Apex Legends 1.1.1 makes big characters a bit more difficult to kill, celebrates with a “thicc-boi” XP event

Apex Legends 1.1.1 (AKA 1.07 on PS4) was pushed out last night, trying to solve one of the most persistent balance complaints that has faced the game since launch. Bigger characters Caustic and Gibraltar have both been buffed to make them harder to kill. This comes alongside weapon changes to try and improve long-range battles, and there’s a little bonus event to celebrate.

Season 1 launched with changes to the hitboxes of Pathfinder, Gibraltar and Caustic to make them more accurate, but this latest update goes further. Gibraltar and Caustic now have a new passive perk, Fortified, which reduces damage taken by 10%. With extra tweaks to the character abilities, they’ll be looking at how this affects their balance and making further tweaks.

Here’s the character changes:​

CAUSTIC:

• Fortified Passive Perk added: reduces damage taken by 10%
• Gas Damage per tick increased: 1 -> 4
• Ultimate Throw distance increased: 28 meters -> 33 meters

GIBRALTAR:

• Fortified Passive Perk added: reduces damage taken by 10%
• Gun Shield health increased: 50 -> 75

To celebrate, there’s a Battle Pass XP bonus event, running from 6PM UK time last night until 6PM UK time on 18th April. Your first top 5 finish of the day either today or tomorrow will earn you a full bonus Battle Pass level. Respawn say they’ll be holding other Battle Pass XP bonuses through the rest of the season.

More extensive are the gun tweaks and changes to improve power of long range shoooting. Leg shot damage is no longer punished quite as harshly, and sniper weapon sway is also being reduced. Separately, the Spitfire machine gun is being nerfed a bit, Wingman pistol will have fewer bullets, and the Havoc is being modified to make it more viable alongside other assault rifles when taking attachment rarity into account.

Here’s those changes in detail:

• G7 SCOUT / TRIPLE TAKE / LONGBOW DMR
  • Lowered leg shot damage reduction: 25% -> 10%
  • Reduced base weapon sway by about 33%
  • Reduced base sway speed by about 25%

• LONGBOW DMR
  • Increased fire rate 1.2 -> 1.6
  • Increased magazine size
    • Base mag increased: 5 -> 6 rounds
    • Common mag extender increased: 6 -> 8 rounds
    • Rare mag extender increased: 8 -> 10 rounds
    • Epic mag extender increased: 10 -> 12 rounds

• HAVOC
  • Increased base magazine size: 25 -> 32 rounds
  • Charge Beam
    • Reduced cost per shot: 5 -> 4
    • Increased close range damage: 55 -> 60
    • Increased damage at range: 45 -> 50
    • Close range damage falloff increased: 35m -> 75m
    • Ranged damage falloff increased: 75m -> 125m

• WINGMAN
  • Reduced magazine size
    • Base mag reduced: 6 -> 4 rounds
    • Common mag extender reduced: 8 -> 6 rounds
    • Rare mag extender reduced: 9 -> 8 rounds
    • Epic mag extender reduced: 12 -> 10 rounds​

• SPITFIRE
  • Reduced base damage: 20 -> 18
  • Magazine extender attachments reduced
    • Common mag extender reduced: 45 -> 40 rounds
    • Rare mag extender reduced: 55 -> 45 rounds
    • Epic mag extender reduced: 60 -> 55 rounds

ADJUSTMENTS TO GOLD WEAPON ATTACHMENTS:

• Gold Havoc
  • Now has Turbocharger
  • Now has 1x-2x variable holo site
• Gold R301
  • Now has 1x-2x variable holo site
• Gold Wingman
  • Now has digital threat

Finally, there’s bug fixes and a tweak to the drop ship:

• JUMP SHIP SPEED
  • Increased the speed of the ship by about 50%
    • We felt that the ship was moving a bit too slow after watching player behavior so we’re speeding it up so players that like to drop later in the flight path don’t have to wait so long.
• BUG FIXES
  • Fixed UI bug where the wrong percentage would be displayed for all boost badges.

Source: Reddit