Charge Rifle hit with another nerf in latest Apex Legends patch

Crypto fires the Charge Rifle in Apex Legends Season 3

Today’s Apex Legends patch included a significant nerf to the controversial Charge Rifle weapon.

The Charge Rifle was introduced in Season 3 of Apex Legends and immediately proved to be an incredibly strong weapon at medium and long-range. The directed energy beam rifle has the longest range of any weapon in Apex Legends and is remarkably accurate at the longest of distances.

Although the Charge Rifle takes a while to charge up before firing, the initial beam deals minor damage before the shot is fired.

Despite small changes to the weapon in recent updates, Apex Legends players continued to express their dissatisfaction with the rifle, claiming that the energy ammo sniper rifle is still too strong.

A tweet sent from the official Apex Legends Twitter account shared that the Charge Rifle received several changes in a small patch that had been deployed:

  • Charge Rifle can no longer equip extended energy magazines
  • Base magazine capacity is now 12 (4 shots)
  • Fire rate reduced (increased time in between shots) – From 1.1 shots/sec to 0.95 shots/sec
  • Damage falloff has been modified: 90 damage at 150m decaying to 30 damage at 400m

Charge Rifle Falloff Damage

The Charge Rifle’s falloff damage (or lack thereof) has been one of the more controversial elements of Season 3 gameplay.

At the launch of Apex Legends: Meltdown, the Charge Rifle dealt maximum damage (90 damage total from ticks and final shot) up to 300m before damage would fall to 60 at 500m.

An update on October 17 impacted the falloff damage of the Charge Rifle, bringing the maximum damage range down to 250m and reducing damage to 60 at 400m.

Today’s update now means that the Charge Rifle dishes out maximum damage only up to 150m away and that damage is reduced to 30 at 400m.

Charge Rifle Magazine Capacity

The Charge Rifle’s magazine capacity has also been targeted again with this update.

The October 17 update increased energy ammo used per shot to 3 and changed the magazine size across all extended mags. With no extended magazine, the Charge Rifle held 9 ammo (3 shots), with the Level 1 Extended Magazine holding 12 ammo, Level 2 holding 15 ammo, and Level 3 Extended Mag holding 18 ammo.

Today’s update increases the base magazine capacity to 12 ammo (4 shots) but also disables the Charge Rifle from attaching extended energy magazines.

The latest changes to the Charge Rifle seem significant enough to eliminate player frustration with the weapon at long range while maintaining its effectiveness at medium range.

Players will be able to experience the Charge Rifle changes immediately during the Apex Legends double XP weekend from 10 am PST on October 25 through 10 am PST on October 28.