Apex Legends buffs struggling Alter and makes Loba super strong

The time has come for another big Apex Legends update and a new event too, and buried within the latest set of patch notes you’ll find some generous buffs for three of the battle royale’s legends. Season 23’s focus on support characters continues with Loba and Mirage both becoming much more viable picks, and struggling legend Alter receives an upgrade too. On top of that, there’s a brand new hop-up entering the game, loads of weapon balancing tweaks, and much more.

Let’s begin with those Apex Legends characters buffs, though, because they’re pretty major and could go some way to shaking up the multiplayer game’s meta for the latter half of the season. The loveable but underused Mirage is getting yet another upgrade to his kit that will help turn him into more of a “jack of all trades,” according to Respawn. His invisibility cloak will now also trigger when using healing items, it’ll be equipped half a second quicker than before, and he’ll get increased movement speed while cloaked after reviving a downed teammate. His Evo upgrades have also been overhauled in this new Apex Legends update. His Level 2 upgrades are being ditched and replaced with two brand new ones: Boozle-Eye, which scans enemies that shoot at one of your decoys, and Renaissance Man, which lets him tap into all the other classes’ world interactions. For example, Mirage can now use Survey Beacons or Assault Bins.

If you thought those buffs were generous, wait until you see the “pretty substantial makeover” Respawn has given Loba. Her Black Market ultimate is now so much better and benefits from several changes, such as the ability to grab dead players’ banners without using a charge, small meds like Shield Cells and Syringes can also be grabbed for free, and you’ll start the match with it 99% charged instead of 50%, meaning you can use it almost instantly. Her Burglar’s Best Friend teleportation bracelet now also has two charges, so you can stack two at once.

Like Mirage, her upgrades have also been totally reworked. Shopping Spree has been moved to Level 2 and now lets all members of your team take three items from your Black Market. It joins the new Wolf’s Claws perk which gives you a speed boost after teleporting. For Level 3, she now has Brand New Bag, which gives the whole squad gold-tier backpacks, and Escape Artist, which lets her regenerate 50 shield HP after teleporting. As a former Loba main, this is definitely tempting me to pick her up again, and this goes a long way towards making her a Lifeline challenger as the best support pick.

The other legend getting buffed is Alter, who has struggled since her introduction in Season 21 and is one of the least-picked legends in the game. Her Void Nexus ultimate has been improved thanks to its cooldown being reduced by a whole minute and the Nexus no longer timing out. Its range has also been increased to 300 metres. A new Level 3 upgrade called Multidimensional has also been added, which grants you a second Nexus unit, allowing you to have two down on the map at once. Respawn says it has even more buffs and reworks coming for Alter “in the near future,” but this is the first step to hopefully increasing her usage.

Elsewhere, a weapon balancing pass has made changes to the Charge Rifle, Mastiff, Peacekeeper, and RE-45. A new hop-up called the Accelerator has also been added to Apex, which increases the amount of Evo and ultimate charge you get from dealin damage. The Accelerator is also a stock attachment on the Nemesis, G7 Scout, and CAR.

There are plenty of other tweaks and bug fixes arriving in this new update and you can check out the full patch notes here.

The new mid-season update and the start of the Astral Anomaly event both arrive on Tuesday, January 7.

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