Apex Legends: Upheaval was Season 21, running May 7 to August 5, 2024. Its headline additions were the new Legend Alter and Apex Artifacts, alongside a Broken Moon refresh, a limited-time Solos Takeover, weapon and loot changes, and Ranked adjustments. These are historical patch notes, not advice about the current rotation or balance.
What Upheaval added
Alter, the new Legend
Alter’s kit revolved around reaching items and creating routes through the Void. Her passive, Gift from the Rift, let her interact remotely with a deathbox and claim one item, but not a shield core. Void Passage, her Tactical, opened a portal passage through a surface. Her Ultimate, Void Nexus, placed a regroup point that allies could use remotely to open a phase tunnel back to it.
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Apex Legends: The Board Game Solo & Cooperative Mode Expansion | $36.48 | Buy on Amazon |
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Her upgrades added further options: at Level 2, players could reduce Ultimate cooldown by 30 seconds or extend enemy highlights and reveal health bars after using her Tactical. At Level 3, they could stop Void Nexus from timing out or reduce Tactical cooldown by 10 seconds.
Apex Artifacts
Apex Artifacts were another headline addition to Season 21. The season overview identifies them as new content, but the patch material summarized here does not establish further mechanics or acquisition details.
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- SOLO & COOPERATIVE GAMEPLAY: The Solo & Cooperative Mode Expansion introduces the ability to play Apex Legends: The Board Game in single-player and cooperative modes for up to 2 players.
- AUTOMATED LEGENDS – THE AUTOMAS: Face off against an automated version of the six core Legends, known as the Automas, offering a challenging AI opponent to battle in both game modes.
- TWO GAME MODES INCLUDED: Enjoy both Battle Royale and Team Deathmatch modes, providing variety and new challenges in solo or cooperative play.
- INCREASED REPLAYABILITY: This expansion adds a fresh layer of excitement and replayability, allowing you to experience new tactical challenges and strategies every time you play.
- EXPANDS GAMEPLAY OPTIONS: Perfect for solo players or those looking for a cooperative experience, this expansion enhances Apex Legends: The Board Game with new ways to play and enjoy the game.
Solos Takeover and the first-half map rotation
Solos Takeover replaced Duos temporarily
From May 7 through June 24, 2024, Solos Takeover replaced Duos. The mode used 50 players and combined pre-kitted weapons and attachments with Battle Sense, automatic healing and a one-time Second Chance:
- Battle Sense: Indicated enemies within 50 meters.
- Auto-healing: Health regenerated out of combat, and automatic healing began after a kill.
- Second Chance: Automatically respawned a player once if they died during the first four rounds. If unused by the cutoff, it converted to EVO.
Those rules describe the limited-time Upheaval event; they should not be read as current Solos or standard Battle Royale rules.
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Maps and Broken Moon changes
For the first half of the season, the Pubs and Ranked rotation listed Broken Moon, Kings Canyon and World’s Edge. Broken Moon received six named POIs, an updated Breaker Wharf and new rotations.
| Map update | Upheaval change |
|---|---|
| Broken Moon POIs | Cliff Side, Experimental Labs, Solar Pods, Space Port, Quarantine Zone and Underpass |
| Breaker Wharf | Updated |
| Rotations | New rotations on Broken Moon |
| World’s Edge and Storm Point | Additional possible spawn locations for Ring Consoles, Survey Beacons and Crafters |
Weapon, loot and hop-up changes
Wingman and Devotion
Upheaval moved the Wingman back to floor loot and put the Devotion in the Care Package. Their listed changes were:
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| Weapon | Availability | Upheaval changes |
|---|---|---|
| Wingman | Returned to floor loot | Damage fell from 50 to 45; projectile size returned to its pre-Care Package values; hip-fire accuracy was reduced; Skullpiercer Elite was removed; Boosted Loader compatibility was added; magazine compatibility was removed. |
| Devotion | Entered the Care Package | Added “Reverse Hipfire,” which tightened accuracy during sustained hip-fire; damage rose from 15 to 16; magazine capacity increased to 54, compared with 48 at purple; reserve ammunition was set to 324; empty reload became faster. |
Other weapon and loot-pool adjustments
- The 30-30 Repeater and Longbow lost Skullpiercer compatibility. The Longbow also lost Barrel Stabilizer compatibility, while receiving recoil, projectile-gravity and ADS timing improvements.
- The Triple-Take gained Boosted Loader compatibility.
- Boosted Loader entered the hop-up loot pool, while Skullpiercer left it.
- The 1x Digital Threat Optic was removed from the loot pool and from locked-set weapons.
- An unarmed player’s first opened loot bin was guaranteed to contain at least a low-tier weapon.
- Survival items appeared in support-bin trays only when the team met the relevant need conditions.
Legend balance examples
Upheaval also revised multiple Legend abilities and upgrades. The examples below illustrate the kinds of mechanical changes in the notes; they are not a complete list of every Legend adjustment.
- Ash: Could cast Arc Snare with her left hand without stowing her weapon or interrupting consumable use. Enemies traveling through the Void with Phase Breach were highlighted.
- Ballistic: Smart Bullet damage when planted increased from 5 to 10. The new Sling-Shot upgrade advanced the sling weapon tier as upgrades were selected.
- Bloodhound: Beast of the Hunt cooldown increased from three to four minutes, and knocks no longer extended the Ultimate by default. The Level 3 Long Hunt upgrade made knocks extend it. Taste of Blood’s knock heal increased from 25 to 50 HP.
- Catalyst: Piercing Spikes cooldown fell from 25 to 20 seconds, Dark Veil length increased from 40 to 45 meters, and Ferro-Door was added as an upgrade.
- Caustic: Gas damage ramp changed to 4–10 instead of 5 to uncapped; damage to knocked players became a flat 4.
- Newcastle: Energized Castle Wall duration increased from 30 seconds to one minute. While energized, the wall destroyed incoming projectiles at its front, subject to the exceptions in the patch notes.
Ranked rules and other system changes
Ranked premade squads had to be within three rank tiers to progress into matchmaking. Previous-season Rookie players reset to 1 RP; players above Rookie reset to Bronze IV. Split 2 was set to align with the .1 update.
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Scoring did not change at launch. EA’s patch notes stated, “No tuning changes to be made to ranked scoring for the launch of Upheaval.” End-of-season rewards reflected the highest tier reached during the season. A player’s badge was animated if they matched their Split 1 rank in Split 2. The notes also reported an improved end-ring generation system.
Quality-of-life changes included the ability to requeue after Pubs BR and Mixtape matches, and a fix so collecting a banner no longer locked players out of core actions such as running and shooting. The first-loot-bin weapon guarantee for unarmed players is described above with the loot changes.
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How to read these patch notes now
Upheaval describes a particular historical season, not a permanent ruleset. The Solos event ended on June 24, and the season itself ended on August 5, 2024. Its rotations, loot availability, weapon tuning and Legend values should therefore be understood as the Season 21 changes rather than current live-game guidance. EA’s season archive identifies Upheaval as Season 21 and lists Marked as launching August 4, 2026; live-game details can change after that archive entry.
Quick Recap
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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
