Apex Legends Season 2 Weapons Update
Find out what’s dropping into the Apex armory in Season 2, straight from Principal Weapons Designer Sean Slayback.
Hey everyone! I'm Sean Slayback, the principal weapons designer on Apex Legends at Respawn. The weapons team and I are excited to share some info about weapons in Season 2, so let's get into it!
New Weapon: The L-STAR Arrives
This season we're introducing the L-STAR, a rare and powerful LMG. This weapon fires large, high-damage plasma projectiles at a fast cyclic rate. The L-STAR is joining the Mastiff and Kraber in airdrop packages, and quite frankly, it's a beast.
The L-STAR's unique projectiles are much larger than those fired by other weapons in Apex. Players need to lead targets more at range to compensate for the L-STAR's slower projectiles, but on the flip side, they don't have to aim quite as precisely to get good effect on target.
All this plasma-fueled power comes at a price: the L-STAR will overheat if players hold the trigger down too long. When the L-STAR overheats, its lens breaks and needs to be replaced, which takes some time. Expert players learn to feather the trigger with short/medium bursts, taking short breaks to let the weapon cool down.
The L-STAR only spawns in airdrops (like the Mastiff and the Kraber), and comes with a limited ammo supply that can't be refilled.
Get out there, hunt some airdrops, and let us know what you think of our newest high-tech addition to the Armory.
New Hop-Ups!
This season, we wanted to bring up the low end of the power curve a little, increase situational viability for lesser-used weapons, and create more interplay between weapons. So, we created a couple of new hop-ups:
Disruptor Rounds
- Increased shielded damage.
- compatibility: Alternator, RE-45
Hammerpoint Rounds
- Increased unshielded damage.
- compatibility: P2020, Mozambique
Ideally players will consider one of these hopped-up small arms for weapon-swap tactics, and sometimes carry them unironically into endgame situations.
New Attachments: Energy Mags
Energy Mag attachments have been added for the Havoc, Devotion, and Triple Take, adding more loot gameplay and power curve depth. Like the other magazine attachments, Energy Mags increase ammo capacity (at all levels) and reduce reload time (at level 2 and above).
Power Up
We buffed some less-popular weapons to make them more powerful within their designed roles. Look out for buffs to the Flatline, P2020, Alternator, and Triple Take, with specific details outlined in our S2 patch notes.
Arc Star: Spikes & Sticks
Since launch, the Arc Star has seemed "spikey" to us. (To us, this means that the gameplay and personality are good, but it can sometimes feel unfair to use or fight against.) We did a few targeted tweaks:
- Increased ignition delay from 2.5 to 2.8
- Sticking a full health player will now down them
- Players at the edge of the explosion no longer get their shields completely shredded
Gold Weapons
Players can look forward to finding a totally new set of gold weapons in Kings Canyon for the start of season 2. Look out for the final list in the Season 2 patch notes.
Ammo Stack Sizes
Apex players need to strike a fine balance between loading their backpacks with ammo, and holding other items for emergency or utility purposes. In a couple cases, we felt the stack sizes weren't well-balanced, so we tweaked:
- Shotgun max stack reduced from 64 to 16. Players now need multiple stacks of ammo to run a shotty.
- Energy max stack increased from 60 to 80 - now matches Light/ Heavy ammo.
Airdrop Weapons
Airdrop packages now use different loot tables for different phases of the game (early/ mid/ late). For example, players will find more Krabers in early and mid-game airdrops, while endgame airdrops should spawn more Mastiffs.
And, of course, these loot tables now include the L-STAR plasma LMG!
Season 2 Starts July 2!
Beyond the changes mentioned here, the weapon team still has a few tweaks up our sleeves for Season 2, so look out for our patch notes when the season starts on July 2!
And as always, from the entire Apex Legends team, thanks for playing.
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