Respawn Entertainment have released the official patch notes for the game’s January 5 update, which will start the Fight Night event, and subsequently bring a few new game modes, a new heirloom, balancing fixes for guns and legends, and more.
If you’ve been wondering what’s going to be included in Apex Legend’s Fight Night update, then your questions have finally been answered. Respawn decided to kick off the new year by letting fans know just what they’ll be able to expect in the upcoming patch, which is set to release on January 5, 2021.
While the update makes a ton of balancing and bug fixes throughout the game, it also adds in a few new features, including a brand new game mode under the new “takeover” tagline, as well as a new Gibraltar Heirloom, new skins, and 24 other items. Here’s what you need to know.
Most important changes in Apex Legends Jan 5 2021 update
In terms of new content, Apex is set to get a new mode called Airdrop Escalation, which is similar to the original battle royale mode but with extra supply drops, and will temporarily replace the main experience.
In addition, Pathfinder Town Takeover is coming to the Apex, which will add a new POI to the map based on the Legend and will force players to fight with fists in an arena.
In addition, 24 new items will be available to get in the season, either through Apex Coins or Crafting Metal, including a bunch of new skins. Once players unlock all the items, they’ll receive a brand-new Gibraltar Heirloom.
Beyond those major changes, a slew of bug fixes and balancing changes will be coming to the game. First and foremost, Rampart’s cooldown has been decreased for her Amped Cover. Caustic’s gas traps were originally due to be buffed too, but Respawn have removed it. Instead, Horizon has been given a nerf, with her cooldown increased by 5 seconds.
Step into the ring in the Fight Night Collection Event. Load up like never before in Airdrop Escalation Takeover, bare-knuckle brawl in Pathfinder’s Town Takeover, and dress to the nines with 24 event-limited items!
Play the Fight Night Collection Event starting Jan 5. 🥊 pic.twitter.com/PQhiPfDibu
— Apex Legends (@PlayApex) January 1, 2021
Beyond that, a few weapons also got changed as well. The Hemlok was nerfed, with its overall damage decreasing, as was the Mastiff, whose max range got decreased.
The Prowler SMG, however, got buffed slightly, as its reserve ammo was increased from 175 to 210. While this isn’t an earth-shattering change, it will allow players to hold more ammo in their reserves, so it’s still notable.
Some quality of life changes were also made. The biggest update here is the inclusion of a “mark all as seen” button, which will allow players to easily get rid of the red notification dots in the main menu, which many players find annoying.
Of course, that’s not everything that was changed and you can find all of the technical changes, straight from Respawn, below.
Apex Legends January 5 update patch notes
Legends
Rampart:
- Amped Cover: Decreased cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds
Horizon:
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- Gravity Lift: Increased effective cooldown from 16 seconds to 21 seconds
Weapons
Hemlok:
- Decreased damage from 22 to 20.
Mastiff:
- Spread out 3rd/4th pellets to decrease max range of 4 pellet hits (was +/- 7.5 degrees, now +/- 10)
Prowler:
- Reserve bullets increased from 175 to 210
Ring Update
In hopes of spreading out the chaos that can occur in final rings, we’re making some tweaks to Rings 5 and 6.
- Ring 5 is bigger (1500 unit radius to 2000 unit radius). Time to close is the same.
- Ring 6 is the last ring. It will slowly close over 100s somewhere near the center of Ring 5.
QUALITY OF LIFE
- Ultimate Accelerants can now be used without opening your inventory. If your ultimate is not currently available, just press the button (or buttons, on a controller) to activate it, and you’ll pull out any stored Accelerant in your inventory and use it automatically.
- When in a lobby, if a party member leaves your lobby for any reason, all party members will be marked as “not ready.” This should stop accidental launches into a match when your buddy dipped out for a second.
- The fabled “Mark All As Seen” button has been added. Click this to remove the pesky (I mean helpful) red dots.
- Pinging the nearest respawn beacon (from spectate) will now always ping the nearest beacon unless you don’t have enough time to use it before the ring closes over it, instead of defaulting to the nearest beacon in the next safe ring.
- We now show you how many treasure packs are needed to acquire the next comic page. This should just make it easier to people who are chasing the new bit of lore to know how far away they are.
- Caustic should now smash the door with his Heirloom hammer instead of his leg, if available.
- We added a small bit of information to the Find Friends box to describe a situation where your friend might not be findable because of their EA account settings.
BUG FIXES
Bloodhound
- Fixed an issue with Bloodhound’s UI disappearing after interacting with Horizon’s Tactical.
Wraith
- Fixed an issue with Wraith’s Portals getting destroyed by the Trident.
Bangalore
- Fixed an issue with Bangalore’s missile passing through hatch doors when they are closed in Worlds Edge.
Mirage
- Fixed an issue with Mirage’s decoys not making footstep sounds.
Crypto
- Fixed an issue with Hack consuming two Vault keys if two keys were in Crypto’s inventory.
- Fixed an issue with Hack getting stuck within the Trident when deployed as a passenger and the trident is on a ramp.
Revenant
- Fixed an issue causing other players to teleport with Revenant if they punch Revenant when he has very little health.
- Fixed an issue that didn’t allow Revenant to deploy the Death Totem while on the Trident.
Loba
- Fixed a lot of windows in World’s Edge that prevented Loba’s bracelet from passing through.
Rampart
- Fixed an issue that allowed Rampart to place Sheila while in the Phase Runner.
- Fix an issue where UI elements stayed on screen after using Sheila.
Horizon
- Fixed an issue with Horizon’s abilities not affecting Lifeline’s DOC and Crypto’s drone.
