If you feel like the pace of the Apex Games has been a bit sluggish lately, Respawn has a very specific remedy. Season 29, titled Overclocked, is officially live in Apex Legends. This update focuses entirely on momentum, resets, and making sure nobody stays out of the fight for long.
The headline act is Axle, a new Skirmisher who makes Octane look like he’s walking through molasses. Never thought I’d see the day.
Axle is built for players who live and die by the slide. Her passive gives her increased speed and lateral control while sliding. Her tactical, the Nitro Gate, creates a speed-boosting doorway for the whole team. If things get crowded, her Kickstart ultimate sends out an enemy-seeking drone that launches targets into the air.
Faster Respawns and Lazy Healing
The way we play the mid-game is changing significantly. You can now respawn teammates directly from their deathboxes. It takes seven seconds and makes a lot of noise, but your teammate drops back in with whatever gear was left in their box. It removes that desperate sprint to a distant beacon while the ring closes.
We also have a new “Chain Healing” system. You can now queue up your next healing item while the current one is still ticking. This removes the clunky downtime between popping a battery and a medkit. You can set this to “Auto” in your settings to keep the heals flowing until your bars are full.
Winners and Losers of the Patch
Vantage and Conduit are the big winners this season. Vantage received a massive overhaul for her sniper rifle, including a new toggleable 2x canted sight and better handling. Pinging enemies with her passive now builds 70% of an ultimate bullet, so she will almost always have her rifle ready. Conduit now has two tactical charges by default, making her a much more consistent support pick.
Alter is on the receiving end of the nerf hammer. Her tactical cooldown is longer, and her ultimate range has been pulled back. Respawn clearly felt she was a bit too safe in high-level play.
The New Shiny
For the collectors, the Twin Razors universal mythic melee is now available. These are rotating laser blades that any legend can wield. You can find them in Overclocked seasonal packs.
In terms of the map, Storm Point and Olympus have lost their Tridents. Broken Moon has also seen a major cleanup. Most of the long-range ziprails between points of interest are gone, replaced by a couple of well-placed redeploy balloons to keep rotations from feeling like a chore.
With deathbox respawns now a reality, “full-killing” a downed enemy just became a lot more urgent. Clear those boxes or prepare to fight the same person twice.