The Resurrection is upon us.
Do not adjust your set, as the brand new Apex Legends season 18 is about to begin.
You might have been forgiven if you didn’t realise EA’s battle royale was still an ongoing concern – but it’s as popular as ever, and the new Resurrection season patch notes are here.
The UK launch time for the new season has been confirmed, so you know exactly when you can head online to download the new update and play through the latest battle pass as soon as possible.
With a completely reworked Revenant Legend, changes to ring times and plenty of balance and gameplay changes, there’s lots to get excited about in the Resurrection season.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Apex Legends season 18 release date and patch notes.
When is the UK launch time for Apex Legends season 18?
The Apex Legends season 18 UK launch time is set for today, 8th August, at 6pm, the developer has confirmed.
That’s right, you’ll be able to play the new season of Respawn’s battle royale very soon indeed!
Now, you just need to know what’s been added and what’s changed before you dive into it.
What’s new with Apex Legends season 18?
The major new addition in Apex Legends season 18 is the reworked Revenant Legend. The character has been completely reworked with a new look, new abilities and new class.
Now a Skirmisher, the reworked Revenant has the following abilities:
- Passive: Assassin’s Instinct
- Can highlight nearby enemies on low health
- Crouch walk faster and improved wall climbing
- Tactical: Shadow Pounce
- A powerful pounce forwards – charge it up to pounce farther
- Ultimate: Forged Shadows
-
- A shroud of hardened shadows around you that block direct damage
- They regenerate after breaking
- Ultimate and Tactical refresh after you’re knocked down
Revenant’s rework is unlocked until the end of the season, and you are able to unlock him permanently by completing challenges throughout Resurrection.
Also during season 18, three maps are available for public matchmaking in the battle royale mode. These three maps are as follows:
- Broken Moon
- Kings Canyon
- OIympus
You’ll also find changes to the Ring in battle royale, alongside ranked changes and other balance and gameplay fixes in the full list of patch notes below.
Full patch notes for Apex Legends season 18
The full list of Apex Legends season 18 patch notes is as follows (courtesy of the official website):
BALANCE UPDATES
Armor Changes
- White to Blue evo points required increased to 200 (was 150)
- Crafted evo points increased to 200
- Fixed overflow damage on level up applies to the next tier
Crafting Rotation
- Rampage and R-99 leave the crafter and are back on the floor
- Nemesis and Mozambique with Hammerpoint Rounds enter the crafter
- Double Tap Trigger and Hammerpoint Rounds removed from rotation
- Boosted Loader and Disruptor Rounds added to rotation
- Medkit price increased to 20 (was 15)
Care Package Weapon Rotation
- Hemlok Burst AR returns to the floor
- ADS Recoil increased
- Damage reduced to 22 (was 23)
- Headshot multiplier reduced to 1.75 (was 1.8)
- Prowler Burst PDW enters the care package
- Damage increased to 16 (was 15)
- Select Fire Enabled defaulting to Full Auto
Gold Weapons Rotation
- Hemlok, Peacekeeper, Alternator, Rampage, Charge Rifle
Loot Spawn Changes
- Blue and Purple Weapon Attachment spawn rate reduced by 20%
- Blue and Purple Armor spawn rate reduced by 30%
WEAPONS
Charge Rifle Rework
- New ballistics and projectile
- Removed hitscan
- Removed pre-fire laser
- Projectiles have player passthrough: 80% damage retained
- Opens doors
- Projectiles gain damage with distance
- 50 meters: 75 Damage
- 300 meters: 110 Damage
- New charge mechanics
- Holding the trigger down will increase charge
- Releasing the trigger will decrease charge
- Fires at 100% charge
- Added Extended Sniper Mag attachment slot
- Base: 4
- White: 5
- Blue: 6
- Purple/Gold: 8
- Ammo Consumption per shot reduced to 1 (was 2)
- Handling timings adjusted
- Tactical reload time decreased to 3.5 (was 4.0)
- Empty reload time decreased to 4.6 (was 5.1)
All SMGs (R-99, Alternator, CAR, Volt)
- Strafe Speed: ADS strafe scale reduced to 0.75 (was 0.85)
- Headshot multi reduced to 1.25 (was 1.5)
R-99
- Vertical Recoil slightly increased
- Ammo capacity reduced
- Base Ammo reduced to 17 (was 19)
- White Mag reduced to 20 (was 21)
- Blue Mag reduced to 23 (was 24)
- Purple/Gold Mag reduced to 26 (was 27)
M600 Spitfire
- Added Barrels for improved stability
- ADS Recoil improved
- Hipfire spread slightly improved
Mastiff
- Blast pattern tightened
HOP UPS
Boosted Loader (Hemlok, Wingman)
Reloading when near empty will speed up reloading and overload the next magazine
- Hemlok overload ammo: 9
- Wingman overload ammo: 3
Disruptor Rounds (Alternator, Peacekeeper)
Increases shield damage
- Alternator shield damage increased by 20%
- Peacekeeper shield damage (per pellet) increased by 25%
Double Tap Trigger (EVA-8, G7 Scout)
- Removed from floor and crafting bundles
Grenades
- Frag Grenade
- Outer Radius increased to 350 units (was 320)
- Inner Radius increased to 125 units (was 96)
- Thermite
- Adjusted fire VFX to better match damage area
LEGENDS
Revenant has been reborn
- Updated class to Skirmisher (was Assault)
- New abilities (see above)
Ultimate Cooldowns
- Bangalore: Rolling Thunder to 240s (+60s)
- Catalyst: Dark Veil to 150s (+30s)
- Gibraltar: Defensive Bombardment to 180s (-90s)
- Horizon: Black Hole to 210s (+30s)
- Loba: Black Market Boutique to 150s (+30s)
- Ultimate Accelerants grant 25% ult charge (up from 20%)
- Mad Maggie: Wrecking Ball to 120s (+30s)
- Pathfinder: Zipline Gun to 180s (+60s)
- Wraith: Dimensional Rift to 180s (-30s)
Tactical Updates
- Ballistic’s Whistler
- Reduced delay before an overheated weapon starts cooling down to 1s (was 2s)
- Reduced how long it takes an overheated weapon to cooldown to 8s (was 12s)
- Loba’s Burglar’s Best Friend
- Cooldown reduced to 25s (was 30s)
- Seer’s Focus of Attention
- Slow Duration reduced to 0.5s (was 2.5s)
- Silence Duration reduced to 8s (was 10s)
- Firing Speed increased to 1.4s (was 0.9s)
MAPS
- Broken Moon
- Maps added to Mixtape: Production Yard & The Core (Read more about these maps in our highlights blog here)
- Multiple rat spots removed
- Kings Canyon: multiple rat spots removed
- World’s Edge: smoothed Legend movement on road edges
WORLD SYSTEMS
- Crafting Workbenches, Survey Beacons, Ring Consoles
- Removed ‘exclusion radius’ that caused some POIs to get these objects more than others
- All POIs now have an equal chance of receiving a Ring Console, Survey Beacon or Crafting Workbench
MODES
- Control
- Capture Bonus bounty reduced ~20%
- Capture time reduced to 10 seconds (was 20 sec)
- Score limit reduced to 1000 (was 1250)
- Spawn waves removed: players should spawn instantly at the location they choose including Home Base, Captured Points, and MRB (Note: MRB will still use the dropship)
- Timed events: Airdrops, MRB, Capture Bonus should all start ~30% sooner in match-time
BUG FIXES
- About Game Mode button now works while in game modes
- Adjusted sizing and positioning of elements on the Switch’s communication wheel to give it more breathing room
- Consumables UI no longer freezes while in use and reviewing inventory
- Dying or swapping Legends with a Golden Backpack full of large healing items no longer causes the items to be thrown from the player in Firing Range
- Challenges no longer flip to NBR version when tracking in Ranked matches
- Fixed black line in Kill Feed when a player dies out of bounds
- Fixed persistent gift notifications after returning to lobby
- Fixed players from different teams being able to ride in the same trident if they interacted with both a mounted Sheila and the trident simultaneously
- Fixed Support Bins occasionally being prevented from providing Survival items (Heat Shield or Mobile Respawn Beacons)
- In-game map no longer clips behind the challenges on 16:10 resolutions
- Players should now properly spectate the player who knocked or killed them (without being knocked), and not who killed their teammates or who thirsted them from the downed state
- Players can no longer get stuck inside a Trident’s collision box
- Pinging Icarus Vault from the map (with vault key in inventory) won’t present a malformed string
- Predator badge no longer fades away on Champion screen
- Reduced the animate in time of death recap in Control, Team Deathmatch, and Gun Run
- Spectres no longer stand in Catalyst’s Piercing Spikes
- Unitframe consumable progress now updating in the inventory screen
- Using remapped controls on a Gamepad/Controller no longer prevents pinging from the map
- Fixed players seeing the ranking of players they are spectating
AUDIO
- Fixed animations not playing audio in rare cases
- Improved prioritization for certain enemy movement sounds
- Players movement transitions no longer occasionally play duplicate audio events
LEGENDS
- Ballistic
- C.A.R SMG doesn’t default to heavy ammo after being converted to a golden gun in sling with light ammo
- Tempest no longer applies to teammates when friendly fire is enabled in Firing Range
- Pathfinders voicemails during an Ash heirloom inspect no longer stretched on 16:10 resolutions
- Gibraltar and Bangalore
- Fixed ultimates not triggering if thrown on Ziprail Launcher and Skydive Towers
- Fixed ultimates not cooldown if they’re killed while holding the ultimate grenade
- Horizon: Lethal Lass skin no longer obstructs ADS on Prowler with 1x HOLO
- Loba: Lunar Wolf skin no longer has broken mesh
- Rampart: Sheila’s ammo counter now correctly rotated
MAPS
- Broken Moon:
- Added building west of the core to minimap
- Loot tick now correctly drops loot at Production Yard
- Removed invisible collision above playing field
- Olympus: indoor props without collision no longer blocks picking up loot
MODES
- Firing Range:
- Ballistic’s Whistler is no longer heard across Firing Ranges when shot at the ground
- Dummies no longer occasionally shoot while set to inactive
- Small door’s audio and FX no longer heard/seen across Firing Ranges
WEAPONS
- Left most ammo on squad member unitframes now represents their currently equipped weapon
- L-Star: low ammo indicator now only appears when ammo is actually low
- P2020: fixed high inaccuracy with first shot using ADS
QUALITY OF LIFE
- Firing Range
- Dynamic dummy spawning now remains off when you die
- Legend ultimates will be fully charged after loading into the Firing Range, swapping Legends, and dying
- A new nessie… and more!
- French
- In-game/lobby chat now available when language is set to French on console
- Corrected French translation for R-301 Mastery Challenge Level 20
- Kill feed will now call out when a player has been removed from the match
- Multiple stickers can now be placed
- Players can no longer interact with enemy holosprays through walls
- Ranked progress bar no longer bounces value while sitting on Match Summary screen
- Seer: Exhibit AR throw indicator is no longer offset from ground
- (no longer gives false impression of where the Ultimate will land)
- Support Perk – Crafting Banners: after grabbing the first banner, you can now immediately grab the second one as well
- Weapon Mastery:
- New animated celebration sequences when unlocking and completing trials, as well as mastering weapons
- New animated icon in the HUD weapon element when a weapon is level 100
RING UPDATE
Ring behavior across maps in the BR has been updated with targeted tunings; including ring size, damage, and timings to several game phases to improve pacing in early and mid game. Here’s an in-depth look:
- Ring Size Changes
- Ring 1 has increased 10% in radius per map, resulting in ~20% larger Ring 1 surface area
- No other Ring sizes changed
- Ring Damage Changes
- Ring 2 Damage increased from 3 per tick to 4 per tick
- Ring 4 Damage reduced from 20 per tick to 15 per tick
- Timing Changes
- Round 1
- Preshrink time reduced from 90s to 75s
- Shrink speed on small Maps reduced from 167 to 160
- Shrink speed on large Maps reduced from ~180 to ~165
- Shrink time standardized to ~260s on each map
- Round 2
- Preshrink time reduced from 165s to 120s
- Shrink speed reduced from 160 to 140
- Shrink time increased by ~25s per map
- Round 3
- Preshrink time reduced from 135s to 90s
- Round 4
- Preshrink time reduced from 105s to 90s
- Shrink speed reduced from 100 to 85
- Shrink time increased from 40s to ~50s
- Round 5
- Preshrink time reduced from 90s to 75s
- Shrink speed reduced from 50 to 40
- Shrink time increased from 40s to 50s
- Round 1
- Maximum match length has been shortened
- Small maps: reduced to ~19.0 mins (was ~21.5 mins)
- Large maps: reduced to ~20.0 mins (was ~22.5 mins)
RANKED UPDATE
Read the full breakdown of this season’s ranked changes in our July 2023 Ranked Blog and check out an update on Ranked Rewards in our Resurrection highlights blog.
- LP Table Adjusted: LP Gain overall has been reduced.
- Diamond+ Cost Adjustments: 50% increased losses.
A Note on Windows 7
If you’re still on Windows 7 (or you’ve taken a look at Trello), you might have noticed an issue with crashing with DirectX11.
While the team has been using all available technology to investigate a possible solution, it has become apparent that testing Apex Legends on older OS is no longer viable due to outdated technologies, limited testing availability and discontinued support from Microsoft themselves.
As such, Apex Legends will be moving away from supporting Windows 7.
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