Apex Legends Season 18 brings massive Revenant overhaul, ranked system fixes, and weapon meta changes for competitive play
Season 18 Overview & Launch Details
Apex Legends Season 18 arrives with comprehensive gameplay adjustments rather than introducing a brand new Legend, focusing instead on refining core systems and addressing community feedback from previous seasons.
Respawn Entertainment has deployed the full Season 18 update, featuring Revenant’s complete ability overhaul alongside extensive weapon balancing and ranked system corrections to improve competitive integrity.
This season breaks from tradition by omitting a new playable character, instead delivering a ground-up rework of Revenant originally introduced in Season 4. The synthetic assassin receives entirely new abilities and visual enhancements.
Additional content remains relatively light with no new battle royale map or weapon additions, signaling Respawn’s strategic focus on fixing existing systems rather than expanding content volume.
However, the patch notes contain substantial gameplay modifications including weapon meta shifts, ranked scoring adjustments, ring behavior tuning, and numerous quality-of-life improvements that collectively represent significant changes to the Apex experience.
Apex Legends Season 18 deployment begins Tuesday, August 8 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST across all platforms.
PlayStation users gain early access to preload the update, while Xbox and PC players must await the official launch time before initiating download procedures. Server maintenance typically lasts 2-3 hours during major season transitions.
Revenant Reborn: Complete Character Overhaul
The centerpiece of Season 18 features Revenant’s comprehensive transformation into “Revenant Reborn,” marking the most extensive legend rework in Apex history with class reassignment and completely redesigned abilities.
Revenant becomes automatically unlocked for all players throughout the season, with permanent retention achievable by completing specific challenge objectives before Season 18 concludes. This approach increases accessibility for new players while rewarding engagement.
Revenant’s redesigned ability kit and additional details can be explored through dedicated ability guides.
Revenant has been reborn
Strategic Impact: Revenant’s shift from Assault to Skirmisher class significantly alters team composition strategies. Skirmishers excel at repositioning and initiating fights, making the reworked character ideal for aggressive playstyles. Teams should adjust their legend selections to maintain balanced class distribution, potentially pairing Revenant with defensive or support legends to cover his increased mobility focus.
Ranked System Rebalancing & Fixes
Season 17’s ranked modifications proved problematic, resulting in Master rank inflation and excessive “ratting” behavior where players avoided combat to accumulate placement points.
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Respawn directly addresses these issues through comprehensive Season 18 ranked adjustments. Major modifications are highlighted below with complete explanations available in the detailed patch notes.
Read the full breakdown of this season’s ranked changes in our July 2023 Ranked Blog and check out an update on Ranked Rewards in our Resurrection highlights blog.
- We mentioned in our July 2023 Ranked blog that we would be bumping up the Elimination Bonus slightly. In our attempt to reduce the Master spike, we identified the need to instead reduce the overall points given within the whole system. Instead of bumping as planned, we took a different approach and reduced placement scores to make eliminations more valuable when compared to the now lowered placement score.
Ranked Strategy Adjustment: The reduced LP gains and increased Diamond+ costs create a more difficult ranked climb that better reflects skill progression. Players should focus on consistent performance rather than relying on occasional high-placement games. The new MMR-based elimination bonus exemption rewards skilled players even when facing lower-ranked opponents, reducing frustration from LP withholding.
Weapon Balance & Meta Changes
Weapon modifications, including the Charge Rifle transformation and SMG adjustments, receive comprehensive explanation within the seasonal patch notes.
Care Package Weapon Rotation
- ADS Recoil increased
- Damage reduced to 22 (was 23)
- Headshot multiplier reduced to 1.75 (was 1.8)
- Damage increased to 16 (was 15)
- Select Fire Enabled defaulting to Full Auto
Gold Weapons Rotation
- Removed hitscan
- Removed pre-fire laser
- Projectiles have player passthrough: 80% damage retained
- Opens doors
- 50 meters: 75 Damage
- 300 meters: 110 Damage
- Holding the trigger down will increase charge
- Releasing the trigger will decrease charge
- Fires at 100% charge
- Base: 4
- White: 5
- Blue: 6
- Purple/Gold: 8
- Tactical reload time decreased to 3.5 (was 4.0)
- Empty reload time decreased to 4.6 (was 5.1)
All SMGs (R-99, Alternator, CAR, Volt)
- Base Ammo reduced to 17 (was 19)
- White Mag reduced to 20 (was 21)
- Blue Mag reduced to 23 (was 24)
- Purple/Gold Mag reduced to 26 (was 27)
Weapon Meta Analysis: The Charge Rifle transformation from hitscan to projectile fundamentally changes long-range engagement dynamics. The distance-based damage scaling rewards precision at extreme ranges while making mid-range encounters less dominant. SMG nerfs significantly reduce close-range dominance, potentially shifting the meta toward AR and LMG usage. The Prowler in care package with full-auto capability becomes a devastating close-to-mid range option.
Legend Ability Adjustments
- Ultimate Accelerants grant 25% ult charge (up from 20%)
- Reduced delay before an overheated weapon starts cooling down to 1s (was 2s)
- Reduced how long it takes an overheated weapon to cooldown to 8s (was 12s)
- Cooldown reduced to 25s (was 30s)
- Slow Duration reduced to 0.5s (was 2.5s)
- Silence Duration reduced to 8s (was 10s)
- Firing Speed increased to 1.4s (was 0.9s)
Legend Balance Strategy: Gibraltar’s significant ultimate cooldown reduction makes him more viable for aggressive teams, while Bangalore’s increased cooldown reduces her area denial frequency. Seer’s substantial nerfs (reduced slow duration, silence duration, and slower tactical activation) dramatically decrease his competitive viability, potentially shifting the recon meta toward Bloodhound or Crypto. Loba’s improved ultimate accelerant efficiency and tactical cooldown make her stronger for loot-focused strategies.
Map & Game Mode Improvements
The following maps will be available for public matchmaking in the Battle Royale mode:
Ring behavior across maps in the BR has been updated with targeted tunings; including ring size, damage, and timings to several game phases to improve pacing in early and mid game. Here’s an in-depth look:
- Ring 1 has increased 10% in radius per map, resulting in ~20% larger Ring 1 surface area
- No other Ring sizes changed
- Ring 2 Damage increased from 3 per tick to 4 per tick
- Ring 4 Damage reduced from 20 per tick to 15 per tick
- Round 1
- Preshrink time reduced from 90s to 75s
- Shrink speed on small Maps reduced from 167 to 160
- Shrink speed on large Maps reduced from ~180 to ~165
- Shrink time standardized to ~260s on each map
- Round 2
- Preshrink time reduced from 165s to 120s
- Shrink speed reduced from 160 to 140
- Shrink time increased by ~25s per map
- Round 3
- Preshrink time reduced from 135s to 90s
- Round 4
- Preshrink time reduced from 105s to 90s
- Shrink speed reduced from 100 to 85
- Shrink time increased from 40s to ~50s
- Round 5
- Preshrink time reduced from 90s to 75s
- Shrink speed reduced from 50 to 40
- Shrink time increased from 40s to 50s
- Small maps: reduced to ~19.0 mins (was ~21.5 mins)
- Large maps: reduced to ~20.0 mins (was ~22.5 mins)
- Maps added to Mixtape: Production Yard & The Core (Read more about these maps in our highlights blog here)
- Multiple rat spots removed
- Removed ‘exclusion radius’ that caused some POIs to get these objects more than others
- All POIs now have an equal chance of receiving a Ring Console, Survey Beacon or Crafting Workbench
- Capture Bonus bounty reduced ~20%
- Capture time reduced to 10 seconds (was 20 sec)
- Score limit reduced to 1000 (was 1250)
- Spawn waves removed: players should spawn instantly at the location they choose including Home Base, Captured Points, and MRB (Note: MRB will still use the dropship)
- Timed events: Airdrops, MRB, Capture Bonus should all start ~30% sooner in match-time
Map Strategy Updates: The larger Ring 1 creates more early-game positioning options and reduces initial zone RNG. Increased Ring 2 damage punishes players who linger outside the zone during mid-game rotations. The standardized ring timing across maps creates more consistent match pacing. Control mode changes accelerate gameplay with faster captures and instant spawning, making matches more dynamic and reducing downtime.
Quality of Life & Bug Fixes
- New animated celebration sequences when unlocking and completing trials, as well as mastering weapons
- New animated icon in the HUD weapon element when a weapon is level 100
Quality of Life Impact: The spectating fix ensures players learn from opponents who outplay them, improving skill development. Audio prioritization enhancements help distinguish important combat sounds from background noise. Weapon Mastery visual rewards provide better progression feedback and satisfaction. UI responsiveness improvements reduce frustration during inventory management and communication.
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