Apex Legends Season 16 patch notes: New classes, weapon, TDM, more

Apex Legends Season 16, Revelry, releases on February 14, and while there is no new legend, there is an abundance of new content, changes, and balancing to enjoy. Here are all the patch notes for the Season 16 update so far.

The lack of a new legend might be disappointing to some, but it was bound to happen at some point, with a new Legend introduced every season was likely unsustainable forever.

Instead, this season will see a complete “remaster” of the classes in Apex. There are now five classes which all the Legends are divided into, complete with new unique perks for each. There are also balancing changes to a handful of popular characters.

And, for the first time in many seasons, there is a new weapon, the Nemesis Burst AR. The firing range gets an update too, as well as the addition of TDM and more. Respawn has released the full patch notes that break down everything new coming in Season 16.

Apex Season 16 patch notes

Legend Classes Remastered

Each Legend in Apex will be classified as follows: 

LEGEND CLASS	LEGENDS
Assault	Maggie, Ash, Bangalore, Revenant, Fuse
Skirmisher	Valkyrie, Wraith, Mirage, Horizon, Octane, Pathfinder
Recon	Crypto, Seer, Vantage, Bloodhound
Controller	Catalyst, Rampart, Wattson, Caustic
Support	Newcastle, Lifeline, Loba, Gibraltar

Perks for these classes are all new too, including the ability for Support legends to craft their eliminated teammates’ banners – even if they have expired. For a full breakdown of all the perks, check out our full explainer of the new classes here.

New Mode: Team Deathmatch

Arenas has been removed from Apex Legends in Season 16. Replacing it is Team Deathmatch, which will be available for the first three weeks of Season 16.

TDM is a 6v6 mode, and is the first to win two rounds. Your team needs 30 kills to win a round. There is infinite respawns, but you’ll have to wait around 6 seconds before respawning.

After three weeks, TDM will be placed in the new Mixtape playlist, which will be permanent. Mixtape will cycle through LTMs, starting with TDM, Control, and Gun Run.

New Weapon: Nemesis Burst AR

The new weapon for Season 16 is an Assault Rifle, which takes energy ammo and fires in bursts.

When firing bursts continually, the gap between bursts will get shorter, until it almost feels like it is firing full auto.

Legend Balancing

A number of Legends are being impacted by changes to their abilities in Season 16 with buffs and nerfs

Seer

• Seer’s Ultimate Ability, Exhibit, will be nerfed in terms of cooldown and duration, with Respawn describing the nerf as “pretty hard” 
• Seer’s Passive Ability, Heart Seeker, will now have a charge up time, meaning it cannot be spammed by players. It is also no longer a ‘constant’, but comes and goes with the ‘pulses’ of enemies it detects. It will also be audible to nearby enemies, potentially giving away Seer’s location when it is being used.

Bloodhound

• Bloodhound’s Ultimate Ability, Beast of the Hunt, has been overhauled to fit with a new ‘White Raven concept’ – it will no longer speed up their Tactical Ability charge.
• Instead, it will now find “ethereal white ravens around the map”. When interacted with, these ravens will fly in the direction of the closest enemy. This creates a longer hunting loop.

Wraith 

• Wraith can now place he portal twice as far as previously, and “will speed up as she travels that extra distance”. 

Pathfinder 

• The range and riding speed on Pathfinder’s zipline has been increased “significantly”, meaning he can travel further and faster than previously. 

Horizon

• Accuracy when firing during Horizon’s Tactical Ability, Gravity Lift, has been reduced, making targets more difficult to hit. 
• However, the speed at which she is lifted into the air has been increased slightly. 

Mirage

• After reviving, Mirage and the revived ally will be cloaked for 3 seconds. This 3 second duration only stands as a result of the player remaining unarmed. If they draw their weapon, the cloak is broken immediately. 
• When a clone is shot, the bamboozled enemy will now be tracked by a small icon for a short time. 

Lifeline 

• Significant reduction to the ‘slow penalty’ when activating her revive. 
• Significantly increased drop speed and range of her Care Package Ultimate Ability. 

Valkyrie

• No longer sees enemy locations marked when using her Ultimate Ability, Skyward Dive.

There might be even more changes than this in the full patch notes.

Weapon updates

Shotguns

• Gold shotgun bolt added – will reload rounds while sliding, both when weapon is stowed or armed
• Improved pellet size at close range for more consistent hits
• Peacekeeper and Mastiff can now take tactical stocks

Assault Rifles

• R-301 damage nerfed from 14 to 13
• Hip fire accuracy reduced for all assault rifles

Crate weapons

• Hemlok moved to crate
• Rampage LMG returns to floor loot
• Volt SMG and Longbow DMR placed in crafters

New player orientation matches

For brand new players, starting in Season 16, they will have to complete a few orientation matches against mostly bots on Kings Canyon. After winning a game, they will be placed in the general population of players.

You can queue up for this mode with a more experienced friend if you choose.

Ranked changes

There are no major changes to ranked in Season 16, except the map rotation. Instead of the map changing at the season split, the map will now change every 24 hours.

The maps for Season 16 are Broken Moon, Storm Point, and World’s Edge.

Map changes

There is no new map for Season 16, but there are some exciting changes to the existing ones. Every map in rotation will be dressed with anniversary celebrations, including big balloons of the characters and banners.

Also, Mirage Voyage returns, but is now called Mirage à trois. It has been given a facelift, with a new dancefloor and more. The party boat will be on every map for the duration of the season.

Firing Range updates

The firing range is getting some much-needed changes in Season 16. After being relatively unchanged since release, there are now a bunch of new options for you to play with.

This includes the shield level of the bots, making them strafe and the speed at which they strafe – you can even make them crouch. There is also now infinite ammo, and you can turn on hit markers to help you learn the recoil patterns.

That’s everything we know to be coming in Season 16 so far. We will update this article with more patch notes as they are released by Respawn.

The full Season 16 patch notes are as follows:

Weapons

Weapon Crafting Rotation

• Longbow DMR enters the crafter
• Volt SMG enters the crafter
• G7 Scout returns to the floor
• C.A.R. SMG returns to the floor

Gold Weapon Rotation

• Nemesis, Rampage, PK, Wingman, R99

Anvil Receiver Hop-Up [R-301, Flatline]

• Removed from floor loot and crafting

Hammerpoint Rounds Hop-Up [Mozambique, P2020]

• Added to floor loot and crafting
• Rarity tier increased to Legendary

C.A.R. SMG

• Reduced base ammo capacity to 19 (was 20)

R-99

• Increased damage to 12 (was 11)

Hemlock Burst AR [Care Package]

• Damage increased to 23 (was 20)
• Headshot Multiplier increased to 1.8 (was 1.75)
• Improved recoil
• Integrated Boosted Loader Hop-Up
• Boosted Loader: Faster reloads at low ammo that overload the magazine with 9 extra rounds

Mastiff

• Spread pattern adjusted to be tighter
• Added Tactical Stocks attachment to improve reload speed and handling
• Increased projectile size at close range

Peacekeeper

• Added Tactical Stocks attachment to improve reload speed and handling
• Increased projectile size at close range

EVA-8

• Increased projectile size at close range

Rampage LMG [Floor]

• Reverted to non-Care Package version
  • Damage reduced to 26 (was 28 in Care Package)
  • No longer auto-energizes when picking up
• Energy decays slower when not firing

Legends (Notes not mentioned above)

Seer

• Tactical – Focus of Attention
  • No longer shows full body scan on scanned targets
• Ultimate: Exhibit
  • No longer reveals on initiation
  • Duration reduced from 30s to 25s
  • Cooldown increased from 120s to 180s

Bloodhound

• Passive – Tracker
  • White Ravens
    • Ethereal White Ravens will now occasionally spawn near Bloodhound when no enemies are around.
    • White Ravens can be interacted with or scanned to trigger them to fly towards the nearest enemy player
    • The White Raven will leave a misty trail behind for Bloodhound to follow, and will share this direction with their team on the map.
    • Using a White Raven will recover 25% Tactical / Ultimate charge
    • Scanning a White Raven will fully refund the Tactical Charge
• Tactical – Eye of the Allfather
  • Reduced full body scan time from 3s to 1s
  • Diamond target on scanned enemy is unchanged
• Ultimate – Beast of the Hunt
  • No longer recharges or speeds up the cooldown rate of Bloodhound’s Tactical
  • Will launch a White Raven that flies towards the nearest enemy
  • Killing an enemy while in Beast of the Hunt will also trigger a White Raven

Pathfinder

• Passive – Insider Knowledge
  • Pathfinder’s passive benefits are no longer gained by scanning Survey Beacons
  • Pathfinder’s passive benefits (Ultimate charge and 10s Ultimate Cooldown reduction) are now gained by revealing Care Packages with the Skirmisher ability 
• Ultimate – Zipline Gun
  • Max Range increased by ~60%.
  • Max Speed increased by 66%. 
  • Acceleration and exit speed adjustments.
  • Targeting improvements, including updated visual and audio cues.
  • Can no longer place the end station on OOB zones. 

Ranked- Map Rotation

Ranked queue will now rotate through all maps in play, 24 hours per map. The maps for the first split are:

• World’s Edge
• Storm Point
• Broken Moon

LiveAPI 2.0

Official release of version 2.0 of Live API for PC previewed during 15.1.2. The API is a built-in mechanism for listening to gameplay events and programmatically interacting with Apex Legends. This release includes:

• Support for WebSockets server connection
• Support for Protocol Buffers (protobuf) to send and receive data
• Configuration through both command line and JSON
• 12 new API requests, including
  • 2 gameplay requests: ChangeCamera and PauseToggle
  • 10 lobby requests specifically for Custom Match

More information, including technical documentation, can be found in the LiveAPI folder of the game installation.

Quality of Life

• Added map rotation previews to the game mode selector in the lobby.
• Players can now be any team in Gun Run.
• Increased the odds of becoming Team Nessie in Gun Run.
• Team Nessie is now viewable for all teams.
• Added new indicator on HUD unit frames for the Ratings Leader in Control.
• Consumables now show a progress bar for teammates next to their unit frame on the HUD. Similar to reviving. 
• Added damage to the scoreboard in Control.
• Increased the minimum distance between airdropped replicators and other airdrops.
• Map Features when accessing the Full Map now reflect currently selected Class Perk info. Additionally, the Hot Zone map feature description is removed from the Full Map while the Hot Zone is hidden from the map. 
• When in Firing Range, players now regain full health and shields when they reselect their legend in the legend select menu.
• Added ability to ping for an optic even if the optic attachment slot is filled.
• Slightly increased audio for enemies attaching, riding, and detaching from Ziprails.
• Adding Credits to Items inspired and designed by Creators.

Bug Fixes

• Fix for Crypto’s drone reticle not being centered when on 16:10 resolutions.
• Fix for players not being able to emote if they were dead during the champion sequence.
• [Control] Fixed an issue where the MRB disappears if the player holding it leaves the match.
• Various UI bugs and improvements to the private match flow.
• Various bug fixes to some cosmetic items.
• Fix for the weapon camera in the Loadouts tab not resetting to the correct position when exiting a weapon from the Charms subtab.
• Fix for footer buttons in the seasonal quest not being clickable.
• Fix for the players’ crosshairs being present sometimes during the champion sequence.
• The hide hints option no longer hides the waving person icon on items your teammates can use.
• Fixed a bug where if a team was empty in Gun Run the HUD would display incorrect information.
• [Emotes] fix for emotes camera sometimes passing through walls.
• Removed exploit that allowed players to remain out of bounds longer than intended.
• [Seer]Fixed an issue where Seer’s ultimate could be crushed by swinging doors.
• [Seer]Fixed an issue where Seer’ s ultimate and Crypto’s drones would block large sliding doors.
• [Seer] Fix for cases where Seer would have issues scanning Crypto.
• [Seer] Fix for when Seer’s passive heartbeat sensor works through Catalyst’s ult when placed on uneven surfaces.
• [Seer] Fix for cases here Seer’s tactical can get users stuck if used when they are crafting.
• [Valkyrie] Fixed bug where her animation warps in the in-flight meal emote.
• [Newcastle] Fixed bug where the Ultimate is not refunded/is not placed if a user is getting hit with Seer Tactical right when using it.
• [Crypto] Fixed an issue where Crypto’s drone would be destroyed when he’s knocked but not eliminated.
• [Crypto] Fix for bug where Crypto’s Drone scanning can block Catalyst from reinforcing doors.
• [Crypto] Fix for cases where his Ultimate stops from deploying if Crypto gets downed
• [Catalyst] Fixed bug where their Tactical makes it difficult to interact with ziplines, death boxes, and loot bins.
• Fixed bug where the player is unable to use melee attacks through Catalyst’s Ultimate.
• Fixed an issue where players could be stuck after being hit by Seer’s tactical while using a crafting station.
• Fixed an issue where Seer’s move speed would be higher when in ADS while unarmed with the heartbeat sensor disabled.
• Fixed an issue where Crypto would not be scanned by Seer’s tactical while he was piloting his drone and the drone was not also hit by the tactical.
• [Vantage] Reduce the number of accidental tactical activations on controller when pulling out or putting away the ultimate with both bumpers.
• [Vantage] Increase visibility of Sniper’s mark by adding on-screen prompt, similar to scans.
• [Vantage] Using tactical in areas blocked by geo, can result in the player getting launched into the air
• Fixed an issue where when Newcastle’s Ultimate was interrupted it would not correctly refund his Ultimate.
• Fixed an issue where Newcastle would continue to target allies while phased with his Ultimate.
• Fixed a rare issue were Newcastle’s tactical could get hung in the air and not deploy
• Fixed an issue with the Black Hole that allowed it to pull players through walls and around corners incorrectly.
• Fixed an issue where swapping legends in Firing Range would crash if bleeding out as Revenant.
• Fixed an issue where swapping legends in Firing Range while in Crypto’s drone would crash.
• Fixed an issue where Newcastle’s ultimate could fail to deploy on landing.
• Fixed an issue where a spectator swapping between two players being healed by DOC would crash the spectator.
• [Lifeline] Fixed ultimate cooldown appearing to need 101% charge.
• Fixed an issue where the Ultimate is ready prompt could appear while the player is still skydiving.
• Fixed bug where the previous Season rank is being shown on enemy gladiator cards. 
• Reduced accidental launches on controller.
• [DX12] Fixed missing error popup on launch for unsupported hardware.
• [DX12] Fixed an issue where some emissive textures would not appear in third person.