Apex Legends’ once dominant gun is now “basically throwing” if you pick it

The R-99 SMG’s descent into madness has Apex Legends fans furious, as some players plainly state it “sucks” and question its worth in its current state.

Since it arrived in 2019, Apex Legends has consistently been a balancing act for Respawn Entertainment, with new weapons and metas forcing the developers to create the perfect balance.

However, the balancing act has seen casualties, the R-99 being a perfect example of that sentiment. What was once a dominant SMG has now converted into a “laughingstock” in the loot pool since the weapon is a shell of itself twenty seasons later.

The Apex Legends community has kept tabs on how low the mighty weapon has fallen, with one player lighting up the gun in a scathing post. “The R-99 sucks,” the player simply stated before they followed up with: “Does anyone even pick up this gun?”

The rest of the post details the gun’s turbulent history, as magazine buffs were countered by removing the digital threat sight capability and decreasing the damage. “I understand that it was dominating against all the other weapons, but holy hell it’s so bad that if you pick it up, you’re basically throwing the match,” OP ended the post.

Apex Legends players around the web gathered around to share their thoughts on the fallen soldier, as players shared more viable options in the Volt, C.A.R, and L-STAR, although the C.A.R does bear some minor hiccups fans aren’t too pleased with.

“Useable off drop. That’s about it,” one player briefly commented. Another replied: “The RE-45 is better. Oh, the times have changed.”

As many of the replies mentioned, the R-99 dominated lobbies for quite some time, so its current state isn’t the worst outcome possible. However, it would be nice to have all weapons be viable, although that’s quite the challenge.