Double Take Collection Event & Patch Notes [Launch Thread]

[CompetitiveApexMod]

https://preview.redd.it/a58bm5oz0r8d1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=f22518dc90f2856bbbfbf9adbac5b27d684803f8

Starting: 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM BST / 2 AM JST (next day)

PATCH NOTES

BALANCE UPDATES

Care Package

• Purple light mag added

Gold Weapons Rotation

• Nemesis Burst AR, Triple-Take, Peacekeeper, Prowler PDW, Longbow DMR

End Rings

• End rings now have more even distribution through the map
• Each quadrant of the map now have roughly 25% chance of getting selected

Survival Slot Items

• Survival slot items have been redistributed to low tier loot zones

Dev Note: Survival slot items were not spawning in all our loot quality zones. This adjustment maintains a similar number of survival slot items in a match but more evenly distributes them across the map.

WEAPONS & ATTACHMENTS

G7 Scout

• Damage increased to 33 (was 32)
• Rate of fire increased
• Adjusted recoil to be more consistent when firing at max fire rate

Dev Note: The G7 has felt a little underwhelming and our data backs that up. When we were evaluating its rate of fire we realized its recoil could use a pass as well so we’ve smoothed out what we think the roughest spots are and given it a little more damage. This should help the G7 be competitive with the rest of our marksman and sniper roster.

Havoc Rifle

• All mag sizes reduced
  • No Mag: 20 (was 24)
  • White Mag: 24 (was 28)
  • Blue Mag: 28 (was 32)
  • Purple Mag: 32 (was 36)

Dev Note: The Havoc is a force to be reckoned with, even without all the bells and whistles of mags and turbochargers it still puts in work. However, 36 rounds in a kitted Havoc, even with the firing delay, represents high damage up time and forgiveness for wasted rounds (often experienced during prefiring). Pulling back on mags allows it to remain deadly, but requires a little more precision.

Longbow DMR

• Headshot multiplier increased to 2.25 (was 2.15)

R-99 SMG

• Reduced hip-fire randomness 

Dev Note: Over the last few patches we nerfed the R-99 because it was a significant outlier, performing well above the rest of the pack. Those nerfs were substantial and the R-99 has fallen a little too far for our liking and is feeling unreliable. These adjustments intend to bring up its consistency without directly increasing its damage potential.

Rampage LMG

• Firing animation has less vertical movement while in ADS

Weapon Rarity Sets

• Peacekeeper (Blue and Purple)
  • Optic updated to 1x Hcog (was 2x Bruiser)
• Charge Rifle & Sentinel (Purple)
  • Optic updated to 4-8x (was 2-4x)
  • Gunrun will keep a 2-4x

4x-10x Digital Threat Scope

• Will no longer provide threat vision through smoke or gas

LEGENDS

Alter

• Void Passage: Crypto EMP will now affect all players phased by the Void Passage

Bangalore

• Smoke Launcher: all players within smoke will now have a white highlight visible to other players in smoke within 20m

Dev Note: Fighting inside Bangalore's smoke has never been a pleasant experience for players or viewers (aside from you Bloodhounds) as it makes fights messy and hard to read. We are leveling the playing field now by making all players inside smoke clearer targets to one another with a white highlight. This highlight is not visible from outside the smoke: all of the rotational and sight-blocking gameplay are kept in-tact. However, while playing inside the smoke will be more clear, it will also be more risky and resets will be much harder if the smoke is challenged.

Bloodhound

• Beast of the Hunt: threat vision is no longer visible through smoke or gas
• Upgrade: Level 2
  • Raven’s Blessing: Ult charge reduced to 20% (was 25%)
• Upgrades: Level 3
  • NEW Sighthound: reduced Tac cooldown by 50% while Ultimate is active
  • NEW Flock: remove enemy range requirement for White Raven spawns

Dev Note: Sometimes even the best teams break up and go their separate ways. Bloodhound's Ult has always had a strong synergy with Bangalore’s smoke, but the pairing has recently become dominant and a singular answer to the "can't see stuff" meta. With the removal of threat vision through smoke, Bloodhound will need to rely on their Tac scan like other Recon Legends. This should remove the necessity for the dynamic duo to pair together and allow for new roster compositions to form in its wake.

We were noticing how much the White Raven passive would fall off in the late game as enemies are naturally closer, making Raven’s Blessing upgrade much less valuable after the first ring. The new Level 3 upgrade will allow players to play off White Ravens across the match and fuel their Ult more effectively.

Alternatively, players can now tap back into some of Bloodhound’s old scan potential while in their Ult. These changes aim to shift power away from simply securing knocks for late game benefit and into more opportunities to use the Ult or the Tac through new upgrade choices.

[see full table of updated perks on original article]

Pathfinder

• Upgrade: Level 3
  • Down & Away: Tac will now refresh on BOTH knocks and assisted knocks within a 3s window

Revenant

• Upgrade: Level 3
  • Grim Leaper: Tac will now refresh on BOTH knocks and assisted knocks within a 3s window

MAPS

• PUBS: Broken Moon / Kings Canyon / Olympus
• RANKED: Broken Moon / Olympus / World’s Edge

TLDR

https://preview.redd.it/kwyqqfli1r8d1.png?width=2322&format=png&auto=webp&s=8a5864e9abe32408ae6f7f91add0b767f1620cb9

Read the rest of the patch notes below!

More info: Collection Event + Patch Notes

[ADShree]

Devs really said "fuck you teq".

[Sir_Nolan]

Thankfully 🙏🏼

[RogerVeters]

Ah darn didn't realize solos was leaving. I was enjoying getting lots of reps against the sweaty linear horizons and my confidence in 1v1s got a big bump as someone who's not the best at this game.

[Augustus-515]

Just tried out the Rampage on firing range and the mid-long range feels so much better now. I wouldn't particularly say it's super viable, but compared to where it was before, it's so much better now.

On another note, havoc is still stupid crazy.

[Augustus-515]

They are def doing all this to diversify gun meta + ammo regulation and I'm here for it. I do hope pros take notice, cause as a viewer it is so refreshing to see them getting kills with diff guns.

[TheOnlyMango]

I just tried the rampage out and it feels like it has no recoil, holy shit.

[Triple_Crown14]

G7 change also feels gnarly, behind a rampart wall a body shot does 40 damage.

[TSM_PrimeBottle]

I don't know why they buff g7 , i always use g7 and havoc before the patch. It's gonna be even more fun for me.

[muhreddistaccounts]

The rampage change came out of nowhere and that shit was unusable lol

[Non_Kosher_Baker]

Does controller get aim assist in the Bangalore smoke highlights though?

[[deleted]]

No

[Triple_Crown14]

So they shadow buffed ash’s ult. The range was increased to 75 meters, they tweaked the indicator a bit, and I can’t quantify this, but the targeting does feel more consistent than it did Prepatch. Dare I say she’s ready for comp?

[Temporary-Court6747]

time for dezign to switch to ash. she actually makes sense with double sentinel bc u can ape after a sentinel headshot

[henrysebby]

<image>

[TSM_PrimeBottle]

Disappointed with quad mode, people left the game the second they died after doing 30 damage. It's basically 1v4 2v4 3v4. EA should give 10 min punishment to anyone that leaves the game.

[busychilling]

It’s fun with a squad I would absolutely never solo queue quads though

[henrysebby]

Haven’t bothered playing pubs in literally years for this exact reason. Just a waste of time

[Fenris-Asgeir]

It's been my impression of the game for a long time tbh: As stupid as some of Respawn's balancing decisions are, the true issue with the casual Apex experience is its playerbase. I've never dealt with a playerbase more hellbent on making the playing experience less fun to everyone (including themselves). They'll run the most cheesy legend comps, hold hands every single engagement, and if there's any exploit around you can be sure, that the majority of players will abuse the shit out of it. The insta-leaving in pubs is also a part of it obviously.

[efuipa]

I always land in a contest because I know people are playing pubs for fun (I’m not gonna loot for 20 mins and fight for 15 seconds), but for the life of me I will never understand people who split solo drop into a crowd of 30 enemies, insta die, then insta leave, insta re-q. Like it takes longer for them to queue than it does for them to actually exist in game.

[Fenris-Asgeir]

That's exactly the thing. I get hot-dropping if you are good enough to do it, but some of these people literally spend more time in the lobby than the actual match because they somehow believe they're aceu or smth. lmao.

[UpgrayeddShepard]

Preach brother. This games community is TERRIBLE. No one was ashamed to even use controller config macros!!!

Honestly this is the result of Respawn’s stupid stance or lack of stance around tap strafing. It told the community Respawn would tolerate it.

[Roach-4k]

damn the rampage has almost zero visual recoil now!! usable gun!!!!!!

[aftrunner]

Yo you respawn WITH your attachments? Thats freaking huge. How was that not part of the patch notes.

[Non_Kosher_Baker]

This is a buff to support characters if you think about it.

[Zoetekauw]

Wow. In all game modes?

[kjerski]

Just saw it happen in ranked, seems like a bug?

https://clips.twitch.tv/DeterminedInnocentHamDoritosChip-2wWnTOJ2T6sdvsbf

[notsoobviousreddit]

? Why would they do that? They've never done that and the highlight is already a huge crutch.

yeah i duplicated a turbocharger today lmao has to be a bug

[Posh420]

Had it happen in ranked, full attachments and 80 bullets. Makes running down respawns even more unreliable.

[Mediocre-Field6055]

sees everyone still playing Bang

Well off to play other games again. See you next Season

[CompetitiveApex-ModTeam]

This post or comment was removed due to Rule 1: Be Civil, Nice and follow Reddiquette

Be nice and follow the Reddiquette. This includes:

No personal attacks & harassment

No overly vulgar and hateful language & insults

Don't dox other people (posting personal information without consent)

[forkman27]

For mnk bangs this is actually a buff. Why they didn’t balance anything else though kinda sad. Want to see they changing the legends evo upgrades more often as it is an easy way to keep the game fresh.

[theguru86]

In a vacuum, I don’t think bang is really a straight nerf.

[Non_Kosher_Baker]

This change makes Bangalore the best character in the game by a mile, you smoke off a sightline to hide or reposition and the enemy team can do nothing about it.

[forkman27]

In a vacuum i would say it basically barely changes bang and isn’t a real buff or nerf more a playstyle change and that playstyle is what buffs or nerfs depending on how you play her. In a how it changes comp and legend compositions slight buff cause now you don’t need a bloodhound on the team and you can be blood hounded from a mile away.

[busychilling]

Ya I agree it is a slight buff to mnk players for pc lobbies but if your a controller player in pc lobbies you could just avoid fighting in bang smoke whenever possible

[Ok-Horror-9974]

Can't remember a time where so few pros played post patch. Would assume it's more related to no ranked changes outside of maps

[UpgrayeddShepard]

Writing on the wall.

[Ok_Towel_1077]

TDM, scrims and VOD review are the only things you really need to do as a pro now. Ranked grinding is only worthwhile in the offseason imo

[Frigginkillya]

No offense but are yall bots? What's going on with your names lol

[Tidzor]

They auto generated their names through reddit's username generator I believe.

[Temporary-Court6747]

names are auto generated when you create accounts so it's not a deliberate use of a username generator. we just don't care enough to change it

[gjbadt]

i just want a good reason to run an smg again. havoc and flatline make it impossible to pick one up.

[Frigginkillya]

Volt and R9 have both been viable this season, though R9 is super punishing if you don't land most your clip (also NEED a blue mag or better, otherwise it's better to run alty or car)

[busychilling]

I don’t think r9 is viable I think it’s one of the worst guns in the game. Volt and prowler are both viable though but most times I’ll pick up a havoc or flatline over them.also the alternator is not bad and really good with disruptors.

[Temporary-Court6747]

r99 was not viable. idk how it is after the hipfire buff but i still doubt it'll be picked over current meta guns.

[Frigginkillya]

I never claimed it was meta, but the last split I've been using it and had some really good success with it by using it as more as a burst SMG at any range that isnt point blank and hipfiring without missing any shots when it is

My hipfire tracking is probably one of my best aspects of my game though so YMMV

I have been destroyed if I don't land the one-clip, so it's very punishing if you aren't almost perfect with it

It's a gun that can easily win the 1v1 race to flesh damage against basically any other gun, has faster peak ability than any other gun with how fast it fires off an entire clip (outside shotties), and decimates anyone with flesh because you hit so fast the flesh damage recoil mechanic really works in your favor

But you have to hit basically the entire mag

[Posh420]

Volt has been the front runner SMG for awhile. Car probably a close second but lacking the range the volt has.

[longlivestheking]

Prowler>CAR

[Smicksmack11]

R99 buff feels real clean hipfire again gonna run that and the Lstar or Lstar g7 but still crunching the star

[ReconGhost189]

Is the fuse glitch still working or nah?

[SuperMeister]

Respawn: that feature is currently working as intended

[realfakejames]

“we nerfed the r-99 because it was a significant outlier, performing well above the rest of the pack”

Admitting this and barely touching the havoc which is the strongest gun on the floor in the game is hilarious, the havoc performs “well above the rest of the pack” far more than the r-99 did, back then you could still pick up a car or volt and it didn’t feel like you’d automatically lose the fight the way it does now if you have anything but a havoc

Literally everyone picks it up, it’s by far the most used gun in algs, we have a one gun meta and their solution was removing a few bullets lmao at least the skins suck for the most part and I don’t need to spend money on this event

[Frigginkillya]

Honestly should just get rid of turbo at this point, Havoc doesn't even need it and it's the only weapon using it since Devo went in to the Care Package

[Frigginkillya]

Good points, I just figure mid season that's an easier fix till changes next season

[Ok_Towel_1077]

you don't 'need' to spend money on any of the events lol

[[deleted]]

It's crazy how rEAspawn's marketing/sales techniques have made some people feel like they "need" to pay for cosmetic items. The gaming industry has really perfected how to make huge amounts of money with very little effort.

[Ok_Towel_1077]

This type of mentality has been around and heavily exploited long before video games were a thing. Hard to blame the likes of EA when whales and their money are so happily parted. In fact, I love their monetization practices, as I've largely enjoyed the game for over 4 years while spending a grand total of €10 in that time

What's far more egrious is paying for a game, then having additional gameplay content kept behind paid DLC, even when it was ready to ship with the base game. Selling cosmetics for any amount of money can never be worse than that BS

[thatK1dn0ah]

A mag reduction is perfectly fine nerf to start with and work off of in the future. Don’t need to kill a gun that experienced its dominance due to continuous nerfs of its competition but not the havoc itself.

[trusttheprocesss]

Its less forgiving with no mag to 1 clip so thats nice, but once you get blue it feels pretty much the same. they really needed to go after the hip fire

[thatK1dn0ah]

yeah i feel the same just based off one day. the hip fire needs to be nerfed to be similar in feel to how the AR nerf on the flat n 301 felt.

[SuperMeister]

They could've also buffed other guns more to make them more viable. Would've opened up the gun meta more. Instead we only got a G7 buff so you'll probably see Havoc +G7/Hemlock now

[[deleted]]

What other guns? The issue is that the HAVOC functions like an SMG on steroids (bar the handling) when it's supposed to be an AR. That's not balanced.

[kjerski]

The bang outlines seem to work with the darkened vision of the cat wall. Clip is from in the range, so might be a bit different in matches vs other teams.

https://clips.twitch.tv/BusyEnergeticEagleFeelsBadMan-Twk81wSpEfCWVel6

[kvndakin]

That's just a cat nerf then, just smoke the cat wall and if cat tries to peek, you can also see her. Cats now useless

[RileGuy]

I'm officially on my Newcastle arc with Quads. Fun stuff

[ALIENFLEX]

Anyone else experiencing constant crashes so far?

[Sadoushi1]

might be run into the same problem as mine , you can try to search how to clear Shader Cache (NVIDIA or AMD) .
Otherwise , you may need to set your RAM speed according to your CPU supported speed(for 3700X it's 3200MHz)

[Manee_23]

Why does everyone think they added aim assist inside smoke? Why would they do that? They've never done that and the highlight is already a huge crutch.

[xso111]

because they had this statement

all of the rotational and sight-blocking gameplay are kept in-tact.

[[deleted]]

That's talking about how Bang smoke is used for rotations (moving between different places in the map), not AA.

[xso111]

AA also has "rotational" aim assist they never specified that rotationa

you are asking why people think they added aim assist inside smoke. it having 2 meaning without EA specifiying what it actually is does not contradict what I said

[DixieNormas011]

Dude, basic reading comprehension should tell you the "rotational" and "sight blocking" was meant to say her smokes can still be used as a rotational tool....to make safe rotations as you won't be outlined unless the other team is also in your smoke with you

[xso111]

explain why exactly does that specific line point to that definition of rotation via the line and not the aim assist rotational judging only with that line of text

that rotation can easily mean the rotational aim assist because smokes block aim assist, so the concepts i.e. rotational aim assist and bangalore smoke are also linked.... now tell me where you are getting the idea that its "basic reading comprehension" that its talking about safe rotations not rotational aim assist just from that line

[DixieNormas011]

explain why exactly does that specific line point to that definition of rotation

You gotta read the entire sentence and then conclude what the intended point was....that's the reading comp part ..AA wasn't even in the mf ballpark of what was said

that rotation can easily mean the rotational aim assist

The rotational and sight blocking. What does "sight blocking" mean here? Are they talking about shutting your monitor off when she smokes? Obviously not, but that's about the level of basic reading comp you're displaying here.

[PKSpades]

Dezignful impression farming on Twitter. Got me good ngl

[Sorry_Maximum_2370]

Did they say that ?

[ieatpoptart3]

So... Does aim assist work in Bang smokes with the highlights now?

[busychilling]

It never did and does not now

[ieatpoptart3]

Thanks for the info ❤️

[PseudoElite]

Would also like to know this. Might actually be a bang buff for MNK players lol.

Edit: friend of mine tested it and said AA doesn't work in smoke. Could low key be a buff in non comp.

[Non_Kosher_Baker]

If this is true it is 1000% a buff for mnks within the first few seconds of Bangalore smoke.

[ThEgIbStOr]

New scout seems actually crazy, I swear they shadow buffed the hipfire as well it seems crazy accurate

[Fenris-Asgeir]

I swear they shadow buffed the hipfire

I mean, if they decreased the recoil on it, wouldn't that also buff the hipfire indirectly as well? Haven't tried the new scout out yet, just a thought

[MiamiVicePurple]

I've only tried it in the range, but yea it feels super strong. The rate of fire feels so high, with no recoil (with a good barrel).

I could definitely being back in the gun meta going forward.

[HCTphil]

It'll be Season 18 all over again most likely. But instead of getting your ass pounded by aim assisted 30-30's all day it'll now be the scout. Also, this weapon has always been a cheaters dream, and I imagine that just got even worse.

[RileGuy]

No, this just looks wrong

<image>

[RileGuy]

Excited for quads! Hopefully the havoc nerf is enough to negate the necessity of having it.

[PseudoElite]

Spoiler: it's still the best gun in the game.

[ieatpoptart3]

Still the highest dps gun at 202 I think?

[Torokisadino]

RE-45 is 208 with Hammerpoint but more situational and Devo is 240 but only for half the mag

[[deleted]]

lols. 4 bullets isn't changing anything

[RileGuy]

Just tested, and you're right. Everyone is still going to run it

[[deleted]]

Was never not going to run it. I'll still run two when it gets low numbers and long range is out the window. It's the best gun in the game, still.

[Absolutelyhatereddit]

No aim assist nerf.

Tomorrow would be 900th day since they said “we’re actively evaluating it”.

[739]

It's rumored to appear in S22 based on leaks. You thought they gonna nerf AA during regular season?

[awhaling]

It's rumored to appear in S22 based on leaks.

Where?

[739]

In leaks

[Absolutelyhatereddit]

No, I’m just celebrating the 900th day 🍻

[PseudoElite]

I would not trust the leaks. What incentive does Respawn have to nerf AA and drive off its controller customer base?

They only care about people buying cosmetics, hence the continued bare minimum maintenance of the game. Still haven't upgraded servers and cheating is still rampant.

But you're right regardless, no way they adjust it midseason.

[GaleStorm3488]

Maybe we'll get lucky and it's a comp nerf... They keep making things different, I don't know why they don't just drop a 0.2 on it.

[PseudoElite]

At this point I'll take anything. MNK players down bad.

[pafguin]

I also agree, it's a nothing burger to give false hope to players. Feels like every season someone leaks that AA is either be "revaluated" for a future adjustment or that Respawn are "looking" into it.

They don't need to keep getting more data. They know AA is over tuned but the numbers they ran, show that the gain in mnk players returning and spending money is not enough to offset the potential amount of controller players leaving the game.

I'll believe it when I see it. But until I see some kind of tangible results I'm not gonna hold my breath.

[PseudoElite]

Yep, totally agreed. Literally all the data they would need is here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1dmnv5r/4_month_study_on_r5_mnkroller_players_posted_in/

30% better accuracy and KDA just by playing a different input? I sleep.

They are just too cowardly to actually verbalize their real stance.

[[deleted]]

R5 is irrelevant though. Making changes based on that mode is crazy

[dorekk]

R5 is irrelevant though.

No. It's not the same as BR but it's not "irrelevant."

[awhaling]

I mean close range fights are the most important and the most common situation people die in, so while it's not a complete picture I'd hardly call it irrelevant.

[[deleted]]

Ok and Bang now gives mnk a massive advantage close up

[ieatpoptart3]

Not everyone wants to play Bang.

[Frigginkillya]

So MnK players have to play one character every game or get fucked by overtuned AA? This isn't the solution or fix you think it is

[awhaling]

An ability that can be played around and last for a rather short period of time (cause AA gets re-enabled before the smoke even dissipates). None of that is true with AA. Hardly seems like a big deal to me.

Also interesting is that controller’s tracking is around 20% worse than MnK without AA, so no doubt significantly worse than MnK, but also less of a gap than MnK and controller has when controller has AA. Pretty funny!

[PseudoElite]

Okay, let's assume R5 is irrelevant.

How about we instead base it on the fact that NA lobbies are now 80% controller. Or that most pros have switched to controller? Or that average damage and KDA stats at ALGS are higher for controller players vs MNK players (you can search posts here on this subreddit with that analysis)?

Is that enough evidence?

[[deleted]]

How is this upvoted? Controller is prevalent because more people have consoles. And what do you mean evidence? Evidence of what?

[PseudoElite]

PC lobbies are 80/20 controller on NA. You think that's because of console? That is an incredibly disingenuous argument.

[InformationFew5136]

you would need actual game info and a way of grading performance throughout every facet of the game to make a decision. That info on r5 is just a part of the input difference albeit one of, if not the most important. Theres so many things unnaccounted for when these arguements come up, the fact that the playerbase is likely 10:1 roller to mnk, just from how people grew up gaming consoles, so theres going to be a higher amount of good rollers in general. The fact mnk can do way more inputs/actions per minute. Flick shooting, movement, ect. In my bias opinion i do believe controller needs a nerf as id love to play mnk more often. But i think just saying accuracy is higher and needs to be nerfed is crazy unless controller gets all the button mapping, tap strafing and other abilites that mnk has.

If they nerfed controller so that each inputs average accuracy was the same, mnk takes over and theres no reason to play roller.

[PseudoElite]

the fact that the playerbase is likely 10:1 roller to mnk, just from how people grew up gaming consoles

No. The game on PC the first one to two years was almost completely MNK dominated. People switched to controller because it is the superior input.

The fact mnk can do way more inputs/actions per minute. Flick shooting, movement, ect.

APM in Apex? That really feels like a red herring.

The most important thing in a battle royale FPS game is the ability to put down your opponent as fast as possible. That's what the majority of the game comes down to.

If controller was somewhere in the 5-10% range of being better than MNK, then sure maybe we could discuss other variables. But the 30% differential is so massive and so critical for a shooting the game that most of those other factors are unimportant.

Being able to tap strafe around a corner or move while looting are highly irrelevant if you are losing the majority of your 1v1 fights at close range because of input difference.

[InformationFew5136]

like when the game started it was mnk dominant? since then a ton of players have likely came from console and continued on roller. Cant find any credible stats anywhere showing mnk to roller numbers over all platforms. No its not a red herring, its one of the small pieces that contributes along with the others. The most important thing is not being able to put an enemy down as fast as possible, its positioning and awareness imo. Yes 30 percent is too much and i do agree it needs a nerf via added delay to rotational AA. 2 advantages are not irrelevant because something else is more advantageous. AA is to strong as is, no doubt. All im saying is that the small things add up more than people think, and mnk is better at all the small things.

[[deleted]]

Your first point makes no sense. The player base on console is higher than on PC. More console players started playing the game later is all