Respawn Confirms Big Nerf for Horizon Likely in Season 9

Last week, developer Respawn Entertainment revealed the Chaos Theory collection event for Apex Legends, which will coincide with a patch that will nerf Horizon’s Black Hole Ultimate, among other things. However, many balked at the nerf, calling it not enough to bring Dr. Mary Somers into parity with the rest of the legends. But a developer from Respawn has now clarified that a much more substantial shakeup for Horizon is coming in the future.

Apex Legends’ Chaos Theory collection event will feature a host of new skins for legends, like a Roman gladiator look for Loba and a skin for Pathfinder that makes him look like the Egyptian god, Anubis. In terms of gameplay, the update will also bring the highly-requested “No Fill” option to Apex Legends allowing players to play by themselves in a game of duos or trios if they so choose. The update also will remove the Low Profile perk from Pathfinder, which boosts damage received by 5% for harder-to-hit characters, and is a perk Respawn wants to remove from all other hard-to-hit characters as well in the future.

This update will also finally tackle Horizon, whose win rate has been higher than her fellow legends since her introduction. The update is adding a full minute to the cooldown of her ultimate ability, a black hole that sucks all players and grenades in a small area towards it. But many players aren’t satisfied with the nerf, which led to one player asking why that was all she got in this update on Reddit. Respawn’s Lead Game Designer, Daniel Klein, replied that a “bigger nerf” is coming soon, but that it was not ready for this update, so Respawn shipped what it had.

Klein added that this “bigger nerf” will come “hopefully” in Season 9, which will likely release in early May, given when the current season is scheduled to end. Klein did not reveal what the nerf will entail, but Respawn now puts an emphasis on nerfs and buffs that do not ruin how the character feels to play, after learning from the nerfing and buffing of Pathfinder’s abilities.

The event will also include a new town takeover courtesy of Caustic, a new heirloom weapon for Bangalore, a new Heat Shield consumable that protects players from the ring, and a new limited-time mode called Ring Fury. Ring Fury will have multiple smaller rings appear all over the map, some of which will eventually cover entire points of interest. The update for the Chaos Theory Collection event will release on Tuesday, March 9.

Apex Legends’ heirloom weapons are the rarest commodity in the game, and can cost a pretty penny too. While these special melee weapons don’t offer any gameplay advantages, they are the flashiest and coolest way for someone to show their love for their favorite Legend. And even though Fuse might be the newest Legend, he might be getting his heirloom sooner than anyone thinks, and we might even already know what it is.

The Aussie grenadier Fuse is Apex Legends’ newest Legend, leading some to think that his heirloom might still be a way off. But the release history of the heirlooms thus far suggests that might not be the case. Some may think that Respawn would go in chronological order and release heirlooms for the original 8 base game Legends before moving on to each of the seasonal addition characters, but it hasn’t. Octane was Season 1’s additional Legend, and Octane received his heirloom back in February 2020, before half of the original 8 Legends did.