Apex Legends’ New Patch Increases Inventory Slots, Reduces Muzzle Flash

Apex Legends gets a new limited-time mode today, called Deja Loot, as well as a host of changes to inventory, heirlooms, and—at last—a reduction to muzzle flash.

Deja Loot will be available today until March 17, as part of the System Override Collection event. In Deja Loot, circles and the drop ship trajectory will change once a day instead of every match. Loot locations are fixed for the duration of the event, meaning you’ll find the same guns and armour in the same place every time. It’s an unusual twist on the usual battle royale format, which thrives on randomness. Developer Respawn writes, “The intent is to create a short term meta shakeup and reward players for learning the new progression.”

Deja Loot also features a new item called the Evo Shield. The shield starts off weaker than the lowest level white shield and gets stronger as you deal damage to non-downed players. Intriguingly, the shield’s strength carries over if you loot it—you could let another player do the dirty work of getting and improving the shield and then snatch it up for yourself later in the game. Respawn writes that it will consider adding the shield to the main game mode after the event.

The System Override event also has its own challenges, as well as cosmetics you can both earn and purchase. Unlocking all the items will get you the Octane Heirloom set.

The event also includes a pretty hefty patch. It makes some alterations to Heirlooms, which are rare cosmetics you can earn in game. Previously, Heirlooms had a rare chance of dropping, leading some players to spend a lot of money hoping to get them. Now, you get Heirloom shards that let you select the Heirloom you want. Respawn writes that “shards will have the same drop rate as the previous system, so that after 500 Apex Packs, you will have enough Heirloom Shards to obtain an Heirloom set from the Heirloom shop.” I don’t care much for Apex Legends’ cosmetics myself, but this seems like a much better, more predictable system than the previous guesswork.

The patch also increases the range of Bloodhound’s scan and reduces Gibraltar’s gun shield health. Inventory slots get an increase, with the minimum now set to 10 instead of 8 and backpacks scaling up as well. Some items have had their stacks reduced, including grenades, shield cells, medkits, and some ammo types. A lot of Apex Legends is about inventory management, so I’m curious to see how this change will affect my tendency to grab everything in sight until I’m forced to weigh my options.

Respawn has also reduced muzzle flash while aiming down sights for all weapons except snipers and shotguns. Players have been complaining about muzzle flash being too extreme for a while, so this is a welcome fix.

There are a host of bug fixes as well, which you can read about in the patch notes. Overall, while these main game changes aren’t necessarily glamorous, they’re sure to have an effect on moment-to-moment play. This is the first big patch of Apex Legends’ new season, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out.


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