Apex Legends Arsenal patch notes detail weapon mastery ahead of Season 17 release

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

The weapon mastery system has now been explained in a little more detail in the notes ahead of the update – which will go live later today. Following the update, players will now be able to master individual weapons – with each gun starting from level 1. Weapons can be ‘progressed’ in any game mode just by using them, with Weapon XP being granted for things like kills, dealing damage and even just having the weapon in your hand. At every 20 levels (up to a max of 100), you’ll unlock a trial with that weapon – which must then be completed to get a reward specific for that gun. 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 see a brand new Firing Range – as the Apex Legends training arena gets an extensive overhaul. If that wasn’t enough – there’ll also be updates to the World’s Edge map in this latest season, including two brand new POIs known as Monument and Stacks. There’s also a new survival slot item as the Evac Tower joins the game – giving players a portable way to move around the map or make a quick escape. Other updates include a refresh of the game’s Ping system are also in the latest update, with some older pings being removed and others moving up to “better serve the game as it exists today” as well as a bunch of Ranked Mode changes we learned about last week.

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

Apex Legends Arsenal Season 17 Patch Notes

Balance Updates

Crate Rotation

• L-Star EMG enters the crate
• RE-45 returns to the floor

Weapon Crafting Rotation

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

Gold Weapon Rotation

• Flatline, Triple Take, Spitfire, Mastiff, Volt

Loot Spawns

• Improved Vault Loot
  • Increased chances of gold loot
  • Added light mags to spawn pool
• Improved Cargo Bot Loot
  • Removed small healing items, Mobile Respawn Beacon, White Armor,  White Backpack
  • Adjusted Large Healing and Heatshield spawns to allow for more desirable 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% damage increase against shields
• Base Damage Reduced to 16 (was 17)
• Projectiles now have passthrough: 60% damage retained
• Projectile growth increased
• Improved recoil pattern
• Removed barrel
• Ammo Stockpile: 324
• Reduced VFX brightness when hitting unarmored targets

30-30 Repeater

• Projectile size increased when fully charged

Triple Take

• Projectile size increased
• Improved hipfire spread
• Tightened bullet pattern when fully choked
• Ammo per shot reduced to 1 (was 3)
• Magazines sizes adjusted to match the new ammo costs
  • Purple Mag: Increased to 10 shots (was 9)

R-99 SMG

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

Charge Rifle

• Reduced shots per magazine to 3 (was 4)
• Reduced spawn rate

Legends

Catalyst

• Dark Veil
  • Scan Highlights & Diamonds are no longer visible through the Dark Veil

Mirage

• Class changed from Skirmisher to Support

Ash

• Now gets slowed to weapon sprint speed instead of weapon walk speed when targeting with her tac

Assault Class

• Smart loot gains have been adjusted to reduce skipping an upgrade tier
  • It will now be less likely to jump from White to Purple or Blue to Gold
• Optics are now given based on team rather than just Assault Legend who opens them
• Added special drop rate for Gold Optics

Skirmisher Class

• Care packages are now automatically pinged for the team on reveal.
  • This includes empty Care Packages that have already been looted by another team

Support Class

• Support Bins will now guarantee at least one Battery in one of the Secret Compartment slots
• Support Bins will now award MRBs if 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

Mixtape

• New Podium screens for Gun Run and Control
• Display a message in the Kill Feed if Leaver Penalties are disabled for the match due to an unfair match
• Control and Gun Run will indicate the team’s MVPs on the intro podium
• Control and TDM have updated loadouts (Crate Weapon changes and updates based on weapon meta/pick rates/kill rates)
• Gun Run and TDM now have XP Bonuses for Match Completion and Match Completion after Join in Progress

Control

• Map rotation: Barometer is out, Olympus: Hammond Labs is in
• Weapon Evo Change: No longer Evo weapons automatically when a new Rating Tier is reached. Players now reach the new tier and their weapon will Evo when the player holsters and then unholsters their weapon in any form (reload, weapon switch, manual holster, rides a zipline, performs a skydive, etc)

Gun Run 

• Weapon Track update for new crate weapons.
• Added an additional XP bonus on the last weapon knife kill

Team Deathmatch

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

Bug Fixes

• Prowler: fixed ADS while crouching
• IMC Armories: fixed spectres taking too much damage from arc stars
• Fixed Duos showing NBR challenges instead of BR challenges
• Fixed comms wheel not being usable when a game is over
• Fixed players glitching inside of loot bins
• Fixed spectators not receiving audio queues for all types of launch pads/jump pads
• Fixed flickering of banners during victory and end of match screens
• Scoreboard is saved when a game is finished now, not post-podium sequence
• Lifetime Stats numbers no longer overlap for more than 7 digits
• Various lobby ultrawide UI improvements

Legends

• Ash: 
  • Steps are no longer louder if heirloom is equipped
  • Fixed UI loop when crouch inspect is canceled early
  • Ultimate will now persist for the entire duration even if Ash dies while it is active and while players are still traveling through it
• Bloodhound: White Ravens already in flight can no longer be scanned for free Tacticals and Ult charge
• Caustic: Fixed traps destroying when placed near closed doors that are then opened
• Crypto: 
  • Drone can no longer be accessed after being knocked
  • Drone no longer occasionally teleports behind a wall after you throw it
  • Fixed drone sometimes spawning in the middle of the world when thrown into a wall
• Loba: 
  • Fixed visibility issue with Black Market when Bangalore’s smoke is behind
  • Amount head peeks over cover while crouching adjusted to match other Legends
• Mad 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 would incorrectly show as an option (e.g. after a Pathfinder grapple)
• Rampart: multiple cover walls can no longer be placed in the same spot on a Trident
• Seer: Dummies in the firing range will now have the same footstep behavior as other players when moving inside of Seer’s Ultimate instead of behaving like other AI (Prowlers, Spiders)
• Valkyrie: Ultimate cooldown no longer set to 75% after being canceled while in Death Totem protection
• Wraith: 
  • Fixed ultimate being usable while ziplining
  • Mythic finisher “Whiplash” no longer pushes players outside of play area

Modes

• Mixtape
  • Fixed shields dropped by killed enemies being empty
  • Fixed players leaving a match will no longer try to join the same match if its join-in-progress window is still active
• Team Deathmatch
  • Fixed grenades not dropping on player death
  • Fixed Estates map image displaying the night variant of the map in the Lobby
• Control
  • Fixed Custom Match Observer issue where it was difficult to close the Map Screen if an Observer had it opened before players spawned in the match
  • Fixed teammates death icon not appearing on the map if the map wasn’t open when the teammate died
  • Fixed ordnance not auto-equipping to the ordnance slot if the player spawned out of bounds
  • Fixed reserve ammo counter not displaying when switching weapons from Rampart or Vantage’s ultimate ability

Quality of Life Updates

• Removed Auto-Taunt Prompt on Enemy Killed
• Can now ride ziplines while playing the banner pickup animation
• Bullet impact VFX on snow reduced

The Apex Legends Season 17 Arsenal update goes live this evening at about 6pm UK time.

 Videogamer.com is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API / Last updated on 2024-04-19