Apex Legends Season 8 Won't Start With 2 Weeks Of Straight Kings Canyon After All

Turns out Apex Legends Season 8 won't start with two weeks of the map rotation remaining only on the brand-new Kings Canyon. A new hotifix (listed in the Apex Legends Season 8 patch notes) has changed the exclusivity period to only last until February 9 as opposed to the previously advertised February 16. The patch also addresses a few bugs that have popped up since the start of Season 8.

Of note, the hotfix lowers the likelihood that the final circle of a match will center around The Pit or Mirage Voyage, two small locations that are easy to defend--you can only enter The Pit via enclosed chokepoints and only land on the Mirage Voyage via a redeploy, an action that prevents you from defending yourself. Having the final circle be at either location stacks the odds towards whichever team manages to get there first, which is a bit unfair.

In terms of character bugs, the hotfix addresses both Caustic and Season 8's new playable legend Fuse. Now, the gas cloud from Caustic's Nox Gas Grenade will dissipate once the Caustic's squad is eliminated, as opposed to accidentally sticking around to continue blinding other teams. For Fuse, the hotfix ensures that Knuckle Cluster no longer finds a way to magically circumnavigate shields and deal health damage.

The full patch notes for the hotfix are listed below.

Apex Legends February 4 Hotfix Patch Notes

• Fixed an error stopping players in Belgium from purchasing the Battle Pass (Note: the button will still say "Unavailable," but clicking it will let you purchase the Battle Pass. A client patch later will fix the button still saying "Unavailable")
• Fixed an edge case where the gas from Caustic's ultimate would persist even after his squad was eliminated
• Fixed an exploit letting players block damage from grenades by dropping items on top of them.
• Fixed an issue that allowed Fuse's tactical ability to do damage through shields
• Reduced likelihood of late-game circles ending on Mirage Voyage and The Pit in Kings Canyon.