May 04, 2021 Patch

## New Content

* New Legend: **Valkyrie**
* New weapon: the **Bocek Compound Bow**
* New game mode:  **Arenas**
* Several changes to Olympus
* New cosmetic type: **Ground Emotes**
* New Hop-Ups:  **Deadeye's Tempo** and  **Shatter Caps**
* New Quest: **The Legacy Antigen**

## Legends

 Low Profile

* Removed.

Lifeline
* Combat Revive:
	+ No longer deploys a shield.
	+ Can now revive two players at the same time.
	+ Can now cancel active revives in progress to allow your teammate to defend themselves with their  Knockdown Shield.

* D.O.C. Heal Drone:
	+ Heal rate increased from 5hp per second to 8hp per second.
	+ Deployment time before healing begins reduced by roughly 33%.

* Care Package:
	+ Cooldown reduced from 6 minutes to 5 minutes.
	+ Now guarantees an upgrade (if possible) based on your team’s current gear when the Package arrives. Possible categories:
		- Body Shields/ Evo Shields.
		- Other Gear ( Helmets,  Backpacks, and  Knockdown Shields).
		- Weapon Attachments.

Octane
* Stim:
	+ Reduced cooldown between stims from 4s to 1s.
	+ Increased health cost from 12hp to 20hp.
* Launch Pad: Increased bullet spread while in the air and shooting from the low trajectory.

Loba
* Burglar's Best Friend:
	+ Can now run and slide at full speed while aiming the bracelet and while the bracelet is in the air.
	+ Loba will no longer be slowed after translocating.
	+ Fixed a lot of bugs that caused bracelet tosses to fail.
* Black Market Boutique: Increased cooldown from 90s to 120s.

Horizon
* Gravity Lift:
	+ Reduced lift speed by 30%.
	+ Reduced side-to-side acceleration.
	+ Limited the time you can sit at the top of Gravity Lift to 2 seconds.
	+ Increased cooldown from 15s to 20s.
* Horizon’s abilities will now get zapped by Wattson's  Interception Pylon.

Fuse
* Knuckle Cluster:
	+ Now has 2 charges.
	+ Reduced cooldown from 25s to 20s.

Bangalore
* Smoke Launcher: Thickened the smoke.

Bloodhound
* Eye of the Allfather: No longer counts towards assists.

Crypto
* Surveillance Drone:
	+ Can now scan and open care packages.
	+ Can no longer be used to "hijack" a  Respawn Beacon that's already in use.

## Loot

Ammo
* Added  Arrows to the loot pool for the Bocek Compound Bow.
	+ Comes in stacks of 16.
	+ Can be picked up at the place the arrow landed. If it hits a target and the target dies, the arrow will appear in that person’s death box.

Starter kit
* Players will now start a match with a “Starter Kit” consisting of a Level 1  Evo Shield,  Helmet, and  Knockdown Shield, plus two  Shield Cells and  Syringes each.
* Helmets and  Knockdown Shields have been removed from ground loot.
* Spawn chances for  Evo Shields in the loot pool have been significantly reduced.
* Along with the lowered or removed spawn chances for these items, we’ve rebalanced the loot pool such that higher-level versions of these items will appear nearly the same as they do now, but other item types will appear more often (weapons, ordnance, health, ammo, etc.)

Hop-Ups
* New hop-ups:
	+ Shatter Caps for the 30-30 Repeater and Bocek Compound Bow.
		- Fire select to toggle between standard mode and shatter mode. In shatter mode, rounds split into a blast pattern on firing.
	+ Deadeye's Tempo for the Sentinel and Bocek Compound Bow.
		- Firing at the perfect moment increases fire rate.
* Removed  Hammerpoint Rounds and  Skullpiercer Rifling.

 Arc Stars
* Aim and movement slow removed from the initial stick.

## Weapons

Marksman weapons
* New weapon class that applies to the G7 Scout, 30-30 Repeater, Triple Take, and Bocek Compound Bow.

* Increased movement speed while ADS for marksman weapons.

Fully Kitted Weapons rotated for  Season 9
* Wingman
* Bocek Compound Bow
* R-99 SMG
* Hemlok Burst AR
* Sentinel

Care Package
* Removed the Peacekeeper from the care package; replaced with the Triple Take.
* Crate weapon drop rates:
	+ Reduced spawn rates of the Kraber .50-Cal Sniper in the early game and increased spawn rates in the mid-game.
	+ The Triple Take will spawn most often in the early game.
	+ The Prowler Burst PDW will spawn most often in the late game.

Assault Rifles
* Reduced the headshot multiplier for all assault rifles from 2.0 to 1.75.

Peacekeeper
* Removed from Care Package and is now ground loot.
* Comes with a built-in  Precision Choke that can be toggled on or off.
* Pellet damage reduced from 10 to 9.
* Rechamber time increased from 0.9 seconds to 1.1 seconds.
* Reload times increased (regular from 2.45 to 2.5, empty from 3.35 to 3.5).
* Pellet spread increased in general and spread when charged increased for all charge levels (from 0.65/0.45/0.2 to 0.85/0.65/0.35).
* Now quickly loses charge after leaving ADS.

Triple Take
* Removed from normal loot pool and is now a Care Package weapon.
	+ Comes pre-equipped with 63 backup ammo, a  2x-4x Variable AOG scope, and a level 4  Extended Energy Mag.
* Can no longer equip the  6x Sniper,  4x-8x Variable Sniper, or  4x-10x Digital Sniper Threat optics.
* Increased magazine size from 6 to 9.
* Fire rate increased from 1.2 to 1.3.
* Time to full charge reduced from 1.1 seconds to 1 second.
* Retains charge briefly after leaving ADS.
* Move-speed while aiming down sights has been increased to match other marksman weapons -- faster than snipers, slower than ARs.
* Increased spread while airborne and aiming down sights.

HAVOC Rifle
* Increased recoil controllability early in the pattern.

M600 Spitfire
* Reduced recoil controllability early in the pattern.

30-30 Repeater
* Increased leg damage multiplier from 0.75 to 0.85.
* Move-speed while aiming down sights has been increased to match other marksman weapons -- faster than snipers, slower than ARs.

G7 Scout
* Move-speed while aiming down sights has been increased to match other marksman weapons -- faster than snipers, slower than ARs.
* Increased hip-fire spread size (reduced accuracy) to be more in line with other marksman weapons.

Longbow DMR
* Increased headshot multiplier from 2.0 to 2.15.

Wingman
* Increased headshot multiplier from 2.0 to 2.15.

Mozambique Shotgun
* Increased magazine capacity from 4 to 6.
* Moved the lower 2 pellets inward in the blast pattern.

P2020
* Increased bullet damage from 15 to 18.
* Lowered fire rate from 8.5 to 6.25.

## Quality of Life

* Badges are now sorted by categories and can be filtered by “all” or “unlocked only”.
* When looting death boxes, players can now see health bars for everyone on the team.
* Challenges can now be “favorited” by going into the challenges menu and right clicking a challenge. That Challenge will then be added to a new favorites tab that will appear in the lobby and in the match’s map screen.
* Pressing and holding F2 while in-game will bring up the ability description page for your character. This is only available on PC.
* Players can now request better equipment by going into their inventory and pinging a piece of equipment.
* Your first Challenge Reroll of the day is now free.
* Rerolling your challenges will allow you to choose from either BR-focused challenges or Arenas-focused ones.
* Holo-Sprays,  Quips, and Emotes, can be favorited. These will be used whenever the player is prompted to do a random emote.
* Club Invites v2: You can now include what you want to play when you send your clubmates a party invite via the Club tab. Select as many club mates as you want to send the invite to at once via the member list.
* Ranked Leagues: Fixed edge cases where an abandon penalty would be incorrectly applied due to server errors.
* Flight path adjustments: Removing edge dropship flight paths to prevent matches where large portions of the map receive little to no traffic. These screenshots show a before/after comparison of possible flight paths on Kings Canyon.

## Ring Update

Adjusted Ring shrink speed, size, and time:

* Ring 4:
	+ Pre-shrink time reduced from 2:00 to 1:45.
	+ Shrink time increased from 33 seconds to 40 seconds.
* Ring 5: Shrink time increased from 20 seconds to 40 seconds.
* Ring 6:
	+ Pre-shrink time reduced from 1:30 to 1:00.
	+ Shrink time increased from 1:40 to 2:00.

## Bug Fixes

Bloodhound
* Fixed an issue with the  Eye of the Allfather UI not showing while in  Beast of the Hunt.

Pathfinder
* Nox Gas Traps and  Launch Pads will no longer float into the sky when placed next to a zipline.

Wraith
* Into the Void: Slight wall bumps no longer inadvertently cancel it.

Mirage
* Decoys no longer die after a tick of  Thermite Grenade damage.

Octane
* Launch Pad:
	+ Grenades will no longer get stuck and disappear when being bounced off of launch pads.
	+ Death Totems will no longer bounce when a Jump Pad is placed under it.
	+ Players will no longer have weapons drawn if they are knocked as they enter the ring at Pathfinder's Fight Night via a Jump Pad.
* Updated his Fidget Spinner  Skydive Emote to correctly remove his leg for which he is using it to do the helicoptering.

Wattson
* Perimeter Security: Fixed the “Extend” prompt for the fences not appearing in certain situations.
* The Haute Drop skin will no longer block view when reloading the Sentinel.

Loba
* Burglar's Best Friend: Fixed more areas where it fails.
* The Red Handed skin on consoles will now properly animate.

Rampart
* Amped Cover:  Mobile Respawn Beacons now has proper collision with the walls.
* Emplaced Minigun "Sheila": Jumping on and off a damaged minigun will no longer transfer the flame effect to your weapon.

Horizon
* Gravity Lift: Players will no longer have weapons drawn if they are knocked as they enter the ring at Pathfinder's Fight Night via a Gravity Lift.
* The  1x Holo will no longer block view when using certain skins.
* Black Hole: Fixed an issue with NEWT not getting refunded if it immediately dies due to a bad spot.

Fuse
* The  1x Holo will no longer block view when using certain skins.

VK-47 Flatline
* Parts of the iron sight are no longer displayed over the whole weapon.

Prowler Burst PDW
* Fixed an issue preventing it from being able to toggle fire modes.

Sentinel
* Moved tooltips to not overlap Hop-Up icons.
* Fixed a graphical issue when swapping to Sentinel.

General
* Fixed a menu issue with the advanced look options being hidden.
* Survey Beacons will now appear on the map when teammates are respawned.

## Undocumented changes

Weapons
* 30-30 Repeater:
	+ Empty magazine reload time increased from .33 seconds to .75 seconds.
	+ All the Epic skins that can be found in  Apex Packs no longer bear the same decal as the Incan Prophecy skin.
* L-STAR EMG: The L-STAR no longer reproduces its "equipped for the first time" animation whenever an attachment is equipped.
* Sentinel: changed the " CHARGE" prompt HUD.

Miscellaneous Changes
* Added a new voiceover line when you collect  Materials in Arenas.
* Added a new mode-select UI.
* Added a voice line when you ping/request a  Quickdraw Holster.
* Added a voice line for requesting a Survival Item.
* Added more options to report players:
	+ Cheating
		- Aimbot/Aim snapping.
		- Gameplay exploit.
		- Impossible gunfire/recoil.
		- Impossible movement.
		- Smurfing.
	+ Gameplay Disruption
		- Abandoned match early.
		- Colluding with enemies.
		- Inactive during match.
		- Sabotage.
* Moved the  Snipers to the very right platform in the Firing Range, right of the  light weapons.
* Updated the champion screen.
* Console players can now join private matches.
* Added more voice lines for Rampart in Hindi.
* Added more voice lines for all Legends when entering or exiting a Trident.
* Added voice lines for all Legends when attaching a MRVN arm to a MRVN.
* Pinging a Loot MRVN after picking up a MRVN arm now requires the use of the Quip button instead of being pinged automatically.

Legends
* Wattson:  Fences no longer slow down enemies. (confirmed to be a bug)

## Developer Notes

1. ↑ After our successful experiment with Wraith's hitboxes, we are now confident that we can solve balance issues between smaller and larger Legends through changes to their kits and hitboxes. It is finally time for Low Profile to go the way of the dodo. (Sorry dodos.)
2. ↑ Lifeline’s kit was not in a particularly healthy place. The Passive shield was extremely strong to the point of frustration, while her Tactical and Ultimate seemed like they were becoming more and more obsolete. These changes are aimed to redistribute this big power differential between all of her abilities, making D.O.C. and Care Package more powerful and effective, while tamping down on the highly binary and situational Combat Revive.
3. ↑ Octane continues to perform really well after the latest changes. Too well? We still love the frequency of the Jump Pad, but we’d like to make using Stim something Octane thinks about doing at the right time, instead of always slamming it by default.
4. ↑ Horizon is powerful and popular, but that's not why we're making these changes. We believe that mistakes in Apex Legends should be punishable, and when Horizon could just get herself out of bad positioning while popping a whole battery, this just wasn't true. These changes have two goals: 1) make it much more possible for enemies to shoot Horizon as she sits in her gravity lift and 2) make gravity lift less of an impromptu sniper tower.
5. ↑ More help is coming, but we want to be very careful how we buff him so that he doesn't just become the Legend that kills you with his abilities.
6. ↑ Last patch we optimized Bangalore’s smoke particles and inadvertently thinned them out. This aims to get her back to the original visuals while keeping the optimizations.
7. ↑ Bloodhound's scan is strong, but the goal of this change in particular is to reconsider assists and their implications for Ranked Points. There's enough intrinsic value in sonar scans, and it's a slippery slope to consider crediting assists for other non-damaging abilities. Crypto will remain an exception. The active nature of Crypto's drone scan is notably different from the passive option with Bloodhound. This should encourage Bloodhound players to act on the information they get from the scan, to eliminate instances where they might try to snag a quick assist without committing to a fight in the same way Crypto has to.
8. ↑ We've wanted to take a crack at improving the loot game for a while, with our design goals being to make picking up loot feel more impactful to the game, and to thin out our loot a bit in general, since we're always adding new items to the pool. The recent Locked & Loaded takeover mode helped us field-test some of the changes we're looking to make moving forward: certain pieces of loot, and low-tier loot types specifically, are being put on notice.

We're removing Level 1 Helmets and Knockdown Shields from the ground loot because these seemed like the least exciting, least meaningful equipment pickups we had. Their power is practically invisible, so they don't really feel like a character improvement in the way that things like, say, a Backpack feels (getting those extra slots feels SO chunky!).

We're keeping Level 1 EVO Shields in the loot pool (albeit at a lower spawn chance) in addition to adding them to your starter kit because having them sprinkled around is still important for "shield-swapping" shenanigans.

Finally, granting these pieces of gear from the start of the game is also intended to improve the "hot drop" situation: having more health, some headshot damage reduction, and a little knockdown protection can help give players some more time to react to a chaotic hot drop than before.

Be on the lookout for more loot changes in the future! This will be an ongoing project.
9. ↑ Sticking someone should feel rewarding, considering it's a rare occurrence that's difficult to pull off. While an argument can be made that getting stuck should be a personal death sentence, the inability to at least relocate and spare teammates from the follow-up explosion makes it hard to counter against a coordinated team. This change should help mitigate that without stripping away the satisfaction of hitting a nice stick.
10. ↑ The G7 Scout and the 30-30 are currently in the Assault Rifle weapons category, but they are a bit strange in that category due to their firing style and some of their handling values. Similarly, the Triple Take felt a little out of place in the Sniper category.

With the introduction of the Bocek Bow, we felt it was a good time to introduce a new weapons category, Marksman Weapons, which will include the G7, 30-30, Triple Take, and Bocek. Weapons in this category are precision weapons that are most effective up to medium-long range, and are the sort of in-betweens of Assault Rifles and Snipers. This allows us to begin moving the settings of these weapons towards more consistent value for the class, and make the settings of ARs and Snipers more consistent with less outliers.
11. ↑ For starters, we are increasing the movement speed while aiming down sights for marksman weapons; They were at sniper speeds, and will now be between sniper and AR speeds. Additionally, we have done some targeted normalization of hipfire spread amounts.
12. ↑ Since we are exchanging a shotgun with a marksman weapon, now was a good time to rebalance the drop rates of crate weapons. The Kraber will spawn less often in the early game and more often in the mid-game to better accommodate its power. The Triple Take will be the most common early game crate weapon, with the Prowler being the most prominent late-game crate weapon.
13. ↑ This was already the case for the Hemlok Burst AR, so the affected guns are the R-301 Carbine, VK-47 Flatline, and HAVOC Rifle.
14. ↑ Since the Peacekeeper is coming out of the crate, we are bringing many of the stats back in line with their previous values. We are also reducing its damage potential and bringing in the effective range a bit since the Precision Choke is always available now.
15. ↑ his should help make up for the reduced headshot multiplier and make it a bit more usable in mid-range fights.
16. ↑ The Spitfire is too strong at the moment, boasting good damage output with low recoil. Making it a bit harder to control early in the pattern should give more time for opponents to fight against it. That said, we’re prepared to make more changes to the Spitfire if it remains too powerful.
17. ↑ The 30-30 could use some love, so we’re bringing up the amount of leg damage it does. This should make it a bit more consistent without raising its high “best case” damage potential.
18. ↑ The 30-30 Repeater and the Bocek Compound Bow have more accurate fire than the baseline marksman weapon values, so the G7 Scout will be less accurate in hip-fire than these other weapons.
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 As we’ve done before when the Skullpiercer is out of the loot pool, we’re giving the Longbow and Wingman a compensatory buff.
20. ↑ This brings up the baseline power level so “only” finding a Mozambique early in the match gives you more of a fighting chance, and makes up for the removal of Hammerpoints.
21. ↑ Similar to the Mozambique, we want to bring up the P2020’s baseline power level a bit. Most players couldn’t take advantage of the fast fire rate, so bringing that down while increasing the damage should help players win more early fights with the P2020.
22. ↑ This suggestion came directly from players. Thank you! It’s so much better!
23. ↑ We're continuing work from the Fight Night update to improve match pacing towards the end of the game. We're slowing down the closing speed of the late game Rings to allow you more time to fight and maneuver your way into the Ring. We're also reducing the "waiting" time before Rings 4 and 6 start to close.