Respawn Entertainment has announced the Apex Legends next collection event, and it’s called “Chaos Theory.” It’s confirmed for release this March 9 (Tuesday), and prepare for a lot of new stuff! Caustic is taking center stage for this event, and there’s a new game type incoming and loads more.

Head on for the summary below, and we have a more detailed look into the new stuff incoming as well if you’re up to it.

Apex Legends Next Collection Event “Chaos Theory” Summary:

• Caustic Town Takeover – Featuring the all-new Caustic Treatment, players will encounter a new dominant mousetrap with lots of high-quality loot that beckons all Legends who seek the glorious cheese. Constructed to prevent the Crash Site fuel spill from reaching the ocean, players must drain the toxic liquid from the center of the facility in order to receive temporary access to four gold loot items locked in cages.

• Ring Fury Escalation Takeover – A new game-type, the “Ring Fury Escalation Takeover” introduces one or more Ring Flares on the map within the current ring. Giving the classic Battle Royale a twist with expanding pockets within the Arena, players who get caught in the Ring Flare will take damage equal to the damage dealt by the current round’s ring. Players can also throw down a new item, Heat Shields, which casts a protective dome that pours the deadly effect of the ring over the barrier for a short time. Heat Shields will reside in a brand new Survival Slot that aims to eliminate the choice between normal loot and situational utilities like a Mobile Respawn Beacon or a Heat Shield.

• Chaos Theory Collection Event – Featuring a rewards track with all-new earnable cosmetics, this event includes legendary Kraber and EVA-8 weapon skins, daily rewards and challenges, and a brand new set of 24 themed, event-limited cosmetics. All 24 items will be available through direct purchase (for Apex Coins or Crafting Metals) and in Event Apex Packs for the entire duration of the event. Players who collect all 24 event items will earn the Bangalore heirloom. Following the event, the heirloom will be available to all via heirloom crafting.

• No-Fill Matchmaking – A new way to play as a solo Legend that sends you into your selected playlist without a team of players. This feature will give players a lot of creative opportunities to play the game their way.

Apex Legends Chaos Theory Patch Notes:

LEGEND UPDATES

Caustic

• Nox Gas Grenade cooldown increased from 2.5 minutes to 3.5 minutes.
• Nox Gas damages at a flat rate of 5hp per tick instead of ramping up from 6hp → 12hp.

Dev note: Caustic is brutally effective at slowing down engagements. The entirety of his kit revolves around gas with a large area of effect, slow, vision obstruction, and direct health damage. It’s proven to be too oppressive in too many scenarios especially considering teammates can play in gas relatively unimpaired. Significantly reducing gas damage (without taking it away completely or having it affect armor instead) seems like a fair compromise that stays true to the character while making him less oppressive on the receiving end. We will be monitoring the data and gameplay closely. If these changes hit Caustic’s appeal or effectiveness too hard we will revisit accordingly.

Pathfinder

• Removed Low Profile

Dev Note: Low Profile has been used as a balancing tool for both mobile and/or small legends. Although Path is still mobile, his hitbox is large. While his overall win rate and encounter win rate is by no means low, it’s hard to justify keeping Low Profile on a hitbox of his size.

Gibraltar

• Removed 15% faster heal item usage while in Dome of Protection.

Horizon

• Increased Black Hole cooldown from 2 minutes to 3 minutes

Revenant

• Revenant’s Silence now disables Mirage’s cloaked revive & respawn as well as Octane’s Swift Mend.

Wattson

• Wattson now has passive shield regen at 0.5 hp/s (half of Octane’s current health regen rate).

Rampart

• Explosives damage Amped Cover normally, instead of inflicting 200 damage.
• Explosives damage Sheila normally, instead of inflicting 175 damage.

Dev Note: Walls should be beefy and powerful once built. Before Rampart shipped, we were worried that her nests would be too oppressive and so we gave enemy players the option to quickly clear them out with grenades. This wasn’t necessary, as it turns out, so we’re removing increased damage from grenades against Amped Cover and Sheila.

WEAPON UPDATE

Weapon Optics

• All gold AR and LMG default optics updated to 2x Bruiser.

Mastiff

• Pellet damage decreased from 13 → 11. Fire rate increased from 1.0 → 1.1.

Dev Note: The goal of these changes are to place this weapon’s identity between the fast fire EVA-8 and the heavy hitting Peacekeeper. The Mastiff has consistently been dominant in close quarters combat given its forgiving spread pattern and high damage spikes with each shot. This change reduces that high damage potential in order to limit the amount of two pumps players experience on the receiving end.

Wingman

•  +1 bullet to every magazine size, including base.

Hemlok

• Increased hip-fire spread.

Dev Note: The burst damage from the Hemlok’s hip-fire was feeling a little too consistent for an AR that should excel at medium range. This change mitigates the Hemlok’s close quarters damage spikes that felt bad on the receiving end.

QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES

• Kings Canyon Loot – we’ve done a pass on the loot to bring up the quality across the map, while also maintaining a certain amount of loot after Mirage Voyage has flown away.
  • The wooden shacks across the map should have a few more pieces each, and generally be a little higher quality.
  • Spotted Lake has been reduced to Medium Quality from High.
  • Crash Site has redistributed the loot in the area slightly. The amount stays the same, but the higher quality loot should be in the ship.
  • Caustic Treatment has more loot than Water Treatment, and it remains Hiqh Quality.
• Locked Weapon Optic Swapping – For guns with fully locked attachment slots, like fully-kitted gold weapons and most crate weapons, you can now remove the optic and replace it with a different sight.  This does not apply to the Kraber sniper rifle.
• Assists have been added to the in-game HUD, next to kills. This was already present in Ranked and now has been added to unranked. Assists still don’t contribute to XP. This has replaced the Spectator “eye” icon.
• Assists and Knocks have been added to your squad’s banners and will show at the end of a match.
• Club names now appear on Match Summary and Champion screen if all players are part of the same club.
• Items will no longer “stick” to Crafting Replicator when dropped on the Replicator.
• Badge Progress – for badges that have longer amounts of progress, hovering over the badge will show you more information. For example, if you’re trying to get 50 wins as Lifeline, you’ll now see that you have 45 instead of somewhere between 15 and 50.

• Ping My Deathbox – While respawning on a dropship, you can now ping your own deathbox to help locate it easier.
• Gold Backpack – Players being revived by a gold backpack will have a crackle of energy—based on the tier of armor they wear—while the revive is taking place. They will also display the armor heal FX when the revive is finished. This change should help players prioritize pushing a revive in progress.

• Players on PC can now go back to the title screen from the lobby to allow switching of data centers without restarting the game.
• Added numbers to the Advanced Look Controls. This should help people experiment and easily revert back to their favorite settings.
• When scanning a beacon for Ring 6, you should now be able to see the location where Ring 6 finishes.
• Inspect Weapon – Since the Survival Slot took its button on controller (we only have so many buttons!), Inspect Weapon has been moved to the emote wheel by default. It can be bound to any key on PC.

BUG FIXES

Gibraltar

• Corrected an issue with Gibraltar not getting hit registrations when simultaneously releasing ADS and shooting while his Gun Shield was up

Wraith

• Wraith players can no longer cancel Into the Void by jumping at a wall
• The New Skydive Emote will now work with Legendary Skins

Caustic

• Fixed a bug that was causing Nox Gas to flicker for some players affected by it

Octane

• Repeatedly using the same jump pad no longer disables double-jumps
• Players are no longer allowed to “glide” along a wall after using the jump pad

Crypto

• Crypto’s animation to bring out his Drone is no longer skippable by throwing a holospray
• Crypto can no longer teleport to a replicator
• Reloading the Mastiff and 30-30 will no longer be faster while in Crypto’s drone

Loba

• Fixed a few areas Loba could teleport into that would get her stuck

Rampart

• Players can no longer use Sheila to get under the world when placed too close to the Phase Runner in Olympus

Horizon

• Fixed the Gravity Lift falling through the floor when used on the train tracks in World’s Edge’s Sorting Factory
• Using a zipline after a Gravity Lift will no longer increase accuracy

Fuse

• Motherload will now damage and destroy jump pads
• When under a small enclosure, players will no longer be pushed out after using Motherload
• Players can no longer double their grenades after looting a dead Fuse’s deathbox

Mastiff

• Dropping and picking up the Mastiff will no longer cause it to be reloaded

3030 Repeater

• Dropping and picking up the 30-30 will no longer cause it to be reloaded
• 30-30 will now have spread deviation when ADS firing and jumping

MISC

• Fixed a bug preventing Steam users from sending friend requests to each other
• Usernames now update when a user swaps between the Origin Client to the Steam Client
• Fixed a bug preventing players from creating or joining clubs due to their EA Account already being associated with another platform

Aside from the patch notes that list down the bug fixes and legend changes coming next week, Repawn is also bringing a Caustic makeover to the level as well!

CAUSTIC TOWN TAKEOVER

When life gives you lemons, you can count on Caustic to turn it into toxic lemonade. Breathe it in at the all-new Caustic Treatment; a new dominant mousetrap with lots of high quality loot that beckons all Legends who seek the glorious cheese.

Another major new addition are Heat Shields!

HEAT SHIELDS

During the Ring Fury Escalation Takeover, all players will start with a Heat Shield in their inventory on drop. Throw down your Heat Shield to avoid damage from Ring Flares (or from the ring itself!) and remember that you can always find more. The loot pool for this event has been tuned to spread Heat Shields out throughout the map.

Heat Shields cast a protective dome, pouring the deadly effect of the ring over the barrier for a short time, enabling Legends to loot, revive and generally make some amazing plays outside of the Ring. Plus, when you’re inside the dome, the use of healing items is sped up by 50% and the speed of Revives is increased by 25%. This bonus is ONLY given by Heat Shields that have been activated by the ring. Heat Shields on standby in the safe zone are conserving energy, and don’t grant this bonus.

But watch out: The Heat Shield will slowly degrade in power as it’s damaged by the ring. The damage of the Ring is reflected in the duration of the Heat Shield, so don’t expect it to last very long in the final rounds.

After the Ring Fury Escalation Takeover concludes, the Heat Shield will remain in the game as general ground loot