Apex Legends Season 23 is halfway through and a mid-season update is bringing a lot of changes to the battle royale. Notably, both Loba and Mirage are getting substantial improvements to their kit–especially Loba–and changes to hop-up attachments are sure to make the already frenetic combat even faster. Even Titanfall 2 fans have a reason to tune in as the EPG-1 grenade launcher from that game is joining Apex Legends through the Rift Relics in casual play.
Loba is definitely the biggest adjustment with this update, however, getting massive buffs to her existing kit that align with the substantial improvements enjoyed by Newcastle and Lifeline at the start of Season 23. Those changes are detailed below:
Season 23 Mid-Season Loba Changes
- Loba’s tactical ability (Burglar’s Best Friend) is getting a second charge by default and the toss and recovery time are both increasing.
- Loba’s ultimate ability (Black Market Boutique) will be available immediately, will deploy faster, will be able to be remotely packed up, and can pick up small meds and ally banners for free.
- Black Market Boutique will be able to steal from Explosive Holds and Vaults once again, and stealing from Vaults won’t destroy the Black Market Boutique (alarms still go off)
- Loba will be able to pick the locks on Vaults as an interaction
In addition to these changes, Loba’s in-match upgrade paths have been overhauled with one now focused on stealing more items for teammates while the other amplifies her Burglar’s Best Friend tactical ability so that she behaves a bit more like a Skirmisher with escape options (akin to Wraith or Alter).
Mirage is also getting an update but it’s not quite as major as the adjustments that Loba is getting. Mirage’s passive ability, Now You See Me…, is being improved so that now the holographic trickster will always cloak while he’s healing, and while cloaked after a successful revive, Mirage will get a temporary speed boost to aid in repositioning. He’s also getting an interesting addition to the second stage of his in-match upgrade track, gaining a choice to access all class-based consoles, bins, beacons, and package scans to become the only character in the game that can transform into an all-rounder.
When I spoke to the Apex Legends dev team about why these changes to Loba and Mirage are coming so late in Season 23–as opposed to being included in the initial seasonal patch–lead legend designer Devin McGuire told me there are “a couple different reasons.”
“Generally we wanted to not throw all our eggs in one basket because support characters will naturally just compete for each other’s spaces and some will hit the limelight and others won’t. So by splitting it up, we ensure that everyone gets their time and gets to focus in on what the new hotness is. And then by the time the mid-season comes in, we can tip that up and there’s something new to look forward to, there’s new angles to play off of this support meta once it’s been learned. The [legends] that we chose [to get updates] at the start [of Season 23] are simpler to understand legends.
“And then [Loba and Mirage] are the more nuanced support legends. [Loba] plays off of teleporting and looting up, which are a different way of supporting than just shielding and healing. And then Mirage, who is a very strange one, plays off of cloaking and deception in order to get off more supportive angles and options.”
In response to how dominant Gibraltar, Newcastle, and Lifeline have become in Apex Legends’ meta in response to the Season 23 changes–all three can keep their allies up and fighting extremely easy if they’re carrying a gold knockdown shield–the mid-season update is nerfing that combination a bit to give opposing legends a fighting chance.
“Both Lifeline and Newcastle ballooned out to a pretty crazy extreme,” McGuire said. “We expected them to do that. Lifeline was already at the top of the pick rate and a revival of her amidst already being that strong is not going to bring her down by any means. So I think that these [mid-season] changes will settle them a little bit, just the way that when we made the gold knockdown change early on, it brought both of those characters a little bit closer in line. I don’t think we’ll see a major shift from them being super high in the meta until we tamper down on the season of support as a whole.”
Alongside the playable legends, weapons are getting several adjustments as well. The scariest adjustment is the return of the Select Fire weapon attachment, meaning the fully automatic Prowler submachine gun is once again a threat in Ranked play. The attachment is also, surprisingly, now being allowed on the Charge Rifle as well, the game’s second-slowest-firing sniper rifle. With this attachment, the Charge Rifle can now go automatic, firing continuous piercing lasers at an increased fire rate (thankfully, in this mode, at 60% of normal damage).
Lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese told me that the devs have wanted to add an automatic sniper rifle to Apex Legends for a while now but repeated attempts resulted in something akin to a marksmen rifle. With the Select Fire attachment returning to the loot pool, the team decided to–instead of making a new gun–try using the attachment to give an old gun the option of a faster fire rate.
“It’s still methodical,” lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese Canavese clarified when I asked how an automatic sniper rifle could possibly be fair in terms of power. “You still have some time to calibrate and think between shots. Because it represents so much power, we still needed to have a fair amount of recoil–because with snipers you really want them to be able to settle back down before you fire again. So that meant we needed to keep it a bit slower in the fire rate. It’s not the same fire rate as the Rampage [light machine gun], but it’s like how you would look at the relationship between a Spitfire and a Rampage. This is a slow but automatic version of a sniper.”
The Charge Rifle’s projectile size and range are also increasing (the range is going from 200m to 300) while the effects of gravity on projectiles and the recoil while firing are both decreasing, which should make it significantly easier to land shots with what’s been a powerful but unwieldy weapon for several seasons.
Alongside the return of the Select Fire, a new Ultimate Accelerator attachment is being added to the game that automatically comes equipped with the Nemesis assault rifle, G7 Scout marksmen rifle, and C.A.R. submachine gun. This new attachment increases the rate by which you charge your shield and ultimate ability while dealing damage or knocking targets with these weapons.
“So it’s basically accelerating your gameplay–you’re leveling up a bit faster if you’re using these weapons,” Canavese said. “[The Ultimate Accelerator] is all about pushing that high-octane gameplay, putting it on faster weapons to sort of align with that fast style of gameplay. It’s got some cool stuff where if you have an accelerated weapon in your load-out and you get a knock, we actually reward you with a chunk of ultimate charge. It’s really good if you’re running one of these weapons, it’s much easier to reset your ultimates after fights to get ready for the next fight.”
Both the C.A.R. and the Nemesis have never supported hop-up attachments before, making this their first. “We’re always looking to flesh out the roster in that way,” Canavese said. “For the most part, the C.A.R. is sort of underperforming in the SMG category, so this is an opportunity for us to see if we can boost a weapon’s relevancy by giving it utility versus just giving it raw damage. And we think that that’s a really fun experiment to be trying.”
Apex Legends Season 23 has shown considerable attention to the support class, so it remains to be seen if this mid-season update is the last major adjustment to the meta we’ll see ahead of Season 24 and the next major patch. Season 24 will also mark the six-year anniversary of Apex Legends, kicking off in mid-February.
