After a small delay, Respawn launched The Legendary Hunt yesterday. The two-week event brings quite a few new additions and changes to Apex Legends. A considerable number of them were tucked at the bottom of the patch notes, under Quality of Life changes. Some were not mentioned in the patch notes at all. Read on for a full breakdown of everything you missed in Update 1.2!
Weapons and gear
While most of us were gleefully throwing Mozambiques down, it was the Havoc and the Devotion that really hit the ground hard. This patch silently reduced both energy weapons’ mag sizes. The Havoc now holds 24 rounds, down from 32, and the Devotion holds 36, down from 44.
(Update: the changes were indeed reverted, and both weapons are back to their original mag sizes.)
Respawn community manager Jay Frechette said on Reddit that the nerf was “not an intended change.” It should be reverted soon, although in the case of the Havoc rifle it will probably return in some form later on. The weapon is currently very dominant in the Apex Legends meta.
Finally, thermite grenades can now damage and break doors. Previously they were the only throwable weapon to not be able to do that. Now that honor falls on the Mozambique.
Gameplay and legend changes
Much to many players’ displeasure, bunny-hopping while healing is no longer possible. The easy-to-do exploit previously allowed users to retain fast movement speed while healing. Respawn had previously said this was not intended behavior.
Multiple quality of life changes address melee, ziplines, and dropping, making these aspects of the game more responsive. Ziplines in particular now have a half-second cooldown after getting off before you can remount them.
The Legendary Hunt patch notes state that Caustic’s Nox barrels “can be triggered and disabled” by Caustic’s squad-mates. This is a useful change.
The patch notes also state that Respawn has “fixed a bug where cloaked Mirage was too noticeable.” Cloaked Mirage is arguably always too noticeable, according to the Apex community, who has had countless suggestions for changes. This bug fix is not really a balance change, and we will soon see (or not see?) whether it makes him more survivable.
Apex Legends’ aggressive targets are back
This last hidden change isn’t as impactful, but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless. The shooting range targets are now more dangerous than ever.
When Apex Legends launched, they had fairly intuitive behavior. Stand on top of them when they spring back and be launched far in the air. Stand behind them as they fall and be instantly crushed. Then at some point in the recent past, they lost their ability to kill. A hidden update made it so falling targets would push the player away instead of killing them.
Update 1.2 brough back the targets’ bloodlust in spades. Now they can crush players both on the way up and on the way down. Standing on top of a rising target will now launch you directly to the afterlife.
For more information on the Legendary Hunt and Patch 1.2, check out our Apex Legends page!
