Apex Legends Season 5 is the first new season which doesn’t add a corresponding new weapon to the game’s roster. However, while fans don’t have any new guns to try out, players will find that some of the existing weapons are a bit different now; particularly the Mastiff and the Peacekeeper. After all, today’s new Season 5 update features a range of weapon balancing tweaks in its patch notes.
Apex Legends Season 5 Weapon Changes
According to Respawn, the reason why they chose not to include a new weapon in Season 5 was because they didn’t want the weapon pool to become saturated. “We believe there is a ‘right’ amount of weapons in the loot pool,” writes the studio; “and we think we are currently in that sweet spot. Vaulting weapons is not an option (because players have purchased skins), so we are forced to be more creative.”
Apparently, the studio does have some ideas for how to address this problem. However, these mysterious solutions aren’t quite ready and need time to go through testing. As such, Season 5 only features a range of balance changes for the existing weapons and some rotation changes. Firstly, the fully-kitted gold weapons this season are the EVA-8, Hemlok, Longbow DMR, RE-45, and Spitfire.
- Alternator: The Alternator’s magazine size has gone up from 16 to 19. This means that its Level 1 Extended Mag now holds 22, Level 2 now holds 25, and Level 3 now holds 27.
- Havoc: The Havoc has had an increase to its vertical recoil, as well as a slighter increase to its horizontal recoil. Furthermore, the recoil on its first 2 shots has also gone up.
- Longbow DMR: The Longbow’s headshot scale has gone down in Season 5 from 2.15 to 2.1. In addition to this, you can now get a Skullpiercer Hopup for the Longbow which will increase its headshot scale to 2.5.
- Mastiff: The Mastiff will no longer appear in care packages and will instead be a regular weapon. As such, its power has been reduced. Its damage per pellet is down from 18 to 13, while its headshot multiplier is down to 1.25 from 2.0. Furthermore, its fire rate is down to 1.0 from 1.3, and its blast pattern distance for the outer pair of pellets, as well as the scale ADS multiplier, have both gone up. Its projectile speed is now more in line with a standard shotgun speed, along with its projectile size. However, its shell count has gone up to 6.
- Peacekeeper: Opposite to the Mastiff, the Peacekeeper is becoming a care package weapon instead of a regular weapon. As a result, its power has gone up. Its projectile size has gone up to help it become more consistent at close range, and its spread pattern has also been tightened. Plus, its rechamber time has gone down from 1.2 to 0.9, and its reload times have also gone down from 2.65 to 2.45 base and 3.6 to 3.35 when empty.
- RE-45: The RE-45 has had a small buff to its damage, up from 11 to 12. In addition, its reload time has gone down from 1.74 to 1.5 base and 2.12 to 1.95 when empty.
- Wingman: Like the Longbow DMR, the only change to the Wingman in Season 5 is to its headshot scale, which has gone down from 2.1 to 2.0. Plus, you can also now get a Skullpiercer Hopup for the Wingman. This will increase its headshot scale to 2.25.
Finally, Respawn have also made a couple of small changes to Gold Armor in Season 5. They have added a perk that Shield Cells and Syringes will give double the normal amount when you use them. However, the 50% heal speed perk previously granted by Gold Armor has been removed.