[2021] Apex Legends: Escape Patch Notes

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A new Legend with a familiar face, Ash has overseen the Arenas from the shadows and held a tight grip on Pathfinder’s heart. A simulacrum made from the woman who once was Dr. Ashleigh Reid, Ash is determined to eliminate every trace of weakness that held her back as a human.. Detecting death wherever she goes, spearing enemies with electric snares that lock them in place, tearing through space to take more lives-- it would be easy to think that there was nothing human left within that cold steel.

But a trace of the human doctor remains, and she poses a greater threat to Ash than any Legend in the ring.

Passive: Marked for Death
Ash's map shows the location of recent deathboxes. She gets a special prompt on a deathbox, use it to mark surviving attackers (once per box).

Tactical: Arc Snare
Throw a spinning snare that damages and tethers the first enemy that gets too close.

Ultimate: Phase Breach
Tear open a one-way portal to a targeted location. This portal stays open for a short time, during which anyone can use it.
See Ash’s abilities in action here.

This beautiful oasis was once an energy colony for the IMC, and the ruins remain. Many have tried to make a home here: all have failed. A survey of the area revealed the remains of three unique settlements built across the centuries, but no survivors.The colony lay abandoned, only visited by the occasional pirate or castaway. Now the Mercenary Syndicate has plans of their own for Storm Point.

It looks so enticing, but the pristine beaches and crystal waters are just the eye of the hurricane. All around, dangers swirl: wild prowlers, venomous spiders, and the gathering storms only add to the tension in the air. Now the Legends are here to make this place their own.

So it looks like Storm Point is only going to get more dangerous. Check out our blog with all the details here.

For the Escape update the map rotation will be back down to 2 maps; Storm Point and World’s Edge. With Storm Point being a whole new map, we want to make sure players have plenty of time to master the new arena.

With the introduction of Encore, the Arenas map rotation will now include only the custom made Arenas maps. We will not be using BR locations for Arenas in the Escape update.

When you’re in a precarious place, you need a dangerous, flexible weapon: meet the C.A.R. SMG. The Combat Advanced Round submachine gun is a fully automatic weapon that takes adaptability to the next level by accepting either Light or Heavy mags. The C.A.R. hits hard but handles light, this hybrid weapon’s the best of both worlds for when you’re ready to take a stand and become the most dangerous thing on the island.

Hello, Legends! Let’s take a quick look at how Ranked in Emergence shaped up and review the changes coming in Escape. Ranked continues to attract a large portion of players (around 40% of all playtime!), but this doesn’t mean we can’t look to make improvements.

Note: We fixed an issue where expired skydrive trails remained accessible for longer than they should have. These trails will now expire on the intended seasonal cadence, as mentioned originally in the Ranked Series 3 post (trails from Series 1 & 2 are still grandfathered in).

“Skill” in Apex can be evaluated in all sorts of ways. It’s the amalgamation of gun skill, movement, positioning, awareness, legend mastery, and prevailing over everyone else as Champion that separates the lowly Bronze from Apex Predators.

With that in mind, we want to provide more flexibility and nuance to how players can express skill when RP gains are at stake. Before Escape, measurements have been simple and straightforward. We grant RP based on kill points and a placement multiplier. Now, we’re easing back on some RP restrictions to offer other routes to max out kill-related RP in a match. 

TL;DR: Just give me the summary...

• Kill RP values now take differences between killer/victim Ranked tiers into account.
• The kill RP cap (as we have traditionally thought about it up to this point) is effectively being raised from six to seven. However, this kill-related RP cap can be reached in different ways, depending on tier differences and placement. Placement is still paramount, and you still must place first to have a chance at max total RP.

To expand on the first point, tier differences between the killer and victim will be taken into account when calculating baseline kill point value. For example, if a Plat player kills a Diamond player, that kill counts as 12 instead of 10 RP.

Some points of clarification; 

• Victims do not lose more or less points when killed (in terms of entry cost). Only the killer receives the modifier.
• Apex Predator and Master are treated as the same tier.
• An encounter rate with someone of a 3+ tier difference is ultra-rare (less than 0.1%). Ranked matchmaking is staying the same, so in general, you’ll come across identical tiers. In cases where you squad up with a different rank friend or merge into a different tier lobby, your KP will be adjusted appropriately.

After tier differences are taken into account for kill points, a flat per kill bonus is added based on placement.

The maximum kill point RP is 175. Any kill-related RP that exceeds that after placement and tier modifiers are added doesn’t affect total RP.  The final step is to add a flat placement bonus. Enough with the math, let’s explain these changes with an example:

As a Platinum player, you party up with your Diamond friend and matchmake into a lobby with similarly skilled players. You snag second place, with 6 kills (and/or assists) against Diamond players, and 3 on Plat players.

Each kill on those Diamond players is worth 12 points instead of the typical 10, because they are one rank tier higher than you. That leaves us with (12 × 6) + (10 × 3) = 102 RP.

Now let’s take placement into account. In second, the per kill bonus is 10, so our 9 kills (including assists) × 10 = 90 RP.

We’re curious to see how these changes affect the ranked grind. Jump into Storm Point this first split and let us know how they feel. Stay tuned; this is only the start of what we have in store for Ranked improvements.

We learned a lot from the first season of Ranked arenas and are eager to bring you some improvements:

• Arenas Ranked now has 2 splits, similar to Ranked Battle Royale
• Along with each new season and split, there is a soft MMR reset and new placement matches.  New seasons require the usual 10 placement matches while a new split only requires 5 placement matches.
• Improvements have been made to matchmaking for finding similarly skilled teammates.
• Reduced the AP amount gained or lost from MMR differences between teams.

DEV NOTE:The final calculated AP amount for a match is a factor of your current AP and MMR.  It’s also influenced by the MMR differences between teams. In practice, this difference was factoring in more than we wanted. I.e. Losing a match you were slightly favored to win was giving a bigger AP loss than desired.

Dev Note

Move aside Ash, this is Wattson’s season. We’re ecstatic to finally share some long-anticipated Wattson improvements! Her win rate and encounter win rate have always been above average. This could be for a multitude of reasons; her defensive playstyle correlates to higher average placements, Wattson mains are diehard loyalists, and her hitbox has been the smallest in the game ever since Lifeline’s adjustment.

Regardless, much of the high-level data that we’ve shared doesn’t match perception. Play a few games as Wattson and you’ll often find yourself wanting more out of her kit. The goal of these changes is to redistribute her invisible power into the parts of her kit that shape the battlefield in a unique way. We wanted to see what changes could spark more consistency and efficacy in her kit, and ideally ground some of the difficulties surrounding the way her abilities work. 

We want to enable more active gameplay from Wattson players by smoothing out the rough edges in placing fences. Responsiveness tweaks, longer range, and faster cooldowns means that Wattson can much more quickly and reliably set up a defensive position, or even use her fences and pylon in the midst of open combat in a pinch.

General

• Improved the reliability and responsiveness of placing Wattson's Tactical and Ultimate in-world objects.
• Wattson can place her Tactical and Ultimate objects on valid surfaces above Wattson's eye level (to a reasonable extent).
• General hitbox size increase, to compensate for the removal of low profile in the Legacy update.

Tactical - Perimeter Defense

• Increased damage on crossing a Fence by 33%. (15 to 20)
• Increased debuff duration on crossing a Fence by 100%. (1.5 to 3 seconds)
• Increased the time allowance to be hit again by a subsequent Fence effect by 100%. (0.5 to 1 second).
• Decreased recharge time by 50% (30 to 15 seconds).
• Increased placement range by 50%.
• Decreased the delay between Fences shutting off and reactivating after an ally passes through them by 60%. (1.0 -> 0.4 seconds)
• Wattson now moves at Unarmed-speed while readying/placing Fence nodes.
• Fence nodes can now be placed as soon as the weapon is readied, instead of waiting for the animation to finish.

Ultimate - Interception Pylon

• The Pylon output has been significantly reworked.
  • Reduced the number of active Pylons Wattson can place from 3 to 1.
  • The Pylon now lasts forever (instead of timing out after 90 seconds).
  • The Pylon now has a pool of 250 Shields that can be distributed to nearby players, instead of effectively infinite Shields.
  • Increased the Pylon shield recharge rate by 150%, and smoothed regen rate. (2/second -> 5/second, or more accurately: 1/0.5 seconds -> 1/0.2 seconds)
  • When a Pylon is out of Shields, it no longer recharges players' Shields, but can still zap incoming ordnance.
  • Taking damage while regenerating Shields via the Pylon delays continued regeneration by 1 second.
• The UI on the ground and HUD elements now displays the amount of Shields that remain in the Pylon.
• Pinging a friendly Pylon will now display the percentage of Shields remaining in the Pylon.
• Pylon ordnance-zapping has been moderately reworked.
  • Ordnance is now zapped when the Pylon detects that it would hit any surface within range and line of sight of the Pylon, instead of being zapped as soon as it comes within range.
  • As a part of the changes, current issues where the Pylon doesn't reliably zap ordnance (particularly concerning airstrike abilities, and ordnance that bounced off surfaces near the Pylon) should now be addressed.

• This season the Triple-Take returns to floor loot and taking its place is the G7 Scout. The Scout enters the Supply Drop with its old friend the Double-Tap Trigger equipped.
  • Triple Take - now an energy-consuming marksman * Charge time from 0.8 -> 1.1 (pre-crate value)
    • Mag increase at all tiers (Base: 18, White: 21, Blue: 24, Purple: 27)
    • Ammo consumed per shot increased to 3
    • Ammo required per shot increased to 3

• Dual Shell - Each round loaded into the Mastiff or the 30-30 Repeater is doubled.

• Added: Mastiff 30-30 Repeater, R-301, CAR, Longbow
• Removed: Peacekeeper, Rampage, RE-45, Flatline, and Charge Rifle

• Fire rate reduced from 2.1 to 2.0

Dev Note

With the reduced bolt scaling we’ve done in previous passes the EVA-8 is still performing ahead of the shotgun pack. Hitting the base fire rate should help balance out our shotgun roster.

• Slightly increased pellet size
• Choke up time reduced from 1.5s to 1.25s
• Choked up shots remain tight for slightly longer when exiting ADS

Dev Note

When the PK came out of the crate we gave it a big sweep of nerfs to make sure the floor PK wasn’t the crate monster we had all grown to know. In this pass, we swung a little hard so we’re giving it a QOL and usability pass this season.

• Damage reduced from 60 to 55

Dev Note

We’re walking back a recent buff to the Longbow that proved unnecessary. We wanted to give it some love due to all the recent Marksman updates but it seems the Longbow was just fine.

• Reduced barrel effectiveness at all rarity tiers
• Significantly reduced projectile collision size
• Damage reduced from 18 to 17

Dev Note

The L-STAR has been a force to be reckoned with this season so we’re taking a big swing and hitting its projectile size and damage in an effort to bring it down a notch.

• Damage increased from 34 to 36
• Double Tap added to Supply Drop G7 Scout

Dev Note

With the G7 Scout entering the supply drop we’re giving it a bump to damage and adding back on the retired Double Tap to give it some extra spice.

• Early game crate weapon rate increased from 25% to 50%
• Mid game crate weapon rate increased from 50% to 75%
• Late game crate weapon rate increased from 75% to 100%

Dev Note

Pushing a supply drop in the end game and whiffing on a weapon feels pretty rough. We want to improve the reliability of getting crate weapons out of supply drops throughout all phases of the game. Don’t worry, we’re adjusting Kraber spawn rates accordingly to keep them in line.

• Increased amount of gold loot that spawns in hot zones

Dev Note

Hot Zones can sometimes feel a bit lackluster so we’re injecting more high-tier loot into these dynamic zones to make them more enticing drop spots.

• Increased ammo from crafting
  • Light Ammo 20 → 60
  • Heavy Ammo 20 → 60
  • Energy Ammo 20 → 60
  • Shotgun Ammo 8 → 24
  • Arrows 16 → 48
  • Sniper 12 → 36
• Crafting Ammo price increased from 5 to 10 per weapon
• Evo Armor Points from crafting increased from 100 to 150
• Evo Armor Points cost increased from 45 to 50
• Replaced a sniper bundle with a shotgun bundle featuring the Dual Shell

ENEMY NPC UPDATES

• Prowler health across the game has gone up from 90 to 114 (Storm Point and World’s Edge)
• Prowlers on World’s Edge and Flyers on Kings Canyon now reward EVO points (25%) ... all damage done to AI now rewards progress to your EVO armor

Supply Drop

• Supply drop will now land outside the first ring, if possible, and land 10 seconds earlier.
• Purple weapons now spawn more in earlier rounds
  • Round 1 - 3x blue -> 1x purple + 2x blue
  • Round 2 - 1x purple + 2x blue -> 2x purple 1x blue
  • Round 3 - 2x purple 1x blue -> 3x purple
• Supply drop no longer spawns blue Havoc or Devotion or gold RE-45

Weapon Price Updates

• Moz
  • Blue 125 → 150
  • Purple 200 → 250

• P2020
  • Blue 75 → 50
  • Purple 150 →  125

• RE45
  • Base 200 → 150
  • White 150 → 100
  • Blue 250 → 200

• Prowler
  • Base 500 → 400
  • Blue 300 → 350
  • Purple 400 → 350

• R99
  • Base 500 → 450
  • Blue 250 → 300
  • Purple 300 → 350

• Hemlok
  • Base 500 → 450

• Aim Assist Override will now be ON as default in Lobby.
• Added Anonymous Mode admin option for Private Match (does not affect Observers).
• Bug Fix – Observers can now see replicator items in Map Overview.
• Bug Fix – Added countdown timer for Observers in Arena PM.
• Bug Fix – Lifeline's Ult will no longer spawn a Gold Knock down shield in PM.
• Bug Fix – Fixed some UI issues related to lobby UI not updating after consecutive games.
• API – Added positional data for player events.
• API – Added assists tracking event
• API – Various name adjustments and event tweaks.
• Playlist – Re-enabled dropships for No Ring game types
• Playlist – Addition updates to Custom Endings modes..
  

• UI - teammates will now show that they are self-reviving on their in-world game tags.
• Added VO for players to communicate they are out of ammo.
• Updated the Arena Map Rotation Images to show up to five maps.
• Updated Social Awareness Badges to unlock as default for all accounts.

• UI/UX / Steam Only: Fixed issue where your online friends playing Apex didn’t count towards total online friends while in matches.
• Fixed bug for Placing a Caustic trap over a Seer Ultimate,  that could result in the Ultimate being protected from taking damage.
• Updated Volt skin's charm placement to be moved up so that charms become more visible.
• Fixed bug with players losing extra Boosted Loader extra ammo if the player reloads before getting to base ammo amount.
• Steam: Fixed issue where if a player has a forward slash in their name, a backslash will be added right before it automatically. 
• Legends- Retail - Hitting an enemy with Valk tactical missiles, can result in health damage even with shields equipped
• Fixed issue where players do not see Legend Select when starting a game in Trios and immediately advance to drop ship phase.
• Audio fix for cases where music starts playing in the middle of a BR match.
• Fixed UI error that showed that the Legendary Prowler had the "Shotgun" tag in the in-game info screen.
• Audio fix for cases where VO for map changes doubles up (plays both variants at the same time).
• Audio fix for Rampart Town Takeover where vending machines had no soundFX.
• Fixed bug where Non-Crossplay Steam friends playing Apex would show up with debug text.
• Removed the random rock floating in midair in World's Edge.
• Bug fix for cases where a player could stand up and jump in a knocked-down state after an enemy starts finisher and cancels it.
• Fixed bug where player names would be missing from Legend select.
• Reduced hitbox size for Crafting Material Canisters to better fit its shape.

Legends

• Rampart: 
  • Fix for cases where Rampart's "No Mercy" finisher causes her to clip through geometry.
• Wattson:
  •  Fixed issue where her Ultimate doesn't always destroy frag grenades when thrown inside the Pylon radius.
• Pathfinder: 
  • Fixed issue with players being able to create ziplines much farther than intended.
• Fuse: 
  • Fixed bug with his Ultimate cooldown being the same with or without a gold helmet.
• Seer
  • Removed ability for players to be able to bunny hop at full speed while using Passive.
• Octane
  • Improvements to Jump Pad soundFX

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