March 09, 2021 Patch

## New Content

* New Event:  **Chaos Theory** - runs March 9th to March 23rd, 2021
	+ Featuring the **Ring Fury** Escalation Takeover game mode
* New platform available:  **Nintendo Switch**
	+ Free login rewards during  Season 8 and Double XP until March 23rd
* New Town Takeover: **Caustic Treatment**
	+ Removed Mirage Voyage
* New loot: the  **Heat Shield**
* New game feature: **No-Fill Matchmaking**
	+ Up to 6 no-fill players in a single match
	+ Not available in Ranked Leagues
* Added the Survival Slot
	+ Allows players to hold a  Heat Shield OR a  Mobile Respawn Beacon without taking up inventory space
* Added new heirloom for Bangalore

## Legends

Caustic
* Nox Gas Grenade: Increased cooldown from 2.5 minutes to 3.5 minutes.
* The gas now damages at a flat 5hp per tick instead of increasing from 6-12.

Pathfinder
* Removed  Low Profile.

Gibraltar
* Dome of Protection: Removed 15% faster heal item usage while in the dome shield.
* Gun Shield:
	+ Damaging the Gun Shield now counts as damage towards  Evo Shield and stats.
	+ Damage that exceeds the Gun Shield’s 50 HP will now bleed through to damage Gibraltar.

Horizon
* Black Hole: Increased cooldown from 2 minutes to 3 minutes.
* The All Charged Up finisher now has more frames, from 141 (4.21 seconds) to 180 (6.0 seconds).

Revenant
* Silence: Now disables Mirage’s cloaked revive/respawn as well as Octane’s  Swift Mend.

Wattson
* Now passively regenerates shields at 0.5 hp/s (half of Octane’s current health regen rate). Stacks with  Interception Pylon regen rate.

Rampart
* Amped Cover: Explosives damage Amped Cover normally, instead of inflicting 200 damage.
* Emplaced Minigun "Sheila": Explosives damage Sheila normally, instead of inflicting 175 damage.

## Weapons

Weapon Optics
* All Gold AR and LMG default optics updated to  2x HCOG "Bruiser".

Mastiff Shotgun
* Pellet damage decreased from 13 to 11.
* Fire rate increased from 1.0 to 1.1.

Wingman
* Increased mag size from 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 to 6 / 7 / 8 / 9.

Hemlok Burst AR
* Increased hip-fire spread.

## Quality of Life

* Kings Canyon loot updates:
	+ The wooden shacks across the map should have a few more pieces each, and generally be a little higher quality.
	+ Spotted Lake has been reduced from High Tier to Medium.
	+ Crash Site has redistributed the loot in the area slightly. The amount stays the same, but the higher quality loot should be on the ship.
	+ Caustic Treatment has more loot than Water Treatment, and it remains High Tier.
* Optics on Fully Kitted Weapons and Care Package Weapons (except the Kraber .50-Cal Sniper) can now be removed and/or replaced with a different one.
* Assists have been added to the in-game HUD, next to kills.
* Assists and Knocks have been added to your squad’s banners and will show at the end of a match.
* Club names now appear on Match Summary and Champion screen if all players are part of the same club.
* Items will no longer “stick” to a  Replicator when dropped on the Replicator.
* For  Badges that have longer amounts of progress, hovering over the badge will show you the exact progress on that badge.
* While respawning on a dropship, you can now ping your own death box to help locate it easier.
* Gold Backpack: Players being revived by a gold backpack will have a crackle of energy—based on the tier of armor they wear—while the revive is taking place. They will also display the armor heal FX when the revive is finished.
* Players on PC can now go back to the title screen from the lobby to allow switching of data centers without restarting the game.
* Added numbers to the Advanced Look Controls.
* When scanning a  Survey Beacon for Ring 6, you should now be able to see the location where Ring 6 finishes.
* Since the Survival Slot took up its button on controller, "Inspect Weapon" has been moved to the emote wheel by default. It can be bound to any key on PC.

## Bug Fixes

Gibraltar
* Gun Shield: Corrected an issue with Gibraltar not getting hit registrations when simultaneously releasing ADS and shooting while it was up.

Wraith
* Into the Void: Can no longer be canceled by jumping at a wall.
* The Perpetual Motion  Skydive Emote will now work with Legendary skins.

Caustic
* Fixed a bug that was causing the gas to flicker for some players affected by it.

Octane
* Launch Pad:
	+ Repeatedly using the same jump pad no longer disables double-jumps.
	+ Players can no longer “glide” along a wall after using it.

Crypto
* Surveillance Drone:
	+ Crypto’s animation to bring out his drone is no longer skippable by throwing a  Holo-Spray.
	+ Reloading the Mastiff Shotgun and 30-30 Repeater will no longer be faster while in Crypto’s drone.
* Crypto can no longer teleport to a  Replicator.

Loba
* Burglar's Best Friend: Fixed a few areas Loba could teleport into that would get her stuck.

Rampart
* Emplaced Minigun "Sheila": Can no longer be used to get under the world when placed too close to the Phase Runner in Olympus.

Horizon
* Gravity Lift:
	+ Fixed the Gravity Lift falling through the floor when used on the train tracks in Sorting Factory on World's Edge.
	+ Using a zipline after a Gravity Lift will no longer increase accuracy.

Fuse
* The Motherlode:
	+ Now damages and destroys  Launch Pads.
	+ When under a small enclosure, players will no longer be pushed out after using it.
* Players can no longer double their grenades after looting a dead Fuse’s Death Box.

Mastiff Shotgun
* Dropping and picking it up will no longer cause it to be reloaded.

30-30 Repeater
* Dropping and picking it up will no longer cause it to be reloaded.
* Will now have spread deviation when ADS firing and jumping.

General
* Fixed a bug preventing  Steam users from sending friend requests to each other.
* Usernames now update when a user swaps between the  Origin client to the  Steam client.
* Fixed a bug preventing players from creating or joining  Clubs due to their  EA Account already being associated with another platform.
* (PC only) Fixed an issue with the reticle from scopes disappearing when adaptive super sampling is turned on.

## Undocumented changes

* Added a new platform to the Firing Range with a non-functional panel.
* Updated the model shown when an  Arc Star is thrown near you to a more detailed version.
* 8.1.1 Update: Slowed down the distance you can “bunny-hop”, but was fixed a few hours later.
* Reduced particles from Bangalore's smoke and Caustic's gas, effectively providing less cover from the outside (confirmed to be unintentional).
* When previewing the Mayhem and Fuse  Music Packs, they will now play the main theme instead of the character selection theme.
* Fixed bug that allowed players to swap the  Barrel Stabilizer equipped on fully kitted weapons with a worse one, allowing the Level 4 one to be applied on any other weapon compatible with it.

## Developer Notes

1. ↑ Caustic is brutally effective at slowing down engagements. The entirety of his kit revolves around gas with a large area of effect, slow, vision obstruction, and direct health damage. It’s proven to be too oppressive in too many scenarios especially considering teammates can play in gas relatively unimpaired. Significantly reducing gas damage (without taking it away completely or having it affect armor instead) seems like a fair compromise that stays true to the character while making him less oppressive on the receiving end. We will be monitoring the data and gameplay closely. If these changes hit Caustic’s appeal or effectiveness too hard we will revisit accordingly.
2. ↑  Low Profile has been used as a balancing tool for both mobile and/or small legends. Although Path is still mobile, his hitbox is large. While his overall win rate and encounter win rate is by no means low, it’s hard to justify keeping Low Profile on a hitbox of his size.
3. ↑ There may be some minor inconsistencies with how bleed-through is handled with individual shotgun pellets—we'll work on resolving that soon.
4. ↑ This change brings the completion time for Horizon’s finisher more into line with other Legends’ finishers.
5. ↑ Walls should be beefy and powerful once built. Before Rampart shipped, we were worried that her nests would be too oppressive and so we gave enemy players the option to quickly clear them out with grenades. This wasn't necessary, as it turns out, so we're removing increased damage from grenades against Amped Cover and Sheila.
6. ↑ The goal of these changes are to place this weapon’s identity between the fast fire EVA-8 and the heavy-hitting Peacekeeper. The Mastiff has consistently been dominant in close-quarters combat given its forgiving spread pattern and high damage spikes with each shot. This change reduces that high damage potential in order to limit the amount of two pumps players experience on the receiving end.
7. ↑ The burst damage from the Hemlok's hip-fire was feeling a little too consistent for an AR that should excel at medium range. This change mitigates the Hemlok’s close quarters damage spikes that felt bad on the receiving end.
8. ↑ We’ve done a pass on the loot to bring up the quality across the map, while also maintaining a certain amount of loot after Mirage Voyage has flown away.
9. ↑ This was already present in Ranked and now has been added to unranked. Assists still don’t contribute to XP. This has replaced the Spectator “eye” icon.
10. ↑ For example, if you’re trying to get 50 wins as Lifeline, you’ll now see that you have 45 instead of somewhere between 15 and 50.
11. ↑ This change should help players prioritize pushing a revive in progress.
12. ↑ This should help people experiment and easily revert back to their favorite settings.