Apex Legends
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APEX LEGENDS™: RESURRECTION PATCH NOTES
LEGEND UPDATE: REVENANT
For almost 300 years, Revenant was under the Syndicate’s thumb with the help of Hammond, and all he wanted was to escape. Now, suddenly, he starts to glitch—someone has launched a new protocol. He finds that he’s able to see enemies low on health, unleash a powerful leap forward, and forge a shroud of shadows around him that blocks incoming damage. But he also knows how to hold a grudge.
Check out Revenant’s new look and new abilities for yourself! He’s unlocked all season long, and you can complete challenges throughout the season to unlock him permanently. Read the full breakdown of Revenant’s rework and get behind the screens in our highlights blog here.
With great new abilities, comes a new class—Revenant is now a Skirmisher.
PASSIVE: Assassin’s Instinct
Highlight nearby visible enemies who are low on health. You crouch walk faster and have improved wall climbing.
TACTICAL: Shadow Pounce
Unleash a powerful pounce forwards. Hold to charge for farther distances.
ULTIMATE: Forged Shadows
Forge a shroud of hardened shadows around you that blocks direct damage and regenerates after breaking. Your shadows and tactical are refreshed on knockdowns.
RESURRECTION MAP ROTATION
The following maps will be available for public matchmaking in the Battle Royale mode:
Broken Moon
Kings Canyon
Olympus
RING UPDATE
Ring behavior across maps in the BR has been updated with targeted tunings; including ring size, damage, and timings to several game phases to improve pacing in early and mid game. Here’s an in-depth look:
Ring Size Changes
Ring 1 has increased 10% in radius per map, resulting in ~20% larger Ring 1 surface area
No other Ring sizes changed
Ring Damage Changes
Ring 2 Damage increased from 3 per tick to 4 per tick
Ring 4 Damage reduced from 20 per tick to 15 per tick
Timing Changes
Round 1
- Preshrink time reduced from 90s to 75s
- Shrink speed on small Maps reduced from 167 to 160
- Shrink speed on large Maps reduced from ~180 to ~165
- Shrink time standardized to ~260s on each map
Round 2
- Preshrink time reduced from 165s to 120s
- Shrink speed reduced from 160 to 140
- Shrink time increased by ~25s per map
Round 3
- Preshrink time reduced from 135s to 90s
Round 4
- Preshrink time reduced from 105s to 90s
- Shrink speed reduced from 100 to 85
- Shrink time increased from 40s to ~50s
Round 5
- Preshrink time reduced from 90s to 75s
- Shrink speed reduced from 50 to 40
- Shrink time increased from 40s to 50s
Maximum match length has been shortened
Small maps: reduced to ~19.0 mins (was ~21.5 mins)
Large maps: reduced to ~20.0 mins (was ~22.5 mins)
RANKED UPDATE
Read the full breakdown of this season’s ranked changes in our July 2023 Ranked Blog and check out an update on Ranked Rewards in our Resurrection highlights blog.
Read the full patch notes here: https://www.ea.com/games/apex-legends/news/resurrection-patch-notes
Apex Legends: Resurrection Battle Pass Trailer
Terrorize your enemies with looks from the Resurrection Battle Pass†. At Level 24, darkness triumphs with Mad Maggie's "Outlawed Tech", and new this season is the Reactive "Heart of the Divine" EVA-8 available at Level 25. Discover true horror at Level 50 with Pathfinder's "Pathogen". You’ll also manifest fear with the “Vortex Core” L-STAR, and unlock Epic skins for Valkyrie, Octane, and Caustic. Complete the Resurrection Battle Pass to unlock the Reactive “Heart of Brimstone” EVA-8 skin. As you creep through the shadows, earn new banner frames, emotes, weapon charms, and stickers. Buy the bundle to instantly unlock the first 25 levels.
Learn More: http://x.ea.com/apxl/resurrection
NEW UPDATES COMING WITH APEX LEGENDS™: RESURRECTION
NEW UPDATES COMING WITH APEX LEGENDS™: RESURRECTION
Death lurks around every corner in the Apex Games, but now is the time for Resurrection. Revenant has been rejuvenated with a new look, new abilities, and a new level of rage. Not unlocked? No problem. Play as Revenant all season long, and unlock him permanently by completing challenges. There’s something for everyone this season—from Broken Moon in Mixtape, a revamped Charge Rifle, updates to Ranked, new community Stickers from ryonello, and the new Death Dynasty Collection Event—and it all starts August 8, 2023. Stay tuned for our full list of updates in our Resurrection Patch Notes coming this Monday, August 7, 2023.
LEGEND UPDATE: REVENANT
For years, Revenant has been mired in feelings of rage, self-hatred, and a lack of autonomy. He spent almost 300 years under the Syndicate’s thumb with the help of Hammond, and all he wanted was to escape it.
Suddenly, Revenant experiences a change—he starts to glitch. Everything is out of his control. In the middle of a match, he loses his abilities only to discover they've been replaced with new ones. Someone, somewhere, has launched a new protocol. He finds that he’s able to see enemies low on health, unleash a powerful leap forward, and forge a shroud of shadows around him that blocks incoming damage. But he also knows how to hold a grudge. Revenant’s angry, confused, and now he'll find and get revenge on whoever is messing with him.
PASSIVE: Assassin’s Instinct
Highlight nearby visible enemies who are low on health. You crouch walk faster and have improved wall climbing.
TACTICAL: Shadow Pounce
Unleash a powerful pounce forwards. Hold to charge for farther distances.
ULTIMATE: Forged Shadows
Forge a shroud of hardened shadows around you that blocks direct damage and regenerates after breaking. Your shadows and tactical are refreshed on knockdowns.
Revenant will be unlocked for all players, all-season long. Players can complete challenges by using Revenant throughout the season in order to unlock him permanently.
CHARGE RIFLE UPDATE
The Charge Rifle has been re-designed for immediate use in the Apex Games. No longer does the infamous weapon fire a sustained beam. Newly fitted with an Extended Sniper Mag attachment slot and boasting a number of changes to its firing mechanisms, Legends familiar with the anti-Titan model available during the Frontier Wars should feel right at home.
Holding the trigger down will increase the weapon’s charge, while releasing the trigger will decrease it. Once fully charged, a powerful energy projectile is released which deals increased damage the further it travels. This projectile can pierce through multiple enemy Legends, so watch out which teammates you cozy up to!
MIXTAPE: BROKEN MOON
NEW TDM & GUN RUN MAP: THE CORE
Broken Moon is coming to Mixtape! The Core provides a new and exciting battlefield for Gun Run and TDM. Occupying the central building gives great high ground and wide-open sightlines making it a prime location to fight over. Or take to the outer ring for prime access to Care Packages.
The Core is a little bit bigger than what we’ve played previously. Zip rails help players rotate towards the action quickly and open sightlines promote a different style of gameplay and weapon meta than the other more personal, scrappier maps.
NEW CONTROL MAP: PRODUCTION YARD
It’s been a while since our last Control map and Broken Moon brings Production Yard to Control. Contrary to our other Broken Moon map for Mixtape, Production Yard provides an intense, scrappy experience in tight quarters. Lots of boxes and cover to duck around and tight corners to set-up defense or ambushes.
Also featuring Broken Moon’s Zip rails, combat pace is really high on this map and allows players to quickly shift from attacking and defending at a moment's notice. We’re hoping players find a lot of different strategies in either bunkering up and covering angles or finding some sneaky back caps using zip rails and corners.
RANKED UPDATE
We’ve tightened up the matchmaking, tuned LP gains, and made eliminations a steady contributor to your rise through the ranks. Dive into the nitty-gritty of why Resurrection will see some of the sweatiest matches you’ve had this summer (or winter) in our recent Ranked Update blog.
RANKED REWARD REWORK
In previous seasons, players achieving Diamond+ ranks would get access to an exclusive season-long Dive Trail.
We’ve been observing an unintended effect where the presence of a Ranked Dive Trail during the drop would unduly influence where players wanted to land—either strongly avoiding or actively pursuing players with the trail.
A reward for being a top player shouldn’t give away valuable information at a critical part of the match, so we’ve made a change to swap the Dive Trail reward with an Epic Banner Frame as the Diamond+ Ranked reward.
- The Epic Banner Frame lets players flex their hard-earned status at the start of a match and more importantly, every time they take down other players.
- Badges, Holosprays and Weapon Cosmetics will continue to be rewarded in Ranked as in previous seasons.
COMMUNITY STICKER BUNDLE
You love seeing Apex Legends™ fan art and so does the team, so we had to have even more enter the game. From August 8-22, pick up our latest community sticker bundle featuring a plethora of stickers (and some special holographic ones) created by ryonello!
“I had a lot of fun with it and got to explore sort of the more cheeky smug mischievous like unhinged side of the characters.”
“My message to aspiring artists with the community is keep going, I love you. Draw what you love and other people will love it too. And I would really love to see your work as part of the collaborations one day.”
Learn more about how stickers work in our FAQ here.
DEATH DYNASTY COLLECTION EVENT
Death becomes you, Legends. Our first event of Resurrection will be launching with the season, and you’ll be handsomely rewarded with double XP in Battle Royale from August 8-15 and then in Mixtape from August 15-22.
COLLECTION EVENT ITEMS
Capture 24 limited-time cosmetics before they expire, with Legendary skins for Catalyst, Loba, and more!
All 24 items will be available in exchange for Apex Coins or Crafting Metals and in Death Dynasty Event Apex Packs for the entire duration of the event.
You’ll automatically receive Revenant’s Death Grip Heirloom set once you’ve secured all 24 items for your eternal collection.
REWARD TRACKER
Earn up to 1,600 points per day, challenges refresh daily and all challenges will stack with your Battle Pass so you can complete multiple challenges at once. Complete additional goals to unlock three unique event badges and complete all three to earn a final fourth badge.
STORE TAB
Look for limited-time offers in the Store tab and check out the weekly offers during the Death Dynasty Collection Event.
Apex Legends: Resurrection Gameplay Trailer
Death is Reborn in Apex Legends: Resurrection. Revenant has been twisted into something even more sinister and his new reign of terror has begun. Experience his killer new look and deadly new abilities as he is unlocked for all players all season long. Complete challenges to unlock him permanently.
Drop into the Death Dynasty Collection Event and unlock all 24 limited-time themed cosmetics before the event ends to receive Revenant’s new Scythe Heirloom. In this event, you’ll earn double XP in Battle Royale August 8-15 and in Mixtape August 15-22.
Learn More: http://x.ea.com/apxl/resurrection
Apex Legends: Resurrection Launch Trailer | Kill Code - Part 2
Crypto hacks into a discarded fragment of Revenant to investigate some disturbing changes. Revenant is losing control of himself – but to who?
Learn More: http://x.ea.com/apxl/resurrection
Let's take a look at the wonderful artworks from all the artists
When Horizon looks at you
@-猫哈噗啦咻
APEX family photo
GLOW FOR SHOW IN THE NEON NETWORK COLLECTION EVENT
Prepare to be illuminated, Legends. Delve deeper into the nefarious plot unfolding in the Outlands by jumping into the Neon Network Collection Event. Piece together the story with our latest mode and final collection event of the season running July 25-August 8, 2023.
KILL CODE: A THIEF'S BANE
After biding her time, Loba’s hunt continues. Become the wolf and enter her story yourself as you breach a facility that may have started the interruption to her childhood. With shady plot abound, you’ll work through an interactive introduction before entering the Battle Royale with a twist from July 21-August 8, 2023.
NODE TRACKER: BATTLE ROYALE TAKEOVER
Use a Node Tracker in non-ranked Battle Royale matches to detect, locate the optimal location to connect, and hack into leads across the map to receive loot and Compute Nodes. Be quick—the battle won’t pause for you to complete the hack. Compute Nodes will be awarded post match for you to use in the new event shop.
COMPUTE NODES & REWARD SHOP
Our new event currency, Compute Nodes, puts the power in your hands. Choose what to unlock and when as you progress through the event. Bonus? Once all of the event skins have been unlocked, you can use your remaining Nodes to earn additional BP Stars to continue your seasonal progress. Challenges refresh daily and you can earn a limited amount of Compute Nodes per day.
NEON NETWORK COLLECTION EVENT ITEMS
Collect all 24 rave worthy limited-time cosmetics, with Legendary skins for Ash, Ballistic, Caustic, and more!
All 24 items will be available in exchange for Apex Coins or Crafting Metals and in Neon Network Event Apex Packs for the entire duration of the event.
Unlock all Neon Network items before the event ends to automatically receive Valkyrie’s Prestige skin: Apex Interceptor.
STORE TAB
Explore limited-time offers in the Store tab including Vantage’s Night Cat bundle and check out the weekly offers like Deep Sixed Bonus Bundle available July 28-August 1, 2023, or Lone Wolf Bonus Bundle available August 4-8, 2023.
KILL CODE: PART 1
Catch up before you enter the Battle Royale with chapter one of Kill Code.
Apex Legends™ Neon Network Collection Event Trailer
Join the Neon Network Collection Event and uncover a shady plot in the Node Tracker battle royale takeover. You'll earn nodes you can use to unlock cosmetics in the new Reward Shop.
Valkyrie's Prestige “Apex Interceptor” skin will be yours if you unlock all 24 limited-time themed cosmetics before the event ends. Sometimes an assassin needs to blend in, but now is the time for you to stand out.
Learn More: http://x.ea.com/76923
APEX LEGENDS™: JULY 2023 RANKED DEV BLOG
In an effort to address as many questions as possible, we’re hosting a live Ranked AMA on July 21, 2023 from 9:30-11:30 am Pacific Time. Join us on the r/ApexLegends subreddit!
The art of game development is rarely a straight line, it often involves building upon and refining ideas—Ranked is no exception. We hit some aspects of our goals, and also missed the mark with some of our tuning and bugs, which caused the inflated number of players in Masters and occasional unfairness in matchmaking. Let's take a deeper look at these issues and discuss some upcoming changes that will help us move towards a more stable and competitive Ranked for future seasons.
For those who just want the gist, here’s the TLDR:
Overly Generous Ladder Points (LP): Arsenal’s LP tuning was intended to be generous, but not this generous. Its current tuning is causing a series of cascading issues with the rest of the Ranked system. We are tightening the amount of LP awarded and bonuses included for Season 18.
Bugs: We love to hate them. They are contributing to the tuning problem and we’re feeling confident about our upcoming fixes.
Future Changes: Season 18 will focus on refining Ranked tuning and stability. We’re going to take a deep breath and take the time needed to prepare for an even tighter and more competitive Ranked system.
Thank you for your passion, your feedback, and for taking this journey with us.
WHAT’S HAPPENED IN ARSENAL
LADDER POINTS: PLACEMENT AND BONUS TUNING
We intended Arsenal to be a learning experience for players adapting to the new ruleset and matchmaking. Unfortunately, the combo of this and some bugs in the Ranked system caused Ladder Point gains to be extremely generous, resulting in an excess of Masters players.
Season 18 focus: lowering the amount of LP distributed in a match to even out the distribution of players per rank.
BONUSES
When a player’s ranking vastly exceeds their Matchmaking Rating (MMR) equivalent, the bonus system withholds the bonus. This limit is intended and used to dial in the correct rank over time.
Thanks to the aforementioned generous LP, some players’ rankings were inflated compared to their MMR causing them to hit this “no bonus” state much sooner. In extreme cases, the rank was ~1-2 tiers higher than the MMR which caused the bonus withholding system to completely overshadow all bonuses. With future adjustments, this state will return to being hard to reach.
For the average player not seeing bonuses, they’d need to raise their MMR by actively defeating multiple squads per match while placing high in order to start getting bonuses again.
But we know that it feels bad to perform well and not see any bonuses.
Season 18 focus: adding a minimum elimination bonus increase based on the player's MMR that will be exempt from bonus withholding and bumping up the elim bonus slightly.
RANK DISTRIBUTION
Let’s get right to it: you may have even seen a graph like the one below. This inflation of Masters players is caused by a mix of bugs and the overly generous LP tuning.
LP distribution skewed further to the right than we would like, resulting in too many Masters players. The distribution is indicated in the below graph with the dotted line for players from Rookie 4 through to 36000 LP.
Our next steps:
LP gains per match will be decreased to address the shift in the ranking distribution.
Adding a ruleset that only applies to Diamond + to address the large concentration of players creeping above. Players in these ranked tiers will have increased stakes and LP losses, and decreased rating bonuses and loss mitigations.
These solutions together will slow the pace to Masters for the average player, and allow for more accurate matchmaking and higher quality matches—especially at Diamond+ ranks.
PLAYING THE BATTLE ROYALE
END GAME
With the Arsenal updates, we’re seeing more climactic end games with multiple squads, players valuing their lives, and wanting to win the game instead of deathmatch simulators.
An intense firefight for the top placement in an exciting, hectic endgame is the most memorable way to close a game of Apex Legends™, and we’re happy this is happening more frequently.
The chart below is just one of the metrics that we use to detect potential intensity of play at various points during a match. Even 2 additional players alive at the 15-minute mark is impactful for the average match!
PERCEPTIVE PLAY
Perceptive Play is more macro focused, where play is centered around ring positioning rather than all out aggression—an extreme variant of this is often referred to as "ratting". While exciting endgames are happening, there is room for improvement with the recent increase of ratting.
A portion of this is due to an increased number of players waiting for ring closures, but we can safely say that it is mostly due to players hiding and avoiding others (while crouching or standing).
Pretty sure you’re not all doing squat reps between rings…
We’ve noticed a particular pattern in both Ranked and ALGS levels: teams stay outside of the ring and delay interacting with other teams to gain points.
Hiding and avoiding firefights isn’t a rewarding way to play Apex Legends™. Season 18 has some updates to target this, and more are coming in future seasons to address the core gameplay issues around inactivity and avoidant playstyles.
Season 18 focuses:
Adjusting ring timings to increase mid-game encounters
Ring damage tuning to enforce playing inside the ring
Fixed a number of "ratting" spots with more fixes to come
MATCHMAKING
GENEROUS LP’S EFFECT ON MATCHMAKING
We need to talk about a specific detail with the Arsenal matchmaker that wasn’t in our previous ranked blog.
While we generally matchmake based on MMR, we start using Ranking (LP) in place of a player’s MMR when their ranking exceeds their MMR equivalent. In an extreme example, if a Gold MMR player has a LP ranking of Diamond, this player will be matched into a Diamond lobby.
This is to ensure MMR and LP ranking are connected and can both help guide players to their accurate Rank. If players succeed in these more difficult matchmaking situations, we allow them to continue climbing. Unfortunately, too many players in a game have inflated LP because of the generous tuning. This effectively creates a game full of players with lower MMR than their current Rank, nullifying the effect of this mechanic.
In Arsenal, you’ve been matching with a wider range of skill of players, even at the highest Ranks. This wasn’t intended and meant that your match-over-match experience varied much more than desired. We believe this will be less of an issue with reduced LP distribution in Season 18.
Season 18 focus: updating matchmaking to better handle players that are actively challenging their MMR to ensure a competitively challenging match that mirrors their current ranking.
MATCH QUALITY
The new matchmaking algorithm is producing more competitive matches overall and matchmaking gameplay metrics are up across the board.
As an example, let’s look at one gameplay metric: Total Damage per Match.
We use this to have an understanding of match intensity. When a match is unfair, many squads are decimated by an outlier squad, thus denying many players opportunities to deal damage. In contrast, a more fair match will have squads fighting, taking cover, and recovering, resulting in more overall damage dealt in a game.
QUEUE TIME
We believe queue times are too short, contributing to a higher chance you’re matched outside of your MMR. The graph below shows average wait time by player skill (lower skill on the left of the x-axis, higher on the right).
During matchmaking, the system is trying to find players of a similar MMR—the longer it searches, the closer the match. The intent is to find similarly skilled players for maximum excitement and challenge, but it’s a race against the clock. Waiting forever isn’t fun either.When there aren’t enough exact matches to your MMR, the matchmaking system will continue to search for a limited time before starting the match with the closest MMR players it can find.
Matchmaking is failing at the extreme end of very high skill. These players are getting into matches too quickly, creating unfair matches with a too wide MMR range—mercilessly eliminating the lobby. We’re working on improving matchmaking for that end of the ladder to combat this.
Season 18 focus: the elusive root cause of this bug has been identified and we’re actively working on a fix for more consistent, high-end match experiences.
The rest of the population is very stable and are more consistently matching with close MMR values.
The graph below shows the adjusted MMR width of a game, highlighting how close MMR is in matches based on your current MMR + LP. Overall, the value is consistent across all but the highest tier of play. This is great because it means the matchmaker is working consistently and delivering consistently competitive matches for most players.
Even though it’s consistent, the width above (~1.5 tiers) is still bigger than we’d like and we are confident we can tighten matches to divisions (instead of tiers) within a reasonable queue time.
Season 18 focus: continued improvements and updates to matchmaking as a whole. These will ship as they are ready and are not locked to patch cycles.
SEASON 18 AND BEYOND
The team has been hard at work digging into Arsenal’s data, working to address known bugs, and refining the Ranked system further. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for your time. Here’s a quick recap:
Decreasing overall LP gains per match to combat the overall shift in the rank distribution.
Adding a ruleset that only applies to Diamond+ to properly dial in the top of the ladder.
Players in these ranked tiers will have increased stakes and losses, and decreased rating bonuses and loss mitigations. Be ready to put it all on the line.
Adding a minimum elimination bonus increase based on the player's MMR and buffing elimination bonus in general. Eliminations should always be a contributor to your rank.
Increasing action in the ring by adjusting ring damage.
Adjusting ring timings to create more mid-game encounters and less pre-finale lulls.
Updating matchmaking to better handle players that are actively challenging their MMR, for more competitively challenging matches that mirror their ranking.
Waiting until Season 18 for these updates gives us more data to further inform these changes and strengthen our tuning, but it also gives players who made it to their first Masters time to relish the moment. If you earned Masters in Arsenal, you’ll keep it. You played by the game rules we implemented, and hopefully Season 18 will challenge you to earn it again.
We want to deliver the best Ranked BR experience in the world, with the tightest matchmaking and the sweatiest competition at every rank tier. Splits will not be returning for now as we’re focusing on monitoring and further finetuning. We look forward to sharing more updates on Ranked and how we plan to achieve our goals, especially as we approach Season 19—which is already in motion!
You play the most important role in the success of Apex Legends™, so please keep sharing your thoughts, feelings, and battle stories. And don’t forget to join us on r/ApexLegends subreddit for a live Ranked AMA on July 21, 2023 from 9:30AM - 11:30AM Pacific Time.