Respawn just dropped the official Designer’s Notes for Apex Legends Season 29 Split 2, launching June 23, 2026, and this is one of the most impactful mid-season updates in recent memory. Three legends are getting meaningful buffs, four are getting nerfed, and a brand-new hop-up is about to reshape every close-range fight in the game.

System LayerBalance Modifications & Upgrade Parameters Meta ImpactNew Legend Design Philosophy

* Respawn officially confirmed in the blog that new legends are intentionally shipped in a strong state.

* Design intent is to properly incentivize players to test new options and meaningfully shift the meta.

* Data evaluated after Axle’s free unlock period ended to inform balancing adjustments.

Study New Release Cycles: Recognize that launch-week meta picks are structurally balanced around high baseline metrics. Expect stabilizing tuning updates to land precisely at the mid-season split.

Axle

(Targeted Nerfs)

* Default max in-world Nitro Gate charges reduced from 3 down to 2; health lowered to 100.

* Level 2 Super Slider perk no longer grants an automatic second tactical charge.

* Kickstart ultimate launches targets on a parabolic arc inheriting their existing velocity.

Maintain Aerial Trajectory: Being hit by the ultimate no longer locks you into a helpless vertical freefall. Steer your movement direction using your inherited velocity to land safely.

Pathfinder

(Mobility Buffs)

* Tactical: Grappling Hook now natively holds 2 charges with a flat, predictable 20-second static cooldown.

* Ultimate: Faster zipline projectile deployment speed; cooldown reduced from 3 down to 2 minutes.

* Passive Tweak: Tucks legs inward while riding horizontal lines to reduce his visible hitbox silhouette.

Select Updated Upgrades: Field Research yields full Recon class perks (threat vision while ADS). Ringmaster yields Controller perks. Landing Gear adds air control and wipes drop stun.

Ballistic

(Core Redesign)

* Passive: Sling weapons natively persist across respawns across all modes (including care package tiers).

* Tactical: 2 base charges; Overheat damage up to 50; debuff duration scales to 15s.

* Ultimate: Team speed buff reduced strictly to a forward sprint boost.

Swap to Counter Overheat: The Overheat debuff now only triggers if you continue firing your active gun. Swap to your secondary weapon immediately to stay in the fight cleanly.

Seer

(Anti-Movement)

* Passive: Highly responsive armed/unarmed sensor tracking; frequent heartbeat telemetry intervals.

* Tactical: Launch delay minimized; blast triggers a severe movement slow tailored to stop slides/dashes.

* Ultimate: Instantly scans the perimeter upon zone creation; cloaked targets leave active tracks.

Shut Down Flankers: Deploy your Tactical to cleanly trap hyper-mobile legends like Axle or Ash, stripping them of their slide and dash momentum mid-combat.

Mad Maggie & Valkyrie

(Zoning Reductions)

* Mad Maggie: Tactical cooldown increased from 22s to 28s; Wrecking Ball speed pucks limited to a sprint boost.

* Valkyrie: Slashed her legacy landing speed passive bonus upon exiting Skydive rotations.

Anticipate Slower Drops: Valkyrie teams can no longer drop from the skies and instantaneously ambush targets. Monitor incoming skywards audio cues to easily punish her landings.

Conduit

(Support Nerf)

* Placed a flat cooldown extension directly on her Radiant Transfer tactical armor regeneration.

* Core modification prevents Enduring Barrier shield objects from generating or regenerating health inside ring damage.

Audit Ring Sustainability: Conduit can no longer be exploited to keep teams alive indefinitely outside the safe zone. Monitor your ring rotation positioning tighter.

Weapon Economy

(Executioner Mod)

* New Hop-Up: Executioner added natively to the Peacekeeper and Mastiff pools (costs 375 points).

* Securing a knock triggers 50 automated shield regeneration over 10 seconds.

* Replaces Disruptor Rounds (Peacekeeper) and Dual Shell (Mastiff).

Stack Shield Replenishment: The Executioner mod effect layers directly with the Skirmisher Knock Expert perk, creating massive, rapid shield siphon loops during close-range squad wipes.

If you have been suffering through a season where every lobby looked like an energy drink commercial, good news: Respawn is pulling back on speed across the board. And if your main has been collecting dust in the legend select screen, this might be the patch that brings them back.

Respawn Finally Explains Why Axle Launched So Strong

Before getting into the changes, Respawn said something in the Designer’s Notes that the community has suspected for years but never heard officially: yes, new legends are shipped intentionally overtuned.

According to Respawn’s own blog: “We aim to tune our new Legends strong; it is an intentional choice. We have found that if we ship a Legend in a weak state, it has little to no impact; players are simply not incentivized to try something new if it does not shift the meta in a meaningful way.”

They also confirmed that Axle’s pick rate data was initially inflated because she was free to unlock for the first two weeks of the season, so they waited for that window to close before making major decisions. A small mid-split hotfix came first, and now the full adjustments are here.

Axle Nerfs: Fewer Free Gates and a Less Punishing Ultimate

Axle still has a very high pick rate and Respawn is targeting the two frustrations that came up most in community feedback: too many Nitro Gates cluttering the battlefield, and a Kickstart Ultimate that felt more like getting randomly hit by a catapult than an interactive ability.

Nitro Gate charges reduced from 3 to 2 by default. The Level 2 upgrade that gave players the third gate back (Super Slider) is being replaced entirely. A new upgrade will let you reduce your Tactical cooldown and restore the third Nitro Gate, but you have to choose to spend an upgrade slot on it. Respawn noted that Super Slider was the overwhelmingly dominant Level 2 choice in match data, a clear signal it was too powerful to sit passively in the kit.

Kickstart Ultimate reworked. When an enemy gets hit by Kickstart, they will no longer be launched straight up into the air to freefall. Instead, the launch arc will inherit some of the victim’s current velocity at the moment of impact. This gives the person getting hit actual influence over where they end up, rather than being helplessly tossed in a fixed direction.

Respawn clarified they are not trying to destroy Axle’s identity. The goal is reducing how freely she generates mobility tools when fully upgraded, while keeping her core kit fun.

Pathfinder Is Getting the Biggest Buff in This Entire Patch

Respawn straight-up acknowledged that Pathfinder “has been a bit outclassed by other Skirmishers” and that his ability uptime was too long compared to the rest of the roster. These changes are not small quality-of-life tweaks. This is a full kit overhaul.

Double Grapple charges. Pathfinder’s Tactical now starts with two charges and a flat 20-second cooldown. No more waiting ages between grapples. The uptime difference here is significant for ranked play, especially on maps with lots of verticality.

Zipline speed increased and cooldown reduced. His Ultimate deploys faster and comes back sooner, so you can use it more freely without feeling like you’re burning a resource that costs you a fight.

New visual on horizontal zip lines. Pathfinder now pulls his legs up when riding horizontal ziplines, which reduces his hitbox exposure on his own Ultimate. Respawn mentioned this is a small improvement to make him feel safer, given his large hit box.

Upgrades are completely rebuilt. Here is where it gets interesting:

  • Field Research now grants all Recon class perks, including threats visible while ADS, not just survey beacon access.

  • Ringmaster now grants all Controller class perks, including overshield while in the ring and an Evac Tower that spawns when using a ring console. He can also reinforce Hardlight with this upgrade.

  • Landing Gear (new) replaces Grapple God entirely. This gives Pathfinder better air control and the Soft Landings passive, helping him recover faster after dropping from height.

Pathfinder mains have been patient through a long run of being overshadowed by newer movement legends. This patch gives him tools no other Skirmisher has access to in the same kit.

Ballistic Is Back and These Buffs Are Substantial

Ballistic has been sitting at a microscopic pick rate for months, a direct consequence of nerfs that stripped too much from his kit. Respawn is reversing that trend with targeted changes that also add real counterplay for the first time.

Tactical changes:

  • Starts with two charges (up from one)

  • Overheat damage returns to 50

  • Overheat duration increased from 12 to 15 seconds

  • Overheat now only applies to the weapon currently being held. Swapping to your second weapon removes the debuff entirely. However, once removed, the debuff cannot be re-applied.

This is the key design change. Ballistic becomes more threatening, but enemies now have a clear escape valve: swap your weapon. It makes fights against him interactive instead of just a punishment timer.

Ultimate changes: The full speed boost is gone, replaced with a sprint boost. Same push potential, but opponents can pin you down in a fight.

New Upgrades:

  • Extra Bullet: Grants a third Tactical charge.

  • Trap Mode: The in-world Whistler now deals 35 damage in trap state.

  • Quiet Time: Now applies silence and a short slow on hit (not on overheat). This lets Ballistic disrupt momentum-based abilities directly.

  • Killing Time: Unchanged, but moved to Level 3.

The Quiet Time upgrade in particular positions Ballistic as a counter to the movement meta, which is exactly the kind of niche that could bring him back into ranked consideration.

Seer Buffs: Quiet Comeback or Actual Threat?

Seer has low pick rates overall, but Respawn noted he performs well in higher-ranked lobbies. These changes focus on making his abilities faster and giving him a meaningful role as a mobility counter.

Passive: The heartbeat sensor activates faster, heartbeat intervals increase, and unarmed ADS speed goes up. You get information sooner and more consistently.

Tactical: The delay between launch and hit is reduced, making it easier to land. The slow on hit is also stronger, specifically designed to impede high-speed abilities like Axle’s slide and Ash’s phase dash.

Ultimate: Now performs a short scan of everyone inside the zone the moment it is deployed. You see who is in there immediately without waiting for footstep tracking. Any new enemies who enter after activation are also flagged, and cloaked enemies inside the zone now leave trackable footsteps.

In a meta built around speed, a legend who can slow down enemy abilities and instantly identify targets in his zone has real value. Players who have been sleeping on Seer should give him a serious look in Split 2.

Mad Maggie Nerfs: Less Speed, More Deliberate Play

Maggie has been a top performer all season and her pairing with Gibraltar has pushed her numbers even higher. Respawn is hitting both parts of her kit.

Tactical cooldown increased. The intent is to reduce how many Drills are active in the world at once. Respawn wants players to think harder about when they throw it rather than blanketing every POI.

Ultimate speed boost replaced with sprint boost. This mirrors the change to Ballistic’s Ultimate. You can still push aggressively, but opponents can track and target you during the push instead of chasing a blur.

Maggie mains will still feel her aggression, just without the speed chains that made her feel unstoppable alongside other movement legends.

Valkyrie Gets One Targeted Nerf

Valkyrie is one of the top-picked legends right now and her performance data has been climbing across seasons. Respawn is making one direct change: the soft landing effect from Skyward Dive is removed.

Previously, Valk could scan a squad, dive in from the air, and land with a faster recovery than any other legend, leaving enemies almost no time to react. Removing this brings her landing behavior in line with everyone else. Respawn confirmed they are continuing to watch her data and may revisit other parts of her kit if necessary.

Conduit Gets Nerfed Again After Spiking to the Top

Conduit was present in 8 of the top 10 most popular team compositions after her Season 29 buffs. A hotfix earlier in the season already slowed her Tactical regeneration. Now two more nerfs are coming:

Tactical cooldown increased. The double charge stays, but you have to use it more carefully. Respawn wants her healing to feel like a deliberate play, not an always-available resource.

Enduring Barrier perk no longer regenerates shields through ring damage. This trims one of the more frustrating use cases, where Conduit essentially allowed teams to ignore ring positioning entirely.

The Executioner Hop-Up: A New Reason to Run a Shotgun

This might be the single most meta-relevant addition in the whole patch. Shotguns have been underperforming, and match data confirmed that the Peacekeeper and Mastiff are the weapons players die holding most often. The theory from Respawn is clear: shotguns are getting knocks, but the close-range fights leave players at low health, and they immediately get cleaned up by the downed enemy’s teammates.

The Executioner hop-up directly addresses that. When you secure a knock with the Peacekeeper or Mastiff, it triggers a shield regeneration over a few seconds, similar to the Skirmisher Knock Expert perk, and the two effects stack if you are a Skirmisher.

Executioner replaces Disruptor Rounds and Dual Shell in the loot pool. The Mozambique and EVA-8 are also getting small bumps to their base handling stats.

The Graffiti Mod hop-up moves to the Volt and Flatline this split, injecting some freshness into the weapon meta for those guns.