Season 20 of Apex Legends is shaping up to be one of the biggest in recent history, with massive changes to gameplay and legends. If you took a break a few seasons back, this is looking like the right season to jump back in. We have all the information you might possibly want so you can keep track of the changes and patch notes in Apex Legends Season 20.
Apex Legends Season 20 Patch Note Highlights
The full patch notes for Season 20 have arrived, and they include much more than we were thinking. There’s a lot here to go through, but we will break them down for you a little.
Biggest Buffs
This season has more nerfs than buffs, so the most significant one is a reduction in the R-301’s hipfire spread. As for legends, Ballstic’s Sling Weapon will now get a set of white attachments instead of being unable to equip any.
Though on a wider basis, Mad Maggie has a much better buff than that.
- Wrecking Ball
- Will no longer be destroyed on first enemy hit
- Instead, the Wrecking Ball will trigger an explosion then keep going, allowing for a second explosion to trigger later
- The same player cannot be hit again by the ball for 2s after first impact
- Players can only be affected by the shellshock and knockback effects once
- Will now bounce through devices it hits and destroys
- Will no longer be destroyed on first enemy hit
Biggest Nerfs
It’s bad news if you’re a heavy 30-30 user, as it got hit pretty hard.
- Base damage reduced to 39 (was 42)
- Ammo capacity
- Base capacity unchanged (6)
- White Magazine reduced to 7 (was 8)
- Blue Magazine reduced to 8 (was 10)
- Purple & Gold Magazine reduced to 10 (was 12)
- Skullpiercer headshot multiplier reduced to 2.0 (was 2.1)
- Dual Loader removed as an integrated Hop-Up, now only loads 1 shell per reload
- Marksman Stock reload speed bonus normalized to match other sniper weapons
The L-STAR losing barrel attachments is something that Rampart mains aren’t going to sit well with. However, the R-99 aimed recoil increase isn’t going to be too great, especially with all SMGs already losing the Digital Threat sight attachment.
The other point of pain is yet another damage nerf for the Hemlok as well as a hipfire spread increase.
As for legends, Catalyst has taken a decent hit to her Dark Veil ultimate, as it will now last only 15 seconds (25 previously) with a length of 40 meters (previously 55).
Perhaps the largest legend nerf of them all is for newcomer Conduit, and it is a doozy.
- Radiant Flash
- Cooldown increased to 26s (was 21s)
- Temporary Shield generation rate decreased to 15HP/s (was 20HP/s)
- Temporary Shield generation time increased to 9s (was 8s)
- Energy Barricade
- Mine duration reduced to 45s (was 60s)
- Mine HP reduced to 200HP (was 250HP)
- The distance at which mines are removed when deployed too close to one another has been increased by ~100%
Every Big Change In Apex Legends Season 20 Explained
Unlocked Legends For New/Returning Players
A certain group of six legends will be unlocked for anyone who doesn’t have them. These legends will have their own group of challenges for players to complete with the ultimate reward of unlocking them for free. Completing this challenges can also award players with the Top Tier Flatline Reactive Legendary Skin, which is a re-skin of the battle pass completion reward from several season ago.
New Mixtape Map
Thunderdome may have been removed from Kings Canyon a while ago, but it lives on in mixtape starting in season 20. This map will exist across every mixtape game type, so you don’t have to miss out if you happen to get into a Control game at the wrong time.
It does sound like Thunderdome is a one size fits all map, and there isn’t any adjustment between modes. This is a good and bad thing, as that means it will be a rather tight space, because no other Control maps are easily interchangeable as TDM/Gun Run locations. Though, there will be some hectic fighting right off the bat.
It is also rumored that Season 20 will include new game modes, so there might be new things for mixtape that also utilize Thunderdome.
Armor Removal & Changes
Every tier of armor has been removed from the game’s loot pool. Every player will get their own white armor upon starting, and must evolve it from there. By the sounds of it, it won’t even be lootable from death boxes, so the armor you start with is all you get. The best news is that this prevents you from getting landed on and someone else happens to nab purple before you can. The removal of gold armor is a decent loss, but I think this will massively improve fights.
EVO Harvesters & Caches
Dealing damage is also no longer the only way to evolve your armor either. The map includes EVO Harvesters that sound similar to Crafting Material Harvesters, that can give points toward your armor when used. Special items called EVO Caches seem to potentially spawn on care packages and give a whole armor level once picked up.
On top of that, there are new actions in game that give points toward your armor that is split into individual or team accomplished things.
The Apex Legends site gives the breakdown as:
- Personal Gains
- Damage
- Knocks and Knock Assists
- Knocks against a legend of higher level will net an underdog XP bonus
- Finishers
- EVO Cache (Care Packages, Vaults etc.)
- Team Gains
- Squad Wipes
- Revives
- Respawns
- Class Interactions (Survey Beacons, Ring Consoles, etc.)
- World Interactions (Wildlife, Trials Completions, etc.)
- EVO Harvesters
Legend Perks
The new forced armor evolutions come with a major bonus in the form of perks for each legend. At second and third armor tiers (blue and purple) you can pick from two choices to enhance your legend. The coolest new perk belongs to Mad Maggie and is called Fire Ball. It makes it so that her ultimate ball will explode into an X-shape of Thermite. They aren’t all quite so impactful, as the Newcastle perk Thick Shield just gives his shield segments a 250HP increase.
You can find all the rest of them in the full patch notes, separated by legend type.
Keep in mind that these perks only function in battle royale modes and mixtape will work as it always has. There’s a chance this could change in the future, but for now, perks are mode-specific.
Ranked Adjustments
The devs have somewhat reverted ranked back to how it worked several seasons ago. The weight on placement has been lifted and eliminations have returned to being the biggest RP gains. These also scale up by placement, so the two will work hand in hand rather than making you focus on only one.
This change also brings back the RP entry cost when you reach certain ranks, starting at 20 RP per game once you are silver rank.
If you consistently earn top 5s, you will be given an RP bonus while your streak lasts. It caps at 40 RP at five matches and above, but still helps with those who get close but never win.
- 2 match streak: +10 RP
- 3 match streak: +20 RP
- 4 match streak: +30 RP
- 5+ match streak: +40 RP
You also get a 50% bonus on RP earned when eliminating or assisting in eliminating a player of a higher rank that you.
Overall, this is a great set of ranked adjustments to keep your RP up and get you climbing the ranks in this season.
No More Clubs
Say goodbye to your Clubs, everybody, as they are being entirely removed. This was rumored near the end of season 19 when leaked screenshots from the Final Fantasy event didn’t have the Club tab at all.
Though Clubs will be gone, the game will instead shift to what Call of Duty has been doing since the original Modern Warfare, and just let players create “Tags.” These will be three or four characters long and can be changed whenever you want. On the bright side, if you were late to the game and a preexisting club took your desired Tag, you can now take it back.
Apex Legends Season 20 is shaping up to be a massive change in the game’s formula. How do you feel about some of these changes? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
