One of Apex Legends’ most divisive weapons is going under the knife for season 18. The Charge Rifle will come out feeling particularly different next season, with a set of tweaks that will make it harder to use effectively—though it could be even more satisfying to use properly.
The Charge Rifle “was an outlier with its mechanics” and caused some ripples in the meta that were “particularly difficult to tune around,” lead weapons designer Eric Canavese said in a press conference. Because of this, the weapon will go through substantial mechanic changes next season, instead of undergoing a round of direct nerfs like in season 17.
The Charge Rifle will no longer be a hitscan weapon. Instead, it will become a projectile-based weapon with the bullet drop to match. Its pre-beam laser is also gone, and developers will touch on its reload and handling times.
The first changes players will feel with the new charge rifle are the removal of the damaging pre-beam shot and its new firing mechanism. You’ll have to charge up the weapon by holding down the trigger, and releasing it with less than full charge will make that projectile fall off.
The weapon’s ammo economy will see some improvements to match its new identity. Its ammo consumption will go back to a single bullet per trigger pull (as opposed to two), and players can attach magazines to it when season 18 rolls around.
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The extra flavor on the new Charge Rifle lies in its new damage profile, which “deals more damage the farther away the target is,” according to Canavese. While it will remain among the upper echelons of longer-range weapons in Apex, players will have to work much harder to be effective with it (though Vantage’s passive could potentially ease that curve quite a bit).
The Charge Rifle was introduced in season three, and most Apex players have probably encountered a squad camping with it at some point since. While its charge time could be a bit tricky to learn at first, its hitscan nature more than made up for it, since it was easier to hit distant targets without much worry.
With the changes in season 18, however, the Charge Rifle seems to be moving toward a more high-skill, high-reward profile. While it’s bound to retain (or even increase) its lethality, that extra firepower comes with a higher skill floor to be effective with it. So the next time you get hit by a squad of Charge Rifle campers, at least you can take solace in the fact that this time, they probably know what they’re doing.
The Charge Rifle isn’t the only element going through major changes in season 18, though. Fans can expect to see Revenant being reborn with a sinister new skillset and a new look, as well as balance changes to legends, hop-ups, and some weapons (but not the Nemesis) when season 18 lands on Aug. 8.
