Apex Legends Season 22 patch notes: New map, major gameplay changes, more

Season 22 of Apex Legends won’t add a new character, but it touches just about every other aspect of the game, as well as introducing a new battle royale map, E-District, a new ‘Revival’ mode, and lots of weapon and Legend changes. Check out the full patch notes below.

A new Legend is often the headline of a new season, but it’s now not uncommon for the devs at Respawn to take a break from adding a new character to instead focus on other aspects of Apex.

The new map instead takes the spotlight, but long-time players will be most intrigued by some of the gameplay changes, which include the addition of battle sense in all modes, and aim assist nerfs.

Here’s a rundown of the major changes coming in Season 22 of Apex Legends. The full patch notes will be released close to the season launch date on August 6.

Apex Legends Season 22 patch notes

New map: E-District

Described as “a cyberpunk playground,” this is a night-time map, “packed with a ton of verticality.”

Respawn Entertainment

The new map brings a night-time cyberpunk vibe to Apex.

While it’s set at night, the devs have ensured it is well-lit to maximize visibility. Some of the notable POIs include:

• Street Market, which features intense close-quarters combat.
• Neon Square: Inspired by Shibuya Center in Japan
• Stadium: An old Prowler race tracking turned into a residential community
• The Lotus: High-end luxury apartments

There is a new map feature here too, called Gravity Launcher, which is similar to Grav Cannons on Storm Point.

Map Rotation

The following maps will be available in Pubs and Ranked for the first half of this season:

• Broken Moon
• E-District
• Storm Point

E-District will be the dedicated featured map for a limited time: One week in pubs, 72 hours in Ranked.

New mode: Revival

This new mode sounds very similar to Resurgence in Call of Duty: Warzone, and will be a trios takeover at the start of the season.

When you die, a respawn timer begins, and as long as one of your teammates is still alive, you will respawn. Damage and knocks will make you respawn faster too. In the final rings, the revival feature will be shut off.

CONTROLLER & RECON CLASS PERKS

This season we’re beginning a much more intentional push on what classes mean to the core of the game by bringing new tactical class passives to the Controller and Recon classes. Both will continue to bring strategic depth to their squad via interactions with Survey Beacons and Ring Consoles, but they’ll now have new intrinsic power that better supports their role on the team.

CONTROLLER CLASS

NEW CLASS PERK

• Zone Overcharge: Controller Legends now have extra shield capacity when playing in zone
  • The Zone automatically grants an overcharge of 25HP shield capacity
  • This capacity is permanent while the player remains in zone (white ring area on the map)
    • Overcharge is lost when leaving zone (after 5s delay)
  • Overcharge can be healed with cells, batteries and abilities while in zone
  • If a player enters the zone at full shields, the overcharge pip will fill automatically
  • If a player acquires a shield core that overcharges beyond this extra zone capacity, that additional overcharge will still drain normally but the zone overcharge will remain
  • Zone Overcharge will never enhance Legend Armor beyond maximum (red) capacity

NEW QUALITY OF LIFE

• Remote Pick-Up: Controller Legends can now remotely pick-up their undamaged Tacticals by looking back at them and pressing a button
  • Additionally, if the player abandons the area, they will prompted to recover ALL possible objects
  • Remotely recovering these objects will restore the Tactical charge

RECON CLASS

NEW CLASS PERK

• Threat Vision: Recon Legends now gain threat vision when aiming down sights
  • Threat vision will highlight enemies that the character has Line of Sight to whenever using ADS (aim down sights) 
  • This ability will not work through walls or smoke, and it’s limited in range by the type of scope or zoom range of an ability

SURVEY BEACONS

• Faster to use ~3s (was ~7.5s)
• Shortened range of ~500m (was scanning the entire map)
• No longer randomly distributed and all will now be turned on with every map
• Scanning now grants 75 EVO (was 200 EVO)
• Now pulses 3 times over 15s, with each pulse taking a snapshot of enemies in range for 5s
• Now release a large in-world scan wave that players can spot to identify an activated beacon (enemies no longer receive a scan message)
• Enemies scanned will display along the edges of the mini-map even if not in

UPDATE: STAT TRACKERS

We’ve made a huge quality of life upgrade to Stat Trackers and are separating out the Stat and the Art. You’ll now be able to set these on your Legend Banner Cards separately. The Art on your trackers have also been made universal, which means they can be applied to any Legend Banner Card. We wanted to give players more ways to customize their Banner Cards and let you show off your more than just one Legend there. It’s also a great way to show off your Legend ships!

Login at any point during Shockwave to automatically unlock three new Stat Trackers to add to your mix and match collection.

BALANCE UPDATES

Care Package

• EVA-8 returns to the floor
  • Blast pattern size slightly increased
  • Damage increased to 7 (was 6)
  • Fire rate decreased
  • Now takes Boosted Loader Hop-Up
    • 4 shots remaining activation
    • Quick reload overflows Magazine by 2
  • Slight increase to recoil
• R-99 enters the Care Package
  • ADS strafe speed increased
  • Improved recoil
  • New Feature: Damage fall-off
    • Damage increased to 14 at close range
    • Damage falls off to 10 at 11+ meters
  • No movement penalty when equipped
• EVO Cache Spawn Rate in the first wave increased to 100% (was 50%)

Gold Weapon Rotation

• Mozambique Akimbo, P2020 Akimbo, R-301, Rampage, Sentinel

GAMEPLAY UPDATES

Aim Assist

• Console crossplay into PC lobbies: Aim Assist strength reduced 18%
• Console performance mode crossplay into PC lobbies: Aim Assist strength reduced 22%
• Controller on PC: Aim Assist strength reduced 25%

Aim Flinch

• Aim Flinch has been removed from all weapons & most abilities
• Damage from the ring still incurs Aim Flinch

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.

• Bins that have been rerolled will appear slightly differently than ones that have never been opened
• After the reset, multiple bins will convert into Legendary loot bins that provide smart loot, guaranteeing that the contents to be relevant upgrades for a squad

Mythic Bin

Respawn Entertainment

The new Mythic Bin in Apex Legends.

• One Mythic bin will spawn into the match with:
  • One random Care Package weapon
  • Gold version weapons of those that the squad is running at the time of opening the bin
  • Medical supplies and grenades
  • Large XP bonus to the squad
• Mythic bins are locked and require players to hold interact on them for a significant amount of time to crack them open for their team
• Displayed on the map and minimap

Loot Pool

• Reduce the spawn rate of Purple and Gold attachments by about 50%

Reorganization: Death Boxes and Loba’s Black Market

• Healing items now have a dedicated row and have been removed from the consumables category
• Shield Cores have been moved to the top of the Gear category

Traversal

• Mantling at the same time in the same spot as a teammate no longer forces both players to drop

BATTLE SENSE

Better Ammo Awareness & Feedback

• Critical Ammo state will now kick on when a player has 0 relevant ammo in their inventory
• On screen Low Ammo indicators kick on earlier allowing players more opportunity to find ammo
  •  Indicator also now displays the icon of the ammo type
• Pinging for ammo will now display the ammo icon in the kill feed
• When emptying a weapon of all reserve ammo it will now automatically ping that the player is in need of ammo 
• When looking at ammo on the ground the tooltip now displays compatibility with any of your currently equipped weapons

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).

AMMO & ATTACHMENTS

Ammo Spawn rates

• Energy ammo: reduced individual spawn rate
• Light & Heavy ammo: slight increase to individual spawn rate
• Shotgun & Sniper ammo: increased individual spawn rate

Ammo Stack Changes

• Light ammo stack size increased to 72 (was 60)
  • Individual brick size increased to 24 (was 20)
• Energy ammo stack size decreased to 54 (was 60)
  • Individual brick size decreased to 18 (was 20)
• Shotgun ammo stack size increased to 20 (was 16)
  • Individual brick size increased to 10 (was 8)

Hop-ups

• Disruptor Rounds removed from floor loot
• New Hop-Up: Gun Shield Generator
  • Usable by all LMGs (Spitfire, Rampage, L-STAR, Devotion)
  • When aiming down sights automatically deploy a frontal Gun Shield
  • Gun Shield absorbs 40 damage
  • Gun Shield is recharged 12 seconds after taking damage or breaking
  • Improves Gibraltar’s Gun Shield
    • Gun Shield health increased to 75
    • Gun Shield recharge time remains the same as his passive

WEAPONS

Respawn Entertainment

You can dual-wield the Mozambique and P2020 pistols.

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. 

• Aiming tightens hipfire spread instead of looking down sights
• Attachments are mirrored to the second weapon
• Both P2020 and Mozambique are automatic in Akimbo
• Increased rate of fire 
• Longer reload times
• Magazine size is doubled 
• Optics are disabled while in Akimbo
• Toggle select fire to holster your second weapon and re-enable your optic. 

LMGs

• All LMGs now benefit from the Reverse Hipfire mechanic found on the Care Package Devotion
• New Hop-Up: Gun Shield Generator (see Hop-Ups section above)

Alternator

• Magazine size changes
  • Base: 19 (unchanged)
  • White: 23 (was 22)
  • Blue: 26 (was 25)
  • Purple/Gold: 28 (was 27)

CAR

• Magazine size changes
  • Base: 19 (unchanged)
  • White: 22 (was 21)
  • Blue: 24 (was 23)
  • Purple/Gold: 27 (was 26)

Devotion (Care Package)

• Empty reload speed decreased
• Gun Shield Generator added
• Reverse hip fire improved; shots needed for max hipfire reduced to 14 (was 21)

Flatline

• Magazine size changes
  • Base: 19 (was 20)
  • White: 23 (was 25)
  • Blue: 27 (was 28)
  • Purple/Gold: 29 (was 30)

Havoc

• Hipfire accuracy significantly reduced

Hemlok

• Burst Delay slightly increased
• Damage reduced to 19 (was 20)
• Magazine Size Reduction
  • Base: 18 (unchanged)
  • White: 21 (was 24)
  • Blue: 24 (was 27)
  • Purple/Gold: 30 (unchanged)

P2020 (Single)

• Damage increased to 21 (was 18)
• Hammer Point damage decreased to 23 (was 27)
• Magazine size changes
  • Base: 10 (was 14)
  • White: 11 (was 16)
  • Blue: 12 (was 18)
  • Purple/Gold: 14 (was 21)

Mozambique (Single)

• Hammer Point Damage for a full blast reduced to 54 (was 60)
• Rate of fire significantly increased
• Shotgun Bolt rate of fire multiplier decreased at all levels

Mastiff

• Damage increased to 15 (was 11)
• Pellet count reduced to 6 (was 8)

Peacekeeper

• Damage increased per pellet to 11 (was 9)
• Pellet count reduced to 9 (was 11)
• Blast pattern shape changed

R-301

• Magazine size changes
  • Base: 21(was 18)
  • White: 23 (was 20)
  • Blue 28: (was 25)
  • Purple/Gold: 31 (was 28)

RE-45

• Magazine size changes
  • Base: 18 (was 16)
  • White: 20 (was 19)
  • Blue: 23 (was 22)
  • Purple/Gold: 26 (was 25)

Rampage

• Increase projectile size while Revved Up

LEGENDS

New Class Perks + Adjustments

• Controller Legends
  • Class Perk – Zone Overcharge: extra shield capacity when playing in zone (see above)
  • QoL – Remote Pick-Up: remotely pick-up their undamaged Tacticals by looking back at them and pressing a button (see above)
• Recon Legends
  • Class Perk – Threat Vision: gain threat vision when aiming down sights (see above)
  • Survey Beacons: multiple updates (see above)

Alter

• Void Nexus
  • Channel time when knocked decreased to 2s (was 3s)
  • Chase portal duration decreased 8s (was 10s)
  • Chase portal opening delay increased to 8s (was 6s) 
  • Increased travel speed to void nexus by about 40% (was 1800) 
  • Ult cooldown reduced to 3 min (was 3.5m)
  • When knocked, you can travel to a friendly Void Nexus without looking at it by pressing character action (H key/D-pad down)
• Removed option to press character action to destroy your own Void Nexus (H key/D-pad down)
• Upgrades: Level 2
  • Ult Cooldown: removed ( Level 2 )
  • NEW Ringmaster: gain access to Ring Consoles

Ballistic

• Whistler: lock-on time decreased to 0.1s (was 0.3s)

Crypto

• Surveillance Drone: cooldown decreased to 30s (was 40s)
• Upgrades
  • NEW: It’s called Off the Grid: Crypto becomes cloaked when in drone
    • While hidden from sight, Crypto’s cloaking will still emit a close-range cloaking sound to sus his location and ability scans will still reveal his location
    • Threat Vision related skills will not reveal Crypto
  • Improved Satellite Imagery: Ult now scans anyone it hits for 4s and will track through walls
  • Quick Ping: removed, improved handling now integrated into base kit

Lifeline

• Upgrade – Gold-Plated: replaced Gold EVO Cache with Battery

Rampart

• Sheila
  • Ammo drains from pip charge with use
  • Maximum number of place turrets allowed is now 1
  • Need 1 PIP of Ultimate change to draw or place Sheila
  • No longer requires a full charge to equip
  • Now uses an Ammo-Style Ultimate model

Seer

• Focus of Attention: healthbars persist for duration of Silence
• Heartbeat Sensor
  • Passive move speed has been increased to weapon sprint speed
  • Passive is now quieter when active
• Upgrades
  • Focus Scan: removed
  • NEW Split Focus: gain an additional Tac charge

Vantage

• Echo Relocation: no longer requires LOS to Echo to launch
  • Can launch when LOS is blocked
  • Can now cancel the tac mid charge
  • Tac reticle will turn red when echo is behind you and you are launching
  • Will slide-around boxes and geometry as best it can to reach Echo
• Sniper’s Mark
  • 2nd Shot Multiplier is now 2.5x (was 2x)
  • Can hit “Reload” when in ult to use an Ult Accel
• Spotter’s Lens
  • NEW Ranged Tracking
    • Waypoint on PING within Passive range will track enemy for 10s
    • Will not show within 100m (for each ally individually)
  • Recon Info
    • added to all optics
    • expanded passive scanning screen area to be more consistent
• Upgrade – Ult Reload: now also doubles Ult Accel use speed in addition to providing 2 extra bullets

Wattson

• Upgrades
  • Power Pylon: now regenerates shield charge
  • Split Current: removed
  • Emergency Power – Added
    • Increases Shield Regen Rate of Interception Pylon

MAPS

• Pubs & Ranked Rotation
  • Broken Moon
  • E-District
  • Stormpoint
• NEW E-District
  • Urban island district of the city of Suotamo on Gaea
  • Features 17 POIs
  • Designed for verticality with areas perfect for CQC
  • Exclusive map at launch
    • Pubs: for the first week after launch, August 6-12
    • Ranked: for the first 72 hours after launch, August 6-9

MODES

Bot Royale

• New mode for Apex’s new and learning players
• Battle as a squad against a smaller lobby of enemy bot squads in a quicker version of a standard battle royale match
• Game rules are the same as in standard battle royale modes
• Play with Bots in your squad or bring your own Human friends
• Bot Legends: overhauled as part of Bot Royale
  • Improvements made to pathfinding, shooting, ability deployment, and interactions with game objects
  • Several Legends were added as Bots in Bot Royale including: Bangalore, Bloodhound, Conduit, Fuse, Gibraltar, Lifeline, Octane, Seer, Vantage, and Wraith

Revival: LTM ft. New Respawn Mechanic

• Respawn into a skydive near your teammates as long as one teammate is still alive
• If all players die, the team is eliminated
• Respawn Timers:
  • Respawn timers increase with each passing round
  • Respawn timers for your squad increase each time a squadmate dies
  • Respawn timers decrease when squad members:
    • Deal damage
    • Earn knockdowns
    • Earn kills
    • Execute enemies
• Killing an enemy will reveal their squadmates for a brief time
• Players start with blue knockdown shields (knockdown shields removed from the loot pool)
• Respawning ends and all deaths are final upon reaching a specific round
  • Trios Revival: Respawning ends at Round 5
  • Straight Shot Revival: Respawning ends at Round 4

Straight Shot Revival (Starts August 20, 2024)

• Straight Shot returns as Straight Shot Revival
• Features new respawn mechanic found in Trios Revival
• Akimbo P2020 and Mozambique replace the single versions in loot
• Enemy Highlight and Enemy Health Bars are enabled
• Purple and gold tier LMGs will include the new Gun Shield Generator hop-up

MIXTAPE

• Akimbo weapons added into all Mixtape Loadouts and Gun Run
  • R99 moves out of all loadouts, replaced with akimbo weapon variants
• Mixtape Map Rotations
  • August 6-12, 2024
    • TDM: Skull Town, Habitat
    • Control: Thunderdome, Production Yard
    • Gun Run: The Core, Monument
  • August 13-19, 2024
    • Control: Barometer, Lava Siphon
    • Gun Run: Fragment, Skull Town
    • Lockdown: Zeus Station, Thunderdome
  • August 20-26, 2024
    • TDM: Habitat, The Core
    • Control: Barometer, Lava Siphon
    • Gun Run: Fragment, Skull Town
  • August 27-September 2, 2024
    • TDM: Habitat, Skull Town
    • Control: Production Yard, Thunderdome
    • Gun Run: The Core, Wattson
  • September 3-9, 2024
    • TDM: Habitat, The Core
    • Control: Barometer, Lava Siphon
    • Gun Run: Fragment, Skull Town
  • September 10-16, 2024
    • TDM: Skull Town, Zeus Station
    • Control: Production Yard, Thunderdome
    • Gun Run: The Core, Wattson
• LTM: Akimbo & LMG Only Loadouts
  • August 13-19, 2024
    • TDM: Habitat, Skull Town, The Core, Zeus Station
  • August 30-September 3, 2024
    • Weekend of Lockdown
    • Gameplay Rules: decreased Ult charge while capturing points
    • Zeus Station, Monument, Skull Town, The Core, Thunderdome
  • September 3-9, 2024
    • Big TDM
    • Gameplay Rules
      • 15 Minute Time Limit
      • Score limit increased to 75
      • Shield Regen activates on kills
    • Thunderdome, Habitat, Zeus Station, Skull Town, Fragment, The Core

NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCE

Welcome Pass and Challenges

• For new accounts created after the launch of Shockwave
• Complete Welcome Challenges to progress through the Welcome Pass
  • Challenges can be completed in any BR mode and Bot Royale
  • Unique set of challenges designed around foundational skills
  • Welcome Challenges do not refresh
• Receive rewards for reaching each level of the Welcome Pass
  • If the player already has the reward in their inventory, they will receive the Crafting Metals value instead
• Start with three Legends: Wraith, Bloodhound and Lifeline
  • Unlock Bloodhound, Pathfinder, Gibraltar, and a Legend of their choice through progression

RANKED

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

• New Season Reset Rules
  • No RP reset for Rookie IV to Rookie I, players will keep the RP they have from the last split
  • Bronze IV to Platinum IV will reset to Bronze IV 1000 RP
  • Platinum III reset to Bronze III 1500 RP
  • Platinum II reset to Bronze II 2000 RP
  • Platinum I reset to Bronze I 2500 RP
  • Diamond IV reset to Silver IV 3250 RP (with +250 demotion protection)
  • Diamond III reset to Silver III 3600 RP
  • Diamond II reset to Silver II 4200 RP
  • Diamond I reset to Silver I 4800 RP
  • Master and above reset to Gold IV 5650 RP (with +250 demotion protection)
• Special Cases
  • New Players (complete onboarding and above Level 20): Starting Rookie IV 1 RP
  • Returning Players who didn’t play last season (excluding Rookie tier which won’t reset): Starting RP threshold for Bronze IV 1000 RP

RANKED RUMBLE

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

• Players can participate in matches without 10 matches limitations
• There is no Re-Entry mechanic; play as much as you want
• Only your top 10 match results count towards your final standings
  • If you get a better match score, it will replace your current lowest score

WORLD SYSTEMS

• Improved end ring generation system

BUG FIXES

• Can no longer use Death Boxes through walls
• Cleaning up disconnected players in Mixtape
• Firing Range: Mythic weapons are no longer taken away after respawning
• Fixed a storm point zipline that could kick players off too early
• Fixed bad actor ping crashes
• Fixed prowler spawn den bullet collision hull

Adaptive Supersampling

• Fixed an issue that caused screen tearing
• Fixed an issue that caused Legend banner poses to appear distorted

Death Boxes

• Improvements to help stop deathboxes from getting stuck in doorways and blocking exits
• Should now be lootable in broken doorways
• Will now contain a shield core if the enemy disconnected before dying

LEGENDS

• Alter’s ult can no longer be used for free if you place it onto a moving object and use it immediately
• Bangalore smoke highlights should no longer get blocked by other players
• Fixed an issue that let players affected by Catalyst ultimate to see through Bangalore smoke
• Movement hitch when using Seer’s passive while unarmed should no longer occur
• No more thefts from an explosive hold without warning, destroying Loba’s Black Market

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Mantling on the same location as your teammate won’t knock you down
• Mixtape Gameplay
  • Additional starting grenade added for Control & Lockdown
  • EVA 8 back into Close-Quarters loadout
  • Faster health regen for all mixtape modes
  • Lockdown Score Limit reduced to 400 (was 500)
  • Reconnect match timer reduced to 2 minutes (was 5 min)
  • Team Deathmatch Score Limit reduced to 40 (was 50)
• Mixtape’s Skull Town got a spawn audit (adjusting positions & angles)
• Nessies can once again bounce to their hearts content in the firing range (just not anywhere else)
• Speaking of, a new Nessie (with an appreciation for cinema) has appeared around the firing range

GRAPHICS

• Largely optimized Performance Mode on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5, for more consistent frame rates and fewer resolution drops
  • Xbox Series X and PS5 can expect 10 FPS or higher improvements in GPU-intensive scenarios

• DX12 (PC)
  • Fixed several causes of graphical corruption issues
  • Large optimizations to both CPU and GPU performance. With these changes, we expect that the DirectX 12 beta should now perform better than DirectX 11 for the majority of players.
• PC: removed Adaptive Supersampling video settings option. A small percentage of players used this option and those that did received no benefit from it unless they had a powerful GPU and low res monitor
• Mitigated performance impact of looking at Death Boxes and intermittent performance spikes from champions banners

Full patch notes with dev notes can be found on the Apex Legends website.