Season 27’s Split 2 balance update focuses almost entirely on three legends that have defined Apex’s movement, support, and recon roles: Octane, Newcastle, and Crypto. Revenant picks up a small but meaningful nerf on the side.
The changes land alongside the Winter Wipeout event, but they are core balance updates that affect every mode.
Octane buffs and rework (Skirmisher)
Octane receives the largest overhaul in this patch. His passive, tactical, ultimate, and upgrades all change, pushing him away from a purely selfish speed pick toward a more team-focused mobility anchor.
Octane passive changes
Swift Mend now ramps harder when Octane is low on health.
| Octane passive | Before | After (Split 2) |
|---|---|---|
| Swift Mend base healing | 1.5 HP per second | 3.0 HP per second |
| Swift Mend max scaling | Lower at low HP | Up to 9 HP per second at low HP |
The result is a more forgiving sustain curve when Octane spends his health aggressively, especially in extended fights.
Octane tactical: Stim and new Stim Surge
Stim keeps its identity as a health-for-speed button, but it now sits inside a two-layer system built around a new effect called Stim Surge.
Core Stim tweaks
- Octane can now sprint and use consumables while stimmed.
- Time before Stim can be reused drops from 1.8 seconds to 0.7 seconds.
- Stim movement speed bonus increases by 5%.
These changes make Stim feel more responsive and more compatible with shield cells, batteries, and syringes during rotation or mid-fight resets.
New Stim Surge layer
Stim Surge is a separate buff that triggers when Octane activates his tactical again while Stim is already active.
| Stim Surge property | Value / behavior |
|---|---|
| Duration | 6 seconds |
| Health cost | 0 HP |
| Interaction with Stim | Reapplies Stim for the full duration without putting Stim on cooldown |
| Cooldown | 20 seconds (separate from Stim cooldown) |
| Defensive perk | Grants Fortified (15% damage reduction and immunity to bullet slow) |
| Healing behavior | Immediately triggers Swift Mend and lets it continue healing even while Octane is taking damage |
| Input quality-of-life | Players can hold the tactical button to buffer Stim Surge as soon as it is available |
Functionally, Octane now has a short defensive window where he accelerates, shrugs off slows, and heals through chip damage. That makes him far more durable when diving into fights or crossing open space under fire.
Octane ultimate: JumpPad and team mobility
Launch Pad shifts from a single-use, high-skill movement tool into a more flexible, team-oriented ultimate.
- Mad Hops and Aerial Agility upgrades are folded into JumpPad’s base behavior, improving air control and jump handling.
- JumpPad now stores two charges.
- Players can use a JumpPad immediately after landing on it, without a delay.
- Double-jump handling is smoother and easier to control.
This lets Octane chain pads for wider rotations, set up parallel paths for teammates, or quickly restage during chaotic third-party fights.
Octane upgrades: New choices at level-up
All of Octane’s previous upgrades are replaced with four new options that emphasize health management, teamwide movement, and aggressive gunplay.
- Thick Skin lowers Stim’s health cost by 10 HP, softening the long-term punishment of frequent stims.
- Squad Rush grants Stim to every teammate who lands from using your JumpPad, turning JumpPad into a team speed injection.
- Daredevil gives faster reloads after breaking enemy shields and lengthens Stim Surge duration the lower your health becomes.
- Triple Jump adds a third jump from JumpPads, opening up new lines and repositioning options.
Octane’s overall identity remains aggressive mobility, but he now offers far more value to coordinated squads and has higher decision-making depth around when to trade health for tempo.
Revenant nerfs (Skirmisher)
Revenant’s changes are minor on paper, but target his ability to instantly pressure fights with his mobility and ultimate.
- Tactical maximum charge duration increases from 1.3 seconds to 1.7 seconds, delaying his full-power leap.
- Ultimate activation time increases from 2.0 seconds to 2.2 seconds, roughly 10 percent slower.
This slightly lengthens the window to react to his engagements and reduces the feeling of unavoidable dives from the fog of war.
Newcastle buffs (Support)
Newcastle sits in an unusual place: relatively rare in regular matchmaking but highly valued in organized play. The Split 2 update boosts his baseline movement and revive power while reshaping his upgrades around clutch saves instead of mobility.
Newcastle passive and tactical changes
Two of his previous upgrades, Hero’s Hustle and Swift Shield, are now baked into his core kit.
- Passive – Hero’s Hustle is incorporated into the base kit, and the movement speed penalty while reviving drops dramatically from 25% penalty to only 25% of the original slowdown (described as a reduction from 25% to 75% in favor of movement). Practically, reviving while moving feels much less sluggish.
- Tactical – Swift Shield is also moved into the base kit, raising his tactical movement speed from 160 to 250 while the shield is active.
These changes make Newcastle more fluid during rescues without requiring specific upgrade picks.
Newcastle upgrades
With his speed tools moved into the base kit, Newcastle’s upgrades shift toward stronger revive plays.
- Stronghold moves down to replace Hero’s Hustle at Level One, bringing its fortified defensive value online earlier.
- Ready To Rumble is a new upgrade that replaces Swift Shield. When Newcastle revives a teammate, his weapons are automatically reloaded and he triggers full regeneration, giving him a powerful post-revive combat window.
- Defensive Line is another new upgrade that replaces Stronghold at Level Two. Both his tactical shield and Revive Shield can knock back enemies once, adding disruption to close pushes during saves.
Overall, Newcastle becomes more reliable as a “pub savior” without drastically inflating his power ceiling in professional play, where his positioning and revive timings are already tightly optimized.
Crypto buffs (Recon)
Crypto receives a broad quality-of-life pass that speeds up his drone workflow, strengthens information gathering, and gives him more tools to stay connected with his team.
Crypto passive changes
- Threat Vision is added while piloting his drone, giving Crypto long-range target visibility through the drone’s view.
- Satellite Imagery is rolled into the base kit, extending scan duration by 1.5 seconds.
- EMP now provides a short extra scan on affected enemies, improving follow-up tracking.
These changes increase the value of each drone scan and make Crypto’s information more actionable over a longer window.
Crypto tactical and drone handling changes
The drone, which historically locked Crypto out of gunplay for long periods, becomes much snappier.
- Drone launch time drops from 1.3 seconds to 0.7 seconds.
- Time to re-enter the drone drops from 0.4 seconds to 0.2 seconds.
- The animation frame at which Crypto re-enters the drone moves from frame 7 to frame 2, so control returns almost immediately.
- The drone can now collect EVO Harvesters, tying Crypto’s recon role more directly into shield progression.
- Crypto can enter and exit the drone while using ziplines, allowing him to stay mobile with his squad.
- Off the Grid is brought into the base kit, cloaking Crypto while piloting his drone.
With less “dead time” stuck in animations, Crypto can weave drone usage into normal movement and combat instead of disappearing from fights.
Crypto upgrades
With Off the Grid and Satellite Imagery folded into his base kit, Crypto gains two new upgrade options.
- Ally.MoveTo() lets Crypto Trailblaze to all allies, giving him a direct reposition tool tied to his squad’s locations.
- Power Coupling generates ultimate charge when he scans beacons and enemies with the drone, rewarding active recon play with more frequent EMPs.
The overall direction is clear: less friction around drone use, more uptime on information and EMP, and better ability to keep pace with mobile teammates.
Where this leaves the Season 27 Split 2 meta
Only four legends change in this patch, but the impact is broad. Octane’s rework upgrades him from a high-pick, low-utility W-key character into a genuine team mobility engine, with Stim Surge giving him real survivability in high-level play. Newcastle’s movement buffs and new revive-focused upgrades should make him more appealing in ranked lobbies that previously leaned almost entirely on Lifeline or Gibraltar for saves.
Crypto’s quality-of-life improvements reduce the cost of bringing a drone-based recon legend into fast-paced squads, while Revenant’s small nerfs trim some of his most oppressive engage timings without dismantling his kit.
For now, Season 27 Split 2 leans into a philosophy of legends as skill amplifiers rather than automatic win buttons: more decisions around health-for-speed trades, more meaningful revive moments, and more rewarding information play for teams willing to coordinate around it.
