Apex Legends Defiance Patch Notes: New Legend, New LTM, Ranked Changes, and So Much More

Season 3 of Apex Legends is upon us, and with it comes a brand new 9v9 limited-time mode with Control, a new Legend packed with punky attitude in Mad Maggie, the first map update to Olympus, a thrilling new Battle Pass, a new Ranked season, and so much more.

Additionally, Respawn is giving away more rewards to celebrate their 3rd Apex anniversary. Apex players can unlock three top Legends, three thematic packs and one Legendary pack for each of them just for logging in for the first three weeks of the Defiance update.

New Legend: Mad Maggie

Mad Maggie, the cutthroat warlord and the Outlands’ meanest mad-lass, is back and she’s coming into the Apex Games with a super offensive playstyle. With enhanced shotgun proficiency and no movement speed penalty, the ability to dislodge enemies behind cover, and a crushing Ultimate, aggro players are going to love playing as her. Maggie got mad skills to drive enemies out from behind cover; firing a drill shot and tossing cannonballs that detonate near enemies. This is good crowd control.

New Limited-Time Mode: Control

Control is a brand-new limited-time mode that delivers an adrenaline-fueled 9v9 experience where two teams face off to capture and control points on the map. Players will pre-select their loadouts, drop in, and have the opportunity to experience having the same Legends fighting side by side. In this mode, death is not the end, as throughout the match players will be able to respawn and keeping fight until one team earns enough points to be declared champion.

Season Rewards

To celebrate 3 amazing years of Apex Legends with their player community, Respawn is dropping three Thematic packs, one Legendary Pack and three Legends (Octane, Valkyrie and Wattson) for players. If they haven’t been unlocked already they will become available in the roster. Make sure you login from February 8th and March 1st to score sweet rewards!

New Olympus Update

Olympus has fallen, exposing a whole new terrain for players to explore. Dangerous chokepoints, interesting POIs and several combat-zones will make for an interesting challenge for players.

Storm Point Updates

Storm Point was active for a whole season of Apex since PVE mode was available, with punishing wildlife and not enough rewards. Respawn has changed things this season, allowing for less dealt damage by Prowlers and for more fair, random targeting by all wildlife. Prowlers will also drop more rewards like increased XP and extra crafting material rewards after clearing Prowler nests. Prowler Den spawns are now disabled when there are two teams inside of the same Nest, the only exception is for the massive Prowler Nest at the center of the map. Respawn devs have also tweaked the logic for the Drop Shop Pathing to make landing a smoother, more spread out experience for users.

Ranked Update

While Top surviving Legends get the lions’ share of XP and ranking boost, Respawn has tweaked the system to compensate top performers with high KDAs. Players that focus on fighting for higher placements and teamplay will better awarded.

Patch Notes

• Crypto’s Drone will display more game information like Ring information, round timers, minimap, killfeed, team status and ping information to the Drone’s HUD.
• Neurolink’s detection FOV has been increased from 160 to 240 degrees, detection has been disabled when Surveillance Drone active.
• Surveillance Drone underwent several changes: such as decreased HP, better Visibility and environment navigation.
• Caustic’s Nox Gas Traps are now destroyable after detonation and are capped at 150 HP.

Weapons and Equipment Balance Changes

• VK-47 Flatline: Damage reduced from 19 to 18 per bullet
• Rampage LMG (Hotfix): Rampage damage reduced from 28 to 26
• Medkit mats price lowered from 20 to 15
• Kinetic Feeder added to crafting rotation
• Triple Take: Removing projectile growth from bullets, damage reduced from 23 to 21 per bullet
• Hammerpoint Rounds:
  • P2020: +50% unshielded damage
  • RE-45: +35% unshielded damage
  • Mozambique: +35% unshielded damage
• Weapons in Crafting:
  • VK-47 Flatline and Longbow DMR are now craftable for 30 mats at any crafting station.
  • Weapons in crafting can not be found on the ground.
  • Crafted weapons come with no attachments and two boxes of ammo

Other Bug Fixes and Quality of Life

• Fixed issue where multiple Legends were missing voice lines when pinging a caged flyer.
• Fixed issue where sometimes Wattson’s Interceptor Pylon would heal for less than intended.
• Gave a slight increase to high tier consumable drops on all wildlife.
• Added the ability to see your teammate survival item while the inventory is open.
• Quitting players can no longer deny kills & assists
• Reviving no longer resets damage history
• Replicator fix for cases where an item could become stuck inside after crafting with a full inventory.
• Fixed an error that would tell players to come back in a decade when matchmaking.
• Fix for cases of lighting issues in some areas on Olympus.
• Storm Point: Fix for cases where a player could be launched by a Gravity Cannon while below it.
• Arenas: Fix for cases where Crypto’s Drone charges could be used multiple times with single Drone.
• Arenas: Fix for cases where trying to charge a Rampage or Sentinel Rifle as the round starts results in the charge being cancelled when the round starts.
• Reticle Color Customization – Limiting values to 0-255 to avoid exploits.
• Reticle Color Customization – improved inconsistency in UI color when ADSing with different sniper scopes.
  Reticle Customization fix for cases where rapidly adjusting the lighting bar can result in a performance drop on other platforms and a crash on Switch.

Well, I’m excited to take part in the new season. How bout you?