Everything You Need to Know About Apex Legends: Shockwave New Update
Apex Legends released their new season Shockwave this past month, and with it comes new cosmetics, patch notes, and their new limited time mode, Knockout and the Space Hunt Event. Here’s everything you need to know about Apex Legends’ new update.
Table of Contents
New Mode: Knockout
The new Knockout mode is a 60-player game where players are grouped into 20 Squads. Their goal is to capture zones and collect EVO to gain points for the match. Five squads will be eliminated each round if they have the lowest score amongst the group. Players will have infinite respawns until they reach the final round as long as they have one remaining teammate alive. After 3 elimination rounds, the last 5 squads will have a final all-out battle to see who wins the game.
For players who haven’t unlocked certain Legends in their roster, there’ll be Amped Knockout Trials accompanied by the new game mode. Players will have to take on weekly challenges to unlock the Legends. Here are the following Legends available for the Amped Knockout Trials:
- September 17 – October 15: Complete the trials for Crypto and you’ll unlock him permanently.
- October 1 – October 15: Complete Wattson’s trials to unlock her permanently.
- Players who complete the Amped Knockout Trials will also be awarded an Epic tiered badge.
Space Hunt Event
In the Space Hunt Event there’ll be 36 limited time cosmetics to unlock. Each cosmetic item you unlock will count towards bonus rewards you’ll get when you reach the milestones in the event.
Each Space Hunt item can be acquired through the Space Hunt Event Packs, where you can get the Serpent’s Sting melee. Each pack will contain one event item and 2 standard ones. And don’t worry, you won’t get duplicates of the event items.
Aside from the event packs, players can earn Bounty Bucks when completing daily event challenges, where they can buy rewards from the Space Hunt Event Reward Shop. A limitednumber of Bounty Bucks can be earned per day, so hop in the game daily to earn the points. The contents of the Space Hunt Event Reward Shop will rotate halfway through the event on September 28.
In the Store Tab there’ll be limited time offers from September 17 to October 8, which will feature cosmetics for Bangalore, Wraith, Ash, Mirage, Ballistic, and Gibraltar. Be sure to grab them while they’re still in store.
Patch Notes
Aside from the new game mode and limited time event, Apex Legends has also released their patch notes for this season. Here are all the patch notes for the new update.
Weapons And Loot
Gold Weapon Rotations
A new Gold Weapon Rotation will be added to the game. Here are all the weapons available in this rotation: P2020 Akimbo, Mozambique Akimbo, EVA-8, VK-47 Flatline, G7 Scout. If you see enemy squads with those weapons, be ready to face them off.
Loot Bin Reset
In the Shockwave update, Apex Legends added a new feature in the game where Loot Bins will be reset during the halfway point of the game. In the new patch notes, they’ve added tweaks to this new feature of the game. They’ve added an Announcer voice line when the Loot Bins are being reset for better awareness for the players. They’ve also reduced the spawn rate of high value loot such as backpacks, hop ups, and gold attachments. If players open a loot bin before the reset, the loot will be thrown out on the ground to provide players with loot before the reset and after the reset. Legendary Loot Bins will have fewer Gold Items and Mythic Loot Bins will roll more healing items.
Loot Ticks
Loot Ticks have also been improved, since in the past update they’ve been underwhelming when it came to loot. The update removed white and blue rarity attachments from the loot, but they’ve increased the chances of receiving a gold weapon. Lastly, they removed the Phoenix Kit and hop-ups from the loot pool.
Weapons
Some weapons received changes to further balance the game. The Havoc Rifle will no longer use the Turbocharger as a Hop-up. The R-99 SMG in the Care Package will now have a damage fall-off which was increased to 11 meters, and they’ve improved its recoil. For Ammo, they will now spawn with a weapon. Now they’ll be seen as a single brick instead of 2, but the brick will have twice the ammo.
Loot
Hop-ups will now have a reduced spawn rate of Gun Shield Generator, and they’ve removed Turbocharger from the loot pool. Ultimate Accelerant will now be considered a Purple rarity compared to the previous update which was Blue. They also reduced the spawn rate of Ultimate Accelerant. Now when using Ultimate Accelerant there’ll be an increase in movement speed.
Legends
Some Legends will have a few changes in the new patch notes. Here all the Legend changed for the new update.
Fuse
For Fuse, they’ve put a cap on the max radius of scan area, it will now be 450, 50% of the default ring. They’ve also removed the mortar targeting multiple objects in the player’s control so perfect setups can be prevented.
Rampart
For Rampart they lowered the delay when you re-enter a Sheila turret. The delay has become 0.15 seconds from its previous 1 second delay in the older updates.
Revenant
Revenant’s Forged Shadows have been changed. The shield health of the Shadows is now 50 instead of 75. And like in the previous update, the activation time for the Forged Shadows has been doubled.
Valkyrie
Valkyrie has the most changes in this new update. Valkyrie is now a Recon Legend, unlike in the previous updates where she was a Skirmisher. Her Full Tank upgrade will now include a 50% reduction in the refuel delay. Before this delay was 8 seconds, and now has been dropped to 4. Valkyrie has Threat Vision when she’s jetpacking, and it’ll stay on until she touches the ground. For easier viewing, the Jetpack UI now has a refuel delay timer. They also brought back the ability of the Jetpack like it was on Valkyrie’s release.
Valkyrie’s Tac also gained a buff and has become more reliable. The slow stun duration has been increased by 50%, while her missile explosion radius has been increased by 20%. The minimum attack range was decreased by 25% so now she can hit enemies that are closer. The travel time of the missiles will now be 4 seconds instead of 4.5. Lastly, the fire rate of the missiles will now be 25 instead of 18.
Maps And Modes
In the new update there will be significant changes in the map rotation and game modes available for Apex Legends. Here are all the changes for Apex Legends’ Maps and Modes.
Map Rotations For Public And Ranked Games
There’ll be 3 maps available on rotation for the new update. These maps will be available for Public and Ranked games. Here are all the available maps in the new update: E-District, Olympus, and King Canyon.
Mixtape Map Rotations
For Mixtape there’ll be a set schedule for which map will be available to play.
September 17 – October 14
- TDM: Thunderdome, Skull Town, and Estates
- Control: Caustic Treatment, Labs, and Barometer
- Gun Run: Wattson’s Pylon, Estates, and Skull Town
October 15 – October 21
- TDM: Thunderdome and Skull Town
- Control: Labs and Caustic Treatment
- Lockdown: Estates and Skull Town
October 22 – October 28
- Big TDM: Estates and Skull Town
- Control: Thunderdome and Lava Siphon
- Gun Run: Wattson’s Pylon and Fragment
October 29 – November 4
- Big TDM: Thunderdome and Skull Town
- Control: Labs and Caustic Treatment
- Gun Run: Estates and Skull Town.
Game Modes
The Duos game mode returned on September 17 and will be available until the end of Shockwave. So, bring your duo and wreak havoc against others to show them who’s the best Legend.
As mentioned, a new game mode has been added called Knockout. This game mode will put you against 20 squads in a 60-player game. This mode is objective based, where squads will have to capture zones and get EVO to earn points. Each round, the squads with the lowest points will be removed from the game. The elimination of squads will occur three times until there will be 5 squads remaining and they’ll face off in a Sudden Death round.
Ranked Changes
There have been a few changes in Ranked to have a better experience for players. Ranked Rumble will be removed to rework the mode and fix its systems. The developers also stated that they want to provide a meaningful competition and create better matches for players who are playing Ranked Rumble. The developers have said that Ranked Rumble will have a tentative return next season to test things out, especially their rework on it.
Bug Fixes
Apex Legends has also addressed some bugs the game had in the previous update.
- They’ve fixed the DX12 PC issue where Apex wasn’t able to run on some Intel CPUs.
- They also fixed a long-standing bug where the servers would crash.
- They fixed a bug where players would get crushed by the mantle over a Loot Bin.
- They’ve fixed the bug where Legendary Loot Bins will spawn next to each other.
- The Low Ammo Indicator won’t be seen when you’re unarmed.
- The Icons on the minimap that show Perk Loot Bins will no longer be seen.
- R-99 will be back in Care Packages in Mixtape TDM and Big TDM.
- They’ve restored the red dot on the Celestial Sniper Longbow skin when in ADS.
- You can now zipline upwards to the second floor of Wattson’s Pylon in Storm Point.
- Players who are max level will not be able to interact with Evo Harvesters.
Aside from bugs in the game’s maps and environment, the developers have also addressed some bugs with the Legends.
- The game has fixed the bug where Crypto’s EMP would activate when players would recall Hack.
- When hitting gunshields, Mad Maggie’s passive will activate. There used to be issues in the past where the passive ability wouldn’t activate when coming into contact with gunshields.
- There were reports where players who use Newcastle and the Swift Shield didn’t function as intended, they’ve since been resolved and the Swift Shield now functions properly in the new update.
- Wattson’s Emergency power upgrade will now affect her teammates
With the latest update to Apex Legends’ Shockwave season, a new game mode has been added that will bring excitement to the current season. With Knockout’s fun mechanics it will be a game that is best enjoyed with friends. Due to its objective nature, proper teamwork and call outs will be needed to reach the Sudden Death round in the game mode. Aside from the game mode, new gun skins and legend skins have been added. If you like collecting skins in Apex Legends, it’s time to pull for the Space Hunt Event Packs and try to get the Serpent’s Sting.
With the new changes in the Shockwave season update, the developers have addressed the bugs and fixes to make the game a better experience for the players, especially with the new map E-District. If you like the new updates mentioned, it’s time for you to hop on and play with the Legends.
