Apex Legends muzzle flash comparisons show which guns have been buffed

Following Apex Legends’ System Override Collection Event update, the long-awaited patch on the infamous muzzle flash issues went live – and a number of weapons received a reduction.

Muzzle flash has plagued players since June 2019, after Respawn pushed their 1.2 update live which made it almost impossible to see opponents passed the dazzling effects coming out of the muzzle of the gun.

While muzzle flash is a common feature in shooters, the crux of the issues lies in that the degree of light emitted from each weapon was too extreme, and thus obscuring your view of your opponent while trying to gun them down.

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Muzzle flash took away from the consistency of gunfights, due to an obscured line of sight.

So, as expected, fans were overjoyed to hear that the vast majority of weapons had received a tweak as part of the System Override event update on March 3.

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Per Respawn’s patch notes, the developers have “reduced the intensity of muzzle flash while aiming down the sight for all weapons except shotties and snipers.”

But this didn’t clarify the extent of the reduction for each weapon specifically. So one canny Reddit user compared some of the more popular weapons and posted their findings to the Apex Legends subreddit.

Muzzleflash-comparison. R-99, Havoc, L-Star, Flatline, R301, Spitfire. Firing Range+Ingame. byu/mnkymnk inapexlegends

The video highlights the difference between pre-patch and post-patch muzzle flash, which has been visibly mitigated for the R-99, Havoc, L-Star, Flatline, R301 and Spitfire.

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‘Mnkymnk’ showcased each of the above weapons, as these were among the most affected in-game before the update.

Drawing comparisons in different surroundings, there has been a noticeable reduction in all weapons bar the L-Star, which looks almost identical to the ‘old’ version of the weapon.

One user even commented: “They barely changed that gun’s muzzle flash at all. Without the text overlay, I doubt I could have guessed which clip was the new one.”

Respawn have taken their time to implement the muzzle flash measures, after promising to do so back in January. However, it appears that some players set their expectations a little too high with this patch.