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A brand new season Apex Legends kicks off today, with Ballistic joining the action as Respawn Entertainment with the launch of season 17 applies more adjustments to other legendaries and weapons.
The final season of Apex Legends will bring new changes to the class system, as well as balance changes, a new legend, and more. Additionally, as stated in the official patch notes, the update includes a new matchmaking system for the game’s ranked mode, which uses a hidden skill rating to match players within a certain range. It will now be a bit more difficult for new players to get into ranked mode as it requires a minimum level of 50.
Players can also look forward to a new tab with Season 17 called Weapon Proficiency, which is a new progression method for players next to their account level. From now on, using any weapon in any game mode will reward you with weapon XP. Each weapon will have 100 mastery levels divided into five trials. Every time you gain 20 levels of weapon mastery, you unlock a trial, which is a challenge where you have to prove your weapon skills. Winners of challenges will receive special rewards such as weapon sets, badges or banners.
If you want to learn more about Season 17, check out the full patch notes for the May 9 update below:
Apex Legends Season 17 Patch Notes
New content
Ballistic
- Passive – Sling
- Keep the third weapon in the sling. Access via inventory or character utility action button. Sling weapons cannot accept attachments.
- Tactical – Whistler
- Fires a projectile that heats up the enemy’s gun when fired. Overheating causes damage. Hold Tactical to lock on.
- Ultimate – Storm
- Nearby teammates get faster reloads, weapon movement speed, and infinite ammo. Sling weapons will be upgraded to gold.
Rating update
- New hidden skill score partnering with skill adjustments at pre-set sizes to account for competitive advantage gained
- A new scoring system that emphasizes winning a battle royale
- A new bonus system that conditionally rewards wins and compensates for losses
- No more split resets, full season resets started from the previous 10 games
- Ranked play now requires account level 50
A new survival slot – Evac Tower
- This portable jump tower can change the battlefield in your squad’s favor, offering a quick escape or orchestrating a deadly attack.
Ping system
- New pings
- Avoid the area
- Enemy Audio
- Regroup
- Improvement
- Objects in the game that have icons on the map (revival beacons, crafters, wildlife, etc.) can now be checked from the map; creating precise waypoints using callouts
- When checking common waypoints on the map, they will have a more accurate location in world space
Balance changes
Rotation of boxes
- L-Star EMG goes in the box
- RE-45 returns to the floor
Arms manufacturing rotation
- The SMG generator is included in the crafter
- Sentinel is included in the craft
- EVA-8 returns to the floor
- 30-30 The repeater returns to the floor
Rotation of golden weapons
- Flatline, Triple Take, Spitfire, Mastiff, Volt
Prey gives birth
- Improved vault loot
- Increased chances of gold loot
- Added light magazines to spawn
- Improved cargo bot loot
- Removed small healing items, mobile revival beacon, white armor, white backpack
- Adjusted spawning of large heal and heat shield to allow more desirable loot to spawn
- Removed gold weapons from purple tier cargo bots, but increased the chance of spawning at gold tier
Weapon
L-Star EMG (box)
- Added Disruptor rounds: increased shield damage by 60%.
- Base damage reduced to 16 (was 17)
- Projectiles can now pass through: 60% damage is sustained
- Projectile growth increased
- Improved recoil scheme
- Removed barrel
- Stock of ammunition: 324 pcs
- Reduced VFX brightness when hitting unarmored targets
30-30 Repeater
- The size of the projectile increases when it is fully charged
Triple Take
- The size of the projectile has increased
- Improved fire spread
- Tightened bullet pattern with a full plug
- Ammo per shot reduced to 1 (was 3)
- Store sizes adjusted to match new ammo costs
- Purple Mag: increased to 10 shots (was 9)
SMG R-99
- Removed 1 bullet from base and all stores
- No magazine reduced to 19 (was 20)
- White magazine reduced to 21 (was 22)
- Blue Magazine reduced to 24 (was 25)
- Purple & Gold magazine reduced to 27 (was 28)
A charging rifle
- Reduced the number of shots per magazine to 3 (was 4)
- Reduced frequency of occurrence
Legends
Catalyst
- Dark veil
- Scanning light areas and diamonds are no longer visible through the dark curtain
Mirage
- Class changed from Skirmisher to Support
Ash
- Now slows to weapon sprint speed instead of weapon walk speed when targeting with a tactic
Assault class
- Loot smart gain adjusted to reduce upgrade level gaps
- There will now be less chance of going from white to purple or blue to gold
- Optics are now given depending on the team, not just the raid legend that unlocks them
- Added special drop rate for Gold Optics
The Skirmisher class.
- Care packages are now automatically checked for the team when opened.
- This includes empty care packs that have already been looted by another team
Support class
- Support bays now guarantee at least one battery in one of the secret compartment slots
- Support Bins will now award MRB if your ally is dead, even if you don’t have their banner card.
- Legendary Banners can now be created by ANY player with a support class legend
mixtape
- New Podium screens for Gun Run and Control
- Show kill feed message if relegation penalties are disabled for match due to unfair match
- Control and Gun Run will feature the team’s MVP on the introductory podium
- Control and TDM have updated gear (weapon changes and upgrades in the crate based on meta/pick speed/weapon kill speed)
- Gun Run and TDM now have XP bonuses for match completion and match completion after joining in process
CONTROL
- Map rotation: Barometer is out, Olympus: Hammond Labs is in
- Weapon Evo Change: No longer auto-Evo weapons after reaching a new rank level. Players now reach a new level and their weapon will be Evo when the player mounts and then unmounts their weapon in any form (reloading, weapon switching, hand holster, ziplining, skydiving, etc.).
Gun Run
- Weapon Track update for new crate weapons.
- Added additional bonus XP for the last weapon kill
Team deathmatch
- Map rotation: Skulltown out, Phase Runner in
Error correction
- Prowler: Fixed ADS while crouching
- IMC Armories: Fixed ghosts taking too much damage from arc stars
- Fixed Duos showing NBR calls instead of BR calls
- Fixed the communication wheel not being usable after completing the game
- Fixed player crash in loot containers
- Fixed viewers not getting audio queues for all launch pad/jump platform types
- Fixed banners flickering during victory and end of match screens
- The scoreboard is saved after the game is over, not after the podium
- Total stat numbers no longer overlap by more than 7 digits
- Various improvements to the ultrawide lobby interface
- Ash:
- Footsteps are no longer louder if the relic is equipped
- Fixed UI loop when crouch check is canceled early
- Ultimate now lasts forever, even if Ash dies while it’s active and while players are still traveling on it
- Bloodhound: White Ravens already flying can no longer be scanned for free tactics and Ult Charge
- caustic: Fixed traps being destroyed when placed near a closed door that is then opened
- Crypto:
- Once hit, the drone is no longer available
- The drone no longer occasionally teleports behind a wall after you throw it
- Fixed the drone sometimes appearing in the middle of the world if thrown into a wall
- Forehead:
- Fixed Black Market visibility issue when Bangalore smoke is behind
- A large head peeks out over the shelter while crouching, set in line with other legends
- Crazy Maggie: Improved reliability when hitting objects that the ball can damage or destroy
- Octane number: Removed the double jump tooltip from the launch pad in cases where it was incorrectly showing as an option (eg after capturing Pathfinder)
- shaft: Multiple defensive walls can no longer be placed in the same location on the Trident
- Seer: Dummies in firing range will now have the same behavior as other players when moving inside Seer’s Ultimate, instead of behaving like other AIs (Prowlers, Spiders).
- Valkyrie: Final cooldown is no longer 75% when canceled while defending Death Totem
- Wraith:
- Fixed ultimate being usable while ziplining
- The mythic finisher “Whiplash” no longer pushes players out of play
- mixtape
- Fixed empty shields being dropped by killed enemies
- Fixed: Players who left a match will no longer attempt to join the same match if its join window is still active
- Team deathmatch
- Fixed grenades not dropping after player death
- Fixed the Estates map image displaying a nighttime version of the map in the forehead
- CONTROL
- Fixed an issue with the custom match observer that made it difficult to close the map screen if the observer opened it before players appeared in the match
- Fixed teammate death icon not appearing on the map if the map was not open when the teammate died
- Fixed an issue where ammo was not automatically equipped in the ammo slot if the player spawned off the field
- Fixed reserve ammo counter not showing when switching weapons from Rampart or Vantage.
- Removed auto taunt hint after killing an enemy
- You can now zipline while playing the banner raising animation
- The impact of a bullet on snow has been reduced