Respawn Entertainment has announced the Merry Mayhem Event for Apex Legends, running December 16, 2025 through January 6, 2026. The three-week holiday event transforms Olympus into a frozen battlefield and introduces AI-guarded airdrops containing Mythic weapons from previous seasons.
Winter Olympus Wildcard Mode
Winter Olympus serves as the event's centerpiece, offering a holiday-themed version of the floating city map exclusive to Wildcard mode. Snow covers the terrain while winter decorations appear across points of interest throughout the battlefield. EVO Orbs are scattered across the frozen landscape, maintaining standard evolution mechanics while matching the festive theme.
The winter makeover applies only to Wildcard mode rather than standard battle royale playlists. Players can expect the same Olympus layout with visual holiday atmosphere layered on top.
Guarded Airdrops & PvE Combat
Guarded Airdrops represent the event's biggest gameplay change. Each airdrop lands with a squad of hostile Spectres defending the package contents. Players must eliminate these AI enemies while fending off other squads attempting to claim the same loot.
The protected airdrops contain seven different Mythic weapons from previous seasons. The Kraber returns with its .50 caliber bolt-action design, variable 6-10x optic, and devastating long-range damage. The Power Sword makes another comeback, offering attack blocking and a chargeable ultimate for lethal finishing moves.
Two R-301 variants offer distinct advantages. The Vermilion R-301 increases critical hit chance and drops a thermite grenade where enemies get knocked, creating area denial. The Hornet R-301 boosts movement speed, reload speed, and grants Tactical and Ultimate charge to the wielder and their allies on knockdowns.
Melee weapons round out the arsenal. The Grand Slam Bat delivers massive knockback that launches enemies considerable distances. The Road Rage Flatline converts knocked enemies into explosive time bombs while every fifth bullet deals double damage with an AOE blast.
Players face multilayered combat challenges when pursuing these drops. The hostile Spectres create guaranteed PvE encounters while other squads often converge on the same high-value targets.
New Wild Cards
Merry Mayhem introduces three new Wild Cards with significant combat implications. Flash Freeze silences enemy abilities when breaking their shield, preventing Tactical or Ultimate use temporarily. Do-Over grants a free self-revive when teammates score knockdowns, eliminating the need to consume self-revive items. Super Cells allow Shield Cells to fully charge shields regardless of tier, dramatically cutting healing time.
Eight returning Wild Cards stay in rotation throughout the event. Personal Space increases melee knockback distance while Hard Hitter boosts melee damage output. Wall Runner grants wall-running ability similar to Titanfall movement mechanics. Extra Ordnance increases ordnance carrying capacity by one additional item.
Down Bad causes knocked enemies to explode. Drain Gain restores health when dealing damage to enemies. Chain Reaction spreads damage to additional enemies within an affected area when hitting the primary target. The Wild Card system operates as a rotating modifier that changes available options throughout matches.
Weekly Challenges
The event spans three weeks with distinct challenge sets for each period. Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3 each feature their own challenge lists with rewards including Amped Seasonal Packs, Holo-Day Packs, and Rare Apex Packs. The challenge structure follows Respawn's standard weekly reset format.
Holiday Cosmetics Store
The event's cosmetic offerings focus on reintroducing winter-themed Legendary skins from previous holiday events. Gibraltar gets two bear-themed Legendaries with Brudda Bear and Pandamonium. Pathfinder's Joyfinder skin delivers holiday-themed cosmetics for the forward scout. Octane's Dasher skin provides reindeer-inspired aesthetics for the speed-focused Legend.
Additional skins are available beyond these highlighted options.
Battle Pass & Ranked Split 2
Respawn has aligned the Merry Mayhem Event start date with major seasonal transitions. December 16, 2025 marks the beginning of both Battle Pass Split 2 and Ranked Split 2, introducing new progression tracks and ranked map rotation changes alongside the holiday event.
The Amped Mid-Season Update arrives January 6, 2026, the same day Merry Mayhem concludes. This timing suggests balance changes, map adjustments, or feature additions will arrive as the event ends.
Recent Patches & Fixes
Respawn's most recent patches have resolved several technical problems. The blue lighting tint issue on World's Edge has been corrected, restoring the map's intended color grading. Multiple missing ziplines across Broken Moon have been restored. Map icons for Rampart Package and Mythic Bin during the Supersonic Event received visibility improvements.
Server crashes when opening packs or entering matches have been fixed. A Superglide bug that prevented Mantle Boost execution over obstacles while crouched has been corrected. The Bird of Prey Care Package now spawns later in matches with reduced frequency. The Bird of Prey's missile recharge time increased to decrease the weapon's overall lethality. An issue where performing emotes with the Mythic R-99 Bird of Prey equipped locked player gameplay mechanics has been resolved.
Known Issues
Respawn has publicly acknowledged several ongoing issues through their public Trello board. Some players are experiencing abnormally high CPU usage. PC players using Nvidia GPUs who encounter performance problems should update to the latest hotfix driver version, as the issue may connect to a recent Windows update.
Some PC players report various performance problems on Winter Olympus when standing near the map edge while looking toward the center. Caustic's gas traps are incorrectly triggering his other traps, creating unintended chain reactions.
Platform Availability
Apex Legends remains free-to-play across PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via EA app, Epic Games Store, and Steam. The game requires platform accounts, platform subscriptions (sold separately), persistent internet connection, and EA account. Age restrictions apply and the game includes in-game purchases.
The Merry Mayhem Event represents Respawn's latest seasonal celebration, following the established pattern of limited-time events that introduce temporary modes, cosmetics, and gameplay modifiers while maintaining the core battle royale experience.
