The Overclocked mid-season update for Apex Legends Season 29 is live as of June 23, 2026, and it reshuffles the Legend meta with three notable buffs, four nerfs, a fresh shotgun hop-up, and a round of weapon tuning. The changes are smaller in scope than a full season launch, but they directly target the Legends and weapons that have dominated play.
Quick answer: Ballistic, Pathfinder, and Seer are buffed; Axle, Mad Maggie, Valkyrie, and Conduit are nerfed; the new Executioner hop-up lands on the Peacekeeper and Mastiff; and the Hemlok Breach AR loses magazine size. You can read the complete breakdown on the official Apex Legends patch notes page.
Ballistic buffs: stronger Whistler overheat and a team sprint boost
Ballistic returns toward viability after several rounds of nerfs left him near the bottom of pick rates. His overheat now hits only one weapon per target, but it does far more, and his Ultimate now shares a sprint boost with nearby teammates instead of a flat speed boost that made his squad hard to fight.
| Slot | Change |
|---|---|
| Passive | Respawns with the Sling weapon in all game modes. |
| Tactical | Overheat applies to one weapon only (equipped weapon if armed, first slot if unarmed). It no longer degrades when not firing or when swapping, and swapping no longer increases it. Damage 15 → 50, duration 12s → 15s, charges 1 → 2, reduced homing delay. Cannot stack on an already overheating target or affect multiple guns. |
| Ultimate | Ballistic and nearby teammates gain a sprint boost on activation, applied only while sprinting. |
| Level 2 — Extra Bullet | Grants an additional Tactical charge. |
| Level 2 — Trap Mode | Tactical can be placed in the world for 15 seconds, dealing 35 damage if triggered. |
| Level 3 — Quiet Time | Tactical drops overheat and instead inflicts silence and slow on hit, with a longer cooldown. |
| Level 3 — Killing Time | Moved to Level 3; still extends the Ultimate by 15 seconds. |
Pathfinder buffs: double grapple charges and a faster zipline
Pathfinder gains more ability uptime to keep pace with other Skirmishers. His tactical now holds two charges on a flat cooldown, his Ultimate fires faster and refreshes quicker, and his class-perk Upgrades grant full Recon or Controller perks rather than a single benefit.
| Slot | Change |
|---|---|
| Passive | Tucks his legs in while riding horizontal ziplines, making him harder to hit. |
| Tactical | Charges increased 1 → 2; progressive cooldown replaced with a flat 20-second cooldown. |
| Ultimate | Faster zipline projectile launch; cooldown reduced 3 minutes → 2 minutes. |
| Level 2 — Field Research | Grants all Recon perks instead of only Survey Beacon scans. |
| Level 2 — Ringmaster | Grants all Controller perks instead of only Ring Console access. |
| Level 3 — Landing Gear | Adds air control and faster recovery from hard landings. |
Seer buffs: snappier scans and a deployment ping
Seer’s update is built around responsiveness. His passive heartbeat sensor activates faster and more consistently, his tactical lands quicker and slows faster Legends more effectively, and his Ultimate now performs an instant scan on deployment.
| Slot | Change |
|---|---|
| Passive | Faster activation, shorter heartbeat intervals, quicker unarmed ADS activation, and consistent timing between armed and unarmed states. |
| Tactical | Reduced delay between launch and impact; stronger slow against fast-moving Legends. |
| Ultimate | Scans enemies in the area for 2 seconds on deployment, and again for any enemy who enters later. Cloaked enemies leave visible footsteps inside the zone. |
Axle nerfs: fewer Nitro Gates and a reworked Super Slider
Axle has driven the pace of play since launch, and these nerfs target the frustration around her frequent tactical uptime and her Kickstart Ultimate. Some of these came in earlier through the May 29 hotfix, with the rest arriving in the 29.1 update.
| Slot | Change |
|---|---|
| Tactical (hotfix) | Max in-world count reduced 3 → 2; health reduced 150 → 100. |
| Passive/Tactical | Knocked players can no longer slide across the map as Axle or under Nitro Gate effects. They can still boost through a gate but slow down once it expires. |
| Upgrade — Super Slider | No longer grants a second Tactical charge. Instead, Nitro Gate gets a 5-second cooldown reduction and +1 max in-world count. |
| Ultimate | Kickstart launches victims on a parabolic arc based on their velocity at impact, not straight up. Enemy highlight duration slightly reduced to match stun duration. |
Mad Maggie and Valkyrie nerfs
Mad Maggie has been a top performer, with her Ultimate creating the same lock-down problem as old Ballistic. Valkyrie continues to climb in pick rate, so her recent skydive improvement is being walked back.
| Legend | Change |
|---|---|
| Mad Maggie — Tactical | Cooldown increased 22s → 28s. |
| Mad Maggie — Ultimate | Puck speed boost replaced with a sprint boost that only works while sprinting. |
| Valkyrie — Passive | Removed the recent improvement that let her land faster from skydiving. |
Conduit nerfs: slower regen and a longer cooldown
Conduit spiked to the top of pick rates after her Season 29 changes and was present in 8 of the top 10 team compositions. The tuning slows her supportive output without removing her core identity. The regen-rate and duration adjustments arrived in the May 29 hotfix, with the cooldown and Enduring Barrier changes landing in 29.1.
| Slot | Change |
|---|---|
| Tactical (hotfix) | Regen rate 15/s → 10/s; duration 6s → 8s; ally total regen 90 → 80; self total regen 60 → 56. |
| Tactical (29.1) | Cooldown increased 27s → 30s. |
| Level 3 — Instant Barrier | Regen duration increased 4s → 6s. |
| Level 3 — Enduring Barrier | No longer grants regen through ring damage. |
Weapon changes: Hemlok Breach AR nerf, EVA-8 and Mozambique buffs
The Hemlok Breach AR has stayed dominant through several adjustments, so its damage per magazine is being trimmed at every tier. Two shotguns get small handling improvements.
| Weapon | Change |
|---|---|
| Hemlok Breach AR | White mag 21 → 20; Blue mag 24 → 22; Purple and Gold mags 27 → 25. |
| EVA-8 | Small increase to handling speed. |
| Mozambique | Small increase to handling speed. |
New Executioner hop-up and the hop-up shuffle
The Executioner is the headline addition, rewarding shotgun knockdowns with shield regen. Several existing hop-ups also move between weapons, and the Nemesis gains Turbocharger support for a faster spin-up after two bursts.
| Hop-Up | Change |
|---|---|
| Executioner (new) | Available on Peacekeeper and Mastiff. Knocking an enemy grants 50 shield regen over 10 seconds. Costs 375 points to unlock. |
| Dual Shell | Removed from Mastiff. |
| Disruptor Rounds | Removed from Peacekeeper. |
| Graffiti Mod | Removed from Longbow DMR, Wingman, and Mozambique; added to Flatline and Volt. |
| Turbocharger | Added to Nemesis; costs 600 points to unlock. |
Map rotation for Overclocked Split 2
Battle Royale and Mixtape rotations refresh with the split, and the weekly Wildcard cycle moves through three maps over its first three weeks.
| Mode | Maps |
|---|---|
| Pubs | Storm Point, World’s Edge, Kings Canyon |
| Ranked | Storm Point, World’s Edge, E-District |
| Mixtape (Jun 23 – Aug 4) | TDM: Skull Town, Thunderdome, Fragment, Zeus Station. Control: Caustic, Production Yard, Thunderdome, Barometer. Gun Run: Monument, Wattson Pylon, Skull Town, Thunderdome. |
| Wildcard (weekly) | Broken Moon (Jun 23 – Jun 30), Olympus (Jun 30 – Jul 7), Kings Canyon (Jul 7 – Jul 14) |
Ranked changes and Ranked Ladder dates
The “Champion Squad” screen is removed from the Ranked match start flow. You will still see your team on the Your Squad screen before loading straight into the dropship. Five Ranked Ladders are scheduled to run later in the split.
| Ranked Ladder | Start | End |
|---|---|---|
| Ladder 7 | Jul 2, 2026 | Jul 5, 2026 |
| Ladder 8 | Jul 9, 2026 | Jul 12, 2026 |
| Ladder 9 | Jul 16, 2026 | Jul 19, 2026 |
| Ladder 10 | Jul 23, 2026 | Jul 26, 2026 |
| Ladder 11 | Jul 30, 2026 | Aug 2, 2026 |
Anti-cheat and notable bug fixes
This update adds detection for a reverse speed hack that let cheaters freeze themselves mid-air, and resolves several exploits that could take down servers. The reasoning behind the balance changes is detailed in the Season 29 Split 2 Designer’s Notes.
Several quality-of-life and bug fixes ship alongside the balance pass. Bots now loot weapons a few seconds after landing, Deathbox Respawn no longer traps players under low geometry, hop-up weapons are properly restored on respawn, and Ballistic’s tactical now affects enemies hit while healing. Map readability also improves, with out-of-bounds timers fixed across Storm Point, Kings Canyon, and E-District, and reduced bloom on all maps.
With the buffs landing on Ballistic, Pathfinder, and Seer, and the four nerfs pulling Axle, Mad Maggie, Valkyrie, and Conduit back toward the pack, expect early-split squad compositions to look noticeably different until the meta settles around the new Executioner shotguns and Turbo Nemesis.
