Apex Legends Season 9 Finally Returns The Peacekeeper Shotgun To Ground Loot

Apex Legends Season 9: Legacy frees the Peacekeeper shotgun from care packages, finally returning the game's incredibly powerful shotgun to ground loot. Like the Triple Take (which is the new gun going into care packages), the Peacekeeper comes with its Precision Choke hop-up automatically equipped.

In the Apex Legends Legacy patch notes, Respawn writes, "Since the Peacekeeper is coming out of the crate, we are bringing many of the stats back in line with their previous values. We are also reducing its damage potential and bringing in the effective range a bit since the Precision Choke is always available now." As such, the Peacekeeper will behave a little differently than it has for the past few seasons. Those changes are outlined below.

Season 9 Peacekeeper Changes

• Pellet damage reduced from 10 to 9
• Rechamber time increased from 0.9 seconds to 1.1 seconds
• Reload times increased (regular from 2.45 to 2.5, empty from 3.35 to 3.5)
• Pellet spread increased in general, and spread when charged increased for all charge levels (from 0.65/0.45/0.2 to 0.85/0.65/0.35)
• Quickly loses charge after leaving ADS

The Peacekeeper returning to ground loot isn't the only major weapon change coming in Season 9. A new weapon type is being added. Called Marksmen Weapons, this classification includes the G7 Scout, Triple Take, 30-30 Repeater, and brand-new Bocek Compound Bow.

The Bocek will take a new ammo type called Arrows, which silently travel through the air and don't break on impact--missed shots can be looted from wherever they land, while shots that hit their mark can be looted from the target once they're dead.

Weapon hop-ups are changing too. Both Skullpiercer Rifling and Hammerpoint Rounds are being pulled from ground loot. To make up for this, the weapons that use these hop-ups (Wingman, Longbow DMR, P2020, and Mozambique) are being buffed. The Wingman and Longbow will naturally deal more damage on headshots, while the P2020 will do more damage on both body and head shots. The Mozambique's clip size is increasing from four shells to six.

To replace these hop-ups, two brand-new ones are being added: Shatter Caps and Deadeye's Tempo. Shatter Caps can be attached to the 30-30 Repeater and Bocek Bow, allowing you to change their shots so that they split into a blast pattern like a shotgun. Deadeye's Tempo can be attached to the Sentinel and Bocek Bow, increasing their fire rate if you shoot at the perfect moment. In the Sentinel's case, that's when a new round has been chambered; for the Bocek, it's the moment you fully pull back the bowstring.

The Bocek Bow is unique among Apex Legends' weapons in that you don't have to decide between which of its hop-ups to equip. You can equip both Shatter Caps and Deadeye's Tempo to the Bocek at the same time, allowing you to transform the precision mid-range weapon into a semi-automatic short-range weapon.

Apex Legends Legacy begins May 4. Alongside all these weapon changes, the new season will introduce playable character Valkyrie and a permanent team deathmatch mode called Arenas.