Apex Legends Season 22, called Shockwave, has been announced with a refreshing set of changes that will get players excited to jump into the game. This season not only brings a brand-new map, called E-District, but also upgrades the gameplay with loot bin refresh, legend class upgrades, aim assist nerf, and a ton of other battle royale Revival and battle sense changes. We have recapped all the major changes in Apex Legends Season 22 in this patch notes guide:
New Apex Legends Map: E-District
Apex Legends has announced its sixth map in “E-District,” which takes the players to the home of Crypto and Caustic called Suotamo. This is a post-cyberpunk, neon playground that will remind a player of the Angel City map in Titanfall. This map has 17 total POIs at launch, including Humbert Labs, The Lotus, Old Town, and more.
Check out the complete list of E-District POIs in Apex Legends Season 22 via our dedicated post.
Battle Royale Revival & Battle Sense
Respawn Entertainment wants to make the game more welcoming for new players, so it’s not only adding Bot Royale (bot lobbies that replace Orientation matches) but also adding the new Revival feature and upgraded Battle Sense to make it easier to respawn teammates and relay the damage, respectively.
The “Revival” feature is a new way to respawn teammates. It will see downed players respawn near the location of alive teammates quickly. The respawn timer kicks in when you’re killed, and it gets reduced if your alive teammates do damage or down enemies.
In addition to Revival, the developers have also added visible enemy health bars and highlights when a player is close to you (within 30 meters) to the game. You will now see the enemy health bar when shooting at an enemy, making it easier for you to keep track of the damage output.
This will also make it simpler for you to communicate this information to teammates. The health bar/ damage output for you is not visible to teammates. They’ll need to do damage to the player to see the same. These new Battle Sense features will be added to the core Battle Royale experience, which you can choose to disable from the Settings if you want.
Gameplay and Legends Updates
Apex Legends is making major changes to the gameplay experience, along with notable upgrades to the Controller and Recon classes.
Aim Assist Nerfed
First up, the most requested community complaint has been addressed in Season 22. Apex Legends has finally nerfed aim assist by about 25 percent, from 0.4 to around 0.3. You can read all about the aim assist nerf in Apex Legends in our dedicated post.
Apex Legends Bin Refresh
One of the rather refreshing changes in Apex Legends Season 22 is the Bin Refresh mechanism. As the name suggests, mid-way through the game when Ring 2 is fully closed, all open supply bins within the zone will be refreshed. This means you will be able to loot them again.
That’s not all, though. Some of the loot bins within the zone will be converted into Gold Supply bins to give you high-tier loot. And one – just one – of the supply bins will transform into a Mythic Bin to give you a care package weapon, gold weapons, EVO caches, and more.
The Mythic Supply Bin is marked on the map, so there’s a good chance that a lot of teams will rush to that location. This supply bin requires you to hold the interact button for 10 seconds to access the contents, which makes sense for the loot you get.
Legend Class Upgrades
Instead of giving the Skirmisher class a deserving perk instead of the care package scan, Respawn has upgraded the Controller and Recon class perks.
Recon class legends has been given digital threat support, lol. Yeah, Recon legends, including Seer, Bloodhound, Crypto, and Vantage, now have threat vision when you ADS in the game. The enemies will appear red, as shown in the image below.
The Survey Beacon is also seeing a lot of changes, limiting its power from the whole map to just 500 meters to make it a more tactical utility. The Survey Beacon spawn rate is now increased, scanning is now faster, grants +75 EVO, and will scan enemies multiple times over 15 seconds.
Controller legends, as per Respawn, shouldn’t be running around the map scanning beacons to get EVO. Instead, they should scan the next zone and hold a winning spot. So, they have been given a new “Zone Overcharge” perk, where you will get an extra +25 shield when you’re in the zone. This overcharge will disappear once you step outside the zone.
Akimbo Weapons in Apex Legends
One of the biggest weapon changes in Apex Legends comes as Akimbo support for P2020 and Mozambique. Rumored for the longest time, this feature was rumored for the longest time, and it is now finally here.
You can now dual-wield these two weapons in the game, and no, you do not require any special hop-up to activate this functionality. We have explained how Akimbo weapons work in Apex Legends in a dedicated post.
Weapon Balance: Buffs & Nerfs
While Akimbo weapons do not require a hop-up, your LMGs (light machine guns) can now take a new hop-up called Gun Shield Generator. This gold rarity hop-up is designed to improve your defense instead of buffing the damage output. Once you equip the hop-up, you get a Gibraltar-like gun shield that can absorb up to 40 damage.
Moreover, the LMGs now have the same reverse hipfire mechanic found on the Devotion you get from the care package.
Next up, we have the shotguns – Mastiff and Peacekeeper – that have received a buff with a change in the pellet count. The pellet count for both shotguns has been reduced and the damage per pellet has been increased. The Peacekeeper has a brand-new upside-down triangle pellet pattern. The pattern has been updated to improve consistency and better your damage output per hit.
More news in shotgun town! The EVA-8 is now out of the care package, and the R99 SMG is taking its place. The mythic R99 is ultra-buffed with a magazine size of 30 and 210 reserve ammo.
Next up, let’s talk about ARs. The Hemlok is quite powerful, so the team is reducing its damage per bullet from 20 to 19. Also, the time between bursts has increased, along with a reduction in white and blue magazine capacity.
The Havoc also sees a slight nerf with a significant reduction in hipfire accuracy. Another important change comes to ammo stacks, which is as follows:
- Light ammo: 60 to 72
- Shotgun ammo: 14 to 20
- Energy ammo: 60 to 54
Due to the ammo stack changes, a handful of light weapons, including the R-301, see an increase in magazine capacities. Moreover, the developer has addressed one of the most common complaints in Season 22, and removed aim flinch from all weapons and most legend abilities. However, the aim punch from zone damage will continue to be part of the game.
This is one of the best new changes in this patch, and I cannot wait to finally go up against controller players, with their reduced aim assist, and take a fair fight without aim punch.
