Apex Legends: Defiance Patch Notes Highlights: Crypto Buff, Volt Buff, and Map Updates

The latest patch notes have dropped for the Apex Legends Defiance update that arrives on Feb. 8. In the new upcoming patch, Apex players can expect a brand new legend, LTM, and more.

Here’s a breakdown of everything that EA and Respawn shared in the latest patch notes for Apex Legends.

Apex Legends: Defiance Patch Notes Feb. 7 Explained

New Legend

In the new Defiance update set to arrive tomorrow, Apex will introduce a brand new legend to the game that fans may already be familiar with. Mad Maggie was first introduced in the Apex Legends Defiance comic series. Now, for her crimes, Maggie must participate in the life or death competition. Once the update arrives, Mad Maggie will be a playable character in Apex Legends. Here are some of her abilities:

Passive: Warlord's Ire
Temporarily highlight enemies you’ve damaged. No movement speed penalty when wielding Shotguns.

Tactical: Riot Drill
Fire a drill that attaches to an obstacle and burns enemies on the other side.

Wrecking Ball
Throw a ball that releases speed-boosting pads and detonates near enemies.

Olympus Map Update

Players will experience a malfunctioning Olympus, with new terrain exposed and more POIs than ever. Here are some of the latest changes to expect in the map update.

• Expanded map; spreading squads out more so the map’s center area (Labs/Estates) isn’t the only go-to combat zone each game and reducing the frequency of spontaneous 3rd-parties.

• Better rotational options to help players get around and out of dangerous chokepoints

• New interactive map toy and play spaces to help attract players into the new areas, creating fresh new experiences for Olympus

Storm Point Updates

Wildlife Update

It’s now been a full season since PvE was introduced into Battle Royal and while wildlife was a nice addition, Prowlers were a bit too punishing and not quite rewarding enough. Additionally, there have been some bad edge cases that create frustration for players that developers are hoping to address this season. Here are some of the in-depth changes we’ll see in the update.

• Prowler damage reduced from 30 to 20 and reduced knockback force.
• Increased Prowler Nest completion reward from 90 to 150 crafting materials (250 total for the large Prowler Nest in the center of the map). Note: Crafting rewards are divided eveningly to all squadmates nearby at time of clearing the nest. All players (regardless of squad) in the area get a share of the 250 crafting material reward when the large Prowler Nest is cleared.
• Overhauled wildlife targeting rules to use damage as the primary factor which should help wildlife targeting feel more fair and less random.
• Introduced a targeting cap for Prowlers, so only 3 Prowlers will be able to target a player at any time.
• Prowler Den spawns are now disabled when there are two teams inside of the same Nest (except for the massive Prowler Nest at the center of the map). 
• Prowlers are now neutral when outside the ring unless engaged in combat.
• Prowler Dens are now disabled outside the ring if the Prowler Camp is passive.
• Wandering Prowlers in the small Wildlife Nests have been reduced from 3 down to 2 and their wander radius is reduced by half until they are engaged in combat.
• Made some tweaks that should help squads clear Prowler Nests quicker.

• Gave a slight increase to high tier consumable drops on all wildlife.

Drop Ship Pathing

While Storm Point has a relatively healthy spread of landing locations, the typical drop ship logic often made the high northeast corner of the map particularly tough to land in. Rotating the distribution and moving the centerpoint slightly northeast should make Highpoint and Lightning Rod more accessible while still allowing players to land in the lower southwest portion if they desire.

Control Game Mode

Control is a brand-new limited-time mode that delivers an adrenaline-fueled 9v9 experience where two teams fight to capture and control points on the map. Featuring the largest team sizes in Apex Legends to date, players will pre-select their loadouts, drop in, and for the first time ever have the opportunity to experience the rush of having the same Legends fighting side by side, creating thrilling moments that can only happen in Control. In this mode, players will be able to respawn and carry on the fight until one team earns enough points to be declared the winner. So get ready to experience the spectacle of 9v9 Legend combat when Control kicks off on February 8th

Legends Updates

Crypto

Drone View HUD and other  Quality of Life updates:

• Added gamestate (e.g. Ring information, round timers), minimap, killfeed, team status, , and ping information to the Drone's HUD.
• Repurposed the Drone HUD's old Crypto health/shield presentation into displaying the health of the Drone itself.
• Survey Beacon markers are now displayed in-world while piloting the Drone (same as when controlling Crypto himself).

Neurolink changes:

• Increased the Neurolink detection FOV from 160 -> 240 degrees.
• Neurolink detection is now disabled while the Drone is being recalled.

Surveillance Drone changes:

• Pressing the Tactical button causes Crypto to send the Drone flying in a straight line in the direction of Crypto's view for a few seconds.
• If thrown to a wall (or other geo), the Drone will hit the wall and re-orient itself so that it's facing away from the wall.
• Crypto no longer immediately accesses Drone View after deploying his Drone in this way.
• Pressing and holding the [Tactical] button will launch the Drone forward in the same way, but then Crypto will immediately access Drone View.
• Reduced Drone health from 60 -> 50.
• The HUD marker for the Drone has been tweaked to increase visibility.
• The HUD marker for the Drone is now always displayed on-screen while the Drone is deployed (instead of only when the Drone was off-screen

Caustic

Nox Gas Traps are now destroyable after detonation

• 150hp
• Detonated traps will expire at 11s (instead of 12.5s)
• Gas effects linger for two seconds after barrel destruction or expiration (gas particles still linger a bit longer as they dissipate)

Supply Drop Rotation

The Alternator SMG returns to the ground loot this season and taking its place is the powerful mid-range energy Volt SMG.

Alternator SMG

• Removed disruptor rounds hop-up

Volt SMG

• Damage increased from 15 to 17
• Max mag size increased from 28 to 30

Hop Ups

Kinetic Feeder - Triple Take & Peacekeeper

Sliding with the Triple Take or Peacekeeper significantly speeds up choke time and automatically reloads rounds.

Hammerpoint Rounds - P2020, Mozambique & RE-45

• P2020
• Mozambique
• RE-45

Shatter Caps - 30-30 Repeater & Bocek Bow

• Passively affects hip-fire for both weapons
• No longer able to toggle on/off
• 30-30 pellet damage reduced from 8 to 7
• Bow pellet damage reduced 12 to 11

Triple Take 

• Removing projectile growth from bullets
• Damage reduced from 23 to 21 per bullet

VK-47 Flatline 

• Damage reduced from 19 to 18 per bullet

Rampage LMG (Hotfix)

• Rampage damage reduced from 28 to 26
• Reduced number of shots during the Revved state from ~40 to ~34

Fully Kitted Rotation

• Added: RE-45, Triple Take, Peacekeeper, Prowler, Havoc 
• Removed: Mastiff, 30-30 Repeater, R-301, CAR, Longbow

Weapons in Crafting

• VK-47 Flatline and Longbow DMR are now craftable for 30 mats at any crafting station.
• Weapons in crafting can not be found on the ground.
• Crafted weapons come with no attachments and two boxes of ammo

Crafting

• Medkit price lowered from 20 to 15
• Kinetic Feeder added to crafting rotation

Bug Fixes and Quality of Life

• Fixed issue where multiple Legends were missing voice lines when pinging a caged flyer.
• Fix for Booster Loader where ammo counter would remain highlighted when switching from a low ammo Hemlok or Wingman to another weapon.
• Replicator fix for cases where an item could become stuck inside after crafting with a full inventory.
• Fixed an error that would tell players to come back in a decade when matchmaking.
• Fix for cases of lighting issues in some areas on Olympus.
• Fix for cases where Mirage Ultimate Decoys could get stuck on surfaces raised slightly off the ground.
• Arenas: Fix for cases where Crypto’s Drone charges could be used multiple times with single Drone.
• Arenas: Fix for cases where trying to charge a Rampage or Sentinel Rifle as the round starts results in the charge being cancelled when the round starts.
• Crypto’s Drone fix for cases where it wouldn’t show friendly nameplates.
• Fix for cases where players were able to use melee on incline surfaces to get speed boost while sliding.
• Fix for cases where revving up a Rampage LMG while removing extended mag causes the revved up bar to appear forever.
• Fix for cases where the timer for charging the Sentinel and Rampage was not showing the correct time left for animation.
• Fixed cases when specific Legendary Horizon skins would block part of screen when ADSing with a Prowler + 1x holo scope.
• Fixed issue where weapon challenges would not show progress in the after match summary.
• Fixed a bug where Charging up the Sentinel required 2 cells instead of 1 when wearing a golden armor.
• Reduced L-STAR impact vfx.
• Fixed a bug for cases where players could get a jump boost from deathboxes that are in the vicinity of Horizon’s Gravity Lift after it’s been used.
• Reticle Color Customization - Limiting values to 0-255 to avoid exploits.
• Reticle Color Customization - improved inconsistency in UI color when ADSing with different sniper scopes.
• Reticle Customization fix for cases where rapidly adjusting the lighting bar can result in a performance drop on other platforms and a crash on Switch.
• Based on  feedback, we’ve adjusted the in-world icon for Ash's passive to be smaller and closer to the ground.
• When Ash’s tactical hits an object it cannot stick to, it should now bounce off instead of destroying itself (tactical cooldown will not be refunded anymore)
• Improved the targeting experience for Ash’s ultimate by preferring locations that are farther away
• Audio Fix for cases where R-99 gun fire SFX persists when spectator changes to another player while R-99 is fired.
• Storm Point: Fixed cases where players were unable to shoot through the chain-link fences at Antenna. 
• Storm Point: Fix for cases where players could get stuck inside the map by using Valk’s Ultimate on Command Center.
• Storm Point: Based feedback we’ve adjusted Final Round Rings so they don’t end in areas with no cover or populated by Prowler Dens.
• Storm Point: Fix for cases where a player could be launched by a Gravity Cannon while below it.
• World’s Edge: Changed Fragment from high-tier to mid-tier loot. This happened in the 11.1 update, but was inadvertently omitted from those patch notes.
• World’s Edge: Fixed an issue with Loba’s ultimate where it would not tell you items inside the panels at Trials were locked (though the alarm got triggered as normal).
• Fix for cases where Gibby's arm would be missing during Pathfinder’s "Iron Haymaker" finisher.
• Fix for cases where the Entire map hears audio if a player cancels beacon scan.
• Fixed issue where Valk’s "Cloud Marauder" Legend skin had darker hands in 1P versus what's shown in the Lobby and in other 1P skins.
• Fix for cases where Players hit by Seer tactical just as they enter crafting could lose certain functionality.
• Fixed issue where Caustic barrels that are still being deployed (mid-throw) were not being deleted after Caustic dies.
• Fixed issue where sometimes Wattson's Interceptor Pylon would heal for less than intended.
• Fix for cases where a crash could occur when players accept join club requests by clicking the approval button twice.
• Fixed a bug where moving through Wraith's portal could feel choppy when placed in the air via Gravity Cannons.
• Fixed a bug where stocks didn’t drop from wildlife on Storm Point
• Improved wildlife combat versus vehicles. 
• Improved wildlife interactions versus electrical abilities making stunning wildlife with Wattson’s fences and Ash’s tactical more reliable
• Gave a slight increase to high tier consumable drops on all wildlife.
• Added the ability to see your teammate survival item while the inventory is open.

Private Match Changes

• Observer: Added a toggle to disable kill feed while in free cam.
• Observer: Fixed ring visibility on mini map.
• Observer: Fixed kill calculations for the Status & Stats screen.
• Fixed Stats Summary generation for team slots with default names.
• Disabled Club features in Private Match.
• Added unique player ID’s to Post-Game API (same ID’s seen in the Real-Time API).