Apex Legends Shadow Society Event Features New Universal Heirloom Weapon, New LTM

Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment has announced a new in-game event set to start next week. The Shadow Society Event is a new spin on the standard Collection Event with an exciting twist: Instead of earning an Heirloom Weapon for a specific Legend, players who collect all 36 of the event's premium cosmetics will instead earn a unique deathbox cosmetic. Players can also unlock an Apex Artifact--a new type of Heirloom Weapon they can equip to any Legend they own--by opening Shadow Society Event Packs.

In addition to a collection of slick new cosmetic skins that let players embrace their inner detective, the film noir-themed event also features a new 4v4 LTM called Lockdown and an Event Shop where players can spend points earned by completing event challenges to unlock free cosmetic skins, Apex Packs, and other valuable loot.

Cobalt Katar--the Apex Artifact players can unlock by opening Event Packs--is similar to the Buster Sword cosmetic melee weapon that was made available during Apex's recent Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth crossover event. The only way to guarantee you get your hands on it is to purchase all 36 cosmetics directly (or purchase 36 Event Packs). But the Cobalt Katar unlocks at random, meaning some players may receive it upon opening their very first Event Pack, while others might not unlock it until opening their 36th Event Pack. Players who do choose to purchase/unlock all 36 cosmetics will also get the Cobalt Deathbox, a unique deathbox cosmetic similar to the One-Winged Angel Deathbox cosmetic players received for completing the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth cosmetic collection.

Players will also receive Milestone Rewards for opening Event Packs. These are additional free cosmetic items that automatically unlock as players open Event Packs. Players will receive one Milestone Reward after purchasing their 5th, 10th, 20th, and 36th Shadow Society Event Packs. But players who aren't looking to spend a load of cash can still get some quality loot out of the event by completing Shadow Society gameplay challenges and exchanging the Challenge Points they earn for cosmetics and other goodies from the Shadow Society Reward Shop.

The Shadow Society Event goes live on Tuesday, March 26 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, and ends on April 16. The event will launch alongside a game update featuring some minor balance changes, the most significant of which is the removal of weapons from neutral Care Packages that drop during the first round of a match. The patch notes are listed in full below.

PATCH NOTES

BALANCE UPDATES

Care Package

• First set of Care Packages
  • Care Package weapons removed
  • Seasonal Gold weapons now spawn in their place (R-301, RE-45, Mastiff, Devotion, 30-30)
• Second and third set of Care Packages are unchanged

Dev Notes: Over the seasons, we've been improving the lethality of crate weapons to increase excitement and usefulness. This has led to early Care Package weapons feeling disproportionately strong, so we've decided to push them to later in the game rather than pulling back on their strength. Offering gold weapons in their stead keeps the early drops relevant but not as dominant.

Weapon Spawn Rates

• Assault Rifle and Marksman Rifle spawn rates normalized per zone

Dev Notes: Normalizing these spawn rates should smooth out the looting experience and ammo economy across maps when it comes to weapon variety. Ex. the 30-30 had a higher spawn chance than a Triple Take in high tier zones—they now have the same spawn chance in high tier zones.

WEAPONS

CAR (from Season 20 launch, missed in Patch Notes)

• ADS vertical recoil slightly increased

EVA-8 [Care Package]

• Blast pattern tightened
• Initial projectile size increased
• Improved handling
• Reduce ammo reserves to 64 (was 96)

Dev Notes: We're satisfied with how the EVA-8 is performing in very close quarters combat, but it falls a bit short just outside of barrel-stuff range. We hope an improvement to its blast pattern, projectile size, and handling speed will round out its place as a CQC monster.

Rampage

• Energize time slightly reduced to better match the animation

Dev Notes: The Rampage LMG energize time was slightly misaligned with the buff kicking in, resulting in unintentional interruptions right as it was about to finish. This adjustment tightens all that up.

Wingman [Care Package]

• Ammo Reserves decreased to 72 (was 90)
• Can no longer equip the 1x Digital Threat
• Optic is no longer locked and can be replaced

Dev Notes: At the start of the season, we locked the optic to the 1x HCOG as a stop-gap fix to remove the Digital Threat from the Wingman. Digi on Wingman represents an immense power spike, and our preference is to keep the power of the Wingman in the weapon and not the optic.

LEGENDS

Ballistic

• Upgrades
  • Ammuvision: removed
  • Lasting Bullet: moved to Level 2
  • NEW Speedy Whistler: successful hits with Tactical give a 2s burst of speed (Level 3)

Dev Note: Ballistic didn’t receive the full suite of upgrades we wanted to give him on launch, and these upgrades won’t be his last. Decoupling Extra Bullet and Lasting Bullet (alongside the addition of Speedy Whistler) creates more versatility with the Tactical on a Legend that’s more one-dimensional than some.

Bangalore

• Rolling Thunder: Cooldown increased to 4.5 min (was 4)
• Smoke Launcher
  • Cooldown increased to 35s (was 33)
  • No longer deals damage
  • Smoke duration decreased to 11s (was 18)
  • Smoke particles now dissipate faster
• Upgrades: Level 2
  • Big Bang: removed
  • NEW Tactical Cooldown: reduces Tactical cooldown by 5s
• Upgrades: Level 3
  • Cover Me: Auto-Ping no longer tracks the player who triggered double time
  • Refuge : Heal Rate increased to 3.5 HP/s (was 3HP/s)

Dev Note: Bangalore’s smoke has been dominant for a while now. We thought about reducing smoke charges, but keeping two with a shorter lifetime encourages more plays with the smoke than longer plays IN the smoke (limiting its omnipresence in fights). Adding the Tactical Cooldown in place of the Ultimate Cooldown promotes a more meaningful choice between two core components of her kit. The Cover Me tracking potential was doing more work than intended, especially through smoke, so we’ve dialed this back to point you in the right direction rather than provide perfect positional info.

Bloodhound

• Upgrades
  • Odin’s Glare: moved to Level 2
  • Tactical Cooldown: moved to Level 3

Caustic

• Gas Damage now increases by 1 each tick (was 5/5/6/6 etc.)
  • Downed players still only receive 5/tick
• Gas Slow effect now only applies on first damage tick for 2s
• Upgrades
  • Particle Diffuser: moved to Level 3
  • Residual Toxins: moved to Level 2

Dev Note: Caustic’s Particle Diffuser upgrade makes it much harder for players to escape his larger gas cloud and getting that early in game could be quite oppressive. We’ve moved this upgrade to spike his power in the late game specifically. The goal of the gas changes is to create more counterplay options when playing around gas; dipping in and out of it should still be punished with the Gas Slow, but moving within it is now a possibility for willing test subjects as long as they don’t experiment for too long.

Conduit

• Radiant Transfer
  • Cooldown Increased to 31s (was 26)
  • Regen Interruption delay time increased to 2s (was 1)

Dev Note: Ahh yes, Revenant’s best friend Octane Conduit. She continues to be a strong pick, given her ability to maintain pressure by supporting aggressive allies in flights. Part of the counterplay is to interrupt her shield regen with damage, but we are seeing that it’s all too easy to evade briefly and have the regen kick back in almost immediately. Increasing this delay not only stops the regen for longer, it also cuts into the overall duration of the regen and its potential healing—making it more possible to combat her total healing output.

Fuse

• Upgrade - Wreckless: explosive damage is now reduced by 50% (was 25%)

Lifeline

• Upgrades: Level 2
  • Tactical Cooldown+: removed
  • NEW Tactical Cooldown++: Tactical Cooldown reduced by 25s (making the cooldown time equal to its deployment duration, so you always have DOC)
• Upgrades: Level 3
  • Gift Wrapped: removed
  • NEW Gold-Plated: next Package spawns with Golden Gear
    • EVO Cache, Gold Knockdown Shield, Gold Backpack
    • Also contains 1 Shield Battery, 1 Medkit, and either a Phoenix Kit or a Mobile Respawn Beacon

Dev Note: Gift Wrapped was a pretty strong choice that revived a lacking Support pick in higher levels of play. However, it didn’t feel entirely on brand for our combat medic and it led to some issues controlling the power spike and frequency of Care Package weapons. We’ve replaced this with a more deterministic draw for gold items that Lifeline can use to support her squad. Rapid Response was also a popular choice; let’s see if a cooldown-free DOC makes this decision more interesting.

Octane

• Upgrade - Wreckless: explosive damage is now reduced by 50% (was 25%)

Pathfinder

• Upgrade - Zipline Zen: damage reduction increased to 50% (was 25%)

Revenant

• Forged in Shadows
  • Knocks no longer refresh the Tactical during Ultimate
  • Tactical Cooldown is no longer shorter during Ultimate
  • Ultimate Cooldown Increased by 60s
• Upgrades
  • Agile Assassin: removed
  • Tactical Cooldown: moved to Level 3
  • NEW Ultimate Cooldown: reduces Ult Cooldown by 30s (Level 2)

Dev Note: Revenant has been a powerful contender in Ranked for a few seasons. This change aims to reduce the frequency of his Ultimate and pushes using late game upgrades to improve his Tactical (instead of giving him more frequent movement in his most powerful state). Agile Assassin was a cautious addition at launch, knowing the power of Revenant. However, it required too small of a window to take advantage of the minor charge-time improvement it gave to be viable, so it has been removed.

Seer

• Focus of Attention: decreased activation delay to 1.2s (was 1.4)
• Upgrades
  • Artist’s Reach: moved to Level 2
  • Long View: moved to Level 3
  • Racing Hearts: removed (now integrated into base Tactical)
  • NEW Ultimate Cooldown: reduces Ult Cooldown by 30s (Level 2)

Dev Note: Seer’s upgrades were seeing one-sided pushes to regain his lost range and scan duration, and Tactical upgrades didn’t change how hard the ability is to land consistently. These changes push Seer to make a choice on his Ultimate early on, and then tap into one direction of his Tactical in the late game—which has been adjusted to hit more frequently.

Wraith

• Upgrades
  • Tactical Cooldown: moved to Level 3
  • Ultimate Cooldown: moved to Level 2

Dev Note: Wraith was one of a couple legends with a Level 3 Ultimate related cooldown option, but this didn't give her enough time to maximize the Ult’s effectiveness as a rotational tool in earlier stages of the game. Swapping this with her Tactical Cooldown now makes our interdimensional skirmisher’s choices less one-dimensional as you now have to choose between Tactical improvements.

MAPS

Map Rotation

• Pubs
  • Storm Point
  • Olympus
  • Broken Moon
• Ranked
  • Storm Point
  • Olympus
  • World's Edge
• Mixtape
  • Control: Barometer, Production Yard, Thunderdome
  • Gun Run: Monument, Skulltown, Thunderdome
  • TDM: Monument, Thunderdome, Zeus Station

MODES

• NEW LTM: Lockdown
  • Capture and hold zones to score points
  • Lockdown map rotation: Thunderdome, Skulltown, Zeus Station, and Monument
• Three Strikes Updates
  • Revive time reduced to 2.0s
  • Players revived with 100% health and 0% shields
  • New minimum guaranteed loot system - ensures you respawn with a competitive version of your loadout and inventory.
• Mixtape
• Control: Players respawning on the Mobile Respawn Beacon enter a skydive when they exit the dropship ( instead of free falling down as they previously did )
• Kill Replay
  • Now show hitmarkers and damage numbers
  • Round-winning replays now show the killer’s banner
• NEW Map: Monument
  • Supports TDM, Gun Run, and Lockdown

WORLD SYSTEMS

• EVO Harvester
  • Changed sound fx that play for both the player and their teammates collecting EVO
  • Removed problematic spawn locations on Storm Point near map edges
• EVO Rewards
  • Changed for respawning and reviving teammates to prevent exploitation
  • Changed for scanning Ring Consoles to prevent excess EVO gain
• Wildlife & NPC: Spiders, Prowlers, and other NPC will now respect the rules of the ring, take appropriate ring damage, and be affected by heat shields

BUG FIXES

• Dynamic resolution scaling no longer incorrectly decreases resolution on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S which could cause a blurry image especially in Performance Mode
• Kill Replay
  • Fixed issues with phantom healing UI displaying in round-winning Kill Replays
  • Fixed some issues with flickering and mispredictions on some weapons when firing
  • No longer crashes client with some weapons while firing
• Mirage’s Heirloom “Too Much Witt” correctly shows its name in kill feed and death recap
• No longer lower the loot quality within the Icarus ship’s vault if Solar Array is the Hot Zone
• Ranked: placement now appears consistently after player or squad is wiped
• Resolved performance hitches after playing a plethora of games back-to-back
• Wattson’s pylons are now properly interrupted by large doors
• World’s Edge: resolved invisible collision issue at Monument preventing shooting

LEGENDS

• Ballistic
  • No longer generates ammo when swapping weapon from sling in the inventory
  • Lock-on will be more reliable in close range
• Crypto: resolved drone being destroyed by EMPs from invisible players in Firing Range

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Ammo loaded into extended magazines will now be refunded to the player if the extended magazine is removed
• Crypto: new VO line when drone is destroyed by the environment instead of another player
• Default Legend pick (whoever you were in Lobby) now shows as your selection to teammates unless you hover over another legend
• NEW Firing Range options
  • Dummy Highlights On/Off
  • Lock Legend Upgrades
• Jumpmaster selection updated to make it less likely that you’re the jumpmaster if you’re under level 5 or were the Jumpmaster last match
• Reduced FPS stuttering
• Reactives now appear at the top of lists and have a shimmer effect