Apex Legends Season 20 patch notes – All changes

Tom Bull

Tom Bull

Everything we know so far.

Here are the full Apex Legends Season 20 patch notes. Respawn have now officially unveiled the full list of changes. It includes some big SMG nerfs, new legend upgrades, armour changes and more.

Apex Legends Season 20 Patch notes

Legend Upgrade System

The biggest thing in the Apex Season 20 patch notes is undoubtedly the new Legend Upgrade system.

Each and every Legend will have a total of four perks. As players level up their Evo shield from White to Blue. Then, Blue to Purple they will choose between two perks as they do so.

These perks will help you customize your legend and add a huge variety of gameplay into the Battle Royale.

Some of the confirmed Legend Perks:

  • Pathfinder: Knocking down enemy will reset grapple cooldown 
  • Bangalore: Sitting inside her smoke will heal her
  • Wattson: Can now place 2 Ultimates at the same time
    • Ultimate will now spawn the arc grenades thrown by enemies
    • Ultimate heals both shield & health
  • Lifeline: Can now Self-Revive
    • Spawn Red Tier weapon in Lifeline Carepackage
  • Gibraltar: Revive allies to 40hp
    • Auto reload Shotgun on knocks
    • Smaller Dome Size, with shorter cooldown
    • Increase Dome lifetime duration +4sec

Armour Changes

Armour will no longer be a craftable item in Apex Legends. Instead, it will be tied to your character.

Deathboxes will feature ‘Armour Cores’, allowing you to shield swap temporary health rather than the physical shield itself.

New Evo Harvesters and Evo Caches will be available to gain Evo charge without fighting. Additionally, activities like ‘playing your role’ will also grant Evo. 

These changes tie into the new Legend Upgrade system. 

Apex Season 20 patch notes: Crafting changes

The Apex Legends Season 20 Patch notes also reveal big changes to how Crafting works in the game moving forward.

  • You can only use each Replicator once
  • All crafting is free
  • The only items available to craft are
    • Med Kits
    • Shield Batteries
    • Expired Banners
    • Ammo

This will finally eliminate the scourge of zone crafters. However, it will mean that crafting luxury items like Turbochargers, Purple Bags or Mobile Respawn Beacons is no longer possible in Apex Season 20. 

Crafting changes for Rampart's Big Maude

With crafting materials no longer in the game, the way Big Maude can yield weapons is changing.

All Big Maude paintball weapons are now free, but they will take time to dispense from their vending machines. Once a player has claimed their free weapon, they cannot get another.

Loba will still be able to steal a second gun with her Black Market. There is also an increased variety of weapons to choose from, but gold kitted weapons are no longer offered at Big Maude.

Ranked Changes

There is also (another) overhaul of the ranked changes. Ranked will be reverting back to the Season 13 system, with a few minor tweaks. There are new top five bonuses, and a redesigned post match screen.

Respawn are also reintroducing splits. In addition, all players will be reset back to 1RP (yes... it's RP again!) when Season 20 drops.

Apex Legends Season 20 Patch notes: Balance changes

Legend changes

While every legend is getting changed with the new Legend Upgrade system, the following legends are getting changes.

Heavy-Rig Legends (Gibraltar, Caustic, Pathfinder, Newcastle, Revenant)

  • Now use medium-rig first-person movement animations
  • Actual game speeds have not changed, these Legends will feel less sluggish when running

Support Legends

  • Extended Supply Bin contents have been improved (see below)

Ballistic

  • Sling: Sling Weapons now have all White attachments while equipped
  • Tempest: effect radius for ally range has been increased to 90m (was 13m)

Bloodhound

  • Tracker: Raven scan’s Ult Charge is now gated behind the Hunting Ravens upgrade

Catalyst

  • Dark Veil:
    • lifetime decreased to 15s (was 25s)
    • length decreased to 40m (was 55m)

Conduit

  • Radiant Flash
    • Cooldown increased to 26s (was 21s)
    • Temporary Shield generation rate decreased to 15HP/s (was 20HP/s)
    • Temporary Shield generation time increased to 9s (was 8s)
  • Energy Barricade
    • Mine duration reduced to 45s (was 60s)
    • Mine HP reduced to 200HP (was 250HP)
    • The distance at which mines are removed when deployed too close to one another has been increased by ~100%

Crypto

  • Surveillance Drone
    • Speed of drone recall has been increased slightly
    • Transitions going in and out of drone are now faster

Horizon

  • Gravity Lift: cooldown increased to 25s (was 20s)

Lifeline

  • In modes with Upgrade Cores enabled, Lifeline's Care Package now has a 50/50 chance to drop an extra piece of smart equipment (vs. large consumable) instead of an Armor

Mad Maggie

  • Wrecking Ball
    • Will no longer be destroyed on first enemy hit
      • Instead, the Wrecking Ball will trigger an explosion then keep going, allowing for a second explosion to trigger later
      • The same player cannot be hit again by the ball for 2s after first impact
      • Players can only be affected by the shellshock and knockback effects once
    • Will now bounce through devices it hits and destroys

Octane

  • Jump Pad: audio falloff of double-jump has been adjusted to be slightly less audible from long distances

Pathfinder

  • Insider Knowledge
    • Scanning Care Packages now awards 50% Ult Charge (was 100%) and 15s Ult Cooldown (was 10s)
    • This also applies to Ring Console or Survey Beacon scans

Is there a new Legend or a rework in Season 20?

With the huge changes that the Legend Upgrade system will bring, there is no room for a new legend or a major overhaul in Apex Legends Season 20. 

There was heavy rumours of a Lifeline rework (in the same way Revenant was reworked) this season. However, the Apex Legends Season 20 patch notes have no sign of such drastic changes to the combat medic specifically. 

Gameinformer are reporting that the next legend to come to Apex, in Season 21 or later, will be Skirmisher Class. 

Weapon Changes

Care Package Weapon Rotation

  • EVA-8 enters the Care Package
  • Prowler returns to the floor

30-30

  • Base damage reduced to 39 (was 42)
  • Ammo capacity
    • Base capacity unchanged (6)
    • White Magazine reduced to 7 (was 8)
    • Blue Magazine reduced to 8 (was 10)
    • Purple & Gold Magazine reduced to 10 (was 12)
  • Skullpiercer headshot multiplier reduced to 2.0 (was 2.1)
  • Dual Loader removed as an integrated Hop-Up, now only loads 1 shell per reload
  • Marksman Stock reload speed bonus normalized to match other sniper weapons
  • Reloading 3 shells in a row now increases reload speed by 20% for the remainder of the reload

EVA-8 [Care Package]

  • Damage reduced to 6 (was 7)
  • Fire rate increased to 3 (was 2.4)
  • Recoil reduced to better match the much faster fire rate
  • Hammer Points: 20% damage increase against flesh (+1 damage)
  • Gold Shotgun Bolt: shells reloaded on slide increased to 2 (was 1)
    • Note: this change only affects the Care Package EVA-8

Hemlock

  • Damage reduced to 20 (was 21)
  • Hipfire spread increased
  • Spread delay increased to 0.28 (was 0.21)

L-Star

  • Can no longer equip Barrel Attachments

Prowler [Floor]

  • Reverted to non-Care Package version
    • Damage decreased to 15 (was 16)
    • Select Fire Hop-Up removed
  • Burst delay increased to 0.28 (was 0.24)
  • Spread delay increased to 0.28 (was 0.15)

R-99

  • ADS vertical and horizontal recoil increased

R-301

  • Hipfire spread reduced

SMG Ballistics

  • Projectile gravity increased across all SMGs
  • Projectile launch speed reduced across most SMGs (Prowler unchanged)

1x Digital Threat

  • Can no longer be equipped to SMGs
  • Spawn rates reduced by 20%

Laser Sights

  • Spread multipliers reduced
    • White Laser Sight adjusted to x0.9 (was x0.8)
    • Blue Laser Sight adjusted to x0.8 (was x0.6)
    • Purple Laser Sight adjusted to x0.7 (was x0.4)

Map Changes

While there is no new map coming in the Apex Legends Season 20 patch notes, Olympus, Storm Point and Worlds Edge are getting a cosmetic overhaul to celebrate the games fifth birthday! 

There will NOT be any pesky, deafening, airshows though. Respawn have decided to protect our ears and deploy celebratory Blimps this year instead. 

The Apex Games Museum on World’s Edge has an all-new exhibit that honors the history of the Outlands and the origin of the Games. Filled with interactive kiosks, artwork and red carpet flair, the museum has many interesting tidbits of information, community artwork and even some easter eggs.

Apex Season 20 Patch Notes: World Systems

Extended Supply Bins 

  • Extended Supply Bins now give Smart Gear
    • Players can find gear upgrades for Knockdown Shields, Helmets, and Backpacks in the hidden shelf
    • Small chance of granting purple gear if a player on the squad has white gear or none at all
    • Small chance of granting gold gear if the entire squad has purple gear
  • More reliably gives Heat Shields & MRBs when needed
  • Increased likelihood of getting Med Kit over Syringes

Ring Exploit Prevention

  • Players spending too much time outside the Ring will be warned, then eliminated

Are you excited for these Apex Legends Season 20 patch notes to become reality when Season 20 releases?

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