All Legend buffs and nerfs in Apex Legends Season 21

❘ Published: 2024-05-07T10:15:56

apex legends alter and wraith fighting eachother

Respawn Entertainment

Apex Legends Season 21 doesn’t just introduce Alter, but it also brings some significant buffs and nerfs for all the Legends. So, here’s a breakdown of all the Legend changes in the Season 21 update.

Apex Legends Season 21 gives the free-to-play shooter a huge refresh in content, with Alter and the new Solos mode taking the limelight. Each major seasonal update for Apex also brings some pretty big balance changes for Legends and weapons to mix things up.

For those interested in the character changes, here are all the Legend buffs and nerfs in Apex Legends Season 21.

Apex Legends Season 21 Legend buffs & nerfs

Here are all of the Apex Legends Season 21 buffs and nerfs according to the official patch notes:

Ash

Arc Snare
- Changed to left-hand cast
- No longer stows weapons or interrupts consumable use when launching
Phase Breach: inspired by some Alter tech, nearby enemies will be highlighted for players traveling through the Void

It’s about time, huh? Allowing Ash to fire her Arc Snare with her off-hand has been something we’ve wanted to do for a while now. Holstering and redrawing her weapon to use the snare put Ash at a disadvantage in combat and minimized a lot of her play options. Ash should now be able to be much more active with her snare and apply pressure more aggressively when successful.

Ballistic

Whistler: damage from a planted smart bullet increased to 10 (was 5)
Upgrades
- Care Package Insight: removed
- NEW Sling-Shot: improves Ballistic’s base sling weapon to a blueset at Level 2 and a purpleset at Level 3

We’re replacing a lackluster perk with something more interesting, especially for those Ballistic players that like tapping into their sling weapons in non-Ult scenarios. Three Tac related upgrades is plenty, let’s make some room for that third weapon.

Breakout: Level 2
Lasting Bullet	Smart Bullet duration in-world is tripled.
Care Package Insight	Reveal Care Packages.
Upheaval: Level 2
Lasting Bullet	Smart Bullet duration in-world is tripled.
Sling-Shot	Sling weapon levels up with each upgrade selection.

Bloodhound

Beast of the Hunt
- Cooldown increased to 4m (was 3m)
- Knocks with Ult active no longer extend duration
Upgrades: Level 3
- Tactical Cooldown: removed
- Taste of Blood: buffed HP gain on knock to 50 (was 25)
- NEW Long Hunt: knocks extend Beast of the Hunt duration

Beast of the Hunt has a lot of power baked into it considering perfect vision through smoke, increased move speed, and a generous extension timer. We wanted to break that down to see if players lean into a specific playstyle and ax the uninteresting hidden power of a decreased Tac cooldown. Bloodhound synergizes very well with two of the most popular Legends at the comp level, but we want to be mindful of their appeal across skill bands. We’re not doing anything big to this approachable Legend until we gauge their place at the top-end in a digi free world.

Breakout: Level 3
Taste of Blood	Gain 25 hp on knocks while Ultimate is active.
Tactical Cooldown	-5s Tac Cooldown
Upheaval: Level 3
Long Hunt	Knocks extend Beast of the Hunt duration.
Taste of Blood	Gain 50 hp on knocks while Ultimate is active.

Catalyst

Piercing Spikes
- Cooldown decreased to 20s (was 25s)
- Long Cast upgrade integrated into base Tactical
Dark Veil
- Dark Veil length increased to 45m (was 40m)
Upgrades
- Long Cast: removed
- Long Veil: moved to Level 2
- NEW Ferro-Door: fully rebuild and reinforce missing doors with Passive.

Catalyst could use some love after her Ult nerfs, and Sister Spikes needed some competition. Hopefully making Tac charges more available with a baseline cooldown buff and creating a situationally strong alternative via passive upgrade helps strike a balance. Now that the Ult upgrades are decoupled, there are some difficult choices to make at both levels that we suspect are influenced by match flow. Will you hunker down with a friendly zone pull, or will you need an upgraded wall to help with rotations?

Breakout: Level 2
Sister Spikes	Increase max number of active Spikes by one.
Long Cast	Increase Spike throw range by 40%.
Upheaval: Level 2
Long Veil	Increase Ultimate length by 15m.
Sister Spikes	Increase max number of active Spikes by one.
Breakout: Level 3
Resilient Veil	Increase Ultimate lifetime by 5s
Long Veil	Increase Ultimate length by 15m
Upheaval: Level 3
Ferro-Door	Fully rebuild and reinforce missing doors with Passive.
Resilient Veil	Increase Ultimate lifetime by 5s.

Caustic

Gas damage and slow now stops immediately after Caustic’s squad is eliminated
Gas damage ramps from 4 → 10 max (was 5 → uncapped), damage on knocked players down to flat 4 (was 5)

Conduit

Radiant Transfer
- Can no longer target a Revenant while Forged Shadows is active
- When Revenant activates Forged Shadows, any temporary shield generation ends immediately. Revenant will keep any temporary shields generated before activating his Ultimate.
Upgrades
- Battery Collection: removed
- NEW Battpack: can stack up to 3 Shield Batteries per inventory slot (doesn’t stack with Gold Backpack)

Conduit maintains a healthy pick rate and has cemented herself as a strong Support pick even after her last round of nerfs. We don’t want to hit her effectiveness as a Legend that pushes the tempo in combat. This is a targeted nerf to one of her synergies that felt more exploitable than we’d like.

Breakout: Level 2
Battery Collection	See Battery Count of death boxes.
Bigger Jam	Jammer damage radius increased by 20%.
Upheaval: Level 2
Battpack	Stack up to 3 batteries per inventory slot.
Bigger Jam	Jammer damage radius increased by 20%.

Crypto

Neurolink
- Network Traffic upgrade now integrated into base kit
- Squadcount banners are now visible anytime the drone is in a deployed state
Upgrades: Level 2
- Tac & Ultimate Cooldowns: removed
- Network Expansion: moved to Level 2
- NEW Quick Ping: improved drone handling (faster accel/decel)
Upgrades: Level 3
- NEW Satellite Imagery: drone scan persists for an additional 1.5s
- NEW Hackathon: cut the drone cooldown in half, gain a speed boost anytime he uses his Ult or the drone is destroyed

Crypto’s upgrades at the start of Season 20 left a lot to be desired. We hope this suite of changes resonates with a couple different playstyle types—particularly when it comes to players’ affinity to pilot the drone more actively vs. passively.

Breakout: Level 2
Tactical Cooldown+	Reduce Tactical cooldown by 10 seconds.
Ultimate Cooldown	Reduce Ultimate cooldown by 20%.
Upheaval: Level 2
Network Expansion	Passive & Ult range increased by 25%.
Quick Transmission	Improved drone handling.
Breakout: Level 3
Network Expansion	Passive & Ult range increased by 25%.
Network Traffic	Deploying the drone calls out squads in the area.
Upheaval: Level 3
Hackathon	Double drone recharge rate; gain speed boost when it explodes.
Satellite Imagery	Drone scan persists for 1.5 seconds.

Fuse

Upgrades
- Big Bang: removed
- NEW Ring Master: gain access to Ring Consoles
- Scar Tissue:
  - Simplified and buffed damage mitigation to remove lingering burn effects
  - Take a flat 20 damage when crossing The Motherlode instead of 37 (50% of 75 hp) over time
- Wreckless: fixed explosive damage mitigation not being applied on continuous Knuckle Cluster hits (should only take about 32 damage from a full Knuckle Cluster now with Wreckless)

Fuse is destruction and chaos. The goal of these changes, whether it be a new strategic-level upgrade or a simplification of a convoluted damage model, is to bring some method to the madness.

Breakout: Level 2
Big Bang	See ordnance through walls & death boxes.
Scar Tissue	Take 50% damage and ignore slow effects of The Motherlode.
Upheaval: Level 2
Ring Master	Gain access to Ring Consoles.
Scar Tissue	Take 20 damage and ignore slow effects from The Motherlode.

Newcastle

Mobile Shield: throw anim speed increased (~2.5x faster)
Castle Wall
- Will now destroy incoming projectiles headed towards the front of the wall while energized. It will not destroy projectiles fired from behind the wall nor bombardments from other Legend’s Ultimate projectiles.
- Castle Wall energized duration increased to 1m (was 30s)
Upgrade – Stronghold: increased energized duration to 3m (was 2.5m)

The Castle Wall’s in-game strength rarely matches the grandeur of its presentation. More often than not, the wall serves as a grenade beacon to surrounding threats knowing that Newcastle just jumped to an ally in distress. An Ultimate-level wall should not fail as much as it does, especially on a Support Legend that’s built around turning the tide when his squad starts losing the advantage. The wall now requires more calculated counterplay and makes the Stronghold upgrade a more compelling option. We were also finding the long wind-up when tossing his Mobile Shield left him pretty vulnerable trying to get back to his weapon, so we’ve sped up the animation to let him be more reactive with it.

Octane

Upgrades
- Wreckless: removed
- Mad Hops moved to Level 2
- Thick Skin: now Level 2 and 3, updated to take 5 less Stim damage to reflect that it can be selected twice (was -25%)

Octane has a “Plus Ultra” tattoo, so we shouldn’t inhibit his ability to double down on his tac or ult. While Wreckless was thematically fun, Octane already has one of the best forms of explosive damage mitigation that’s less hidden: stim away.

Breakout: Level 2
Thick Skin	-25% Stim damage
Wreckless	-50% Explosive damage
Upheaval: Level 2
Mad Hops	Gain an extra Launch Pad charge.
Thick Skin	Take 5 less Stim damage.
Breakout: Level 3
Mad Hops	Gain an extra Launch Pad charge.
Airborne Agility	Change directions with Launch Pad double-jump.
Upheaval: Level 3
Airborne Agility	Change directions with Launch Pad double-jump.
Thick Skin	Take 5 less Stim damage.

Wattson

Upgrades
- Falling Stars: Pylons will stop spawning Arc Stars when her squad is eliminated
- Split Circuit: no longer reduces shield regen capacity

Wraith

Into the Void and Dimensional Rift: nearby enemies will be highlighted for players traveling through the Void

That was every Legend buff and nerf in the Apex Legends Season 21 update. For more on Apex, be sure to also check out our other helpful guides below: