EA has released the patch notes for the upcoming seventeenth (!) season of battle royale shooter Apex Legends, which is highlighted by the addition of the new legend Ballistic and introduces a brand new weapon mastery system to the game.

The weapon mastery system has now been explained in a bit more detail in the pre-update notes that will go live later today. After the update, players can now master individual weapons – with each weapon starting at level 1. Weapons can be “progressed” in any game mode simply by using them, granting weapon XP for things like kills, dealing damage, and more even just with the weapon in hand. Every 20 levels (up to a maximum of 100) you unlock a Trial with that weapon – which must then be completed in order to receive a specific reward for that weapon. These include weapon-specific badges, lifetime performance trackers, Legendary Weapon Mastery banner frames, and even a Legendary Weapon Apex Pack.

Elsewhere, today’s update will also feature a brand new Shooting Range – as Apex Legends’ Training Arena gets a major overhaul. And as if that wasn’t enough, this latest season will also see updates to the World’s Edge map, including two brand new POIs called Monument and Stacks. There’s also a new survival slot item when Evac Tower comes into play – it gives players a portable way to move around the map or quickly escape. Other updates include an update to the game’s ping system, also included in the latest update, removing some older pings and moving others up to “better serve the game as it is today,” as well as a number of changes in ranked mode that we learned about last week.

Here then are the rest of the patch notes for the Season 17 update, maintained by EA.

Apex Legends Arsenal Season 17 Patch Notes

balance updates

crate rotation

• L-Star EMG comes in the box
• RE-45 returns to the ground

weapon crafting rotation

• Alternator SMG enters the craftsman
• Sentinel enters the crafter
• EVA-8 returns to the ground
• 30-30 Repeater returns to the ground

Golden weapon rotation

• Flatline, Triple Take, Spitfire, Mastiff, Volt

Loot Spawns

• Improved vault loot
  • Increased chances of gold loot
  • Added light mags to the spawn pool
• Improved cargo bot loot
  • Removed small healing items, mobile respawn beacon, white armor, white backpack
  • Adjusted large heal and heat shield spawns to allow for more coveted loot spawns
  • Removed gold weapons from purple tier cargo bots, but increased spawn chance in gold tier

weapons

L-Star EMG [Crate]

• Added disruptor rounds: 60% more damage against shields
• Base damage reduced to 16 (from 17)
• Projectiles now have passage: 60% damage is retained
• Projectile growth increased
• Improved recoil pattern
• barrel removed
• Ammo supply: 324
• Reduced VFX brightness when hitting unarmored targets

30-30 repeaters

• Increased projectile size when fully charged

Triple recording

• Projectile size increased
• Improved hip fire spread
• Tightened bullet pattern when completely asphyxiated
• Ammo per shot reduced to 1 (from 3)
• Adjusted magazine sizes to match the new ammo cost
  • Purple Magazine: Increased to 10 shots (from 9)

R-99 SMG

• Removed 1 bullet from the base and all magazines
  • No Magazine reduced to 19 (from 20)
  • White magazine reduced to 21 (from 22)
  • Blue Magazine reduced to 24 (from 25)
  • Purple & Gold magazine reduced to 27 (from 28)

charge gun

• Shots per magazine reduced to 3 (from 4)
• Reduced spawn rate

legends

catalyst

• Dark Veil
  • Scan highlights and diamonds are no longer visible through the Dark Veil

Mirage

• Class changed from Skirmisher to Supporter

ash

• Now slows to weapon dash speed instead of weapon run speed while aiming her tac

attack class

• Smart loot gains have been adjusted to reduce upgrade tier skipping
  • It is now less likely to jump from white to purple or blue to gold
• Optics are now awarded based on team rather than just the attack legend that opens them
• Added a special gold look drop rate

Skirmisher class

• Care packages are now automatically pinged to the team upon reveal.
  • This includes empty Care Packs that have already been looted by another team

support class

• Support Bins now guarantee at least one battery in one of the Secret Compartment slots
• Support Bins now award MRBs when your ally is dead, even if you don’t have their banner card.
• Legend Banners can now be crafted by ANY player who has a Support Class Legend in their squad

mix tape

• New Podium screens for Gun Run and Control
• Displays a message in the kill feed if match leaver penalties are disabled due to an unfair match
• Control and Gun Run display the team’s MVPs on the intro podium
• Control and TDM have updated loadouts (weapon crate changes and updates based on weapon meta/pick rates/kill rates)
• Gun Run and TDM now have XP bonuses for match completion and post-join match completion in progress

control

• Map rotation: Barometer is out, Olympus: Hammond Labs is in
• Weapon Evo Change: Evo weapons no longer auto when hitting a new rating tier. Players will now level up and their weapon will become Evo if the player holsters and then unholsters their weapon in any way (reloading, weapon swapping, manual holstering, ziplining, skydiving, etc.).

gun barrel

• Weapon track update for new crate weapons.
• Added an additional XP bonus for the final Weapon Knife kill

Team Deathmatch

• Map rotation: Skulltown is out, Phase Runner is in

Troubleshooting

• Prowler: Fixed ADS when crouching
• IMC Armories: Fixed Ghosts taking too much damage from Arc Stars
• Fixed Duos showing NBR Challenges instead of BR Challenges
• Fixed not being able to use the comm wheel when a game is over
• Fixed players glittering in loot containers
• Fixed spectators not getting audio queues for all types of launch pads/jump pads
• Fixed banner flickering during victory and end of match screens
• The scoreboard is now saved when a game ends, not the sequence after the podium
• Lifetime stat numbers no longer overlap by more than 7 digits
• Various improvements to the ultra wide UI in the lobby

legends

• Ash:
  • Footsteps are no longer louder when Heirloom is equipped
  • Fixed UI loop when aborting stool inspection prematurely
  • Ultimate now lasts for its entire duration, even if Ash dies while it’s active and while players are still traveling through it
• bloodhound: White Ravens that are already in flight can no longer be scanned for free tactical and ultimate charges
• Corrosive: Fixed traps being destroyed when placed near closed doors, which are then opened
• Crypto:
  • The drone becomes inaccessible after being knocked
  • The drone will no longer occasionally teleport behind a wall after you throw it
  • Fixed drones sometimes spawning in mid-world when thrown against a wall
• Loba:
  • Fixed visibility issue with Black Market when Bangalore Smoke is behind it
  • Adjusted the number of heads peeking over cover when crouching to be consistent with other legends
• Crazy Maggie: Improved reliability when hitting objects that the ball will damage or destroy
• Octane: Removed the double jump hint from the launch pad in cases where it was erroneously displayed as an option (e.g. after a Pathfinder grapple)
• wall: Multiple decks can no longer be placed in the same spot on a trident
• seer: Dummies in the firing zone now have the same stepping behavior as other players when moving within Seer’s Ultimate instead of behaving like other AI (Prowlers, Spiders).
• Valkyrie: Ultimate cooldown is no longer set to 75% after being canceled in Deathtotem Protection
• Spook:
  • Fixed Ultimate being able to be used while ziplining
  • Mythic finisher Whiplash no longer forces players out of play

modes

• mix tape
  • Fixed shields dropped by killed enemies being empty
  • Fixed players leaving a match no longer attempting to join the same match if the join window is still active
• Team Deathmatch
  • Fixed grenades not dropping on player death
  • Fixed the Estates map image showing the night variant of the map in the lobby
• control
  • Fixed an issue with the custom game observer where it was difficult to close the map screen if a observer had it open before players spawned into the game
  • Fixed an issue where the teammate death icon would not appear on the map if the map was not open when the teammate died
  • Fixed ordnance not auto-equipping ordnance slot when player spawned out of bounds
  • Fixed the reserve ammo counter not showing up when swapping weapons from Rampart or Vantage Ultimate

Quality of life updates

• Removed automatic taunt prompt when enemy is killed
• Can now zip line while the banner animation is playing
• Reduced bullet impact VFX on snow

The Arsenal update for Apex Legends Season 17 goes tonight at approx 6 p.m UK time.

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Apex Legends

At macOS, Nintendo switch, personal computer, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Release Date:

February 4, 2019