Apex Legends Season 28 launches February 10, 2026, introducing destructible building windows, a full Fuse rework, and the return of dropships to Ranked. Titled Breach, the update arrives alongside the game's seventh anniversary and brings sweeping changes to legend balance, weapon tuning, and progression systems.
Hardlight Mesh Adds Destructible Cover
The headline feature of Season 28 is Hardlight Mesh, a new window type being added to existing structures across multiple maps. These windows provide cover and visibility but block both movement and gunfire until destroyed.
Breaking Hardlight requires dealing damage. Explosives, sniper rifles, shotguns, and melee attacks all deal bonus damage against these surfaces, letting aggressive squads punch through walls to create new entry points and sightlines.
Controller class legends can repair broken Hardlight Mesh and reinforce it beyond its original durability. Each Controller can maintain up to four reinforced windows at once, giving defensive teams new options for holding buildings during late-game rotations.
Hardlight Mesh appears on Broken Moon, World's Edge, E-District, and the Firing Range. Lead BR Designer Eric Canavese said the goal is to reshape familiar maps by introducing offensive and defensive routes that change how teams approach building fights.
Fuse Gets a Full Rework
Fuse receives the biggest changes of any legend in Season 28. His entire kit has been reworked to make his abilities more cohesive and faster-paced.
The new Knuckle Jumper upgrade lets Fuse leap past enemy defenses and grab aggressive angles. His Ultimate has been completely rebuilt to clear fortified positions more effectively, with far more versatility than the previous version.
Two additional upgrades round out the changes. Pyro Techniques adds flames to his Ultimate, while Reignition lets him recharge Ultimate energy by dealing explosive damage. Aggressive Fuse players can potentially keep their Ultimate up through consistent explosive output.
Senior technical designer Devin Weise explained the reasoning: "Fuse has been in our artillery's sights for some time now, and the introduction of Hardlight Glass is a great time to bring his updated explosives into center stage. We're making all of Fuse's abilities more cohesive and fast paced so that he's equipped to get himself into better positions, and more importantly, get his adversaries out of them."
Bloodhound Receives Scan and Ultimate Buffs
Bloodhound's updates focus on the Tactical scan and Ultimate ability. The scan now feels faster and more fluid according to Respawn, improving the legend's core tracking function.
The bigger change is a major cooldown reduction on Beast of the Hunt. Scoring a knock during the Ultimate now extends its duration, letting players chain eliminations while staying in their enhanced state.
New upgrades add more depth. Raven's Flight gives White Ravens longer range for better tracking. Taste of Blood provides healing on knock during the Ultimate, adding survivability to aggressive plays.
Weise noted these changes lay groundwork for future Bloodhound updates, hinting at more adjustments in later seasons.
Catalyst Buffs Expand Defensive Options
Catalyst's kit gets several buffs that increase her area-control power. Piercing Spikes can now be thrown further and triggers faster after deployment.
Two new upgrades make the ability deadlier. Hidden Traps keeps spikes invisible until triggered, adding ambush potential. Sole Piercer increases both trigger speed and damage output.
The standout change hits her Dark Veil Ultimate. The wall can now be deployed horizontally to seal off entire chokepoints, cutting incoming bullet damage by half. This turns Dark Veil from a vision blocker into a proper defensive barrier.
"Catalyst has very unique controlling tools in her kit, but we'd like to amp up her versatility," Weise said. "With a larger, faster tactical and more flexible options for both her ultimate and upgrades, Catalyst players should feel far more capable when holding a zone."
Full legend balance details arrive in the Designer's Notes on February 6, with complete patch notes following February 9.
Dropship Returns to Ranked
Drop Zones are gone from Ranked play. The traditional dropship is coming back, aligning Ranked matches more closely with ALGS tournament format.
Respawn originally added Drop Zones to mirror competitive play, but players pushed back. Starting position dictated ring pressure, loot quality, enemy proximity, and rotation options. Players felt RNG decided too many early-game outcomes.
The dropship puts control back in players' hands. Respawn said they'll keep looking for ways to bring ALGS features into Ranked without sacrificing player agency.
Bot Royale Gets Major Updates
Bot Royale now supports one to five human squads per match, with updated Apex Bots filling the remaining slots. The mode is designed to help new players learn the game and give veterans a lower-stress option.
Progression restrictions are mostly gone. XP caps have been removed and challenge progress is now fully enabled. Badge earning stays disabled and stats won't track, but players can practice without sacrificing progression.
The bots themselves have been tuned to offer slightly more challenge for low and mid-skill players while staying accessible.
Weapon Balance Changes
Shotguns get a boost with the return of several hop-ups. Dual Shell comes back for the Mastiff, Disruptor Rounds return to the Peacekeeper, and Double Tap is available again on the EVA-8 Auto.
Marksman weapons take hits across the board. The Bocek, Triple Take, and 30-30 Repeater all receive fire rate and damage reductions. The G7 Scout moves to the Care Package entirely, removing it from ground loot.
Loot Pool Changes
Two changes clean up early-game looting.
Knockdown Shields no longer drop as ground loot. Shield strength now scales with Legend Level as players gain Evo throughout the match. This removes the need to hunt for Knockdown Shield upgrades while keeping the mechanic intact.
White Backpacks are equipped at match start and removed from the loot pool. Every player begins with basic inventory space, and one less common item clutters the ground.
New Audio Options
Season 28 adds more audio customization in response to community feedback. Players gain individual control over Legend Dialogue, Ping Dialogue, and Announcer Dialogue.
These settings build on Season 27's Focused Mix feature. Respawn indicated more audio options will follow in future updates.
Seventh Anniversary Event
The anniversary celebration runs February 10 through March 10, 2026, featuring a free rewards track with cosmetics created by community artists and inspired by long-time content creators.
Rewards include the Mythic Peacekeeper, a Reactive Weapon Pack, and chances at Heirloom Shards. New SWAT Pilots tactical skins are also part of the event.
Weekly challenges unlock four Legends permanently:
- Week 1: Valkyrie
- Week 2: Revenant
- Week 3: Conduit
- Week 4: Sparrow
Battle Pass Split 1
The Premium Battle Pass includes Legendary skins for Octane and Seer, a Legendary EVA-8 skin, 10 Exotic Shards, and the Reactive Bocek skin at Tier 60.
Ultimate tier adds 1,200 Crafting Metals and 14 Apex Packs on top of Premium rewards.
Ultimate+ includes everything above plus Ultimate+ skin variants for Octane and Seer, 10 extra Battle Pass levels, and all Legends unlocked during Split 1.
Platform and Launch Details
Apex Legends: Breach launches February 10, 2026, at 10 AM PT on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC through the EA App, Epic Games Store, and Steam.
Season 28 is the final season for the original Nintendo Switch. Support moves to Switch 2 going forward.
Designer's Notes drop February 6. Full patch notes arrive February 9.
