It might not feel as if Respawn keeps close tabs on the metagame of its battle royale at times, but rest assured, the developer is always ready to take action.
Now in its third – soon to be fourth – season, Apex Legends, like its contemporaries, demands a certain degree of proactiveness from its creator. Small weapon adjustments here and there, character tweaks, new maps: they may be few and far between, but each change, while harmless enough in a vacuum, can collectively cause major problems over time. Recently, one particular offender has been Apex‘s Peacekeeper shotgun.
The weapon, a close-ranged powerhouse, has long been considered the top dog in Season 3’s sandbox, a quirk that Respawn is clearly keen to fix. Not too long ago, the studio rolled out a bite-sized patch across all platforms aimed at curbing the Peacekeeper’s prevalence on the battlefield. That modification, while welcome, hasn’t had the desired effect, it seems.
Addressing fans on Twitter, the developer confirmed that a new server patch introducing further restrictions – not just to the Peacekeeper, but shotguns in general – has gone live. See below for the main talking points.
Earlier today, we pushed a server patch, now live on all consoles, that included the following shotgun balance changes:
🔸Decreased bolt hit size for Peacekeeper and EVA-8
🔸Increased shot spread for Peacekeeper
🔸Increased spread on final Precision Choke level— Apex Legends (@PlayApex) December 5, 2019
Whether or not these revisions will be enough to rein in the overall power level of shotguns remains to be seen. At the very least, though, players should now find themselves far less likely to get sniped by the weapon archetype from absurd distances. Regular visitors to World’s Edge should expect the meta to be in a state of flux as players of skill levels adapt to the changes, then, and with any luck, that volatility will level out just in time for Apex Legends‘ upcoming Christmas event.
Respawn has yet to announce such an occasion, of course, but as usual, data miners have gone and opened their presents early. For everything we know so far about the festive affair, see here.