Apex Legends patch nerfs Wingman, Peacekeeper

News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor

Published on March 7, 2019

Apex Legends has officially received its first balance patch.

Available now on all platforms, Apex Legends' first balance pass comes in the form of two nerfs to the two most popular weapons in the game right now.

First, Respawn has reduced the spawn rate of both the Wingman hand cannon, and the Peacekeeper shotgun across all zones. Conversely, energy weapon, and energy ammo availability has been increased.

As for balance, the developer felt that the Wingman with a Skullpiercer is currently too strong. Today's update reduced the headshot multiplier from 2.5 to 2.25 when Skullpiercer is equipped. The Wingman's rate of fire overall has also dropped to 2.6 from 3.1.

The Wingman's hip fire accuracy has been decreased, too, thanks to a wider hip fire spread, and a decrease to the rate at which the spread starts to settle.

The Peacekeeper with a Shotgun Bolt has seen nerfs across all levels of the attachment. Level one rechamber rate has dropped to 7.5% from 10%, with 13% instead of 20% for level two, and 16% from 25% at level three. This, in practice, should increase the delay between shots when using a Peacekeeper with Shotgun Bolt.

The developer also explained its philosophy when it comes to game balance in Apex Legends. Respawn likes to thoroughly test out balance changes internally before they're rolled out for everyone. Except when things are truly broken, the developer doesn't prefer to release balance changes as frequently as other games do.

The reason being that it wants to give players time to learn, and master the various aspects of the meta without having to worry about sudden changes every time they log in.

As for other under-powered weapons like the Mozambique, and P2020 pistols, Respawn explained that some weapons are intended to be weak to urge players upgrade their arsenal. This also goes for some other weapons, those designed to only be effective when fully upgraded.

None of that is to say anything is set in stone, of course, as the developer stresses it's always monitoring feedback and player data.

Read on below for the full change log:

Weapon balance

Wingman and Peacekeeper availability has been reduced in all zone tiers.
Increased availability of energy weapons & ammo in all zone tiers.

Wingman

Rate of fire reduced from 3.1 -> 2.6 shots per second.
Skullpiercer headshot damage multiplier reduced from 2.5 -> 2.25
Increased base hip fire spread and decreased the rate at which hip fire spread decays (shrinks back down)

Peacekeeper

Shotgun Bolt rechamber rate has been reduced for the Peacekeeper only. Level 1 mitigation 10% -> 7.5%. Level 2 mitigation 20% -> 13%. Level 3 mitigation 25% -> 16%.