All weapon buffs & nerfs in Apex Legends Season 8 update

Respawn Entertainment

The full patch notes for Apex Legends Season 8: Mayhem have finally been released, and they include adjustments to several of the game’s guns, Hop-Up attachments, and more.

The launch of a new season is like Christmas morning for Apex Legends fans, and while most of the focus goes into the new content that gets released, the patch’s changes are also very important to take note of.

As usual, Respawn have implemented some tweaks to several weapons, four to be exact, while also mixing things up when it comes to the fully-kitted rotation, Hop-Ups, attachments and, of course, the brand new Gold-tier magazines.

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Everything you need to know about weapon-related changes can be found below.

30-30 Repeater in Apex LegendsRespawn Entertainment
Apex Legends Season 8 introduced a brand new weapon called the 30-30 Repeater.

Apex Legends Season 8 weapon buffs & nerfs

Of the four weapons that were touched in the S8 patch, three received some sort of buff: Alternator, Spitfire, and EVA 8. The Alternator’s bullet damage was increased from 15 to 16 while the EVA 8’s rate of fire was upped from 2.0 to 2.1.

As for the Spitfire, the one boost it received was an improvement in bullet damage from 18 to 19. However, the powerful LMG also got nerfed to help balance out the buff – the speed of both the regular reload (2.8 to 3.2) and empty reload (3.33 to 3.8) were both increased.

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There was one other gun that got nerfed, the Volt, which saw its bullet damage decreased from 16 to 15.

Spitfire in Apex LegendsRespawn Entertainment
The Spitfire LMG received the most changes in Apex Legends’ Season 8 patch.

Changes to Hop-Ups & attachments in Apex Season 8

Pretty much every start-of-the-season patch includes some sort of tweak to the available Hop-Ups in the game, and S8 is no exception. The Double Tap, which granted an alternative burst fire mode, has been removed from the loot pool.

Alternatively, Anvil Rounds have been added back into the loot pool after being removed in Season 5. This Hop-Up increases the damage of semi-automatic weapons but with every single shot fired using two rounds of ammo and the rate of fire getting reduced.

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As for other attachments, the Gold Barrel Stabilizer has been removed from the loot pool; this barrel lowered recoil by 20% and reduced muzzle flash. In place of it now will be the brand new Gold Extended Magazine, which offers the same ammo capacity as the Epic variant but now auto-reloads weapons its attached to after 5.5 seconds of holstering them.

New Gold Mag in Apex LegendsRespawn Entertainment
Gold Mags are a brand new attachment in Apex Legends Season 8.

Changes to fully kitted rotation in Apex Season 8

Nothing out of the ordinary here – Respawn have yet again shuffled around which weapons get featured in the fully kitted rotation:

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  • Removed
    • Wingman
    • Sentinel
    • Havoc
    • G7 Scout
    • Alternator
  • Added
    • R-301
    • 30-30 Repeator
    • Mozambique
    • Longbow DMR
    • Spitfire

One other important thing to note: all indications are that Respawn have chosen to keep the same selections for supply drop-exclusive weapons, meaning that the S8 Heirloom guns will continue to be the Peacekeeper, Kraber, and Prowler.


There you have it – everything you need to know about all the buffs, nerfs, and any other weapon-related changes made in the Apex Legends Season 8 update. The actual patch goes live on Tuesday, February 2, at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET which is when all of these adjustments will go into effect.

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