Apex Legends: Defiance Season 12 is in full swing and will release on February 8, 2022. Season 12 brings a host of new features to the Apex Games, including the latest Legend, Mad Warlord Salvo, Mad Maggie.
One of the biggest changes in Apex Legends is the radical update to Olympus, which will now be called the Sabotaged Olympus. The map will look completely different, and in a detailed post on Reddit, level designer Alex Graner shared the key goals of these changes:
- Expand the map, spread out units so that the central area of the map (laboratories/estates) is not the only combat zone in each game, and reduce the frequency of third party spontaneous actions.
- Improved rotation options to help players get around and out of dangerous bottlenecks.
- New interactive game maps and playgrounds to help bring players to new areas, creating new experiences for Olympus.
Apex Legends Season 12: Defiance Nerfs Caustic and Buffs Crypto
Sabotaged Olympus, Phase Driver
The Phrase Driver is located on the newly expanded south side of the map. The object is also interactive, so players can get high level loot from it.
The Phase Driver looks like the focal point of all the changes to Olympus as it ties together surrounding points of interest, allowing players to explore that particular area in a more focused way. The Interactive Phase Driver device itself also seems very funny.
When activated, 3 loot rollers will be staged, each activation guaranteeing at least 1 golden orb. There is also a 45 second cooldown before it can be activated again. The tradeoff is that the device makes a loud noise that players in nearby areas can hear, so it draws a fairly large target on the players’ backs.
Conversely, the phase driver device can also be used to lure out surrounding units and ambush them. There are many more changes in Olympus in areas such as the Terminal, Shifted Lands, New Northeast Path, and more. Details on these new changes can be found in the subreddit post linked here.
Defiance Season 12 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 as usual, but in addition, he will also be able to throw it in a straight line, after which it will automatically stop after a set distance.
It’s like “slower Bloodhound scan”but works exactly the same. It also has the advantage that it can stick to a wall and act like a webcam if it encounters enemies along the way.
caustic
Caustic has been heavily nerfed, as its gas traps can now be destroyed once activated. This means that teams will be able to shoot at an activated trap to destroy it, giving them a pretty solid chance in combat.
It will be interesting to see how Caustic mains reacts to this nerf and whether he stays in the top tier after that.
Weapon Changes
The Alternator will be replaced by Volt in the Aid Pack loot and as a result, Volt will deal an additional 2 damage per bullet. In order to reduce the number of weapons in the ground loot pool, both Flatline and Longbow will now be placed in Replicator cas crafted weapons.
Additionally, Flatline is receiving a damage nerf, removing 1 damage per bullet. Similar to Care Package weapons, weapons made in the Replicator will initially have sufficient ammo. Triple Take is also getting a nerf, up to 21 damage per bullet instead of 23.
New Hop-Up: Kinetic Feeder
The hops have also received some changes as the Hammerpoint rounds for P2020 and Mozambique are returning, but in addition, they can now be used on the RE-45 as well. Destruction caps now only apply to hip shots and are disabled when aiming down.
The new “Kinetic Feed”hop-up for Peacemaker and Triple Shot activates while sliding and feeds ammo to these cannons. The trade-off is to increase the amount of time it takes to overwhelm these guns.