January 09, 2024 Patch

## New Content

* New event: **Apex Legends & FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH**, running from January 9, 2024 to January 30, 2024
* New Buster Sword R5 universal melee weapon skin and One-Winged Angel Death Box skin.
* New LTM: Final Fantasy Takeover

## Balance Changes

 Crafting Rotation

* R-301 Carbine and Volt SMG back on the floor
* Alternator SMG and Hemlok Burst AR added to the crafter

 Mastiff Shotgun
* Tactical reload time reduced to 0.9 (was 1.03)
* Empty reload time reduced to 1.6 (was 1.7)
* Draw Time reduced to 0.45 (was 0.8)

 C.A.R. SMG
* Damage reduced to 12 (was 13)

 R-99 SMG
* Damage reduced to 11 (was 12)

 Catalyst
Tactical:  Piercing Spikes
* Now require line-of-sight of an enemy player to activate
* Spikes that have not been activated will still slow players

 Horizon
* Improved Horizon audio to make “falls” less silent
* Spacewalk: Soft Landings now play audio in world (*not just for Horizon*)
* Gravity Lift: Gravity Lift exit audio range increased to make it easier to hear characters who exit

 Newcastle
 Castle Wall
* impact will now destroy Conduit’s  Energy Barricade mines
* Mobile Shield: can now be destroyed by enemy Crypto EMP
* Delayed balance adjustments from the Season 19.0 patch are now fully integrated

 Rampart
* Amped Walls are no longer destroyed by friendly  Crypto EMP or Mad Maggie’s  Wrecking Ball

## Maps

**Map Rotation**

* Kings Canyon
* Storm Point
* World's Edge

**Storm Point**

* Added and adjusted cover at ZEUS Station & ECHO HQ
* Added Ring Console to Coastal Camp
* Added Trident to Barometer
* Adjusted the position of the Ring Console, Survey Beacon and Crafting Station at Lightning Rod
* Reduced volume of ambient audio at ZEUS Station & ECHO HQ
* Removed Ring Console, Survey Beacon and Crafting Station from Thunder Watch
* Resolved a number of additional bugs and rat spots
* Restored missing Ring Console at Command Center
* ECHO HQ
	+ Added four new staircases at ECHO HQ to improve vertical navigation around the perimeter
	+ Rooftop of ECHO HQ is now out of bounds, Zipline and rooftop hatch has been removed
* Wattson’s Pylon
	+ Adjusted position of the ziplines at Wattson's Pylon to improve consistency of mantle jumping
	+ Reduced amount of ultra rare loot at Wattson's Pylon
* ZEUS Station
	+ Added additional cover and ziplines at ZEUS Station for Mixtape modes only
	+ Increased the speed of the redeploy balloon zipline at ZEUS Station by 25%

## Mixtape

**Map Rotation**

* Control
	+ Hammond Labs and Production Yard are out
	+ Lava Siphon and Caustic Treatment are in
* Gun Run
	+ The Core, Estates, and Wattson’s Pylon are out
	+ Skulltown, Fragment East, and ZEUS Station are in
* TDM
	+ ZEUS Station, Skulltown, and Phase Runner are out
	+ Wattson’s Pylon, Party Crasher, and Overflow are in

**New**

* Added new Legend voice lines that occasionally play on respawn
* Lowered Ratings reward for assists in Control 5 per assist (was 20)
	+ This is in response to a recent change where we started counting assists in Control and TDM based on the whole team and not just within your individual squad

## World Systems

**Extended Supply Bins**

* Added a cap to the number of  Heat Shields a team can receive from the secret drawer
* Added a cap to the number of  Med Kits a team can receive from the secret drawer

## Bug Fixes

* Firing Range: players dying with a Nessie in their inventory will no longer find the Nessie deleted. *Sorry Nessie Hunters!*
* Players no longer get stuck due to spamming holosprays while skydiving
* Players no longer drop out of Wraith’s portal before reaching the other side
* Resolved small chance of getting 5 items in secret drawer of Extended Supply Bins
* Resolved bug preventing audio engine from properly utilizing fast storage drives when reading compressed audio data
* Startup logo video audio volume now respects the master volume slider
* Storm Point: players should now be able to use  Evac Towers through the ceiling hatch in Command Center
* Trident collision should no longer occasionally push players through walls and floors

## Legends

* **Ash**:  Ultimate can no longer be used with Tridents to get under map
* **Bloodhound**: Niflheim Hundr skin’s raven now white (was black)
* **Catalyst**
	+ Piercing Spikes ability description now shows the correct max number of traps
	+ Piercing Spikes can now be pinged again
	+ Ultimate no longer shows as ready in inventory without being fully charged
* **Conduit**
	+ Fixed  Energy Barricade V-Shape deployment when looking directly at the ground
	+ Tactical can no longer be used on respawning team still in dropship
* **Crypto**: fixed Crypto taking ring damage while standing in a  Heat Shield if controlling his drone in the ring
* **Loba**: restored movement speed while holding  tactical if it was activated while standing still
* **Mad Maggie**
	+ Fixed damage numbers not showing correctly when hitting Revenant’s  ultimate shroud with  Wrecking Ball
	+ Passive no longer works through Catalyst’s  walls
* **Revenant**: no longer occasionally becomes invincible during his  ulimate if his shroud is broken while marked by Vantage’s  Sniper
* **Vantage**: corrected  Sniper Ult bullets damage to marked targets when breaking Gibraltar’s  arm shield or Revenant’s  ultimate shroud
* **Wattson**:  Ultimate correctly recharges shields when placed after Bangalore’s  smoke

## Modes

* Abilities that outline players should no longer stop functioning after killing an enemy
* Silence abilities should no longer cancel auto healing
* Voice chat is no longer heard outside of the squad in TDM and Control

**Control**

* Caustic Treatment: weapons cannot be used on the supply ship
* Damage not taken while inside the respawn ship
* Players no longer occasionally spawn in a skydive state when respawning on Kings Canyon
* Players no longer lose invulnerability while still on the dropship when spawning on the MRB

## Code Optimizations

* Fixed issue with dynamic resolution not reacting fast enough to high graphics load. Improves frame rate stability on consoles
* DX12 (PC) video memory (VRAM) usage is now reduced by 1.5 - 2GB
* DX12 (PC) improved graphics performance with parallelization of rendering workloads
* Upgraded Nvidia Reflex SDK to v1.8 and adds support for latency markers

## Quality of Life

 **Conduit**

* Improved visibility for jammers
* Ultimate SFX can no longer be heard in other Firing Range instances

 **Mirage's** **Decoys**

* Improved issues against terrain that would cause destruction/floating
	+ Any destroyed by terrain will now be refunded ( Tactical decoys only)
* Improved to more correctly copy the ADS state of the player
* No longer mimic reviving or execution animations