Apex Legends 9th March patch notes: Balance changes, weapon updates, bug fixes and more

On 9th March 2021, Apex Legends will come to the Nintendo Switch, and there's a new Chaos Theory Collection Event to look forward to. There's also a new Heat Shield item, along with several other pieces of content. Apart from the content additions, there's also balance changes to Legends, weapon updates, bug fixes and quality-of-life changes. We've got you covered with the Apex Legends 9th March patch notes.

Apex Legends 9th March patch notes

Respawn has shared the full list of patch notes for the 9th March update coming to Apex Legends.

The Apex Legends 9th March patch notes are huge, so get ready for a wall of text. We start off with the Legend balance changes, followed by weapon updates, then quality-of-life changes and lastly, the bug fixes.

Legend balance changes

(Picture: Respawn Entertainment)

Seven characters will receive balance changes in the 9th March update for Apex Legends.

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.

Pathfinder

• Removed Low Profile

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.

Apex Legends 9th March patch: Weapon changes

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.

Wingman

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

Hemlok

• Increased hip-fire spread.

Quality-of-life changes in Apex Legends 9th March update

(Picture: Respawn Entertainment)

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.

Apex Legends 9th March patch notes: Bug fixes

(Picture: Respawn Entertainment)

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

So there you have it, all the Apex Legends patch notes for the 9th March 2021 update.

• Read more: Apex Legends Chaos Theory Collection Event: Dates, no-fill matchmaking, rewards, and more

Congratulations on getting through the wall of text. In celebration of this feat, why not check out our Apex Legends Season 8 weapon tier list, where we rank them all from best to worst.