The next season of Apex Legends is bringing a slew of additions to the battle royale, and more than just a new legend and an overhauled Kings Canyon.
As usual, Respawn is tweaking the floor loot pool to accommodate the new accessories by switching out a hop-up and attachment, but care package weapons will stay the same.
Here’s what’s changing, what isn’t, and why:
Care package weapons
Apex‘s care package weapon pool won’t see any changes in season eight. “We want the Prowler to stay in the care package, really give it some time to settle in there,” game designer Eric Canavese told Dot Esports. This means that the three supply drop weapons are still the Prowler, Peacekeeper, and Kraber. The Mastiff and R-99 will still spawn normally on the ground.
In addition, Respawn wants to “let the 30-30 come in and see how that shifts the meta” before making any changes, Canavese said. “We’re gonna [change care package weapons] if we feel like it’s the right time to do it and if the meta responds well to it.”
The last batch of changes to the care package loot took place in season seven, when the R-99 moved to floor loot and the Prowler took its place.
Floor loot
Despite the absence of changes to care package drops, the floor loot pool will see a few tweaks. The Anvil Receiver will return to the battle royale and take the place of the Double Tap Trigger hop-up, only compatible with the G7 Scout and the EVA-8. Gold barrel stabilizers are also out of the picture for the season to make room for the new gold magazines. And, of course, there’s a completely new weapon in the mix: the 30-30 Repeater.
Apex‘s newest weapon “is gonna sit somewhere between the Longbow and the G7 Scout” with “a little bit of Wingman in there for good measure,” according to Canavese. It has two firing modes: faster, unscoped shots and a charged projectile when aiming down sights. Since it’s a lever-action weapon, firing the 30-30 delivers a cadenced flurry of single-fire shots—and the changes to floor loot mean to create alternatives to the new gun.
The Anvil Receiver’s return aims to create fun and interesting gameplay around the new weapon, the 30-30 Repeater, according to Canavese. The hop-up increases the damage of the R-301 and the Flatline’s single-fire mode at the expense of ammo consumption.
“We don’t want there to be 30-30 fights all the time,” Canavese said. “We want other weapons that can compete against it to have interesting combat moments and interesting options for people to run.”
Gold barrel stabilizers will also sit out of season eight to give gold magazines their place in the spotlight. Gold loot drops are hard enough to come by, and simply adding a new attachment could overpopulate the pool.
All in all, Apex‘s eighth season Mayhem won’t make numerous adjustments to the loot pool when it arrives tomorrow. But the arrival of the 30-30, the addition of gold mags, and the return of the Anvil Receiver are bound to shake things up.
