Apex Legends S30 Updates: Major nerf for Axle, Bloodhound & Seer also hit

Less than one month into Season 30 of Apex Legends, the developers at Respawn Entertainment have revealed nerfs for Axle, Bloodhound, and Seer.

Axle, who has dominated the Legend pick rate ever since her release in Apex‘s last season, is the primary target in this nerf update. Every part of her kit, from Tactical to Ultimate, are changing to neuter her lethal speed.

Axle hits the brakes

Axle’s Ultimate is being significantly nerfed. (Image via Respawn Entertainment).

Apex Legends, in recent years, has been speeding up in terms of both gunplay and Legend abilities. No character has best embodied this evolution than Axle, the speedster Legend that places Nitro Gates – a Tactical that allows anyone who uses it to gain a significant speed boost.

Now, Axle has been hit by another round of nerfs on top of the changes she received at the start of Season 30.

Here’s every change coming to her kit on Aug. 25:

Ultimate	Tactical	Upgrades
Ultimate HP will be reduced down to 150 from 200 Base Ultimate cooldown will increase from 90s to 120s Ultimate knockback arc will be widened and max height will also be reduced Ultimate stun duration will be reduced from 1.5s to 0.25s	Nitro Gate launch speed will be reduced from 750 to 700	Jump Gate will be replaced with a new Drone Deployer upgrade that brings the ult cooldown back down to 90s

The biggest change to Axle is clearly to her Ultimate ability, with the major nerf to how long the stun lasts for targeted enemies after being hit. A longer cooldown, less health, and reduced stun mean that Axle players will have less opportunity to insta-kill enemies hiding behind cover.

Bloodhound and Seer hit by smaller nerfs

Bloodhound has been changed a lot in recent seasons. (Image via Respawn Entertainment).

While not nearly as popular as Axle in the pick rate, Bloodhound and Seer have been subject to plenty of tweaking by the devs in recent seasons. Bloodhound in particular is the star of the show as the most recently reworked Legend for Season 30.

Here’s what’s changing for Seer and Bloodhound in this patch:

Bloodhound	Seer
Will reduce cloak visibility while in dome Ring damage will no longer break cloaks Tactical scan will be increased by 1 second Scans will provide more frequent snapshots that fade over time	Turn slow will be removed when hit by the Tactical

For Bloodhound, these changes seem to place more emphasis on their scans and tracking abilities, while also modifying how their new invisibility powers work. For Seer, this change simply makes life easier for teams being targeted by endless Tactical scans by removing the slow effect.

Apex Pros react very positively

The Apex Legends pro player scene, which traditionally has mostly complaints about the game, has had nothing but compliments for these announced nerfs. Axle’s speed and Bloodhound’s new invisibility have been unpopular ever since both were added to the game, so any nerf is bound to make a positive impression, as most pros or streamers simply said “W”.

axle ult nerfs pic.twitter.com/1FE2vztUtX

— HisWattson (@HisWattson) August 22, 2026

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

— Falcons ImperialHal (@ImperialHal) August 22, 2026

W

— 100T NiceWigg (@NiceWigg) August 22, 2026

According to the developers, these changes will hit the game on Tuesday, Aug. 25. Perhaps these changes will finally topple Axle from her throne on the pick rate leaderboard, but considering how prior nerfs didn’t alter her numbers, this nerf might have less of an impact than expected.

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