Apex Legends Season 12 Defiance Map Updates and Early Patch Notes Are Now Out

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Apex Legends Season 12: Defiance is coming in hot and will drop on February 8, 2022. Season 12 brings a whole host of new stuff to the Apex Games, including the newest Legend, the crazed warlord of Salvo, Mad Maggie.

One of the biggest changes coming to Apex Legends is the drastic facelift of Olympus, which will be now known as ‘Sabotaged Olympus’. The map will look drastically different, and in a detailed Reddit post, Level Designer Alex Graner, shared key goals for these changes:

  • Expand the map, spreading squads out more so the map’s centre area (Labs/Estates) isn’t the only go-to combat zone each game and reducing the frequency of spontaneous 3rd-parties

  • Better rotational options to help players get around and out of dangerous chokepoints

  • New interactive map toy and play spaces to help attract players into the new areas, creating fresh new experiences for Olympus.

Apex Legends Season 12: Defiance Nerfs Caustic and Buffs Crypto

Sabotaged Olympus, Phase Driver

Apex Legends Season 12 Defiance

The Phrase Driver is located in the newly expanded South side of the map. The object is also interactive, so players can gain high-tier loot from it.

The Phase Driver looks like a focal point of all changes on Olympus as it ties together surrounding Points of Interest, allowing players to experience this particular area in more purposeful ways. The Interactive Phase Driver Device itself seems like a whole lot of fun as well.

When activated, 3 loot rollers will phase, at least 1 Gold-Tiered ball is guaranteed in each activation. There is also a 45-second cooldown before it’s able to be activated again. The trade-off is that the device makes a loud noise that can be heard by players in the surrounding areas, therefore, painting a pretty large target on the players’ back.

Apex Legends Season 12 Defiance

Conversely, the Phase Driver Device can also be used to lure out surrounding squads and ambush them. There are plenty of more changes to Olympus in areas such as the Terminal, Shifted Grounds, New North East Path, and more. For a detailed breakdown of these new changes, head on over to the subreddit post linked here.

Season 12 Defiance Early Patch Notes

Crypto

In an effort to make Crypto more mobile, his drone will now have new capabilities. Crypto will still be able to use his Drone like normal but additionally, he will also be able to throw it in a straight line, after which it will automatically stop after a set distance.

It is akin to a “slower Bloodhound scan” but works pretty much in the same exact way. It also has the advantage of being able to stick to a wall and act as a webcam should it encounter enemies in its path.

Caustic

Caustic gets a pretty major nerf as his gas traps can now be destroyed after being activated. Meaning, teams will be able to shoot an activated trap to destroy, giving them a pretty solid fighting chance.

It will be interesting to see how Caustic mains will react to this nerf and whether he will continue to be in the upper echelons of the tier list after this.

Weapon Changes

The Alternator will be replaced by the Volt in care package loot, and as a result, the Volt will do an extra 2 damage per bullet. In a bid to reduce the number of guns in the ground loot pool, both Flatline and the Longbow will now be placed in the Replicator cas craftable guns.

Additionally, Flatline gets a damage nerf, removing 1 damage per bullet. Similar to Care Package weapons, guns made in the Replicator will start with a healthy amount of ammo. Triple Take also gets a nerf, down to 21 damage per bullet instead of 23.

New Hop-up: Kinetic Feeder

Hop-ups also receive some changes as Hammerpoint Rounds for P2020 and Mozambique make a return, but additionally, it can now also be used on RE-45. Shatter Caps will now only apply to hipfire shots and be turned off when aiming down the sights.

The new hop-up, “Kinetic Feeder” for the Peacekeeper and Triple Take activates while sliding and feeds ammo to those guns. The trade-off is the increased amount of time it takes to choke those guns.