The rumored new Caustic event has officially been announced. Chaos Theory is the newest collection event, starring everyone’s famous toxic scientist Caustic. The event will include a new Town Takeover, limited time Ring Fury mode, a new Heirloom for Bangalore, and plenty of new skins. This event will launch Tuesday, March 9. The full official Apex Legends Chaos Theory patch notes can be found here.
Legend Buffs
Pathfinder
- No longer has the Low Profile passive.
Low Profile is applied to legends that are small and/or mobile. This makes them take 5% more damage to account for being harder-to-hit. Shots to their legs also register as body shots. Pathfinder is still plenty mobile, but has a fairly large hitbox. Taking Low Profile off just makes sense given this.
Revenant
- Revenant’s silence now disables Mirage’s cloaked revive and respawn, as well as Octane’s Swift Mend.
As Revenant’s silence disables passives like Gibraltar’s arm shield, disabling these two abilities adds consistency. A silenced Mirage will have to remain visible while reviving/resurrecting teammates, and Octane’s constant heal will not be active while silenced.
Rampart
- Explosives damage Amped Cover normally, instead of dealing 200 damage.
- Explosives damage Shiela normally, instead of dealing 175 damage.
Originally, the developers worried about Rampart’s walls being too strong. To counteract this they made the walls take bonus explosive damage. But with the new season and Fuse being built around explosives, Rampart needed some help. These buffs should help keep her from getting dislodged or exposed so easily.
Wattson
- Wattson now has a passive shield regeneration at 0.5 HP per second.
In the Devstream, they noted that while Wattson does well at high ELOs, she doesn’t see the same pickrate at lower ones. Adding a more self-centered ability should draw more people to her. This new passive is similar to Octane’s but for shields instead of health. This goes in tandem with her ultimate ability, keeping her shields fully charged and less reliant on cells and batteries.
Legend Nerfs
Caustic
- Nox Gas Grenade cooldown increased from 2.5 minutes to 3.5 minutes.
- Nox Gas damages at a flat rate of 5 HP per tick instead of ramping up from 6 HP → 12 HP.
Despite Caustic getting the limelight of this event, it seems his reign of ranked terror is about to end. His ability to control space and slow down engagements has been too strong of late. The devs want to dial back his ultimate ability, both in damage and cooldown. The damage no longer increases, making it more predictable and allows more counterplay. The cooldown increased due to his slower play style. The slow engagements mean they last longer, so he has his ultimate in most of them. Making it longer will make using the ability a bigger decision going forwards.
Gibraltar
- Removed 15% faster heal item usage while in Dome of Protection.
Gibraltar has become a force to be reckoned with over the past two years. The devs stated they have some tweaks planned to his arm shield, but some bugs prevented it from going through for now. Regardless, this Dome nerf will just make healing inside of it back to normal speed, so not too much of a nerf.
Horizon
- Increased Black Hole cooldown from 2 minutes to 3 minutes
Horizon’s ultimate can be very impactful in fights, but has been one of the shorter cooldowns. Its 180 second cooldown is now more in line with other offensive ultimates like Bloodhound’s Beast of the Hunt or Bangalore’s Rolling Thunder.
Weapon Buffs
Wingman
- +1 bullet to every magazine size, including base.
The once-great Wingman has lost its crown. With its steep learning curve and little aim forgiveness, many players opt for other weapons. In order to make players come back to it. Its base magazine is going from 5 to 6 shots, and each successive Heavy Magazine gets another shot added to it. This will allow players to take a few more shots before reloading, which could be just enough to turn a fight.
Weapon Nerfs
Mastiff
- Pellet damage decreased from 13 → 11. Fire rate increased from 1.0 → 1.1.
The Mastiff has been one of the strongest weapons in all of Apex Legends. If all 8 pellets of the shot hit, it would deal 104 damage (128 if headshots). This nerf drops the max damage to 88 on the body and 110 to the head. Howerver, the fire rate is increased by 10%. All in all, this mostly negates the big nerf, and drops the DPS to between 12.1-96.8 (previously 13-104). This should should make the gun less of a one-shot weapon, and hopefully open up the shotgun category for more feasible options.
Hemlok
- Increased hip-fire spread.
The devs stated that the Hemlock should thrive at mid-range. However, its hip-fire accuracy has made it quite strong and bursty at short ranges too. This increased spread will make it tougher to land all the shots while un-scoped. Players may wish to carry a close-range weapon like a shotgun or SMG in addition to the Hemlock going forwards.
Miscellaneous Changes
- Kings Canyon Loot – we’ve done a pass on the loot to bring up the quality across the map, while also maintaining a certain amount of loot after Mirage Voyage has flown away.
- The wooden shacks across the map should have a few more pieces each, and generally be a little higher quality.
- Spotted Lake has been reduced to Medium Quality from High.
- Crash Site has redistributed the loot in the area slightly. The amount stays the same, but the higher quality loot should be in the ship.
- Caustic Treatment has more loot than Water Treatment, and it remains Hiqh Quality.
- Locked Weapon Optic Swapping – For guns with fully locked attachment slots, like fully-kitted gold weapons and most crate weapons, you can now remove the optic and replace it with a different sight. This does not apply to the Kraber sniper rifle.
- Assists have been added to the in-game HUD, next to kills. This was already present in Ranked and now has been added to unranked. Assists still don’t contribute to XP. This has replaced the Spectator “eye” icon.
- Assists and Knocks have been added to your squad’s banners and will show at the end of a match.
- Ping My Deathbox – While respawning on a dropship, you can now ping your own deathbox to help locate it easier.
- Gold Backpack – Players being revived by a gold backpack will have a crackle of energy—based on the tier of armor they wear—while the revive is taking place. They will also display the armor heal
That wraps up most of the Apex Legends Chaos Theory patch notes. The Game Haus will continue to be updated with any new Apex Legends information, so stay tuned.
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Apex Legends Chaos Theory Patch Notes