Apex Legends Devs Drop The Ban Hammer Ahead Of New Harbingers Collection Event

Apex Legends Season 18: Resurrection is in full swing, and today--after a few weeks of uncharacteristic silence from Respawn Entertainment--the developer unveiled the game's next event: the Harbingers Collection Event.

The event will also herald the introduction of a new limited-time mode. Known as Living Shell Trios, the temporary new game mode introduces a new type of ordnance: the Rev Shell. Only available during the Harbingers Collection Event, the Rev Shell is a target-seeking grenade that bears a striking resemblance to the small handheld skull Revenant would sometimes use to activate his Death Totem. Now that Revenant's received a complete makeover (including a full overhaul of his abilities), his Death Totem ability is gone, but it seems the iconic skull will live on in the form of Rev Shells.

Revenant's not the only part of Apex getting a makeover this season--during the Harbingers Collection Event, players will also gain access to a reimagined version of World's Edge, called World's Edge After Dark. Featuring a dark night sky, the entire map is shrouded in darkness, and according to the official Harbingers Collection Event blog post, it seems some POIs may be temporarily renamed, with the popular Train Yard POI being referred to as Pain Yard instead.

As always, the event includes a new set of 24 bewitching premium cosmetics for players to peruse. Players who unlock all 24 items will receive Fuse's new Heirloom Weapon--a Marceline-esque guitar-shaped battle axe--free of charge. The event will also feature various store bundles, and a free reward track for players to complete in exchange for free loot.

But despite the event's spooky theme, Apex is looking even scarier in real life--if you've been cheating, anyway. After promising to focus on addressing the game's prolific aim-botting and smurfing issues, it seems Respawn has followed through, announcing the banning of over 2,000 player accounts who were using cheats. While this spells bad news for some less-than-honest players, the vast majority of Apex's playerbase is glad to see them go.

The Harbingers Collection Event begins on Tuesday, September 19 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, and ends on Tuesday, October 3 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. The event also includes some minor changes and gameplay tweaks, including reducing the Forged Shadows knockdown timer boost from 10 seconds to 5 seconds. The patch notes are listed in full below, with what appears to be a Nessie-based Easter egg or hint listed at the very end:

PATCH NOTES

BALANCE UPDATES

• Weapon Crafting rotation
  • 30-30 Repeater enters the crafter
  • RE-45 with Hammerpoint Rounds enters the crafter
  • Mozambique returns to floor loot
  • Nemesis returns to floor loot
• Lowered autoplayer difficulty in orientation matches
• Redistributed the pockets of high tier armor within POI’s (ex.the center of Countdown on World’s Edge) into the global loot pool

WEAPONS

• Nemesis Burst AR
  • Damage reduced to 16 (was 17)
  • ADS recoil increased

LEGENDS

Fuse

• Knuckle Cluster
  • Tactical deployment speed increased

Horizon

• Gravity Lift
  • Weapon accuracy decreased while in Lift (more spread)
  • Vertical Lift speed reduced by 20%
  • Hover time at top of Lift reduced to 0.5s (was 2.0s)

Rampart

• Amped Cover
  • Placement time reduced to 2s (was 3s)
  • Rampart now remains in placement mode after deploying a wall

Revenant

• Forged Shadows
  • Reduce time extension from knocks to 5s (was 10s)
  • Extra damage to the shroud will bleedthrough to Revenant if it breaks
• Shadow Pounce
  • Slightly increased pounce angle compensation when looking at the ground

MAPS

• World’s Edge After Dark added to LTM

RANKED

Recent Hotfix: September 6, 2023

• Guaranteed (%, per kill) Elimination Bonus has been raised across all skill levels
• Point disparity between teammates of vastly different skill has been reduced

BUG FIXES

• Digi-Threat now correctly highlights enemies through close proximity multi-layered FX
• Gold magazine and gold bolt now work after being killed by a dummy
• Level 1 accounts no longer appear as Champions in pubs

Audio

• Certain weapon sounds (such as Rampart's mounted turret motor) now stop upon match end
• Finishers should no longer have doubled-up or missing audio
• Weapon draw audio now plays correctly when swapping legends in the firing range

Olympus

• New Revenant Heirloom no longer changes to original Dead Man’s Curve coloring after leaving the Fight Night ring on Olympus
• Resolved endless skydiving after flying off map with a Trident

PC DX12

• Resolved incorrect cursor location when using the controller in certain resolutions
• Restored game window positioning when video settings are reset

LEGENDS

• Ash’s Floating Point emote no longer has incorrect sound
• Bloodhound’s Piercing Plasma no longer occasionally turns enemies invisible
• Crypto will now get kicked out of his drone when silenced
• Mirage restored heirloom allowing players to switch weapons without breaking cloak after a revive
• Seer’s Focus of Attention no longer interrupts other highlight items and abilities
• Vantage’s Spotter’s Lens restored in Firing Range
• Valkyrie’s Bladed Decent no longer stutters visually
• Wraith no longer gets stuck when meleed while using Into the Light finisher

Revenant

• Forged Shadows
  • Damage to the shroud now contributes to damage stats and evo points
  • Friendly arc stars and knuckle clusters no longer stick to the shroud
  • Mad Maggie’s Warlord’s Ire now highlights Revenant when you hit his shroud
  • Vantage’s Sniper’s Mark now applies when you hit his shroud
  • Stun effects now apply when his ultimate is active
• No longer gets stuck in Shadow Pounce when activating the ability before landing from the dropship
• Resolved animation canceling when using Shadow Pounce that allowed you to draw weapons early
• Restored highlight from Assassin’s Instinct showing up in cases where enemies are visible but partially obstructed
• Stopped Shadow Pounce automatically deploying after climbing a ledge

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Bloodhound can see Revenant’s Forged Shadows activation point
• Firing Range Supply Boxes now sort weapons by type for easy access
• Loba’s Black Market now sorts weapons by type for easy access
• Improvements to how our audio engine dispatches and prioritizes audio voices
• More accurate shadow rendering for legends and weapons in game menus
• PC DX12: implemented new RHI (Rendering Hardware Interface) rendering backend

A NOTE ON REGIONAL VOICE ACTORS

We've recently had to update some of our regional voice actors, and you may continue to hear updated voice lines as more Legends require updates over the coming seasons and patches. We appreciate and thank all of our regional voice actors, both old and new, for being an integral part of Apex Legends.

Incoming Transmission…. Subject: Nessie….

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