Season 8 of Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends explodes into action at 1 PM ET on February 2. The new season is appropriately titled Mayhem, because it’s going to upend a lot of established aspects of the game.
First up, a new Legend is joining the Apex Games roster, and his name is Fuse. We saw his grand entrance in the Season 8 reveal trailer, doing significant damage to Kings Canyon in the process. As a result, there are a lot of changes around the original Apex Legends map. Season 8’s new weapon is the 30-30 Repeater and it is unlike anything else in the current arsenal. Wrapping up the list of updates for Season 8 is a host of balance changes to numerous Legends and some weapons.
There’s a comprehensive 36 minute dev steam you can watch if you’d like to dive into the ins and outs of the patch. Otherwise, just keep reading and I’ll whip you through the highlights.
Apex Legends Season 8 character changes
The biggest change will be the addition of Fuse. He’s all about the boom. He can store an additional grenade per inventory slot and throw them further, faster, and more accurately than the other Legends. His Tactical Ability is a cluster bomb that continuously expels airburst explosives on impact. Plus, his Ultimate is a bombardment that encircles the targeted area in a wall of flames.
Wraith is also getting a big change – pun intended. Her hitbox will be slightly larger than the other small Legends. The updated hitbox stays true to her model with a slight increase in width to her torso and legs. The reason for this update is because Wraith continues to dominate with the highest win rate in the game.
Octane and Horizon are two other Legends which will receive changes due to their domination in Season 7. Horizon’s Gravity Lift effective cooldown will increase from 21 to 25 seconds. The 15-second cooldown timer will begin when Gravity Lift activates. Octane will receive an update to his Launch Pad. Hitting the Pad from a standing position will now launch you on a high arc while hitting it from a crouched position will launch you along a flat arc. The flat arc will launch you further across a horizontal axis.
Additionally for Season 8 of Apex Legends, Rampart’s Ultimate Ability will benefit from an increased swivel angle up from 120 to 180 degrees. Plus, during the build phase, it will now have 45 hp instead of just 1 hp. All of the other changes to the Legends are quality of life improvements. Loba’s Black Market Boutique can access unopened care packages. Caustic’s gas now dissipates as soon as his team is eliminated. Mirage’s decoys create footstep audio. Finally, Crypto’s drone can no longer be a carrier for friendly Arc Stars.
Season 8 weapon updates
The new weapon in your arsenal will be the 30-30 Repeater. It’s a lever-action repeater that uses heavy ammo. You need to rechamber your rounds between shots, which means it isn’t fast. However, it is effective. The hefty punch of the repeater can be dialed up even further by using the gun’s built-in charge. This weapon is all about consistent, precise ranged pressure.
Apex Legends Season 8 is the first time players will get access to Legendary magazines. These gold-tier attachments have the same ammo capacity as purple mags. However, they will automatically reload your stowed weapon after a short time. Legendary mags are available for all weapon types.
Meanwhile, the Gold Barrel will be absent from the battle royale for Season 8. The same goes for the Double Tap hop up. The Anvil Rounds hop up will return to replace the Double Tap.
A few weapons are also getting some balance changes with Season 8. The damage of the Volt will drop from 16 to 15 per bullet. The Alternator will get a buff, with its damage increasing from 15 to 16. The EVA-8 will receive a slight fire rate increase, from 2.0 to 2.1 seconds between shots. Finally, the Spitfire will receive a slight damage increase from 18 to 19. However, its reload speed will increase from 2.8 to 3.2 seconds. The empty reload will now take 3.9 seconds, up from 3.33.
A new season wouldn’t be complete without a new collection of cosmetics. So to wrap up, check out the rewards you can earn in the Apex Legends Season 8 battle pass.
You can check out the complete Apex Legends Season 8 patch notes here.
