Apex Legends MARKED Patch Notes: The Skimmable Version

The one thing to remember: ladders are 5 days now, not 3. More time per ladder means fewer nights where you miss your window entirely.

Ladder	Starts	Ends
Ladder 1	August 11, 2026	August 16, 2026
Ladder 2	August 18, 2026	August 23, 2026
Ladder 3	August 25, 2026	August 30, 2026
Ladder 4	September 1, 2026	September 6, 2026
Ladder 5	September 8, 2026	September 13, 2026

On matchmaking: Season 29 ran two experiments, 1-Tier Premade Restrictions and Diamond+ Solo-Queue-Only. Respawn say they are still analysing the data and will publish a blog with results and next steps in the coming weeks. Nothing from those tests is live right now.

Why it matters for climbing: a 5-day ladder rewards consistency over one heroic session. You can spread attempts across a work week instead of cramming a weekend.

Biggest change in the patch. Bloodhound had the lowest pick rate at Gold and above — now they get a cloaking Ultimate built for starting fights and escaping third parties.

The new Ultimate, Allfather's Cloak, is a multi-purpose cloaking tool. It lets your squad ambush an unaware team or break away from a third party, instead of just scanning and hoping your teammates convert it.

The Passive is easier to read too: you now see a red trail leading toward fresh enemy clues, similar to the red footsteps Bloodhound players already know. Less guessing about which direction a scan is pointing you.

Ranked read: Bloodhound stops being a scan bot and becomes a Legend who can open a fight and then leave it. Expect the pick rate to jump well past its Season 29 floor.

Legend	Direction	What changed
Bloodhound	Rework	New Ultimate (Allfather's Cloak) plus a red trail on the Passive pointing to fresh clues.
Loba	Buff	Tactical equips faster (0.6s to 0.4s), roughly 15% more range and 30% faster travel. Ultimate cooldown 150s to 120s.
Rampart	Buff	Walls tougher at low EVO (400/600/800 to 600/700/800), deploy 0.5s faster, Sheila move speed 70 to 104 baseline, and locked hop-up progress 50% faster.
Valkyrie	Nerf	Tactical damage 25 to 15, missiles no longer arc over tall cover, Ultimate height cut 15%, and both upgrades trimmed.
Axle	Nerf	Slide boost 5s to 3s, and the Ultimate now hits Axle and allies too, not just enemies.
Seer	Nerf	The two most-picked Upgrades both move to level 3, so you can only take one. Turn slow reduced.

Seer context: those two upgrades had roughly 90% and 80% pick rates. Forcing a choice between them is the whole nerf — no more two charges on a short cooldown.

Net effect on comps: scan-and-slow pressure (Seer) and free repositioning (Valkyrie, Axle) both go down, while Rampart and Loba become far more playable. Bloodhound is the wildcard.

Two big swings. Energy ammo no longer exists as loot, and a new top-rarity attachment makes you accept a downside for every upside.

Energy ammo has been removed entirely as a lootable item. Respawn describe it as a big swing meant to change how you think about which gun you commit to, rather than picking a weapon and then hunting for its ammo type.

Corrupted Attachments are a new high-tier rarity. You can run only one per weapon, and each pairs a real buff with a real cost. Overflowing Mag on an R-99 gives you a bullet hose for easier one-clips at the cost of longer reloads. Agile Standard Stock on the same gun trades magazine size for movement speed.

Gold weapons, gold bags, and red weapon access are all retired. That is why Loba's level 3 upgrade now grants purple bags and Rampart's Combat Reserve was rewritten — the old rewards no longer exist.

Respawn say World's Edge was already in a good competitive spot, so this rework narrows the gap between strong and weak POIs rather than reinventing the map. The headline is the return of two long-requested locations: Sorting Factory and Construction Site.

Ranked read: fewer dead-end drops means fewer games decided by landing spot. If your squad had one guaranteed contested POI, re-scout the rotation before Ladder 1 on August 11.

Also in the patch: a Multimedia Player, updated Map Rotations, a revamped Power Journey, and a long list of Legend and engine bug fixes.

On the cosmetic side, the Mythic CAR skin Mark of the Gods headlines the season, and Purrfect Pals adds a weapon charm with two cats curled up together.

This page is a ranked-focused, skimmable summary. For the full unabridged list, including every bug fix, use the official EA source above.