All Apex Legends Season 5 buffs & nerfs to weapons and Legends

The launch of Apex Legends Season 5: Fortune’s Favor came as part of a massive update that also implemented major balancing changes to several of the battle royale’s weapons and Legends.

As is always the case at the start of a new season in Apex Legends, Fortune’s Favor has brought with it tons of new content, changes, and things for players to discover throughout the duration of Season 5.

In total, seven weapons and eight Legends were affected by those changes, not to mention the tweaks Respawn Entertainment made to Hop-Ups and Gold Armor.

Weapon changes

As had already been confirmed the week prior, Season 5 does not feature a new weapon; instead, Respawn decided to make some adjustments to the current pool of guns with the hopes of making them all balanced and viable.

Perhaps the biggest news is that the Mastiff, which had been available only via Care Packages, is now a regular weapon that can be found along with other default loot. As a result, however, the devs have critically reduced its power, decreasing the damage per pellet, headshot multiplier, fire rate and projectile size.

Conversely, the Peacekeeper will now be taking the place of the Mastiff as a Care Package-exclusive gun, so its power has been increased to fit that label. This includes a tightened pellet spread pattern, reduced rechamber time and reload time and increased projectile size.

• Read More: Every item in Apex Legends Season 5 Battle Pass

Other than that, the RE-45 and Alternator were both buffed, while the Longbow DMR, Winman, and Havoc were all nerfed. A Havoc nerf had been high on the players’ wish list for a while now, so most will be happy to see that Respawn opted to listen to their feedback.

Weapon balancing patch notes

• Mastiff
  • The Mastiff is being rotated out of the care package to a regular weapon with its power reduced accordingly. 
  • Reduced damage per pellet from 18 to 13. 
  • Reduced headshot multiplier from 2.0 to 1.25. 
  • Increased blast pattern distances for the outer pairs of pellets. 
  • Increased blast pattern scale ADS multiplier from 0.5 to 0.55. 
  • Reduced fire rate from 1.3 to 1.0. 
  • Reduced projectile size to be more in line with other regular shotguns.
  • Increased shell count from 4 to 6.
  • Increased projectile speed to standard shotgun speed.
• Peacekeeper
  • Peacekeeper is being rotated out of a regular weapon and into the care package weapon with its power being increased accordingly.
  • Tightened pellet spread pattern.
  • Reduced rechamber time from 1.2 to 0.9.
  • Reduced reload times from 2.65 to 2.45 base and 3.6 to 3.35 empty.
  • Increased projectile size to improve consistency at close range.
• Alternator
  • Increased Mag size from 16 to 19. Level 1 Extended mag is now 22, Level 2 is now 25, and Level 3 is now 27. 
• RE-45 
  • Increased damage from 11 to 12.
  • Reduced reload time from 1.74 to 1.5 base and 2.12 to 1.95 empty
• Havoc
  • Vertical recoil increased.
  • Horizontal recoil slightly increased.
  • Recoil on the first 2 shots increased.
• Longbow DMR
  • Headshot scale reduced from 2.15 to 2.1.
• Wingman
  • Headshot scale reduced from 2.1 to 2.0. 
• Hop Ups
  • Adding Skullpiercer Hopup for DMR and Wingman.
    DMR w/ Skullpiercer – Headshot scale 2.1 -> 2.5
    Wingman w/ Skullpiercer – Headshot scale 2.0 -> 2.25
  • Vaulted Anvil Receiver.

Outside of the gun balancing update, Respawn also made some other weapon-related changes for Season 5. The list of fully-kitted gold weapons was updated and it now features the Longbow DMR, Hemlok, Spitfire, EVA-8, and RE-45, so be on the lookout for those.

• Read More: Loba’s kit and abilities in Apex Legends Season 5

Legend changes

There’s no doubt that the biggest change when it comes to Legends is Mirage, who received a major rework and now features totally new Ultimate and Passive abilities.

The Ult, called ‘Life of the Party,’ deploys several decoys that mimic Mirage’s every move, with a cooldown of 60 seconds. The new Passive, ‘Now You See Me…,’ cloaks the character whenever he’s using a respawn beacon or reviving a teammate, who too goes invisible. This is in addition to the standard ability that cloaks Mirage when he’s downed.

The Legends that were buffed include Bloodhound (Tactical now lasts longer with decreased Cooldown), Crypto (Drone can ping banners), Lifeline (increased Lifeline bin ratio), Caustic (gas no longer slows teammates), and Octane (reduced Launch Pad cooldown).

Lifeline was also on the list of characters that were nerfed, as she will no longer find Knockdown Shields in secret bin compartments. Other nerfs include Gibraltar (reduced Dome Shield duration) and Pathfinder (Grappling Hook takes longer to cool down), the latter being a major change to the top-tier Legend.

• Mirage – Now it’s a party! Your favorite trickster has learned a few new tricks to bamboozle his enemies in this new rework for Season 5.
  • Designer Note: The hope for this rework is that it gives more depth to Mirage gameplay by giving Mirage players avenues to get better at Bamboozling people.
  • Tactical: Psyche Out
    • Pressing the character utility action button allows Mirage to gain control of his decoy.
    • When controlling the decoy, it will mimic Mirage’s every move.
    • Decoys now last for 60 seconds.
    • Releasing another decoy will remove the previous decoy.
  • Ultimate: Life of the Party
    • Mirage deploys a team of decoys that mimic his every move (think “Emergency Dance Party” from DUMMIEs Big Day).
    • Cooldown 60 seconds.
  • Passive: Now You See Me…
    • In addition to cloaking when downed, Mirage also cloaks while using a respawn beacon and reviving a teammate (the teammate is also cloaked).
  • Mirage’s “You got Bamboozled” line will now trigger when you bamboozle an enemy, instead of when you release a decoy.

• Bloodhound
  • Tactical: Eye of the Allfather
    • Increased Sonar Detection from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
    • Decreased Cooldown from 35 seconds to 25 seconds.

• Crypto
  • Tactical: Drone
    • Crypto can now ping banners, while in drone, to warn teammates of nearby squads.

• Lifeline
  • Increased Lifeline bin ratio to 20%
  • Removed Knockdown Shields from Secret Compartment loot pool

• Caustic
  • Designer note: this is something that is a bit of an experiment.  We will be keeping an eye out to make sure this change doesn’t cause any degenerate player behavior.
  • Friendly gas no longer slows teammates.
  • Caustic traps are no longer triggered from the other side of a door.

• Octane
  • Designer note: This is a first step in pushing more team utility for Octane. We have more updates planned but they didn’t make the cutoff for this patch.
  • Launch Pad cooldown is reduced from 90 seconds to now 60 seconds.

• Gibraltar
  • Designer note: Internal data shows that Gibraltar’s performance in individual fights is in a good place, but we want to bring down his power a bit in team fights.
  • Reduced Dome Shield duration from 18s to 12s.

• Pathfinder
  • Designer note: Given the power of quick repositioning in Apex, being able to use Pathfinder’s Grappling Hook multiple times in a fight is both too powerful and muddies combat legibility.
  • The cooldown for Grappling Hook has been increased from 15 seconds to 35 seconds.

Make sure to check out the full Apex Legends Season 5 update patch notes for details about all other changes and additions.