[GameSpot] - Apex Legends Update Restores Wattson's Fences And Reworks Backpack Drops

[343iBot]

Apex Legends is getting a small update Monday, May 24, and it makes some tiny but significant changes to the game. This patch restores the slow effect on Wattson's fences, reworks some aspects of the new Arenas mode, and adjusts loot logic to even out the drop rate of Backpacks and other items.

Players have complained that Wattson's electric fences no longer slow down opponents on contact for most of May. According to Respawn, this is an unintended bug that was added to the game at an unknown point around the launch of the game's current Season 9, but it should be fixed by this update.

In addition to the Wattson shift, Valkyrie is getting some minor changes, including a small delay after using her ult to make sure that players aren't accidentally activating it. It also patches two exploits involving the firing range and an edge case that allowed Valkyrie to activate her ult after launching off of a jump pad.

The patch also adjusts Apex's new arena mode, most notably by adding penalties for leaving a game mid-match. In another small change, the update reworks the logic for loot items being spawned on the ground, which should cause backpacks to spawn more evenly, which is an issue that players have complained about in recent days.

Apex Legends developers recently commented publicly on the game's monetization policies as part of a Reddit AMA. A recent patch for the game nerfed the Spitfire LMG and the new Bocek Bow.

Apex Legends 5/24/21 Update Patch Notes

• Restored slow effect when players run into Wattson's fences
• Valkyrie changes:
  • Added a short input delay after using Valkyrie's ult to prevent players from accidentally activating--then immediately cancelling--their ult by accident
  • Fixed an exploit that let players record stats in the firing range while using Valkyrie
  • Fixed an edge case that allowed her ult to be activated shortly after using a jump pad
• Arenas changes:
  • Penalties for abandoning games have been added to Arenas. This is similar to the abandon penalty applied in Ranked BR games. You only get the penalty if you were in a full squad when you left (this doesn't apply if you were partied with the leaver--you'll still get penalized in that case). This update will activate a warning for players who are about to leave a game in-progress. The associated penalties will follow shortly after.
  • Hop-up Upgrades for the Bocek bow are now as follows: Level 2: Shattercaps. Level 3: Deadeye's Tempo.
  • Fixed various Arenas bugs and errors.
• Loot adjustments:
  • Adjusted the logic for loot items being spawned on the ground as opposed to being placed into loot bins. This should cause backpacks to spawn more evenly on the ground as opposed to being spawned almost exclusively in loot bins.
  • Slight increase in spawn rates for Level 2 Evo armor. The starter kit changes introduced in Season 9 had caused them to be lowered by more than expected.
• Misc. stability fixes.
• Re-enabling Valkyrie in the firing range.
• We're temporarily increasing survival XP earned in Arenas. This is a placeholder fix to offset the fact that the buy phase currently isn't being taken into account for "survival time." In a future patch we'll adjust the survival time calculation to include the buy phase and return the survival XP earn rate to its previous level.

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