Attention, Legends! It may be summer in the Outlands, but class is still in session. Our mid-season update brings with it the Future Icons Event, running from June 24-July 15, 2025. Take on a new variant of a favorite, Arenas: Duels, featuring 1v1s with no abilities, no heals, and no excuses. Unlock smart new Legendary Legend Skins, Epic Weapon skins, and Wattson’s “Apex Icon” Prestige Skin with matching Dive Trail via Future Icons Event Packs. Speaking of our scholarly Paquette, she’s recharged for split two with buffs worthy of her power: faster fence building, electrifying doors, and slowing enemies (including a particularly pesky prodigy). We also gave Echo’s mom some love too—Vantage mains rejoice! Both Wattson and Vantage will be unlocked for the duration of the event so everyone has a chance to try them out. Time to target greatness and rise to the challenge.
ARENAS: DUELS
Test your mettle in a new limited-time Arenas variant: Duels. Chain 1v1 duels throughout a 5-minute match on a server of 30 players while a leaderboard tracks your performance. Each Legend, loadout, and spawn location are randomized, but both you and your opponent will be mirrored—pushing you to make the best of each moment on even ground. And with abilities turned off until July 15, it’s all about core gun skills and movement. This is Arenas: Duels at its purest. Also a great way to warm-up for those looking to get back into the swing before jumping into their primary modes.
Later this split, we'll update the experience by turning on Legend abilities for a new and exciting tactical layer. We’ll see who the real Legends of leaderboards are—unless you opt to hide it for some more casual vibes.
REWARD TRACK
Complete daily event challenges to earn up to 1,400 points per day to unlock Future Icons rewards and check your progress for all four event badges.
EVENT ITEMS
Fresh new limited-time cosmetics are up for grabs as you progress through the Future Icons Event, including Legendary skins for Rampart, Octane, and the Peacekeeper.
All items will be possible drops in Future Icons Event Packs† for the duration of the event, with each pack having a chance to unlock Wattson’s Prestige skin, “Apex Icon,” complete with matching Dive Trail. Each event pack contains one event item and two standard items, and there are no duplicates of event items in these packs.
PATCH NOTES
BALANCE UPDATES
Gold Weapon Rotation
Spitfire, R-301, R-99, Flatline, Akimbo Mozambiques
LEGENDS
Wattson
Passive: Spark of Genius
50% faster Ult accel consumption
Passive Shield Regen increased to 2s (was 1s)
Tactical: Perimeter Security
Increase fence node HP to 50 (was 25)
Cooldown reduced to 4s (was 15s)
Fences now slow sliding and jumping enemies, and consume cooldowns on Ash’s dash and Sparrow’s double jump
Fences placed across doors will electrify the doors
Stuns enemies when they open an electrified door or kicks it in
Electrification ends if the fence is obstructed or the fence is removed, and restarts when the fence is active again
Removed doors exploding when opened into the line of a fence
Upgrades: Level 2
Falling Stars: integrated into base kit
NEW Help is Here: gain all support perks (access Support Bins, faster revives with health regen, gain MRB with Banners)
NEW Ultimate Conductor: damage to enemies is converted to Ult charge and knocks give a burst of 30% Ult charge
Upgrades: Level 3
NEW Energized Healer: gain double small med healing
Power Pylon: double Ult HP, healing rate, and capacity
Dev Notes: We’re really excited to see the new Electrified Door mechanic added to the game, making it so enemies need to respect the fences that much more. In addition, Wattson’s reduced Perimeter Security cooldown should make setting up fences way snappier and will make it less punishing if you have to move on.
Vantage
Shrank Vantage’s upper body hitbox to better match her character model
Passive: Spotter’s Lens
Can now ping up to 3 enemies at a time
Can see the health bars of targeted enemy
Pinging an enemy will reveal their position when further than 50m away (was 100m)
Tactical: Echo Relocation
Echo will auto-recall after you jump
Faster jump activation time
Increased base and max distance Echo can fly by 10m
Integrated Bat Bounce into base kit
Reduced time to redeploy guns after jump to 0.2s (was 0.5s)
Widened the FOV that Echo needs to be in to jump to
Ultimate: Sniper’s Mark
Integrated Ultimate Reload upgrade into base kit
Ultimate accelerators are used 50% faster, and provide 2 extra bullets
Laser is now hidden until Vantage shoots
Laser lasts for 15s, timer refreshes with each shot
Laser is now more representative of aim
Upgrades: Level 2
NEW Controlling my Prey: gain access to Ring Consoles and zone overcharge
NEW Improved Mark: marked enemy icon is visible through walls, briefly highlights enemies, and reveals their health bar to your squad upon mark
Upgrades: Level 3
NEW Tactical Cooldown: reduce Tac's cooldown by 5s
NEW Sniper Cover: adds Gun Shield to Sniper’s Mark
Dev Notes: Vantage’s Echo Relocation improvements should make her feel way snappier, and we’ve been having lots of fun playing with the new version of Echo internally. Lining up shots in those late-game scenarios with Sniper’s Mark should be easier now with the laser changes, and being able to upgrade into Gun Shield.
Ash
Passive: decreased dash cooldown to 8s (was 10s)
Tactical: slightly decreased tether strength when pulling hard (like when using movement abilities)
Upgrades: Level 2
Dual Breach: moved to Level 2
NEW Charged Knock: gain HP regen on a knock
Upgrades: Level 3
Ghost in the Machine: removed
Greedy Snare and Twin Snares: moved to Level 3
Dev Notes: We want to re-balance Ash this season by tamping down some of the parts of her kit that are frustrating to play against, while preserving the fun of dashing around the battlefield. Lowering the base cooldown of her dash will hopefully offset losing double-dash. In addition, swapping her Level 2 and Level 3 upgrades will bring her double Ult charge upgrade to earlier in the match, keeping you and your team mobile.
Alter
Ultimate: Void Nexus
Chase portal usage warning delay reduced to 3.5s (was 5s)
Chase portal activation delay reduced to 6s (was 8s, Previous Hotfix)
Cooldown after usage increased to 60s (was 30s, Previous Hotfix)
Dev Notes: Overall, we felt Alter teams were a little too hard to punish as they tried to reset through her Void Nexus.
Ballistic
Tactical: Whistler
Damage on activation reduced to 15 (was 20)
Damage from overheat reduced to 15 (was 30, Previous Hotfix)
Ultimate: Tempest
Removed time extension from knocks (Previous Hotfix)
Upgrades
Extra Bullets: moved to Level 2
Lasting Bullet: moved to Level 3
Dev Notes: We felt Ballistic’s Whistler was dealing too much damage for how consistent it is to hit.
Conduit
Tactical: Radiant Transfer
Reduce cooldown to 21s (was 31s, Previous Hotfix)
Reduce recharge delay after damage to 1s (was 2s)
Mirage
Tac & Ult: decoys now swap weapons when you do and also properly holster melee weapons
AMMO & ATTACHMENTS
GRENADES
Arc Star
Explosion reduces momentum if hit while in-air or sliding
Explosion consumes the cooldown on Ash’s dash and Sparrow’s double jump
HOP-UPS
Gun Shield Generator
Can now be used by R-301
Accelerator
Removed from: Devotion, Mastiff, Bocek, and Sentinel
Added to: Havoc, Flatline, and Mozambique
WEAPONS
AR
Havoc AR (Previous Hotfix)
Improved recoil
Increased damage to 20 (was 19)
Hemlok Burst AR
Reduced burst fire delay
MARKSMAN
30-30 Repeater
Reduced Skullpiercer headshot damage
Uncharged: 80 (was 86)
Charged: 120 (was 130)
Bocek Compound Bow (Previous Hotfix)
Explosive arrow on hit damage increased to 55 (was 40)
Increased rate of fire
Max charge damage increased to 65 (was 55)
SHOTGUN
Mastiff
New ADS firing animation: returns the weapon to center screen sooner
Dev Note: If fired at max speed, the Mastiff optic never fully returned to center screen making target acquisition between shots a bit of a guessing game. This new animation has the weapon returning to center screen sooner allowing you to more accurately line up your shots.
SMG
Prowler Burst PDW
Improved horizontal recoil in burst fire and full-auto
Reduced burst fire delay
SNIPER
Sentinel
Increased rechamber speed when energized
MAPS
Pubs & Ranked
Kings Canyon
World’s Edge
Broken Moon
Mixtape (June 24-August 5, 2025)
TDM: Fragment, Party Crasher, Skull Town
Control: Caustic, Production Yard, Lava Siphon
Gun Run: Skull Town, Monument, The Core
MODES
LTM: Arenas: Duels without abilities (June 24-July 15, 2025)
Fight 1v1: win as many 1v1 Duels as you can in the time given
Even Duels: dueling players are assigned matching Legends and weapons for even ground
Leaderboard: tracks players’ performance over the course of the match
No abilities: abilities will be turned off for the first part of the event, allowing players to focus on gun skills and movement
Three maps: Encore, Habitat, and Party Crasher available at launch with a variety of spawn points
LTM: Arenas: Duels with abilities (July 15-August 5, 2025)
Abilities: Legends abilities are turned on for a new exciting strategic layer
RANKED
Ranked Tier Display: now shows the tier distribution per squad instead of per individual player. Ranked matchmaking for premade squads is done based on the highest RP value in the squad. This change will group all squad members, premade or otherwise, to show the entire squad based on the highest Rank Tier in that squad.
Ladder Champion Dive Trail: granted to all players that completed the Ladder Champion placement Challenge in Split 1 and will be accessible for all of Split 2. If you wish to retain access to the Dive Trail, you must complete the same Challenge in this current split.
BUG FIXES
Audio: walking while holding a Bocek will once again produce third-person footstep audio
Arrows
Should once again despawn properly
Those shot into the Arena’s barrier wall will no longer stay there once the round started
Arsenals: will no longer steal ammo out of your inventory
Firing Range
Artemis should no longer spam spawn *meow*
Arrows can no longer be picked-up across Firing Range instances
PC: Full shader compiles should no longer occur every time the game loads, especially after a Windows update
Tac no longer occasionally used with some Legends when holding Akimbo weapons while activating Ult
"Tracked and Recommended" tab once again shows tracked challenges in match summary
Tracked challenges lobby widget now shows the further progressed challenge of the two
LEGENDS
Alter
Fixed issue where any legend would cancel the void nexus activation if you tried to travel to it while holding an ultimate in your hands.
Fixed issue where Lifeline would cancel the void nexus activation if she did a hard fall impact.
Fixed enemy and dummy highlighting in the void and from Alter's tactical not working when friendly fire was enabled in the firing range.
Fixed issue where Alter's teammate would not get an MRB when crafting banners if Alter had selected the "Friends" upgrade, but was dead.
Ash: Greedy Snare now plants correctly after the first hit
Mirage: will now consistently exit cloak when hit while healing
Sparrow: Stinger Bolt no longer instantly break Revenant’s Shadow Shroud
QUALITY OF LIFE
Arsenals: increased the interact size of the consoles, making it less likely that you unintentionally grab a new weapon while enhancing your current weapon
Battle Pass gifting has returned
Fixed misprediction hitches when taking ring damage or when ending heals
Gibraltar’s arm shield and Gun Shield Generators are now accounted for in the Death Recap
Rampart can now interact with more things while holding Sheila
Re-wrote the 'hold to use' system to make it more accurate and players should swap weapons on accident less often as a result
Thermite Grenade Visual Updates
Added detonation FX
Added new elements to update visuals: updated spark materials, hotter bottom to see better the thermite AOE, all assets dissolve faster
Reduced number of particles
Reduction in overdraw
Updated sparks to enhance the feel
AUDIO
De-prioritized friendly zip-lines so enemies will always be played
De-prioritized non-threatening enemy footsteps (bodyfall and downed) to ensure potential threats are always played
Experimenting with lowered volume/inaudible friendly footsteps when under significant threat—let us know if this is helpful!
Reduced volume of Hovertanks in Kings Canyon
Dev note: Thanks to those who've uploaded audio logs when prompted after an abnormal amount of interruptions were detected. Our team is reviewing all current reports for potential action. If you encounter this prompt, please continue to send your reports as additional data will assist with investigations.
GRAPHICS
PC
Improved GPU uploading performance, which can increase performance stability and reduce missing models or textures for some players
Launch argument -no_render_on_input_thread has been made the default for players with 8 or more cores on their CPU. This improves performance stability and input latency, especially when paired with high-polling rate mice or controllers. It can still be enabled manually for players with fewer CPU cores, and it can be disabled with -render_on_input_thread.
Reduced CPU overhead of multithreading on machines with many CPU cores