Apex Legends Season 8: Start Time, New Character, New Weapon, Map Changes, Patch Notes & More


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Apex Legends Season 8 is coming soon!

It features massive new changes to the Kings Canyon map, a new legend in Fuse, new gun in the 30-30 Repeater, and plenty more!

Coming off of Apex Legends' most successful season yet, all things are in place for a huge, explosive release with Season 8.

Latest - Start Time Revealed

Apex Legends Season 8 start time has been revealed via Twitter.

The new season of Respawn Entertainment's battle royale will kick off February 2 at 10 am PT.

This means that it will begin 18:00 GMT for U.K. players.

No Supply Drop Changes

Early Apex Legends Season 8 gameplay footage has revealed that there will be no change to the weapons in Supply Drops at the start of Season 8.

YouTuber Dazs has uploaded a video introducing Fuse to the world and showcasing his abilities and gameplay ahead of Apex Legends Season 8.

In the video, though, we can see that the three Heirloom Weapons found in Supply Drops will be staying the same going into Season 8.

The Peacekeeper Shotgun is on its fourth consecutive season in Supply Drops, alongside the Prowler PDW and Kraber .50-Cal Sniper.

There also hasn't been any coding changes found to suggest that there will be a rotation of weapons in Supply Drops anytime soon.

2-Year Anniversary Celebration Event

To celebrate the 2 year anniversary of Apex Legends, which also coincides with the start of Season 8, there will be a Celebration Event.

Usually, with each Celebration Event, a new Heirloom is released, giving players the opportunity to grab some new rare items.

This time it seems that players may be granted 150 Heirloom Shards to get a free Heirloom that is already in the game.

READ MORE: Apex Legends Heirlooms Guide

According to data miner Shrugtal, to celebrate the anniversary of Apex Legends, there will be a lot of new skins and items to unlock and purchase, but they will mainly be recolours of current skins, rather than brand new cosmetic items.

Season 8 Gameplay Trailer

Apex Legends has given us a ton of new insight into Season 8, and things are looking amazing already!

The newest drop is the Apex Legends Season 8 Gameplay Trailer, which features Fuse in action.

You can watch the action-packed trailer below:

Early Patch Notes

Early patch notes for Season 8 have dropped, here is everything we know so far.

Legends

Rampart

  • Making Amped Cover more efficient by adding 45 health

Wraith

  • Changing her hitbox to be more similar to other Legends

Horizon

  • It seems that Horizon’s tactical ability is going to be the main change

Revenant

  • Hitbox changes could also be on the way for Revenant

Wattson

  • Respawn wants to make Wattson more appealing and are finding ways to make them more eligible as a choice

Mirage

  • Fix for decoys making too much noise with footsteps

Caustic

  • Caustic hammer breaking doors

Quality of Life

  • In-game damage tracker added

Bug Fixes

  • Heirloom store not showing all Heirlooms
  • Players told they are buying Gibraltar’s Heirloom when buying Caustic’s Heirloom
  • Legend skins for Mirage and Bangalore affecting aim down sights
  • Errors relating to private matches
  • Players can’t hear each other in cross-play lobbies

READ MORE: Switch Port Release Date Leaked

Mayhem Launch Trailer

Apex Legends Season 8 is going to fit its Mayhem title quite well, introducing the explosive new legend Fuse.

You can watch the trailer below:

Season 8 Fuse Trailer

Two weeks remain until the start of Apex Legends Season 8, and we've got our first tease for the upcoming season.

New Legend - Fuse

In the above trailer, we meet the new Legend arriving in Season 8 - Fuse.

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BROKEN FUSE - Will he be your choice for Season 8?

Data miners have previously uncovered files claiming the Aussie Fuse has a tactical ability called Airburst Grenade, using a launcher on his mechanical arm to fire a grenade.

He is also said to have The Motherlode ability, a cannon on his back to launch a missile.

READ MORE: Apex Legends Developer Working On New IP That Will Allow "Adventuring Forever"

Kings Canyon Is Changing Again

With the arrival of Fuse, it appears that his love of explosive is going to cause big problems for King Canyon and it will be changing once again.

EA has also confirmed this by saying, “Fuse's entrance has dramatically reshaped Kings Canyon. Stay tuned to learn more”.

Season 8 is truly going to live up to the "Mayhem" moniker.

No Fill Coming In Season 8

Apex Legends has always been a team-based game, with Trios being the mode that started it all.

There has been a Solo mode in the game, but only briefly, leaving team-based modes such as Duos and Trios as the only option if players want to jump into Apex.

Back in November 2020 during as Reddit AMA, Apex Design Director Jason McCord confirmed it was being tested and worked and that it would be coming in Season 8.

However, it won't be available at launch, and will instead be implemented later on.

Release Date

Apex Legends Season 8 is due to start on Tuesday, February 2, still giving players plenty of time to max out the Season 7 Battle Pass before the next one is released.

Apex Legends Season 7 Key Art
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NEW: Each season brings new Legends, weapons and map changes.

Patch Notes

We won't get the patch notes until the new season goes live, but we can expect lots of new changes from new weapons and items, to map changes and general gameplay fixes and changes.

We will update this page when they drop.

Weapons

Season 8 is bringing with it a new weapon - the 30-30 Repeater.

According to the official release from EA, it is "Salvo's most popular weapon, this lever-action rifle picks apart the opposition with hard-hitting rounds."

Battle Pass

With each new season comes a new Battle Pass, allowing players to climb to level 100 and unlock dozens of rewards.

Battle Pass Price

The Battle Pass costs 950 Apex Coins or the Battle Pass Bundle for 2,800 Apex Coins.

1,000 Apex Coins costs $9.99, so that makes the Battle Pass around $9.50 to purchase.

Battle Pass Rewards

Each Battle Pass comes with new rewards for each level, up to level 100.

Apex Legends Season 7 Battle Pass Rewards level 99 100 110
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REWARDS: Each Battle Pass comes with over 100 rewards.

We are still awaiting what Legnadry skins and Holo-Sprays will be in the Mayhem Battle Pass.

Game Modes

Currently, Training, Firing Range, Trios, Duos, and Ranked modes are in the game.

Respawn Entertainment regularly swap out modes, introduce new ones, and cycle in old modes.

Solos is actually out of the game right now, making it a purely team-based game.

But, it could come back at any time and expect new and old modes to make an appearance in Season 8.

Map Changes

Last season saw a brand new map, Olympus, added to the game.

This time around, it's not a new map - but Mayhem will instead change up Kings Canyon for a third time.

Nintendo Switch

Last year EA announced that Apex Legends would be coming to both Steam and the Nintendo Switch.

Both versions were meant to release in 2020, however, the Switch version was pushed back.

As of now there is no set release date for the Nintendo Switch port, however, it is expected in 2021.

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NEW FIGHTERS JOIN: Apex Legends will be released on Nintendo Switch and Steam, further adding accessibility

READ MORE: What we know about Apex's arrival on Nintendo Switch

You can read the Season 7 patch notes here to see what to expect when the new season lands next month.

Legends Nerfs and Buffs

Competitive games have to be constantly tweaked to ensuring one item or character isn't significantly weaker or stronger than the rest.

In Season 8 we can expect to see a few nerfs and buffs for some of the Legends.

Lead game designer, Daniel Klein, spoke on Reddit about some of the nerfs and buffs we can expect to see next season.

Wattson - Nerf

Wattson is a Legend that we can expect to see a huge nerf to in the upcoming season.

Daniel Klein notes that Wattson "has a very high win rate, one that climbs aggressively with skill as well.”

ELEMENTARY - Wattson has been in the game since Season 2
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ELEMENTARY - Wattson has been in the game since Season 2

“She’s fallen off from her near-100% pick rate peak, but it doesn’t take very much to push an already strong character from never seen to everywhere and a pain in the butt.”

Horizon - Nerf

Horizon is the newest Legend in the game, having been released with the Season 7 update.

Despite a previous nerf to her Gravity Lift, she is still considered very overpowered.

 A NEW HORIZON - One of the more recent Apex addition is in line for a tweak
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A NEW HORIZON - One of the more recent Apex addition is in line for a tweak

“Our theory internally right now is that she’s too safe with the tactical. She can use it in so many situations to get out of trouble, and most frustratingly, she can sit atop the tactical and use a battery while A/D strafing faster than she could on the ground.”

Klein also noted that Horizon has the highest trio win rate in the game, followed by Wraith and Gibby.

So if you meet a Trio consisting of those three Legends, its time to get worried.

Wraith - Nerf

Speaking of Wraith, expect to see a nerf to her in Season 8.

“With Wraith, our approach is going to be very similar to Pathfinder. We’re going to take a look at her hitboxes and see how much wiggle room we have there. With Pathfinder, it turned out that we had so much… that was a 20% increase in hitbox size.”

FEEL THE WRAITH - Subject 61137 is inline to be patched
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FEEL THE WRAITH - Subject 61137 is inline to be patched

Respawn noted back in November that they want to "get Wraith under control", it seems now is the perfect opportunity to finally do it.

Revenant - Buff

Finally is Revenant, the only character that we can expect to get a buff in Season 8.

CALL OF THE REVENANT - The terrifying Legend is almost guaranteed to be buffed
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CALL OF THE REVENANT - The terrifying Legend is almost guaranteed to be buffed
“We’ve been struggling to find a good buff for Revenant. I don’t think we’ve properly discussed just shrinking his hitboxes to give him power without making him more frustrating. I’ll bring it up in our balance round table.”

For more articles like this, take a look at our Apex Legends page.