Apex Legends Emergence Is Live: Season 10 Patch Notes, Seer's Abilities, Map Changes, And Everything We Know

Apex Legends Season 10: Emergence has officially kicked off, introducing both playable character Seer and the Rampage LMG, decimating the World's Edge map, implementing buffs and nerfs to several weapons and characters, and adding Ranked Arenas. Seer is the major change in the new season--he's a stealth-based hunter with a terrifyingly useful passive ability that tracks heartbeats, even in non-human legends.

When speaking with GameSpot ahead of Emergence, Respawn said that more is scheduled to come to Arenas beyond a ranked playlist, including more maps that encourage new strategies. Don't expect previous battle passes to return, though. Respawn is sticking to its guns: Apex Legends' old battle pass will not return (for now).

Start Date And Start Time

Apex Legends Emergence is now live, following the conclusion of the limited-time Thrillseekers event.

Patch Notes

The patch notes for Apex Legends Emergence are now live.

New Legend: Seer

Season 10 introduces Apex Legends' 18th playable character, Obi Edolasim aka "Seer." Seer is a recon character; his ability kit makes him more of a tracker like Bloodhound than the more scout-like Pathfinder, Crypto, and Valkyrie. He is geared towards stealthily hunting down enemy squads in close quarters.

Seer's Abilities

• Passive Ability: Heart Seeker - Hear and visualize the heartbeats of enemies within 75m while aiming down sights.
• Tactical Ability: Focus of Attention - Summon micro-drones to emit a delayed blast that goes through walls, interrupting and revealing enemies.
• Ultimate Ability: Exhibit - Create a sphere of micro-drones that reveal the location of enemies moving quickly or firing their weapons within.

In terms of lore, Seer has a complicated history, one informed by an old folktale called "The Moth and the Flame." Chapter 1 of the story details that a king and queen locked their daughter who was blind away in her room to protect her from the world, but when a man's beautiful singing voice caught her attention, she fell in love with him. He, in turn, fell in love with her. Out of fear that the couple's love would endanger their daughter, the king and queen jailed the man.

Chapter 2 then details how the princess would bring a candle to her window to signal her lover to come to her, but when he didn't, she began to cry. Her candle attracted a moth, who flew into the fire, but he was saved when the princess' tears extinguished the flame. The moth promised to help the princess find her love, but only under the condition that he could be reborn as her child to escape his curse of blindly following the light. The princess agreed.

Finally, in Chapter 3, the king and queen burned the young man at the stake to ensure their daughter would simply return to the safety of her room. The fire, however, attracted the attention of the moth, who blindly flew into the fire, leading the blind princess into the fire too. As time went on, this folktale would continue to be told, evolving into a prophecy that one day the cursed moth would be reborn as a human child, one who will blindly lead humanity to destruction.

As Seer was born with glowing eyes and to a mother with a moth tattoo and on a day when a fiery meteor destroyed his planet's moon, those around him in his community believed him to be this foretold cursed child. He was shunned by all but his loving parents--his father taught him about how to command microdrones and his mother gifted him with dance and an appreciation for art. Seer took their lessons and developed a mesmerizingly elegant but brutal fighting style that combined the two, earning him nine years of accolades in the underground Arenas. His fame got him a place in the Apex Games.

Legend Changes: Buffs And Nerfs

Emergence introduces a number of buffs and nerfs to existing legends. The big changes are listed below.

Caustic (Buff)

• Gas damage starts at 5, increases by 1 every other tick indefinitely.
• Cooldown on Tactical has been reduced 25s -> 20s.
• Ultimate cooldown has been reduced 3.5m -> 3m. Duration reduced from 20s -> 15s.

Revenant (Nerf)

• There's now a visual and audio cue when Death Totem protection is about to end which can be seen/heard by other players.
• Added a brief slow after being recalled to Death Totem.

Horizon (Buff)

• Reduced the slow after the initial Black Hole pull.
• Bumped Horizon gravity lift-up speed to a happy medium between 9.1 and Legacy update launch values.

Fuse (Buff)

• Enemies caught inside the ring of fire from Fuse's Motherlode ultimate are now revealed to Fuse's team.
• Knuckle Cluster Tactical explosion duration increased by 100%.
• Grenadier Passive can be toggled on and off to throw ordnance normally.

Battle Royale Map Changes: World's Edge Decimated

Hammond's continued efforts to mine Talos for its natural resources has decimated World's Edge. The lava crack caused by the Harvester has lengthened, and the destruction extends to touch both the southern and northern parts of the map.

Sorting Factory is completely destroyed, falling into a sinkhole. The landmark has been replaced by a new point-of-interest (POI), Lava Syphon. The destruction caused a landslide to the nearby mountains, burying Train Yard in debris and transforming it into a new POI called Landslide.

Most of the changes can be seen in the north. Refinery has been completely wiped out, replaced by Climatizer, a significantly larger POI. Nearby, a new lava crack has opened up--though it won't provide a heated updraft like the one that cuts through the middle of World's Edge. Though it's not a POI, a new giant dam has been constructed between Climatizer and Epicenter to prevent the lava from spilling into the rest of World's Edge.

At both Climatizer and Lava Syphon, moving gondolas has been added to the map, providing movable cover for squads in a similar capacity to the train that once moved throughout World's Edge in Seasons 3-5.

Arenas Map Changes: Hillside, Dome, Oasis

During Season 10, the Arenas maps based on existing Kings Canyon, World's Edge, and Olympus landmarks are being rotated out. So no more playing Arenas on Artillery, Thermal Station, and Gardens.

In their place, three new landmark-based Arenas maps are rotating in: Kings Canyon's Hillside, World's Edge's Dome, and Olympus' Oasis. These three maps will exist in the Arenas playlist rotation alongside Phase Runner, Party Crasher, and Overflow.

New Weapon: Rampage LMG

Emergence adds the Rampage to ground loot, a brand-new heavy-ammo LMG. The Rampage sets itself apart from the other LMGs by being a slower but more powerful variation of the Spitfire, making it an ideal mid-range weapon. Similar to weapons like the 30-30 Repeater and Bocek Compound Bow, the Rampage doesn't fire fast enough to be much of a threat at close-range.

Similar to the Sentinel sniper rifle, the Rampage can be charged. But instead of using shield cells, the Rampage takes thermite grenades. Once charged, the Rampage fires much more quickly, making it a decent close-range threat. When charged, the Rampage can also easily destroy doors, similar to grenades.

Weapon And Hop-Up Changes

The Prowler has been rotated out of Care Packages and once again is a ground loot weapon. However, the gun will only have burst fire mode; you won't be able to switch it to automatic fire.

In its place, both the Spitfire and Alternator are rotating into Care Packages. In Care Packages, the Spitfire will revert to its pre-nerfed state and the Alternator will automatically come equipped with Disruptor Rounds, a dangerous hop-up that was added to Apex Legends in Season 2 and then immediately removed in Season 3 for how powerful it was. Disrupter rounds deal an extra 40% damage to shields.

Because of these Care Package adjustments, in Arenas, you'll be able to buy the Prowler and no longer be able to purchase the Alternator or Spitfire.

In terms of hop-ups, both the Anvil Receiver and Quick Draw have been rotated out. The traits of the Quick Draw are now automatically implemented into pistols, though to a lesser degree.

In their place, Apex Legends now has a brand-new hop-up: Boosted Loader. This hop-up goes on the Hemlock and Wingman, changing the guns so that they reload faster and get bonus ammo if reloaded at the right time. Similar to Deadeye's Tempo, it's a timing-based hop-up.

Emergence has also changed the L-STAR. The LMG now also takes barrel stabilizers and extended energy magazines. Higher level energy mags will increase the time it takes for the L-STAR to overheat and will cause it to cool faster when it does.

And speaking of speed, the fire rate for the EVA-8 when it has shotgun bolts equipped has been nerfed. Additionally, reload speed is no longer tied to extended magazines starting in Season 10. Instead, that trait will now be tied to standard stocks and sniper stocks.

And speaking of sniper stocks, Marksman Rifles will start taking sniper stocks in Season 10 as opposed to standard stocks. So the G7 has basically come full circle in its evolution.

New Playlist: Ranked Arenas

Ranked Arenas is now live. Similar to Ranked Trios and Trios, Ranked Arenas and Arenas exist as wholly separate playlists. To figure out where you place, you'll have to play 10 Ranked Arenas matches.

Unlike Ranked Trios, there is no entry penalty to Ranked Arenas at the higher ranks. You don't earn points based on how many kills and assists you get either. You simply gain points for winning and lose points for losing. Your Arenas rank will exist separately to your battle royale rank.

Battle Pass Rewards

Like previous seasons, Emergence adds a new battle pass that includes over 100 cosmetic rewards, including two legendary character skins and two legendary reactive weapon skins. This time around, Valkyrie and Horizon get the new legendary character skins, and the Volt SMG gets the legendary reactive weapon skins.