Apex Legends’ Awakening Collection Event Patch Notes Target Ranked Mode, But Fail To Fix Loba

After Apex Legends‘ new Awakening Collection Event was announced yesterday, many players were focused on the event’s new cosmetics, but a large list of patch notes was also attached to the event announcement on EA’s official Apex Legends blog, detailing all of the changes that will hit Apex when the Awakening Collection Event goes live on June 21.

In addition to the usual balance updates and bug fixes, the patch notes include tweaks for the Control LTM and the IMC Armories on Storm Point, along with some updates for Ranked mode, which many players have been upset about since the mode was revamped at the start of Season 13. Here’s a breakdown of the most significant updates that will go live alongside the new Collection Event.

Control

Ad Drones are being added to the mode, which will likely contain advertisements for Silva Pharmaceuticals (owned by Octane’s grandfather) or Chevrex (owned by Lifeline’s family), as Control games are sponsored by the two fictional corporations. Ad Drones can be shot down, though it is unclear if they will drop loot like the Cargo Bots on World’s Edge. Matchmaking will also be improved, filling in any empty player slots at the beginning of a match to ensure matches are fairly balanced. Finally, two tabs will be added to the mode’s “about” screen, which can be seen both in the lobby and within Control matches themselves. One tab details how Control Ratings are calculated, while the other explains how the mode’s spawn system works.

Additionally, players will now respawn with a fully charged Ultimate ability if it was charged when they died. Spawn wave times have also been significantly decreased, allowing players to respawn and rapidly jump back into action. The Marksman and Sniper loadouts have been combined into a single long-range loadout, and a “specialist” loadout category has been added to give players more medium- and close-range weapon options. The scoreboard is getting an update as well–it will now be available in the inventory section, and the Arenas mode scoreboard can be seen while spectating. Scoreboards will also automatically be displayed at the end of both Arenas and Control modes.

IMC Armories

The four new PvE POIs scattered across Storm Point will be getting some much-needed attention regarding exploits and glitches, along with some changes to the Smart Loot Bins found within the Armories. After the Awakening update goes live, players will no longer be able to glitch their way into an already-occupied armory via grenades or Ash’s tactical Phase Dash. Smart Loot is no longer generated for squad members who are not inside the Armory, and the hop-up spawn rate has been decreased.

Balance updates

Interestingly, both the R-301 and the Rampage have been removed from the Replicator and returned to the loot pool, while the CAR SMG and Wingman will take their place. Optics for the gold-tier Bocek Compound Bow now default to the 3x scope.

A few legends are getting tweaked as well–Mirage can now spawn decoys while redeploying via Valkyrie’s Skyward Dive ability, and Lifeline is getting revamped once again. Her DOC drone no longer has a limit on how much health players can receive (though the drone will still disappear 20 seconds after being deployed), and the drone’s healing radius has been increased by a whopping 50%, giving players the ability to move much further away from it without being disconnected from its healing cables.

Finally, Newcastle has received a number of small bug fixes, and Crypto can now scan Survey Beacons while riding in a Trident. But unfortunately, Loba’s broken tactical ability–a bug which resurfaced for the third time when Season 13 launched, and has rendered her Jump Drive bracelet unusable ever since–has still not been addressed. A pinned post on the /r/ApexLegends subreddit announcing the patch notes has a comments section that is full of furious Loba mains who are losing patience with the game’s developers. The bug has rendered Loba somewhat unplayable for the entire season, pushing some players to seek unique ways to get around the bug until their legend of choice is fixed.

Ranked changes

Ranked mode has been under heavy criticism since it was restructured at the beginning of the season. Now, the game’s developers appear to have addressed some of the outcry via the updates that will hit Ranked mode once the Awakenings event goes live. The Ranked split reset now has four tiers instead of six, and the number of Ranked Points players must spend to join a Ranked match has been decreased by 10 across all divisions.

The full patch notes are listed below:

CONTROL LTM QUALITY OF LIFE UPDATES

• Turned the match Time Limit back on, and have new logic for determining when the match should end which should fix the issue where matches were ending early
• Give players a full ult on respawn if they had one when they died
• Tuned down the Ratings given when you spawn on homebase from 75 percent to 50 percent to the next tier.
• Fixed issue where players on the end of match podium would be in random positions instead of grouped together in their squads.
• Decrease Spawn wave times…
  • Max Deathscreen time old: 20 secs new: 15 secs.
  • Spawn Wave Max Time Old: 12 secs New: 10 secs.
  • First Wave Spawn Max Time Old: 20 secs New: 15 secs.
• Turned off enemy highlights and enemy vehicle highlights.
• Force players to drain neutral point capture progress before starting to gain capture progress for their own team; if capture progress was made on a neutral point by the enemy team.
• Increase capture rate on Objectives based on the number of players capturing
  • 1 = x1
  • 2 = x1.5
  • 3 = x2
  • 4 = x2.25
  • 5 = x2.5
  • 6 = x2.75
  • 7 = x3
  • 8 = x3
  • 9 = x3
• Moved the turbo charger for the Havoc back to Purple Tier.
• Allow players to equip 3x Scopes on LMG’s and Assault Weapons in the Loadout Selection Menu.
• Allow players to equip 4x-8x Scopes on Snipers in the Loadout Selection Menu.
• Merged the Marksman and Sniper Loadouts into a single Long-Range Loadout, Added a Specialist Loadout Category to give players more Med-Close Range options.
• Updates to Spawning Logic to try to prevent players from spawning near enemies.
• Players now gain Ratings for team actions like Zone Neutralization or Capture even if they participated in the action and got personal Ratings out of it as well ( previously the player would get one or the other ).
• Players will no longer get the Playing With Squad Ratings bonus for Ratings gained from Lockout being broken, and Bonus Capture Timed Event being completed.
• Removed the Squad Wipe Ratings Bonus when killing an enemy.
• Added a HUD message when Lockout is no longer available in the match ( displays again if Lockout conditions are met when Lockout is not available).
• Control: Moved the scoreboard to the inventory as the first tab. Changed the scoreboard button to be the same button as the inventory on the respawn screen.
• Arenas: Moved the scoreboard to the second tab in the inventory and added new tracked player information( assists, and crafting materials), and round wins for the team.
• Scoreboard added as a tab while spectating in Arenas
• Scoreboard added as a tab at the end of the game for both Arenas and Control
• Updated the art and position of the shields regening UI on the HUD to sit above the players unitframe

IMC ARMORY UPDATES

• Fixed an exploit allowing players to throw grenades or use an Ash ult to enter through a hole in the collision mesh of the Armories roof (Hotfix).
• Fixed an issue where you would become unable to mantle after using the teleporter under the Armory (Hotfix).
• Prevented Tridents from landing on top of Armories.
• Removed Gold Loot Roller reward at Wave 8.
• Decreased chances of hop-ups spawning through the Smart Loot system. Base hop-up spawn rate is now 50% with Gold hop-ups further reduced to 20%.
• Smart Loot is no longer generated for teammates outside the Armory.

BALANCE UPDATES:

Crafting

• R-301 and Rampage removed from crafting and added back to floor loot.
• Wingman and CAR SMG added to the crafting and removed from floor loot.

Out of Bounds

• Weapons and Abilities will now only stow in an OOB trigger when the player is on the ground (OOB timer will still tick up).

Bocek Bow

• Optic on Gold version defaults to the 3x Ranger.

Mirage

• Can now use decoys from Valk Skydive Re-Deploy.

Lifeline

• Combat Revive
  • Moved revive cancel option from Lifeline to the player that’s getting revived.
• D.O.C. Heal Drone
  • Healing pool increased from 150 to infinite (still lasts 20s).
  • Doubled the healing radius.
• Care Package
  • Cooldown reduced from 5 minutes to 3.5 minutes.
  • The weapon attachment panel now comes with a Shield Battery instead of two Shield Cells.
  • No blue beam on initial drop (will still show up after the Care Package lands).

WORLDS EDGE

• Fixed some final rings that end in heal offs.

STORM POINT

• Fixed some final rings that end in heal offs.

OLYMPUS

• Fixed some final rings that end in heal offs.
• Rings tuned for more balanced map dispersion.

RANKED UPDATES:

Split Reset

This split’s reset is softer

• 13.1 Split Reset: 6 → 4 divisions

Entry Cost

Lower entry cost

• -10 RP across all divisions and tiers.

Diminishing Kill Values:

More RP for high elimination counts

Currently the first three eliminations are worth about 100%. The subsequent three are worth about 80%, and anything after that is worth about 20%. We are changing it so each squad is worth about 20% less, while maintaining a minimum of 20%. This will give winning teams with high eliminations about 40 to 60 more RP.

Kill Tier Differences

Players will receive more RP for killing players of higher tier–the full tier-by-tier breakdown can be found on Respawn’s patch notes blog post.

GAME BUG FIXES

• Crypto can now scan Survey Beacons with his Drone while riding the Trident.
• Fixed bug for cases where Newcastle could get stuck in the air for a few seconds when using his Ultimate while ensnared by Ash’s tactical.
• Fix for Newcastle bug where players are able to fill Revive Shield instantly by throwing a Knockdown Shield and picking it back up.
• Fix for Newcastle bug where players are unable to reload while the “Destroy Wall” prompt is onscreen.
• Fix for Newcastle bug where using his Ultimate would deploy longer than intended.
• Fix for cases where Legends [Newcastle / Seer] could get inside locked Vaults by placing a Totem on Mobile Shield.
• Fixed bug where Wraith was able to create a portal while in Revenant Ultimate and have the portal appear next to the totem after being sent back
• Add soundFX for Newcastle when he enters a Trident.
• Fix UI bug where Legend info would not display in the Firing Range.
• IMC Armory fix for situations where players could camp and block spots not intended to be with Wraith Portals and Tridents.
• [PS5] – Fix for bug where a player’s friends list does not properly update after putting the console in rest mode.
• Fix for cases where some larger Legends were sometimes unable to enter Containers on Storm Point when approaching them rapidly at an angle.
• Fix for Rampage/Sentinel for cases where the charging animation would show but they won’t charge when aiming down sites.
• Fix for cases where Bloodhound and Seer scans would persist after the user leaves the game.
• [Caustic] – Fix for bug where players could still see the enemy’s red highlight while they are in or behind the gas they deployed.
• Blood splatter VFX no longer appears when Ash gets shot.
• Fix cases where Amped Up” UI persists after Seer uses Heart Seeker passive.
• [Control Mode] – Fixed bug for when the enemy team will continue a capture point’s progress without needing to flip or undo the other team’s progress.
• [Control Mode] – Fix for UI bug where the Abandoned Game Penalty is actually longer than the display warns.
• [Control Mode] – Fixed bug where picking up a weapon in Control always shows a full mag.
• Fix for cases where players appear to keep their thermite grenade after equipping it while using it on an explosive hold.
• [PS4 Pro / Xbox One X] – Fixes to improve frame rate issues during gameplay on some areas on Olympus.
• [PS4] – Fix to improve performance issues on grassy areas on Olympus.