Apex Legends Season 22 Patch Notes: New LMG Gun Shield, Refreshing Loot, And Controller & Recon Buffs - GameSpot

By Claire Lewis on August 5, 2024 at 12:50PM PDT

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Apex Legends Season 22: Shockwave may not be introducing a new Legend to the lineup (which, honestly, is probably for the best), but the new season certainly doesn't suffer from a lack of fresh new content. From a new mid-match loot refreshing mechanic to gun shields for all LMGs, Shockwave's new additions are sure to shake up the meta.

Additionally, Controller- and Recon-class Legends are getting some serious buffs, there's a new map (plus a new map rotation), and once the season goes live, players will have access to some wild new Battle Sense abilities that allow them to see enemy health bars and track enemies at close range.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Keep scrolling for a look at the full patch notes, along with a play-by-play of all the major game-changers set to hit Apex Legends when Season 22: Shockwave goes live on Tuesday, August 6 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET.

The Battle Sense system is getting upgraded in a serious way this season, starting with a feature Respawn calls Ammo Awareness. As soon as a player runs out of ammo, they'll automatically relay this information (including the ammo type) to their teammates, and it'll show up in the game's kill feed, meaning less desperate "Please stop running into battle, I have no ammo!" pings from players who have nothing to hit the enemy with besides their fists.

But there are two other new additions to Battle Sense that are legitimate game changers. The first is an ability to see enemy health bars when shooting.

"Enemy health bars will take the guesswork out of how much damage you're doing to each opponent, and [see] if they really are 'one shot' [away from being downed]," associate design director Josh Mohan said during Season 22 previews. Finally!

The second big addition to Battle Sense is the addition of enemy highlights. Enemy squad members will now be highlighted in red when players have a direct line of sight on them at close range. The "direct line of sight" bit is important--if an enemy steps behind cover (or disappears into one of Bangalore's smoke grenades, they will no longer be highlighted, and the highlight fades the further away they get.

Both visible enemy health bars and enemy highlights are turned on by default, but can be turned off via the settings menu, so players who aren't looking for a helping hand and prefer a challenge won't be forced into using these features.

"With these changes, players should be able to more easily get a kill, snag some stuff, and get back in the fight," Mohan said of the Battle Sense changes.

Controller Legends will be gaining two new abilities in Season 22. The first is a Class Perk called Zone Overcharge. Whenever Controller Legends are inside the next ring (the grey circle inside the ring), they'll gain Zone Overcharge, which adds an additional 25 HP shield pip to their body shield. This extra shield charge will last as long as they're within the zone, effectively bumping them up one shield level. Naturally, however, Controllers can only use Zone Overcharge to boost their shield to Mythic-tier (red). Controllers who have earned enough EVO Points for a Mythic shield core will not gain an additional sixth shield pip. This new ability will make the info gained from scanning Ring Consoles even more useful.

The second Controller-exclusive ability is Remote Pickup, which allows Controller Legends to remotely pick up undamaged tactical charges from a distance by looking back at them and pressing a button when prompted. When a Controller abandons an area entirely, they'll be prompted to pick up all the unused tactical charges at once with a single button press.

"This should allow controllers to experiment with their kit more freely, and give players more agency in moving their setups quickly," game designer John Larson explained during previews.

Like Controllers, Recon Legends will also be gaining two new buffs. The first is a Class Perk called Threat Vision. Similar to the way Battle Sense works, Threat Vision means Recon Legends will now automatically see enemies highlighted in red when ADSing. Just like with Battle Sense, a direct line of sight is required, and certain Legend abilities, like Bangalore's smoke grenades, will still block Threat Vision.

The second buff is an increase in the spawn rate of the Recon-exclusive Survey Beacons, and a decrease in the amount of time it takes to use one. In addition to being more plentiful and quicker to use, Survey Beacons will also refresh multiple times over the course of 15 seconds, allowing Recon Legends to get a better idea of where enemy teams are and where they're headed. But there are a few trade-offs: Survey Beacon scan range had been reduced to 500 meters, and now that there are more of them around and they take less time to use, the amount of EVO gained for using one has been reduced to 75.

Starting this season, all open Supply Bins will close up and be refilled with loot once a match reaches its midpoint. Refilled Supply Bins will have a slightly different appearance compared to those that have not yet been opened at all. But a few of these Supply Bins will be replaced with unique versions:

Legendary Supply Bins: Several Legendary-tier Supply Bins will appear halfway through the match, and will contain Smart Loot, ensuring that their contents are something that players can actually use with whichever weapons they have equipped at the time.

Mythic Supply Bins: One Mythic-tier Supply Bin will replace a previously looted Standard Supply bin when the match is halfway over. The Mythic Supply Bin will contain:

But there are a few drawbacks: There's only one Mythic Supply Bin per match, it takes significantly longer to open than other Supply Bins, and it's marked clearly on the map, meaning players will likely have to fight off other squads if they want to claim the high-tier loot within.

Starting in Season 22, players can now dual-wield a pair of P2020s or a pair of Mozambiques, referred to in-game as "akimbo pistols." To activate the dual-wielding mechanic, simply pick up two P2020s or two Mozambiques. Despite the fact that you'll be holding two weapons, they'll only take up a single weapon slot, so you'll still have room in your inventory for your favorite mid- or long-range weapon.

Akimbo pistols trade the ability to ADS for two fully-automatic weapons with an increased rate-of-fire and a tighter hipfire bullet spread making it easier to land shots. Additionally, you'll only need to loot one attachment of each type. For instance, if you're rocking a pair of P2020s and pick up a purple light mag, that magazine will apply itself to both weapons automatically. The same goes for hop-ups and other weapon attachments.

For more information on akimbo pistols, the story behind their implementation, and other behind-the-scenes secrets regarding the creation of Season 22, check out GameSpot's recent interview with Apex's development team.

LMGs Gun Shield Generator

LMG fans will be happy to hear that every last LMG in the game is getting a major buff in Season 22. The "reverse hipfire" mechanic applied to the Care Package version of the Devotion in Season 21 will be automatically applied to all LMGs as of Season 22. Additionally, a new LMG-exclusive hop-up has been introduced: the Gun Shield Generator. The Gun Shield Generator must first be looted, but once attached, it creates a front-facing shied that protects players' faces and upper bodies from taking damage from projectiles.

The shield can take 40 damage before it breaks, after which it will enter a brief cooldown period before reactivating. Combining a Gun Shield Generator-equipped LMG with Gibraltar's Gun Shield ability will provide even more protection.

The R-99 has replaced the EVA-8 as this season's Care Package Weapon, and has received a number of buffs as a result. The R-99's ADS strafe speed has increased, the weapon now has improved recoil, and players will not experience any movement penalty whatsoever when the R-99 is equipped. Additionally, it's getting a new damage fall-off feature, which sees its damage increased to 14 at close range, and decreased to 10 when enemies are over 10 meters away.

This season's gold weapon rotation includes the following guns:

As for standard weapons, shotguns are also getting a major overhaul. Both the Mastiff and the Peacekeeper are each losing a few pellets per shot, but their damage-per-pellet is being increased. The Peacekeeper's blast pattern has also been altered.

"A change like this is designed to create consistency while reducing the number of pellets required to get those meaty hits," lead game designer Eric Canavese said of the shotgun changes. "If you're a shotgun enjoyer, we think you're going to really appreciate these updates."

Additionally, the Hemlock's damage has been reduced from 20 to 19, the time between bursts has been increased, and the capacity of blue magazines has been lowered slightly. There's good news for fans of light weapons, however, as all light weapons (including the R-301) have received increased extended magazine capacities as of Season 22.

The amount of ammo that can be stacked per inventory slot has changed for the following ammo types:

Lastly, the Disruptor Rounds hop-up has been removed from the loot pool.

Both Alter and Crypto's abilities are receiving some major changes this season, which we've listed below:Alter

Crypto

Three limited-time modes (LTMs) have been confirmed for Season 22:

Shockwave will see the introduction of the game's sixth map: E-District, a neon, cyberpunk-themed city with POIs based on real-life locations, including Tokyo's Shibuya Center. The northern part of the map includes swanky POIs like Lotus Luxury Apartments, The Galleria, Neon Oval Raceway, and even a resort. The Southern part of the map--once home to the working-class people of Suotamo--features POIs like Old Town and the Shipyard. Suotamo is known for its resemblance to Titanfall 2's iconic Angel City.

Season 22's map rotation is as follows:

It's likely that the map rotation will change after the mid-season split.

All the changes listed above will go into effect when Apex Legends Season 22: Shockwave goes live on Tuesday, August 6 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET.

The patch notes for Season 22 are listed in full below:

Care Package

Gold Weapon Rotation

Aim Assist

Dev Note: We value our accessibility as a cross-platform game, but it's equally important for us to monitor that ecosystem. Experiential stories from all types of players tracks with the data we're seeing when it comes to encounter win rate between different peripherals. Apex Legends is a competitive shooter, and simply put, aim assist is too strong. Aim assist will never be removed as it's a critical accessibility feature. Console lobbies remain unaffected; this only impacts players on controllers in PC lobbies (our most competitive ecosystem). This change doesn't solve the intricacies of all aim assist hot topics, but it should help level the playing ground.

Aim Flinch

Dev Note: Let's be honest, no one really had love for Aim Flinch. We’ve made the call to eliminate it from all weapons and most Legend abilities. However there are some Legend abilities that do benefit from the added feedback like dunking on someone with a Newcastle ult. We’ll keep an eye on abilities that may need additional feedback as we see how this change affects the game.

Loot Bin Reset

Starting with Shockwave, all loot bins will close and reroll their loot with a significantly increased chance at high tier and rare loot at the mid-way point of the match.

Mythic Bin

Loot Pool

Dev Note: Access to high tier attachments in the early game have started to feel too common which results in squashing the power progression over the course of a match. By reducing the amount of high tier loot in the early game players will be fighting on more even terms. To compensate for this reduction, “Loot Bin Reset” improves the overall quality of loot in the world which should provide a much smoother transition to end game power.

Reorganization: Death Boxes and Loba’s Black Market

Dev Note: These items are critical to a player’s success in the outlands, bringing them up to the top with consistent positions should expedite the looting process and eliminate some tedious scrolling for players.

Traversal

Better Ammo Awareness & Feedback

Dev Note: Running out of ammo is never fun and our low ammo states were set up in a way that didn’t provide much time or information for players to action on. These changes intend to set players up for more success when it comes to maintaining their ammo economy.

Enemy Health Bars

When damaging an enemy, players are now shown the enemy’s Armor and Health state. This Health Bar is only active for a brief time after dealing damage and then fades away. Health Bars, like Enemy Highlights require direct line of sight.

Enemy Highlight

Enemy players will now be highlighted with a red outline similar to how allies are highlighted with a blue one. The highlight is most prominent at close ranges and the intensity fades as targets get farther away. Enemy Highlights require direct line of sight (you can breathe now, Bangalore mains).

Both Enemy Health Bars and Enemy Highlights can be toggled on/off in Settings.

Dev Note: Visual clarity and accurate information are imperative to a player’s success. These new features, Highlighting and Health Bars, are intended to level the playing field and combat the intensity of battle. No one likes mag dumping into their squadmates back because they totally thought that was the enemy Lifeline.

Experienced players can easily develop the skill to call out health values of enemies based on the amount of damage they are dealing and the various shield levels but for newer players this can be a difficult task. Providing a visual aid for such critical information we hope evens the playing field a bit and can provide accurate and actionable information that can be relayed to the whole squad. You can really call out that “they’re one!”.

Ammo Spawn rates

Ammo Stack Changes

Dev Note: Light ammo weapons have been overshadowed by our Heavy and Energy arsenal the last few seasons. With this set of changes we’re hoping the ammo economy for Light will improve their viability and earn back a place in player’s loadouts.

Hop-ups

Akimbo

Dual wield two P2020s or two Mozambiques this season by finding and interacting with a second P2020 or Mozambique to automatically enter Akimbo mode.

LMGs

Dev Note: LMGs are great at suppressing enemies and unloading huge mags of consistent damage, but they can’t compete with our more aggressive weapon types in raw damage output so we’re trying new vectors of strength—defense and consistency. The Gun Shield Generator is intended to allow players to challenge higher DPS weapons in a new way that plays into their fantasy more than just increasing damage. While the Reverse Hipfire mechanic provides a more consistent close range option.

Alternator

CAR

Devotion (Care Package)

Flatline

Havoc

Hemlok

Dev Note: Hemlock & Havoc have both been overperforming, these changes are intended to bring them more in line with the rest of the weapon roster.

P2020 (Single)

Mozambique (Single)

Mastiff

Dev Note: Shotguns have been feeling inconsistent lately so we’re taking a swing at improving that consistency without just cranking the total damage up. Reducing pellet count and increasing the per pellet damage should increase the average damage dealt.

Peacekeeper

R-301

RE-45

Rampage

New Class Perks + Adjustments

Alter

Dev Note: When you're knocked, you're at your most vulnerable and taking time to locate an object in the world and look at it for a period of time with no way to defend yourself is both challenging and risky. These changes should make it easier for a knocked teammate to safely use the Void Nexus, and allow you to reset your squad quicker and more safely.

Dev note: It was a common misconception that destroying your own void nexus prevented people from following you. In actuality, it only prevented your teammates from using it. This feature was intended to be used only when Alter felt its placement was unsafe. In practice though, it was rarely used this way and mostly resulted in Alter destroying her own Void Nexus when trying to thank her teammates.

Ballistic

Crypto

Dev note: Crypto’s upgrades were looking pretty one-sided, so we’ve made changes at both tiers to rival the dominant choices with new options that should introduce some interesting gameplay potential. Crypto’s finally going Off the Grid; which should make players feel more safe playing in the drone and the improvement to satellite imagery gives lasting potential to follow up on your successful EMP blasts. We’ve also pushed the fun of a more responsive drone into every player’s hands.

Lifeline

Dev note: Lifeline has been showing some dominance in her recent resurgence, but the free level from the Gold EVO caches and the gold knockdown shield from her upgraded Ultimate were compounding her strength in a cheeky way; bypassing the effort to earn that final armor tier. We feel there’s enough power in guaranteeing the Gold Knockdown Shield to retain the golden girl without the free pass to max level.

Rampart

Dev note: Sheila isn’t as slept-on as she once was, but we were seeing some players struggle to micro-manage the cooldown of the Ultimate - given that you had to drain the ammo or plant it to not wind up accidentally drawing a Shiela with only a few bullets remaining. Now Sheila will work off an ammo model, similar to Vantage, and constantly refill ammo when not in use. This should let players worry less about tracking the remaining ammo in Sheila, keep the weapon in the action more reliably and allow Rampart to more freely place an extra turret for a teammate behind her walls without sacrificing her Ult.

Seer

Dev note: In this Recon-focused season, we’re making some changes to Seer to pull back on some of the sluggish sticking points around using his passive and are adjusting his Tactical to still have a unique benefit with the addition of Player Healthbars this season. We’re also experimenting with giving Seer access to more utility with his Tactical with Split Focus. Now players will get to choose to opt into the longer range with the single all-or-nothing outcome, or gain the second charge with more chances to hit at the cost of overall silence time.

Vantage

Dev Note: Vantage has a number of improvements to her kit this season to make her more effective at what she’s meant to do. Her Ult now secures more damage against weakened prey on its follow-up shots. Her Tac is now more reliable to allow for easier to reach Echo in complex areas. And her passive has expanded to all optics, making it a useful part of her kit regardless of scope and without having to go unarmed. Additionally, her passive has a new tracking feature when pinging a target in your sights at long range—allowing Vantage and her allies to track the target at a distance more easily.

Wattson

Dev Note: While the Split Circuit upgrade harkened back to the old times and had interesting promise, most players found success bunkering around one stronger pylon, rather than trying to hold space with two and the upgrade was heavily outmatched. These changes aim to look into the shield generator aspect of Wattson’s Ult and the potential for either a faster reset or more resilient ultimate.

Bot Royale

Revival: LTM ft. New Respawn Mechanic

Straight Shot Revival (Starts August 20, 2024)

Welcome Pass and Challenges

We will implement a brand new reset rule at the start of the new season.

Dev Notes:The goal is to reset players to a tier that suits them based on their performance in the Ranked League of the previous season when the new season begins. This allows them to start battling from a rank that better suits their skill level while protecting newcomers and low-ranked players. Additionally, a portion of the achievements of high-ranked players who performed well in the previous season is retained, allowing them to compete against opponents of similar skill levels right from the start of the new season.

Ranked Rumble returns September 13-17, 2024, with a new best of 10 matches format and free rewards.

Adaptive Supersampling

Death Boxes