Apex Legends 12th season 'Defiance' has finally gone live and it has brought with it some major changes to the game's meta.
This includes some legends receiving major buffs while others have suffered some crippling nerfs which will change how players utilise different abilities.
Most notably, Crypto has received a few major buffs that will hopefully increase his pick rate in games - players can now toss his drone in a straight line without being forced to control it.
Meanwhile, Caustic's gas traps have suffered a substantial nerf that now allows players to destroy them after they have been activated - the traps will have 150 HP and its effects will last for two seconds after being destroyed.
Hopefully, this will prevent Caustic players from utilising corners with their traps and camping for most of the match.
A couple of Apex's maps have also seen some changes to cater to an array of common complaints that have been coming out of the community recently.
Apex Legends Season 12 Patch notes
Find below the patch notes from Apex Legend's website for Season 12.
Crypto
Drone View HUD and other Quality of Life updates:
- Added gamestate (e.g. Ring information, round timers), minimap, killfeed, team status, , and ping information to the Drone’s HUD.
- Repurposed the Drone HUD’s old Crypto health/shield presentation into displaying the health of the Drone itself.
- Survey Beacon markers are now displayed in-world while piloting the Drone (same as when controlling Crypto himself).
Neurolink changes:
- Increased the Neurolink detection FOV from 160 -> 240 degrees.
- Neurolink detection is now disabled while the Drone is being recalled.
Surveillance Drone changes:
- The deployment of the Drone has received a rework:
- Pressing the Tactical button causes Crypto to send the Drone flying in a straight line in the direction of Crypto’s view for a few seconds.
- If thrown to a wall (or other geo), the Drone will hit the wall and re-orient itself so that it’s facing away from the wall.
- Crypto no longer immediately accesses Drone View after deploying his Drone in this way.
- Pressing and holding the [Tactical] button will launch the Drone forward in the same way, but then Crypto will immediately access Drone View.
- Reduced Drone health from 60 -> 50.
- The HUD marker for the Drone has been tweaked to increase visibility.
- The HUD marker for the Drone is now always displayed on-screen while the Drone is deployed (instead of only when the Drone was off-screen.
A developer noted: "Crypto has been off the grid in terms of pick rate. The goal of these changes was to make his kit more accessible and engaging. With a new deployment option, we lowered drone health to prevent reckless drone deploy.
"Crypto is still a methodical, calculating legend, and manually piloting Hack should still be the primary way to access macro-level recon. The drone view HUD updates should help here as well.
"Crypto’s never been weak per se; we’re cognizant of his strengths at high-level play and will be keeping an eye on his usage and performance."
Caustic
Nox Gas Traps are now destroyable after detonation
- 150hp
- Detonated traps will expire at 11s (instead of 12.5s)
- Gas effects linger for two seconds after barrel destruction or expiration (gas particles still linger a bit longer as they dissipate)
Weapons and Equipment balance
Supply Drop Rotation
The Alternator SMG returns to the ground loot this season and taking its place is the powerful mid-range energy Volt SMG.
Alternator SMG
- Removed disruptor rounds hop-up
Volt SMG
- Damage increased from 15 to 17
- Max mag size increased from 28 to 30
Hop Ups
Kinetic Feeder – Triple Take & Peacekeeper
Sliding with the Triple Take or Peacekeeper significantly speeds up choke time and automatically reloads rounds.
Hammerpoint Rounds – P2020, Mozambique & RE-45
- P2020
- +50% unshielded damage
- Mozambique
- +35% unshielded damage
- RE-45
- +35% unshielded damage
Shatter Caps – 30-30 Repeater & Bocek Bow
- Passively affects hip-fire for both weapons
- ADS remains precision shot
- No longer able to toggle on/off
- 30-30 pellet damage reduced from 8 to 7
- Bow pellet damage reduced 12 to 11
Triple Take
- Removing projectile growth from bullets
- Damage reduced from 23 to 21 per bullet
A developer noted: "The Triple Take’s return to floor loot has been really positive, but it’s proving to be a bit ahead of the pack with its ranged performance.
"We’re eliminating the bullet growth it retained from its days as a sniper to pull it in line with other Marksman rifles."
VK-47 Flatline
- Damage reduced from 19 to 18 per bullet
Rampage LMG (Hotfix)
- Rampage damage reduced from 28 to 26
- Reduced number of shots during the Revved state from ~40 to ~34
A developer noted: "On January 13, 2022 we implemented a hotfix to the Rampage and Sentinel infinite charge bug. We took that opportunity to get out a Rampage nerf early.
"Noting these changes here for anyone who missed our earlier messaging."
Fully Kitted Rotation
- Added: RE-45, Triple Take, Peacekeeper, Prowler, Havoc
- Removed: Mastiff, 30-30 Repeater, R-301, CAR, Longbow
Weapons in Crafting
- VK-47 Flatline and Longbow DMR are now craftable for 30 mats at any crafting station.
- Weapons in crafting can not be found on the ground.
- Crafted weapons come with no attachments and two boxes of ammo
A developer noted: "As we continue to introduce new weapons and loot into the game we must consider the impact it has on loot saturation and the ability to find specific pieces for loadouts.
"With this change we are able to keep weapons available but give our floor loot some breathing room."
Crafting
- Medkit price lowered from 20 to 15
- Kinetic Feeder added to crafting rotation
Bug fixes and quality of life updates
- Fixed issue where multiple Legends were missing voice lines when pinging a caged flyer.
- Fix for Booster Loader where ammo counter would remain highlighted when switching from a low ammo Hemlok or Wingman to another weapon.
- Replicator fix for cases where an item could become stuck inside after crafting with a full inventory.
- Fixed an error that would tell players to come back in a decade when matchmaking.
- Fix for cases of lighting issues in some areas on Olympus.
- Fix for cases where Mirage Ultimate Decoys could get stuck on surfaces raised slightly off the ground.
- Arenas: Fix for cases where Crypto’s Drone charges could be used multiple times with single Drone.
- Arenas: Fix for cases where trying to charge a Rampage or Sentinel Rifle as the round starts results in the charge being cancelled when the round starts.
- Crypto’s Drone fix for cases where it wouldn’t show friendly nameplates.
- Fix for cases where players were able to use melee on incline surfaces to get speed boost while sliding.
- Fix for cases where revving up a Rampage LMG while removing extended mag causes the revved up bar to appear forever.
- Fix for cases where the timer for charging the Sentinel and Rampage was not showing the correct time left for animation.
- Fixed cases when specific Legendary Horizon skins would block part of screen when ADSing with a Prowler + 1x holo scope.
- Fixed issue where weapon challenges would not show progress in the after match summary.
- Fixed a bug where Charging up the Sentinel required 2 cells instead of 1 when wearing a golden armor.
- Reduced L-STAR impact vfx.
- Fixed a bug for cases where players could get a jump boost from deathboxes that are in the vicinity of Horizon’s Gravity Lift after it’s been used.
- Reticle Color Customization – Limiting values to 0-255 to avoid exploits.
- Reticle Color Customization – improved inconsistency in UI color when ADSing with different sniper scopes.
- Reticle Customization fix for cases where rapidly adjusting the lighting bar can result in a performance drop on other platforms and a crash on Switch.
- Based on feedback, we’ve adjusted the in-world icon for Ash’s passive to be smaller and closer to the ground.
- When Ash’s tactical hits an object it cannot stick to, it should now bounce off instead of destroying itself (tactical cooldown will not be refunded anymore)
- Improved the targeting experience for Ash’s ultimate by preferring locations that are farther away
- Audio Fix for cases where R-99 gun fire SFX persists when spectator changes to another player while R-99 is fired.
- Storm Point: Fixed cases where players were unable to shoot through the chain-link fences at Antenna.
- Storm Point: Fix for cases where players could get stuck inside the map by using Valk’s Ultimate on Command Center.
- Storm Point: Based feedback we’ve adjusted Final Round Rings so they don’t end in areas with no cover or populated by Prowler Dens.
- Storm Point: Fix for cases where a player could be launched by a Gravity Cannon while below it.
- World’s Edge: Changed Fragment from high-tier to mid-tier loot. This happened in the 11.1 update, but was inadvertently omitted from those patch notes.
- World’s Edge: Fixed an issue with Loba’s ultimate where it would not tell you items inside the panels at Trials were locked (though the alarm got triggered as normal).
- Fix for cases where Gibby’s arm would be missing during Pathfinder’s “Iron Haymaker” finisher.
- Fix for cases where the Entire map hears audio if a player cancels beacon scan.
- Fixed issue where Valk’s “Cloud Marauder” Legend skin had darker hands in 1P versus what’s shown in the Lobby and in other 1P skins.
- Fix for cases where Players hit by Seer tactical just as they enter crafting could lose certain functionality.
- Fixed issue where Caustic barrels that are still being deployed (mid-throw) were not being deleted after Caustic dies.
- Fixed issue where sometimes Wattson’s Interceptor Pylon would heal for less than intended.
- Fix for cases where a crash could occur when players accept join club requests by clicking the approval button twice.
- Fixed a bug where moving through Wraith’s portal could feel choppy when placed in the air via Gravity Cannons.
- Fixed a bug where stocks didn’t drop from wildlife on Storm Point
- Improved wildlife combat versus vehicles.
- Improved wildlife interactions versus electrical abilities making stunning wildlife with Wattson’s fences and Ash’s tactical more reliable
- Gave a slight increase to high tier consumable drops on all wildlife.
- Added the ability to see your teammate survival item while the inventory is open.
Fixing some weird rules in how assists and kills are determined and properly rewarded.
- Quitting players can no longer deny kills & assists
- Reviving no longer resets damage history
Private Match Updates
- Observer: Added a toggle to disable kill feed while in free cam.
- Observer: Fixed ring visibility on mini map.
- Observer: Fixed kill calculations for the Status & Stats screen.
- Fixed Stats Summary generation for team slots with default names.
- Disabled Club features in Private Match.
- Added unique player ID’s to Post-Game API (same ID’s seen in the Real-Time API).
- Real-Time API changes:
- Added “weaponSwitched” event. Shows the current item equipped by the player.
- Added player names for events squadEliminated and matchStateEnd.
- Added teammate names for observerSwitched event.
- Fix for items appearing as “Unrecognized”.
- Fix for characterSelected event not populating with all players.
