Apex Legends’ new event brings a new area to the map, new skins, and a solo mode

Apex Legends’ Iron Crown event is giving the game a massive midseason update. The event added a new area to the map, new skins, new challenges, a solo game mode, and a balance patch full of changes.

The biggest change comes in the form of the new Gauntlet map area. Located in the southwest section of Kings Canyon, the new area is entirely inspired by Octane. It’s got a ramp, jump pads, and even a giant ring of fire in the middle. While the event is only set to last for two weeks, it’s unclear if the Gauntlet will stick around on the map or disappear with the event.

The Iron Crown also brings with it a whole set of skins to Apex Legends. The skins are all knight-themed, putting heroes like Wraith and Pathfinder in armor that seems inspired by medieval times. To get these skins, players will have to buy them from loot boxes.

There are a few weapon skins and character cosmetics that will be available for Crowns, a new currency unique to this event. Players can earn crowns by completing challenges — one of which sends you to Octane’s Gauntlet to jump through the flaming ring — or as drops in loot boxes. Once the event is over, any Crowns players earn will automatically be converted to crafting material.

Iron Crown also has a brand new way to play Apex Legends, as it introduces the game’s first ever solo mode. This mode sends players into Kings Canyon alone and lets them fight for survival in hopes of being the last player standing.

Finally, this mid-season update for Apex Legends’ season 2 also brings with it a variety of balance changes. For a full look at all the changes in the Iron Crown patch, you can read the patch notes below.

Apex Legends Iron Crown patch notes

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue where assigned challenges not resetting properly and giving rewards.
• Fixed bug causing incorrect calculation of Kill/Death Ratio in player stats.
• Fixed an issue where sometimes a Care Package would clip into map geometry.
• Fixed a bug that was sometimes showing Apex Predator ranked players RP as zero when viewing the badge in the Lobby.
• Fixed issue with players having connection issues when trying to join a squad that has already played a match.
• Fixed issue where Daily and Weekly Challenges would reset earlier than communicated in the game.
• [Xbox Only] Fixed bug where players would sometimes not receive “The Player” achievement when hitting level 50.
• Fixed a bug where sometimes Arc Stars would attach to players and some objects at a distance and appear to float off of them.
• Fixed bug where sometimes Arc Stars would not explode or do no damage when it detonates.
• Fixed issue with players sometimes unable to unlock the “Double Duty” Badge.
• Fixed bug where sometimes using a healing item while experiencing bad ping would cause them to heal for twice as much.

Quality of Life

• Added a Death Recap to the end of match summary that will display a damage summary of your last battle.
• Improved the UI during the Match Summary to better show Battle Pass progression.

Added In-game Survey

• While playing you may get a prompt that will pop up asking if you enjoyed the last match. This data will be helpful to us so please provide your input when you see it.
• Added option to spectate your squadmates after dying.
• Added option to “Invite Squad” in the Squad Tab.
• Players should no longer lose RP when experiencing a server crash or disconnect in Ranked Mode.
• Fixed issue where squadmates could not ping a friendly Wraith portal.
• Fixed issue where players could pull other players out of a match by joining them, and then joining another friend from the Lobby.
• Fixed issue where sometimes a player would get left behind from their squad in the Lobby after they enter a match.
• Fixed issue where players would sometimes get a “Party Not Ready” error message even though they were no longer in a party.
• Fixes that should improve overall game stability to reduce crashes.

Weapon Balance

Disruptor Rounds with Alternator:

• Reduced Shielded damage multiplier 1.7 -> 1.55.
• Designer Notes: Disruptor rounds on the alternator are shredding shields a bit too quickly and still proving to be stronger than intended, so we’re reducing the disruptor rounds multiplier on shield damage.

RE-45:

• Increased Magazine Size for all tiers to the following:
• Base: 16
• Common: 19
• Rare: 22
• Epic: 25
• Designer Notes: We’re giving the RE-45 a small boost in power by giving it one more round for every mag size. Downing a non-fortified enemy with the RE-45 with 0, 50, 75, and 100 shields requires 10, 14, 16, and 19 shots respectively, so this extra round gives the gun the ability to one-mag more armored enemies instead of leaving them barely alive.

R-301:

• Increased vertical and horizontal recoil. Slightly increased recoil pattern randomness.
• Designer Notes: We’ve made these changes as we’ve seen that the R301 is a bit stronger than intended at long range. We’ve adjusted recoil to balance keeping it effective at medium to close range--which is the original intent--but it should be more difficult for players to auto fire and still laser enemies at long distances.

Legends

General

• Made adjustments to Pathfinder’s and Low-Profile Legends hitboxes.
• Taking shots to the hip now does torso damage instead of leg damage. This should more closely match the behavior of the other Legends.
• Fixed a bug where activating a healing item would cancel the Ultimate for Legends that need to prime it [Bangalore / Pathfinder / Caustic / Gibraltar / Bloodhound]
• Fixed an exploit where players would sometimes be able to still shoot while downed.

Bloodhound

• Increased the distance that Bloodhound can see traversal clues left by other players [but not other kinds of clues] to 25 meters.
• Adjusted the area of effect for Bloodhound’s Tactical to 125 fov.

Wraith

• Based on player feedback, we’ve reduced the “hum” audio that’s playing while using Wraith’s Kunai.
• Fixed issue where actions for Wrath would have a slight delay when her weapon is holstered and crouching or sliding while the kunai is equipped.
• Fixed an exploit that allowed players to remove the cooldown for Wraith’s Tactical Ability.

Mirage

• Fixed bug where Mirage was able to stay invisible and still be able to shoot and melee when using his Ultimate on a zipline.

Octane

• Fixed bug where sometimes Octane’s Jump Pad would not launch the player.