Apex Legends Season 19 Patch Notes Include Welcome Respawning Changes, Catalyst Nerf

Apex Legends Season 19: Ignite is nearly here, kicking off on October 31, and after steadily drip-feeding players info about the new season over the last few weeks, Respawn has finally revealed all of the features Apex’s playerbase can look forward to this season via the release of Season 19’s patch notes.

Season 19 is one of Apex Legends‘ biggest seasons yet in terms of new content (including the addition of cross-progression and some truly massive map changes), and the patch notes make this clear. From info on new legend Conduit and her abilities to nitty-gritty details regarding legend nerfs and buffs, weapon changes, and other gameplay tweaks, there’s quite a lot to cover.

Respawning reworked

One of the biggest changes hitting the game this season is a huge change to the way respawning works. Once Season 19 goes live players will respawn with the shields and the weapons they had prior to being eliminated. Both body shield and helmet tier will be preserved, knockdown shields will be reset to Level 1, and the player’s backpack will be removed. The player’s inventory will contain both their weapons and some ammo required for those weapons, along with two syringes and two shield cells. Care package weapons will not be preserved, and though standard weapons will still be in the player’s inventory, all weapon attachments will be removed.

This is a massive change to the way respawning has worked in the past, and will inevitably have major effects on the way the game is played going forward, especially in competitive scenarios.

Legends

Respawn has expressed a desire to address the “can’t see sh*t meta” in Season 19, and that means nerfs to several popular legends.

Catalyst is receiving some pretty major nerfs, with her Piercing Spikes tactical taking the brunt of the downgrades. Piercing Spikes’ projectile distance has been reduced by about 50% and players won’t be able to place as many of them on the map as they could in the past–as of Season 19, only two sets of Piercing Spikes can exist on the map at once, down from the original three. Piercing Spikes will also no longer block projectiles, so players who encounter them can feel free to fire at will.

Her scan-proof Dark Veil ultimate ability is also getting nerfed, with its duration being decreased from 30 seconds to 25. Additionally, the cooldown timer for the ability will no longer start when Dark Veil is cast–the cooldown will only begin once the Dark Veil has come down.

Bangalore’s kit is also on the chopping block this season. Her Double Time passive speed boost will now last for 2 seconds rather than 3, and the duration of her Smoke Launcher tactical ability has been reduced from 23 seconds to 18 seconds. Lastly, her Rolling Thunder ultimate ability will now only apply the stun effect to enemies for 6 seconds rather than the 8 seconds players have grown used to.

Now that the Revenant-themed Season 18 is coming to a close, the unfriendly neighborhood murderbot’s new ability set is also getting a slight nerf. His Forged Shadows ultimate ability allows his overshield to refresh when he knocks or kills an enemy, and when he gets an assist. But the timeframe in which assists will refresh the overshield has been greatly reduced, from 30 seconds to only 3 seconds. It seems that this only applies to assists, however, not knocks/kills.

Weapons

Another major game-changer this season is the addition of a weapon to every Care Package at every stage of the game. This means that, even in Round 1, players can get their hands on a high-tier weapon if they play their cards right. The L-STAR will be removed from the Care Package and replaced by the Wingman, which will receive the usual Care Package buffs like increased damage, increased projectile size, and an automatically-attached Boosted Loader hop-up.

But the Wingman is also getting an additional buff in the form of a new hop-up called Skullpiercer Elite. Skullpiercer Elite works like a standard Skullpiercer hop-up, but it has a deadly little secret: It ignores the additional protection provided by a helmet, so headshotting an enemy with an Epic-tier helmet will have the same effect as headshotting someone who isn’t wearing a helmet at all.

The R-301 and Volt SMG will be entering the Replicator this season, with the RE-45 and 30-30 Repeater returning to floor loot. The Boosted Loader hop-up and Digital Threat optic will also be removed from the Replicator, and the Hammerpoint Rounds hop-up will replace them.

Other changes

Season 19 will include a new feature that evidently launched alongside Season 18 but has only just gone live: A notification system for banned players, informing others in the lobby when a cheater has been banned.

“This notification will appear in the kill feed when a player in your current match has been removed,” reads the blog post accompanying the patch notes. “This alert will only be triggered by our anti-cheat systems and will not display when someone quits a match, loses connection or is kicked for AFK. This is the first of many steps the team is taking to improve visibility and player feedback when users are actioned.”

When a player is banned, “[username] has been removed from the match” will appear in the kill feed.

In addition to anti-cheat efforts, Season 19: Ignite will also include changes to all three of the maps in Season 19’s rotation. Storm Point is getting the biggest update, with new POIs, changes intended to make squad rotation easier, and efforts made to reduce the number of loot deserts. But Storm Point, Olympus, and Broken Moon all receiving updates that remove popular hiding spots, part of Respawn’s ongoing efforts to combat ratting.

Ranked Mode will have the same map rotation as standard battle royale, and Respawn has implemented a new feature to make ranking up a little more challenging: Promo Trials. Promo Trials are challenges that appear once a player is about to rank up. Players have a total of five matches to complete the challenge. Failure to do so will knock them down the Ranked ladder a bit, and once they climb back up, they’ll be faced with the same challenge, but will have six matches to complete the goal. This cycle can continue up to 10 matches, after which players will still be able to attempt to complete the Promo Trial, but will not gain more than 10 matches to try again when they fail to do so.

Apex Legends Season 19: Ignite begins on Tuesday, October 31 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. The Ignite update patch notes are listed in full below, and can also be found on EA’s official Apex Legends website.

PATCH NOTES

• Cross Progression will be rolling out in phases across existing platforms—read more in our detailed blog here
• Holosprays can now be deployed while skydiving

Rolling out the new Rendering Hardware Interface (RHI) code on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S—more background info on RHI can be found via our Reddit post here.

BALANCE UPDATES

Crafting Rotation

• RE-45 and 30-30 Repeater leave the crafter and are back on the floor
• R-301 and Volt enter the crafter
• Boosted Loader removed from crafting rotation
• Digital Threat optic removed from crafting rotation
• Hammerpoint Rounds added to crafting rotation

Care Package Weapon Rotation

• L-Star EMG returns to the floor
  • Removed Disruptor Rounds
  • Projectile size reduced
  • Improved recoil pattern
  • Reduced randomness in the early part of the recoil pattern
  • Damage increased to 17 (was 16)
  • Barrel attachment improved to match other weapons
• Wingman enters the care package
  • New hop-up – Skullpiercer Elite: ignores helmet headshot damage reduction
  • Boosted Loader hop-up attached
  • Base damage increased to 50 (was 45)
  • Projectile size increased
  • 110 ammo

Care Packages

• Care Packages will now always have 1 weapon at all stages of the game

Gold Weapons Rotation

• Havoc, RE-45, C.A.R. SMG, L-Star, Longbow DMR

Hop-Ups

• Boosted Loader: removed from floor loot
• Turbocharger: Removed 1 damage reduction when equipped

WEAPONS

30-30 Repeater

Bocek Bow

• Faster initial draw speed
• Select Fire button now toggles Shatter Caps
• Tightened Shatter Caps blast pattern

Charge Rifle

• Improved bullet drop ballistics
• Increased projectile size

Hemlok

• Damage reduced to 21 (was 22)

Longbow DMR

• Increased projectile size

Sentinel

• Increased Amped Shot projectile size

LEGENDS

Bangalore

• Double Time: reduced duration to 2s (was 3s)
• Smoke Launcher: smoke lifetime reduced to 18s (was 23s)
• Rolling Thunder: stun duration reduced to 6s (was 8s)

Catalyst

• Piercing Spikes
  • Core no longer blocks projectiles, allowing bullets to pass through
  • Max in-world count reduced to 2 (was 3)
  • Throw range decreased by about 50%
• Dark Veil
  • Cooldown now starts after the wall comes down
  • Reduced lifetime to 25s (was 30s)

Passive Updates

• Pathfinder’s Insider Knowledge: can now scan Care Packages after allies have already scanned them
• Wraith’s Voices from the Void: reduced look time required to trigger (feels more reliable/consistent)

Ultimate Updates

• Newcastle’s Castle Wall
  • Reduced recovery time on landing
  • Increased max leap height
• Revenant’s Forged Shadows: reduced time extension window for assists to 3s (was 30s)
• Vantage’s Sniper’s Mark: bullet count increased to 6 (was 5)

MAPS

Olympus

• Addressed a number of bugs and rat spots
• Addressed known exploits to get underneath the map

Kings Canyon

• Addressed multiple rat spots
• Fixed geo holes in world between Relic and Caustic Treatment

Storm Point

• Added two Mixtape maps based on new POIs (ZEUS Station and Wattson’s Pylon)
• Addressed a number of bugs and rat spots

WORLD SYSTEMS

• Players now respawn with the shields and weapons that they had when they were eliminated
  • Body shield and helmet level are preserved
  • Knockdown shield is reset to white
  • Backpacks are removed
  • Inventory will contain some ammo for their weapons, two syringes, and two shield cells
  • Weapons are maintained, unless that weapon was a care package weapon, and all weapon attachments are removed, including from kitted weapons
• Replicator, Ring Console, and Survey Beacon spawn rates have returned to being even across all POIs

MODES

Mixtape Map Rotation

• Control
  • Caustic Treatment and Siphon are out
  • Barometer and Production Yard are in
• Gun Run
  • Skulltown and Fragment are out
  • The Core is in
  • New map: Wattson Treatment
• TDM
  • Fragment and Habitat are out
  • Phase Runner is in
  • New Map: Zeus Station

BUG FIXES

• Closed an exploit that allowed players to survive ring damage longer than expected using the Phase Runner on Olympus
• Death Boxes can no longer fall into unreachable areas – or lava
• Heat Shields can no longer stick to Tridents
• Heat Shields no longer provide protection above them on higher ground
• Holster weapon UI no longer appears when healing outside the ring
• Knockdown Shield FX no longer remains on while spectating
• Longbow’s Dawn’s Awakening skin no longer has visible barrel with scopes
• Nemesis’ Demon’s Whisper skin no longer obstructs player view
• Provisional badge icon restored on Ranked match summary screen
• Rarity display now updates after equipping from store or pack opening
• Resolved occasional “[UI] Array index 100000000 is out of range (array size 45)” error when launching the game
• Revenant now faces direction he is shooting in third person view
• Skydiving into an exiting respawn dropship will no longer propel the player along with it
• Squad sorting now consistent between HUD and Inventory
• Swapping to lower tiered armor after taking damage no longer requires refreshing the Death Box

AUDIO

• Resolved rare cases where the priority system would kill certain local player weapon sounds at an incorrect time

GRAPHICS

• Fixed squads’ animated poses sometimes ghost slightly on each other
• PC
  • Fixed Intel ARC graphics cards defaulting to suboptimal video settings
  • Fixed issue with low resolution textures when using adaptive supersampling or after changing resolution
• PC DX12: fixed occasional bad triangle rendering on AMD cards

LEGENDS

• Loba: Tactical is no longer canceled when thrown on a tower near Containment
• Mirage: resolved not breaking cloak sometimes when switching weapons
• Revenant
  • Assassin’s instinct
  • Digital threats now highlight enemies after being highlighted by Assassin’s Instinct
  • Fixed cases where enemies were not being highlighted correctly
  • Highlight no longer interferes with other legend highlights
  • Highlight now applies to Mirage decoys
  • Forged Shadows shroud no longer gets stuck on indefinitely (previous hotfix)
• Wattson: fences now collapse when the round ends, preventing ongoing damage audio in post-match screen

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Added Offscreen Portraits setting
• Caustic: restored “Shield Cracked” VO in German
• Firing Range: blue Nessie stays hidden for now… but a new challenger has appeared
• Implemented additional security measures
• Improved PC controller support
  • Controller input will no longer be processed when a different window has focus
  • Added native support for PS4 and PS5 Bluetooth-connected controllers. Players who have been relying on Steam Input to use PS4 and PS5 controllers over Bluetooth should disable that setting in Steam.
• Mixtape: assists are now awarded for Assisted Kills by ALL Teammates in modes where multiple squads are teamed together
• Pings
  • Ping Enemies on the map: double-clicking the Ping Button will place an Enemy Ping on the map at that position
  • Reply to Enemy Pings with Ok, Hold On, and Wait ping reply options
• Rampart: players can now pick up their amped walls while in placement mode
• Revenant
  • Add vibration support when Forged Shadows shield is damaged, and when the shield reforms or breaks
  • Improve vibration support when charging Shadow Pounce

LOCALIZED AUDIO

Localized audio is being moved out of the base game package on Playstation. Users who play Apex Legends in languages other than English will need to download the free Additional Content pack that contains the audio for their preferred language. In-game text is not impacted by this change.