Apex Legends Season 1: Wild Frontier is live - here's the patch notes and the launch trailer

News by Stephany Nunneley-Jackson Former News Editor

Published on March 19, 2019

Apex Legends Season 1 Wild Frontier has kicked off alongside the latest patch.

Apex Legends Season 1: Wild Frontier is live, and those who have purchased the Battle Pass can now play as the new Legend, Octane. Or, you can buy him separately.

The update went live earlier this afternoon on all platforms, alongside the latest update which needs to be applied.

If you purchase the Battle Pass you'll automatically unlock the Lifeline Revolutionary skin, the Wraith Survivor skin, and the Mirage Outlaw skin. You'll also earn freebies if you don't buy the pass.

Everyone who plays the game can still earn one Wild Frontier Legend skin, five Apex Packs, and 18 Wild Frontier stat trackers.

Plus, the more you play the more you will earn. Respawn says there are over 100 unique items which will available throughout the season. Everything earned before season’s end can be kept, but after it's over, you won’t be able to earn new Wild Frontier content.

More information on the Battle Pass, Octane, and the patch notes for today's update are below.

If you’re new to Apex Legends, then check our guides on the best guns, where to find the best loot and what moves each Legend has at their disposal.

Apex Legends - Season 1: Wild Frontier

Battle Pass Season 1

Battle Pass tab to has been added to the game Lobby.
Cost: 950 Apex Coins
Earn over 100 unique items throughout the season – everything you snag before the season is over is yours to keep.
- Updated dashboard images for Season 1 on PC and Xbox [PS4 is on the way]
- Updated Main Menu with new Season 1 art.
- Updated the Lobby visuals for Season 1.
- Updated Apex Legends site FAQ with info on Battle Pass.

Battle Pass Bundle

Get the Battle Pass, plus unlock your next 25 levels for Season 1 instantly.
Cost: 2,800 Apex Coins.

Free Rewards

Everyone that plays Apex Legends during Season 1 can earn the following rewards:

1 Wild Frontier Legend Skin
5 Apex Packs
18 Wild Frontier themed Stat Trackers

New Legend: Octane

High-Speed Daredevil

If it doesn't involve diving, leaping, plummeting, or racing, then Octane wants nothing to do with it. Always the life of the party, Octane truly believes winning the Championship isn't enough... not if you didn't cheat death at least twice to get there.

Passive: Swift Mend

While not taking damage, Octane restores 1 health every 2 seconds.

Tactical: Stim

Move 30% faster for 6 seconds. Costs health to use. While active, Octane is affected less by attacks that cause slowdown. 2 second recharge.

Ultimate: Launch Pad

Deployable jump pad that catapults players through the air. Takes 90 seconds to recharge.

Cost

12,000 Legend Tokens
750 Apex Coins

Apex Legends 1.0 patch notes - March 19

Stability and Performance

Developer's note: Some fixes in this patch will improve stability on PC, but we know there are still issues out there we need to address. We also added crash reporting so we can better understand how to tackle the issues we haven’t solved yet and address future ones.

General

Optimized skydiving to improve overall server performance.
Fixed bug where sometimes the client could crash when opening Apex Packs one right after the other.
Improved stability for various GPU configurations.
Capped PC FPS to 300 to balance improving stability but still letting you folks enjoy those sweet frames.
Addressed issue with PS4 crashes due to running out of memory.

Reporting

Introducing better reporting when Apex crashes on PC without error message.

Respawn really want to fix any crashes people happen to get on PC. We also respect our player’s privacy. So, if the PC game crashes, it will write "apex_crash.txt" to your "Documents" folder. This tiny file is plain text, so you can easily see for yourself that it has no personal information. If you choose to share this file with us, it will tell us whether the crash was in Apex or in third party software. If the crash was in Apex, our programmers can use the information to find and fix it. If you experience a crash, please include this file when you report.
- We protect your personal information.
- You can easily see everything in the file yourself; we have no secrets.
- You're in control of whether we ever see the file.

Added Report a Player feature for cheating and abuse on PC.

Players can now report cheaters they encounter in-game and it’ll be sent directly to Easy Anti-Cheat. You can do this from either the spectate view after dying or when looking at your team’s Banner Cards in the Squad tab.
We have lots of other work going on behind the scenes and this remains high priority for us. We won’t be able to share many specifics of what we’re doing but we’ll strive to provide updates on progress for the things we can talk about.
As the notes were finished this morning, 499,937 accounts and counting have been banned for cheating.
Speed hacking: We do currently have anti-speed hacking in Apex Legends, but it’s not being as effective as intended due to a bug that we believe we’ve identified and will be addressing in our next server update. Will provide ETA for it when I have it. Working to get it out ASAP.

Added Report a Player for abuse on Consoles

You can report players from the spectate view after dying or when looking at your team’s Banner Cards in the Squad tab.

Quality of Life updates

Added "Swap LT/RT & LB/RB" / "Swap L1/R1 & L2/R2") toggle in the Controller Button Layout settings.

Lets you quickly swap what your bumpers & triggers are set to, with any controller preset.

Added "Sprint View Shake" setting under the Video tab.

Setting this to "Minimal" can be especially helpful for players susceptible to motion sickness.

Added "Trigger Deadzones" setting under the Controller tab.

Customize how far you want to pull the triggers before they register.

Added "Advanced Look Controls" settings submenu under the Controller tab.

Fine-tune specific aspects of the look controls for a custom feel; such as Deadzone, Response Curve, Target Compensation (aim assist), and more.

UI improvements to the KO Shield

Shield bar drains to indicate the remaining health of the shield.
When you have a Gold KO Shield and are down, you'll now find an added an effect to the label that reminds you that you can self revive.

Improvements / fixes for color blind players

Added better color blind support for Blood Hound’s Threat Vision.
Colorblind colors per setting are now displayed in the settings menu.
Colorblind settings moved from Video Settings to Gameplay->Accessibility. They are now applied on the fly.
Enemy pings now use proper enemy color instead of only using red.

Audio

Turned down volume when Wraith activates a portal.
Turned down the end sounds on the Peacekeeper charged shot.
Turned down the draw/holster sound slightly for thermite grenades.

General

When you relinquish the Jumpmaster position to another player you will now hear your Legend’s VO line in addition to the new Jumpmaster. The third player won’t hear it though.
Improved mantling from a grapple point.
Pathfinder can now grapple ziplines.
Added D-pad navigation as a convenience in most of the menus. Our hope is this will speed up browsing and improve accessibility.
We saw that the Ring indicator that appears when players are viewing the whole map wasn’t accurately showing the player’s position so we fixed that.
Character animations while taking damage now accurately reflect the direction the damage is coming from.
Fixed a bug where occluded sounds would sometimes sound unoccluded.
Patched up some issues with missing geo on Kings Canyon and fixed a few spots where players were getting stuck.
Fixed a script error that could happen when removing attachments on holstered weapons.
General polish to game UI fixing some grammar issues, improved navigation, and composition of elements.
Fixed PC users constantly switching weapons while scrolling through items in a Death Box.
Fixed issue where we were seeing server stability issues sometimes caused by purchasing items while matchmaking.
Fixed script errors that could occur during the skydive.
Reduced skybox fog.
Adjusted the code for Supply Bins so they are less likely to kill players. If you do still get killed by one please let us know!
Made it so push-to-talk is no longer on when a chat box is active.
LT/RT no longer switches between players in spectator mode while the map is open.
Updated the minimap to more accurately reflect the geo and points of interest on the main map.
Adding sound FX to the UI for the key binding menu.
Fixed issue where a player’s name would not show up when they send a message that reached the character limit.
Fixed bug where sometimes the Champion screen resolution would be stretched in widescreen resolutions.
Fixed audio bug where sometimes the zipline sounds FX would keep playing after disembarking.
Added accessibility option to modify the subtitle size.

Legend Balance and Hitbox Adjustments

Adjusted hitboxes for Gibraltar, Caustic, and Pathfinder to better align with their shapes.

Caustic

Reduced cooldown of Traps 30 -> 25 seconds.
Increased radius and proximity radius by about 10%.
Removed a 1 second delay on the smoke dealing damage to players.
Reduced cooldown of Gas Grenade 2:30 -> 2:00 seconds.

Pathfinder

Grapple
- Increased distance 850 -> 900.
Insider Knowledge
- Increased the number of beacons in the world 10-> 12.

Bangalore

Double Time
- Reduced move speed bonus to 40% -> 30%.

Gibraltar

Defensive Bombardment
- Fixed a bug where your teammates wouldn't be affected by Shell Shock. This was meant to be the same as Bangalore's ultimate.

Weapons

Fixed players being able to shortcut weapon swap by changing stance
Fixed players being able to shortcut Peacekeeper rechamber sequence
Fixed inaccurate auto ranging fullscreen (sniper) optics when base FOV is not set to default
Spitfire: fixed ADS view on Legendaries partially obscured by custom geo. (The Continuum, The Heavy Construct)
Fixed ADS view being blocked when using Caustic legendary skins with certain weapon/ optic combos
Digital threat optics: threat highlights are now more visible (slightly brighter; no longer affected by TSAA)
Fixed bug where Devotion audio sometimes wouldn’t accurately reflect rate of fire.

Additional Bug Fixes

Fixed rare issue where a player could get stuck on the drop ship and be invulnerable.
Patched up the hole we found in Gibraltar’s shield.
Fixed issue where Lifeline’s revive shield wouldn’t stay put while on a moving platform.
Fixed issue where sometimes players would get stuck in map geometry while skydiving from the dropship or Jump Towers.
Fixed bug where players could still shoot even after being downed.
Fixed bug where occasionally Lifeline’s D.O.C. drone would stay connected to a player but not heal them.
Limited the amount of Lifeline’s D.O.C. drones that can connect to a player to 2.
Fixed Pathfinder’s zipline not deploying when jumping.
Fixed a bug with the HUD where sometimes the Heal Bar would stay up if the heal was cancelled right after it was started.
Fixed a bug where sometimes the audio would continue to play sound FX for the Knockdown Shield even after it’s been destroyed.
Fixed issue where sometimes players could get disconnected when unplugging their controller during a game.
Fixed the exploit where you could do infinite wallclimb using Pathfinder’s Grapple.
Fixed bug where sometimes you couldn’t fire the Peacekeeper after riding a zip line.
Fixed issue where sometimes the skybox fog would not appear while spectating after you died.
Fixed bug where Banner Cards would show through walls occasionally when viewed through a very high FOV.
Fixed some odd light flickering that was happening on the ballon flags attached to Jump Towers.
Fixed bug where sometimes a player’s Banner Card would not show up after character select.