'Apex Legends' Season 12 Update Guide: Which Weapons Will Be Nerfed, Buffed

Electronic Arts released patch notes for Apex Legends' Season 12 that brought in a new Legend, Mad Maggie, to the multiplayer online battle royale's roster. It also added the new Control limited-time mode and updated the game's map.

The update also provided balance changes to some of the Legends and several weapons, although some were silently tweaked and not included in the patch notes.

Weapon Nerfs, Buffs

One of the weapons that the Season 12 Update tweaked is the sub-machine guns (SMGs). According to Dexerto, the Alternator SMG had its Disruptor Rounds Hop Up removed.

The damage and maximum magazine size of the Volt SMG were increased from 15 to 17 and from 28 to 30, respectively.

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However, there is another tweak to SMGs that were not included in the patch notes.

According to Clutch Points, a dataminer revealed on a Twitter post that the Alternator SMG received an increased hip-fire spread along with the Prowler and the R-99.

This means the hip-fire spread from the gun had increased from 1.0 to 1.2 while standing, from 1.5 to 1.7 while running, from 2.5 to 2.7 while sprinting, and from 3.5 to 4.0 while airborne.

This change, according to Alt Char, shows that a higher spread had further reduced the hip-fire accuracy, allowing players to fire their first shot faster without waiting to aim down their sights. However, the increase also made hip firing worse while using SMGs.

On the other hand, the update reduced the damage from the bullets of a VK-47 Flatline from 19 to 18, while it removed the projectile growth of Triple Take's bullets and had its damage reduced from 23 to 21 per bullet.

The Rampage light machine gun had also its damage and its number of shots during the Revved state reduced from 28 to 26 and from 40 to 34, respectively.

In terms of Hop Ups, according to the patch notes posted on Electronic Arts' website, the Season 12 Update tweaked the Kinetic Feeder to speed up the choke time of players who wield either a Triple Take or Peacekeeper after sliding while it automatically reloads their rounds.

It also changed the Hammerpoint Rounds to have an additional 50% unshielded damage from P2020 and an additional 35% unshielded damage from Mozambique and RE-45.

The update also changed the Shatter Caps to passively affect the hip-fire for the 30-30 Repeater and Bocek Bow. This Hop Up will also no longer be toggled on or off.

Changes for Legends

The Patch Update also changed the abilities of several Legends in Apex Legends.

According to the patch notes, the field-of-view of Crypto's Neurolink detection had increased from 160 degrees to 240 degrees and it can be disabled while the Drone is being recalled.

The deployment of his Surveillance Drone had been worked, making it fly a straight line in the direction of his view for a few seconds after pressing the Tactical button.

The rework also made it hit the wall to re-orient itself if it was thrown to a wall.

If the drone is deployed this way, Crypto will no longer access the Drone View, unless a player presses and holds the Tactical button.

Its health was decreased from 60 to 50 while its HUD marker was tweaked to increase visibility and make it display on-screen while it is deployed.

Finally, Caustic's Nox Gas Traps now has 150 Health and can now be destroyed or expired after 11 seconds. However, its gas effects will linger for two seconds after it is destroyed or expired.

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