Apex Legends Season 8: Mayhem update is due to drop on February 2, and although patch notes aren’t expected until right before the update goes live, we already know of a bunch of confirmed changes and fixes coming. Here’s an early look at what the patch notes are expected to include.
Obviously, the main changes will be the addition of the new Legend, Fuse, who hails from Salvo, as well as the new weapon – the 30-30 repeater.
Kings Canyon will also be massively changed, as Fuse’s entrance to the Apex games did not go smoothly and his old friend Maggie crashed the party – literally.
But, the most exciting part of the patch notes themselves will be seeing how Respawn has adjusted the various Legends with nerfs and buffs, plus some of the quality of life changes planned.
Apex Legends Season 8: Early patch notes
New Legend: Fuse
Straight from Salvo, Fuse is an explosive Legend, and his abilities reflect this. He can shoot projectiles from his prosthetic arm, and his ultimate will shoot a mortar-like missile, which explodes into a ring of fire.
Fuse Abilities:
- Passive: Grenadier – Fuse’s mechanical arm throws ordnances farther, faster and more accurately. Fuse can also stack more grenades per inventory slot than other Legends.
- Tactical: Knuckle Cluster – Deploy a cluster bomb that splinters out mini-concussion mines.
- Ultimate: The Motherlode – Bring out Fuse’s rocket launcher “Wally” to drop an ordnance that surrounds the target in a ring of flames.
Official icons and descriptions for Fuse’s abilities.
New Weapon: 30-30 Repeater
We didn’t get a new weapon in Season 7, but we are in Season 8. Fuse brings the 30-30 repeater straight from Salvo. It’s a lever-action rifle that packs a punch.
It uses the Heavy Ammo type, but shots can be charged too.
The 30-30 Repeater will be added to the loot pool this February.
Kings Canyon map changes
The arrival of Fuse has obliterated Kings Canyon. Original POIs including Slum Lakes and Artillery have been destroyed, and there is a new hue to the map.
A massive explosion on Kings Canyon has completely changed the map.
New Season 8 Battle Pass: Mayhem
As always, there will be a fresh battle pass for the new season, which will include over 100 items.
We don’t know if there will be any changes to the battle pass system yet, like there was in Season 7.
Legend changes
These are the Legend buffs and nerfs that Respawn have said will be coming in Season 8. Check out a full explanation and details on each change here.
Note: This is not a final list of all Legends that are getting changes in the Season 8 update.
Rampart
- Adding 45 health to her Amped Cover
Wraith
- Respawn say they are looking at changes to Wraith’s hitbox, to bring her in line with other Legends.
Horizon
- Respawn are looking at nerfs to her tactical ability, but haven’t confirmed the exact changes they’re making yet.
Revenant
- Respawn have been struggling to find a good buff for Revenant, but are looking at hitbox adjustments
Wattson
- Respawn are looking for ways to make Wattson more fun, without making her more powerful
Mirage
- Fix for decoys making footstep noise – this was originally in the Fight Night patch notes, but has been removed and will be coming in a future update, possibly with Season 8.
Caustic
- Caustic hammer breaking doors – this was also originally in the Fight Night patch notes, but has been removed and will be coming in a future patch, possibly with Season 8.
Horizon is due for a slight nerf in Season 8.
New Item: Gold Magazines
- Gold Magazines: Automatically reloads holstered weapons, has a 5.5 second delay.
- New hop-up for the Sentinel – unknown
Returning Items
Not confirmed yet, but it appears the Anvil Receiver hop up will be back in Season 8.
Quality of Life
- In-game damage tracker added
Bug Fixes
- Heirloom store not showing all Heirlooms
- Players told they are buying Gibraltar’s Heirloom when buying Caustic’s Heirloom
- Legend skins for Mirage and Bangalore affecting aim down sights
- Errors relating to private matches
- Players can’t hear each other in cross-play lobbies
Ranked Play
A new Ranked Series will begin at the start of Season 8: Ranked Series 7. The first split will take place on Kings Canyon, and run until March 23. The Second split will be on Olympus. No World’s Edge in Ranked play.
Full Ranked Play changes can be seen here.
- Earn placement RP earlier in a match
- RP rewards begin at placement 13 instead of 10 in a match.
- Kill/Assist count has been raised to 6
- Earn RP for more of your kills and assists in a given match.
- This is a slight nudge to give really good players a slightly faster trip back to their competitive rank, while giving our top tier players more ways to pull ahead of the pack in the Predator ranks.
- Assist Threshold Increased to 10 seconds
- Earn assists for up to 10 seconds (up from 7.5 seconds) after dealing damage to a target that is killed by someone else.
- Predator has been increased to the top 750 players
- Allowing more players to enter predator should improve queue times while remaining an exclusive tier for the highest levels of play.
- Matchmaking Tightening
- Players below Diamond will matchmake much more often within their own Ranks.
- Skydive Trails return
- In Season 8, Diamond Skydive Trails will be making a return as a ranked reward.
Season 8 Collection Event
Data miners have uncovered files related to an Anniversary Collection Event in Season 8. Although collection events typically start midway through the Season, this time it could potentially start earlier, given that the 2-year anniversary of Apex Legends is February 4 – two days after Season 8 starts.
That’s everything we know at the moment about what’s coming in the Season 8 update patch notes.
We’ll keep you updated with more changes as they come, and of course when Respawn releases the full patch notes.