Respawn Entertainment has dropped the full patch notes for the Apex Legends Aftershock Event, launching March 31. The midseason update overhauls the Wildcard mode with a new electromagnetic combat system, adds the Hemlok Breach AR as the latest Elite Weapon, and reworks Gibraltar, Wraith, and Wattson. A Fuse Prestige Skin, weapon tuning, Olympus map changes, and engine improvements round out the patch.
Wildcard: Charged Up
The Aftershock Event runs a new Wildcard variant called "Charged Up" on Broken Moon from March 31 to April 21. Every legend enters matches with two new universal abilities: the Vortex Shield and the EMP Blast.
Vortex Shield
The Vortex Shield catches incoming bullets and fires them back at enemies on release. It runs on energy that depletes as it absorbs fire, and recharges by collecting EVO from the map.
EMP Blast
The EMP Blast stuns enemies and damages placeable objects. It draws from a separate EMP Battery, which recharges by blocking damage with the Vortex Shield, collecting EVO, or through certain Wild Cards.
Nine New Wild Cards
Charged Up introduces nine Wild Cards built around these two mechanics:
- Bigger and Better: Greatly increases Vortex Shield size and speeds up deploy and stow time.
- Duck and Cover: Expands the Vortex Shield's protective area but disables return fire.
- Energy Efficient: Cuts EMP Blast cost by 50%, allowing two uses per charge.
- Sonic Boom: Increases EMP Blast damage and adds knockback.
- Static Charge: EMP Battery stays fully charged even after use.
- Extra Juice: Reviving a teammate grants EMP Battery charge.
- Background Process: Passive EMP Battery charging that increases while sprinting.
- Kinetic Converter: Movement speed scales with current EMP Battery charge percentage.
- Heat Signature: Spend EMP Battery charge to spot enemies through walls.
The New Elite Hemlok Breach AR
The Hemlok Breach AR is the patch's new Elite Weapon, replacing the gun's Burst and Single firing modes with automatic fire and a new Breach Charge mode.
Automatic Mode:
- Fire rate: Slow
- Body damage: 23
- Headshot damage: 32
- Integrated Silencer (integrated, not an attachment)
Breach Charge Mode:
- Single shot explosive round
- Cooldown: 15 seconds
- Player damage: 38 with radial falloff
- Heavy damage multiplier against Hardlight mesh and structures
Respawn built the weapon around breaching fortified positions. The Breach Charge tears through Hardlight and structures at a rate standard weapons can't match, while the integrated Silencer keeps automatic fire off the radar.
Legend Updates
Gibraltar
Gibraltar has had one of the worst pick rates in the game for a while. Respawn's response is a full kit overhaul targeting his mobility and the Dome of Protection, which has become increasingly easy to push.
New Passive: Momentum Boost
- Sustaining sprint speed for a couple of seconds triggers a speed boost.
- Only activates while unarmed or using a weapon without a sprint speed restriction (the Fast Shotties Upgrade disables it).
- Punch now deals double damage to Hardlight.
Tactical (Dome of Protection)
- Cooldown cut from 17 seconds to 13 seconds.
Ultimate
- The 20% radius increase, previously locked behind an upgrade, is now part of the base kit.
- Missile call time is faster.
- Players can throw the ultimate before the equip animation finishes.
New Upgrades - Level 2:
- Thunder Dome: The Dome becomes electrified on placement. The first enemy to enter takes 50 damage and is slowed.
- Healing Dome: Dome duration increases by 4 seconds, and players inside get double healing from small meds.
New Upgrades - Level 3:
- Triple Bombardment: Splits the ultimate into 3 smaller charges, each with reduced radius and missile count.
Removed upgrades: Big Bruddah, Bubble Bunker, Baby Bubble.
Wraith
Wraith's pick rate has been dropping steadily, and Respawn is addressing it by baking former cooldown reduction upgrades directly into her base kit and adding new upgrade paths focused on team utility.
Tactical
- Cooldown reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds (previously locked behind an upgrade).
Ultimate
- Cooldown reduced from 2.5 minutes to 1.5 minutes (previously locked behind an upgrade).
- Casting animation is faster for quicker activation.
New Upgrades - Level 2:
- Phase Dome: Channeling the ultimate creates a Phase Dome lasting 30 seconds, or until the portal is placed. Any player who enters goes into the void.
New Upgrades - Level 3:
- Phase Jumper: Tactical void duration extended from 4 to 6 seconds, plus a double jump while in the void.
Wattson
Wattson's changes add new Hardlight mesh interactions and make her tactical faster to deploy.
Tactical
- Placing a fence in front of Hardlight mesh reinforces it. If the mesh breaks, the fence rebuilds and reinforces it again.
- Fence damage up from 20 to 35.
- Deployment time cut from 1 second to 0.5 seconds.
Ultimate
- The pylon now reinforces all Hardlight meshes within its zone. Broken meshes are rebuilt and reinforced automatically.
Weapon Balance Changes
30-30 Repeater: The previous marksman pass clipped the 30-30 a bit too hard. Base damage goes up to 43 (from 41) to bring it back as a consistent option, without restoring the damage spikes that charged headshots used to produce.
RE-45 Burst: Introduced as an Elite Weapon, the energy burst RE-45 is now the permanent default version of the gun, with the Elite visual treatment removed. Respawn ruled out returning to the light ammo automatic configuration, citing overlap with the R-99, Alternator, and the rest of the light weapon pool. The RE-45 is a permanent energy weapon going forward.
P2020: Hammerpoints unlock cost reduced to 425 points (was 500). Base magazine increased to 9 rounds (was 8).
EVA-8: Base reload speed improved.
Prowler PDW: Respawn increased burst delay when automatic fire was added to keep the weapon's power in check. That adjustment went too far, so the burst delay has been pulled back and recoil has been tuned to make it more competitive in CQC.
Map Changes
Elysium has moved to the northeast corner of Olympus, near Rift. The relocation breaks up the forced contest between Somers University and Elysium that was causing issues in Ranked and Competitive play. Terrain in the area has been modified to support the new placement, and a minor POI previously at that location has been removed.
Rotation Schedule
Pubs and Ranked (through May 5, 2026): Olympus, Storm Point, World's Edge
Mixtape (March 24 - May 5, 2026):
- TDM: Skull Town, Fragment, Estates
- Control: Labs, Thunderdome, Lava Siphon
- Gun Run: Monument, Skull Town, Thunderdome
Wildcard (March 31 - May 5, 2026): Broken Moon Wildcard - Charged Up runs March 31 to April 21. April Friends Day lands April 1; Respawn says it's "flipping" the usual celebration format, but hasn't disclosed specifics.
Ranked Events: Event 6 (April 2-5), Event 7 (April 9-12), Event 8 (April 16-19), Event 9 (April 23-26), Event 10 (April 30 - May 3).
Event Cosmetics and Rewards
New event skins cover Wattson, Ash, Pathfinder, Horizon, Crypto, and Gibraltar. Weapon cosmetics include the EVA-8 "Hard Core," the Havoc "Technoforged," and the CAR "Static Discharge," along with additional unnamed skins. Fuse gets a Prestige Skin with three levels, a custom Finisher, and a Dive Trail.
Players spend Cells on two rotating reward sets in the Reward Shop. The first set (March 31 - April 10) includes an Aftershock Pack, Epic Lifeline Legend Skin, Tracker Set, and more. The second set (April 10 - April 21) includes an Aftershock Pack, Epic Lifeline Banner Frame, and more.
The Aftershock Milestone Collection runs in the Store and as possible drops from Aftershock Packs, March 31 through May 5. All six event legend skins are priced at 1,800 Apex Coins each or 2,400 Crafting Materials.
Audio Changes
The volume of Hardlight mesh breaking has been turned down following community feedback. Enemy footstep audio has gone the other direction: steps from enemies outside a player's field of view are louder, scaling by direction. Loud when an enemy is beside you, louder over the shoulder, loudest when they're directly behind. Respawn says further footstep adjustments will follow based on feedback.
Apex Bots Improvements
Firing range bots have been overhauled across several systems. They'll now break off to find cover and heal when taking damage in combat, switch weapons based on engagement distance (a bot carrying a shotgun will swap to it at close range), and use ziplines, ziprails, and jump towers to pursue players around the map. Target prioritization has been reworked to make bots harder to sneak up on, and improved strafing lets them close distance more aggressively rather than standing still while shooting.
Bug Fixes
Legends:
- Bloodhound: Killing firing range dummies now correctly triggers all "on knock" behavior.
- Catalyst: Removed a dead spot near the center of Piercing Spikes where enemies could stand without taking damage.
- Catalyst: Piercing Spikes no longer activate when the owner steps into range during a friendly fire session in the firing range.
- Octane: Stim Surge no longer stays in the secondary hand while using Akimbo.
- Fuse: Level 3 upgrade Reignition now works correctly against firing range dummies.
- Sparrow's SWAT Scout skin no longer appears bright red at long distances.
- Newcastle's wall no longer destroys Mad Maggie's wrecking ball when deployed close to it.
- Catalyst and Conduit's Heart Machine skin no longer shows visible portions during a Mirage revive.
- Crypto's Destiny Gundam Spec II skin decals no longer stay visible while cloaked.
Quality of Life:
- The iron sight on the 30-30's "Long-Distance Agony" skin has been cleaned up to match its other skins.
- Double jump off Octane's jump pad now works while healing.
- Alternator SMG: Extra hit markers in Double Tap mode have been removed.
- Vault Keys no longer affect deathbox color. Previously, a colored box containing only a Vault Key would mislead players expecting top tier loot.
Engine and Graphics Updates
Apex now uses the Windows Audio Session API (WASAPI) for microphone input on PC, which unlocks Windows 11's "Voice Clarity" audio enhancement for background noise removal. The option lives under System > Sound > Mic Properties > Input Settings > Audio Enhancements. Players running multiple microphones can pick a specific input in Apex's Voice Chat Input Device setting, or set a preferred mic as the Windows communications default and select System Default in-game.
Static objects now use bindless resources and draw call batching, reducing CPU load during map rendering. Olympus gets improved occlusion culling algorithms for a slight CPU gain on that map. On compatible PC systems, ReBAR support has been added for faster GPU data uploads, reducing texture and model popping while taking some pressure off the CPU. Reflection intensity in dark areas is more accurate, and both ambient occlusion and specular occlusion clarity have been improved.
Context
The Aftershock Event follows the Gundam event, which ran on Broken Moon and proved popular despite early skepticism over its departure from Apex's visual identity. During that event, streamer Mikkel "Mande" Hestbek hit two million damage in a single match using the Buster Rifle in a private subscriber lobby. The new Vortex Shield's reflect mechanic echoes the Gundam event's Bit Staves, and both modes have called Broken Moon home.
Summary of Key Changes
| Area | Change |
|---|---|
| New Mode | Wildcard: Charged Up (Vortex Shield + EMP Blast) |
| New Wild Cards | 9 new cards for Charged Up |
| New Elite Weapon | Hemlok Breach AR (Automatic + Breach Charge) |
| Legend Buffs | Gibraltar, Wraith, Wattson |
| Weapon Changes | 30-30, RE-45, P2020, EVA-8, Prowler |
| Map Change | Elysium relocated on Olympus |
| Event Duration | March 31 - April 21, 2026 |
| Store Window | March 31 - May 5, 2026 |
