1.75 (39 damage instead of 44). The Havoc will follow a similar route and get an overhauled recoil pattern.

The Sentinel will see a significant boost. Instead of its old Disruptor effect, which dealt extra damage against shields, charging up the sniper rifle will increase its damage across the board from 70 to 88. It’s not the only marksman rifle receiving changes, either. The Triple Take’s fire rate will drop slightly when the patch lands.

Players will also encounter a new hop-up called Quickdraw Holster, applicable for the Wingman and RE-45. It decreases weapon swap time, hipfire spread, and holster animations. Wingman users will have to choose between the new hop-up and the Skullpiercer, which increases headshot damage. The Quickdraw Holster will replace the Selectfire following the Prowler’s move to the care package.

Game meta

In addition to the weapon balance changes, the new season will tweak the values for Evo Shields and ring damage. The new Evo Shield values are:

• Level zero to one: 100 damage (from 50)
• Level one to two: 150 damage (from 125)
• Level two to three: 300 damage (from 250)
• Level three to four: 750 damage (from 500)

Ring damage will get softer starting on ring two. In the second round, it’ll only drop three percent of maximum health instead of five, a change that gives players more time to pop a Syringe. Here are the updated values:

• Ring one: Two percent per tick (same)
• Ring two: Three percent per tick (from five percent)
• Ring three: Five percent per tick (from 10 percent)
• Ring four: 10 percent per tick (from 20 percent)
• Ring five: 10 percent per tick (from 20 percent)
• Ring six: 15 percent per tick (from 25 percent)
• Ring seven: 15 percent per tick (from 25 percent)

Apex season seven, Ascension, begins on Nov. 4.