Apex Legends has received another update, this time focusing on tweaking some weapon damage as well as addressing Legends’ hitboxes. Recently, players have discovered that the hitbox size varies significantly between the characters. Legends like Gibraltar have the biggest hitboxes in the game, setting them at a marked disadvantage. Thankfully, Respawn Entertainment is taking action.
Apex Legends Wingman, Peacekeeper, and Hitbox update
Designers, Lee, Sean, and Brent, took to reddit to give an overview of the recent update. Their post outlined the significant changes included in the update and the philosophy behind why and how Respawn will be patching Apex Legends.
The short of it is that Respawn Entertainment wants to release changes to the game that are smaller, rather than grand sweeping changes. This is to ensure that players don’t feel like they have to continually read patch notes and experiment with guns to get a feel for how they work. A patch shouldn’t drastically change the feel of a weapon you’ve already mastered.
We didn’t want to make any hasty changes around launch, because we know a ton of players are still learning the game with lots of new Legends dropping in everyday. The week one meta vs. the week two / three meta was meaningfully different from what we’ve seen, so want to make it sure it settles a bit before we act. For example, Mirage’s power level has dropped a bit as players have adapted to getting Bamboozled. 🙂 We want to let you know we’re constantly reviewing the state of the game and considering and testing a variety of changes.
Wingman
- Rate of fire reduced from 3.1 -> 2.6 shots per second.
- Skullpiercer Headshot damage multiplier reduced from 2.5 -> 2.25
- Increased base hip fire spread and decreased the rate at which hip fire spread decays (shrinks back down).
Peacekeeper
- Shotgun Bolt rechamber rate has been reduced for the Peacekeeper only.
- Level-1 mitigation 10% -> 7.5%
- Level-2 mitigation 20% -> 13%
- Level-3 mitigation 25% -> 16%
- Wingman and Peacekeeper availability has been reduced in all zone tiers.
- Increased availability of energy weapons & ammo in all zone tiers.
Character Hitbox Changes and Philosophy
As mentioned above, some Legends have a larger hitbox than others. To ensure players aren’t negatively affected by playing these characters, Respawn is looking at how best to balance them:
Our large rig characters, however, are underpowered and their natural size appears to be a large contributor. We’re planning on adjusting the size of the large character hitboxes to better fit the model.
While this is a good stop-gap, if these changes aren’t as effective as Respawn thinks they will be, another pass will be taken at increasing the larger characters’ power.
We’re also considering a range of other changes such as natural damage reduction as well as individual kit power tweaks.
These changes should see the likes of Caustic, Pathfinder and Gibraltar feel a little bit slimmer, and less like opponents are merely shooting the broad side of a barn.
Some of the Legends are also receiving slight nerfs, such as Bangalore’s Double Time speed and Wraith’s Into The Void cooldown time:
Caustic
- Traps
- Reduced cooldown to 25 seconds from 30 seconds
- Increased radius and proximity radius by about 10%
- Removed a 1-second delay on the smoke dealing damage to players
Pathfinder
- Insider Knowledge – Increased the number of beacons in the world to 12 from 10
Lifeline
- Care Package – Removed slight chance that level 4 armor and helmets will drop
Wraith
- Into The Void – Cooldown increased from 20 -> 25 seconds
Bangalore
- Double Time – Reduced move speed bonus to 30% from 40%
Unfortunately, no word was given on when the Apex Legends battle pass will be releasing. In saying this, the developers did state that the team is working hard on making Season 1 the best it can be. Here’s hoping the next Apex Legends update will introduce the battle pass.